Smart Politics finds that three of the 78 women in the House of Represenatives prefer to use the term “congressman” over “congresswoman” when referring to themselves in the first or third person.
All three of these women are Republicans from deep red states: Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Diane Black (R-TN) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).
“A top Syrian rebel commander has issued a desperate plea for weapons from Western governments to prevent the fall of his forces in Aleppo, pushing the Obama administration to decide quickly whether to agree to arm rebels for the first time or risk the loss of another rebel stronghold just days after the regime’s biggest victory,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Meanwhie, Politico reports Bill Clinton told Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) he agrees that Obama should act more forcefully to support anti-Assad rebels in Syria, saying the American public elects presidents and members of Congress “to see down the road” and “to win.”
“The head of the National Security Agency defended his agency’s broad electronic surveillance programs Wednesday, saying that they have helped thwart dozens of terrorist attacks and that their recent public disclosure has done ‘great harm’ to the nation’s security,” the Washington Post reports.
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Washington Post: “The list of prominent news people with close White House relations includes ABC News President Ben Sherwood, who is the brother of Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a top national-security adviser to President Obama. His counterpart at CBS, news division president David Rhodes, is the brother of Benjamin Rhodes, a key foreign-policy specialist. CNN’s deputy Washington bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is married to Tom Nides, who until earlier this year was deputy secretary of state under Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
“Further, White House press secretary Jay Carney’s wife is Claire Shipman, a veteran reporter for ABC. And NPR’s White House correspondent, Ari Shapiro, is married to a lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, who joined the White House counsel’s office in April.”
Former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs and former Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt announced they are founding a communications firm called The Incite Agency in Washington, the Huffington Post reports.
They will be joined by another Obama campaign aide, Adam Fetcher, who will serve as managing director.
Maine State Rep. Ken Fredette (R) declared that he and most of his Republican colleagues oppose accepting federal funds to expand health care coverage because the genders think differently.
Said Fredette: “From the other side of the aisle I hear the conversation being about ‘free this is free, we need to take it and it’s free and we need to do it now’ and that’s sort of the fundamental message that my brain receives. Now, my brain being a man’s brain sort of thinks differently, because I say, well, it’s not if it’s free is it really free because I say in my brain there’s a cost to this.”
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) “said the mixture of a trending-purple state and a bloody GOP primary could hinder the party’s ability next year to hold the Georgia Senate seat of his retiring colleague,” Roll Call reports.
Said Isakson: “It should be a Republican seat, but there’s a perfect storm that could happen that could make that challenging. So if the Republican party were to make a mistake in its nominating process, as happened in a couple of states in the last cycle then you run the risk of the Democrats having an unchallenged quality opponent in their primary and a bloody Republican — beaten up by other Republicans as well as Harry Reid — coming into a race where they are behind in money.”
“Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.”
— Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), quoted by the Washington Post, arguing against an exception for banning all abortion after 20 weeks.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that nearly half of all Americans say the U.S. government’s broad surveillance tactics are acceptable within limits and also found widespread concern about the methods that were revealed last week.
The poll also found that “few were completely untroubled by the news that the National Security Agency has been secretly monitoring telephone and Internet activity of millions of Americans. More than one in three of those surveyed said the activity was completely unacceptable. Others sought a middle ground, saying the government needed to balance national security with personal privacy and explain why the activity was necessary.”
Walter Shapiro makes the case that 2016 Democratic White House hopefuls — Hillary Clitnon and Joe Biden aside — should speak out against flawed Obama policies like NSA spying and the terribly mishandled sequester.
“Yes, it’s counter-intuitive to break–however gently–with a popular president of your own party. But, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s also counter-intuitive for you to think about going up in 2016 against someone like Hillary Clinton or Biden.”
“Running for president is not for the fainthearted. But there is a void in the Democratic Party waiting to be filled by a credible figure on Obama’s left flank. And if you don’t have the courage to fill it in 2016, trust me, someone else will.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said he “will sign a measure that’s quickly working its way through the Republican-controlled Legislature that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound,” the AP reports.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg “is intensifying his pressure on Congress to enact stricter gun laws by asking some of his biggest supporters to withhold the one thing politicians love most about residents of the Big Apple: Their money,” the Washington Post reports.
“Bloomberg is sending a letter to more than 1,000 top New York-area campaign donors on Wednesday, urging them to withhold donations from four Senate Democrats who voted against a bipartisan gun bill that failed to advance in the Senate.”
A federal jury convicted former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) “on more than a half dozen corruption charges accusing him of using his office for personal financial gain and looting a family insurance business to help pay for his 2002 campaign,” the Washington Post reports.
The Week: “This week marks the six-month anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre that left 26 dead and served as a rallying cry for supporters of stricter gun laws. To mark that somber occasion, gun control groups are planning to fan out across the country in hopes of jump-starting a drive for new legislation…”
“Yet that renewed effort highlights the fact that Congress still hasn’t passed any new gun laws. And judging by Congress’ legislative agenda, as well as polls that have shown Americans returning to their past indifference on the issue, the prospect of gun control legislation getting a second wind seems unlikely.”
An Inspector General’s memo says senior State Department and Diplomatic Security officials “may have covered up or stopped investigations of inappropriate or even criminal misconduct by staff,” CNN reports.
Among the claims: “An active U.S. ambassador ‘routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children’… The ambassador’s protective detail and others ‘were well aware of the behavior’ … When a diplomatic security officer tried to investigate, undersecretary of state for management Patrick Kennedy allegedly ordered the investigator ‘not to open a formal investigation.'”
“I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile.”
— Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), quoted by the Huffington Post, on the safety of NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
New York Times: “For years, intelligence officials have tried to debunk what they called a popular myth about the National Security Agency: that its electronic net routinely sweeps up information about millions of Americans…. But since the disclosures last week showing that the agency does indeed routinely collect data on the phone calls of millions of Americans, Obama administration officials have struggled to explain what now appear to have been misleading past statements.”
Meanwhile, the Huffington Post notes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) chastised lawmakers who claimed they were in the dark about the programs: “For senators to complain that ‘I didn’t know this was happening,’ we’ve had many, many meetings that have been both classified and unclassified that members have been invited to.”
Wonk Wire: Can we trust the NSA with our secrets?
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is “pushing back against White House demands for no-frills legislation on the federal borrowing cap, is calling for another round of spending cuts beyond the sequester as part of any agreement to raise the debt limit,” Roll Call reports.
Said Boehner: “I believe that if we’re going to increase the debt limit, there ought to be cuts and reforms in place that are greater than the increase in the debt limit.”
Wonk Wire: The fiscal policy debate is out of whack.
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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