I’m very excited to announce a new series of discussions on Political Wire. I’ve partnered with Chris Riback, my co-author of You Won – Now What? and the host of Conversations with Thinkers. Our hope is to turn this series into a new podcast.
Our first guest is Stuart Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report.
Please let us know what you think in the comments.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “declined to commit to serving another full term as governor if he is reelected next week,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Christie: “I’m committed to being the best governor New Jersey can have for as long as I can possibly do it.. But, you know, George, neither one of us have a crystal ball and know what’s going to happen in the future.”
First Read highlights the politics around on last night’s story that some Americans will lose their insurance plans under the new health-care law:
“Some Americans (particularly those without insurance and those with pre-existing conditions) are going to be better off; some Americans (those who have purchased cheap catastrophic plans) are going to be worse off; and most Americans will see little to no change. But the P.R. problem the White House is dealing with right now for the folks on the individual market is something they knew was coming, and yet they painted themselves into this rhetorical corner.”
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“We’re a center-right country, but conservatives won’t govern again soon unless we … get outside our comfort zones to listen.”
— Jeb Bush, quoted by the Washington Examiner.
Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) reported to prison early to begin serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption, but was turned away, the Chicago Tribune reports.
“It was not immediately clear when Jackson would be able to start his 30-month prison sentence.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “caused widespread whiplash last week when he unleashed a blistering attack on Matt Bevin, his Republican primary challenger, just days after the Kentucky senator had signaled he was looking past Bevin to likely Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes,” the Lexington Herald Leader reports.
“Instead, several allies of McConnell and other Senate Republicans say the senator is now planning a two-front war: one against Grimes and the other against the fundraising groups that are supporting Bevin. McConnell’s real targets are the Senate Conservatives Fund, which announced its endorsement of Bevin on Oct. 18, Heritage Action for America, Madison Project, FreedomWorks and other outside groups.”
“If McConnell can crush Bevin, the thinking goes, he can expose a lack of ideological consistency in the outside groups, allowing him to separate Tea Party voters from Tea Party fundraising groups.”
Charlie Cook
says the 2014 midterm elections may the the GOP’s last chance to take back control of the Senate for years.
“The reason next year is
so make-or-break for Senate Republicans is because in 2016, when all of
the seats they won in 2010 come up–they netted a six-seat net gain that
year–there will be 24 GOP seats up, compared with only 10 for
Democrats, leading to some serious Republican overexposure. Seven of the
24 GOP senators up are hailing from states that Obama carried in 2012.
After having had plentiful Democratic targets in 2012 and 2014, it will
be Republicans in 2016 who will have the most incumbents in the
crosshairs.”
Benjy Sarlin:
“Senator Marco Rubio is bailing on his own immigration bill. Not only
is the senator from Florida now telling House Republicans not to pass
the Senate legislation he co-sponsored and championed for months – he’s
urging them not to negotiate with the Senate at all.”
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) was in New York City for a fundraiser and praised Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) but had some choice words for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the New York Daily News reports.
Said Coburn: “I have great relationships with Chuck Schumer. I don’t say that in Oklahoma… There’s no comity with Harry Reid. I think he’s an absolute asshole.”
“If that’s what they wanted, I’d have to hold my nose… they’d probably have to hold a gun to my head, but yeah.”
— Nevada Assemblyman Jim Wheeler (R), quoted by the Reno Gazette Journal , saying he would vote to legalize slavery if his constituents wanted.
Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry: “The key premise that has been guiding these conservatives, however, is mistaken. That premise is that the main reason conservatives have won so few elections and policy victories, especially recently, is a lack of ideological commitment and will among Republican politicians. A bigger problem than the insufficient conservatism of our leaders is the insufficient number of our followers. There aren’t enough conservative voters to elect enough officials to enact a conservative agenda in Washington, D.C. — or to sustain them in that project even if they were elected. The challenge, fundamentally, isn’t a redoubling of ideological commitment, but more success at persuasion and at winning elections.”
The White House and State Department “signed off on surveillance targeting phone conversations of friendly foreign leaders, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said Monday, pushing back against assertions that President Obama and his aides were unaware of the high-level eavesdropping,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Professional staff members at the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies are angry, these officials say, believing the president has cast them adrift as he tries to distance himself from the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that have strained ties with close allies.”
As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) cruises to a 2-1 reelection landslide, likely voters say by 48% to 41% that they would like to see Christie run for president in 2016, according to a Quinnipiac poll.
New York Times: “Ever since Republicans in Congress shut down the federal government in an attempt to remove funding for President Obama’s health care law, Republican governors have been trying to distance themselves from Washington… But few have gone further than Mr. Kasich in critiquing his party’s views on poverty programs, and last week he circumvented his own Republican legislature and its Tea Party wing by using a little-known state board to expand Medicaid to 275,000 poor Ohioans under President Obama’s health care law.”
“Once a leader of the conservative firebrands in Congress under Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, Mr. Kasich has surprised and disarmed some former critics on the left with his championing of Ohio’s disadvantaged, which he frames as a matter of Christian compassion.”
“He embodies conventional Republican fiscal priorities — balancing the budget by cutting aid to local governments and education — but he defies many conservatives in believing government should ensure a strong social safety net.”
“Grand bargains are out. Tax hikes are out. Short-term and stopgap solutions are very much in,” Roll Call reports.
“That’s the reality in Washington this week, as budget conferees meet for the first time Wednesday to try to hammer out a deal.”
“Publicly, the White House and top Democrats are still talking about a “balanced” plan requiring new revenue as part of a long-term budget blueprint that would replace the sequester and tackle the nation’s long-term debt challenges. But almost no one expects that to happen.”
Politico: “The 2014 midterm just got a lot more interesting. The twin dramas of the government shutdown and botched rollout of Obamacare have snapped a sleepy 2014 election season out of its slumber, sharpening the battle lines for each party and setting the stage for a consequential midterm that few expected even two months ago.”
President Obama “repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years,” NBC News reports.
Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act say “that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent.”
A new Washington Post-Abt SRBI poll in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) leads Ken Cuccinelli (R) by 12 points, 51% to 39% among likely voters in next Tuesday’s election. Libertarian Robert Sarvis is at 8%.
Key findings: “The margin between the two candidates is driven by a huge gender gap. Among men, the two candidates are running even, with Cuccinelli at 45 percent and McAuliffe at 44 percent. But among women, Cuccinelli trails by 24 points — 58 percent to 34 percent.”
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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