Michael Kitch

LACONIA -- The rift among local Republicans widened this week when Frank Tilton, chairman of the Belknap County Republican Committee, flatly refused to allow Tom Tardif, who is challenging him for the Laconia seat on the county commission in the GOP primary, to address the committee tonight.

Last week, Skip Murphy, who chairs the Gilford Republican Committee, asked Tilton if Tardif could speak at the regular monthly meeting, the last before the primary election on September 9. Tilton answered "no" and repeated himself shortly afterwards when Doug Lambert, Tardif's fiscal agent, made an "official request" by e-mail. Lambert pointed out that not only was the meeting the last before the primary but "there have been no meetings of the Laconia Republican City Committee for Tom to have the chance to make his case to fellow party members."

Tilton replied "I received the same request from another spokesperson, Skip Murphy, and responded. Apparently you haven't talked with him."   ….continue reading

Belknap County Republican Chair Frank Tilton for whom it's a normal practice to restrict attendance at GOP meetings.

Michael Kitch

BELMONT -- One afternoon each election year New Hampshire congressional and gubernatorial candidates, like Dorothy and Toto, are swept by the political winds to a what for most is a far off place and forgotten time when the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation and New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association host their summer picnic and stump speeches.

This year lush green pastures of Oak Ledge Farm on Ladd Hill Road, where Elaine and Kenneth Bonnette raise purebred Polled Herefords, provided the setting, complete with a genuine stump and what one connoisseur called "the best corn of the season."

Democratic candidate for Senate, Jeanne Shaheen.

Republican candidate for Senate, John Sununu.

Although most candidates shunned the stump, nearly all took the opportunity yesterday to remind their audience of rural voters of what they have done or would do to serve the interests of agriculture and forestry. Only Ken Blevens, the Libertarian candidate for United States Senate, struck a discordant note by describing the state's "current use" property tax shelter program as an unjust subsidy born by most taxpayers to benefit a few.

Topping the bill were United States Senator John Sununu and his Democratic challenger, former governor Jeanne Shaheen, who are locked in rematch of their race in 2002, which Sununu won by a five-point margin. This time around Sununu trailed Shaheen in the polls even before she announced her candidacy and has yet to catch up, though the margin between the two has closed to single digits, prompting some pundits to call the race a dead-heat.   .....continue reading

By Meg Heckman

Epsom and Pittsfield won't receive federal money to help clean up after last month's tornado, something that has state leaders upset and municipal officials worried about paying the bills.

On Monday, President Bush declared disaster areas in Belknap, Carroll and Rockingham counties, allowing communities such as Barnstead, Northwood and Deerfield to request federal help repairing roads and cleaning up downed trees.

But Merrimack and Strafford counties weren't part of Bush's declaration, leaving Epsom, Pittsfield and a handful of other cash-strapped communities with few options. The situation is particularly dire in Epsom, where repeated flooding has already drained local resources.

"Epsom isn't included? You've got to be kidding me," said Sen. Jack Barnes, a Raymond Republican who represents part of Merrimack County. "What's the matter with those guys? They've got a screw loose? The town needs help. Every time something happens, the town of Epsom is getting smacked."   ….continue reading

By Nedra Pickler

HONOLULU (AP) -- Senate candidate and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is scheduled to deliver the Tuesday night keynote address at this year's Democratic National Convention -- the same role that launched Barack Obama to national prominence four years ago.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival during the Democratic presidential primaries, is also scheduled to speak that night, Aug. 26. But Warner is being given the plum position, according to an e-mail that Obama campaign adviser Mike Henry sent to Virginia supporters late Tuesday.

Henry's e-mail, which was forwarded to The Associated Press while Obama is on vacation in Hawaii, told Virginians, "we wanted you to be the first to know." It included a quote from campaign manager David Plouffe.

Senator Barack Obama campaigning earlier this year with former Virginia Governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner.  Warner has long been touted as a rising star in Democratic Party circles and many had anticipated him running for this year's presidential nomination.

"Mark Warner is not afraid to challenge the status quo to bring people together and get things moving," Plouffe's statement read. "It's that kind of spirit and innovation that resulted in his selection as keynote speaker on a night when the convention program will focus on renewing America's economy."    ….continue reading

By Kelly Lecker

It's not every day that you hear religious leaders praise Barack Obama and the Democratic Party for their anti-abortion stance.

But today, a group of evan- gelicals and Catholics said they were encouraged by the proposed Democratic plat- form, which includes a commitment to reduce the number of abortions with pre- natal care, income support and adoption programs.

The party isn't backing off its pro-abortion rights stance. It still asserts that abortion is a woman's right and should be legal and available. In fact, the statement that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare" was removed.   ….continue reading

Ian Traynor in Brussels and Luke Harding in Tbilisi

The Kremlin last night dictated humiliating peace terms to Georgia as the price for halting the Russian invasion of the small Black Sea country and its four-day rout of Georgian forces.

Faced with strong western denunciation, President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia called a halt to the Russian offensive and negotiated terms for a truce and a broader settlement with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who, as chair of the European Union, rushed to the region to try to strike a deal on a ceasefire.

Early this morning in Tbilisi, Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, signaled his partial assent to the terms, announcing with Sarkozy that he accepted the ceasefire. But Saakashvili raised questions about a continuing Russian military presence in Georgia and the prospects for any durable settlement looked uncertain.

"We do not yet have a peace deal, we have a provisional cessation of hostilities; but this is significant progress," Sarkozy said after talks with Medvedev in Moscow and before taking the terms to Tbilisi. This morning Sarkozy predicted Saakashvili would accept Russian terms on the broader settlement.      ….continue reading

By Simon Jenkins

One thing is for sure. This week's operation in Georgia has displayed the failure of the west's policy of belligerence towards Vladimir Putin's Russia. The policy was meant to weaken Russia, and has strengthened it. The policy was meant to humiliate Russia with Nato encirclement, and has merely fed its neo-imperialism. The policy was meant to show that Russia "understands only firmness" and instead has shown the west as a bunch of tough-talking windbags.

Georgia, a supposed western ally and applicant to Nato, has been treated by Russia to a brutal lesson in power politics. The west has lost all leverage and can do nothing. Seldom was a policy so crashingly stupid.

Putin would die laughing if he read this week's American newspapers. The president, George Bush, declared the Russian invasion of Georgia "disproportionate and unacceptable". This is taken as a put-down to the vice-president, Dick Cheney, who declared the invasion "will not go unanswered", apparently something quite different. Bush says that great powers should not go about "toppling governments in the 21st century", as if he had never done such a thing. Cheney says that the invasion has "damaged Russia's standing in the world", as if Cheney gave a damn. The lobby for sanctions against Russia is reduced to threatening to boycott the winter Olympics. Big deal.    ….continue reading

By Patrick Peterson

Sen. Barack Obama is open to increasing NASA's budget and finds it unacceptable to lose 6,400 jobs at Kennedy Space Center as the shuttle stops flying, one of his policy advisers told a group of space industry officials Tuesday.

"The job concern is obviously big," said Ian Bassin, Obama's Florida policy director.

About two dozen space industry officials met with Bassin on Tuesday in Cocoa Beach, as the Democratic presidential contender tries to win support at the east end of Florida's crucial Interstate 4 technology
corridor.   ….continue reading

By Matthew Mosk and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser prepped his boss for an April 17 phone call with the president of Georgia and then helped the presumptive Republican presidential nominee prepare a strong statement of support for the fledgling republic.

The day of the call, a lobbying firm partly owned by the adviser, Randy Scheunemann, signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government in Washington.

The McCain campaign said Georgia's lobbying contract with Orion Strategies had no bearing on the candidate's decision to speak with President Mikheil Saakashvili and did not influence his statement. "The Embassy of Georgia requested the call," said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

But ethics experts have raised concerns about former lobbyists for foreign governments providing advice to presidential candidates about those same countries. "The question is, who is the client? Is the adviser loyal to income from a foreign client, or is he loyal to the candidate he is working for now?" said James Thurber, a lobbying expert at American University. "It's dangerous if you're getting advice from people who are very close to countries on one side or another of a conflict."    ….continue reading