The Italian political crisis deepened “when two party leaders ruled out the most likely options to form a government and avoid a new election,” Reuters reports.
“Populist leader Beppe Grillo slammed the door on overtures from center-left boss Pier Luigi Bersani with a stream of insults while Nichi Vendola, Bersani’s junior coalition partner, ruled out a government alliance with the center-right.”
These two options are currently seen as the only way to avoid another election.
Ashley Judd is contacting key Democratic legislators as she contemplates a U.S. Senate bid against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), according to Ryan Alessi.
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, is a leading candidate to become President Obama’s nominee as U.S. ambassador to Japan, Bloomberg reports.
The president has signed off on Kennedy’s nomination, but her vetting for the post hasn’t been completed.
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The Associated Press reports that the Homeland Security Department
official in charge of the agency’s immigration enforcement and removal
operations has resigned after hundreds of illegal immigrants were
released from jails because of government spending cuts.
Update: Politico reports the agency denies the story and says the official announced his departure “weeks ago.”
Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) announced in an email that he will not run for U.S. Senate, potentially clearing a path for Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to secure the Republican nomination.
Roll Call: “King was recently cited by a new GOP group formed to help the party nominate strong Senate candidates as an example of someone who would have a tough time winning statewide.”
Disgraced former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), who pleaded guilty last week to misusing $750,000-plus in campaign money, is writing a memoir, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Said a sources who has seen early drafts: “He has nothing else to do right now. He’s desperately trying to change the narrative of his life story.”
“Putting pen to paper is nothing new for people in trouble with the law. While former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was awaiting trial, he wrote The Governor, a book in which he blamed his downfall on overzealous prosecutors and political enemies.”
All presidential administrations have vacancies — that’s inevitable — but an analysis of appointments data by ProPublica reveals that more presidentially appointed positions were sitting vacant at the end of President Obama’s first term (13%) than at the end of Bill Clinton’s (11%) or George W. Bush’s (10%) first terms.
Key finding: “At least 68 of the positions remain vacant, including 43 that have been vacant for more than a year.”
“Some people could make the argument that a lot of people like being in abusive relationships. It’s a love-hate relationship. It’s very, very common for people to stick around with somebody they love who also abuses him or her.”
— New Hampshire state Rep. Mark Warden (R), quoted by the Concord Monitor, during a debate on a bill to reduce the penalty for simple assault.
Tom Goldstein thinks the questions this morning from Supreme Court justices indicate that “a majority of the Court seems committed to invalidating Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and requiring Congress to revisit the formula for requiring preclearance of voting changes. The vote seems quite likely to be five to four.”
USA Today: “The justices who could be the swing votes in an eventual ruling
suggested that an outdated formula built into the law now discriminates
against the South, much as Southern states discriminated against black
voters by erecting barriers such as poll taxes and literacy tests.”
Illinois state Rep. Jim Sacia (R) went on an epic tirade against Democratic legislators for forcing gun control on the entire state to deal with Chicago’s “run away gun problem” and said the state’s gun control laws are akin to asking him to get “castrated” because Chicagoans are having too many babies.
Said Sacia: “Here’s an analogy folks, I ask you to think of this: You folks in Chicago, want me to get castrated because you’re families are having too many kids. It spells out exactly what is happening here! You want us to get rid of guns…”
Hillary Clinton admitted she’s planning to write another memoir and BuzzFeed reports New York publishing types “immediately began speculating about what topics might be covered in the book’s pages, what publishing house would get the project — and, of course, what kind of monster advance she’d get for it.”
“Estimates for Clinton’s advance — the amount of money an author is paid before the book goes on the shelves — ranged from $5 million to $14 million. Her husband got $15 million for his 2004 autobiography, My Life, but as the publishing industry adapts to the digital age, seven- and eight-figure advances are hard to come by.”
Club for Growth Action launched a new website, PrimaryMyCongressman.com, to raise awareness of RINOs who are “currently serving in safe Republican seats.”
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The White House invited congressional leaders to the White House on Friday — the day that automatic federal spending cuts take effect — to discuss those cuts, NBC News reports.
“Republicans were quick to question why the White House would schedule the meeting only on the final day of the belabored back-and-forth over the cuts.”
Michael Kinsley chronicles how Republicans, and their affiliated media, are complaining “loudly about feeling bullied by their opponents.”
“Big, bad President Obama, creepy Harry Reid, that B-word Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the gang of toughs called the Democratic Party are picking on the poor defenseless GOP. As a campaigning theme, it seems insane. The GOP has long prospered by portraying Democrats as the wimps, dangerously weak and unfit for command. Does the name Michael Dukakis ring a bell? And in really heady moments, like 1984, when Reagan earned his second term, or 1994 and 2010, when sweeping victories in off-year elections seemed to foretell an imminent landslide, Republican fantasies of one-party rule involved the triumph of their party, not humiliation by the other side.”
“In fact, moaning about how weak you are compared with the opposition seems so obviously a political mistake that we can only reach one conclusion: This must be sincere.”
A new Hamilton Campaigns (D) poll in Florida finds Gov. Rick Scott (R) tied with Charlie Crist (D) in a potential 2014 gubernatorial match up, 41% to 41%.
The Cloakroom: The GOP makeover falters.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) tangled with Fox News host Sean Hannity in an extremely contentious interview which started with the Democratic lawmaker saying, “I mean, you know, quite frankly, you are the worst excuse for a journalist I’ve ever seen.”
☑️ Have you have ever wondered if or how the United States might break up? Now available as an audio book: A More Perfect Union: Reimagining The United States as a European Union-style Federation.
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.