The Atlantic Wire reports that President Obama is “close to choosing” Chicago
billionaire Penny Pritzker as America’s next Secretary of Commerce.
“There’s only one problem. She and her secretive family have been caught
up in some pretty dodgy commercial ventures including but not limited to
dodging taxes and running a bank that specialized in subprime
mortgages.”
Alan Abramowitz unveils his first 2014 midterm election forecast:
“The results of the midterm forecasting model indicate that while Democrats have a real chance to buck the normal pattern of midterm elections and gain seats in the House of Representatives, they are unlikely to pick up the 17 seats that they would need to regain control of the chamber. That outcome would require a wave election like 2006 or 2010. But the 2014 midterm election is unlikely to be a wave election. It is much more likely to be a status quo election for the House of Representatives with one party or the other making a small gain and Republicans holding onto their majority.”
“Barring the emergence of a major national issue that results in a substantial advantage for one party or the other on the generic ballot, the seat swing in the 2014 House elections is likely to be fairly small. Nevertheless, the pattern of out-party gains in midterm elections is strong enough that, like Newt Gingrich in 1998, John Boehner may find his speakership in jeopardy if Democrats make even modest gains in the House elections.”
Former Sen. Scott Brown (R) wouldn’t say whether he’s considering a run for Massachusetts governor in 2014, but he suggested in an interview that his political days aren’t quite over, Politico reports.
Said Brown: “I’m not dead.”
He also explained why he’s not running in the upcoming Senate special election: “People forget I did a state Senate run, then the special, then the general, then it was a special, and then I would have won that, then a general again. It’s too much.”
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Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) “raised concerns with top federal health-care officials twice in recent years about their finding that a Florida eye doctor — a close friend and major campaign donor — had overbilled the government by $8.9 million for care at his clinic,” the Washington Post reports.
“Menendez initially contacted federal officials in 2009 about the government’s audit of Salomon Melgen, complaining to the director overseeing Medicare payments that it was unfair to penalize the doctor because the billing rules were ambiguous… Last year, in a meeting with the acting administrator of the agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, Menendez again questioned whether federal auditors had been fair in their assessment of Melgen’s billing for eye injections to treat macular degeneration.”
Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is in talks with Fox News about becoming a network contributor, Politico reports.
A new Public Policy Polling survey on television news finds that there’s only one source more Americans trust than distrust: PBS. 52% of voters say they trust PBS to only 29% who don’t trust it.
The other seven outlets polled on are all distrusted by a plurality of voters.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will deliver the GOP’s official response to President Obama’s State of the Union next week in both English and Spanish, Roll Call reports.
“Rubio, a rumored contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, is one of the rising stars in his party’s ranks and has been taking a leading role on key issues such as an immigration policy overhaul. Rubio’s selection by party leaders demonstrates their confidence in him and also indicates an awareness that the party needs to make greater strides within the Latino community to win its support in future elections.”
Marc Ambinder: “The Democratic Party has two tiers of candidates. In order for the second tier of candidates to even conceive of running, then the first tier has to step aside. That first tier, of course, is occupied by Clinton. Her intentions are unknowable, but trust me when I tell you that, to the extent that the Democratic Party still has reliable donors and committed activists, the lion’s share are hoping Clinton runs and are ready to endorse her immediately. She is the 800-pound gorilla in a pantsuit. No one moves until she does.”
The Virginia Speaker of the House William Howell (R) “has ruled that the surprise changes that the Senate made to redistricting legislation are out of order, dealing a blow to GOP hopes to redraw districts,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
“Senate Republicans pushed through the plan on a 20-19 party-line vote on a day when Democrats were down one member because Sen. Henry Marsh III (D) attended inauguration ceremonies for President Barack Obama in Washington on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. ”
Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who stepped down last month, is joining the Council on Foreign Relations as a distinguished fellow, the New York Times reports.
Idaho state Sen. John Goedde (R), chairman of the Education Committee, introduced legislation to require every Idaho high school student to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and pass a test on it to graduate from high school, the Spokane Spokesman-Review reports.
Said Goedde: “That book made my son a Republican.”
John Avlon uncovers the National Rifle Association’s enemies list.
“Richard Nixon would be embarrassed to find that his once sinister form of score-keeping has been revived so promiscuously by the NRA. But there is some redeeming social value here: The list illustrates an organization that has become hermetically sealed from society at large, so caught up in conservative debates that it has forgotten how to connect with Main Street America.”
The Week: “The rogues gallery includes some unsurprising entries, such as the
American Civil Liberties Union. But it seems almost no organization or
person has escaped the NRA’s gaze, including the AARP, the Congress of
Neurological Surgeons, the National Association of Public Hospitals, and
the Police Foundation.”
White House press secretary Jay Carney said that a report claiming that a replica Oval Office was being readied ahead of planned renovations in the West Wing were “false,” The Hill reports.
Said Carney: “Reports about a replica Oval Office are false, and no one is moving from the West Wing.”
The Cloakroom: 5 Republicans who should be scared of Karl Rove.
Marc Ambinder: “Politics without dirty deals is not politics. It’s something else.
It’s not something we’ve seen here; there are no historical antecedents
for it. Purely deliberative reasoning, shorn of self-interest, is an
academic exercise. Let it by all means by an aspirational ideal. Call
out cynicism where you see it, but don’t lump all cynicism and
opportunism together. Be wary of judging what is with what you think must be. If humanism on a grand scale is your goal, you aren’t going to get there without getting mud on your jersey.”
Harry Enten: “I’m not a big one for Schadenfreude but I confess to feeling a little frisson on hearing the news that Dick Morris was not getting his contract renewed by Fox News. It’s not that I wish Morris ill tidings; it’s that I want pundits to be held accountable for their incorrect forecasts… Morris’ [2012] performance earned him the title of ‘Worst Pundit of 2012’ by Pundit Tracker. That’s an impressive achievement considering all the competition. In mathematical terms, Morris was wrong 80% in his prognostications: if you had placed a dollar bet on each Morris prediction in a prediction market, you would have lost 70% of your money.”
Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) told TMZ that teaching people how to protect themselves from HIV was an attempt to push the gay agenda “down everybody’s throats.”
Said Campfield: “You know, you could say the same thing about kids who are shooting heroin. We need to show them the best ways to shoot up. No, we don’t. Why do we have to hypersexualize little children? Why can’t we just let little kids be little kids for a while? Why do we have to have little kids be…?”
Daily Beast: “Don’t say gay” is back.
“It’s not a serious story, guys. It’s not a burp. It’s barely a fart.”
— California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), quoted by the Sacramento Bee, on Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) radio ad trying to lure California business to his state.
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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