Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza decried Hillary Clinton’s “lawlessness” in a Skype interview from San Diego, California, where he is currently serving his eight month sentence in a “community confinement center” for violating campaign finance laws, Mediaite reports.
Unemployment Rate Falls to 5.5%
The U.S. economy added 295,000 workers to payrolls in February and the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.5%, Bloomberg reports.
“The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 96 economists projected employment would rise by 235,000… The jobless rate was projected to drop to 5.6% from January’s 5.7%.”
Democrats Vow to Protect Boehner from Coup
“Tea Party Republicans contemplating a bid to oust Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) shouldn’t count on Democrats to help them unseat the Speaker. And without their support, there is no chance to topple Boehner in this Congress,” The Hill reports.
“Democrats from across an ideological spectrum say they’d rather see Boehner remain atop the House than replace him with a more conservative Speaker who would almost certainly be less willing to reach across the aisle in search of compromise. Replacing him with a Tea Party Speaker, they say, would only bring the legislative process — already limping along — to a screeching halt.”
Quote of the Day
“We’re not going to pull resources from Christie, we want to kill him dead.”
— American Bridge president Brad Woodhouse, quoted by Bloomberg, on his opposition research effort against GOP presidential hopefuls.
Republicans See Clinton Imploding
Rick Wilson: “A brief note to my Republican friends; go dark. Seriously. Stop talking.”
“The Clinton machine in all its arrogance and inertia is careening toward political disaster as the story of her illegal private email servers collides with a Washington and New York press corps that can’t, for once, easily look away. The story has a lot more stink in it than even what’s come to light so far. Only the GOP and conservatives can save her.”
“The press is possessed of a boundless desire to Change the Subject right now, and some intemperate remark would fit the bill perfectly. Don’t give them a shiny object… For God’s sake, take a deep breath and skip talking about your favorite social issue.”
The Hill reports Republican strategists “say that Clinton’s political abilities have long been exaggerated. They contend she displays an unusual capacity to make trouble for herself and, unlike her husband, no great degree of nimbleness in getting out of it.”
Why Clinton Isn’t Talking About Her Email
Hillary Clinton “won’t be presiding over a soul-searching press conference or sitting down for a come-clean interview about her use of a private email address any time soon — at least if everything goes according to her team’s plan,” Bloomberg reports.
“The former secretary of state and her advisers have decided to adopt a time-tested Clintonian approach: take a concrete step to ease the pressure, then wait out the storm… Their theory is that her late Wednesday tweet asking the State Department to release the 55,000 pages of emails she provided to the agency would start to calm the media and political tempest, while giving her spokesman an easy answer to many journalists’ questions: ask State.”
Politico: “Democrats continue to present a largely united front in their public support for Clinton and in their belief that the email issue isn’t one that will ultimately matter to voters.”
Bush Used Private Email for Public Business Too
Jeb Bush was quick to criticize Hillary Clinton “amid reports that she’d never used a government email during her four years as secretary of state,” CNN reports.
“Like Clinton, though, Bush had set up his own home server with a private address during his time in office. He still uses it, giving it out at events and asking supporters to email him comments and concerns. And, like Clinton, several of his top aides had email addresses connected Bush’s server, too.”
GOP Leaders Skip Selma Anniversary
“Scores of U.S. lawmakers are converging on tiny Selma, Alabama, for a large commemoration of a civil rights anniversary. But their ranks don’t include a single member of House Republican leadership — a point that isn’t lost on congressional black leaders,” Politico reports.
“None of the top leaders — House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy or Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was once thought likely to attend to atone for reports that he once spoke before a white supremacist group — will be in Selma for the three-day event that commemorates the 1965 march and the violence that protesters faced at the hands of white police officers. A number of rank-and-file Republicans have been aggressively lobbying their colleagues to attend, and several black lawmakers concurred.”
Chart of the Day
Pew Research: “Democrats control both legislative chambers in just 11 states, down from 34 states in 1982 and 27 as recently as 2010, though that number had fluctuated in the years in between. Meanwhile, Republicans have gained a total of 888 legislative seats since 2009, and control both chambers in a record-high 30 states. In eight other states, each party controls one chamber.”
Clinton Email Review Will Focus on Security
“A State Department review of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails from her time leading the agency could reveal whether she violated security policies with her use of a private e-mail server,” the Washington Post reports.
“The official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations, said that Clinton’s use of personal e-mail did not automatically break the rules, but the analysis could show whether work e-mails sent from her personal account included sensitive information that is typically required to be handled on a system that meets security protocols.”
GOP Finally Coming Up With Their Own Health Plan
“The legal campaign to destroy President Obama’s health care law may be nearing its conclusion, but as the Supreme Court deliberates over the law’s fate, the search for a replacement by Republican lawmakers is finally gaining momentum,” the New York Times reports.
“Senior Republicans in Congress hope that by June, the Supreme Court will invalidate the subsidies that 7.5 million Americans in 34 states have been given to purchase health insurance through the federal Healthcare.gov website. But the prospects of legal victory have also raised practical and political fears that Republicans will take the blame for the health care crisis that would follow.”
Schumer is Reid’s Most Frequent Caller
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) told the Wall Street Journal that he will take a call from any senator at any time and the most frequent caller is Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), “who has memorized several of Mr. Reid’s phone numbers.”
Said Reid: “He knows all the tricks. If my wife takes the phone of the hook he just calls on the other line. But if that didn’t work he’d call my cellphone.”
How Vulnerable Was Hillary Clinton’s Email?
Gawker found a login page for Hillary Clinton’s private email server which “uses an SSL VPN—a protocol that allows your web browser to create an encrypted connection to a local network from any internet connection—to users to access their email. That sounds secure, and under the right circumstances, for regular users, it can be. But there are two huge problems with using it for the Secretary of State’s communications with her staff and others.”
“First: Anyone in the world with that URL can attempt to log in. It’s unclear what exactly lies on the other side of this login page, but the fact that you could log into anything tied to the Secretary of State’s email is, simply, bad. If the page above is directly connected to Clinton’s email server, a login there could be disastrous… What’s more troubling is the fact that, at least as of yesterday, the server at sslvpn has an invalid SSL certificate. Digital certificates are used to ‘sign’ the encryption keys that servers and browsers use to establish encrypted communications.”
Lawmaker Wants to Let Wolves Solve Homeless Problem
Rep. Don Young (R-AK) suggested that if he let loose wolves in some congressional districts, they “wouldn’t have a homeless problem anymore,” the Washington Post reports.
“The strange comment was made during a halting five-minute exchange with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on her agency’s budget. He accused her and her department of making decisions without consulting the states they’d effect.”
Walker’s Wins Less Impressive Than They Look
Gov. Scott Walker (R) “is the rare favorite of conservatives who emphasize electability. He won three contests in four years in Wisconsin, which hasn’t voted for the Republican candidate in a presidential election since 1984. He did so without compromising on the Republican Party’s core principles; instead, he prevailed in a high-profile fight with organized labor,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Walker might well prove to be a stronger general election candidate than Mitt Romney. That’s not a very high bar. But his electoral record — three wins in governor’s races in four years in Wisconsin, including a recall election — isn’t as impressive as it looks. It’s not clear that Mr. Walker would have won re-election in November 2012, when he wouldn’t have had the many benefits of running in an off-year election. It’s still less clear that he could have run far ahead of Mr. Romney had he sought federal office; he would have been deprived of the labor and pensions issues that have split Democratic-leaning voters in many parts of the country.”
Is Scott Walker the GOP’s Barack Obama?
Amy Walter: “Scott Walker in 2015 is a lot like Barack Obama circa 2007; he’s relatively unknown and yet well-known at the same time. Obama’s speech at the DNC in 2004 propelled him to rock-star status among the Democratic faithful, while Walker’s victory over the public sector labor unions in 2011 made him a legend among conservatives. The Wisconsin Governor begins this campaign as a vessel into which voters can pour their hopes and aspirations. The question now is whether the idea of Walker can match up with the reality of Walker.”
Rubio Hooks a Big Super PAC Donor
“When former Florida governor Jeb Bush first jumped into the presidential race, the big question facing Sen. Marco Rubio was whether he would have enough money to compete,” the Washington Post reports.
“That’s where Norman Braman comes in. The Miami billionaire auto dealer and longtime Rubio benefactor will put as much as $10 million into a pro-Rubio super PAC if the Florida senator decides to run, according to people familiar with his plans.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Outsiders can say whatever they want, but insiders don’t criticize other insiders.”
— Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, quoted by Politico, offering advice to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
