“The Republican Party’s top operatives — including strategists representing the Koch brothers’ political operation and several leading prospective 2016 presidential candidates – on Monday huddled behind closed doors to discuss how to synchronize their sometimes competing tech efforts,” multiple attendees confirmed to Politico.
Barbara Bush Is Now On Board for 2016
Neil Bush told Bloomberg that he thinks his mother has “come around” on the idea of brother Jeb Bush running for president in 2016.
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]The Bush camp has done their best to undo the damage of his mother’s comments earlier this year. [/speech_bubble]
GOP Split on Return of Filibuster
“Republicans are split over whether to change the Senate’s rules to allow filibusters on executive and judicial nominations,” The Hill reports.
Said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): “I think it’s rank hypocrisy if we don’t. If we don’t, then disregard every bit of complaint that we made, not only after they did it but also during the campaign. I’m stunned that some people want to keep it.”
Obama Takes Over ‘The Colbert Report’
President Obama was very funny on The Colbert Report last night.
Public Perception Wrong on Two Key Issues
Al Hunt notes that polling shows that “on two controversial issues, the budget deficit and deporting illegal immigrants, the public believes Obama’s critics — even though reality favors the president.”
“By 73 percent to 21 percent, the public says the federal budget deficit has gotten bigger during the Obama presidency. Here are the facts: In fiscal 2009, during the first year of Obama’s presidency, the deficit was $1.413 trillion. In the current fiscal year, the congressional budget office projects the deficit will be $469 billion, down from $483 billion in the budget year that ended Sept. 30. The deficit has been cut by two-thirds during Obama’s six years.”
“By 53 percent to 29 percent, Americans believe that Obama has sent fewer undocumented immigrants home than were deported a decade earlier. That’s a constant refrain of Obama’s immigration critics. It also isn’t true. Immigration agents removed 315,943 people in the last fiscal year. That’s down from 438,421 the year before but up 31 percent from the 240,665 deported in fiscal 2004.”
Liberals Push Warren to Run for President
The liberal group Moveon.org is poised to spend $1 million on a campaign to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) into the 2016 presidential race, “an indication of an appetite among some activists for a more progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton,” the New York Times reports.
A Warren spokesperson responds: “As Senator Warren has said many times, she is not running for president.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Many will note the present tense used by the spokesperson. [/speech_bubble]
Quote of the Day
“Let’s just say I wasn’t a choir boy when I was in college and that I can recognize that kids make mistakes. And I can say I made mistakes when I was a kid.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview with WHAS, when asked about his previous marijuana use.
Priebus Seeks Another Term
“Reince Priebus says he has the votes to win another term as chairman of the Republican National Committee, an organization he successfully rebuilt following the 2010 midterm elections. Priebus told RNC members of his plan to seek a third term in an email Monday night and said that 150 of the 168 party officials and political activists who make up the national organization have pledged to support him,” CNN reports.
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]If he wins, Priebus will be on track to be the longest-serving GOP chairman in history. [/speech_bubble]
GOP Approval Ratings Hit 5-Year High
“Republicans are enjoying a five-year peak in popularity after their wins in the midterm elections, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll, while President Obama struggles with his lowest job approval rating, at 39 percent. The White House also is facing a backlash from independents who oppose his unilateral moves on immigration, and just 24 percent say the country is on the right track, the lowest rating since September 2011.”
White House and GOP Clash Over Torture Report
“On the eve of a long-awaited Senate report on the use of torture by the United States government — a detailed account that will shed an unsparing light on the Central Intelligence Agency’s darkest practices after the September 2001 terrorist attacks — the Obama administration and its Republican critics clashed on Monday over the wisdom of making it public, and the risk that it will set off a backlash overseas,” the New York Times reports.
“While the United States has put diplomatic facilities and military bases on alert for heightened security risks, administration officials said they do not expect the report — or rather the declassified executive summary of it that will be released Tuesday — to ignite the kind of violence that killed four Americans at a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. Such violent reprisals, they said, tend to be fueled more by perceived attacks against Islam as a religion than by violence against individual Muslims.”
Huffington Post: Bush officials step up to blast torture report
McConnell Pushes Campaign Finance Changes
“An effort to ease limits on spending by party committees was among the late lingering issues as negotiations continued on legislation to keep the government funded past Thursday,” Roll Call reports.
Mark McKinnon: Just what we need. More campaign spending.
Lawyers Get Special Attention from the Supreme Court
A Reuters investigation finds “that 66 of the 17,000 lawyers who petitioned the Supreme Court succeeded at getting their clients’ appeals heard at a remarkable rate. Their appeals were at least six times more likely to be accepted by the court than were all others filed by private lawyers during that period.”
“The lawyers are the most influential members of one of the most powerful specialties in America: the business of practicing before the Supreme Court. None of these lawyers is a household name. But many are familiar to the nine justices. That’s because about half worked for justices past or present, and some socialize with them.”
Obama Loses Support Among Young Whites
A new Gallup poll finds President Obama’s job approval rating “among white 18- to 29-year-olds is 34%, three points higher than among whites aged 30 and older. This is the narrowest approval gap between the president’s previously strong support base of white millennials and older white Americans since Obama took office.”
Retouched Schwarzenegger Portrait Scrubs Out Wife
Three months after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) “unveiled his official Capitol portrait – and its badly scrubbed-out image of his estranged wife – a less splotchy, retouched version of the painting was hung Friday with little fanfare,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
“Less noticeable on the final installment is the area where an image of Maria Shriver’s face on a lapel pin was deleted.”
McConnell Will Back Paul for President
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told CNN that he plans to endorse Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in his widely expected bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Said McConnell: “I’m almost certainly going to be doing that at some point.”
Reid Working on Deal to Confirm Obama Appointees
Washington Post: “We’re hearing that outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), despite threats to keep the Senate in session next week, is working to wrap things up this week with a small number of priority confirmation votes. The D’s are looking to hammer out a deal with Republicans, we’re told, that would include up to nine of the remaining nominees for district court judgeships and a handful of executive branch nominees.”
Craig Takes Role for Idaho Republicans
The Idaho Republican Party has hired former Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) as its financial chair of its executive committee, KTVB reports.
“Craig was arrested in a 2007 airport bathroom sex sting. He was accused of soliciting sex in a men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by an undercover officer. According to the officer, Craig tapped his foot under the stall and signaled that he wanted sex.”
Clinton Schedules Another Paid Speech for Next Year
Hillary Clinton “has added a paid speech to her calendar in mid-March, complicating the time-frame for when she might announce a potential second run for the presidency,” MSNBC reports.
“The timing of Clinton’s potential 2016 presidential run remains very much up in the air. The first time Clinton ran for president, she announced her candidacy on January 20, 2007. Many Clinton allies and observers had expected a similar announcement date, but the addition of paid speeches deeper into 2015 complicates the matter.”
“Clinton could run and continue to collect money for speeches, but her speaking fees – which range up to $300,000 – have been controversial and would likely be a political headache. She could also cancel the appearances after an announcement. But the fact that she’s adding new bookings shows that Clinton has not fully made up her mind on timing, or even if she’ll run, Clinton allies say.”
