JimEd Speaks Out

Barack Obama, declaring “that’s enough,” denounced Tuesday as “appalling” and “ridiculous” comments made in the last few days by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

In a press conference in North Carolina, the Illinois senator used his strongest language to date to condemn Wright’s controversial sermons, which have remained a burden to his campaign since they became national news more than a month ago. Wright spoke Monday at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

“I am outraged by the comments that were made, and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Obama said.

“The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe they ended up giving comfort to those who prey on hate,” he said.

He should have been 'angered' and 'ouraged' back when we all were. It didn't take us 20 years.

The Internal Revenue Service started making the deposits at 8:30 a.m. EDT Monday with the goal of completing 800,000 direct deposits each day over the first three days of this week. No deposits will be made Thursday while the IRS prepares a big batch of 5 million direct deposits scheduled on Friday.

Barack Obama, in his first appearance on “FOX News Sunday,” says there will be no more debates before the two May 6 primaries despite repeated challenges from Hillary Clinton to meet him face-to-face.

Clinton challenged him again Saturday in Indiana, saying the two should meet for a one-on-one debate without moderators, Lincoln-Douglas-style.

That seems unlikely, given Obama’s response when posed the debate question by FOX News’ Chris Wallace.

Hillary Clinton’s big win in the Pennsylvania primary yielded only slight gains in the pledged delegate count, putting pressure on the New York senator to pull off a streak of similar victories in the nine contests ahead.

But Clinton is using the victory to build her case that she’s the better Democrat to face presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in November. Her campaign was re-energized as the candidates tour Indiana Wednesday, brushing off the still daunting task that lies ahead.

Clinton raised $3.5 million in the hours after her victory, which the campaign said was her best overnight performance ever.

“At the end of the day, people have to decide who they think would be not only the best president, which is the most important question, but who would be the better candidate against Senator McCain. And I think the coalition that I’ve put together, as demonstrated once again last night, is a very strong base for us to beat Senator McCain,” Clinton told NBC’s “Today.”

Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, the moderators of Wednesday night’s presidential debate on ABC, became the subject of a fierce and somewhat unexpected debate themselves on Thursday, as viewers, bloggers and television critics lamented what they described as an opportunity lost: a chance to ask the two candidates for the Democratic nomination substantive questions early and often.

If there was a common theme, it was that Mr. Gibson and Mr. Stephanopoulos had front-loaded the debate with questions that many viewers said they considered irrelevant when measured against the faltering economy or the Iraq war, like why Senator Barack Obama did not wear an American flag pin on his lapel. Others rapped the journalists for dwelling on matters that had been picked over for weeks, like the incendiary comments of Mr. Obama’s former pastor, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s assertion that she had to duck sniper fire in Bosnia more than a decade ago.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter laid a wreath of red roses at the grave of Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat during a visit to the West Bank City of Ramallah on Tuesday.

"He and Mrs. Carter and his son Jeff wanted to pay their respects to President Arafat," Carter's trip director Rick Jasculca told Cybercast News Service. But the former president didn't make any comments there, he said.

Dubbed the "godfather of terrorism," Arafat was linked to the deaths of two American diplomats in the Sudan in 1973 -- one of many terror acts laid at his feet. (See earlier story)

Twenty years later, Arafat became the first PLO leader to sign a peace agreement with an Israeli Prime Minister -- Yitzhak Rabin -- in 1993. He was considered Israel's peace partner (although many Israelis never believed it) until the beginning of the violent Palestinian uprising in September 2000. Arafat managed the terror war against Israel until his death in 2004.

Many years have passed since the Democratic Party was as much a part of American Catholic identity as weekly Mass and parochial school. But it still came as a shock to many Democrats to lose the Catholic vote, a key group in must-win states like Ohio, in the 2004 presidential election.

It is an experience they are determined not to repeat.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton talked about her affection for the Book of Esther.

Senator Barack Obama spoke about the “moral dimension” of abortion.

They both described themselves as people of faith.

The appearance of both of the Democratic presidential candidates at tonight’s “Compassion Forum” at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, sponsored by the group, Faith in Public Life, and broadcast live on CNN, highlighted just how far the party has come in its willingness to talk about matters of faith.

In 2004, of course, regular churchgoers voted overwhelmingly for President Bush, who proclaimed his favorite philosopher was Jesus, over a Democratic candidate, Senator John F. Kerry, who was distinctly uncomfortable talking about his own Roman Catholic beliefs. Analysts talked about a “God gap” between the parties, setting off a flurry of frantic efforts within the Democratic Party to set out its own faith agenda.

But hanging over the entire evening were Mr. Obama’s recent controversial remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser about residents of small towns clinging to God or guns, spotlighting just how nascent these efforts are in the Democratic Party and how precarious its advances are.

The radio host Randi Rhodes has left Air America, the progressive radio outlet said Thursday, ending her national syndicated show and leaving the network with a three-hour hole in its afternoon schedule.

Ms. Rhodes, the host of the “The Randi Rhodes Show” will join KKGN, the Air America affiliate in San Francisco.

She was suspended by Air America a week ago after a video of her making disparaging remarks about the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton surfaced on YouTube. Ms. Rhodes likened Mrs. Clinton to a prostitute at an event sponsored by KKGN on March 22.The radio host Randi Rhodes has left Air America, the progressive radio outlet said Thursday, ending her national syndicated show and leaving the network with a three-hour hole in its afternoon schedule.

Ms. Rhodes, the host of the “The Randi Rhodes Show” will join KKGN, the Air America affiliate in San Francisco.

She was suspended by Air America a week ago after a video of her making disparaging remarks about the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton surfaced on YouTube. Ms. Rhodes likened Mrs. Clinton to a prostitute at an event sponsored by KKGN on March 22.

Federal employees charged millions of dollars for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and other questionable expenses to their government credit cards over a 15-month period, congressional auditors say.

A report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, examined spending controls across the federal government following reports of credit-card abuse at departments including Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

A new poll suggests Barack Obama is gaining ground in Pennsylvania.

Two weeks before the Keystone State primary, the Quinnipiac University poll shows Hillary Rodham Clinton still out front among Democratic voters there. Fifty percent of those surveyed favored Clinton, while 44 percent said they were backing Obama.

Clinton's margin in the survey has been shrinking over the past few weeks. In mid-March she had a lead of 12 percentage points. Last week, that had dropped to nine, and now it's six.

Charlton Heston brought 10 commandments to the big screen and an 11th to big politics: Thou shalt not abridge gun rights.

He was much like Ronald Reagan, minus the presidency. Both were actors and union leaders whose politics switched to the right over time.

Both became strangers to Hollywood's Democratic mainstream. Both walked into an Alzheimer's twilight.

But Heston's conservatism was put to a more pointed, nearly single-issue use, as president of the National Rifle Association. To gun control activists, Heston stepped forward as a reassuring face for a movement they consider extremist, aggressive and sophisticated.

It's a Senate showdown that could pit the three presidential candidates against each other in a fight for dominance.

Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are all pushing for the perfect sound bite; for that singular moment that will define their campaigns' stance on the Iraq war.

And it happens on Tuesday. That's when General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will report to Congress in two Senate hearings. They’ll give progress reports on the war and offer strategy going forward.

As heiress to her father's stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal, and her connections helped him launch his political career — even if the millions remain in her name alone. Yet the arm's-length distance between McCain and his wife's assets also has helped shield him from conflict-of-interest problems.