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Russia Grows Impatient with Snowden

July 5, 2013 at 12:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A top Russian official said Edward Snowden should find another country to seek refuge in, “signaling Moscow’s growing impatience over the former U.S. spy agency contractor’s stay at a Moscow airport,” Reuters reports.

“Russian officials have kept Snowden at arm’s length since he landed from Hong Kong on June 23… Moscow has also done nothing to trumpet his presence or parade him before cameras and Putin has avoided the temptation to mock Obama when asked about the affair in public. He said last week he would prefer not to deal with it at all.”

The Magic of Valerie

July 5, 2013 at 11:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico pulls a great anecdote from This Town by Mark Leibovich:

“A 33-point memo detailing ways to praise top White House aide Valerie Jarrett was sent out to staffers shortly after an unflattering profile of the adviser was published in the New York Times last year… The memo, written by deputy press secretary Jamie Smith, was titled ‘The Magic of Valerie’ and circulated through the West Wing as the Times was working on the profile.”

GOP Senator Says Obama Didn’t Abuse the IRS

July 5, 2013 at 11:11 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) told the New York Times that it’s unlikely that President Obama used the IRS to go after his political enemies.

Said Blunt: “Presidents have always been very careful about maintaining the appearance of keeping hands off the IRS. I don’t have any reason to believe there wasn’t targeting of conservatives, but it might well have been a lot more than that as well.”


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Costa Rica Accidently Legalizes Gay Marriage

July 5, 2013 at 9:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly “passed a measure – by accident – that could legalize same-sex civil unions as part of a larger bill,” the Tico Times reports.

“Conservative lawmakers voted for the bill’s passage without recognizing the included language that could be interpreted to change the definition of marriage… Lawmakers immediately called for President Laura Chinchilla to veto the bill.”

Pallone Says Booker is Too Close to Christie

July 5, 2013 at 9:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) told the New York Times that he’s “very concerned” about Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s (D) close ties with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).

Said Pallone: “I’m very concerned about his close relationship with the governor because I don’t think he has used that relationship to advance a progressive or Democratic agenda.”

Economy Picks Up Steam

July 5, 2013 at 9:28 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

U.S. employers added 195,000 jobs in June, a sign of solid improvements in the labor market, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 7.6%.

National Journal: “But now for the really good news: We were quite wrong about job gains in April and May. Initial reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a jobs gain of 149,000 in April and 175,000 in May. In the latest reports, those numbers were revised upward to 199,000 in April and 195,000 in May. That’s a combined gain of 70,000 jobs from earlier reports. So, since April, it turns out that the economy has actually gained nearly 200,000 new jobs a month.”

Wonk Wire will round up reactions and analysis.

State Department Spent $630K on Facebook Likes

July 5, 2013 at 7:10 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The State Department spent $630,000
to attract more Facebook “likes,” in an effort that struggled to reach its target
audience, according to a searing Inspector General’s report
from May, Foreign Policy reports.

Morsi Aides Arrested in Widening Sweep

July 4, 2013 at 1:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Egyptian prosecutors escalated what appeared to be a widespread roundup of top Muslim Brotherhood members on Thursday, acting hours after the military deposed Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist who became the country’s first democratically elected president just a year ago,” the New York Times reports.

“The roundup, which placed some Brotherhood members in the same prison holding Hosni Mubarak, the autocratic leader toppled in the 2011 revolution, came as a senior jurist was sworn in as the acting head of state.”

The Washington Post notes that just last night President Obama had warned Egypt’s powerful military “to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsi and his supporters.”

The Week: The dangerous precedent of Morsi’s ouster.

Most Think Founders Would be Disappointed in U.S.

July 4, 2013 at 10:12 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Gallup survey finds that despite a high 85% of Americans saying they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be an American, 71% say the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed in today’s United States, while 27% say they would be pleased.

Ginsburg Resists Pressure to Retire from Supreme Court

July 4, 2013 at 9:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In a Reuters interview, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “vowed to resist any pressure to retire that might come from liberals” who want to ensure that President Obama can pick her successor before the 2016 presidential election.

Brushing off political calculations, she said, “It really has to be, ‘Am I equipped to do the job?’ … I was so pleased that this year I couldn’t see that I was slipping in any respect.”

The Unauthorized Index

July 4, 2013 at 9:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mark Leibovich’s book, This Town comes with a label on the dust jacket: “WARNING: This Town does not contain an index. Those players wishing to know how they came out will need to read the book.”

So, the Washington Post made their own “unauthorized index.”

A Washington Post review notes, “His tour through Washington only feeds the worst suspicions anyone can have about the place — a land driven by insecurity, hypocrisy and cable hits, where friendships are transactional, blind-copying is rampant and acts of public service appear largely accidental.”

Envoy Begins Push to Close Gitmo

July 4, 2013 at 9:15 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The State Department’s “new special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo began work this week with a one-day trip to the U.S. Navy base in Cuba and said Wednesday that closure was a national priority,” the Miami Herald reports.

Murdoch Admits He Knew Journalists Paid Police

July 4, 2013 at 9:05 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rupert Murdoch has admitted that his journalists paid British police for news tips ”from the day I first bought the News of the World,” The Age reports.

“In an ironic twist, it appears that Mr Murdoch has been entrapped by one of his own journalists, who secretly taped a meeting that took place in the boardroom of his company’s Wapping headquarters in London in March this year.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

July 3, 2013 at 3:58 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The senators are your voice here on all matters. They are the only ones we’ll be hearing from today.”

— North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest (R) to women in the Senate gallery protesting surprise abortion legislation passed last night.

[Read more…]

Army Seizes Power in Egypt

July 3, 2013 at 3:54 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Egypt’s military deposed Mohamed Morsi, “the nation’s first freely elected president, suspending the constitution, installing an interim government and insisting it was responding to the millions of Egyptians who had opposed Mr. Morsi’s Islamist agenda and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood,” the New York Times reports.

“The military intervention marked a tumultuous new phase in the politics of the Arab world’s most populous country, which overthrew Mr. Morsi’s predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, in 2011.”

Military Coup Looming in Egypt?

July 3, 2013 at 12:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Egypt’s top generals “summoned civilian political leaders to an emergency meeting Wednesday, conferring with them past the 48-hour deadline they had set for President Mohamed Morsi to leave power, as signs pointed further to an impending military takeover,” the New York Times reports.

“The military’s intelligence service placed a travel ban on President Morsi and senior Islamist aides including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, and his influential deputy, Khairat el-Shater… People close to the president said at around the same time that talks with the generals continued but looked increasingly futile. A decisive move was expected within hours, these people said, although the president and his advisers remained at liberty.”

Ecuador Finds Hidden Microphone in Embassy

July 3, 2013 at 10:21 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Ecuador has found a hidden microphone inside its London embassy, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is living, and will disclose on Wednesday who controls the device,” Reuters reports.

Quote of the Day

July 3, 2013 at 10:09 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“There are prison-like elements, but it’s a really nice prison. You can’t complain.”

— Michelle Obama, quoted by Newsmax, on being First Lady.

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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