“President Obama’s pick to serve as the next attorney general is having a hard time finding Republican supporters,” The Hill reports.
“To be confirmed by the Senate, attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch only needs four Republicans to support her nomination. But it is unclear where those votes will come from. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is the only Republican so far who has signaled his intention to vote for Lynch, though several others have spoken favorably about her.”
A Brookings survey of political scientists finds that President Obama ranks 18th overall among presidents, “but beneath the surface of the aggregate figures lurks evidence of significant ambivalence. For example, those who view Obama as one of the worst American presidents outnumber those who view him as one of the best by nearly a 3-1 margin. Similarly, nearly twice as many respondents view Obama as over-rated than do those who consider him under-rated.”
“One area where there is significant expert consensus about the president, however, concerns how polarizing he is viewed as being – only George W. Bush was viewed as more a more polarizing president.”
“Next, Obama does not perform well on more specific dimensions of presidential greatness, often viewed as average or worse. For example, he is the midpoint in terms of both personal integrity and military skill (e.g., 10th of 19 in both categories), but falls to 11th when it comes to diplomatic skill and 13th with respect to legislative skill.”
First Read: “In our experience, there’s a simple rule to follow to make sense of any shutdown showdown: The side that’s divided usually loses. And Republicans are the ones who are divided in the battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security — over whether or not to include riders overturning Obama’s executive actions on immigration.”
“Playing politics with security is always problematic. But it’s doubly problematic when your party is divided.”
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London Mayor Boris Johnson, who was born in New York, says he intends to renounce his American citizenship to prove his “commitment to Britain,” the BBC reports.
He said that his citizenship was “an accident of birth that has left me with this thing. I’ve got to find a way of sorting it out.”
The Telegraph says Johnson, who is running for a seat in Parliament, would be “removing a potential obstacle to becoming Prime Minister.”
House Speaker John Boehner said that he was “prepared to allow funding for the Department of Homeland Security to lapse, raising the possibility that one of the government’s largest and most vital agencies could be shut down at the end of the month,” the New York Times reports.
“Coming just two months after Republicans gained full control of Congress, a shutdown would be a major political problem as the party tries to honor a vow to govern responsibly and cooperatively.”
“It would contradict a pledge from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who said the day after his party won decisively at the polls in November, ‘There will be no government shutdowns.’ And it would exacerbate a rift that has been growing between Republicans in the House and the Senate.”
“After six weeks in session and 139 roll call votes in a House and Senate that feature some of the largest Republican majorities in generations, one of the most telling statistics from the new Congress is this: President Obama’s veto threats outnumber the bills Congress has been able to send him,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“When Republicans swept into power last November, they promised a new era of productivity and discipline that would break four years of gridlock… But far from striking a bold contrast with the last two terms of stalemate, congressional Republicans have quickly run into familiar obstacles, including partisan paralysis and party infighting.”
National Journal: “Republicans thought they’d get easy wins at the start of the 114th Congress. Instead they got internal strife.”
Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb (D), “exploring a possible 2016 presidential campaign, said he is in the process of deciding whether he can “put together the type of money” needed and still remain independent of special interests,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Webb “said his chief political dilemma is building a realistic campaign without becoming beholden to donors in an era where the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has allowed individual donors to give millions to support campaigns.”
“Hard-line House GOP conservatives aren’t worried about a looming Department of Homeland Security shutdown as the deadline for congressional action draws near,” The Hill reports.
“Many of the conservative lawmakers who most want to aggressively challenge President Obama’s executive actions on immigration think that if push comes to shove, a shutdown will be worth the fight. And at this point, they don’t think there will be any electoral consequences if there is a shutdown.”
There are three new NBC News/Marist polls of the GOP presidential race from the early voting states.
Key takeaway: “Seven different possible Republican candidates get double-digit support in at least one of the states. But only two candidates — Jeb Bush and Scott Walker — are in double digits in all three states.”
Iowa: Huckabee 17%, Bush 16%, Walker 15%, Christie 9%, Paul 7%
New Hampshire: Bush 18%, Walker 15%, Paul 14%, Christie 13%.
South Carolina: Graham 17%, Bush 15%, Walker 12%, Huckabee 10%, Carson 10%.
Fox 5 San Diego briefly portrayed President Obama as a sex-assault suspect on its 10 o’clock news, the Times of San Diego reports.
“At 10:04 p.m., viewers heard anchor Kathleen Bade say: ‘The only suspect in a sex assault at SDSU will not be charged.’ At the same time, a picture of Obama appeared with the legend ‘NO CHARGES.'”
New York Times: “For the 12 years that his father held national elective office, Mr. Bush used his unique access to the highest reaches of government to seek favors for Republican allies, push his views and burnish his political profile in his home state, a review of presidential library records shows. In the process, Mr. Bush carefully constructed an elaborate and enduring network of relationships in Florida that helped lead to his election as governor in 1998 and, now, to his place as a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.”
Washington Post: “He has his own brand, but Florida’s former governor won’t easily escape the burdens of his family name.”
“Supporters of Obamacare think they’ve found a fatal flaw in the GOP-led legal challenge to the healthcare law at the Supreme Court,” The Hill reports.
“Legal experts in favor of the Affordable Care Act say new information unearthed about the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell could derail the case before the justices have a chance to rule.”
Jeb Bush (R) said he isn’t interested in talking about Iraq war and his brother’s role in starting it, Bloomberg reports.
Said Bush: “I won’t talk about the past. I’ll talk about the future. If I’m in the process of considering the possibility of running, it’s not about re-litigating anything in the past. It’s about trying to create a set of ideas and principles that will help us move forward.”
“Jeb Bush has quickly and efficiently been locking in one of the most sought-after prizes of the early Republican presidential primary race: Mitt Romney’s donor network,” the Boston Globe reports.
“In the two weeks since the former Massachusetts governor announced that he wasn’t going to run again for president, Bush has aggressively scooped up key former Romney contributors in the private equity and investment worlds… Of Romney’s top five lobbyist bundlers in 2012 — who each raised at least $1 million — four are supporting or likely to support Bush. The fifth is on the fence.”
“I changed my mind!”
— Barbara Bush, quoted by the Washington Post, on whether there have been “too many Bushes” in the White House.
A federal grand jury has launched a sweeping investigation of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) and fiancée Cylvia Hayes, the Oregonian reports.
“The subpoenas shed light on what looks to be the largest criminal investigation of a public official in Oregon… Investigators are after any state record mentioning Hayes, her private consulting business and her role in the governor’s office. They want her personal tax returns and those of her company dating back to 2009. The state also must turn over records of her use of state credit cards.”
Kitzhaber announced he would resign from office next week.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “is facing growing skepticism from influential Republicans about his likely presidential run, with many in the party privately expressing doubts that he has any chance of winning the GOP nomination and some of Christie’s former backers unwilling to say they will support his campaign,” NBC News reports.
“The signs of Christie’s decline are subtle but telling as Republican strategists, operatives and donors are trying to determine which candidates to back early in the 2016 process.”
“House and Senate Republicans spent much of this week trying to publicly blame Democrats for blocking an extension of Homeland Security Department funding, which is set to expire in two weeks,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“But behind the coordinated GOP campaign, Republicans in the House and Senate are engaged in an intense intraparty debate over how to resolve the immigration impasse that has left lawmakers stymied as the funding deadline approaches. The two chambers’ divergent rhetoric and internal temperatures could create difficulties ahead for GOP leaders not just on immigration, but also in future fights on the budget or other fiscal issues such as raising the nation’s debt limit.”
Politico: “Lawmakers left town without a solution to the DHS standoff. They’ll return with just days to avert a shutdown.”
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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