Chancellor Forever was created in coordination with the Deutsches Institut für Public Affairs.

WHAT'S NEW IN POLITICS

"Stimulus serves up Obama pork" - Politico.com

It became a sort of poster child for fiscal responsibility — a clean-coal power plant in Illinois that was one of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s pet projects.

Democrats insisted they were so serious about keeping pork out of the stimulus bill that it was President Obama himself who blocked the FutureGen project from the massive spending package.

[...] “The speaker said it, and the president said it: There will not be earmarks in this bill.” Earmarks? Perhaps not. But funding for FutureGen? Absolutely, to the tune of $1 billion.

The Department of Energy on Friday announced that the FutureGen project is on track after all, committing federal stimulus money to advance the project to its next stage. One reason: It was the only shovel-ready project that fits the requirements of the stimulus bill.

"Jim DeMint backs Marco Rubio in Florida governor race" - Politico.com

Conservative Sen. Jim DeMint’s backing of Marco Rubio in the Florida Senate race is the latest salvo in an internal Republican struggle over who will lead the way in salvaging the GOP’s damaged brand.

On Tuesday, the South Carolina Republican will endorse Rubio, a 38-year-old former state House speaker, bucking the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s endorsement of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a moderate who has periodically found himself at odds with right-wing elements of his party. National Republicans argue that the popular Crist is best positioned to ensure the critical seat stays in GOP hands at a time when Democrats have a stranglehold on power in Washington.

[...] DeMint has a significant grass-roots conservative following, and the fight speaks to the larger struggle over the GOP’s tent[.]

"Sonia Sotomayor defends all-women's group" - Politico.com

Sonia Sotomayor on Monday defended her membership in an elite women’s only group, arguing that it’s not discriminatory because men might be able to join the Belizean Grove, too, if they applied.

[...] Regarding the Belizean Grove, Sotomayor wrote that it was her “understanding that all interested individuals are duly considered by the membership committee.” She described the group as “a private organization of female professionals from the profit, nonprofit, and social sectors” and asserting, “The organization does not invidiously discriminate on the basis of sex.”

The point is an important one, because The American Bar Association’s judicial codes state that it is inappropriate for judges to belong to groups that “invidiously” discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin.