Aug 7, 2007

Tuesday's reads

'"How dumb can they be?"' - Rick Perlstein - The Big Con.
That's what Minnesota's Republican governor said to anti-tax activists at the 2005 ceremony in which he scuttled the 2005 transportation bill. The "they" he referred to was conscientious lawmakers who tried to pass an increase in the gas tax to be devoted to things like fixing highways and, not incidentally, bridges. The ceremony even featured one of those giant prop "VETO" stamps.
'Clinton aide's PR firm is under attack' - Peter Nicholas - The Los Angeles Times.
"Learning that Mark Penn was CEO of a company that in fact conducts some of its business busting unions was very, very problematic to the AFL-CIO, as well as to many other unions, and we made that clear" to the Clinton campaign, said Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO political director. "This is an issue that continues."
'New Kingmaker: Vegas's Mr. Kihuen Will See You Now' - Miriam Jordan - The Wall Street Journal.
Nevada state assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, a 27-year-old Mexican immigrant, is barely known outside his Las Vegas district. But he is being hotly pursued by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and the other contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination....

Mr. Kihuen, who clinched 61% of the 1,900 votes, beat both the incumbent and another Democratic candidate and won the election without a runoff. In the race he lost 15 pounds and wore out two pairs of dress shoes, but he tripled the expected Hispanic turnout in the district to 750 voters. Mr. Obama recently praised that achievement, Mr. Kihuen says, in a private meeting.

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