“A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden and longtime suspected member of al Qaeda has been captured by U.S. officials, who are preparing to bring him to the U.S. to face charges,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I am quite bullish on the field of Republicans in 2016 and on Republican chances for recapturing the White House. I wouldn’t comment on any candidate as a favorite.”
— Romney strategist Stuart Stevens, in an interview with ABC News, on the 2016 Republican presidential field.
A Useful Filibuster
First Read: “Say what you will about Rand Paul’s marathon filibuster — whether it was a noble cause, a vanity project with 2016 overtones, or a protest over a hypothetical — but it makes the case for filibuster reform requiring senators to actually SPEAK if they want to hold things up. Why? Because it truly forced a debate, in this case over the administration’s drone policy targeting terrorists.”
Clinton Tops 2016 Presidential Contenders
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Hillary Clinton tops the presidential 2016 field in hypothetical
matchups with Chris Christie, 45% to 37%, Paul Ryan 50 to 38%, and Marco
Rubio 50 to 34%.
By contrast, Christie would beat Joe Biden 43 to 40%. Biden, however,
beats Rubio 45 to 38% and Ryan 45 to 42%.
Messina Defends OFA
Jim Messina defends Organizing for Action in a CNN piece saying it’s “an issue advocacy group, not an electoral one. We’ll mobilize to support the president’s agenda, but we won’t do so on behalf of political candidates. The president has always believed that special interests have undue influence over the policymaking process, and the mission of this organization is to rebalance the power structure…”
“But just as the president and administration officials deliver updates on the legislative process to Americans and organizations across the ideological spectrum, there may be occasions when members of Organizing for Action are included in those updates. These are not opportunities to lobby — they are briefings on the positions the president has taken and the status of seeing them through.”
First Read: “In other words, these folks will be able to meet with the president. Here’s another thing to consider: While OFA won’t take corporate money, nothing is there to stop, say, a particular CEO from writing a $500,000 check. This op-ed was clearly intended to calm down the critics, but other than eliminating the possibility of corporate donors, it doesn’t get to the larger criticism that campaign-finance advocates are upset about.”
Democrats Settle In for a War of Attrition
Greg Sargent says President Obama’s efforts to woo Republicans is part of long term strategy to break his rivals.
“Democrats are increasingly pessimistic about forcing real concessions from Republicans in the near term — for example, by using the threat of a government shutdown to force them back to the table — and are instead settling in for what will amount to a months-long war of attrition in hopes of ultimately getting Republicans to cave on new revenues.”
Jonathan Chait: “As sequestration begins, Republicans have been overtaken with something close to giddiness, and Democrats seized with gloom.”
Obama Woos Republicans for Broad Deficit Deal
President Obama “stepped up his wooing of rank-and-file Republican lawmakers Wednesday, hosting a dozen senators at a dinner at a Washington restaurant and setting a visit to the Capitol in hopes of reigniting talks on a broad budget deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The efforts mark his most aggressive outreach to lawmakers in years and show Mr. Obama is trying to build his own coalition in Congress at a time when his past negotiating partners in the GOP leadership are under renewed pressure to accommodate the party’s conservative base.”
Washington Post: “Obama picked up the tab personally, and two of his guests, Sens. John
McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK), emerged flashing a thumbs-up.”
Meanwhile, Politico reports Obama invited Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to lunch at the White House.
Governorships a Big Opportunity for Democrats in 2014
Stu Rothenberg: “While the fight for the House of Representatives will take center stage next year, another battle could be almost as important for the two parties: control of a handful of big-state governorships.”
“Republicans like to point out that while they lost the presidency and seats in both chambers of Congress in 2012, their party continues to hold governorships in 30 states, including nine of the country’s 12 largest states. But most of those governors — 23 to be exact — were elected in 2010, a great GOP year that doesn’t reflect the nation’s (or many states’) political fundamentals.”
How the White House Silenced Gun Control Advocates
Even though President Obama’s gun control proposals are stalled on Capitol Hill, Politico notes gun control advocates “still haven’t said a word to complain. That’s no accident.”
“The White House knew its post-Newtown effort would require bringing key gun-control groups into the fold. So the White House offered a simple arrangement: the groups could have access and involvement, but they’d have to offer silence and support in exchange.”
“The implied rules, according to conversations with many of those involved: No infighting. No second guessing in the press. Support whatever the president and Vice President Joe Biden propose. And most of all, don’t make waves or get ahead of the White House.”
Quote of the Day
“I would go for another 12 hours to try to break Strom Thurmond’s record, but I’ve discovered that there are some limits to filibustering and I’m going to have to go take care of one of those in a few minutes here.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by the New York Times, ending his filibuster after 13 hours and looking forward to using a bathroom.
Paul Ends Filibuster After 13 Hours
“One of the oldest and most storied traditions of the Senate made a sudden return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday when a junior senator seized control of the chamber with an hours-long filibuster involving rambling speeches aimed at blocking a vote on President Obama’s choice to lead the CIA,” the Washington Post reports.
“Led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) with help from other junior senators, the filibuster stretched nearly 13 hours — with the Senate adjourning at about 12:40 a.m. Thursday — and was aimed at drawing attention to deep concern on both sides of the aisle about the administration’s use of unmanned aerial drones in its fight against terrorists and whether the government would ever use them in the United States.”
John Avlon: “Instead of resorting to cheap filibuster tricks like reading the dictionary or a phonebook, Paul delivered a real speech–albeit Castro-esque in length–discussing the constitutional principles at stake more or less off the top of his head for nearly 13 hours.”
Romney Gets a Job
NBC News has learned that Mitt Romney is returning to the private sector, joining his eldest son Tagg’s investment firm, Solamere Capital, as chairman of the executive committee.
Romney “is planning to work with Solamere for one week a month. He will be advising on matters of private equity, and is not planning to fundraise at all for the firm.”
House Passes Stop Gap Funding Measure
The House “voted to extend spending cuts that went into effect on March 1 and keep the government operating for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The legislation is necessary to keep the federal government open after current funding runs out on March 27. It would keep in place automatic spending cuts known as the sequester for all federal agencies, while giving the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments more flexibility in setting spending priorities.”
However, Roll Call reports the “continuing resolution that will come out of the Senate will almost certainly be a larger and more complicated measure than the stopgap funding measure the House coped with this week.”
Arkansas Passes Most Restrictive Abortion Law in U.S.
“In the sharpest challenge yet to Roe v. Wade, Arkansas adopted Wednesday what is by far the country’s most restrictive ban on abortion, at 12 weeks of pregnancy, around the time that a fetal heartbeat can be detected by abdominal ultrasound,” the New York Times reports.
“The law was passed by the newly Republican-controlled legislature over the veto of Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, who called it ‘blatantly unconstitutional.’ On Tuesday the state Senate voted to override his veto by a vote of 20 to 14; on Wednesday the House enacted the bill into law by a vote of 55 to 33, with several Democrats joining the Republican majority.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“The President is trying to make it tough on members of Congress. It’s just silly. I want to know who is being laid off at the White House.”
— Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), in an interview on CNBC, on the decision to shut down White House tours due to the sequester.
Ahmadinejad Says Chávez Will Rise Again
New York Times: “In a letter of condolence to the people of Venezuela, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, struck a note of interfaith harmony on Wednesday, expressing confidence that the late Hugo Chávez would eventually be resurrected, along with Jesus and the Hidden Imam, a messianic figure in Shiite Islam.”
Durbin Says Filibuster Reform Should Be Revived
Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) signaled “it may already be time to reopen the debate about the chamber’s rules, given Republicans have attempted to or plan to filibuster three presidential appointments in the month and a half since the chamber approved modest filibuster changes,” Roll Call reports.
Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) launched a filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA: “I will speak until I can no longer speak.”
Clinton-Era Budget Team Takes Over
Wall Street Journal: “The economics team Mr. Obama built in his first term to deal with the financial crisis has mostly exited. As the White House retools advisers for the second term, it is assembling a cadre of budget experts from the Clinton administration. Ms. Burwell, Mr. Lew and Mr. Sperling joined Mr. Rubin in helping the Clinton administration erase annual deficits and build a budget surplus. Mr. Rubin, 74 years old, a centrist Democrat with a firm understanding of markets and Wall Street, was a big proponent of pushing for aggressive deficit-reduction… The Obama White House faces a political dynamic very similar to the one that the Clinton team faced in the 1990s — a House of Representative controlled by Republicans who oppose tax increases and are demanding large spending cuts.”
