The Week: “It’s no secret that Republicans are pinning their midterm election hopes on ObamaCare.”
“So it should be no surprise that the GOP has tried to cast virtually all news about the health care law as proof that ObamaCare will kill jobs and send insurance costs soaring. The only problem with that strategy is that the underlying arguments are often disingenuous.”
Wonk Wire: Is the U.S. military really shrinking to pre-World War II levels?
“I have not been a strong supporter of Barack Obama. But this really is over the top. It does enormous long-term damage to our military… Obama would much rather spend the money on food stamps than he would on a strong military or support for our troops.”
— Dick Cheney, quoted by Huffington Post.
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Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), “who has been under fire from conservatives over the federal health care law, refused on Monday to answer questions about what she knew about the laws limits,” the Raleigh News and Observer reports.
“Like President Obama, Hagan said the Affordable Care Act would allow North Carolinians to keep their existing insurance plans if they liked them. The pledge proved false – and earned Obama PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year honors. But the details about what Hagan knew about the law’s limits and when she learned it remains unclear. Asked about it again Monday at a press conference in Raleigh, after she made her re-election bid official at the State Board of Elections, Hagan avoided the question.”
Pete Kaliner: “I have no idea how Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan’s news conference could’ve been worse except had she lit a baby bunny on fire while stomping on the American flag.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Iowa finds Bruce Braley (D) leading all of his possible Republican opponents by an average of seven points.
Key finding: “At least part of Braley’s leads at this point is a product of name recognition: 56% of voters know enough about him to have formed an opinion, where none of the Republican hopefuls have more than 25% familiarity.”
In his new book, Ralph Nader calls for the end of “unconstitutional wars and unchecked militarism” — and puts the blame on President Obama for going beyond even George. W. Bush, Politico reports.
“Nader writes in Unstoppable that Obama “has extended the Bush doctrine by declaring his unilateral right, as secret prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner, to destroy anybody, anywhere in the world, including American citizens, suspected to be engaged in alleged terrorist activities, all this vaguely and loosely defined as anti-US security.”
The Republican lobbyist “hawking a bill that would bar gays from playing in the National Football League has a younger brother who is gay,” the Huffington Post reports.
Said Jim Burkman: “He is my brother and I love him, and we don’t see eye-to-eye on any political issues, certainly gay rights. But I told him years ago he should back off on gay issues, and if he ever crosses the line I would be happy to speak up as his gay brother. Today I felt he crossed the line.”
Reuters: “When the history of the bloody turbulence in Ukraine is written, a 26-year-old who learned combat skills in the army cadets may be recorded as the man who made up Viktor Yanukovich’s mind to cut and run.”
“Cars toot a welcome and passers-by press the hand of Volodymyr Parasiuk, a boyish-looking individual who finds it embarrassing to be called a hero. He reserves that title for his comrades and other protesters among the 80 or so people killed on the capital’s streets last week in three days of fighting against Yanukovich’s police. But after opposition leaders had signed an EU-brokered deal with President Yanukovich to end the conflict, it was Parasiuk who commandeered the microphone on Friday night to turn the crowd against it.”
Bill Clinton “plans to address some 1,200 people at a sold-out fundraiser in Kentucky today on behalf of Senate hopeful Alison Lundergan-Grimes, bringing his political clout to one of the most closely watched and contentious Senate contests of this election cycle,” ABC News reports.
Associated Press: “Clinton is the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry a swath of Southern states crucial to the 2014 midterms, including his native Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana. The former president remains in heavy demand as a fundraiser and adviser as his wife plans an upcoming book tour and considers how she may help Democrats this year.”
A new Honolulu Civil Beat Poll shows Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D) deadlocked in their Democratic U.S. Senate primary at 40% to 40%, with another 20% not sure who they’ll vote for.
Said pollster Matt Fitch: “They are in a holding pattern. I think for many people this may be one of the more high-profile Senate primaries, and it is unusual because there is not a massive ideological division between the two candidates. They are two popular choices.”
“After a series of defeats on Capitol Hill, the Republican Party’s tea-party wing has shifted its attention to congressional primaries, setting up a major test of how much the movement’s clout has been weakened,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Primary elections, which start March 4, will help determine the balance of power between the Republican Party’s business-friendly, establishment wing and the tea-party activists who first roared onto the scene five years ago by opposing President Barack Obama’s proposed health-care overhaul.”
Attorney General Eric Holder “injected the Obama administration into the emotional and politicized debate over the future of state same-sex marriage bans, declaring in an interview that state attorneys general are not obligated to defend laws that they believe are discriminatory,” the New York Times reports.
“It is highly unusual for the United States attorney general to advise his state counterparts on how and when to refuse to defend state laws. But Mr. Holder said when laws touch on core constitutional issues like equal protection, an attorney general should apply the highest level of scrutiny before reaching a decision on whether to defend it. He said the decision should never be political or based on policy objections.”
A new Honolulu Civil Beat Poll suggests that David Ige (D) has a shot at unseating Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) with both men tied at 37% each among likely Democratic primary voters. Another 26% are still undecided.
Said pollster Matt Fitch: “What you are seeing is rather a public way of expressing discontent with the governor rather than a serious strength on Ige’s part. There are a couple of reasons. One, Ige’s support actually outstrips those people who say they have a favorable impression of him. People don’t really know him.”
A new Gallup poll finds that 47% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Mitt Romney.
Glenn Greenwald: “One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents.”
Texas U.S. Senate candidate Chris Mapp (R) told the Dallas Morning News that ranchers should be allowed to shoot on sight anyone illegally crossing the border on to their land and referred to such people as “wetbacks.”
Mapp later defended his remarks to the San Antonio Express-News saying that use of the racial slur is as “normal as breathing air in South Texas.”
He also called President Obama a “socialist son of a bitch.”
The Dallas Morning News reports Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), running in a GOP primary against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “hasn’t voted in a Republican primary in Texas since 2004…. That would mean Stockman didn’t even vote for himself in the 2012 primary. That’s not something you see every day in politics.”
A new Rasmussen survey in West Virginia finds Shelley Moore Capito (R) way ahead of Natalie Tennant (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 35%.
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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