Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery was suspended with pay by a 4-1 vote of his court colleagues, the Harrisburg Patriot-News reports.
“He becomes the latest in a sad parade of high-ranking state officials, and the first judge, to be forced from office for participating in an apparently longstanding, friends-only pornographic email ring centered in the Tom Corbett-era Attorney General’s office.”
President Obama told Jeffrey Toobin that he’s not very interested in being on the Supreme Court, despite his background in constitutional law.
Said Obama: “I don’t think I have the temperament to sit in a chamber and write opinions. I love the law, intellectually. I love nutting out these problems, wrestling with these arguments. I love teaching. I miss the classroom and engaging with students. But I think being a Justice is a little bit too monastic for me. Particularly after having spent six years and what will be eight years in this bubble, I think I need to get outside a little bit more.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has scheduled a breakfast meeting for Nov. 6 in Arizona where he will discuss with supporters his “thoughts” on seeking re-election in 2016, the Arizona Republic reports.
Earlier this month, McCain told reporters that the odds of him running again in 2016 “are pretty good.”
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“One of the nice things about being home is actually that it’s a little bit like a time capsule. Because Michelle and I and the kids, we left so quickly that there’s still junk on my desk, including some unpaid bills (laughter) — I think eventually they got paid — but they’re sort of stacked up. And messages, newspapers and all kinds of stuff.”
— President Obama, quoted by the Weekly Standard, at a fundraiser in Chicago. An official transcript later deleted the reference to unpaid bills.
A new Mitchell poll in Michigan finds Gov. Rick Snyder (R) edging challenger Mark Schauer (D) in the race for governor, 48% to 46%.
In the U.S. Senate race, Gary Peters (D) leads Terri Lynn Land (R), 51% to 38%.
John Avlon: “What’s changed? Well, the two parties in Congress are more ideologically and geographically polarized than at any time in our recent history. But we’ve had deep divisions in our politics before. And yes, the Wingnuts seem to have an outsize influence on our politics debates. But we’ve had extremists in our politics before.”
“What’s different is the proliferation of partisan media via cable news and the Internet. Amid unprecedented access to information, our fellow citizens are self-segregating themselves into separate political realities. That’s the conclusion of a compelling, if depressing, new study by the Pew Research Center on political polarization and media habits.”
“Hillary Clinton’s friendly super-PAC is spending roughly $23,000 a day – nearly as much as it’s bringing in – as it builds a database of supporters and donors for a possible 2016 Democratic presidential bid,” Bloomberg reports.
“Viewed another way: Getting Ready for Hillary costs her supporters about $2 million per quarter, covering expenses for everything from political consultants to voter databases to Des Moines hotel rooms.”
Time reports that Mitt Romney’s digital operation may have been a generation behind President Obama’s effort, “but his email list has proven to be a potent fundraising too for the party as it looks for victory this fall.”
“In the past week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has emailed the list no fewer than 16 times, many times with emails addressed from Romney himself, while the National Republican Congressional Committee, House Republican’s campaign arm, has used it at least once.”
“Republican leaders, conceding the futility of a flight ban from Ebola-afflicted West Africa, are refining their response to the outbreak, pressing to suspend visas for travelers and create ‘no boarding’ lists,” the New York Times reports.
“But a supercharged political atmosphere is making legislative nuance difficult two weeks before midterm elections and days before a hearing on Friday on the Ebola response called by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a panel riven by partisan division. Republicans on the campaign trail continue to goad Democrats to embrace a broad travel ban, although no direct flights to the United States from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea exist.”
New York Times: “Republicans have long relied on illegal immigration to rally the conservative base, even if the threat seemed more theoretical than tangible in most of the country. But in several of this year’s midterm Senate campaigns — including Arkansas and Kansas, as well as New Hampshire — Republicans’ stance on immigration is posing difficult questions about what the party wants to be in the longer term.”
“Some Republicans are questioning the cost of their focus on immigration. Campaigning on possible threats from undocumented immigrants — similar to claims that President Obama and the Democrats have left the country vulnerable to attacks from Islamic terrorists and the Ebola virus — may backfire after November. At that point, the party will have to start worrying about its appeal beyond the conservative voters it needs to turn out in midterm elections.”
Nate Cohn: “Political analysts keep urging the Republican Party to do more to appeal to Hispanic voters. Yet the party’s congressional leaders show little sign of doing so, blocking an immigration overhaul and harshly criticizing President Obama for his plan to defer deportation for undocumented migrants.”
“There’s a simple reason that congressional Republicans are willing to risk alienating Hispanics: They don’t need their votes, at least not this year.”
A new Talk Business & Politics/Hendrix College poll in Arkansas finds Tom Cotton (R) leading Sen. Mark Pryor (D) by eight points in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 41%.
“We’ve got a tough map. A lot of the states that are contested this time are states that I didn’t win. And so some of the candidates there, you know, it is difficult for them to have me in the state because the Republicans will use that to try to fan Republican turn-out. The bottom line is, though, these are all folks who vote with me.”
— President Obama, quoted by the Weekly Standard.
Mike Hubbard (R), “speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives and a powerful leader in the state Republican Party, has been indicted by a grand jury and charged with 23 counts, including using his office for personal gain and soliciting things of value,” the Birmingham News reports.
A new FOX 8 News-Raycom Media Poll in Louisiana finds Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) leads the U.S. Senate race with Bill Cassidy (R), 36% to 32%, with Rob Maness at 6%.
The race is almost certain to head to a runoff. Cassidy leads a two-way race with Landrieu, 43% to 40%.
A new Bluegrass Poll in Kentucky finds Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) barely leading Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), 44% to 43%, with Libertarian candidate David Paterson at 5%.
“That’s not gonna happen.”
— Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), quoted by the AP, on Republicans promising to repeal Obamacare.
“Is this a joke? It’s obviously a stock image used by our digital firm to reflect that Kansas is the Sunflower State. But given the many serious issues facing our country right now, I doubt voters care about this silly line of attack by Greg Orman and his liberal allies.”
— Roberts campaign manager Corry Bliss, quoted by BuzzFeed today, on reports that Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) used stock images of sunflowers from the Ukraine instead of Kansas on his website.
“Our campaign received several phone calls from both workers at Electric Boat and veterans who served on submarines, both of which were amazed that Congressman Murphy would feature a Norwegian sub in a television ad claiming it was from Groton.”
— McMahon campaign manager Corry Bliss, quoted by the Danbury News Times in 2012, when Chris Murphy (D) was caught using stock footage in advertisements in his Senate campaign.
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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