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The White House admitted that “it should have sent a higher-profile official to a Paris rally where 1.5 million people marched in a show of unity against terrorism,” the Washington Post reports.
“The White House cited security concerns and the fact that the rally came together quickly, in about 36 hours.”
However, a Secret Service official “said the agency was not asked or notified about a potential trip to Paris.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged a “comprehensive piece of legislation” to close the “safe spaces” used by suspected terrorists to communicate online with each other, the BBC reports.
“If he wins the election, Mr Cameron said he would increase the authorities’ power to access both the details of communications and their content.”
Former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) told the AP he’s “again considering a White House campaign because the nation can’t risk electing another Democratic president.”
Said Pataki: “That’s one of the reasons I think the outcome of this election is so important, and I’m so much more inclined to get involved.”
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Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is now counselor to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Washington Examiner reports.
“The Utah Republican is steering committee chairman, a post that often comes with a seat in leadership. But McConnell wasn’t obligated to bring Lee into the fold last week, when he appointed him as one of four counsellors to the Republican leadership. The Kentuckian never extended a similar offer to Jim DeMint when he led steering. Lee and McConnell hardly have a chummy history, although the majority leader shrewdly keeps potential enemies close.”
“A federal judge on Monday declared South Dakota same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, paving the way for a likely appeals court battle,” the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports.
Gavin Newsom’s decision not to run for U.S. Senate in California “capped a furious 72 hours of discussions among the would-be candidates and their advisers over whether to jump at the state’s first open Senate seat in two decades, or hold out for a shot at leading a state that is the world’s eighth-largest economy,” Politico reports.
In announcing his plans, Newsom got out ahead of Kamala Harris “who has told friends that she is also interested in the job of governor. Instead, on Tuesday, she will launch a campaign for Boxer’s seat, knowing that if she hesitated, it would appear that she was reluctant to choose the Senate over the governorship. In doing so, she will circumvent a race against Newsom; it has long been assumed that they would avoid a titanic clash that would leave one of them badly wounded, their hopes for higher office potentially derailed.”
Stu Rothenberg: “Democrats have a better chance of winning control of the House next year than they did at any time in 2014. That’s true even though they now need to gain 30 seats, almost twice what they needed last year.”
California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris will announce tomorrow that she is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Boxer, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said an adviser: “She’s not testing the waters. She’s charting the course. She’s in with both feet.”
In meetings with and individual calls to donors, supporters and former staffers, Mitt Romney “is making it clear that he is likely to run, putting his time frame for a decision at ‘weeks, not months,'” Politico reports.
“Romney, who made a fortune in the financial sector and was cast by Democrats in 2012 as a heartless businessman, wants to make tackling poverty — a key issue for his 2012 vice-presidential running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan — one of the three pillars of his campaign. The former Massachusetts governor also says he’ll have a different communications staff and hopes to show voters a version of himself they didn’t get to see last time. (There’s even a Netflix documentary he can point to.)”
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told NBC News in an interview Monday that he will not seek the presidency in 2016.
Ryan noted that he is “at peace” with the decision he made “weeks ago” to forgo a bid for the White House.
“Mitt Romney is moving quickly to reassemble his national political network, spending the weekend and Monday calling former aides, donors and other supporters — as well as onetime foes such as Newt Gingrich,” the Washington Post reports.
“Romney’s message was that he is serious about making a 2016 presidential bid. He told one senior Republican he ‘almost certainly will’ run in what would be his third campaign for the White House, this person said. His aggressive outreach over the past three days indicates that Romney’s declaration of interest to a group of donors in New York Friday was more than the release of a trial balloon but rather was the start of a concerted push by the 2012 nominee to be an active participant in the 2016 campaign.”
Mother Jones has compiled all the times Romney said he wouldn’t run for president again.
Bloomberg: “Sixteen months ago, to some fanfare, Dick Morris re-entered the anti-Clinton fray with a new PAC. He launched Dick Morris’s Just Say No to Hillary PAC… But there is a rather glaring problem with adding Morris to this narrative: No one has been giving money to his PAC. Literally, no one.”
Michael Kinsley: “Is it too much to expect a politician running for president to have what the voters perhaps don’t? Call it a theory of government, or a framework for analyzing issues. Ron Paul, the curmudgeonly godfather of libertarianism and the actual father of Kentucky senator Rand Paul, says in the foreword to one of his son’s books: “The sole purpose of government is to protect our liberties.” Paul’s framework is pretty clear, and it rules out most of what the government does. He would privatize the Washington Monument if he could… Many people like to call themselves libertarians, but few would go as far as Ron Paul.”
“But at least you know where Ron Paul stands. Is there a similarly pithy summary of Hillary Clinton’s philosophy? Not where she stands on Issue A or Issue B but a philosophical framework that would predict where she might come out on some as yet unknown Issue C, which will inevitably blindside us during her presidency? Except for a vague notion that she is soothingly left of center, I have no idea where she would stand. What about the other people running or mentioned for president in either party? For that matter, what about the voters? What about you?”
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said on Facebook that he will not seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Barbara Boxer, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Said Newsom: “It’s always better to be candid than coy. While I am humbled by the widespread encouragement of so many and hold in the highest esteem those who serve us in federal office, I know that my head and my heart, my young family’s future, and our unfinished work all remain firmly in the State of California – not Washington D.C. Therefore I will not seek election to the U.S. Senate in 2016.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said she will not run for governor in 2016 — staying put in the U.S. Senate, USA Today reports.
“McCaskill’s decision to forgo the governor’s race comes after months of speculation about her political ambitions, fueled in part by her fundraising largess. She donated more than $500,000 to Democratic state legislative candidates and party committees in the 2014 election cycle.”
Daniel Gross: “For years Republicans have been spewing doomsday rhetoric about the president’s policies, but the stock market is booming, the deficit shrinking, the economy adding lots of jobs and the dollar robust.”
“Virtually everything GOP critics have told us would follow from the policies put in place has not come to pass. You would think that this would occasion a few mea culpas, some rethinking, an admission of poor prognostication. But, alas, it continues. Rep. Paul Ryan is now warning in a column that Obamacare ‘is weighing down our economy and discouraging hiring’ and will ultimately ‘collapse under its own weight.’
“I’ve evolved. Part of wisdom is to learn from your experiences, and I think we learned the hard way that shutdowns are not well received by the American people.”
— Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), quoted by Roll Call, on now having “the responsibility to govern.”
Insiders say Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) wants to become president, the Miami Herald reports.
“It’s anyone’s guess how a politician with such low favorability ratings who has never captured 50 percent of the vote in Florida can win nationwide (or in Florida in a presidential election year, when the electorate is more liberal-leaning).”
“There’s a small possibility he could run in 2018 for U.S. Senate against Nelson. Independently wealthy and a great fundraiser, Scott would be a force to be reckoned with in a federal race, where there are strict limits on raising outside campaign money.”
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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