[STARWISE]

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Jim Leach endorses Obama

"It's been a very difficult thing for me because I've never endorsed a Democrat before...but sometimes in life you come to a juncture where it's very clear the national interest trumps party discipline," former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach said in a noontime interview with Radio Iowa.

*snip"

Leach Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach -- a Republican -- endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama this morning. Leach, as you may recall, lost his bid for re-election in 2006 after three decades representing portions of eastern Iowa in congress. Leach was considered a "moderate" Republican and was a backer of campaign finance reform. Leach did not accept campaign contributions from political action committees.

~~~

Another liberal pubbie. Let's just have a mass Overlord Obama Congressional Cave-in ceremony.

[PhiKapMom]

Can we send him a change of voter registration?

[Petronski]

Can you say “sinecure” boys and girls?

I knew you could.

[a fool in paradise]

I had to read the article, at first I thought MAYBE a FReeper Repubbie had been in the news.

[silverleaf]

They’ve found another way to increase their majority in Congress!

[NonValueAdded]

Quid pro quo?

[mort56]

I can get you odds that Jim Leach was ever a Republican. Oh, he had the R after his name but this girly man never embraced conservative philosophy.

[fatrat]

Republican my a$$. a true republican could never approve of a program for an endowment for humanities much less support a liberal, socialist, hater of America for president.

[LS]

This is actually very beneficial, as it drains our party of all these losers.

[Never on my watch]

National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities - Two (of many) unconstitutional agencies that need to be shut down.

Our nation gets nothing from them but ugly statues in front of federal buildings. They DO keep the unemployable employed and untalented artists in their Greenwich Village lofts, but I don't believe that is a good use for my money.

[Non-Sequitur]

Well he tried nominating Democrats to posts and they all had tax issues. Maybe he’s picking Republicans because they pay their taxes?

[McGruff]

Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Jim Leach endorses Obama

Colon Powell wannabee!

[bamahead]

[cripplecreek]

Why fight the democrats when you can lick their boots and get a pat on the head?

Kind of an interesting coincidence the name Leach. A true RINO Groin Leach.

[hoosiermama]

Haven’t they been able to find any more dem that have paid their taxes? Now they must appoint Rinos.

[erman]

another useless position... should be his job to dismantle and get rid of his department.

[truthguy]

It’s probably about the pension.

[Niteranger68]

I guess the Colin Powell houseboy slot was already taken.

[Nathan Zachary]

Obama is just vacating seats so there is no possible way there can be any Republican opposition to the avalanche of bills coming down the pike.

And of course those greedy RINO’S just leap at the chance to further line their pockets with unrestricted access to the public purse.

[logician2u]

Leach's support for 0bama is consistent with his past and current political activities. Under his leadership, I'm certain the NIH will continue down the disastrous path it's been on since its founding.

From the Common Cause Web site:

James A. Leach

Chairman, National Governing Board of Common Cause*

James A. Leach is the interim Director of the Institute of Politics of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is on leave from Princeton University, where he is the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School.

Before joining the Princeton faculty, Leach served in the U.S. House from 1976 to 2007. He chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He was a leading advocate of legislation expanding support for AIDS treatment and prevention, international debt relief, banning Internet gambling and reforming the financial services industry. He is perhaps best known as the principal author of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley law, which is considered one of the seminal pieces of banking legislation of the 20th century, second in import only to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Leach attended Princeton, the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins, and the London School of Economics. A former U.S Foreign Service officer, he served as a delegate to the Geneva Disarmament Conference and the U.N. General Assembly. In 1973, Leach resigned his commission in protest of the Saturday Night Massacre when Richard Nixon fired his Attorney General, Eliot Richardson, and the independent counsel investigating the Watergate break-in, Archibald Cox.

Leach serves on the board of several public companies and three non-profit organizations – the Century Foundation, the Kettering Foundation, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and formerly served as a trustee of Princeton University.

Leach holds eight honorary degrees and has received decorations from two foreign governments. He is the recipient of the Wayne Morse Integrity in Politics Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award from Johns Hopkins, the Adlai Stevenson Award from the United Nations Association, and the Edgar Wayburn Award from the Sierra Club.

*Note: Jim Leach is on voluntary leave from the Common Cause Board through the November 2008 election. Martha Tierney currently serves as the interim chair of the board.

One could say Jim Leach is the mirror image of a consitutional conservative like, say, Ron Paul. I.e., left is right, right is left.

[nuconvert]

It’s an easy bone to throw to make it appear as though Obama & his adminstration are really non-partisan.

Barf

Let’s see how many news outlets include Leach’s support for Obama when they report this.