“Watching Woodward last two days is like imagining my idol Mike Schmidt facing live pitching again. Perfection gained once is rarely repeated.”
— Former Obama adviser David Plouffe, quoted by ABC News.
“Watching Woodward last two days is like imagining my idol Mike Schmidt facing live pitching again. Perfection gained once is rarely repeated.”
— Former Obama adviser David Plouffe, quoted by ABC News.
Bob Woodward said last night that a senior White House official threatened him and BuzzFeed reports the official in question is Gene Sperling, economic adviser to the president.
Politico has the email exchange between the two and Woodward seems not bothered by the exchange. In response to
Sperling, he wrote, “I for one welcome a little heat; there should more
given the importance. I also welcome your personal advice. I am
listening.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio finds Gov. John Kasich’s (R) job approval is at an all-time high, 53% to 32%, the first time in two
years that he tops 50 percent.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “What a difference a few months make. Not that long ago, Democrats were licking their lips at
the prospect of taking on an unpopular governor who had a disapproval rating in the 50s. Now
his job disapproval rating is just 32% and his chances of re-election appear to be much
better than they were thought to be as recently as December.”
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Minnesota state Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R) said that homosexuality is a choice and form of sexual addiction, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Said Gruenhagen: “It’s an unhealthy, sexual addiction.”
“Gruenhagen made the statements after advocates unveiled their proposal to legalize same-sex marriage, which would make Minnesota among nearly a dozen states that allow gays and lesbians to wed.”
Bob Woodward told CNN he was threatened by a senior Obama administration official following his reporting on the White House’s handling of the sequester.
Said Woodward: “They’re not happy at all. It was said very clearly, you will regret doing this.”
“Injecting millions of dollars into elections from coast to coast, billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is building on a large-scale effort that began last fall to expand his influence beyond his home turf,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“His growing national profile was on display Wednesday when he visited the White House to talk to Vice President Joe Biden about new gun laws. The trip came one day after a Chicago congressional candidate backed by $2.5 million of Mr. Bloomberg’s money came from behind and won a special Democratic primary for former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s seat.”
Said Bloomberg: “Is it a harbinger of what’s to come? I think so.”
Stu Rothenberg
isn’t impressed:
“Pick a fight in a place where you have a substantial advantage and
where almost nobody else is playing, dump a ton of money attacking one
candidate and supporting another, and then declare victory when —
surprise! surprise! — your candidate wins.”
“Slavery and abortion are the two most horrendous things this country has done but when you think about the immorality of wild, lavish spending on our generation and forcing future generations to do without essentials just so we can live lavishly now, it’s pretty immoral.”
— Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), in an interview with Newsmax.
The Senate confirmed Jacob Lew to be Treasury secretary, “despite opposition from some GOP senators who criticized Lew’s part in budget negotiations and questioned his personal finances and connections with Wall Street,” Roll Call reports.
The vote was 71 to 26 to confirm Lew.
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.
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…”
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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