Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) “has had a target on his back since November 2010,” Roll Call reports.
“That’s when his home-state colleague, Democrat Blanche Lincoln, lost her bid for a third term by 21 points to then-Rep. John Boozman, a Republican.”
“Today, it’s impossible to evaluate his re-election chances next year without drawing comparisons to Lincoln’s double-digit defeat. And it’s quite a turn of affairs for Pryor, who won re-election in 2008 by 60 points.”
“In about a week’s time, federal prison inmate 94405-198 will complete a 100-month sentence for taking bribes and no longer be in the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham will, once again, be a free man,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
“He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion in 2005 and was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns. Cunningham admitted taking at least $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and in return used his influence as a congressman to steer lucrative government contracts to the companies. He resigned his seat from Congress, which he had held since 1991, before being sentenced.”
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R) “officially filed papers to consider a run for governor next year, following up on last week’s statement from his political director initially expressing interest in the race,” KDVR-TV reports.
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Ron Fournier: “George W. Bush in 2001 declared war on a tactic (terrorism), and empowered Big Brother to tap phones, launch drones and indefinitely imprison people without due process.”
“Barack Obama in 2008 declared those Bush policies an overreach, and pledged to curb drone strikes, protect media freedoms, and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Instead, he escalated drone strikes and spied on the media. Gitmo is still open for its grim business.”
“These are facts. And yet, they are distorted by extreme and narrow-minded partisans, supporters of both Bush and Obama.”
President Obama “will soon accelerate his efforts to put a lasting imprint on the country’s judiciary by simultaneously nominating three judges to an important federal court, a move that is certain to unleash fierce Republican opposition and could rekindle a broader partisan struggle over Senate rules,” the New York Times reports.
“In trying to fill the three vacancies on the 11-member United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit at once, Mr. Obama will be adopting a more aggressive nomination strategy. He will effectively be daring Republicans to find specific ground to filibuster all the nominees.”
House Speaker John Boehner, “who by title and position should be the second most powerful person in Washington, sure doesn’t seem or sound like it,” Politico reports.
“He has little ability to work his will with fellow House Republicans. He has quit for good his solo efforts to craft a grand bargain on taxes and spending. And he hasn’t bothered to initiate a substantive conversation with President Barack Obama in this calendar year.”
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) “may be the congresswoman with nine lives. But 2014 could be the gravest threat to her political career yet,” Politico reports.
“The bomb-throwing conservative and onetime Republican presidential candidate is girding for what promises to be a ferocious reelection contest. Awaiting Bachmann is a serious Democratic opponent who has the full backing of his national party and a suburban Twin Cities electorate that six months ago nearly tossed her out of office.”
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s top communications aides, press secretary George Christopoulos and Isaac Ransom, have both resigned, the Toronto Star reports.
The Toronto Sun says Ford “was spotted going through the empty offices with City Hall security looking unhappy just before 2 p.m.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “became the highest-ranking U.S. official to enter Syria since the bloody civil war there began over two years ago,” the Daily Beast reports.
“McCain, one of the fiercest critics of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, made the unannounced visit across the Turkey-Syria border with Gen. Salem Idris, the leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army. He stayed in the country for several hours before returning to Turkey. Both in Syria and Turkey, McCain and Idris met with assembled leaders of Free Syrian Army units that traveled from around the country to see the U.S. senator. Inside those meetings, rebel leaders called on the United States to step up its support to the Syrian armed opposition and provide them with heavy weapons, a no-fly zone, and airstrikes on the Syrian regime and the forces of Hezbollah, which is increasingly active in Syria.”
Just published: Being Oscar: From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas by Oscar Goodman.
A Las Vegas Review-Journal review says the book “dwells on how the government folks were the bad guys and most of his clients were really the good guys.”
A press release for a new romance book, Fires of Siberia, notes the story of the female protagonist — “full of firebrand pluck and red state sex appeal” — was “inspired by the life of Tea Party leader and Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann.”
Donald Trump has spent more than $1 million on “electoral research” for a potential presidential run in 2016, the New York Post reports.
“Scarlett Johansson and Reese Witherspoon are among actresses being considered to portray the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” The Independent reports.
“Rodham — about the younger years of the former First Lady and senator — is due out some time around the 2016 presidential election, in which Clinton might be a candidate. It will focus on 1974, when she was a Washington lawyer.”
Los Angeles Times: “Wendy Greuel entered the race for mayor of Los Angeles with the formidable advantages of a front-runner… But six months after emerging as the leading candidate to succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Greuel’s campaign was handed a decisive defeat by her former City Council friend, Eric Garcetti.”
“The portrait that emerges from interviews with campaign aides and analysts begins with a candidate who underestimated the strength of her opponents in the primary election and the importance of maintaining her brand as a trusted public servant. The slippage accelerated when Greuel’s efforts to promote past accomplishments and future goals drew new rounds of scrutiny and criticism. And attempts to take down her opponents fell short, according to the interviews with campaign operatives and outside experts.”
New York Times: “Almost no law as sprawling and consequential as the Affordable Care Act has passed without changes — significant structural changes or routine tweaks known as ‘technical corrections’ — in subsequent months and years… But as they prowl Capitol Hill, business lobbyists… health care providers and others seeking changes are finding, to their dismay, that in a polarized Congress, accomplishing them has become all but impossible.”
“Republicans simply want to see the entire law go away and will not take part in adjusting it. Democrats are petrified of reopening a politically charged law that threatens to derail careers as the Republicans once again seize on it before an election year.”
“As a result, a landmark law that almost everyone agrees has flaws is likely to take effect unchanged.”
A must-read coming this fall: The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
A new CNN/ORC Poll finds 54% of Americans oppose President Obama’s new health care law, three years after he signed what was his signature domestic policy achievement.
But the poll also indicates that more than a quarter of those who oppose Obamacare, say they don’t support the measure because it doesn’t go far enough.
New York Times: “Representatives of these organizations have cried foul in recent weeks about their treatment by the I.R.S., saying they were among dozens of conservative groups unfairly targeted by the agency, harassed with inappropriate questionnaires and put off for months or years as the agency delayed decisions on their applications.”
“But a close examination of these groups and others reveals an array of election activities that tax experts and former I.R.S. officials said would provide a legitimate basis for flagging them for closer review.”
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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