“The charitable foundation run by Hillary Clinton and her family has received as much as $81m from wealthy international donors who were clients of HSBC’s controversial Swiss bank,” the Guardian reports.
“Leaked files from HSBC’s Swiss banking division reveal the identities of seven donors to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation with accounts in Geneva.”
“It’s about the worst 30 days I’ve seen of any candidate. In his first couple of years, he had a lot of promise. But people who a year ago thought he was viable now say he’s not. He’ll be the Tim Pawlenty of this election cycle.”
— GOP strategist Ed Rollins, quoted by the Newark Star Ledger, on Gov. Chris Christie (R).
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “has hired a coveted former aide to Mitt Romney to oversee his political activities in the Northeast and probably in a New Hampshire campaign, signaling that he is serious about a presidential bid,” the New York Times reports.
“Jim Merrill, who directed both of Mr. Romney’s New Hampshire primary bids, is joining Mr. Rubio’s political action committee as a senior adviser, a position that would put him at the helm of the Florida senator’s campaign in the first-in-the-nation primary state.”
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) has asked Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (D) to conduct a “full and factual review” of issues surrounding his office’s handling of First Lady Cylvia Hayes’ contracts, the Oregonian reports.
“The governor had refused calls over the past few months to initiate an outside review but changed course with this announcement Monday morning. An investigation of a sitting governor appears to be unprecedented in Oregon history.”
Willamette Week: “Kitzhaber’s letter to Rosenblum today will allow his office to further delay producing public records. That’s because exemptions in the public records law allow public bodies—such as the governor’s office—to withhold records that may be involved in litigation, a criminal investigation or a personnel investigation until those proceedings are finished. In other words, what may look like Kitzhaber seeking an investigation could in fact be his attempt to prevent the public from finding out what really happened in his office.”
Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) said that President Obama’s speech to the National Prayer Breakfast last week in which he drew a historical comparison between atrocities committed by Islamic State fighters and past “terrible deeds in the name of Christ” were “unpresidential” and actually defended ISIS, BuzzFeed reports.
Said Fleming: “I was very disappointed, although not surprised. The president has said many things that just seem so unpresidential, and this was no exception.”
He added: “Not only did he vilify Christianity, but he actually made a case to defend radical Islam, that’s killing people around the world. He actually defended what they were doing, and tried to draw some sort of twisted equivalency, moral equivalency, between what they’re doing today and what Crusaders did 800 years ago. It really, it was really weird.”
President Obama told Vox the U.S. Senate should eliminate the filibuster.
Said Obama: “Probably the one thing that we could change without a constitutional amendment that would make a difference here would be the elimination of the routine use of the filibuster in the Senate. 13 Because I think that does, in an era in which the parties are more polarized, it almost ensures greater gridlock and less clarity in terms of the positions of the parties. There’s nothing in the Constitution that requires it.”
A new New York Times/Stanford University poll finds that Hispanics “are far more likely than whites to view global warming as a problem that affects them personally. It also found that they are far more likely to support policies, such as taxes and regulations on greenhouse gas pollution, aimed at curbing it.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) “dismissed the Republican National Committee’s efforts to reduce the number of debates in the Republican presidential primary, and to shorten the primary process, calling the RNC’s changes futile,” Yahoo News reports.
Said Jindal: “I know there is a lot of concern, especially in this town among Republican party leaders. There’s this ideal of theirs, this idealistic belief, that if we could just have fewer debates, if we could have a gentler kinder nominating process that would be good for the party and good for the nominee. Well you know what? Democracy is messy.”
“Can Jeb Bush win Iowa? Of course he can. Can Jeb Bush come in fifth place in Iowa? Sure he can.”
— Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann, quoted by BuzzFeed.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana as stupid, the Aspen Times reports.
Said Bloomberg: “What are we going to say in 10 years when we see all these kids whose IQs are 5 and 10 points lower than they would have been? I couldn’t feel more strongly about it, and my girlfriend says it’s no different than alcohol. It is different than alcohol. This is one of the stupider things that’s happening across our country.”
Former Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) “decided to leave the House of Representatives last year after 18 years in office, but before he left he got a special retirement gift from a lobbyist: a nearly $50,000 trip to Australia for McIntyre and his wife Dee,” AllGov reports.
“The Defence Teaming Centre of Australia, a group representing that country’s defense contractors, paid $49,635.06 for the McIntyres to go Down Under last February for eight days, a month after McIntyre decided to retire.”
Morning Line: “President Obama’s meeting today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington is fraught with all kinds of geopolitical consequences. The president has been reluctant to intervene militarily in the fighting between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatist rebels. He thought sanctions that appeared to be weakening Russia’s economy would lead to a de-escalation of violence, but fighting has been taken to new heights in recent weeks in the Eastern part of the country and Obama is facing new pressure to arm Ukraine. Chancellor Merkel is opposed to arming the rebels, as she tries to broker a peace deal and tries to balance her economic relationship with Russia and Putin.”
Bloomberg: “Obama’s delay in making his move until after Merkel’s visit reflects not only the gravity of the situation and the dueling arguments, but his emphasis on international alliances, his own deliberative nature and the degree to which he’s concentrated power on foreign policy in the White House. … A U.S. official who is also close to the debate declined to predict what Obama will decide after meeting with Merkel.”
First Read: “What we can tell you is that the Obama White House favors it; indeed, this is the rare issue where Republican hawks and the White House are actually united. The dissenter is Merkel, and she is meeting with Obama today.”
Jeffrey Toobin interviewed Andrew Cuomo (D), “the notoriously press-averse governor of New York, about a range of subjects, including his political rise, his father’s legacy, and corruption in Albany.”
“For better and for worse, Cuomo views his work as a series of transactions. He disdains rhetoric; he prizes results.”
Said Cuomo: “My job is to get to yes. If I don’t make a deal, I get nothing done. If I get nothing done, I am a failure. If the objective is to make a nice speech, it means nothing.”
“Alabama became the latest state to allow same-sex marriage Monday, as many probate judges defied an order by the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and began issuing licenses and performing weddings,” the New York Times reports.
“Earlier, the United States Supreme Court quashed a final effort to delay the marriages as same-sex couples lined up at courthouses across the state.”
Rick Hasen: “What struck me about today’s dissent was Justice Thomas’s recognition that these stay orders signal what is likely coming on the merits: a constitutional right to same sex marriage. (I think at this point the only question is the vote: I can see 5-4, 6-3 (with Roberts joining Kennedy and the liberals) or perhaps, though least likely 7-2 (with Alito coming too).) The tone was one of resignation of what is coming and a lament about the loss of the power of the states.”
Wall Street Journal: “Republicans, in full control of Congress for the first time since 2006, roundly panned President Obama ’s $4 trillion budget proposal last week for going heavy on tax increases and light on efforts to trim the deficit. But while Republicans’ top budget-writers have committed to eliminating the annual federal budget deficit over 10 years, doing so is expected to require deep cuts in entitlement programs, particularly if tax increases are off the table.”
“That means the GOP will face a challenge negotiating a budget conservative enough to pass the House without proposing politically unpopular cuts that could cause heartburn for Senate Republicans, whose states often represent a broader political spectrum. Democrats in either chamber are unlikely to provide many, if any, votes for a budget used to map out GOP goals.”
Politico: “Today, it is nearly inconceivable that serious politicians can run multiple times for the presidency, especially after losing a general election. Every four years, the Mike Huckabees and Rick Santorums reemerge, but their campaigns are usually about something other than winning the presidency—building a personal brand, perhaps, or sending a message. The real contenders—those with a plausible path to the White House—don’t get a permanent free pass. This relatively new, unforgiving rule is partly a reflection of the presidency’s growing power since the 1930s, but it is also a product of how the nominating process has evolved.”
“Until 50 years ago, a small number of big-state political bosses tightly controlled the selection of presidential nominees. In the late 1970s, all of that changed. The rising influence of television increasingly made politics resemble entertainment, while the fallout of the Vietnam War and civil rights movement shattered the authority of political bosses and elite political institutions. Out of this disruption came the system we know (and love, and loathe) today—the four-year presidential horse race, the campaign reality show, Iowa and New Hampshire, Super Tuesday, a nauseating array of debates and candidate forums.”
“I think she has to approach this campaign like a challenger, not like a front-runner — like an insurgent.”
— David Axelrod, quoted by USA Today, saying Hillary Clinton can’t rely on the Clinton name to win the presidency.
“In a dramatic show of defiance toward the federal judiciary, Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court on Sunday night ordered the state’s probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on Monday, the day same-sex marriages were expected to begin here,” the New York Times reports.
“It was not immediately clear how the state’s 68 probate judges, who, like Chief Justice Moore, are popularly elected, would respond to the order.”
Charles Dean: Where have we seen this before?
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.