“There’s no way to defend what Todd Akin said. You just can’t do it, and you shouldn’t try to put it into a scientific context. It was a bad statement. And to try to defend it or explain someone else’s poor choice of words, it would be a fool’s errand.”
— Former Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), quoted by Politico, in response to Rep. Phil Gingrey’s (R-GA) defense of former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO).
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “is convinced that a lone gunman wasn’t solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and said his father believed the Warren Commission report was a ‘shoddy piece of craftsmanship,'” the AP reports.
Said Kennedy: “The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman.”
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has decided not to run for re-election, NBC New York reports.
However, a Lautenberg spokesman tells the Philadelphia Inquirer the report is not true.
The news comes the same week that Newark Mayor Cory Booker has filed papers allowing him to raise money for a U.S. Senate run in New Jersey.
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President Obama’s inaugural committee “is at least $10 million short of its $50 million fund-raising goal, officials have told top donors, with just over a week before Mr. Obama is sworn in for his second term,” the New York Times reports.
“The committee is particularly struggling to bring in corporate money after Mr. Obama’s announcement last month that he would accept contributions from businesses, a change from his position in 2009… Even more striking, those involved in the planning said, was the absence of the vast majority of top fund-raisers for Mr. Obama’s campaign, which raised over a billion dollars.”
“George Prescott Bush is gearing up to run for a little-known but powerful office in a state where his family already is a political dynasty and where his Hispanic roots could help extend a stranglehold on power Republicans have enjoyed for two decades” the AP reports.
Said Bush: “We for sure are running, the question is the office.”
A new Gallup poll finds Congress began 2013 with a 14% approval rating.
“The lowest individual congressional job approval rating in Gallup’s history is 10%, measured in August of last year. The highest is 84%, measured in October 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”
“Chuck Hagel’s uncertain path to the position of defense secretary is turning in large measure on the stance of one senator, New York’s Chuck Schumer, whose opinion is likely to influence a group of fellow Democrats who, like him, have remained uncommitted,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It would be hard for Mr. Schumer, who is generally loyal to his party, to oppose Mr. Hagel. But the senator has won strong support among constituents and donors for being an advocate for Israel, and he has so far declined to endorse Mr. Hagel’s nomination, saying only that he needs to study his former colleague’s record and question him about it.”
Greg Sargent: “In a move that will significantly ratchet up the brinksmanship around the debt ceiling, the four members of the Senate Democratic leadership are privately telling the White House that they will give Obama full support if he opts for a unilateral solution to the debt ceiling crisis, a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide tells me.”
“The four Democratic leaders — Senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin and Patty Murray — have privately reached agreement that continued GOP intransigence on the debt ceiling means the White House needs the space to pursue options for raising it that don’t involve Congress, and that the White House needs to know that Dems will support whatever it decides to do.”
“He’s partly right on that.”
— Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), an OB-GYN, quoted by the Marietta Daily Journal, on former Rep. Todd Akn’s (R-MO) “legitimate rape” comments.
Massachusetts Democrats and people close to Gov. Deval Patrick (D) tell National Journal that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) “has undercut his own explicit hopes for the seat likely to be vacated if Sen. John Kerry is confirmed as secretary of State. Frank’s very public lobbying for the job–he disclosed his aspirations on Morning Joe–make Patrick, the man who would have power of appointment, less likely to go along.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will not run for a sixth term in 2014, putting his U.S. Senate seat in play, Politico reports.
“I’m sure that I couldn’t get all 49 other governors to admit that they would want to be Texans. I’m thinking that Gov. Cuomo would not admit that he’d want to be a Texan.”
— Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), quoted by the AP.
More than a year after she dropped out, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) “has refused to pay five staffers from her failed presidential bid,” Salon reports.
The dispute “started when former Iowa straw poll staffers refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement that would bar them from discussing any ‘unethical, immoral, or criminal activity’ they witnessed on the campaign with police or reporters.”
Politico: “In a perfectly divided Washington, a mix of politics, policy and personality has made a comprehensive rewrite of the nation’s tax system — a top Republican priority — increasingly elusive in 2013, aides and lawmakers say.”
“The fiscal cliff has deepened distrust between the two parties. The politics have become riskier and more complicated. Time is short. And Washington has to first endure battles over the debt ceiling and scheduled spending cuts before tax reform can come under serious consideration.”
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) tells WBUR that he will support Rep. Ed Markey’s (D-MA) run for Sen. John Kerry’s seat if Kerry is confirmed as secretary of state.
Frank is lobbying for the interim appointment to fill the seat before a special election is held.
Meanwhile, sources close to former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) tell CNN he hasn’t decided yet whether to make his own run.
“For a man who spent 12 years in the Senate, Chuck Hagel will find himself with few close allies when the Armed Services Committee takes up his nomination to be secretary of defense this month,” the New York Times reports.
“Of the senators who will ultimately sit in judgment, 42 never served a day with Mr. Hagel. The ones who remain include powerful Republicans who clashed repeatedly with him over what was the singular issue of the time: the American invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath.”
President Obama “is trying an end run around the NRA — rallying groups as varied as churches, medical organizations, retailers and the Rotary Club to build support for new gun regulations,” Politico reports.
“It’s an unusual strategy but one the Obama administration has used before: projecting strength on an issue by trying to create the perception that the White House is riding a wave of momentum from the American people. It was the theme of Obama’s two presidential campaigns and was central to his campaign-style road show to tout his fiscal cliff priorities in December.”
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times says that requiring all gun buyers to pass a federal background check could be a key part of a White House plan to combat mass shootings.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told the Wisconsin State Journal that he hasn’t ruled out running for president in 2016.
But he added, “I’ve decided not to decide.”
“For now, Ryan said he and his family are enjoying settling back down in his hometown, Janesville, after traveling around the country last year while he was the Republican vice presidential hopeful and running mate to Mitt Romney.”
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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