Arnold Schwarzenegger puts brakes on return to acting; concentrating on 'personal matters'
May 21, 2011

Amidst a still-unfolding scandal involving extramarital affairs and an out-of-wedlock child, Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to put his not-yet-relaunched acting career on hold.

"At the request of Arnold Schwarzenegger we asked Creative Artists Agency to inform all his motion picture projects currently underway or being negotiated to stop planning until further notice," Patrick Knapp, entertainment counsel to Schwarzenegger, wrote in a statement.

"Governor Schwarzenegger is focusing on personal matters and is not willing to commit to any production schedules or timelines," the statement continues. "This includes "Cry Macho," "The Terminator" franchise and other projects under consideration. We will resume discussions when Governor Schwarzenegger decides."

Earlier this week, Schwarzenegger admitted to fathering a child with Mildred Baena, a member of his household staff. "There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused," said Schwarzenegger in a statement. "I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry."

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Pakistan, US try to make up after bin Laden
May 20, 2011

Top U.S. officials tried Thursday to patch up relations with Pakistani leaders miffed over the surprise American raid that killed Osama bin Laden, even as members of the U.S. Congress called for cuts in aid to Pakistan over suspicions that elements of its security forces sheltered the al-Qaida chief.
High-level talks by the deputy director of the CIA and President Barak Obama's special envoy underlined the strong mutual dependency of the two countries, despite the bad blood over the bin Laden killing. The U.S. needs Pakistan to help resolve the war in Afghanistan, and American funds are critical for propping up Pakistan's economy and bankrolling its military.
The discussions come at a tense moment in relations between Pakistani intelligence and the CIA, as well as a low point in Pakistani views of the U.S., according to a poll.
Marc Grossman, the Obama administration's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and other senior officials to discuss relations in the wake of the May 2 bin Laden raid, the president's office said.

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Obama announces 'new chapter' in U.S. Mideast diplomacy
May 20, 2011

President Barack Obama on Thursday placed the United States squarely on the side of democratic reform in the Middle East and North Africa, declaring in a major policy speech that the wave of change sweeping the region "cannot be denied."
Addressing a global audience, Obama condemned the use of force against Arab Spring protesters by longtime allies and adversaries alike. He also said the eruption of demands for greater opportunity in Arab nations could be used to kick-start stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
At the same time, Obama applied his own pressure by declaring as policy the long-held idea that a future Palestinian state should be based on borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war.
In the past, the United States has unofficially supported a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict based on the borders in place prior to the war 44 years ago in which Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula. Obama became the first president to formally endorse the policy, but he acknowledged the need for modifications through the negotiating process due to conditions on the ground.

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Gingrich inspires another GOP revolt -- against himself
May 19, 2011

It's unusual, to say the least, for a presidential candidate to have a defining campaign moment on Week One of the campaign, but Newt Gingrich never disappoints: Right out of the box on Sunday TV, fresh from his presidential announcement, he declared the House GOP plan for Medicare "right-wing social engineering." Then he went on to explain how he still supports individual mandates in health care -- despite the fact that the mandates are the key to the Republican attacks on the president's health care law.
Just another day on the Gingrich campaign, in which the candidate throws gasoline on a fire. And then walks into it.
Privately, one source close to Gingrich says, "he immediately understood what he had done and was worried."
What he probably didn't get is just how bad the fallout would be.
Outraged Republicans erupted in unison (don't forget: nearly every House Republican voted for this Medicare plan). Gingrich, of course, had to spend the next day backtracking, re-explaining, defending, parsing and, er, restating his complete devotion to the House budget chairman's "model" and his unequivocal opposition to President Barack Obama's health care plan. And, for a measure of good luck, he blamed the media, describing himself as a victim of "beyond gotcha" politics.
If anyone played "gotcha" here, it was Gingrich -- on himself, and on the Republican Party.
First, Newt, what has Republicans scratching their heads is one simple question: Why?
"If you want to dig deep into what this tells us about Newt, it's that he's lost a sense of the conservative constituency in the party," says one disappointed GOP ally. "Why doesn't he know that these issues [the House GOP budget and Obama's health care mandate] have become the Holy Grail for GOP primary voters? He used to get the pulse of the Republican Party better than anyone."
Well, not anymore. Not since he cut off the blood supply.
Which brings us to Republicans. Sure, we can blame Gingrich for his big mouth. But we can't blame him for exposing what is a huge divide within the GOP right now: Most every House Republican is on the record supporting a budget that profoundly changes Medicare. They have gone home to their districts and have been bombarded with complaints. Their leadership has sometimes wavered -- only to re-endorse -- the plan.

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Schwarzenegger child report spurs media frenzy
May 19, 2011

The revelation that Arnold Schwarzenegger has an out-of-wedlock child with a former employee turned into a tabloid frenzy Wednesday as scores of reporters and photographers swarmed a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in the middle of California farm country amid unconfirmed reports it was the home of the child's mother.
The owner of the house, identified in property records as Mildred Patricia Baena, was not at the Bakersfield home when the flash mob arrived, its satellite TV trucks filling her quiet street and spilling onto another one. The media descended after the woman's name was first reported by Radar Online and subsequently by other news outlets including The New York Times, which cited two unnamed friends of the family.
Schwarzenegger's office declined to discuss whether Baena is the mother of the former governor's child.
Baena's adult daughter, Jacqueline Rozo, told The Associated Press her mother had worked for Schwarzenegger until recently, but declined to discuss her further. The AP has not independently confirmed that Baena is the mother of Schwarzenegger's child.
The scandal exploded into public view after Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver announced last week that they were splitting up after 25 years of marriage. Then came an admission by the former two-term governor that he fathered a child with a member of the household staff.
A photo of the boy posted on Baena's MySpace page shows a fairly strong resemblance to Schwarzenegger, particularly when the actor-bodybuilder-politician was younger.

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GOP Senator: Preliminary Agreements Reached In Debt Talks
May 19, 2011

Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who represents the Senate GOP in White House debt talks, said on Tuesday that a bipartisan group of lawmakers had agreed to about $150 billion in budget cuts so far, with an aim to eventually cut trillions more in order to reach a final deal that would raise the debt ceiling.
Kyl said the group “has just gotten started,�
Still, the lawmakers, led by Vice President Joe Biden, have a long way to go before making a final plan to cut the deficit, Kyl said. They hope to eventually cut $4 trillion, including a “down payment�
"We're talking in the area of about $150 billion right now," Kyl told reporters. "We all recognize that we have to do a lot more than that."
Kyl said the group has worked out few long-term details, with no discussions so far on health care, one of the major drivers of the debt. All entitlements will be subject to discussion, as will defense, he said.
Echoing other Republicans, Kyl said tax measures will not be part of the debt deal because it would “be too complicated to deal with that at the same time that we’re dealing with the debt ceiling.�
Although the current debt ceiling, set at $14.29 trillion, was hit on Monday, Kyl said he thinks a deal will be reached to prevent the government from defaulting on its loans. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress the government could prevent default until about Aug. 2 without Congressional authorization to take on more loans.
So far, no one has discussed a short-term extension on the debt limit to give lawmakers more time to make a deal, Kyl said. A number of lawmakers have said they would not vote to raise the debt ceiling without a plan for major spending cuts to reduce the deficit down the line.
Kyl downplayed concerns over default, saying the markets trust that the government will eventually pay its debts.
"I think that at some point in time the limit will be raised, and I think the United States government will not default on its obligations," he said. "I think most people in the market know that, and so there's no reason to panic."

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Arnold Schwarzenegger apologizes for secret affair
May 18, 2011

He's one of the most famous people on the planet, a two-term governor of California, a movie star and a former world champion bodybuilder with a profile so huge that just one name, Arnold, instantly identifies him to almost everyone.

Yet somehow, for more than a decade, Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to keep an incredible secret from the public and his wife, prominent former TV journalist and Kennedy heiress Maria Shriver: that he fathered a child with a woman on his household staff more than a decade ago.

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IMF chief under suicide watch at NYC jail
May 18, 2011

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was placed under a suicide watch in jail, while pressure mounted on him to resign Tuesday and the hotel maid who accused him of attempted rape said through her lawyer that she had no idea who he was when she reported him to the police.
Law enforcement officials emphasized that Strauss-Kahn had not tried to harm himself but that guards were keeping a close watch on him just in case.
Meanwhile, details began to emerge about his accuser, a 32-year-old immigrant from the West African nation of Guinea with a 15-year-old daughter.
"There is no way in which there is any aspect of this event which could be construed consensual in any manner. This is nothing other than a physical, sexual assault by this man on this young woman," her attorney, Jeffrey Shapiro, told The Associated Press. He added: "She did not know who this man was until a day or two after this took place."
Strauss-Kahn, the 62-year-old managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested Saturday and is being held without bail at the city's Rikers Island jail, kept apart from his fellow prisoners in a unit that normally houses inmates with contagious diseases.
Police and prosecutors said he ambushed a housekeeper who had come to clean his $3,000-per-night at a New York hotel. Lawyers for the influential banker have challenged that account, saying the evidence doesn't support accusations of forcible sex.

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Newt Gingrich confronted over Paul Ryan comments
May 18, 2011

An Iowa voter angrily confronted Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in Dubuque, Iowa over his comments about Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's budget, telling him as they shook hands, "Why don't you get out [of the presidential race] before you make a bigger fool of yourself?"
The video, captured by Fox News and viewable at left, shows the unidentified Iowan telling Gingrich, "What you just did to Paul Ryan is unforgivable."
Gingrich responds that he "didn't do anything to Paul Ryan."
The voter then claims that Gingrich "undercut" Ryan and adds: "You're an embarrassment to our party."
"I'm sorry you feel that way," responds Gingrich.
The former House speaker, who is in the midst of a 17-stop tour of Iowa, has come under heavy fire from Republicans for suggesting Sunday that the Ryan budget, passed earlier this year by House Republicans, amounts to "right-wing social engineering." Gingrich suggested that Ryan's plan to transform Medicare into a voucher-like program was "too big a jump" and suggested it was an effort at "imposing radical change" on Americans.
The fallout came quickly. Ryan responded by asking, "With allies like that, who needs the left?" The Wall Street Journal suggested that Gingrich had told House Republicans to "drop dead," writing that "Gingrich chose to throw his former allies in the GOP House not so much under the bus as off the Grand Canyon rim."

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Who benefits from Huck's absence?
May 17, 2011

After Mike Huckabee's announcement Saturday night that he won't run for president, all the other Republican candidates THINK they benefit, and there's some truth to that. Yet right now, the biggest beneficiary would be Michele Bachmann, if she gets in. And next, it would be Rick Santorum. The reason: With Huck's absence, the biggest void in the 2012 field is on the social conservative front, and Bachmann and Santorum are the only true warriors there (maybe Herman Cain to a lesser extent). Tim Pawlenty is also a social conservative, but he's hardly the warrior that Bachmann and Santorum are. (Then again, Huckabee -- despite his preacher past -- wasn't considered a warrior when he was Arkansas governor.) The void Huckabee leaves is one of the "conservative populist," as the New York Times' Ross Douthat captures well today.
*** Can Romney still downplay Iowa? The Iowa contest is now wide open. And Politico's Martin raises an intriguing question to ponder: Can front-runner Romney -- who at one time was the favorite in the '08 GOP caucuses -- still downplay Iowa? "Without the former preacher in the race, why couldn't Romney make a strong showing in Iowa? The 34% of caucus-goers who supported Huckabee in the race could splinter, leaving a path for Romney to capture a plurality victory in the Hawkeye State... 'They certainly are going to have to revisit Iowa,' said Brian Kennedy, a former state GOP chair there who backed Romney in 2008 but is now uncommitted... Another Iowa Republican was even blunter, suggesting that the Romney fig leaf for not being able to win the caucuses has been stripped away. 'The biggest loser is Romney because he no longer has a foil in Iowa,' said the Republican. 'All the Iowa polls sans Huckabee have him winning.'" It may be that Romney's gambit all along was to set up this idea he might not fully compete, so that if he wins Iowa, it essentially ends the race, assuming he follows a victory in Iowa with one in New Hampshire. This all sets up quite the storyline for Romney's visit to Iowa on May 27.

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