Mitt Romney’s transition organization published a 138-page report detailing how it had prepared for a potential Romney victory in the 2012 presidential election, Time reports.
“It is the product of a team of nearly 500, who labored in Washington and around the country to be ready to help Romney assume the reins of power on January 20th, 2013, in accordance with the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010.”
New York Times: “Over the course of four and a half years, no other member of President Obama’s cabinet has been at the center of so many polarizing episodes or the target of so much criticism. While the White House publicly backed Mr. Holder as he tried to smooth over the latest uproar amid new speculation about his future, some in the West Wing privately tell associates they wish he would step down, viewing him as politically maladroit. But the latest attacks may stiffen the administration’s resistance in the near term to a change for fear of emboldening critics.”
Leon Panetta, the former defense secretary and director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has struck a $3 million deal to write a memoir of his life and career, the New York Times reports.
Said Panetta: “I have seen Washington at its best and at its worst. My goal is to give readers the opportunity to go behind the scenes and learn the lessons of how our democracy works, and sometimes how it fails to work.”
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A GOP bill that is speeding through the Wisconsin state Legislature “would require jobless people to provide more proof that they are seeking work, and make it easier for the state to recover overpayments — including those made because of government errors — by allowing officials to peek into unemployed people’s bank accounts,” the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
Rep Joe Garcia’s (D-FL) chief of staff “abruptly resigned Friday after being implicated in a sophisticated scheme to manipulate last year’s primary elections by submitting hundreds of fraudulent absentee-ballot requests,” the Miami Herald reports.
“Garcia said he had asked Jeffrey Garcia, no relation, for his resignation after the chief of staff — also the congressman’s top political strategist — took responsibility for the plot. Hours earlier, law enforcement investigators raided the homes of another of Joe Garcia’s employees and a former campaign aide in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation into the matter.”
Wall Street Journal: “At the same time the Internal Revenue Service was targeting tea-party groups, the tax agency took the unusual step of trying to impose gift taxes on donors to a prominent conservative advocacy group formed in 2007 to build support for President George W. Bush’s Iraq troop surge.”
Coming this fall: The Romney Family Table: Sharing Home-Cooked Recipes & Favorite Traditions by Ann Romney.
“For Ann, cooking is far from just a meaningless chore; it is ‘part of the most important occupation on earth–raising a family.’ But while cooking for her husband, their five sons, five daughters-in-law, and twenty-one grandchildren has been rewarding, it can also be challenging. Ann shares some of the tips that have helped her along the way, as well as the stories behind many of her favorite recipes–including Mitt’s Meatloaf Cakes, homemade ice cream, and Welsh Skillet Cookies.”
David Wasserman: “Midterm elections have always drawn older voters, and usually drawn white voters, to the polls in disproportionate numbers. Older voters are less transient, have grown deeper roots in their local communities, and pay much more attention to non-presidential elections than their younger counterparts. In the 1980s, that didn’t hold partisan consequences. Today, that amounts to a built-in midterm turnout advantage for Republicans.”
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor “made a plea for preserving the impartiality and independence of the American judicial system,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
In particular, she said she opposes the election of judges.
Said O’Connor: “I think there are many who think of judges as politicians in robes. In many states, that’s what they are… They seem to think judges should be a reflex of the popular will.”
Joshua Green points out how many have claimed the Obama re-election campaign’s models proved more accurate than traditional tracking polls in the run up before the election.
“A number of Obama vets repeated this claim to me, so I asked them to provide some evidence to back it up, and they did. Here, for the first time, is a chart based on internal data that shows how the Obama campaign’s swing state model performed against the much maligned Gallup poll over the last several months of the race.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) really doesn’t want to talk about New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D), Politicker reports.
Said Cuomo: “I appreciate that you continue to ask questions that you know that I don’t want to answer. I respect your perseverance. I hope that you respect my discipline.”
Dogged by past controversial statements, Virginia Lt. Gov. candidate E.W. Jackson (R) tied himself closely to gubernatorial candidate Ken Cucinelli (R) in an interview on WMAL-AM today.
Said Jackson: “We are in fundamental agreement, I’ve heard that this ticket is probably more homogeneous than almost any ticket ever in the history of Virginia, So there’s no stark disagreement between us.”
Harry Enten notes that as long as Gov. Paul LePage (R) loses in Maine and Republicans win an open seat in Arkansas, it would be the first time ever that all the governors in New England are Democrats and first time ever all the governors in the old confederacy are Republicans.
Curtis Morrisson: “Earlier this year, I secretly made an audio recording of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican on the planet, at his campaign headquarters in Kentucky. The released portion of the recording clocks in at less than 12 minutes, but those few minutes changed my life.”
Al Hunt: “Ben Bernanke’s term expires in January and he has told associates that the eight challenging years he will have served would be enough. Some people close to the president say his top personal choice to succeed Bernanke would be former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. They established a close bond over four years.”
“Geithner, however, publicly and privately insists that he doesn’t want the job, and needs, for personal and financial reasons, more time in New York after years of government service. Even if he’s the president’s preferred pick, it’s uncertain that he would be pressured to take the job; that isn’t usually Obama’s style.”
South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford (D) resigned “effective immediately” as a hearing began on alleged ethics violations against him, The State reports.
Ford “is accused of depositing campaign donations into personal bank accounts, and spending campaign money on personal medical expenses, gym memberships and purchases from adult stores.”
But he denied the charges just yesterday: “I don’t take no money from my campaign for me. Every penny went for projects.”
Will the factors which dominated the 2012 elections continue to play a major role in 2014? Will Republicans’ issues with minority, female, young, and moderate voters persist? Or will the historical pattern of second-term presidents running into problems push the outcome in the opposite direction? Finally, will the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as “Obamacare”) become a liability for Democrats once again, in the way it did in 2010? The Cook Political Report has identified and graphed five key metrics to watch over the next 17 months.
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A must-read out next week: Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence by Joseph J. Ellis.
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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