J.P. Freire

Congressional staffer denies pushing visitor UPDATED!

A heated exchange during a visit to the office of Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., led to a staffer putting his hands on Teri Christoph, executive director of Smart Girl Politics, in order to get her to put her camera down, reported Jillian Bandes of TownHall. In a phone interview with The Examiner, the staffer, press secretary George Burke, said that claims that he had "pushed" Christoph were untrue. When asked about the report in TownHall, he replied, "Is that a reporter? Some right-wing blog?" Yes to both questions, but was the claim true? "She came in and whipped out a camera. Staff people told her, 'we don't want you to use a camera in here.' I put a hand on her...

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Health care? There's an app for that

A humorous video offered by the National Republican Congressional Committee spoofs the iPhone commercials, noting the bulky approach to "reform" offered by House Democrats. The video is reminiscent of Daniel Henninger's Wall Street Journal column last week that suggested that Democrats are offering old school solutions to people used to the customized individualism provided by products like the iPhone: In a world defined by nearly 100,000 iPhone apps, a world of seemingly limitless, self-defined choice, the Democrats are pushing the biggest, fattest, one-size-fits all legislation since 1965. And they brag this will complete the dream Franklin D. Roosevelt had in...

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Boehner says NY GOP ignored warnings from NRCC

At a meeting of Washington conservatives this morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, expressed pride over GOP success in last night's election. But questions about NY-23 remain -- so I asked him whether there was an effort to get New York Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, the GOP nominee in that race, to endorse Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. "There was a huge effort," he replied. When asked about rumors that the New York Republican Party picked Scozzafava because of the advice of Washington insiders who felt she would be a more electable candidate, Boehner rolled his eyes. "We told them to hold off on a decision, to work with us, but they went ahead...

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White House bails out J. Crew's fashion czar

Michelle Obama's fashion sense might be earning a lot of praise, but one other person is making quite a profit. Jenna Lyons, creative director of J. Crew, oversaw the creation of various outfits worn by the ladies of the first family. For her efforts, she got a one-time cash bonus of $1 million. But is this overcompensation? After all, the White House pay czar recently slashed compensation for executives receiving government aid, but what better government aid than a ringing fashion endorsement? Perhaps not -- J. Crew didn't receive a taxpayer-funded bailout, and yet strangely the company is expecting its sales and earnings for its third fiscal quarter to be up over earlier...

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Executive compensation makes it to the Supreme Court

Even for free-market types, there is such a thing as getting paid too much. That may be happening among mutual fund managers, which is why the Supreme Court began hearing arguments this week in Jones v. Harris. The case essentially deals with the higher rates that mutual fund advisers may charge their captive funds versus their institutional investor clients. The fund's board of trustees generally negotiates on behalf of investors to arrive at this sum. At first blush, the libertarian approach should be simple enough: Judges should not set the rates of mutual fund advisers, and instead should allow market forces to make the call. But the case has a twist. Two judges known for their...

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Poll: Blame for economy now increasingly on Obama

More Americans - 49 percent - still blame the economic situation on the recession that began during the Bush administration, but the ranks are swelling of those who say the nation's economic problems are the consequence of President Obama's policies, to 45 percent in the latest Rasmussen survey. Just last month, only 37 percent looked askance at Obama's policies. This doesn't mean that Bush is becoming more popular, but it does mean that citizens are becoming impatient with Obama. Just one month ago, 55 percent blamed Bush, while 37 percent looked askance at Obama. But even blaming Bush and Obama misses the point. The epicenter of the economic crisis was in the housing market, which was...

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Enviros to Navajos: Go green or get lost

Despite the fact that Navajo Nation president Joe Shirley Jr. won an international award for environmentalism, he's a thorn in the side for environmentalists. Why? Because, according to them, the power plant that provides energy and jobs to his people in Arizona is an environmental hazard, one that creates an unsightly haze over the Grand Canyon. The Environmental Protection Agency wants the Navajo Generating Station, which is supplied with coal from mines on Black Mesa, to install air-scrubbing equipment. A Sierra Club spokesman described the plants as "low-hanging fruit." And the journalist reporting the story cites Shirley as the only climate change skeptic, while quoting a...

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Top Obama advisor: Tax hike? Maybe.

Worth noting from Jarrett's Sunday interview is this line: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: “So he will not -- bottom line, he will not violate that commitment, is what you're saying?” VALERIE JARRETT: “What I'm saying is that he is confident that a bill that's going to be passed is going to be consistent with his parameters, yes.” What does that sentence mean? Why not just a simple "Yes"? Why is this qualified? Well, if you just heard a record scratch, that's because on Sept. 12, 2008, candidate Obama made this pledge: “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your...

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Valerie Jarrett: NY-23 tells you "where the leadership is."

Valerie Jarrett was on with George Stephanopoulos this weekend, and it appears that Democrats have very much seized on the theme of "Poor Dede, Maligned Moderate." When one of the president's top advisers runs with the theme, especially with a response as canned as hers, it's clear the Democrats are attempting to define the middle ground while moving to the left. Most notable is her attempt to conflate party with principle, particularly in this clip. She also goes on to mention that fewer people identify as Republicans, and instead choose the term "independent." That may be true, but Jarrett's insinuation, that people are moving away from the...

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Conservatives rally as an angry majority, not an angry minority

According to Politico, GOP insiders are worried that the conservative activism found in NY-23 could result in permanent minority status: Numerous GOP officials have told POLITICO they worry that the party has been hijacked by a noisy and powerful minority that will keep the GOP in a noisy and not-so-powerful minority for a long time. It will be impossible for GOP leaders to make this case anytime soon. The trick, instead, will be to find common ground on running conservative candidates who appeal to activists but can also run campaigns not entirely predicated on the hardest edges of their conservatism. Noisy and powerful minority? Does that include the Wall Street Journal editorial...

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Foreign meddling behind Nobel Peace Prize ignored by Obama

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat notes that President Obama missed an opportunity to reject the Nobel Prize and instead put to rout the high expectations of his office. The implications of his decision to accept it, Douthat continues, will reverberate in every policy he pursues. "Now he’s the Nobel laureate who has to choose between escalating a counterinsurgency in Afghanistan or ceding ground to a theocratic mafia. He’s the Nobel laureate who’ll either have to authorize military strikes against Iran or construct an effective, cold-war-style deterrence system for the Middle East. He’s the Nobel laureate who’ll probably fail, like every U.S....

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Can a sitting president receive a Nobel Peace Prize?

There's a problem for President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize victory and it's not his inexperience. From Article I, Section 9 of "that neglected curio," the U.S. Constitution: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." Per Wikipedia, the Nobel Prize is awarded as follows: "...the Norwegian Nobel Committee consists of five members elected by the Norwegian Storting (the Norwegian parliament).[9] In its first stage, several...

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Report: Department of Interior employees collaborate with lobbyists

Looks like the Department of Interior has a problem with a section responsible for 26 million acres of federal lands. According to an investigation conducted by the Interior inspector general regarding the department's National Landscape Conservation System (NCLS), employees and environmental advocacy organizations frequently violated federal anti-lobbying policies. A redacted report from the investigation includes this zinger: Our investigation determined that numerous activities and communication took place between NLCS officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGO), including discussions about the NLCS budget and BLM employees' editing brochures and producing fact sheets for a...

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Unions want to turn Hyatt into a roach motel

Once you check in, you can never check out. At least that's the goal of Unite Here, which is protesting Hyatt hotels nationwide in response to the company's decision to hire cheaper labor. In Boston, for instance, three Boston area hotels fired 98 staff (some of whom earned more than $15 an hour) on Aug. 31 and replaced them with $8-an-hour employees of Georgia-based Hospitality Staffing Solutions. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick went so far as to threaten a state-employee boycott of the chain in response. In Long Beach, Calif., Unite Here Local 11 is holding protests to get the hotel to sign a neutrality agreement. But such an agreement is anything but, given that the hotel...

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North Korea arming Iran is a consequence of limited foreign policy objectives

According to this report from Deutsche Welle (h/t InfidelsAreCool): … The Australian-owned cargo ship is reported to have been carrying grenade launchers, detonators, and munitions falsely listed as machine parts on its shipping manifesto.… According to news agency AFP, US experts believe North Korea has earned hundreds of millions of dollars by exporting military technology until recent sanctions. North Korean ships have previously been intercepted as they headed to Myanmar. The report describes recent relations between North Korea and the rest of the world as thawing, but that's hard to parse. In order to release two American journalists, North Korea still had to capture...

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J.P. Freire: Memorials are not occasions to air grievances

Robert Novak, legendary Washington columnist, is dead at 78. I worked for him for a mere two weeks. I was filling time between jobs, which, in this industry, can be short. Commemorating him is tricky business -- he famously said that he had no friends, merely sources and targets. His book, "The Prince of Darkness," chronicled the foibles of the Washington establishment gained through a half century of classic shoe-leather journalism. It also rankled some, as did much of Novak's other work. Such are the ways of Washington, especially in reporting. And when that rankling happens among your own side, you then realize that internecine conflict is cold, nasty, brutish and most...

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Freshman Democrats bristle at tax hikes in health care bill

According to this story in Roll Call, leaders are running "into a firewall of resistance from moderate Democrats and vulnerable freshmen grousing over the measure’s provisions to tax the wealthy and small businesses. Some Members also want more cost cutting, even if it leaves more people uninsured." House Democrats, led by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), are even going so far as to circulate a draft letter among freshmen to Pelosi "opposing the $544 billion income tax surcharge on the wealthy, arguing it would hit many small businesses and manufacturers." The interesting bit about this is that these freshmen were elected on Obama's coattails. On election night, Obama...

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New car czar is a union man

After just five months on the job, President Obama's "Car Czar," Steven Rattner, is quitting. An administration official gives Politico this terse explanation: “He determined that this was the right decision for him and his family at this time." His replacement, a six-figure official with the Steelworkers' Union named Ron Bloom, is already waiting in the wings. It sounds like a firing, but if the GM and Chrysler deals turn out poorly, Rattner will probably be happy he's already gone. Bloom's relevant experience appears to be negotiating for unions with troubled companies, and so it would be useful to know his approach. Thanks to an old Time magazine collection...

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