The Week finds “plenty of items in Obama’s budget that many liberal commentators
and Beltway reporters believe Republicans should at least theoretically
be pleased to see.”
The Cloakroom: Republicans move the goal posts again.
Broad Outlines of Immigration Reform Plan Emerge
“A bipartisan group of senators has largely agreed on a broad immigration bill that would require tough border measures to be in place before illegal immigrants could take the first steps to become American citizens,” the New York Times reports.
“But in a delicate compromise worked out over weeks of negotiations, the bill avoids any hard hurdles related to border enforcement that could eventually halt the progress of those immigrants on a pathway to citizenship. Instead, the bill sets ambitious goals for the Department of Homeland Security to fortify the borders — including continuous surveillance of 100 percent of the United States border and 90 percent effectiveness of enforcement in several high-risk sectors — and other domestic enforcement measures over the next 10 years. It provides at least $3 billion to meet those goals.”
Although they “blew yet another deadline” today, senators told Roll Call “that they are on track to deliver a bill this week or next.”
Obama’s Budget Gimmicks
President Obama unveiled his budget today and announced “there’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors in here.”
So Politico took him up on the challenge and whipped up “a quick guide to some of the gimmicks that presidents — Democrats and Republicans alike — have used to draft their budgets and how Obama did, too.”
Daily Beast: The five “coolest things” in the president’s budget proposal.
More Dangerous Than Kim Jong Un
Foreign Policy editor David Rothkopf argues that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is a bigger threat to the United States than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
“Because Kim, even with his nuclear weapons, is hardly likely to launch an attack on Americans anywhere given that the response would produce the instant and certain obliteration of his regime. What that means is that for all his bluster, the chubby little autocrat is very unlikely to cost one American his life. But in vowing to block any vote on even the most modest legislation to rein in America’s out-of-control gun culture, the Senate minority leader all but guarantees that the toll in America’s street-corner war will continue to rise.
FBI Takes Evidence from McConnell’s Office
A source close to Sen. Mitch McConnell tells National Review that the FBI was at the senator’s campaign’s office in Louisville, KY, and the campaign handed over “pertinent information” related to the audio recording of a private meeting reported yesterday.
Campaign manager Jesse Benton spoke to Mike Huckabee: “This is Gestapo-kind of scare tactics, and we’re not going to stand for it.”
Congressman Says Bible Proves Climate Change Isn’t Man-Made
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) said you can have “an honest difference of opinion” of what’s causing climate change without “automatically being either all in that’s all because of mankind or it’s all just natural,” BuzzFeed reports.
Barton then cited the biblical Great Flood as an example.
“I would point out that if you’re a believer in in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change and that certainly wasn’t because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy.”
Toomey Refused to Have Schumer at Press Conference
Roll Call: “Four senators may have signed on to a gun background check deal Wednesday, but only two showed up for the news conference — in part because Sen. Patrick J. Toomey’s public support for the bill hinged on not having to stand next to Sen. Charles E. Schumer.”
The Roberts Court
Out next month: The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution by Marcia Coyle.
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“Last week they were attacking my wife’s ethnicity and apparently also bugging my headquarters, much like Nixon and Watergate. That’s what the political left does these days.”
— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by Roll Call.
Margolies-Mezvinsky Mulls Comeback Bid
Former Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (D-PA) is mulling a return to Congress, two decades after she “committed political suicide,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
“A freshman member of the U.S. House… she cast the 11th-hour deciding vote to enact President Bill Clinton’s budget, including a whopping tax increase, in the summer of 1993. She had promised to vote no. Angry voters kicked her out in 1994.”
Her son, Marc Mezvinsky, is married to Chelsea Clinton.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Frankly to tell you the truth some in the evangelical Christian movement I think have appeared too eager for war.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview with David Brody.
Margaret Thatcher Won’t Jump
Margaret Thatcher refuses repeated requests by an interviewer to jump into the air.
Scoring Congress
David Hawkings counts “more than 80 advocacy groups — from all along the ideological spectrum and from every mainstream and obscure corner of the policy universe — have come up with their own algorithms for measuring every member’s level of loyalty with a single letter or number.”
Sheheen Will Run Again for South Carolina Governor
Vincent Sheheen (D) announced that he will run again for South Carolina governor in 2014, the Columbia State reports.
He lost a tight race against Nikki Haley (R) in 2010 — 51.4% to 47%. Haley is “widely expected to enter the race after the legislative session ends in June.”
A Public Policy Polling survey in December found Sheheen leading Haley, 46% to 44%.
The Way of the Knife
Just published: The Way of the Knife by Mark Mazzetti.
Washington Post: “Since the 9/11 attacks, a dramatic shift has occurred in the way the United States deploys its military and intelligence forces.”
McCain Leaves Palin Out of 2008 Leftover Money
Political Moneyline: “Over $1.3 million in left funds from the 2008 presidential campaign were given to Sen. John McCain in February and March and none to former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.”
Kansas Official Apologizes for Racist Comment
Saline County, Kansas Commissioner Jim Gile (R) told the Salina Journal it was a “bad choice of words” when he used the expression “nigger-rigging it” in a heated discussion that was being recorded.
Gile insisted that he meant to say “jury-rigged,” noting “I had it on my brain and this came out. It was a bad choice of words. I’m sorry.”
Quote of the Day
“North Korea is not a State — it’s a cult.”
— Former North Korean spy Kim Hyun-hee, quoted by the Daily Mail, on how she was taught “that our leader, Kim Il-sung, was a God.”
