Politico: Southerland among GOP reps on late-night, drink and swim in Israel

Politico: The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff – and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses.

During a fact-finding congressional trip to the Holy Land last summer, Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) took off his clothes and jumped into the sea, joining a number of members, their families and GOP staff during a night out in Israel, the sources told POLITICO. Other participants, including the daughter of another congressman, swam fully clothed while some lawmakers partially disrobed. More than 20 people took part in the late-night dip in the sea, according to sources who were participants in the trip.

These GOP sources confirmed the following freshmen lawmakers also went swimming that night: Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) and his daughter; Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and his wife; Reps. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). Many of the lawmakers who ventured into the ocean said they did so because of the religious significance of the waters. Others said they were simply cooling off after a long day. Several privately admitted that alcohol may have played a role in why some of those present decided to jump in. More here.

Specifically, it may help Mitt Romney to keep it vague. Or maybe not

No dates. No dollar signs. No numbers.

Mitt Romney’s two-page plan to overhaul Medicare is an exercise in vagueness.

And that could prove to be a most-effective campaign weapon this election season. Or it could be his undoing.

Specifics might be a thing to be avoided in a campaign. Elections often hinge more on emotions than on facts. They’re often more about how people figure a politician will improve their lives and not so much about the figures proposed by politicians.

And the addition of Paul Ryan to Romney’s presidential ticket hasn’t changed that at all.

A bars-and-charts-wielding Wisconsin congressman, Ryan has a reputation as a specifics guy. But now he’s the No. 2 on a ticket where the attention to detail doesn’t extend to details.

“The nature of running a presidential campaign is that you’re communicating direction to the American people,” an anonymous Romney adviser told the Politico website. “Campaigns that are about specifics, particularly in today’s environment, get tripped up.”

Case in point: President Barack Obama.

Obama promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. The deficit grew instead. Obama said his stimulus plan would keep unemployment below 8 percent. That hasn’t happened yet. He said he’d pass the pro-immigrant DREAM Act in his first term. That didn’t happen, either.

And, in February 2008, Obama campaign surrogate Kathleen Sebelius specifically pointed to Romney’s healthcare reform when he was governor of Massachusetts and said Obama believed “the individual mandate doesn’t work.”

By 2010, the mandate requiring people buy health insurance was the linchpin of Obamacare when it passed. And, ironically, Romney attacks the very plan that was based on his plan.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/19/2959339/specifically-it-pays-romney-to.html#storylink=cpy

Paul Ryan's stimulus problems, on video

Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan once objected to "the discredited economic playbook of borrow and spend Keynesian policies.” He then went on to oppose President Obama's $787 billion stimulus.

But unknown to many, Ryan supported a $715 billion rival Republican stimulus plan in 2009. And later, after he publicly opposed Obama's stimulus, Ryan secretly advocated for some money for his district --- on the grounds that it would create jobs. Then he denied he did it. Then his office acknowledged it did, in fact, ask for the money.

Now MSNBC's Christ Hayes dug up CSPAN video from 2002 in which Paul sure sounds a lot like a Democrat in 2009 advocating for stimulus. The big differences: the size of the stimulus. And President Bush was in office when Ryan advocated for the “time-tested” stimulus plans.

“What we’re trying to accomplish today with the passage of this third stimulus package is to create jobs and help the unemployed,” he said.

The videos:

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Clemens wins state Senate recount by 17 votes

If anyone believes in the power of a single vote (or 17 single votes), it's state Rep. Jeff Clemens.

Recount results released late Saturday put the Lake Worth Democrat ahead of state Senate primary opponent Rep. Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, by a mere 17 ballots.

The final tally? Clemens: 12,157, Bernard: 12,140.

"You have to give it to Mack Bernard's campaign for running a great race," said Cesar Fernandez, Clemens's campaign manager.

Clemens and Bernard are friends who went to Haiti together after the 2010 earthquake to deliver supplies and they will continue to work together moving forward, Fernandez said.

"The next step is to reach out to Mack supporters and let them know (Clemens) is going to be representing their interests in Tallahassee," Fernandez said.

Clemens will technically face write-in candidate Travis Genard Harris in the Nov. 6 general election. But Saturday's run-off results have more-than-likely won him the District 27 seat.

In response to the recount results, Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said in a press release, "Every vote counts and this race underscores just how important it is for Floridians to get out and cast a ballot this November.”

Twitter: @Britt_alana

ProPublica: How the IRS ignores 'nonprofit' electioneering of shadow committees. Corporate welfare?

A must-read from Pro Publica:

Matt Brooks describes the mission of the Republican Jewish Coalition as educating the Jewish community about critical domestic and foreign policy issues.

But the well-dressed crowd that gathered in May for a luncheon on the 24th floor of a New York law firm easily could have figured that the group had a different purpose: Helping Mitt Romney win the presidency.

Brooks, the group's executive director, showed the 100 or so attendees two coalition-funded ads taking aim at President Barack Obama. Then Brooks made a pitch for a $6.5 million plan to help Romney in battleground states, reminding guests that their donations would not be publicly disclosed by the tax-exempt group.

"Contributions to the RJC are not reported," Brooks told the people sitting around a horseshoe-shaped table. "We don't make our donors' names available. We can take corporate money, personal money, cash, shekels, whatever you got."

The Republican Jewish Coalition and similar organizations enjoy tax-exempt status in exchange for promoting social welfare. In this election, the most expensive in U.S. history, they also have emerged as the primary conduit for anonymous big-money contributions.

Forget super PACs, their much-hyped cousins, which can take unlimited contributions but must name their donors. More money is being spent on TV advertising in the presidential race by social welfare nonprofits, known as 501(c)(4)s for their section of the tax code, than by any other type of independent group.

As of Aug. 8, they had spent more than $71 million on ads mentioning a candidate for president, according to estimates by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group, or CMAG. Super PACs have spent an estimated $56 million.

Congress created the legal framework for 501(c)(4) nonprofits nearly a century ago. To receive the tax exemption, groups were supposed to be "operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare." The IRS later opened the door to some forms of political activity by interpreting the statute to mean groups had to be "primarily" engaged in enhancing social welfare. But neither the tax code nor regulators set out how this would be measured.

In recent years, Democrats and Republicans alike have seized on that seemingly innocuous wording to create the darkest corner of American political fundraising.

An investigation by ProPublica, drawing on documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission, offers the most detailed picture to date of how 501(c)(4) groups have used their tax status for purposes likely never intended.

More here