Majority Misinformed
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The latest from the Political Grapevine:
Majority Misinformed
A new AP poll shows 57 percent of Americans believe the U.S. has lost jobs in the last six months, but, in fact, the U.S. has gained 1.2 million. And, there's more: A new survey of employers shows U.S. companies are planning to create jobs at one of the highest rates in the past decade.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the survey, conducted by one of the world's largest staffing companies, Manpower Inc, 30 percent of U.S. employers say they will be adding to their payrolls over the next three months. Only 20 percent of employers said that a year ago.
Republican Wants Resignation
Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, a Republican, is calling on John Kerry to resign from the U.S. Senate, insisting -- "the public is not being well-served" while he's on the campaign trail.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Specifically, Healey condemns Kerry for showing up to only 14 of the Senate's 112 votes this year, saying -- "we [want] ... someone who is 100 percent devoted to representing the people of Massachusetts."
Kerry, however, insists he is serving the people of Massachusetts by proposing legislation on issues they care about. Speaking of Kerry, he was asked to describe his 65-year-old wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. Kerry replied -- "[She's] saucy, sexy, brilliant." She responded: -- "I'm cheeky, I'm sexy, whatever. You know, I've got a lot of life inside."
Bill's Bills
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nearly a year ago we told you that former President Bill Clinton and his wife, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, had still not paid off millions of dollars in legal fees from various scandals. Well, they have now paid off much of that -- thanks in part to nearly $7 million in book deals and speech fees over the past year.
They recently paid as much as $5 million to the Washington law firm Williams and Connolly, which represented Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And, according to Bloomberg News, they paid as much as $250,000 to Wright and Jennings, an Arkansas firm that represented both of them during the Whitewater investigation.
AP Picked Out Peace and Harmony
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After Muslim leader Sheikh Abdur-Rahman al-Sudais gave a speech in London last week, the AP quoted him as saying -- "The history of Islam is the best testament to how different communities can live together in peace and harmony." And the BBC called him the -- "world's most celebrated imam," and cited his calls for -- "community cohesion."
But neither the AP nor the BBC noted his past speeches to non-Western audiences, including a sermon a year and a half ago at the Grand Mosque in Mecca in which he called for the annihilation of Jews, calling them -- "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, ... [and] the offspring of apes and pigs."
— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report