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New York gubernatorial candidate criticizes gays

Posted on October 11, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

New York (CNN) — New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is disputing some comments attributed to him Sunday, in which he criticized gays.

The two lines in question were part of a longer, written political statement that was handed out at an address to a group of Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood and obtained by CNN from New York affiliate NY1.

“There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual,” the statement said. “That is not how God created us.”

“I do not agree with this passage, nor did I say it,” Paladino said in a statement released late Sunday. “Apparently a few reporters relied upon suggested remarks distributed by my hosts at the synagogue in Williamsburg after my departure, not the actual statement I made.”

“I unequivocally have no other reservations about homosexuality,” Paladino’s statement continued. “I enjoy a close relationship with my nephew who is gay and I certainly consider him to be a functional child of God.”

Paladino’s nephew, Jeffrey Hannon, a member of the campaign staff, was contacted by CNN early Monday.

“I have no comment right now,” he said.

The written remarks given to reporters were identical to Paladino’s spoken comments other than the two sentences in question.

In his spoken comments, Paladino said he didn’t want children “to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option,” compared to heterosexuality. “It isn’t.”

The candidate’s remarks came a day after New York police announced the arrest of an eighth suspect in a series of brutal, anti-gay hate crimes against four men.

The incident last weekend involved three victims being held against their will by as many as nine assailants who beat them in a vacant apartment and sodomized two of them, police said. A fourth victim was beaten and robbed in connection with the attacks.

“Don’t misquote me as wanting to hurt homosexual people in any way,” Paladino said Sunday. “That would be a dastardly lie — my approach is live and let live.”

“I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family,” he said.

Paladino also slammed his Democratic opponent, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, for marching in New York’s gay pride parade in June.

“That’s not the example that we should be showing the children and certainly not in our schools,” he said.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto responded to Paladino’s comments Sunday.

“Mr. Paladino’s statement displays a stunning homophobia and a glaring disregard for basic equality,” Vlasto said in a statement. “These comments along with other views he has espoused make it clear that he is way out of the mainstream and is unfit to represent New York.”

Paladino’s remarks also drew fire from gay rights groups.

“Carl Paladino’s comments would matter if they were coming from a serious political figure, however they are not,” said Christopher Barron, chairman of the gay conservative group GOProud, in an email to CNN. “They are instead coming from the imploding campaign of a man with the personal baggage of John Edwards and all the electability of Alan Keyes.”

The Log Cabin Republicans of New York State also took issue with the candidate.

“Carl Paladino’s statements are unfortunate and show he lacks an understanding of what it means to be gay,” said Gregory T. Angelo, chairman of the group. “I think gay men and women — my neighbors and your neighbors — would be much better off and much more successful if they were allowed equal rights and the option of getting married and raising a family. I don’t want New Yorkers to be brainwashed into thinking that ignorance is an equally valid and successful option. It isn’t.”

But Paladino’s campaign manager, Michael Caputo, stood by the gubernatorial candidate’s comments on homosexuality.

“Carl Paladino’s position on this is exactly equivalent to the Catholic Church,” Caputo told CNN. “And if Andrew Cuomo has a problem with the Catholic Church’s position on abortion and homosexuality, he needs to take it up with his parish priest.”

CNN’s Cheryl Robinson, Mark Preston and Jason Kessler contributed to this report.

New York gubernatorial candidate criticizes gays

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Subpoenas issued in John Edwards’ probe

Posted on October 7, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

(CNN) — A “sizable” number of subpoenas have been issued in the investigation of former Sen. John Edwards, his attorney said.

Wade Smith, the attorney, said Wednesday he did not know who asked for the subpoenas or who was summoned. However, Smith said he maintained Edwards is innocent and said they welcome the government scrutiny.

A North Carolina federal grand jury has been investigating payments the former senator’s campaign and supporters made to Rielle Hunter, his mistress who also worked as a videographer for his campaign.

As Edwards campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, allegations began to surface that he had an affair with Hunter as well as he was the father of Hunter’s young child.

Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, became legally separated after the scandal.

Subpoenas issued in John Edwards’ probe

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5 things to watch in today’s primaries

Posted on September 14, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

(CNN) — Tuesday’s round of primaries in seven states and Washington, D.C., is the last big event in the run-up to November’s midterm elections. Hawaii holds the last nominating contest of this election cycle on Saturday.

Here are five things to watch for in Tuesday’s races:

Ugliness in Delaware: The Tea Party Express poured money into the insurgent campaign of Christine O’Donnell. She is challenging longtime congressman and former Gov. Mike Castle, who is backed by the party establishment, in Delaware’s Republican Senate primary. In some of the most vicious campaigning seen so far this year, Castle supporters have attacked O’Donnell, accusing her of defaulting on personal bills and not paying income taxes — which she denies — and calling her “delusional.”

Establishment Republicans think they have a shot at picking up Vice President Biden’s old Senate seat if Castle, a former governor, is their candidate, but don’t stand a chance if O’Donnell wins the primary. But O’Donnell, who’s been endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, says the attacks have backfired and only intensified support around her.

The state GOP chairman said he had received death threats because of his support of Castle and had moved his family out of their home. O’Donnell condemned the threats.

CNN’s Jessica Yellin reports on the Delaware GOP Senate race

Not as ugly to the north: Palin also endorsed a candidate in New Hampshire’s GOP Senate primary but finds herself opposite other leading conservatives.

Palin is backing former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, whom she calls a “granite grizzly” in a robo-call that she recorded for the candidate. But other conservatives — including local Tea Party groups, influential Sen. Jim DeMint and the state’s largest newspaper, the Manchester Union Leader — are backing Ayotte’s opponent, Manchester attorney Ovide Lamontagne, who was the party’s nominee for governor in 1996.

Ayotte was encouraged to get into the race by national Republicans and has been the frontrunner in the seven-candidate field. But recent polls show Lamontagne closing the gap.

On Monday, Joseph McQuaid, the conservative publisher of the Union Leader, blasted outsider influence on the race. In a front-page editorial, McQuaid wrote that Lamontagne “has rallied New Hampshire grassroots conservatives while Ayotte has attracted the big-name, let’s-be-moderate types who want a candidate who will move to the squishy middle in November.”

CNN’s Paul Steinhauser previews the New Hampshire GOP Senate primary

Rangel’s toughest fight: Rep. Charlie Rangel has represented New York’s 15th Congressional District for 40 years, but with a trial on ethics violations pending in the House, the 80-year-old congressman has attracted five challengers hoping to unseat him.

Rangel is expected to stand trial later this month on allegations of income tax and financial disclosure violations and that he used his influence to solicit donations for a college policy center which bears his name. The accusations forced him to step down from his post as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Among those challenging Rangel are state Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV, son of the scandal-plagued former congressman whom Rangel unseated in 1970.

CNN’s Mary Snow reports on Rangel’s biggest challenge

Mayor’s race has national implications: First-term Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty’s tough re-election fight could carry implications for the national debate over education reform.

Fenty was elected in 2006 partly because of his promises to fix the district’s ailing schools. He brought in an aggressive reformer as his schools chancellor, who closed schools and fired hundreds of teachers.

While the schools still lag behind national averages, test scores have improved. But Chancellor Michelle Rhee has drawn the enmity of local and national teachers’ unions — and that, in part, has the incumbent trailing D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray in polls just before the vote.

Education reform advocates fear that a Fenty loss will dissuade politicians across the country from pursuing similar aggressive efforts.

CNN’s Kate Bolduan looks at the D.C. mayor’s race

Other races

• In New York, Tea Party-backed Carl Paladino is challenging party favorite Rick Lazio in the GOP governor’s race. The winner will face Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

• In Wisconsin, there are competitive races in the Republican gubernatorial and Senate primaries.

• The Republican gubernatorial primary is the top race in Maryland.

• The Democratic primary in Massachusetts’ 10th Congressional District got national attention over the weekend when Norfolk District Attorney Bill Keating, who is facing state Sen. Rob O’Leary, chased down a purse snatcher from a restaurant.

For the latest primary news, go to CNN’s Political Ticker

5 things to watch in today’s primaries

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Where is Obama’s ‘teachable moment’ on race?

Posted on July 25, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

By

Brad Knickerbocker,

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Georgia GOP governors race headed to runoff

Posted on July 21, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes is a step closer to his goal of winning back his old job.

Barnes Tuesday easily won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. But Barneswill have to wait until next month to find out who his Republican opponent will be in November’s general election.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, the Georgia Secretary of State’s web page indicated that Barnes had captured 65.8 percent of the primary vote, with state Attorney General Thurbert Baker at 21.7 percent. Five other Democratic gubernatorial candidates were in the single digits.

“Tonight is the beginning to take our state back from the lobbyists and the special interests,” Barnes told a crowd of supporters Tuesday night in Atlanta.

Barnes appeared to be looking to the general election even before Tuesday’s primary. Over the weekend he surprised some by saying he would sign an Arizona-style immigration bill if elected governor.

By grabbing more than 50 percent of the vote, Barnes avoids a runoff contest on August 10.

That isn’t the case with the competitive Republican gubernatorial battle.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel led the GOP contest with 34.1 percent of the vote. Former Rep. Nathan Deal was in second, at 22.9 percent, followed by former state Sen. Eric Johnson at 20.1 and state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine at 16.9 percent. Three other candidates were in single digits.

Handel and Deal now advance to the runoff election.

Last week, former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin backed Handel for governor. Public opinion surveys indicated that the endorsement helped propel Handel into the front-runner position. Until the endorsement, surveys stretching back to last year indicated that Oxendine was the candidate to beat.

On her Facebook page, Palin called Handel a reformer who will “strengthen … families, businesses, state and, ultimately, our United States.” Handel also went up with a campaign commercial that mentioned that she’s the only female candidate in the contest.

The Republican race turned bitter following Palin’s endorsement, with a tough new ad from the Oxendine campaign taking on Handel, and the Handel and Deal campaigns accusing each other of playing the gender card.

Oxendine was the subject of unflattering investigative pieces about a possible corruption probe in the 1990s. Oxendine was never charged with wrongdoing, and he has insisted that he did not know he was ever investigated, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And the Handel-Deal war of words has raised their profiles.

Deal was the subject of a congressional ethics probe before stepping down from his House seat in March to pursue a gubernatorial run. He has denied wrongdoing.

Deal grabbed his own major endorsement, winning the backing of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“It’s been clear for a while that this would be a race to the runoff, and it looks like Palin’s endorsement has helped Handel, not only get to the runoff but potentially finish first on Tuesday,” said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. “Palin has a following within the Republican Party, and in a multi-candidate contest, she can have impact.”

In May, Palin endorsed little-known South Carolina state lawmaker Nikki Haley in that state’s GOP gubernatorial nomination battle. Palin’s backing helped Haley jump from the bottom of the pack to front-runner, according to state polls. Haley ended up coming out on top in South Carolina’s June 8 primary, capturing nearly 50 percent of the vote in a four-candidate field. Two weeks later, Haley easily won the runoff election to take the nomination.

CNN’s Steve Brusk contributed to this report.

Georgia GOP governors race headed to runoff

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U.S., Russia swap spies at Vienna airport

Posted on July 9, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Moscow, Russia (CNN) — The United States and Russia completed a spy swap Friday, exchanging the agents on chartered planes at an airport in Vienna, Austria, a U.S. official and Russian media said.

The plane carrying 10 Russian agents, who were expelled from the United States on Thursday for intelligence gathering, landed at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport on Friday afternoon, the airport press office said.

A separate plane believed to be carrying four people convicted of spying for the United States was scheduled to land at Washington’s Dulles International Airport shortly before 5:30 p.m.

“The United States has successfully transferred 10 Russian agents to the Russian Federation and the Russian Federation has released four individuals who had been incarcerated in Russia,” Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the National Security Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, said in a statement released just as the plane landed in Moscow. “The exchange of these individuals … has been completed.”

The elaborately choreographed transfer — which took place while the planes sat on the ground for about an hour — was reminiscent of a scene from the Cold War.

The 10 pleaded guilty in the United States on Thursday for failing to register as foreign agents and were ordered out of the country. They then boarded a U.S.-chartered flight accompanied by U.S. marshals, a federal law enforcement source said.

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“As a result of the successful exchange … the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has requested that the court dismiss any remaining charges against the 10 Russian agents,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Friday.

In Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder said none of the 10 had passed classified information and therefore none was charged with espionage.

“They were acting as agents to a foreign power,” he told CBS News, referring to the Russians who, U.S. officials have said, had been under observation by federal authorities for more than a decade.

Four young children of the Russian agents are now in Russia, according to attorneys for the agents. Two older children are no longer in the United States, though their exact location is unknown. Another two older children have remained in America, the attorneys indicated.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told PBS’ “NewsHour” that although the 10 agents didn’t plead guilty to being spies, they “were clearly caught in the business of spying.”

In a conference call with reporters, senior administration officials said the agents agreed never to return to the United States without permission from the U.S. government.

Holding them would have conferred no security benefit to the nation, they said.

This “clearly serves the interests of the United States,” one official said.

A second official said the four prisoners in Russia were in failing health, a consideration that prompted quick completion of the deal.

Under the plea agreements, the defendants disclosed their true identities in court and forfeited assets attributable to the criminal offenses, the Justice Department said in a news release.

“Defendants Vicky Pelaez, Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko, who operated in the United States under their true names, admitted that they are agents of the Russian Federation; and Chapman and Semenko admitted they are Russian citizens,” the Justice Department said.

Carlos Moreno, an attorney for Pelaez, said his client does not want to take up residence in Russia and would prefer ultimately to live in her native Peru or in Brazil, where she has family. Pelaez hopes to continue her work as a journalist, according to Moreno.

Pelaez told the court that Moscow promised her free housing in Russia and a $2,000 monthly stipend for life, as well as visas for her children to travel to see her. Pelaez and her husband, both naturalized American citizens, were stripped of that citizenship as a part of the plea deal.

Authorities have lost track of an 11th suspect, who was detained in Cyprus, released on bail, and then failed to check in with authorities as he had promised to do.

In Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree Friday pardoning the four individuals imprisoned for alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies, the Kremlin press service said, according to state-run RIA Novosti.

Though the four Russians were released to the custody of the United States, that does not necessarily mean they would go to America, an embassy spokesman said.

“Three of the Russian prisoners were convicted of treason in the form of espionage on behalf of a foreign power and are serving lengthy prison terms,” the Justice Department said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood, who handled the case in the United States. “The Russian prisoners have all served a number of years in prison and some are in poor health. The Russian government has agreed to release the Russian prisoners and their family members for resettlement.”

It added, “Some of the Russian prisoners worked for the Russian military, and/or for various Russian intelligence agencies. Three of the Russian prisoners have been accused by Russia of contacting Western intelligence agencies while they were working for the Russian (or Soviet) government.”

The individuals pardoned by Russia are Alexander Zaporozhsky, Gennady Vasilenko, Sergei Skripal, and Igor Sutyagin.

All four appealed to the Russian president to free them after admitting their crimes against the Russian state, press secretary Natalia Timakova said.

But in Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner denied Thursday that Sutyagin had been a spy.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the move was made “in the general context of improving Russian-American relations, and the new dynamic they have been given, in the spirit of basic agreements at the highest level between Moscow and Washington on the strategic character of Russian-American partnership.”

CNN’s Dugald McConnell contributed to this report

U.S., Russia swap spies at Vienna airport

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Kagan notes label KKK and NRA as ‘bad guy’ organizations

Posted on June 18, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Washington (CNN) — A conservative magazine suggests Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is “hostile” to gun owners, based on notes she wrote in the Clinton White House in 1996.

The notes were released last week by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Kagan worked in the White House Counsel’s office in 1995 and 1996. Kagan, 50, was nominated to the high court May 10 by President Obama, and her confirmation hearings begin June 28.

The disclosure coincided with the release Friday afternoon of about 80,000 more documents.

A March 1996 document is likely to stir conservative anger. In it, she labeled the Ku Klux Klan and the National Rifle Association as “bad guy” organizations.

The issue was a pending bill, the Volunteer Protection Act, which gave some volunteer workers from a range of nonprofits a measure of liability protection from lawsuits. Kagan expressed concern that certain groups might be included in a “Cumulative List” of tax-exempt groups that would be covered under the proposed law.

Kagan addressed her handwritten thoughts, based on a conversation with Clinton aide Fran Allegra, who responded that day that neither the KKK nor the NRA was on the list provided by the Internal Revenue Service. Allegra gently advised his colleague, “We probably need to be careful about suggesting ‘bad’ organizations will qualify for the provision bill as it would suggest we are allowing ‘bad’ organizations to qualify for tax-exempt status.” The measure was passed into law in 1997, but ultimately vetoed by Congress. Allegra is now a federal judge.

The National Review first reported about the notes, and asked on its website, “Is Kagan so hostile to gun rights that she would compare the top gun-rights organization in the United States with a viciously racist hate group?”

The White House issued a response Friday.

“Kagan’s notes from a conversation with DOJ Attorney Fran Allegra track an earlier memo Allegra sent to her outlining which organizations would be shielded under volunteer and nonprofit liability legislation,” said White House spokesman Ben LaBolt. “Allegra’s memo notes that neither the KKK nor the NRA would be shielded from liability under the bill, after Democrats in Congress and others raised concerns that the provision swept too broadly. It’s simply not credible to suggest that these jotted down notes represent anything but preliminary research on legal questions about what organizations would be covered under the legislation, and the organizations discussed reflect the public debate over the legislation at that time.”

The guns rights group also reacted to the Kagan notes Friday.

“How can the NRA respond to something that bizarre and outrageous?” NRA’s Director of Public Affairs Andrew Arulanandam said in an interview with CNN. “This is precisely the kind of stuff that needs to be aired out in the confirmation hearings, a complete airing out of where she stands on our issues.”

Some 160,000 pages of documents are being reviewed from Kagan’s four years in the Clinton White House, during which, in addition to being in the counsel’s office, she also served as an adviser on the Domestic Policy Council from 1997 to 1999. Papers from those stints have been released the past two Fridays, revealing a lawyer with a politically tuned, pragmatic approach to issues like abortion, gun control and tobacco regulation.

The material is a prelude to Kagan’s much-anticipated appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans on the panel continue to express deep concern that the weekly document releases provide little time for members to explore her work as a government lawyer, and whether they offer any clues about how she might rule as a justice on the nation’s highest court.

“We must be convinced that someone who has spent the better part of her career as a political advisor, policy advocate, and academic — rather than as a legal practitioner or a judge — can put aside her personal and political beliefs, and impartially apply the law, rather than be a rubberstamp for the Obama or any other Administration,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a floor speech Friday. “The Clinton library documents make it harder — not easier — to believe that Ms. Kagan could make that necessary transition.”

The White House has fashioned a low-key campaign to get Kagan confirmed, trying to avoid any public controversy that could derail her elevation to a lifetime job on the bench. The Clinton-era documents have been released on Friday afternoons, and Fridays generally are slow news days.

Obama officials have refused to make Kagan available for interviews since her nomination, and she has spent her days meeting privately with senators and prepping for the hearings in a small office in the White House complex.

If confirmed, Kagan would succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Before stepping down from daily involvement, she was the administration’s solicitor general, and personally argued six cases before the Supreme Court. She has no judicial experience, and conservative critics have been eagerly scanning Kagan’s record in government service and academia for signs of her possible judicial philosophy.

Kagan notes label KKK and NRA as ‘bad guy’ organizations

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