IBM has cancelled a ribbon-cutting for its new National Service Center in Baton Rouge because of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive order on “religious freedom” after the legislature rejected a law he backed, WAFB reports.
“In a letter to the governor, IBM executives said the legislation cut at the very heart of what their company stands for, equal rights and opportunity for everyone, discrimination for no one. The letter implored Jindal not to support any agenda that protected discrimination against LGBT people.”
“Racism, we are not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say n—– in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not.”
— President Obama, in an interview on the WTF podcast.
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“It’s experience and record. Amateur hour is over.”
— Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), in an interview with David Brody, on why he’s compelled to run for president.
Wall Street Journal: “Jonathan Gruber, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist whose comments about the health-care law touched off a political furor, worked more closely than previously known with the White House and top federal officials to shape the law, previously unreleased emails show.”
“Breathing a progressive political fire, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ignited Colorado supporters with a blistering condemnation of billionaires and corporations, drawing a crowd of nearly 5,000 to Denver — the largest of his Democratic presidential campaign since the May kickoff,” the Denver Post reports.
“The 73-year-old Independent spoke for an hour and hit a nerve on economic issues as he advocated for an end to income inequality as well as a higher minimum wage, pay equity for women and more government spending on infrastructure.”
“It is insane: the number of guns, and the ease of guns in America. It just doesn’t fit with the other achievements of this country. It’s a small — really small group, well-funded — that keeps this issue from being appropriately addressed.”
— Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley, in an interview on CNN.
GOP pollster Glen Bolger “made a bold prediction” that Hillary Clinton would not win the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary, Roll Call reports.
Said Bolger: “I think that Hillary is going to lose to Bernie Sanders in Iowa, I think she’s going to lose to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. Then Democratic primary voters will go, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing here?'”
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) blames the “rightward drift” in the United States for the atrocity at a Charleston church, where a young white man shot and killed nine African American members of a Bible study group, CNS News reports.
Said Clyburn: “I’ve been saying for some time now, my friends in the Congressional Black Caucus will tell you, I’ve been saying to them that there’s this rightward drift in the country that I think is going too far. And people get emboldened by all of this.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “dropped a few gun control jokes during his latest swing through Iowa, days after the shooting deaths of nine people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church,” the Huffington Post reports.
Said Cruz: “You know the great thing about the state of Iowa is, I’m pretty sure you all define gun control the same way we do in Texas — hitting what you aim at.”
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Democratic candidates hold small early leads in 2016 U.S. Senate races in Florida and Ohio, while incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) is ahead in Pennsylvania.
The Hill: “The wait is almost over for what could be the last big legal threat to ObamaCare. Court-watchers are working themselves into a frenzy awaiting a decision on King v. Burwell, one of the most-anticipated cases of the year.”
“On opinion days, dozens of reporters are packing into the court or swarming the steps outside, while nearly 10,000 people tune into SCOTUSblog for live updates. False reports attempting to predict the timing of the decision have only further fueled the hype.”
Bloomberg: “To be sure, the demographic math for Republicans is daunting and they continue to face huge challenges with Hispanic voters. Furthermore, Democrats do not have to replicate completely their high 2008 and 2012 turnout and loyalty performance among black Americans to win.”
“Still, Democrats must get close to that, and the challenges involved in getting close are just one more bit of evidence that 2016 will be a competitive contest and that there is no Democratic lock on the 2016 Electoral College door.”
A new Texas Tribune poll finds Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) leads the Republican presidential pack in Texas with 20%, followed by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 12% and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 10%.
Three more candidates — Ben Carson, Sen. Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee — each were the choice of more than 5% of those who said they would vote in the GOP primary.
New York Times: “The leader of a white supremacist group that has been linked to Dylann Roof, the suspect in the murder of nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church last week, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns, including those of 2016 presidential contenders such as Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul, records show.”
“Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have created national profiles by picking fights in the U.S. Senate, and the two Republican presidential rivals will soon have a chance to engage in another, as they oppose efforts to roll back automatic spending cuts enacted as part of a 2011 budget agreement,” Bloomberg reports.
“It’s a brawl that will allow them to portray themselves as principled guardians of the public purse against a classic Washington establishment combine: Republicans who are worried about cuts to the Pentagon budget and Democrats who didn’t want spending cuts in the first place.”
Pope Francis said that people who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, the Guardian reports.
“Francis issued his toughest condemnation to date of the weapons industry at a rally of thousands of young people at the end of the first day of his trip to the Italian city of Turin.”
Former Sen. Bob Torricelli (R-NJ) “has a hole in his soul, and he doesn’t hide it. He misses being a United States Senator, and he still winces when he remembers the day he dropped out of his re-election campaign in 2002 after being ‘severely admonished’ by his fellow senators on ethics charges,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.
“Torch, as he is known, wants back in to the political game. He has nailed it as a real estate developer over the last decade, building a fortune that friends put at more than $30 million.”
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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