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“We were on a roller coaster, exciting and thrilling, ups and downs. But the ride ends. And then you get off. And it’s not like, oh, can’t we be on a roller coaster the rest of our life? It’s like, no, the ride’s over.”
— Mitt Romney, in an interview to air on Fox News Sunday, breaking his post-election silence.
Speaker John Boehner, “the man who spent significant portions of the last Congress shuttling to and from the White House for fiscal talks with President Obama that ultimately failed twice to produce a grand bargain, has come around to the idea that the best negotiations are no negotiations,” the New York Times reports.
“While the frustrations of Congressional Democrats and Mr. Obama with Mr. Boehner are reaching a fever pitch, House Republicans could not be more pleased with their leader.”
“Throwing unprecedented political weight into legalizing same-sex marriage, the Obama administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down California’s ban on gay nuptials,” the San Jose Mercury News reports.
“In a friend-of-the-court brief, the administration for the first time stepped into the four-year legal battle over Proposition 8, arguing that the 2008 voter-approved law violates the federal equal protection rights of gay and lesbian couples and does ‘not substantially further any important government interest.'”
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A new Harper Polling survey of likely voters finds that Republicans are seen as most responsible for the sequester, 46% to 40%.
“The lesson here is that President Obama is on a roll. He has adeptly pinned responsibility for the sequester on Republicans, despite it not being true. It is a remarkable feat by the White House and maddening for Republicans.”
After roughly a year and a half after its expiration, the Violence Against Women Act passed the House by 286-138 vote and will soon be reauthorized once it garners the president’s signature, NBC News reports.
The House vote was significant, because, for the third time this year, on a significant piece of legislation, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) showed a willingness to bring a bill to the floor without abiding by unwritten, so-called Hastert Rule.
“Being from New York we’re not supposed to be suckers. It’s bad enough that these guys voted against it, that’s inexcusable enough. But to have the balls to come in and say, ‘We screwed you now make us president?'”
— Rep. Peter King (R-NY), quoted by Politicker, urging donors to cut off Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and others who “threw a knife in the back in New York” by voting “no” on the Hurricane Sandy relief bill.
Ross Douthat: “Paul has done what successful politicians tend to do: He’s picked his battles, done outreach to his critics, and consistently framed his arguments in language that conservative voters and activists understand. This has enabled him to break with the party’s hawkish tilt on a number of substantive questions, from the Libya and Syria debates to issues of executive power to the question of whether containment should be an option for dealing with Iran, without coming in for anything like the attacks that greeted Hagel’s nomination. He’s put his foot in his mouth here and there and taken fire from both his friends and foes along the way, and future world events (particularly events related to Iran) may upset his tightrope walk. But at the moment he seems like living, breathing proof that there’s room for actual foreign policy debate within the Republican coalition, and that not every non-hawk need be dismissed as a RINO and read out of the party.”
Ezra Klein: “Insofar as there’s a long-term strategy here, it comes down to 2014. Republicans feel that this is a defensive year for them, and if they can resist further tax increases while locking in some spending cuts, that will be more than they could reasonably have expected in the days after the election. But in 2014, they expect the implementation of Obamacare to be a debacle that will give them an opportunity to mount a policy offensive against the White House. If they can just get through this year and get to 2014, their position will strengthen considerably.”
Republican voters picked ex-convict Paul McKinley (R) as their nominee to run for the seat recently ceded by former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr, the Chicago Tribune reports.
McKinley, a convicted felon who served nearly 20 years in state prison for burglaries, armed robberies and aggravated battery, declared victory, beat businessman Eric Wallace (R) by 23 votes.
Former Nixon Commerce Secretary Pete Peterson tells Businessweek that he’s already spent $500 million — half of his fortune — on the cause of deficit reduction.
First Read explains why yesterday’s decision by Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) not to run for Senate in Iowa — opening a much clearer path for Rep. Steve King (R-IA) — is so important: “If you take this seat off the map for Republicans – and it’s very premature to do that – then they almost have to run the table on all their other Senate opportunities to win back the Senate.”
“Remember, Republicans have to pick up six seats to take control of the upper chamber. If you give them West Virginia (Rockefeller retiring) and South Dakota (possible Tim Johnson retirement), then Republicans still needs to win four out of these five seats where Dems are probably running for re-election: Alaska (Begich), Arkansas (Pryor), Louisiana (Landrieu), Montana (Baucus), and North Carolina (Hagan). In other words, if Iowa is in play for Republicans, they don’t need to knock off as many Dem incumbents. If it isn’t in play, then they almost have to run the table.”
“One other point here: King would probably have little chance of winning a Senate contest in a presidential year, but he does have a chance in a midterm cycle, so folks ought to be careful making assumptions.”
Karl Rove defended his move to get involved in Republican primary races across the country, saying a new vetting process would prevent “poor candidates” from giving Democrats an edge in critical races, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Said Rove: “My posterior was shredded a little bit by donors wondering why we are writing checks for people who then turn around a run such lousy campaigns.”
Time has new details on the White House debate in which President Obama ultimately committed to preventing an Iranian nuke by force if necessary.
“Every current and former official interviewed for this story believes Obama will resort to war if necessary to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But only Obama knows for sure… As a former senior official says of the coming year, ‘we are entering the final stages of this drama.'”
A new Brown University poll in Rhode Island finds Providence Mayor Angel Taveras (D), a likely candidate for governor next year, is the most popular politician in Rhode Island with a job approval rating of 64%. Another potential candidate, Treasurer Gina Raimondo (D), scored a 56% approval rating.
In contrast, Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s (I) approval rating is a dismal 26%.
First Read: “A bad spending cut for many Republicans is easier to defend than any supposed fair tax hike on anyone. So if the White House really wants to stop the sequester, they might have to come up with their own set of $85 billion in spending cuts for this year to replace it. In this political environment, there is no way Boehner, McConnell and Cornyn can politically survive doing anything short of that. The president can still get more revenue down the road on tax reform, but he may have to fold on sequester if he wants a chance at winning in the long run. But that’s also a hard thing to ask a president who just won re-election on this very issue.”
According to Roll Call, Boehner yesterday told Republicans, “We’re on the side of the angels.”
A key suspect in a criminal case tied to former Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) “will officially switch his plea to guilty in three federal charges for illegal campaign activity,” the Miami Herald reports.
“Justin Lamar Sternad’s admission of wrongdoing next Wednesday will be another sign that he’s cooperating with the federal government in its investigation of Rivera.”
Steve Kornacki says that, despite his snub by CPAC, Chris Christie still should be considered a very viable candidate for the 2016 presidential nomination.
“He hasn’t passed the ideological point of no return on any litmus test issues, is much more conservative than the ‘moderate’ label that’s frequently attached to him suggests, and will be free after this November to recalibrate himself for the national GOP stage. There’s also the matter of his personality. Political science tells us that this doesn’t matter in campaigns, but I don’t quite agree. His charisma isn’t the only reason Christie rocketed to national political fame over the past few years, but it’s certainly a big part of the equation. I may be a little biased on this, since I began watching Christie up-close a decade ago, but I’ve long believed there’s is something about his style that makes people – especially Republicans – want to like him and support him.”
Matt Lewis: Christie is the new Jon Huntsman.
“Watching Woodward last two days is like imagining my idol Mike Schmidt facing live pitching again. Perfection gained once is rarely repeated.”
— Former Obama adviser David Plouffe, quoted by ABC News.
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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