Hillary Clinton May Be the Biggest Abuser of Pork in 2009
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Silent Saboteur?
It turns out the woman who organized Reverend Jeremiah Wright's event at the National Press Club, Monday, is a Hillary Clinton supporter. Barbara Reynolds is a member of the Press Club's Speakers Committee and coordinated the event which some critics suggest did irreparable harm to Barack Obama's campaign.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On a blog linked to her Web site, Reynolds wrote in a February post "my vote for Hillary Clinton in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you." She also wrote Obama’s theme of hope is "not based on facts." And, in a later entry she hit out at his handling of the Reverend Wright controversy saying, "the senator is fuelling the media characterization that Reverend Doctor Wright is some retiring old uncle in the church basement."
Lard Lover
Senator Hillary Clinton has requested nearly $2.3 billion in federal earmarks for the next fiscal year. That's almost three times the largest amount received by a single senator during this current fiscal year. Earmarks are funding requests for those so-called pet projects that lawmakers usually award to their own constituency.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And while Clinton has asked for $750,000 for a Homeland Security grant program and another $125 million for an urban security initiative, it is not clear what exactly those grants would pay for. But her office defended the requests saying the money is needed after a reduction in the Bush administration's budget proposal that left localities "ill prepared to prevent another major terrorist attack."
Her presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain have not asked for any pet project funds this year. Meanwhile, Obama has released all of his earmark requests since being elected to the Senate in 2004 and has criticized Clinton for not disclosing her earmark history.
Tempest Trouble
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Colorado State University has told revered hurricane researcher and global warming skeptic Dr. William Gray that it may end its support of his forecasting research.
Officials say handling media inquiries for Dr. Gray's work requires too much time and detracts from efforts to promote the work of other professors. While Gray has refused to comment publicly, he wrote an internal university memo last year that said, "This is obviously a flimsy excuse and seems to be a cover for the department's capitulation to the desires of some who want to rein in my global warming and global warming-hurricane predictions."
But Sandra Woods, the dean that oversees atmospheric sciences, denies that is the case: "It really has nothing to do with his stand on global warming. He's a great faculty member."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tranquil Tone
Barack Obama made a call for nonviolence in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict — that's the bridegroom who was shot and killed by New York policeman outside a Queens strip club on his wedding day back in November. But that call for calm has reportedly infuriated the Reverend Al Sharpton.
Sources told the New York Post that Obama and Sharpton had a heated phone conversation yesterday. The source said that Sharpton hoped Obama would not use the case as an "opportunity to grandstand in front of white people."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But Tuesday afternoon, a Sharpton aide said in a statement the story was false and that the two had "a good conversation yesterday about the need to address both police misconduct and reducing crime... it was friendly, respectful and substantive."
— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.