Vanity Fair's not the only magazine with a Sarah Palin piece out today. Runner's World has a Q&A feature with the Alaska governor, albeit a slightly less buzzy one. Among many insights about the governor's exercise regimen, there are also a few reminiscences about the 2008 campaign:
Tell me about a memorable run during the campaign that really stands out.
Oh, my gosh, the one that really stands out I'm embarrassed to death to repeat. I went for a run at John McCain's ranch a couple of days before the debate with Joe Biden. My favorite thing in the world is to run on hot, dusty roads. I don't get enough of that in Alaska. So I was in heaven and there were plenty of hills so I knew my thighs were going to just throb and my lungs were going to burn and that's what I crave.
I like running alone and having the Secret Service with me added a little bit of pressure. I'm thinking I gotta have good form and can't be hyperventilating and can't be showing too much pain and that adds a little more pressure on you as you're trying to be out there enjoying your run. Then I fell coming down a hill and was so stinkin' embarrassed that a golf cart full of Secret Service guys had to pull up beside me. My hands just got torn up and I was dripping blood. In the debate you could see a big fat ugly Band-Aid on my right hand. I have a nice war wound now as a reminder of that fall in the palm of my right hand. For much of the campaign, shaking hands was a little bit painful.
One notable passage in the president's speech to not-for-profit groups this afternoon, which probably could have been delivered by any Republican president in the last generation:
Folks who are struggling don't simply need more government bureaucracy; that top-down, one-size-fits-all program usually doesn't end up fitting anybody. People don't need somebody out in Washington to tell them how to solve their problems, especially when the best solutions are often right there in their own neighborhoods, just waiting to be discovered.
The AP has a remarkable write-thru from its Sanford interview, one which ... well, just give it a read:
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday that he "crossed lines" with a handful of women other than his mistress — but never had sex with them.
The governor said he "never crossed the ultimate line" with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed his once-promising political career.
"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."
During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he's trying to fall back in love with his wife.
He said that during the encounters with other women he "let his guard down" with some physical contact but "didn't cross the sex line." He wouldn't go into detail.
Sanford said the casual encounters happened outside the U.S. while he was married but before he met Chapur, on trips to "blow off steam" with male friends.
Sanford also admitted he saw Chapur more times than previously disclosed, including what was to be a farewell meeting in New York chaperoned by a spiritual adviser soon after his wife found out about the affair.
Huge and very welcome news today for DC (and especially Penn Quarter) bbq lovers breaking this afternoon from WashPost foodie Tom Sietsema:
Hill Country, the big barn of a barbecue joint in New York, is coming to Washington, courtesy of its founder, Bethesda native Marc Glosserman. While the self-service restaurant is still a year away from opening in Penn Quarter (at 410 Seventh St. NW), some of us are already licking our lips in anticipation of a slab or two of the signature dry-rubbed, slow-smoked brisket and ribs.
Like the original in Chelsea, the 250-seat Hill Country in Washington will take its cue (pun intended) from Kreuz Market, the famous barbecue destination in Lockhart, Texas, where the meat is sold by weight at a counter and presented on butcher paper. With his second location, Glosserman is once again aiming for "faithful replication": the wood for the fire will be Texas post oak, the drinks will include Big Red cream soda from Waco, Texas, and the desserts will use Blue Bell brand ice cream.
The secret to good Texas barbecue? "It's not what you put on," says Glosserman, whose father hails from Lockhart, "but what you leave off." Nix any sauce. His meats are simply seasoned with kosher salt, black pepper and cayenne.
Food won't be the only draw at Hill Country, which is expected to debut in July 2010. Along with baked beans "with burnt ends" and PB&J cupcakes, restaurant offerings will include live music by country, blues and Southern rock acts.
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously ruled Al Franken the winner of last November’s Senate race, putting the former “Saturday Night Live” star on the brink of becoming a United States senator and Democrats on the cusp of holding a dominant supermajority in the Senate.
In a unanimous 5-0 decision, the court upheld a three-judge panel’s April 14 ruling that Franken defeated Republican Norm Coleman in the race by 312 votes out of 2.9 million cast.
The question now is whether the incumbent Republican senator will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case – and if Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty would sign an election certificate in the interim – potentially prolonging a final decision for months. Doing so also would force Coleman to raise significant more funds to keep his court challenge going.
Rep. John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat, said he "was close to nauseated" by the moment of silence held in honor of Michael Jackson last week on the House floor.
"I thought it was outrageous," Yarmuth told a Los Angeles radio station Monday. "In my two and a half years, we’ve never done that for anybody else who’s a celebrity. We’ve done it for former members, and that’s about it, for former members who’ve passed away. … I basically got up and walked back to the cloakroom and got off the floor, because I just thought it was totally uncalled for and over the top."
And Yarmuth said plenty of his Democratic colleagues were in the cloakroom, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Robert Byrd's office says he's been released from the hospital and is at his Washington-area home recuperating from a more-than monthlong illness.
The 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat, who is the longest-serving senator, is continuing physical therapy as he recovers from a staph infection he contracted while hospitalized for another infection.
Aides released scant details during his hospitalization, declining even to say where he received treatment.
Byrd says he's looking forward to celebrating the nation's birthday with his family.
A safe play all around for Sen. Vincent Sheheen, a Democrat running for governor next year:
"As a husband and the father of three young sons, I am truly saddened about the challenges facing the Sanfords, and I wish them God’s blessings. Let me be clear: the Governor’s private failings are not the issue. But his failure in his public office and the repercussions affect us all,” Sheheen said.
“Every elected official holds a public trust,” Sheheen continued. “The Governor’s actions constitute a serious breach of that trust. If Governor Sanford were an employee in the private sector, I have no doubt he would have been fired by now. If he were a cabinet head working for this very Governor, he would have been forced to resign already.”
Sheheen said that at time when the state most needs leadership on the economy, Sanford has made the state a laughingstock.
"The governor’s office is a place for leadership, not a forum for self-healing," Sheheen said. "I believe Governor Sanford should take the only action that will allow South Carolina to move forward. He should resign his office.
Gov. Mark Sanford, apparently doing a full disclosure interview, admits he didn't tell the whole story about his affair last week.
He clearly wants to hang on, so this would seem like a get-it-all-out effort meant to pre-empt further drip-drip reporting that could imperil his prospects for survival.
Still, it also amounts to an admission of yet more lying and deceit:
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is admitting more encounters with his Argentine mistress than he previously has disclosed.
In a lengthy, emotional interview with The Associated Press, the governor described seven meetings with the woman, including their first in 2001. Sanford says there have been five over a 12-month period, including two multi-night stays with her in New York.
It was the first disclosure of any get-togethers with her in the United States and contradicted a public confession last week during which he admitted to a total of four encounters in the past year.
He previously announced he would reimburse the state for money spent during a government trip to Brazil and Argentina in June 2008. But he insists no public money was used for any other meetings with her.
A day after we reported that the Laborers was going on the air in Montana with recess ads targeting Sen. Max Baucus over taxing health care benefits, the union says the Finance Committee Chairman's office contacted them to discuss the issue — and to ask them to stop the ad from running.
While the spot is on the air now, Laborers spokesman Jacob Hay said they'll take it down tomorrow as plans are made for a meeting on the controversial issue between the union and the senator's office.
A similar ad targeting Sen. Kent Conrad is still on the air in North Dakota, and Hay said they were soon going up with a spot in Iowa aimed at Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Finance Committee's ranking Republican.
Rep. Gresham Barrett, the upstate GOP congressman who is running for governor next year, has been relatively quiet during the whole Sanford affair, an effort to keep a statesman-like distance from the sordid mess.
Today his campaign e-mailed supporters in an attempt to shift the focus away from s-e-x to j-o-b-s, and his own broader message.
The message: I want to be the adult here
Dear Friend:
It's been a sad and difficult month for leadership here in South Carolina. But despite the recent challenges and controversies, we have to stay focused.
Our economy is in trouble. We’ve lost 95,000 jobs in the last twelve months. Unemployment is at 12.1%. And rising. Competing states are fighting us for every new job and each dime of new capital investment like never before. And President Obama and the Democrats in Congress aren't making it any easier for us with their record spending, runaway taxes, and mountain of mandates.
So how do we get back on track?
You can sum up my plans for SC in one word - JOBS.
The State's editorial page, speaking for much of South Carolina's political establishment, minces no words in capturing why there have been so relatively few calls on Sanford to resign.
And the kicker is just downright brutal:
THE PEOPLE CALLING for Gov. Mark Sanford’s resignation — from The New York Times to state Sen. Jake Knotts — either want to ensure that Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer wins the 2010 gubernatorial election or else haven’t thought through the effect this could have on the outcome of that crucial race.
Reasonable people can disagree over whether it would be better to have Mr. Sanford or Mr. Bauer in the governor’s office for the next 18 months. And if Mr. Bauer were not running for governor, this might be a more difficult call. But Mr. Bauer is running for governor, and it simply is not responsible to overlook the tremendous advantage he would have if he were able to use the bully pulpit of that office for the next year.
The idea of handing any candidate such a huge advantage is particularly dangerous right now, given the importance of next year’s elections. Our state has deep problems, and we have spent six and a half years treading water rather than solving them. (The Legislature shares blame for this, but that’s neither here nor there.) It’s hard to remember a time when our state has been in more desperate need of strong, focused leadership, to set us to building a stronger economy and a better-educated citizenry. Although this could change in the coming year, to this point Mr. Bauer simply has not demonstrated that he has the vision to lead our state.
Nor is it responsible to overlook what we know about Mr. Bauer as a person. Mr. Sanford acted in a grossly irresponsible way for one week. Mr. Bauer’s fits of irresponsibility and self-dealing have been a hallmark of his tenure: He intimidated the Transportation Department into paying him more than double its original offer for a sliver of land to widen a highway, and then “forgot” to report that sale as required by law. He barreled down Columbia's Assembly Street at speeds up to 60 mph, running two red lights and so startling a police officer that he felt the need to pull a gun on Mr. Bauer. He used a police radio to try to call off troopers when he was driving 101 mph on his way home from a political event in a state car and, when that failed, escaped without even a warning by making the trooper think he was a high-ranking law enforcement officer. Even before he was elected, he sent out campaign flyers designed to make it look like all the GOP gubernatorial candidates had endorsed him (they had not), and then bragged about his trickery.
Mr. Sanford, who never wanted a security team, was convinced to accept one in order to protect him from the public. Mr. Bauer has always craved his own security detail, and lawmakers gave in and provided him one after it became clear that he needed to be protected from himself — and, frankly, that the public needed protection from him.
Now word has it that Mr. Bauer is pledging to give up his 2010 bid for governor if he gets to be governor for the next 18 months. That raises more questions than it answers. Does he want to be a governor who works to move our state forward or not? If he’s willing to settle for being a caretaker, why wouldn’t he come out and say that publicly, rather than whispering it to legislators? Most significantly, can we really take him at his word? He swore during his 2006 re-election bid that he would not seek the office of governor. Ever. We see how good that promise was. That we would have to ask such a question says a lot about his potential to improve the situation in which our state finds itself. The cliche about frying pans and fires comes to mind.
If we’re looking to rid our state of embarrassment, it’s hard to see how replacing Mr. Sanford with Mr. Bauer would accomplish that. And it’s hard to overstate the potential long-term downside of such a move.
If you haven't already, make time today to dive into Todd S. Purdum's piece in the new Vanity Fair on Sarah Palin.
Mike Allen has much of the news in today's Playbook (McKinnon as Palin whisperer!) but the whole thing is worth the read for the historic and literary touches only Purdum can deliver.
Such turns as:
Palin is unlike any other national figure in modern American life — neither Anna Nicole Smith nor Margaret Chase Smith but a phenomenon all her own. The clouds of tabloid conflict and controversy that swirl around her and her extended clan — the surprise pregnancies, the two-bit blood feuds, the tawdry in-laws and common-law kin caught selling drugs or poaching game — give her family a singular status in the rogues’ gallery of political relatives. By comparison, Billy Carter, Donald Nixon, and Roger Clinton seem like avatars of circumspection. Palin’s life has sometimes played out like an unholy amalgam of Desperate Housewives and Northern Exposure.
And the more high-brow:
The first thing McCain could have learned about Palin is what it means that she is from Alaska. More than 30 years ago, John McPhee wrote, “Alaska is a foreign country significantly populated with Americans. Its languages extend to English. Its nature is its own. Nothing seems so unexpected as the boxes marked ‘U.S. Mail.’”
The political fallout from the very tough piece: Critics will find more about her to loathe, supporters will think she's again being victimized by the media and those who fall into neither category will be that much more curious to find out what McCain himself now truly thinks about his decision.
As I wrote over the weekend, just because the South Carolina story is now as much about Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer as it is Gov. Mark Sanford doesn't mean it's any less about sex.
The politics of sex — abortion, homosexuality and, looking at you Sen. Thurmond and McCain '00 opponents, whispers about cross-racial affairs — has a way of always finding its way into the Palmetto State's political discourse.
And so it's not terribly surprising that after his top adviser said to me on the record on Saturday that Bauer was straight (and in demand!), that the lieutenant governor would go there himself with The State:
During an interview Monday, Bauer, who is a bachelor, voluntarily brought up the subject of his sexual orientation, which he said has been the subject of rumors.
Asked, then, if he's homosexual, Bauer said: "One word, two letters: no. Let's go ahead and dispel that now.
"Is Andre Bauer gay? That is now the story," he said. "We're a long way from where we were a week ago."
New York Gov. David Paterson racked up a rare political victory Monday, as a state Supreme Court judge ruled in his favor, ordering that the full state Senate must convene at his command in order to organize the leadership of the chamber. The balance of power in the Senate remains unclear after a party-switching gambit by two Democratic senators went awry.
Justice Joseph Teresi's blunt ruling is worth a look, via the Daily News:
The judge (who happens to be a Democrat) made no secret of his contempt for the Senate mess and issued a harsh rebuke to the senators from the bench.
"You have a unique opportunity as elected officials to take the high road; do the right thing for the greater good," Teresi said.
"Otherwise there are those citizens of the public who would conclude, if they have not already concluded, that these members have placed their own interests ahead of all other citizens of this state to the benefit of their own personal and selfish interests, and that those same people may also conclude and define that conduct as rude, inconsiderate and egotistical.
"Unfortunately I am not without the power to correct or address those issues."
My colleague Josh Gerstein flags a story that shows just how delicate the Obama administration's position is, as it formulates a response to the turbulence in Honduras. While the president has called the country's transfer of power "not legal" and Hillary Clinton has dubbed it a "coup," it turns out there are some 600 U.S. military personnel in the country -- more or less biding their time.
No American forces were called back from the Soto Cano air base in Honduras, 60 miles from the capital of Tegucigalpa, where the U.S. has leased space and maintains a runway with helicopters and about 600 U.S. military, including mechanics.
...
''There are no changes there,'' reported Jose Ruiz, spokesman for the Pentagon's Southern Command in Miami, which directs the U.S. military in Latin America and the Caribbean. ``We see no indication of a security threat at Joint Task Force Bravo.''
Likewise, Ruiz said, Southcom has kept its contingent of U.S. military officers at the U.S. Embassy in the capital, with no reinforcements nor plans to decrease their presence in response to the military ouster of President Manuel Zelaya.
South Carolina Lt. Gov Andre Bauer's suggestion to CNN today that he would not run for a full-term as governor should Gov. Mark Sanford resign is, not surprisingly, being scoffed at by intra-party rivals.
One GOP activist noted that Bauer has tried something similar in the past, pointing to a Greenville News interview in 2006 where, during a tough primary battle, the lieutenant govenor suggested he wouldn't run for governor in 2010.
Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said Wednesday that if he is renominated and re-elected this year, he will walk away from politics and won't run for governor or any office in 2010.
Bauer, 37, told The Greenville News a second term as lieutenant governor would be his last because "I want to go back, make a good living. I'd like to meet somebody and start a family. This stuff wears on you. Some people get a big drive out of it.
"I'm an average person. I didn't get a political science degree, I got a business degree. I didn't go to law school.
"I'm a small business owner, and contrary to what a lot of people think ... I don't aspire to have any big dreams of holding big political office and carrying on some legacy."
The comment came at the conclusion of an interview on the lieutenant governor's office as a steppingstone to governor.
The consensus among Bauer's GOP foes is that he made the move to shore up his statesman credentials and could still find a way, in the fashion politicians often do, to still run for governor next year. Also, that Bauer floated the idea knowing that Sanford isn't likely to actually resign.
Asked about the 2006 comments, Chris LaCivta, a Bauer consultant, said: "Has Andre announced that he’s a candidate for Governor? Does he have an Andre Bauer for Governor account? No and no – he said he was considering it.
"Despite the political intrigue, what the people of South Carolina need is someone who is willing to put the people first – and focus on jobs for the next 18 months."
The Laborers -- like much of organized labor -- are deeply opposed to any tax on health benefits. So they're going up with TV and radio ads on in Montana and North Dakota aimed at Sens. Baucus and Conrad.
A spokesman for the Laborers wouldn't detail the buy, but said the TV spots will be on broadcast and cable in the two states starting tomorrow and going through next Thursday.
