President Obama rejected comparisons between himself and Vice President Dick Cheney, who strongly backed similar surveillance efforts in the Bush administration and has defended Obama’s continuation of them, Politico reports.
Said Obama: “Some people say, ‘Well, you know, Obama was this raving liberal before. Now he’s, you know, Dick Cheney.’ Dick Cheney sometimes says, ‘Yeah, you know? He took it all lock, stock, and barrel.'”
A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll finds Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) starts as the Texas favorite in a fantasy 2016 Republican primary for president, swamping Gov. Rick Perry (R) and a number of other big-name candidates.
“Cruz, virtually unknown just 18 months ago as he began his long-shot bid for the Senate, had two and a half times more support than the governor, whose national popularity peaked and then plummeted during his bid for president in the 2012 elections.”
Said pollster Jim Henson: “What you’re seeing here with the Cruz number is that he has become the pre-eminent rising conservative in Texas.”
A new CNN/ORC poll finds that 51% of Americans say they support a bill that would attempt to increase border security and create a pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants, with 45% saying they are opposed to such a measure.
Said pollster Keating Holland: “Support comes mostly from Democrats – six in ten favor the bill – with independents and Republicans split right down the middle. There is also a generation gap on this issue, with senior citizens opposed to the bill by a 17-point margin, while younger Americans tend to favor it.”
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Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) “wants to serve his time first if he and wife Sandi are sent to prison,” Lynn Sweet reports.
In asking to go to prison first, lawyers said, “Mr. Jackson’s health issues preclude him from working at this time. If he serves his period of incarceration first, Mrs. Jackson would be able to work and could stabilize the family’s finances. By the time Mr. Jackson completes his sentence, the family would not be in the significant financial peril it is in today. ….the strain of waiting to begin serving his sentence would not be beneficial to Mr. Jackson’s state of mind or mental health.”
“The State Department investigator who accused colleagues last week of using drugs, soliciting prostitutes, and having sex with minors says that Foggy Bottom is now engaged in an ‘intimidation’ campaign to stop her,” Foreign Policy reports.
Wall Street Journal: “Both political parties are encountering a surprising problem as they prepare for next year’s battle to control the U.S. Senate: Some of their top choices are turning down invitations to run for seats in a body with a reputation that has been tarnished by bickering and gridlock.”
“After Republicans lost the presidential election and seats in both the House and the Senate last year, many in the party offered a stern admonishment: if we want to broaden our appeal, steer clear of divisive social and cultural issues,” the New York Times reports.
“Yet House Republicans seem eager to reopen the emotional fight over abortion by bringing to the floor on Tuesday a measure that would prohibit the procedure after 22 weeks of pregnancy — the most restrictive abortion bill to come to a vote in either chamber in a decade.”
President-elect Hassan Rowhani of Iran, speaking for the first time since his election victory, said he wanted to reduce tensions with the United States but ruled out direct talks between the two estranged nations, the New York Times reports.
Rowhani called the issue of nonexistent relations between Iran and the United States “an old wound, which must be healed.”
Greg Sargent: “It’s being privately discussed at the highest levels of the Democratic Party: The passing of Senator Frank Lautenberg has cast doubt on the ability of Senate Democrats to exercise the so-called ‘nuclear option‘ and change the Senate rules via a simple majority.”
“Here’s what this means: A very plausible scenario being mulled by top Dems is that the prospects for changing the rules may rest on a tie-breaking Senate vote from Vice President (and Senate president) Joe Biden.”
“I don’t think becoming a senator is about being in a popularity contest.”
— New Jersey Senate candidate Sheila Oliver (D), in an interview with Brian Lehrer, in which she’s running way behind Cory Booker (D).
A new Pew Research poll finds 70% of Americans oppose the U.S. sending arms and military supplies to rebels in Syria while 27% favor the move.
The poll also found that 68% of Americans say the country is too
overcommitted in other issues to get involved in another conflict.
Al Gore said capitalism “is coming under increased scrutiny and needs to change as short-term thinking has driven a wedge between investing and the creation of value for corporations,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Gore: “There is a continuing focus on short-term decision making in markets and that is distorting the allocation of resources. It’s hurting the quality of decisions that are made by companies.”
Ron Fournier: “There is a common element to the so-called Obama scandals–the IRS targeting of conservatives, the fatal attack in Benghazi, and widespread spying on U.S. journalists and ordinary Americans. It is a lack of credibility.”
“In each case, the Obama administration has helped make controversies worse by changing its stories, distorting facts, and lying. The abuse of trust may be taking a toll on President Obama’s reputation.”
Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) “had a scary choking incident and was thankfully aided by a doctor-turned-GOP-aide, Nick Muzin, who may have saved his life,” National Review reports.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) isn’t in a hurry to endorse former rival Steve Lonegan (R) for U.S. Senate, the Newark Star Ledger reports.
Said Christie: “I’ve got my own campaign to run, first off. And so to the extent that I can be helpful to the Republican nominee, whoever that turns out to be, I’m sure that I’ll find some time to be helpful, but I have my own campaign to run at the same time and so my focus will be on my campaign.”
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, “have used taxpayer money for a range of small personal items they should have paid for themselves under state policy,” the Washington Post reports.
“The McDonnells have billed the state for body wash, sunscreen, dog vitamins and a digestive system “detox cleanse,” the records show. They also have used state employees to run personal errands for their adult children.”
In the mail: Christian Nation: A Novel by Frederic C. Rich.
“When President McCain dies and Sarah Palin becomes president, the reader, along with the nation, stumbles down a terrifyingly credible path toward theocracy, realizing too late that the Christian right meant precisely what it said.”
Former Mitt Romney economic adviser Greg Mankiw has a new paper that tries to “defend the 1 percent” and the current state of income equality in the United States.
Writes Mankiw: “In the end, the left’s arguments for increased redistribution are valid in principle but dubious in practice… If the current tax system were regressive, or if the incomes of the top 1 percent were much greater than their economic contributions, or if the rich enjoyed government services in excess of what they pay in taxes, then the case for increasing the top tax rate would indeed be strong. But there is no compelling reason to believe that any of these premises holds true.”
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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