Stimulus

VP Biden, Schwarzenegger Laud Jobs Saved With Stimulus Cash

Christina Bellantoni | October 30, 2009, 2:45PM

Gov. Schwarzenegger (R-CA), Vice Pres. Biden, Gov. O'Malley (D-MD)

Vice President Joe Biden this afternoon outlined a report collecting the jobs saved or created across the country, the product of states sending in their data.

As TPMDC reported this morning, he was joined by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), who was a key ally when President Obama was selling the stimulus to the American people this winter.

Biden said the report shows the $787 billion economic stimulus plan has created or saved 642,239 jobs through the federal government and an estimated "at least" another 400,000 jobs. He said it is only a third of the way through.

"So far we have created over a million jobs," Biden said. "We know that more jobs are on the way as we continue to spend out these dollars."

Biden said the detailed Recovery.gov site is "quite simply something that has never happened before in the federal government."

He bemoaned worries that millions would go to polar bears and frisbee parks, adding, "So far, thank god, that's a dog that has not bitten yet."

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FL-SEN

Crist Holding Fundraiser With Convicted (And Later Pardoned) Governor

Christina Bellantoni | October 7, 2009, 3:34PM

Frmr. Gov. Fife Symington (R-AZ) and Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL)

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is about to embark on a major fundraising push, with several top dollar events scheduled in the coming weeks, but one in particular caught TPMDC's eye.

That's an Oct. 30 fundraiser hosted by former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington in the state's Camelback Mountain. Symington was convicted of bank and wire fraud and resigned in 1997, but the conviction was overturned and President Clinton pardoned him in 2001.

The event is listed on a document circulated among donors and obtained by TPMDC listing several upcoming fundraisers for Republican Senate candidates.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger

White House Urges High Profile GOPers To Wax Positive About Health Care Reform

Brian Beutler | October 7, 2009, 9:07AM

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA)

You know the recent spate of outside-the-Beltway GOPers saying positive things about health care reform? Bill Frist? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Tommy Thompson? Republican-turned-Independent Michael Bloomberg?

Well, it turns out the White House may have been nudging them a little.

That could resonate well with pockets of constituents around the country. But according to the Washington Post, the real target of the push was a single person from one of the smallest states in the country: "The White House lobbying campaign was aimed, in part, at the one Republican who has indicated she may vote for reform legislation, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), and she said Tuesday that she hopes the comments from her GOP colleagues will resonate," the Post reports.

So did it work? Snowe seemed pleased: "I think it is important to hear all voices in the party," Snowe said. "The more we hear, the more we learn, the better job we can do in the final analysis."