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It’s not a bad question, especially since it’s become clear that at least a few Senate Democrats want to claim some credit for job creation. Unfortunately for Claire McCaskill, who has more need than most to build some moderate credibility with her constituents, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is more interesting in being “combative all the time,� and says she will press for a compromise that meets House Republicans somewhere in the middle:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR VIDEO Democratic Sen. McCaskill accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) of using divisive rhetoric during the payroll tax cut extension debate raging in...

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, has asked The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review the Obama administration’s award of a $443 million sole-source contract to a company owned by a major Democratic donor. The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the Obama administration has taken unusual steps to procure an experimental smallpox vaccine from a company owned by a major Democratic donor despite concerns from some experts that such a drug was unnecessary and would not be effective. Citing “serious questions” about the contract, the Los Angeles Times reported that McCaskill has asked the...

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has sold a private plane she co-owns with her husband, months after her use of it for official business and failure to pay back taxes created a political headache... First she repaid the government $88,000 after she was criticized for reimbursing herself for use of the plane on official and political travel. Then she paid $287,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest to St. Louis County. ... McCaskill, seeking re-election in 2012, faces a tough race in a state she narrowly won in 2006. Republicans have pounded McCaskill on the plane, dubbing it "Air Claire" .

I just got this email. The brazen lies have me livid. Claire has got to go.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) won't join President Obama when he visits St. Louis on Tuesday, prompting claims by Republicans that she is avoiding an appearance with the president, whose poll numbers are under water in Missouri. An aide to McCaskill told The Hill she had hoped to be there, but that competing events scheduled for the senator and likely votes in Senate on Tuesday precluded her from returning to Missouri. The aide added that McCaskill hopes the timing will work out better in the future. But Missouri Republicans have pointed to a more cynical reason for the first-term senator to...

A few months after Sen. Claire McCaskill was entwined in a scandal over the use of her personal plane for campaign travel, the Missouri Democrat has released amended campaign finance reports dating back to 2006. According to the new filings with the Federal Elections Commission, McCaskill’s campaign committee had failed to account for 143 contributions in the ‘06 cycle, totaling nearly $277,000. The committee also missed about $277,000 in disbursements. During that cycle, McCaskill raised $11.5 million. Continue Reading Text Size -+reset Listen AUDIO: McCaskill 'embarrassed' over plane pay - Mar. '11 Latest on POLITICO Waters threatens to sue Ethics...

A few months after Sen. Claire McCaskill was entwined in a scandal over the use of her personal plane for campaign travel, the Missouri Democrat has released amended campaign finance reports dating back to 2006.According to the new filings with the Federal Elections Commission, McCaskill’s campaign committee had failed to account for 143 contributions in the ‘06 cycle, totaling nearly $277,000. The committee also missed about $277,000 in disbursements. During that cycle, McCaskill raised $11.5 million.The discrepancies, her campaign said, could be attributed to the fact that donations were coming in at a furious clip at the end of the...

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible price-fixing of gasoline by U.S. refineries because “recent reports,” according to the senators, suggest the refiners are trimming supply to keep prices high. But a federal report from November shows that refinery stockpiles started to decline in 2008, if not earlier. At a press conference on Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that they had sent a letter that day to the FTC, “to request the Commission begin an investigation into potential price fixing of gasoline by U.S. refiners.” “Recent...

Congressman Todd Akin is set to kick-start the 2012 campaign, announcing today his entry into the race for U.S. Senate in a move that will set off a cascade of maneuvering among those trying to replace the Wildwood Republican in the House. Akin's decision to leave his relatively safe perch in Congress — he hasn't had a competitive race in over a decade — to challenge U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill underscores the belief among many Republicans that the incumbent Democrat is vulnerable. McCaskill's close relationship with the White House, along with the recent disclosure she failed to pay taxes on...

Sen. Claire McCaskill says a proposal to take $2 billion in tax subsidies away from the five biggest oil companies should be the easiest bill Congress ever passed.

Even before this week, Republican strategists in Missouri privately described a “vacuum” in the GOP field to face Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2012. The state’s swing nature coupled with McCaskill’s narrow win in 2006 made the race a ripe opportunity, Republican strategists argued, but few big names seemed ready to step up to the plate. McCaskill’s problems over her private plane — and, more specifically, the unpaid back taxes on it — have made her even more vulnerable. But will the Republican field expand? Or is it set? Missouri Republican Party executive director Lloyd Smith said Tuesday that recent...

Any way you slice it, $287, 273 is a lot of money, especially in this economy. For one-term Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., up for re-election in 2012, that's the amount of personal property taxes she failed to pay since 2007 on a plane she and her husband, a millionaire businessman, partially owned. "I have discovered that the...personal property taxes on the plane have not been paid," McCaskill told a small number of reporters on a conference call Monday. "There should have been a reporting to the county of the existence of this airplane...There are people I could blame for this,...

Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill admitted Monday that she had failed to pay about $287,000 in back taxes and will sell a private plane that has created considerable controversy as she prepares to run for a second term in 2012. “I have convinced my husband to sell the damn plane,” McCaskill told reporters on a conference call Monday afternoon. “I will not be setting foot on the plane ever again.” McCaskill and her husband, Joe Shepard, co-own the eight-seat, two-engine plane with other investors. They bought it in July of 2006 through Sunset Cove Associates, an LLC her husband incorporated...

“There are people I could blame for this. But I know better. As an auditor, I know that I should’ve checked for myself. I take full responsibility for the mistake," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) said on a conference call. “I have convinced my husband to sell the damned plane,” McCaskill said. Today, Sen. McCaskill admitted that she failed to pay nearly $287,000 in back taxes on the usage of a private plane.

In a conference call with reporters, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill just disclosed that she failed to pay $287,000 in property taxes related to her co-ownership of a private aircraft. This scandal comes quickly on the heels of recent revelations that McCaskill improperly billed taxpayers for use of the same private aircraft, for which McCaskill reimbursed the Treasury $88,000:

Sen. Claire McCaskill is selling the personal plane that has caused her turbulence in recent weeks after POLITICO revealed she used taxpayer money to cover the cost of political travel. The first-term Democrat said she was very happy she was able to convince her husband to "sell the damn plane." In a conference call Monday afternoon, McCaskill revealed that after her own review of the plane's records, she had not paid personal property taxes on the aircraft over the past four years. "I have discovered that the personal property taxes on the plane have not been paid. There should have...

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) failed to pay $287,273 in personal property taxes on a private airplane for the past four years and will immediately repay St. Louis County for back taxes owed. She’s also planning on selling the plane, which she co-owns with her husband, after POLITICO revealed last week that she had used taxpayer dollars for a political trip around her home state of Missouri. McCaskill had spent $76,000 from her Senate budget on trips on the aircraft over the past four years. McCaskill called a Monday press conference after POLITICO asked questions about whether she had paid her...

Obama's Brazil trip may influence possible F/A-18 Hornet deal By Robert Koenig, Beacon Washington correspondent Posted 4:24 pm, Fri., 3.18.11 WASHINGTON - When President Barack Obama travels to Brazil this weekend, one of the many items on his agenda eventually could have an impact on thousands of aerospace workers in St. Louis. Aside from signing agreements on topics such as patents and scientific cooperation Obama and Brazil's president, Dilma Vana Rousseff, are expected to discuss opportunities for American companies in Brazil - and for Brazilian firms in this country. One of the U.S. companies with a potentially huge interest in...

Missouri Republicans have filed a complaint against Sen. Claire McCaskill with the Senate Ethics Committee, calling for an investigation into whether the Missouri Democrat improperly used taxpayer funding to cover the cost of at least one airplane trip to a political event. McCaskill, who is up for reelection in 2012, paid more than $88,000 to the Treasury Department last week following a POLITICO report that she had used taxpayer funds from her Senate office account to repay nearly 90 flights on a private plane that she co-owned with her husband and other investors.While McCaskill and her aides adamantly denied any...

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Wednesday that she would reimburse the government $88,000 for flights chartered from a company she jointly owns with her husband. McCaskill's office said she had not profited from the flights and that she was returning the money out of concern for how the arrangement might appear. "Sen. McCaskill has been very careful flying on taxpayer dollars," said Maria Speiser, a spokeswoman for McCaskill. "She has only paid for the use of her plane as required by the Senate rules, and there has been no profit to her or her family. She's glad there's transparency -...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Feb. 17, 2011) — Describing himself as a “pit bull,” Fort Leonard Wood’s commanding general told reporters during a Wednesday morning press conference that he won’t tolerate sexual misconduct, sexual assault, or rapes by his soldiers, and said he personally told U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill the same thing the previous day in her offices in Washington, D.C. “There is really nothing more vile than one soldier taking advantage of another soldier. It breaks down the very teamwork, the very fabric of what being a soldier is all about,” said Maj. Gen. David Quantock. “That’s why here...

Not a single Senate Democrat on Wednesday voted to repeal ObamaCare. That was expected. But with the health law as unpopular as ever, the vote could come back to haunt vulnerable Democrats in 2012. Eleven Democrats up for re-election next year represent states in which Republicans won a majority of the 2010 popular vote for House seats: Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Especially vulnerable: * Montana’s Jon Tester and Missouri’s Claire McCaskill won in 2006 with less than 50% of the vote.

For Democrats hoping to withstand the push for permanently smaller government, the enemy is now within. On Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., joined with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to propose the Commitment to American Prosperity Act, which would gradually lower the ceiling for all federal spending to 20.6% of GDP by 2020, down from a projected 24.7% this year. The Corker-McCaskill CAP bill goes a big step further than President Obama’s Fiscal Commission, which aimed to reduce spending to 21.8% of GDP by 2020. And it does so without the inducement for Democrats of more than $1 trillion in tax...

Dem says spending-cap bill 'could cost me my Senate seat' in 2012By Josiah Ryan - 02/01/11 01:07 PM ET Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Tuesday introduced legislation meant to cap Washington spending that she said could lead to her defeat in 2012. McCaskill, a freshman senator who faces a tough re-election, is co-sponsoring legislation with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) that would force the government to keep spending at 20.6 percent of the nation’s GDP. That would mean huge, and likely unpopular, budget cuts, as current federal spending stands at 24.7 percent of GDP. But McCaskill said she’s willing to lose...

A new poll from SurveyUSA predicts a statistical tie in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup between Republican Rep. Sam Graves and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill for her seat in Missouri. The poll showed McCaskill with 48 percent to Graves’ 44 percent if the 2012 general election were held now, with a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points. Missouri-based Republican consultants Axiom Strategies commissioned the poll, which surveyed 700 adults in the state from Jan. 21 to Monday. The firm did not release polling numbers for contests pitting other Republicans against McCaskill or for GOP primary challenges to Graves. However, Axiom...

A senior House Republican in the Missouri congressional delegation is considering a challenge to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.). Rep. Sam Graves (R) told The Ballot Box he's "looking at" running against McCaskill in 2012.

Obama lackey Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and her democratic colleagues held a press conference today. The liberal senator called for violence if democrats don't get their historic tax hikes. McCaskill told the press that if democrats were not allowed to raise taxes on the rich, "It really is time for Americans to take up pitchforks." Link

Republicans in Missouri already have embarked on planning to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2012. Several potential candidates are testing the waters in hopes of defeating the first-term legislator, The Hill reports. [Snip] Possible GOP candidates include former Sen. Jim Talent, whom McCaskill defeated in 2006; former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who already has decided to run; Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder; and Ann Wagner, a former ambassador to Luxembourg. © Newsmax.

About two-thirds of United States senators were millionaires in 2008, according to a recent analysis of politicians’ fortunes conducted by the Center for Responsive Politics. The research organization, which also tracks political donations, recently analyzed the assets and liabilities of lawmakers based on 2008’s required annual financial disclosures. The center estimated each politician’s net worth by adding together the lawmaker’s range of assets and then subtracted the range of liabilities. The midpoint of that resulting range was used to rank the politicians. In the Senate, 68 legislators were estimated to be worth at least $1 million, led by Herb Kohl,...

They really, really want to raise taxes– Obama lackey Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and her democratic colleagues held a press conference today. The liberal senator called for violence if democrats don’t get their historic tax hikes. McCaskill told the press that if democrats were not allowed to raise taxes on the rich, “It really is time for Americans to take up pitchforks.“ ------------------------ Video at the link

It is not just a happenstance that the last four letter in "Democrats" are "rats." At a recent new conference Claire McCaskill (D-MO) let us know what Democrats really believe. McCaskill is the loathesome scumqueen who spit on the earpiece she handed to Mitt Romney. It wasn't simply that she called for violence if tax cuts are ended for those making more than $250,000 per year. Amid the posturing and hard bargaining in Washington over extending tax cuts, McCaskill, D-Mo., said this afternoon that if Republicans sacrifice the middle class in order to protect the wealthy "it really is...

December 3, 2010- In a press conference, Claire talked about the Republicans continued efforts to block a tax cut extension for the middle class, because they're only concerned about the country's millionaires and billionaires.

Forget the speculation -- Sarah Steelman is running for Senate. The former Missouri State Treasurer becomes the first Republican to announce a challenge to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2012. . . . Her entrance into the race is sure to kick-off a cascade of announcements from other 2012 GOP hopefuls in Missouri . . . and could be the beginning of an intraparty fued for the Senate nomination. . . . Steelman, who is from Rolla, was a State Senator before becoming state treasurer in 2005. . . . While Steelman is the first Republican to announce a challenge...

Facing a tough re-election campaign in 2012, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) tried to set herself apart from President Obama on Sunday. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," McCaskill said that she'd voted against the president on cap-and-trade, the second round of cash-for-clunkers, comprehensive immigration reform and every omnibus bill. McCaskill said she'd also sometimes disagreed with Obama when he was a senator. "My record of independence, frankly, stretches back for a long period of time," she said. When asked to name an issue where Obama had fallen short, the senator said his move into healthcare legislation at a time when he...

Foes of the Transportation Security Agency's new air-screening procedures, including law enforcement-style pat-downs and what have been called "virtual strip searches," had hoped that today's Senate hearing would lead to a privacy outcry on Capitol Hill. Not quite. The hearing quickly cleaved along partisan lines, with Democratic senators applauding the Obama administration and Republicans offering only modest criticism. "Mr. Pistole, you're doing a great job," Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate committee overseeing air travel, told TSA chief John Pistole, a former FBI agent who's had the job since July. For emphasis, Rockefeller added a...

Transportation Safety Administration chief John Pistole and several senators from both parties defended the new, enhanced airport security screening procedures as necessary in the face of a persistent and evolving terrorist threat in a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Pistole, calm and confident in the face of an increasing public outcry against the procedures, talked extensively about the repercussions of last year's attempted Christmas Day bombing being the impetus for the enhanced screenings before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, TSA's oversight committee. "We know the terrorists' intent is still there," Pistole testified. "We are using technology and protocols...

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said she's not "disloyal" to President Obama, but is willing to differ with him and other Democrats when necessary. The centrist Missouri senator said she believes Obama has done many good things, and sidestepped a fellow Missouri lawmaker's warning that distancing herself from the president would be "an act of disloyalty." "I am certainly not afraid to oppose the president or members of my party if I disagree with them. But that doesn't mean I'm disloyal to this president," McCaskill said Wednesday during a conference call with Missouri reporters. "I think he was the right choice...

Health overhaul remains on Missouri voters' mindsTuesday, August 10, 2010 | 4:12 p.m. CDT BY Alan Scher Zagier / Associated Press CONCORDIA — The vote may turn out to be little more than symbolic. Other pressing problems continue to vex the country, such as strengthening the economy and figuring out what to do about illegal immigration. But as Sen. Claire McCaskill traversed rural Missouri on Tuesday for a series of town hall meetings during Congress' August recess, the federal health care overhaul remained a target of angry voters. About half the questions from the 50 constituents at the day's first...

"I certainly noticed the vote on Prop C, the healthcare law, and message received," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) said. McCaskill, however, makes the point that people "don't realize" how beneficial the "mandate" for health care will be. "A lot of noise about the mandate that people have gotten so focused on that they don't realize that there's going to be more access and affordability and more choices," she said.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (June 10, 2010) — Regional military officials have relieved Col. Judith Ruiz of her position as commander of General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital. The decision was made Sunday and publicly announced Thursday by officials of the Army’s Western Regional Medical Command, in response to media inquiries from the Pulaski County Daily News. It’s not clear whether the decision had anything to do with a local uproar that followed a false report issued by post officials and widely circulated via e-mail, community message boards, and family readiness groups that eight local restaurants had failed their health...

This story might slip right past you. It’s understandable, considering most Americans have no idea of the context or how it happened that the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is now set for 20 years in Iraq, thanks to a deal just inked between the Iraqi government and Communist China. The Iraqis originally selected America’s Exxon-Mobil. I’ll wager you probably didn’t know that. You’ll want to read on. But brace yourself. It’s the classic American political tale of self-loathing crafted by the usual suspects. With its government firm and its security at its post-surge best, the Iraqi government...

Tens of thousands fewer medical bankruptcies, hundreds of thousands of lives saved, billions of dollars in wasteful medical spending cut. A new golden age of American health care. That’s what we were promised — and it’s still coming, according to McCaskill (I think). It’s just not going to happen as fast as the Democrats have been suggesting. This is the very first wiggle in the endless goalpost-moving that will characterize our new bouncing baby boondoggle in the decades to come, so enjoy it. As for her claim that the GOP is running around screaming that the sky is falling, well,...

Here’s a dirty little secret in American politics. A lot of the reporters who cover politics don’t know the first thing about politics. They cannot read the tea leaves. They do not know how. They do not even try.

The Show Me State briefly became the No Show State on Wednesday as some prominent Missouri Democrats decided they'd rather be somewhere else when President Obama came to St. Louis to push his massive health care overhaul plan. Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the all-but-certain Democratic nominee for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, was "already locked in" to meetings in Washington, D.C., on Wall Street financial reforms, said her spokesman Linden Zakula, who downplayed her absence for Mr. Obama's visit. "Yes, she could have been there, but she feels very strongly about...

Tonight in St. Louis, President Obama is raising some campaign cash for the Democratic Party and for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., an early supporter of Obama’s presidential bid who is not up for re-election until 2012. Not attending tonight’s events? Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the likely Democratic candidate in this year’s election to replace retiring Republican Sen. Kit Bond. The race for Missouri’s open seat is shaping up as a bitter, close battle between Carnahan and Republican Rep. Roy Blunt. Democrats view the race as a prime opportunity to pick off a Republican seat by painting Blunt as...

WASHINGTON (KMOX Radio) -- A warning earlier this week from Iran's supreme ruler that his country will deliver a "punch" February 11th that will "stun" the West is being taken seriously at the highest levels of the U-S government, according to Missouri's two Senators. Democratic Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill described the concern about Iran today in Washington as a matter of "almost hyper focus." "I know the military is monitoring it carefully. I know the intelligence community is monitoring it carefully. I can't share many of the details of that. But I will say that I think our government is...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Claire McCaskill accused Missouri officials of political dishonesty Monday for bashing big spending by Washington while using federal stimulus money to help balance the state budget. -snip-

Freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill uttered seven words rarely heard from a sitting lawmaker: “It’s OK if I don’t get re-elected.” In a profile in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Tuesday, the Missouri Democrat, who was elected just three years ago, offered some uncommon candor on life in the Senate and her frustration with the way Washington works. “I’m very frustrated with some of the habits around here,” she said. “What happens around here is that so many people are more focused on getting everybody to love them and getting re-elected than they are on solving the really hard stuff. Because when...

McCaskill, who used a wounded Iraq veteran and a woman with Parkinson's disease in her ads attacking Talent for budget votes and stem cell policy, also attacked Bush for domestic wiretapping. And she favored withdrawing all troops from Iraq by 2008 because the Bush troop surge was "a wild failure" that had bred a "culture of dependency" in Iraq. "We are not breeding a democracy," she warned. But that was a long time ago, politically speaking -- before McCaskill became one of the first senators to endorse Barack Obama, before she voted to extend the same domestic wiretapping she once...

When Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill was trying to unseat incumbent Jim Talent in 2006, she frequently bashed President George W. Bush for being incompetent on terrorism. As she told NBC's Tim Russert, "This is not an administration that's ready to protect us." McCaskill argued throughout her campaign that Bush had made the nation more vulnerable to terrorism by invading Iraq, and she harped on the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as proof that Bush had left the nation susceptible to attack. McCaskill, who used a wounded Iraq veteran and a woman with Parkinson's disease in her ads attacking Talent for budget...