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“No, I haven’t seen any discussion about the complete lack of message. I think they need to figure out what they stand for and then talk about it.”
— Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean, quoted by The Hill, on the Democratic losses in the 2014 midterm elections.
Mark Maynard (R) “owns a used car lot, runs a towing business and spends his spare time on a professional drag racing pit crew. And despite not raising a dime for his Republican campaign and agreeing with his Democratic opponent on almost all the issues, he defeated West Virginia’s longest-sitting state senator,” the AP reports.
“That was the kind of election it was for West Virginia Democrats. As voters took out their disgust with President Obama, Maynard defeated Sen. Truman Chafin (D), a lawmaker Republicans previously had bothered to challenge only once in three decades.”
“A bloc of Republican lawmakers is seeking to use must-pass spending legislation in the final weeks of the year to place limits on President Obama ’s ability to loosen immigration rules, threatening to split the party in Congress,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The result is that barely a week after their broad election victories, party leaders will have to decide whether to override conservatives’ demands in favor of a more pragmatic approach. Party leaders also will have to decide when and how hard to fight the president over immigration, an issue that is important to the growing bloc of Hispanic voters who are expected to carry more sway in the 2016 elections than they did this fall.”
“The Republican Party’s ardent campaign against President Obama’s health-care law gained new momentum Wednesday as lawmakers reacted angrily to assertions by an architect of the policy that it was crafted in a deliberately deceptive way in order to pass Congress,” the Washington Post reports.
“On both sides of the Capitol, leading conservatives said they may call economist Jonathan Gruber to testify about his remarks, which were made last year and surfaced this week in a video on social media. In the video, Gruber suggests that the administration’s signature health-care legislation passed in part because of the ‘stupidity of the American voter’ and a ‘lack of transparency’ over its funding mechanisms.”
Wonk Wire: Will the GOP’s anti-Obamacare alternative “kill people.”
“President Obama’s landmark agreement with China to cut greenhouse gas pollution is a bet by the president and Democrats that on the issue of climate change, American voters are far ahead of Washington’s warring factions and that the environment will be a winning cause in the 2016 presidential campaign,” the New York Times reports.
“A variety of polls show that a majority of American voters now believe that climate change is occurring, are worried about it, and support candidates who back policies to stop it… But Republicans are betting that despite the polls, they can make the case that regulations to cut greenhouse pollution will result in the loss of jobs and hurt the economy.”
Politico reports that Senate Democrats want to enlist Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as a member of their leadership.
“The incoming Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, is engaged in private talks with the Massachusetts freshman to create a special leadership post for the former Harvard professor, according to several people familiar with the matter. It’s unclear exactly what the new job would entail — but luring the populist liberal into leadership could inject fresh blood into a team reeling from significant midterm election losses.”
“Adding Warren, Democrats say, would bring in a nationally known name who could help sharpen the Democratic message as it goes toe-to-toe with the new Senate Republican majority. The move would likely be viewed favorably by an increasingly liberal caucus. But elevating Warren could also be seen as an indication that the new Senate Democratic minority is less interested in bipartisan compromises than the White House or Senate Republicans.”
Outgoing Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) and three staffers “have been served with grand jury subpoenas for testimony and documents in a criminal investigation in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia,” Roll Call reports.
“The Texas Republican — who has been under scrutiny for campaign contributions from his staff — hasn’t decided whether to cooperate.”
Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) had some very interesting things to say to Time about dealing with Vice President Biden.
Said Cantor: “I just think that the President obviously doesn’t have the tenure in Washington in negotiating deals that the Vice President’s had. Just in terms of pure time. And I think that the President is very rooted in what he wants. The President also, in my view, is very rooted in what he thinks the other side wants. And that’s where the difficulty in my opinion has been with the President over the last six years. If one does not agree with the President’s view of what you want, there’s very little prospect for a result. Joe Biden has a real sensitivity, not only to human reaction, but also partisan and political sensitivities. He understands how far you can push before you just blow up the prospects for a deal.”
He added: “Joe Biden is what you see. You know, he’s genuine. Yes, he’s prone to gaffes publicly, and he’ll admit that. He’s very self-deprecating like that. And I’m certainly not one who agrees with Joe Biden on all things—we probably disagree more than we agree—but from a human and relationship standpoint, the guy’s awesome.”
Todd Bosnich, the former campaign aide to Carl DeMaio (R) who accused him of sexual harassment, was arrested on accusations he assaulted his mother, the San Diego Union Tribune reports.
“Bosnich’s sexual harassment allegations added controversy to the heated campaign between DeMaio and Democratic incumbent Scott Peters, who ended up holding on to his congressional seat in votes counted in the days following the election… Bosnich alleged in early October that DeMaio had exposed himself and sexually harassed him over a period of weeks, and said he was fired from his job as a campaign aide when he confronted DeMaio, then offered $50,000 and a job in the Republican Party to keep quiet.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pledged “to work with Republicans when they are in the majority and eschew the strategy of obstruction he has accused them of using against Democrats,” The Hill reports.
Said Reid: “I am ready… to work with him in good faith to make this institution function again for the American people. I saw firsthand how a strategy of destruction was debilitating to our system. I have no desire to engage in that manner.”
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David Hawking: “The notion that Congress is like college usually gets highlighted a few times each year: When members are rushing to meet several legislative deadlines before a lengthy recess, they tend to act very much like students at the end of the semester — pulling all-nighters to cram for exams and churn out papers assigned months ago.”
“But never is Capitol Hill more like a collegiate campus than in the middle of every even-numbered November, when all the newcomer lawmakers arrive — embodying a yeasty mix of wide-eyed naïveté and intensely competitive focus — to begin learning how dramatically their lives are about to change. It may be officially dubbed New Member Orientation, but those who have lived through it routinely describe it as ‘freshman week.'”
Fox News is reevaluating Mike Huckabee’s status with the network following a new report that he is eyeing a 2016 presidential bid, Politico reports.
“Fox News has historically had a policy of terminating contributor agreements if an exploratory committee is formed or if serious political intent is shown. It dropped both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum in 2012 and New Hampshire Senate candidate Scott Brown in 2014. On Friday, it cut ties with contributor Dr. Ben Carson after learning that the neurosurgeon-turned-conservative commentator plans to air a 40-minute ad promoting his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.”
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) denied on MSNBC assertions made by Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) that Republicans were planning to impeach President Obama.
Said Cole: “No impeachment legislation is pending, none has been proposed. I know of no one who favors that as a course that’s in any leadership position.”
He added: “I think this is a Democratic fantasy, and I certainly don’t see it coming to pass.”
Former Obama campaign manager told OZY that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) would be “the most right-wing” presidential candidate in history if he won the GOP nomination in 2016.
Said Messina: “I think if you look at his statements and you look at his record he would be the most right-wing candidate any major party has nominated, including Barry Goldwater. He is that far off the spectrum.”
He added: “I think his chances of winning swing votes in battleground states are my chances of being the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.”
Ross Douthat argues that the midterm results “hammer another nail into the coffin that should house the terrible idea of another Mitt candidacy in 2016. Judging by their post-election activity, that doesn’t seem to be how Team Mitt is thinking, but the reality is that the midterms were big resume-burnishers for Scott Walker (who won re-election) and for Chris Christie (whose Republican Governors Association had a frankly amazing showing), and the results did nothing to discourage other prominent center-right figures (like Rubio, or Jeb Bush) from thinking that 2016 might be a good year to run. Romney has clearly suggested that he wouldn’t run if Jeb did, but the same (correct) logic should apply if the field doesn’t have Jeb but does have Walker, Christie and/or Rubio, because all three of those men would have stronger arguments for why the party establishment should back them in 2016 than a Romney re-replay would.”
“Only in a world where Ted Cruz is marching basically unopposed to the nomination would a Romney run make any sense … and even then, you’ll find me hanging our around Purdue University with a “Run, Mitch, Run” sign before I admit that Mitt should get back in the mix.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “has made clear to donors and potential supporters that he will not leave his job as New Jersey governor if he runs for president in 2016,” Politico reports.
Said strategist Mike DuHaime: “The governor is telling people that he is not going to resign.”
“The statement is the strongest response from anyone in Christie’s orbit to the question of whether, if he runs for president, he will do so while continuing to serve as governor. The issue has for months dominated private discussions among New York-area donors who comprise Christie’s base of support. They have questioned whether he would be hamstrung by strict federal ‘pay-to-play’ restrictions on campaign donations to sitting governors.”
A federal judge ruled that South Carolina officials cannot enforce the state’s constitutional gay marriage ban, although a temporary stay means those marriages will not happen before November 20, the Charleston Post and Courier reports.
“The ruling could impact an estimated 7,200 same-sex couples living together in South Carolina, according to the Williams Institute, a California think tank that conducts research regarding sexual orientation.”
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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