| | December 08, 2011 | | SPURNED According to polls out on Wednesday, Newt Gingrich has opened a big lead in three of the first four voting states—but there’s one vote he won’t be getting: his sister’s. Candace Gingrich-Jones, Newt’s lesbian half-sister, will be voting for Obama, she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Gingrich-Jones said she’s particularly troubled by the GOP’s opposition to gay rights, and while she and Newt are “mutually respectful,” she believes “he is definitely on the wrong side of history when it comes to those issues.” Plus, The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift goes into the White House’s anti-Gingrich playbook. RUSSIA Hillary Clinton may want to dig out that “reset” button again: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused her of fomenting Russia’s recent unrest, saying she "set the tone for some opposition activists” and “gave a signal." “They heard this signal and with the support of the U.S. State Department began their active work," he continued. Election monitors have said there were severe problems with the recent Russian elections, in which Putin's party barely clung to a majority. Hundreds of protesters have been arrested since Sunday. ON THE HILL Jon Corzine won’t be taking questions, apparently. The ex–MF Global chief and former New Jersey governor will plead the Fifth and refuse to answer most questions when he heads to Congress Thursday, according to the New York Post. Corzine is set to appear before the House Agriculture Committee, which is probing MF Global’s missing $1.2 billion in customer money. One source says that while Corzine may provide a limited statement, he is not expected to say “anything of substance.” WRONGDOING Last month it was revealed that the Air Force dumped incinerated remains of American troops in a Virginia landfill, but the military downplayed just how much had been dumped. Records now show that the partial remains of at least 274 American troops were dropped in that landfill, much more than originally acknowledged. The military has put an end to using the landfill for disposing of troop remains, a practice that was never formally authorized or disclosed to senior Pentagon officials. In order to determine exactly how many soldiers’ ashes were sent to the landfill, the records of every service member to have gone through the mortuary since 2001—more than 6,300—would have to be searched. SENATE RACE Elizabeth Warren leads Senator Scott Brown by seven points in a new University of Massachusetts at Lowell/Boston Herald poll. At 49-42, it’s her largest lead yet in the race. (The tally includes voters “leaning” toward each candidate; if you discount them, Warren leads 46 to 41.) The last UMass/Boston Herald poll in September showed Brown leading 41 to 38. | |
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