* Newt Gingrich laid out some of the “big ideas” underlying his now virtually impossible run for the presidency at last night’s New York Republican Party dinner in midtown Manhattan: opening up offshore and federal lands for oil and gas drilling and using the royalties to pay down the debt, making America energy independent to avoid overseas military conflicts, and shifting some of the focus from Iran to the already nuclear-armed Pakistan and holding hearings on how the country harbored Osama bin Laden. But the former House speaker drew his biggest applause after he acknowledged the long odds in the his primary race with Mitt Romney and pledged that beating President Barack Obama is his most important goal. “I’ve stayed in the race to articulate big themes and big issues,” Gingrich said, adding: “I’m clearly the underdog by a huge margin. But if I were to become the nominee, (Romney) would work all out because our grandchildren’s future is stake. If he becomes the nominee, Callista and I will work for him because it’s our grandchildren’s future at stake. The fact is we are dedicated to reunifying the Republican Party and winning the presidency.”

*A coalition of elected officials and environmental, labor, community and business groups have joined forces with NRG Energy in an effort to replace the company’s Astoria power plant with a cleaner, more productive and more efficient facility, and they’re hoping for a boost from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new “energy highway” initiative. This week the new Smart Power NY coalition called on Cuomo to back the repowering project, which has the regulatory green light but has been stalled by a lack of funding. Beyond simply endorsing the project, the coalition wants the governor to prod the New York Power Authority into signing a long-term contract to buy NRG’s energy, which would allow the company to secure funding to rebuild its plant. Queens Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas, the coalition chair, doesn’t anticipate opposition from the governor. “I think this is a project that really mirrors the goal that he has set for producing cleaner, more efficient energy here in New York State,” Simotas said. “If it’s a project the governor’s task force accepts and thinks is a good thing, then it will be much easier to get the (power purchase agreement), and obviously you need that in order to finance the project.”

To read the full Heard Around Town from City & State click here.

Illustration courtesy of Wiki Commons.

By Josh Rogers
John Edwards’ name resurfaced in the news last week with a report that he was a client of the Upper East Side’s “Millionaire Madam” during his 2008 presidential campaign. Regardless of the truth in the allegation, there was a better reason to bring him up again.
It’s hard to remember, but before the first caucus four years ago, Edwards appeared to have a plausible chance to win the Democratic nomination over the two better-financed candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
All three had roughly similar plans to provide health insurance to more Americans, but Edwards talked about a strategic maneuver he planned to pull in the face of certain Congressional roadblocks. His idea was to introduce a bill to end health coverage for Congress, thus challenging opponents to vote for their health care while denying it to others.
With the two-year anniversary of the passage of President Obama’s health care law coinciding with the Supreme Court debating its legality, congressional opponents have had a chance to revive their “rationing medicine” criticism. It’s as if they believe we live in a country where doctors, not insurance companies, decide on the best treatment for patients.
It may work that way under Congress’s gold-plated health plan, but it is not typical in the United States, where medications, tests and doctor referrals are often held up for approval by insurance companies.
When Republican opponents debated “Obamacare” two years ago, they clung to fantasies about what health care is like for many people with insurance. It was so easy for them to say that Obama’s plan would “lead to rationing” that it sounded like a misstatement borne out of genuine ignorance.
Rationing has been going on for a long time. Bureaucrats do make medical decisions. Those decrees are just not the ones we usually hear about because they are made in the private sector.
It still has not sunk in that Obama’s plan was an outgrowth of what used to be conservative mainstream thinking. The Clintons probably could have gotten a similar plan passed almost 20 years ago, but they rejected Republican counter-proposals. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were not only for Obamacare before they were against it, they were for it before Obama was.
In more recent years, Republican health care plans have become less reality-based.  When Rudy Giuliani ran for president four years ago, he repeatedly said that he would let individuals shop for the best health insurance at the lowest price. While it’s possible to imagine companies getting into bidding wars to insure young people who have no health problems, the free market is not so kind to people with red flags in their medical records.

Health insurance has become so expensive it can often be an overriding factor in families’ job decisions. I left my full-time job a few years ago to take care of my infant son.  It’s something I wanted to do, but it was also something my wife would have wanted to do. The difference was that I worked for a small company with a health plan that would have cost me many thousands of dollars more to add my wife and son. She works for a large corporation which can bargain for better rates—it costs her an extra $10 a week to cover me.

Ours is by no means a hard-luck story. We were fortunate to have options and were able to pick one we liked. For too many others, health costs forces people to make choices they hate and live in fear

That’s the real-world health system Obamacare is trying to change.

Josh Rogers, contributing editor at Manhattan Media, is a lifelong New Yorker. Follow him at @JoshRogersNYC.

Courtesy of Mike Sussman

This year, March 6 signals the coming of Super Tuesday in which the greatest number of states will hold their primaries and caucuses for the upcoming presidential election. Seven states will hold their primaries, and three will hold caucuses to determine the actions of delegates sent to the national convention. This will be a big event for the GOP as it is the first test of national electability against the incumbent President Obama. It is a crucial night for presidential hopefuls, as nearly 20 percent of delegates sent to the Republican convention are chosen tonight.

Candidate Mitt Romney will try to solidify his position as the Republican frontrunner, which seems likely given his current momentum with 42 percent of the popular vote, and having already won eight states. Runner up Rick Santorum will fight to keep it a two-man race, as there are still over 400 delegates up for grabs. While there is a slim chance that it will be a disastrous night for Mitt, it should be remembered that Santorum recently finished in a close second in Romney’s home state of Michigan. Candidates Newt Gingrich and Santorum each have a lot on the line, as Romney is almost sure to remain the Republican favorite and most likely to win the nomination.

Where should you tune in to watch the results of this crucial race? Depending on how your candidate does, it might help to have a drink in your hand.

The New York Young Republicans are planning an evening out at Session House on 2nd Ave. (sessionhousenyc.com) at 7 p.m. with free appetizers. If you don’t feel like traveling to Midtown, or being surrounded by Republicans, The Village Pourhouse (villagepourhouse.com), in conjunction with New American Tavern, will be hosting a bi-partisan event on some big screens.