Being old…er…, I can remember then-Consumer Advocate David Horowitz’s regular visits of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, in which he would speak about government spending and other associated rip-offs. Johnny would shake his head and laugh in disbelief over the poor choices made by those that we had chosen to be stewards over our hard-earned money.

David Horowitz has gone on to accomplish other things, but the spirit of his early work lives on.

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) yesterday announced his annual report  , “Wastebook 2011”.  This reports brings to light over $6.5 billion in examples of  just some of the most teeth-grinding ways the Federal Government has spent our money.

“Video games, robot dragons, Christmas trees, and magic museums. This is not a Christmas wish list, these are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars. Over the past 12 months, politicians argued, debated and lamented about how to reign in the federal government’s out of control spending. All the while, Washington was on a shopping binge, spending money we do not have on things we do not absolutely need. Instead of cutting wasteful spending, nearly $2.5 billion was added each day in 2011 to our national debt, which now exceeds $15 trillion,” Dr. Coburn said.

“Congress cannot even agree on a plan to pay for the costs of extending jobless benefits to the millions of Americans who are still out of work. Yet, thousands of millionaires are receiving unemployment benefits and billions of dollars of improper payments of unemployment insurance are being made to individuals with jobs and others who do not qualify. And remember those infamous bridges to nowhere in Alaska that became symbols of government waste years ago? The bridges were never built, yet the federal government still spent more than a million dollars just this year to pay for staff to promote one of the bridges.”

Examples of wasteful spending highlighted in “Wastebook 2011” include:

• $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees & poinsettias.

• $15.3 million for one of the infamous Bridges to Nowhere in Alaska.

• $113,227 for video game preservation center in New York.

• $550,000 for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

• $48,700 for 2nd annual Hawaii Chocolate Festival, to promote Hawaii’s chocolate industry.

• $350,000 to support an International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy.

• $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan.

• $35 million allocated for political party conventions in 2012.

• $765,828 to subsidize “pancakes for yuppies” in the nation’s capital.

• $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.

Here is the link to a 98 page pdf of Coburn’s entire report:

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=b69a6ebd-7ebe-41b7-bb03-c25a5e194365

Given the frivolous nature of  the different projects that this Administration has come up with in order to spend our money, methinks President Barack Hussein Obama doth protest too much, concerning the following impasse:

In a surprise visit to the White House briefing room to demand House Republicans compromise on a two-month payroll tax cut extension — a demand that was promptly rejected — President Obama said Tuesday that the Senate legislation “is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on January 1st.”

“It’s the only one,” Obama said shortly after the House voted to effectively reject a Senate measure to extend the payroll tax cut for two months.

Speaking minutes later at a press conference with dozens of GOP members behind him, House Speaker John Boehner said the House has already taken up the Senate bill, which only gives a $166 tax break to Americans, and opted instead for a bill that gives $1,000 to contributors to the Social Security fund.

“We rejected the Senate bill and we moved to go to conference,” he said. “We’ve done our work for the American people, now it’s up to the president and the Senate to do their work as well.”

House Republicans are insisting on a year-long extension of the break and want to force the Senate to return to Washington to hammer out a compromise. The House voted 229-193 on partisan lines to call for a meeting of lawmakers to blend the House version of the bill with a Senate bill that passed 89-10 on Saturday.

In a letter to Obama sent as the House was preparing to vote, Boehner wrote that the House version is exactly what the president had requested — a year-long payroll tax holiday as well as an extension of unemployment insurance for a year and a “doctor fix” that would prevent doctors paid by Medicare from losing 27 percent of their payments.

“You have said that providing Americans anything less than a full year of tax relief and UI benefits would be inexcusable. We agree,” he wrote, adding that with 11 days left in the year, there’s plenty of time to get the conference done even if it means working through the holidays.

“I ask you to call on the Senate to return to appoint negotiators so that we can provide the American people the economic certainty they need,” he said.

But Obama said a “faction” of Republicans in the House “are refusing to even vote on a Senate bill,” and their refusal means 160 million “Americans could face a tax hike in just 11 days.”

“I’m calling on the speaker to bring up the Senate bill for a vote,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said he won’t renew bargaining until the House approves the Senate’s short-term measure, and senators have already returned home for the holiday break.

So, let me get this straight: 

1.  The president is upset over the cost to American taxpayers if the tax cuts are not extended.

2.  However, the prez ‘s political underlings in the Senate only extended the cut  for 2 months, while Boehner and the Republicans want to extend it for a year.

3.  Obama is upset that the House Republicans did not pass the Senate’s bill, which will lead to an automatic tax hike in January,putting the monkey back on the Democrats’ back to pass a year-long extension, leading up to the inauguration of the next president in 2013.

Sounds good to me. 

Hey, Mr. President, here’s a message for your fellow Democrats, using the same words back  you used in your failed attempt to force your “American Jobs Bill” down our throats: 

Pass the bill!

On October 5th, 2011, Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made the following announcement on The Mark Levin Show:

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.

From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.

I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.

In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!

God bless America.

– Sarah Palin

Her announcement shocked and disappointed a lot of Conservatives.

I remember several years ago, Sean Connery bypassed Producer Cubby Broccoli and appeared as James Bond 007 in a remake of his classic movie “Thunderball” titled “Never Say Never Again”.

There are comebacks in Hollywood.  There are comebacks in professional sports, like Lance Berkman, the former Houston Astro had with the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals (I love saying that).

And there are comebacks in politics.

Is that the call of the Arctic Fox I hear?

Reuters reports:

In an interview to air on Fox Business Network’s “Follow the Money” program, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president was asked whether she would still consider a run for the White House.

“It’s not too late for folks to jump in,” Palin said. “Who knows what will happen in the future.”

Palin, the former Alaskan governor, ended months of speculation when she said in October that she would not seek to unseat President Barack Obama.

John McCain’s vice presidential nominee and favorite of the conservative grassroots Tea Party movement has repeatedly toyed with the idea of running for president. She has even held bus tours and campaign-style rallies attended by a passionate group of supporters who have begged her to run.

The first nominating contest in the 2012 elections will be held on January 3 in Iowa.

Could it be that what is going  on  in regards to the field of potential Republican Nominees going into “The Hawkeye Cauci” is giving Gov. Palin second thoughts?

According to the New York Times:

Our Iowa forecasts, which are designed to be quite aggressive, have had a big reaction to the new Public Policy Polling survey published late Sunday evening. The poll showed Newt Gingrich’s support slipping badly in Iowa and Ron Paul moving into the lead.

The poll has Mr. Gingrich with 14 percent of the vote, down from 22 percent in the same poll one week earlier and continuing a streak of declining numbers for Mr. Gingrich in state and national surveys. Mitt Romney’s support improved to 20 percent from 16 percent in the previous Public Policy Polling survey. But it was Mr. Paul, at 23 percent in the poll, who held the lead. Mr. Paul thus becomes the sixth candidate to have led an Iowa caucus poll at some point this cycle, joining Mr. Romney, Mr. Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain.

Mr. Paul also leads our forecast. The model gives him a 44 percent chance of winning Iowa based on the current standing of the candidates and the historic uncertainty of polling-based forecasts. Mr. Romney has a 32 percent chance of winning, while Mr. Gingrich’s chances have crashed to 15 percent.

Perhaps the thought of Conservatives having to hold their nose and choose between a cranky old isolationist nutjob and the lesser of two Moderates is causing Governor Palin to re-assess her withdrawal from the race.

It she does, things could get awfully interesting.

If you’re an average American like me, you’re getting a headache trying to figure out how to afford Christmas and still pay your monthly bills, much less go on a Hawaiian Vacation.

Heck, I’ll be lucky to be able to travel to Memphis, TN from Southaven, Mississippi, a suburb.

However, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm or is it ho…ho…ho?) and his family don’t have that problem.  Scooter and Moochelle are using us as their bank for a 17-day Hawaiian Vacation.

The Hawaii Reporter has the story:

…The President and his family are traveling separately to Hawaii because he wants resolve the payroll tax cut issue before leaving Washington – and his wife does not want to wait.

But the advanced trip and the cost that comes with it – as much as $100,000 (flight and security) – adds to an already expensive vacation for the taxpayers.

Hawaii Reporter research shows the total cost for the President’s visit for taxpayers far exceeded $1.5 million in 2010 – but is even more costly this year because he extended his vacation by three days and the cost for Air Force One travel has jumped since last assessed in 2000. In addition, Hawaii Reporter was able to obtain more specifics about the executive expenditures.

The total cost (based on what is known) for the 17-day vacation roundtrip vacation to Hawaii for the President, his family and staff has climbed to more than $4 million.

…TRAVEL: $3,629,622

HOUSING: $151,200

The President and his family pay for their own beachfront rental (they are not staying in the Winter White House this year but rather a house on the same street further to the ocean point).

The Kailua rentals are fronted by the ocean and backed by a canal. So, the taxpayers must cover the costs for housing U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Seals in beach front and canal front homes in Kailua.

That costs about $1,200 a day ($200 allocated per bedroom per day). Since security arrives one day early, homes are rented for 18 days.

That is about $21,600 per home for approximately 7 houses rented at a total cost of $151,200 for security to stay nearby.

HOTEL: $72,216

Moana Surfrider Resort

The President’s staff and White House Press Corps stay at one of Hawaii’s oldest and most elegant hotels, the Moana Surfrider. Hawaii Reporter confirmed they are again staying there this year. Besides its stunningly beautiful view of Waikiki, and its traditional architecture, it is one of the most pricey hotels in the state.

Government rates are $177 per night, but that only is available during certain times a year.

Rooms typically start at $250 but can cost on average as much as $450 a night, and are even higher during the holidays. Hotel spokeswoman Marsha Weinert said she could “neither confirm nor deny” the president’s staff is staying there.

View of Waikiki Beach from the Moana Surfrider Hotel

A conservative estimate with rooms at the government rate of $177 per day (excluding a 9.25 percent Transient Accommodation Tax and a 4.712 percent General Excise Tax on each bill, meals, internet charges and other charges) means the taxpayers are covering more than $72,216 in hotel bills for an estimated 24 staff.

LOCAL TAXPAYER COSTS: $260,000

Local police over time for the president’s visit has historically cost Oahu taxpayers $250,000 but may be more expensive this year with the extended vacation.

The city ambulance the accompanies the president 24 hours a day through his entire visit is $10,000, according to city spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy.

UNKNOWN COSTS

There are several costs the White House annually refuses to release, citing security.

For example, the president’s security usually rents an entire floor of an office building in Kailua on the canal during the president’s stay.

There are security upgrades and additional phone lines to several private homes where Obama and friends are staying. That includes bullet proof glass installed, home security systems disabled, new security measures put into place and additional phone lines added.

There is the cost for car rentals and fuel for White House staff staying at Moana Hotel.

And there are additional travel costs Secret Service and White House staff traveling ahead of the President.

The total cost (based on what is known) for a 17-day round trip vacation to Hawaii for the President and his family and staff and security is an estimated $4,113,038.

That’s almost 4 times more than the Obamas’  Hawaiian Christmas Vacation last year! 

The Hawaii Reporter compiled an estimated account of expenses for the Obama trip and found that, before factoring in unknown costs, taxpayers forked over almost $1.5 million. Here’s how the paper broke it down:

Mrs. Obama’s early flight to Hawaii: $63,000 (White House Dossier)

Obama’s round trip flight to Hawaii: $1 million (GAO estimates)

Housing in beachfront homes for Secret Service and Seals in Kailua ($1,200 a day for 14 days): $16,800

Costs for White House staff staying at Moana Hotel: $134,400 ($400 per day for 24 staff) – excluding meals and other room costs

Police overtime: $250,000 (2009 costs reported by Honolulu Police Department)

Ambulance: $10,000 (City Spokesperson)

TOTAL COST: $1,474,200

Well, I guess Obama figured that he might as well blow it out before he gets thrown out.

Too bad he’s kissing Moochelle under the mistletoe on our dime.

Unless you been living in another dimension, you are quite aware that the rogue nation of Iran would like to wipe off the face of the Earth both our country and our ally, Israel.

Sure. You’re aware.  However, one of the Candidates for the Republican Presidential Nomination seems to think that if we just left them alone, the Iranians would forget about how badly they despise us, and we could sit on a hilltop and have a Coke and a smile together.

Perhaps this individual needs a history lesson.  Sherman, start up the Wayback Machine:

In 1953, the CIA staged “Operation Ajax,” which unseated a duly elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and reinstated Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as Iran’s traditional and ancestral shah (monarch). The agreement stipulated that, in exchange for military and economic aid to Iran, there would a continuous supply of oil to the U.S.

Pahlavi, however, made some bad decisions. In the early 1960s, he promised his people increased personal freedoms and other social reforms. That didn’t happen.

The shah’s wealth grew, and he succumbed to the temptations of a luxurious western lifestyle, which angered the Iranian people, especially the religious right wing. The clergy began to preach long and loud against the shah and his queen, which stirred the masses to revolt. The shah was forced to abdicate the throne again and leave the country in January 1979.

The new ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini (pronounced Ko-MAY-nee), railed against the American government, denouncing it as the “Great Satan” and “Enemy of Islam.”

When the shah was diagnosed with lymphoma, he requested to be treated by U.S. doctors. His request was granted. That was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back,” and so enraged Iranians that a rabble stormed the American Embassy in Teheran.

On November 4, 1979, an angry mob of some 300 to 500 “students” who called themselves “Imam’s Disciples,” laid siege to the American Embassy in Teheran, Iran, to capture and hold hostage 66 U.S. citizens and diplomats. Although women and African-Americans were released a short time later, 51 hostages remained imprisoned for 444 days with another individual released because of illness midway through the ordeal.

After months of failed negotiations and a failed rescue attempt by the Carter Administration, the hostages were released the very day that Ronald Reagan became the President of the United States.

You’re probably saying, “Certainly the present leadership in Iran has gotten better than it was back then?”

Nope.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country. An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran’s council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became President on 3 August 2005.

Ahmadinejad is a controversial figure both within Iran and internationally. He has been criticized domestically for his economic lapses and disregard for human rights. He launched a gas rationing plan in 2007 to reduce the country’s fuel consumption, and cut the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. He supports Iran’s nuclear energy program. His election to a second term in 2009 was widely disputed and caused widespread protests domestically and drew significant international criticism. In 2011 the presence of a so-called “deviant current” among his aides and supporters led to the arrest of several of them.

Last night, at the Republican Debate in Sioux City, Iowa, Ron Paul caused a lot of jaws to drop in incredulity:

Paul said there was “no U.N. evidence” that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program, calling claims to the contrary “war propaganda.”

“To me the greatest danger is that we will have a president that will overreact, and we will soon bomb Iran,” he said. “We ought to really sit back and think, not jump the gun and believe that we are going to be attacked. That’s how we got into that useless war in Iraq and lost so much.”

Paul said it “makes more sense” to directly engage with Iran diplomatically. And he even praised President Obama for “wisely backing off on sanctions” against Iran, which he called overreaching.

“We have 12,000 diplomats in our services. We ought to use a little bit of diplomacy once in a while.”

Rick Santorum and then Michele Bachmann rebutted Paul. Santorum equated the leadership of Iran to Al Qaeda and said that the U.S. should be ready to strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“We know without a shadow of a doubt that Iran will take a nuclear weapon, they will use it to wipe our ally, Israel, off the face fo the map,” Bachmann said. “And they’ve stated they will use it against the United States of America. We would be fools and knaves to ignore their purpose and their plan.”

Or Ron Paul and his devout followers.

I wonder how much tin foil hats cost the days?

I know what the price of naivety in Foreign Affairs is:  Nuclear Annihilation.

I can remember sitting in the lecture hall of the (then) Memphis State University Journalism Building, listening to Dr. Williams, whom we all swore did the first newscast of KDKA, America’s first radio station, in 1920.  The class was “Introduction to Journalism” and Dr. Van Williams was telling us that the ” key to being a good journalist was objectivity”.

Yesterday, some 35 years later, MSNBC traveled as far away from objectivity as Janeane Garafalo is from being a runway model.  In an act of blatant Obama sycophancy:

MSNBC daytime anchor Thomas Roberts seizes on Mitt Romney’s use of the phrase “Keep America America.” The network claims the phrase plays homage to the Ku Klux Klan slogan of “Keep America American.” According to left-leaning news outlets, the “Keep America American” expression was apparently used by the KKK in the early 1900s.

Somehow the folks at MSNBC believe Mitt Romney is acknowledging his Klan roots by using a similar phrase in his 2012 campaign for the presidency.

The Ku Klux Klan of the era that the nincompoops at MSNBC were trying to link Mittens to is known as

The second Ku Klux Klan [which] was founded in 1915 by William J. Simmons, an ex-minister and promoter of fraternal orders; its first meeting was held on Stone Mt., Ga. The new Klan had a wider program than its forerunner, for it added to “white supremacy” an intense nativism and anti-Catholicism (it was also anti-Semitic) closely related to that of the Know-Nothing movement of the middle 19th cent. Consequently its appeal was not sectional, and, aided after 1920 by the activities of professional promoters Elizabeth Tyler and Edward Y. Clarke, it spread rapidly throughout the North as well as the South. It furnished an outlet for the militant patriotism aroused by World War I, and it stressed fundamentalism in religion.

Professing itself nonpolitical, the Klan nevertheless controlled politics in many communities and in 1922, 1924, and 1926 elected many state officials and a number of Congressmen. Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Oregon, and Maine were particularly under its influence. Its power in the Midwest was broken during the late 1920s when David C. Stephenson, a major Klan leader there, was convicted of second-degree murder, and evidence of corruption came out that led to the indictment of the governor of Indiana and the mayor of Indianapolis, both supporters of the Klan. The Klan frequently took extralegal measures, especially against those whom it considered its enemies. As was the case with the earlier Klan, some of these measures, whether authorized by the central organization or not, were extreme.

At its peak in the mid-1920s its membership was estimated at 4 million to 5 million. Although the actual figures were probably much smaller, the Klan nevertheless declined with amazing rapidity to an estimated 30,000 by 1930.

The phrase used earlier, “according to left-leaning news outlets”, refers to americablog.com, which, in turn, is quoting two books on the subject of the Second Klan, which refer to the  use of that phrase in the Klan’s literature that it distributed.  Although, I see no copies of that literature presented on the blog, just authors’ opinions.

The closest phrase to the one causing all the consternation which I found in my research is the following:

In an attempt to gain a foothold in education, the Klan in 1921 bought Lanier University, a struggling Baptist university in Atlanta. Nathan Bedford Forrest, grandson of the confederate general by the same name, was appointed business manager, and the school would teach “pure, 100 percent Americanism”. Enrollment was dismal and the school closed after its first year of Klan ownership. Ironically the complex would later be used as a synagogue.

To use a current popular phrase, MSNBC definitely jumped the shark and by yesterday afternoon, they were backing off as quickly as they could:

UPDATE: On tonight’s edition of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews apologized for the “irresponsible” and “incendiary” attack on Mitt Romney.

UPDATE: Al Sharpton, on his show tonight, gave his seal of approval for MSNBC to apologize. Sharpton says he believes Romney deserved the apology because he has also been a “victim” of half-truths.

By trying to link Mitt Romney to a racist organization’s past, an organization which remains active even today, MSNBC has made Josef Goebbels proud.

No longer will they be able to falsely claim objectivity in this upcoming Presidential Election.  They might as well release all of the Republican pundits they have on retainer and change “Morning Joe” over to “Morning Mika”.

Any self-respecting Republican, no matter how squishy they are, needs to refuse any interview with any NBC Channel, and that includes Mittens, himself.

Let this be a lesson to you “Moderate” Republicans who have been so eager to “reach across the aisle”.  The hand behind the back of the Lib’s hand that you are shaking is holding a rhetorical knife.

And, by using a Progressive blog as their source for news, MSNBC has joined the Emperor in parading around in their birthday suit.  Their true nature has been exposed for all of America to see.

MSNBC has leaned forward…and stepped in it…Big Time.

Wherever I go, whoever I talk to, I’m getting asked the same question over and over again:

How did we end up with having to choose between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as the Republican Nominee for President?

Well, the ever-so-exciting Tim Pawlenty dropped out.  So did the toast (according to his Democrat buddies) of last year’s annual Gridiron Dinner, Mitch Daniels.

Then, Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin headed for more sane and lucrative pastures as she withdrew to simply be a pundit for the next 5 years.

That left us with a cranky old isolationist (Ron Paul), a Conservative woman labelled Crazy Eyes by the Main Street Media (Michele Bachmann), a Pennsylvania Conservative (Rick Santorum), who is about as exciting as dry white toast, and a wealthy Mormon heir who worked for, and still speaks highly of, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

Now, what do Romney and Gingrich have to look forward to, in their quest to secure their party’s nomination?

Well, after they get through eviscerating each other down to their skivvies, the pack of piranhas known as the Main Street Media are going to give them both a thorough and quite public examination that their proctologists will be envious of.

We have no clue as to a lot of the details of the life of the present Leader of the Free World, but you can be darn sure that the American public will know how many zits Newt popped as a teenager and when the first time was that Mitt used Brylcreem on that luxurious hair of his.

And that’s just the above-board research.

Obama’s Hatchet Man, David Axlerod, is sure to get the nod to finish the job.  I would bet you (not $10,000, because I’m as broke as the rest of hard-working Americans in the Heartland, thanks to Obamanomics) that he’s been a busy little henchman already.

Sherman, start up the Wayback Machine:

In 2004, Illinois State Senator Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) decided to run for The United States Senate.

In order to have a successful Senatorial campaign, Scooter had to secure tremendous financial backing and be the recipient of astute political mentoring. No problem.

It is now very well-known that George Soros, evil genius, major Democratic Party donor and anti-Israel crusader, has been a generous contributor to Barack Obama. However, not too many people know that a loophole in McCain-Feingold allowed Soros and his family members to be extremely generous in their support of Obama’s 2004 Senatorial campaign.

Obama had to run against Blair Hull in the primary and then Jack Ryan in the general (both multi-millionaires). Obama received huge donations from individuals, to so-called “millionaires exception.” Usually, individuals are limited to giving $2300 to candidates in federal elections, but if the candidates are running against millionaires, these limits do not apply and candidates are allowed to receive up to $12,000 from a single individual. Soros and his family gave Barack Obama $60,000. This does not count the money that Soros was funneled to so-called 527 groups (Moveon.org, for example) that have also been politically active; nor does it include money that Soros raised from tapping a network of friends, business associates, and employees.

Besides garnering unlimited campaign funds, as the campaigns entered their closing rounds, the news ”happened to be” leaked to media outlets that both Hull and Ryan had “personal scandals” in their past. The timely release of this news wiped out both of their campaigns, leading to an easy victory for Obama in the primary and then in the general election.

The New York Times Magazine revealed that David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political and media adviser, may well have been behind the leak of the story that doomed the Hull candidacy as the primary reached its home stretch.

I’m shocked.

As he has shown over the years, Axelrod was right at home operating in this gray area, part idealist, part hired muscle. One can not bring up Axelrod’s name in certain circles in Chicago without the matter of the Blair Hull divorce papers coming up. Approaching the 2004 Senate primary, it was clear that it was a two-man race: the millionaire liberal, Hull, leading in the polls, and Obama, who was the figurehead of an impressive grass-roots campaign. One month before the vote, The Chicago Tribune “just happened” to reveal, at the end of a long profile of Hull, that during a divorce proceeding, Hull’s second wife filed for an order of protection. This revelation proceeded to erupt into a full-fledged scandal. This scandal destroyed Hull’s campaign and handed Obama an easy primary victory.

The Tribune reporter who wrote the story later admitted in print that the Obama camp had “worked aggressively behind the scenes” to push the story. However, a lot of folks in Chicago believe that Axelrod leaked the initial story. They will tell you that before signing on with Obama, Axelrod interviewed with Hull. They also point out that Obama’s TV ad campaign just happened to start at almost the same time. Axelrod swears up and down that “we had nothing to do with it” and that the campaign’s television ad schedule was in the works for a long time.

Axlerod’s explanation?

An aura grows up around you, and people assume everything emanates from you.

Translation:  Maybe I did it, maybe I didn’t.  [Wink, wink.  Nod, nod.  Knowing glance.]

Keep you eyes peeled, Americans.  We may be living a sequel.

Mercurial Conservative Talk Radio Host Michael Savage has made an offer to Republican Presidential  Nominee Candidate, Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who happens to be the current front runner for his party’s nomination:

Newt Gingrich is unelectable. Mitt Romney is the only candidate with a chance of defeating Barack Obama, and there is nothing more important than that for the future heath, safety, and security of the United States of America. Therefore, I am offering Newt Gingrich one million dollars to drop out of the presidential race for the sake of the nation.

If Newt Gingrich really loves this country as much as he says he does, if he really wants what is best for America, he will set his ego aside, call me, and accept my offer. His continued candidacy spells nothing but ruin for conservatives, Republicans, and all true American patriots, One million dollars in exchange for preserving the nation, Newt. I say take the money … and don’t run.

Also jumping on the “Get Rid of Newt” Bandwagon is Conservative/Libertarian Talk Show Host Glenn Beck, who laid this unexpected little “turncoat moment” on us:

Over the weekend Beck followed up last week’s headline-making interview with Newt Gingrich with an appearance on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Fox Business show.

Beck, who is no fan of what he terms Gingrich’s “progressive” politics, declared that Gingrich is the “only candidate I cannot vote for” before taking a rather brutal (if totally true to form)swipe at Tea Party supporters.

If you have a big government progressive, or a big government progressive in Obama… ask yourself this, Tea Party: Is it about Obama’s race? Because that’s what it appears to be to me. If you’re against him but you’re for this guy, it must be about race. I mean, what else is it? It’s the policies that matter.

The plot sickens…errr….thickens:

On a podcast this weekend hosted by Steve Bannon (who Dave Weigel notes is the director of the Sarah Palin documentary “The Undefeated” and lives in a D.C. house rented by Andrew Breitbart) Breitbart pushed back.

“Beck is a coward and won’t defend himself when he makes a mistakes…the self-appointed historian of the conservative movement, an autodidact who’s read a lot of books over the last few years….This guy is a huckster. He’s always been a huckster. It was only a few years ago that he was a shock jock, that he was a morning zoo guy. And he’s been taking people’s content for years and not crediting it.”

It’s worth noting the first time Breitbart and Beck tangled — though “tangled” is somewhat misleading since normally what happens is that in an attempt to generate some attention for himself Breitbart complains loudly about Beck and Beck ignores him — was over the Shirley Sherrod video.

In 2010 Breitbart, heady with the success of the James O’Keefe’s ACORN takedown, posted an edited video of USDA official Shirley Sherrod‘s speech at a March 27 speech at an NAACP banquet telling the audience she had denied a white farmer funding and claimed it was ““video evidence of racism coming from a federal appointee and NAACP award recipient.” Sherrod was promptly denounced and fired before anyone thought to check the full address which decided un-racist.

The next night Beck railed against the video on his Fox News show (though notably not against Breitbart), something the White House, among others, was not anticipating.

Cut to a year and a half later and Beck is sweepingly accusing the Tea Party of racist inclinations and Andrew Breitbart is angry about it.

In addition to all this, Beck said Monday morning on his radio show that if Newt Gingrich is the nominee and Ron Paul runs third party, he’d consider voting for Ron Paul over Newt Gingrich, even though he hates Ron Paul’s policies on the Middle East.

(I don my Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo rumpled raincoat and interrupt.)

Uhhh….excuse me…excuse me… Mr. Beck, sir.  May I ask you a question, please, sir?

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR EVER-LOVING COTTON-PICKING MIND?

I realize that Newt has had his less-than-Conservative moments.  However, so have you, sir.  You tend to lean more toward the Libertarian side on a bunch of issues.

So, are you jumping ship, now that the candidates you have been pushing Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, both good Conservatives, have faded into the sunset?

I have another question, sir.  Please forgive me if this is politically incorrect, but it needs to be asked:  What are your feelings toward your fellow Mormons, Huntsman and Romney?  I know that Huntsman’s Father, a great humanitarian, is a close confidant of yours.  You’ve spoken of his several times over the years.

Does loyalty to the LDS hold any sway with your thought process?

No offense meant, sir.  Just asking.

(Hangs Columbo raincoat up)

I’ve listened to Glenn Beck for years. His words and actions of the last few days have me shaking my head.  Does he or doesn’t he want to evict Obama from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

Has his zeal in labeling Progressives of both political parties just alienated him from the very people who have supported him all of these years and made him as rich as Midas?

Dr. Savage, I’ve listened to you over the years, also.  Try decaf.  Romney’s going to be lucky to win New Hampshire.

No.  Newt is not an ideal candidate.  But, he is the best of what’s left.