Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is already “quietly plotting his plans” to run for re-election in 2016, Politico reports.
“Already, he’s begun seeking commitments from aides to stay with him through 2016. He’s spending more time fundraising everywhere from New York to Southern California. And he’s not afraid to issue a warning to a potential GOP opponent, Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, who — if he’s reelected next year — will be in the middle of a second term in 2016.”
On the eve of a new Supreme Court term, New York magazine has a fascinating interview with Justice Antonin Scalia.
A brief excerpt:
“One of the things that upsets me about modern society is the coarseness of manners. You can’t go to a movie–or watch a television show for that matter–without hearing the constant use of the F-word–including, you know, ladies using it. People that I know don’t talk like that! But if you portray it a lot, the society’s going to become that way. It’s very sad.”
“And you can’t have a movie or a television show without a nude sex scene, very often having no relation to the plot. I don’t mind it when it is essential to the plot, as it sometimes is. But, my goodness! The society that watches that becomes a coarse society.”
“I think, personally, it would bring stability to the world markets.”
— Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL), quoted by the Washington Post, on breaching the debt ceiling.
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
Republican Congressman to Byron York on the current fiscal crisis:
“I would liken this a little bit to Gettysburg, where a Confederate unit went looking for shoes and stumbled into Union cavalry, and all of a sudden found itself embroiled in battle on a battlefield it didn’t intend to be on, and everybody just kept feeding troops into it. That’s basically what’s happening now in a political sense. This isn’t exactly the fight I think Republicans wanted to have, certainly that the leadership wanted to have, but it’s the fight that’s here.”
Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Michele Bachmann celebrate the government shutdown by throwing a raucous house party on Saturday Night Live.
“I’m a progressive activist fiscal conservative, but I’m still a fiscal conservative. And so we can’t talk about tax cuts in any sector until we sort out our financial situation.”
— New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio (D), quoted by CBS New York.
House Speaker John Boehner “flatly refused to schedule votes for full government funding or to raise the debt ceiling without concessions from Democrats, asserting that the House couldn’t and shouldn’t take either step without addressing problems with the new health care law and the nation’s debt crisis,” ABC News reports.
“Some 21 House Republicans have said publicly that they’re willing to support a ‘clean’ measure to extend all government funding without other conditions attached… That’s apparently enough, when added to Democratic votes, to pass a bill out of the House.”
But Boehner disputed that notion: “There are not the votes in the house to pass a clean CR.”
“Tea party activists made an energetic showing Saturday at a California Republican Party convention, promoting resolutions to block the state’s high-speed rail project and require voters to show photo identification at the polls as part of a push to influence the direction of the struggling state organization,” the AP reports.
“The meeting represented the best organized effort to date by the tea party to become a force within the state party, as leaders consider how to rebuild after being pushed to the political margins in the nation’s most populous state.”
“In the clearest sign yet of the potent effect of the government shutdown on the Virginia governor’s race, Republican Ken Cuccinelli avoided being photographed with Ted Cruz at a gala they headlined here Saturday night–even leaving before the Texas senator rose to speak,” Politico reports.
“Cruz has become the face of GOP intransigence, and the conservative attorney general’s effort to distance himself from congressional Republicans reflects how damaging Cuccinelli realizes a prolonged shutdown may be for his campaign.”
John Avlon talks with former FBI hostage negotiator Christopher Voss about how to end the fiscal crisis in Washington, D.C.
Said Voss: “It actually reminds me of a prison siege. The opposition isn’t particularly organized. The smart move is to pick among the leadership on the other side who is the most reasonable. Then you empower them by talking with them and granting some sort of small concession. And they suddenly gain a lot of influence on their side.”
“If the United States government, for the first time in its history, chooses not to pay its bills on time, we will be in default. There is no option that prevents us from being in default if we don’t have enough cash to pay our bills.”
— Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, quoted by the Washington Post, adding that, “Congress is playing with fire.”
Robert Costa: “They may sometimes be silent and fearful of stirring conservative ire,
but more than 100 members of the House GOP aremuch more centrist than
you’d imagine. These are the members from purple and light-red
districts, who rarely go on television and, unlike their more unruly
colleagues, stick with the leadership. They are critical to sustaining
Boehner’s power, and, should the GOP find a way to extend the debt limit
and once again fund the government, they’ll deserve credit.”
“Ultimately, a large group of rank-and-file Republicans wants the mess
to end. They may not have the moxie to outmaneuver House conservatives,
but they certainly have the numbers.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that if the 2014 midterm elections were held today, Republicans “would be in grave danger of losing control of the House of Representatives.”
In a series of 24 surveys in GOP-held House districts, Republican incumbents are behind in match ups with generic Democratic challengers in 17 districts. In 4 other districts, the incumbent Republican trails after being told that the incumbent supported the government shutdown. In just 3 districts are incumbents leading generic challengers after voters are told the incumbent supported the government shutdown.
Democrats need 17 seats to win control of the House. These results show that if the election were held today, such a pickup would be within reach.
A senior House Republican tells CNN that “one idea being considered to end the immediate fiscal impasse is a bill to fund the government and extend the nation’s borrowing authority for six weeks.”
“The GOP lawmaker said a committee could then be set up to negotiate the fiscal issues dividing the two parties and negotiate a plan to keep the government funded for the rest of the year without the proverbial gun to their heads.”
“The ideological, cultural and political differences that led to this moment of extreme governmental dysfunction are almost certain to shape elections and legislative battles in the near term,” Dan Balz reports.
“That is the conclusion of politicians, political strategists and scholars who have been living with a deepening red-blue divide in America that they say has made this era of politics the most polarized in more than a century. However bad it may have seemed in the 1990s, the last time there was a shutdown , or after the contested presidential election in 2000, or a decade ago during a divisive war, the fundamentals are worse today.”
“Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan,” the New York Times reports.
“Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed ‘blueprint to defunding Obamacare,’ signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.”
“It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.”
New York Times: “The twin shutdowns of 1995 and 1996 had a theme: Cut federal spending, especially on Medicare, to eliminate the budget deficit in a prescribed length of time. This time around, even many Republicans no longer know what they want to achieve.”
Said Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL): “I think now it’s a lot about pride.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.