It’s still a mystery of sorts. Did they or didn’t they crash The White House State Dinner last week?

Michaele and Tareq Salahi, who have been accused of crashing the party and have spurred a security breach scare with the Secret Service, appeared on NBC’s “Today” show espousing their innocence and insisting that they were “invited” to the State Dinner. However, no one from The White House staff or security seems to be in agreement with that.

The case is made murkier still based on reports that Michaele is aspiring to get on Bravo’s upcoming reality television series “Real Housewives of D.C.”

Watch Matt Lauer’s interview with the Salahi’s:

The interview Jon Stewart did with Vice President Joe Biden is getting a lot of buzz in the media and online.

The interview aired Tuesday, Nov 17 on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and wasn’t all that revealing but contained one phrase that turned some heads.

Some called Biden’s performance “funny and informative,” but at one point Biden said that socialism was for the rich and capitalism for the poor.

He was addressing concerns that taxpayers have over the way financial institutions were pulled out of hot water to avoid a “great depression.”

“It’s socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor,” Biden told Stewart.

“If we did not bail them out, we would have been in a position where there was a literal depression, not a recession,” Biden later told Stewart.

Jamie Gorelick, who was the Deputy Attorney General during the Clinton Administration and a member of the 9-11 Commission, queues in on the future of America’s National Security under a demoralized Justice Department and what will soon be a new presidency. Jamie Gorelick also chairs the United Technologies Corporation.

A New Agenda for Justice

By Jamie S. Gorelick

Tuesday, August 28, 2007; Page A13

The next attorney general will inherit a demoralized Justice Department that has been cut adrift from its historical values and well-honored traditions. New leadership offers an opportunity for Justice to return to its best traditions under both Democrats and Republicans. Here are 10 priorities that would help the next attorney general guide the department back on course:

# Restore credibility and comity with Congress. Having the backing and support of Congress is critical. Lawmakers will give Justice the room it needs if they believe that the attorney general and his or her subordinates are straightforward in their dealings and open to legitimate oversight.

“Take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Every president promises to ensure that the government adheres to the law and the Constitution. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has historically been — and needs to be — the voice for the rule of law in the president’s deliberations, providing an honest appraisal of applicable law, even if that advice will constrain the administration’s pursuit of desired policies. This mandate applies with special force where the office’s advice is unlikely to be subject to review by the courts. Where an opinion is so widely ridiculed that the department has to withdraw it, as was the case with the first “torture memo,” confidence in the department’s fealty to the law is undermined.

Read the rest of Jamie Gorelick’s A New Agenda for Justice.

Jamie Gorelick is a lawyer at Wilmer Hale.

Jamie Gorelick reflects on 9-11.

View a question an answer session with Jamie Gorelick who was formally Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae.

Jamie Gorelick’s career history can be found at http://www.jamie-gorelick.com.

Read the 9-11 commission of which Jamie Gorelick was a part.

Review Jamie Gorelick’s political affiliations.

View press releases for Jamie Gorelick.

With Wall Street panicky with fear over the financial market and banks tightening credit, businesses all over America are suffering. When businesses can’t get loans, operations grind to a standstill. Production stops. Manufactures lose money. And then, if the situation doesn’t get oiled, people start losing their jobs–in every industry.

There is no way to avoid a recession following the collapse of so many financial giants this summer, but in order to avoid a long and bitter Depression with a capital D, the economic machine needs to be greased. The grease for the economy is money–flowing money.

But of course money comes at a price (after all, it is money!) If the American tax payer doesn’t foot the bill, then the government has to borrow (thereby ballooning an already monstrous deficit). These are the details being debated hotly in Congress. Part of the problem, of course, is that many constituents (and probably elected Congress officials) don’t fully understand the problem much less how to fix it. And there IS no perfect solution. Keeping that in mind, the best solution is the one that can squeak through the barriers of Congressional out-holding and oil up the gears of the economic engine.

Hopefully, today’s “solution” won’t be something America’s future generations will curse us for. In the meantime, President Bush is calling for Congress to do something–and do it fast!

Furious lobbying for much-maligned bailout bill

By CHARLES BABINGTON and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON – President Bush and congressional leaders conducted fierce eleventh-hour lobbying Thursday for enough House votes to push the $700 billion financial industry bailout bill to the finish line.

Bush said “a lot of people are watching” and he kept up his pleas from the White House as Democratic and Republican party leaders worked over wayward colleagues wherever they could find them. Bush argued that the measure represents the “best chance” to calm unnerved financial markets and ease a widening credit crunch.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat, said that his party won’t put the bill up for the vote planned for Friday unless lawmakers are sure it will pass.

Speaking to reporters during a meeting with business executives, Bush said the increasingly tight credit markets are in some instances threatening the existence of small businesses. He said Congress “must listen” to those arguing for passage of the bill, derided by many on Capitol Hill and within the general public as a handout to a risk-taking Wall Street.

The much-maligned measure was returned to the House after the Senate resuscitated it with tax cuts and other sweeteners in a 74-25 vote late Wednesday. The bill had been defeated in House narrowly on Monday.

Read the rest of Furious lobbying for much-maligned bailout bill on Yahoo News.

The VP candidate debates will take place Thursday, October 2nd.  Chances are that more people will tune in to this year’s VP debate than in elections past, largely due to the buzz that rocketed Sarah Palin–John McCain’s choice for VP–to the hot topic of media interest this past summer.

Some are saying that Sarah Palin will get hammered by Joe Biden, who is the head of the foreign relations committee and has been in the Senate since Sarah Palin was six years old.  However, don’t count Sarah Palin out.  She also has experience debating, and has been grilled by the Republican Party in preparation for the event.

Of course, with the financial crisis brewing and Congress still undecided over the bailout bill, the VP debate is unlikely to be the most important factor in the 2008 Presidential Election.  Even so, it will be interesting to see how Joe Biden–Barack Obama’s VP pick–and Sarah Palin square off. After all, with the 2008 election only a month away and so much on the line for America’s economy, foreign relations, and other issues, this VP debate might just be a historical event!

On small stage, Palin scored big debate wins

Alexander Burns Wed Oct 1, 5:51 AM ET

After delivering halting, unsteady performances in recent interviews with ABC’s Charlie Gibson and CBS’s Katie Couric, expectations are low for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in Thursday’s vice presidential debate in St. Louis.

Yet a review of Palin’s experience during her 2006 campaign for governor, when she engaged in a long series of debates with her opponents, suggests she is a more formidable adversary than is widely thought.

Unlike her opponent Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, who has considerable presidential-level debate experience, Palin has never been involved in a debate where the questions were national and global in scope.

But she is familiar operating in a high-stakes debate environment against older, more seasoned pols who seemingly have better command of the issues.

In 2006, with no experience as a statewide officeholder, Palin ran what amounted to a debate gauntlet, beginning in the Republican primary against incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski and former state Sen. John Binkley, and then in the general election, against former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles and former state Rep. Andrew Halcro, an independent.

Against that experienced opposition, Palin proved herself to be a comfortable and confident debater, not exactly deeply versed in the issues but unusually adept at dodging controversy and quick to take advantage of opponents’ missteps. Not one to throw an unnecessary punch, Palin took a patient approach, waiting for her rivals to expose their weak points – and then striking fast.

“Anyone who watches any of her previous debates would be impressed by her debating skills,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Saturday, in an attempt to raise expectations for Palin’s performance. “She has performed very, very well.”

Perhaps the best illustration of her style came on August 8, 2006, during a primary election debate featuring the unpopular incumbent Murkowski, himself a veteran of more than two decades in the U.S. Senate, and Binkley. Palin, by then the GOP frontrunner, kept a wary distance from her rivals, who bickered bitterly.

When Murkowski, taking a caustic tone against his much younger opponents, charged that Binkley did not understand an issue related to fuel company taxation, Binkley replied, “I understand it perfectly.” Murkowski shot back angrily: “No, you don’t.”

Palin, rather than join in the exchange, sat back until her opponents’ anger reached a boiling point, and then, with a voice just slightly raised, chimed in: “You know, you guys, we owe Alaskans a better discourse than this.”

“Respect to our listeners and our viewers,” she continued, “I think we need to speak respectfully and orderly here.”

In a single deft blow, Palin made the older men look childish. And she did it calmly, with an upbeat tone of voice.

Read the rest of: On small stage, Palin scored big debate wins from Yahoo News.