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GOP Senators Rip Rand Paul

June 1, 2015 at 7:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 11 Comments

“The Rand Paul pile-on session began a few hours before sunset Sunday evening,” Politico reports.

“Behind closed doors in the Senate’s Strom Thurmond Room, Republican senators lashed out at the junior Kentucky Republican’s defiant stance to force the expiration of key sections of the PATRIOT Act, a law virtually all of them support. Indiana Sen. Dan Coats’ criticism was perhaps the most biting: He accused the senator of ‘lying’ about the matter in order to raise money for his presidential campaign, according to three people who attended the meeting.”

“The message may have gotten through to Paul except for one thing: The libertarian-minded senator skipped the hour-long meeting. That only infuriated his colleagues more.”

Sanders Gains Momentum in Iowa

May 31, 2015 at 6:52 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 107 Comments

New York Times: “The first evidence that Mrs. Clinton could face a credible challenge in the Iowa presidential caucuses appeared late last week in the form of overflow crowds at Mr. Sanders’s first swing through that state since declaring his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. He drew 700 people to an event on Thursday night in Davenport, for instance — the largest rally in the state for any single candidate this campaign season, and far more than the 50 people who attended a rally there on Saturday with former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland.”

“The first-in-the-nation caucuses, on Feb. 1, loom as a major test for Mrs. Clinton: She came in third in Iowa during her presidential run in 2008, and anything less than a decisive victory this time would rattle her shell of inevitability and raise questions about her strengths as a standard-bearer for an increasingly liberal Democratic Party.”

The Fix: “Yes, there’s actually some Bernie-mentum to the campaign of the senator from Vermont.”

Obama Trade Deal Hits Opposition in House

May 31, 2015 at 5:53 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

“The bruising battle over President Obama’s push for the power to negotiate two potentially far-reaching trade pacts will shift this week to the House, where the White House faces entrenched opposition from Democrats and the stirring of rebellion from the Republicans’ right flank,” the New York Times reports.

Flashback Quote of the Day

May 31, 2015 at 1:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments

“I was asked some time ago: Who do you admire most in the world? I said, ‘My sons.’ I really do admire Beau more than anyone I know. He’s a decent, honorable man.”

— Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), quoted by Roll Call in 2006.

Bush Says Court Will Rule Against Immigration Actions

May 31, 2015 at 9:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 60 Comments

Jeb Bush “predicts the Supreme Court ultimately will rule that President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration are unconstitutional, the AP reports.

Bush says he thinks Obama acted for “political purposes” and wanted to “create a wedge for Democrats to win elections.”

Mormon Rivals

May 31, 2015 at 9:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 5 Comments

Just published: Mormon Rivals: The Romneys, the Huntsmans and the pursuit of power by Matt Canham and Thomas Burr.

Kerry Breaks Leg in Bike Crash

May 31, 2015 at 8:53 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 12 Comments

“Secretary of State John Kerry was helicoptered to a Swiss hospital Sunday after a bike crash outside of Geneva, where he had been holding nuclear talks with Iran’s foreign minister,” the AP reports.

“Kerry suffered a likely leg injury, but did not lose consciousness… The top American diplomat was in stable condition.”

Beau Biden Dies of Brain Cancer

May 31, 2015 at 8:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments

Former Delaware Attorney General Joseph “Beau” Biden III, who grew up in the political spotlight because of his father’s career, died Saturday night after a long battle with brain cancer, the Wilmington News Journal reports.

“During his two terms as attorney general, Biden was beset by health problems. He suffered a minor stroke in 2010 that kept him out of office for several weeks. In 2013 he was treated at the University of Texas MD Anderson Center Center in Houston after becoming weak and disoriented on a family vacation, undergoing what a member of his medical team later described as surgery to remove a ‘small lesion’ in his brain. Yet after completing two terms in January, Biden said he wanted to run for governor in 2016 and in recent weeks his law firm said he had expanded his role.”

Clinton Seeks Billionaire Donors

May 31, 2015 at 8:33 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 14 Comments

New York Times: “Over the last few months, Harold M. Ickes, a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton, has helped organize private meetings around the country with union leaders, Clinton backers and Democratic strategists. The pressing topic: Who will step up to be the Democrats’ megadonors in the 2016 presidential race?”

“Republican contenders have already secured hundreds of millions of dollars in commitments from a stable of billionaires, including a Wall Street hedge fund executive, a Las Vegas casino magnate, a Florida auto dealer, a Wyoming investor and, of course, the Kansas-born billionaires David H. and Charles G. Koch. But none of the biggest Democratic donors from past elections — for example, the Chicago investor Fred Eychaner, the climate-change activist Tom Steyer and the entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg — have committed to supporting Mrs. Clinton on nearly the same scale.”

Graham’s Entry Shakes Up Race in South Carolina

May 31, 2015 at 7:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 9 Comments

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “barely registers in national surveys testing support for Republican presidential candidates. But here in South Carolina, which holds an early slot on the primary-election calendar, he is a household name who has won every race he’s run for 23 years,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“That makes Mr. Graham, who is expected to launch his presidential campaign on Monday, a wild card in an important state. Even if Mr. Graham doesn’t win here, his pull among voters, donors and campaign operatives is likely to change the calculation of other candidates.”

Hastert’s Contradictory Post-Congressional Career

May 31, 2015 at 7:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 12 Comments

“Dennis Hastert’s political winter in Washington has been defined by two seemingly contradictory traits. He shrank almost completely from the spotlight while becoming so dogged in the pursuit of wealth that it puzzled his longtime friends,” the Washington Post reports.

“After retiring from Congress in 2007, the Illinois Republican did not avail himself of the traditional perks afforded elder statesmen. He didn’t serve on commissions or join think tanks, never became an ambassador and rarely made media appearances to dole out wisdom. At the same time Hastert, 73, was relentless in pounding the K Street pavement, serving as a rainmaker for a law firm for the past seven years.”

Walker Leads GOP Pack in Iowa

May 30, 2015 at 7:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 125 Comments

Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Poll: “Scott Walker’s popularity streak in Iowa is real: He’s seven percentage points ahead of his nearest competition in the presidential horse race here, chased by a tight pack of four in a clear top tier: Ben Carson, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee.”

“Marco Rubio lags in a single-digit scrum, but a deeper look into the numbers shows that if Walker is the hare in Iowa, Rubio may be the tortoise, potentially positioned to pull ahead if he campaigns hard.”

Politics in the Late 1990s

May 30, 2015 at 11:43 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 61 Comments

Orin Kerr: “If I understand the history correctly, in the late 1990s, the President was impeached for lying about a sexual affair by a House of Representatives led by a man who was also then hiding a sexual affair, who was supposed to be replaced by another Congressman who stepped down when forced to reveal that he too was having a sexual affair, which led to the election of a new Speaker of the House who now has been indicted for lying about payments covering up his sexual contact with a boy.”

Hastert Passed Law That Led to His Indictment

May 30, 2015 at 11:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

Huffington Post: “On Oct. 24, 2001, then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) shepherded the Patriot Act through the House of Representatives… Little did Hastert know at the time that the law he helped pass would give federal law enforcement the tools to indict him on charges of violating banking-related reporting requirements more than a decade later.”

Paul Will Force Expiration of Patriot Act

May 30, 2015 at 11:18 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 37 Comments

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announced “that he will force the expiration of the Patriot Act’s surveillance authorities this weekend by refusing to allow any votes that would extend them beyond their June 1 sunset,” National Journal reports.

Said Paul: “I believe we must fight terrorism, and I believe we must stand strong against our enemies. But we do not need to give up who we are to defeat them. In fact, we must not. There has to be another way.”

Quote of the Day

May 30, 2015 at 11:11 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 53 Comments

“Recently, the CEO of Goldman Sachs let his employees know that he’d be just fine with either Bush or Clinton. I bet he would.”

— Martin O’Malley (D), quoted by the Washington Post, announcing his presidential bid.

How Did Dennis Hastert Get So Rich?

May 30, 2015 at 9:54 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments

Ana Marie Cox: “How did Hastert happen to have enough money lying around that paying out $3.5 million was even within the realm of possibility?”

“Hastert’s ability to participate in the blackmail is, after all, itself a general indictment of D.C.’s ‘revolving door’ money culture, in which former lawmakers move easily from government into lobbying. In Hastert’s case, the ability to profit off of one’s legislative position is especially galling: While in office, Hastert used the earmarking process to turn his investment in some Illinois farmland into a profit of 140 percent when a federal highway project just happened to make its way through those very fields. Indeed, it was this instance of a completely legal form of insider trading that helped prompt Congress to end earmarks.”

“And, of course, Hastert made even more money once he was out of office. One study found that, on average—and when the information is publicly available—former lawmakers get a 1,425 percent raise when they make the jump from Capitol Hill to K Street. Hastert, who was worth between $4 million and $17 million when he left Congress, was making $175,000 as a representative. His K Street bump would be to almost $2.5 million a year.”

Graham’s Bid Hopes to Make Case for Hawks

May 30, 2015 at 9:46 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 9 Comments

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “plans to enter the crowded Republican presidential primary field Monday with a campaign that probably won’t deliver him to the White House, but will highlight the party’s divide over national security,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Graham lacks the big-money backing and name recognition that’s likely to be needed to pull away from the party’s increasingly unwieldy field. But for him, that may not matter.”

“For the last several years, Graham, a former Air Force colonel and legal officer, has played a central role in a sometimes-bitter battle between the GOP’s traditional defense advocates and newly emergent isolationist-leaning libertarians led by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is also seeking the party’s presidential nomination.”