Town Hall, DC
Oct 13 2007

Turkey’s Lobbyist

By Robert D. Novak
Saturday, October 13, 2007

WASHINGTON — Former Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, a registered
lobbyist for Turkey, failed several months ago to get his successor
as top House Democrat, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to withdraw her support
from a long-pending resolution condemning alleged Turkish genocide of
Armenians in 1915.

The Bush administration had urged Congress not to offend Turkey, a
U.S. ally, but the measure passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Wednesday. Pelosi has pledged House action this year on the genocide
resolution that in the past was blocked by Dennis Hastert, her
Republican predecessor as speaker.

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a visit
to the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco, California
September 13, 2007. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES)
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HILLARY’S ADVISER

Prominent Democrats, while minimizing the revelation that Sandy
Berger is advising Sen. Hillary Clinton on foreign affairs, stress
that the disgraced former national security adviser would have no
role in her presidency.

Clinton says Berger is strictly an unofficial adviser. Berger avoided
a prison sentence for illegally removing classified documents from
the National Archives, agreeing to a $50,000 fine, 100 hours’
community service and two years’ probation, along with losing his
security clearance.

Berger’s role in the Clinton campaign is explained by the senator’s
supporters as stemming from close family ties forged when he was a
senior official in President Bill Clinton’s White House.

ROMNEY’S BLUNDERS

Mitt Romney, who tries to come over as a picture-perfect candidate,
committed his second off-the-cuff blunder at Tuesday’s Republican
presidential debate in Dearborn, Mich.

Asked whether he would go to Congress for authorization to take
military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the former
Massachusetts governor said: "You sit down with your attorneys and
[they] tell you what you have to do." He added that "we’re going to
let the lawyers sort out" the problem.

Two months earlier in a town hall event at Bettendorf, Iowa, Romney
was asked whether any of his five sons were serving in the military
and, if not, how they supported the war against terrorism. He
replied: "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation
is helping to get me elected."

SEN. RICHARDSON?

Sen. Charles Schumer, the Senate Democratic campaign chairman, is
pressing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to give up his presidential
bid and run for his state’s Senate seat held by retiring Republican
Sen. Pete Domenici.

Republicans hope to hold the New Mexico seat with Rep. Heather
Wilson, since the most popular Democratic prospect, Rep. Tom Udall,
has decided not to run. Richardson, a former congressman and Clinton
administration Cabinet member, has been a popular governor and would
be heavily favored for the Senate.

However, friends of Richardson predict he will resist the pressure to
be the Senate candidate. Although he is given no chance to win the
presidential nomination, Richardson has broken through to the top of
the second-tier candidates and is a serious prospect to become Sen.
Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential running mate. Party strategists
see Richardson, a Mexican-American, appealing to Latino votes in four
Western states that could swing the 2008 presidential election:
Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

LOBBYING FOR SCHIP

Newspaper and television ads in Rep. James Walsh’s Syracuse, N.Y.,
district this week boosted the 10-term Republican congressman’s
support of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
vetoed by President Bush. The advertising, not produced by Walsh and
a surprise to him, was put out by the Americans for Children’s Health
coalition seeking support for the expansion of government-provided
health care.

The ads, purchased in districts of Walsh and other Republican
congressman who broke with Bush on health care, push them to override
the veto.

The coalition consists of member organizations of health care
industries: drugs (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America), doctors (American Medical Association), nursing homes
(American Health Care Association), consumers (Families USA) and
hospitals (Federation of American Hospitals).

Robert Novak is a syndicated columnist and editor of the Evans-Novak
Political Report

2007/10/13/turkeys_lobbyist

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress