In an interview on NBC News, David Axelrod criticized Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s comments yesterday that attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital made him “uncomfortable.”
Said Axelrod: “In this particular instance, he was just wrong. There were specific instances here that speak to an economic theory that isn’t the right theory for the country.”
He added: “I love Cory Booker. He’s a great mayor. If my house was on fire, I’d hope he was my next door neighbor.”
“If you have led a productive life, you have to wonder if it’s worth your time being here.”
— Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), quoted by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, in deciding to run for re-election, adding he’s become “more optimistic” the Senate can still work.
Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James (D), who left office in 2006, tells the Bergen Record that “political life after prison is not out of the question.”
In fact, he is “so confident he’ll eventually reverse his 2008 fraud conviction he keeps a campaign fund that currently has $725,000 in it.”
Said James: “It should be remembered that former Mayor Marion Barry of Washington returned home to win reelection and is still serving on the D.C. City Council.”
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A new Sunlight Foundation analysis finds the U.S. Congress speaks at nearly a full grade level lower than it did seven years ago.
“Today’s Congress speaks at about a 10.6 grade level, down from a high of 11.5 in 2005. By comparison, the U.S. Constitution is written at a 17.8 grade level, the Federalist Papers at a 17.1 grade level and the Declaration of Independence at a 15.1 grade level. The Flesch-Kincaid test was used to conduct the analysis, which equates higher-grade levels with longer words and longer sentences.”
Also interesting: “Prior to 2005, Republicans on average spoke at a slightly higher grade
level than Democrats. Since then, Democrats have spoken on average at a
slightly higher grade level than Republicans.”
Politico talked with four former politicians “to hear about their lives, jobs and families — and what lessons they’ve learned from their public downfalls. (Needless to say, none are planning to seek office again.)”
“Their stories reveal that even after a devastating scandal, it is possible to pick up the broken pieces and construct what some say is an even better life, often with the help of forgiveness from the public, family and God. But if there’s one thing from their old lives that some of these ex-politicians say they still miss, it’s the chauffeurs that used to drive them around — one of the many perks of being in office.”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, will host a July fundraiser for Mitt Romney at their home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The event will help the likely Republican nominee tap any donors to former President George W. Bush who remain on the sidelines, while fueling Democratic efforts to tie Romney to President Obama’s predecessor.”
Coming next month: Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power by Bob Ingle and Michael G. Symons.
Joshua Green: “Let’s take only the Obama presidency. Had the filibuster not applied,
the United States would have a market-based system to control carbon
emissions, which would limit the damage from global warming, vitalize
the clean technology sector, and challenge other large polluters like
China and India to do the same. The new health care law would have a
public option. Children of undocumented immigrants who served two years
in the military or went to college could become US citizens. Women paid
less than their male colleagues because of their gender would have
broader legal recourse against their employers. Billionaires would not
be able to manipulate the political system from behind a veil of
anonymity.”
“The question is: do you have another white-bread sandwich and, you know, is it just going to be boring to voters out there? I think that that’s the question with Portman.”
— Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), in a Fox News interview, on why Mitt Romney might not want to pick Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) as his running mate.
David Grann has a must-read piece on William Alexander Morgan, a Midwesterner who helped Fidel Castro rise to power in Cuba.
“In 1957, when Castro was still widely seen as fighting for democracy, Morgan had traveled from Florida to Cuba and headed into the jungle, joining a guerrilla force. In the words of one observer, Morgan was ‘like Holden Caulfield with a machine gun.’ He was the only American in the rebel army and the sole foreigner, other than Guevara, an Argentine, to rise to the army’s highest rank, comandante.”
“After the revolution, Morgan’s role in Cuba aroused even greater fascination, as the island became enmeshed in the larger battle of the Cold War. An American who knew Morgan said that he had served as Castro’s ‘chief cloak-and-dagger man,’ and Time called him Castro’s ‘crafty, U.S.-born double agent.'”
Later, Morgan “was charged with conspiring to overthrow Castro. The Cuban government claimed that Morgan had actually been working for U.S. intelligence — that he was, in effect, a triple agent. Morgan denied the allegations, but even some of his friends wondered who he really was, and why he had come to Cuba.”
Despite headlines showing President Obama’s re-election campaign beating Mitt Romney in the race for campaign dollars, Ken Vogel points out that super PACs, committees and Romney’s campaign have actually outraised the president and his backers $402 million to $340 million.
Politico reports that Democrats and Republicans are increasingly worried about the role Super PACs will play in this year’s presidential election.
“The risk from rogue third-party groups is a potential menace to both Republicans and Democrats. The GOP has seen more super PACs and 501(c)(4) groups form to support its candidates, but there’s nothing to stop an individual liberal gazillionaire from commissioning ads on a subject the Obama campaign doesn’t want to talk about — say, Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith.. Paul Begala, the veteran Democratic operative working with Priorities USA, said the simple reality is ‘candidates and campaigns are no longer masters of their own fate — even their own messaging, on their own side of the fight.'”
McKay Coppins: “If you’ve spent much time consuming conservative media lately, you’ve probably learned about a slow-burning ‘race war’ going on in America today. Sewing together disparate data points and compelling anecdotes like the attack in Norfolk, conservative bloggers and opinion-makers are driving the narrative with increasing frequency. Their message: Black-on-white violence is spiking — and the mainstream media is trying to cover it up.”
Despite criticisms from those in his own party, First Read says President Obama’s campaign isn’t backing down over attacking Mitt Romney’s years at Bain Capital.
“If Romney is going to make his Bain record the central rationale of his candidacy — more so than his four years as Massachusetts governor — and if he’s going to take credit for job gains created under Bain, then it’s only fair to point out examples when Bain-controlled companies took on huge debt, slashed worker pay and benefits, laid off employees and filed for bankruptcy, all while Bain investors made money, they argue.”
“Think of it this way, they say: If a presidential candidate says that the education reforms he enacted as a governor are the centerpiece of his presidential bid, then it would be only fair to examine those reforms. Did they work? How well? Can that experience work at the federal level?”
The campaign released a new video stepping up those attacks.
President Obama’s re-election campaign “is spending about half of what it raises to support a large political infrastructure that includes hundreds of workers and dozens of offices around the country,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“For now, it gives him at least one leg up on Mitt Romney, his presumptive Republican opponent, who still has far less money to spend despite making recent fundraising gains, according to federal filings released Sunday.”
An Associated Press review of campaign finance data found that “only a few hundred donors who contributed to candidates like Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum have changed course and gave to Romney’s campaign or the Republican Party in April. That’s as GOP stalwarts and some former rivals have called on supporters to rally around Romney’s White House run.”
“Out of more than 50,000 donors who gave to
other GOP candidates like Gingrich, Santorum and Texas Gov. Rick Perry
since the start of the nomination race, fewer than 600 appeared to write
checks to Romney in April.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Mitt Romney “might be able to convince” him to serve as his running mate, CNN reports.
Said Christie: “He might be able to convince me. He’s a convincing guy, but I really love this job. I really want to stay in this job.”
He added: “I really have no interest in being vice president, but if Governor Romney calls and asks me to sit down and talk to him about it, I’d listen because I think you owe the nominee of your party that level of respect and who knows what he’s going to say. We’ll wait and see.”
“The long, grueling GOP primary race is over. Now comes a summertime lull the candidates could find just as difficult — not because the schedule is crowded but because it isn’t,” the AP reports.
“It is four months until the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in late August. Democrats hold their convention a week later in Charlotte, N.C. That’s a long time to fill, with no votes that matter, no debates to draw national attention. Voters tend to hibernate politically from the end of the primary season to the start of the conventions.”
That lull “should be a bigger problem” for Mitt Romney than for President Obama. “A challenger must keep stirring up enthusiasm if he hopes to oust an incumbent president.”
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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