July 03, 2009
From the forthcoming
CQ's Politics in America:
In the 1960s, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), as a top aide to the Warren Commission, helped devise the "single bullet" theory that a lone gunman was responsible for the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) is recognized by the American Humanist Association as the highest-ranking U.S. official and the first member of Congress to proclaim that he is an atheist. Stark says he's a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being.
In 1983, while working as a White House aide, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) proposed to his wife during a Baltimore Orioles baseball game, hiring an airplane to fly overhead with a banner reading, "Amey this is the inning to say yes."
In 1967, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), as a student at the U.S. Naval Academy, lost a boxing championship to Oliver L. North, who would later become a household name for his role in the Iran-Contra affair.
Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-Ohio, received a certificate in mortuary sciences and was president of the Ohio Funeral Directors Association. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy dug graves to earn money for college.
Alaska Gov,. Sarah Palin (R) announced she will step down as Alaska governor, reports the
Anchorage Daily News.
CQ Politics: "
In a rambling press conference, Palin
alluded to a future in national politics even if she abdicated the one
office she has held that is above mayor of Wasilla, Alaska."
The timing -- coming in the late afternoon on the first day of a holiday weekend -- couldn't be stranger It will lead to much speculation as to why she seems to be dropping out of politics just as many expected her to ramp up a White House bid.
Note to readers: Follow
@pwire on Twitter for the latest. We'll have more on the site shortly.
In the wake of reports that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) regularly
shed his security detail, he "will begin making his schedule available to the public and the media... a marked departure from the way the office has operated the past 6 1/2 years," according to
The State.
A new
Quinnipiac poll in Ohio shows Gov. Ted Strickland's (D) approval rate continuing to fall.
In a re-election match up against former Sen. Ted DeWine (R-OH), Strickland barely wins, 41% to 40%. Against former Rep. John Kasich (R-OH), Strickland leads, 43% to 38%.
Said pollster Peter Brown: "Strickland's extremely sharp drop-off in so short a time reflects growing public frustration. Voters don't see the economy improving and have decided that after almost three years in office they should start holding Ted Strickland at least partially responsible. The question now is whether this is the start of a larger move or just a temporary reaction."
"Henry Waxman is to Congress what Ted Williams was to baseball -- a natural. As you read this nicely proportioned, fast- paced book, you realize that Waxman was born to be a member of the House, ideally the chairman of an important committee. He's just five-feet-five, he's woefully short of hair, he's neither charming nor funny, but none of that has mattered. Waxman has been one of the most effective members of Congress for 35 years. "
July 02, 2009
"Mark showed a lack of judgment in his recent actions as governor. However, his far more egregious offenses were committed against
God, the institutions of marriage and family, our boys and me."
-- Jenny Sanford, quoted by
The State, about South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R).
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) and his publisher have parted ways,
CNN reports.
In a statement: "Sentinel has agreed to release Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina from his contract to write a book about fiscal conservatism, which was to be called
Within Our Means and was scheduled for publication in March 2010. This is a mutual decision. We wish Governor Sanford the best."
"Prior to revelations of an extramarital affair that effectively brought an end to his political career, the South Carolina governor had been preparing to publish a book outlining his policy beliefs."
Andrew Young, a former aide to John Edwards who is also writing a book on the former presidential candidate, spent yesterday in a federal courthouse, the
AP reports.
Edwards acknowledged in May that federal investigators are looking into how he used campaign funds.
"There's something in Hillary as a model for me, because Hillary, well she came in with a different kind of celebrity obviously. But there was a kind of skepticism where she had to prove herself a certain way and also prove not to be a kind of a show horse, but to be a work horse. And so I want to... put my head down and get to work when I get there."
-- Senator-elect Al Franken (D-MN), quoted by
Minnesota Public Radio, on lessons he can learn from Hillary Clinton.
CBS News: "Internal campaign e-mails exchanged three weeks before Election Day
offer a rare look at just how frustrated then Republican vice
presidential nominee Sarah Palin had become with the manner in which
top McCain campaign aides were handling her candidacy. The e-mails,
obtained exclusively, also highlight the power struggle and thinly
veiled acrimony that pervaded the relationship between Palin and the
campaign's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt."
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) left the Governor's Mansion "without a security escort, 38 times in 2008. In the first six months of this year, he left the mansion without security, 39 times," according to
The State.
"The frequency with which the governor shed his security detail has fallen under scrutiny after his secret trip earlier this month to Argentina."
Gov. Mark Sanford (R) and Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) have more in common than being part of sex scandals: They were also members of the famed Republican Class of 1994, swept into the House of Representatives in a massive electoral wave that pushed Democrats out of power for the first time in decades.
However,
Politico notes that "in the 14 years since that star-crossed class arrived in Washington espousing an agenda that placed family values at its core, no less than a dozen of its members have been caught up in affairs, sex scandals or in messy separations and divorces from their spouses that, in more than a few instances, led to their political downfalls."
"The problems started almost as soon as they took office, and by the end
of their first year in Congress, the marriages of at least four Republican freshmen had collapsed."
A new
Quinnipiac poll finds that while President Obama's job approval rating remains stable overall -- currently at a politically healthy 57% to 33% -- his disapproval has risen 8 to 10 points among several key demographic groups.
Said pollster Peter Brown: "Those who liked President Obama the most from the start - African-Americans, Democrats, women -- still like him by the same margins, but a chunk of voters who were undecided have decided he's not their cup of tea. Among independents, men, white Catholics, white evangelical Christians and Republicans, his numbers have fallen. He still has a ways to go before his coalition becomes politically unstable, but there are some groups and issues -- especially the economy -- where he needs to make sure this trend does not continue."
Though Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) has been coy about whether he'll actually challenge Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) in a Democratic primary for Senate next year, he was was very clear in an interview with the
Wayne Independent.
Said Sestak: "I am going to get into the race against Arlen Specter... for senator."
It was Sestak's "first media interview as part of a three-week tour through all of the Commonwealth's 67 counties."
Radio Iowa reports someone is using automated phone calls to test the popularity of possible Republican 2012 presidential candidates: Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, and Jeb Bush.
July 01, 2009
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) "has backed out of a promise to release personal financial records proving he did not use state money for trips to see his mistress," the
AP reports.
A spokesman now says the governor "does not want to discuss personal matters in the media anymore."
Meanwhile, the AP released audio clips of the Sanford interview -- which show "a midlife crisis playing out in public," as one
Political Wire reader said -- that may ultimately prove to be his undoing:
Clip 1,
Clip 2,
Clip 3
"I can say without hesitation that this government is totally theirs... Everything that comes out of it and everything that results from it is on their plate."
-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, on MSNBC's
Morning Joe, "almost gleeful" about giving the Democrats another Senate seat.
Read more...
Former Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) announced he will not run for New Hampshire's open Senate seat in 2010, forcing Republicans to continue their search for a top flight candidate,
CQ Politics reports.
Said Sununu: "Representing New Hampshire in the United States Senate is a great honor, but effective public service is much more than just a desire to hold office. It's essential that the timing fit both personally and professionally."
The Obama administration today released the
annual salaries of all White House staffers.
The Hotline crunches the numbers and finds an 18% increase in the total amount paid to Obama staffers over Bush staffers.
Politico runs a fascinating piece on the "whipping, cajoling, begging and browbeating" used by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants to sway undecided Democrats to vote for the climate change bill last week.
"In the days leading up the vote, the number of Democratic 'yes' votes was locked at 200, according to people familiar with the tally. Every time they'd pick up one vote, another would slip. Democratic leaders needed a cushion to help protect the most vulnerable among them, and they didn't have it."
"As the frustration grew, an aide joked in one meeting that White House staff should give fence-sitters the same colored leis so that the president and his Cabinet secretaries would know who to buttonhole. The desperation was such that others in the room paused for a split second to consider the joke before abandoning it as a logistical impossibility."
One of the most under-covered political stories is how Pelosi wields her power. She's a fascinating political character.
"A great frustration I had during the campaign was when the McCain staff wouldn't carve out time for me to go for a run."
-- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in an interview with
Runner's World, slipping in another dig about her campaign handlers.
The
Washington Post looks at the man who would become South Carolina's governor if Gov. Mark Sanford (R) steps down.
Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer (R) "has become known as much for his personal behavior as for his political record. In 2003, he was charged with driving 60 mph and running two red lights in downtown Columbia. When pulled over, Bauer was so aggressive that a police officer pulled a gun on him."
Bauer's romantic life has also "stirred rumors, the latest bubbling up in recent days." In an interview this week with
The State, Bauer voluntarily brought up the subject of his sexual orientation and insisted that he was not gay.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has decided to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in the 2010 Democratic primary, "refusing to bow to party leaders who want her to stay out," the
New York Daily News reports.
Said one senior adviser: "She's definitely decided to run. She's in it."
First Read: "In his two cycles as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democrats were able to pick up a whopping 14 Senate seats (six in '06 and eight in '08). And when you add Arlen Specter's switch earlier this year, that means that Democrats went from having just 45 senators in 2006 to 60 today. That's a remarkable two cycles."
This is now the first time since the 95th Congress (1977-1979) that one party will have had 60 or more votes in the Senate.
A 2002
campaign ad for Mark Sanford shows why he's in political trouble after admitting that he "
crossed lines" with multiple women.
Read more...
