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.”
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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.”
“A number of Republican-led states are considering tax changes that in many cases would have the effect of cutting taxes on the rich and raising them on the poor,” the New York Times reports.
“Conservatives are known for hating taxes but particularly hate income taxes, which they say have a greater dampening effect on growth. Of the 10 or so Republican governors who have proposed tax increases, nearly all have called for increases in consumption taxes, which hit the poor and middle class harder than the rich.”
President Obama says he is ready to “run through the tape” to promote his agenda during his final two years in office, The Hill reports.
Said Obama: “I’ve only got two years left, but two years is a long time. Two years is also the time in which we are going to be setting the stage for the next presidential election and the next 10 years of American policy.”
“Jeb Bush’s money juggernaut is far eclipsing the efforts of his would-be rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, putting his two political committees on pace to amass an unprecedented sum of tens of millions of dollars by early spring,” the Washington Post reports.
“The former Florida governor’s overwhelming dominance in the race to line up financial backers has come at a speed that has impressed longtime Republican money players, who say wealthy party backers have rapidly migrated to Bush since 2012 nominee Mitt Romney decided against another White House run two weeks ago.”
Bloomberg: “Only five weeks after its founding, Bush’s Right to Rise is spreading its wealth in early primary states. As Jeb Bush stockpiles a political war chest for his presidential campaign-in-waiting, his finance committee has donated $122,800 to Republican officials and state parties in the first five weeks of its existence, an indication of the tactical focus and tenacity with which the former Florida governor is approaching both giving and receiving in the early days of the 2016 fundraising season.”
Although a reversal on his abortion stance last month prompted speculation that Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) would challenge Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) in next year’s election, the lawmaker said today he will not run for the seat, the Columbus Dispatch reports.
“He indicated he would seek another term in Congress.”
Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown (D) will become the first openly bisexual governor when Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) resigns from office next week, the Washington Post reports.
“It would be a milestone for LGBT elected officials. An LGBT governor has never been elected, although New Jersey did have an openly gay governor briefly in 2004, after Gov. Jim McGreevey (D) came out as gay and admitted an affair with a man he had appointed to a key job. He resigned three months later.”
“Brown is married to husband Dan Little; she has publicly discussed her bisexuality in past campaigns. She is already arguably the highest-ranking bisexual elected official in America; Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ.) became the first bisexual member of Congress in 2013. There are about 525 openly LGBT public officials in office at all levels of government, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.”
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Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) introduced legislation to prevent federal employees from accessing pornographic or explicit materials at work, the Huffington Post reports.
Said Meadows: “It’s appalling that it requires an act of Congress to ensure that federal agencies block access to these sites.”
“While most federal employers already have rules outlawing such behavior, it appears some employees have still managed to get their fix while on the clock. A 2005 report from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General disclosed that two EPA employees were suspended for viewing pornographic websites at work. And in 2014, the inspector general cited an EPA employee for downloading more than 7,000 pornographic images and spending up to six hours a day watching porn on his government-issued computer.”
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) “is expected to resign Friday, perhaps in the early afternoon,” multiple sources told KOIN 6 News.
“The decision came after intense debate among the governor and those close to him. These sources say Kitzhaber has wanted to pursue that course since the weekend but had been dissuaded by his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, and his legal team.”
Update: The Oregonian reports Kitzhaber resigned effective next Wednesday, Feb. 18, in a letter submitted to Secretary of State Kate Brown.
As Saturday Night Live celebrates its 40th anniversary this week, Jonathan Cohn offers his top 10 political skits of all time.
This is my favorite:
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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