Grapevine: Jim Lehrer defends role in first debate
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And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...
Man in the Middle
Presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer is pushing back against criticism of how he handled Wednesday night's event.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALK)
JIM LEHRER, MODERATOR: Just for the -- just for the record. Excuse me -- just so everybody understands. We are way over our first 15 minutes.
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ROMNEY: That's fine. Isn't it?
LEHRER: It's ok it's great.
OBAMA: That's ok
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LEHRER: No problem. If you all don't have a problem, I don't have a problem
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Lehrer tells Politico, the new debate format was designed so that – quote -- "The moderator should be seen little and heard even less. It is up to the candidates to ask the follow-up questions and challenge one another."Lehrer says the criticism won't keep him up at night.
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Sing for the Moment
This one will make you scratch your head. Agriculture Department employees were reportedly told to chant -- quote -- "Our forefathers were illegal immigrants."
Conservative group Judicial Watch says the chant was part of a diversity workshop. The USDA did not confirm or dispute the chant but said that the sessions quote -- "received positive feedback from employees across the department."
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Judicial Watch says the agency has paid the workshop consultants at least $200,000 over the last two years.
Big Bird, Big Bucks
And finally, he's been in the news a lot lately but did you know that Big Bird is worth some big bucks even more than Mitt Romney?
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The total assets of Sesame Workshop were just under $400 million at the end of 2009's fiscal year.
That is according to the publicly available tax forms.
South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint told the Daily Caller -- quote -- "'Sesame Street' is a multi-million dollar enterprise and Cookie Monster will eat just fine without taxpayer subsidies."