Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-MS) “legal team apparently held onto information concerning a man’s taping of the senator’s bedridden wife for as many as two weeks before turning it over to the police,” The Hill reports.
Meanwhile, the wife of the man who took the photos tells the Clarion Ledger that her husband “didn’t sneak into the facility, and that he appears to be a pawn in a big political game.”
The Chattanooga Times Free Press profiles Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) who is likely to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if Republicans take back the upper chamber.
“These days, as the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he’s more likely to be found in far-flung corners of the Earth. The blunt-spoken Chattanoogan has become a globe-trotter since he assumed his role on the Democratic-run committee some 16 months ago. He’s racked up visits to 55 countries, including hot spots such as the Syrian border and Ukraine.”
Said Corker: “I’m in a place where I have the tremendous privilege of waking up every day and being involved in the big issues that our nation is dealing with both here but also abroad.”
“For months, President Barack Obama has been telling donors that there’s nothing more important to him than the November elections. But many Democrats say their biggest worry for the fall is the president himself.”
“The problem, according to the nearly two dozen top Democratic operatives and outside allies who shared their frustration with Politico, is Obama’s investment — or lack thereof — in the midterms. The White House, they complain, has yet to broaden its economic message. The president has no set meetings with his political staff, and does little to help beyond headlining events to activate big donors. There’s no strategic direction.”
The Hill: “Top Democratic donors say they are exasperated by a lack of leadership from the White House on policy and are questioning whether they should throw money into midterm elections they believe won’t change Washington.”
First Read: “Also on this Super Tuesday, don’t forget the potentially interesting House primaries. You have two ex-members — Republican Bob Barr in Georgia and Democrat Marjorie Margoiles (who is Chelsea Clinton’s mother-in-law) in Pennsylvania — trying to make a return to Congress. And also in Pennsylvania, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Bill Shuster is getting a Tea Party challenge from Art Halvorson, though Shuster is expected to cruise to victory.”
Porterville, California Mayor Cameron Hamilton “recently sparked controversy over his suggestion that victims of bullying ‘grow a pair’ in response to a student-led anti-bullying effort,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Hamilton: “I mean, I am against bullying, but I am getting damn tired of it being used as a mantra for everything that ills the world when all most people have to do is a grow a pair and stick up for them damn selves.”
Gallup: “American voters rate the economy as the most important issue to their vote for Congress this year, and give the Republicans in Congress a slight edge over the Democrats as best able to handle it. Voters give four other issues lower, but still above-average, importance — the federal deficit, taxes, the Affordable Care Act, and income and wealth inequality. Voters see Republicans as better able to handle the first two, while Democrats have the edge on the latter two.”
Derek Willis: “It seems like a simple question: Who has raised more money this cycle, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida or Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky? But it’s not very simple, although there is a way to tally it that makes sense in the real world of campaigning.”
“Politicians tend to use three different vehicles for fund-raising: a campaign account for the next election, a leadership political action committee for spreading money to allies and enhancing their reputations; and a joint committee that makes it easier to raise money for the first two. This matters, because the answer to the original question depends not only on which committees you include in the calculations, but also whether and how you weigh their activity.”
Gerald Seib: “Republicans already obsessing about the 2016 presidential sweepstakes have paid little attention so far to Rick Santorum. That’s a mistake.”
“A mistake not because Mr. Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator and unsuccessful 2012 presidential candidate, is likely to win his party’s nomination. He’s a long shot if he runs again.”
“It is a mistake because Mr. Santorum has written a new book, Blue Collar Conservatives, that shows he grasps two important realities that seem to escape many others. The first is that, outmoded stereotypes notwithstanding, blue-collar Americans, particularly working-class whites in the South and Midwest, today comprise a core element of the Republican Party. The second reality is that, because of the alienation these people feel from both the political and economic systems, the table is set for a new period of populism.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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