“The report’s full of crap, excuse me.”
— Former Vice President Dick Cheney, quoted by Politico, on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report.
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Shutdown Wouldn’t Stop Obama on Immigration
“Even if Republicans shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) next year, President Obama could still carry out his executive actions giving legal status to up to 5 million undocumented immigrants,” The Hill reports.
“Some rank-and-file Republicans are worried that Obama could declare all DHS workers ‘essential’ and keep them on the job — then simply pay them once a funding deal is reached.”
New York Times: “Would Republicans be willing to shut down the department come March if they remain at odds with the administration? That would mean that Republicans, angry over new benefits for immigrants living in the country illegally, would respond by closing down the agency that provides border security to prevent more immigrants from entering illegally.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Republicans have very little leverage on the immigration issue. [/speech_bubble]
Jeb Bush Has a Mitt Romney Problem
Businessweek reports that Jeb Bush’s recent business ventures “reveal that he shares a number of liabilities with the last nominee, Mitt Romney, whose career in private equity proved so politically damaging that it sunk his candidacy.”
“Documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 27 list Bush as chairman and manager of a new offshore private equity fund, BH Global Aviation, which raised $61 million in September, largely from foreign investors. In November the fund incorporated in the United Kingdom and Wales—a structure, several independent finance lawyers say, that operates like a tax haven by allowing overseas investors to avoid U.S. taxes and regulations.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Interestingly, many establishment Republicans just don’t understand why this is a problem. [/speech_bubble]
Quote of the Day
“Running for the presidency’s not an IQ test. It is a test of an individual’s resolve. It’s a test of an individual’s philosophy. It’s a test of an individual’s life’s experiences.”
— Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), in a NBC News interview.
New Jersey Voters Don’t Like Christie as President
A new Quinnipiac poll finds New Jersey voters say by 53% to 40% that Gov. Chris Christie (R) would not make a good president.
McConnell Ran 61 Different Ads
Cook Political Report: “To win re-election in 2012, President Obama’s targeting-savvy campaign aired 143 unique commercials across more than a dozen states. To win re-election in 2014, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) aired 61 unique ads across Kentucky.”
Nearly All Doubt Gridlock Can Be Broken
A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds just 13% of Americans are confident the leaders can work together, while 86% have no such faith. That’s far more than the 58% who felt that way just after the 2010 midterm elections in which the tea party movement rose to prominence.
“The doubts cross party lines: Fewer than 1 in 5 Democrats or independents have confidence the two sides can cooperate. Republicans are even more pessimistic, with just 1 in 10 confident Obama and Congress can work together.”
Why Obama Isn’t Abandoning CIA Chief
CIA Director John Brennan “has been as close as anyone to President Obama on his most sensitive national security decisions, from drone strikes to the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden,” Bloomberg reports.
“That helps explain why Obama isn’t abandoning his Central Intelligence Agency director despite some calls for his resignation following release of a Senate report detailing the CIA’s brutal interrogations of terrorism suspects during President George W. Bush’s administration. Brennan was a top official at the agency under Bush and then served as head of the National Counterterrorism Center before going to work for Obama.”
Are the Political Parties Sorting Out by Race?
Norm Ornstein: “Democrats find their support among whites—especially working-class whites—slipping, and that is not just an artifact of differential turnout in midterm contests. Especially in the South, white voters are moving steadily more toward voting for and identifying with the Republican Party, while nonwhites, even with a small uptick in some states for GOP votes for Senate and gubernatorial candidates, are heavily Democratic. Those divisions could change, of course, but right now it is possible to see a future where the GOP is clearly and distinctly a white party, while Democrats are clearly a majority-minority party.”
Cheney Says Bush Wasn’t Kept in the Dark on Torture
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said that President Bush was not kept in the dark on the CIA’s interrogation techniques, calling the Senate Intelligence Committee report’s claim a “flat out lie,” according to The Hill.
Said Cheney: “I think he knew certainly the techniques, we did discuss the techniques, there was no effort on our part to keep him from that. That the president wasn’t being told is just a flat out lie.”
State Department Delays Requests for Clinton Files
“The State Department has failed to turn over government documents covering Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state that the Associated Press and others requested under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act ahead of her presumptive presidential campaign. They include one request AP made four years ago and others pending for more than one year.”
Landrieu Says She Won’t Run Again
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) “pretty much dismissed any notion that she would run again for governor, the Senate or any other public office,” Politico reports.
Said Landrieu: “Oh Lord, no. Well, let me say, I’m not going to say a definite ‘no’ about any of those two. I’ve been trained to never say no. But it is highly, highly unlikely.”
Obama Stays Out of Torture Debate
“The C.I.A. maintains that the brutal interrogation techniques it used on terrorism suspects a decade ago worked. The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that they did not. And on that, at least, President Obama is not taking sides,” the New York Times reports.
“That debate, after all, has left Mr. Obama facing an uncomfortable choice between two allies: the close adviser and former aide he installed as director of the C.I.A. versus his fellow Democrats who control the Senate committee and the liberal base that backs their findings.”
Millionaires Back Clinton for President
A CNBC Millionaire Survey of people with investable assets of $1 million or more –which represents the top 8% of American households — finds that Hillary Clinton is their top choice for president with 31%, followed by Jeb Bush (R) at 18%.
Udall Discloses Classified Info to Prove CIA Is Lying
“In a career-defining speech, Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) took to the Senate floor Wednesday to disclose classified information regarding an internal CIA investigation into the agency’s Bush-era ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,'” National Journal reports.
Udall “began revealing key conclusions from the so-called Panetta Review, written in 2011 and named after then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. Udall says that the Panetta Review gives evidence that the CIA is still lying about the scope of enhanced interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Now, that’s a memorable way to leave the U.S. Senate [/speech_bubble]
Walker Once Wished a Jewish Constituent ‘Molotov’
The Madison Capital Times dug up a letter from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) in which he goofed on a Jewish salutation by ending with, “Thank you again and Molotov.”
“Presumably, Walker meant to write ‘mazel tov’ and didn’t intend to wish good tidings of incendiary weapons. Perhaps it was a case of AutoCorrect or that pesky Microsoft Word paperclip causing shenanigans.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“It served absolutely no purpose other than one last thumb in the eye of the Bush administration and was a big mistake in my opinion.”
— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by TPM, on the Senate’s torture report.
10 Governors Don’t Have Majority Support
Smart Politics: “As a result of these competitive contests, caused in party by strong showings from several third party and independent candidates, 10 winning candidates will remain in or take office in the coming weeks without the support of the majority of the electorate.”
“Plurality winners in the 2014 cycle are independent Bill Walker of Alaska (48.1 percent), Democrats John Hickenlooper of Colorado (49.3 percent), David Ige of Hawaii (49.5 percent), John Kitzhaber of Oregon (48.9 percent), Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island (40.7 percent), and Peter Schumlin of Vermont (46.4 percent), and Republicans Rick Scott of Florida (48.1 percent), Sam Brownback of Kansas (49.9 percent), Paul LePage of Maine (48.2 percent), and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts (48.4 percent).”
