At the direction of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), Richmond’s top prosecutor has been investigating Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R) statements of economic interest for possible violations of disclosure laws, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports.
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Tancredo Will Announce Campaign Today
Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R), known for his strong stances on immigration, said he plans to formally announce a run for governor on a conservative talk radio show today, the Denver Post reports.
Said Tancredo: “This Dunlap thing is the last straw.”
Tancredo was referring to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) decision to grant a temporary reprieve on the execution of death row inmate Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted of killing four people in 1993.
McCain Seeks to Defuse Nuclear Option
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “finds himself once again pushing his colleagues to avoid giving fodder to Democrats seeking to use the ‘nuclear option’ to change Senate rules with a simple majority,” Roll Call reports.
“The Arizona Republican’s latest endeavor is to persuade GOP senators to allow the appointment of conferees to hammer out a House- Senate budget agreement without binding instructions against raising the debt limit. But his efforts have yet to win over the GOP’s tea party wing.”
Obama Restarts Bid to Shut Guantanamo
The Obama administration is set to restart transfers of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “kick-starting a long-stalled drive to close the prison,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
In a speech today, President Obama “will reassert his case that closing Guantanamo is crucial to U.S. counterterrorism goals. While he isn’t planning to detail how to speed up transfers from the prison, officials said the president in coming weeks plans to lift the administration’s prohibition on sending detainees to Yemen.”
Obama Moves to Limit Drone Strikes
President Obama “plans to open a new phase in the nation’s long struggle with terrorism on Thursday by restricting the use of unmanned drone strikes that have been at the heart of his national security strategy and shifting control of them away from the C.I.A. to the military,” the New York Times reports.
“As part of the shift in approach, the administration on Wednesday formally acknowledged for the first time that it had killed four American citizens in drone strikes outside the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, arguing that its actions were justified by the danger to the United States.”
Washington Post: “The secrecy surrounding the program — including the criteria for
choosing targets — has led to widespread opposition from international
law and human rights advocates and, increasingly, from Congress and the
public. Although the administration has stressed the precision accuracy
of drones, independent groups have charged that thousands of civilians
have been unintentionally killed.”
Christian Lawmaker Seeks Do-Over After Atheist Prayer
“An atheist lawmaker’s decision to give the daily prayer at the Arizona House of Representatives triggered a do-over from a Christian lawmaker who said the previous day’s prayer didn’t pass muster,” the AP reports.
State Rep. Steve Smith (R) said the prayer offered by Rep. Juan Mendez (D-AZ) “wasn’t prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in ‘repentance.'”
Weiner Has Not Spoken to Obama or Pelosi
Anthony Weiner told Politicker that he hasn’t spoken with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) since his resignation following the sexting scandal that forced him to resign from Congress nearly two years ago.
“When it came to President Barack Obama, he said he’d have to check with his wife to make sure they hadn’t attended a same event, but couldn’t recall speaking to the nation’s top executive. Mr. Obama said at the time that he would resign if he were in Mr. Weiner’s shoes.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
Not All Sex-Scandal Comebacks are the Same
Anthony Weiner announced his comeback attempt earlier today, but Karen Tumulty notes his challenge is greater than Mark Sanford faced earlier this month.
“Sanford, once it became clear that he had not been hiking the Appalachian Trail, pretty much owned up to where he had really been and the truth about his relationship with Maria Belen Chapur. Weiner continued to deny that the crotch photos sent through his Twitter account were in fact of his own crotch, even as the falsehood became more and more transparent.”
“And where Weiner was forced to resign, Sanford remained in office, surviving an effort to impeach him, paying the largest ethics fine in South Carolina history, and ultimately enjoying the most productive period of his governorship. Indeed, he left office in 2011 on something of a high note, with approval around 55 percent–which, as the Charleston Post and Courier noted at the time, made him more popular than half the nation’s governors.”
Senate Democrats Face Tougher Political Environment
Stuart Rothenberg: “While national polls haven’t shown a shift in the public’s opinion of President Obama’s performance, recent controversies have, in my view, significantly changed the political landscape.”
GOP Aides Worry About Partisan Overtones on Benghazi
Senior GOP aides tell Roll Call they are worried that the “partisan overtones” in the investigation of the Banghazi attacks “are diverting Congress from identifying and addressing the real lessons learned from the attack.”
“In particular, these aides say key staffers have been overly consumed with chasing down or addressing inaccurate or unfounded accusations emerging from the inquiry.”
Exchange of the Day
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) was asked about Latinos working in his administration during a moderated discussion in Philadelphia last week:
Moderator: Do you have staff members that are Latino?
Corbett: No, we do not have any staff members in there. If you can find us one, please let me know.
Moderator: I am sure that there are Latinos that…
Corbett: Do any of you you want to come to Harrisburg? See?!
Former Clinton Aide Says IRS Scandal Threatens Hillary in 2016
Former Clinton White House counsel Lanny Davis said the growing IRS scandal has robbed Democrats of the so-called “trust edge” they held over Republicans and is now jeopardizing hopes that Hillary Clinton will replace President Obama in 2016, the Washington Examiner reports.
Said Davis: “This hurts the Democratic Party and will hurt anybody who runs for president in 2016. It will make it almost impossible to elect a [Democratic] president…I’m nervous.”
Coincidentally, Davis has a new book on how to deal with scandals called Crisis Tales.
Paul Ryan is Writing a Book
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) “is working with attorney Bob Barnett to release his first major book next year, and it’ll feature a mix of autobiography, political analysis, and policy prescriptions,” National Review reports.
“So far, Ryan has been doing the writing by himself. The early theme of the draft is a broad discussion of American renewal, with an emphasis on the Republican future and the party’s need to articulate what he calls the ‘American idea.'”
Tennessee Shifting on Same-Sex Unions
A new Vanderbilt University poll in Tennessee finds that 49% of Tennesseans support gay marriage or civil unions while 46% are opposed to both, suggesting the state is now evenly divided on whether to extend legal recognition to same-sex couples.
The results suggest a marked shift in Tennesseans’ views since
2006, when 81% of voters approved an amendment to the state
constitution defining marriage between one man and one woman as “the
only legally recognized marital contract” in the state.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Because I’m asserting my right not to testify I know people will assume I’ve done something wrong. I have not. One of the basic rights of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals and that’s the protection I’m invoking today, thank you.”
— IRS official Lois Lerner, quoted by the Washington Post, in a prepared statement before the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee.
Crack Mayor
Jon Stewart suggests that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is either the victim of malicious video editing, or has decided to clean up his city by smoking all its crack himself.
Taxi King Says Bloomberg Threatened Him
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg “went on a spitting-mad rant against a city cab-fleet boss” who won a court victory over the mayor’s plans to reform how taxis operate vowing to “destroy your fucking industry” when he leaves office, the New York Post reports.
Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman confirmed the blow-up noting that the mayor’s tirade included a warning: “After January, I am going to destroy all you fucking guys.”
