“Three women angry over sexism and male domination of the world economy ripped off their shirts and tried to force their way into a gathering of corporate elites in a Swiss resort,” the AP reports.
“Predictably, they failed. The ubiquitous and huge security force policing the World Economic Forum in Davos carried the women away, kicking and screaming.”
The Fix: “One source close to the situation suggest that the relationship’s evolution from rivals to friends stems from simply spending lots (and lots) of time together over the past four years — particularly on foreign travel. Familiarity, in this case, bred camaraderie not contempt, it seems.”
“When the detente began exactly is somewhat hard to trace although one Democrat suggested that it all started when Hillary and Bill Clinton both spoke at the 2008 party convention.”
Nevada Assemblyman Steven Brooks (D) has been detained by police for a psychiatric evaluation after a disturbance at his grandmother’s house, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
Police said Brooks “was exhibiting what was described as bizarre behavior” and seized a sword from him.
The detainment is the latest development since last weekend, when Brooks was arrested on charges of threatening the life of Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick.
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President Obama gets the bad lip reading treatment at the start of his second term.
“As he heads into a second term with sweeping ambition in an era of gridlock, President Obama is assembling a new White House team that looks much like the old one, choosing familiarity over freshness even at the risk of insularity,” the New York Times reports.
“While aides played musical chairs, moving up and moving around to new positions, the overall continuity suggested that Mr. Obama felt no need to inject new energy into a team that brought him through re-election last year. Buffeted by one crisis after another, the president prefers to stick with the circle of advisers he has come to trust through four tumultuous years in office, wary of introducing new personalities after some unsuccessful experiments in his first term.”
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was “remarkably candid” in a recent speech about the problems holding his party together during his fiscal cliff negotiations with President Obama, The Hill reports.
Said Boehner: “You have no idea the suspicions and the undercurrents that it caused, frankly, a lot of my members. It really has, in fact, caused somewhat of a breach that I’ve been in the middle of trying to repair.”
He added: “Some of our members don’t realize that while I may be a nice enough guy, and I get along with people, when I was voting I had the 8th most conservative voting record in the House. But a lot of our newer members – they don’t know that. And so, you know, they think I’m some squish, that I’m ready to sell them out in a heartbeat, when obviously, most of you in this room know that that ain’t quite who I am.”
President Obama “made a big gamble last January when he issued four recess appointments during a three-day break between meetings of the Senate — and with the court ruling Friday broadly undercutting his ability to make such appointments, he may have lost even bigger,” Politico reports.
Legal experts say the president “almost certainly did not anticipate the gamble going as spectacularly sour as it did Friday when a federal appeals court not only invalidated the three NLRB appointments but cut the heart out of the recess appointment power presidents of both parties have wielded for two centuries.”
Washington Post: “The issue seems certain to end up before the Supreme Court, which
ultimately could clarify a president’s authority to fill his
administration and appoint federal judges when a minority of the Senate
blocks consideration of his choices.”
The Daily Beast has the photo as President Obama left the inaugural platform.
Sarah Palin’s contract with Fox News has ended and it is not being renewed, the New York Times reports.
“A Fox spokeswoman confirmed Friday that Fox had parted ways with the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, effectively reducing her exposure to the channel’s millions of loyal viewers. It was unclear whether the parting was Ms. Palin’s choice, but it was described as amicable.”
A source close to Palin tells Real Clear Politics that Fox News offered Palin a contract but she turned it down.
Former Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller (R) is seriously considering challenging Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) next year, Robert Costa reports.
“According to several sources, Miller huddled with Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He also stopped by the office of Senator Lisa Murkowski. It was the pair’s first encounter since Murkowski, running as an independent, beat Miller in 2010.”
Josh Green: “The honor goes to Shannon County, tucked into the southwest corner of South Dakota with a population of about 13,000. Ninety-three percent of the county’s voters supported Obama, the highest percentage of any county in the country.”
Mitt Romney “told top Washington bundlers, donors and senior campaign leadership in a meeting Friday morning that he would help out GOP candidates for governor in 2013, during the upcoming midterm elections and the 2016 presidential race,” Politico reports.
Said Romney: “We lost, but I’m not going away. I will continue to help.”
But he also made clear to people at the meeting that his ambition for elected office has ended.
President Obama “plans to launch his second-term push for an immigration overhaul during a visit to Nevada next week in a bid to win congressional approval of a reform package this year,” Reuters reports.
“Obama’s proposals would largely be based on a “blueprint” the president put forth in a policy speech he delivered on the border near El Paso, Texas, in 2011, but which never made it into legislation.”
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel (D), who was caught in a sex scandal last year, has formally ended his bid to become governor, KARK reports.
“As a party, we must recognize that we live in an era of permanent
politics. We must stop living nominee-to-nominee, campaign to campaign.”
— RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, quoted by Roll Call, calling for a Republican permanent campaign.
Ipsos was one of the most accurate pollsters during the 2012 presidential campaign.
Now you can join the Ipsos Survey Panel.
A new MassINC poll in Massachusetts finds former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) leads a generic Democrat in a general election
match-up for U.S. Senate, 44% to 36%.
However, when matched up against Rep. Ed Markey (D)
specifically, Brown leads 53% to 31%.
The poll was
conducted prior to news about Rep. Stephen Lynch’s (D) potential entrance into
the race, and does not include a head to head match-up between Brown and
Lynch.
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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