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Population shifts strengthen GOP
LA Times writer Ronald Brownstein [LINK]
writes a compelling analysis of the red/blue situation in America. Excerpt:
The biggest cause for Republican optimism is a series of long-term political
and demographic changes that have strengthened their position.
The most important may be the continued shift of population toward the
Southern and western red states where the GOP is strongest. After the 2000
census, seven electoral college votes shifted from blue states that
Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore won that year to states that Bush
carried.
Demographer William Frey has calculated that the states Bush won in 2004
will gain another four electoral college votes after the 2010 census.
Long-term population projections show the tilt continuing with big gains
likely in Texas, Arizona and Florida — each of which Bush carried handily.
These population shifts increase the pressure on Democrats to recapture
culturally conservative states where they have struggled in presidential
races since the 1960s.
Roberts confirmed, sworn-in
It's official: John Roberts is now the 17th chief justice of the United
States. After a Senate vote on Thursday of 78-22 confirming his nomination,
Roberts was sworn in at the White House. Attending the ceremony were
President Bush and other justices of the Supreme Court. Others present were
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and White House counsel Harriet Miers, who
have been considered possible choices to replace Sandra Day O'Connor.
According to an Associated Press news story, a formal Supreme court ceremony
was scheduled for Monday morning, before the opening of the term.
DeLay indictment
[LINK]
[LINK]
A Texas grand jury indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Wednesday,
charging him with conspiracy to violate political fundraising laws. The
charges are based on a PAC DeLay founded – Texans for a Republican Majority
PAC, or TRMPAC – which has been accused of sending corporate dollars to the
RNC in Washington DC and re-routing it back to Texas candidates. Texas law
only allows PACs to use corporation monies for administrative expenses.
The charge of criminal conspiracy levied by the Texas grand jury carries a
six month to two year state jail sentence and a fine of up to $10,000. A
Texas judge has ordered DeLay to appear in an Austin court on October 21.
DeLay denies the charges and says he has done nothing wrong:
"This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history.
It's a sham."
He said he thought he convinced prosecutors in a voluntary interview that
he had little to do with operations of TRMPAC:
"I got the impression from his (Earle's) chief prosecutor that they knew I
had nothing to do with the day-to-day operation, that there was no
conspiracy as far as I'm concerned," he said.
Speaker Dennis Hastert named Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt to
take over most of DeLay's leadership duties.
Is Pelosi behind DeLay's indictment?
Tom DeLay appeared on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews and accused Rep. Nancy
Pelosi of involvement in his Texas grand jury indictment on conspiracy
charges. Below is the transcript [LINK]:
MATTHEWS: No, but you have said that there's a coordinated
attack on you involving the leadership of the House on the Democratic side
now. Is Pelosi involved?
DELAY: Yes.
MATTHEWS: What's her role in this?
DELAY: I don't know. Ask her. But they announced it. It
is on their Web site that they were going to come after me. And they — and
it is in all their fund-raising mails, of how they're going to...
MATTHEWS: Oh, I know you're a target of all the
fund-raising. You're like Ted Kennedy from the other side. They go after
you.
DELAY: I'm not complaining. I'm just saying, this is what
they're doing. I guarantee you, people like Martin Frost, Lloyd Doggett...
MATTHEWS: They're still mad at you, aren't they?
DELAY: Pete Laney, the former speaker of the...
MATTHEWS: These are the losers in your campaign to rebuild
the Republican Party of Texas.
DELAY: That's exactly — exactly right.
MATTHEWS: And those guys are those guys who all lost their
seats because you managed to win the redistricting in the Texas legislature,
because you managed to get so many Republicans elected in the legislature.
They're all out to get you.
DELAY: That is right.
MATTHEWS: And this is part of it.
DELAY: This is the punishment for winning the Texas House
and redistricting Texas.
MATTHEWS: Do you think there were meetings involving Nancy
Pelosi or anyone else in the House leadership or these guys you mentioned
who lost their seats and put together this charge against you; they cooked
it up?
DELAY: Yes, I think so, but I...
MATTHEWS: It wasn't just his eager beaver prosecutors
helping Ronnie Earle? It was people from outside who involved themselves in
this?
DELAY: I think so. yes.
MATTHEWS: Is Ronnie Earle a straight prosecutor?
DELAY: Absolutely not. He doesn't even go to his office.
He only goes to his office to hold press conferences.
MATTHEWS: What, is he a no-show?
DELAY: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Is that legal, to be a no-show in Texas?
DELAY: I guess it is. He does it. He's done it almost his
entire
career.
MATTHEWS: Well, how does he get reelected?
DELAY: He's a political animal.
MATTHEWS: So, he's good at the electoral process, but not
the process
of prosecuting?
DELAY: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: And you believe that this is a political
vendetta?
DELAY: Oh, I know it is.
MATTHEWS: A coordinated vendetta by the House Democratic
leadership here in Washington?
DELAY: And Democrat leadership in Texas and Ronnie Earle
and, absolutely.
MATTHEWS: Do you believe that there was a heads-up to
people like Nancy Pelosi before this thing today?
DELAY: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Do you believe that Nancy Pelosi and all the
Democrats are keeping quiet today in order to let the focus be completely on
you?
DELAY: And you're probably one of them. The DCCC
yesterday afternoon was shopping this story. Nobody had this story.
MATTHEWS: But we didn't know about it. We didn't know
about it.
DELAY: And they were shopping this story. So, they knew
about it.
MATTHEWS: Well, they skipped us.
DELAY: Well...
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you this about this. Do you believe
that Nancy Pelosi is part of a coordinated attempt to fry you and then to
step back and let the frying go on without any Democratic partisanship being
evident? We had a guest on today, Sheila Jackson Lee. All of a sudden, she
wasn't available. We're wondering what's going on here. Are they telling
the people to pull back and make it look like it's nonpartisan?
DELAY: I don't know about that.
MATTHEWS: Well, that would be very coordinated.
DELAY: Yes. But...
MATTHEWS: But you stick to your argument here tonight that
this is a coordinated attack by the national Democrats and the state
Democrats, including the guys you beat, knocked out of their seats, to get
even with Tom DeLay?
DELAY: Absolutely. It's on their Web site.
MATTHEWS: Can you still be the Hammer without the gavel?
DELAY: Huh?
MATTHEWS: Can you still be the Hammer without the gavel?
DELAY: I'm still a member of the House and I'm still
aggressive. And we have got a great agenda. We're looking for to fix gas
prices. We're looking retirement security, fiscal responsibility, all these
kinds of things.
We're focused.
And, in fact, what the Democrats don't understand is, what they have
done today is so unified the Republicans, at a time when we were kind of
falling apart and fighting with each other, that we are now so focused on
our
agenda, we're going to drive it home and defeat the Democrats by
accomplishing
our agenda.
MATTHEWS: There will be no Republicans out there trimming
you tonight, you don't think? They won't be saying off camera or off
record, without their names being used, this guy ought to go? You're not
going to read that tomorrow morning in the paper?
DELAY: I don't know. I don't know. I know what I saw in
that room when that caucus, the incredible support that I got.
MATTHEWS: Is Roy Blunt a good guy?
DELAY: And the unification of the other Republicans. Roy
Blunt is a great guy. He's very capable.
MATTHEWS: Is he a DeLay guy?
DELAY: He is a Roy Blunt guy.
MATTHEWS: Hey, thank you. You have got a lot of nerve
coming on.
Bush criticizes Bennett
[LINK]
Former Education Secretary William Bennett is under fire from the President
for a comment he made last Wednesday on his radio talk show:
"But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could,
if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this
country and your crime rate would go down."
"That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to
do, but your crime rate would go down," he said on his call-in program
"Morning in America."
The White House has criticized Bennett's comment as "not appropriate":
"The president believes the comments were not appropriate," White House
spokesman Scott McClellan said.
Justice nomination next week?
[LINK]
According to an AP story, President Bush will announce his second judicial
nominee next week. The nominee will replace current justice Sandra Day
O'Connor. Excerpt:
Mentioned most frequently in recent days are appeals court judges Owen,
Karen Williams and Alice Batchelder; Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura
Corrigan; White House counsel Harriet Miers; Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales; and PepsiCo lawyer Larry Thompson, who was the government's
highest ranking black law enforcement official when he was deputy attorney
general during Bush's first term.
Others mentioned less frequently include appeals court judges J. Michael
Luttig, Edith Jones, Samuel Alito, Michael McConnell and Consuelo Callahan.
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