“The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some are even saying that it’s already begun.”
— Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted by the Associated Press.
Update on the Redesign
The response to Political Wire’s new look has been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you! The new site also held up reasonably well during a very busy week.
Back by popular demand: Trending. This page is updated every 15 minutes with the latest stories from dozens of different sources.
Keep the suggestions coming and thanks for reading!
Orrin Hatch, Then and Now
“We should get it back to where it was. You can see the destruction that has happened around here.”
— Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), quoted by Politico in September, on re-establishing the judicial-nomination filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
“Simply put, if Republicans re-establish the judicial-nomination filibuster, it would remain in place only until the moment that a new Democratic majority decided that discarding the rule again would be useful.”
— Hatch, writing in the Wall Street Journal this week, arguing against reverting to the old filibuster rules.
Brown Recycled His Concession Speech
Defeated New Hampshire Senate candidate Scott Brown (R) “may have changed states between 2012 and 2014, but he didn’t change his concession speech all that much… Brown’s roughly six-minute speech on Tuesday night was not entirely identical to his more than 14-minute concession in 2012. ABC News watched both concessions and found some uncanny similarities.”
Obama Sends More Troops to Iraq
President Obama “authorized Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday to send up to 1,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, roughly doubling the force the United States has built up since June to fight the Islamic State militants who control much of Iraq and Syria,” the Washington Post reports.
“The announcement of a major increase in the force in Iraq deepens U.S. involvement in a messy regional conflict that officials are warning may last for years.”
Wall Street Journal: “The White House plan, which would double the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, sets the stage for a broader foreign policy debate when Congress returns to Washington next week.”
Portman Mulls Presidential Bid
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) told ABC News that he is thinking about running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Said Portman: “I am concerned about the country, and I want to see who else jumps in. I think it’s a pivotal election, so I am concerned enough that I am taking a look at it.”
Gillespie Not Planning Bid for Virginia Governor
“Ed Gillespie, who nearly pulled off an upset in Virginia’s Senate race, conceded the battle Friday to Democratic incumbent Mark Warner. The former Republican National Committee head also told Politico this week that he isn’t planning to run for governor, despite predictions he would do so if he failed to reach the Senate.”
The Stranger
Out next week: The Stranger: Barack Obama in the White House by Chuck Todd.
Wall Street Journal: “With an informal, digressive writing style, Mr. Todd gamely sets out to produce an answer to that perhaps unanswerable question. The Stranger should not be confused with the deeply reported books already written on the president by the likes of David Remnick, Bob Woodward and Jonathan Alter. Mr. Todd seems to have gathered his material predominantly for use in his on-the-air news analyses, with the result that his interviews are driven less by the authorial desire to psychoanalyze than the pundit’s need to respond to the topic du jour. That said, he has harvested a bounty of fascinating anecdotes as the fruit of his access to the Obama White House.”
Republicans Caught Democrats on Ground Game
New York Times: “The Republicans’ ground game and digital strategy in 2012 were disasters, bad enough to become a political punch line. The party was determined not to repeat those mistakes, and operatives were well on their way to overhauling its systems this election cycle when the Democrats announced their ‘Bannock Street project,’ an ambitious voter-mobilization program.”
“Though the Republicans were already building a national ground game, they decided to leverage the Democrats’ $60 million get-out-the-vote effort to their own advantage. They devoured news reports about the project and scoured Federal Election Commission filings to learn as much as they could about how their rivals were structuring their turnout operations in battleground states.”
Huffington Post: Democrats argue their ground game worked
Peters Defeats DeMaio in California
Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) took a seemingly insurmountable lead over Carl DeMaio (R) on Friday in California’s closely-watched 52nd congressional district race, the San Diego Union Tribune reports.
The Associated Press has projected a Peters victory. The DeMaio campaign has not publicly reacted to the new vote totals.
Roll Call reports there are still 10 uncalled races from Tuesday’s elections.
Obama Alone
David Rothkopf: “In the wake of Tuesday’s elections, U.S. President Barack Obama cuts a lonely figure. In fact, he may end his term of office as the most isolated president since Richard Nixon. If that is the case, it will largely be a plight of his own making.”
“The isolation starts with the fact that from the beginning, for the president and his campaign team, it was never about the Democratic Party. It was never about the rest of their team in the administration. It was never about a network of international relationships. It was always about one man who was the product, the messenger, the mission, and the raison d’être all wrapped into one. And for the next two years, it seems highly likely that any brave post-election faces they try to put on this to the contrary, Obama will reap the results of his political and policy narcissism in a way that will not only be difficult for him personally but will be bad for America and its role in the world.”
Is Sarah Palin TV Tanking?
“Three months after the launch, former CNN President Jonathan Klein—whose niche digital television company, TAPP, is backing the channel—claims it’s already turning a profit,” Lloyd Grove reports.
Said Klein: “It’s going really well. She asked us from the very beginning never to talk about specific numbers, because for her she says it’s not about the numbers. It’s about the message and enabling her followers to all get together and talk freely. So I can’t give you numbers. I can tell you that she’s hit all our milestones and that she’s posting content constantly.”
“Yet while it’s impossible to know, absent hard figures, whether the Sarah Palin Channel is succeeding in attracting an audience, it’s significant that the channel’s Web traffic, expressed in terms of unique visitors, is a tiny fraction of The Blaze’s 15.3 million in September (the most recent available numbers from Media Trend). The Sarah Palin Channel, by contrast, had a barely measurable 36,000 visitors in September, according to Quantcast.”
Guide to the New Congress
Free download: CQ Roll Call’s exclusive 76-page Guide to the New Congress.
“There are more than 50 new lawmakers to meet. Nine House committees will have new leaders. Every single committee in the Senate will have a new chair. And the power dynamics between the two chambers and the White House has been altered completely.”
Supreme Court to Hear New Obamacare Challenge
SCOTUSblog: “The Supreme Court, moving back into the deep controversy over the new health care law, agreed early Friday afternoon to decide how far the federal government can extend its program of subsidies to buyers of health insurance.”
“By adding the case to its decision docket at this point, without waiting for further action in lower federal courts, as the Obama administration had asked, the Court assured that it would rule on the case during the current term.”
Jonathan Cohn: “The latest legal challenge to Obamacare just became very credible—and very dangerous.”
Rubio Will Decide on Presidential Bid Soon
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said that he will make up his mind on a 2016 run for the White House “in the coming weeks,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
Said Rubio: “For me, the decision is made based on the following: I have my agenda that I have talked about for more than 4 years and the decision that I have to make is where is the best place to advance this agenda as a presidential candidate or continue at the majority in the Senate, that is a decision I will make in the coming weeks along with my family because it requires a whole series of things.”
A Terrible Election for Environmentalists
“The urgency with which activists (and scientists and the United Nations) view the threat of climate change is not matched on Capitol Hill. 2014 was meant to be change that, with environmental groups and one particular billionaire investing heavily in demonstrating that climate was an electoral winner. Instead, 2015 will arrive with environmentalists in a much worse position than they were even a year ago,” the Washington Post reports.
Wonk Wire: A dismal outlook for climate policy
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“The President is bright and very articulate and speaks very well. People just don’t believe he cares. That’s the disconnect that I’m seeing.”
— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), in an interview with Time.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“When an administration says ‘no,’ it’s no different than when Andrew Jackson marched Indians down the Trail of Tears, to their death.”
— Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), quoted by Politico, on the Obama administration’s transparency.
