A somber Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL) “refused to say whether he would run for re-election Tuesday night, as he returned to the Capitol to vote for the first time since he took a leave absence following an Oct. 29 drug arrest for possession of cocaine,” Roll Call reports.
Politico notes Radel “has been trying to set up face-to-face meetings with some Capitol Hill colleagues to apologize for his cocaine bust.”
“The Democratic effort to extend federal benefits for the long-term unemployed got a surprise boost Tuesday as skeptical Republicans in the Senate voted to allow the proposal to advance, with issues of poverty and economic opportunity emerging as a central battleground between the parties,” the Washington Post reports.
“The reprieve came after President Obama’s outreach to some GOP senators produced the narrowest of victories for the White House.”
Roll Call: “Six Republicans bucked the party line Tuesday to open debate on a temporary reinstatement of lapsed jobless benefits — and for some, the story behind their support is one of high unemployment at home, combined with Democratic delegation mates who create inherent political tension.”
“Democrats are confident that a strong economy in 2014 will help them retain their Senate majority,” The Hill reports.
“Democratic senators speaking on the record are more cautious, but believe that the economy will boost their party’s chances of holding the upper chamber.”
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The Washington Post reviews Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert Gates.
“Gates left Washington in 2011 with a reputation as a steady, sober-minded member of the foreign policy establishment, who had served eight presidents and was admired equally by Republicans and Democrats. The next time Gates visits the capital, his reception may not be quite so warm. Duty is his second memoir, and this time he cuts loose.”
The Week: 5 takeaways from the explosive new Gates memoir.
“House Republican leaders sent a memo this week to the entire GOP conference with talking points designed to help rank-and-file Republicans show compassion for the unemployed and explain the Republican position on unemployment benefits,” the Washington Post reports.
In the memo, House Republicans “are urged to be empathetic toward the unemployed and understand how unemployment is a ‘personal crisis’ for individuals and families. The memo also asks Republicans to reiterate that the House will give “proper consideration” to an extension of long-term insurance as long as Democrats are willing to support spending or regulatory reforms.”
Just published: Left Brain, Right Stuff: How Leaders Make Winning Decisions by Phil Rosenzweig
In his new book, former defense secretary Robert Gates says “both President Obama and Hillary Clinton have admitted — to varying degrees — that they opposed the 2007 surge in Iraq because they faced each other in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary,” the Washington Post reports.
From the book: “Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. … The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.”
The Fix: “Bob Gates might just have handed Republicans (and maybe even a Democrat or two) an issue in their potential fight to keep Hillary Clinton from the presidency in 2016.”
President Obama “eventually lost faith in the troop increase he ordered in Afghanistan, his doubts fed by top White House civilian advisers opposed to the strategy, who continually brought him negative news reports suggesting it was failing, according to his former defense secretary, Robert M. Gates,” the New York Times reports.
“In a new memoir, Mr. Gates, a Republican holdover from the Bush administration who served for two years under Mr. Obama, praises the president as a rigorous thinker who frequently made decisions ‘opposed by his political advisers or that would be unpopular with his fellow Democrats.’ But Mr. Gates says that by 2011, Mr. Obama began expressing his own criticism of the way his strategy in Afghanistan was playing out.”
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) told Georgia Public Broadcasting that Democrats need the support of illegal immigrants to win control of the state in future elections.
Said Broun: “It only helps the Democrats if we legalize all these illegal aliens in this country who the Democrats want to put on federal welfare programs – and actually, they are on federal welfare programs today. The Democrats want to make them all basically dependent on the federal government so they can continue their radical, big government agenda…”
He added: “The only way Georgia is going to change is if we have all these illegal aliens in here in Georgia, and give them the right to vote. It would be morally wrong, it would be illegal to do so, under our current law. Actually, all these illegal aliens are getting federal largesse and taking taxpayer’s dollars. That’s the only way this state is going to become Democratic again, in the next number of decades.”
“A Democratic push to extend unemployment benefits that have expired moved forward on Tuesday morning, barely avoiding a Republican filibuster,” the New York Times reports.
“The Senate’s 60-37 vote to simply take up a three-month extension of benefits passed with no room to spare, which will set off a negotiation to try to pass the bill later this week.. Even some of the Republicans who voted yes want the cost of the extension set off by cuts elsewhere in the budget.”
Roll Call: “Even if it gets out of the Senate, House Republican leadership aides have said that their bosses will not bring a bill to the floor unless it is fully paid for.”
A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds President Obama’s approval rate even at 49% to 49% among likely voters.
“This is the first time since October 27 that the president’s total disapproval has fallen below 50%. Disapproval peaked at 56% on November 20.”
Associated Press: “His agenda tattered by last year’s confrontations and missteps, President Obama begins 2014 clinging to the hope of winning a lasting legislative achievement: an overhaul of immigration laws… If successful, an immigration compromise could restore some luster to Obama’s agenda, tarnished in 2013 by failures on gun legislation, bipartisan pushback on his efforts to take military action against Syria and the disastrous enrollment start for his health care law.”
“Obama, whose support among Latinos has dropped from nearly 80 percent to 55 percent, has been under increasing pressure to use his executive powers to limit deportations. Obama’s Homeland Security Department has deported 1.9 million people during the president’s nearly five years in office, prompting protests ranging from a 22-day fast by activists in Washington to outbursts at Obama public events.”
The Los Anglees Times talks to Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) about his successful rollout of Obamacare in his state.
“Leading one of the nation’s poorest, sickest states, Beshear has improbably overseen one of the most successful rollouts of Obama’s troubled healthcare overhaul and become, deep in his long public career, a hero to Democrats grasping to find a redeeming figure amid the political wreckage. He’s an unlikely champion, not least because Kentucky’s two U.S. senators are both implacable opponents of the program.”
Said Beshear: “I think we’ve started something here that a generation from now you’ll see a very different Kentucky than what you see today.”
The New York Times notes that while Liz Cheney cited “serious health issues” in her family as
the reason for dropping her Senate race, her problems were much larger.
“She ran in a state that she had not lived in for
decades rather than in her longtime home state, Virginia, she targeted a
genial and well-liked incumbent with no glaring ideological
vulnerabilities, and she carried the banner of a hawkish foreign policy
at a moment when a more restrained approach to national security is
ascendant in the Republican Party. Further, she prompted an ugly and
public split with her lesbian sister, Mary, by declaring her opposition
to same-sex marriage — and was nevertheless attacked with television ads
by a third-party conservative group over gay rights. Most of all,
though, Ms. Cheney miscalculated the degree to which her father’s
popularity among conservatives was transferable to her own race.”
Washington Post: “On Tuesday morning, Senate Republicans are expected to block an emergency measure to extend unemployment insurance. Soon after, President Obama will stand before a handful of the 1.3 million Americans who have begun to lose their benefits and try to shame Republicans for failing to help the nation’s neediest.”
“A similar political dynamic is likely to play out in the weeks and months to come as both parties battle to address mounting concerns over economic fairness and the growing gap between the rich and the poor.”
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) “turned a resort hot tub into a steamy love cauldron over the weekend — kissing and sucking the toes of his topless mistress, Lis Smith, in front of families with children,” witnesses told the New York Post.
“This is a faith-based nation and a faith-based state. I think it is very offensive they would contemplate or even have this kind of conversation.”
— Oklahoma state Rep. Earl Sears (R), quoted by Tulsa World, insisting that a Satanist religious group should not be given the same treatment as Christians.
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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