Romney's Opposition To Auto Bailout Scrutinized In Ohio

A pair of state Democratic lawmakers in Ohio will call on voters Wednesday to withhold their support for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro (D-Hubbard) and State Representative Matt Szollosi (D-Toledo) will say that Romney, along with Ohio’s Republican Governor, John Kasich, “turned their backs on Ohio’s auto workers by failing to support critical investments that led to the creation and saving of thousands of Ohio auto jobs.”

Cafaro and Szollosi say that Kasich has been unfairly “taking credit for the recovery of Ohio’s auto industry.” Kasich will appear tomorrow at a Jeep plant in Toledo that is set to add 1,100 new jobs.

Santorum Releases Plan To Halt Iran's Nuclear Development

In response to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) report detailing evidence of Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, presidential hopeful Rick Santorum outlined a multifaceted plan to deal with Iran’s alleged nuclear aggression.

The plan includes the development of a potential military strategy against Iran, reinstatement of funding provided under the Iran Freedom and Support Act to support pro-democracy groups within Iran, highlighting human rights violations of the Iranian regime and eliminating the position of U.S ambassador to Syria.

The full list of proposal can be seen on Santorum’s site.

Santorum, a former Senator, served on the Senate Armed Services Committee for 8 years. While in office, he authored the Iran Freedom and Support Act, which imposed substantial sanctions on the Iranian regime and granted $100 million in annual funding for pro-democracy movements within Iran.

Ex-NM Governor Files FEC, FCC Complaints

Former two-term New Mexico Governor and long-shot GOP presidential candidate Gary Johnson filed complaints to both the Federal Elections Committee and the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday following his exclusion from this weekend’s GOP debate sponsored by CBS. 

Johnson’s campaign argues that CBS was providing monetary assistance to campaigns of candidates it hosted via publicity, saying that due to the recent fluctuations in the polls, it’s clear that national debates have propelled candidates’ poll numbers. According to the complaint, Johnson said that CBS is “directly and significantly supporting those candidates it favors, and advocating the nomination of one of their favorites and opposing the nomination of [Johnson], whom CBS evidently disfavors.”

“In so doing, CBS is making an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to those favored candidates,” the complaint to the FEC reads. “The value of this contribution vastly exceeds the contribution limit that applies to any category of lawful donor.”

Johnson’s complaint to the FCC is based on the notion that the content being broadcast by CBS is regulated by the commission. According to the FCC complaint, CBS “televised on its national network another debate, but instead of including all leading candidates has elected to arbitrarily and capriciously exclude some candidates and include others. In so doing, CBS is, without any other explanation, choosing to favor certain candidates. By excluding viable candidates like Complainant, who has been included by other cable networks in their debates.”

According to the complaint to the FCC, the content broadcast by CBS belongs to the people and Johnson’s camp has argued that “the public deserves to be free from bias- favoring some candidates over others- as well as illegal support of certain presidential candidates on national network television.”

Perry Calls On Congress To Criminalize Insider Trading

Following a 60 Minutes report alleging that lawmakers have benefited financially from using privileged information from the industry’s the regulate, Presidential hopeful Rick Perry is pushing to outlaw insider trading among members of Congress.

“Any Congressman or Senator who uses their insider knowledge to profit the stock Market ought to be sent to jail,” Perry said in a campaign video released online Monday. “Congress ought to pass a law that says so right now.”

The 60 Minutes segment specifically named House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the chairman of the Financial Services Committee.

In a campaign speech in Iowa, Perry took the message even further, saying that Washington’s culture needs a “complete overhaul,” including slashing Congressional salaries by half, limiting Supreme Court appointments to 18 years and mandating a balanced budget.

McCain At Odds With GOP Candidates Over Waterboarding

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) fired back Monday against a handful of Republican presidential candidates who said over the weekend that they support the practice of allowing federal law enforcement officers to waterboard suspected terrorists.

“Very disappointed by statements at SC GOP debate supporting waterboarding. Waterboarding is torture,” McCain tweeted this morning.

The 2008 GOP presidential nominee was responding to comments made by a few current candidates during Saturday night’s debate in South Carolina.

Businessman Herman Cain said he would bring back the controversial method. “I don’t see it as torture,” he said. “I see it as an enhanced interrogation technique.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) also said they favor waterboarding.

Under former president George W. Bush, U.S. officials used the technique several times on terror suspects that were detained at the military’s facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Obama, however, banned waterboarding in 2009.