The Washington Post reports that David Axelrod, one of the chief architects of President Obama’s two presidential campaigns, is joining NBC News and MSNBC as a senior political analyst.
Stars Mug
Here is a very cool mug that shows stars giving way to the full flag when hot water is added.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“The idea of a grand bargain is at best on life support. It seems like both sides are beginning to retreat to their own talking points. This may be good politics, but it doesn’t put us any closer to having our fiscal house in order.”
— Erskine Bowles, quoted by Politico, while unveiling a new plan to cut the federal debt.
Supreme Court Will Hear Case on Donation Limits
The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to campaign finance laws limiting how much an individual can give to political campaigns, the Associated Press reports.
The justices agreed to hear an appeal from an Alabama resident and the RNC who are arguing that it’s unconstitutional to stop a donor from giving more than $46,200 to political candidates and $70,800 to political committees and PACs.
Rick Hasen: “A ruling in this case could have important implications not only on the
issue itself, but on the broader question whether the Court will change
the standard for judging the constitutionality of limits on
contributions, an issue the Court expressly declined to address in Citizens United.”
Behind the First Lady’s Bangs
First Lady Michelle Obama cut her hair because she’s having a mid-life crisis, the New York Daily News reports.
Said Mrs. Obama: “This is my midlife crisis, the bangs. I couldn’t get a sports car. They won’t let me bungee jump. So instead, I cut my bangs.”
Here Comes the Bully Pulpit
President Obama will make a full court press to push Congress to avoid the automatic spending cuts set to take effect on March 1.
First Read: “Per the White House, the president will make these remarks surrounded by emergency responders — “the kinds of working Americans whose jobs are on the line if Congressional Republicans fail to compromise on a balanced solution,” it says… Today, Obama will be surrounded by first responders; tomorrow, it might be military families; and the day after that, it could be with essential government workers who could be furloughed. This is the one power a president has with Congress as it relates to domestic policy: the power of persuasion. We have seen the future of this sequester fight over the next few weeks, and it is today — a massive public-relations effort with the president using his pulpit to drop a political hammer on Congress.”
How Obama Shapes Media Coverage
President Obama “is a master at limiting, shaping and manipulating media coverage of himself and his White House,” Politico reports.
“Not for the reason that conservatives suspect: namely, that a liberal press willingly and eagerly allows itself to get manipulated. Instead, the mastery mostly flows from a White House that has taken old tricks for shaping coverage (staged leaks, friendly interviews) and put them on steroids using new ones (social media, content creation, precision targeting). And it’s an equal opportunity strategy: Media across the ideological spectrum are left scrambling for access.”
New Bowles-Simpson Plan Unveiled
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson proposed a new framework to cut the country’s debt by $2.4 trillion over the next decade, CNN reports.
The Wall Street Journal notes the new proposal “would reduce the federal budget deficit by $2.4 trillion over 10 years, more than the $1.5 trillion package that White House officials have said is their goal. Obama administration officials say any deficit-reduction package must include new tax revenue as well as spending cuts.”
“House GOP leaders have not yet detailed the size of the deficit-reduction package they will propose, but they have said it would balance the budget within 10 years, which would put it in the $4 trillion range. They have said, though, that it won’t include any tax increases.”
Quote of the Day
“I’m not much different from Andrew Cuomo. I probably agree with him on 98% of the issues.”
— Chris Christie (R), quoted by the Glen Falls Chronicle, in a conversation with a union organizer.
House Democrats Score with Online Fundraising
Roll Call: “It’s usually easier to bring in big bucks when your party holds the speaker’s gavel. But last cycle, House Democrats crushed their competitors thanks to a dramatic spike in online fundraising.”
A Hard Endorsement to Use
Days before he died of congestive heart failure, the New York Times reports former New York City Mayor Edward Koch made an announcement in his hospital room: “I want to help Chris Quinn.”
“But it was not to be. Mr. Koch died three days later, and among his many legacies is now a peculiar question for Ms. Quinn: how to utilize an endorsement by a popular and influential advocate who also happens to be deceased.”
Staffer Leading Senate Democrats
New York Times: “After two grueling election cycles, Guy Cecil, the brains behind the Democrats’ improbable Senate showings in 2010 and 2012, was expected to set aside his political combat boots for tasseled loafers and a sinecure somewhere in this city that pays handsomely for success.”
“Then his old boss, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, reluctantly took the helm of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, looking at another brutal map for Democrats eager to stay in control of Congress’s upper chamber. He had one demand: Keep Guy Cecil aboard.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body. That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.”
— Alabama state Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin (R), in an interview with the Montgomery Advertiser, defending her sweeping anti-abortion bill.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Yes, I’m Teddy Turner. You can’t pick your parents.”
— Teddy Turner (R), quoted by Politico, “trashing his dad every chance he gets to show voters of the 1st Congressional District he’s not some tree-hugging lefty — or worse yet, Jane Fonda’s son.”
The Casualty List
Roll Call has the updated list of lawmakers who are either retiring or running for other offices in 2014.
McDonnell Meets with Romney Finance Chief
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) “remains mum about his political future” but the Virginian-Pilot reports he recently huddled with Spencer Zwick, the finance chair for Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential bids.
Russian Lawmaker Found in Barrel of Cement
The body of Mikhail Pakhomov, a missing Moscow legislator and construction tycoon, “has been found in a private basement garage on the city’s outskirts, inside a rusted metal barrel filled with cement,” the New York Times reports.
Police said “he had been tortured and killed over an outstanding $80 million loan.”
“The killing recalled the brutal violence that routinely emerged from business disputes in the 1990s. Mr. Pakhomov, who was reported missing last Tuesday, was a promising young star in United Russia, the ruling party founded by President Vladimir V. Putin, and had served as head of a construction company that was reported to have won large contracts to develop utilities and infrastructure in several cities.”
Lawmaker ‘Likes’ Racy, Violent Facebook Pages
New Jersey Assemblyman Charles Mainor (D) “is in hot water again over his Facebook page, with constituents wondering if it’s appropriate for one of their state legislators to have ‘liked’ Facebook pages such as Big Bootie Freaks and another page that posts videos of physical assaults,” the Jersey Journal reports.
Mainor said “he planned to un-like the page as soon as his daughter showed him how.”
