Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) told the Associated Press that he will not run for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2014.
Said Schweitzer: “I don’t want a job where I have to wear a suit and my dog isn’t welcome.”
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Remember the Debt Ceiling?
Zero Hedge: “We expect the Treasury to exhaust its extraordinary measures to create borrowing authority on October 31, and run out of cash on November 1.”
Texas Republicans Finally Prevail on Abortion Bill
“The Texas Senate approved sweeping abortion regulations late Friday as anger boiled over in the gallery and elsewhere in the Capitol and the dull roar from protesters provided a continuous counterpoint to hours of emotional floor debate,” the Austin American Statesman reports.
Texas Tribune: “The measure restricting abortions in Texas is now headed to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk, having passed as thousands of protesters who opposed the measure chanted in and around the Capitol. The crowd outside the chamber erupted after HB 2 passed with a vote of 19-11. But inside, there were none of the eruptions that helped kill the abortion bill in the first special session.”
Los Angeles Times: “In the first six months of this year, a total of 47 line items restricting abortion have been enacted in 18 states… Perry’s signing of the Texas legislation would bring the 2013 count to 52 restrictions in 19 states.”
Quote of the Day
A Principled Suicide
Kathleen Parker: “Republicans seem to be adopting the self-immolation tactics of principled martyrs. Of course, principled or not, you’re still dead in the end.”
“Before you can govern, you have to win. And before you can win, you have to offer something people want to buy. What Republicans are selling appeals to an ever-diminishing market that doesn’t even include their erstwhile allies in business and industry. And their self-immolation may prove to have been nothing more than a bonfire of vanities.”
Colorado Lawmakers Avoid Radar Tickets
“A loophole in state law has allowed Colorado state senators and representatives to avoid photo radar tickets because of special treatment given to lawmakers when they get license plates,” the Denver Post reports.
McCrory Says He Would Sign Abortion Bill
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) “said he would sign the House version of the abortion bill if it comes to his desk, but that he would still veto the Senate’s version if that’s what passes the General Assembly,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
Midterm Election Fundraising Surges
Roll Call: “After the drip-drip of campaign fundraising leaks over the past two
weeks, it’s now clear that the amount of money it took to look
impressive is staggering. Challengers and incumbents raised the bar so high that to be
considered a standout this time around, a candidate had to have raised
$2 million for a Senate campaign or more than half a million for the
House.”
Tampons Confiscated at Texas State Capitol
Huffington Post: “State troopers are confiscating tampons, maxi pads and other potential projectiles from those who are entering the Texas capitol to watch the debate and vote on a controversial anti-abortion bill. Guns, however, which are typically permitted in the state capitol, are still being allowed.”
Firing Of Woman For Being Too Attractive Was Legal
Iowa Supreme Court justices found that a male dentist did not discriminate against a female employee “when he fired her out of fear that her good looks might prompt him into an extramarital affair,” the Des Moines Register reports.
Associated Press: “Coming to the same conclusion as it did in December, the all-male court found that bosses can fire employees they see as threats to their marriages, even if the subordinates have not engaged in flirtatious or other inappropriate behavior. The court said such firings do not count as illegal sex discrimination because they are motivated by feelings, not gender.”
Spitzer Paid $800 a Day
Gothamist runs an anonymous piece from a staffer for Eliot Spitzer’s campaign who says he was paid $800 per day to collect signatures to get the former governor on the ballot for New York City Comptroller.
Two Different Comeback Strategies
Capital New York notes that Eliot Spitzer “seems happy to indulge his status as a national celebrity, in a way that Anthony Weiner, by comparison, hasn’t seen fit to do. Weiner, for all the press coverage he’s generated, has yet to sit for a single national television interview since he entered the race in May.”
McGreevey Takes Appointment in Jersey City
“In a bombshell announcement, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop said today that former Gov. Jim McGreevey (D) will take the helm of a city commission dedicated to job creation and training,” the Jersey Journal reports.
“McGreevey, who served for two years as governor before resigning in disgrace in 2004, will also create and implement a re-integration program for ex-offenders being released from state prison and county jails.”
Quote of the Day
“I go out in the crowd all of the time. Frankly, yesterday I went out and talked to several of them and they were not very respectful. They did not represent the majority of those who call themselves moral by cussing me out. But that’s the way things go some times.”
— North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), quoted by the Wilson Times, on the “Moral Monday” protests at the state capitol every week.
Should Democrats End the Filibuster?
Megan McArdle: “As I understand it, there is about a 0% chance that Democrats will
retake the House in 2014, which means that Republicans already have
quite an efficient veto over any legislation they might like to pass.
Meanwhile, there’s about a 70% chance that Republicans will control the
White House, the House, and the Senate come January 2017. Without the
filibuster in place, Republicans could do a lot of damage to programs
that Democrats like. That seems an expensive risk to run in order to
get some presidential nominees through, however mad you are about GOP
obstructionism.”
The Five Republican Parties
Norm Ornstein: “American history has many examples of a party going off the rails and taking a long time to recover. It was true of the Democrats in the 1890s and again in the 1960s and early ’70s. One rough rule of thumb is that a party has to lose three presidential elections in a row to make it clear that the problem is not just individual presidential candidates and their failures but something deeper, enough to motivate a party to move to expand beyond its ideological base and capture the center. But if that happens in 2016 — if Democrats make it three wins in a row — I am not sure it will be enough for the GOP.”
“That is because I see at least five Republican parties out there, with a lot of overlap, but with enough distinct differences that the task is harder than usual. There is a House party, a Senate party, and a presidential party, of course. But there is also a Southern party and a non-Southern one. The two driving forces dominating today’s GOP are the House party and the Southern one — and they will not be moved or shaped by another presidential loss. If anything, they might double down on their worldviews and strategies.”
The State Where Republicans Need Hispanics
Nate Cohn: “Opponents of immigration reform are right about one thing: Hispanics aren’t enough for Republicans to win back the White House. But that doesn’t mean that the GOP can sacrifice Hispanics without big consequences for their chances. That’s already happened in New Mexico and Nevada, where the Hispanic vote has flipped two states from red to blue. The GOP’s route to the presidency has survived the loss of those two small states–they’re worth just 11 electoral votes. But it’s a whole different story if Florida suffers the same fate as Nevada, as it very well might if Republicans can’t improve among Hispanics.”
Napolitano Will Resign as Homeland Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano will resign as the head of the Department of Homeland Security to become the next president of the University of California, “in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a
position usually held by an academic,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Her
appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman
for the first time in its 145-year history.
Interesting speculation: If President Obama appoints Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, to replace Napolitano, it would open a U.S. Senate seat for Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (D).
