And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...
Repeat Offender
Republican Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan has been forced to acknowledge requesting stimulus money after twice denying he had done so.
The Wisconsin congressman says he forgot that his office had sent letters with his signature to the Energy and Labor Departments asking for stimulus money on behalf of two companies.
Ryan has been an outspoken critic of the stimulus and denied having asked for money from the program as recently as Wednesday.
But in a statement today, Ryan referred to the letters saying quote -- "They were treated as constituent service requests...This is why I didn't recall the letters earlier but they should have been handled differently and I take responsibility for that."
Hatched
More headaches for the General Services Administration (GSA). A contracting officer has been suspended for violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political activities of federal employees.
While at work, the employee invited 23 people to an Obama fundraiser, passed out campaign material, and sent a work account e-mail supporting the president's re-election.
The Mighty Quinn
Finally, "Governor's Day" turned out to be anything but that for Illinois Democrat Pat Quinn.
First, Quinn was praising President Obama when he goofed in what the Chicago Sun Times called the mother of all gaffes.
Saying loudly -- quote -- "Obama -- he's gone -- he's dead."
Quinn realized his mistakes moments later and he corrected himself -– quote -- "Usama bin Laden! I goofed that one up."
Later that day, the governor's short speech at the state fair was drowned out by labor protesters who shouted "liar" and booed.
Unions are upset over Quinn's efforts to reform public employee pensions.
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