“She is tough, she is determined, she is prepared. She is also accommodating. But once she gets to a place, she is a
bulldozer you can’t move.”
— House Appropriation Committee chairman Hal Rodgers (R-KY), quoted by the New York Times, on his Senate counterpart, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).
Wyoming U.S. Senate candidate Liz Cheney (R) “improperly received a state resident fishing license based on an application with incorrect information,” the Casper Star-Tribune reports.
“Cheney, who last month announced she will challenge Sen. Mike Enzi in the 2014 Republican primary, received her resident license just 72 days after closing on her Wilson house in May 2012. State law requires residents live in the state 365 consecutive days before they can receive a resident hunting or fishing license, which are cheaper than out-of-state licenses. Cheney’s application also lists her as a 10-year resident of Wyoming.”
Said Cheney: “The clerk must have made a mistake. I never claimed to be a 10-year resident.”
When Illinois gubernatorial hopeful Bill Daley (D) launched his new website, “he included a photo that could trump that of any other candidate in the race,” the Chicago Sun Times reports.
“It’s a photo taken in the Situation Room the day Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces.”
The photo caption: “This is what leadership looks like.”
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Georgia finds Michelle Nunn (D) tied with Phil Gingrey (R), 41% to 41%, and with David Perdue (R), 40% to 40%, in a possible U.S. Senate race.
In other match ups, Nunn leads Karen Handel (R), 40% to 38%, tops Jack Kingston (R), 40% to 38%, and beats Paul Broun (R), 41% to 26%.
If Republican party officials decide to scrap the Iowa straw poll, as Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has suggested, a nonprofit evangelical conservative group is ready to fill in the gap, the Des Moines Register reports.
“Branstad said it ‘has outlived its usefulness’ and ‘its days are over’ … But the straw poll has its defenders, including A.J. Spiker, current
head of the Republican Party of Iowa, which uses the straw poll as a key
fundraising tool.”
“While former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. awaits sentencing for misusing about $750,000 in campaign funds, his political organization has received its third warning from the Federal Election Commission for failing to submit reports on its finances,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Brad Stone, author of the forthcoming The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, suggested to the New Republic that Jeff Bezos is looking for political influence:
“This is maybe going out on a little bit of a limb: but look, he’s buying a lot of political influence. And we can’t discard the fact that Amazon hasn’t been an enormous player, at least up until the dispute over sales taxes, and in buying The Washington Post, he has a seat at the table. And I think particularly legislators and anti-trust regulators are gonna be weighing the dominance of Amazon a lot in the years ahead.”
New York Times: “But the deal was still an astonishing move for a magnate who has kept a low profile in politics and has said almost nothing about his interest in newspapers, except that he reads them. Nonetheless, Mr. Bezos will now have a microphone as powerful as anyone in Washington and outside the West Wing.”
Australian Liberal Party parliamentary candidate Jaymes Diaz was stumped when asked by Channel Ten News about his six point plan for addressing immigration issues.
The Dallas Morning News traveled with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) for a speech to a group of conservative bloggers.
Said Perry: “There are many other states that embrace those conservative values, the approach we’ve taken over the years. I’m in one today — Florida.”
“We’re in Louisiana,” someone shouted.
Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) told constituents at a town hall event that a provision in Obamacare imposing a 10% tax on tanning bed use was a “racist tax” that discriminates “because of the color of my skin,” Roll Call reports.
“Yes, I think Steve King, the more he speaks, the more he helps us get a bill passed.”
— Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in an interview with the Huffington Post. on the prospects for immigration reform.
The Atlantic Wire: “There are a few hallmarks to life after a political sex scandal. Tell-all interviews are standard, though most news organizations won’t pay you to speak with them. The real money is in the tell-all memoir, where eager book companies will throw cash for confessions and the dirtiest, intimate secrets. Or, if you’re Sydney Leathers, you masturbate on camera for those infamous sex tape connoisseurs at Vivid Entertainment.”
I joined Thomas Roberts, Keli Goff and Dafna Linzer on MSNBC to discuss the looming budget showdown on Capitol Hill.
Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D), “who skyrocketed to national fame after mounting a lengthy filibuster earlier this summer, on Monday said she won’t wait much longer to decide whether to enter the Texas gubernatorial race,” Politico reports.
Said Davis: “I’m still trying to decide, but I do think people are ready for a change from the partisan, very fractured leadership we have in Texas.”
Newt Gingrich told the Washington Times that the United States’ ability to “export democracy” needs to be reevaluated and that “alternative strategies” should be considered.
Said Gingrich: “I am a neoconservative. But at some point, even if you are a neoconservative, you need to take deep breath to ask if our strategies in Middle East have succeeded. It may be that our capacity to export democracy is a lot more limited than we thought.”
Better RNC debate plan. Held in hermetically sealed Fox studio. Avoid exposing swing voters to Crazy S*#t My Nominee Says.
— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) August 5, 2013
RNC chair Reince Priebus threatened to “ban 2016 presidential debate partnerships with CNN and NBC if the networks produce shows on Hillary Rodham Clinton ‘ahead of her likely candidacy for president’ because they will amount to free ‘political ads,'” the Lynn Sweet reports.
“NBC announced a Hillary Clinton miniseries is in the works; CNN is working on a documentary. The networks are rolling out the projects as speculation about whether the former Secretary of State will run in 2016 is soaring.”
GOP pollster Whit Ayres tells Greg Sargent that “much of the conventional wisdom is wrong: Republican voters do support immigration reform — including a path to citizenship — albeit with the proper conditions attached. Indeed they want to see something done.”
Said Ayres: “Our research has shown that roughly one third of Republican primary voters will never support a path to citizenship no matter what the conditions. But two thirds will support a path to citizenship as long as the conditions are strict and rigorous.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.