Fresh on the heels of a scandal over a nearly $2,000 charge to the RNC at a bondage-themed nightclub comes word that a fundraising mailer the organization sent out included a phone number leading those who called to a phone-sex line offering "live, one-on-one talk with a nasty girl who will do anything you want for just $2.99 per minute."
Politico has the story. The phone number included on the mailer is a 1-800 number that points callers to a different number offering a chance to chat with "real local students, housewives and working girls from all over the country." (You can listen to the call here; for mature ears only.)
The RNC said the situation arose because the vendor who made the mailer mistakenly used the 1-800 prefix instead of the correct 202 prefix. It did not tell Politico how many copies of the mailer were sent out.
While the phone sex number is the aspect of the mailer that will garner most of the attention, it was an isolated mistake; more pernicious in the eyes of many critics is the mailer itself, which was designed to resemble a census form.
The phone sex line was only discovered, in fact, because one of the people who received the mailer called the number to complain to the RNC about the fact that its fundraising solicitation looked like a government document.
Sarah Palin, Tony Perkins Back Away from RNC After Topless Nightclub Incident: (CBS) Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins are the latest prominent conservatives to distance themselves from the Republican National Committee in the wake of revelations the group spent nearly $2,000 at a topless, bondage-themed nightclub.
"This latest incident is another indication to me that the RNC is completely tone-deaf to the values and concerns of a large number of people from whom they seek financial support," Perkins wrote in his most recent "Washington Update" newsletter. "I've hinted at this before, but now I am saying it--don't give money to the RNC. If you want to put money into the political process, and I encourage you to do so, give directly to candidates who you know reflect your values."
Perkins, a major figure among Christian conservatives, also chastised the RNC for hiring prominent lawyer Ted Olson to represent the committee in a campaign finance case. Perkins is critical of the decision because Olson is one of the lawyers fighting to overturn Proposition 8 in California (the ballot initiative that banned gay marriage).
Meanwhile, Palin has asked the RNC to stop advertising that she will attend a RNC fundraiser at the upcoming Southern Republican Leadership Conference, according to Politico. An invitation for the event lists Palin, as well as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as "invited speakers."
Palin "will not take part in any RNC fundraiser in New Orleans" during the SRLC, an aide told Politico, though it is unclear whether her decision is tied to the nightclub incident.
The RNC's spending gaffe has prompted other high-profile conservatives to speak out against the group, including prominent GOP donor Mark DeMoss who said on CBSNews.com's "Washington Unplugged" yesterday that the RNC "squandered... a moral authority" by spending money inappropriately.
When the news first broke of the expenditure at the topless nightclub, Penny Nance, president of the conservative public policy group Concerned Women for America, released a statement saying, "This kind of behavior is not appropriate for national leaders that our children should be able to look up to as role models, and that our daughters could be working for."
Some analysts say that the incident, coupled with other recent RNC missteps, could hurt the RNC's fundraising.
"It's seen as a reflection of an organization that's not being run well," Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and a former Republican political operative, told Hotsheet.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the RNC will soon have to compete for donations with a new group called American Crossroads, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The group aims to raise $52 million from wealthy Republicans and corporations for an independent campaign to help GOP candidates this November. The organization is spearheaded by former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan and former RNC co-chair Joanne Davidson, while former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie and former White House adviser Karl Rove are serving as informal advisers.
Psychic May Face Beheading in Saudi Arabia: (CBS) Lebanese TV Psychic Could Be Beheaded for Witchcraft if Saudi Leaders Don't Intervene, Lawyer Says. The lawyer of a Lebanese TV psychic who was convicted in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft said Thursday her client could be beheaded this week and urged Lebanese and Saudi leaders to help spare his life.
Attorney May al-Khansa said she learned from a judicial source that Ali Sibat is to be beheaded on Friday. She added that she does not have any official confirmation of this. Saudi judicial officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
A Lebanese official said Beirut has received no word from its embassy in Riyadh about Sibat's possible execution. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Saudi justice system, which is based on Islamic law, does not clearly define the charge of witchcraft.
Sibat is one of scores of people reported arrested every year in the kingdom for practicing sorcery, witchcraft, black magic and fortunetelling. These practices are considered polytheism by the government in Saudi Arabia, a deeply religious Muslim country.
Later Thursday, a dozen people demonstrated near the Saudi embassy in Beirut's western neighborhood of Qureitim. Four of the men wore masks to look like executioners and carried a wooden gallows with a cloth bag hanging from it.
One of the men carried a small banner that read in Arabic: "Don't kill."
Al-Khansa said she has called upon Saudi King Abdullah to pardon Sibat, a 49-year-old father of five. She also says she is in contact with Lebanese officials about the case.
She added that Sibat did not make predictions in Saudi Arabia and was neither a Saudi citizen nor a resident in Saudi and therefore should have been deported rather than tried there...
Pentagon Throwing Money at Unlikely Allies: (CBS) $50 Million Allotted to Georgia, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for Help in Afghanistan. The Pentagon is pouring millions of dollars into equipment and training for its smaller partner nations in the Afghanistan war, a new effort that could encourage some countries not to abandon the increasingly unpopular conflict.
The money comes from a $350 million Pentagon program designed to improve the counterterrorism operations of U.S. allies.
While the funding cannot be openly used as an enticement for NATO nations to either send troops to Afghanistan or keep them in the country, the budding initiative sends the message that those who commit to the counterinsurgency fight could be rewarded.
The U.S. is committing more troops to Afghanistan to beat back a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency - and watching in dismay as allies, including Canada and the Netherlands, look to pull troops out of the 8-year-old war or remove them from combat duties.
Roughly 87,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan now, and about 100,000 are expected to be in place by late summer...
Defense officials tell The Associated Press that the initial aid package aimed at six small countries - Georgia, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - is about $50 million and will be distributed almost equally among them...
Those six countries account for fewer than 1,300 troops in Afghanistan. Most of the money will buy equipment for those forces, the defense officials said, but troops will also receive critical instruction on how to detect and counter roadside bombs as well as other training.
"It's not bribery," said Rick Nelson, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "But at end of the day, we're asking these allies to join us and we want them to be valuable partners. And some lack the resources to be partners in ways we need them to do so..."
U.S. Sees Talks with Syria as a Priority: (CBS) Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Thursday met with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) who is seeking to thrust Damascus's support in Middle East peace efforts in yet another sign Washington is determined to engage a country it long treated as a rough state.
Washington's ties with Damascus have been strained by Syria's three-decade alliance with Iran and U.S. allegations of meddling in the affairs of its eastern neighbor, Iraq.
Syrian support for Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, have also proved a stumbling block.
President Obama this year appointed a new ambassador to Damascus, ending a five-year hiatus. Washington recalled its ambassador in 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. The killing was widely blamed on Syria, which has roundly denied any involvement.
"Let me just say that I am convinced, and it's why I come back here, and it's why I am engaged in this effort. I am absolutely convinced that carefully calibrated diplomacy, that if that is what we engage in, that Syria will play a very important role in achieving a comprehensive peace in the region and in putting an end to the five decades of conflict that have plagued everybody in this region," Kerry told reporters after a three-hour meeting with Assad.
"That's our hope, that's our challenge, and we're committed to continue to work at it," said Kerry, who arrived earlier Wednesday from Lebanon for a two-day visit.
Kerry's visit is the latest by several American officials. He separate talks later in the day with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Moualem. Syria is a key to the Middle East conflict because Damascus hosts the leaders of Hamas and supports Hezbollah, an anti-Israeli Shiite group. Also, Syria and Israel have been embroiled in a dispute over Shebaa Farms, a tiny, well-watered slice of land that Syria and Lebanon say is Lebanese territory that is occupied by Israel.
"Assad renewed Syria's stance for achieving just and comprehensive peace and underlined the importance of the U.S. role in support of the Turkish role in the peace process," a Presidential spokesman said, adding that the Syrian leader warned against Israel's "grave practices in the occupied Palestinian territories and from the dangers of the Jewish State's rejection of peace requirements."
A summit of Arab leaders over the weekend ruled out renewed Palestinian-Israeli peace talks unless Israel halts all settlement building, particularly in annexed Arab East Jerusalem. The U.S. has been exerting efforts and had offered a plan to launch four-month proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians. However, these efforts failed amid Israel's insistence to continue with settlement construction.
"Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region. Both the United States and Syria have a very deep interest, a mutual interest in having a very frank exchange on any differences that may exist, but also on the many, many agreements that we have about the possibilities of peace in this region," said Kerry, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He suggested that Washington's decision to send an ambassador to Damascus was evidence that engagement with Syria was a U.S. priority at the highest levels.
Obama on "Troublesome" Talk Radio
Harry Smith asks President Barack Obama about whether he is aware of the amount of anger directed at him over the air waves.
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