“From the amount of obesity in this country, by people we’re told do not have enough to eat, it does seem like we can have a debate about this issue without allegations about wanting to slap down or starve children.”
— Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), quoted by National Journal, on the debate for funding food stamps.
A new UMass Lowell-Boston Herald poll in Massachusetts finds Rep. Edward Markey (D) leading Gabriel Gomez (R) in the special U.S. Senate election, 56% to 36%.
Politico: “The defeat of the farm bill — after both parties were privately bullish it would pass with large margins — shows … how massively dysfunctional the House and its leadership have become. And it plainly reveals that a bipartisan rewrite of the nation’s … politically charged immigration laws are a pipe dream in the House, at least for now. Preventing a government shutdown and debt limit fight are not far behind.”
The Week notes Boehner officially has no control over his caucus.
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Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who declined to run in the special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, told Fox 25 that he would be able to win the seat if he had run.
Said Brown: “Yeah, I do. I could beat Ed Markey, absolutely.”
Howard Dean told CNN that he would consider another run for the White House.
Said Dean: “I am not driven by my own ambition. What I am driven by is pushing the country in a direction that it desperately needs to be pushed; pushing other politicians who aren’t quite as frank as I am who need to be more candid with the American people about what needs to happen. I am not trying to hedge, it’s a hard job running. It’s really tough. I am doing a lot of things I really enjoy. But you should never say never in this business.”
He added: “If you had to put a gun to my head and make me decide right now, I
wouldn’t. But who
knows?”
A Yahoo News analysis of the 444 briefings that White House press secretary Jay Carney has held since becoming spokesman has identified 13 distinct strains in the way he dodges a reporter’s question.
A federal criminal complaint says self-proclaimed Ku Klux Klansman Glen Hubbard “was planning to use a radiation-emitting device to attack a Muslim organization, a political party and a political figure,” the New York Daily News reports.
Sources say the unnamed political figure was Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “is ready to hire more state workers and rent extra voting machines to avoid any last-minute chaos between New Jersey’s two major elections this year,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.
“Christie called a special Senate election for Oct. 16 at an estimated cost of $12 million — a price tag that would rise if the Republican governor goes through with any of the backup plans his staff described to the court.”
“The date for the Senate election — 20 days before the Nov. 5 vote for governor and for all the seats in the Legislature — has rankled Democrats who said Christie could have combined the two elections but chose to spend millions to split them and boost his re-election chances.”
Downstate Illinois GOP county chairman Jim Allen resigned after likening former Miss America Erika Harold (R), who’s challenging a sitting Republican congressman in next year’s primary election, to a “street walker” whose “pimps” were Democrats and moderate Republicans, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The Newark Star Ledger profiles Sen. Jeffrey Chiesa (R-NJ), “an affable career prosecutor appointed by Gov. Chris Christie (R) to watch over the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D) seat until mid-October.”
“Chiesa is relying on a hybrid staff — made up of former employees at the attorney general’s office, people he hired when he was Christie’s chief counsel, and veteran Washington hands like Ken Lundberg, former communications director for recently retired Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) — to helps him navigate the Capitol’s secret passageways, centuries-old rules and the current blizzard of bills.”
Requests for absentee ballots in next Tuesday’s special U.S. Senate election have slipped 22% from the January 2010 special election, the Boston Globe reports.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin’s office said he was “extremely concerned” about the level of voter participation in the race between Ed Markey (D) and Gabriel Gomez (R).
New Hampshire state Rep. Stella Tremblay (R) resigned from the New Hampshire House of Representatives abruptly a day after she made another allegation the Boston Marathon bombing might have been a government conspiracy, WMUR-TV reports.
Time: “Though Barack Obama has competed in his last election, he has one more campaign ahead of him. This fall, Obamacare will go into full effect, with the promise of insuring as many as 40 million Americans if it succeeds. But it could still fail.”
“To prevent that, Obama-land is going on offense. Organizing for Action, the grassroots group spun out of the President’s campaign, has made selling the already-passed bill a top priority with its first television ad. Enroll America, a nonprofit coalition of community groups and insurers that has been promoted by the White House and is staffed by Obama campaign alumni, launched its “Get Covered America” campaign to educate uninsured Americans about the exchanges.”
“He’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline.”
— Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), quoted by the Bangor Daily News, on Democratic rival Troy Jackson (D) who he said has a “black heart” and should go back in the woods “and let someone with a brain come down here and do some good work.”
Slate: “Twelve American presidents owned slaves, eight while serving in office, and at least 25 presidents count slave owners among their ancestors. But new historical evidence shows that a direct ancestor of George W. and George H.W. Bush was part of a much more appalling group: Thomas Walker was a notorious slave trader active in the late 18th century along the coast of West Africa.”
“Walker, George H.W. Bush’s great-great-great grandfather, was the captain of, master of, or investor in at least 11 slaving voyages to West Africa between 1784 and 1792.”
The House defeated the farm bill resoundingly on a 195-234 vote, “dealing a blow to Speaker John A. Boehner and prompting a bitter round of finger pointing between Democratic and Republican leaders,” Roll Call reports.
“Most Democrats opposed the bill, unhappy with a deep $20.5 billion, 10-year cut to food stamps and backed by a White House veto threat, while Republicans split into competing factions, with a sizable group opposing the bill over concerns it did not cut deeply enough.”
In the mail: Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party by Geoffrey Kabaservice.
Jon Meacham: “Those who think that ‘Bush Fatigue’ is preemptively fatal to Jeb’s chances may be underestimating the American affinity for brand names.”
“The speculation about a Bush bid in 2016 tells us a lot about one of the handful of truly influential American families and more than a little bit about the country that family has helped shape. Jeb long ago internalized and then lived out his family’s guiding precepts. Bushes move to new parts of the country; they work hard; they learn from their mistakes, particularly from failed campaigns; and they never, ever give up… the Bushes aren’t kings; in management speak, they’re a line of related products that most Americans recognize and have chosen on three (1988, 2000 and 2004) of the four occasions they’ve been on offer.”
“It’s possible that the choice will come down to the Bushes and another familiar American product: the Clintons. Perhaps the two clans will soon join Lancashire and York, Gladstone and Disraeli, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, and the Yankees and the Red Sox as one of history’s great rivalries.”
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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