“There was a time not so long ago when the problems of the Democratic
Party revolved around being too liberal and too dependent on minorities.
Obama turned those problems into advantages and rode that strategy to
victory. But he was a charismatic African American president with a
billion dollars, no primary and a media that often felt morally
conflicted about being critical. How easy is that to replicate?”
— Romney strategist Stuart Stevens, writing in the Washington Post.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tells the Huffington Post that President Obama supports efforts to reform the filibuster process in the U.S. Senate.
Said Pfeiffer: “The President has said many times that the American people are demanding action. They want to see progress, not partisan delay games. That hasn’t changed, and the President supports Senator Reid’s efforts to reform the filibuster process.”
Daily Beast: The coming filibuster war.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other top Republicans “shot down a proposal by a senior GOP lawmaker that the House agree to President Obama’s demand to extend current tax rates for the middle class,” The Hill reports.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), “a respected party strategist and former chairman of the House GOP campaign committee, became the most prominent House Republican to suggest that the GOP do what has long been unthinkable within the party: lock in the George W. Bush-era tax rates for income up to $250,000 without simultaneously extending them for top earners.”
Said Boehner: “We’re not going to grow the economy if we raise tax rates on the top two rates. It’ll hurt small businesses. It’ll hurt our economy. That’s why it’s not the right approach. We’ll willing to put revenue on the table as long as we’re not raising rates.”
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President Obama and Mitt Romney will meet for a private lunch at the White House on Thursday, The Hill reports.
It will be the first meeting between the two since the election and will be closed to the press. Romney will also meet with his vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Thursday.
First Read notes the current negotiations over avoiding the “fiscal cliff” essentially amounts “to running in
circles, because the real negotiations won’t take place until
mid-to-late December. The reason: Washington typically needs hard
deadlines to force members to act. But there is something quite
significant that’s going on during this running-in-circles period.
Republicans and Democrats are beginning to prepare their own bases for
what the deal will ultimately look like.”
National Journal:
“The Kumbaya rhetoric and photo-ops between President Obama and
congressional leaders surrounding the so-called fiscal cliff are
starting to wear thin. … For all of the optimism surrounding the initial
meetings between leaders, very little progress has been made….”
Politico:
“This is the public relations phase of the latest fiscal showdown in
Washington, where direct engagement is no longer viewed as the optimal
route to reaching a deal. As Wall Street shudders and Congress once
again risks looking feckless in the face of crisis, both sides are
locked in a battle to win over key interest groups — and the public.”
Anyone who thinks that the “caustic reaction” from GOP senators on their meeting with Susan Rice yesterday gives Democrats any pause on a Rice nomination for Secretary of State, should think again, a Democratic Senate aide tells First Read.
Said the aide: “People are happy to fight for her. This is getting people’s back up. The general sense of the mood is this is ridiculous. She’s obviously qualified.”
“The aide also questioned whether Republicans besides McCain, Graham, and Ayotte would think this is a ‘smart fight to pick’ given Rice’s qualifications and that this would mean a ‘high-profile fight with a qualified African-American woman.’ As to the threat of holds from Ayotte and Graham, the aide said that if Rice is nominated and presents well at her confirmation hearing, there’s a ‘good chance cooler heads prevail’ and there would be more than enough votes to confirm her. That would make Ayotte and Graham’s holds ‘moot’ once it goes to a cloture vote, the aide said, because “either we have the votes or we don’t.'”
The Week: 5 reasons Republicans won’t stop bashing Susan Rice.
Sources with knowledge of the federal investigation into Jesse Jackson Jr. told the Chicago Sun-Times that investigators believe the former lawmaker had learned of the federal scrutiny of his financial activity prior to his June 10 medical leave from Congress.
The New York Times reports an inquiry into e-mail exchanges between Gen. John Allen and a Tampa socialite has narrowed to 60 to 70 emails that “bear a fair amount of scrutiny.”
“The official did not disclose the content of the e-mails, but senior Pentagon officials have described the voluminous correspondence between General Allen, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, and the socialite, Jill Kelley, as potentially ‘inappropriate communication.'”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said that he will “make an announcement about my future political plans” in July, the Rio Grande Guardian reports.
Gennifer Flowers, who rocked Bill Clinton’s run for the White House 20 years ago by revealing a sexual affair, tells WGNO-TV that the former President called her up in 2005 “and tried to set up a rendezvous following her divorce,” the New York Daily News reports.
Said Flowers: “I picked up the phone and it was him. And he wanted to come by my house and talk to me… I was taken aback. That was the last thing I expected.”
“I said, ‘No you can’t come over here.’ He said, ‘I’ll put on a hoodie and I’ll jog up there.’ … And I said, ‘No, I want you to leave me alone.’ And that was that.”
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) urged colleagues in a private session “to vote to extend the Bush tax rates for all but the highest earners before the end of the year — and to battle over the rest later,” Politico reports.
The conservative Republican said that he believes such a vote would not violate Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge and that he’s not alone within Republican circles. He also said it would “rob the president of the argument that Republicans are holding up tax cuts for all but the top earners.”
Said Cole: “I think we ought to take the 98 percent deal right now. It doesn’t mean I agree with raising the top 2. I don’t.”
Wonk Wire: For fiscal cliff deal, the devil is in the details.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) is expected to drop out of next year’s gubernatorial race, leaving Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) with a clear path to the GOP nomination next year, Politico reports.
CNN notes Bolling’s decision sets the table for “a titanic 2013 clash” between
Cuccinelli and former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe.
A new Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey finds voters overwhelmingly favor Gov. Chris Christie (R) for re-election, 67% to 25%.
The strongest possible Democratic challenger, Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D), trails Christie by 18 points, 53% to 35%.
Said pollster Maurice Carroll: “Remember, we have a state election in 2013 and the only Democrat who shows any oomph against Christie, the hero of Hurricane Sandy, is Booker. Even he trails the Republican Governor by double digits.”
Smart Politics: “Ohio has been the most politically divided state in the country in presidential elections for the last 184 years — boasting the lowest average victory margin and the largest number and percentage of races decided by less than five points.”
Three women AIDS activists saying they wanted to highlight the ”naked truth” about potential spending cuts in HIV programs were arrested after taking their clothes off in the lobby of House Speaker John Boehner’s office, the AP reports.
TPM has some of their chants: “Boehner, Boehner, don’t be a dick, budget cuts will make us sick.” And: “Budget cuts are really rude, that’s why we have to be so lewd.”
BuzzFeed has photos.
Jonathan Chait: “How doomed are conservatives? Pretty doomed, if you look carefully at the Pew Research Survey’s close analysis
of the youth vote in the 2012 elections. The Republicans’ long-term
dilemma has generally been framed in racial terms, but it’s mainly a
generational one. The youngest generation of voters contains a much
smaller proportion of white voters than previous generations, and those
whites in that generation vote Republican by a much smaller margin than
their elders. What’s more, younger voters supported President Obama
during the last two election cycles for reasons that seem to go beyond
the usual reasons — social issues like gay marriage and feminism,
immigration policy, or Obama’s personal appeal — and suggest a deeper
attachment to liberalism. The proclivities of younger voters may
actually portend a full-scale sea change in American politics.”
“Our air defenses weren’t ready. They gave us a pass, for whatever reason.”
— David Axelrod, quoted by the Daily Beast, noting the Obama re-election campaign was “a bit surprised” that GOP super PACS didn’t run anti-Obama ads until May.
Idaho Statesman:
“A state senator from north-central Idaho is touting a scheme that’s
been circulating on tea party blogs, calling for states that supported
Mitt Romney to refuse to participate in the Electoral College in a move
backers believe would change the election result.”
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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