2007 News History Archives

News Reference - 2007 News URL: # December 2007 News
December 2007 News History

News Reference # 2007 News # December 2007 News
December 31, 2007 News URL: #December-31-2007-News
20071231 Monday

- John Edwards - Iowa - Families - Jobs - Money - Attorney General - North Carolina - 2008 Election
"Edwards the orator energizes audience." ... "Dayton Countryman said he's been around long enough to know what it means when a supposedly underdog presidential candidate can pack more than 500 folks into a social hall in this town [Boone, Iowa] of 12,000 people." ... ""This ought to scare the hell out of the other campaigns," Countryman said Sunday as he watched more and more people come in from the cold to hear [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Democrat John Edwards speak." ... "The 89-year-old lawyer is a former Iowa attorney general who recently became a Democrat after more than 50 years as a Republican. He said he's fed up with what's going on in Washington, D.C., and he'll caucus for Edwards because he believes the former North Carolina senator will stand up." ... "Edwards has been drawing increasingly large and energetic crowds in recent weeks as he presses his case that America needs a fighter in the White House. His audiences are filled mainly with people who are middle age or older, and he's banking that such Iowans have been most likely to show up in caucuses." ... ""The corporate greed that's stealing your children's future, that's destroying middle-class jobs in this country, it's not just destroying the middle class for Democrats. It's destroying the middle class for independents. It's destroying the middle class for Republicans," Edwards said." -By Tony Leys -DesMoinesRegister

- Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Iowa - 2008 Election - 2004 Election - History
"Obama: Gore, Kerry Alienated "Half the Country"." ... "In a speech this afternoon in central Iowa, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama seems to have widened his criticism of the politics of the past to encompass not only [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton but [former Presidential Candidates] John Kerry and Nobel Laureate Al Gore." ... "Making an argument for his electability, Obama said, "I don't want to go into the next election starting off with half the country already not wanting to vote for Democrats -- we've done that in 2004, 2000," according to a person at the event (rush transcript)." -By Glenn Thrush -Newsday.com

- John Edwards - Iowa - North Carolina - Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Corporate - Government - Illinois - New York - 2008 Election
"Edwards in Iowa's Spotlight as Finish Line Nears." ... "With the sounds of the Bruce Springsteen song "America Rising" as a backdrop, former North Carolina [Senator and 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Sen. John Edwards walked into the [Iowa's] Sioux City Convention Center and stood before hundreds of people to deliver his closing argument." ... ""Thank you for coming. There's an incredible energy and momentum behind this campaign. We can feel it everywhere we go, everywhere," he said." ... ""My job as president is to work with the Congress to unify America," Edwards told the crowd. "I will do that as president of the United States, but we have a huge battle with these entrenched moneyed interests. Those people have a stranglehold on your democracy, an iron-fisted hold on your democracy. Nothing will change until we break that hold."" ... "Edwards compares himself on the stump to former presidents such as [Republican President] Teddy Roosevelt, who fought the big trusts, or [Democratic President] Franklin Roosevelt, who faced down corporate bullies." ... "Edwards has also stopped playing Mr. Nice Guy, as he did four years ago. He recently took a thinly veiled swipe at Democratic rivals Illinois [Senator and 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Sen. Barack Obama and New York [Senator and 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Sen. Hillary Clinton." ... ""We have very good presidential candidates. I know them and I respect them," he said, but admonished that "the first time the tough fight comes, they will do the political thing. You can take that to the bank."" -By David Welna-NPR

- Dennis Kucinich - Joe Biden - Chris Dodd - Ron Paul - Duncan Hunter - Television - Politics - US - Iraq - Military - 2008 Election - New Hampshire
"FOX, ABC to reduce debate fields." ... "This weekend’s [New Hampshire] presidential debates and forum will not include some nationally-known candidates, and the chairmen of the state Republican and Democratic parties are not happy." ... "Fergus Cullen and Raymond Buckley say the decisions by ABC News, WMUR and, in Cullen’s case, FOX News, are inconsistent with the New Hampshire primary’s tradition of providing a level playing field for all candidates." ... "ABC News and WMUR-TV (Channel 9) confirmed today that they have established performance-based criteria for Saturday night's pair of presidential debates. Those rules could leave several relatively well-known candidates on the outside looking in, including [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidates] Democrats Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd." ... "And Cullen confirmed that FOX News has invited only five presidential candidates to a GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] forum scheduled for Sunday night, leaving out [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidates] Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter." ... "GOP candidate Paul has said that FOX News is “scared of me” and has called the network “propagandists for this (Iraq) war, and I challenge them on the notion that they are conservative.”" -By John Distaso -UnionLeader.com

- John Edwards - Music - Des-Moines - Iowa - Farm - History - Working- Poverty - Race - 2008 Election
"Edwards Wins the Mellencamp Primary." ... "So it is that [singer John] Mellencamp will come to Iowa Wednesday to close the [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John] Edwards campaign off with a "This Is Our Country" rally at the not-exactly-Hollywood Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines [Iowa]. (In case anyone is missing the point here, they will be distributing the tickets from the United Steelworkers Local 310 hall.)" ... "Where [Oprah] Winfrey brought a big name but little in the way of a track record on the issues that are fundamental to the rural and small-town Iowans who will play a disproportional role in Thursday's caucuses, Mellencamp is more than just another celebrity taking a lap around the policy arena." ... "For a quarter century, the singer has been in the thick of the fight on behalf of the rural families he immortalized in the video for "Rain on the Scarecrow," his epic song about the farm crisis that buffeted Iowa and neighboring states in the 1980s and never really ended." ... "Mellencamp has not merely sung about withering small towns and farm foreclosures. As a organizer of Farm Aid, he has brought some of the biggest stars in the world to benefit concerts in Iowa and surrounding states, and he has helped to distribute the money raised at those events to organizations across Iowa." ... "Farm Aid is nonpartisan. It's not endorsing in this race. But Mellencamp is. The singer, who this year will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but whose music remains vital enough to have earned a 2008 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, was lobbied for support by other campaigns, especially Clinton's. But he has a long relationship with Edwards. He has an even longer relationship with the issues that Edwards is talking about. Indeed, his credibility is grounded in the recognition that Mellencamp has repeatedly taken career-risking anti-war, anti-racist and anti-poverty stances that other celebrities of his stature tend to avoid." ... "What matters, of course, is the fact of that credibility -- and the fact that it is so closely tied to the farm and rural issues that have meaning even in the more urbanized regions of Iowa. That is why, if there is an endorsement that is going to have meaning with the people who drive down country roads to attend caucuses on what looks to be a very cold and unforgiving Thursday night, it is likely to be that of the guy who proudly sings that, "I was born in a small town..."" -By John Nichols -TheNation.com

- Mike Huckabee - Mitt Romney - Iowa - Television - Ads - Crime - Money - Illegal - Immigrants - Colleges - Abortion - Health-Care - Arkansas - Massachusetts -2008 Election
"Huckabee: Romney running 'dishonest' campaign." ... "Former Arkansas [Governor and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Gov. Mike Huckabee blasted Republican presidential rival [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney as running a "desperate and dishonest" campaign and predicted the former Massachusetts governor won't be the Republican nominee." ... "Romney has been blasting Huckabee's record on crime and taxes as governor of Arkansas in [Iowa] television ads in the last days of the race." ... "Asked on Monday on CNN's "American Morning" why he felt the need to respond to Romney's attacks, Huckabee said, "I think a lot of people are deceived, and you have to ask do people want to elect a president who has been dishonest in order to get the job and said things about his opponents that simply aren't true?"" ... "With the two men locked in a statistical dead heat atop the latest Iowa polls, Romney has been airing television ads criticizing Huckabee for raising state spending, backing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants at state colleges and granting more than 1,000 pardons and commutations." ... "Huckabee has said the claims are taken out of context, and hit back by questioning the sincerity of Romney's opposition to abortion -- which was covered by the state health care program Romney pushed through in Massachusetts." -CNN

- John Edwards - Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Iowa - New York - 2008 Election
"With New Poll Results, Candidates Scramble for Edge in Caucuses." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards:] “You can beat these people if you’re tough enough, if you’re smart enough, if you’ve got the fight inside you,” Mr. Edwards said at a high school in Carroll, Iowa. “You can’t nice them to death. You try and nice them to death, they’ll trample all over you.”" ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama:] “It is true that I believe we can disagree without being disagreeable,["] Mr. Obama said. “I do not believe that change will come with more angry rhetoric of turning up the heat on Republicans. We don’t need more heat in Washington, we need more light.”" ... "Mr. Obama also tweaked the third leading Democrat here, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and New York] Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, by knocking her husband by name for suggesting that an Obama presidency would be a gamble for the nation." ... "“It’ll be a roll of the dice — that’s what Bill Clinton said,” Mr. Obama said. “I have to remind people that the real gamble in this election is having the same old folks do the same old things over and over again and somehow expecting a different result. That’s the real risk.”" ... "Howard Wolfson, a Clinton spokesman, said, “The list of Democrats Senator Obama is attacking — John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and now Bill Clinton — gets longer and longer as we get closer and closer to the caucus.” " -By Patrick Healy and Julie Bosman with contributions by David D. Kirkpatrick, Cate Doty, Michael Cooper, Michael Luo, and Marc Santora -NYTimes

- Money - Politics - Federal - Housing - Legislation - New Jersey - Georgia - California - Texas - Utah - Maryland - Nevada - Oregon - Washington - 2004 Election - US - Netherlands
"Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess: Ameriquest Pressed For Changes in Laws; A Battle in New Jersey." ... "During the housing boom, the subprime industry succeeded at more than just writing mortgages. It also shot down efforts by some states to curtail risky lending to borrowers with spotty credit." ... "Ameriquest Mortgage Co. [ACC Capital Holdings], until recently one of the nation's largest subprime lenders, was at the center of those battles. Working with a husband-and-wife team of Washington lobbyists, it handed out more than $20 million in political donations and played a big role in persuading legislators in New Jersey and Georgia to relax tough new laws. Those victories, in turn, helped blunt efforts by other states to crack down on reckless lending, critics of the industry contend." ... "Home loans made by Ameriquest and other subprime lenders are defaulting now in large numbers, roiling global credit markets and sparking debate about whether regulators and lawmakers should have anticipated the mess and taken action. A close look at Ameriquest's lobbying and political donations shows how the subprime industry maneuvered to defeat legislation that might have contained some of the damage." ... "Data from federal and state campaign-finance records, Internal Revenue Service filings, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics show that from 2002 through 2006, Ameriquest, its executives and their spouses and business associates donated at least $20.5 million to state and federal political groups. In comparison, over the same time period, Countrywide Financial, another large subprime lender, gave about $2 million in campaign gifts, and spent an additional $6.7 million lobbying in Washington, records indicate." ... "Some of the giving by Ameriquest executives and associates was high-profile. [Republican] President Bush received more than $200,000 for his 2004 re-election campaign, and Ameriquest founder Roland Arnall and his wife, Dawn, contributed more than $5 million to political organizations that backed the president. Last year, [Republican] President Bush appointed Mr. Arnall ambassador to the Netherlands, and his wife took over as chairman of Ameriquest's parent company. California [Republican Governor] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaigns received at least $1.4 million, along with stacks of tickets to a Rolling Stones concert that were used to lure big donors." ... "Last year, ACC Capital, its [Ameriquest Mortgage Company] parent company, agreed to pay $325 million to settle regulators' claims that it charged excessively high mortgage rates and didn't adequately disclose loan risks. Some of the state attorneys general who signed the settlement, including Greg Abbott of Texas, received campaign donations from the firm. Utah's attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, received a $1,000 contribution and Rolling Stones tickets." ... "Ameriquest also handed out Rolling Stones tickets to state legislators in Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and California, according to ethics records and local news accounts." ... "Federal lawmakers didn't pose much of a threat to the subprime industry in recent years. Members of Congress received at least $645,000 in donations from Ameriquest and large sums from other big subprime lenders, Federal Election Commission records indicate." ... "ACC Capital, Ameriquest's parent company, and its executives gave more than $350,000 to Texas politicians in 2006, including $100,000 to [Republican Governor] Gov. Rick Perry, according to state records." -By Glenn R. Simpson -WSJ.com

- John Edwards - Mike Huckabee - Hillary Clinton - Barack Obama - Mitt Romney - Money - Religion - People - US - Iraq - Military - Iowa - 2008 Election - Poll
"Iowa: Edwards surges, Huckabees bubble bursts." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards has clawed his way into contention to win Iowa's caucuses on Thursday in the first vote for the Democratic presidential nomination, gaining strength even as rivals [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama have lost ground, according to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll." ... "At the same time, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney has regained the lead among Iowa Republicans as [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mike Huckabee has lost momentum and support, even among the evangelical Christians who had prope