This looks really interesting: Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry by Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady.
Kentucky Democrats Worry Judd May Drag Down Ticket
Roll Call: “Actress Ashley Judd’s movement toward a Senate run against Minority Leader Mitch McConnell makes Democrats in Washington, D.C., happy. But back in Kentucky, for many Bluegrass State Democrats, a potential Judd run brings a different feeling: heartburn.”
“Democrats plugged into the Frankfort, Ky., zeitgeist publicly and privately confirmed those sentiments. The crux of their worry is this: As a celebrity and strong supporter of President Barack Obama, Judd’s position at the top of the ticket could nationalize state and local races. They see her losing the Senate contest — an uphill climb for any Democrat — and potentially poisoning the conservative brand of some state Democrats.”
A new poll shows Judd tailing McConnell by nine points in a Senate match up.
Another Bonus Quote of the Day
“I think it’s a mistake on the part of Republicans to try to pin the sequester on Obama. It’s totally disingenuous.”
— Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), quoted by BuzzFeed, adding “you can’t vote for something and, with a straight face, go blame the other guy for its existence in law.”
Get a Political Job!
Start your political job hunt here.
Reid Will Not Honor Hold Against Brennan
After Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announced he is prepared to hold John Brennan’s nomination to be CIA director, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he wouldn’t honor the hold, NBC News reports.
Reid also refused to honor holds on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary which is scheduled for a Friday vote.
Pollster Warns GOP Not to Count on Six-Year Itch
GOP pollster Neil Newhouse warned Republicans to beware of President Obama’s use of the bully pulpit this election cycle, Roll Call reports.
He also suggested they not count on the six-year itch.
Said Newhouse: “I kind of emphasized to the members that second midterm elections have never been friendly to the president. You can’t count on that. That’s not going to happen. We’ve got to realize that the House Republicans are going to be Obama’s top target.”
Senate Schedules Friday Vote on Hagel
“Facing stiff Republican opposition to moving quickly on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of Defense, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a cloture motion this afternoon to cut off debate,” Politico reports.
“Sixty votes will be required to cut off debate and then move to an up-or-down vote on the nomination; the vote is scheduled for Friday unless a deal can be reached to hold it earlier.”
Said Reid: “This is the first time in the history that a presidential nominee for secretary of defense has been filibustered. What a shame.”
McConnell Leads Judd in Possible Match Up
A new Harper Polling survey in Kentucky finds Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) would handily beat Ashley Judd (D) in a race for U.S. Senate, 49% to 40%.
Lawmaker Brags He Was First to Call Obama a Socialist
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) declares in a new fundraising letter that he was “the first Member of Congress to call him a socialist who embraces Marxist-Leninist policies like government control of health care and redistribution of wealth,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Broun is running for U.S. Senate in Georgia for the seat being vacated by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).
Rubio’s Home for Sale
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told the nation in his State of the Union rebuttal last night, “I still live in the same working-class neighborhood I grew up in.”
But the Miami New Times reports that Rubio “has been trying to sell that house for an un-working-class-like $675,000 so he can up and move his family to godless elite D.C.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“That’s the line that will cripple Barack Obama.”
— Newt Gingrich, in an interview on CNN, on the president’s State of the Union claim that his proposals would “not add a single dime to the budget.”
Gore Says Internet Will Reduce Influence of Money in Politics
Al Gore said the Internet would eventually lessen the role of money in politics, Tech Crunch reports.
Said Gore: “Over time, the rise of the Internet will inexorably diminish the role of money in politics, which is driven today in significant measure by the need on the part of politicians to amass these huge war chests primarily for buying 30-second television advertisements.”
He added: “And as the Internet becomes more prominent and eventually the central way in which we communicate, it does bring the promise of re-empowering individuals to play their roles as citizens and to revitalize representative democracy.”
Funniest Endorsement Ever?
Will Ferrell endorses Eric Garcetti for Los Angeles Mayor in a hilarious new ad.
Advice from a Daughter
With a burgeoning scandal involving a donor distracting Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) these days, Roll Call finds some advice written by the senator’s daughter in 2011 “to a generic embattled politician brought down by scandal.”
Writes Alicia Menendez: “So you’ve found yourself embroiled in a scandal, huh? In a perfect world we’d rewind to before this ever happened, when you were just some up and comer who was running for city council or state assembly. I’d tell you to make a list of your real, true friends. No big donors. No one who trades your name like a baseball card. No one who is more invested in you, the mighty and powerful than in the real you. My instinct is to tell you that that person is someone from your childhood, someone who knew you when you were still wearing bad suits and actually eating the chicken dinners they serve at political functions.”
Spitzer Denies He’s Mulling Comeback Bid
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) denied a New York Daily News report that he was considering a bid for Comptroller in 2014, the Politicker reports.
Said Spitzer: “Look, I haven’t even seen the article. I got a call or two about it. I think-I hope-the article said I did not speak to the reporter, have never spoken to him about it. It’s just made up out of nowhere. I have no idea where it comes from.”
No New Ideas from Republicans
Ezra Klein: “After an election, the winning party typically tries to pass the policies it campaigned on while the losers go back to the drawing board to try to work up a more appealing agenda. But last night’s dueling speeches revealed, strangely, the reverse.”
“President Obama’s agenda has become much more ambitious since the election, ranging from universal pre-kindergarten to raising the minimum wage to gun control to immigration reform. But neither the Republican Party’s agenda nor its rhetoric has changed a whit.”
Wonk Wire has a good round up of the policy proposals included in President Obama’s State of the Union address.
Mississippi is the Most Religious State
A Gallup analysis finds Mississippi remained the most religious state in the union in 2012, with
58% of its residents classified as very religious.
At the other end of
the spectrum, Vermont remained the least religious state, with 19% of
its residents classified as very religious.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“He probably has shit for brains. I couldn’t be more proud of myself, what I stand for, and for this
pompous ass to claim that he cares more about a family that lost a child
than I do is a perfect example of the brain dead critics of Ted
Nugent.”
— Ted Nugent, quoted by Politico, when Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) questioned Nugent’s
presence at the State of the Union.
Langevin is in a wheelchair and paralyzed from a shooting accident
when he was a teenager.
