Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey (R) presented HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius a copy of Building a Website for Dummies during a visit, the Memphis Daily News reports.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) called for her resignation prior to her visit and
released a statement saying, “The secretary is always welcome in
Tennessee, but her time would be better spent in Washington fixing the
Obamacare website.”
A new Forum Research poll finds Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s approval rating rose slightly after police confirmed the existence of a video in which Ford appears to smoke crack cocaine and make homophobic and racist remarks.
The poll found that 44% of voters approve of the job Ford is doing as mayor, while an Oct. 28 poll found that just 39% approved.
Said pollster Lorne Bozinoff: “That may sound counterintuitive. It could be a sampling, margin-of-error thing, or it could be just some sympathy. If you saw him during that media scrum yesterday, it might have generated some sympathy.”
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Double Down: Game Change 2012 is not out until next week but it’s popping up in some bookstores early and Marc Ambinder found 7 telling passages.
As President Obama “pushed for a new federal health law in 2009, he made a simple pledge: If you like your insurance plan, you can keep your plan. But behind the scenes, White House officials discussed whether that was a promise they could keep,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“When the question arose, Mr. Obama’s advisers decided that the assertion was fair… But at times, there was second-guessing. At one point, aides discussed whether Mr. Obama might use more in-depth discussions, such as media interviews, to explain the nuances of the succinct line in his stump speeches, a former aide said. Officials worried, though, that delving into details such as “the small number of people who might lose insurance could be confusing and would clutter the president’s message.”
“Broadband internet has emerged as the most divisive issue in the campaign for mayor of Seattle, the largest city in the Pacific northwest of the United States,” Quartz reports.
Charlie Crist (D) is running for Florida governor as a Democrat, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“The worst-kept secret in politics was confirmed Friday afternoon when the Republican Party of Florida spotted Crist’s official filing with the state Division of Elections.”
“In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week informed a prominent Republican advertising firm that it would not receive any contracts with the campaign committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans,” the New York Times reports.
“Even more striking, a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and some other incumbents up for re-election next year whom it finds insufficiently conservative.”
“No. Next question.”
— Bill de Blasio (D), when by the New York Times whether he would consider rival Joe Lhota (R) for a job in his administration.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford “was defiant in the face of revelations that Toronto police have obtained video evidence that appears to show him smoking crack cocaine, brushing off a torrent of questions from the crush of reporters outside his city hall office,” the Toronto Star reports.
Said Ford: “I have no reason to resign. I’m going to go back to return my phone calls. I’m going to go out and do what I was elected to do, and that’s save taxpayers money and run a great government.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey of Republicans finds that 21% picked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as the leader of their party, followed by 17% for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and 15% for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).
Cruz finished well ahead of the other Republican senators: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) at 9%, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) at 7% and Sen. Mitch McConnell at 4%.
Washington Wire: “October was clearly a cruel month for both President Barack Obama and the Republicans, both of whom saw their images slump to new lows in Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling.”
“But hidden within the data is a more disturbing reality for the Republican Party. Put simply, Democrats are largely content with their own party, while distaste among Republicans for the GOP has grown exponentially this year.”
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Charlie Cook on the latest national polling data and his outlook for 2014:
Stuart Rothenberg on whether Democrats can take back the House in 2014:
A new Christopher Newport University Poll in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) leading Ken Cuccinelli in the race for governor by seven points, 45% to 38%, with Libertarian Robert Sarvis at 10%.
A new Emerson College survey finds McAuliffe ahead by just two points, 42% to 40%, with Sarvis at 13%.
Todd Purdum: “To the undisputed reasons for Obamacare’s rocky rollout — a balky website, muddied White House messaging and sudden sticker shock for individuals forced to buy more expensive health insurance — add a less acknowledged cause: calculated sabotage by Republicans at every step.”
“That may sound like a left-wing conspiracy theory — and the Obama administration itself is so busy defending the indefensible early failings of its signature program that it has barely tried to make this case. But there is a strong factual basis for such a charge.”
Associated Press:
“Think you’re confused by ‘Obamacare.’ It’s roiling Capitol Hill behind
the scenes, too. Members of Congress are governing themselves under
President Barack Obama’s signature law, which means they have great
leeway in how to apply it to their own staffs. For House members and
senators, it’s about a section of the law that may — or may not —
require lawmakers to toss some staffers off of their federal health
insurance and into the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. The verdict from
congressional officers is ultimately that lawmakers, as employers, have
discretion over who among their staffs gets ejected, and who stays. And
they don’t have to say who, how many or why.”
Former Rep. Parker Griffith, “whose 2009 party switch rankled both Democratic and Republican voters, may be attempting a political comeback as an independent candidate,” the Birmingham News reports.
Tennessean: “Two Tennessee lawmakers were scheduled to speak at a Southern secessionist group’s meeting this weekend, and while a representative for one claims he’s spent a month trying to get his name off the event’s announcement, the other is ready to go and supports preparing Tennessee to part ways with the United States.”
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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