“George Prescott Bush is gearing up to run for a little-known but powerful office in a state where his family already is a political dynasty and where his Hispanic roots could help extend a stranglehold on power Republicans have enjoyed for two decades” the AP reports.
Said Bush: “We for sure are running, the question is the office.”
A new Gallup poll finds Congress began 2013 with a 14% approval rating.
“The lowest individual congressional job approval rating in Gallup’s history is 10%, measured in August of last year. The highest is 84%, measured in October 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”
“Chuck Hagel’s uncertain path to the position of defense secretary is turning in large measure on the stance of one senator, New York’s Chuck Schumer, whose opinion is likely to influence a group of fellow Democrats who, like him, have remained uncommitted,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It would be hard for Mr. Schumer, who is generally loyal to his party, to oppose Mr. Hagel. But the senator has won strong support among constituents and donors for being an advocate for Israel, and he has so far declined to endorse Mr. Hagel’s nomination, saying only that he needs to study his former colleague’s record and question him about it.”
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Greg Sargent: “In a move that will significantly ratchet up the brinksmanship around the debt ceiling, the four members of the Senate Democratic leadership are privately telling the White House that they will give Obama full support if he opts for a unilateral solution to the debt ceiling crisis, a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide tells me.”
“The four Democratic leaders — Senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin and Patty Murray — have privately reached agreement that continued GOP intransigence on the debt ceiling means the White House needs the space to pursue options for raising it that don’t involve Congress, and that the White House needs to know that Dems will support whatever it decides to do.”
“He’s partly right on that.”
— Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), an OB-GYN, quoted by the Marietta Daily Journal, on former Rep. Todd Akn’s (R-MO) “legitimate rape” comments.
Massachusetts Democrats and people close to Gov. Deval Patrick (D) tell National Journal that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) “has undercut his own explicit hopes for the seat likely to be vacated if Sen. John Kerry is confirmed as secretary of State. Frank’s very public lobbying for the job–he disclosed his aspirations on Morning Joe–make Patrick, the man who would have power of appointment, less likely to go along.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will not run for a sixth term in 2014, putting his U.S. Senate seat in play, Politico reports.
“I’m sure that I couldn’t get all 49 other governors to admit that they would want to be Texans. I’m thinking that Gov. Cuomo would not admit that he’d want to be a Texan.”
— Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), quoted by the AP.
More than a year after she dropped out, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) “has refused to pay five staffers from her failed presidential bid,” Salon reports.
The dispute “started when former Iowa straw poll staffers refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement that would bar them from discussing any ‘unethical, immoral, or criminal activity’ they witnessed on the campaign with police or reporters.”
Politico: “In a perfectly divided Washington, a mix of politics, policy and personality has made a comprehensive rewrite of the nation’s tax system — a top Republican priority — increasingly elusive in 2013, aides and lawmakers say.”
“The fiscal cliff has deepened distrust between the two parties. The politics have become riskier and more complicated. Time is short. And Washington has to first endure battles over the debt ceiling and scheduled spending cuts before tax reform can come under serious consideration.”
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) tells WBUR that he will support Rep. Ed Markey’s (D-MA) run for Sen. John Kerry’s seat if Kerry is confirmed as secretary of state.
Frank is lobbying for the interim appointment to fill the seat before a special election is held.
Meanwhile, sources close to former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) tell CNN he hasn’t decided yet whether to make his own run.
“For a man who spent 12 years in the Senate, Chuck Hagel will find himself with few close allies when the Armed Services Committee takes up his nomination to be secretary of defense this month,” the New York Times reports.
“Of the senators who will ultimately sit in judgment, 42 never served a day with Mr. Hagel. The ones who remain include powerful Republicans who clashed repeatedly with him over what was the singular issue of the time: the American invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath.”
President Obama “is trying an end run around the NRA — rallying groups as varied as churches, medical organizations, retailers and the Rotary Club to build support for new gun regulations,” Politico reports.
“It’s an unusual strategy but one the Obama administration has used before: projecting strength on an issue by trying to create the perception that the White House is riding a wave of momentum from the American people. It was the theme of Obama’s two presidential campaigns and was central to his campaign-style road show to tout his fiscal cliff priorities in December.”
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times says that requiring all gun buyers to pass a federal background check could be a key part of a White House plan to combat mass shootings.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told the Wisconsin State Journal that he hasn’t ruled out running for president in 2016.
But he added, “I’ve decided not to decide.”
“For now, Ryan said he and his family are enjoying settling back down in his hometown, Janesville, after traveling around the country last year while he was the Republican vice presidential hopeful and running mate to Mitt Romney.”
Fortune: “As President Obama approaches his second inaugural, one thing has become clear: The 2008 peacemaker politician has emerged as a skilled guerrilla warrior. If Bill Clinton’s tactical legacy was disarming his opponents by stealing their ideas — welfare reform, ‘personal responsibility,’ cutting spending — Obama’s may be his skill at dividing to conquer his Republican foes.”
“Conservatives were once the reigning champs of honing in and exploiting an opponent’s weakness. Under this President, Lee Atwater’s Sun-Tzu quoting descendants have met their match.”
Thomas Schaller: “Turnout rates historically move in tandem, with higher turnouts in both presidential and midterm cycles during the 1960s steadily declining before ticking up slightly during the past decade. So it’s instructive to pair midterm turnouts with either the preceding or subsequent presidential cycle. And in which recent midterms was drop-off greatest compared to the preceding presidential cycle? The 2010 and 1994 cycles — the most successful cycles for Republicans in the past six decades. The GOP captured both chambers of Congress in 1994, and in 2010 flipped the House and made key Senate gains that might have been still greater had Republican primary voters not nominated far-right candidates in Colorado, Delaware and Nevada.”
“It’s no mystery why Democrats generally perform better in presidential years while Republicans tend to excel in midterm cycles: Lower midterm turnouts tend to skew the electorate toward older, white and/or more affluent voters. Given the growing cleavage in recent decades between partisan preferences of white and non-white voters, cyclic differences in racial composition are particularly important.”
Politico: “In reality, no one. But there are a few emerging clues on staffers who would assume Plouffe’s multiple roles as the top in-house adviser on communications, messaging, political strategy and freelance Obama-whispering. Think Plouffe-by-committee.”
“Several administration officials tell me that current Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer… is likely to get an enhanced role sometime soon, and would possibly take over the messaging, comms and sounding board role that Plouffe occupied… It’s less clear who will take over the other half of Plouffe’s brief — since Obama shuttered the White House political office halfway through his first term.”
With many ridiculing Treasury Secretary nominee Jack Lew’s loopy signature — which will soon adorn all U.S. currency if he’s confirmed by the U.S. Senate — Yahoo News unveils the Jack Lew signature generator.
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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