Capital Games

Poll: Corzine down, other Dems up

This morning's Quinnipiac University poll shows one thing: It's good to be in Washington if you're a Democrat.

While Governor Corzine's low numbers continue, the survey of 2,500 registered voters found voters approve of the job being done by the state's two Senators, and they really approve of the job being done by President Obama.

  

Lisa Jackson on Daily Show

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, the former New Jersey environmental commissioner and aide to Governor Corzine, was on Jon Stewart's Show last night.

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Rothman explains support for war bill

Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, voted today for funding to continue the war in Iraq, along with a large majority of House colleagues, and issued this explanation why.

“In the past, I voted against the Iraq war supplemental funding bills because we should not have funded ongoing operations in Iraq without an end in sight for the withdrawal of United States forces.

“I am voting ‘yes’ today because this bill funds the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and begins the end of that war. As President Obama promised during his campaign, and as I and my Democratic colleagues in Congress have been advocating for years, we are working to withdraw from Iraq and refocus on Al Qaeda and Taliban activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan that threaten the United States.

“President Obama has pledged that this is the final war supplemental. His commitment is that all funding for ongoing military operations will be included in the budgets the President sends to Congress and the bills we develop in the Appropriations Committee. I am hopeful that our heightened focus on Al Qaeda and the Taliban will hasten the day we can safely remove our troops from Afghanistan as well.”

The bill provides $96.7 billion for the war and other needs Obama idenitifed as emergencies, including restocking the nation’s supplies of antiviral medicine to combat swine flu.

The vote in the House was 368-60. The entire New Jersey delegation voted for the bill except Rep. Donald Payne, D-Newark.

Menendez effort against power lines defeated

Sen. Bob Menendez was voted down in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday as he tried to strip an eminent domain provision from legislation to make it easier for power companies to build new transmission lines.

Menendez, D-N.J., said New Jersey property owners and protected lands could be forced to accommodate power lines that would carry coal-produced energy from the Midwest to New York and the Northeast.

“New Jersey has been eyed as prime territory for new transmission lines,” Menendez said. “Under this legislation, a New Jersey family could be helpless to fight new high-powered transmission lines that are proposed for placement in their backyards.”

Garrett forms Sovereignty Caucus

Rep. Scott Garrett gives an interview on the Human Events web site [Headquarters of the Conservative Underground] about the "sovereignty caucus" he and two House colleages have created to battle any efforts to give a way United States control.

President Obama's nomination of Harold H. Koh, the outgoing dean of Yale Law School, to be a legal adviser to the State Department helped precipitate the group's founding a few weeks ago. Garrett says in an interview he objects to the appointment because of past positions Koh has taken about the power of the United Nations. [See conservative objections on American Spectator]

The Sovereignty Caucus also opposes an international criminal court and giving more money to the International Monetary Fund.

Booker on HuffPo

Newark Mayor Cory Booker writes on Huffington Post today about education.

"I have no loyalty to charter schools, traditional public schools, magnet schools, small school models, publicly funded scholarships (vouchers) or private schools. I have loyalty to results."

Holt in Jordan with Pelosi

Rep. Rush Holt, D-Hopewell Township, is traveling in the Middle East with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Pelosi's office said in a news release they were greeted upon arrival by King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan yesterday and were headed to Qatar today.

Club for Growth likes Garrett, few others

Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, got 98 points out of 100 for his House actions last year from the Club for Growth, a group committed to lower taxes, deregulation, personal retirement accounts for Social Security and limits on tort lawsuits.

The next-highest score in the New Jersey delegation was the 58 garnered by then-Rep. Jim Saxton, R-Mount Holly, who did not run for re-election. Scores for North Jersey House members were: Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, 55; Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, 10; Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, 4; Albio Sires, D-West New York, 0.

Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., also got scores of 0.

Andrews: Tell me your troubles

Rep. Rob Andrews does not believe banks are doing enough to lend out the government money they got to loosen up credit markets from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that Congress and then-President Bush approved last year.

Andrews, D-Haddon Heights, said he’s heard from several people with strong credit histories, including a car dealer and a real estate investor, who said banks would no longer lend them money.

So he has set up a form on his web page to find out how many businesses are in the same boat, and plans to use the information when the Treasury Department reports next month what the banks have been doing with their TARP money.

“If your business is in jeopardy and you are one of the millions of disillusioned Americans who have been denied the ability to borrow TARP funds, Congressman Andrews wants to hear from you,” the introduction to the form says.

NJ near bottom of gun ownership/death rate list

New Jersey ranked near the bottom of a ranking of violent deaths from guns in a report released this week by a group committed to tougher gun control.

The Violence Policy Center concluded that states with high gun ownership and weak gun laws have the highest rates of gun deaths.

New Jersey, which at 11 percent of households has the nation’s third-lowest gun ownership rate, ranked 45th in the rate of gun deaths. There were 5.68 gun deaths per 100,000 people in New Jersey in 2006, the center said.

Louisiana, where 46 percent of households have guns, had the highest gun death rate of  19.58. Following it were Alabama (57 percent ownership, 16.99 deaths) and Alaska (61 percent ownership, 16.38 deaths).

Hawaii ranked lowest, with guns in 10 percent of households and a death rate of 2.58 per 100,000 people, followed by Massachusetts (13 percent ownership, 3.28 deaths) and Rhode Island (13 percent ownership, 4.43 deaths).

Death rates came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Control and Prevention. The gun ownership rates came from a 2005 report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which relied on a 2002 survey by the CDC of 240,735 adults nationwide.