All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin (right), a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is arguing that wealthy taxpayers should perhaps shoulder the cost of sending additional troops in Afghanistan.

In an interview for Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," the senator suggests funding additional troops with an "additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000."

"They have done incredibly well, and I think that it's important that we pay for it if we possibly can," Levin said, according to Bloomberg. He also called for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide half of the new soldiers sent to Afghanistan.

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has put the cost of each additional troop at $1 million.

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Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, could face a strong primary challenge in his 2010 reelection effort: A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds McCain in a virtual tie with a conservative Phoenix radio host and former Congressman J.D. Hayworth.

Hayworth has expressed interest in running against McCain, but he has not announced that he will do so. The former Congressman got 43 percent support in the survey of likely Republican primary voters, while McCain got 45 percent. Four percent went to former Minutemen leader Chris Simcox.

McCain leads among the state's Republican women, while Hayworth leads among men.

Rasmussen points out that a September poll found that while 75 percent of Republican primary voters expect McCain to win the nomination, 61 percent feel he has lost touch with the members of his party.

Nearly three in four Republicans nationwide say elected Republicans in Congress have lost touch with party members.

As for McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, Rasmussen has found that 59 percent of Republican voters say she shares the values of Republicans nationwide.

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There are not enough outstanding votes left for Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate who conceded-and-then-unconceded following his apparent loss in the closely-watched NY-23 House race, to catch his opponant.

The Watertown Times reports that Democrat Bill Owens now leads Hoffman by 3,105 votes with only 3,072 absentee ballots to be counted. Even if every one of those ballots went to Hoffman, he still couldn't close the gap.

Hoffman formally announced Wednesday that he was withdrawing his election night concession, echoing a comment on Glenn Beck’s radio show. He blamed community-organizing group ACORN for stealing the election, though he provided no evidence.

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The Conservative Party candidate who conceded a closely-watched upstate New York House race has formally repudiated that concession in a statement that suggests community-organizing group ACORN stole the election for his Democratic opponent.

Doug Hoffman first suggested he was "unconceding" earlier this week on Glenn Beck's radio show.

"Recent developments leave me to wonder who is scheming behind closed doors, twisting arms and stealing elections from the voters of NY-23," he writes in a message on his Web site titled "Stop Another Stolen Election." "I'm sure you are as dismayed as I am to learn of the mischief that took place in Oswego and neighboring counties. We know this would not be the first time for the ACORN faithful to tamper with democracy."

"ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens," he adds. Hoffman goes on to request donations to help force officials to keep a recanvassing effort going that he suggests will show he was the true winner of the contest.

Hoffman offers no specific evidence of malfeasance by ACORN, and a call to his spokesman, Rob Ryan, was not returned.

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Updated 5:18 p.m. ET

After months of consideration, former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has decided against running for governor of New York, according to a report in the New York Times.

And according to the New York Daily News, the reason is that he's running instead for Senate.

Both newspapers are citing anonymous sources, and Giuliani's team is saying it is premature to say he has made a final decision.

Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella flatly told CBS News that the Daily News report is "not true."

In a separate written statement, she said this: "When Mayor Giuliani makes a decision about serving in public office, he will inform New Yorkers on his own."

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Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat pushing for a new tax on Wall Street transactions, is calling for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to lose his job.

Dubbing White House economic adviser Larry Summers "an adviser from Wall Street" and Geithner – who he calls "Timmy" – "a Treasury Secretary from Wall Street," DeFazio suggested on MSNBC that the two men don't prioritize the best interests of average Americans.

"We think it is time, maybe, that we turn our focus to Main Street -- we reclaim some of the unspent [TARP] funds, we reclaim some of the funds that are being paid back, which will not be paid back in full, and we use it to put people back to work," he said, adding that Geithner and Summers "don't like that idea."

"They want to keep the TARP money either to continue to bail out Wall Street if there are future problems, or maybe…to pay down the deficit," he said. "That's absurd."

Asked if Geithner should stay in his job, DeFazio said no.

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Texas lawmakers wanted to make sure gay people couldn't be married. Instead, it seems, they may have made sure no one can.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the story. Here's what happened: In 2005, Texas voters and the state Legislature approved a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

But the amendment included the following clause, which was reportedly designed to ban civil unions and domestic partnerships: "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

One thing that is "identical…to marriage," of course, is marriage. And Texas Attorney General candidate Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Democrat, is arguing that the current Attorney General, Republican Greg Abbott, made a "massive mistake" in allowing the language.

"You do not have to have a fancy law degree to read this and understand what it plainly says," she said, according to the Star-Telegram. She called on Abbott to acknowledge the error and consider apologizing.

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Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.) is seeking co-sponsors for the "Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act," which he suggests could raise $150 billion per year through a securities transaction tax.

The money raised "will be invested in the current needs of Main Street America," according to a message DeFazio sent to House colleagues seeking support for the effort.

"We cannot sit back and assume that job creation will turn around," the message says. "We must make it clear to our constituents that we know Main Street is suffering and a restored Wall Street should now share in its recovery with everyone else. Timely job creation and deficit reduction is the fair thing to do."

The tax would be applied to stock transactions (at 0.25 percent), futures, swaps, credit default swaps and options. In an effort to make sure it does not affect pension funds or average investors, it would be refunded for the first $100,000 of transactions annually, as well as for tax-favored retirement accounts, education savings accounts and health savings accounts.

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On "Washington Unplugged" Wednesday, Mississippi's Republican Governor, Haley Barbour, told host Bob Schieffer that he expects Sarah Palin "is going to sell a lot of books."

"Whether she intends to run for something else, or where she's headed, I'm not privy to that," he said, noting that he is focused on 2010 as opposed to 2012.

"My wife and I like her," Barbour said of Palin, the former Alaska governor. "She's a heck of a lot smarter than she gets credit for."

Barbour, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, also said Democrats are "whistling past the graveyard" if they don't recognize the lessons from Republican victories in this year's two governors races.

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More Americans than ever believe the war in Afghanistan is going badly for the United States, a new CBS News poll finds.

Sixty-nine percent now say things are going badly for the U.S. in Afghanistan, a sharp increase from the 53 percent who said so in September. Just 23 percent say things are going well, down 12 points from September.

The findings reflect the most negative assessment of the war ever measured in CBS News polls.

Special Report: Afghanistan

Assessments have declined in particular among Republicans and independents. In September, 47 percent of Republicans thought the war was going well for the U.S.; that figure has now fallen to 27 percent. Among independents, positive assessments of the war have fallen from 34 percent in September to 21 percent.

The new poll also suggests that Americans have become increasingly skeptical about President Obama's handling of Afghanistan. Just 38 percent now approve of the president's performance on Afghanistan, down from 43 percent in October and 58 percent in April. Forty-three percent disapprove, an increase of nine points from last month.

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