Just Politics

Euro troubles

Italy’s Welfare Minister Roberto Maroni is quoted in Reuters as wanting his country to retreat from the Euro. The European universal currency has seen a downfall since France rejected the Euro Constitution:

Maroni, a member of the euro-skeptical Northern League party, told the Repubblica daily Italy should hold a referendum to decide whether to return to the lira, at least temporarily.

He also said European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was one of those chiefly responsible for the "disaster of the euro."

The euro "has proved inadequate in the face of the economic slowdown, the loss of competitiveness and the job crisis," Maroni said.

Hollywood’s darling

Hillary Clinton raked in an estimated $1 million from her Hollywood friends according to the LA Times.

Clinton's 2006 Senate reelection effort was listed as the beneficiary on invitations to the cocktail reception at the home of Cindy and Alan Horn. The guest list included a familiar roster of Hollywood Democratic fundraising heavyweights: Norman and Lyn Lear, Bud and Cynthia Yorkin, Hollywood political consultant-at-large Marge Tabankin, and DreamWorks' Andy Spahn.

The dinner at the Pattiz home hosted a lively discussion of issues including stem cell research, Social Security, Iraq, health care and Democratic prospects for the midterm elections, according to another Hollywood political consultant, Donna Bojarsky, who attended.

There was also an event with former Clinton White House staffer John Emerson, now an investment banker and chairman and chief executive of the board of directors of the Music Center.

Hosts said a late-night event at the home of Roland Emmerich, the director and executive producer of "Godzilla" and "Independence Day," was packed. The 27 people listed on the invitation as $1,000-per-person co-hosts included young actress Lindsay Lohan. Other guests paid $125 or $250.

Democrats caught

Democrats have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. When it comes to Lobbyist Jack Abramoff whom Democrats believe will put away Republican Senate Majority Leader Tom DeLay, they have a problem because their leaders took his money as well.

Democratic lawmakers who received Abramoff’s contributions said that any money they received from the tribes had nothing to do with Abramoff. They seem to have amnesia about the man.

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.) – who chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - received $128,000 from 1999 to 2001 from Abramoff.

Senate Democratic leaders Reid and Daschle each received more than $40,000 from the tribes and from lobbyists on Abramoff's team during the period. Gephardt got $32,500.

A spokesman for Kennedy said the congressman's donations from the tribes "have nothing to do with Abramoff." Kennedy traces the money's genesis to his family's long-standing commitment to Indian causes, to the fact that he co-founded the Congressional Native American Caucus in 1997, and to his personal relationship with Mississippi Choctaw Chief Philip Martin, whom Kennedy met in 1999 on a fundraising trip for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "They just became close friends," said Kennedy spokesman Sean Richardson.