The slate of Republican presidential hopefuls who did not qualify for the Virginia primary might get another shot. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II plans to file emergency legislation to re-open the process to GOP candidates.
Virginia’s process has come under fire since it was announced last week that only former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) had qualified for the ballot.
Read full article >>Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. defended his colleagues as “jurists of exceptional integrity and experience” and said Saturday that it was a misconception that Supreme Court justices do not follow the same set of ethical principles as other judges.
In his year-end report on the state of the federal judiciary, Roberts for the first time addressed a growing controversy about when justices should recuse themselves from cases and whether a code of conduct that covers lower-court judges should apply to the justices as well.
Read full article >>HONOLULU — President Obama expressed misgivings about several provisions of a sweeping defense bill he signed into law on Saturday, pledging that his administration will use broad discretion in interpreting the measure’s legal requirements to ensure that U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism are not detained indefinitely by the military.
Read full article >>Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) announced today that he will intervene to ensure that more Republican presidential candidates will appear on the state’s primary ballot.
Thanks to newly stringent enforcement of rules requiring 10,000 valid signatures, only Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney made it onto the ballot for the state’s March 6 primary. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry both cried foul, with the latter suing in federal court. Gingrich, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman all signed onto that effort on Saturday.
Read full article >>CHICAGO — Darkness was beginning to envelop the city of Chicago late Friday afternoon, but at President Obama’s reelection headquarters the vast open room that houses the campaign staff was still packed with workers.
Jim Messina, the campaign manager, said there would be no New Year’s weekend passes for his army.
Read full article >>If the splintering of the Iowa social conservative vote paves the way for a Mitt Romney or Ron Paul victory next Tuesday--as polls suggest it might--then talk show endorsements Friday may come to represent the split among the most sizeable voting bloc in the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Steve Deace, an Iowa radio host who wields significant clout among the state’s social conservatives, late Friday announced his endorsement of former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R).
Read full article >>DES MOINES — Newt Gingrich, who in his heyday was caricatured as the Grinch on the cover of Time magazine, revealed his weepy side Friday in an appearance with a group of moms at Java Joe’s Coffee House.
About an hour before the Gingrich waterworks, Occupy Iowa protesters disrupted morning coffee at Java Joe’s, demanding to see TV talk show host Chris Matthews of MSNBC. Matthews wasn’t there, and they went away.
Read full article >>WASHINGTON — A federal court Friday put on hold a controversial Obama administration regulation aimed at reducing power plant pollution in 27 states that contributes to unhealthy air downwind.
More than a dozen electric power companies, municipal power plant operators and states had sought to delay the rules until the litigation plays out. A federal appeals court in Washington approved their request Friday.
Read full article >>URBANDALE, Iowa — Rick Santorum’s Iowa campaign headquarters, situated in the sleepy back corner of a suburban office park outside Des Moines, is suddenly a very busy place.
Over the past few days, 15 new phone lines have been installed to accommodate his growing legion of volunteers. Traffic on his Web site is quadruple what it was two weeks ago, with most of the clicks coming from Iowa. And while his staff doesn’t talk numbers, they say that Thursday was the biggest fundraising day yet for a presidential campaign that until recently was fueled by little more than one man’s refusal to face reality.
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