AP News, March 19th, 2007
In a March 16 story about presidential candidate Christopher Dodd discussing subprime lending, The Associated Press misidentified the company that has said it would no longer buy subprime mortgages highly vulnerable to foreclosure. It is Freddie Mac, not Fannie Mae.
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CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) _ Republican presidential contender John McCain on Friday used the term "tar baby," considered by some a racial epithet, and later said he regretted it.
Answering questions at a town hall meeting, the Arizona senator was discussing federal involvement in custody cases when he said, "For me to stand here and ... say I'm going to declare divorces invalid because of someone who feels they weren't treated fairly in court, we are getting into a tar baby of enormous proportions and I don't know how you get out of that."
After the event, McCain told reporters: "I don't think I should have used that word and I was wrong to do so."
The senator said he hoped it wouldn't be viewed as a racial remark. He argued that he was trying to say that it wouldn't make sense for him to have a role in something left to the courts.
Last summer, a top McCain rival, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, apologized for referring to the troubled Big Dig construction project in Boston as a "tar baby" during a fundraiser in Ames, Iowa.
The term dates to the 19th century Uncle Remus stories, referring to a doll made of tar that traps Br'er Rabbit. It has become known as a way of describing a sticky mess and has been used as a derogatory term for a black person.
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ The Arkansas Ethics Commission unanimously dismissed a complaint Friday over Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's destruction of computer hard drives as he left the governor's office this year.
The commission voted 4-0 to dismiss the complaint filed by Jim Parsons, said Graham Sloan, the commission's executive director.
In his complaint, Parsons claimed the former governor violated a state law requiring the retention of financial records for ballot initiatives for four years.
Parsons claimed Huckabee may have destroyed records for a 2005 highway bond proposal that was rejected by voters. Huckabee had pushed for the bond plan.
Last month, the commission dismissed another complaint filed by Parsons against Huckabee. Parsons had argued that Huckabee violated the state Freedom of Information Act by crushing the hard drives before he left office in January.
Huckabee, who has formed an exploratory committee to run for president, has defended the destruction of the drives and said it was done to protect sensitive information, such as employees' or constituents' Social Security numbers and credit card information.
The former governor spent the remaining $13,000 in the governor's emergency fund to destroy the computer equipment before he left office Jan. 9.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The throng of states maneuvering to hold presidential primaries on Feb. 5 highlights the importance of early season contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, where voters have a chance to "know the heart" of candidates, Republican contender Mitt Romney said Friday.
"The preservation of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina being first in the nation is ... a good thing," the former Massachusetts governor said during a fundraising swing in California. Because of their relatively small size, residents in those kickoff states are able to "really get to know the heart of the candidate, to spend time with them one on one in very small group settings."
"That kind of close scrutiny really does serve the nation," Romney said.
On Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation moving California's presidential primary to Feb. 5, a day that could become the de facto national primary, with more than 20 states angling to hold contests that day.
Other states with Feb. 5 primaries are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho (Democrats only), Missouri and Utah. New Mexico Democrats have set their presidential caucus for Feb. 5, and the West Virginia GOP plans to hold its state convention to select presidential candidates on that date. Fifteen other states are considering that day for their primaries.
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CHICAGO (AP) _ Federal regulations governing money lenders who provide mortgages and other credit to high-risk borrowers will be scrutinized during a Senate hearing next week, Sen. Christopher Dodd said Friday.
The Democratic presidential hopeful from Connecticut said he is concerned about an increasing number of home foreclosures in the U.S. Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the panel will hold a hearing Thursday to try to find a solution.
"The primary group I want to hear from are the federal regulators who have responsibility and jurisdiction over these issues," Dodd said during a campaign stop in Chicago. "I want to keep people in their homes, but I don't know how to do that yet."
Lenders specializing in high-interest mortgages to people with bad credit have tightened their policies as their own financing has dried up and defaults have increased.
New Century Financial Corp. is facing possible bankruptcy, and Freddie Mac, one of the nation's largest providers of home mortgages, has said it no longer will buy subprime mortgages that may be highly vulnerable to foreclosure.
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PEORIA, Ill. (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback said Friday that Iraq should be divided into three sectarian-based states to halt the war and mounting death toll of American soldiers.
The Kansas senator said Iraq would remain one country, with a weak central government in Baghdad, but Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites would have their own states and equally share the nation's oil revenues.
"I believe this is ultimately the shape the place will take," Brownback told reporters before speaking at the annual Peoria GOP Lincoln Dinner. "We are not going to, over a long period of time, impose a military solution. It needs a political solution."
Brownback, a favorite of the religious right who billed himself a "bleeding-heart conservative," also promoted family values, health care and alternative energy sources such as ethanol and biodiesel during his stop in central Illinois.
He said he still is working to build name recognition in his long-shot bid for the 2008 Republican nomination. But he noted that other little-known candidates have risen out of the pack in past elections, including former Presidents Clinton and Carter.
"I'm the tortoise in the race and I don't like how that race starts but I like how it finishes," Brownback said.
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Associated Press writers Kathy Barks Hoffman in Sterling Heights, Mich., Jon Gambrell in Little Rock, Ark., Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles, Nathaniel Hernandez in Chicago and Jan Dennis in Peoria, Ill., contributed to this report.
