Blue Radar

As I post each morning, here are some of the political stories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, but are nonetheless newsworthy:

• WORLD An Ibro-American summit ended badly on Saturday when Spanish King Juan Carlos told Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to "shut up" after Chavez called the Spanish Prime Minister a "fascist."
• SCANDAL If convicted, former NYC Police Commission Bernard Kerik could serve 142 years in prison.
• FOREIGN POLICY Text of the Bush Saturday press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• CONGRESS The Senate GOP is coordinating the effort to oppose the Democrats' plan that would eliminate the alternative minimum tax for many middle class families.
• IRAQ John McCain is trying to take credit for the alleged success of the surge in Iraq.  “I was the only one, the only candidate for president of the United States on either side” to initially support Bush's surge strategy.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Hillary Clinton is being accused of allowing her campaign to plant questions about war funding during a forum.  "Geoff Mitchell, a minister who recently moved to Hamilton, Ill., fromIowa, told ABC News that he was approached this spring by Clinton'sIowa political director Chris Haylor to ask Clinton a question aboutwar funding," reports ABC News.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Mitt Romney's campaign staff has advised him not to answer questions about his Morman religion.  (Good!  He shouldn't have to.)
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL According to one GOP pollster, don't believe the polls in Iowa until late in the game because it is hard to identify who will actually show up on caucus day.  "To pollsters, nailing likely primary voters on political surveys canbe challenging, but accurately identifying likely Iowa caucus attendeesand which candidate they support (not to mention their second choice)takes the degree of difficulty of our business to a whole new level,"said Neil Newhouse, a partner with the Republican polling firm PublicOpinion Strategies.

If we left something out, it's because we either wrote about ityesterday or are scheduled to do so in an individual post later today. Otherwise, feel free to add any stories to the commentbox.

Comments

[RJ]

Todd, in rference to the GOP plan to stop the AMT tax reform -- I have heard that this reform will also stop the $500 per year tax credit we now get for each child (part of the Bush tax cuts previously passed) Is this true? If so, then as a middle class wage earner, not subject to the AMT, I will basically see my taxes increased.