Sheldon Adelson, the wealthy casino owner who backed Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid, has donated $5 million with his wife to a super PAC for House Republican candidates, National Journal reports.
“The financial infusion immediately makes the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is chaired by former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, among the biggest players in the congressional landscape this year.”
First Read
reports that Mitt Romney “went well beyond his standard stump speech at
a closed-door fundraiser on Sunday evening, and offered some of the
most specific details to date about the policies he would pursue if
elected.”
“Romney went into a level of detail not usually seen by the
public in the speech, which was overheard by reporters on a sidewalk
below. One possibility floated by Romney included the elimination of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Cabinet-level agency
once led by Romney’s father, George… Romney also went into greater
detail than he has on the campaign trail in describing how he would
maintain the progressive structure in the tax code after implementing
his 20 percent across-the-board tax cut.”
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Texas Monthly: “Eight years ago, Dan Rather broadcast an explosive report on the Air National Guard service of President George W. Bush. It was supposed to be the legendary newsman’s finest hour. Instead, it blew up in his face, tarnishing his career forever and casting a dark cloud of doubt and suspicion over his reporting… Beyond the haze of elaborately revised fictions from both the political
left and the political right is a bizarre account that has remained,
until now, the great untold story of modern Texas politics. For 36
years, it made its way through the swamps of state government as it led
up to the collision between two powerful Texans on the national stage.”
Interestingly, Rather has a new autobiography out in a few weeks called Rather Outspoken.
President Obama’s re-election campaign “is dispatching workers across Arizona’s college campuses and Latino neighborhoods this spring, registering as many new voters as they can in an organized, three-month effort to determine whether they can put this unlikely state into play for Democrats this November,” the New York Times reports.
Mitt Romney is already offering top donors access to a special “Presidential Inaugural retreat,” planned on the assumption that he will be elected president this November, BuzzFeed reports.
The offer is “one of several goodies offered to those who contribute more than $50,000 to the joint fundraising committee known as ‘Romney Victory.'”
David Frum suggests President Obama could learn a few things from Robert Caro’s books on Lyndon Johnson.
“It’s hard not to detect in these pages an unspoken critique of Barack Obama. Yes, certainly, Obama shares Lyndon Johnson’s gift for driving opponents crazy, if it is a gift. But the use of power Caro so vividly describes is not something that comes naturally to our current president. The constant searching for opportunities; the shameless love-bombing of opponents; the endless wooing of supporters; the deft deployment of inducements and threats — these are the low arts that led to Johnson’s high success. You can see why a high-minded leader like Barack Obama would recoil from the Johnson style and embrace Kennedyesque rhetorical grandeur instead. Such presidents contribute great phrases to quotation books, but they tend not to add lasting laws to the statute books — or enduring change to the history books.”
The Seattle Times reports that the possibility of a congressional bid by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) in Washington state “horrifies” Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz, “who has repeatedly discouraged the idea.”
Said Pelz: “Dennis Kucinich has to decide what his legacy is going to be. Will he be remembered as a principled member of Congress or the narcissist who lost two Congressional races in two states the same year?”
Kucinich has until Washington’s May 18 filing deadline to make up his mind and establish residency in the state.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Plain Dealer is polling his supporters about whether he should make the bid.
President Obama’s re-election campaign and the DNC raised a combined $53 million in March, the Obama camp announced in a video.
They raised $45 million in February and $29 million in January.
Alexander Burns: “The more interesting test of Obama’s fundraising potential may come in the April numbers, now that it’s unavoidably clear who the Republican nominee will be. High on the list of reasons why Democrats believe Obama’s fundraising has been solid, but not jaw-dropping, is that there hasn’t been a general election-like contrast with a Republican opponent, and financial supporters of both the grassroots and high-dollar variety haven’t felt the urgency they otherwise might.”
Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY) “was making calls Sunday night telling friends, supporters and some members of the New York delegation that he was dropping out of the race for the re-drawn 8th Congressional seat,” the New York Daily News reports.
Towns was facing a bruising primary fight against two Democratic challengers, City Councilman Charles Barron (D) and state Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D).
“You’ve got a few dozen people who are going to write $5 million, $10
million, $15 million, $50 million checks to try and purchase the White
House on behalf of Governor Romney.”
— White House adviser David Plouffe, in an interview with Bloomberg.
Just published: Reagan and Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship by Richard Aldous.
New York Times: “Together they dominated the 1980s. It is a remarkable story, which deserves the fresh account that Richard Aldous, a professor of history at Bard College, gives it in Reagan and Thatcher. His book casts new light on the heroic version in which two great leaders continued the struggle for freedom waged for generations past by ‘the English-speaking peoples.'”
Reid Wilson: “Politics, it appears, no longer stops at the water’s edge. Once upon a time, in the good ol’ days, both parties avoided criticizing each other in front of foreign audiences. But as national politics have grown more partisan, trashing a rival is now par for the course regardless of location.”
The Boston Globe notes Mitt Romney’s often “secretive and always loyal” group of advisers “now face their ultimate test: transitioning from a relatively small circle that guided Romney through bruising primaries to a group that is expected to grow far larger in just a matter of weeks in order to reset the campaign for a general election fight against President Obama.”
“A number of those in the inner core have not previously worked in a presidential general election campaign, and new players with national experience recently have begun joining the campaign, potentially challenging the hierarchy with which Romney feels so comfortable… The expansion, and the potential change that comes with it, will be
swift. Romney’s campaign is preparing a dramatic increase in manpower,
with the current full-time staff of about 80 expected to reach 400 in
the coming weeks, according to a Romney aide.”
“I haven’t gotten the call and I doubt I will. I just go merrily on about doing my business.”
— Mike Huckabee, in an interview on Fox News Sunday, about whether he’ll be picked as Mitt Romney’s running mate.
The Hotline notes the vastly different circumstances of two old bull Republican Senators: Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
“The
consensus around Sen. Richard Lugar’s re-election bid has changed
markedly, from all-out optimism that he would easily dispatch
challenger Richard Mourdock to downright pessimism, bordering on
resignation… Meanwhile, things keep looking better for Sen. Orrin
Hatch, R-Utah. He announced strong fundraising numbers this week — over
$3 million in the bank for a potential primary (former state Sen. Dan
Liljenquist has $242,000 after putting in $300,000 of his own money).
And it still seems possible he could avoid a primary altogether: a poll
his campaign released of convention delegates showed him with 61 percent
support, just above the 60 percent threshold needed to win the
nomination outright.”
A number of Republican lawmakers anonymously vented to The Hill
about House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) recent $25,000
donation to the Campaign for Primary Accountability, a super PAC that
aims to defeat incumbents.
“One veteran lawmaker, upset with the
majority leader’s perceived aggression toward members of his own party,
said House GOP members will now fear payback when they speak out or vote
against leadership… The drama is a continuation of Cantor’s move to
take sides in the member vs. member Illinois Republican primary that
pitted freshman Adam Kinzinger — Cantor’s pick — vs. 20-year incumbent
Don Manzullo.”
“He has been an unmitigated disaster to the country.”
— Former Vice President Dick Cheney, quoted by the Washington Post, about President Obama.
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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