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Democrats Start to Worry About Clinton

March 11, 2015 at 8:44 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 59 Comments

“Senior Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Clinton is not ready to run for president, fearing that the clumsy and insular handling of the nine-day fracas over her private e-mails was a warning sign about the campaign expected to launch next month,” the Washington Post reports.

“Few Democrats believe that the revelations about her unorthodox e-mail practices as secretary of state are a substantive issue that would damage Clinton with voters, and many said she performed adequately in a Tuesday news conference defending herself. But in interviews Wednesday with The Washington Post, current and former Democratic officeholders and operatives from across the country raised serious questions about her and her political team’s strength and readiness for a 2016 presidential campaign.”

The Media May Be Clinton’s Toughest Adversary

March 11, 2015 at 8:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 10 Comments

“With no other powerful Democrats likely to run against her, Hillary Clinton’s toughest adversary for her party’s presidential nomination in 2016 has now become clear. It is an opponent that challenged her in the early 1980s over her use of her maiden name — and was hectoring her again on Tuesday over her use of personal email for State Department business,” the New York Times reports.

“How she and her emerging campaign organization react to critical articles and unwelcome surprises from the news media, as well as to questions posed by journalists in Democratic primary debates, will reveal her strengths and weaknesses as a candidate in some of the same ways that running against Mr. Obama did in 2007 and 2008.”

House Plans Subpoena Over Clinton Emails

March 11, 2015 at 4:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 27 Comments

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said he “was prepared to subpoena former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to answer questions about her private email accounts,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Chaffetz said his committee “would by Friday formally request answers to a series of questions from the State Department and Mrs. Clinton about the former secretary and presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential candidate’s email. The committee will seek, among other things, access to the electronic versions of Mrs. Clinton’s emails, not merely the printed copies she said she submitted to the State Department.”

Conway Has Edge for Kentucky Governor

March 11, 2015 at 3:39 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 9 Comments

A new SurveyUSA poll in Kentucky finds Jack Conway (D) with small leads over all possible Republican rivals in the 2015 race for governor.

Feingold Leads in Possible Senate Rematch

March 11, 2015 at 3:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 37 Comments

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Wisconsin shows Russ Feingold (D) with a clear lead over Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) in a hypothetical rematch of their 2010 contest, 50% to 41%.

Crist Mulls Another Senate Bid

March 11, 2015 at 3:33 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

Charlie Crist (D) “might be back on the Florida ballot once again,” CNN reports.

“The former Florida governor, who lost his Republican-turned-Independent bid for Senate in 2010 and then fell short in his comeback attempt as a Democrat in last year’s gubernatorial race, is now considering running for Senate in 2016.”

Associated Press Sues to Get Clinton Records

March 11, 2015 at 2:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 28 Comments

The Associated Press filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, the AP reports.

“The legal action comes after repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act have gone unfulfilled. They include one request AP made five years ago and others pending since the summer of 2013.”

“The FOIA requests and lawsuit seek materials related to her public and private calendars, correspondence involving longtime aides likely to play key roles in her expected campaign for president, and Clinton-related emails about the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices.”

The Clinton Way

March 11, 2015 at 10:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 83 Comments

First Read: “What we learned yesterday is that Hillary Clinton hasn’t changed a thing. In her news conference responding to her use of personal emails as secretary of state, Clinton was 1) lawyerly, 2) dismissive of the news media’s interest in the story (that’s why she began her remarks talking about her speech at the UN and the Iran negotiations), 3) telling reporters and the public that they were going to have to trust her regarding the emails she preserved versus those she didn’t, and 4) giving Democrats and defenders just the bare minimum (she will release all of her work-related emails but not turn over her private server). Folks, this is the Clinton Way. Secretive. Lawyerly. Dismissive of the press. And if there’s a big danger here, it’s looking like a candidate of the past instead of a candidate of the future when nearly 60% of American voters want change, per our most recent NBC/WSJ poll.”

“But there’s one other important thing to remember about the Clinton Way: With just one big exception — in 2008 against Barack Obama — they win.”

Historians Say GOP Letter Is Without Precedent

March 11, 2015 at 8:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 113 Comments

“The U.S. Senate Historian’s Office has so far been unable to find another example in the chamber’s history where one political party openly tried to deal with a foreign power against a presidential policy, as Republicans have attempted in their open letter to Iran this week,” McClatchy reports.

Scott Walker’s Flip-Flop Problem

March 11, 2015 at 8:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 31 Comments

Iowa Republican: “Walker’s campaign in Iowa is moving so fast that it will make your head spin. But that’s not all that is moving at a fast pace for Walker. Some of his long held positions seem to be on the move lately as well. In the span of just a few weeks, Walker has apparently flip-flopped on a number of issues…”

“Mitt Romney was labeled as a flip-flopper because he changed his position on abortion (another issue Walker has received grief about lately) in advance of running for president in 2008, but Walker is making Romney look like a model of consistency.”

PACs Are the Fundraising Vehicle of Choice for 2016

March 11, 2015 at 8:05 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment

Los Angeles Times: “At this stage of the 2016 campaign, the leadership PAC has become a vehicle of choice for presidential candidates. Common among members of Congress, but a relatively new device for those not holding federal office, such PACs enable prospective candidates to build donor lists, travel to early primary states and court future support by contributing to local officials and state parties, without having to formally declare a candidacy.”

“Money raised by the PACs cannot go toward the candidates’ formal campaign, although the currying of influence in early or influential states will certainly be beneficial.”

The Upshot: How to tell who’s winning the PAC fundraising race

Quote of the Day

March 11, 2015 at 8:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 12 Comments

“Well, I certainly hope not. I’m not an attorney.”

— Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL), quoted by Politico, when asked if he’s broken any rules or federal laws.

Clinton Flying Without a Campaign Net

March 11, 2015 at 7:24 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 43 Comments

“The furor over Hillary Clinton ’s private email account could accelerate Democratic calls for her to enter the presidential race sooner, a move that would give the former secretary of state a better platform to help shift attention to jobs and economic issues, the core of her 2016 message,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“With no campaign apparatus in place, Mrs. Clinton has seemed flat-footed in coping with a fast-moving story that some of her family’s closest advisers now say threatens to dog her candidacy.”

Ben Smith: “We got a feel for what kind of a campaign this will be: one that barrels forward with the wheels nearly off at all times. That is, a Clinton campaign. Full of mistakes and tactics and drama and risk — the sort of thing that reporters love to cover, and that Bill Clinton always seemed to feed off.”

Politico: Democrats urge Clinton to launch campaign

No Classified Emails by Clinton?

March 11, 2015 at 7:21 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 21 Comments

“Anyone who has tried to pry information from the federal government may have been surprised on Tuesday by Hillary Clinton’s assertion that in all her emails in four years as secretary of state she never strayed into the classified realm,” the New York Times reports.

“After all, a consensus of both Republicans and Democrats for many years has been that the government routinely overclassifies information, reflexively stamping ‘secret’ on mountains of documents with marginally sensitive content….But some secrecy experts and former government officials on Tuesday were skeptical, noting the interesting turnabout that had a former top official insisting, for once, that none of her exchanges were secret.”

Lobbyist Had Role In Cuomo Financial Crisis Investigation

March 11, 2015 at 6:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 3 Comments

“Previously undisclosed emails by a mortgage industry lobbyist doubling as a consultant for then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo show the lobbyist played a self-described ‘critical role’ in one of Cuomo’s signature financial crisis investigations,” ProPublica reports.

“The emails from 2007 and 2008 detail how the lobbyist, longtime Cuomo confidant Howard Glaser, was involved in an investigation of mortgage industry players that included Glaser’s own clients.”

How Did Hillary Send Bill Email If He Doesn’t Use It?

March 10, 2015 at 7:03 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 73 Comments

Hillary Clinton said that “personal emails between her and her husband, former President Clinton, exist on a private account. But the former commander-in-chief’s spokesman has said Clinton has only sent two email messages in his lifetime, and both were when he occupied the White House,” The Hill reports.

Said Mrs. Clinton: “The server contains personal communications from my husband and me and I believe I have met all of my responsibilities and the server will remain private and I think that the State Department will be able, over time, to release all of the records that were provided.”

But the ex-president’s spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that Mr. Clinton doesn’t use email.

Senate Faces Trust Breakdown Over Abortion

March 10, 2015 at 6:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 9 Comments

“Abortion politics — and an emerging trust gap between Democrats and Republicans — threatened to derail the ostensibly noncontroversial human trafficking bill on the Senate floor Tuesday,” Roll Call reports.

“Democrats said they were effectively hoodwinked by Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas and other Republican senators with the inclusion of an expansion of the scope of the prohibition of federal funding on abortion known as the Hyde amendment. A Cornyn aide alleged that the staff of Judiciary ranking member Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) was aware of the abortion language before the bill even came up for a vote in committee, but Democratic aides said that simply was not true.”

Clinton Tries to Quell Email Storm

March 10, 2015 at 3:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 108 Comments

Hillary Clinton “defended her exclusive use of a private email address during her time as secretary of state, saying that she did so as a matter of “convenience,” to make life simpler by using one device and one email account,” the New York Times reports.

“She said that most of her emails were work-related, went to government employees and were captured on government servers. Mrs. Clinton said that the State Department would make public all of her work-related emails, which amount to about 30,000 messages. However, she said that her personal email — about issues such as her daughter’s wedding and the death of her mother — would remain private.”

Washington Post: “Scrambling to extinguish the growing controversy over her unconventional use of a private e-mail server ahead of the expected launch of her 2016 presidential campaign, Clinton said ‘there were no security breaches’ with her private account and that she was pleased the State Department will soon release her work-related e-mails into the public domain.”