Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will filibuster President Obama’s nomination of David Barron to fill a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Business Insider reports.
“According to his office, Paul will take to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to begin an old-fashioned, talking filibuster of Barron’s nomination. Paul opposes Barron because of his concerns about legal opinions Barron wrote in support of the use of drones against U.S. citizens.”
Businessweek looks at efforts by companies to encourage their employees to vote for establishment Republicans.
“The aim of the corporate coalition is to avoid the nomination of untested candidates who could hurt Republican chances of taking control of the Senate away from the Democrats in November, as happened in the 2010 and 2012 elections. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to retake the chamber. It’s also a mission to boost candidates who are better steeped in and more supportive of the business community’s agenda, including ensuring that the nation doesn’t default on its debt.”
A federal judge “struck down Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriages, a landmark ruling that appeared to clear the way for the Commonwealth to become the latest state to legalize gay marriage,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
“It was not immediately clear if Gov. Corbett, whose administration had defended the law, would appeal the decision. It has 30 days to do so.”
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Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who is serving the end of his 2-1/2-year sentence in an Alabama federal prison, told the Birmingham News that he has written two books while incarcerated.
They are titled The Tao of Jesus Christ and The Last Campaign: A Memoir.
A must-read: The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein.
It has a great cover photo too.
“Here’s how drastically Chris Christie’s political fortunes have turned: Bridgegate might not be his biggest problem,” Politico reports.
“Just as the New Jersey governor is trying to turn the corner on the traffic scandal and restore his national luster, now he’s getting blamed for a yawning budget deficit and recent downgrade of the state’s debt… Either way, the stream of bad headlines could undercut a central tenet of Christie’s comeback attempt and message in a potential 2016 bid: that he’s led an economic ‘miracle’ in the Garden State.”
“Growing allegations of mismanagement at veterans hospitals across the country are threatening to engulf President Obama in another scandal that brings into question his ability to make government work,” the New York Times reports.
“As a candidate, Mr. Obama denounced delays and poor care for veterans at hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs and vowed that his administration would fix the backlogs and dramatically improve care for those returning from the battlefield… But five-and-a-half years into his presidency, Mr. Obama has once again found himself exposed to political danger by a bureaucracy that seems out of his immediate control.”
Washington Post: “The White House is scrambling to contain growing outrage over delays in treatment and rigged recordkeeping at veterans hospitals as lawmakers on Capitol Hill prepared to vote Wednesday on a bill designed to help make it easier to fire career employees tied to scandals at the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs.”
“Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a campaign finance law violation, avoiding a trial that had been expected to begin the same day in a Manhattan federal court,” Reuters reports.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) “earned an extra $70,000 last year — an advance for her forthcoming tell-all book about Missouri’s 2012 Senate campaign,” USA Today reports.
“McCaskill announced last spring that she was working on a behind-the-scenes account of her headline-grabbing Senate race against then-Rep. Todd Akin. She has promised to detail how she helped boost Akin in the Republican primary, because she believed he would be the easiest candidate for her to beat.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) warned Republicans that he might push for Senate rule changes because of the standoff over consideration of nominations, Roll Call reports.
Said Reid: “I don’t plan on changing the rules today again, but how much longer can we put up with this? Even law enforcement officers… even law enforcement officers, as I’ve indicated here, they’re holding them up for no reason. You don’t hear people coming down here giving speeches about what horrible people the president selected to be the U.S. attorney in Louisiana, New Mexico and Connecticut, not a word. They just hide behind their obstruction.”
“Today is the closest thing to a Super Tuesday this primary season, and the results of voting in six states will set the stage for some of November’s marquee races,” Politico reports.
“The Democrats’ best hopes for Senate pick-ups are in Kentucky, where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell faces a tea party-inspired primary challenge, and Georgia, where a crowded field of Republican candidates will be narrowed to a two-way runoff.”
Poll closing times in Georgia and Kentucky are at 7:00 pm ET; Pennsylvania’s polls close at 8:00 pm ET; Arkansas’ closes at 8:30 pm ET; and Idaho’s and Oregon’s close at 11:00 pm ET.
“When someone is brave enough to write one of these books and call it ‘Screw Iowa and New Hampshire’ or something, then I might actually read it.”
— GOP strategist Mike Murphy, quoted by the New York Times, on pre-presidential campaign political memoirs.
Morning Line: “This is perhaps the biggest question of the night as the outcome could have far-reaching consequences for the battle this fall over which party will control the Senate next year. The Republican establishment would prefer to see one of three candidates ultimately emerge from the field of five contenders: businessman David Perdue, Rep. Jack Kingston or former Georgia secretary of state Karen Handel. The other two candidates running are Reps. Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey, who some Republicans see as weaker opponents against philanthropist Michelle Nunn, who is expected to easily defeat three lesser-known candidates on the Democratic side.”
“No candidate in the GOP primary is likely to clear 50 percent on Tuesday, so the top two finishers will advance to a runoff, which means they will spend the next two months debating who the true conservative is in the race and draining resources that could be useful come September and October, when voters really start to pay attention.”
Jonathan Chait: “The scientific consensus is stronger and more urgent than ever, while the political consensus is weaker than ever. Republicans are not even considering the notion of asking Americans to spend money to mitigate climate change, and are increasingly uncertain about the notion of even saving money to mitigate climate change. And into this simmering pot of reflexive opposition and anti-empiricism Obama will plop a highly ambitious and not very cuddly scheme to clean up the power-plant sector. It has already drawn strong opposition from the major business lobbies. It is likely to become the major point of conflagration of Obama’s second term.”
Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-MS) “legal team apparently held onto information concerning a man’s taping of the senator’s bedridden wife for as many as two weeks before turning it over to the police,” The Hill reports.
Meanwhile, the wife of the man who took the photos tells the Clarion Ledger that her husband “didn’t sneak into the facility, and that he appears to be a pawn in a big political game.”
The Chattanooga Times Free Press profiles Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) who is likely to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if Republicans take back the upper chamber.
“These days, as the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he’s more likely to be found in far-flung corners of the Earth. The blunt-spoken Chattanoogan has become a globe-trotter since he assumed his role on the Democratic-run committee some 16 months ago. He’s racked up visits to 55 countries, including hot spots such as the Syrian border and Ukraine.”
Said Corker: “I’m in a place where I have the tremendous privilege of waking up every day and being involved in the big issues that our nation is dealing with both here but also abroad.”
“For months, President Barack Obama has been telling donors that there’s nothing more important to him than the November elections. But many Democrats say their biggest worry for the fall is the president himself.”
“The problem, according to the nearly two dozen top Democratic operatives and outside allies who shared their frustration with Politico, is Obama’s investment — or lack thereof — in the midterms. The White House, they complain, has yet to broaden its economic message. The president has no set meetings with his political staff, and does little to help beyond headlining events to activate big donors. There’s no strategic direction.”
The Hill: “Top Democratic donors say they are exasperated by a lack of leadership from the White House on policy and are questioning whether they should throw money into midterm elections they believe won’t change Washington.”
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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