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A new Pew Research survey finds that “perceptions of the current level of political division continue at record levels: 81% say the country is more politically divided these days than in the past. While that is little changed from two years ago, it is as high a percentage expressing this view as at any point over the past decade.”
“Looking ahead, few Americans expect the nation’s political differences to diminish. Just 17% think the country will be less politically divided five years from now.”
“Are we in the middle of a new Cold War? Indeed we are…. People are talking again not only about a new Cold War but a hot one…. It’s as if a time of great troubles has arrived. The world is roiling.”
— Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in an interview with Time.
Wall Street Journal: “The White House’s budget office held a conference call Thursday with all federal agencies to review plans for a possible government shutdown, an administration official said, reviewing protocol in the event Congress doesn’t pass funding legislation by midnight.”
Hillary Clinton “is considering the nitty-gritty details of how and when to organize a presidential campaign amid signs that she will postpone making her shadow campaign official until later in 2015 than expected,” the Washington Post reports.
“Clinton and her small circle of close advisers are weighing legal advice to set up a strict firewall between her and the numerous outside groups backing her presumed 2016 candidacy… The quarantine would run for a set period of time before she would announce her candidacy, as a way to make sure that the campaign and outside groups do not run afoul of federal election rules.”
“But rather than announce in January — as she did in 2007 — Clinton allies are increasingly working under the assumption that an official announcement will not come until spring.”
“The 113th Congress — one of the least productive on record — found itself scrambling Thursday to pass a $1.1 trillion spending bill amid last-minute brinkmanship and bickering that has come to mark one of the capital’s most polarized eras,” the New York Times reports.
“Lawmakers were also preparing a safety, short-term spending measure that would fund the government only into early next year, at which point Republicans — who will then control both chambers of Congress — would be able to renegotiate the spending legislation on more favorable terms.”
Roll Call notes House GOP leaders already had to delay the vote.
“While it may be little consolation to conservatives, House Republicans announced their intention Wednesday to vote on an amendment — in January, when the new Congress is sworn in — that would block the president’s executive action on immigration,” Roll Call reports.
“GOP leadership is trying to present the argument that the best chance for success is after the new Congress is sworn in.”
Politico: “With seemingly little pushback from Democrats, the GOP this week secured $350 million in IRS budget cuts into the ‘cromnibus,’ just weeks before one of the toughest tax seasons starts. The cuts to the IRS — and the larger negotiations on the year-end spending bill — offer a sneak peek at what Republicans plan to do when they are able to dominate government spending decisions.IRS watchers warn that the agency is spiraling toward a rocky future that will rival some of its darkest days in its history, when whistleblowers blew the lid off IRS agents abusing power and thousands of tax returns were lost in the mail.”
The Atlantic: “A little over a year after Bill Clinton left the presidency, a stream of former administration officials began making quiet, unannounced visits to Charlottesville, Virginia, to spend a day or two alone with scholars. They usually came to the parlor of an antebellum mansion named for William Faulkner, where they reflected privately into a tape recorder on what they had experienced… Over a 10-year span, the center collected 134 oral histories on the 42nd presidency. The Clinton archive now runs to 10,000 pages of transcribed conversations, making it the largest of the Miller Center’s presidential projects, which date back to the Ford White House. Roughly half of these interviews were released to the public in November. The rest, following standard oral-history protocols, will be opened as soon as each interviewee is comfortable doing so.”
“As the House prepares to pass a trillion dollar, 1,603-page ‘cromnibus Thursday, at least one criticism can be applied to both Republicans and Democrats when the bill comes to a vote: few lawmakers — if any — will have read the entire thing,” Roll Call reports.
“It’s not that a $1.1 trillion piece of legislation can — or should — be written in 140 characters like a tweet, or as a 4,543-word document, such as the Constitution. But the cromnibus, coming in at 289,861 words, represents a particularly challenging public relations moment for members of Congress. It’s precisely the style of legislating that Speaker John A. Boehner ran against when he campaigned for the leadership job, vowing to give members at least 72 hours to read any measure before a vote. And it’s the manifestation of the proverbial backroom deals that have angered so many voters for so long.”
First Read comments on the flurry of Rick Perry interviews this month:
“Perry is smartly trying to speak to reporters and stoke the 2016 flames while he’s still in office and has the trappings of power. The question: The minute he leaves office, will the support — in Texas and elsewhere — still be there? Does he become a one-man caravan?”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]He’s got a tougher path but Perry is doing all the right things at this stage. [/speech_bubble]
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is taking his economic success story on a national tour, Politico reports.
“Although officially the trips are aimed at promoting the local economy, they will also help boost Snyder’s national profile at a time when the emerging 2016 GOP field is anything but settled. And while Snyder’s uneasiness talking about social issues means he will have a tough time winning the party’s nod — and he’s not taking active steps toward a candidacy — his economic background and success governing a blue state could make him an attractive running mate.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]The stage at the Republican debates could be very crowded. [/speech_bubble]
Associated Press: “Fed up with the stalled progress toward closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center, President Barack Obama summoned top administration officials to the White House for an unusual meeting last month to make it clear he wanted action. The president addressed the team at length, emphasizing why he wants to shut down the detention facility for terrorism suspects, according to administration officials familiar with the meeting, which wasn’t on Obama’s public schedule. The presidential lecture was the culmination of months of White House frustration with his own administration’s inaction. Since then, the a dozen prisoners have been transferred overseas — more than all of last year and the most since 2010.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]President Obama is methodically going down his list of campaign promises and trying to check them off. [/speech_bubble]
BuzzFeed: “A veteran field organizer who is considered to be a contender for a senior position on Hillary Clinton’s possible presidential campaign is leaving his job at the White House, according to three people familiar with the departure. Marlon Marshall, 35, worked for Clinton during the 2008 primary election as the field director in three key states. There, he served as a right-hand to Robby Mook, the operative many name as their top pick to manage another Clinton campaign.”
Outgoing Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) tells the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he needs a job.
Said Broun: “I could possibly go on some board of director position if offered, a paid position on a corporate board. I would entertain a leadership position in some organization that is out there today, and I’m just looking for whatever position is available.”
He also said he might start his own tea party group if one of the existing groups doesn’t hire him.
“The report’s full of crap, excuse me.”
— Former Vice President Dick Cheney, quoted by Politico, on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report.
“Even if Republicans shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) next year, President Obama could still carry out his executive actions giving legal status to up to 5 million undocumented immigrants,” The Hill reports.
“Some rank-and-file Republicans are worried that Obama could declare all DHS workers ‘essential’ and keep them on the job — then simply pay them once a funding deal is reached.”
New York Times: “Would Republicans be willing to shut down the department come March if they remain at odds with the administration? That would mean that Republicans, angry over new benefits for immigrants living in the country illegally, would respond by closing down the agency that provides border security to prevent more immigrants from entering illegally.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Republicans have very little leverage on the immigration issue. [/speech_bubble]
Businessweek reports that Jeb Bush’s recent business ventures “reveal that he shares a number of liabilities with the last nominee, Mitt Romney, whose career in private equity proved so politically damaging that it sunk his candidacy.”
“Documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 27 list Bush as chairman and manager of a new offshore private equity fund, BH Global Aviation, which raised $61 million in September, largely from foreign investors. In November the fund incorporated in the United Kingdom and Wales—a structure, several independent finance lawyers say, that operates like a tax haven by allowing overseas investors to avoid U.S. taxes and regulations.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Interestingly, many establishment Republicans just don’t understand why this is a problem. [/speech_bubble]
“Running for the presidency’s not an IQ test. It is a test of an individual’s resolve. It’s a test of an individual’s philosophy. It’s a test of an individual’s life’s experiences.”
— Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), in a NBC News interview.
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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