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.”
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.”
“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.
A New York Times reporter met Shahbaz, a scammer who used fake bank alerts to make victims panic. When confronted, he just laughed—no guilt, no remorse.
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“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.”
Roll Call has the updated list of lawmakers who are either retiring or running for other offices in 2014.
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.
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.”
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.”
Highly recommended: The Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will speak at next month’s Conservative Political Action Conference, The Hill reports.
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) “is expected to rock the Nebraska political scene this afternoon, announcing that he will retire after his term ends in 2014,” the Omaha World-Herald reports.
“Johanns, who is heading back to Nebraska this morning, began to make telephone calls to key supporters, letting them know of his decision, several sources said.”
Roll Call: “Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) is term-limited from seeking re-election in 2014 and is considered a likely candidate in the race to replace Johanns. The governor has the right of first refusal, and if he runs he would be the ‘400-pound gorilla’ in the race… Most other Republicans would likely defer to him.”
After the death of her husband, Alex Sink (D) tells the AP it’s unlikely she’ll make another bid for Florida governor.
Said Sink: “Without a husband, without the person that I relied on the most to shore me up and give me good advice. That’s changed. That’s changed everything. Right this minute, if you’re asking me, it’s off the table. I’m not prepared to say, ‘No I’m not,’ but I’m much further away from a run today than I was three months ago.”
The Clarion Ledger looks at how Mississippi finally officially ratified the 13th Amendment banning slavery this month, after a University of Mississippi professor saw the movie “Lincoln” and started digging into the history of the legislation’s ratification.
Hendrick Hertzberg: “This is the third year that the Republicans’ Tea Party faction has elbowed its way into the post-SOTU spotlight. Its previous spokespersons, Representative Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, the pizza mini-mogul, were marginal cranks. Rand Paul, though a crank, is not so marginal: like Rubio, he is a member of the United States Senate, nominally subject to the disciplines of that august body’s Republican caucus.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), “an emerging leader in the Republican Party who is considered one of the likely candidates for the 2016 US presidential race, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,” the Jerusalem Post reports.
Newt Gingrich admitted on ABC News that Republicans are likely to oppose any immigration reform backed by President Obama because they just don’t like him.
Said Gingrich: “I think that negotiated with a Senate immigration bill that has to have bipartisan support could actually get to the president’s desk. But an Obama plan led and driven by Obama in this atmosphere with the level of hostility towards the president and the way he goads the hostility I think is very hard to imagine that bill, that his bill is going to pass the House.”
“We have fallen into a trap of believing the world revolves around Washington.”
— Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on what ails the Republican party.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “will hit the paid speaking circuit this spring (likely April or May) and has selected the Harry Walker Agency, which represents President Clinton, as her agent. Industry officials expect that she will be one of the highest paid speakers in the history of the circuit, with fees well into the six figures in the United States and abroad,” Mike Allen reports.
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.