Tea party leaders are turning to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to deliver their message following President Obama’s State of the Union address, CNN reports.
Paul will make his remarks soon after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wraps up the GOP response Tuesday night.
Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was playing golf at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and hit a spectator on the sixth hole “after a bad swing went 50 yards into the gallery,” Yahoo Sports reports.
“The ball smacked the female fan in the forehead, causing what was later called concussion-like symptoms and while the lady that got hit wouldn’t give her name, Rice got an assistant to get her number so she could later contact her to make sure she was alright.”
President Obama has agreed to do much more than fundraising for House Democrats. He’s also going to help with candidate recruitment, Roll Call reports.
Said DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-NY): “It’s transformational.”
The BBC caught scam call center workers on hidden cameras as they laughed at the people they were tricking.
The BBC caught scam call center workers on hidden cameras as they laughed at the people they were tricking. One worker bragged about making $250k from victims. The disturbing truth? Scammers don’t pick phone numbers at random. They buy your data from brokers.
Once your data is out there, it’s not just calls. It’s phishing, impersonation, and identity theft. That’s why I recommend Incogni: They delete your info from the web, monitor and follow up automatically, and continue to erase data as new risks appear. Try Incogni here and get 55% off your subscription with code POLITICALWIRE.
Note to readers: I use Incogni myself and highly recommend it.
If you’re a student, joining Amazon Student is no-brainer.
“They are going to cull the herd, so that instead of having billions, we’ll only have hundreds of millions of human beings on the face of the planet.”
— Alan Keyes, on the Talk to Solomon Show, warning of what’s behind President Obama’s gun control proposal.
A publicist for Ashley Judd told E! News that she was appreciative for the attention Karl Rove’s attack ad gives her as she mulls a U.S. Senate bid against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Juts published: The List: A Novel by Karin Tanabe.
The book was inspired by the author’s experiences working at Politico and is “bursting with behind-the-scenes details about what happens when media and politics collide.”
Dr. Connie Mariano, the former White House doctor who drew the ire of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) for saying his obesity was not healthy — he called her a “hack” — actually got a phone call from the governor, KTVK-TV reports.
Said Mariano: “It was essentially the tone of the press conference only louder. It was hard to get anything across.”
Ironically, Mariano was a Christie supporter but isn’t likely to back him in 2016: “The way he acted lately I don’t think so. He wasn’t very nice to me. Politically if this is the way he handles stress… is this presidential? I’ll have to think about that. Is this a presidential way to behave? C’mon.”
Michael Hirsh says “the idea of political capital — or mandates, or momentum — is so poorly defined that presidents and pundits often get it wrong.”
An example is the “abrupt emergence of the immigration and gun-control issues illustrates how suddenly shifts in mood can occur and how political interests can align in new ways just as suddenly. Indeed, the pseudo-concept of political capital masks a larger truth about Washington that is kindergarten simple: You just don’t know what you can do until you try. Or as Ornstein himself once wrote years ago, ‘Winning wins.’ In theory, and in practice, depending on Obama’s handling of any particular issue, even in a polarized time, he could still deliver on a lot of his second-term goals, depending on his skill and the breaks. Unforeseen catalysts can appear, like Newtown. Epiphanies can dawn, such as when many Republican Party leaders suddenly woke up in panic to the huge disparity in the Hispanic vote.”
Bill Clinton spoke to House Democrats at their retreat today and told them to “come up with a plan,” Politico reports.
Said Clinton: “I think we’re going to be fine, but we’ve got to learn to compare ourselves to the competition in a way that is not threatening and is not negative. We have got got to have a jobs agenda that seems affordable and realistic. We need a 10 year budget plan that doesn’t overdo the austerity… Do it all in a same spirit that you took out there in this last election.”
He added: “This last race was a referendum in large measure on what the American people did not want, we have to create a future that they do want.”
“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.”
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.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.