In the mail: The Gospel According to the Fix: An Insider’s Guide to a Less than Holy World of Politics by Chris Cillizza.
This should be a fun read.
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Holder Contempt Vote Scheduled
The House is scheduled to vote on recommendations that Attorney General Eric Holder be held in contempt of Congress on Thursday, the Washington Post reports.
“Republican leaders plan to bring the issue to the floor on Thursday, meaning lawmakers likely will vote on contempt charges on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to announce its ruling on the constitutionality of the 2010 health-care reform law. The timing likely deprives advocates for contempt charges of the big headlines they might have received if the vote were held another day this week.”
Quote of the Day
“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life
legislation — abortion facility regulations — in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
— Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R), quoted by Politics PA, citing a voter ID law as an accomplishment which critics claim was never about preventing fraud.
Romney Campaign Dodges Immigration Decision
Although Mitt Romney released a statement earlier stressing the right of states to enact immigration policies, he never commented directly on the Supreme Court decision gutting large parts of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.
Politico has a remarkable exchange with traveling spokesman Rick Gorka, in which he did everything he could to avoid answering despite being asked 20 times.
Bill Clinton Warns About Court Ruling Against Obamacare
Daily Beast: “Clinton predicted that if the law is declared unconstitutional,
Republicans will suffer a backlash when millions of Americans calculate
what they have lost. Before the Affordable Care Act passed, two thirds
of all the applications for bankruptcy were because of health-care
emergencies, a consequence likely to return if health care inflation
again rises precipitously.”
Sheriff Denies Being KKK Member Despite Photos
Cherokee County, GA Sheriff Roger Garrison (R) insisted to WSB-TV that he “has no affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, despite old photos that surfaced showing him wearing a robe and hood.”
He says he wore the costume to a Halloween party “long before he took office.”
Said Garrison: “I don’t deny it wasn’t stupid, looking back now, but there again I say what 21- or 22-year-old in this world hasn’t made some stupid mistakes?”
GOP Brand Suffers in California
Former Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is the latest prominent Republican to switch parties in California. He changed his voter registration last week from Republican to “no party preference.”
George Skelton: “It’s impossible to assess any grand, overarching meaning in all this — except that in each case the politician felt that the Republican label was an albatross. The candidates’ actions may have been self-serving, but it’s an ugly mark on the GOP that they felt better served not being burdened by the party.”
Obama Leads in New Hampshire
A new American Research Group poll in New Hampshire shows President Obama with a solid lead over Mitt Romney, 51% to 43%.
What the Obama Campaign Spends Money On
Jim Geraghty looks at the Obama campaign spending reports and finds online advertising and other web-related efforts are the largest expenditures to date.
“Ironically, in an era of e-mail, postage was one of the campaign’s largest expenditures, totaling more than $14.7 million.”
Also interesting: “The Obama campaign appears to run on pizza: $2,084.37 went to Domino’s Pizza, $1,774.78 went to Pizzanno’s Pizza, $1,167.45 went to Papa John’s, $834.03 went to Pizza Hut, and $362 went to Little Caesars. (One hopes Michelle Obama won’t find out that some Obama campaign staffer in Winston-Salem, N.C., spent $239.39 at Krispy Kreme.)”
The $500 Private Breakfast for Powerful DC Dems
Bloomberg TV looks at Sen. Harry Reid’s efforts to win Nevada’s U.S. Senate race for Democrats.
Supreme Court Rejects Corporate Spending Limits
The Supreme Court reaffirmed its 2-year-old decision allowing corporations to spend freely to influence elections, the New York Times reports.
“By a 5-4 vote, the court’s conservative justices said the decision in the Citizens United case in 2010 applies to state campaign finance laws and guarantees corporate and labor union interests the right to spend freely to advocate for or against candidates for state and local offices.”
Rick Pildes: “That outcome comes as no surprise to those of us who believe Citizens United
reflected powerfully held philosophical and constitutional convictions,
whether we agree with those convictions or not. But it should put the
final nail in the coffin of theories that assert the Court could have
decided Citizens United only ‘by mistake’… The American public might not believe in unlimited corporate speech rights in elections, but the Court’s majority does – and no amount of public backlash is going to cause this Court to back down.”
A Crazy Month but a Stable Campaign
First Read: “So when you step back and think about it, June has been a crazy month. It started with the monthly jobs report showing that just 69,000 jobs were created in May; then came the drumbeat of bad and uncertain news on the economy, both domestically and in Europe; then there was Wisconsin; then President Obama’s immigration announcement; and now we’re about to get the big SCOTUS health-care ruling (as well as the immigration one).”
“Yet despite it all, the Obama-Romney race has remained incredibly stable. Look no farther than the recent Pew poll and AP national poll showing Obama narrowly leading Romney (50%-46% and 47%-44%, respectively) — which is essentially where this race was after the former Massachusetts governor became the presumptive GOP nominee back in April.”
“What explains this stability, even if much of the media perception has been that Romney has the momentum while Obama is struggling? For starters, you could argue that given this nation’s political polarization, this tight race has always been locked in and perhaps is even more locked in than anyone appreciates. Then there’s the “demographics is destiny” argument that feeds the polarization; and finally, don’t overlook the Obama campaign’s heavy anti-Romney TV blitz have contributed to the stability. Bottom line: It’s probably a little of all three.”
Health Care Ruling Expected Thursday
The Supreme Court’s ruling on President Obama’s health care law will be released on Thursday.
It’s expected that Chief Justice John Roberts will write the opinion.
Sarah Kliff notes court watchers “expect that Chief Justice John Roberts will author the opinion, after seeing Justice Anthony Kennedy write the opinion in the Arizona immigration case. The justices tend to split up the workload each term, especially when it comes to high-profile and complicated rulings.”
Most of Arizona Immigration Law Thrown Out
The Supreme Court gutted the majority of Arizona’s controversial immigration law today, leaving in place only the “show your papers” provision that says police officers may check the status of those they stop, the Arizona Republic reports.
Interestingly, Mitt Romney is in Arizona today for a fundraiser. The decision seriously complicates his efforts to reach out to Latino voters.
Mark Halperin: “At first blush, there isn’t a lot in the Supreme Court immigration decision that is good politically for Mitt Romney. It is a muddy ruling that doesn’t really let him make hay. On the other hand, the mixed decision means this case isn’t likely to dominate the news beyond today’s cycle, letting Romney go back to the economy and — later in the week — health care, where he is on stronger footing.”
Wonk Wire has more.
Haley Faces Ethics Hearings
The South Carolina House Ethics Committee will start a hearing to determine if Gov. Nikki Haley (R) illegally lobbied for her employers while she was a lawmaker, McClatchy reports.
It is the first time a governor has been investigated by the committee.
All Eyes on the Supreme Court
It’s a big day (or week) over at Wonk Wire as we wait for the Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s health care law.
Start off with a crash course on what they’re deciding and look at what the White House plans to do and what Congress must do if the law is overturned.
First Read: “Don’t forget: We’ll also get the court’s decision on Arizona’s
immigration law this week. By the way, if you are a Republican
strategist involved in a competitive election, you are hoping the
Arizona decision gets released WITH health care. If it’s immigration
today and health care on Thursday, then the GOP has to deal with another
three days of the immigration issue in the news, and we’ve yet to see
how any day that has immigration in the news is a good one for
Republicans in November.”
Update: Wonk Wire has a rundown of all of the court’s decisions.
Romney’s Bain Problem is Bigger Than You Think
First Read: “Ever since the Obama campaign began its Bain hit, there has been near universal agreement among elites that the hits were either “not working,” or “unfair,” or both. But as we’ve said before and we’ll say again: The Bain attacks aren’t meant to sway folks in NY and DC, but folks in three crucial battleground states: Ohio, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The whole point of this campaign by the Obama folks is to paint Romney as an out-of-touch Wall Street CEO…”
“And while the Romney campaign has comforted itself with the criticism of the Obama attacks by other Democrats (Booker, Rendell etc.), the campaign has done little to fix the larger image issue. So far, the Romney campaign has made this argument: Any attack on Bain is an attack on America’s free enterprise system. But how does it explain that Bain and its partners often made money, even if the firms they took over went belly up? And how do they now explain this Milken association? Does it keep using the “free enterprise” line? Or does it need to do something else?”
Obama Bets Big on Ground Game
Wall Street Journal: “Once again, the Obama high command is making a big bet on their ground operation. The aim is to flood the zone: open up offices in battleground states, call undecided voters, and swarm the shopping malls to register as many people as possible. In this way, Democrats hope to neutralize the Republican super PAC advantage by out-registering and out-working the GOP on the streets.”
