Ryan Defends His 'Yes' Vote on Automatic Defense Cuts

WASHINGTON – Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Republican nominee for vice president, on Sunday defended his decision to support automatic cuts in defense spending as a way to force a deal on reducing the deficit, an approach that was sharply criticized by his running mate, Mitt Romney.

Mr. Ryan said that he backed the deal, which could result in an automatic 8 percent cut in defense spending in January, in an effort to compromise with Democrats on deficit reduction.

“I worked with President Obama to find common ground to get a down payment on deficit reduction,” Mr. Ryan said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” “It wasn’t a big down payment, but it was a step in the right direction.”

Mr. Ryan emphasized that he and his fellow House Republicans had come up with alternative spending cuts to prevent the automatic reductions from taking effect. He accused Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats of failing to do their part.

“We passed, in the House, a bill to prevent those devastating defense cuts by cutting spending elsewhere,” Mr. Ryan said. “The Senate’s done nothing. President Obama’s done nothing.”

“We wanted to have a bipartisan agreement; we got that,” he added. “And the president hasn’t fulfilled his end of that bipartisan agreement.”

The House bill, which Mr. Ryan wrote and Senate Democrats oppose, would stave off reductions in military spending by cutting safety-net programs for the poor, including food stamps, school lunch subsidies and children’s health insurance.

Mr. Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that any budget deal should require the wealthiest Americans to do their part by paying higher taxes, an approach that has been rejected by Mr. Ryan and Mr. Romney.

In a “Face the Nation” interview, Mr. Obama said that he was “willing to do more” to work with Republicans to find additional spending cuts. ”But we’ve also got to ask people like me or Governor Romney who have done better than anybody else over the course of the last decade, and whose taxes are just about lower than they’ve been in the last 50 years, to do a little bit more.”

At the Democratic National Convention, former President Bill Clinton accused Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan of planning to eliminate tax deductions that help the middle class and the poor, including for home mortgages and charitable donations, to cover the costs of their proposed tax cuts.

In a separate appearance on the ABC News program “This Week,” Mr. Ryan declined to say whether that was true.

“Our priorities are high-income earners should not get these kinds of loopholes,” said Mr. Ryan, who repeatedly refused to specify the particular loopholes he had in mind.

“We want to have this debate with Congress,” he said. “And we want to do this with the consent of the elected representatives of the people and figure out what loopholes should stay or go and who should or should not get them.”

On foreign policy, Mr. Ryan told the host of “This Week,” George Stephanopolous, that he and Mr. Romney agreed with Mr. Obama’s plan to leave Afghanistan by 2014. But he said he feared that the troops lacked adequate resources.

“Where we’ve taken issue is making sure that the generals on the ground get the resources they need throughout the entire fighting season so that they can keep our soldiers safe and operating counterinsurgency strategy,” said Mr. Ryan, who described the killing of Osama bin Laden ”a great success.”

Mr. Ryan also defended Mr. Romney, who has been criticized by Democrats for describing Russia as the country’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe.”

On “Face the Nation,” Mr. Ryan said that a nuclear Iran was the United States’ biggest foreign policy threat, and that Mr. Romney meant to say that “among the other powers, China and Russia, that Russia stands as a great threat.”

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Akin Defends Cashflow After Ad Dispute

It’s not quite “Mad Men Missouri,” but a little drama is playing out in a dispute between a beleaguered Senate candidate and a television ad department in the state.

The candidate is Representative Todd Akin, a Republican who is on the defensive for remarks he made in his campaign against Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat. The television station is KOMU-8, an NBC affiliate in Colombia, Mo., that reported that it had pulled Mr. Akin’s ads midway through its intended run because of an unpaid bill.

The report immediately prompted questions about whether Mr. Akin had the cash to go forward with his bid.

His campaign has been operating without help from national Republican groups after he said on Aug. 19 that women’s bodies could often prevent pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape,” and G.O.P. leaders, including Mitt Romney, have urged him to step aside.

But speculation that the campaign is beset by both unpaid bills and empty war chests are “factually false,” said Rick Tyler, a senior adviser to Mr. Akin’s campaign.

“In the last 18 days, we have raised over $400,000 online alone,” Mr. Tyler said. While he would not say how much of that is in the bank, he insisted the campaign was not in debt.

As for the ads, according to Mr. Tyler, the Akin campaign booked – and paid for – half a week of ads, thinking they would probably re-up for the rest of the week. And they did, he said – “but a day later.”

Tom Dugan, the general sales manager at KOMU, said the campaign booked a full week of ads, but only paid for half.

Both sides agree that after KOMU’s news division ran an article saying the ads had been pulled because of lack of payment, the Akin campaign canceled its remaining buy.

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Horne defends delay in ceding 1 Fiesta case

Attorney General Tom Horne did not recuse his office from handling a Fiesta Bowl investigation involving powerful political allies until after one of his deputies recommended misdemeanor charges against them, documents obtained by The Arizona Republic show.

Horne said Wednesday he had no knowledge that charges had been drafted in the cases and transferred the cases immediately last fall after learning they involved lobbyist Kevin DeMenna and a political-consulting and lobbying firm, HighGround. No HighGround employees were specifically identified in a draft indictment drawn up by Horne's office.

"I don't have any motives here other than to avoid being involved with people whom I knew," Horne said.

HighGround's founder and president is noted GOP strategist Chuck Coughlin, a close adviser to Gov. Jan Brewer whose firm assisted with the attorney general's 2010 campaign. DeMenna has had a professional relationship with Horne since the attorney general served in the Arizona Legislature from 1997 to 2001. DeMenna also is a key fundraiser for the Republican Party.

Though Horne said he handed over the investigation of HighGround and DeMenna to Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery as soon as he became aware they were involved, documents show Horne was informed months earlier the case involved several lobbyists.

A Maricopa County Attorney's Office memo obtained by The Republic shows Horne was present at a late April 2011 meeting where the investigation of the Fiesta Bowl lobbyists was discussed. Earlier that month, he was questioned by The Arizona Republic about his relationship with lobbyists and whether that could influence his investigation. Those events occurred roughly six months before he turned the lobbyist investigation over in October to Montgomery's office.

During that same April 2011 meeting, Horne withdrew from another Fiesta Bowl-related investigation involving state legislators who took tickets and accepted free trips to out-of-state college football games, citing a conflict of interest. But he wanted his office to investigate Fiesta Bowl lobbyists, according to a Maricopa County Attorney's Office memo.

Horne's position regarding the lobbyists changed last fall, when he declared a conflict of interest. On Oct.24, his office sent an assistant attorney general's research documents and charging recommendations regarding the lobbyist cases to Montgomery. By then, Montgomery was well into his investigation of the referred case regarding lawmakers who had received Fiesta Bowl gifts.

In December, Montgomery announced he would not prosecute legislators or lobbyists, citing vagueness in state laws and the lack of "evidence leading to criminal liability." When asked recently about his decision not to prosecute the lobbyists, Montgomery said there was no reasonable likelihood of convicting DeMenna or HighGround.

The lobbyists said Montgomery's decision was correct because they and their firms did nothing illegal. DeMenna said he was unaware until he was recently contacted by The Republic that he had been identified for charging by a prosecutor in the Attorney General's Office.

"The (state) prosecutor in this case was wrong," Coughlin said. "We complied with the law. There is confusion about this law in some circles. Not here. Not here at HighGround."

According to Coughlin, it was the duty of the Fiesta Bowl's primary lobbyist to report the expenditures for which HighGround was later questioned. Coughlin said he reported those expenditures to the person he considered the bowl's primary lobbyist, Gary Husk.

Portions of the state's draft indictments, obtained by The Republic through a formal request to Montgomery's office, alleged HighGround and DeMenna, as lobbyists, knowingly failed to report expenditures benefiting lawmakers during out-of-state trips paid for by the bowl from 2002 to 2004 and 2007. The penalty for such misdemeanor violations is a fine of up to $20,000 for a business, and up to six months in jail or a $2,500 fine for an individual.

The records indicate Horne took a much different approach in waiting so long to declare a conflict of interest in the lobbyist cases, as opposed to the early declaration of conflict in the elected officials' cases.

"Attorney General Horne has been inconsistent on when he does and when he doesn't have a conflict of interest," said former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton, who has tangled with Horne's office over legal matters involving the state Independent Redistricting Commission. "A more careful attorney general would have decided that (conflict-of-interest) fact far earlier."

Horne spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico said the office conflicted itself out of the investigation involving Fiesta Bowl lobbyists as soon as Horne became aware of involvement of HighGround and DeMenna, and the charging decision ultimately was up to Montgomery.

"The timing is not suspect," Rezzonico said. "At the time it became personal knowledge for Tom Horne is when we conflicted off. ? It was nothing more than when the information was delivered to him."

But records and news reports indicate Horne knew his office was investigating HighGround and other lobbyists about six months before he declared the conflict of interest.

An April7, 2011, Arizona Republic story said HighGround employees were contributors to Horne's 2010 campaign. That story also said HighGround principals hosted a fundraiser Horne held at Rezzonico's home on March28, 2011, the same day the Fiesta Bowl turned over to the Attorney General's Office details of an internal investigation of wrongdoing at the bowl. That Fiesta Bowl report mentions HighGround or Coughlin 39 times.

Horne was asked about a potential conflict of interest with lobbyists, according to the April7, 2011, story. He responded then that campaign contributions do not "have anything to do with investigating criminal activity."

Records obtained from Montgomery's office also indicate that on April27, 2011, Horne attended a meeting with prosecutors in his office and Montgomery regarding the Fiesta Bowl investigation.

Horne said Wednesday he had "no memory" of that April meeting. When a Maricopa County Attorney's Office memo was read to him over the phone noting his attendance, Horne then said he may have attended. However, he added, his focus at the time was not on HighGround or DeMenna. Instead, it was on Husk, who remains under investigation by Horne's office but has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged.

The memo, written by County Attorney's Office detective Mark Stribling, makes clear Horne made reference to a group of lobbyists.

"AG Tom Horne again stated that he intends to retain jurisdiction of all matters including those involving lobbyists," the memo says.

An April 28, 2011, Arizona Republic story also raised questions about Horne's relationship with Fiesta Bowl lobbyists, including HighGround. At that time, Horne dismissed insinuations from the Democratic Party chairman that his office could not be impartial in its investigation of the lobbyists, saying it was his job to be nonpartisan.

Attorney General's Office investigation

The Attorney General's Office, under a previous administration, had been investigating the Fiesta Bowl since summer 2010 to determine whether bowl employees had illegally been reimbursed for making campaign contributions to politicians.

The state investigation ramped up after the bowl in March 2011 -- a few months after Horne took office -- released its own investigative report. That report alleged widespread financial mismanagement, disclosed that gifts had been given to elected officials and concluded employees had been reimbursed for making campaign contributions.

In early April 2011, the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party publicly questioned Horne's integrity in investigating the Fiesta Bowl, accusing the Republican attorney general of being too cozy with lobbyists at the center of the probe. One of the lobbying firms identified at that time was HighGround.

Horne brushed aside the criticism and allowed his office to continue the investigation of Fiesta Bowl lobbyists. That same month, however, he asked Montgomery to investigate the elected officials who had received gifts or traveled at the bowl's expense, citing a conflict of interest because some of the politicians could be his clients as attorney general.

For roughly the next seven months, from April to October 2011, Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson and special investigators worked on the Fiesta Bowl case. During that time, indictments were drafted against HighGround and DeMenna, and cases also were built against current and former Fiesta Bowl employees who were subsequently charged with crimes.

The Attorney General's Office declined to allow Lawson to comment for this story.

A state prosecutor since May 2000 who specializes in white-collar fraud cases, Lawson recommended one misdemeanor charge against HighGround and three misdemeanor charges against DeMenna. To support his recommendations, Lawson wrote lengthy memos and provided dozens of pages of documentation.

Rezzonico said the assistant attorney general's recommendations regarding HighGround and DeMenna never were vetted by supervisors, and she said it is common for prosecutors to draft indictments that are never taken to a grand jury.

Recommendations for the Legislature

Montgomery, also a Republican, concluded last December that he could not prove criminal intent because of inconsistent state laws, vague reporting requirements for elected officials and lobbyists, and insufficient Fiesta Bowl records to support a prosecution.

However, Montgomery did compile a set of recommendations for the Arizona Legislature to consider to clear up what he called confusion in the law, and he suggested a ban or strict limits on the value of gifts lawmakers could receive.

The GOP-controlled Legislature has not adopted any of Montgomery's suggestions. Additional reform proposals from the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, which governs lobbyist and candidate disclosures, also have not been passed.

The governor supports changes that provide for greater clarity and transparency regarding gifts and interactions with lobbyists, according to a written statement provided to The Republic.

In discussing questions raised in the records received by the newspaper, Montgomery said there may have been a "technical violation of the law." But he reiterated that there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction.

In Montgomery's analysis, state law is not clear enough in delineating when lobbyists must report their spending on public officials. That leads to questions about whether a conviction is possible.

"One prosecutor's approach to a statute may not be consistent with how another prosecuting agency would approach the issue or agree with the interpretation of a statute," Montgomery said. He declined to disclose what his office's own prosecutors and investigators recommended in regards to charging the lobbyists.

"It doesn't matter. It was my decision," Montgomery said. "I am the only one to be held accountable for that."

Charlton, a former U.S. attorney, agreed that a supervisor may override a line prosecutor's recommendation if there is disagreement over the likelihood of success.

Laws on lobbyists disclosing expenditures

Coughlin and DeMenna said in interviews that neither they nor their firms acted illegally, and that they were not required to make disclosures because they were contractors or consultants, not primary lobbyists for the Fiesta Bowl.

"I can't imagine the basis for a (charging) recommendation," DeMenna said. "I'm a big fan of disclosure and overfiling. But I'm not sure what we would have had to appropriately file."

Coughlin said his firm was not required to report because it was not the "designated lobbyist" for the Fiesta Bowl. As a hired lobbyist, he said, HighGround was only required to report its expenditures on lawmakers to the Fiesta Bowl's primary lobbyist. Had he also reported it, he said, the spending would have been doubly reported.

Coughlin said that Lawson was mistaken in his interpretation alleging violations of lobbyist-disclosure laws, and he suggested that partisan considerations were to blame: Lawson, the assistant attorney general who recommended charges, has been active in the Democratic Party.

Lawson was directed by Rezzonico not to discuss the matter with The Republic.

Amy Chan, the state elections director, said anyone registered as a lobbyist with the Secretary of State's Office has an obligation to report expenditures or anything of value provided to public officials. Both HighGround and DeMenna were registered lobbyists for the bowl when they made the expenditures, according to records from the Secretary of State's Office.

Chan told Coughlin as much in an e-mail exchange Wednesday. In that e-mail, which Coughlin copied to The Republic, Chan also told Coughlin, "I would not expend resources chasing this type of reporting down and asking lobbyists to amend prior reports."

A campaign-finance expert who represented the state said that Arizona laws are clear on what lobbyists must disclose.

"When a lobbyist makes an expenditure for a legislator or a state employee, the lobbyist has to disclose that expenditure," said Jim Barton, who formerly represented the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, the Secretary of State's Office and the Independent Redistricting Commission.

Though Montgomery chose not to prosecute lawmakers or lobbyists citing statutory vagueness, Lawson's investigative analysis concluded that the state campaign-finance laws would permit successful prosecution of bowl employees who made campaign contributions that were reimbursed. The Attorney General's Office pursued those charges.

This year, it obtained guilty pleas from five current or former Fiesta Bowl employees who engaged in a campaign-finance conspiracy. The U.S. Attorney's Office, meanwhile, obtained a guilty plea to a federal conspiracy charge from another former employee.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Obama defends American faith amid GOP critique (AP)

WASHINGTON – Republican Mitt Romney accuses President Barack Obama of considering America "just another nation." To other GOP politicians running for the White House, Obama has apologized for the United States and is presiding over the nation's decline.

Now comes the counteroffensive.

The president of the United States is defending his faith in America, confronting GOP efforts to undercut his leadership and raise questions about his patriotism as he seeks re-election.

In the battle over "American exceptionalism," Obama used a recent trip to Asia to highlight America's role as the strongest and most influential nation on earth. In this election season, responding to the Republican critique is essential for Obama, the only incumbent ever compelled to show a birth certificate to defend his legitimacy.

"Sometimes the pundits and the newspapers and the TV commentators love to talk about how America is slipping and America is in decline," Obama said Wednesday at a New York fundraiser. "That's not what you feel when you're in Asia. They're looking to us for leadership. They know that America is great not just because we're powerful, but also because we have a set of values that the world admires."

"We don't just think about what's good for us, but we're also thinking about what's good for the world," he said. "That's what makes us special. That's what makes us exceptional."

Republicans have seized on "American exceptionalism," a belief among many in the nation that the U.S. is special among global powers, and tried to portray Obama as expressing ambivalence about the promise of his own country. The message resounds with party activists who still admire President Ronald Reagan, who memorialized America as that "Shining City on a Hill" during the 1980s.

"We have a president right now who thinks America's just another nation. America is an exceptional nation," Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said during a GOP debate in Las Vegas last month. Even his campaign slogan — "Believe in America" — suggests that the current president doesn't.

Others have tried to use it to their advantage.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly last month, said Obama had "traveled around the country making excuses for America, apologizing for America, saying that America is not an exemplary country."

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich criticized Obama after 16 Latin American and Caribbean nations filed "friend of the court" briefs in a Justice Department lawsuit against a tough new immigration law in South Carolina, home to an important GOP primary. "It makes you wonder what country does President Obama think he is president of," Gingrich said.

Obama has given detractors ample material for their attacks.

At a San Francisco fundraiser in October, the president talked about the importance of investing in education, new roads and bridges and other ways to build the economy.

"We used to have the best stuff. Anybody been to Beijing Airport lately?" Obama said, asking what has changed. "Well, we've lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam." Republicans picked up on the comments, accusing Obama of calling Americans unambitious.

During a meeting with business executives in Honolulu last month, Obama was asked about impediments to investment in the U.S. He said many foreign investors see opportunity here, "but we've been a little bit lazy, I think over the last couple of decades." The "lazy" comments were quickly turned into an attack ad from Perry.

During a 2009 news conference, Obama was asked whether he subscribed to the concept of American exceptionalism. He said he believed in American exceptionalism, "just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

The president said he was "enormously proud of my country" and highlighted the nation's "core set of values enshrined in our Constitution" that ensure democracy, free speech and equality. Words that voters are likely to hear more of during the next year.

A Gallup poll in December 2010 found that 80 percent of Americans thought the U.S. had a unique character that made it the greatest country in the world. The survey found that 91 percent of Republicans agreed with the statement.

In the same poll, 34 percent of Republicans said Obama believed the U.S. was the greatest country in the world, while 83 percent of Democrats said he did.

The American exceptionalism argument has traditionally signaled U.S. strength overseas and the promotion of American values such as freedom of speech and religion. But with Obama's rise, it has taken on a new meaning.

At a time of economic discord, it builds on the notion that America's weakened economy could hurt its standing across the globe. It offers a critique of Obama's foreign policy credentials, even as troops begin heading home from Iraq and the U.S. role in Afghanistan is transitioning.

It also represents a subtle way to question Obama's patriotism, the seeds of which reside in the "birther" movement that questioned the legitimacy of Obama's presidency. Suspicions over Obama's citizenship eventually prompted the White House to produce the president's long-form birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii.

Yet Democrats don't see this as a debilitating issue for the president, but more a matter of fodder in the Republican primary. Obama, they say, can draw upon it to show optimism in the country.

"Obama is powerful proof of American exceptionalism, that this country has certain set of ideals," said Democratic consultant Bob Shrum. "His election and his presidency is a testament to the character of the country."

Obama has been assertive in recent weeks about America's unique role in the world as it shifts away from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his nine-day Asian trip last month, the president reiterated the U.S.'s growing role in the region and stressed that "American leadership is still welcome."

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Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

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Republican Perry chides Romney, defends Texas actions (Reuters)

CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Texas Governor Rick Perry renewed his attack on Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney as untrustworthy, and defended Texas illegal immigration policy that has been criticized by conservative Republicans.

Campaigning in New Hampshire, Perry accused the former Massachusetts governor of changing positions on gun control, the causes of global warming and government health insurance mandates.

He is seeking to chip away at Romney's big lead in the polls in a key early primary state, and arrest his own slide in national surveys.

"Like it or not the governor has been on the opposite side of a lot of issues," Perry said during a live interview with conservative activist and New Hampshire Republican gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne. "The issue is who are you really going to trust to stand up and be consistent?"

The Romney and Perry camps have focused their criticism on each other on Friday rather than businessman Herman Cain who now leads in some national Republican polls, an indication that neither campaign views Cain as a serious threat.

Also piling on Romney on Friday was former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who is preparing to make a four-day campaign swing through New Hampshire.

"Real leadership is taking a clear position on issues even if it comes at political risk. Backflipping is for toys and gymnasts, not presidents," the Huntsman campaign said in a new web video.

Perry, who briefly led in national polls after entering the Republican race in August, has faded after a string of shaky performances in candidate debates.

In Concord on Friday he sought deflect criticism from Romney and Tea Party conservative activists who accuse him of being soft on illegal immigration.

Perry signed a bill that allowed Texas residents without legal U.S. resident status to attend Texas colleges, while paying in-state tuition. The bill passed the Texas legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support.

"We could kick these people to the side of the road and then we'll have to pick up the costs of whatever those social programs they're going to be eligible for," he said. "We're going to either have tax wasters or tax payers."

Perry's campaign also chided Romney for allowing people without proof of citizenship to access health care programs for the poor while governor of Massachusetts, an indication of how strongly the illegal immigration issue is resonating with Republican primary voters.

Romney campaign spokesman Andrea Saul termed Perry "desperate" in an emailed response.

He "will try anything to deflect attention away from his liberal policy on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and his advocacy for turning Social Security over to the states," Saul said.

At a town hall meeting in Manchester on Friday evening, Romney focused on President Barack Obama rather than Perry, saying Obama as trying to "divide America into haves and have nots" and invite a "very dangerous" brand of class divisions.

The Texas governor, who has indicated he may skip some of the remaining Republican debates, joked about his debating shortfalls and sought to minimize the importance of debate performances.

"Shoot, I may be a great debater before it's all over," he said. "We have a very very good debater and a slick politician in the White House right now, and it's not working."

(Reporting by Jason McLure; Editing by Ros Krasny and Greg McCune)

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