“It’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone.”
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by the Huffington Post, referring to “Rand Paul, Cruz, Amash, whoever.”
Paul Cleared Filibuster with McConnell
National Journal reports Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “had lined up the tacit approval of the GOP leadership” for his filibuster earlier this week of John Brennan’s nomination to be CIA Director.
“For a politician who earned his stripes as a political outsider, Paul’s filibuster performance and planning demonstrated his aptitude at the inside D.C. game.”
Meanwhile, RNC Chair Reince Priebus told the Des Moines Register, “I think it was completely awesome. I was excited about it myself. I couldn’t go to bed. I’m still excited about it.”
Tweet of the Day
Political scientists are going to have a lot of egg on their faces when a single dinner party ends all this polarization.
— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 6, 2013
Markey Leads But Remains Unknown by Many
A new UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll in Massachusetts finds Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) remains largely unknown by most voters despite a 36-year career in Congress.
Markey led all his prospective GOP opponents — Daniel Winslow (R), Gabriel Gomez (R) and Michael Sullivan (R) — by double digits in the poll, but he did not crack the 50% mark against any of the little-known Republicans.
In the Democratic primary, Markey is way ahead of Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), 50% to 21%.
Quote of the Day
“The public gets its information from the media, and the media is a shell of what it was before.”
— New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, quoted by the New York Times.
Man Accused of Embezzling $274K in Campaign Donations
Police say a man in Lexington, KY stole $274,000 in campaign-contribution checks intended for the Democratic Governors Association, the Jessamine Journal reports.
Clinton Seeks to Repeal Law He Signed
Bill Clinton writes in the Washington Post that as the president who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, he has come to believe that the act is contrary to freedom, equality and justice.
“When I signed the bill, I included a statement with the admonition that ‘enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination.’ Reading those words today, I know now that, even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law is itself discriminatory. It should be overturned.”
Andrew Sullivan: “He knew it then of course too. But it’s churlish to cavil. If we can forgive Ken Mehlman, we can surely forgive Bill Clinton. And welcome him to the civil rights cause of our time.”
The Week: 4 signs than DOMA is doomed.
Berlusconi Gets Jail Sentence
“An Italian court sentenced ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to one year in jail over the publication by his family’s newspaper of a transcript of a leaked wiretap connected to a banking scandal in 2006,” Reuters reports.
“However, judicial sources said the charges will expire in mid-September, before an appeal trial can be completed, because of the statute of limitations. So no matter what happens in the appeal, it is unlikely that Berlusconi would serve time in jail.”
Paul Says He’s Considering White House Bid
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) acknowledged to Politico that he was “seriously” considering running for president in 2016.
Said Paul: “I think our party needs something new, fresh and different. What we’ve been running — nothing against the candidates necessarily — but we have a good, solid niche in all the solidly red states throughout the middle of the country.”
Obama Sets Timeline for Grand Bargain
President Obama “wants to complete a grand bargain to reduce the deficit by the end of July, an aggressive timeline coinciding with the expiration of the nation’s debt limit,” The Hill reports.
Obama told the Republican senators who had dinner with him last night “that a deficit-reduction deal needs to happen in the next four to five months.”
Madigan Mulls Bid for Illinois Governor
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) “spoke with several of the nation’s top progressive groups during a visit to Washington D.C. last week, further fueling expectations that the popular Democrat will run for governor in 2014,” Politico reports.
“Madigan is weighing a campaign for the state’s top office even though the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Pat Quinn, has said he plans to seek another term.”
Chavez Body to be Permanently Displayed
Venezuela’s acting president says Hugo Chavez’s embalmed body will be permanently displayed in a glass casket so that “his people will always have him,” the AP reports.
Levin Will Not Run Again
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said he will not seek re-election in 2014, the Detroit News reports.
Levin, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, has been in the Senate since 1979. He said it was an “extremely difficult” decision.
Detroit Free Press: “Levin’s departure could come at a bad time for Democrats as they look for a strong candidate to take on Republican Gov. Rick Snyder but Michigan has had few Republicans succeed at winning U.S. Senate seats in recent elections – the most recent being Spencer Abraham in 1994, who served one term before being beaten by the state’s junior senator, Democrat Debbie Stabenow.”
Brennan Confirmed as CIA Director
The Senate voted 63 to 34 to confirm John Brennan as head of the CIA, Roll Call reports.
“Immediately preceding his confirmation, the Senate voted 81-16 to overcome an attempted filibuster of the nomination. Sixty votes were needed, but that hurdle was easily met when Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) dropped his hold on Brennan. Paul did so after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. acceded to his demand to answer whether the president could order a drone strike against a U.S. citizen on American soil.”
Filibuster in the Age of Social Media
Walter Shapiro: “In all likelihood, not even Paul in his most grandiose moments could have imagined how one senator’s determination to keep talking until tomorrow would play in an era of social media.”
“In the 19th century, the word would spread like wildfire through Washington that an orator like Daniel Webster was on his feet in the Senate. On Wednesday, political junkies and dedicated libertarians were alerted by Twitter and their Facebook feeds that Paul was on his feet conducting an old-fashioned filibuster. And viewed on C-Span, the substantive spectacle was oddly hypnotic.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“It seemed to be kind of spontaneous. People just started coming to the
floor, first the other senators and then like 15 or 20 congressman came
over, and that doesn’t happen very often, so we were pretty excited
about that.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by Politico, on the support for his filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA.
RNC Autopsy Will Address Debates
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus revealed in a
radio interview that an internal review of what went wrong in the 2012 elections
will be released on March 18, Roll Call reports.
“Specifically, he said the report will address whether the party will
take control of the debates, including which network televises them and
which journalists serve as moderators.”
Turn Bush Home into a National Park?
Rep. Mike Conway (R-TX) has asked for a “reconnaissance survey” of the Bush family home in Midland, Texas in an effort to turn the property into a part of the National Park Service, the Abilene Reporter News reports.
The Bush family lived in the home for four years, from 1951 to 1955.
