(CNN) - Liz Cheney, former State Department official and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, defended her father's string of tough comments aimed at President Obama, telling an interviewer that the former VP believes the new president is taking the nation down a "dangerous" path and that he has an "obligation to stand up."
"I think he is concerned that some of the things that we have seen President Obama do, particularly on his overseas trip in terms of not taking the opportunity to stand up and defend America when Daniel Ortega delivers a 50-minute screed against the United States [during the Summit of the Americas]," she told MSNBC in an interview that aired Thursday.
"I think that there's a real concern. I mean, the message that we saw coming out of the last few foreign trips - I mean, forget Republican and Democrat, as an American it concerns me when I have a president that doesn't stand up and say, 'Wait a minute, you know, I'm going to defend the United States of America because we are a beacon of hope for people all around the world,'" she said. FULL POST
WASHINGTON (CNN) - House and Senate Democratic negotiators reached a tentative deal Friday to use a fast-track budget process to move President Obama's health care overhaul, according to Democratic leadership sources in both chambers.
Use of the special process – known as budget reconciliation – signals major health reform is likely to pass this year because, under the process, Republicans won't be able to filibuster the legislation. Democrats, who currently control 58 seats in the Senate, would be able to pass it with a simple majority vote, instead of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.
Republicans, and some Democrats, had warned against using the tool to pass major policy changes without bipartisan support. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-WY, a key senator on health care matters, recently compared it to a "declaration of war" against Republicans.
Both the House and Senate are expected to pass the budget measure next week. Democrats have set a goal of passing health care reform by August.
Some posible movement on health care reform. CNN Radio's Lisa Desjardins reports
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Virginia's gubernatorial candidates are a spoiled bunch. With their election taking place in that odd year after a presidential election, the candidates are happily preparing for - even boasting about - the financial windfall from the national parties that awaits them once the general election kicks off in June.
As Joe Abbey, the campaign manager for Democrat Creigh Deeds, put it: "We're typically the only game in town."
There's also a governor's race in New Jersey, of course, where poll numbers show that the Republican frontrunner, Chris Christie, has a good shot at knocking off incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine. But the stakes are seen as higher in Virginia, a newly-christened swing state with shifting demographic patterns that have emboldened Democrats and forced the state GOP to do some serious soul-searching.
"Many have said that the road for the resurgence of the Republican party and the conservative cause goes through Virginia," said Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor, who is framing his candidacy around job creation rather than focusing on wedge issues that have fueled past GOP campaigns in the commonwealth.
(CNN) - Sarah Palin and the GOP firm that had been advising her political action committee SarahPAC are no longer working together, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Representatives for the Alaska governor and for Campaign Solutions, a firm that had long been involved with fundraising efforts for former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The news comes the same day the Palin camp formally announced a long-planned legal defense fund to help the governor cover costs associated with a series of ethics complaints.
Palin's PAC, which officially formed at the beginning of the year, does not have to file federal disclosure forms until summer.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. John McCain told CNN Friday he doesn't always see eye-to-eye with his outspoken daughter.
Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of the former Republican presidential nominee, has grabbed the media spotlight this year, thanks to a string of attention grabbing blog posts, television appearances and speeches.
Her comments critical of some of her party's positions, and jabs at some senior Republicans like former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Bush senior advisor Karl Rove, have made her one of this year's hottest young GOP pundits.
"I love and respect my daughter, and I appreciate the fact that she brings fresh views and ideas and we need that in our party," the senator said Friday on CNN's American Morning. "We don't always agree, and sometimes we have spirited discussions, and that is good in families."
The younger McCain is writing a book about the future of the Republican Party.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Defense Department will release "a substantial number" of photographs showing abuse of prisoners at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The release will be in response to an open-records lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the group said in a written statement. The statement released late Thursday said the photos were taken at facilities other than the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
"These photographs provide visual proof that prisoner abuse by U.S. personnel was not aberrational but widespread, reaching far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib," Amrit Singh, an ACLU attorney, said in the release. The photos are to be released by May 28, the ACLU said.
The Department of Defense announced in a letter addressed to the federal court on Thursday that it would release the photos.
The CNN Washington Bureau’s morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world.
WASHINGTON/POLITICAL For the latest political news: www.CNNPolitics.com.
CNN: Obama's approval rating high, but will it last?
Nearly two out of three Americans approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, according to an average of the most recent national polls.
CNN: Defense Department to release abuse photos, ACLU says
The Defense Department will release "a substantial number" of photographs showing abuse of prisoners at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
CNN: Holder buffeted by demands for memos, prosecutions
Attorney General Eric Holder was decidedly non-committal Thursday as he was buffeted on Capitol Hill by alternating demands to release — or not — more secret torture-related documents, and to prosecute — or not– Bush administration officials who wrote and approved those documents.
CNN: Senior McCain aide: The GOP is a 'shrinking entity'
John McCain’s general election campaign began as “the strategic equivalent of throwing a football through a tire at 50 yards” – and was doomed weeks before Election Day, his former chief strategist said Thursday.
CNN: The politics of 'torture' heating up in Washington
Who knew what, and when?
NYT: Ethics Panel Is Asked to Look Into Kennedy Leaks
The state’s top ethics panel is reviewing a request from three government watchdog groups to investigate the Paterson administration’s leaks of confidential information provided by Caroline Kennedy when she was seeking appointment to the United States Senate.
Washington Post: In Obama's Inner Circle, Debate Over Memos' Release Was Intense
As President Obama met with top advisers on the evening of April 15, he faced one of the sharpest policy divides of his young administration.
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