In the mail: On Virtues: Quotations and Insight to Live a Full, Honorable, and Truly American Life by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
Daily Archives
April 14, 2013
9 posts · Sunday
Top Iowa Republicans Unlikely to Run for Harkin’s Seat
Iowa Republican party insider Doug Gross tells the Des Moines Register that the three Republicans considered to be among the GOP’s best options for U.S. Senate won’t end up running.
Gross said he doesn’t expect Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to enter the race against Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) in 2014. And he’s skeptical that Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) or Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey (R) will run either.
Said Gross: “So I don’t think we know who the candidate is going to be right now.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I mean, first of all, I think Jay-Z needs to get informed. One of his heroes is Che Guevara. Che Guevara was a racist. Che Guevara was a racist that wrote extensively about the superiority of white Europeans over people of African descent, so he should inform himself on the guy that he’s propping up.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), in an interview on ABC News.
Exchange of the Day
Candy Crowley, to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) via Mike Allen: “You seem to be the go-to guy for this Gang of Eight. Do you think this would help or hurt Marco Rubio if he, perhaps, ran for president in 2016?”
Rubio: “You know, I haven’t even thought about it in that way …”
Crowley: “Seriously, Senator?”
Rubio: “… I really haven’t. I have a job. My belief has always been that if I do my job and I do my job well, I’ll have options and opportunities in the future to do things — whether it’s run for reelection, run for something else or give someone else a chance at public service. And that’s how I view this issue.”
Brown Mum on Possible Bid from New Hampshire
Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) wasn’t willing to talk on Fox News Sunday about making a possible Senate run in New Hampshire.
Said Brown: “I’m not going to comment on that, obviously. Nothing is off the table, and nothing is on the table. Right now I’m recharging the batteries and working hard.”
SNL on the Gun Control Deal
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) provide the perfect script to open Saturday Night Live.
Quote of the Day
“In the age of constant communications, our politics has devolved to the point that political rehab is now the norm.”
— Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, quoted by Politico, adding that “there is no distinction between private and public life… everything is public.”
Obama Weighs Options as Agenda Sits in Congress
President Obama’s “ability to secure the three high-profile legislative items now confronting Congress — gun-control measures, reform of the immigration system and his long-term budget priorities — is likely to determine his domestic legacy,” the Washington Post reports.
Obama’s plan now is to ensure that as much of his politically challenging agenda as possible is enacted, after months of effort to frame the policies for the American public and, perhaps more important, for the House and Senate. Each of the issues that Obama is pursuing is being managed independently by the second-term White House team — an improvisational strategy that is testing the president’s ability to calibrate when to get involved and when to stay out of the way.”
However, administration officials “acknowledge that only immigration
legislation has a chance of resembling Obama’s ideal bill once it
emerges from the Democratic-run Senate and the Republican-controlled
House.”
Democrats Face Attacks Over Obama’s Budget Proposal
“Whether or not Republicans ever agree to a budget deal with President Obama, one thing seems certain: now that he has officially put Social Security and Medicare benefits on the negotiating table, opponents on his party’s left will make that an issue for Democrats in the midterm elections next year — and perhaps in the 2016 presidential contest,” the New York Times reports.
“In the midterm races already taking shape, Democrats who back Mr. Obama’s budget proposals to trim future benefits as part of a long-term deficit-reduction compromise could be attacked from the left and the right.”
The Hill: “A growing number of House Democrats are concerned that President Obama’s proposal to cut Social Security benefits will haunt the party at the polls in 2014.”
Robert Shrum: “The Republican jeremiads were expected–but why can’t liberals see the sense in the president’s not-at-all draconian budget proposals?”
