NBC News “says a report by Brian Williams on the network’s Nightly News program that federal charges have been ruled out for Gov. Chris Christie in the George Washington Bridge scandal was incorrect,” USA Today reports.
“Federal prosecutors say the investigation is ongoing and haven’t made any announcement on Christie’s status.”
“Republicans are again seeing national security as a winning issue for their campaigns, eight years after the party was swept from power in Congress over President George W. Bush’s handling of the Iraq war,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The assertive tone comes as polls show that voters view Republicans as better able than Democrats to handle national security, by margins that rival the party’s large advantage in the post-9/11 period. Also recently, public approval of President Barack Obama’s handling of foreign policy has fallen sharply.”
Greg Sargent: “Do Republicans really want to go here, given that many GOP lawmakers’ position is to send in ground troops, a course of action that is broadly opposed by the American mainstream?”
Dean Obeidallah: “I have to give the Republicans credit for one thing in this election cycle. They’ve been able to keep their crazies quiet. But the big question is: Will some GOP crazy talk seep out between now November 4? In the words of Sarah Palin, I’d have to say, ‘You betcha.'”
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Former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland (R), “a political rising star who crashed a decade ago in a corruption scandal, fell again Friday when a jury in federal court found him guilty in a low-rent scheme to collect secret pay checks from rich Republican congressional candidates,” the Hartford Courant reports.
“Influential Republicans in early presidential primary states believe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is poised to once again become a frontrunner for the party’s 2016 nomination, following a news report that he is no longer a target of federal scrutiny for his role in a bridge-closing scandal,” the Washington Post reports.
“Christie’s wealthy friends in Republican finance circles also expressed confidence that the governor has escaped what has been seen as the leading obstacle to his potential candidacy.”
Seven Days has unearthed a folk album recorded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 1987, while he was the mayor of Burlington, VT.
Daily Beast: “While savoring these songs, the listener might wonder, you know, how the hell something like this ever happened… The senator’s office, sadly, doesn’t have much to say about their boss’s old record making the rounds this week.”
A new Rasmussen survey in Kansas finds Greg Orman (I) leading Sen. Pat Roberts (R) for U.S. Senate, 45% to 40%.
The survey shows the head-to-head match up now possible when Chad Taylor (D) is kept off the ballot.
A new Rasmussen survey in Iowa finds Joni Ernst (R) and Bruce Braley (D) deadlocked in the U.S. Senate race, 43% to 43%.
“House Republicans are quietly discussing a proposal that could fundamentally alter the way future speakers of the House are chosen, according to multiple GOP sources, with the objective of avoiding a repeat of John Boehner’s embarrassing reelection vote in 2013,” National Journal reports.
“Under the proposed tweak, any Republican who votes on the House floor in January against the conference’s nominee for House speaker – that is, the candidate chosen by a majority of the House GOP during its closed-door leadership elections in November – would be severely punished. Specifically, sources say, any dissenters would be stripped of all committee assignments for that Congress.”
Molly Ball: “That Clinton is a risk-averse, pragmatic politician has been her hallmark for years, of course–it’s just another way in which her current persona offers nothing new or surprising. Has America ever been so thoroughly tired of a candidate before the campaign even began?”
In the middle of a speech championing women’s issues and condemning sexual harassment, Vice President Joe Biden offered warm words for former Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR) who resigned after 10 women accused him of sexual harassment, Business Insider reports.
North Carolina congressional candidate Mark Walker (R) suggested war with Mexico might be a way to stop immigrants coming across the border, TPM reports.
Said Walker: “I will tell you if you have foreigners who are sneaking in with drug cartels to me that is a national threat. And if we got to go laser or blitz somebody with a couple of fighter jets for a little while to make our point, I don’t have a problem with that either. So yeah, whatever we need to do.”
“The battleground for control of the Senate is now Kansas.”
— Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), quoted by ABC News, on news the Democratic candidate will be allowed to drop off the ballot to force a two-way race.
A new Reuters poll found that almost a quarter — 23.9% — of those surveyed said they were strongly or provisionally inclined to have their states secede from the United States.
“Secession got more support from Republicans than Democrats, more from right- than left-leaning independents, more from younger than older people, more from lower- than higher-income brackets, more from high school than college grads. But there was a surprising amount of support in every group and region, especially the Rocky Mountain states, the Southwest and the old Confederacy, but also in places like Illinois and Kansas. And of the people who said they identified with the Tea Party, supporters of secession were actually in the majority, with 53 percent.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) slammed the Republican party for not reaching out to minorities, Politico reports.
Said Paul: “So many times, Republicans are seen as this party of, ‘We don’t want black people to vote because they’re voting Democrat, we don’t want Hispanic people to vote because they’re voting Democrat.’ We wonder why the Republican Party is so small. Why don’t we be the party that’s for people voting, for voting rights?”
“Let’s see if you can write this whole story without mentioning how fat I’ve gotten.”
— North Carolina congressional candidate Clay Aiken (D), quoted by the Washington Post.
Large portions of Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke’s (D) jobs plan “appear to be copied directly from the plans of three Democratic candidates who ran for governor in previous election cycles,” BuzzFeed reports.
“Burke’s economic plan Invest for Success copies nearly-verbatim sections from the jobs plans of Ward Cammack, who ran for Tennessee governor in 2009 before withdrawing from the race, a 2008 plan from Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, and John Gregg who ran for governor of Indiana in 2012 and lost to Mike Pence.”
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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