As the House voted to repeal Obamacare, Blanche Lincoln reflected on the vote that helped end her political career. Eve Conant talks to defeated lawmakers about their new realities.
She was one of the Democrats' most vulnerable incumbents in 2010-the subject of a fierce primary challenge from the left and an even fiercer challenge from the right in November. But in the end, Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln's vote in favor of President Obama's health care reform helped pull her under, and she lost her Senate seat by a substantial margin.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Maine's Tea Party Governor Paul LePage to NAACP: 'Kiss My Butt'
So Lincoln watched with more than casual interest from afar this week as the Republican-controlled House voted to repeal the very measure that ended her career. "I've said all along it wasn't a perfect bill and I hope it's something that can be improved upon.
She was one of the Democrats' most vulnerable incumbents in 2010-the subject of a fierce primary challenge from the left and an even fiercer challenge from the right in November. But in the end, Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln's vote in favor of President Obama's health care reform helped pull her under, and she lost her Senate seat by a substantial margin.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Maine's Tea Party Governor Paul LePage to NAACP: 'Kiss My Butt'
So Lincoln watched with more than casual interest from afar this week as the Republican-controlled House voted to repeal the very measure that ended her career. "I've said all along it wasn't a perfect bill and I hope it's something that can be improved upon.
- 1/22/2011
- by Eve Conant
- The Daily Beast
As Fox’s advanced, Sharpie-and-whiteboard computing system indicates, much has happened since we last spoke a few hours ago. (If you’re on Twitter, do follow along with our more frequent updates.) Since 8 p.m., Democrat Joe Manchin won a hard-fought victory in the West Virginia Senate race. On Fox News and online, Republicans have already begun to rationalize his win as a victory for the G.O.P. “A popular governor runs Right and against the president and wins. Not exactly an affirmation of the Obama agenda,” reasoned Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review. Republicans also picked up a seat in Florida’s 8th congressional district, as Daniel Webster ousted imminently flappable Democrat Alan Grayson, as well as a seat in Arkansas, where Republican John Boozman (pronounced “Bahz-man”—sorry) defeated embattled incumbent senator Blanche Lincoln. Incumbent Democrats Carol Shea-Porter and Allen Boyd lost to their Republican opponents in New Hampshire and Florida,...
- 11/3/2010
- Vanity Fair
House projected to switch to Gop control; Senate still expected to be in Democratic hands.
By Gil Kaufman
Marco Rubio
Photo: Joe Raedle/ Getty Images
Results are still pouring in, and probably will be for the next 24 hours, but the writing on the wall for Democrats on Tuesday night (November 2) is clear: A change is gonna come.
Nearly two years after President Barack Obama swept into power on a wave of excitement and promises of change that helped Democrats gain control of the White House and both houses of Congress in a rare political hat trick, voters gave the president's ambitious agenda a harsh rebuke in the midterm elections. According to the Huffington Post, exit polls showed that voters were very worried about the economy and not happy with the way Obama and Congress had handled the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, leading many to vote for Republicans...
By Gil Kaufman
Marco Rubio
Photo: Joe Raedle/ Getty Images
Results are still pouring in, and probably will be for the next 24 hours, but the writing on the wall for Democrats on Tuesday night (November 2) is clear: A change is gonna come.
Nearly two years after President Barack Obama swept into power on a wave of excitement and promises of change that helped Democrats gain control of the White House and both houses of Congress in a rare political hat trick, voters gave the president's ambitious agenda a harsh rebuke in the midterm elections. According to the Huffington Post, exit polls showed that voters were very worried about the economy and not happy with the way Obama and Congress had handled the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, leading many to vote for Republicans...
- 11/2/2010
- MTV Music News
Trading of derivatives based on movie boxoffice is an idea whose time is never going to come.
As anticipated, the U.S. Senate on Thursday approved financial reform legislation that includes a ban on treating boxoffice as a commodity which can be the basis of a futures market for investors.
Both Cantor Fitzgerald, which wanted to launch The Cantor Exchange, and Veriana Networks, which proposed Media Derivatives Trend Exchange, won approval from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Exchange, but have already acknowledged their initiative is dead in the face of an act of Congress.
This is a major victory for the Motion Pictures Association of America and a coalition of other opponents of the concept who battled first to deny approval, and when that failed, to get Congress to ban the practice.
It is also a very visible victory for Interim MPAA CEO Bob Pisano, who was very public and...
As anticipated, the U.S. Senate on Thursday approved financial reform legislation that includes a ban on treating boxoffice as a commodity which can be the basis of a futures market for investors.
Both Cantor Fitzgerald, which wanted to launch The Cantor Exchange, and Veriana Networks, which proposed Media Derivatives Trend Exchange, won approval from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Exchange, but have already acknowledged their initiative is dead in the face of an act of Congress.
This is a major victory for the Motion Pictures Association of America and a coalition of other opponents of the concept who battled first to deny approval, and when that failed, to get Congress to ban the practice.
It is also a very visible victory for Interim MPAA CEO Bob Pisano, who was very public and...
- 7/15/2010
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Although Congress has agreed to a ban on trading derivatives based on movie boxoffice, Cantor Exchange likely will win approval for its first contracts Monday from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission since the Wall Street reform bill won't be signed into law before July.
Ultimately, however, the final word on movie futures trading by the public likely is to be decided in a court of law. Even if this ban takes effect, it might inspire a private version of futures trading involving investors and the same big movie companies that have vehemently opposed the official exchange plans.
Bob Pisano, interim CEO of the MPAA who has led the fight against the trading on behalf of a coalition that includes the Hollywood guilds, theater owners and the Ifta, said Friday, "We are heartened by the conference committee's actions and look forward to the full House and Senate approving the legislation."
Both...
Ultimately, however, the final word on movie futures trading by the public likely is to be decided in a court of law. Even if this ban takes effect, it might inspire a private version of futures trading involving investors and the same big movie companies that have vehemently opposed the official exchange plans.
Bob Pisano, interim CEO of the MPAA who has led the fight against the trading on behalf of a coalition that includes the Hollywood guilds, theater owners and the Ifta, said Friday, "We are heartened by the conference committee's actions and look forward to the full House and Senate approving the legislation."
Both...
- 6/27/2010
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Congress has driven a stake through the heart of movie boxoffice futures trading.
An amendment banning the trading of derivatives based on boxoffice results was approved just before 1 a.m. Est on Friday morning by a House-Senate conference committee for inclusion in the Wall Street reform bill (the Restoring American Financial Stability Act). It came after an entire day and night of discussion on the complex legislation.
Committee chair Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said during a short discussion that while there had been controversy about movie futures, the House conferees were not going to exercise their option to alter the amendment banning movie futures trading. He said they were agreeing to the amendment as written by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) for the Senate bill. “By not addressing it, we have acquiesced in that,” said Frank.
Both chambers of Congress will almost certainly pass the conference committee's version of the bill...
An amendment banning the trading of derivatives based on boxoffice results was approved just before 1 a.m. Est on Friday morning by a House-Senate conference committee for inclusion in the Wall Street reform bill (the Restoring American Financial Stability Act). It came after an entire day and night of discussion on the complex legislation.
Committee chair Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said during a short discussion that while there had been controversy about movie futures, the House conferees were not going to exercise their option to alter the amendment banning movie futures trading. He said they were agreeing to the amendment as written by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) for the Senate bill. “By not addressing it, we have acquiesced in that,” said Frank.
Both chambers of Congress will almost certainly pass the conference committee's version of the bill...
- 6/25/2010
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Like an archaeologist fleeing a rolling boulder, Hollywood found itself looking for any way out Monday when the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission approved the actual box-office futures contracts that will be traded on Media Derivatives’ Mdex exchange. With tentative plans to launch trading on Sony’s upcoming heist movie Takers, it looks like Hollywood’s worst nightmare—aside from getting an Nc-17 on a family comedy—could well come true. Still, the M.P.A.A.’s got one last card up its sleeve: Sen. Blanche Lincoln inserted an explicit ban on box-office trading into the mammoth “Bite Me, Wall St.” reform bill. However, in a conference call Monday, Media Derivatives C.E.O. Robert Swagger promised to head to Washington and do his best Jimmy Stewart impression to get the ban removed before the bill is passed. But even if it passes, the new media exchanges could still be grandfathered in,...
- 6/16/2010
- Vanity Fair
Media Derivatives CEO Robert Swagger will be in Washington on Thursday talking to lawmakers about why a federal regulator's approval this week of movie boxoffice futures trading shows that critics' concerns are unfounded.
Swagger's appointment calendar, however, does not include the person he most wants to see: Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., author of an amendment to the Wall Street reform bill that would ban movie futures trading.
"I realize she's in the top 12 of people receiving support from the entertainment industry," Swagger said, "but I hope that doesn't overwhelm her willingness to talk to me, a business owner who followed the rules Congress put in place, during an economic crisis, to build a new business to help the entertainment industry."
Whether Trend Exchange, the commodity exchange that Media Derivatives wants to launch, or a similar effort by Cantor Fitzgerald would help or damage the entertainment industry is a point of contention with major studios,...
Swagger's appointment calendar, however, does not include the person he most wants to see: Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., author of an amendment to the Wall Street reform bill that would ban movie futures trading.
"I realize she's in the top 12 of people receiving support from the entertainment industry," Swagger said, "but I hope that doesn't overwhelm her willingness to talk to me, a business owner who followed the rules Congress put in place, during an economic crisis, to build a new business to help the entertainment industry."
Whether Trend Exchange, the commodity exchange that Media Derivatives wants to launch, or a similar effort by Cantor Fitzgerald would help or damage the entertainment industry is a point of contention with major studios,...
- 6/16/2010
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Despite intense last-minute lobbying by major Hollywood studios, talent guilds and others, the first futures contract based on movie boxoffice results was approved Monday and are expected to start trading this year.
After delaying for a week, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a request by the Trend Exchange to offer futures contracts and options on its Mdex Exchange aimed at large and institutional investors. The contracts would commence trading four weeks before a movie opened and end trading as the picture premiered on screens opening weekend.
The Trend Exchange, located in Scottsdale, Ariz., and with offices in Chicago and elsewhere, is privately held by Veriana Networks.
This approval is separate from an application by the Cantor Exchange, created by Cantor Fitzgerald, to market futures contracts based on boxoffice receipts to smaller investors. The Cantor contracts and options would start before a movie opens and continue to trade...
After delaying for a week, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a request by the Trend Exchange to offer futures contracts and options on its Mdex Exchange aimed at large and institutional investors. The contracts would commence trading four weeks before a movie opened and end trading as the picture premiered on screens opening weekend.
The Trend Exchange, located in Scottsdale, Ariz., and with offices in Chicago and elsewhere, is privately held by Veriana Networks.
This approval is separate from an application by the Cantor Exchange, created by Cantor Fitzgerald, to market futures contracts based on boxoffice receipts to smaller investors. The Cantor contracts and options would start before a movie opens and continue to trade...
- 6/14/2010
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Much has been made about the victories of women in Tuesday's primary elections, with news outlets declaring it "Ladies Night" and the "Year of the Woman." In South Carolina, Nikki Haley moved a step closer to becoming the state's first female governor, Blanche Lincoln won the Arkansas Senate runoff, while in California Meg Whitman won the Gop nomination for governor and Carly Fiorina for Senate.But there was also an exciting primary victory for an African-American woman...
- 6/10/2010
- Essence
Fox News’ Bret Baier was doing overtime with his regular Special Report panel last night/early this morning to analyze the incoming election returns, first among those the news that Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln squeaked out a win in a close run-off election with Lt. Governor Bill Halter. While there wasn’t much optimism for Lincoln’s chances in November, there was one thing the panel seemed to agree on: Bill Clinton’s still got it.
- 6/9/2010
- by Frances Martel
- Mediaite - TV
• Female ex-c.E.O.’s will be the Republican candidates for governor and senator in California, as Meg Whitman (former head of eBay) and Carly Fiorina (former head of Hewlett-Packard) won their respective races; Arkansas’s incumbent Democratic senator Blanche Lincoln fended off a primary challenge from Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter; Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle won the right to try to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; and Republican Nikki Haley won more votes than any of her challengers in the South Carolina gubernatorial primary. [Washington Post] • Bp's latest screw-up could have been prevented if only they had heeded the words of Roy Scheider in Jaws: "You're gonna need a bigger boat." [WSJ] • Lindsay Lohan's bail was doubled, to $200,000, because her high-tech alcohol-monitoring bracelet (your tax dollars at work!) went off Sunday night—something Lohan had denied on Twitter yesterday, calling the reports "fucking digusting" (sic). The bail was posted shortly after yesterday's court hearing,...
- 6/9/2010
- Vanity Fair
• Joran Van der Sloot, the 22-year-old Dutch national suspected of killing Natalee Holloway in Aruba five years ago, confessed to murdering Stephany Flores in his Lima hotel room last month. He allegedly told authorities he killed Flores because he feared she might learn about his involvement in Holloway’s death, according to a Peruvian newspaper. [La Republica] • While the cap installed last week on the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico recovers 15,000 barrels (which Bp is going to be putting back on the market) each day, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says that the leak has metastasized—there is “no longer a single spill, but a massive collection of smaller spills,” he said, noting that there are now “hundreds or thousands of patches of oil.” [La Times] • Facing ire over the loss of jobs following the six-month moratarium President Obama imposed on offshore drilling, the White House says it intends to release...
- 6/8/2010
- Vanity Fair
• Party-switcher and 30-year Senate veteran Arlen Specter was defeated in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania; Ron Paul’s Tea Party-backed son, Rand Paul, trounced the G.O.P. establishment’s Senate candidate in Kentucky; and Arkansas senator Blanche Lincoln, a moderate Democrat, didn’t get enough votes to win the primary outright, so she will face a runoff election against her more liberal challenger in three weeks. [Washington Post] • Campbell Brown is resigning from CNN because of the low ratings for her 8 p.m. show called (wait for it) Campbell Brown. You knew Brown and CNN were on the wrong track when they (originally) called the show No Bias, No Bull—precisely the two things that work best on cable news. [Mediaite] • The leaders of Thailand’s anti-government protests surrendered today after troops stormed their encampment in Bangkok, but their followers continued to wreak havoc in the capital, burning buildings and firing grenades.
- 5/19/2010
- Vanity Fair
A provision of the Wall Street reform bill that would ban futures contracts based on movie boxoffice would set "a dangerous legislative precedent," the CEO of Media Derivatives wrote Wednesday in a letter sent to every member of the Senate.
Robert Swagger's company is one of two trying to launch commodities exchanges aimed at doing what the amendment to a bill authored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., would outlaw. Lincoln added the prohibition after hearing from the MPAA, exhibitors, Hollywood guilds and others.
"Banning a futures contract at the request of a powerful special interest group like the MPAA sets a dangerous legislative precedent," Swagger wrote. "It undermines the role of the existing regulators and sets up a case that any time a new contract is developed, opponents will run to Congress," which would then make a decision "solely for political reasons."
Media Derivatives and Cantor Fitzgerald have been granted...
Robert Swagger's company is one of two trying to launch commodities exchanges aimed at doing what the amendment to a bill authored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., would outlaw. Lincoln added the prohibition after hearing from the MPAA, exhibitors, Hollywood guilds and others.
"Banning a futures contract at the request of a powerful special interest group like the MPAA sets a dangerous legislative precedent," Swagger wrote. "It undermines the role of the existing regulators and sets up a case that any time a new contract is developed, opponents will run to Congress," which would then make a decision "solely for political reasons."
Media Derivatives and Cantor Fitzgerald have been granted...
- 4/28/2010
- by By Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In a Congressional hearing room, in a capital far, far away, the saga of puny, little Hollywood vs. the Evil Box-Office Stock Exchanges took another surprising twist today. According to The Wrap, mini-Studio/overlooked Canadian pen pal Lionsgate went to the Dark Side and came out in support of Hollywood Stock exchanges. It was a crucial crack in the unified Rebel Alliance of the M.P.A.A., D.G.A., and I.A.T.S.E. just as their battle seemed won—Senator, Blanche Lincoln, Chairman of the Senate Agricultural Committee (which oversees futures contracts) had proposed language in the upcoming “Bite Me Wall Street” financial reform bill making it illegal to bet on Hollywood box-office results. With opposition to the two Hollywood Stock Exchanges being about the only bipartisan sentiment in Washington these days, the prospect of widespread drunken speculation on the over/under for Transformers 3’s opening weekend seemed lost.
- 4/22/2010
- Vanity Fair
Media Derivatives received regulatory approval to launch an exchange that would allow investors to trade on opening weekend box-office receipts.
But soon after The Trend Exchange (TrendEx) got the nod from the Cftc, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee oversees the commission, added language to financial reform legislation that would prohibit the Cftc from licensing firms to trade on box-office receipts.
But soon after The Trend Exchange (TrendEx) got the nod from the Cftc, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee oversees the commission, added language to financial reform legislation that would prohibit the Cftc from licensing firms to trade on box-office receipts.
- 4/17/2010
- Moving Pictures Magazine
The trading of boxoffice futures could begin by the third quarter now that federal regulators have granted approval for Media Derivatives to launch its Trend Exchange.
But while TrendEx, as it calls itself, has a right to exist as a designated contract market as of Friday, it still needs approval to specifically trade futures tied to boxoffice receipts.
On Friday, the five members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commssion voted unanimously -- though at least a couple said reluctantly -- to approve TrendEx, and they'll take up approval for boxoffice trading before a June 7 deadline.
TrendEx is one of two companies, the other being Cantor Exchange, trying to convince regulators -- and skeptical studio executives -- that creating a market around movie boxoffice can be a useful tool for hedging investments.
The MPAA, DGA, National Association of Theatre Owners and others are vehemently opposed to the idea and have all...
But while TrendEx, as it calls itself, has a right to exist as a designated contract market as of Friday, it still needs approval to specifically trade futures tied to boxoffice receipts.
On Friday, the five members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commssion voted unanimously -- though at least a couple said reluctantly -- to approve TrendEx, and they'll take up approval for boxoffice trading before a June 7 deadline.
TrendEx is one of two companies, the other being Cantor Exchange, trying to convince regulators -- and skeptical studio executives -- that creating a market around movie boxoffice can be a useful tool for hedging investments.
The MPAA, DGA, National Association of Theatre Owners and others are vehemently opposed to the idea and have all...
- 4/16/2010
- by By Paul Bond
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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