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FIRST GRANDSON - Sarah Obama, wife of President Obama’s paternal grandfather, read about her step-grandson’s being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday in Kogelo, Kisumu, Kenya. The Nobel committee stunned many with its decision to award Obama the prize so early in his presidency. But few in Kenya were critical: The African nation has a special regard for Obama, son of a Kenyan economist and an American anthropologist. (Sayyid Azim/ Associated Press) |
political notebook
GOP cites Nobel prize in bid to raise campaign funds
While President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Cuba’s Fidel Castro congratulated President Obama for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Republicans saw the award as so outrageous that they’re using it to raise campaign money.
Obama received the prize “for awesomeness,’’ said a mocking GOP fund-raising letter. Obama’s honor shows “how meaningless a once honorable and respected award has become,’’ said the letter, signed by Michael S. Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Steele said Obama hasn’t accomplished enough to deserve the prize.
Numerous Democrats and independents have expressed similar views, although generally in less strident terms.
Asking for contributions to the RNC of $25 to $1,000, Steele wrote that “the Democrats and their international leftist allies want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control. And truly patriotic Americans like you and our Republican Party are the only thing standing in their way.’’
Medvedev said the award would encourage further US-Russian cooperation.
“I hope this decision would serve as an additional incentive for our common work to form a new climate in world politics and promote initiatives which are fundamentally important for global security,’’ he wrote yesterday in a letter to Obama.
Castro, the former Cuban leader, said yesterday that he thought the choice was a “positive step,’’ though he added it was more a repudiation of Obama’s predecessors than a recognition of anything concrete Obama has done.
“Many believe that he still has not earned the right to receive such a distinction,’’ Castro wrote in a column published in state media. “But we would like to see, more than a prize for the US president, a criticism of the genocidal policies that have been followed by more than a few presidents of that country.’’
The Cuban revolutionary said he was often at odds with the choices of the Nobel committee but called this one “a positive step.’’
Castro, 83, has made a regular habit of praising Obama, a stark turnaround from Cuba’s feelings toward predecessor George W. Bush, who took a hard line on Cuba. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
Health care bill may not get any GOP votes in the House
While the House is inching closer to voting on a comprehensive health care bill, the chamber appears so divided that the measure may not attract a single Republican supporter.The final vote, expected in late October, is impossible to predict, but lawmakers and aides from both parties said that there is a strong chance the GOP will be unanimous in its opposition.
“We’re still hoping that some of them will come on board, but we see no sign of it,’’ said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a member of the Democratic leadership.
In the Senate, Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, spent weeks huddling with Republican senators on health care but had modest results: The White House’s only hope for a Republican nod when the Senate Finance Committee votes Tuesday is considered to be Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine.
Even the most moderate House Republicans, who might be inclined to vote with Democrats on big-ticket legislation, say they don’t expect to do so on health care.
“I don’t think I would, and I don’t sense much support from any Republicans,’’ said Representative Peter King of New York, predicting that the GOP support would be either zero or “no significant number.’’ -- 
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