A new Pew Research survey finds “limited public support for reducing spending for a range of specific programs, including defense, entitlements, education and health care.”
“For 18 of 19 programs tested, majorities want either to increase spending or maintain it at current levels. The only exception is assistance for needy people around the world.”
“The Democrats’ story is the Republicans are the party of the rich, the
Democrats are the party of everybody else. And if that’s the narrative
people believe, we’ll never win another national election.”
— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Former President Jimmy Carter told Piers Morgan he enjoyed watching Argo but said the movie about rescuing six American hostages from Iran was not entirely accurate.
Said Carter: “Well, let me say first of all, it’s a great drama. And I hope it gets the Academy Award for best film because I think it deserves it. The other thing that I would say was that 90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA. And with that exception, the movie is very good.”
He gave the most credit to Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor “who orchestrated the entire process.”
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First Read: “We know that supporters of freshmen Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D) and Ted Cruz (R) don’t enjoy the comparisons between the two senators, especially since they couldn’t be more different ideologically. That said, the comparisons are also hard to resist. They’re both ambitious. They’ve both set up leadership PACs… to make sure everyone KNOWS they are ambitious! Unlike the cautious courses that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and even Marco Rubio set after being elected, both have been more than willing to shake things up. And, as a result, both aren’t necessarily viewed as team players — a quality that their supporters appreciate.”
Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson writes that Republican primary voters, party activists and party leaders “have a choice to make, ruthlessly clarified by recent events. They can take the path of Democrats in 1988, doubling down on a faltering ideology. Or they can follow the model of Democrats in 1992 and their own party in 2000, giving their nominee the leeway needed to oppose outworn or extreme ideas and to produce an agenda relevant to our time.”
A former congressional candidate under investigation with former Rep David Rivera (R-FL) is scheduled to be charged with federal crimes over his campaign finances, sources tell the Miami Herald.
The FBI suggests Justin Lamar Sternad’s (D) campaign finance reports “could have concealed as much as $100,000 in services and mailers, some of which attacked a Democratic rival of Rivera, who is a Republican.”
“Although Rivera is a target of the investigation, his name is nowhere in the indictment of Sternad.”
A new Crain’s/Ipsos poll in Chicago finds Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s (D) popularity has fallen sharply since last surveyed in September. He now has a net minus 16 rating, down from the plus 4 he had in September.
While many Republicans dismiss the idea that Texas could be competitive in 2016, Texas GOP Chairman Steve Munisteri tells Real Clear Politics that his state could become a battleground in the next presidential election, particularly if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee.
Said Munisteri: “If she’s the nominee, I would say that this is a ‘lean Republican’ state but not a ‘solid Republican’ state. I don’t know anyone nationally who’s scoffing at this. The national party leadership is aware and tells me they’re taking it seriously.”
“Jon Huntsman would make a great Democrat.”
— Utah Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis, quoted by the Deseret News, in response to Jon Huntsman’s support of same-sex marriage.
Oscar Hernandez, the unschooled and illiterate former mayor of the scandal-ridden suburban city of Bell, CA claimed in court that he had no training that would have alerted him that his huge salary was illegal, the AP reports.
“Hernandez is among six former Bell city officials charged with misappropriating funds. He was earning just under $100,000 a year for the part-time job.”
“Legally, the officials could have paid themselves $673 a month for what was a part-time job, since they didn’t actually run the city… But in addition to their inflated council salaries, the officials appointed each other to commissions that did nothing and often met yearly just to increase their pay, he said.”
President Obama “is just seven days away from the first significant test of his second term as deep spending cuts loom, yet inside the White House a clear sense of confidence stands in contrast to the air of crisis that surrounded previous fiscal showdowns with Republicans,” the New York Times reports.
“The confrontation holds peril for both the president and Republicans. But for now, Mr. Obama believes he is acting from a greater position of strength, advisers say, pointing to several recent polls that show he holds an upper hand in the budget debate. Yet his standing would be at risk if the so-called sequester caused economic growth to collapse.”
Byron York: “There’s no doubt President Obama is using the so-called Washington Monument maneuver
in the fight with Republicans over sequestration budget cuts. It’s a
time-honored tactic of bureaucratic warfare: When faced with cuts, pick
the best-known and most revered symbol of government and threaten to
shut it down.”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told some elementary school students that he does not plan to seek the presidency, Roll Call reports.
Said Thune: “Do I plan on running for president? I don’t. I enjoy the job I have. And being the president is a very, very hard job.”
Former President Jimmy Carter, whose grandson James helped uncover the infamous “47% video” during last year’s presidential campaign, told Piers Morgan that President Obama thanked James Carter “profusely” when the two met last week.
Said Carter: “When James went to meet President Obama, President Obama ran across the room, embraced him and thanked him profusely for his time.”
The Los Angeles Times reports 16 GOP lawmakers “are being targeted by a pro-Obama advocacy group in a new online ad campaign urging them to back a more robust background check system for gun sales.”
“The online ad buy, which cost close to six figures, is the first such campaign by Organizing for Action, the month-old advocacy group formed by top advisors to President Obama to build momentum for his legislative agenda.”
Texas politicians Joaquin and Julián Castro “tell their family story and discuss career ambitions in the March issue of Vogue,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
“The article, titled ‘Pair of Aces,’ echoes the twins’ frequent labeling as ‘Democratic rising stars’ — Joaquin is a freshman congressman representing San Antonio, while Julián has been mayor of the city since 2009.”
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn (R) sent letters to 14 gun manufacturing companies inviting them to come to more gun-friendly Mississippi, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports.
Said Gunn: “We need more businesses to establish home base in Mississippi. We can provide these companies with an educated workforce, a superior quality of life, an evolving education system for their children, and the peace of mind that comes with knowing we support their industry.”
Jon Huntsman writes in The American Conservative that he favors same-sex marriage rights and encouraged other Republicans to join him:
“Today we have an opportunity to do more: conservatives should start to lead again and push their states to join the nine others that allow all their citizens to marry. I’ve been married for 29 years. My marriage has been the greatest joy of my life. There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love.”
Lexington watched all 13 episodes of the new House of Cards and says it is “at heart a palace intrigue, unfolding within the Beltway bubble. Politicians are raised up by decisions taken in the White House or the high-ceilinged rooms of congressional leaders. They are cast down by plots and ill-judged broadcast interviews. Whenever actual voters threaten trouble, they are soothed by the elite with improbable ease…”
“In the real world, federal funding is a fast-dwindling resource, and populist pandering a bigger drag on problem-solving than any individual villainy. Richard III is altogether the wrong model for a modern political tragedy: better to try Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and the Roman mob. For it is not the dagger in the back that haunts today’s ruling classes, but the pitchfork in the front, brandished by voters. By skirting that truth, House of Cards, for all its dramatic tension and clever dialogue, amounts to a kind of Washingtonian escapism.”
Several readers tell me the original U.K. House of Cards Trilogy is better.
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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