Sen. Mark Udall’s (D-CO) brother, James Udall, “is missing after going on a solo hike in Wyoming,” Politico reports.
“The 61-year-old, who goes by Randy, was trekking in the Wind River Range and was supposed to come out of the mountains last Wednesday but never did. An experienced hiker, this wasn’t the first time James Udall had gone solo into those mountains.”
Harry Enten looks at the challenge facing Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) as she attempts to unseat Sen. Mitch McConnell (R).
“Since 1982, when the new wave of polarization took hold, there have been eight midterm elections. These make for some daunting numbers for Grimes, on three counts: 1). McConnell is running when the other party controls the White House. The opposition party successfully defended 18 of 19 seats in 1982; 11 of 12 in 1986; 17 of 17 in 1990; 13 of 13 in 1994; 13 of 16 in 1998; 11 of 14 in 2002; 16 for 16 in 2006; and 18 for 18 in 2010. That’s just eight out of 125 races, or 6%, when a seat has flipped to the White House party in a midterm. Most of those were when the president had an approval rating well into the 60s. Obama’s approval rating right now is in the mid 40s.”
The Fix: “This will be the nastiest race in the country.”
“If life ends when heart stops, then please explain Dick Cheney.”
— Texas state Rep. Gene Wu (D), in a tweet he later deleted as a “mistake.”
Kentucky Secretary Of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) will run against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in next year’s U.S. Senate election, WLEX-TV reports.
“Grimes is thought to be the Democrats’ best hope of unseating McConnell, the Senate Republican Leader. Grimes had been considering whether to throw her hat into the race for the past several months.”
Ryan Alessi of c|n2 reports Grimes told supporters that she intends to run for U.S. Senate.
Update: The Lexington Herald Leader has coverage of her announcement.
Jeb Bush (R) said that it’s time Republicans “cease being the obstacle” to immigration reform and urged House GOP leaders to hold a vote on legislation passed by the Senate last week, The Hill reports.
A new USA Today poll finds that by an unprecedented 55%-40%, Americans say marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by law as valid, with the same rights of traditional marriage.
“The only major demographic groups in which a majority oppose same-sex marriage are Republicans (68%) and seniors 65 and older (51%). Even in the South, which continues to be the only region that doesn’t show majority support for gay marriage, opposition has slipped below 50%.”
Gawker obtained documents from the City University of New York which show former CIA Director David Petraeus will be paid $200,000 a year to teach course that takes him about three hours of work and will be aided by a group of graduate students to take care of “course research, administration, and grading.”
“That works out to approximately $2,250 per hour. CUNY adjuncts usually earn less than $3,000 per course.”
“Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked U.S. security secrets and is now a fugitive, met Monday morning with Russian diplomatic officials and handed them an appeal to 15 countries for political asylum,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said a Russian official: “It was a desperate measure on his part after Ecuador disavowed his political protection credentials.”
Meanwhile, the AP reports Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Snowden “will have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wants to get asylum in Russia, something he says Snowden doesn’t want to do.”
Related: Joe Nye speaks about the leadership challenges of dealing with a leaker.
Matt Lewis asked Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley to shed some light on “how the age issue really impacted Reagan’s candidacy — and what lessons Republicans might learn as it pertains to Hillary Clinton.”
Said Shirley: “It was only after Reagan took control of his own campaign and went out on the road, endlessly campaigning, saying interesting and compelling things, taking it to George H. W. Bush in the primaries and then to Carter in the summer and fall, was it banished.”
Egypt’s military gave Mohammed Morsi a 48-hour ultimatum to “resolve the crisis” before the military intervenes, setting the stage for a possible military coup a day after millions thronged Egypt’s streets demanding the president’s resignation, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Jeffrey Toobin: “The Supreme Court’s embrace of gay rights last week had an almost serene majesty. The obvious correctness of the Court’s judgment, its curt dismissal of a monstrous injustice, had a grandeur that requires little elaboration. Yet the decision had its roots in something prosaic and largely forgotten: the midterm elections of 1986. Until that point in Ronald Reagan’s Presidency, the loyal opposition was more loyal than opposed to the genial Californian in the White House, but Democrats came roaring back, winning control of the Senate with eight new seats.”
“It took Reagan and his aides some time to recognize the realignment on Capitol Hill. After the resignation of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., from the Court, in 1987, Reagan nominated Robert Bork. He would have been an ideological twin to Antonin Scalia, who had been confirmed with ease the previous year. But the Democrats in the Senate, especially the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Joseph Biden, picked a fight over Bork and defeated his nomination by fifty-eight to forty-two. In response, Howard Baker, the former senator turned White House chief of staff, urged Reagan to acknowledge the new political realities and make a more moderate choice. Reagan did; he selected Anthony M. Kennedy.”
More than 600 people have been arrested in North Carolina in protests over the sudden rightward swing of the state government, Bloomberg reports.
“The weekly outpourings of anger, called Moral Mondays, were prompted by the first Republican-led North Carolina government since Reconstruction. Its leaders are pushing dramatic change in a state whose economy has been dominated by technology, higher education and banking, and one that is narrowly divided between parties, choosing President Barack Obama in 2008 and Republican Mitt Romney last year.”
The AP notes round two of Texas’ “fierce ideological battle over abortion limits was
set to begin Monday, less than a week after a Democratic filibuster and
hundreds of raucous protesters threw the end of the first special
session into chaos.”
Meanwhile, Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) spoke to the Huffington Post about her strategy to keep fighting to prevent the abortion legislation from passing.
BBC:
“Anti-government protesters in Egypt have stormed the national
headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood in the
capital, Cairo. People are reported to have ransacked the building in
the eastern Moqattam district and also set it on fire. Eight people have
been killed outside since Sunday.”
Al Jazeera:
“Protesters seeking to force Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi from
office are gearing up for a second day of action, after large crowds
thronged the streets of Cairo and cities around the country and marched
on the presidential palace. In the capital, the seat of the powerful
Muslim Brotherhood to which Morsi belongs, was set ablaze before people
stormed and looted the building.”
“I really want people to judge me by my deeds, not my words.”
— Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D), quoted by the Florida Times-Union, alluding to his previous life as a Republican.
A new Civil Beat poll in Hawaii finds Sen. Brian Schatz (D) with a narrow lead over Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D) in the Democratic Senate primary, 36% to 33%.
“Schatz, appointed in late December by Gov. Neil Abercrombie to the seat held by the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, is being challenged by the congresswoman who Inouye wanted to take his place. The race has divided the state’s dominant political party, in part because of Inouye’s influential standing in the party even after his death, and because the candidates hold similar policy views.”
Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) “is never going to see a better moment for a statewide run for office, even though the odds of a Democrat winning statewide in Texas could not be worse,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“She would almost certainly lose.”
“There are always more reasons not to run than to run. But she has emerged as the predominant voice on an issue that pits the party in power against the party out of power. She has a sea of orange shirts behind her, and the Republicans are clearly very, very irritated by her presence on the stage. They’re also irritated that their own officeholders are largely responsible for the attention she’s getting.”
“Gun maker Beretta USA will not expand its operations into West Virginia, despite lobbying from state officials, because they say Sen. Joe Manchin’s push to expand background checks makes the state less stable for their business,” the Charleston Gazette reports.
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.
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