Daily Catch: Clinton, Welfare, IRS Scandal, Immigration Crisis, and more…

Not Ready: Potential Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s book, Hard Choices, appears to be a bomb. Although the former First Lady and U.S. Senator was paid $14 million by mega-publisher Simon & Schuster, sources tell the Weekly Standard that the book “will be lucky to sell 150,000 total lifetime.” In related news, young liberals waiting in line to buy a copy of Clinton’s book struggled mightily to identify her major accomplishments. Also this week: the Washington Free Beacon uncovered audio recordings of Clinton from the early 1980s in which the former prosecutor speaks glibly about how she used a legal technicality to get a reduced sentence for a man accused on raping a 12-year-old girl. All in all, not a great week for the woman who wants to become the next president.
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Prosecute, Don’t Politicize: Following The Maine Wire’s exclusive report on Attorney General Janet Mills’ decision to withhold information about welfare fraud from Maine’s media, sources say the AG’s office has stopped attending joint meetings with the Department of Health and Human Services. In a story published last week, The Maine Wire showed how Mills’ has failed to publicize welfare fraud indictments and convictions — a deliberate attempt to influence the 2014 governors race that also undermines the deterrent effect of the state’s anti-fraud efforts. Moreover, the story also revealed that Mills attempted to block the LePage administration’s decision not to reimburse municipalities for General Assistance welfare payments made to undocumented immigrants — despite the fact that her Assistant Attorney General had worked with DHHS since November to formulate the rule.
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Left and Right: Independent candidate for governor Eliot Cutler is touting his ability to work with both conservatives and liberals following his interviews with The Maine Wire and a left-wing blog. The candidate also made an appearance on MSNBC with Chuck Todd, where he took advantage of the national spotlight to deliver some stinging blows against Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud. Cutler also took a risky step in wholeheartedly supporting Common Core, the controversial educational reform that has folks on both the right and left concerned.
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Political Professors: College professors are infamously liberal, but here in Maine taxpayer-supported academics seek to impose their views not just on students, but also on the news-reading public. Orlando Delogu, a professor emeritus at the University of Maine in Orono, wrote an oped last week for The Forecaster in which he reached the surprising conclusion that “the facts show why the governor should not be re-elected.” Delogu confirmed that, while he receives no salary from the University, he’s still accorded office space — meaning taxpayers are supporting his attacks on conservative politicians.
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Nanny State: In 6-3 vote, the Portland City Council decided late Monday night to ban polystyrene food containers and place a five-cent fee on paper and plastic grocery bags. Both policies will take affect next year. No word yet on whether the council will address the epidemic of uncollected dog feces littering the Portland streets.
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Maine-stream Media Blackout – IRS: Maine’s major newspapers have been reluctant to report on the major controversy unfolding this week. Namely, the Internal Revenue Services unbelievable claim that they’ve lost two year’s worth of emails from embattled IRS official Lois Lerner. Lerner, the former director of the IRS’s tax exempt organization division, is the highest level official implicated in the targeted harassment of conservative groups many believe influenced the 2012 presidential election. Now, more than a year after the tax agency’s corruption was exposed, IRS officials say they can’t recover emails Lerner sent to other government entities, including the White House. Convenient. (News broke on Tuesday that the IRS’s the-dog-ate-my-emails excuse also extends to 6 more federal employees involved in the targeting.)
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Maine-stream Media Blackout – Immigration: Maine’s top newspapers have also been oddly quiet on the illegal immigration crisis occurring on the nation’s southern border. In recent weeks, large groups of immigrants – mostly from central American nations – have begun crossing the border into Texas. According to the L.A. Times, immigrants are arriving at a rate of 35,000 per month — an influx that has already overwhelmed border security officials. The surge in illegal immigration, which is already becoming a massive humanitarian crisis, comes as the fate of Congressional action on immigration reform and border security are more uncertain than ever.
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Texas Teachers: One school in Texas has a remarkably simple idea to prevent school shootings: arm the teachers. According to IJ Review, Union Grove ISD, a 2A school district with 761 students in rural Upshur County, has posted signs on campus alerting visitors that school staff are armed and willing to take whatever measures are necessary to protect students. (h/t YoungCons.com)