“No majority leader in my era would have thought to attempt to go around the committee and negotiate over the head of the committee chair. You could not get away with it.”
— Former Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR), quoted by the Washington Post, on Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) being bypassed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) said Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) unapologetic love for the Dallas Cowboys is “pathetic,” adding that it’s rooted in a “basic inferiority complex,” CNN reports.
Said Rendell: “If you are a Jerseyite or a Pennsylvanian and you’re rooting for the Cowboys, it means you’re not secure in yourself and you wanted to root for a team that was a team in your youth that was a constant winner.”
He added: “How can a Jersey guy be a Cowboys fan? It’s pathetic.”
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) “has strong ideas about what the next Republican presidential nominee should be like,” the Washington Post reports.
“A ‘solutions conservative’ with a record of policy reform originating in the states. A candidate versed in foreign affairs who envisions a muscular role for the United States in the world. And someone who is ‘relentlessly optimistic’ — and capable of attracting new voters to the Republican Party as Ronald Reagan did a generation ago. As it happens, that sounds an awful lot like Mike Pence.”
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Politico: “Conservatives began the lame-duck session enraged over President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration and hell-bent on unraveling the moves they saw as illegal, unconstitutional and just plain wrong. Now they’re ending the year frustrated at their own party’s leaders, who they think cut them out of the funding process and fumbled a chance to pick apart Obama’s immigration actions as soon as they were announced by not using the must-pass funding bill to undo it.”
Washington Post: Conservatives see funding bill as a betrayal
“Wall Street is once again on the rise in Washington. At least that’s what congressional Democrats, in broadsides levied at Republicans and the Obama administration alike, are yelling in increasing numbers. The party’s seizing of the anti-Wall Street narrative is instructive as Democrats face the new reality of operating in the minority in both chambers of Congress,” Bloomberg reports.
“Through two proxy battles playing out right now, Washington and Wall Street are getting a preview of the strategy, tactics, and strength of an increasingly frustrated and vocal left wing that is eager to employ the kind of clout it hopes will be a factor in the 2016 presidential campaign.”
“While some people close to Romney insist he hasn’t moved from saying he has no plans to run, the 2012 Republican nominee has sounded at least open to the idea in recent conversations, according to more than a dozen people who’ve spoken with him in the last month,” Politico reports.
“In his private musings, Romney has sounded less than upbeat about most of the potential candidates in the 2016 Republican field.”
The House “narrowly passed a $1.1 trillion spending package that would fund most government operations for the fiscal year after a rancorous debate that reflected the new power held by Republicans and disarray among Democrats in the aftermath of the midterm elections,” the New York Times reports
“The accord was reached amid last-minute brinkmanship and bickering that has come to mark one of the capital’s most polarized eras.”
Washington Post: “Lawmakers voted 219 to 206 to approve the omnibus bill and send it to the Senate, which is planning to hold a vote in the coming days. With government funding set to expire late tonight, Congress is scheduled to approve a short-term extension of current funding to give the Senate a few more days to work through its arcane procedural rules and vote on the bill.”
Roll Call: “Democrats were the ones who ultimately held government funding in suspense. They were largely expected to help Republicans make up for a drop-off in votes, but they held firm against two policy riders they said were put into the cromnibus at the eleventh hour: One rolling back portions of the financial regulatory overhaul law known as Dodd-Frank, the other loosening campaign finance rules.”
A new Pew Research survey finds that “perceptions of the current level of political division continue at record levels: 81% say the country is more politically divided these days than in the past. While that is little changed from two years ago, it is as high a percentage expressing this view as at any point over the past decade.”
“Looking ahead, few Americans expect the nation’s political differences to diminish. Just 17% think the country will be less politically divided five years from now.”
“Are we in the middle of a new Cold War? Indeed we are…. People are talking again not only about a new Cold War but a hot one…. It’s as if a time of great troubles has arrived. The world is roiling.”
— Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in an interview with Time.
Wall Street Journal: “The White House’s budget office held a conference call Thursday with all federal agencies to review plans for a possible government shutdown, an administration official said, reviewing protocol in the event Congress doesn’t pass funding legislation by midnight.”
Hillary Clinton “is considering the nitty-gritty details of how and when to organize a presidential campaign amid signs that she will postpone making her shadow campaign official until later in 2015 than expected,” the Washington Post reports.
“Clinton and her small circle of close advisers are weighing legal advice to set up a strict firewall between her and the numerous outside groups backing her presumed 2016 candidacy… The quarantine would run for a set period of time before she would announce her candidacy, as a way to make sure that the campaign and outside groups do not run afoul of federal election rules.”
“But rather than announce in January — as she did in 2007 — Clinton allies are increasingly working under the assumption that an official announcement will not come until spring.”
“The 113th Congress — one of the least productive on record — found itself scrambling Thursday to pass a $1.1 trillion spending bill amid last-minute brinkmanship and bickering that has come to mark one of the capital’s most polarized eras,” the New York Times reports.
“Lawmakers were also preparing a safety, short-term spending measure that would fund the government only into early next year, at which point Republicans — who will then control both chambers of Congress — would be able to renegotiate the spending legislation on more favorable terms.”
Roll Call notes House GOP leaders already had to delay the vote.
“While it may be little consolation to conservatives, House Republicans announced their intention Wednesday to vote on an amendment — in January, when the new Congress is sworn in — that would block the president’s executive action on immigration,” Roll Call reports.
“GOP leadership is trying to present the argument that the best chance for success is after the new Congress is sworn in.”
Politico: “With seemingly little pushback from Democrats, the GOP this week secured $350 million in IRS budget cuts into the ‘cromnibus,’ just weeks before one of the toughest tax seasons starts. The cuts to the IRS — and the larger negotiations on the year-end spending bill — offer a sneak peek at what Republicans plan to do when they are able to dominate government spending decisions.IRS watchers warn that the agency is spiraling toward a rocky future that will rival some of its darkest days in its history, when whistleblowers blew the lid off IRS agents abusing power and thousands of tax returns were lost in the mail.”
The Atlantic: “A little over a year after Bill Clinton left the presidency, a stream of former administration officials began making quiet, unannounced visits to Charlottesville, Virginia, to spend a day or two alone with scholars. They usually came to the parlor of an antebellum mansion named for William Faulkner, where they reflected privately into a tape recorder on what they had experienced… Over a 10-year span, the center collected 134 oral histories on the 42nd presidency. The Clinton archive now runs to 10,000 pages of transcribed conversations, making it the largest of the Miller Center’s presidential projects, which date back to the Ford White House. Roughly half of these interviews were released to the public in November. The rest, following standard oral-history protocols, will be opened as soon as each interviewee is comfortable doing so.”
“As the House prepares to pass a trillion dollar, 1,603-page ‘cromnibus Thursday, at least one criticism can be applied to both Republicans and Democrats when the bill comes to a vote: few lawmakers — if any — will have read the entire thing,” Roll Call reports.
“It’s not that a $1.1 trillion piece of legislation can — or should — be written in 140 characters like a tweet, or as a 4,543-word document, such as the Constitution. But the cromnibus, coming in at 289,861 words, represents a particularly challenging public relations moment for members of Congress. It’s precisely the style of legislating that Speaker John A. Boehner ran against when he campaigned for the leadership job, vowing to give members at least 72 hours to read any measure before a vote. And it’s the manifestation of the proverbial backroom deals that have angered so many voters for so long.”
First Read comments on the flurry of Rick Perry interviews this month:
“Perry is smartly trying to speak to reporters and stoke the 2016 flames while he’s still in office and has the trappings of power. The question: The minute he leaves office, will the support — in Texas and elsewhere — still be there? Does he become a one-man caravan?”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]He’s got a tougher path but Perry is doing all the right things at this stage. [/speech_bubble]
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is taking his economic success story on a national tour, Politico reports.
“Although officially the trips are aimed at promoting the local economy, they will also help boost Snyder’s national profile at a time when the emerging 2016 GOP field is anything but settled. And while Snyder’s uneasiness talking about social issues means he will have a tough time winning the party’s nod — and he’s not taking active steps toward a candidacy — his economic background and success governing a blue state could make him an attractive running mate.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]The stage at the Republican debates could be very crowded. [/speech_bubble]
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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