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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Glen Stubbe. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about President Obama

Obama nominates Humphrey School dean to commission on religious freedom

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: April 12, 2013 - 5:04 PM

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President Obama has announced that he will nominate Humphrey School of Public Affairs Dean Eric Schwartz to serve on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
 
The nomination, which is expected to be formalized in the coming weeks, will add Schwartz to the nine-member board that oversees an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad.
 
“President Obama’s nomination recognizes Dean Schwartz’s remarkable contributions to critical issues of human rights and peace keeping,” said University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler. “This honor also speaks to the core mission and values of the University of Minnesota and the Humphrey School, and that is a commitment to develop and educate the next generation of global leaders.”
 
Prior to his arrival in Minnesota, Schwartz spent 25 years in senior positions at the State Department, the National Security Council, the United Nations, the U.S. Congress, and in the NGO community. From 2009 to 2011, he served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, having been named to the post by President Obama. Working with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he served as the Department of State’s principal humanitarian official.
 
The commission reviews alleged violations of religious freedom and makes policy recommendations to U.S. policy makers. Commissioners are appointed by the White House and the congressional leadership of both political parties.

Peterson, Moore and Whalen to participate in White House Easter Egg Roll

Posted by: Corey Mitchell Updated: April 1, 2013 - 5:38 AM

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Minnesota Viking running back Adrian Peterson and Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen of the Minnesota Lynx will participate in the White House Easter Egg Roll today.

Along with representatives of the President's Council on Fitness, Peterson, Moore, Whalen and a host of other professional athletes will teach kids how to play sports and stay active and fit in the "Eggtivity Zone."

Peterson will also read to children on the Storytime Stage.

The event will be broadcast live on www.whitehouse.gov/eastereggroll.
 

FAA tower closings bring sequester home for Bachmann

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: March 22, 2013 - 5:25 PM

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It’s a turn of events that could be the beginning for a good conspiracy theory:
 
As expected, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced the early April closure of control towers at 149 smaller airports across the U.S., part of the Obama administration’s response to the federal budget cuts mandated under the so-called sequestration program.
 
Two of the affected towers are in Minnesota: Anoka County-Blaine Airport and St. Cloud Regional Airport. Both are in the congressional district of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who just last week was complaining about President Obama’s high-flying lifestyle in the White House.
 
Just a coincidence?
 
The Minnesota Republican said nothing about that, but she did release a statement decrying the sequester and the tower closings, which she said are occurring despite her efforts to work with the FAA:

 

"I am deeply disappointed with the FAA’s decision to close the air traffic control towers at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport and St. Cloud Regional Airport. Throughout this decision-making process, I have been in touch with FAA and DOT officials urging them to focus first on eliminating waste and trimming non-essential items in the FAA’s budget before they even consider shutting down essential safety operations. Today’s decision shows a troubling lack of priorities—closing control towers should be a last, not a first, resort."
 
She added: "While I certainly agree we need to balance our budget, it must be done in a responsible way that sets priorities, not in an arbitrary way."
 

 

 

Bachmann CPAC claims leave trail of questions

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: March 20, 2013 - 5:24 PM

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Michele Bachmann’s early Saturday morning speaking slot at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside Washington, D.C., did not mean the Minnesota Republican would go unnoticed.
 
By Tuesday morning, the Washington Post had run two Fact Checker columns granting her a total of eight “Pinocchios” – four for her claim that 70 percent of food stamp money goes to “bureaucrats,” and four more for her claim that President Obama’s White House has a $1.4 billion a year budget full of “perks and excess.”
 
Then, on Wednesday, CNN was still running footage of Bachmann’s run-in with correspondent Dana Bash (well, the interview was conducted at a brisk walk as Bash chased Bachmann down a hall). So much for a new low-profile.
 
On Tuesday, the encounter had become a long episode on Anderson Cooper 360’s Keeping Them Honest feature, complete with video of Bash trying to get Bachmann to explain her assertions about chefs on Air Force One, a pair of First Family movie projectionists, and a taxpayer-funded walker for the First Dog.
 
All of these, apparently, are standard operating procedure, no matter who occupies the White House. (One study found that the Bush administration spent more, and the dog walker is the White House gardener, who has walked dogs for past administrations as well).
 
The issues of White House perks and wasteful spending were part of Bachmann’s longer reprise of GOP criticism of Obama’s handling of the Benghazi attacks in September that left four Americans dead. Obama was “AWOL” during the incident, Bachmann charged.
 
Benghazi has become a pretty well-worn line of attack since the presidential election. Bash apparently wanted to ask Bachmann about her sensational new allegations about the president.
 
“The big point of the speech was about Benghazi,” a visibly annoyed Bachmann told the reporter, who was visibly struggling to match Bachmann’s rapid pace. “You want to talk about dog handlers?”
 
Bash, taken aback, protested, “But congresswoman, you’re the one who brought it up…”
 
By then Bachmann was headed off camera, but not out or range of more media buzz and controversy.
 

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Perez nomination for Labor puts St. Paul in the spotlight

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: March 18, 2013 - 3:54 PM

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Top Perez

Top Perez

President Obama’s nomination of Tom Perez as the next U.S. Labor Secretary has put a national spotlight on a generally low-profile Washington job --  and on a cluster of relatively obscure civil rights cases involving the city of St. Paul.
 
Conservatives in Congress have accused Perez, currently the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Justice Department, of having bargained away a case accusing the city of improperly using federal housing funds in exchange for the city’s decision to drop a housing discrimination case that could theoretically have wreaked havoc with federal civil rights law.
 
St. Paul city officials say the cases against the city are baseless.
 
But conservative legal scholars had long questioned the city’s motives in backing away from a Supreme Court showdown last year in the case of Magner v. Gallagher, a long-shot challenge to the city’s housing codes by landlords in low-income neighborhoods. The landlords argued that strict housing code enforcement disproportionately decreased housing for minorities; The city took the line that federal fair housing law violations require intentional discrimination. That’s a position which, had it prevailed before the high court, might well have undermined a “disparate impact” standard in civil rights law, particularly in the area of lending discrimination.
 
St. Paul’s decision reportedly came at the behest of former Vice President Walter Mondale and other civil rights heavy-hitters. But GOP congressional investigators have suggested that the deal was brokered by Perez, overruling career Justice Department lawyers, in exchange for not joining a pair of lawsuits questioning whether St. Paul and other local jurisdictions had improperly used federal housing and jobs dollars.
 
The controversy also has been used by congressional Republicans opposing the nomination of the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, B. Todd Jones, as permanent director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
 
Chief among those raising the heat on Perez and Jones is Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which includes Minnesota Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken.
 
“It appears that Mr. Perez may be at the heart of a decision by the Justice Department to make a quid pro quo deal with the city of St. Paul… that ultimately led to the American taxpayer potentially losing hundreds of millions of dollars by declining to intervene in a False Claims Act,” Grassley said Monday. “I’m looking forward to hearing his testimony, because there are a lot of tough questions he should answer for the American people, including those regarding St. Paul.”

Franken put out a statement later in the day praising Perez: "He’s fought to make sure that everyone—including people with disabilities, immigrants, and those in the LGBT community—can work in a safe and fair environment."

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