White House taunts GOP opponents over recess appointments (Daily Caller)

White House spokesman Jay Carney refused Thursday to explain the administration’s legal justification for President Barack Obama’s attempted recess appointment on Wednesday of three Democratic allies to government positions, but instead dared Republicans — including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — to campaign against the president’s decision.

The GOP may try to argue that the appointments violate the Constitution, said Carney, but “they seem to believe that after all we went through in 2007 and 2008 … Wall Street should go back to the way it was; the financial institutions should regulate themselves,” he said during the Thursday midday press conference.

“They can take that on the road and try and sell it, but I don’t think there are going to be many buyers,” he said to the reporters.

Carney had a receptive audience. Most reporters’ questions characterized the dispute as caused by GOP political anger, not by a potentially illegal presidential maneuver intended to help him and his allies could portray the GOP as defenders of Wall Street excess.

GOP officials and lawyers agree the president can make temporary “recess appointments” when the Senate is in recess. But they emphasize a longstanding precedent, one previously backed by Obama’s own Justice Department, requiring at least three days of recess before the president may act.

Since December, the Senate has not been in recess that long because the House has been using its constitutional authority to keep the Senate open, even though nearly all the senators have left town for Christmas.

By “circumventing Congress to appoint a new administrator,” said a Dec. 4 statement from Romney’s campaign, Obama’s decision “represents Chicago-style politics at its worst.”

Former Sen. Rick Santorum slammed the appointments Dec. 5, saying “[W]e are a country of laws … [and] this president routinely runs roughshod over the law.”

Carney repeatedly refused to provide a legal counter to the GOP’s constitutional arguments.

“Our assessment is that Congress has been in recess and has made every indication that it will be in recess for a sustained period of time, and that gaveling in and gaveling out for seven seconds does not constitute a recess with regard to the President’s constitutional authority,” Carney said.

The GOP “can make a lot of [legal] process arguments about it [but] we feel very strongly that the Constitution and the legal case is strongly on our side.”

Carney’s emphasis on the political payoffs of the legal dispute matched Obama’s emphasis Dec. 5 when he announced his appointment of former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Cordray “is the right man for the job,” he told an enthusiastic crowd of high-schoolers in Cordray’s home state, which has 18 must-win electoral votes up for grabs in the November election.

“When Congress refuses to act and as a result hurts our economy and puts people at risk, I have an obligation as President to do what I can without them,” Obama declared. “I have an obligation. … I will not stand by while a minority in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people they were elected to serve.”

Carney also pitched that political message at Romney, who is widely regarded by Democrats as the strongest GOP candidate, and who condemned on Thursday Obama’s claim to have lawfully appointed Cordray.

“I find it a little rich that … the former governor of Massachusetts decided to take a position … against the security and protection of working and middle-class Americans,” Carney said.

Carney made the same political argument against Romney’s opposition to the president’s attempt to appoint two Democratic labor lawyers, and one required GOP-affiliated labor lawyer, to the NLRB.

“The president acted because Congress wouldn’t, and it was clear that Congress wouldn’t — and numerous senators have made clear they won’t” approve his nominees, Carney said. The board “is important to protect workers’ rights,” said Carney, adding that disputes over the legality of the appointments are an “esoteric conversation.”:

Reporters did little to challenge Carney’s claim that the president’s appointments were legal, and instead treated GOP objections as political or personal.

“Why would [the president] choose to start the new year by angering Republicans on Capitol Hill?” asked one reporter. “How concerned at all is the President that the Republicans could retaliate by withholding or by resisting compromise on things like extending the payroll tax cuts for the full year, or perhaps even harden their opposition, their resistance to further nominations?” asked another.

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Paul Ryan to endorse in GOP primaries, help replace ‘timid’ congressmen with ‘bold conservatives’ with ‘bold conservatives’ (Daily Caller)

Ron Paul blasts Donald Trump: ‘I didn’t know that he had an ability to … anoint people’ (Daily Caller)

Donald Trump’s attempt to re-enter the Republican presidential nomination contest — not as a candidate but this time as a kingmaker — seems to be wearing on the pundit class, and has also rankled Ron Paul. The GOP Texas congressman told CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday’s “State of the Union” that a Trump-moderated debate would hurt the brand of the Republican Party.

“One of the concerns that I had was really how he was treating the Republican Party of Iowa,” Paul said. “And he didn’t treat them well because he had agreed to come to their biggest fundraiser of the year because he was talking about running. When he changed his mind about not running he canceled on them. They had to cancel the event. And that was a bit of an insult to them.”

Paul also claims he has picked up the support of many of Trump’s early supporters in the Hawkeye State.

“I’ve gotten a lot of good favorable responses from the people of Iowa, even the people in the party that appreciated the fact that I mentioned, that because they were very unhappy with the way he treated them by just stiffing them and walking away from it — and they were left holding the bag,” he added.

Watch:

Predictably, Paul took issue with Trump’s position on the Federal Reserve, suggesting that its abolition would hurt Trump’s financial empire. And he questioned the “Apprentice” star’s assumed kingmaker role.

“I don’t quite understand it,” he said. “I don’t understand the marching to his office. I mean I didn’t know that he had an ability to lay on hands, you know, and anoint people. … He probably doesn’t like my position on the Federal Reserve. You know, easy credit for developers and investors. You know, they like easy credit and they like the Federal Reserve and they like that for bailing out.”

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Rick Perry-backed judge proposes Latino districts, infuriates GOP (Daily Caller)

A former Texas Supreme Court justice whose appointment by Gov. Rick Perry led to accusations of racial pandering was part of a Federal District Court decision Thursday to issue a new voting district map for Texas that will likely overturn the map proposed by the Texas Legislature and is designed to create ethnic voting districts for Latino’s.

U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez joined with another Latino justice from the three-justice federal panel — Clinton-appointee Judge Orlando Garcia — to issue the racially-drawn map, which has not yet been given final approval. Lawyers for the Democrats and Republicans were given the opportunity to comment on the map Friday, and the parties now await the court’s final decision.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the new state House and Senate district lines could cost Republicans six seats in the Texas Legislature in 2012, and Fox News reports that the GOP does not believe it will hold its 101-49 supermajority in the Texas House if the map was formally adopted.

Rodriguez, once a casual Democrat, was plucked from obscurity by Gov. Perry to ascend to the Texas Supreme Court in 2001. Conservatives worked to successfully defeat him in a 2002 primary that the Weekly Standard reported was “all about race.” To compensate for his defeat, Rodriguez was appointed to the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas by then-Perry ally President George W. Bush. (RELATED: Conservative ire with Perry runs deep, reflects racial politics)

The third member of the three judge panel — Judge Jerry E. Smith of New Orleans — posted a map proposal different from that put forth by Garcia and Rodriguez. His proposal was much closer to that of the legislature’s.

The three judges prepared the maps because a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. — which is ruling on whether the Texas Legislature’s original redistricting violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act — is not likely to reach a decision in time for the 2012 elections.

The release of the Rodriguez-Garcia map was met with swift condemnation from Lone Star Republicans.

“Contrary to (a) basic principle of federalism,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office said in a statement, “the proposed interim redistricting plan consistently overturns the legislature’s will where no probability of a legal wrong has been identified.”

Meanwhile, Democrats cheered the decision. “These maps are a step forward for Texas voters and underscore the importance of the Voting Rights Act,” Anthony Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement.

The U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965 established federal oversight over elections in several southern states, including Texas, to prevent the disenfranchisement of blacks. The act necessitates that any changes those states make that affect voting must be federally approved. Latinos were added as a protected class in 1975, and former President George W. Bush renewed the act for another 25 years in 2006.

In the 1996 Supreme Court case Bush v. Vera, the court struck down the Texas legislature’s attempt to create racial districts, calling it racial gerrymandering.

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Herman Cain walks away with victory in Florida straw poll (Daily Caller)

ORLANDO, Fla. – Herman Cain won the Florida straw poll Saturday, rounding out three days of Republican Party and presidential campaign events. Cain won first place with 37.1 percent of the nearly 3,000 votes cast, more than double the second-place finisher’s tally.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, an early favorite, came in a devastating second, with about 15 percent of the vote, after raising expectations. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney came in third with 14 percent.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum followed with 10.9 percent, then Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 10.4 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 8.4 percent, and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman at 2.3 percent.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann rounded out the bottom with 1.51 percent.

Perry was the presumed winner during the days preceding the straw poll, but Cain swiftly gained ground, relentlessly covering the convention center with volunteers, supporters and campaign signs.

On Saturday, the Cain paraphenalia was only rivaled by that of Santorum’s campaign.

Romney’s third-place finish came largely as a surprise. His name was still on the ballot although he did not actively compete in the straw poll or send a surrogate to stump in the hours preceding the vote.

Perry had a disappointing showing at Thursday night’s Fox News debate, and he took heat for his stance on immigration and for his inability to drive home his challenges to Romney.

Teresa Valdez, a delegate from Port Orange who voted for Santorum, told The Daily Caller she couldn’t support Perry because of his weakness on immigration.

Even Perry supporters admitted their candidate underperformed at the debate. Perry volunteer Vicki Maddox of Tampa is one of them, although she defended his economic record when talking to TheDC.

But at a breakfast event in Orlando Saturday morning, Perry took a subtle jab at Romney and the other candidates who did not campaign for the straw poll.

“I think that’s a big mistake,” he said. “I think the Florida straw poll is very important.”

Still, Perry only narrowly edged out a second-place finish over Romney, who said early on that his campaign would not be participating in straw polls.

Rep. Bachmann’s last-place finish was a blow to a flailing campaign. But in August, she too, confused Florida Republicans by announcing she wouldn’t actively campaign in the straw poll.

At the time, Florida Republican Party communications director Brian Hughes told The Daily Caller it was a “bad move.”

“The path to the White House goes through Florida,” Hughes said.

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George Will complains ‘the Republican Party has been in recent years too southern’ (Daily Caller)

Conservative commentator George Will argued Sunday that the GOP has become “too southern” and that this could have negative electoral ramifications for the party.

“There’s also the problem that the Republican Party has been in recent years too southern,” Will said on ABC’s “This Week,” raising questions as to whether Texas Gov. Rick Perry is the right presidential candidate for the party to nominate. “In the last five presidential cycles, they’ve got 79 percent of their electoral votes from the South. It’s too much. The Republican strategy for years has been carry the 11 states of the Confederacy and Oklahoma and Kentucky, carry the eight states of Mountain West — Arizona and New Mexico to the Canadian border, then spend a sum equal to the gross national product of the Brazil to carry Ohio and then you get to be president. That won’t work anymore partly because Barack Obama did extend the battlefield. And that’s another question about Gov. Perry.” (RELATED: George Will: Obama ultimately blames ‘James Madison for giving us separation of powers’)

Will also criticized Perry for attacking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during the last GOP primary debate “so incompetently.”

“Yes, it’s painful,” Will said of Perry’s debate performance last week. “Donna [Brazile] said it’s still early. It could be late in the sense that we know the field that we’re going to pick from. And long before the Iowa caucuses we may be down to one effectively. Tim Pawlenty got into trouble when he had a chance to attack Romney and he didn’t. Perry is in trouble because he attacked Romney and he did it so incompetently.”

Watch:

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Hume: ‘Perry is about one-half a step away from almost total collapse’ (Daily Caller)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s lackluster performance in the three Republican primary debates he has participated in thus far has many conservatives scratching their heads and wondering if he isn’t the dream candidate many thought he might be two months ago. But just how much trouble is his campaign in?

While analyzing the results of Saturday’s Florida Straw Poll on “Fox News Sunday,” Fox News senior political contributor Brit Hume said businessman Herman Cain’s victory may not mean all too much and that Perry’s lackluster performances recently may indicate his campaign is on the verge of  “total collapse.”

“You can read it any of those three ways it seems to me,” Hume said. (RELATED: Hume on Obama: ‘Making a big speech right now is probably the last thing he should do’)

“I mean Perry really did throw up all over himself in the debate at a time when he needed to raise his game. He did worse it seems to me than previous debates. Romney was as strong as he’s been lately. He has clearly raised his game in reaction to the emergence of Perry. It’s been good for Romney in a way that one might not have predicted. Michelle Bachmann seems — I mean she was dead last with [a] tiny fraction. Look, Herman Cain was there. He tried hard in this. He gave a stemwinder speech. He is a marvelous stump speaker. It seems to me he gets a moment out of this, but I can’t imagine it’s going to last very long. Perry is about one-half a step away from almost total collapse as a candidate.”

Later in the panel, Hume explained the Texas governor’s position on immigration may be the one glaring flaw in his candidacy.

“I don’t think we’re being too harsh on Rick Perry,” Hume said. “He still has some opportunity to recover his balance and put in a strong performance. What was so strikingly troubling about — from a Republican point of view — about this performance was that Perry was thought of as a true conservative. Now it appears he has a position in immigration which is anathema to a lot of conservatives. So this really hurts him with the base. You can’t, you know — look at all of the Romney. He’s got some trouble with the base. That’s what’s holding him back. Now Perry has got the same trouble and his weakness is very real indeed.”

Watch:

As far as the prospects of another candidate like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie entering the race, Hume warned not to get one’s hopes up for an unknown commodity.

“As for whether someone might get in the race — you can’t rule anything out,” Hume said. “It is still early, but what keeps happening here is these people keep having a moment and they get in the race as Perry did, zoom to the top. Everybody’s in love and get then we get a dose of them in reality on the debate stage or wherever and they don’t seem so great. Now I am as impressed as the next person is by Gov. Christie’s tough sort of tough love governance in New Jersey. But who knows how he would fare on the national stage, you know freshly minted from a governorship, having not spent all that much time on the national issues. If he gets on a debate stage, he could screw up badly as the next guy.”

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TheDC on TV: David Martosko on the GOP field after the Orlando debate (Daily Caller)

On Canada’s Sun News Network Saturday morning, Daily Caller executive editor David Martosko handicapped the GOP primary field with presenter Brian Dunstan in the wake of Thursday night’s Republican candidate debate in Orlando, Florida.

“It’s important to note that there have been some successful candidates who never entered the race until even October or November, a year before the election,” Martosko said. “So it’s definitely not too late for someone else to come in and claim the mantle of being the ‘not Romney’ candidate.”

The large number of primary debates, he said, have “given Ron Paul an unprecedented opportunity to strut his stuff and be taken seriously. In past election cycles Ron Paul has been a bit of a parlor joke … this extreme, out-there candidate that nobody wants to admit they like. But suddenly he’s become a bit more fashionable, and I think [other than Mitt Romney] he’s been the big winner in this.”

Watch:

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GOP senator on Reid: ‘He manufactured a crisis all week’ (Daily Caller)

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said Sunday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has “manufactured a crisis all week” over disaster relief aid.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Alexander was asked if the tea party-backed House Republicans are responsible for the threat of a government shutdown.

“No, I don’t. I’ll give the Senate Democratic leader most of the credit. He manufactured a crisis all week about disaster relief when there was no crisis. Everyone knows we’ll pay every penny of disaster aid that the president declares and FEMA certifies. The House settled on a bill that would do that and the Senate should have passed it,” he said (RELATED: Senate blocks House disaster bill)

“What we should have been doing this past week is all we could so the work Senators [Mark] Warner [of Virginia] and [Saxby] Chambliss [0f Georgia] have done to reduce the debt by $4 trillion succeeds, instead of all this chest-pounding and game-playing that’s been going on.”

On Friday, the Democrat-controlled Senate blocked a bill passed by the GOP-controlled House by a vote of 59-36 that included $3.7 billion in disaster relief aid. FEMA currently faces a budget shortfall after the nation’s recent natural disasters including Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene. Democrats opposed the bill because it did not include as much money as they sought for FEMA. They also objected to the cuts Republicans proposed to fund the aid.

Alexander emphasized that the Senate should spend more time trying to reach an agreement on $4 trillion in debt reduction.

“I don’t like this business of sitting around blaming each other over such small potatoes. What we really ought to be doing is spending time to see if we can get $4 trillion in debt reduction,” he said.

“Senators Warner, Chambliss and others have rounded up 37 senators equally divided by party who agree we should do that. We’d like our super committee to succeed. If we could do that, we could begin to get the economy in better shape and gain some confidence in the country.”

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Romney on $1 million mystery donation: ‘No harm, no foul’ (Daily Caller)

C.J. Ciaramella - The Daily Caller C.j. Ciaramella - The Daily Caller – Thu Aug 25, 3:30 pm ET

At a town hall event Wednesday, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney dismissed a question about the $1 million donation to his super PAC by a short-lived company, saying there was “no harm, no foul.”

In April, the company W Spann LLC made a million-dollar donation to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future super PAC. In July and two weeks before Restore Our Future made its first annual campaign filing, W Spann dissolved as a corporate entity. (RELATED: Perry responds to Republican critics, snipes at Romney)

Campaign watchdogs jumped on the story, saying W Spann was little more than a shell company created to circumvent campaign finance laws. Ed Conrad, a former top executive at Bain Capital — which was founded in part by Romney — later came forward as the creator of the company.

At the town hall in Lebanon, Massachusetts, Romney said Conrad scrapped plans to donate to other candidates, so he only donated to Romney’s PAC and then dissolved the company.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: “I did hear that there was a company formed which gave your campaign a million dollars. Do you remember this, a few weeks ago? So, can you explain that?”

MITT ROMNEY: “Yeah, there’s a guy named Ed Conard, who had a company who was gonna’ give to a bunch of candidates and decided not to, and gave a million dollars to a PAC that supports me and said ‘Oh it’s me.’ So yeah, well there’s no need for him to have the company if he’s not going to give to other candidates, so he gave to me. He’s given to me before, one of my partners, so it’s not hidden. It’s all out in the open.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER: “See there’s the spirit of something, and then there’s the legalities of something. And it just seems that this company was formed just in relation to the Supreme Court ruling to give money to your campaign and then dissolve itself.”

MITT ROMNEY: “And, and given the fact that, that — you make the, yeah, it was a company you say was acting as a person, that may well be. You can take it up with him. But there’s actually, given the fact that he said, ‘Oh, well it’s me,’ I don’t think there was, if you will, no harm, no foul.”

Conrad did come forward, but only after two complaints were filed with the Federal Elections Commission and the Department of Justice.

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Past nemesis Kay Bailey Hutchison says she would support ‘nominee’ Rick Perry (Daily Caller)

Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison might have traded barbs with Texas Gov. Rick Perry during the last Texas gubernatorial election, but she insisted Wednesday that she will support whoever the nominee is, even if it is her former political nemesis.

“Of course I will be for the Republican nominee for President. We need new leadership that understands how to create jobs in America,” she said in an interview with David Asman on Fox Business set to air Wednesday night. “We have got to get rid of overregulation, overtaxation of our businesses so our private sector can thrive.”

“I will support the Republican nominee, whoever it is, because I know we can do better for our economy,” Hutchison said.

Perry is currently polling as one of the early front-runners in the Republican presidential primary race.

Despite their wranglings when she attempted to unseat him as governor in 2010, Hutchison appears to have put the past behind her.

“It was a very tough race. He had told our supporters he wouldn’t run and changed his mind. I was running for an open seat for governor, I thought, but he pivoted and decided to run again,” she said. “I thought I was unfairly criticized, but of course I would think so. (RELATED: Perry signs pro-life pledge)

“I’m concentrating on finishing my last year and a half, and trying to help get our ship of state on the right course.”

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From Sarah to Rudy, four Republicans say they are eyeing 2012 run (Daily Caller)

The GOP 2012 field may not be full yet.

A dozen Republicans are already running to challenge President Barack Obama for the White House, but at least four more could plausibly enter the contest by the end of next month.

Those four include former 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, former New York Gov. George Pataki, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continue to be pushed to enter the race, although both have publicly said they will not run.

As of the four who admit they’re considering a run, this is what The Daily Caller knows of their thinking:

Sarah Palin

Palin continues to tease the possibility of a run, reiterating in interviews that she hasn’t made up her mind about joining the fight for the GOP nomination and suggesting an announcement could come sometime in September.

“I’m of the mind of ABO — Anybody But Obama, at this time,” Palin told The Daily Caller while strolling through the Iowa State Fair earlier this month.

Speculation was at a high last week when her political action committee, SarahPAC, released a video teasing a Sept. 3 keynote address at the Tea Party of America event in Indianola, Iowa. That prompted Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, to predict she will run.

Palin was quick to respond, in a not-so-subtle swipe at Rove, saying through a statement on the SarahPAC website that any “professional pundit claiming to have ‘inside information’ … is … wrong.”

“Three years ago DC pundits predicted with glee the demise of Sarah Palin’s political career,” the statement said. “This past weekend their tune changed, citing false information that she has made a decision and set a date regarding a future campaign.”

Real Clear Politics, citing sources close to Palin, also reported that “an official announcement is unlikely” at the Tea Party of America event.

Despite these new signs that supporters say show she will run, others point to other factors that they say show Palin ultimately won’t pull the trigger.

That includes how both Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are already filling the space she would inhabit. And it’s also been pointed out that she has not lost her Fox News contributor contract — unlike others running for president — signaling that her bosses there may not think it’s likely she will run.

The others

Palin’s entry into the race would have the biggest impact, but several others are keeping the option open too.

George Pataki, former governor of New York, told TheDC in May that he’s considering running, and New York publications are buzzing this week that an announcement could be soon.

Another sign Pataki, who isn’t well known outside his state, is serious about joining the race was the online appearance Wednesday of what looked like a draft Pataki for President website.

David Catalfamo, a spokesman for Pataki, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

And then there’s John Bolton, the former U.N. ambassador, who says he’ll make a decision within the next few weeks.

“Well I’m going to make a decision by Labor Day, there is no question about it,” Bolton told TheDC this week. “That’s my target date. One way or the other, I’m going to decide.”

Don’t forget about Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, who told TheDC in July that he would make an announcement about getting in the race by the end of September.

“I think there’s an obvious timeline, which would be the end of the summer,” he told TheDC then. “I got to get this decided by September.”

A spokeswoman for Giuliani on Wednesday didn’t return a request for comment.

TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein contributed to this report.

Watch:

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The big business of Newt, Inc. (Daily Caller)

One of GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s favorite lines is that he is “running on ideas.” And indeed, he has a reputation as an ideas man in Washington, D.C.

Gingrich has an opinion on — and a plan for — everything from offshore oil drilling and immigration to infrastructure spending and spaceflight.

But ideas alone don’t fund presidential ambitions. They can’t buy plane tickets and tour buses, much less Greek cruises or a $500,000 credit line at Tiffany’s.

Gingrich’s total assets were valued at between $6.7 million and $30.7 million in 2010. He has written 23 books and produced eight documentaries with his wife. He commands between $40,000 and $50,000 per speech.

So how does Gingrich do it?

The former Speaker of the House has financed his operations by creating a large network of for-profit and nonprofit organizations which  directly and indirectly spread the gospel according to Newt. All told, the former Georgia Republican congressman held no fewer than 25 titles, positions and occupations before running for president, according to a CNN report.

The majority of Gingrich’s assets come from his numerous name-branded, for-profit groups: The Gingrich Group, Gingrich Communications, Gingrich Productions and Gingrich Holdings. He uses these companies to produce, distribute and supplement his prolific output of books, documentaries and public speeches. (RELATED: What exactly is a ‘gotcha’ question?)

Relations between the corporations are cozy. For example, in his July financial disclosures Gingrich declared a “promissory note” from the Gingrich Group, LLC to Gingrich Productions, Inc., valued somewhere between $5 million and $25 million.

The former Georgia congressman is CEO and chairman of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm he founded in 1999 after leaving office. One of the company’s first clients was Freddie Mac. A spokesperson for the mortgage lender said Ginrgich was hired “to provide strategic counsel on a range of issues that we’re facing related to policy and the industry.”

Gingrich later criticized the bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying it was “a tragedy” that the lending giants “had so many politicians beholden to them.”

Gingrich Productions, which “provides talent for audio, video and photographic productions,” paid its namesake more than $2.4 million in distributions last year and is valued at between $500,000 and $1 million. Gingrich’s wife, Callista, heads the company and is the creative force behind its many documentaries, all of which feature her and Newt.

The films have been financed in part by Citizens United, the conservative nonprofit group that last year won the Supreme Court case establishing corporations’ right to free speech through political contributions. (RELATED: Gingrich says scrap super committee, extend payroll tax holiday)

Gingrich also collected approximately $72,000 last year from a Florida talent agency, The Lubbers Agency, Inc., which also lists him as a director. Lubbers, presumably, refers to his daughter Kathy Gingrich Lubbers, who also leads Gingrich Communications.

Gingrich Communications is the marketing and media arm of Gingrich’s operations. It publishes The Americano, an online news site offering “a more balanced view on all the issues that concern American Hispanics today.” The Americano’s editor-in-chief, Sylvia Garcia, also works on Hispanic inclusion issues for Gingrich’s presidential campaign.

And then there are the think tanks, nonprofits and political organizations that Gingrich either founded or supports.

The largest is American Solutions for Winning the Future, a “527? political action committee he founded in 2007. There are no limits on the fundraising of such organizations, but they may not advocate for specific candidates or coordinate with any candidate’s campaign.

Gingrich’s 527 group works “to create the next generation of solutions that will ensure that the United States remains the safest, freest, and most prosperous country in the world.”

Its first major campaign called for increased offshore oil drilling and energy production. It raised $28.2 million in 2010, including money from its donors: energy companies like Las Vegas Sands, Peabody Energy and American Electrical Power.

American Solutions spent all the money it raised — $28.4 million, to be exact. In fact, it was the single biggest spender among 527 groups in the 2010 election cycle.

But more than half the money the group collected went to soliciting more donations and paying staff. It spent $15.6 million on fundraising and $9.6 million on administrative costs. Much of the rest paid for travel and events featuring Gingrich. For example, $3.2 million went to Moby Dick Airways, a charter jet company based near Washington, D.C.

That would be the same Moby Dick Airways the Gingrich campaign dropped FEC report. GingrichCenter for Health Transformation, a for-profit think tank Gingrich founded in 2003. The Center pushes for free-market reforms to American health care system, and has been critical of President Obama’s health-sector overhaul.

In its own words, the Center is “a high-impact collaboration of private and public sector leaders committed to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money for all Americans.” The organization doesn’t lobby, but its clients — big names like Blue Cross Blue Shield and GE Healthcare — pay fees ranging from $10,000 to $200,000 per year for access to its policy ideas.

Gingrich also founded and helped fundraise for Renewing American Leadership, a nonprofit organization formed to “preserve and promote America’s history and America’s Godly heritage.”

Launched in 2009, that charity aimed to build a united front of social and fiscal conservatives. It prominently featured Gingrich on its website and in its fundraising letters, which were written on Newt Gingrich letterhead and signed by the former speaker.

Gingrich got in hot water when an ABC investigation revealed the charity paid $220,000 over two years to Gingrich Communications. It also purchased cases of Gingrich’s books and copies of DVDs produced by Gingrich Productions.

Long-time Gingrich spokesperson Rick Tyler ran Renewing American Leadership. He also said he was the recipient of the six-figure payments the charity made to Gingrich Communications. ABC also learned that the list of people who sent checks to that charity was provided to Gingrich for future use.

The Gingrich campaign released a statement saying the ABC News report “did not find any activity that was not fully supported by the law.”

“That’s because both [Renewing American Leadership] and Gingrich Communications took great care to make sure all resources were being used legally and ethically,” the statement reads.

After the ABC report broke, Renewing American Leadership stopped using Gingrich in its promotional materials. Tyler did not return calls for comment.

It wasn’t the first time Gingrich has been accused of playing fast and loose with his finances. In the late 1990s, the House Ethics Committee censured and fined the then-speaker for allegedly drawing money from a tax-exempt organization to help finance his political activities. The IRS later cleared him of the charges; the House, however, still ordered him to pay a $300,000 penalty.

But never let it be said Gingrich doesn’t have a charitable streak. The Gingrich Foundation, an Atlanta-based charity, has donated almost $700,000 to charities since 2004. The foundation has given $2,500 to the Atlanta Ballet, $10,000 to the Atlanta-based Arthritis Foundation and $100 to the Birthplace of John Wayne in Winterset, Iowa.

And in the midst of this all, the idea machine rolls on, as steady as ever. Gingrich released his twenty-third book this summer, and he took time off the campaign trail to screen his and Callista’s latet documentary.

He also made time to announce his newest project: drafting and introducing a bill in Congress strictly enforcing the Tenth Amendment.

The project is called Team 10 and will be, in typical Newt-speak, “a crowd-sourced, participatory effort meant to listen, learn and work with the American people, both online and in person, to develop ideas for enforcing the 10th Amendment and returning power back home.”

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Ron Paul on Libya: ‘Victory for Empire, but loss for American Republic’ (Daily Caller)

C.J. Ciaramella C.j. Ciaramella – Thu Aug 25, 6:59 pm ET

GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul today denounced the United States’ intervention in Libya, criticizing the operation as unconstitutional and costly.

The longtime Texas congressman, who is in third place in the GOP nomination race, according to Gallup polls released this week, wrote in a statement that while the recently deposed Moammar Gadhafi was a dictator, the United States was in no position to meddle in Libyan affairs.

“The current situation in Libya may be a short term victory for Empire, but it is a loss for our American Republic,” Paul said. “And, I fear it may be devastating to the Libyan people.”

“There is no doubt that Moammar Gadhafi is a bad guy, and that he has brought harm and misery to his country,” Paul continued. “However, our involvement in another country’s civil war is costly and unconstitutional.”

Paul said the he fears the the country will be taken over by another dictator or descend into sectarian anarchy, rather than peacefully transitioning to a democracy. Meanwhile, he said the United States has spent money overseas while in the midst of a debt crisis.

“We have spent over $1 billion on a war that this administration has fought not with the consent of Congress, but under a NATO flag and authorization from the United Nations,” he said. (ALSO ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: Financial disclosures: Herman Cain worth between $2.9 and $6.6 million)

“And so, our government continues to spend trillions of dollars in overseas foreign wars while we face unsustainable debt, a looming dollar crisis, and our Constitution seems to lose any meaning,” Paul continued. “These actions will sink our country if we do not reverse course.”

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House GOP set to repeal incandescent bulb ban (Daily Caller)

Republican House members are preparing themselves to take a stand to save the incandescent light bulb.

Monday, the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 2417, the Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act, a bill to repeal the federal ban on the incandescent light bulb, contained in a 2007 energy law.

Sponsored by Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton, the bill would protect Americans’ ability to use the kind of light bulbs they want and not be forced to use mercury containing light sources such as compact fluorescent lights.

“This is about more than just energy consumption, it is about personal freedom. Voters sent us a message in November that it is time for politicians and activists in Washington to stop interfering in their lives and manipulating the free market,” Barton said. “The light bulb ban is the perfect symbol of that frustration. People don’t want Congress dictating what light fixtures they can use.”

Texas Republican Rep. Michael Burgess and Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn joined Barton and 12 other Republicans to reintroduce the bill in early 2011.

“These are the kinds of regulations that make the American people roll their eyes,” said Blackburn. “It is typical of a ‘big Washington’ solution to a non-existent problem. In this case it manifests itself as an overreach into every American home, one that ships good jobs overseas and infuriates the American consumer.” (FEMA faces House heat for taking over flood insurance policies)

Come Monday, Americans may be one step closer to having absolute freedom in their light source choices.

“Traditional incandescent bulbs are cheap and reliable. Alternatives, including the most common replacement Compact Fluorescent Lights or CFL’s, are more expensive and health hazards – so why force them on the American people?” said Barton. “From the health insurance you’re allowed to have, to the car you can drive, to the light bulbs you can buy, Washington is making too many decisions that are better left to you and your family.”

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Perry putting out feelers in Iowa (Daily Caller)

A new development in the will-he-or-won’t-he guessing game over Rick Perry’s possible presidential run: the Texas governor has started to call Iowa Republican donors, according to Politico.

Apparently a number of donors in the state are unhappy with the current crop of Republicans vying for the Republican nomination, and plan to convene a meeting of national donors in Austin in late July. The meeting, which Perry may not even attend, is a meeting of his political allies, hoping to determine what kind of funding would be available for a presidential run. “This isn’t the first or last meeting,” a source told Politico. (Rick Perry may have tough time swaying Latino voters)

One activist, a prominent Iowa Republican named Joni Scotter, said Perry called her and asked if he should run. He was undecided, but she told him “of course” he should.

Scotter wouldn’t say more about the conversation, but Perry’s spokesman Dave Carney confirmed that the governor had been reaching out, “calling some folks, returning some calls and listening to what folks have to say.”

Meanwhile, a group not officially affiliated with Perry hired former Newt Gingrich staffer Craig Schoenfeld to gather support for the governor in Iowa’s Ames Straw Poll. Schoenfeld is a key player in Iowa politics, and the group hopes to raise both Perry’s Iowa and national profiles.

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Republicans take advantage of Department of Energy’s Twitter Q and A session (Daily Caller)

The Obama Administration is using social media for all it’s worth. On Wednesday, President Obama participated in a first-ever Twitter town hall, and federal agencies are following suit.

The Department of Energy is hosting a Twitter Question-and-Answer session Friday afternoon on fuel economy. Inquirers can tweet questions like “how can I save money on gas this summer?” provided they are 140 characters or less.

Some Republicans on the Hill already got a head start asking questions. Many of them are from the House Energy Action Team (HEAT).

Rep. Steve Womack asked, “@Energy Will the Admin support an #energy plan to cut the red tape stalling domestic energy production & create new jobs? #4jobs #heat.”

Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio went a more personal route and asked “When will @energy OK loan guarantee for #Piketon OH #USEC plant that will bring #jobs 2 southern Ohio? #HEAT #OH06.”

Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama tweeted “RT @Energy: Will the Admin support the House-passed #energy legislation to end bureaucratic barriers to domestic production? #HEAT.” (Electric cars get renewed push on Capitol Hill)

And Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers followed suit by asking “Q: @Energy: Americans don’t face a shortage of domestic #energy; we face a surplus of gov’t regulations. How are regs #4jobs? #HEAT.”

The question-and-answer session will behind Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. Questions will be answered by the Department of Energy’s fuel economy expert, Dr. David Greene. The agency’s Energy Blog already has some suggestions for getting the most bang for your buck at the pump.  “Don’t B-E aggressive” and “Don’t carry extra junk in your trunk,” are just two of the many tips.

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GOP senators bash Holder’s decision to give civilian trial to Somali terrorist (Daily Caller)

Several Republican senators have signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder ripping him for transferring a Somali-based terrorist to the United States for a civilian trial, The Daily Caller has learned.

U.S. officials transferred Somali terror suspect Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame from a Navy ship, where he was detained for the past couple of months for interrogation, to New York.

The Obama administration did not announce Warsame’s capture before transferring him to New York, where he’s now been indicted on federal charges. If they did announce Warsame’s capture before his transfer, congressional Republicans may have had an opportunity to publicly object to Holder’s decision.

In their letter to Holder objecting to the decision to give Warsame a civilian trial, the GOP senators say Warsame was an “unlawful combatant” who “wore no uniform and fought for no country. But, they say Warsame “is not an American citizen and was not captured on American soil.”

“Mr. Warsame should have been detained outside the United States and, if necessary, tried by military commission,” the GOP senators wrote.

Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk authored the letter. (Elizabeth Warren snubbed Oversight hearing for Vanity Fair interview, internal meetings)

Signing senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, wrote that Holder’s decision goes against legal precedents and grants a terrorist Constitutional rights that, normally, only American citizens enjoy.

“Your decision to grant this terrorist full U.S. Constitutional rights and to try him in a civilian court on American soil reverses U.S. policy and legal precedent, and adds unnecessary costs and risks to local governments and populations,” they wrote. “Under your decision, Mr. Warsame will be prosecuted as a civilian with considerable expense and time diverted from U.S. criminal cases. His prosecution will trigger more Jihadist attention to the city and court where the prosecution will take place.”

At the time TheDC obtained a copy of the letter and confirmation that it will be sent, 39 of the 47 Senate Republicans had signed it. The letter is still in circulation, so more Republicans may sign it.

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Romney leads in NH poll, but has slipped (Daily Caller)

A new Public Policy Polling poll shows Mitt Romney still leading in the New Hampshire Republican primary, but finds that he has slipped since the firm last polled the state, while Michele Bachmann is on the rise.

The poll found that 25 percent of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters would vote for Romney in the primary, down from the 37 percent who said they would vote for him in early April of this year.

The ballot in April was somewhat different. It did not include Rick Perry, but did ask respondents about Haley Barbour.

But as PPP points out, Romney’s favorability in the state has also dropped slightly, falling from 68 percent favorable, 19 percent unfavorable in April to 60 percent favorable, 29 percent unfavorable in the most recent poll.

That variation would seem to reflect just how uncertain the field remains, and how voters’ opinions are not yet set.

Bachmann on the other hand has jumped 14 points in the polls, coming in just behind Romney with 18 percent of the vote. She has high favorability in the state, 64 percent favorable and 24 percent unfavorable. (Romney brings together potential Utah rivals)

Among self-identified Tea Partiers her favorability is the highest of any candidate, with 86 percent favorable and 11 percent unfavorable. Among those voters, she is the first choice candidate on a trial ballot. Among non-Tea Party voters, Romney is the clear favorite.

Sarah Palin is the only other candidate who gets into double digits in a trial heat ballot, garnering 11 percent of the vote.

Romney did better in the WMUR Granite State poll released Tuesday conducted by the University of New Hampshire. Thirty-five percent of likely Republican primary voters said he was their first choice, and 68 percent said they had a favorable opinion of him. Just 24 percent had an unfavorable opinion of him.

The poll surveyed 341 New Hampshire Republican primary voters between June 30 and July 5, using robo-call interviews. None of those interviews were conducted on July 3 or July 4. The margin of error is plus or minus 5.3 percent.

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GOP gets to play the Gitmo card (Daily Caller)

Republicans have a political opportunity to promote legislation that would establish Guantanamo Bay prison as the default detention facility for jihadis following the White House’s controversial decision to transfer a Somali jihadi from U.S. military custody to a civil court in the United States.

“It’s astonishing that this Administration is determined to give foreign fighters all the rights and privileges of U.S. citizens regardless of where they are captured,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. “Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame is a foreign enemy combatant. He should be treated as one; he should be sitting in a cell [at] Guantanamo Bay, and eventually be tried before a military commission. Warsame is an admitted terrorist.”

Warsame’s civil prosecution “suggests — incorrectly — that the full spectrum of Constitutional rights and the evidentirary rules of U.S. courts should apply to foreign terrorists captured abroad,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “The Obama Administration needs to accept that it makes no sense to close Guantanamo Bay, and for the sake of our national security allow new detainees to be transferred there.”

Federal officials announced Tuesday that they had brought to the U.S. Wasame, an Islamic weapons smuggler who was captured at sea on April 19 by the U.S. Navy. Wasame was seized, held on board a naval ship and interrogated for two months in accordance with established military rules.

But he was then read his Miranda rights, questioned by the FBI and given a lawyer before arriving in the U.S. where he will face a civil court.

Republicans in the Senate and House have drafted bills intended to keep jihadis out of U.S. courts, and in the Guantanamo Bay military prison. The bills are sponsored by New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, and California Republican Rep. Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Republicans are supported by public opinion. In January the Obama administration ended its plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, and dropped plans to try four senior members of Al Qaeda in New York civil courts for their rolls in planning 9/11.

A March 2010 CNN poll found that only 39 percent of Americans thought that Guantanamo should be closed. (GOP senators bash Holder’s decision to give civilian trial to Somali terrorist)

On Wednesday, at least 37 of 46 GOP senators signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder denouncing the Wasame transfer.

Holder has argued that civil-law is the foundation of national defense and the focus on civil-law has become a central feature of the new anti-terrorism strategy adopted by the administration last last month.

Holder also has the support of President Brack Obama, who recently approved a new anti-terrorism strategy that gives the most prominent role to the civil-courts.

On Wednesday, Democrats supported the administration’s decision to bring Wasame and other jihadis to U.S. for trail in the civil court system. (Holder wins two, loses one)

“To argue that we cannot successfully convict a terrorists in the U.S. is to ignore reality,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, declared July 6. Some 400 terrorists have already been convicted in civil courts, he said.

Nearly all of the 400 convicted people were found guilty of offenses within the United States where evidence and witnesses can be assembled. Many also were convicted of straightforward offenses, such as immigration fraud.

However, ACLU lawyers opposed the administration’s treatment of Wasame because it did not immediately extend civil law protections to jihadis. Keeping Wasame on board the ship for military interrogation “was unnecessary, unwise and unlawful,” and also jeopardized the civil case against Warsame, said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project.

The administration’s reluctance to treat jihadis under the rules of war, rather than civil law, has set sharp limits on the military’s ability to deal with jihadis outside the Iraq and Afghanistan battlefields. Jihadis captured in those areas “are easier to deal with,” Admiral William McRaven, head of the Pentagon’s special force command, during a June 29 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. People captured outside those zones, he said, can be delivered to a country or prosecuted under civil law, he said. But, he said, “if we can’t do either one of those, then we’ll release that individual.”

Ayotte asked McRaven if his task would be aided by “a long-term detention and interrogation facility that would be secure for individuals where we need to gather further intelligence?” Such a facility, said McRaven, “would be very helpful.”

There’s no consensus facility or interrogation policy because the White House does not want to use Guantanamo, and Republicans don’t want to use the civil courts, said Robert Chesney, an lawyer at the University of Texas School of Law. If the administration walked away from use of civil law, and stepped up use of Guantanamo, progressive legal groups would “howl” at the administration, he said.

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