“I’m going to try to be brief because I notice you’re on your fourth glass of water, and I don’t want to be accused of
waterboarding you.”
— Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), quoted by Politico, in the middle of a long, contentious confirmation hearing for John Brennan as CIA Director.
Why are people giving money to Karl Rove when he just wasted $400M without any victories? Use your head.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2013
Following reports that he plans an aggressive campaign schedule in the midterm elections, President Obama predicted that if Democrats pursue an ambitious agenda, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will soon have the speaker’s gavel back, the Washington Post reports.
Said Obama: “It won’t be smooth, it won’t be simple, there will be frustrations, there will be times when you guys will be mad at me, and I’ll occasionally read about it. I would expect that Nancy Pelosi is going to be speaker again pretty soon.”
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Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) intends to run for the U.S. Senate seat that fellow Democrat Tom Harkin will leave open in 2014, his advisers told The Des Moines Register.
Braley also sent out the news in an email to supporters this morning saying he’s “ready to go.”
Out next month: Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping with Crises in Business, Politics, and Life by Lanny Davis.
Iowa State Rep. Rob Bacon (R) and eight of his colleagues introduced legislation to alter the definition of a person in murder cases to “an individual human being, without regard to age of development, from the moment of conception, when a zygote is formed, until natural death,” the Ames Tribune reports.
“Those charged with murder, under the bill, would include a mother who takes abortion-inducing drugs or a doctor who performs an abortion. It also grants no exceptions for rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) took on a former White House doctor who said he was at risk of dying in office because of his weight, calling her a “hack” and telling her to “shut up” unless she examines him, ABC News reports.
Said Christie: “If she wants to get on a plane and come here to New Jersey and asks me if she wants to examine me and review my medical history, I’ll have a conversation with her about that. Until that time she should shut up.”
First Read: “This is about Christie trying to confront, on his terms, what would be one of his biggest obstacles if he launches a presidential bid in 2016. He knows this is a hurdle; he knows it’s not an insignificant one. The biggest thing is he has changed his tone on this, becoming much more open about it, even hinting that he’s on a program and that people would notice if it’s working relatively soon. As late as last year, Christie’s standard response was essentially: my weight is my business, period. Not anymore. If you needed a hint that Christie is trying to get it together to run for president, this is it.”
“I’ve always viewed politics the following way: if you do a good job at the job you’re doing, you’ll have opportunities to do other things in the future. Maybe things you never envisioned.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), quoted in a cover story in Time magazine.
A new Quinnipac poll finds that an astonishing 92% of Americans, including 89% of Republicans, support requiring a background check for all would be gun buyers. Fifty-six percent support banning assault weapons and high capacity magazine clips.
That said, Americans also say they think the National Rifle Association better represents their views than President Obama, 46% to 43%.
Greg Sargent: “Okay, so nine in 10 Americans support universal background checks, and solid majorities back the assault ban, both of which are opposed by the NRA and regularly characterized as gun-grabbing tyranny — yet people think the NRA better represents their views. There’s been a lot of chortling on the right about the NRA’s favorability ratings, but this poll makes it plain: People don’t have any idea what the NRA really stands for.”
The Miami Herald reports that Jeb Bush was rebuffed in an offer to buy the Miami Marlins baseball team during the offseason.
First Read: “Just asking… but doesn’t the fact… send a signal he’s not
all that interested in running for president? Trying to buy a baseball
team doesn’t exactly say your focus is prepping for a presidential run.”
President Obama’s pick to head the CIA, John Brennan, heads to the Senate today for a likely contentious confirmation hearing before the Intelligence Committee.
First Read: “Brennan is certainly going to get tough questions, especially from Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden, but what could be more remarkable is we’re likely to learn more about America’s drone war in a public setting than we ever have before. It may be technically a confirmation hearing for Brennan, but he will also be up there defending America’s drone program, as someone who’s worked in both of the last two administrations, for both a Democrat and a Republican.”
“Contention aside, it’s likely Brennan will be confirmed. But the White House, by saying last night it would brief Congress on the classified legal justifications of the targeted killing of Americans, made a decision not to have a confrontation — mostly with Democrats.”
The New York Times reports that President Obama is already planning to return to
the campaign trail, agreeing to hold at least 14 fundraisers this year, a
move a Democratic official characterizes as an “aggressive schedule.”
The Atlantic Wire reports that President Obama is “close to choosing” Chicago
billionaire Penny Pritzker as America’s next Secretary of Commerce.
“There’s only one problem. She and her secretive family have been caught
up in some pretty dodgy commercial ventures including but not limited to
dodging taxes and running a bank that specialized in subprime
mortgages.”
Alan Abramowitz unveils his first 2014 midterm election forecast:
“The results of the midterm forecasting model indicate that while Democrats have a real chance to buck the normal pattern of midterm elections and gain seats in the House of Representatives, they are unlikely to pick up the 17 seats that they would need to regain control of the chamber. That outcome would require a wave election like 2006 or 2010. But the 2014 midterm election is unlikely to be a wave election. It is much more likely to be a status quo election for the House of Representatives with one party or the other making a small gain and Republicans holding onto their majority.”
“Barring the emergence of a major national issue that results in a substantial advantage for one party or the other on the generic ballot, the seat swing in the 2014 House elections is likely to be fairly small. Nevertheless, the pattern of out-party gains in midterm elections is strong enough that, like Newt Gingrich in 1998, John Boehner may find his speakership in jeopardy if Democrats make even modest gains in the House elections.”
Former Sen. Scott Brown (R) wouldn’t say whether he’s considering a run for Massachusetts governor in 2014, but he suggested in an interview that his political days aren’t quite over, Politico reports.
Said Brown: “I’m not dead.”
He also explained why he’s not running in the upcoming Senate special election: “People forget I did a state Senate run, then the special, then the general, then it was a special, and then I would have won that, then a general again. It’s too much.”
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) “raised concerns with top federal health-care officials twice in recent years about their finding that a Florida eye doctor — a close friend and major campaign donor — had overbilled the government by $8.9 million for care at his clinic,” the Washington Post reports.
“Menendez initially contacted federal officials in 2009 about the government’s audit of Salomon Melgen, complaining to the director overseeing Medicare payments that it was unfair to penalize the doctor because the billing rules were ambiguous… Last year, in a meeting with the acting administrator of the agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, Menendez again questioned whether federal auditors had been fair in their assessment of Melgen’s billing for eye injections to treat macular degeneration.”
Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is in talks with Fox News about becoming a network contributor, Politico reports.
A new Public Policy Polling survey on television news finds that there’s only one source more Americans trust than distrust: PBS. 52% of voters say they trust PBS to only 29% who don’t trust it.
The other seven outlets polled on are all distrusted by a plurality of voters.
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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