Hillary Clinton joining Jay Leno's lineup -- again

by Mark Silva

Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the presidential candidate and former president, confronted a question about the Monica Lewinsky scandal again on the campaign trail today.

And, just as she replied at Butler University in Indianapolis last week, the only child of Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton -- whose relationship with a White House intern marred his reputation as president -- told her questioner at a student center North Carolina State University today:

“It’s none of your business….That is something that is personal to my family. I'm sure there are things that are personal to your family that you don't think are anyone else's business either.’’

She did add this, however: "I don't think you should be voting for or against my mother because of my father.''

Hillary Clinton's friends and schoolmates Betsy Ebeling, left, Ernest Ricketts of Oak Brook, right, and Hardye Moel, foreground, of Chicago, at a town hall meeting via satellite with Clinton at Clinton's alma mater, Maine South High School, on Feb. 4. Chicago Tribune Photo by Candice C. Cusic.

by Rick Pearson and updated with a campaign check.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has made little secret that it has been routinely outspent by rival Barack Obama in the extended race for the Democratic presidential nomination and has been forced to curtail checks for some of its vendors and staff.

But stiffing your high school alma mater?

That’s apparently the case, according to federal campaign disclosure reports that show that among more than $8.7 million listed as debts, the Clinton campaign owed $3,161 to Maine South High School in Park Ridge for renting the school for an event, as well as for catering.

Clinton, then Hillary Rodham, was a 1965 Maine South graduate.

The Clinton campaign used the school’s Watson Auditorium for an election eve event prior to the Feb. 5 “Super Tuesday” balloting in Illinois and more than 20 other states. The event was a “town hall meeting,” broadcast on the Hallmark Channel, which allowed supporters across the country to question the candidate.

The FEC form listed only a “Dr. Rose” as a contact at the school. A switchboard operator at Maine South said no one was available to discuss the debt and that the only “Dr. Rose” at the school was Dr. Rose Garlasco, the assistant principal of students, who was unavailable.

Jay Carson, a spokesman for Clinton's campaign, said the invoice from Maine South High School was paid today.

by Mark Silva

Sen. Barack Obama is outspending Sen. Hillary Clinton by about three-to-one in Pennsylvania’s television campaign, an independent analsyst says – a sign that, even if Obama cannot overcome Clinton’s apparent advantage in the April 22 primary there, Obama plans to make Clinton pay for the fight.

“He has dropped a couple million bucks in his first week on the air there,’’ says Evan Tracey, chief operating officer for Campaign Media Analysis, a TNS company, an independent analyst of campaign media advertising. “If you judged it against Clinton’s, in a basketball game, it would be a rout.’’

The Obama campaign is spending about $150,000 a day now on TV advertising in Pennsylvania, Tracey said in an interview with the Tribune today – compared with about $50,000 for the Clinton camp.

Since Obama turned on his TV campaign in the Keystone State on the 21st, Tracey said, he has spent about $2 million. Since Clinton started her ads there on the 25th, she has spent about $440,000.

“Part of it is putting his fundraising advantage to work,’’ Tracey said. “If he spends a lot there, she has to spend a lot to keep up with him…. He is buying at high levels, a strategy to bring her into a war of attrition she can’t afford.''

by Mark Silva

There may be only one thing indisputable about the season-opening game of the Washington Nationals in their home stadium last night: They beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2.

But on the question of President Bush's (high) ceremonial opening pitch for the inaugural game at National Park, there seems to be much dispute.

Not on the ball itself -- a good long throw from the rubber.

But on the roar of the crowd (no smell of grease-paint) -- more boos or cheers?

A certain partisan Web-site says more boos. The pool reporter (from a Texas newspaper) who covered the president's pitch says more cheers.

Here's the video: What's your call, ump?

by Mark Silva

Here’s something both Democrats and Republicans might agree upon:

Barack Obama could give John McCain a tougher contest in November.

That’s what the Gallup poll has found.

Gallup’s daily tracking pver the weekend portrayed Obama, senator from Illinois, with a 10-point advantage over Clinton, senator from New York, among Democrats. Today's results of the latest daily track show Obama up eight points. The Pew Research Center has found a similar margin.

But with numbers that are certain to add fuel to Obama’s pitch to those superdelegates on whom Clinton counts to turn the nomination her way, Gallup has found this as well:

In a March 24-27 survey of 1,005 people:

 Democrats were asked whether Clinton or Obama has the better chance of defeating McCain in November: 59 percent said Obama does, and 30 percent said Clinton does.

 Republicans were asked whether McCain has a better chance of defeating Clinton or Obama. Sixty-four percent said McCain has a better chance of beating Clinton, 22 percent said Obama.

"Gallup polling has recently shown some positive momentum for Obama in the Democratic nomination battle -- he has moved into the lead over Clinton in the preferences of Democratic voters nationwide,’’ Gallup’s Jeffrey Jones reports. “Both candidates are competitive with McCain in Gallup's latest polling on registered voters' general election preferences, though Obama has tended to do marginally better than Clinton in the more recent updates.''

by Frank James

Franklin and Marshall professors Terry Madonna and Michael Young have a new Politically Uncorrected" column in which they assert that the endorsement by Sen. Bob Casey of his fellow junior senator, Barack Obama, may spell doom for the presidential hopes of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Cutting to the chase, their premise is that Casey is popular with a lot of blue-collar voters in the state and while his endorsement of the senator from Illinois may not lead to Obama winning Pennsylvania, it could cut significantly into Clinton's lead, giving her a less-than-huge win and causing enough super delegates to declare for Obama.

Here's their piece's money quote:

The take away point here is that the Casey endorsement may be a game-ender, a final speed bump for Clinton that blocks any remaining viable path to the nomination. She needs to win Pennsylvania big, and Casey’s presence in the race makes it hard for her to do that. Clinton probably still wins the state—but not by enough to allow her to continue the race past Pennsylvania.

Read on for the entire piece.

by Mark Silva

Cesar Chavez Day.

That's what Sen. Barack Obama is endorsing: A national holiday in honor of the late, legendary activist for farm-worker rights (1927-1993), pictured here.

Today is Chavez's birthday -- and Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign was first to draw attention to that this morning, with a statement celebrating the 81st anniverary of Chavez's birth. But the senator from Illinois one-upped the senator from New York in joining the call for a new national holiday to commemorate the father of the United Farm Workers.

"As farmworkers and laborers across America continue to struggle for fair treatment and fair wages, we find strength in what Cesar Chavez accomplished so many years ago,'' Obama said in a statement released by his campaign today. "And we should honor him for what he's taught us about making America a stronger, more just, and more prosperous nation.

"That's why I support the call to make Cesar Chavez's birthday a national holiday. It's time to recognize the contributions of this American icon to the ongoing efforts to perfect our union. “

Clinton said, in a statement released today: “Today, I join millions of Americans in commemorating the life of one of our great civil rights leaders, Cesar Chavez. Driven by his strong desire to ensure better quality of life for migrant farm workers across the country, Chavez helped found – along with Dolores Huerta – the United Farm Workers of America, arguably one of the first effective farm workers’ union in the United States.''

by Mark Silva

Sen. Hillary Clinton is promising "universal health care.''

Her campaign is just a little slow in paying for it for staffers.

Among the debts reported this month by the New York senator's presidential campaign, Politico.com has unearthed: $292,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums for her campaign staff

Clinton, facing pressure within her party to drop her campaign against Sen. Barack Obama, already has at times asked campaign workers to work without pay and loaned her campaign $5 million of her own funds.

But health insurance -- the promise of it for all -- is something that has been central to her camapign for president from the start.

The campaign provides health insurance to all its employees, spouses, partners and children – and that wasn’t interrupted by any lag in payments to insurance providers, Jay Carson, a Clinton campaign spokesman, has told Politico.

The campaign this month paid off all of its outstanding bills to Aetna Healthcare and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, he says by way of explanation. "Those payments will be reflected on a report the campaign will file this month with the Federal Election Commission, which Carson said will show 'zero debt owed to both vendors,''' Politico reports today.

“Sometimes invoices are not paid immediately because we need additional information for our records, or to verify expenses,” Carson said in a statement emailed to Politico. “Sometimes invoices arrive at the very end of the month at the cut-off of the reporting period, which means that we are required to report them as a debt on the current FEC report, even where they are paid in regular course during the next month.”

Exiled Tibetan Buddhist monks held one minute of silence during a candlelit vigil in Dharmsala, India, today.The Dalai Lama, Tibetans' exiled spiritual leader, lives in India along with tens of thousands of Tibetans. (AP Photo by Ashwini Bhatia)

by Mark Silva

Tibetans and friends of Tibetans are marching today in Washington, with a rally starting in the park across the street from the White House, calling on President Bush to skip the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.

Bush, however, has left for a weeklong tour of Europe, including a NATO summit and stops in Ukraine and a Russian resort city for a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

And he plans to attend that Olympic Games ceremony.

Following the rally in Lafayette Park, protesters are marching to the Chinese Embassy to demand a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

The rally was organized by the Capital Area Tibetan Association and the International Campaign for Tibet, protesting the Chinese government’s crackdown in Tibet .

"The whole world is watching China’s response,'' the group says, "and world leaders have come forward to support the Tibetan people in this time of crisis.''

by James Oliphant

The Pentagon Monday announced it had brought charges against a detainee at Guantanamo Bay in connection with the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania.

The Aug. 7, 1998 attack in Dar es Salaam killed 11 and injured hundreds. The government seeks to try Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani before a military tribunal, and if he is found guilty of the most serious charges against him, put him to death.

Specifically, the Defense Department accused Ghailani of:

* Purchasing TNT, detonators and detonation cord on multiple occasions and transporting the bomb components to Dar es Salaam;

* Moving the bomb components to various safe houses in and around Dar es Salaam;

* Assisting in the purchase of the truck used in the attack;

* Facilitating the purchase of oxygen cylinder tanks which were used as bomb components;

* Escorting the bomb engineer between Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, Kenya after the bomb had been assembled;

* Scouting the American Embassy with the suicide bomb driver;

* Meeting with co-conspirators in Nairobi, Kenya, shortly before the bombing; and

* Joining the co-conspirators on a flight from Nairobi to Karachi, Pakistan, one day prior to the bombing.

by Sabrina Fang

Sen. Hillary Clinton insists that this is no time to stop an election.

And her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has this to say to Democrats calling for a surrender to Sen. Barack Obama: “Chill Out.’’

“There are some folks saying, well, we ought to stop these elections,’’ Hillary Clinton tells a crowd. “I didn’t think we believed that in America.’’

Her husband maintains that the campaign is “strengthening’’ the Democratic Party: “Chill out,’’ he tells supporters, “We’re going to win this election.’’

“My attitude is that Sen. Clinton can run as long as she wants,’’ Obama says.

by John L. Micek

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- First, it's a rally in front of 22,000 screaming supporters at Penn State University. More than an hour later, it's a more intimate stop at a sports bar off Route 322 in rural Mifflin County.

Such are the extremes of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's first barnstorming tour across Pennsylvania.

The six-day bus excursion that the Illinois senator hopes will help him close the double-digit polling gap that separates him from U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., started Friday in the towns of western Pennsylvania that are believed to Clinton strongholds.

Then it looped through the vast rural middle of the state, stopping in Johnstown and Altoona, before continuing on to eastern Pennsylvania and concluding in the Philadelphia suburbs that Obama campaign hopes will propel him to victory in the state's April 22 primary.

''I think he can make a lot of progress. I don't know if I want to make predictions about whether he can win,'' U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) tells reporters after a town meeting at Greater Johnstown High School on Saturday afternoon. ''But I do know that this region... has a lot of people who would be responsive to his message.''

Sen. John McCain, accompanied by wife Cindy, right, greets a crowd at the Wings over Meridian Air Show at McCain field on the Meridian Naval Base on Sunday.Photo by Mary Altaffer / AP

by Mark Silva

John McCain, a warrior from a family of warriors, returned to a Naval air field in Meridian, Miss., named for his grandfather for the start of a weeklong tour of reminiscences aimed at reminding voters of his credentials in national security.

Casting himself today as an “imperfect servant of my country’’ – a phrase he coined in the memoir penned for his last presidential campaign, Faith of My Fathers, in 1999 – McCain spoke of ancestors buried at Arlington National Cemetery and “the honor we earn and the love we give when we work and sacrifice with others for a cause greater than our self-interest."

McCain wrote in that ’99 memoir that his father, a Navy admiral, like his grandfather, had told him: “In leadership, there is no such thing as a master’s degree.’’

And that’s pretty much the campaign message that McCain is attempting to deliver this week.

This is the start of a “Service to America Tour’’ for the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president. McCain was not speaking of his potential Democratic rival today – either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton – but rather spinning the tale he hopes to tell of himself in a reintroduction to American voters at the start of a free season for the GOP.

by James Oliphant

The Supreme Court Monday let stand an appeals court ruling that curtails the FBI's power to search congressional offices.

The case arose out of the FBI's raid of the offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) in 2006. Jefferson, who is fighting federal corruption charges, sought the return of the seized materials, claiming they were protected by the constitutional privilege known as the Speech and Debate Clause. That clause is intended to ensure that legislative process is free from interference from the executive branch.

Last year, in a setback for the government, the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ruled that some of the materials grabbed by the FBI were likely protected by the privilege--even though agents had properly obtained a search warrant-- and should have been subject to Jefferson's review before they were handed over. The government appealed to the Supreme Court, which Monday declined to hear the case. That lets the appeals court decision stand.

by Frank James, updated and revised at 11:48 am CDT

Housing and Urban Development Secretay Alphonso Jackson is out.

Jackson, a man a lot of people in Washington wouldn't recognize as a big shot but for his security detail, has been paradoxically a controversial and anonymous figure in President Bush's cabinet because of allegations that he has misused his position to help friends and hurt political opponents of the administration.

The Wall Street Journal last night was first to report that Jackson was headed for the exit.

Jackson had a 10 am mpress conference in which he actually used the cliched line that he's leaving to spend more time with his family.

Here are his brief remarks:

SEC. JACKSON: Good morning.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Good morning.

SEC. JACKSON: On April 18th I will step down as the secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. There come a time when one must attend diligently to personal and family matters. Now is such a time for me.

I have devoted more than 30 years of my life to improve housing opportunities for all Americans, regardless of income, skin color or spoken accent. My life work has been to build a better community that families are proud to call home.

Several years ago, President Bush gave me an extraordinary opportunity to serve HUD and the nation. As the son of a lead smelter and nurse midwife, and the last of 12 children, never did I imagine I would serve America in such a way. I am truly grateful for the opportunity.

During my tenure here, I have sought to make America a better place to live, work and raise families. We have helped families keep their homes. We have transformed public housing. We have reduced chronic homelessness. And we have preserved affordable housing and increased minority homeownership. We have done this together.

I will say that I take great pride in working alongside some of the most dedicated civil servants in America. The hardworking people here at HUD make a difference in the lives of thousands of Americans daily. Marcia and I want to thank you for the many acts of kindness we have received over the last seven years, and I say this from the bottom of my heart: May God bless you, and may God continue to bless our country. Thank you for the opportunity.

by Mike Dorning and Christi Parsons updated at 11:38 am EDT

HARRISBURG, Pa -- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar will endorse Barack Obama later this morning, according to an announcement the Obama campaign e-mailed to reporters this morning.

While Hillary Clinton began the campaign with an overwhelming advantage in endorsements among fellow senators, Obama now leads in public backing among his Democratic Senate colleagues, with support from 13 against 11 for her.

Klobuchar's support follows a suprise endorsement Friday from Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a socially conservative Democratic with a broad following among white working-class voters in Pennsylvania, site of the next Democratic primary.

Commitments of support from Democratic members of Congress are especially important this year because each of them is automatically entitled to a vote at the party convention as a superdelegate, along with certain other elected and party officials.

Since the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primary, Obama has received public commitments of support from 64 superdelegates versus 9 who have endorsed Clinton since then.

In an interview with reporters, Klobuchar said she decided to get off the fence and support Obama because of his popularity with voters.

But she praised Clinton at several turns, and argued against other Obama supporters who think it's time for the New York senator to bow out of the primary race.

"I believe that Sen. Clinton has every right to continue," Klobuchar said. "I don't agree with those who have said things to the contrary."

by Frank James

Former Vice President Al Gore will be campaigning but not in the way many people have asked him to--at least not yet.

In an effort that on the surface appears to have little to do with presidential politics, Gore is the force behind a three-year, $300 million public-advocacy campaign to get Americans to become more involved in the fight against global warming.

Gore is supporting the fairly massive advertising campaign by the Alliance for Climate Protection whose first ad is at the top of this post.

According to the Washington Post, the ads and other marketing efforts will constitute one of the largest public-advocacy campaigns ever.

Gore gave the Post an extended interview in which he sounds somewhat exasperated by the inability of the nation's political leadership to collectively get its act together in the global-warming fight.

"This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there is a change in the public's sense of urgency in addressing this crisis," Gore said. "I've tried everything else I know to try. The way to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about it."

Post reporter Julie Eilperin evidently tried to get Gore to open up about how much he was kicking into the $300 million effort. Looks like he didn't want to talk specifics.

While Gore declined to quantify his contribution to the effort, he has devoted all his proceeds from the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," the best-selling companion book, his salary from the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and several international prizes, such as the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which add up to more than a $2.7 million.

So it would appear the former veep is putting his money where his very capable mouth is.

by Andrew Malcolm

Pennsylvania, the next important Democratic primary state, is a lot like the very first primary state of New Hampshire except that Pennsylvania has millions more people, thousands more square miles, live members of minority groups, actual cities, big-league sports teams, a sizable number of electoral votes, streets not named for trees and an economy based on more than knickknacks and apres-ski lounges.

Everyone in New Hampshire is on a first-name basis with every candidate of every party in recent memory, or says they are. But Pennsylvania is large enough that every candidate could be in the state at once and hardly anyone would notice.

So it's a very exciting thing in the Keystone State when you run into an actual candidate or, almost as good, someone famous who's married to an actual candidate. That's what happened to Ceena Ford the other day when she skipped classes at Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School to see former President Bill Clinton at Dickinson College in Carlisle.

He's still campaigning, as he always seems to be, this time for his wife, Hillary, who wants to move back into the White House and relive those fun times of the 1990s that we all remember so fondly. But first she's got to really thump this younger senator from Illinois by hundreds of thousands of votes in several states to look like she's catching up to him in this marathon primary election season.

So, the ex-president was speaking about himself and his wife too and suddenly, OMG, he was standing right there next to Ceena. It was, like, so unbelievable! So Ceena did what any conscious teenage girl does when exc