Bloomberg Explains Why He Caved on Zuccotti Park Cleanup: 'If You Don’t Stop This, We’ll Make Your Life More Difficult'

Who are these "elected officals" who threatened Michael Bloomberg?

Mayor Bloomberg made his weekly radio show appearance Friday morning, saying Brookfield Properties informed him the company “got lots of calls from many elected officials threatening them and saying, ‘If you don’t stop this [the planned cleanup], we’ll make your life more difficult’.”

The mayor said he was not told who called Brookfield. Bloomberg’s girlfriend, Diana Taylor, serves on Brookfield’s board of directors.

Bloomberg told the radio show Brookfield Properties made the decision to call of the cleanup around midnight on Thursday night and is hoping to broker some kind of agreement with protesters in the next few days.

“Brookfield said they want to take a couple of days to try and negotiate something,” he said. “If you get through a couple of days, the question is what would be possible, and is it more complex to do two days from now what they wanted to do today?”

Just imagine if NYC had Rudy Giuliani back. This mess would have been cleaned up weeks ago.

Brookfield reversed its decision to clear the park because it was intimidated by elected officials who are siding with the protestors, an angry Mayor Bloomberg said today.

"My understanding is Brookfield got lots of calls from many elected officials, threatening them and saying if you don't stop this we'll make your life more difficult," the mayor said on his weekly radio show.

"If those elected officials had spent half as much time trying to promote the city to get jobs to come here we would a lot more ways towards answering the concerns of the protestors.

"I'm told they were inundated by lots of elected officials..."

The mayor said he didn't know which elected officials applied the pressure.

On Thursday, numerous officials -- including Rep. Jerry Nadler and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer -- stepped forward to demand that Brookfield and the city try to work out a voluntary resolution of the month-long sleep-in.

Update: The idiots are empowered.

"The longer this goes on, the worse it is for our economy. You just go down and talk to the stores in the neighborhood - there's one or two selling more pizzas, but most of them say this is hurting," Bloomberg added.

News of the postponement set off a wild celebration among the hundreds massed at the park, which they have occupied for the last four weeks. They hugged, sang, danced and beat on drums - all the while proclaiming victory.

"We are the 99%," the motley band of demonstrators chanted repeatedly.

"The powers that be can't touch us and this proves it. It's a big victory for the occupation," said Josh Long, 30, of Kensington, Brooklyn. "It's infused us with more passion and energy. No one can stop us now."

Running Scared: President Downgrade Cancels Public Appearances, WH Scraps Press Briefing

They're like little babies hiding behind their mommies. Used to be Obama would be on the television 24/7. Now that his presidency is in ruins, he's too cowardly to even show up in public.

One day after the stock market took its biggest plunge since the 2008 financial crisis, President Obama on Tuesday canceled a previously scheduled speech at a local moving company, and the White House also pulled the plug on the daily press briefing.

Instead of traveling to Springfield, Va.-based Interstate Moving Services and making public remarks on fuel efficiency standards for work trucks, Mr. Obama will meet privately with industry officials at the White House this morning — and that meeting will be closed to the press, the White House announced in a scheduling update Tuesday morning.

In addition, a 12:30 briefing with press secretary Jay Carney has been canceled, the update said.

Well, at least for one day we won't hear about a "balanced approach" to whatever.

It would have been nice to see the moving vans pull up in front of the White House as he and the family packed up to move back to Chicago.

Shocker: DOJ Whitewashes New Black Panther Case

What, you expected anything less from racial coward Eric Holder?

The Justice Department’s internal ethics watchdog on Tuesday told Congress that it had cleared all department lawyers of wrongdoing in relation to a much-disputed voter-intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party, a black-nationalist fringe group.

In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility said it had found no evidence that officials involved in decisions about the case acted inappropriately out of political or racial motivations.

The office said its conclusion applied both to officials who brought a sweeping civil lawsuit against the party in the closing days of the Bush administration, and those who decided to reduce the scope of the case early in the Obama administration.

“We determined that the attorneys involved in the NBPP case made good faith, reasonable assessments of the facts and the law,” wrote Robin Ashton, a counsel in the office.

Neither the chairman nor the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee — Representatives Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas, and John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan – had any immediate comment on the letter.

The New Black Panther case stemmed from an incident when two party members, dressed in black clothing, were filmed standing outside a polling station in a majority-black precinct in Philadelphia on Election Day in November 2008. One was holding a night stick, and was eventually directed to leave by the police.

This videotaped case of obvious intimidation was labeled a made-up controversy by Holder. If you are a white American, you don't have the same rights as the New Black Panthers, according to Eric Holder. If you're a Republican, you have even fewer rights.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link. More on the fix here. Upside: The media finally noticed the case!

'I Will Stand With the President of the United States Anywhere, Anytime, No Hesitation'

Sure, he'll stand with Obama anytime, anytime without hesitation. Except when Obama shows up in his state and the endangered Democrat heads for the hills. C'mon, Russ, man up.

When President Barack Obama visits Milwaukee on Labor Day to talk to working families and members of dozens of labor unions, one prominent politician won't be there.

A Labor Day schedule released by the staff of U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) indicates that while Feingold will be in Milwaukee for a Laborfest pre-parade on Monday morning, he will not be in town when Obama is expected to arrive.

Obama is scheduled to arrive in Milwaukee early in the afternoon. Laborfest is open to the public, but a ticket will be needed to enter the area where the president is scheduled to speak. That ticket procedure has not yet been announced.

Laborfest will be open from noon to 7 p.m. at Henry Maier Festival Park.

On Labor Day, Feingold has two other commitments - in Janesville, his hometown, and Kenosha. Both cities have strong union ties.

When Obama was in Menomonee Falls and Milwaukee last month, Feingold greeted the president in Milwaukee and stayed with him the entire day.

"I will stand with the president of the United States anywhere, anytime, no hesitation. I'm proud of what this president has tried to do," Feingold told the Journal Sentinel in an interview last month prior to Obama's visit.

You can bet your ass if Obama were actually popular this guy would be front and center for any photo op. But since the Golfer-in-Chief is radioactive and is dragging down Democrats across the nation they're too cowardly to come out and support their man.

What a Shame: Stupak Retiring

Aw, c'mon Bart, man up and take your beating come November. Well, if you're going to run off like a coward, mayb eyou can convince a couple hundred of your lowlife Democrat pals to join you in retirement.

Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak will not seek reelection this fall, a decision that comes hard on his front-and-center (and controversial) role in the recent passage of President Barack Obama's health-care legislation.

Stupak is expected to formalize it at a press conference at 12:30 pm in Marquette, Mich.

Sources familiar with Stupak's thinking describe him as exhausted and burned out from the long fight over health care in which he emerged as the leading voice of pro-life Democrats wary about the possibility that the legislation would allow federal funds to be spent on abortions.

Stupak eventually voted for the final bill after Obama signed an executive order re-affirming the idea that no funds from the legislation would go toward abortions. In the wake of that vote he was treated as a hero within the Democratic caucus, but the reaction toward him from activists on the right and left was significantly more vitriolic. Former Charlevoix County Commissioner Connie Saltonstall has announced she will take on Stupak in the state's Aug. 3 primary.

Stupak's seat, which takes in much of northern Michigan's Upper Peninsula, will be a major takeover target for Republicans. Obama carried it with 50 percent in 2008, but George W. Bush won the district in 2000 and 2004.

Gutless Kennedy Quits

Who's the joke now, Patches?

Bringing down the curtain - at least for now - on Camelot and one of the most storied political dynasties in the nation’s history, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, says he is not running for re-election.

In a taped message intended for broadcast Sunday night and obtained by the Herald, the R.I. Democrat, looking haggard and speaking directly into the camera, said it was time to leave Congress after 16 years.

“Now having spent two decades in politics, my life is taking a new direction, and I will not be a candidate for re-election this year,” Kennedy said in the ad.

Kennedy’s bombshell comes as polls show the eight-term Democrat in an uphill fight against Republican John J. Loughlin II, a veteran state lawmaker and well-financed foe.

A WPRI-12 poll out just last month showed Kennedy with a staggering 56 percent unfavorable rating in his own district, swelling to 62 percent statewide. Moreover, just 35 percent in his district would vote for him again

Assorted reaction here.

Eric Holder 2009: America a Nation of Racial Cowards; Eric Holder 2010 on Dingy Harry: 'I don't think that there is a prejudiced bone in his body'

I've been wondering where Eric Holder's been. Haven't heard a peep from him since before Christmas and he's been noticeably absent ever since the attempted Christmas Day plane bombing.

But the man who declared America a nation of cowards last February returned from hibernation today to rush to the defense of racist Democrat Harry Reid.

Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, defended Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday over racial remarks the senator made about Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Holder told The Associated Press that Reid is a good man, and as Holder put it: ''I don't think that there is a prejudiced bone in his body.''

Reid apologized to Obama and a handful of black political leaders after a new book reported he was favorably impressed by Obama during the campaign and, in a private conversation, described the Illinois senator as a light-skinned African-American ''with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.''

Holder told The AP that the remark ''is unfortunate but I don't think that there is a prejudiced bone in his body.''

The attorney general quickly added that he thought the remark was unfortunate ''in the sense that it's created this controversy and raised questions about a man I don't have any doubts about myself.''

So 11 months ago we were all a nation of cowards, hundreds of millions of us.

Today Holder can say without a shred of doubt Reid is completely innocent and has never harbored an ill racial thought or played the race card.

Democrats have lost all credibility of the race issue, which they've played like a Stradivarius for decades. To see racial hucksters like Al Sharpton and Eric Holder fall over themselves defending a fraud like Reid is laughable. But that'll never stop them from being racial opportunists at the next perceived slight coming from a Republican.

They have no shame.

Cowardice Now on Display at the Met

Oooh, they don't want to "offend" anyone. I'm sure if there were paintings making fun of conservatives or Christ, they wouldn't have any problem. But Muslims?

Well, can't have any of that.

Is the Met afraid of Mohammed?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art quietly pulled images of the Prophet Mohammed from its Islamic collection and may not include them in a renovated exhibition area slated to open in 2011, The Post has learned.

The museum said the controversial images -- objected to by conservative Muslims who say their religion forbids images of their holy founder -- were "under review."

Critics say the Met has a history of dodging criticism and likely wants to escape the kind of outcry that Danish cartoons of Mohammed caused in 2006.

"This is typical of the Met -- trying to avoid any controversy," said a source with inside knowledge of the museum.

The Met currently has about 60 items from its 60,000-piece Islamic collection on temporary display in a corner of its vast second-floor Great Hall while larger galleries are renovated. But its three ancient renderings of Mohammed are not among them.

"We have a very small space at the moment in which to display the whole sweep of Islamic art," said spokeswoman Egle Zygas. "They didn't fit the theme of the current installation."

But it's not certain Mohammed will go on display when the Met finishes its $50 million renovation in 2011.

Three years ago, the Met changed its "Primitive Art Galleries" to the "Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas" for the sake of political correctness, said author Michael Gross, author of "Rogues' Gallery," a book about the Met.

'If America Gets Hit Again, It's On Him. All of It'

Well, it may well all be on Barack Obama. Except most of the media lickspittles, assorted Democrats and Obama himself will never admit it. Heck, he went out yesterday and pointed fingers in every possible direction while claiming he wasn't pointing fingers. The guy is a joke. Problem is nobody is laughing.

Someday, somebody not from Hollywood will make a movie about President Obama's disastrous vacation. About how his aides waited for nearly three hours after the Christmas airliner attack to wake him. About how he waited three more days to appear publicly. About how even then, he didn't grasp the seriousness of the situation, racing through a bloodless speech so he could play golf.

Until that film is made, reality is frightening enough. Even the true believers in the White House now realize they blew the response to a potentially catastrophic attack by an al Qaeda-trained terrorist.

When the alarm first went off -- the 3 a.m. phone call -- they hit the snooze button, putting the president's personal comfort ahead of the country's.

Everything since has been damage control, including yesterday's endlessly advertised meeting with his national security team. Obama's remarks afterward were direct and forceful, but the door of doubt about his national security leadership has been blown off the hinges.

The images that stick are the ones out of Hawaii, with the president in vacation mode -- no tie, a perfunctory appearance on Dec. 28, no questions, then off for more fun in the sun. Behavior doesn't get less serious or more callow.

The images accurately reflect a troubling mindset that borders on religious faith about how to combat terrorism, with Obama himself the high priest. He is a war president who defiantly shuns the mantle.

So be it. The Oval Office and the choices are his. And so is the responsibility.

If America gets hit again, it's on him. All of it.

Obama often complains about the problems he inherited from George W. Bush, but he also inherited a record of zero successful attacks on America after 9/11. If Islamic terrorists succeed on his watch, he can't blame Bush.

But he will. He's just too immature to accep the slighest bit of responsibility and all he knows is to blame others.

Cowardly NYC Dem Phones It In

You would think a guy who represents the Upper West Side of Manhattan wouldn't be afraid to face his constituents when it comes to discussing ObamaCare.

Think again. Rotund Representative Jerrold Nadler apparently fears the Birkenstock brigade that populates his district may not be down with socialized medicine.

If you've lost the Upper West Side, then things aren't quite going according to plan.

New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler is having his first health-care town-hall forum on Monday night -- it just won't be with any actual people in the room.

The Democratic congressman will hold a "telephone town hall," where Manhattan and Brooklyn constituents who have been calling his district office to talk about health-care reform will get return calls.

The method allows Nadler to hold a forum without potentially encountering the protesters who have spoken out at other health-care reform events around the country.

Profiles in courage. I bet if some folks said they were bringing doughnuts Nadler would gladly have them come to his office.

More 'Stealth Care': Dingy Harry To Hold Town Halls Via Telephone

We noted yesterday some gutless New York Congressmen holding town hall meetings on ObamaCare either in secret or announcing them after the fact. Now comes word the Senate Majority Leader, Dingy Harry, will be holding his over the phone.

Real leadership there, Harry.

A day after holding up a square of Astroturf to denounce the orchestrated attacks on Democratic town hall meetings on health care, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office said he would be talking with his Nevada constituents this month over the phone lines.

Reid’s office is scheduling a telephone town hall meeting for August, opting to avoid the shouting matches and microphone speeches that have erupted at events across the country. The senator expects to reach thousands of Nevadans, including those in the state’s rural expanse.

“It’s a forum that obviously lets us reach more people, but also provides a more respectful environment that allows all sides to be heard,” said Reid spokesman Jon Summers.

Oh yeah, I'm sure "all sides" will be invited to participate in this charade.

“It’s more the dialogue that town halls were meant to be, as opposed to the organized disruption we’re seeing in other town halls,” Summers said. “This is so Nevadans who want to be heard can voice their concern, support and their opinions.”

Absolute cowardice.

Noel Sheppard, meanwhile, wonders why this announcement from the highest ranking Democrat in the Senate has gone virtually unnoticed.

Likely because it shows Reid to be a pusillanimous pipsqueak.

Other Reid news that fell under the radar.

Among the cash returned include $8,000 from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, $27,500 from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd and $14,000 from Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, Janvey's said on his website.

Naturally the Republican is identified while the word Democrat isn't noted anywhere.

Cowardly Dems Hold 'Stealth Care' Meetings

It hasn't been a good week for Congressional Democrats. Wherever they go, "angry mobs" of little old ladies and "mobsters in Brooks Brothers suits" pop up to ask inconvenient questions of them at town hall meetings, questions such as "why haven't you read the bill you're voting for?"

Democracy can be messy, folks, which is probably why most Democrats seem to prefer socialism, where opposition can simply be silenced and crushed.

So it should come as no surprise now that these fearless leaders ready to herd you into a government boondoggle beyond our wildest nightmares have sunk so low as to hold their "town hall meetings" in private and in some cases with no advance notice.

How's that for change, suckers?

New York lawmakers are taking extraordinary steps to make sure their "town hall" meetings on health care don't become angry shouting matches or embarrassing clips on YouTube -- in some cases turning events into private, invitation-only affairs.

A handful of Democratic members of Congress across the country, including Rep. Tim Bishop of Long Island, have gotten booed and shouted down by crowds at meetings with their constituents, in what some charge is a coordinated nationwide effort by opponents.

But several area lawmakers are taking steps to minimize the chance that health-care critics will be able to protest.

* Rep. Steve Israel (D-LI) held a health-care "roundtable" Thursday night, but made the event "invitation only."

An Israel staffer who had been asked in advance about any planned town-hall meetings didn't respond to a Post inquiry until after the event was over.

* Rep. Scott Murphy of the Albany area didn't send out a release about a Tuesday health meeting until the next day, after the event was over.

The release described the event as a "small business roundtable" with business leaders.

The event wasn't included in the public schedule Murphy's office put out in advance.

So here we are in New York, an overwhelmingly blue state, and Democrats are too afraid to even hold public meetings. Do they not stop for even a second and ask why their constituents might not want to be forced into a government-run operation that they themselves aren't fully clear about?

But no, they have their marching orders from Queen Pelosi and King Obama and damn the people who elected them.

This is not the democratic process. Indeed, it's mob rule, the mob reigns from Washington and you peasants better just get out of the way and shut up.

These Democrats who don't want to bother meeting the people who elected them may not have such concerns any longer once the 2010 midterms roll around. They'll have plenty of time on their hands when they're booted from office.

Thanks to Hot Air for the link.

A Town-hall Meeting ... Without the Town

Expect to see plenty more of this cowardice on display from the yellow-bellied liberals now running for cover from the angry mobs who dare to express their displeasure with being herded into a health-care plan nobody has bothered to read.

One would figure a New York City Congressman would have the stones to face his constituents, but then again we're dealing with a Chuckie Schumer acolyte here, and intestinal fortitude isn't exactly their strong suit.

Congressman Anthony Weiner yesterday held the city's first town-hall meeting on health-care reform -- and, with little advance notice, it was free of the angry protests that have marked forums elsewhere.

Weiner, who has pushed for a liberal single-payer plan, spoke about efforts to overhaul the system to a group of senior citizens dining on a steak lunch at the Austin Street Self-Help Center in Forest Hills.

But while between 60 and 70 people attended, there were none of the shouting protesters who've halted town-hall forums elsewhere.

The event was not publicized to reporters until a few hours before its 11:15 a.m. start time, and the majority of attendees said they hadn't even known Weiner would be there. Many said they happened to be at the center for other activities, including the $2 lunch.

A $2 steak lunch? No wonder it wasn't advertised. I don't even live in Weiner's district, but I'd travel for that.

Steve Lonegan, senior policy director for AFP in New Jersey, said many officials were scheduling events at the last minute to keep detractors from hearing about them.

Weiner, a Queens-Brooklyn Democrat, blasted a "well-constructed, well-organized scare campaign that has been largely pushed by Republicans and financed by the insurance lobby."

Here we go again with this nonsense about a well-organized campaign. I guess the media isn't interested in the Democrats' well-organized campaign of lies.

Murder in the Streets of Tehran

Just disgusting.

A disturbing video of a young woman purportedly shot to death on the streets of Tehran during post-election protests is becoming a touchstone for the opposition.

The horrific footage, posted on YouTube, shows the victim who was watching the protests with her father, collapsing after what sounds like a spray of gunfire is heard in the background.

The gunman, who was "hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house, aimed straight [at] her heart," said the video's poster, a doctor who made a desperate bid to help.

"I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her," he said of the victim, known on the internet as "Neda," which means "voice" in Farsi.

Barack Obama was so disturbed he took an extra 30 seconds to decide which flavor of ice cream he wanted.

Perhaps he can rub it in a bit more today by hitting the golf course.

More here.

Sky News foreign affairs correspondent Lisa Holland said: "In movements for change there are usually defining momements, and in Iran this may well be one of them.

"There is a palpable sense that after this there is no going back - that the course to take on the theocracy of Iran has been set."

It's 3 am, Does Anyone Know Where Obama Is?

Seems to me a direct threat to our nation should be met forcefully and immediately. Heck, we're getting advance notice from a rogue regime they'll be attacking us and Obama is nowhere to be found.

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.

The missile, believed to be a long-range Taepodong-2, would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan's top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.

While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service—the country's main spy agency—said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test.

U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

A landmark summit? UN sanctions?

Who are they kidding?

Obama is more concerned with whining about Fox News and Rush Limbaugh than he is about these maniacs threatening to fire missiles at us. His cowardice and fecklessness endangers us all.

Breaking News: Liberal Becomes a Democrat

Faced with certain defeat in the GOP primary next year, Arlen Specter takes the cowardly way out.

So long, farewell, DLTTHYOTWO.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning.

Specter's decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next Senator from Minnesota. (Former Sen. Norm Coleman is appealing Franken's victory in the state Supreme Court.)

"I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary," said Specter in a statement. "I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election."

Apparently he wasn't willing enough to take on Pat Toomey inthe GOP primary.

It'll serve him right if he's defeated int he Democrat primary.

Six weeks ago he declared he was staying a Republican.

Sen. Arlen Specter yesterday tried to snuff speculation that he was preparing to bolt the Republican Party in the face of a conservative uprising that threatens his bid for a sixth term.

"To eliminate any doubt, I am a Republican, and I am running for reelection in 2010 as a Republican on the Republican ticket," Specter said in a statement released by his campaign manager.

I guess he was lying.

Running Scared: Obama Backs Off Townhall Meetings With McCain

Hmm. What happened to all that bravado and bluster from The Great Orator?

Could it be he's panicking because his poll numbers are sinking like a stone?

Perhaps it's because he becomes The Wizards of Uhhhs when he doesn't have a TelePrompter in front of him?

Whatever it is, he sure looks chicken.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday backed away from rival John McCain's challenge for a series of joint appearances before the political conventions, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall.

In May, when a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention appearances at town hall meetings, Obama said, "I think that's a great idea." In summer stumping on the campaign trail, McCain has often noted that Obama had not followed through and joined him in any events.

On Saturday, in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the short period between the last political convention and the first proposed debate made it likely that the commission-sponsored debates would be the only ones in the fall.

"We've committed to the three debates on the table," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday in an interview. "It's likely they will be the three appearances by the candidates this fall."

Asked by The Associated Press if that meant Obama would not agree to any other debates, Psaki said, "We're not saying that." She said the McCain campaign had rejected Obama's proposal for two joint town hall meetings.

Lame. They can't even get their denials straight.

You know this boob doesn't want any part of McCain in a debate, since by the time they get around to him he'll have changed his position on every issue.

Democrats Scuttle Final Debate

What a convenient excuse.

A televised debate set for next month among the Democratic presidential candidates was canceled on Wednesday due to a labor dispute between Hollywood studios and striking screenwriters, organizers said.

The decision by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) came after several candidates said they would not cross picket lines of the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike against major film and television studios since November 5.

All eight Democrats running for the White House originally had agreed to take part in a debate scheduled for December 10 at the CBS Television City studio in Los Angeles, where striking writers have been picketing.

The canceled event would have been the last DNC-sanctioned debate before the January 3 Iowa caucuses, the first of the state-by-state contests to determine which Republican and Democrat will face off in the November 4, 2008, general election.

Of course, they could always go somewhere they could reach an audience like, say, the Fox News Channel.

Though that would mean they'd have to answer a difficult question or two.

Can't have that.

Stretch, Mr. 19% Declare Surge a Failure

These two keep coming back for more. If only they pursued victory with such vigor as they do defeat, maybe they'd boost their dreadful poll numbers.

Iraq surge a failure, top Democrats tell Bush

Top US congressional Democrats bluntly told President George W. Bush Wednesday that his Iraq troop "surge" policy was a failure.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi challenged the president over Iraq by sending him a letter, ahead of a White House meeting later on Wednesday.

"As many had forseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results," the two leaders wrote.

"The increase in US forces has had little impact in curbing the violence or fostering political reconciliation.

"It has not enhanced Americas national security. The unsettling reality is that instances of violence against Iraqis remain high and attacks on US forces have increased.

Nothing like fully implementing the surge itself before declaring it a failure.

Cowardly Democrats Flee Fox

This is really pathetic.

The Democratic National Committee has officially announced "the dates, media sponsors and cities for the six DNC sanctioned debates."

CNN and NBC get two and ABC and CBS get one each. Fox News isn't included. Here's the list:

July 23, 2007: YouTube/Google and CNN in Charleston, SC

August 19, 2007: ABC in Des Moines, IA

September 26, 2007: NBC News/MSNBC in Hanover, NH

October 30, 2007: NBC News/MSNBC in Philadelphia, PA

November 15, 2007: CNN in Las Vegas, NV

December 10, 2007: CBS in Los Angeles, CA

I guess they don't want a large segment of the population to actually see what they have to say. After last night, they're all probably deathly afraid of Wendell Goler, Brit Hume and Chris Wallace, since they actually asked decent questions.

Cowards.