“I’m for tradition marriage. I think marriage is between a man and a woman. Ultimately, we could have fixed this a long time ago if we just allowed contracts between adults. We didn’t have to call it marriage, which offends myself and a lot of people.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by the Washington Blade.
Just published: The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society by Julian E. Zelizer.
“Between November 1963, when he became president, and November 1966, when his party was routed in the midterm elections, Lyndon Johnson spearheaded the most transformative agenda in American political history since the New Deal, one whose ambition and achievement have had no parallel since.”
Jack Shafer notes that “while reporters operate in insect time, buzzing over facts and queries that may have a life of hours, days, or weeks before expiring in a natural death, the Clintons operate in geological time. She and her campaign staff have a 20-month-long runway in front of them, and like a glacier they will patiently grind their opponents into gravel by applying time and pressure.”
“In the Clinton team’s Machiavellian view, directly responding to the press corps’ questions on the press corps’ timetable will only give greater longevity to the story. The longer Hillary Clinton sits tight and allows the email collection and vetting ‘process’ to work in the background, issuing assurances that she’s now in complete compliance, the better off she will be. The press insects will lose interest and move on to other, more juicy sources of meat. A reporter can’t write something about nothing very many times before editors and readers rebel.”
“Clinton’s political foes and the press tend to view her glacial strategy as stonewalling—without acknowledging that good stonewalls make good politics and sometimes even better press coverage. Everybody knows the press has a short attention-span.”
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“I like Hillary Clinton and I respect Secretary Clinton. I didn’t come here to talk about Secretary Clinton. I can tell you that in any of my dealings with her, or with the president, they have always been decent and straight up and honest with me. I also know for a fact that that foundation’s done a lot of good work to help a lot of people that are in need around the world–and I’ll leave it to them to answer more specific things.”
— Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), quoted by Bloomberg, during a visit to New Hampshire.
“Unemployment fell in every state and the nation’s capital last year—something that hadn’t happened since 1984,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Unemployment fell the most in Illinois, where the rate dropped 2 percentage points from the prior year to an average 7.1%. The rate declined by 1.8 points in Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio.”
“North Dakota, at the center of the nation’s energy boom of the past few years, had the lowest jobless rate of any state at 2.8% last year.”
A new analysis shows that, for the first time, a majority of Americans — 56% — support same-sex marriage. Overall, support is up 8 points since 2012 and 45 points since 1988.
“Support for same-sex marriage among Republicans increased from 31% in 2012 to 45% in 2014. This increase is larger than the increase among Democrats and independents, although Republican support still lags behind those groups.”
“Donna Shalala, a former Clinton administration cabinet secretary, will take over as head of the Clinton Foundation at a moment when the charity’s fundraising practices have created political turbulence for Hillary Clinton ’s emerging presidential campaign,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The move means two seasoned veterans of Bill Clinton ’s administration will likely play powerful roles in the family’s future. John Podesta, who served as White House chief of staff in Mr. Clinton’s second term, is expected to become chairman of Hillary Clinton’s likely presidential campaign.”
“On a recent Monday at Washington’s Willard InterContinental hotel, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was schooled on the world by some of the GOP’s leading foreign-policy lights. In a two-hour tutorial, seated around a table in the Taft Room sipping sodas and coffee, they used detailed regional maps to lead the likely presidential candidate on a tour of the globe’s hot spots: Israel and the Middle East, Latin America, Russia and Ukraine.,” the Washington Post reports.
“The reason for Walker’s crash course was urgent: He has not impressed many leading Republicans with his grasp of foreign affairs. He drew mockery from members of both parties last month for refusing to talk about foreign policy on a trip to London and then for comparing his experience battling labor protesters to taking on Islamic State terrorists.”
“There are so many reasons for Republicans to ignore Iowa… And yet, despite predictions that Republicans would break the costly habit of campaigning in this unrepresentative state, they are trekking to Iowa like never before,” the New York Times reports.
“Nearly a dozen 2016 hopefuls are arriving here Saturday for what the political class indelicately terms a ‘cattle call.’ Appropriately, it will be at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, a fabled venue for politicians every August — but cold and barren in March.”
President Obama “is laying out plans for a post-presidential period that his friends envision as a busy third act of his life, using his public prominence to try to address socioeconomic challenges in the world,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Economic empowerment for the disadvantaged, expanded opportunities for girls and the programs that help young men in the project that he calls ‘becoming a man’ all are likely to figure in the agenda of the last two years of his presidency and afterward, according to people close to him.”
Jeb Bush said that he found it “baffling” that Hillary Clinton used a private e-mail server while secretary of state, the Washington Post reports.
Said Bush: “For security purposes, you need to be behind a firewall that recognizes the world for what it is, and it’s a dangerous world, and security would mean that you couldn’t have a private server. It’s a little baffling, to be honest with you, that didn’t come up in Secretary Clinton’s thought process.”
An aide to former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO) said that she was on the phone with Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich (R) — “discussing his angst over perceived rumors about his religion — just moments before he killed himself,” the AP reports.
“Martha Fitz said in a written statement that Schweich threatened to kill himself during their conversation and then handed the phone to his wife, Kathy.”
Said Fitz: “Seconds later, I heard Kathy say, ‘He shot himself!'”
“A familiar problem for House Speaker John Boehner has a new name: the House Freedom Caucus,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Little more than a month ago, nine House Republicans formed the latest group dedicated to pulling policy to the right. One funding fight with GOP leaders later, the Freedom Caucus is expanding, according to lawmakers.”
“As the group has grown, so, too, has frustration among fellow Republicans that the conservative faction’s strategy is undercutting GOP efforts to demonstrate it can govern competently, now that the party controls both chambers of Congress.”
The Justice Department is preparing to bring criminal corruption charges against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), “alleging he used his Senate office to push the business interests of a Democratic donor and friend in exchange for gifts,” CNN reports.
“People briefed on the case say Attorney General Eric Holder has signed off on prosecutors’ request to proceed with charges, CNN has learned exclusively. An announcement could come within weeks. Prosecutors are under pressure in part because of the statute of limitation on some of the allegations.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “maintains unwavering control over Democratic members of the House on legislation — in contrast to the House speaker, John A. Boehner, who continues to struggle with his cacophonous caucus — and she may be a surprisingly vital tool for the White House at the end of President Obama’s tenure,” the New York Times reports.
“Her lasting authority was demonstrated this week when she helped pass a measure from the Senate to avoid yet another government shutdown. That vote ‘strengthened our hand,’ Ms. Pelosi said, a sentiment that many Republicans, who are eager to show that they can effectively govern, agree with, teeth clenched.”
Charlie Cook: “Acknowledging that much will inevitably change, at this point Bush and Walker each seem to have about a 1-in-3 chance of winning the nomination—call it 35 percent for each. There’s maybe a 1-in-5, or 20 percent, chance that the nod will go to any tea-party candidate, so let’s give Cruz and Paul each a 10 percent chance. The rest of the field gets the remaining 10 percent; right now, that’s what I estimate is the likelihood that someone other than one of the aforementioned four will win the nomination.”
Give your own odds in the comments.
First Read says Hillary Clinton’s email controversy doesn’t hurt her with Democrats but “has created two lasting issues for her all-but-certain presidential campaign.”
“One, it’s already led to a new congressional Republican investigation, which could last for months. And here’s the thing about fishing expeditions: You never know what you’re going to catch… Two, the episode has already revealed a pretty hostile relationship with the political press corps. Being a frontrunner means you get tough press, but there’s a difference between getting tough press and getting NO benefit of the doubt from the media. And right now on this story, Clinton doesn’t have the benefit of the doubt.”
Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza decried Hillary Clinton’s “lawlessness” in a Skype interview from San Diego, California, where he is currently serving his eight month sentence in a “community confinement center” for violating campaign finance laws, Mediaite reports.
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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