First Fan

The Steelers-fan-in-chief is hosting a Super Bowl Party.
Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter and Pittsburgh’s Rep. Mike Doyle are among the guests President and self-professed Steelers fan Barack Obama has invited to cheer on the Black and Gold Sunday night at the White House.
The gathering is both bi-partisan and bi-conference, despite the fact that Arizona’s two Republican senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl will be cheering elsewhere, according to NBC News. Still, two members of the Arizona House delegation will be doing their best to out-cheer a Keystone contingent that will also include, Reps. Charlie Dent, R-Allentown; and Patrick Murphy, R-Phila., who, along with Mr. Specter, will doubtless be tempering his home state support with rue over the fate of the Eagles.
Families were invited as well. A spokeswoman for Mr. Casey said he would be there with his wife, Terese, and their four daughters. Mr. Specter will be there with his wife, Joan. Mr. Doyle said he would be there with his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Ali
He said his daughter met the news of the invitation with disbelief.
"She said, ‘That’s real funny.’ I said, ‘No. I’m serious.’ ‘’
"She’s pretty excited,’’ he said. Mr. Doyle said he and his wife had done some shopping in anticipation of the party.
"Terrible Towels for him and the girls ... and I got a hat to replace that White Sox hat he’s always wearing.’’
The balance of the guest list, according to the White House, includes, Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Artur Davis, D-Ala.; Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Raul Grijalva, D-Arix., Paul Hodes, D-N.H., Eleanor Holmes-Norton, D-D.C., and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.
 
 

Grant Street tempts the gods (Updated)

Timothy McNulty

We leave Pittsburgh at 6 a.m. this morning, and fire up our email to find two pretty bizarre emails from Allegheny County exec Dan Onorato and Mayor Luke Steelerstahl. Emails that some fans will read as guarantees of Steeler defeat.

All week long down here in Tampa, thousands of reporters have been trying -- and failing -- to come up with some kind of bulletin-board material on the game, but the dynamic city-county duo may have done so all by themselves. They all but guarantee a Steelers win and say planning is underway for a victory parade.

(UPDATE: Grant Street offices were getting "swamped" with calls and emails on a WPXI-TV report that the city would not be holding a parade, if or when the Steelers won, Onorato's spokesman Kevin Evanto said.)

Here it Onorato's statement in its entirety:

Onorato Says Super Bowl Victory Will Be Celebrated

PITTSBURGH - Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato today reassured Steelers fans that a victory in Sunday's game will be appropriately celebrated. However, no final decisions have been made as of yet regarding any post-Super Bowl events, including a parade or rally.

"The Steelers Nation is the greatest, most dedicated group of fans in the world, and we need to focus our collective energy during the next four days on rallying the team to a historic sixth Super Bowl win," said Onorato. "I want to assure fans that we will celebrate a Steelers victory."

After the game is over, the County Executive will work with the City of Pittsburgh and the Steelers organization to determine what type of celebratory event the team wants. Onorato says he will work to honor the wishes of the Steelers regarding any post-Super Bowl celebration.

"We've already held two large rallies for the team, and we're holding another one today, which we expect will draw several thousand Steelers fans," added Onorato. "I encourage everyone to join us today at noon on Forbes Avenue to cheer the black and gold onto a sixth Super Bowl victory."

Not to be outdone, Steelerstahl's office issued its own murky missive, this time saying there have been rumors that the city won't hold a parade:

MAYOR RAVENSTAHL COMMENTS ON STEELERS PARADE RUMOR

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl today issued a statement regarding rumors that Steelers Nation would not be given a celebration.

"I don't know where or how these rumors started, but after Sunday, Pittsburgh and the Steelers Nation will be celebrating. Right now, the fans and our Steelers are focusing on bringing another Super Bowl Championship back to Pittsburgh. I am proud of our Steelers and what they have done to bring the spotlight back to our great City and I look forward to celebrating a great season with Steelers Nation next week."

UPDATE: All may not be lost, our pal Bill Toland says, pointing to this graf in an ESPN story on the Terrible Towel:

And what of those who disrespect the towel? History is littered with casualties. In 2005, Cincinnati receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh wiped his feet with a Terrible Towel after scoring a touchdown. The Bengals won the game, but the Steelers extracted their revenge, beating Cincinnati in the playoffs during their road to Super Bowl XL. After Ravens receiver Derrick Mason jumped on the towel before a September 2008 matchup, Baltimore lost all three of its games against Pittsburgh. For those looking for an omen, consider this: On Monday, Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon pretended to blow his nose in the Terrible Towel and then threw it to the ground.

Bon Voyage

 Timothy McNulty | January 29, 2008

As we've mentioned before, I've been busy with stories exploring Steeler Nation.

That was all a lead-up to heading to Tampa as part of the Super Bowl coverage team, so over the next week Early Returns will be in the capable hands of Mackenzie Carpenter. Please keep checking in here for your political fix, while I'll be posting over at the P-G's excellent Steeler site Blog 'N' Gold.

Obama takes on the weather

Timothy McNulty | January 28, 2009

Anybody who's spent time in DC knows the place goes absolutely crazy anytime there's winter weather. I know in two-plus years I lived there I never saw a snow plow.

Anyway, school was cancelled in DC today, prompting some trash talking from the Obama girls, who noted that snow and ice never closes school in Chicago. From this morning's White House pool report:

POOL REPORT #1
1/28/09
POTUS meeting with business leaders

Potus makes humorous remarks about the inability of D.C. schools and residents to "handle" wintry weather, says he is "confident" stimulus bill will pass.

At 10:34 a.m., pool was ushered into the Roosevelt Room for what was expected to be simply a photo op. POTUS sat at the long wood table with 13 business leaders such as Google's Eric Schmidt and Jet Blue's David Barger (full list below). Behind POTUS: Browner, Rahm, Jarrett, Summers, in that order.

POTUS said he wanted to talk about something unrelated to the economy: "Can I make a comment unrelated to the economy?" -- and launched into weather remarks (please check transcript): "My children's school was canceled today, because of what? Some ice," he said, and all at the table started laughing.

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled," he said, joking about how kids go out for recess on snow days. More laughter.

POTUS said he would have to instill "some flinty Chicago toughness" into Washingtonians.

"When it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things," POTUS said. Fighting words!

Rendell's di-so-do

Timothy McNulty | January 28, 2009

Gov. Rendell tells a Philly radio station that he would have refused an appointment in the Obama administration.

Which is funny, because it would have been really, really surprising if he had been offered one: remember in December when he was accused of making sexist comments about Obama's Homeland Security pick, then slammed O's handling of the Blago affair?

Specter backs down

Timothy McNulty | January 27, 2009

Arlen Specter got his headlines, and now Eric Holder gets his vote.

Specter -- who may have faced down a 2010 primary fight on his right flank from conservative Pat Toomey -- did some serious saber-rattling on Obama's AG pick for a few weeks but announced at a presser today that he will support him. From the WashPost:

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, announced this afternoon that he would vote for Attorney General nominee Eric Holder Jr. after weeks in which the lawmaker advocated for intense vetting of Holder's credentials.

Specter's remarks in the Senate Press Gallery this afternoon come a day before the judiciary panel is scheduled to vote on Holder's nomination, which was delayed for a week at the request of all eight GOP lawmakers on the committee. Specter, who is preparing for what could be a tough Republican primary fight in his home state, had raised questions about Holder's role in a pair of controversial clemency decisions during the Clinton Administration. The lawmaker sent dozens of written questions to Holder, 58, and even met with him privately late last week.

Republican leaders had signaled that Holder's bid to become the first African American to lead the nation's largest law enforcement agency would meet with resistance, confounding Democratic supporters who noted that Holder had broad experience as a former judge, U.S. attorney and second in command at the Justice Department during the Clinton era.

Straight from the playbook

Timothy McNulty | January 27, 2009

Chip Saltsman -- the guy vying to run the RNC who distributed the "Barack the Magic Negro" song at Christmas -- today blamed the uproar over the racial parody on . . . of course . . . the media. (See the reasons for Bill Kristol's downfall from earlier today.)

From Politico:

Republican National Committee chairman candidate Chip Saltsman blamed the media Tuesday for the uproar over a CD he sent out in December that included a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro."

Saltsman did not apologize for sending out the song, a parody referring to a 2007 Los Angeles Times column of the same title that is written to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon." He said during an interview on MSNBC that the episode exposed media bias.

"We're definitely not playing on a level playing ground with the media on that issue," Saltsman said. "I mean, there was no outrage when the L.A. Times article coined that phrase."

Questioned by host Contessa Brewer why he was pointing a finger at the press, Saltsman responded: "Contessa, I'm asking you, were you outraged when you read the article in the L.A. Times a year and a half ago?"

"It was a parody Christmas gift, and I sent it out without even thinking about what was on it," he said. "Obviously, when you do something like that, you don't want to offend a lot of people when you do. That's something you don't want to do. And, you know, hopefully that we'll move on, talk about the future of the party."

Down goes Kristol

Timothy McNulty | January 27, 2009

Our apologies again for being a bit slow this week, as we are part of the Steelers coverage team, but this bit from Sunday's NYT has to get on the record -- the paper has dumped conservative columnist Bill Kristol from its op-ed page after only a year on the job. Here's his farewell column, saying with humility (ahem) that now that Obama is prez, it's the end of a conservative era.

The Daily Beast has a play-by-play on his takedown. He was sloppy and he played the well-worn anti-NYT card, which is tough when they're signing your paycheck:

The problems that emerged were more fundamental. Kristol's writing wasn't compelling or even very careful. He either lacked a talent for solid opinion journalism or wasn't putting his heart into it. A give-away came in the form of four corrections the newspaper was forced to run over factual mistakes in the columns, creating an impression that they were rushed out without due diligence or attention to factual claims. A senior writer at Time magazine recounted to me a similar experience with Kristol following his stint in 2006-07. "His conservative ideas were cutting edge and influential," I was told. "But his sloppy writing and failure to fact check what he wrote made us queasy."

Kristol also regularly commented on political developments in which he was personally engaged-without disclosing the depth of his engagement. The Daily Beast previously highlighted his deep involvement in selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be John McCain's running mate. In the campaign season that followed, boosterism about Sarah Palin became a staple of his writing, even at the expense of his relationship with McCain and leading figures in the McCain campaign. This conduct blurred the distinctions between being an actor on and observer of the political stage, raising some concern among the guardians of The Times' credibility.

Tough as this was for Kristol's promoters, he might still have survived as a columnist had it not been for an attitude of casual and reflexive disloyalty he publicly displayed towards The Times itself. A good example came in an appearance with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on October 30. Here's the way Editor and Publisher described it:

"Appearing once again on The Daily Show, Bill Kristol, Jon Stewart's favorite whipping boy (‘Bill Kristol, aren't you ever right?'), on Thursday night defended the McCain-Palin ticket, at one point informing the show's host that he was getting his news from suspect sources. ‘You're reading The New York Times too much,' he declared. ‘Bill, you WORK for The New York Times!' Stewart pointed out."

Google maps rebounds post-Cheney

Timothy McNulty | January 27, 2009

From the truth stranger than fiction department, see this scoop (again) from the LA Times. Satellite images of the vice president's mansion had been blurred on Google Maps, but since Dick Cheney wheeled away they can now be clearly seen. 

Dick Cheney may not have lived in an undisclosed location while he was vice president, but it was all but impossible to see it on Google Earth.

Once obscured by pixilation, Google Earth's aerial image of the vice presidential residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington is now nearly as clear as its view of the White House.

This appears to be none of the White House's doing, however, even though the arrival of clarity coincided with the inauguration of the home's new occupant, Vice President Joe Biden.

"Google Earth and Google Maps are regularly updated as new imagery becomes available," a spokeswoman for Google Inc. said Monday. "Our most recent update, which went live last week, included updated imagery of the Washington, D.C., area from several providers."

Google's aerial images come from third-party suppliers, the spokeswoman said -- "some of which may blur images before they provide them to Google." The pixilated view of the observatory grounds came from the U.S. Geological Survey, Google said at the time.

Obama's 1000-yd stare

Timothy McNulty | January 27, 2009

Today's political news is all about Obama's trip to Capitol Hill to woo GOP votes for his stimulus package. So far, his bids for Repub votes -- after promising bipartisanship on the campaign trail -- have been largely unsuccessful, but there may be more at work that short-term vote counting, the LA Times says:

So far, his gestures have shown few signs of success, as Republicans have continued to snipe at his signature initiative -- legislation to stimulate the economy -- and even to question the sincerity of his efforts. In the stimulus bill's first two tests last week, it passed two committees without a single Republican vote.

But whether or not he picks up support from Republican lawmakers, Obama has already accomplished one important aim: He is winning over more Republican voters than he did on election day. If that continues, the president's hand could get stronger on Capitol Hill.

"You don't calculate the impact of his effort in terms of the number of votes he gets on the stimulus bill," said Bill McInturff, a GOP pollster who worked for Obama's campaign rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "You calculate it based on how he is perceived by Republicans around the country, and it looks to be substantially more positive."