Coming soon: Roosevelt’s Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War by Richard Moe.
Alabama Politician May Launch Congressional Bid from Jail
Stephen Nodine (R), currently serving a two-year jail term on perjury and harassment charges, announced via email that he is considering a bid for Alabama’s 1st congressional district seat, the Birmingham News reports.
Nodine “resigned from the county commission in 2010 following his indictment for murder in the death of Angel Downs, his longtime mistress. He pled guilty to felony perjury in 2012 as part of a deal in which prosecutors dropped the murder charge.”
“Nodine said he is eligible to serve in Congress despite his status as a convicted felon. The Constitution allows felons to hold office in the House of Representatives – even while incarcerated.”
Obama Approval Holds Steady
In contrast to a CNN poll released earlier this week, a new Pew Research poll finds President Obama’s job approval rating has nonetheless remained fairly steady despite a series of controversies. Currently, 49% approve of the way Obama is handling his new1job as president while 43% disapprove.
Quinn’s Book Goes Largely Unsold
In its first week on sale, New York mayoral candidate Christine Quinn’s 240-page memoir, With Patience and Fortitude, has sold only about 100 print copies, the New York Times reports
Poll Suggests Corbett Attack Teachers Union
An internal poll conducted by a prominent Republican polling firm proposes that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) attack the Philadelphia teachers union to overcome widespread
opposition to his education policies and bolster his faltering
re-election prospects, the Philadelphia City Paper reports.
Democrats Like ‘Obamacare’ Better Than ‘Health Care Reform’
A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that nearly a quarter of Americans say they don’t know their view on the “health reform law” but when it’s called “Obamacare” the share offering no opinion drops to just 11%.
Democrats show the biggest change in favorability with the alternate question wording — 73% have a favorable opinion of “Obamacare” compared to 58% who say the same for the “health reform law.” Likewise, 76% of Republicans have an unfavorable view of the “health reform law” but 86% don’t like it when it’s called “Obamacare.”
Idaho Republicans Want Anti-Discrimination Laws Voided
Idaho Republican Party leaders are calling on state lawmakers to
invalidate local ordinances that ban discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation, the Spokesman-Review reports.
Said Cornel Rasor, chairman of the
Idaho GOP’s resolutions committee: “I’d hire a gay guy if I
thought he was a good worker. But if he comes into work in a tutu… he’s
not producing what I want in my office.”
He added: “If a guy has a particular predilection and keeps it to himself, that’s
fine. But if he wants to use my business as a platform for
his lifestyle, why should I have to subsidize that? And that’s what
these anti-discrimination laws do.”
Lawmaker Urges Classes on Gender Roles
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) said that young boys and girls should take classes on traditional gender roles in a marriage because there are some things fathers do “maybe a little bit better” than mothers, the Huffington Post reports.
Said Gingrey: “You know, maybe part of the problem is we need to go back into the schools at a very early age, maybe at the grade school level, and have a class for the young girls and have a class for the young boys and say, you know, this is what’s important. This is what a father does that is maybe a little different, maybe a little bit better than the talents that a mom has in a certain area. And the same thing for the young girls, that, you know, this is what a mom does, and this is what is important from the standpoint of that union which we call marriage.”
A new Landmark/Rosetta Stone poll shows Gingrey leading the GOP Senate primary in Georgia.
Is Politico Too Insidery?
The New Republic has a fascinating interview with the editors of Politico, John Harris and Jim VandeHei.
Nate Silver: “It’s striking how preoccupied Harris and VandeHei are with the perception that Politico is too ‘insidery’. My personal critique of their work cuts a little deeper than that, however. It’s not that they are too ‘insidery’ per se, but that the perceptions of Beltway insiders, which Politico echoes and embraces, are not always very insightful or accurate. In other words, the conventional wisdom is often wrong, especially in Washington.”
Andrew Sullivan: “The distortive effect of Politico actually corrodes democracy, in my view, because it constantly prioritizes the 6-hour news cycle and the higher inside-bullshit to tell us allegedly what is happening in Washington… We’d be better off if they disappeared into the ether. But, of course, they will continue to thrive.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“I’m not a Republican, though people often mistake me for one.”
— Sean Hannity, in an interview with Playboy.
IRS Scandal Simmers
Montreal Mayor Arrested on Corruption Charges
Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum was arrested and faces 14 charges, including fraud, breach of trust, conspiracy and corruption in municipal affairs, the Montreal Gazette reports.
Murkowski Backs Same-Sex Marriage
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said “that she supports legalizing same-sex marriage, becoming the third GOP member of the Senate to endorse the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry,” NBC News reports.
Murkowski made the announcement in a moving op-ed: “I am a life-long Republican because I believe in promoting freedom and limiting the reach of government. When government does act, I believe it should encourage family values. I support the right of all Americans to marry the person they love and choose because I believe doing so promotes both values: it keeps politicians out of the most private and personal aspects of peoples’ lives – while also encouraging more families to form and more adults to make a lifetime commitment to one another.”
Action on Climate Change Held Up By Dial Testing
The Washington Post reports that President Obama told donors eager for the government to take action on climate change that he was concerned “about the political pain involved, saying that ‘dial testing’ of his State of the Union speech showed that the favorability ratings ‘plummeted’ when he vowed to act on climate change if Congress refused to do so.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“The last answer is one of the things that gets all of my political advisors nervous. So get ready for a nervous moment… for them, they’re going to get nervous now. Because my favorite football team is not the New York Giants, it’s not the New York Jets and it’s not the Philadelphia Eagles. Get ready now. My favorite football team is the Dallas Cowboys.”
— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by CBS New York, also noting that he’s a New York Mets fan but “they stink.”
Sink Says Crist Would Be a Disaster for Democrats
As she mulls her own political return, Alex Sink (D) “resents all the attention on lifelong-Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist and is intent on being courted for as long as possible,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
She is “revolted by the prospect of Crist as the Democratic nominee” and called the possibility “a disaster.”
“The campaign against former Gov. Crist would be brutal, she said, noting the job losses during his term, flip-flops on issues, ‘plus all the stuff that hasn’t been written about yet, about the Republican Party fiasco, about Jim Greer, about the party in the Bahamas,’ she said, referring to Crist’s hand-picked GOP chairman, now in prison for stealing party funds and who was accused of hiring prostitutes at a fundraising retreat Crist attended.”
What’s Next at the Fed?
Wonk Wire: Bye Bye Bernanke
LePage Orders Aides Not to Talk to Newspapers
Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) administration “will no longer comment in stories published by the Portland Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel,” the Portland Press Herald reports.
“The new policy follows the newspapers’ publication of a three-day series of articles this week examining LePage’s top environmental regulator and how her department’s actions have benefited her former lobbying clients in private industry.”
