“We often hear that words can’t hurt you. But that’s simply not true… Words do hurt. Words can kill. That has been proven right here in our home state.”
— Former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO), quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, at the funeral for Missouri state Auditor Tom Schweich (R), who killed himself last week.
Jill Lawrence: “Far be it from me to underestimate Hillary Clinton. She’s weathered scandals, tragedies, her husband’s affairs and impeachment and her own wrenching primary loss to Barack Obama to become her party’s leading 2016 presidential prospect by a mile. Make that a light-year.”
“Stipulate that the former secretary of state is on a different plane from most other Democrats when it comes to experience, endurance and popularity. And yet, as one damaging report after another emerges, it’s got to be asked: How dumb is it for Democrats to count so completely on this one person? What is their Plan B?”
“I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech — saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States… and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.”
— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), quoted by The Hill, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “forcefully argued against a nuclear deal with Iran, telling a joint meeting of Congress Tuesday that such an agreement would have the opposite effect of what the international community intends because it would effectively supply Iran with the means to produce a nuclear weapon,” the Washington Post reports.
“Netanyahu’s speech generated a swirl of controversy before it was even delivered and laid bare fissures between the prime minister and the Obama administration.”
Politico: “Netanyahu did not reveal new details of the emerging deal, which would lift some sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear ambitions. But the prime minister said provisions already made public would not only not end Iran’s programs, it would guarantee that it retains a nuclear weapons capability.”
Wall Street Journal: 10 key lines in Netanyahu’s speech
“David Petraeus, the best-known military commander of his generation, has reached a plea deal with the Justice Department and admitted providing his highly classified journals to a mistress when he was the director of the C.I.A,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Petraeus has agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, a misdemeanor. He is eligible for up to one year in prison but prosecutors will recommend two years of probation and a $40,000 fine.”
Politico: “The deal struck between Petraeus and the Justice Department would save Petraeus from the scrutiny of a public trial where details of his personal life and affair would be made public. He remains married to Holly Petraeus.”
Speaker John Boehner “told his restive flock Tuesday that he will allow a vote on a clean Homeland Security spending bill later today, citing concerns about terrorism and pinning blame on the Senate for failing to pass limits on President Obama’s immigration actions,” Roll Call reports.
“The Ohio Republican told his members the Senate’s DHS bill would be brought up for a vote after it arrives back in the House later today, according to a source in the room. That effectively leaves it up to the courts to rein in Obama — or not.”
Said Boehner: “Unfortunately, the fight was never won in the other chamber. Democrats stayed united and blocked our bill, and our Republican colleagues in the Senate never found a way to win this fight.”
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) had some harsh words for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who campaigned hard for his election last year, the AP reports.
Rauner said that New Jersey “is lost” he said the situation in the state is a disaster.
He added: “They’re going down the drain, and they ain’t turning it around.”
An audio recording clearly refutes claims Fox News host Bill O’Reilly “made in his 2012 book, Killing Kennedy, and again on air, that he had stood on the doorstep of the home where Lee Harvey Oswald friend George de Mohrenschildt committed suicide in 1977, and had actually heard the fatal shot being fired,” Bloomberg reports.
“The audio tape of the phone call between O’Reilly and Florida investigator Gaeton Fonzi shows that O’Reilly was not in Florida on the day of de Mohrenschildt’s suicide, and only learned of it when Fonzi called him.”
A must-read: 2016 and Beyond: How Republicans Can Elect a President in the New America by Whit Ayres.
“If the 2016 Republican nominee wins the same percentage of the white vote that Mitt Romney won in 2012 — 59 percent — then he or she will need to win 30 percent of the non-white vote to be elected. That is far greater than the 17 percent of the non-white vote that Romney achieved in 2012, or the 19 percent John McCain won in 2008, and better even than the 26 percent of the non-white vote that George W. Bush won his 2004 reelection campaign.”
“On the other hand, if the 2016 Republican nominee wins no more of the non-white vote than Romney’s 17 percent, he or she will need to win 65 percent of the white vote to win. That is a level of white vote achieved by only one Republican nominee in the past forty years: Ronald Reagan in his 49-state landslide reelection sweep in 1984, when he won 66 percent of the white vote… Republicans can complain about these trends, wring their hands over them, and get heartburn as a result. What they can’t do is change them.”
Former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell (R) “fired the opening salvo in a bid to get his public corruption conviction thrown out, arguing in a filing that the case against him was ‘built on a boundless definition of bribery,'” the Washington Post reports.
“There is some indication he could find success there. The appeals court overturned the district judge’s ruling that McDonnell report to prison by Feb. 9, allowing the ex-governor to remain free on bond while it takes up the case. It is a signal that the judges think there is an issue worthy of their consideration.”
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) announced he will not run for retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-MD) Senate seat, CNN reports.
Said O’Malley: “I am hopeful and confident that very capable public servants with a desire to serve in the Senate will step up as candidates for this important office. I will not be one of them.”
A new Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind survey in New Jersey finds just 35% of registered voters say they approve of Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) job performance, compared to 51% who disapprove.
Those figures mark the lowest approval and highest disapproval ratings ever recorded by the poll.
“Y’all have got a difficult problem.”
— Former Vice President Dick Cheney, quoted by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) in The Hill, offering advice to House Republicans on their problems passing a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
“The opening weeks of the 114th Congress have been nothing short of a disaster for Republicans, who declared upon taking control of both chambers last fall that the era of governing by crisis and fiscal cliffs was over,” The Hill reports.
“Since their declaration, House GOP leaders have yanked several high-profile bills from the floor after rebellions from rank-and-file members. Counting an emergency measure to keep the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) running through Friday, Congress has sent President Obama a total of only four bills, even as Republicans promised to get off to a fast start this session.”
Hillary Clinton “exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record,” the New York Times reports.
“Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.”
Washington Post: “It was not clear why Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, created the private account. But the practice appears to bolster long-standing criticism that Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have not been transparent.”
“Hillary Clinton is still weeks away from announcing her candidacy for president, but she’s already absorbing her share of damaging mid-campaign-style salvos from reporters and Republicans — without actual campaign staff to defend her,” Politico reports.
“Clinton, backed by Cheryl Mills, her most trusted adviser, has bucked the advice of many top Democrats — former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe personally urged her to staff up late last year — by pushing the hiring of many key staffers into the spring, until after her formal declaration. That has left Clinton, a defense-minded politician who coined the term “War Room,” without a rapid response team to offer robust explanations to reporters probing the fundraising and management practices of her family’s foundation — or even to muster an organized corps of surrogates to get out the talking points.”
President Obama told Reuters that Iran should commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on its nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached, but said the odds were still against sealing a final agreement.
Obama also said that “a rift over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress opposing the Iran deal on Tuesday was a distraction that would not be ‘permanently destructive’ to U.S. Israeli ties. But he said there was a ‘substantial disagreement’ between his administration and the Israeli government over how to achieve their shared goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”
“Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who is planning to make a second run for president in 2016 after his unsuccessful campaign four years ago, is putting more pieces of infrastructure in place,” the New York Times reports.
“The latest moves are for a super PAC, which can raise high amounts to support a candidate, that will back his effort. The super PAC is to be steered by Austin Barbour, a Mississippi-based lobbyist and political operative, according to three people privy to the staffing decisions at the group.”
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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