Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) “is mulling a congressional comeback, with sources saying he might join the special election contest for Rep. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) soon-to-be-vacant House seat,” Roll Call reports.
Also considering a bid: Jenny Sanford — his ex-wife — who lives in the 1st District.
Said Jenny Sanford: “I have already had calls from people offering to help should I choose to run, and I will speak with my family about that possibility over the holidays.”
Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) “is leaning against jumping into next year’s race for New Jersey governor and instead is having serious discussions about running for the U.S. Senate in 2014, according to three people familiar with the matter,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
However, Booker “has been talking about the governor’s race with strategists both steeped in New Jersey politics and independent from it, and he could change his mind at the last minute and still run for the state’s powerful executive position next year, the people said.”
Politicker notes Booker is still keeping his online options open.
Michael Dukakis declined to completely rule out a temporary appointment to the U.S. Senate, though he called it unlikely because of a teaching obligation, the Boston Globe reports.
Said Dukakis: “It’s highly unlikely in any event. I’m committed to teaching.”
When Dukakis was reminded that his denial of interest was not an absolute no, he said, “That’s what I have to say.”
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Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) wrote a letter to Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) urging him to appoint Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI) as his successor just before he succumbed to respiratory problems at a Bethesda, Md., hospital, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reports.
“I will quote loosely Vice President Biden: ‘This is a…uh…big deal.'”
— Florida Democratic party chairman Rod Smith, quoted by WFSU, casting his electoral vote for President Obama.
Arizona’s 11 Republican electors formally cast their ballots for Mitt Romney yesterday — “but not before three of them said questions remain about whether Barack Obama was born in this country,” Arizona Public Radio reports.
Said state GOP Chairman Tom Morrissey: “I’m not satisfied with what I’ve seen. I think for somebody in the president’s position to not have produced a document that looks more legitimate, I have a problem with that.”
Jeffrey Toobin: “Conservatives often embrace ‘originalism,’ the idea that the meaning of the Constitution was fixed when it was ratified, in 1787. They mock the so-called liberal idea of a ‘living’ constitution, whose meaning changes with the values of the country at large. But there is no better example of the living Constitution than the conservative re-casting of the Second Amendment in the last few decades of the twentieth century.”
“The re-interpretation of the Second Amendment was an elaborate and brilliantly executed political operation, inside and outside of government. Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 brought a gun-rights enthusiast to the White House. At the same time, Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican, became chairman of an important subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he commissioned a report that claimed to find ‘clear–and long lost–proof that the second amendment to our Constitution was intended as an individual right of the American citizen to keep and carry arms in a peaceful manner, for protection of himself, his family, and his freedoms.’ The N.R.A. began commissioning academic studies aimed at proving the same conclusion. An outré constitutional theory, rejected even by the establishment of the Republican Party, evolved, through brute political force, into the conservative conventional wisdom.”
Wonk Wire: Has there always been a right to own a gun?
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds President Obama’s approval rate at 54%, his highest (excepting a brief bin Laden bounce) in nearly two years. And even while weakly rated on the economy, he leads the Republicans in trust to handle it by 18 percentage points, his widest margin since July 2009.
That said, Americans by 56% to 34% say Obama does not have “a mandate to carry out the agenda he presented during the presidential campaign,” but rather should “compromise on things the Republicans strongly oppose.”
The National Rifle Association — “typically outspoken about its positions even after shooting deaths — has gone all but silent since last week’s rampage at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school that left 26 people dead, including 20 children,” the AP reports.
The Week: Five gun-rights advocates who changed their minds.
“It was an extraordinary experience — I mean, one that I wouldn’t trade. And looking back on it… I would do it again.”
— Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), quoted by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, on running for president.
“The spread of economic hardship is fraying Greece’s social fabric and straining its political cohesion as the country enters the harshest winter of its three-year-old debt crisis,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Many families are sliding down the economic ladder that their parents and grandparents climbed, often making them reliant on those same retirees’ shrinking pensions. Already-poor families are slipping off the ladder, into the arms of overburdened charities. In a country of 11 million, only 3.7 million people have jobs, down from 4.6 million four years ago. Economic activity has shrunk by over 20% in that time.”
“The pressure on society is testing the country’s political stability. Crumbling establishment parties cling to office. Radical-left populists wait in the wings, promising to restore state largess. Violent neo-Nazis are boosting their political profiles by exploiting fear of immigrants, crime and social breakdown. Many Greeks worry that the current government coalition could collapse in 2013, leading to renewed political turmoil that could revive the specter of national bankruptcy and exit from the euro.”
President Obama delivered to House Speaker John Boehner a new offer on to resolve the pending fiscal crisis, “a deal that would raise revenues by $1.2 trillion over the next decade but keep in place the Bush-era tax rates for any household with earnings below $400,000,” the New York Times reports.
“The offer is close to a plan proposed by the speaker on Friday, and both sides expressed confidence that they were closing in on a major deficit-reduction plan that could be passed well before January… The two sides are now dickering over price, not philosophical differences, and the numbers are very close.”
Wall Street Journal: “After weeks of public sniping, negotiations have intensified in recent days, with both sides making significant concessions. Obstacles still remain, especially the reaction of lawmakers on both extremes, but the movement suggests negotiators could reach a compromise and pass by the end of the year a deal to avert a series of spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect in January.”
Politico: “The president’s proposal is not a final offer, but the White House views it as something that should get the two sides close to a deal because they have met Republicans more than halfway on spending and halfway on revenues.”
Gabriel Sherman: “According to sources, David Clark, the executive producer in
charge of Fox’s weekend coverage, gave producers instructions not to
talk about gun-control policy on air… The directive created a rift inside the
network… During the weekend, one frustrated producer went around
Clark to lobby Michael Clemente, Fox’s executive vice-president for
news editorial, but Clemente upheld the mandate.”
“I am going to do what I think is appropriate and try to impact the dialogue and shame on me if I don’t.”
— New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, quoted by NY1, calling on lawmakers to strengthen gun laws.
The Washington Post notes that less than two hours after Sen. Daniel Inouye died, the Senate passed a resolution naming Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) as the new president pro tempore.
Inouye’s death “also marks a significant generational shift in Senate history: Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) will be the only — and likely the final — veteran of World War II serving in the Senate next year.”
“The death of Hawaii’s senior senator also creates a vacancy atop the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. Here too Leahy is next in line, giving him the right of first refusal to the chairman’s gavel.”
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) died today of a respiratory ailment, “ending a life of remarkable service for his country and Hawaii that included sacrificing his right arm in World War II combat and spending 50 years as a U.S. senator,” the Honolulu Star Advertiser reports. He was 88 years old.
According to his office, Inouye’s last word was “Aloha.”
Roll Call: “He was seen using oxygen around the Capitol before being admitted to George Washington University hospital. It was explained at the time that because of a misdiagnosis of lung cancer several decades ago, Inouye had part of one of his lungs removed, causing the need for the oxygen treatment. Other news outlets have reported that Inouye may also have suffered from emphysema.”
The Week: Not since FDR has a president transformed so many senators into Cabinet secretaries.
Jeff Greenfield: “A shocking event is exactly the right time to start, or restart, an argument about public policy. A story like the Newtown killings rivets our attention, forces it to the front of our consciousness, insists that we sweep aside the thousand and one distractions that compete for our brain space, and demands that we ask: Is this how we want things to be, and, if not, what do we do about it?”
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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