A GOP lawmaker in Alabama “wants to erect a monument at the courthouse that would feature the Ten Commandments alongside other historical documents,” the Birmingham News reports.
Said Tim Guffey (R): “What I’m trying to do is erect a monument of historical documents. It’s the Constitution, the Ten Commandments and the Declaration of Independence. I feel like that’s what this country was founded on. These documents helped America become the greatest country in history.”
House Speaker John Boehner’s fundraising skills “put him in a class with few others. He has scooped up more than $43 million for accounts under his direct control and helped amass tens of millions more for Republican allies,” the AP reports.
“The Ohio lawmaker accounts for about one-fifth of the cash collected by House Republicans’ campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee. Boehner has written almost $18 million in checks to the group, which has raised $101 million this campaign cycle.”
A new Gallup poll finds just 19% of registered voters think most members of Congress deserve re-election — on pace to be the lowest such “re-elect” sentiment in a midterm election year since the question was first asked in 1992.
Kyle Kondik: If Congress is so unpopular, why do so many incumbents keep getting re-elected?
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Hillary Clinton “usually requires those who pay her six-figure fees for speeches to also provide a private jet for transportation,” the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.
“And she doesn’t travel alone, relying on an entourage of a couple of ‘travel aides,’ and a couple of advance staffers who check out her speech site in the days leading up to her appearance, much like a White House trip, according to her contract and supporting documents concerning her Oct. 13 speech at a University of Nevada, Las Vegas Foundation fundraiser.”
A new poll from McClatchy/Marist poll finds that 68% of Republicans say they would be no less likely to support a well-qualified gay candidate.
At the same time, 63% of Republicans still personally oppose same-sex marriage and 60% say they would be upset if one of their children were gay.
“Just moments after Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson announced early today that new security steps were planned in Ferguson that would not include National Guard troops, Gov. Jay Nixon (D) announced that he was activating those forces,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Politico: “The Democratic governor’s announcement came after arguably the most violent night in the Missouri city since unarmed African-American 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer more than a week ago.”
Wonk Wire: Should police wear body cameras?
The Upshot: “The most frequent guest on Meet the Press, the venerable Sunday morning political talk show on NBC, isn’t John McCain or John Kerry. It’s the show’s new host, Chuck Todd. Mr. Todd has been a guest more often than anyone during the past 19 months.”
Montana Democrats selected a little-known state lawmaker named Amanda Curtis (D) as their candidate for U.S. Senate after Sen. John Walsh (D) dropped out amid plagiarism allegations from his time at the U.S. Army War College, the AP reports.
Ousted “Meet the Press” anchor David Gregory was paid $4 million to leave NBC News and signed a contract not to speak out against the network, sources told Page Six.
“You all got to start voting and showing up — 12% turnout is an insult to your children.”
— Rev. Al Sharpton, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, speaking to protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.
Associated Press: “President Obama is getting off the island. In a rare move for him, the president planned a break in the middle of his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to return to Washington on Sunday night for unspecified meetings with Vice President Joe Biden and other advisers.”
“The White House has been cagey about why the president needs to be back in Washington for those discussions. Part of the decision appears aimed at countering criticism that Obama is spending two weeks on a resort island in the midst of so many foreign and domestic crises.”
Washington Post: “There may be no good week for the president of the United States to take a nice, restful break. But there are definitely bad ones. This was one of them.”
Mark McKinnon: “Here’s the thing about Rick Perry’s indictment. The case may indeed have plenty of merit. But merit aside, you can indict a ham sandwich if it’s Republican in the most liberal hotbed of Texas: Travis County. The problem for Perry is that a Travis County jury can also find a Republican ham sandwich guilty.”
Wall Street Journal: “China’s corruption crackdown has already taken a bite out of the hospitality sector in China with its ban on lavish banquets and is now starting to make waves in another corner of the economy, as officials afraid of government scrutiny are dumping apartments.”
“The dumping of properties is the latest iteration of fear that has spread through the Chinese government at all levels as President Xi Jinping’s anticorruption campaign rolls on. Already, government officials have toned down lavish banquets, gift-giving and travel.”
Rick Hasen says Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) “joins the list of other politicians prosecuted under controversial or dubious theories, including Tom DeLay, John Edwards, Scott Walker, Don Siegelman, and Ted Stevens. Some go to jail; some don’t. Some get convicted by juries; some don’t. Some have their prosecutions overturned on appeal; some don’t.”
“The common thread here is the criminalization of politics.”
“A day after a grand jury indicted him on two felony charges, a defiant Rick Perry on Saturday called the prosecution of his conduct a ‘farce’ and ‘abuse of power,'” the Austin American Statesman reports.
Said Perry: “I intend to win… We don’t settle political differences with indictments in this country.”
“Perry faces charges of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant, which together carry maximum sentences of 109 years in prison and $20,000 in fines. He has not yet turned himself in at the Travis County Jail but is expected to do so in the next several days, when he will be fingerprinted and photographed.”
Dan Balz: “The prosecutors will have to prove their case in court. Even if successful, they would have to prevail in likely appeals. Meanwhile, the indictment could strengthen the governor with the base of his party, at least in the short term. The indictment is for now a stain on his record, but the legal and political endings are still to be written. Perry’s 2016 aspirations and his political legacy are in the balance.”
Washington Post: “Many social conservatives say they feel politically isolated as the country seems to be hurtling to the left, with marijuana now legal in Colorado and gay marriage gaining ground across the nation. They feel out of place in a GOP increasingly dominated by tea party activists and libertarians who prefer to focus on taxes and the role of government and often disagree with social conservatives on drugs or gay rights.”
Michael Tomasky: “On the evidence available to us so far, nearly everything that the more vocal conservative critics have said about the ACA has been wrong. No. “Wrong” implies a statement made in good faith. These charges were often made in the worst possible faith. And they were lies.”
“And–here’s a crazy thought–maybe it’s not just dumb luck that the law seems to be working, especially in the states that took the Medicaid money and set up well-run exchanges. Maybe it’s working because bureaucrats (!) anticipated all the potential problems and planned for them in the writing of the law.”
New York Times: “Hours after Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) imposed a midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew on Saturday in this small city, a group of protesters defied the order and violence flared briefly on Sunday morning, a week after demonstrations erupted over the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.”
“A clash between the protesters and dozens of police officers in riot gear began less than 30 minutes after the curfew took effect and ended about 45 minutes later with the arrest of seven people, all charged with ‘failure to disperse.'”
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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