Billionaire speculator Soros says Democrats should subpoena the president

Should Democrats retake the House in November, George Soros says they should have one priority: Subpoena President George W. Bush.

The billionaire currency speculator, who poured more than $20 million of his personal fortune into efforts to unseat Bush in 2004, offered his opinions on American politics and foreign policy in a wide-ranging interview with RAW STORY last week. In the exchange, he responded to questions on domestic politics, while criticizing the war in Iraq and efforts to contain nuclear technologies in Iran and Pakistan.

Soros wouldn’t say who he favored for the 2008 presidential race, but he did say Democrats should take bold moves should they win back the House of Representatives in November.

“Clearly,” he said, “using the subpoena power to bring to light the misdeeds by the administration would have to be, I think, a top priority.”
Asked whether he’s given thought to supporting moderate Republicans, he said he believed the party couldn’t be “recaptured from extremists” without the right wing of the caucus suffering defeats.

“I don’t think it can be done without a defeat that will lead the Republicans to regroup, when the extremists are distracted,” he said. “Right now the extremists are still ridding themselves of the moderates in the Republican Party.”

“But I don’t yet see moderates knocking out Republicans,” he added. “There are many radical or extremist challengers to moderates within the Republican Party, and very few — if any — to the extremists from moderates.”

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GOP talk of vibrant economy rings hollow

FALMOUTH, Ky. – Used boots fetch $3 and old salt-and-pepper shakers bring in a buck at a makeshift flea market along Highway 27, presumably not what President Bush and Republicans have in mind when they herald a vibrant economy.

Times are “very good for the rich and very, very bad for the poor” who “can’t afford to live,” laments Larry Mitchell, 43, a now-and-then merchant peddling his wares recently in a submarine sandwich shop parking lot. He says the middle class is “having a hard time.”

In the Ohio River Valley, where people decry high gas prices, stagnant wages, lost jobs and factory closures, many don’t buy the claim that the economy is humming along.

Seven weeks before the midterm elections, the gulf between Bush’s perceptions and that of voters form the political backdrop across the country as well as in a region with several competitive House races. This area typically gets left out of national boom times and usually feels the pinch more than others during slowdowns.

Here and elsewhere differing views on the economy could hurt the GOP’s efforts to retain control of the House and Senate this fall, and give voters reason to put Democrats in charge instead.

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