Super Committee Democrat Picks Very Diverse; GOP Picks All WHITE Men!

Super Committee: Who are these guys?


They are the "super committee" -- and they have a lot of work to do.

Almost all men -- they are the 12-member panel charged with finding an additional $1.5 trillion in debt savings over a ten-year period.

It will be tough work and will likely require political sacrifice on issues like taxes and entitlements if meaningful progress is to be made toward stabilizing the national debt.

On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi weighed in with her three Democratic picks: James Clyburn, Xavier Becerra and Chris Van Hollen.

The panel's six Republicans were named Wednesday to the body, joining three Senate Democrats.

The members have a range of political experience -- from novice to veteran. They are experts in taxes and the budget process. They hail from states as disparate as Texas, Michigan and Arizona.

In a sign that these appointees might not be the most willing to compromise, four of the members -- two Republicans and two Democrats -- served on the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction panel but voted against the plan.

Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that if the goal is a grand compromise, the appointments "could have been a lot worse," but that this group "is not going to leave me dancing on a cloud."

The committee will have until Nov. 23 to propose ways to reduce deficits. Those proposals must be voted on by Dec. 23.

If the committee process fails to produce a debt reduction plan, as much as $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts would kick in -- evenly divided between defense and non-defense spending.



Here's a little about each member of the committee:

Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas (Republican and committee co-chair): Hensarling -- chairman of the House Republican Conference -- served on President Obama's debt commission but voted against it. What did he object to exactly?

Tax increases.

The debate over taxes is expected to be fierce. If his past positions are any clue, Hensarling is likely to be vocally opposed to any new revenues.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington (Democrat and committee co-chair): Murray is not just a senator. She also chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and it is her job to recruit candidates who can beat her Republican colleagues.

Her appointment has already drawn criticism from the Republican National Committee, which views her as an overly political figure.

She is a member of the Budget and Appropriations committees.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland (Democrat): Van Hollen played a key role in the debt talks led by Vice President Joe Biden earlier this year, and is the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee.

A Pelosi acolyte, Van Hollen frequently appears on television to represent House Democrats on policy issues.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona (Republican): The No. 2 Republican in the Senate behind Mitch McConnell and a staunch advocate for the military, Kyl is a member of the Finance Committee.

Kyl is a reliable conservative vote and is opposed to tax increases. He has said he will not run for re-election and walked out of debt negotiations with Biden earlier this year after an impasse over increasing revenue.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts (Democrat): A former presidential candidate, Kerry is best known on Capitol Hill for his foreign policy experience. He will lend his expertise on national security matters to the debate over cuts to military funding.

He is a member of the Finance Committee and has spent 27 years in the Senate so has participated in his share of closed-door negotiations.

Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania (Republican): Elected to the Senate last year, Toomey was a prominent voice in the debate over raising the debt ceiling, arguing that the United States could prioritize its payments in the event of a debt ceiling breach to avoid a true default.

In the end, Toomey voted against the debt ceiling bill that created the super committee. He sits on the Senate Budget and Banking committees, and is the former president of the staunchly anti-tax Club for Growth.

Sen. Max Baucus of Montana (Democrat): Baucus -- chairman of the Senate Finance Committee -- served on Obama's debt commission.

But Baucus voted against the final Simpson-Bowles recommendations because he said they cut too deeply into farm subsidies and would have changed Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in away he found unacceptable.

Those same issues -- changes to those entitlement programs -- are likely to be a central part of any grand bargain to reduce deficits.

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio (Republican): A former White House budget director in the Bush administration, Portman is a Senate novice and a member of the Budget Committee.

More moderate that some of his colleagues, Portman could be a key player in a compromise.

Rep. Xavier Becerra of California (Democrat): A senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Becerra served on the Bowles-Simpson debt commission.

But he voted against the plan because he said it cut too deeply into discretionary spending and did not raise revenues to a high enough level.

Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan (Republican): Camp -- the House Ways and Means Committee chairman -- served on President Obama's debt commission, but voted against it. He objected to the plan's tax hikes and said it failed to address rising health care costs.

An expert on taxes -- he will bolster GOP credentials on any tax reform that might be discussed.

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina (Democrat): The third-ranking Democrat in the House and veteran of the Appropriations Committee, Clyburn maintains close ties to Pelosi. He also participated in the Biden debt reduction talks.

Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan (Republican): Upton chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He has taken some moderate positions in the past, including attempts to decrease tax cuts in the George W. Bush administration that remain contentious today.


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James Clyburn Selected For Super Committee: South Carolina's 2012 Game Changer

Last Three Democrats Named to Debt Committee>

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, on Thursday announced her three appointees to the special Congressional committee tasked with finding ways to reduce federal budget deficits, as a Republican member of the newly formed panel expressed an openness to consider possible tax increases.

Ms. Pelosi’s choices complete the 12-member panel, which is evenly divided between the two parties and the two houses of Congress.

All three members named by Ms. Pelosi hold leading roles in the party: Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 House Democrat; Representative Xavier Becerra of California, vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus; and Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

Ms. Pelosi said in a statement that the committee “has a golden opportunity to take its discussions to the higher ground of America’s greatness and its values.”

Created as part of the agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling, the panel is supposed to recommend ways to reduce federal budget deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If the panel fails to do so by its Nov. 23 deadline, or if its ideas are not enacted, the agreement calls for the government to automatically cut spending across the board.

If even a single panel member crosses party lines to provide a majority vote, the committee can forward its proposals to the floor of the House and the Senate for up-or-down votes without amendments.

One Republican member of the committee, Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, said Thursday that he would not rule out possible tax increases –- a central point of contention in the recent debt talks and something many economists contend will be a necessary element to any successful bipartisan proposal.

“I don’t want to rule anything in or out,” Mr. Camp told Reuters. “I am willing to discuss all issues that might help us reduce our short and long-term debt and grow our economy.”

“Everything is on the table, until we as a group rule it out,” he said.

Ms. Pelosi, in her statement, described Mr. Clyburn as a consensus builder with experience on the Appropriations Committee; Mr. Becerra as a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee who “placed the interests of America’s working families first”; and Mr. Van Hollen as a Democratic leader in the deficit-reduction talks led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The three Democratic members will join three House Republicans, Jeb Hensarling of Texas and Mr. Camp and Fred Upton, both of Michigan, on the committee. The Senate will be represented by three Republicans, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio, along with the Democrats Patty Murray of Washington, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Max Baucus of Montana.




Pelosi names three House Democrats to complete debt panel selection

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday appointed Reps. James Clyburn, Xavier Becerra and Chris Van Hollen to the special congressional committee on deficit reduction, completing selection of the 12-member bipartisan panel created under last week's debt ceiling agreement.

The three choices bring strong party voices from the House to the new "super committee" charged with crafting a plan to reduce the country's mounting deficits. They join three Senate Democrats -- Patty Murray, Max Baucus and John Kerry -- previously appointed to the committee, as well as six GOP fiscal conservatives from the House and Senate named by Republican leaders.

"We must achieve a 'grand bargain' that reduces the deficit by addressing our entire budget, while strengthening Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security," Pelosi said in a statement announcing her choices. "Our entire caucus will work closely with these three appointees toward this goal, which is the goal of the American people."

Clyburn, of South Carolina, is the No. 3 House Democrat, while Becerra, of California, is vice chairman of the House Democratic caucus. Van Hollen, of Maryland, is the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

In separate announcements Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner and chose Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Dave Camp of Michigan and Fred Upton of Michigan as the House Republican picks, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell picked Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio.

All six Republicans are known for conservative stances on economic issues. Hensarling is the Republican Conference chairman and will be co-chair of the panel with Murray of Washington state, who was appointed Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"The debt crisis is a legitimate threat to our nation's future, and the American people cannot afford to wait any longer," Hensarling said in a statement after his appointment. "Everyone can agree that we must stop spending money we don't have, and the time to act is now."

He added that the committee "will not be able to solve the crisis in a matter of months, but we can work together to tackle these challenges in order to bring back jobs, hope and opportunity for the American people."

Toomey, despite his credentials of fiscal conservatism, noted Wednesday that he recently voted to eliminate the ethanol tax subsidy and believed there were other subsidies or loopholes that could be ended as part of broad tax reform. Many conservative Republicans oppose any moves that could increase tax revenue.

"The goal should be to broaden the base and lower rates so that we can create an environment that's more conducive to economic growth," he said.

The committee will follow up on negotiations that started last year with the bipartisan debt commission appointed by President Barack Obama, then continued in Congress, including work by the so-called Gang of Six senators -- three Democrats and three Republicans. Both the debt commission and the other group recommended comprehensive packages that included tax reform, changes to politically sensitive entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and spending cuts.

Obama will bring "very specific ideas about" how "the committee could come together in a balanced way to significantly reduce the deficit," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday.

Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, who co-chaired Obama's debt commission, told CNN on Wednesday that the new special committee has plenty of information to work with and shouldn't need a lot of time for further collecting or analyzing of issues.

Committee members "don't need to sit around here and gather more information," Simpson said, adding that the actual negotiating is "going to be tough."

Among the GOP choices, Camp is the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, while Upton chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Upton has taken some moderate positions in the past, including attempts to decrease tax cuts in the George W. Bush administration that remain contentious today.

In a statement Wednesday, Upton said that "much more needs to be done to bring down health care costs, promote economic growth and begin to tame runaway government."

"No one believes this is going to be easy," he added.

On the Senate side, Kyl, the No. 2 Republican behind McConnell, is a staunch advocate for the military, which is targeted for deep spending cuts if the special committee fails to come up with an agreement that passes Congress by the end of the year.

Portman is a former White House budget director in the Bush administration with a reputation for working with Democrats. His fellow Ohio senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, said Wednesday that Portman "has shown a willingness to find common ground by looking at both tax reform and spending cuts in order to reduce the deficit."

Toomey, elected to his first Senate term last year with the support of tea party conservatives, sits on the Senate Budget and Banking Committee. He told reporters Wednesday that he expected the special committee to begin its work soon, and that it would require Republicans working with Democrats to succeed.

"It has to be an exercise in finding common ground between Republicans and Democrats, but it also has to be constructive with respect to reducing our deficit and it has to be pro-growth as well," he said.

Reid went with veteran legislators including a former Democratic presidential candidate in Kerry, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman and the more moderate Baucus, who chairs the Finance Committee and has fought Republican efforts to privatize Social Security.

Reid named Murray, a war critic and champion of benefits for military veterans, the co-chair of the special committee.

In a joint statement after their appointments, the three Democratic senators said that Americans want the committee to operate without "the red-hot partisanship and brinkmanship of the last months."

"This is not going to be easy. Our challenge is to find common ground without damaging anyone's principles. We believe we can get there. This committee was designed to require bipartisanship, and we are going to work hard with our Republican colleagues to attain it," their statement said.

The committee will try to work out $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, after an initial round of more than $900 billion in spending cuts in the debt ceiling agreement. It is required to complete its work by November 23. Congress then has until December 23 to vote on the proposal, with no amendments permitted.

A simple majority on the panel -- seven of 12 members -- is needed to approve whatever package it comes up with, meaning that it will take a lone member of either party to push something through by voting with the other side. The committee's proposal would then need a simple majority in each chamber of Congress to make it to Obama's desk.

If the committee fails to reach agreement or Congress fails to pass whatever package it recommends, a trigger mechanism will enact further across-the-board cuts in government spending, including for the military.

Carney said Wednesday that Obama continued to call for a balanced approach that includes increased tax revenue, entitlement reforms and spending cuts.

"And we are not alone," Carney said. "The American people overwhelmingly support the balanced approach that the president supports."

According to a CNN/ORC International Poll released Wednesday, 63% of respondents say the so-called super committee should recommend increased taxes on higher-income Americans and businesses, with 36% disagreeing. By a 57-40% margin, respondents say the committee's deficit reduction proposal should include major cuts in domestic spending.

However, further cuts in defense spending get a mixed review, with 47% favoring them and 53% opposed.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents oppose major changes to Social Security and Medicare, while nearly nine in 10 don't want any increase in taxes on middle-class and lower-income Americans.

Months of rancorous negotiations on deficit reduction have failed to resolve a fundamental dispute between Republicans and Democrats involving the size of government and whether to raise revenue while cutting spending. Obama is pushing for a comprehensive plan that includes spending cuts, increased tax revenue and entitlement reforms, while Republicans seek to shrink government by proposing spending cuts and entitlement reforms without increased revenue.

An impasse over the tax revenue issue led to the debt ceiling agreement, which imposed the initial round of spending cuts and set up the special committee to work out further deficit reduction. The agreement also enables the federal debt ceiling to be increased through 2012, allowing the government to borrow what it needs to meet its obligations.

The brinkmanship of the negotiations, with uncertainty over whether the government might default if no deal was reached, was one reason why Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ on Friday.

One of the main Republican arguments against tax increases for the wealthy is that they would inhibit job creation. The poll results showed that only a third of respondents agree with that stance, while 62% say taxes on the wealthy should be high so the government can use the money for programs to help lower-income Americans.

The CNN poll was conducted by ORC International from Friday through Sunday, with 1,008 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey was conducted both before and after Friday night's announcement of the S&P downgrade. The poll's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.


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Jim Clyburn Calls Out Credit Downgrade As Bad Political Move

SC Rep. Clyburn: debt rating call political

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn criticized Standard & Poor's downgrade of America's debt rating on Tuesday, saying he thinks the decision was based more on politics than economics.

The Democrat from South Carolina told reporters he's concerned the decision focused on Washington's fractious political climate rather than America's actual ability to pay its debts.

"I think this is very unfortunate. I think it was underserved, but I don't think it was unexpected," Clyburn said of Friday's decision, which has since touched off turmoil in stock markets around the globe.

On Monday, S&P managing director David Beers said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the agency's decision was based on several factors, including damage done to America's reputation by the debt ceiling controversy and concerns that public finances are on an unsustainable path.

Asked if he had any second thoughts about the downgrade, Beers said, "Absolutely not."

For the first time ever, S&P downgraded the U.S. rating, cutting it to "AA+" from AAA. Two other ratings agencies — Moody's and Fitch — said they were keeping the AAA rating for now.

Asked about the S&P decision, Clyburn said, "Their reasons seemed to be focused on politics, rather than economics. They talked about the brinkmanship going on in Washington. I know there's brinkmanship going on in Washington. The public knows that. But I don't know whether that ought to be taken into consideration when you're talking about whether or not you can pay your debts."

The No. 3 House Democrat said he thinks the manner in which the debate over the debt ceiling unfolded is "a question of public process, not the ability to pay the bills. I have a problem with that."

Clyburn says he's pleased the two other major credit agencies kept the country's top credit rating, comparing it to a batter who is able to hit two out of three pitches in a ball game.

He said he believes the Bush-era tax cuts should not be extended and tax loopholes closed, instead of cutting entitlement programs, in order to help solve the nation's budget problems.

The best way for the nation to get away from a climate of brinkmanship is to "elect people who believe in give and take," the congressman said.


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14th Amendment Knocks At Pres. Obama's Door: Impeachable Or Legal Act??

As House GOP Tea Party Radicals Continue To Hold The U.S. Economy Hostage, Suggestions From Former President Bill Clinton & Several Congressional Members For Pres. Obama To Invoke The 14th Amendment As A Tool To Increase Our Federal Debt Ceiling Looms Louder.

Question Is If Pres. Obama Does Decide To Invoke The 14th Amendment In This Instance Would It Be An Impeachable Act (Even In An Congressional Emergency) Or A Legal Act?

And That My Friend Is The Million Dollar Question!!



U.S. Constitution 14th Amendment; Section 4:

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.









Obama urged to invoke 14th Amendment as debt ceiling deadline nears

Rep. James Clyburn and a group of House Democrats are urging President Barack Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling if Congress can’t come up with a satisfactory plan before the Tuesday deadline.

Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, said Wednesday that if the president is delivered a bill to raise the debt ceiling for only a short period of time, he should instead veto it and turn to the phrase in the Constitution that says the validity of the U.S. government’s debt “shall not be questioned.”

“If that’s what lands on his desk, a short-term lifting of the ceiling, the debt ceiling, he should put it on his desk next to an executive order,” Clyburn said at a press conference. “He should sign an executive order invoking the 14th Amendment to this issue.” The Associated Press reported that he was applauded when he suggested the idea at a caucus meeting earlier in the day.

“I believe that something like this will bring calm to the American people and will bring needed stability to our financial markets,” Clyburn added, noting that President Harry Truman did it once during his presidency after Congress was unable to pass a bill to raise the debt ceiling.

Obama and others in his administration have said they will not rely on the 14th Amendment. At a town hall last week, Obama said that he has “talked to my lawyers” and “they are not persuaded that that is a winning argument.”

At his daily briefing Wednesday afternoon, White House press secretary Jay Carney knocked down any suggestion that the president would reconsider.

“Our position hasn’t changed. There are not off-ramps, there’s no way around this, there’s no escape,” Carney said. “You know, having an esoteric constitutional argument won’t reduce the fact that the borrowing authority is due to expire on August 2nd and Congress has the legal authority and only Congress has the legal authority to extend that borrowing authority.”

“The president stood here and told you,” Carney added. “We consulted to see what this was about, but this is not an option.”

But Clyburn and several other liberal Democrats urged the president to reconsider.

“We’re getting down to decision time,” said Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), the chairman of the Democratic caucus. “We have to have a failsafe mechanism and we believe that failsafe mechanism is the 14th Amendment and the president of the United States.”

Appearing on MSNBC later Wednesday morning, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) suggested that it should be the president’s last resort. “As far as the 14th Amendment is concerned, I urge everybody to get their Constitution and read it. It says the debts of the United States shall not be questioned,” she said.

“If [Republicans] want to make this country a deadbeat nation, this president shouldn’t allow it, none of us should allow it. And I think he should seriously look at whatever options he has.”


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Governor-Elect Nikki Haley (S.C.) Meets With Congressional Members

Governor-Elect Nikki Haley Meets With Members Of The U.S. House, Senate


South Carolina Gov.-elect Nikki Haley met Monday with the state's freshman-packed U.S. House delegation and its two veteran U.S. senators as they agreed to work on key issues such as deepening Charleston's port and bailing out the state's schools.

Haley met with freshman Reps. Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney and Tim Scott, along with veteran Reps. Jim Clyburn and Joe Wilson and U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint. All are Republican except for Clyburn, who will be No. 3 in the Democratic House leadership come January.

"There were no egos in that room," Haley said at a post-meeting news conference with the delegation. "It was a group of people that understood South Carolina needed to come first and it was very much one of great spirit - great energy - in how we are going to get things done."

Cooperation among the delegation has been lacking on some issues lately. Graham and DeMint have disagreed over where to find money for a port-deepening study.

"When the ports came up, it was not: 'We can't do this.' It was 'How are we going to get this done.' They were unified in the fact they understand the ports are vital to economic development," Haley said.

DeMint also opposed a measure championed by Clyburn that would bring $143 million in federal bailout cash to South Carolina schools.

The state will lose the money and up to 2,600 teaching jobs unless Congress intercedes, state Education Superintendent Jim Rex said.

"It can only be fixed by our congressional delegation," Rex said. "They are going to have to pull together because it has to be fixed in the House and Senate."

DeMint said news accounts have mischaracterized his opposition to Clyburn's efforts get the public school bailout cash.

"We talked about it, but we're not sure how to resolve it," DeMint said. "Both of us are supportive of the state getting its fair share."

South Carolina failed to meet criteria in a federal bailout law to qualify. That means other states that met the criteria would have to agree to give South Carolina a break from the laws they followed. "That doesn't mean we're going to give up on it, though," DeMint said.

It was a rare meeting for the delegation.

Clyburn, a Democrat who becomes the delegation's senior member in January, said the last joint meeting of the delegation was in the early 1990s as the state futilely tried to keep the Charleston Naval Base and Charleston Naval Shipyard open.

Haley, who takes office in January as Sanford's term limited two terms end, said she hopes to have meetings with the delegation every three months.


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House Leadership Battle: Clyburn Accepts 3rd Rank Deal

Deal Ends Democratic Leadership Fight


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has struck a deal that ends the leadership fight for the number two slot in the new House minority, multiple senior Democratic sources tell CNN.

Under the compromise, current House majority leader Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer will become the Democratic whip, which will be the number two spot in the new Democratic minority.

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn agreed to end his bid for that spot and instead hold a new, third-ranking leadership post that will be created for him. In a letter to Democratic colleagues on Saturday, Pelosi said she plans to designate him "Assistant Leader."

In a statement Saturday, Clyburn -- an African-American -- said it was important that the party's House leadership represented "the diverse views, backgrounds and experiences of our membership." The new structure, he said, "honors the diversity and fosters the unity" of House Democrats.

"I believe this resolution allows us to begin the journey back to a stronger and more resilient majority," said Clyburn, the current majority whip and a congressman since 1993.

When the Democrats become the minority party in the House they lose the position of Speaker, a shift that left Hoyer and Clyburn jockeying for the House minority whip position.

Hoyer also released a statement Saturday, saying he would look forward to serving as the Democratic whip.

"Since the election last week, I have made clear my belief that it was important for my friend Jim Clyburn to continue serving our Caucus as the third ranking Member of our Leadership," he said.

The deal allows Rep. John Larson of Connecticut to keep his post as Democratic caucus chairman and Rep. Xavier Becerra to remain as the vice chair of the Democratic caucus.

Speaker Pelosi revealed the deal in a somewhat cryptic statement late Friday night.

"Should I receive the honor of serving as House Democratic Leader, I will nominate Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina to the number three leadership position," Pelosi said.


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Kendrick Meek Forced Out Of Race By Dems Like Alvin Green?

Meek Says Crist Tried To Talk Him Into Quitting Senate Bid


Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek said it was Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and not former President Bill Clinton who asked him to end his Senate bid in Florida.

Meek talked Friday about the issue during an interview with CNN's "American Morning."

Meek denied published reports that Clinton had tried to persuade him to drop out of the race because he might steal votes from Crist.

Crist is running for the Senate as an independent. Meek and Crist are in a race with Republican Marco Rubio.

"He never asked me to get out of the race. I never told him I was getting out of the race," Meek said, referring to Clinton. "Gov. Crist talked to me about getting out of the race. I recommend to the governor that he should consider getting out of the race."

The allegations bubbled up Thursday when Crist, the Republican-turned-independent Senate candidate, said he spoke with Meek and "several people" at the White House about having Meek step out of the race.

Crist, who appeared on Fox News, would not say who he spoke to at the White House, but said he spoke to Meek about the possible shift and that Meek was "considering it."

Crist said that he spoke with Doug Band, a counselor to Clinton, who Crist said acted as an intermediary, relaying information about whether Meek would end his Senate bid.

Meek denied any intent to exit the three-way race among Rubio, Crist and himself.

"Any rumor or any statement that I decided to get out of this race is inaccurate at best," Meek said at a Thursday night news conference.

Meek has said neither Clinton nor the Democratic National Committee called him to say he should get out of the race.

But Clinton said he did talk twice with Meek about ending his bid for Senate, but that he never discussed the issue with the White House.

"He was trying to determine what was the best thing for him to do," Clinton said in an interview with CNN's Susan Candiotti on Thursday. "I knew it was being discussed, people had discussed it on and off. It was no secret."




Alvin Greene Won't Get Jim Clyburn's Vote In South Carolina


U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House, said Wednesday he will not support his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate, Alvin Greene, when he goes into the voting booth Nov. 2.

“No, I’m not going to vote for Mr. Greene,” Clyburn said in answer to reporters’ questions in Columbia. “Look, I have three daughters and a granddaughter. I think it would be an insult to them, if I did that.”

Clyburn said it comes down to the charges that Greene faces.

A Richland County grand jury has indicted Greene on a Felony charge of disseminating, procuring or promoting obscenity, and a misdemeanor charge of communicating obscene materials to a person without consent. The charges came after Greene was arrested in November on charges of showing obscene photographs to a female student in a computer lab at the University of South Carolina.

The little-known Greene, an unemployed veteran from Manning, won the June 8 S.C. Democratic primary with 59 percent of the vote in a shocker.

Clyburn said that an indicted state official can be removed from office, and that same standard ought to apply to a candidate seeking office.


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Alvin Greene Unplugged! An Intimate Look At SC's Democratic Nominee

Alvin Greene Unplugged!

Instead of laughing why not give him kudos for having the Courage to run for Public Office as a regular citizen?

Its a shame how the media (national & abroad) is trying to make this young, Black brother appear to be some kind of buffoon. At least he had the courage to run against a well-known, Incumbent, Career Politician! His election should inspire more "regular" citizens especially Blacks, to run for Public Office. As Tom Joyner did (publicly) I say its time we give him our support and show him some love. Let's keep Alvin Greene from S.C. in our prayers.

Check out the interview article below.








Alvin Greene: America's Most Unlikely Politician


The journey to the home of one of the most enigmatic figures to emerge into the American political scene involves a drive deep into rural South Carolina. The road, bullet straight and lined with tall firs and pines, continues for miles with only an occasional Jehovah's Witnesses church to break the monotony.

The entrance to Alvin Greene's house, which doubles as his political headquarters, is marked only by the street number stamped on its metal postal box. At the end of the driveway his brother, James Greene Jr, is cleaning a small collection of vintage cars in the blazing heat. He asks my business, then leads me through the garage to the back door which he knocks on loudly. Then he knocks again.

"What you doin' here so early?" comes a muffled voice from inside.

The door opens and James says: "There's someone to see you."

"Oh, yeah, OK. I said he could come," replies Alvin, who is wearing blue tracksuit bottoms and a grey T-shirt with an ARMY logo across the chest. Inside, the television is on, tuned to a news channel, in front of which an old man with frizzy white hair is sprawled under a blanket on the sofa. He looks asleep, or comatose.

Greene hurries me past and into a living room. I'm about to launch into questions, but he stands suddenly. "I've got to take a break," he says, then disappears into a back parlour.

A month ago nobody had heard of 32-year-old Alvin Greene. An unemployed army and air force veteran from Manning, South Carolina, he spends most of his time looking after the old man – his 81-year-old father, James Sr – and is not often seen outside the house.

At least that was true until 8 June, when the results were announced of the Democratic primary race to choose the party's candidate for election to one of South Carolina's two US Senate seats. To the astonishment of most who had followed the race, the party's preferred candidate, Vic Rawl, a retired judge who had run an aggressive campaign with a war chest of $250,000 and an army of volunteers, came a miserable second with just 42% of the vote. Trouncing him, with more than 100,000 votes and 59% of the total, was one Alvin Greene.

The South Carolina Democratic party was sent into a tailspin from which it is still recovering. Where did this Alvin Greene come from? He had never run for public office and had no experience of political campaigning. He doesn't own a computer and uses the one at the local library. He didn't have a website through which to marshal his troops. Come to think of it, he didn't have any troops. He had no mobile phone or donors, though he did print flyers. His name recognition among South Carolinians was close to zero.

So what happened?



Questions began to be asked, conspiracy theories cooked. The leading Democratic congressman in the state, Jim Clyburn, came up with the idea that Greene must have been planted into the race by the Republicans to destroy the Democrats' chances of winning the election proper in November. Others likened Greene to Forrest Gump and questioned his mental stability.

To cap it all, it was discovered that he was facing criminal charges for allegedly having shown pornography to a female college student. Local and national newspapers had a field day. He was dubbed the "mystery man" and the "Manning-churian candidate". The banner headline in a local paper perfectly captured the mood: "Who the hell is Alvin Greene?"

An excellent question. And having come all this way to find the answer, it is a little distressing to see him vanish before the interview has begun. Several minutes later, he returns to the living room and slumps into a claret-coloured plastic sofa.

I begin by extending congratulations on his victory. How is he feeling?

"Good," he says, but no more comes.

I try a different tack, asking him what his life has been like since being thrown into the limelight.

"Busy." This time, happily, he goes on. " I didn't expect so much so soon, but I'm getting used to it."

It was a pretty big deal, I say.

"I was hoping that it would be big so I would be able to get my message out to as many folks as possible: getting South Carolina and America back to work, bringing South Carolina and America back. And it's not just America. We have got to get the world back to work and bring the world back. So it's a message that has to reach folks and it's something that I'm pursuing and it's going good."

It becomes clear fairly early in our conversation that Greene is not the greatest orator. He is not in the mould, say, of one of his heroes, Barack Obama. When I ask him whether Obama, as a fellow African-American, had been an inspiration behind his own decision to enter politics, he says, "Yes, I mean there's something that, you know, I knew so I just knew that. It was in my mind, I knew that, that, that, that the voters really, they really, that they really, erm, followed the candidate. That they really wanted substance in a candidate . . . "

It is clear, too, in the course of the two hours I spend with Greene that he has some pretty wacky ideas that, were he to win in November, would put him among the more unpredictable members of the senate. At one point, he lurches off on his big idea for how to create jobs in South Carolina.

"Another thing we can do for jobs is make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls. Me. Like maybe little action dolls. Me in an army uniform, air force uniform, and me in my suit. They can make toys of me and my vehicle, especially for the holidays and Christmas for the kids. That's something that would create jobs. So you see I think out of the box like that. It's not something a typical person would bring up. That's something that could happen, that makes sense. It's not a joke."

Similar statements made by Greene in the days since his victory have allowed the media, most recently on the Huffington Post yesterday, to present him in precisely that way – as a joke. Pundits have scrambled to explain how he pulled off his win. The voting machines must have been faulty; his name came before Rawl's on the ballot; the spelling of Greene is a black spelling that drew African-American voters; voters confused him with the singer Al Green.

The tone of some of the comments has bordered on cruel. The Democratic party elite tried to force him to stand down as duly elected nominee, but backed off when they realised they had no power to do so. Two Democratic politicians from the South Carolina assembly – both African-Americans – went to see him and tried to talk him out of his candidacy, and when he politely refused they suggested he was mentally impaired.

I ask him how the welter of conjecture and insinuation has affected him. He won the election handsomely, yet nobody seems able to accept it. "I just have to tune those things out. It's like people are in their own imaginary world and they want to hear what they want to hear."

Were the voting machines faulty? Is that why he won? "Nope. I got 60% of the vote, and 60% of the vote is decisive. That's more than Obama won this state with in the primary in his presidential bid. He got 55% of the vote. This is not a mistake. That's not a fluke."

What about the fact that he's facing charges for having shown obscene pictures to a university student? He hints that he has offered a deal whereby the prosecution would drop the charges in favour of a lesser non-custodial punishment. "First-time non-violent offenders should be entitled to pre-trial intervention programmes, like seminars or courses that would expunge the charges. I applied, I met the criteria. They could have dropped the charges."

And the suggestion that he is mentally ill? "That's an insult!" The answer is barked out, with distinct anger. But it doesn't come from Alvin. It comes from James Sr, who is shuffling past in his slippers just as we reach this point.

I turn to him and ask why he thinks such insults, as he sees them, are being levelled at his son. "Back in my day black people who registered to vote were turned away. They called the doctor and treated them as crazy."

Alvin's father, as a younger man, stood for office in the local council, but lost. I ask him whether he faced the same insults and opposition.

"Oh yeah."

What things?

"They told me I would never make it."

Then Alvin's brother, James Jr, the one with the vintage cars, joins in. "They are trying to scandalise my brother. They think he can win and they are trying to bring him down. They are making out he's slow. He's not slow. They say he's running for someone else. But he's running for himself. He's been talking to me about running for the past two years."

I'm starting to get the impression that the Alvin Greene-as-Forrest Gump narrative is falling wide of the mark. How about the line that he is a Republican plant? In that case, how to explain the certificate that he proudly points to on the wall for the politics degree he gained at university? Or the fact that he spent 13 years in the military, in both the army and air force, and though he was involuntarily discharged (no one yet knows why), it was honourably so.

Or the tell-tale signs that he was brought up by his parents and teachers to respect public service – the line of plastic model presidents from Washington to Nixon that his late mother collected, lining the mantelpiece, and the photograph of an eight-year-old Alvin asking for the autograph of Charles Bolden, then a general in the military and now the administrator of Nasa. Conspiracy theorists have pointed to the $10,400 registration fee Greene had to pay to run, and questioned how he could afford it – to which he says simply he had saved up from his long military career.

"I followed politics as a child," he says. "I remember when Jesse Jackson ran for president when I was nine years old. He's a South Carolinian native. I made a campaign sign out of construction paper and put it out on the highway so folks could see it as they passed by."

He says he has wanted to run for election ever since he can remember, and that the idea got serious when he was posted to South Korea, from where he watched the implosion of the US and world economies and felt he needed to do something. "I thought I would start locally and work my way up," he says, "but it happened to work this way and I'm taking advantage of it."

Perhaps the ridicule that Greene has received from the TV networks and press is not entirely merited. That sense thickens when I head into town. Like many small towns in the south, Manning is dominated by a monument outside the central courthouse to the Confederate army and those who died in the cause of upholding slavery. Just off the central square Spencer Tindal is minding his barber's shop, shaving the heads of elderly black men. Tindal has known the Greene family for years, so how would he describe Alvin?

"He's a quiet person, but he's educated and he can do anything he wants to do. He has a politics degree."

And then Tindal reminds me that Greene is the first black person to be taken on as a candidate for a US Senate seat in South Carolina since the days of reconstruction immediately after the civil war almost one and a half centuries ago. "He's made history. And for black people like me of my generation, that's good. In our area, people like me don't have a chance to move up or make history. And he's doing it, he's trying to make a difference."

Back at Greene HQ I ask him whether he sees his election victory as a blow struck for South Carolina's black and under-represented voters. "Yes, that's part of it. Regular voters identify with me, the ordinary folks, the people who work every day, the everyday average typical person identifies with me more than any of my opponents, the leadership, the people behind the desk."

I leave feeling as baffled as when I arrived. Greene, South Carolina's Democratic candidate for the US senate is a mix of glaring inadequacy and raw political conviction. He repels and inspires, moments of lucidity interspersed with moments of the complete opposite. Next stop will be the main election in November in which he will face Jim DeMint, the Republican senator who will deploy all the firepower of an incumbent. Greene will be outgunned, outwitted and humiliated. He will lose in a landslide.

Now where have I heard that before?


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Sources: Black American Web, Fox News, Guardian.co.uk, MSNBC, Google Maps

Alvin Greene Won Because He's Black? Who Knows? (Interview Video)

Now Alvin Greene's critics claim he won because he's
Black. Wait a minute! Could this be true? Are Black Voters really that gullible? Perhaps in some regions.

If not what else explains why he won the S.C. Dem. Primary?

After watching Keith Olbermann's interview with Mr. Greene I'm convinced something about this situation
is not quite right.

What say you fine folks?

Check out the video and article below than reach your own conclusions about this crazy political faux pas.










Alvin Greene, being there


Alvin Greene, the unknown, unheralded, un-everything U.S. Senate primary winner in South Carolina, kept reminding me of something -- and somebody. Finally figured it out.

If you've seen Greene on TV, you learn two things: One, his interviews set the Guinness record for awkward pauses, and two, it's clear he doesn't have a clue what's going on. All he does is repeat the same lines about "Sixty percent of the vote is no accident" and "I just conducted a simple old-fashioned campaign," which is especially funny because I'm still not aware of anyone in South Carolina who went to an Alvin Greene rally, or had Alvin Greene come to their house, or even saw him on the side of a road waving a campaign sign like those kids doing a car wash for the glee club.

He might have won the S.C. Democratic primary because he's Black, or he might have won because he was the first candidate alphabetically, or he might be a Republican plant, but one thing is clear -- he didn't win because the people of South Carolina deeply desire to put him in Congress. Although they've probably done worse.

If you watch him on TV, you think, what a disaster. But when I figured out who he reminded me of, it started to make sense.

The 1979 movie "Being There" is about Chance (Peter Sellers), a gardener born with "rice pudding between the ears." All he can talk about is gardening. All he likes to do is watch TV. But through a series of events, he ends up in the home (played by the Biltmore House!) of a rich businessman with political connections. And so Chance the gardener becomes Chauncey Gardiner, whose empty-headed homilies about the weather sound like Zen in a different context.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, MSNBC, WCNC, Youtube, Google Maps