Byron York: “Tensions inside the Republican Party about a proposal to defund Obamacare reached a new level Friday when Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), a lawmaker with unsurpassed credibility in the field of cutting federal spending and limiting the size of government, called the defunding plan ‘dishonest’ and ‘hype.'”
Said Coburn: “I’d love to defund it. I’d be leading the charge if I thought this would work. But it will not work.”
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) said he will sign an abortion bill passed by the legislature that critics say will close all but one of the state’s abortion clinics, WITN reports.
While campaigning for governor last fall, the Raleigh News and Observer notes McCrory said “he would not support any new restrictions on abortions.”
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Donald Trump “has long resisted calls for him to run for president” but tells Robert Costa that, at age 67, he’s considering a bid.
Said Trump: “I’m looking. I have a large following of people who are tired of seeing this country ripped off, and taken advantage of [by] everyone who does business with us. We used to be the smart one of the block, and now we’re the dummies on the block. They want to see me, and I want to see them.”
“Trump cautions that it’s early. But for the first time in his life, he’s preparing to potentially put his business work on hold. Behind the scenes, he’s examining how his family could manage his operations on an interim basis, should he decide to run.”
Three separate sources tell KGTV that Mayor Bob Filner “is considering taking time off for therapy amid more calls for him to resign over sexual harassment accusations.”
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) “isn’t backing down from his controversial remarks about the children of illegal immigrants, saying Friday that he is guilty only of offering “an objective analysis,” National Review reports.
Said King: “I have been saying this a different way for 10 years and they’re not paying attention.”
He added that his controversial characterization came from “many days down on the border, sitting with the border patrol” witnessing drug busts.
A new Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (D) poll finds Michael Michaud (D) would crush current Gov. Paul LePage (R) by 27% in a two-way race, 61% to 34%.
Michaud also holds a solid lead in a three-way race, 40% to 31%, with Eliot Cutler (I) at 26%.
A new Wenzel Strategies (R) poll in Kentucky finds Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) with a huge lead over challenger Matt Bevin (R) in a Republican primary, 59% to 20%.
Glenn Thrush:
“Barack Obama has spent well over $1 billion on his political
campaigns, but it’s the $20 million to $30 million Democrats didn’t
shell out three years ago that is costing the White House as he slogs
through the first six months of his second term. The GOP’s wildly
successful, low-key and stunningly cheap campaign to seize state
capitals in 2010 has come back to haunt Obama and his fellow Democrats.
It’s now clear that the party’s loss of 20 state legislative chambers
and critical Midwestern governorships represents an ongoing threat every
bit as dangerous as the more publicized Republican takeback of the
House that same year.”
Charlie Cook:
“It’s hard to be optimistic about the prospects for comprehensive
immigration reform when you talk to House Republicans. My conversations
suggest that if anything passes the House, it will most likely be small,
bite-sized morsels of largely noncontroversial
ideas–lowest-common-denominator items that bear little resemblance to
the sweeping immigration measure that passed the Senate on June 27.”
“All of this high-minded stuff–that Republicans need to get the
immigration issue off the table if they want to win and hold a Senate
majority or win the White House–matters little to many GOP House
lawmakers who sit in very white, very conservative congressional
districts and who have much more to fear from a conservative primary
challenger than from a Democrat.”
Greg Sargent: “Democratic aides say they are discussing the possibility of having Dem lawmakers invite House Republicans to do joint, bipartisan town hall meetings on immigration reform in August. The idea — which is in early discussion stages — would be to offer Republican lawmakers an opportunity to show they are genuinely serious about doing something about our immigration problems, even if deep differences over how to proceed remain.”
“U.S. authorities say National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wouldn’t face the death penalty–and also promise he wouldn’t be tortured–in a new letter hoping to persuade Russia not to grant him asylum or refugee status,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Ron Brownstein:
“Like a lightning flash in a stormy sky, the Trayvon Martin case has
illuminated the depth of the impasse between white and nonwhite America.
But a similar dynamic looms less visibly behind Washington’s standoff
between a Democratic coalition that relies on overwhelming support from
minorities and a Republican coalition still almost entirely dependent on
the votes of whites, especially older ones. Both developments tell the
same challenging story: Even as America experiences its most profound
demographic change in more than a century, our society is increasingly
fracturing along overlapping racial, generational, and partisan lines.
The diversity remaking America could be a source of rejuvenation and
innovation, but today it is reinforcing our ferocious partisan
polarization.”
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) “wasn’t aware the House moved up Wednesday evening’s vote series, and he was caught en flagrant delit excerciso, racing to the floor in sweaty attire and borrowing a dark blazer to attend to the people’s business on the floor,” Roll Call reports.
Asked Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA): “Where have you been? Hiking?”
The New Yorker wins hands down.
Anthony Weiner isn’t the only scandal Huma Abedin needs to deal with these days.
Josh Rogin reports
Abedin “is facing an ongoing Senate investigation into the
consulting fees she earned while also working as a State Department
employee for then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”
“In June,
2012, Abedin changed her employment status at the State Department from
being a full time employee with the title of deputy chief of staff to
being a ‘special government employee,’ a type of contractor that allowed
her to take on private clients in addition to her government job that
included Hillary Clinton’s post-State Department transition team, the
William J. Clinton Foundation, and Teneo Holdings, a firm run by Clinton
confidante Doug Band.”
Silda Spitzer “is privately telling friends” she plans to divorce Eliot Spitzer, Page Six reports.
“Multiple sources tell us long-suffering Silda — who, he last night admitted, will not be joining him on the campaign trail — ‘has had enough’ and plans to start divorce proceedings after his run for New York City comptroller is over.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) said that an emerging strategy to block a government funding bill over Obamacare is “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” The Hill reports.
Said Burr: “I think some of these guys need to understand that you shut down the federal government, you better have a specific reason to do it that’s achievable. Defunding the Affordable Care Act is not achievable through shutting down the federal government.”
First Read: 2014 already looks very positive for Republicans: It’s going to be VERY difficult for Democrats to take back the House, and the GOP has a doable (though still narrow) path to take back the Senate. But could a government shutdown or protracted battle over the debt ceiling upend that 2014 apple cart?”
“Senior White House officials are discussing a budget strategy that could lead to a government shutdown if Republicans continue to demand deeper spending cuts,” the Washington Post reports.
“The posture represents a more confrontational approach than that of this spring, when President Obama decided not to escalate a fight over across-the-board reductions known as sequestration in an earlier budget battle with Republicans.”
The Week: Will Americans buy Obama’s renewed economic focus?
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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