A federal judge ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry in Kentucky, the Louisville Courier Journal reports.
U.S. District Judge John Heyburn “rejected the only justification offered by lawyers for Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) — that traditional marriages contribute to a stable birth rate and the state’s long-term economic stability.”
Said Heyburn: “These arguments are not those of serious people.”
Wonk Wire: Nearly half of gay Americans live in states where they can marry
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) “vehemently disputed” assertions made in a forthcoming book, As Maine Went, that he made references in 2013 to executing Maine’s speaker of the House and Senate president, the Bangor Daily News reports.
Said LePage: “I was never in the room where ‘execute’ was used… It never happened. We did not discuss execution, arrest or hanging.”
“That was one of the worst days of my life. I was a virgin to humiliation of that level, until that day… I was the most humiliated woman in the world.”
— Monica Lewinsky, quoted by the Huffington Post, on the day special prosecutor Kenneth Starr released a report detailing her affair with President Clinton.
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Former New York Gov. David Paterson (D) told the New York Daily News that he’s not interested in heading back to public office “unless someone wanted me to run for vice president.”
Some great clicks over at Wonk Wire:
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Michigan finds Gov. Rick Snyder (R) in a dead heat with challenger Mark Schauer (D), 40% to 40%. Snyder had led by 10 points in April and by four points in December.
In the U.S. Senate race, Gary Peters (D) leads Terri Lynn Land (R) by five points, 41% to 36%.
“Why should I give an opinion as to whether they were right or wrong? At the end of the day, they did what they did.”
— Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by Business Insider, on the Supreme Court’s contraception ruling yesterday.
National Journal: “It’s going to be a little more difficult to ferret out which members of Congress are lavished with all-expenses-paid trips around the world after the House has quietly stripped away the requirement that such privately sponsored travel be included on lawmakers’ annual financial-disclosure forms.”
“The move, made behind closed doors and without a public announcement by the House Ethics Committee, reverses more than three decades of precedent. Gifts of free travel to lawmakers have appeared on the yearly financial form dating back its creation in the late 1970s, after the Watergate scandal.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “has enlisted a former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party to serve as an adviser to his political action committee, adding new heft to Paul’s operation ahead of a potential 2016 presidential bid,” Politico reports.
First Read: “For one thing, it gives meaning to the White House’s various executive actions. Earlier this year during the State of the Union, many of us proclaimed them simply playing ‘small ball.’ But given this lawsuit, Republicans certainly don’t see them being small. In addition, the lawsuit only emphasizes the contrast that one branch of government is doing something while the other branch is doing nothing.”
“Bottom line: The White House sees a political opportunity here — an opportunity that Republicans might not have seen coming. Would it surprise many if House Republicans quietly decide before the August recess that this lawsuit gambit is actually too politically risky for them in an election year?”
A Smart Politics review of recent U.S. Senate race rankings by PBS NewsHour, The Fix, The Hotline, FiveThirtyEight, and The Upshot finds that all five forecasters were in universal agreement on the rank ordering of only one state for its likelihood to flip in 2014 – South Dakota at #1.
An average of forecaster rankings finds Democratic seats holding of the Top 9 slots with South Dakota at #1 (rank average 1.0), West Virginia at #2 (2.2), Montana at #3 (2.6), Louisiana at #4 (4.2), Arkansas at #5 (5.4), North Carolina at #6 (6.0), Alaska at #7 (7.6), Colorado at #8 (8.4), and Iowa at #9 (8.6).
First Read: “No reasonable person can say that immigration’s death — in 2013 and 2014 — is anyone’s fault but House Republicans. Still, we also understand why they killed it: They saw no short-term benefit. Yes, the long-term politics (for 2016 and 2020) cry out for Republicans to remove immigration as an issue. But doing so would be so painful in the process (just see Eric Cantor’s primary defeat). All of that said, the longer Republicans wait on passing immigration reform, the longer the wounds with Latino voters will take to heal.”
Stuart Stevens: “No trick strategies were necessary to push the incumbent over the Tea Party challenger in Mississippi. Instead, hard legwork and reaching out to past voters got it done.”
Conservatives won a big victory at the Supreme Court yesterday but “even as conservatives celebrated coming out on the winning side of a divisive social issue, their court victory may have also handed Democrats an issue that will turn out liberal voters in the fall,” the New York Times reports.
“Democrats have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the last several years to cast Republicans as callous and extreme on women’s health issues. And party strategists believe their ability to hold on to the Senate this year depends in large part on persuading women that a Republican Senate and White House would only produce more outcomes like Monday’s ruling, which they contend is harmful and hostile to women’s rights.”
Wonk Wire: Opinion roundup on the Hobby Lobby case
Politico: “In a series of private meetings and back-channel discussions, the Cheneys have quietly been working to repair their relationship with a Republican establishment of which they’d been card-carrying members for decades — but that was strained by Liz Cheney’s ill-fated Senate bid in Wyoming last year. And if the charm offensive helps lay the groundwork for her to run for public office again someday, all the better.”
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy “was held for questioning on Tuesday over suspicions that he received leaked details of an inquiry into alleged irregularities in his 2007 election campaign,” Reuters reports.
“It was the first time a former head of state had been held for questioning in modern French history and is the latest blow to Sarkozy’s hopes of a come-back after his 2012 election defeat by Francois Hollande. The conservative politician denies all wrongdoing in a string of investigations involving him.”
“The campaign arm of the Senate Republicans has sent a series of fund-raising emails that appear to have language lifted from messages sent by the campaign arm of the House Democrats,” Business Insider reports.
“In at least three emails to supporters in the last week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee closely mirrored the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, borrowing phrases, framing, and even the font color on key words.”
Michigan Republicans will not oppose or support Jordan Haskins’ (R) bid for a Michigan House of Representatives seat despite his extensive record as a felon, the Saginaw News reports.
“Haskins admitted to police that he scaled fences and trespassed on both public and private property in order to take vehicles for joyrides and to facilitate a fetish he referred to as ‘cranking.’ Police reports state he disconnected the spark plugs on a vehicle and then masturbated while attempting to turn over the engine.”
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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