Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) “is laying the groundwork to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Max Baucus in Montana, and looks very much like a candidate,” the Missoulian reports.
Said one Democratic insider: “I would be shocked if he didn’t announce (soon) that he’s a candidate.”
Beth Reinhard: “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker polls near the bottom of would-be
presidential contenders. Unlike potential rivals, you won’t find him on
the cover of Time magazine or slow-jamming the news with comedian Jimmy
Fallon. But he’s a conservative Republican who won election in a blue
state, survived a brutal recall campaign, and now posts approval ratings
over 50 percent. A budget-slashing chief executive and son of a Baptist
minister who straddles the fiscal and social conservative camps. A
proven fundraiser who has put his thumb in the eye of President Obama
and Big Labor. He’s poised to be the sleeper Republican presidential
candidate of 2016.”
Roll Call: “When the Supreme Court takes on a key part of a voting rights law
later this month, Texas Democrats will be watching more closely than
anyone on Capitol Hill. The high court’s ruling could affect whether,
and how, the congressional boundaries in the state will be revised — yet
again.”
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Hassan Rowhani, the most moderate candidate in Iran’s presidential election, won with surprisingly large margins.
New York Times:
“But while the election of the new president, Hassan Rowhani, a former
nuclear negotiator who is considered a moderate compared with the other
candidates, was greeted by some administration officials as the best of
all likely outcomes, they said it did not change the fact that only the
country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would make the final
decision about any concessions to the West. Even so, they said they
wanted to test Mr. Rowhani quickly, noting that although he argued for a
moderate tone in dealing with the United States and its allies when he
was a negotiator, he also boasted in 2006 that Iran had used a previous
suspension of nuclear enrichment to make.”
The Week: 4 things you should know about Iran’s new president.
“John’s been better than I’m used to. There have been fewer volcanic moments.”
— Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), quoted by the New Yorker, on working with Sen. John McCain on the bipartisan immigration bill.
A new CNN/ORC poll finds President Obama’s approval rating dropped eight percentage points over the past month, to 45%, the president’s lowest rating in more than a year and a half.
Said pollster Keating Holland: “The drop in Obama’s support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition.”
“One of the worst abuses of power imaginable.”
— Vice President Dick Cheney, quoted by National Journal, on the IRS targetting of conservative groups.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who helped write a bipartisan immigration bill under debate in the Senate, said “conservatives who are trying to block the measure will doom the party and all but guarantee a Democrat will remain in the White House after 2016’s election,” the AP reports.
Said Graham: “If we don’t pass immigration reform, if we don’t get it off the table in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn’t matter who you run in 2016. We’re in a demographic death spiral as a party and the only way we can get back in good graces with the Hispanic community in my view is pass comprehensive immigration reform. If you don’t do that, it really doesn’t matter who we run in my view.”
“Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts,” according to documents seen by the Guardian. “Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.”
“The revelation comes as Britain prepares to host another summit on Monday – for the G8 nations, all of whom attended the 2009 meetings which were the object of the systematic spying.”
A new Pew Research study finds the news media coverage has provided a strong sense of momentum towards legalizing same-sex marriage. Stories with more statements supporting same-sex marriage outweighed those with more statements opposing it by a margin of roughly 5-to-1.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas will resign in the wake of a political scandal that has swept up his closest aide, the BBC reports.
“Pressure had been growing on Mr Necas to quit since prosecutors on Friday charged his chief of staff Jana Nagyova with corruption and abuse of power. Two former MPs, an ex-minister and the current and former heads of military intelligence have also been detained.”
A new Siena poll in New York finds Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) favorability at 58% to 34%, the lowest since he’s been governor.
A new Boston Globe poll finds Rep. Edward Markey (D) holds a solid lead over rival Gabriel Gomez (R), 54% to 41%, as the two enter the final week of the special U.S. Senate campaign.
When you include voters who said they haven’t yet made up their minds but are leaning toward a candidate, the race tightens slightly, with 54% favoring Markey and 43% favoring Gomez.
The New York Times notes the iciness between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “has been replaced by a powerful force in politics: expedience.”
“Mr. McConnell, 71, the embodiment of Washington establishment, and Mr. Paul, 50, a grass-roots insurgent who harbors a brightly burning presidential ambition for 2016, have formed an odd-couple, scratch-my-back alliance that stretches from Washington to Louisville. Some weeks, it can even seem that the balance of power has shifted between Kentucky’s junior and senior senators.”
Andrew Sullivan: “Well, we don’t yet quite know what’s in the works – but once you start arming one side of a civil war, you become part of that civil war; the other side may target you; and as this sectarian conflict deepens across the region, the US will be seen as a Sunni power fighting Shiites. I cannot think of a worse policy position for this country – to take stand on the sectarian fault-line of the Muslim world and back one side over another. You think the other side won’t notice? You think Americans wouldn’t be targeted for this kind of meddling? Let Putin get bogged down in this hell, if he remains so 19th Century he feels he must. But we should have zero interest in that ancient religious dispute; zero.”
David Hawkings flags a new Gallup survey which found that only 10% of those surveyed “described themselves as having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress, ranking it last on a list of 16 societal institutions for the fourth consecutive year. No institution has scored lower since Gallup started asking in 1973.”
“Underscoring the crisis of confidence, Congress was the only institution this year in which a majority expressed very little or no faith at all. The number was 52 percent; television news was the institution with the next most-pronounced lack of confidence, at 39 percent.”
North Korea “proposed high-level talks with the United States, saying that it was ready to discuss easing tensions and eventually denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula,” the New York Times reports.
“The North’s proposal indicated that it was shifting to dialogue after months of bellicose language, including threats to launch nuclear strikes at the United States and South Korea, that have raised tensions to the highest in years. North Korea had also proposed dialogue with South Korea this month, though their initial agreement to hold high-level dialogue in Seoul collapsed last week over a difference over the level of their chief delegates.”
New York Times: “Driver’s license photographs and biographic information of most Americans would be accessible through an expanded Department of Homeland Security nationwide computer network if the immigration legislation pending before the Senate becomes law.”
“The proposed expansion is part of an effort to crack down on illegal immigration by requiring all employers to confirm the identity and legal status of any new workers… But the proposal already faces objections from some civil liberties lawyers and certain members of Congress, who worry about the potential for another sprawling data network that could ultimately be the equivalent of a national ID system.”
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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