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Robert Bork Dies at 85

December 19, 2012 at 12:29 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Robert Bork, “a former solicitor general, federal judge and conservative legal theorist whose 1987 nomination to the United States Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate in a historic political battle whose impact is still being felt, died on Wednesday in Arlington, Va,” the New York Times reports. He was 85.

Jeffrey Toobin says Bork “was an unrepentant reactionary who
was on the wrong side of every major legal controversy of the twentieth
century. The fifty-eight senators who voted against Bork for
confirmation to the Supreme Court in 1987 honored themselves, and the
Constitution. In the subsequent quarter-century, Bork devoted himself to
proving that his critics were right about him all along.”

The Vogue Profile

December 19, 2012 at 12:24 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) gets a flattering profile in Vogue magazine.

“It took Booker the better part of a decade to bring down the corrupt political machine of Mayor Sharpe James. This ugly, bruising struggle is documented in Street Fight, an Oscar-nominated documentary about Booker’s 2002 mayoral campaign, which he lost by a narrow margin. He ran again and won in 2006. Since then, Booker’s constant cheerleading has brought a measure of hope to a city badly in need of it.”

Huntsman Sounds Like He Wants to Run Again

December 19, 2012 at 10:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jon Huntsman suggests to the Ripon Forum that he’s open to another presidential bid.

Said Huntsman: “My gut is telling me you’ve got to clear out all the cobwebs in your head before you even think about anything of that kind. But I will tell you this — I’m committed to serving my country. That’s been my life from the very beginning,”

What is Boehner Doing with Plan B?

December 19, 2012 at 10:35 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Speaker John Boehner unveiled his “Plan B” to avoid the fiscal cliff — legislation that would raise tax rates on those earning more than $1 million but keep rates the same for everyone else — and scheduled a vote for tomorrow.

First Read: “There are three reasons why Plan B — if it’s a serious effort — seems so puzzling. One… the two sides are thisclose in getting a deal done… Two, if we go over the fiscal cliff (and time is running out, folks), Republicans might not realize the extent to which President Obama will own the bully pulpit in January. After all, there’s a certain inaugural address on Jan. 21, as well as the State of the Union. And three, are enough House Republicans really going to cast a tough vote — raising taxes — without getting any spending cuts or resolution on the sequester in return? And are they going to cast a vote for legislation that breaks a longstanding pledge on taxes that has zero chance of becoming law simply to give Boehner leverage? If Boehner and leadership do pull this off and convince their rank-and-file to vote on legislation that is designed just to give Boehner leverage, it would be quite the political feat.”

Rick Klein: “Boehner’s gambit is either a brilliant technique aimed at strengthening
his negotiating position, or a foolhardy scheme that will demonstrate
divisions in his own caucus. He’s putting his members on record (or, at
least, trying to) in favor of tax rates going up for high-income earners
— precisely the kind of vote almost every Republican came to Congress
to try to avoid. If he gets it, he shows his caucus’ resolve in the face
of pressure from the White House. If he doesn’t, Plan A options will be
scrambled, perhaps too late to leave time for Plan C.”

Wonk Wire: Nearing the fiscal cliff end game.

Bonus Quote of the Day

December 19, 2012 at 10:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“If we can’t keep our children safe, and I’m afraid to have a dialogue because I’m afraid someone might vote against me, I don’t have a right to be here.”

— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), quoted by ABC News, on changing his mind about stricter gun control laws.

McCain Says Film’s Torture Depiction is Wrong

December 19, 2012 at 9:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. John McCain watched the new movie Zero Dark Thirty and said it “left him sick” because it suggests the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques led the United States to find Osama bin Laden, the AP reports.

Said McCain: “Not only did the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed not provide us with key leads on bin Laden’s courier, Abu Ahmed, it actually produced false and misleading information.”

McCain spent 5 1/2 years enduring brutal treatment by his North Vietnamese captors during the Vietnam War and has insisted that the waterboarding of al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader did not provide information that led to the bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

Quote of the Day

December 19, 2012 at 8:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I think it was easy to think that maybe 2008 was the anomaly, and I think 2012 was an indication that, no, this is not an anomaly.”

— President Obama, in an interview with Time, on his re-election being a more satisfying victory than four years ago.

EPA Administrator Audited Over Email Address

December 19, 2012 at 8:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Washington Post reports that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is being investigated for using a less-than-obvious personal email identity — “Richard Windsor” — that combines the name of her dog and her hometown, East Windsor, New Jersey.

Christie Plans Big Fundraising Push

December 19, 2012 at 8:41 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Top donors to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s reelection campaign are telling supporters they hope to raise $2 million by the end of the year,” Politico reports, “a glaringly large figure in the few short weeks since he announced he’s seeking reelection.”

“Sources familiar with the approach by some Christie rainmakers said donors solicited in the past two weeks were told the campaign wants to bring in that sum by Dec. 31. If they can pull it off, it would exacerbate the already daunting challenge facing any Democrats considering a run against Christie, whose popularity has soared in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.”

Person of the Year

December 19, 2012 at 8:34 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Time magazine names Barack Obama as its Person of the Year.

“Two years ago, Republicans liked to say that the only hard thing Obama ever did right was beating Hillary Clinton in the primary, and in electoral terms, there was some truth to that. In 2012 the GOP hoped to cast him as an inspiring guy who was not up to the job. But now we know the difference between the wish and the thing, the hype and the man in the office.”

“He stands somewhat shorter, having won 4 million fewer votes and two fewer states than in 2008. But his 5 million-vote margin of victory out of 129 million ballots cast shocked experts in both parties, and it probably would have been higher had so much of New York and New Jersey not stayed home after Hurricane Sandy. He won many of the toughest battlegrounds walking away: Virginia by 4 points, Colorado by 5 and the lily white states of Iowa and New Hampshire by 6. He untied Ohio’s knotty heartland politics, picked the Republican lock on Florida Cubans and won Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis. (Those last two data points especially caught the President’s interest.) He will take the oath on Jan. 20 as the first Democrat in more than 75 years to get a majority of the popular vote twice. Only five other Presidents have done that in all of U.S. history.”

Scott Continues String of Negative Ratings in Florida

December 19, 2012 at 7:16 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Quinnipiac poll in Florida finds Gov. Rick Scott (R) with an upside down approval rating at 36% to 45% and a majority saying he doesn’t deserve a second term.

Key finding: 53% of Republicans would like another candidate for governor in 2014.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “The rejection of Scott appears to be driven more by policy than personality: Voters like Scott as a person 36 – 32 percent, but they dislike his policies 52 – 32 percent. One bright spot – a total of 49 percent of voters are very or somewhat satisfied with the way things are going in Florida, higher than it’s been so far during Scott’s term.”

House Republicans Call a Tax Increase a Tax Cut

December 19, 2012 at 7:05 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In a press release, BuzzFeed notes House Speaker John Boehner’s office said his “plan B” to extend most tax cuts would “not raise taxes. It is a net tax cut that prevents a $4.6 trillion tax hike on Jan. 1.”

However, taxes would actually stay the same for most people under the proposal, and go up on people earning more than $1 million.

Benghazi Review Faults State Department

December 19, 2012 at 7:02 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The leaders of an independent panel that blamed systematic State Department management and leadership failures for gross security lapses in the deadly Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya will explain their findings to Congress on Wednesday,” the AP reports.

In a letter that accompanied the transmission of the report to Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “thanked the board for its ‘clear-eyed, serious look at serious systemic challenges’ and said she accepted all of its 29 recommendations to improve security at high-threat embassies and consulates.”

Clinton was supposed to testify on Benghazi today, but will not appear due to a concussion suffered after fainting from a stomach
flu over the weekend. Charles Krauthammer says Clinton instead “seems to have a severe Benghazi allergy.”

New Robo-Poll Firm Launches

December 19, 2012 at 6:21 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Harper Polling launches this week with the goal of putting the Republican party “on parity with Democrats in the field of IVR polling – a term that stands for interactive voice response polling, commonly known as ‘robo-polling,'” Politico reports.

“For several cycles now, Democrats have benefited from a high-volume, relatively inexpensive flow of survey data from the company Public Policy Polling, which takes hundreds of polls in any given cycle checking up on individual races and national issue debates. Some of those surveys are released to the public, while others are conducted for private purposes by Democratic campaigns and interest groups.”

NRA Breaks Silence on Shootings

December 18, 2012 at 5:29 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The National Rifle Association, breaking days of silence, issued a statement saying it is “shocked, saddened and heartbroken” by the elementary-school shootings in Connecticut and is ready to offer “meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

The group will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C. on Friday

Snyder Vetoes Concealed Weapons Bill

December 18, 2012 at 4:23 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) vetoed legislation that would have allowed gun owners with extra training to carry concealed weapons in public schools, the Detroit News reports.

“The bill sought to eliminate gun-free zones for concealed pistol license holders by requiring more training and prohibiting them from open-carrying weapons inside schools, stadiums, churches and hospitals.”

Is Newtown Obama’s Birmingham Moment?

December 18, 2012 at 3:18 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Todd Purdum: “I can’t help wondering if the bullets of Sandy Hook Elementary will be
for Obama what the snarling dogs and high-pressure fire hoses of
Birmingham, Alabama, were for John F. Kennedy in 1963: the human tragedy
that will force him to take a political risk, simply because it is
right.”

Obama’s Gun Push Takes Shape

December 18, 2012 at 2:41 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Obama “would actively support an impending proposal next year to reinstate a ban on assault weapons as part of the wide-ranging effort the president promised to initiate in response to mass shooting incidents this year,” NBC News reports.

White House press secretary Jay Carney also said that Obama “was additionally willing to consider limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines and closing a loophole allowing individuals to purchase firearms at gun shows without a background check.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) told Greg Sargent that Democrats would also consider “including other ideas like limiting high
capacity magazine clips, beefing up background checks, expanding mental
health services, and looking at violence in movies and video games.”

Marc Ambinder: Guns need good. Starve them.