STEVE BANNON'S EXIT, TRUMP'S IMPEACHMENT, RACISM PERSONIFIED

STEVE BANNON'S EXIT, TRUMP'S IMPEACHMENT, RACISM PERSONIFIED:

WILL TRUMP BE A ONE TERM PRESIDENT?


Steve Bannon's exit from the Trump White House as Chief Strategist isn't the big new story being pushed by Mainstream Media windbags.

The firing of Bannon and Reince Preibus is all apart of how the Political "Thank you for helping me Win" game is played.

"You help me Win, I'll give you a cushy job and after about 6 mos to a year I will let you go and make it appear as we have beef."

Calm Down People.

it's just a Political game!

Not everyone who helps a Politician Win elections will be so blessed to be "Thanked" by being rewarded with a great paying job but nevertheless it's how the game is played.

Donald J Trump won't be IMPEACHED, just as Obama wasn't IMPEACHED but fairly tales of Impeachment attracts views and Wealthy SPONSORS to a News Source.

Following the firing of Steve Bannon Pres Trump needs to take a stand on RACISM.

There are many BLACK voters who helped Trump win in Nov 2016.

However now those BLACK supporters can Not get JOBS and are being Ostracized.

In addition RACISM and DIVISION are still hotbed issues in this nation.

So will Pres Trump risk alienating some of his far right Caucasian and ILLUMINATI supporters many of whom want to see BLACK people remain Disenfranchised in the USA?

Or will Trump take a stand and publicly admit that BLACK people who live on American soil should be treated as HUMAN BEINGS with Unalienable Rights?

PLEASE PRAY

"What's unalienable cannot be taken away or denied. Its most famous use is in the Declaration of Independence, which says people have unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."


Sources: NBC News, YouTube


***** Steve Bannon's Exit Prompts Backlash From Core Trump Backers


WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon’s exit from the White House drew an immediate backlash from his allies in the party’s populist wing, who fear their agenda is becoming sidelined within the Trump administration.

“I don’t have any longer the expectations that Trump even can keep the rest of his promises," Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told NBC News on Friday after the announcement that the chief strategist would be leaving the administration.

The uproar threatens to divide Trump’s supporters during the most difficult stretch of his presidency yet and before a critical legislative push next month in which Congress must raise the debt ceiling, pass a budget, and make headway on tax reform.

Trump has faced withering criticism in recent days, including from members of his own party, over his response to the violence at last weekend's white nationalist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, and his defense of "very fine people" who marched with neo-Nazis there.

Trump thanked Bannon early Saturday in a tweet, saying: "He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton - it was great!"

King, whose hardline immigration stance made him a popular figure at Breitbart News, which Bannon ran before joining Trump's campaign, said the White House was being taken over by “northeasterners” instead of ideological conservatives, which "really hurts the long-term strategy of the Trump administration.”

Breitbart announced late Friday afternoon that Bannon had rejoined the news site as executive chairman.

In an MSNBC appearance on Friday, Pollak said Trump had so far satisfied his base’s concerns, but warned "if he veers away, if he pulls an Arnold Schwarzenegger and tries to reinvent himself as liberal, he will see that support erode very, very quickly."

While Breitbart was a critical early supporter of the president’s political rise, running interviews and favorable articles even before he announced his candidacy, their backing has not been absolute and their coverage has taken a special interest in Trump’s staffing decisions.

When Trump feuded with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a popular figure among immigration restrictionists, the site pushed back with stories declaring that he “embodies the movement” Trump led and that his exit would “endanger the administration.”

More recently, Breitbart portrayed Bannon’s shaky status as part of a war for control of the White House between “economic nationalists,” the web site's favored side, and “globalists” like chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, all of whom featured prominently in the site's coverage.

Breitbart White House reporter Charlie Spiering’s reporting straightforwardly referred to the trio as “Bannon’s enemies in the White House” and the coverage has portrayed Cohn as too close to the financial world (he’s a former Goldman Sachs executive) and McMaster as overly hawkish on Afghanistan and weak on Islamic terror groups.

Trump weighed in on both McMaster and Bannon during the conflict, saying that McMaster was “a good man, very pro-Israel” in a statement earlier this month and telling reporters on Tuesday that Bannon was “a good man” and “not a racist” while hinting at his possible departure.

The anti-McMaster chatter grew loud enough to draw in figures like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who decried a “disgraceful” campaign against him by the “alt right” in a statement this week. "Such smear tactics should not be tolerated and deserve an emphatic response," he said.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page also backed McMaster, drawing corresponding coverage in Breitbart with headlines like “Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal Tries to Take Over Trump White House for McMaster, Globalists.”

The tensions only escalated when Bannon called a reporter at the liberal publication The American Prospect and undercut the administration’s tough talk on North Korea’s nuclear program, saying “there’s no military solution” with acceptable losses and that “they got us.”

On the the other end of the political spectrum, Bannon’s ouster could be a small step toward easing tensions with elected Republicans upset over Trump’s Charlottesville response and who had previously expressed concerns about Bannon’s role.

Bannon, who once called Breitbart "the platform for the alt-right," had long been decried by anti-hate groups over his site's coverage, which included a tag for stories on "black crime" and ran op-ed articles by far right European politicians. In the days leading up to his exit, Reps. Pete King, R-N.Y., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., had both explicitly called for his firing.

“Those who relish culture wars & celebrate political polarization have no place leading a country in profound need of healing & unity,” Congressman Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., tweeted in response to the news.

CORRECTION (Aug. 18, 6:31 p.m.): A previous version of this article misstated the title of Joel Pollack at Breitbart News. He is senior editor-at-large, not editor-in-chief

LGBT'S MOVEMENT BLACK HATEFUL FEMINISTS (CHARLOTTE)

LGBT'S MOVEMENT BLACK HATEFUL FEMINISTS: (CHARLOTTE)

NOT ALL BLACK FEMINISTS USE HATE & RETALIATION TO ADVANCE THEIR AGENDA.

What purpose do BLACK Women serve in the FEMINIST Movement?

How EFFECTIVE is the role of BLACK FEMINISTS if they are spreading HATE?

How EFFECTIVE can BLACK FEMINISTS be as LEADERS if they are using their Authority and Power to inflict RETALIATION upon people who disagree with their agenda?

~ As a Black Feminist, I see how the wider movement fails women like my mother

I call myself a Black Feminist and hold that label dearly, but the naming happened after the fact. I was a black feminist from the moment, as a child, I recognized the domestic violence was gendered and somehow seen as acceptable because of this.

When neighbours called the police to our back-to-back terrace in what is now the red light district of Bradford, I would feel anger that my mother's fear of the police and what they stood for took precedence over her own safety.

As a Nigerian immigrant whose abuser had full control of her documentation and the processes through which she had managed to remain in the country, my mother believed that speaking truthfully to the police was not a choice she could make.

As I grew, my childish anger gave way to a recognition that my mother was a Black woman caught in her own particular understanding of what it meant during the 80s and 90s to be Black and a woman in Britain: a place where over half the population agreed that we lived in a racist society; a place where immigration was (and continues to be) seen as a damaging factor in British life; a place so hostile to her presence that a walk home from work resulted in racist abuse so regular that it wasn't worth mentioning.

Through the work of feminists looking at race, class, disability, sexuality and nationality, I came to understand my mother as a person who was, as we all are, constructed by social and cultural forces beyond her control.

My jumbled-up feelings and ideas found full voice in the work of literary and academic black feminists: women like Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, bell hooks, and Kimberlé Crenshaw showed the meaningless of separating sexuality, class, race and gender oppression when they simultaneously affect the lives of Black women.

What a relief it was to discover that in "feminism" you could find a place that collated all the experiences of women like my mother – women who were, and continue to be, routinely ignored by the dominant feminist movement.

Within the media, and indeed the movement, there has been much celebration of our feminist resurgence. Yet our success is being marred by infighting. White, middle-class and young women are often seen as the ones spearheading this new wave of activity.

Their high-profile campaigns – to have women on banknotes, challenge online misogyny and banish Page 3, for example – though necessary and praiseworthy, do not reflect the most pressing needs of the majority of women, black and minority-ethnic women included. The problem is not that these campaigns exist, but that they are given a focus and attention that overshadows other work feminists are engaged with.

Organisations such as Women Asylum Seekers Together, which has groups in London, Liverpool, Leeds, Cardiff and Manchester, are not only meeting to support and empower themselves through their shared experience.

They are also working on challenging gender discrimination within the UK immigration system – a system that can still ask whether a rape victim had adequately resisted her rapist, or whether a trafficked woman had enjoyed her work as a prostitute.

Women from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo – which the UN calls "the rape capital of the world" – are met by a culture of disbelief that sees them as asylum claimants to be interrogated and caught out rather than as vulnerable and in need of support. This is a feminist issue, too, but the movement is largely silent on the plight of such women.

Or organisations such as Manchester's Lesbian Immigration Support Group, which offers practical help to members with asylum applications based on sexuality. Or the London-based black feminist organisation Imkaan, which is working in partnership with Women's Aid to support and maintain specialist services dealing with violence against women for black and refugee women. In these times of austerity, the ability to save refuges from closure is no small feat and should be celebrated. 

Yet such groups do not make the headlines or gain enough support despite the profound change in lives that they enable.

The majority of women both in the UK and across the globe do not live lives that are negatively impacted by sexism alone. Because of this reality, the black feminist concept of intersectionality, the idea that oppressions criss-cross and compound each other, has been seismic.

Through it black feminists have been able to point out the failures of the wider feminist movement – which lie in its continual failure to capture and reflect the extreme differences in how women live their lives. That we sometimes point this out with a lack of patience has garnered more column inches than the critiques we are making. 

This is saddening but predictable. It is a type of quibbling that enables procrastination in the matter of the difficult work of turning feminism into feminisms – something more representative of our wonderful variety.

It is ironic that even some within the feminist movement, when engaging with criticism from black feminist quarters, use the stereotype of the angry and humourless black woman. At the black feminist meetings I attend we are angry with a lot of things, because – shock horror – we live in a world where racism, sexism and economic inequality abound.

Our meetings are, however, also filled with laughter and a deep love for having a space in which much that is said is empathised with, not minimised, questioned and treated defensively.

I call myself a black feminist because I am unwilling to be silent and complicit.

The Black feminist academic Sara Ahmed puts it well when she writes that "sometimes you can only stand up by standing firm. Sometimes you can only hold on by becoming stubborn".

Emotionally, Black feminism reminds black women that the racism and sexism they experience on a daily basis are not a figment of their individual imaginations but are real and structural.

Critically, black feminism is championing a more nuanced understanding of how oppression and privilege operate.

We, all of us, must understand that at the level of the individual, we can at differing points occupy positions of privilege. I am a black woman from a working-class background. I also have qualifications from elite universities that mean I am able to access a career, friendships and a lifestyle my 18-year-old self would never have imagined. When and where I experience privilege or oppression changes from day to day, hour to hour.

Though women who live in the "real world" – ie outside academia – may not bandy the word intersectionality, it nevertheless speaks to our lives within it. This is not to deny that power can be invested in language and that for some the term is perhaps alienating. It would be great if we had a word already in existence that conveys the complex and complicated nature of oppression. 

We do not.

The language that we currently use serves to compartmentalise inequalities. It won't do. I am less interested in whether feminists choose to use the word or replace it with (no less academic) phrases such as multiple oppressions. What is of greater concern is how we work to empower women whose lives are impacted by a number of inequalities.

Despite prevailing misconceptions, intersectionality is not merely concerned with the academic; it is and always has been about tangible positive change for those who so easily slip through the gaps of popular thinking and attention.

Organisations such as Southall Black Sisters, which are committed to meeting the needs of black and minority-ethnic women, did not exist in my hometown. My mother remained locked in an abusive relationship, living in shame and fear, isolated and helpless. I cannot dare to imagine what difference such a group might have made to her as a young black woman. It is too painful to think of what could have been.

For the feminist movement, it is also best to not repeat the mistakes of the past. It would demonstrate an inexcusable carelessness for the lives of women like my mother who are too often silenced and unheard.

• This article was amended for legal reasons on 9 December

Sources: The Guardian, YouTube

Benjamin Netanyahu & John Boehner vs Pres OBAMA: Disrespecting An Elected United States President

‪#‎Netanyahu‬

BENJAMIN NETANYAH vs PRES OBAMA: *BOEHNER'S INVITE*

ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU WAS WRONG TO ACCEPT JOHN BOEHNER'S POLITICAL INVITE TO ADDRESS CONGRESS.


ISRAELI PM Benjamin Netanyahu was Wrong to accept U.S. House Speaker Johh Boehner's recent Political invite to address Congress regarding imposing more Sanctions on IRAN.

GOP leaders would Never have done this Politically Spiteful thing to ROMNEY or BUSH or MCCAIN if they were in the White House.

I too Support ISRAEL but Netanyahu was Wrong!

Just think of the Media Optics if Pres OBAMA were to address ISRAELI leaders without Netanyahu's Blessing?

So does Pres OBAMA hate JEWS?

No of course Not!

But Pres OBAMA already has an Active NUKE Deal with IRAN in place.

What does PM Netanyahu hope to accomplish by addressing Congress next Month?

Does Benjamin Netanyahu want Pres OBAMA to Breach this Active NUKE Deal with IRAN for the sake of Politics?
(2016 U.S. Presidential Election)

By the way.........

What about Professional Courtesy for LEADERSHIP and RESPECT for a sitting Elected U.S. President?


~ ARTICLE: "Netanyahu Considering Changes To Congress Speech After Criticism"

Israeli officials are considering amending the format of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned address to the U.S. Congress next month to try to calm some of the partisan furore the Iran-focused speech has provoked.

Netanyahu is due to address a joint session of Congress about Iran's nuclear programme on March 3, just two weeks before Israeli elections, following an invitation from John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the house.

Boehner's invitation has caused consternation in both Israel and the United States, largely because it is seen as Netanyahu, a hawk on Iran, working with the Republicans to thumb their noses at President Barack Obama's policy on Iran.

It is also seen as putting Netanyahu's political links to the Republicans ahead of Israel's nation-to-nation ties with the United States, its strongest and most important ally, while serving as a pre-election campaign booster.

As a result, Israeli officials are considering whether Netanyahu should speak to a closed-door session of Congress, rather than in a prime-time TV address, so as to drain some of the intensity from the event, a source said.

Another option is for the prime minister to make his speech at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington the same week, rather than in Congress.

"The issue has been under discussion for a week," said a source close to the prime minister's office. "(Netanyahu) is discussing it with Likud people. Some say he should give up on the speech, others that he should go through with it."

But Netanyahu told voters from the Russian speaking community on Monday evening that he was determined to discuss Israel's objections in Washington to an emerging deal with Iran but he did not say if that meant a public speech in Congress.

"I am ... determined to go to Washington to present Israel's position to the members of Congress and the American people," Netanyahu said, repeating that nuclear weapons in Iran's hands would constitute an existential threat to Israel.

An opinion poll by Israel's Army Radio on Monday said 47 percent of people think Netanyahu should cancel the address, while 34 percent say he should go ahead with it.

Since the issue arose, there are signs it is having an impact on his poll ratings ahead of the March 17 election.

Obama said his decision not to meet with Netanyahu followed basic protocol of not meeting with world leaders before an election.

"Some of this just has to do with how we do business, and I think it's important for us to maintain these protocols because the U.S.-Israeli relationship is not about a particular party," Obama said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington.

A poll by the Times of Israel on Monday said Netanyahu's Likud would win 23 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, four fewer than the centre-left opposition. Earlier polls showed Likud and the opposition alliance neck-and-neck on 24 seats.

Speaking on radio last week, Israel's deputy foreign minister suggested Netanyahu had been "misled" about the speech, believing it to be bipartisan when the Democrats were not entirely on board.

While that may have created some room for Netanyahu to get out of it if the pressure at home and from Washington becomes too great, it may be too late.

If he withdraws now it may make him look weak with core voters.

Furthermore, he needs an opportunity to play up his tough-on-Iran credentials before election, with national security an overriding issue for voters.


Sources: BBC; Reuters; USA Today; Charlottesville Police Dept; Youtube

LENNON LEE LACY - Was He Lynched By The North Carolina Klu Klux Klan?? It Was Not Suicide!

Was 17 yr old LENNON LEE LACY Lynched last Summer by the NORTH CAROLINA Klu Klux Klan??

LENNON'S Death was Not due to "SUICIDE".

Instead it was a 21st Century LYNCHING!

Although it's the year 2014, please note that Klan activity in NORTH CAROLINA is once again on the rise.

Although it's the year 2014, please note that NORTH CAROLINA remains one of the most RACIST States in the United States, equally comparable in RACISM to FERGUSON, Missouri!

Although it's the year 2014, please note that Klan activity in NORTH CAROLINA is once again on the rise.

Although it's the year 2014, please note that NORTH CAROLINA remains one of the most RACIST States in the United States, equally comparable in RACISM to FERGUSON, Missouri!

The OBAMA Admin doesn't care because the OBAMA Admin only cares about BLACK People when it is time for another Election.

Especially Not BLACK Boys and BLACK Men!

ERIC HOLDER sincerely cared about BLACK People in America, however the rest of OBAMA'S Admin doesn't really give a D_ _ N!

Article Source below: WRAL


NORTH CAROLINA NAACP WANTS FEDERAL INVESTIGATION INTO BLACK TEEN'S HANGING DEATH:

The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP is calling for a Federal investigation into what it believes is the "race-based homicide" of a black 17-year-old Bladen County boy who was found hanging from a swing set this past summer.

Investigators ruled the death of Lennon Lee Lacy – found Aug. 29 on a playground in Bladenboro – a suicide, but Lacy's family and the NAACP are questioning the police investigation, saying detectives rushed to reach a conclusion and did not fully investigate all possible leads.

"What has concerned the family and us is the local authorities' seemingly impatient desire for easy answers," state NAACP President Rev. William Barber told reporters at a news conference in Raleigh Tuesday. "Questions remain."

Barber said he met with U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker for nearly 90 minutes Tuesday and that Walker said he will "thoroughly review" the request to determine if and how the U.S. Department of Justice should be involved.

Bladen County's district attorney, Jon David, defended the local investigation in a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying a preliminary review found that "it appears to be detailed, thorough and professional" and that both the State Bureau of Investigation and Bladenboro Police Department "have my office's absolute confidence."

"My office and the investigating agencies have been, and remain, receptive to reviewing any and all information that would shed light on the circumstances surrounding Lacy's death," David said.

"In a show of transparency, we welcome federal investigators to review our file and join in the investigation if they so choose," David added. "At this point, my office has not been presented with any evidence to suggest that there was any foul play in the death of Lennon Lacy."

Lacy's mother, Claudia Lacy, spoke at Tuesday's news conference, saying that she's willing to accept the findings that her son killed himself but only after a more comprehensive investigation addresses other leads and information that haven't been thoroughly reviewed.

"God has prepared me for all things," she said. "With His grace and mercy, I've come this far. He's not going to leave me now."

Barber declined to comment on what information an independent review of the case has turned up but said his organization could release more details this week.

"There are facts that we can't talk about at this press conference," he said. "This is serious business, and we've asked the federal government and the FBI to come in."

Claudia Lacy said that her son, a junior and varsity football player at West Bladen High School, had goals for the future and had been excited about his first game of the school year after being sidelined for a season to work on his grades.

He had been grieving the recent passing of an uncle, and Claudia Lacy told investigators that he had been depressed.

But Barber said it was a word that she had used to describe his mourning and that Lennon Lacy had no history of mental illness and had never been diagnosed as clinically depressed.

The boy was found around 7:30 a.m. on the Friday of his first football game, wearing shoes that were two sizes too small. By the time his mother arrived, Barber said, her son's body had been placed in a body bag, and police had released the scene – a move also being criticized by the Lacy family's attorney, Heather Rattelade.

Guidelines and protocols on how to handle a possible crime scene weren't followed correctly in the case, Rattelade said.

"By 3:09 p.m., the lead investigator notified the medical examiner that he believed it was a Suicide," she said.

Hillary & Bill Clinton vs Barack Obama Jr's Policies: Decision 2016 (HILLARY & CHRISTIE)

#CLINTONvsOBAMA2016

BARACK OBAMA JR vs BILL & HILLARY CLINTON IN 2016: ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES

If it were already Nov 2016 and BILL CLINTON was Legally allowed to run for a 3rd term, would I still Vote for him again??

YES! Without a doubt!!

BILL CLINTON Respected & Highly Valued BLACK American Voters.

He was also Not 100% Partisan.

However since BILL CLINTON can't Legally seek a 3rd term,
come Nov 2016, would I Support HILLARY CLINTON if She campaigns for U.S. President??

Most Likely, YES!

Well what about BENGHAZI??

As I've written previously, HILLARY CLINTON did Not make the Final decisions regarding SECURITY for Ambassador CHRIS STEVENS & his 3 comrades.

Although She was the U.S. Secretary of State at that time, HILLARY did Not call the shots on that situation.

So who was RESPONSIBLE for their Deaths?

I can speculate but I know for a Fact it was Not HILLARY CLINTON!

What about BARACK OBAMA JR??

If it were already Nov 2016, and BARACK OBAMA JR was Legally allowed to run for a 3rd term, would I Vote for him a 3rd time??

The Verdict is still out on that one.

I am a BLACK American Voter.

I would have to really Evaluate how BARACK OBAMA JR has Treated BLACK Voters after the 2008 & 2012 Elections, versus other Voting Blocks.

I would also have to really Evaluate Pres OBAMA'S Economic Policies & the way he has treated America's Vets and Active Duty U.S. Military Personnel.

If you want to know whether or not I would ever Support BARACK OBAMA JR again for Political office........

Check with me later on this question.

BARACK OBAMA JR vs BILL & HILLARY CLINTON IN 2016


Source: CNN

Romney Is Florida's Choice! Primary Results Show He's Leading

Florida 2012 GOP Primary Results County By County



Florida primary exit polls: 2/3rds say debates mattered


Two in three Florida primary voters say the presidential debates were an important factor in their vote, according to early CBS News exit polls. That's a positive sign for Mitt Romney, who was widely seen as besting rival Newt Gingrich in the two Sunshine State debates over the past week.

For evidence of the importance of the debates, look no further than South Carolina, where nearly the same percentage of voters said the debates were important in early exit polls. Gingrich was widely seen as the victor in the two debates there, and he went on to a double-digit victory.

The exit poll results being discussed here are early results; full exit poll results will be released at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. (The polls in Florida close at 7:00 p.m. across the state, but the state is part of two time zones. Because the northwestern part of the state is in the Central Time zone, polls there don't close until 8:00 Eastern Time.)

Electability was what Florida Republican voters were seeking in a candidate: 45 percent said the most important candidate quality is that they could defeat President Obama. That was followed by having the right experience (20 percent), having strong character (17 percent) and being a true conservative (13 percent).

Asked who has run the most unfair campaign, 37 percent of Florida voters pointed to Romney, whose super PAC has blanketed the state with negative ads about Gingrich. Thirty-four percent pointed to Gingrich. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum, who did not seriously contest the winner-take-all primary, were selected by just four percent each.

Thirty-nine percent of Florida voters said campaign ads were an important factor in their decision; 58 percent said they were not. Romney and his super PAC far outspent his rivals in advertising in the Sunshine State, which is one of the most expensive states in the country to run ads in because of its many media markets.

Florida is an early voting state, and just 27 percent of voters said they decided on their candidate in the last few days. Twenty-nine percent said they decided earlier this month, while 42 percent said they decided before that. Romney did relatively well in debates prior to Gingrich's strong performance in the South Carolina face-offs.

Half of early voters in Florida backed Romney, survey shows

The economy was overwhelmingly the most important issue to Florida Republican voters, cited by 62 percent; a distant second was the federal budget deficit at 24 percent. Half said that foreclosure problems were a major problem in their community, and just 15 percent said they were not a problem.

A majority of Florida Republican voters - 57 percent -- were happy with the candidates on the ballot. But in a potentially troubling sign for Republicans in this swing state, 39 percent said they were not satisfied.


View Larger Map

Sources: CBS News, CNN, Google Maps

Wisconsin Recall Election Battle Snapshot Of 2012 Elections: Class Warfare! (BRUTAL Race Ahead!)

Wisconsin'S Recall Elections Are A Snapshot Of What We'll Face In 2012. The GOP & Tea Party Are NOT Playing! They're Currently Out Organizing Us & Out Spending Democrats, Liberals, Progressives & Independents. If We Don't Unite, Organize, Mobilize & Outspend Them We Can Just Say Good-Bye To Diversity, Good-Bye To Equal Rights, Good-Bye To Opportunities For Everyone & Hello To Rich Vs. Poor With No Middle Class In Between! Don't Stay Home! VOTE OBAMA IN 2012!!




Republicans take 4 of 6 in recall elections, hold Senate

Democrats won two state Senate seats in Tuesday's historic recall elections, but failed to capture a third seat that would have given them control of the chamber.

By keeping a majority in the Senate, Republicans retained their monopoly on state government because they also hold the Assembly and governor's office. Tuesday's elections narrowed their majority - at least for now - from 19-14 to a razor-thin 17-16.

Republicans may be able to gain back some of the losses next week, when two Democrats face recall elections.

Democrats had hoped to block the Republican agenda by taking control of the Senate in the recall elections, but the GOP should be able to continue to advance its agenda.

"I think it's a huge victory for us," said John Hogan, director of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate. "Voters gave us a mandate last fall. . . . They backed us up again (Tuesday). Voters told us loud and clear, 'Stay the course. Things are working.'"

But Democrats claimed victory for the two seats they captured from Republicans.

"We went on their turf and we won on Republican turf," said Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "We will not stop, we will not rest . . . until we recall (Gov.) Scott Walker."

Republican Sens. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) and Randy Hopper (R-Empire) were both defeated by their Democratic challengers, Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) and Democrat Jessica King of Oshkosh.

"I look forward to going to Madison to stand up for the working families, seniors and students of Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Blackwolf, Waupun and all across the 18th district," King said in a statement. "Their voices will be once again heard."

Three other Republicans held onto their seats, despite aggressive campaigns put up by their Democratic foes and outside groups backed by unions. Surviving the recalls were Republican Sens. Alberta Darling of River Hills, Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, Luther Olsen of Ripon and Rob Cowles of Allouez.

Darling was declared the winner over Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay) late Tuesday.

Democrats called for the recalls after Walker launched his plan to eliminate most collective bargaining for public workers, and Tuesday's races were seen as a preview of a plan to force a recall of Walker next year.

Tuesday's recalls were launched in March, during the turmoil in Madison over Walker's plan, ultimately successful, to curtail collective bargaining by most public employees. Democrats tried to recall Republicans for that vote, while Republicans tried to recall Democrats for leaving the state for three weeks to block a vote on the issue.

Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) was the first to face a recall election, and he easily survived the challenge last month.

Attention now turns to next week's recall elections, against Democratic Sens. Jim Holperin of Conover and Bob Wirch of Pleasant Prairie.

"It's encouraging to see, even though a couple Republicans lost their seats, the recall process holds as a check for those who disrespect their office and not simply do their job and take a vote," said a statement from Holperin's challenger, Kim Simac. "Next week we will recall a senator who was actually derelict in his duty by failing to represent his district when he fled to Illinois."

Turnout levels in Tuesday's elections were substantial, approaching those of last fall's governor's race - a striking testimony to the extreme passions, money and attention these contests have attracted this summer.

In one contest, for the 10th district seat won Tuesday by GOP incumbent Harsdorf, the total vote exceeded that of the race for governor last fall.

Voters were mobilized by massive get-out-the-vote efforts on both sides, and by expensive television and radio advertising campaigns that flooded the airwaves in all six districts. At least five of the elections broke the $3 million spending record, set in 2000, for money spent by all parties in a Senate race.

Expensive campaigns
So far more than $35 million has been spent on the recall races, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks political money. The spending on the nine races dwarfs the $19.3 million spent in last year's 115 legislative races, and approaches the $37.4 million spent in the race for governor.

The flow of money came as unions saw the recall elections as the best way to halt Walker's agenda and to send a message to other states considering changing their collective bargaining laws. Political observers are watching Wisconsin to see what the results say about the mood of the electorate leading up to next year's elections for president and Congress.

Unions played a huge role for Democrats by spending vast sums of money on advertising, and supplying manpower in all the Senate districts. Conservative groups have parried with their own influx of cash.

But the Democrats' argument in the recalls morphed over time from concerns over collective bargaining to objections to a number of GOP initiatives - most notably cuts to education and tax breaks for the wealthy - and the complaint that the changes were pushed through without enough public discussion.

Republicans countered that argument by insisting that voters - who just last November flipped both houses of the Legislature and the governor's office from blue to red - had sent them to Madison to balance the budget and get control of state spending. "Elections have consequences," was the often-repeated slogan.

The wave of recall elections is unparalleled in the nation's history. Before this year, there had been just four recall elections of Wisconsin lawmakers. Two incumbents were recalled, while two survived the efforts. One of those who won his recall election was Holperin, who was in the Assembly in 1990 when a recall effort was launched because of his stance on Indian fishing rights.

Democrats cried foul over returns that came in late from Waukesha County in the Darling-Pasch matchup. Tate, the party official, alleged Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus was "sitting on ballots" and "tampering with the results." Later, though, he said he would not pursue questions of irregularities.

Nickolaus enraged Democrats in April when she discovered votes from Brookfield that helped Supreme Court Justice David Prosser win re-election.

Here's how the races played out:

32nd District: From the beginning of the state Senate recalls that have preoccupied Wisconsin politics for the past five months, Kapanke, 63, had been identified as the Republican most likely to be thrown out of office, and he was Tuesday.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said Shilling's victory was a rebuke to Republicans.

"The people of the 32nd Senate District sent Gov. Walker and his legislative Republicans rubber-stamps a clear message today: they've had enough of the GOP's extreme agenda that favors wealthy special interests and large out-of-state corporations at the expense of Wisconsin's working, middle class families," read a statement Barca issued.

Kapanke's district has been trending increasingly Democratic, including a win by President Barack Obama with 61% of the vote in 2008. .

18th District: Hopper had been considered, with Kapanke, the other most vulnerable of the six Republicans to being defeated.

Voters in his public-employee-heavy district quickly gathered 22,500 signatures to force the recall.

His opponent, lawyer King, had lost by just 163 votes when they faced off for the open seat in 2008. On top of that, Hopper has had to deal with questions about an ugly divorce, where he lives and a state job for his 26-year-old girlfriend.

But Hopper, 45, a radio station owner, said his two years in office had proved that he and Walker have Wisconsin on the right track to fiscal health, and he was confident about his chances.

"It will be close," he said in recent weeks, "but I've always said, 'more important to do my job than keep my job.' "

That turned out to be true. With just three precincts still out, and those in King's home county of Winnebago, she was up by more than 1,100 votes, and the Associated Press called the race for her.

King, 36, a former Oshkosh alderman and deputy mayor, had predicted that the momentum of dissatisfied workers would put her in office.

14th District: Olsen's district came to be considered the Democrats' best chance to pick up a third Republican seat to give them control of the Senate. But Olsen, 60, held on to squeak by his opponent, Rep. Fred Clark (D-Baraboo).

Clark, 52, was the first Democrat Olsen's ever faced in the 16 ½ years he's been in office - an indication of how Republican his district has been over the years.

Still, spending in the race was second only to that in Darling's 8th District, according to the Democracy Campaign, which estimated last week that $5.5 million was spent in total, both by candidates and outside parties.

The largely rural central Wisconsin district stretches from Wisconsin Dells to Waupaca County. It is traditionally considered GOP turf, with Olsen's home of Ripon laying claim as the birthplace of the Republican Party.

Clark's Assembly district is in the southwestern corner of Olsen's Senate district, and until 2008 had been in Republican hands.

Clark and Olsen often told voters during the campaign that they like each other, turning the race into one that pitted a nice guy against a nice guy. In more than a dozen interviews with voters in Portage and Ripon, few were critical of the candidates personally. The voters had clear views on where the two stood and said they planned to vote even though the election was occurring at the height of summer.

8th District: In by far the most expensive recall race, Darling, 67, was the victor in a tight race with Pasch. Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, had called this seat the "crown jewel" of the recalls, because Darling, as co-chairwoman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, had helped push through Walker's budget initiatives.

Darling raised well over $1 million for the race, the all-time record for a state Senate candidate in Wisconsin, and the nonprofit Wisconsin Democracy Campaign last week estimated $7.9 million had been spent by both candidates, plus all outside groups - nearly triple the $3 million record for spending on a state Senate race.

Besides Darling's key legislative role, the campaign was made more expensive by the higher advertising rates in the Milwaukee television market. Pasch, 57, was first elected to the Legislature in 2008.

2nd Senate District: Cowles easily defeated Nancy Nusbaum, the former De Pere mayor and Brown County executive. From the first, Cowles had been considered the GOP senator safest from being defeated. He was the final senator to have recall signatures filed against him, and a recent report by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimated just $750,000 was spent by all parties on both sides of the race - the smallest amount on any of nine Senate districts with recalls.

Nusbaum, 65, argued that Cowles had changed his political spots to fall into line with Walker's conservative agenda, switching from the moderate image Cowles, 61, had cultivated over 28 years in the Legislature. Cowles said he had not changed and was running on his record as a fiscal conservative who had worked in a bipartisan way on such issues as renewable energy and energy conservation.

10th District: Republican Harsdorf easily beat Democratic challenger Shelly Moore.

Early on, Harsdorf had been considered somewhat vulnerable, but lately she'd been seen as well ahead of Moore, who was making her first run for office.

During the campaign, Moore, 37, of River Falls accused Harsdorf, 55, of betraying working families, public employees, students and seniors. Moore is an English teacher at Ellsworth High School and a member of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union.





Wisconsin recall leaves both sides claiming victory

Democrats in Wisconsin failed to gain control of the state Senate in Tuesday's recall elections, but both Democrats and Republicans are claiming victory in the struggle, which cast Wisconsin as "ground zero in a national class war, partly over the fate of organized labor."

In the unprecedented recall elections against six Republican state senators, four Republican lawmakers won, leaving the GOP with a slim 17 to 16 majority. Two Democrats face recall elections next week, which could bolster the GOP's weakened control.

The recalls were spurred by vehement anger over Republican Gov. Scott Walker's ultimately-successful effort to curb public employees' union rights. The number of lawmakers facing recall elections in a matter of weeks was unprecedented, and national organizations brought millions of dollars and significant organizational support into the mix.

While the recalls were inspired over union rights, the elections morphed into a referendum against Walker's entire Republican agenda, encompassing issues like school vouchers and health care funding. Meanwhile, the recalls were seen as something of a test for the GOP agenda at the national level -- whether Republican leaders could withstand the blowback from taking on unions, particularly in a key battleground state.

"I think it's a huge victory for us," John Hogan, director of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Voters gave us a mandate last fall... They backed us up again."

Similarly, Republican State Leadership Committee President Chris Jankowski called Tuesday's results a "tremendous victory" with larger implications.

"Tonight's results demonstrate that responsible budgeting measures and job creating policies can prevail over mountains of liberal special interest money from those fighting to maintain the unsustainable status quo," Jankowski said in a statement. "By beating back countless liberal special interest dollars and paid supporters, the strength of responsible Republican ideals is obvious and foreshadows continued Republican victories in 2011, 2012 and beyond."

While labor unions and liberal groups did contribute significantly to the recall effort, the Republican senators were also heavily backed by third party interest groups and the national parties.

Democrats and their backers argued that their impressive mobilization efforts showed that labor unions still have voter support, in spite of the GOP's best efforts to limit their influence. The mere fact that they were able to collect enough signatures quickly enough to put six Republicans up for recall suggests the union-backed liberal movement remains strong, they say.

"Beyond Wisconsin, if we can enjoy a similar 'loss rate' in Republican-held districts (picking up 33 percent of them), Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have a huge majority in 2013," liberal pundit Markos Moulitsas wrote. "We had a message that resonated with large numbers of working people in overwhelmingly white working-class districts that shifted hard against Democrats in 2010. GOP overreach is winning them back for us."

Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party, told the Journal Sentinel, "We went on their turf and we won on Republican turf."

Republican Sens. Alberta Darling of River Hills, Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, Rob Cowles of Allouez and Luther Olsen of Ripon all held onto their seats. Democratic state Rep. Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke, while Democrat Jessica King defeated first-term incumbent Sen. Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac.

While Democrats did make some gains in Republican-held districts, the New York Times' Nate Silver points out that these elections were in swing districts -- districts that voted for Walker in 2010 but for President Obama in 2008.

Furthermore, extrapolating national implications from Tuesday's elections could be a futile exercise, given the extraordinary and unique political circumstances in Wisconsin, where residents protested for weeks over union rights.

Union rights have been a point of contention in other states like Ohio this year, and some Republican governors, like Rick Scott of Florida and Rick Snyder of Michigan, have left some voters grumbling over their agenda.

While national Republican leaders say the outcome in Wisconsin validates the agendas Republican governors have pursued, Walker suggested Tuesday that he was willing to extend an olive branch to Democrats.

"Earlier this evening I reached out to the leadership of both the Republicans and Democrats in the Assembly and State Senate," Walker said in a statement. "I shared with them that I believe we can work together to grow jobs and improve our state. In the days ahead I look forward to working with legislators of all parties to grow jobs for Wisconsin and move our state forward."

Walker could very well have his own fate in mind, since Democrats intend to hold a recall election against him next year.


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Sources: AP, ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC, Reuters, Wisconsin Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel, Youtube, Google Maps

Wisconsin's 2011 Recall Elections Sure To Eliminate Walker In 2012

Wisconsin Recalls Underway, Could Change Party in Power

Wisconsin's union rights battle is coming to a head Tuesday as six republicans fight to retain their seats.

The entire state may be affected. If Republicans lose five seats Tuesday. Democrats will take control of the Wisconsin senate. Voting in august is a rarity in this country. This summer recall elections opened polls in nine wisconsin senate districts. One democrat retained her seat last week. Two democrats are up for recall next week. And six republicans are fighting for their title Tuesday.

"Were in the spotlight," said Patty Bjorklund, clerk for the village of Webster.

Webster is in the 10th senate district, where the race is contested and turnout is high.

"I would estimate that we would have a 50 percent voter turnout," Father Michael Tupa, volunteer at the Webster's only polling place.

This is in part to an aggressive campaign if calling signing and door knocking. While their may be a high voter turnout here in Webster Wisconsin folks at the polling places say they're sick of the campaigning and ready for this election to be done

"I have gotten numerous letters and people have gotten numerous phone calls the Day before the election." said Father Tupa.

"It's irritating," said Bjorklund. "People are ready for it to be done."

The push for recall elections began when Governor Scott Walker proposed limiting state workers' union rights last winter. The republicans up for recall supported this law. Democrats could take over the senate by winning five of the eight next elections. some Residents said however it's not worth it.

"I think we had an election and we are just setting precedence and it's costing a lot of money for the taxpayers," said Bjorklund.

But with 180,000 signatures on recall petitions some folks including State Senator Bob Jauch said otherwise.

"The bottom line is that citizens have really believe that governor Walker and the republicans have lost touch with Wisconsin values traditions and priorities," said Senator Jauch.

Polls close at 8 p.m. We'll have results online and on Eyewitness News at Ten.




Wisconsin Democrats say likely to recall governor in 2012

Wisconsin Democrats are increasingly confident that efforts to recall the state's Republican governor in 2012 will succeed, a top official said on Wednesday, after the party scored an early win in its battle to unseat Republicans who backed a controversial anti-union law.

Mike Tate, the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said his party's sweep of six unusual primary races on Tuesday night had energized the party's base, and he also expected to seize a majority in the state Senate in August recall elections.

Tate said Tuesday's primary races, where six real Democrats were unsuccessfully challenged by six stealth Republicans running as Democrats, had served as a dry run for the party's get-out-the-vote operation.

"What we're beginning to see is our momentum rolling downhill. Last night was a huge win for us," he said in a conference call with reporters.

He said that would pay dividends in the real recall elections, which begin next week, as well as in next year's general election, where Wisconsin is likely to be a battleground state as President Barack Obama seeks a second term in the White House.

Tate said Governor Scott Walker, who was elected last fall and can't be recalled until he has served a year in office, would likely be forced to defend his seat next fall.

"I have every reason to believe Scott Walker is going to be recalled from office," he said. "He will lose an election if it's held in November 2012, and there is no scenario in which he can be reelected in 2014. His numbers are that bad."

Asked about a potential recall, he said: "The most likely scenario, and one that the Democratic Party will support, is a recall effort of Governor Walker in November of 2012."

UNION DEBATE

The fractious debate over the union measure propelled Wisconsin to the front of a wider national political battle as Republicans who took control of many statehouses in 2010 midterm elections moved aggressively to shrink government and made reining in public unions a top priority.

"The Republican Party of Wisconsin is in a weaker position electorally than anyone could have thought possible in January of this year," Tate said. "They have destroyed any independent voters that came out and gave them a chance last November."

In all, six Republican senators who supported the anti-union measure, and three Democrats who opposed it, will be forced to defend their seats this summer after recall petitions were signed by thousands of disgruntled voters.

The law, which dismantled key bargaining rights for most Wisconsin public sector employees, triggered the biggest opposition demonstrations in the state since the Vietnam War.

The Republicans said the party's unorthodox decision to run six Republicans as Democrats in Tuesday's primaries was needed to buy time for the six targeted incumbents to campaign, raise money and maintain their party's hold on the state Senate.

If Democrats gain just three of the seats at stake in the special summer elections, they will take control of the upper house and have a better chance at thwarting Walker's far-reaching legislative agenda.

Republicans will continue to have a majority in the lower house, or Assembly.


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Sources: AP, MSNBC, Reuters, Youtube, Google Maps

Real Wisconsin Democrats Defeat "Fake Democrats In Recall Election Primary (Next Scott Walker)

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Fake Democrats lose in Wisconsin primary recalls


All six fake Democrats lost to Democrats supported by the party in primaries Tuesday that are the first in a series of recall elections targeting nine Wisconsin state senators for their positions on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's divisive union rights restrictions.

The winners advance to take on incumbent Republicans targeted for recall on Aug. 9.

The state Republican Party orchestrated the placement of the fake Democrats on Tuesday's ballot, thereby delaying the general election for a month. That gave the Republican incumbents more time to campaign and distance themselves from the turmoil over the union law that they voted to support in March, spurring the recall efforts.

Five of the six winners had at least 65 percent of the vote, based on unofficial results. The sixth, Shelly Moore, had 54 percent.

Moore defeated Isaac Weix, a Republican on the ballot as a Democrat who had previously run twice before and lost as a GOP candidate for the state Assembly. The St. Croix County Republican Party sent emails and paid for phone calls on behalf of Weix, urging Republicans to support him in the Democratic primary.

Democratic Party spokeswoman Gillian Morris said she wasn't concerned about how tight the Moore race turned out to be.

"They were campaigning pretty hard there," Morris said. "That also shows how scared they are of what Shelly Moore can do in a general election against."

State Republican Party spokeswoman Katie McCallum said the results were an embarrassment for Moore but that ultimately Tuesday's elections wouldn't change the approach being taken by any of the incumbents.

Moore, a 37-year-old Ellsworth public school teacher from River Falls in western Wisconsin, said she expected the race to be close given spending on the race from outside interest groups. She said the results won't change her approach toward taking on Republican Sen. Sheila Harsdorf in the general election.

Overall, Morris was buoyed by the election results.

"The voters of Wisconsin have rejected the Republicans' dirty tricks, despite their best efforts to turn out voters in these primaries for fake candidates," she said.

In the 2nd District, former De Pere mayor and Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum, 64, easily defeated fake Democratic candidate Otto Junkermann, an 82-year-old who served as a Brown County supervisor in the 1980s and one year as a Republican in the state Assembly.

Nusbaum, who had 65 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts reporting, will face Republican Sen. Rob Cowles in the general election.

In the 32nd District, state Rep. Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse handily defeated fake Democrat James D. Smith, a former county Republican executive committee member also from La Crosse. Shilling, who had 71 percent of the vote, takes on Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke.

State Rep. Fred Clark defeated fake Democrat Rol Church of Wautoma in the 14th District to advance to take on Republican Sen. Luther Olsen. Clark got 67 percent of the vote.

And in the 18th District, attorney Jessica King, 35, defeated John Buckstaff, 81, a retired furniture business owner. King, who had 69 percent of the vote, will face Republican Sen. Randy Hopper.

Tuesday's primaries marked the first of four recall elections during the next five weeks. The six targeted Republicans voted for Walker's bill and the three Democrats fled to Illinois for three weeks to delay a vote on the measure that takes away collective bargaining rights from most public employees.

The stakes are huge. If the Democrats gain three seats, they will take majority control away from the Republicans and be in a position to stop Walker and the GOP's agenda.

Republicans can vote in the Democratic races because Wisconsin has an open primary, raising the possibility of further mischief in the elections. State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said he was concerned Republicans would attempt to vote for the fake Democrats on Tuesday, but he was confident the real ones would prevail.

In Republican Sen. Alberta Darling's district in suburban Milwaukee, several dozen voters waited in line at Glendale City Hall about noon to choose between Democratic state Rep. Sandy Pasch and fake Democratic candidate Gladys Huber.

Pasch won with 67 percent of the vote.

Jim Krivitz, a 66-year-old retired museum executive, called the primary "phony." He said he was voting for Pasch in part to register his disapproval of Darling and her GOP colleagues.

"I don't like the way the current Republican administration is moving precipitously to the right on everything," he said.

Self-described conservative Walter Schoenfeld, 69, said he was voting for Huber to protest the actions of 14 Democratic state senators who fled the state.

"Democrats played like little children," said Schoenfeld, a retired health care administrator. "What's the saying? Elections have consequences. Live with it."

There is a Republican primary in two other races on July 19 and a general election in the Green Bay area with Democratic Sen. Dave Hansen versus GOP challenger Dave VanderLeest. The general election for the other two races targeting Democratic incumbents is Aug. 16.

Also Tuesday, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin public policy director Chris Taylor emerged from a field of six Democrats to win a primary for a seat in the Assembly representing a portion of Dane County that was vacated by Joe Parisi when he left in April to serve as Dane County executive. Taylor has no opposition in the Aug. 9 general election.


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Sources: Current TV, Huffington Post, MSNBC, USA Today, Youtube, Google Maps

DSK's France Pres. Bid Bolstered By Manhattan Prosecutors (Legal Corruption)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's return could be a threat to Nicolas Sarkozy

French Socialists were in chaos as key figures speculated whether Dominique Strauss-Kahn could return to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential race next year, throwing the party into another round of instability and internal ego-clashes.

Strauss-Kahn was the clear favourite to win the 2012 presidential election before he was arrested for allegedly attempting to rape a New York hotel maid in May. He is no longer under house arrest, but still faces seven charges ranging from attempted rape to sexual assault. If he is cleared or charges are dropped, supporters such as former culture minister Jack Lang suggested he could return to France more popular than ever before.

Strauss-Kahn's possible return has thrown the Socialist party's primary race into disarray. The party had presumed his presidential hopes were dead and opened its selection process for another candidate last week. Candidates must declare by 13 July for an October vote, but Strauss-Kahn's next hearing is scheduled for 18 July.

Current front-runner François Hollande was the first to declare this weekend that he had "no problem" with pushing back the declaration date until the end of August, allowing Strauss-Kahn to return from New York if charges were dropped quickly. But the party's interim leader, Harlem Désir, snapped back that there didn't seem to be "any reason" to move the deadline. The row has weakened Martine Aubry, who declared her presidential bid last week, but had a pact with Strauss-Kahn and could be pressured to stand aside for him.

All depends on whether the prosecution maintains its case and goes to trial or quickly drops charges against Strauss-Kahn, and if so how the French public and opinion polls perceive him.

Even while the charges still stand, some French supporters presented him as an innocent victim, hero and martyr. Left-wing philosopher Bernard-Henry Lévy spoke of a noble man who had been the victim of a "spiral of horror and calumny". He told Le Parisien that Strauss-Kahn had been "lynched" by the "friends of minorities" in the US. He said that because the victim was "poor and immigrant" she had been presumed innocent, and because Strauss-Kahn was "powerful" he had been presumed guilty.

Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette, political editor of the weekly Le Point, felt "anything is possible". A returning Strauss-Kahn might be seen by the French as "hero" mistreated or "humiliated" by the American justice system. Much would depend on whether French left voters still saw him as a "saviour" against Sarkozy, she wrote.

But while many Socialists felt DSK could return triumphant if totally cleared, others worried about the stain the case would leave on French politics and the damage done by revelations about his private life and his attitude to women. Since his arrest, a French taboo has been broken and Strauss-Kahn's behaviour towards women, deemed "libertine" by his friends, has been raked over. Socialist Anne Mansouret, who said she regretted dissuading her daughter, journalist Tristane Banon, from pressing charges over an alleged sexual assault in 2002, had said Strauss-Kahn had a "problem" with women which could be seen as a sickness.

Strauss-Kahn seemed not to be worried about his political image on Friday night when he went out for a $100 bowl of pasta with friends, casting aside the controversy in France that he should tone down his image of "champagne socialism".

Socialist MP Marisol Touraine, a key DSK ally, said she hoped for Strauss-Kahn's "rehabilitation" but warned that he would not be able to return to a "status quo" in France as if nothing had happened. Gérard Collomb, the mayor of Lyon and Strauss-Kahn supporter, warned that Strauss-Kahn should first "rebuild himself" before a possible return to the presidential race, warning that no one emerged from such a case "unscathed".

Pollsters cautioned that Strauss-Kahn's return would be shaped by whether the American justice system cleared him or whether charges were dropped, leaving doubts. Pascal Perrineau, of Paris's Institute of Political Science, said that if Strauss-Kahn was cleared of all suspicion, his return to France could still be complicated.

"If a strong doubt persists over his behaviour, and even if that behaviour isn't as criminal as was once suggested, a return [to politics] seems really very difficult," he told Reuters.

Gerald Bronner, a sociologist at Strasbourg university, said: "This case has allowed another image of Strauss-Kahn to be put forward in French public opinion. The public wasn't informed of the slightly libertine side of his personal life."

Jean Veil, Strauss-Kahn's French lawyer, said: "He will speak once he's in France and cleared of all suspicion."


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Sources: CNN, Guardian.co.uk, NY Daily News, Google Maps