All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

On "Washington Unplugged" Thursday, Politico's Mike Allen spoke with CBS News' Bob Schieffer about the Obama administration's efforts to marginalize its opponents, especially the Chamber of Commerce, big business executives and Fox News.

The interview, which you can watch at the left, began with Allen talking about White House officials' reactions upon encountering resistance from the Chamber of Commerce. He said the president and his administration have been circumventing the organization on key issues being discussed in Washington.

"In the case of the Chamber of Commerce…. [White House officials] are saying to them, 'We don't have to deal with you. You're the voice of business, you spend more on lobbying than anyone else, but we have our own relationships with CEO's and companies. We can just talk to them. We don't have to go through you when you're opposing up on climate change, bank reform, and health care.'" Allen said.

He also discussed the surprisingly public recent feud between the White House and Fox News, saying that the Obama administration was making a conscious effort to undermine media outlets it sees as conservative in order to protect itself from potential criticism. (Read more on the fued here)

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Sarah Palin's political future seems to be in question now more than ever since she announced her resignation as Alaska's governor, but prominent conservative Rush Limbaugh says it is too early to count her out of the 2012 presidential race.

"I don't think this precludes her running for office down the road, the presidency, in 2012, at all," Limbaugh said in a radio interview over the weekend with Brian Maloney of the Radio Equalizer. "I think these people saying she's an instant target because she quit is just inside the beltway formulaic. And she's not that."

While in her announcement Palin suggested she remains interested in the national political arena, many Washington veterans are doubtful about whether resigning from her post was the best way for her to remain a serious national political figure. George W. Bush's former chief political aide Karl Rove and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee both expressed their doubts over the weekend over Palin's move -- Rove called it a "risky strategy."

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Democrats are having a field day musing over who the “leader” of the Republican Party might be, in no way hiding their glee as they point and snicker at the messy circumstances the GOP currently finds itself in.

Is Rush Limbaugh the voice of the Republicans? Or perhaps Dick Cheney? Newt Gingrich? Michael Steele? Sarah Palin? Mitt Romney? Karl Rove? Eric Cantor?

And the list goes on.

The Democratic National Committee calls it "GOP Survivor" and is reveling in their rivals’ quagmire.

But Democrats, while understandably giddy, should remember that they were in a comparable situation just over four years ago.

After President George W. Bush defeated John Kerry in 2004, there was similar quagmire talk and the identical question was being asked of the Democrats. They had lost ground in both the House and Senate, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle failed in his re-election bid, and a newly minted senator, Barack Obama, was just a glimmer in the eyes of the crystal ball readers.

Was John Kerry the voice of the Democratic Party? Or perhaps Al Gore? Nancy Pelosi? Hillary Clinton? Howard Dean?

And the list went on.

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Republican senators continued through Tuesday and Wednesday to express reservations about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, as some conservative interest groups and pundits ratcheted up the pressure for the GOP to oppose the nomination. Rush Limbaugh went so far as to call Sotomayor a "reverse racist" and a "hack" while decrying moderate Republicans for their even-keeled response to President Obama's court pick.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, had a measured response on Tuesday to Sotomayor's nomination, calling for thorough Senate confirmation hearings.

This morning Sessions reiterated the need for a thorough vetting, adding that "the nominee has serious problems," according to the Associated Press. He specifically said he found certain remarks from Sotomayor regarding policymaking from the bench to be "troubling."

Sessions said, however, he does not anticipate a filibuster against the nomination. He said it was "possible" he could support Sotomayor's nomination -- even though he opposed her appeals court nomination in 1998 -- and that she "has a good resume."

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) in a statement Tuesday listed the same reservations as Sessions over the nomination. Inhofe said Sotomayor's personal story is "truly inspiring," but he is concerned about whether she would refrain from "legislating from the bench."

"Some of her recent comments on this matter have given me cause for great concern," he said. "In the months ahead, it will be important for those of us in the U.S. Senate to weigh her qualifications and character as well as her ability to rule fairly without undue influence from her own personal race, gender, or political preferences."

Some anti-abortion rights activists have been hesistant to criticize Sotomayor strongly, but are urging senators to take a close look at her history, the Politico reports.

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A former law clerk for newly announced Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor defended her old boss against criticism that she's judicially biased, calling her a "legal purist."

Julia Tarver Mason, who spent a year clerking for Sotomayor when she was a federal judge, told CBS' The Early Show Wednesday that Sotomayor "is not someone who is going to try to reach a particular result in a particular case. She calls them straight down the middle, just like she sees them."

Republicans have voiced early criticism of President Barack Obama's selection to replace Justice David Souter, with some questioning whether she lets personal feelings and politics overshadow the law in her decisions.

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Gen. Colin Powell said he is still a Republican and that former Vice President Dick Cheney is "misinformed" about his party affiliation.

Powell, appearing on "Face the Nation" Sunday, answered criticism from Cheney, who questioned Powell's loyalty to the GOP after voting for President Barack Obama in November.

"I am still a republican. I'd like to point out that in the course of my 50 years of voting for presidents, I have voted for the person i thought was best qualified at that time to lead the nation. Last year I thought it was President-now Barack Obama," Powell said.

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It's a good thing Barack Obama didn't have comedian Wanda Sykes write the jokes for his White House Correspondents Association dinner speech on Saturday.

While the president's quips went over fairly well – he joked about his teleprompter use, chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel's propensity for profanity, "fresh young face" Arlen Specter and Hillary Clinton offering a kiss after returning from swine-flu infested Mexico – Sykes' speech has prompted an outpouring of anger from conservatives upset over her comments about right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Much of the speech, it should be pointed out, involved Sykes poking fun at Mr. Obama and members of his administration. (At one point, she quipped that she didn't need to see Mr. Obama's nipples – a reference to shirtless pictures of the president.) But the speech also included shots at Republicans, including Sarah Palin, and at one point veered into a relatively personal and vitriolic attack against Limbaugh.

Watch the video here:



"Boy, Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails – so you said you hope America fails," Sykes said in reference to the talk show host's past comments. "…To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, 'cause I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."

The comment prompted a mixture of boos and laughter from the crowd.

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On the heels of an interview with a North Dakota radio station this week in which he advised it would be a mistake for the Republican Party to seek broader appeal by moderating its stance on issues, former vice president Dick Cheney today said there is room in the GOP for moderates.

"I think partly it's a semantic problem," he told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer on Face The Nation. "I don't think the party ought to move dramatically to the left, for example, in order to try to redefine its base.

"We are what we are. We're Republicans. We have certain things we believe in. And maintaining our loyalty and commitment to those principles is vital to our success."

And when it came to "loyalty," Cheney offered that he believes former Secretary of State Colin Powell abandoned the party.

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After backtracking last month from comments that conservative talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh was "incendiary" and a mere "entertainer," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is following the firebrand host's lead on the latest issue dogging the GOP.

When asked on CBS' The Early Show Thursday whether his view of Arlen Specter's defection to the Democrats mirrored Sen. Olympia Snowe's (regret) or Limbaugh's (good riddance), Steele was quick to side with the controversial radio host.

"Rush. I'm sorry, I'm not weeping here."

Steele called Specter's maneuver a "cold, crass political calculation by a senator who could not get reelected through a nominating process in the Republican party."

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Over the past few weeks, the White House has been casting right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as the head of the Republican Party, and based on a new CBS News poll, it appears they may be on to something. According to the poll, Limbaugh’s favorable rating stands at just 19 percent, a full 43 points lower than President Obama’s.

Limbaugh’s unfavorable rating, meanwhile, stands at 40 percent, while 41 percent say they don’t know or don’t have an opinion. Not surprisingly, the conservative commentator, who has said he hopes that the president’s economic policies fail, is far more popular with Republicans – 47 percent view him favorably – than with Democrats, just seven percent of whom view him favorably.

The poll also found that Republicans are relatively pessimistic about the future of their party. Just 40 percent believe the party is going in the right direction, while nearly as many – 36 percent – say it is going in the wrong direction. Among all Americans, just 27 percent say the party is going in the right direction and 48 percent say it is going in the wrong direction.

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