Philip K. Howard, author of The Rule of Nobody and The Death of Common Sense, joins us for a great discussion about contradictory and often unnecessary laws which seem designed specifically to block responsibility and accountability.
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Charlie Cook: “There was a point when voters hit the mute button and stopped listening to George H.W. Bush and then to his son George W. Bush. We now seem to have reached that point with Obama. Voters have thrown up their hands and lost hope that things will get any better.”
“Republican members of the House elected Kevin McCarthy to be the next majority leader, sending a message of stability to their party in a time of unexpected unrest,” Roll Call reports.
National Journal: “Shortly after McCarthy’s victory, Republicans elected Rep. Steve Scalise to replace him as whip. Scalise was the front-runner throughout the three-man race between him, Rep. Peter Roskam, and Rep. Marlin Stutzman; the only question was whether Scalise could win an outright majority on the first ballot and avoid an unpredictable head-to-head contest with either Roskam or Stutzman.”
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Four of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) appointees to the Port Authority “all face near-certain indictment and are being pressed to hand up Christie,” according to Esquire.
“The clearest, quickest road to Christie, both sources agree, runs through David Samson, a former Attorney General of New Jersey who’s 74 years old and reportedly suffers from Parkinson’s disease. So: Will Samson flip?”
Said one source: “They’ve got him cold. He got sloppy, arrogant, and greedy. Samson will want a deal. This way, he’d get one or two years. He’d have a future on the other side. He won’t want to die in jail.”
Prosecutors allege that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) “was at the center of an effort to illegally coordinate fundraising among conservative groups to help his campaign and those of Republican senators fend off recall elections during 2011 and ’12,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“In the documents, prosecutors lay out what they call a ‘criminal scheme’ to bypass state election laws by Walker, his campaign and two top deputies — R.J. Johnson and Deborah Jordahl.”
“The governor and his close confidants helped raise money and control spending through 12 conservative groups during the recall elections… The documents include an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove…that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign.”
GOP pollster John McLaughlin put out a memo attempting to explain how he showed Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) with a huge lead in Virginia’s 7th congressional district over the ultimate GOP primary winner, David Brat (R).
In short, McLaughlin says many voter who don’t normally vote in GOP primaries turned out this year.
The Dallas County Commissioners Court declared that African-Americans “deserve reparations for slavery, even though most commissioners didn’t seem to know that they were doing so,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
“Republican party officials are putting together a new election year messaging campaign to reach women voters on issues including Obamacare, jobs and education as they seek to gain an advantage in the Nov. 4 congressional elections,” Reuters reports.
“The research identified the phrase ‘start over’ as a message that resonated with many women on Obamacare. The Republicans have been seeking to bridge the gap between loyal voters who want the healthcare law thrown out and those who favor retaining its consumer protections as part of a different reform environment.”
Norm Ornstein: “Does it matter whether the polarization, and the deep dysfunction that follows from it, is equal or not, including to the average voter? The answer is a resounding yes. If bad behavior–using the nation’s full faith and credit as a hostage to political demands, shutting down the government, attempting to undermine policies that have been lawfully enacted, blocking nominees not on the basis of their qualifications but to nullify the policies they would pursue, using filibusters as weapons of mass obstruction–is to be discouraged or abandoned, those who engage in it have to be held accountable.”
“Saying both sides are equally responsible, insisting on equivalence as the mantra of mainstream journalism, leaves the average voter at sea, unable to identify and vote against those perpetrating the problem.”
A new Suffolk poll in New Hampshire finds Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) leads challenger Scott Brown (R) by dougle-digits, 49% to 39%.
Key finding: “Brown’s popularity is a minus-11 (35% favorable vs. 46% unfavorable) in contrast to Shaheen’s plus-16 (52% favorable vs. 36% unfavorable).”
A new American Research Group poll finds Shaheen leads Brown 50% to 38%.
“I’m going to wait until the 2014 election is over, and then I’m going to see what I should do. I’ve never been in a less productive time in my life than I am right now, in the United States Senate.”
— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), in an interview with Time, on his political future.
Wonk Wire: Just 7% have confidence in Congress
“For all the money spent on the November elections, control of the Senate might not be decided until a Saturday three weeks before Christmas,” Roll Call reports.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) “hopes to win re-election outright on Nov. 4 in a jungle primary against a handful of challengers. But winning a majority of the vote in a multi-candidate field would be a significant feat, and the campaigns of both Landrieu and her leading Republican opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), are undoubtedly preparing for an extended, one-on-one race.”
“If a Dec. 6 runoff coincides with a 50-49 Republican advantage in the Senate, consultants in and out of the state warn of an unprecedented onslaught of spending from party committees and outside groups in a race that could become more about the national parties than the two candidates on the ballot.”
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) told county sheriffs he felt conflicted about supporting a bill that limited ammunition magazines, but signed it into law because one of his “staff made a commitment,” the Denver Post reports.
Said Hickenlooper: “To be honest, no one in our office thought it would get through the legislature. There were several Democrats who said without question they weren’t going to vote for it.”
First Read: “Take the supposedly politically charged issue of Common Core education standards… Tea Party Republicans oppose them by 53%-38% in our poll. By contrast, the country at large supports them by a pretty non-controversial 59%-31% margin, and non-Tea Party Republicans narrowly favor them, 49%-42%. On immigration, the poll shows that 68% of Tea Party Republicans believe immigration hurts the United States, versus just 47% of non-Tea Party Republicans and 42% of all Americans who say that. And on the environment, Tea Party Republicans disapprove — by a 74%-23% margin — of a proposal that would require companies to reduce greenhouse gases, even if it means higher energy costs for consumers. By contrast, 57% of Americans and 50% of non-Tea Party Republicans APPROVE of the proposal.”
“What’s more, 39% of Tea Party Republicans think that concerns about global warming is unwarranted, while just 13% of all Americans and 7% of non-Tea Party Republicans believe that.”
Talk Business Arkansas notes that an internal poll released by Rep. Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) U.S. Senate campaign “included a graphic in their polling memo showing their Arkansas Senate race polling trend lines since February of 2013. Think about that for a just a moment.”
“Tom Cotton was sworn in as a Freshman Congressman on January 3, 2013. And in February of 2013 Tom Cotton ran a statewide poll testing his chances of becoming a U.S. Senator. After one month in office, Tom Cotton wasn’t concerned with representing the Fourth Congressional District to the best of his ability, he just wanted to be a U.S. Senator.”
A new NPR Poll finds that “in the key battleground states that will decide control of the Senate this November, President Obama’s approval numbers are lower than they are nationally – but not much lower.”
“In the 12 states with competitive Senate races this fall, only 38 percent of likely voters said they approved of the way the president is handling his job. An index of all national polls shows the president’s approval rating about four percentage points higher nationwide.”
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), the first Republican elected to a statewide post in Mississippi since Reconstruction, told the Jackson Clarion Ledger that his campaign “hasn’t tried to buy any votes. But he didn’t deny efforts to lure Democratic voters.”
He said he hopes, “the more the merrier will prevail in this election.”
Said Cochran: “I used to be a Democrat. My parents were active in the Democratic Party. We made changes in our views about some of the policies of the parties, and over time they evolved into different parties. … I’m a Republican member of the U.S. Senate, and it’s a good thing for the state that I have been.”
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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