Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough

Weekly Washington Wrap

• Washington’s attention to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill this week eclipsed all other news and events as top oil company officials were grilled by the House Energy & Commerce Committee and BP executives faced the additional scrutiny of a face-to-face meeting with President Obama on the day after the president’s primetime Oval Office speech on the subject.  It is too soon to tell whether President Obama’s strategy of using the oil spill crisis to push for climate change legislation will result in legislative action.  At this time, a number of high-profile Democrat leaders have told various press outlets that a climate change bill "lacks momentum" and stands a better chance of passing after November's midterm elections.
• The movement in Washington for higher oil taxes and oil spill liability limits, as well as demands that BP compensate Gulf Coast businesses, contrasted sharply with a call for lower spending in a tax bill that the Senate must pass by tomorrow.  This bill would prevent a 21 percent payment cut for physicians who treat Medicare patients.  Congress appears increasingly wary of any legislation that will raise the deficit because of voter anger over government spending.

 

Speakers Seize the South

Long before Ambassador David Wilkins was representing the US in Canada, he was running the South Carolina House of Representatives.  In fact, when he accepted the post in Canada and resigned from the SC House in 2005, he was among one of the longest-serving speakers of the House in the US. 

During his 11 years of service as speaker, Wilkins also chaired the National Speakers' Conference (NSC), which brings together House speakers from across the country to discuss current affairs and share best practices.  Wilkins remains a member of the board of the NSC, which is why he and Susan Wilkins are in Annapolis, Maryland, right now – attending the 2010 meeting with House leaders from all over the US. 

This promises to be a very engaging meeting, with speakers tackling the ongoing economic crisis as well as education issues.  They'll also discuss more effective communicating techniques.

Besides the speakers themselves, there will be a number of US heavy-hitters attending NSC and addressing the group, including Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian David McCullough, and political analyst and pollster extraordinaire Charlie Cook. 

Cook, who is editor of The Cook Report, is calling his talk, "Elections 2010 and the Voters: Who is Going to Pay?"

Which we think is a perfect lead-in to this: 

Women Weigh In!

Depending on whom you get your news from, last week's primary elections across the US offered a mixed preview of the upcoming November elections.  It is generally agreed that this is an anti-incumbent year, but some big races around the country still favor current officeholders. 

But one point in which the pundits seem to agree is that conservative women are making their mark on the Republican Party.  From California to our own South Carolina, Republican women are not only stepping up to the plate, but hitting it out of the park. 

The Globe and Mail's Washington correspondent, Konrad Yakabuski, covered this angle in his article, "Meet the new face of Republican power: female, high-powered and growing in strength."

In his reporting, Yakabuski turned to Ambassador Wilkins for his take on the rise of his former SC House of Representatives colleague Nikki Haley, who, if she wins the race, would be South Carolina's first female governor.

More from the Globe and Mail article: 

 …From Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman in California, to Susana Martinez in New Mexico and Sharron Angle in Nevada, the past week of primaries has left the GOP with an embarrassment of high-profile, high-powered female candidates to help counter its long-standing gender deficit…

Ms. Haley, an elegant and energetic 38-year-old Indian-American member of the South Carolina state house, has GOP operatives giddy at the prospect…

"She is very articulate, has a lot of charisma, and has caught fire in South Carolina in the last month,” former U.S. ambassador to Canada and ex-speaker of the state’s House of Representatives, David Wilkins, offered in an interview. “From the beginning of her service in 2005, she was an up-and-comer in the House, and you could tell she was someone who was ambitious and conservative and had a real opportunity to go places.”…

"Running candidates like Nikki Haley, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina is a good start,” noted Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University in Washington. “But it does not obscure the fact that the overwhelming majority of women candidates who are running this fall are Democrats.”

So are 69 of the 90 current female members of Congress.

For this week, however, GOP stands for Girls Obtaining Power.

Big Bats

Since Cal Ripkin, Jr., made our newsletter and we discussed the conservative women who are "stepping up to the plate" this election year, it would be a grave oversight to fail to mention South Carolina's big bats.

Both the baseball teams at the University of South Carolina and Ambassador Wilkins' beloved Clemson University have earned coveted spots in this year's College World Series, played annually in Omaha, Nebraska. 

The South Carolina contingency are two of the eight teams total from around the US who'll be squaring off next week for the ultimate bragging rights in collegiate baseball. 

Of course, we wish both Palmetto States teams great success (but we don't have to tell you who Wilkins favors…)