Small Signs of Progress Show in Student Loan Impasse

John McCain: Leak Investigation Should Follow Evidence

Jun 082012

ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/GettyImages(WASHINGTON) — While Sen. John McCain Friday ratcheted up his call for a special prosecutor to investigate leaks of classified intelligence, McCain’s office said the investigation should follow the evidence wherever it goes — even if it leads to Congress.

“The investigation should go where the evidence takes it — be that the White House, administration or Congress,” a McCain aide told ABC News.

Republicans have accused the White House of leaking the information purposefully in an effort to make the president look good, but White House officials would not be the only ones with access to the kind of classified information that was leaked to The New York Times and other media outlets over the last two months. Some members of Congress and a small group of senior Congressional staff would likely have access to the information as well.

The president Friday condemned the leaks and called the suggestion that the White House was behind them “offensive” — a statement McCain said was not satisfactory.

“What the president did not unequivocally say today is that none of the classified or highly sensitive information recently leaked to the media came from the White House,” McCain said in a written statement Friday. “I continue to call on the president to immediately appoint a special counsel to fully investigate and, where necessary, prosecute these gravely serious breaches of our national security.”

McCain’s statement pointed out that the articles in question — including recent New York Times stories on a covert U.S. cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear program and the “kill list” of terrorists to be targeted by drone strikes — cited administration sources.

“The journalists themselves identify some of the sources for their articles as ‘administration officials,’ ‘aides’ to the president,’ ‘members of the president’s national security team who were in the [White House Situation Room]‘ during key discussions, an official ‘who requested anonymity to speak about what is still a classified program,’ and ‘current … American officials’,” McCain said.

Obama Meets Girl Scouts at the White House

Jun 082012

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) — After spending most of the day slamming Congress for not acting on his proposals to boost the economy, President Obama took some time to meet with some exceptional Girl Scouts in the Oval Office.

The president met with eight recipients of the Girl Scouts’ highest achievement, the Gold Award, comparable to the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Scout designation.

“Our Girl Scout Gold Award recipients who met the president today are the embodiment of girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place,” Girl Scouts CEO Anna Maria Chávez said in a statement. “It’s critical we continue to inform our national leaders on the urgent needs of all girls across the country and stress that together, we can achieve balanced leadership within a generation.”

In addition to the meeting with the president, the Girl Scouts also met with senior staff at the White House to discuss their Gold Award projects.

Backed By Obama, Pride Month Takes Off

Jun 082012

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — It’s a rite of June that has been going on for years. In cities across the country, including Washington, rainbow flags wave beneath the summer sun as the LGBT community celebrates “Pride Month.”

Friday night, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray held a reception and panel discussion on the LGBT Alliance in politics. At the reception, transgendered, gay and lesbian members and advocates acknowledged each other with the warm greeting of “Happy Pride!” Mayor Gray hosted a live interview followed by a panel discussion with local politicians. The audience was in good spirits as the panel vocally supported LGBT causes. And this year, LGBT advocates have something more to celebrate.

In May, President Obama told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview that he thinks “same sex couples should be able to get married,” a comment that made Obama the first sitting president to voice support for same sex marriage. The president’s support has lit a flame under the members of the LGBT community during the 2012 Pride Parades giving the phrase “Happy Pride” a new meaning.

Talking to ABC News before taking part in the panel Thursday evening, Mayor Gray said “people are exhilarated by what Obama has come out and done but there does not seem to be a fundamental change in Pride week simply because of Obama’s remarks.” He affirmed that Washington has always shared this sense of pride for the LGBT community.

Advocates feel empowered by the political progress made in the past few years. Bonnie Cullison, a gay member of the Maryland House of Delegates, said that she has “certainly noticed a change for the better since Obama had vocalized support of same sex marriage.”

She believes that gay marriage was a “wedge” issue in the 2008 presidential campaign and that it was very meaningful for the Obama administration to jump on board with same sex advocacy. Cullison believes that the Obama administration has brought same-sex marriage to the forefront of public discourse, enabling politicians and citizens alike to engage in the conversation.

Members of the LGBT community in “gay-friendly” Washington have rallied in support of Pride Week for a long time now, but what about American cities that aren’t so accepting?

Salt Lake City, Utah held its Pride Parade earlier this week with the largest Mormon turnout seen in the city’s history, organizers said. The outburst of support and participation in Salt Lake City was an “outlet for individuals to declare that Mitt Romney’s views of gay marriage do not speak for the whole Mormon population,” according to Sarah McBride, a young transgendered LGBT advocate who attended the LGBT Alliance event on Thursday night.

“I hope that the turnout in Salt Lake City this week was a result of people acting out against the policies of Mitt Romney and his administration,” Mayor Gray told ABC News. “Supporting same-sex marriage is the right thing to do. It is welcomed in Washington, D.C. and should be picked up in other states as well.”

Obama: Leak Accusations ‘Wrong’ and ‘Offensive’

Jun 082012

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GettyImages(WASHINGTON) — President Obama on Friday adamantly denied accusations that his administration intentionally leaked classified national security information to boost his re-election campaign.

“The notion that my White House would purposefully release classified national security information is offensive. It’s wrong,” the president told reporters at the White House. “People, I think, need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how the people around me here approach this office.”

“We’re dealing with issues that can touch on the safety and the security of the American people, our families, or our military personnel or our allies,” he added. “We don’t play with that, and it is a source of consistent frustration, not just for my administration, but for previous administrations when this stuff happens. And we will continue to let everybody know, in government or after they leave government, that they have certain obligations that they should carry out.”

The president stressed that his administration has “zero tolerance for these kinds of leaks and speculation” and vowed to investigate.

“We have mechanisms in place where, if we can root out folks who have leaked, they will suffer consequences,” he said. “We will conduct thorough investigations as we have in the past.”

Outraged lawmakers sounded alarms after classified information about U.S. cyber attacks on Iran and a secret terrorist “kill list” leaked to the media. Democratic and Republican leaders of Congressional intelligence committees have since condemned the leaks.

One of the most vocal critics, Republican Sen. John McCain, has called for a special prosecutor to investigate the leaks, which he says were a strategic attempt to boost the president’s standing on national security issues ahead of November’s election.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has called McCain’s accusations “grossly irresponsible.”

Small Signs of Progress Show in Student Loan Impasse

Jun 072012

Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Is progress being made in the student loan impasse? Perhaps a little.

Late Thursday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., counter-offered two proposals of his own to pay for the one-year extension of student loans rates to prevent them from doubling on July 1.

And in a sign of tiny steps of progress, the letter was initially well-received by Republican leadership.

Reid proposes a combination of two ideas to pay for the extension, changing and allowing more flexibility to employers pension insurance premiums, which would garner about $9.5 billion, and changing contributions to Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation premiums, which would raise about $8 billion.

“The combination of these two proposals will provide sufficient resources to fund both a one-year extension of the current student loan interest rate and reauthorization of the nation’s surface transportation programs,” Reid writes in a letter sent to House Republican leaders Thursday. “My preference would be to use the funds raised by these two proposals to pay for both measures, and pass them immediately — since, as you know, both are critical to the economic security of middle class families, and both must be addressed before the end of June.”

Republican aides say they are still waiting for a response from the White House on their own proposals, sent last week, but received Reid’s proposals Thursday positively, indicating that they believe they “may be making progress.”

“We are encouraged to see the majority leader drop his insistence on taxing job creators,” Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said Thursday. “We will review these new proposals and hope that they will finally review the bipartisan proposals we sent a week ago. But bottom line, now that Democrats are willing to take this issue seriously, and not just use students as props, we may be making progress.”

Both Republicans and Democrats believe the subsidized Stafford loan rates should not be doubled this July from the current 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent and agree the current rates should be extended for at least another year. But both sides thus far have not agreed on how to pay for the $6 billion bill.

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