Political Wire

Members should sign in for the full experience.

Obama Picks Jack Lew for Treasury

January 9, 2013 at 11:14 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Obama will nominate White House chief of staff Jack Lew for Treasury secretary as soon as Thursday, Politico reports.

“In doing so, Obama is throwing Lew straight into the middle of an increasingly nasty budget war, the likes of which Washington hasn’t seen since the mid-1990s.”

“Lew should be prepared for this type of fiscal and political environment, though — he helped President Bill Clinton strike the 1997 balanced budget accord as a top official at the Office of Management and Budget, the agency he has since run for both presidents. And Lew played an important role in the contentious 2011 debt ceiling debate.”

The downside, according to Kevin Roose: Lew’s terrible signature would be on our money.

The Week: The right choice?

Will Al Franken Walk to Re-Election?

January 9, 2013 at 11:07 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

National Journal says Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) “uncontroversial first term” raises doubts “about whether Republicans can even recruit a first-tier candidate against the former Saturday Night Live funnyman.”

Said former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), who lost to Franken in 2008: “He’s been pretty much invisible. In that sense he hasn’t created a lot of enemies. I don’t know if that’s his strategy, but it’s a pretty good strategy if it is.”

The Best Way to Shut Down a Heckler

January 9, 2013 at 9:25 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Cloakroom: Sometimes it’s alright just to tell them to “shut up.”

Liberals Pledge to Remake American Politics

January 9, 2013 at 9:22 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mother Jones reports that a month after President Obama won reelection, “top brass from three dozen of the most powerful groups in liberal politics met at the headquarters of the National Education Association, a few blocks north of the White House.”

“At the end of the day, many of the attendees closed with a pledge of money and staff resources to build a national, coordinated campaign around three goals: getting big money out of politics, expanding the voting rolls while fighting voter ID laws, and rewriting Senate rules to curb the use of the filibuster to block legislation. The groups in attendance pledged a total of millions of dollars and dozens of organizers to form a united front on these issues–potentially, a coalition of a kind rarely seen in liberal politics, where squabbling is common and a stay-in-your-lane attitude often prevails.”

Why is Barney Frank Breaking the Rules?

January 9, 2013 at 8:48 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Steve Kornacki: “Barney Frank is breaking the rule of politics that says if you want a major appointment, you should never, ever talk about it publicly.”

“After all, there are a few reasons why it’s customary for appointment-seekers to keep quiet. One has to do with image-protection. How will you look if publicly campaign for a position only to be snubbed for it? If you never admit to being interested, at least you can always claim you never really wanted the job. This is apparently of no great concern to Frank, though.”

“The other obvious reason for staying quiet is strategic: Most people making decisions on appointments probably don’t appreciate a public pressure campaign. This is the risk to what Frank is doing. Because he has a national reputation, he’s created a real stir with his lobbying.”

Quote of the Day

January 9, 2013 at 8:36 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Actually, I don’t know what the hell the larger message is, come to think of it.”

— Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE), quoted by Politico, on the significance of Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of defense.

Obama’s Remade Inner Circle Has an All-Male Look

January 9, 2013 at 8:15 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “About 43 percent of Mr. Obama’s appointees have been women, about the same proportion as in the Clinton administration, but up from the roughly one-third appointed by George W. Bush… But Mr. Obama’s recent nominations raised concern that women were being underrepresented at the highest level of government and would be passed over for top positions.”

USA Today: Obama sticks to friends for top posts.

This Town

January 9, 2013 at 8:13 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Out in April: This Town by Mark Leibovich.

The book is described as “a blistering, penetrating, controversial — and often hysterical — look at Washington’s incestuous ‘media industrial complex.'”

Why Obama Isn’t Likely to Mint a $1 Trillion Coin

January 9, 2013 at 8:07 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Megan McArdle: “I think–and I assume the White House does as well–that there’s a substantial risk that this sort of nominally-legal-but-obviously-tendentious reading of the law would trigger a selloff in US bonds. Minting a $1 trillion coin neatly end-runs GOP obstructionists, but only by proving that the president himself has little respect for the institutional restraints on his office. So while the pundit in me is eager to see how this would play out, the US citizen in me is afraid of the effect that this would have on my country. I assume that our president shares these sort of concerns.”

Felix Salmon: “It would effectively mark the demise of the three-branch system of government, by allowing the executive branch to simply steamroller the rights and privileges of the legislative branch. Yes, the legislature is behaving like a bunch of utter morons if they think that driving the US government into default is a good idea. But it’s their right to behave like a bunch of utter morons.”

Rhode Island Likely to Lose a House Seat

January 9, 2013 at 8:04 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Since 2004, Rhode Island’s population has dropped by more than 24,000 people, an exodus unprecedented in the state’s history,” the Providence Journal reports.

The New York Times notes it’s likely the state will lose a congressional seat in the next redistricting in 2020.

Democrats Re-Establish Lead in Party Affiliation

January 9, 2013 at 7:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Gallup survey finds “an average of 47% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic in 2012, compared with 42% who identified as or leaned Republican. That re-establishes a Democratic edge in party affiliation after the two parties were essentially tied in 2010 and 2011.”

Tight Race for Virginia Governor

January 9, 2013 at 7:22 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Quinnipiac poll in Virginia finds a close race for governor with Terry McAuliffe (D) just edging Ken Cuccinelli (R), 40% to 39%.

With Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling running as an independent, the race stays tight with McAuliffe and Cuccinelli tied at 34% and Bolling at 13%.

A PPP poll yesterday found McAuliffe with a solid lead.

GOP Fever Hasn’t Broken

January 9, 2013 at 6:59 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Throughout the 2012 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress confidently predicted that the re-election of the president would break the partisan ‘fever’ they claimed had enveloped Washington and the Republican Party,” NBC News reports.

“But the weeks since the election have found Republicans as dogged as ever in their resistance to Obama, whose initiatives – including gun control, immigration reform and efforts to boost renewable energy – still face an uncertain path forward, particularly in an unruly House of Representatives still controlled by a Republican majority. And Republicans are signaling a willingness to go to great lengths to bend coming battles in their favor.”

Politico: “After four-plus years of embittered partisan combat, he views his GOP
bargaining partners with more than a little contempt, and he momentarily
vanquished enemies who just can’t say ‘yes’ to him.”

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

January 8, 2013 at 5:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Unfortunately when the Republican party needs to be a big tent party it seems to me we are doing everything we can to become a pup tent party.”

— Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R), quoted by WTVR-TV.

McAuliffe Stakes Out Early Lead in Virginia

January 8, 2013 at 3:54 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) leading Ken Cuccinelli (R) in the gubernatorial race, 46% to 41%.

If Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is thrown into the mix as an independent he gets 15%, with McAuliffe’s lead expanding over Cuccinelli to 40% to 32%.

From Montgomery to Memphis

January 8, 2013 at 3:33 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Out next week: King: A Filmed Record… From Montgomery to Memphis.

Christie Up By Huge Margins

January 8, 2013 at 3:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Fairleigh Dickinson poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie (R) absolutely crushing three potential Democratic challengers.

Christie leads Steven Sweeney (R), 65% to 19%, beats Dick Codey (D), 59% to 26%, and tops Barbara Buono (D), 64% to 21%.

Bonus Quote of the Day

January 8, 2013 at 3:16 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“His jobs package is a hurricane. I guess he prayed a lot and got lucky that a storm came.”

— New Jersey Senate president Stephen Sweeney (D), quoted by the Newark Star Ledger, on Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Hurricane Sandy before saying, “I shouldn’t say that. I apologize for saying that.”