Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told MSNBC that he has kept a list of between 12 and 16 “prominent” Republicans who have made attacks against him, especially over the immigration issue.
Three Men in a Room
One day after the arrest of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D), U.S. attorney Preet Bharara criticized Albany’s political culture, Capital New York reports.
Said Bharara: “There are by my count 213 men and women in the state legislature, and yet it is common knowledge that only three men essentially wield all the power. I must confess a little bit of confusion about this: When did this come to pass? Why has everyone just come to accept it?”
Flashback Quote of the Day
“There are no victories in Washington only varying degrees of defeat.”
— Former Sen. Wendell Ford (D-KY), quoted by the Louisville Courier Journal, in his obituary.
Bridge Scandal Runs Up Christie’s Legal Bills
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) 2013 re-election campaign account “has accumulated $804,108 in debt from legal bills incurred in the aftermath of the George Washington Bridge scandal,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.
“The campaign currently has $44,284 on hand and did not raise any money during the final three months of 2014.”
Is Kasich Taking a Different Path to the GOP Nomination?
“If Ohio Gov. John Kasich is thinking of running for president, he’s taking a very circuitous route. Mr. Kasich, one of several Republican governors seen as potential candidates, is spending much of this week traveling through six sparsely populated Western states to promote balancing the budget,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Why Republicans Can’t Stop Talking About Rape
Sarah Kliff: “The events this week are a reminder that for all the party establishment’s promises to swear off talking rape — no more Todd Akin or Richard Mourdock moments — the problem is much more than a series of rhetorical mistakes. There’s a deep philosophical divide between the core of the pro-life movement, which wants no exceptions for abortion, and those who side with the vast majority of Americans, who support access to the procedure for rape victims.”
“The distance between these two important factions is as great as it has ever been, so Republicans are sure to find themselves debating the question of rape again and again in the context of abortion — even as the party grapples with how to win over women voters ahead of an election that could have Hillary Clinton at the top of the other ticket.”
Winning the Nomination Again Won’t Be Easy
Joshua Spivak: “What separates Romney from other comeback presidents is that he’s already received his party’s nomination and lost once before. The recent comeback kids did not receive the nomination in their first runs for office. For example, both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush came in second in their earlier attempts for the nomination. Reagan, probably the most noteworthy candidate who ran more than once, boosted his name-recognition and his credibility with the party’s conservative base in his first two runs, especially when he almost toppled sitting President Gerald R. Ford in 1976.”
“But once you look at the candidates who received the nomination, lost the general election and ran again, the road back to the White House appears much tougher. The last person to lose as a nominee and then go on to win the presidency — or even to get his party’s nomination more than once – was Richard Nixon, who lost the election on a razor-thin margin in 1960 and then won triumphantly in 1968. Before that, it was fairly common for a party to renominate a candidate. William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic nominee three times and never won; Adlai Stevenson got the Democratic nomination twice in the 1950s; Thomas Dewey was the unsuccessful Republican nominee in 1944 and 1948. But all of these candidates share something Romney lacks: Their campaigns occurred before the advent of the current primary and caucus system for choosing a nominee. These earlier nominees needed only to appeal to the narrow support of a political convention.”
What Will Republicans Stand For After Obama?
Charlie Cook: “Obama’s progress toward irrelevancy will begin to accelerate rapidly this fall, with the onset of presidential nomination debates, when the campaign becomes more of a 24/7 affair. Given that, since 2009, the organizing principle for most Republican campaigns for the White House, the House, and the Senate has been to oppose Obama, Obamacare, and most other administration policies, Republicans need to think about what they are going to stand for as the end of the president’s time in office nears, and after he’s gone.”
Walker Hires Top Iowa Strategist
The team that is building Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s political organization for a possible presidential campaign has brought on a GOP strategist with Iowa ties, the Des Moines Register reports.
David Polyansky, “a Texan who played senior roles in two Iowa presidential campaigns and was the top strategist in Republican Joni Ernst’s successful campaign for U.S. Senate this past fall, will be Team Walker’s senior adviser in Iowa.”
What Pelosi Knows More About Than The Pope
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recalled for the Washington Post that when she was new to Congress and opposed a bill restricting abortion, “one of the Republican members got up and said, ‘Nancy Pelosi thinks she knows more about having babies than the Pope.'”
Responded Pelosi, who has five children: “Yeah. Yeah. That would be true.”
Clinton Documentary Stalls Over Control
“Martin Scorsese has tackled the mob, the Dalai Lama and the real-life Wolf of Wall Street. But he appears to have met his match in Bill Clinton,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Scorsese’s partly finished documentary about Mr. Clinton — which once seemed likely to be released as Hillary Rodham Clinton was navigating a presidential run — has stalled over disagreements about control, people briefed on the project said.”
Yemen Government Falls
“Yemen’s president and cabinet resigned on Thursday amid a standoff with a powerful anti-American militia, signaling deep uncertainty for U.S. counterterrorism strategy in the country and the future of a drone program in what has become a cornerstone of the global war on terror,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
First Read: “Folks, this is the single scariest thing going on in the world right now. It creates a dangerous vacuum in a dangerous part of the world. The United States used to have sway and influence with the old government. The new? Not so much…”
Matching Presidential Candidates With Their Predecessors
Brendan Nyhan: “Taking inspiration from sports analysts who use qualitative and quantitative methods to identify the best comparisons for individual athletes, I’ve identified the historical candidate who I think most resembles each of the top six G.O.P. contenders. I also created a computer algorithm that matched current and former candidates based on census region of origin and highest office attained, and also on similarities in age, favorability ratings, name recognition, estimated ideology and party presidential vote in their state. The resulting pairs help clarify where the field stands and suggest past elections that might provide useful precedents for the current race.”
Rubio Moves Forward With Presidential Bid
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “has begun taking concrete steps toward launching a presidential bid, asking his top advisors to prepare for a campaign, signing on a leading Republican fundraiser, and planning extensive travel to early-voting states in the coming weeks,” ABC News has learned.
Said one Rubio advisor: “He has told us to proceed as if he is running for president.”
“Leading the effort to raise the $50 million or more he’ll need to run in the Republican primaries will be Anna Rogers, currently the finance director for American Crossroads, the conservative group started by Karl Rove that raised more than $200 million to help elect Republicans over the past two elections.”
Why Romney Might Not Want to Run in 2016
The Fix looks at recent national polls and finds Mitt Romney “performs worse than he did in 2012 among almost every demographic tested (for which we have comparisons between the two polls and his 2012 showing). And that’s a comparison to an election that he lost.”
“He beat President Obama among independents by five points in 2012; he now trails among them by eight or nine points, depending on which poll you choose (we prefer WaPo-ABC). He won whites by 20 points in 2012; he now leads by just four or five points. He won males by seven points; he’s now trailing by 7-12 points. And on and on.”
Quote of the Day
“My grand-daddy used to say you don’t learn much from the second kick of a mule.”
— Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), quoted by Bloomberg, on Mitt Romney running for president again.
Conservatives Gather in Iowa
“The largest gathering of potential Republican presidential candidates so far will descend on Iowa on Saturday to test their messages at a forum shaping up as the informal starting gun for the 2016 campaign,” the New York Times reports.
“The event, which is being hosted by Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, offers Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, the most prominent establishment figure on the schedule, a chance to test his appeal among grass-roots conservatives.”
Politico: “Democrats are looking to turn a weekend event in Iowa being hosted by immigration lightning rod Steve King into a spectacle that sets the GOP further back with Latinos ahead of the 2016 campaign.”
Bush Continues Fundraising Blitz
“Jeb Bush is crisscrossing the country on a 60-event fundraising blitz aimed at raising enough money to give other Republicans second thoughts about entering the race,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The fundraising effort, which Mr. Bush’s team has dubbed a ‘shock and awe’ campaign, could be particularly meaningful for Mitt Romney, who is competing with Mr. Bush for support from the same small circle of longtime Republican donors.”
Bloomberg: “Bush tore through Washington this week, impressing the lobbyists and potential donors he met for the first time and leaning on old family friends to help raise huge sums of money as he considers a run for the White House.”
