“Seemed odd at the time. But, you know, I’m an odd person. One thing about getting into the senior status of life, like I am, you don’t really care. You just say what you say and then you get away with it.”
— Clint Eastwood, quoted by NBC News, on his “invisible Obama” routine during last year’s Republican National Convention.
CBS Chicago reports a tentative plea deal for former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) “calls for him to plead guilty to misuse of campaign funds and let a federal judge determine whether he serves any time in prison.”
“The former congressman would also agree to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars spent over a four-year-period for things like a $40,000 men’s Rolex watch he bought for himself, as well as clothing, meals and travel expenses.”
NBC Chicago confirms Jackson has signed the deal.
“Republicans open to letting billions in sequester cuts go through figure they can blame the president if the economy goes south,” Politico reports.
“But Democrats are betting they can shift that blame right back to the GOP. They’re so confident, in fact, that they’re already eyeing at least 10 Republican-held seats with strong military connections from Florida to California to target in 2014, after sequester cuts have trickled down to local bases where jobs are lost and voters notice.”
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A new Des Moines Register poll in Iowa finds a majority of voters think U.S. secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack (D) would be an appealing Senate candidate, 56% to 35%.
He’s also the most favored candidate of the pack mulling a run for the seat being vacated by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA).
Said pollster Ann Selzer: “This is the kind of poll finding that launches campaigns.”
Dan Amira: “It’s unclear whether Christie would be the heaviest president in
American history, but he would certainly share one of the top two spots
with William Howard Taft, who served as our 27th president from 1909 to
1913. And though that was a long time ago, in a much different era,
there may be a thing or two that Christie can learn from Taft’s
experience.”
John Fund reports on 19 possible cases of alleged voter fraud in Hamilton County, Ohio and has video of poll worker Melowese Richardson candidly admitting to a local television station that she voted twice in the last presidential election.
Rick Hasen counters saying “that vast majority of the relatively small number of cases involve either election officials committing fraud, or voters, candidates, and others committing absentee ballot fraud. The problem is that the supposed cure–voter id–does not stop these main types of fraud.”
National Review points out that Dick Morris, who is the author of books such as Here Come the Black Helicopters!, Screwed!, and Revolt!, says that “he’s now fighting to do for the Republican party what he did for the Democrats during the Clinton years — moderate it.”
Said Morris: “I’m trying to explore ways in which the Republican party can make itself viable nationally, so it can win national elections without sacrificing its basic principles. That’s the mission I’ve set for myself.”
Jonathan Chait: “It’s probably a better way to get airtime on CNN. It’s also a logical persona for a huckster who is quickly running short on them.”
Just out for the Kindle: Here’s the Deal by David Leonhardt.
Highly recommended essay by the New York Times columnist which “explains lucidly and with calm authority the mess we are in–and how we can get ourselves out of it.”
Two new polls show President Obama’s approval rate under 50%: Fox News has it at 49%, while Quinnipiac finds it at 46%.
“Evangelicals nationwide are turning their Bibles to Matthew 25:35 and praying that Congress is listening to those words — part of a highly-coordinated effort to spur progress on the long unresolved and contentious issue of immigration,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“Faith leaders and their congregations have become an unlikely but powerful ally to reform advocates, framing the question over what to do with 11 million unauthorized residents as one of moral compassion, and tapping into influence among Republicans to soften opposition to a pathway to citizenship.”
Virginia Del. Robert Marshall (R) introduced a bill to “study the feasibility of a metallic-based monetary unit,” ABC News reports.
Its preamble is rife with damnations of the Federal Reserve and its “unprecedented monetary policy actions” and “activist intervention in
banking and credit markets,” the point being that Virginia can no longer
trust federal fiat money, and might need “a more stable money unit
consistent with limited government.”
The bill easily passed the heavily Republican House of Delegates, 65 to 32.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Super PAC has spent at least $660,000 for 12 days of TV ads blasting Debbie Halvorson’s (D) past support from the National Rifle Association in an attempt to influence the outcome of the Illinois 2nd Congressional District special election, the Chicago Tribune reports.
“The apparent hack of several e-mail accounts has exposed personal photos and sensitive correspondence from members of the Bush family, including both former U.S. presidents,” The Smoking Gun reports.
“The photos and e-mails were uploaded yesterday to an online account that appears to have been hacked for the purpose of hosting the material… Included in the hacked material is a confidential October 2012 list of home addresses, cell phone numbers, and e-mails for dozens of Bush family members, including both former presidents, their siblings, and their children.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that 67% of Republican voters believe violent video games represent a bigger threat to safety than guns.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “took to Dave Letterman’s couch, donut in hand, on Monday night, joining one of his chief late night tormenters for some jokes at his own expense,” Politico reports.
“The calculation was clear – try to turn the potential negative into a positive, a strategy used by many a politician, including Al Gore during his 2000 presidential campaign.”
“But Gore’s problematic trait was stiffness, not size. And by Wednesday, Christie had undercut his own strategy, saying a former White House doctor who expressed fears that his weight could be life-ending if he were president ‘should shut up‘ since she hasn’t examined him and doesn’t know his medical history.”
“A bipartisan quartet of senators, including two National Rifle Association members and two with ‘F” ratings from the potent firearms lobby, are quietly trying to find a compromise on expanding the requirement for gun-sale background checks,” the AP reports.
“A deal, given a good chance by several participants and lobbyists, could add formidable political momentum to one of the key elements of President Obama’s gun control plan. Currently, background checks are required only for sales by the nation’s 55,000 federally licensed gun dealers, but not for gun show, person-to-person sales or other private transactions.”
“The campaign manager for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R), already facing a
state investigation over allegations of theft from Dewhurst’s political
account, has been accused of also taking at least $1 million from the
Republican’s U.S. Senate campaign last year,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
Rep. Raul Labrador’s (R-ID) fired his spokesman after he mistakenly tweeted in the name of his boss about his admiration for two actresses pole dancing in a Super Bowl ad, the Idaho Statesman reports.
The tweet, “Me likey Broke Girls,” was deleted after 14 seconds but is archived on a website that collects deleted tweets from politicians.
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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