Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

NEW YORK (AP) -- A woman says Republican presidential contender Herman Cain reached under her skirt for her genitals and pushed her head toward his crotch in July 1997.

Sharon Bialek told reporters Monday in New York that she met with Cain to ask about getting her old job back at the National Restaurant Association when the incident happened in Washington. At the time, Cain was chief of a restaurant trade group.

ATLANTA (AP) -- Presidential candidate Herman Cain says he never changed his story about sexual harassment allegations against him in the 1990s.

In a Tuesday interview, Cain told Headline News that he didn't contradict himself when he said a day earlier that he was unaware of a settlement between a woman and the National Restaurant Association, where he worked at the time, over allegations against Cain. He said he was aware of an agreement, but not a settlement.

Cain says -- quote -- "So it looked like I had changed my story. I didn't change my story."

In a series of appearances Monday, Cain first insisted he was unaware of any financial arrangements between the trade association and his accuser. In an interview with PBS NewsHour later that night, Cain acknowledged he was aware of an "agreement" but not of a settlement.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Monday he was "falsely accused" of sexual harassment while he led the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

Cain was responding to a Politico report that said the trade group settled complaints from at least two women that Cain had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.

Cain told Fox News he has never sexually harassed anyone and that he was "falsely accused." He said investigations into any complaints found that they were "baseless."

"I've never sexually harassed anyone," he said. "And yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association, and I say falsely because it turned out after the investigation to be baseless."

But he also said he had no idea whether the trade association provided financial settlements to the women who complained, as Politico reported. "I hope it wasn't for much, because I was never aware of it," Cain said.

Cain said he has not been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior in any other context. "Absolutely not," he said when asked if more reports of harassment could surface.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Looking for a big-name speaker?

Now may be the time to send President Barack Obama an invitation, especially if your group represents a key political constituency.

Obama has been making the rounds of Washington's awards dinners and black-tie galas this fall, donning a tuxedo or dark suit and heading to ballrooms across the nation's capital to speak to organizations representing blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women and gays. This weekend, he adds Italian- Americans to that list.

With the 2012 campaign picking up steam and Obama struggling to recapture the enthusiasm of 2008, the president's role as headline speaker has plenty of political undertones. He needs the well-connected, politically active leaders of these groups to help him motivate their members, raise money for his re-election and get people to show up to vote in next year's election.

And the president's remarks give him a chance to address specific criticism from some supporters, and tout lesser-known administration actions that target their needs.

Since September, Obama has been the featured speaker at dinners for the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a forum on American Latino Heritage, and the annual gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights group. The president will speak Saturday at a black-tie dinner for the National Italian American Foundation, and in early November, at an awards dinner for the National Women's Law Center. The Union for Reform Judaism also says Obama will speak at its December conference.

Obama is following the path of many of his predecessors, who have also tried to curry favor with influential Washington-based organizations, particularly those with similar political leanings.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tens of thousands of people who together gave millions of dollars to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign have gone missing this time around. Their failure to give so far may signal that some of the president's earliest supporters have lost enthusiasm.

At the same time, Republican rivals like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have been gaining financial strength in parts of the country that were instrumental in swinging the last election for Obama, according to an Associated Press analysis of new campaign finance data.

The president's re-election effort is hardly hurting for cash: His campaign and the Democratic Party raised more than $70 million combined since July, outstripping all Republicans combined by millions. But some supporters who wrote Obama larger checks early in the 2008 campaign haven't done so this time, representing more than $10 million in missing donations.

The AP's analysis suggests that Obama, beleaguered by a struggling economy, will have to work harder to win back party stalwarts and swing voters alike. His approval ratings have slumped to 41 percent in a recent Gallup poll, as steadfast supporters have found themselves less able or less willing to open their wallets again.

"He was our state senator, and when I looked at the Republican side, I thought, `We need some fresh blood in the campaign,'" said Janet Tavakoli, 58, a financial analyst from Chicago who gave $1,000 to Obama in 2008. "But I was dead wrong about it," she said, and isn't supporting any candidate this time.

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Mitt Romney gingerly distanced himself from a labor issue on the Ohio ballot one day. The next, he embraced the initiative "110 percent."

The reversal not only highlights his record of equivocations but also underscores the local political minefields national candidates often confront in their state-by-state path to the presidency.

Candidates visiting Nevada often wade into the debate about where nuclear waste should go. They're pressed in South Carolina to take a stand on an aircraft maker's labor dispute. In New Hampshire, they face questions about right-to-work issues. And then there are the perennials, such as ethanol subsidies in Iowa and the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina.

Such local issues aren't of concern to most voters across the nation, but these topics can matter greatly to voters wanting to hear the thoughts of candidates soliciting support ahead of presidential primaries. Candidates often work to strike a balance between addressing issues local voters care about without staking out hardline positions that could hurt them elsewhere.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Tuesday criticized the Palestinian Authority's effort to seek formal recognition by the U.N. General Assembly and assailed the Obama administration's broader policies in the Middle East.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a blunt rejoinder to congressional Republicans, President Barack Obama called for $1.5 trillion in new taxes Monday, part of a total 10-year deficit reduction package totaling more than $3 trillion. "We can't just cut our way out of this hole," the president said.

The president's proposal would predominantly hit upper income taxpayers but would also reduce spending in mandatory benefit programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, by $580 billion. It also counts savings of $1 trillion over 10 years from the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama's recommendation to a joint congressional committee served as a sharp counterpoint to Republican lawmakers, who have insisted that tax increases should play no part in taming the nation's escalating national debt. Obama's plan would end Bush-era tax cuts for top earners and would limit their deductions.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Savoring the unlikeliest of victories, Republicans called their triumph in a New York City congressional race a repudiation of President Barack Obama's policies on the economy and Israel on Wednesday as public and private polls showed his approval ratings plummeting in a district he carried handily in 2008.

"We're not going to sugarcoat it, it was a tough loss," conceded the House Democratic Campaign Committee. Yet party officials and the White House insisted the race was not a referendum on the president as he seeks re-election with the economy stagnant and unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent.

In New York, Rep.-elect Bob Turner, outpolled state Assemblyman David Weprin in a light-turnout election. He will replace former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned in disgrace earlier this year in a sexting scandal. Represented by Democrats since the 1920s, the district includes portions of Brooklyn and Queens, is home to three times as many registered Democrats as Republicans and is nearly 40 percent Jewish.

ATLANTA (AP) -- President Barack Obama's jobs pitch is already playing well with blacks, who had grown plenty irked with him over what they perceived as his indifference to their needs.

A day after Obama laid out before Congress his plan to kick-start job growth, many blacks hoped it would translate into reduced misery for them over the coming months. While the country's unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, black unemployment has hit 16.7 percent, the highest since 1984. Unemployment among male blacks is at 18 percent, and black teens are unemployed at a rate of 46.5 percent.

The early signs of their reaction were positive.

Social media sites were abuzz with highlights from the president's plan. Amid the comments were excited responses to the proposal, especially from the black community. Twitter was full of similar bursts of excitement over the plan, with some black Tweeters defending the president and applauding his message. One user tweeted: "Taking a sharp tone `cause the NumbersDontLie! Pass this bill and put America back to work."

Prominent African-Americans like Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express and Michael Nutter, mayor of Philadelphia, quickly applauded the plan. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has been one of the most vocal advocates for dealing more effectively with black unemployment, but she was enthusiastic.

For the president, it was a welcome change in tone after a steady drumbeat of criticism from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who held their own job fairs and town hall meetings while protesting that Obama's jobs tour across America last month bypassed black communities.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the early days of the Obama administration, organized labor had grand visions of pushing through a sweeping agenda that would help boost sagging membership and help revive union strength.

Now labor faces this reality: Public employee unions are in a drawn-out fight for their very survival in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states where GOP lawmakers have curbed collective bargaining rights.

Also, many union leaders are grousing that the president they worked so hard to elect has not focused enough on job creation and other bold plans to get their members back to work.

"Obama campaigned big, but he's governing small," said Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.

Labor remains a core Democratic constituency and union leaders will stand with Obama in Detroit this Labor Day, where he will address thousands of rank-and-file members during the city's annual parade Monday.

But at the same time, unions have begun shifting money and resources out of Democratic congressional campaigns and back to the states in a furious effort to reverse or limit GOP measures that could wipe out union rolls.

The AFL-CIO's president, Richard Trumka, says it's part of a new strategy for labor to build an independent voice separate from the Democratic Party.

Union donations to federal candidates at the beginning of this year were down about 40 percent compared with the same period in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Last month, a dozen trade unions said they would boycott next year's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., over frustration on the economy and to protest the event's location in a right-to-work state.

"The pendulum has swung a long way," said Ross Eisenbrey, a vice president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. "In the next year, I think all unions can really hope for is to keep more bad things from happening and to get as much of a jobs program enacted as possible."

Unions fell short last month in their recall campaign to wrest control of the Wisconsin Senate from Republicans. That fight was a consequence of Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public-employee unions as a part of a cost-cutting effort. Now they are spending millions more in Ohio, where they hope to pass a statewide referendum in November that would repeal a similar measure limiting union rights.

It's a far cry from the early optimism unions had after Obama came into office. Back then, unions hoped a Democratic-controlled Congress would pass legislation to make it easier for unions to organize workers. But business groups fought that proposal hard, and it never came to a vote.

Union leaders grew more disappointed when the president's health care overhaul didn't include a government-run insurance option. Then Obama agreed to extend President George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.

Obama came out in favor of trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama that most unions say will cost American jobs. Despite campaigning in favor of raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 an hour, Obama hasn't touched the issue since taking office.

It didn't help that Obama declined union invitations to go to Wisconsin, where thousands of protesters mobilized against the anti-union measure. Candidate Obama had promised to "put on sneakers" and walk a picket line himself when union rights were threatened.

Obama has handed labor smaller victories that didn't have to go through Congress, like granting the nation's 44,000 airport screeners limited collective bargaining rights for the first time. The National Labor Relations Board and other agencies filled with Obama's appointees have made it easier for unions to organize workers in the airline, railroad and health care industries.

The NLRB has taken a beating from Republicans after filing a lawsuit that accuses Boeing of opening a new plant in South Carolina in retaliation against union workers in Washington state.

"The field has tilted against labor so that whatever small victories they get are just tinkering around the edges and get tremendous pushback by conservatives," said Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

But labor's frustration with Obama reached new heights this summer as Trumka accused him of working with tea party Republicans on deficit reduction instead of "stepping up to the plate" on jobs.

Labor unions and other liberal groups want Obama to push a major stimulus bill with hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on infrastructure projects like roads, bridges and transit systems. Even if it's rejected in the GOP-controlled House, unions want to see Obama show more leadership and take a bold stand in favor of stimulus spending.

That's not likely to happen. Constrained by budget cuts and a tight debt ceiling, Obama is expected to propose a limited package worth far less than the $787 billion stimulus passed in 2009.

The plan will call on Congress to extend current payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits, spend money for new construction projects and offer incentives to businesses to hire more workers.

James Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said Obama should challenge businesses with healthy bottom lines to spend more in the U.S. by hiring new workers, building plants and expanding operations. If they don't, Hoffa said, Obama should call them out as disloyal.

"I think the president should challenge the patriotism of these American corporations that are sitting on the sidelines," Hoffa said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

He added, "We've got to turn this around and say, `Hey, we are an American company. We owe an obligation to America. Let's put America back to work.'"

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis defended Obama from liberal critics, saying the administration has established many programs to create jobs, worked to extend unemployment insurance benefits and helped save the auto industry.

"The president is very concerned about job creation," Solis told reporters at the National Press Club. "That been our priority from day one."

Union face a tougher challenge in the states.

Walker wanted to patch the state's budget shortfall by requiring state workers to pay more for their health care and pension benefits. He said curbing bargaining rights was important in the long term to prevent unions from reversing the move in future negotiations.

Republican Wisconsin state Rep. Robin Vos said the big money spent by pro-labor forces in the recall elections shows "that they're not about protecting workers rights, they're about protecting political power."

"This is the last grasp of those political bosses to be able to showcase why they need to have the political power, and they lost," he said.

Conservatives say Walker's measure has done just what it promised, closing budget shortfalls without laying off teachers and other workers.

"As the changes have had time to sink in, people appear to be accepting it, and it appears to be part of the new status quo," said James Sherk, a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

A measure passed in Tennessee this year ended collective bargaining for teachers unions in the state. In Oklahoma, lawmakers repealed a law that had required large municipalities to collectively bargain with municipal employees.

"The fact that you didn't see much pushback in those states, I think, is significant," Sherk said.

Union leaders see a more sinister plan not only to cut union benefits, but to crush unions altogether, along with their political largesse to Democrats. The Wisconsin law, for example, bans automatic withdrawal of union dues and requires public unions to hold annual votes to avoid decertification.

In Ohio, unions are more hopeful that they can win a November referendum to undo the state's collective bargaining law that passed this spring. A Quinnipiac University poll in July found that 56 percent of Ohio voters say the new collective bargaining law should be repealed, compared with 32 percent who favor keeping it in place.

"A victory in Ohio would be a tremendous shot against the bow of Republicans to not mess with the unions," Lichtenstein said.

It could also help unions show they are still a political force to be reckoned with at both the state and national level.

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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama faces a long re-election campaign having all but given up on the economy rebounding in any meaningful way before November 2012. His own budget office predicts unemployment will stay at about 9 percent, a frightening number for any president seeking a second term.

Obama's prospects aren't entirely grim, however. The GOP, heavily influenced by the tea party, may nominate someone so deeply flawed or right-leaning that, Democrats hope, Obama can persuade Americans to give him a second chance rather than risk the alternative.

Democrats say the man who ran on hope and change in 2008 will have to claw his way toward a second term with a sharply negative campaign.

The strengths and weaknesses of his prospects seem clear.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Brushing off bad poll numbers, presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman predicts he'll win New Hampshire's Republican primary.

The former Utah governor set high expectations Thursday at the popular Politics and Eggs discussion series. His comments came in the same week he earned just 1 percent in two national polls.

He says polls are meaningless this early.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the nation prepares for the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks - a date al-Qaida has cited as a potential opportunity to strike again - security is intensifying at airports, train stations, nuclear plants and major sporting arenas around the country.

"At this point there is no specific credible threat, but that doesn't mean we are relaxing at all in terms of our vigilance," said John Brennan, President Barack Obama's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser.

"We are concerned about the lone actors that are out there, we are concerned that al-Qaida or others may try to take advantage of the 9/11 anniversary events," Brennan told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

"We're looking at all different angles - what might have been planned for a while, we're still looking for indications that there might be something out there, but we are very interested in seeing whether or not there's any indication whatsoever of a lone actor and that's much more difficult to pick up."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Whites and women are a re-election problem for President Barack Obama. Younger voters and liberals, too, but to a lesser extent.

All are important Democratic constituencies that helped him win the White House in 2008 and whose support he'll need to keep it next year.

An analysis of Associated Press-GfK polls, including the latest survey released last week, shows that Obama has lost ground among all those groups since he took office. The review points to his vulnerabilities and probable leading targets of his campaign as he seeks to assemble a coalition diverse enough to help him win re-election in tough economic times.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he has "no regrets" about the harsh interrogation policies the Bush administration pursued in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

The often controversial Cheney also says "I don't know why" former President George W. Bush should feel betrayed by insider information he reveals in his new memoir.

Asked in an NBC interview if he still embraces waterboarding, Cheney says, "I would strongly support using it again if circumstances arose where we had a high-value detainee and that was the only way we could get him to talk."

The new book will be published next week by Simon & Shuster. Cheney was a lightning-rod for criticism during Bush's presidency, accused by opponents of often advocating a belligerent U.S. stance in world affairs.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security's disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.

Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can't find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.

The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants - many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved - and worsening the financial problems of a program that's been running in the red for years.

New congressional estimates say the trust fund that supports Social Security disability will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits, unless Congress acts. About two decades later, Social Security's much larger retirement fund is projected to run dry as well.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Thursday will make his first explicit call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign, a senior administration official said, as international pressure mounted for the embattled leader to leave power over the brutal repression of his people.

Obama will issue his call in a written statement on Thursday morning, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will echo the language soon after in an on-camera appearance. The administration will also slap new sanctions on Syria to bolster Obama's move.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- President Barack Obama began a three-day bus tour Monday that will give him a chance to hear directly from a public frustrated with Washington even as energized Republican presidential hopefuls mount counterattacks at every turn.

Air Force One landed midmorning at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and Obama disembarked under sunny skies and greeted a small crowd at a rope line. He then boarded an unmarked black bus for a 40-minute drive south to Cannon Falls, Minn., for a town hall event. Eager to get out of Washington, Obama struck a casual tone, ditching his suit and tie for a sports coat and khakis.

Obama's first bus trip as president will take him through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, a region that helped launch him to the White House in 2008, and where Republican presidential hopefuls are now battling it out. It comes on the heels of Republican Michele Bachmann's weekend victory in the Iowa Straw Poll - and after the president spent much of the summer holed up in the nation's capital enmeshed in bitterly partisan negotiations on the debt crisis that cratered his approval ratings and those of Congress amid a faltering economy and high unemployment.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that he has the best economic record and executive experience in government of any rival in the Republican presidential field, contrasting his credentials with those of his top two opponents, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann.

"I respect all the other candidates in the field but there is no one that can stand toe-to-toe with us," Perry told The Associated Press in an interview at the start of his first full day campaigning in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa.

Perry also offered up his first policy proposal as a candidate, calling for a six-month moratorium on federal business regulations that he said were holding back job growth nationally. Perry brought the proposal forward just as President Barack Obama was traveling to the Midwest for a bus tour and speeches on the economy.

It was nothing short of an attempt by Perry to establish himself as the strongest Republican able to challenge Obama on jobs - and lay claim to Romney's mantel of jobs candidate.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says her experience running a small business gives her the qualifications to tackle the nation's economic troubles.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Ron Paul, once seen as a fringe candidate and a nuisance to the establishment, is shaping the 2012 Republican primary by giving voice to the party's libertarian wing and reflecting frustration with the United States' international entanglements.

The Texas congressman placed second in a key early test vote Saturday in Ames, coming within 152 votes of winning the first significant balloting of the Republican nominating contest. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota won the nonbinding Iowa straw poll, but Paul's organizational strength and a retooled focus on social issues set him up to be a serious player in the campaign.

"I believe in a very limited role for government. But the prime reason that government exists in a free society is to protect liberty, but also to protect life. And I mean all life," he told a raucous crowd on Saturday.

"You cannot have relative value for life and deal with that. We cannot play God and make those decisions. All life is precious," he said, opening his remarks with an anti-abortion appeal to the social conservatives who have great sway here in Iowa's leadoff caucuses.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The 12 lawmakers appointed to a new supercommittee charged with tackling the nation's fiscal problems have received millions in contributions from special interests with a stake in potential cuts to federal programs.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- International military forces worked on Monday to recover every last piece of a Chinook helicopter that crashed over the weekend, killing 30 American troops, seven Afghan soldiers and an Afghan interpreter, NATO said.

German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, told reporters that troops had secured the crash site in a rugged area of eastern Wardak province and nobody was being allowed in or out of the area while the investigation was ongoing.

Jacobson said the coalition still had not yet determined the exact cause of the crash, but some officials have said the heavy and lumbering transport helicopter was apparently shot down. Officials said the helicopter was hit as it was flying in and approaching the area.

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