Associated Press article in the New York Times

John McCain offered to hand out a few New York slices as he visited a fire station on a light day of campaigning Thursday.

”Can I distribute?” the expected Republican presidential nominee asked the firefighter holding a stack of pizza boxes at the midtown Manhattan station.

McCain also paused in front of a memorial to firefighters who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (more…)

Charles Hurt, New York Post

First it was Bill Clinton dismissing Barack Obama as just another black candidate winning South Carolina. Now comes Hillary Rodham Clinton, splashing moonshine onto those smoldering embers by telling West Virginia voters that “hardworking Americans, white Americans” support her, not Obama.

This, she argues, is why superdelegates should strip the nomination from Obama and give it to her, even though she trails him by every legitimate measure.

Is this really how Democratic Party bosses talk in smoky back rooms? (more…)

Jay Gallagher, Gannett News Service in the Elmira Star Gazette

The Senate Wednesday voted to suspend the 32-cents-per-gallon state tax on gasoline from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But the plan has almost no chance of becoming law because it is opposed by the Speaker of the Assembly.

“We don’t have the power to control most aspects of the price of gasoline,” said state Sen. George H. Winner Jr., R-Elmira. “But we do control the tax.’”

“Everyone understands the need for a fundamental, long-term, nationally directed effort to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil,” Winner said in a news release. “But we can’t ignore the hardship of today’s gas prices on many families, and we can’t ignore the threat to local summer tourism.” (more…)

Jay Gallagher, Gannett News Service in the Poughkeepsie Journal

Senate GOP wants spending curbs and sunshine
Senate Republicans Wednesday called for a cap on state spending and more disclosure about how state agencies spend taxpayer dollars.

With the state facing potential budget gaps of billions of dollars over the next few years, the Republicans said capping spending growth at 4 percent, or 120 percent of the inflation rate, whichever is less, would help to bring revenues in line with spending. And providing more information about how the money is spent would also provide a significant control on spending growth, they said.

“With millions of middle-class families tightening their belts to overcome tough economic times, taxpayers have every right to demand that their government operates as openly and efficiently as possible,” said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County. (more…)

BOB CONNER, Schenectady Daily Gazette

Assembly Republicans proposed $2.6 billion in annual tax relief Monday on New York’s “Tax Freedom Day,” meaning the date when the average person has earned enough to pay his taxes for the year.

The Republican plan is a repackaging of previously introduced legislation. It calls for a 4 percent cap on school property tax increases, a state takeover of local Medicaid costs, a “summertime holiday” from gas taxes, and expanded incometax credits for child care and dependents, along with a new $1,000 personal exemption. (more…)

Associated Press Article in the New York Times

Republican John McCain on Monday dismissed Democratic rival Barack Obama as having zero national security experience.Arriving in North Carolina on the eve of the presidential primary, McCain said there are stark differences between him and the two Democratic candidates, Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. But he concentrated on Obama in particular. (more…)

New York Post Editorial

There was a significant political devel opment out of Albany late last month: A county Democratic Committee screening panel declined to endorse District Attorney David Soares for re-election to a second four-year term. For a county committee to reject its own party’s incumbent is quite unusual.

Which means that even if his financial patron, hard-left hedge-fund gazillionaire George Soros, injects his influence into the race as he did in 2004, Soares should have a real fight on his hands. (more…)

New York Sun Editorial

If Senator Obama’s presidential campaign collapses, it will be not only because of his shifting explanations in respect of his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whom he first said he couldn’t disown and then did. It will be not only because of his determination to run to the left of Senator Clinton on the tax issue, promising to raise the payroll tax and at the same time dismissing the idea of a summer suspension of the 18.4 cent a gallon federal gas tax. No, a large part of the explanation will be his decision to run to the left of Senator Clinton on the matter of an American response to Iran. (more…)

Mondello Statement

Today’s Siena Research Institute poll, which found that seventy percent of people identify gas prices as one of their top concerns and nearly three-quarters of New Yorkers support gas tax relief, underscores the magnitude of the problem and need for immediate action.Republicans from Senator McCain at the federal level to Senate Majority Leader Bruno, Assembly Republican Leader Tedisco and their Republican conferences at the state level have advanced commonsense proposals to provide relief from soaring gas prices for hard working, overburdened New York families and businesses. Additionally, the State Republican Party has created an online petition at www.nygop.org to give people an opportunity to voice their opposition to gas taxes. (more…)

Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal

It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton.

As we ate near the Days’ home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. (more…)