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Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) “isn’t wasting any time leaving Congress. The Louisiana Republican is expected to be appointed to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s cabinet at an event this afternoon,” Roll Call reports.
His appointment as the new head of the Louisiana Department of Veteran Affairs “will likely lead Alexander to resign from Congress, rather than simply retire at the end of his term. And that would mean another special election in the House.”
Noam Scheiber says that Democrats, who have an enormous advantage in upcoming presidential elections, shouldn’t have to worry about eliminating the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
“The point is just that, if you’re predicting who benefits from a filibuster-less world based on where we sit today, the odds favor Democrats because of the odds they’ll generally control the presidency.”
“More to the point, Democrats don’t even have to do away with the filibuster to exploit this advantage. The very fact that eliminating the filibuster is likely to benefit Democrats should strengthen their hand in any confrontation with Republicans over nominees and legislation–like, say, Obama’s three DC appeals court candidates. That’s because, once Democrats recognize that killing the filibuster is in their interest, they should become much more willing to do it, knowing full well that they can live with the consequences.”
The spurned mistress of Australian Liberal National Party MP Peter Dowling has written to parliament “detailing their sexual relations and pointing out where she believes the backbencher has misused his entitlements,” The Australian reports.
“The letter, tabled in parliament yesterday, follows the revelation Mr Dowling had sent text messages to the woman of pornographic images of himself, including one in which his penis is in a glass of red wine.”
The Brisbane Times has Dowling’s reaction: “I am not proud of the events plastered all over today’s paper. And I can’t and won’t defend any part of it.”
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A new Public Policy Polling survey in Georgia finds Gov. Nathan Deal (R) in good shape for a second term.
Deal leads Stacey Abrams (D), 37% to 34%, tops Jason Carter (D), 48% to 33%, and crushes Scott Holbomb (D), 48% to 28%.
Eliot Spitzer (D) “is unleashing a pair of new television ads Wednesday in the New York City comptroller’s race framing himself as an anti-establishment populist, a theme he has been hitting on the campaign trail since unexpectedly jumping into the race last month,” CNN reports.
“Both of the 30-second ads are titled ‘You,’ and portray Spitzer as a champion of working people standing up against special interests, corporations and Wall Street – “an independent voice,” as Spitzer’s campaign has taken to describing the former governor and attorney general.”
A new study finds that Democratic-leaning newspapers — i.e. those with a higher propensity to endorse Democratic candidates in elections — provide relatively more coverage of scandals involving Republican politicians than scandals involving Democratic politicians, while Republican-leaning newspapers tend to do the opposite.
“As the first-in-the-nation, you will have a big role in choosing our next nominee for president. My guess is that every one of the contenders would be better than whoever the Democrats put up. But there will only be one or perhaps two who actually could win the election in November.”
— Mitt Romney, quoted by CNN, urging New Hampshire Republicans to pick someone who can win in 2016.
Although the new WMUR poll in New Hampshire shows Hillary Clinton (D) and Chris Christie (R) topping their parties in a 2016 presidential primary, the most interesting finding of the poll is that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has slipped dramatically from his first place showing a few months ago.
President Obama appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and talked about his recent lunch with Hillary Clinton:
OBAMA: “I invited her. … She had that post-administration glow…. By the end of my first term, we had become genuinely close and I could not have more respect for her. She was a great Secretary of State, and I’m very, very proud of the work she did.”
LENO: “Did you notice her measuring the drapes or anything like that?”
OBAMA: “No. Keep in mind, she’s been there before. … So she doesn’t have to measure them.”
The Week: 7 takeaways from Obama’s interview with Leno.
Ron Brownstein looks at how the politics of abortion and gay rights are moving in opposite directions.
“Across the U.S., the two issues’ trajectory has strikingly diverged. Gay marriage has rapidly advanced through Democratic-leaning terrain. Meanwhile, in conservative states, Republican governors and legislatures have approved the most concentrated burst of abortion restrictions since the Supreme Court established the nationwide right to the procedure in 1973. In perfect symmetry, 13 states, almost all strongly Democratic, have legalized same-sex marriage, while 13 reliably Republican states have banned abortion at 22 weeks or earlier.”
Washington Post: “Even by the standards of modern political combat, the race to succeed Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) is an ugly contest between two candidates who are devoting vast resources to disparaging each other as unsuited for the job. Every day, it seems, Cuccinelli’s forces find ways to portray McAuliffe as an unethical and unprincipled carpetbagger, a political opportunist who doesn’t possess the government experience or knowledge of Virginia needed for the state’s top job. At the same time, McAuliffe’s team pounces at the chance to depict Cuccinelli as a conservative zealot who is anti-gay and anti-woman and whose views on social issues are too extreme for a state evolving into a hub of cosmopolitan life.”
In a rare diplomatic rebuke, President Obama canceled his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that had been scheduled for next month, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The decision reflected U.S. anger over Russia’s harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and growing frustration within the Obama administration over what it sees as Moscow’s stubbornness on other key issues, including missile defense and human rights. Mr. Obama will still attend the Group of 20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in early September.”
The Week: How bad will the fallout be?
South Carolina State Sen. Lee Bright (R) is expected to announce his primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) next week, the Columbia State reports.
“The primary race against Graham is becoming increasingly crowded with self-proclaimed conservatives seeking to unseat the moderate Republican who has brokered several deals across party lines, including a controversial immigration reform bill.”
Maine state Senate candidate Eric Brakey (R) told the Bangor Daily News that he’s proud of a video clip that includes footage of him dancing in a Brazilian Speedo. The video was done as part of a national ad campaign.
Said Brakey: “That’s my background, and I’m still doing a lot of acting. I’m an actor, and when I was working professionally in New York City this was a real fun, wonderful opportunity doing a commercial for a national brand.”
Of the 12 women who have now made sexual harassment allegations against San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (D), eight are female veterans and most were victims of sexual assault while they were in the military, CNN reports.
The women say Filner “used his significant power and credentials to access military sexual assault survivors, who they say are less likely to complain.”
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden speculated that “hackers and transparency groups were likely to respond with cyber-terror attacks if the United States government apprehends whistleblower Edward Snowden,” the Guardian reports.
Said Hayden: “If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?”
He said the “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years” may “want to come after the US government, but frankly, you know, the dot-mil stuff is about the hardest target in the United States. So if they can’t create great harm to dot-mil, who are they going after? Who for them are the World Trade Centers? The World Trade Centers, as they were for al-Qaida.”
“The 2016 presidential contest is more than two years away, and Hillary Rodham Clinton has not decided whether she will be a part of it. But the race to define her potential candidacy is well underway — and far outside her control,” the Washington Post reports.
“Already, independent super PACs have sprouted to boost or bludgeon the former secretary of state, and a television miniseries and documentary are in the works — projects one person close to Clinton called ill-conceived.”
“Clinton is trying to hover above the partisan fray for as long as possible, but some of her allies appear to be placing her back in it. Emily’s List, a group that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, is staging a town hall meeting Friday in Iowa to start making the case for putting a woman in the White House.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “waves off talk of a 2016 presidential run, even as his team has already started debating an issue lurking just beyond his November reelection: So-called ‘pay-to-play’ rules that bar federal candidates from accepting campaign contributions from investment firms that do business in their states,” Politico reports.
“It’s something any sitting governor who wants to run for president has to consider, but an especially acute problem for one across the river from New York City’s financial markets — and who’d be expected to lean on Wall Street types to help finance his campaign.”
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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