“Actually, I don’t know what the hell the larger message is, come to think of it.”
— Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE), quoted by Politico, on the significance of Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of defense.
Obama’s Remade Inner Circle Has an All-Male Look
New York Times: “About 43 percent of Mr. Obama’s appointees have been women, about the same proportion as in the Clinton administration, but up from the roughly one-third appointed by George W. Bush… But Mr. Obama’s recent nominations raised concern that women were being underrepresented at the highest level of government and would be passed over for top positions.”
USA Today: Obama sticks to friends for top posts.
This Town
Out in April: This Town by Mark Leibovich.
The book is described as “a blistering, penetrating, controversial — and often hysterical — look at Washington’s incestuous ‘media industrial complex.'”
Why Obama Isn’t Likely to Mint a $1 Trillion Coin
Megan McArdle: “I think–and I assume the White House does as well–that there’s a substantial risk that this sort of nominally-legal-but-obviously-tendentious reading of the law would trigger a selloff in US bonds. Minting a $1 trillion coin neatly end-runs GOP obstructionists, but only by proving that the president himself has little respect for the institutional restraints on his office. So while the pundit in me is eager to see how this would play out, the US citizen in me is afraid of the effect that this would have on my country. I assume that our president shares these sort of concerns.”
Felix Salmon: “It would effectively mark the demise of the three-branch system of government, by allowing the executive branch to simply steamroller the rights and privileges of the legislative branch. Yes, the legislature is behaving like a bunch of utter morons if they think that driving the US government into default is a good idea. But it’s their right to behave like a bunch of utter morons.”
Rhode Island Likely to Lose a House Seat
“Since 2004, Rhode Island’s population has dropped by more than 24,000 people, an exodus unprecedented in the state’s history,” the Providence Journal reports.
The New York Times notes it’s likely the state will lose a congressional seat in the next redistricting in 2020.
Democrats Re-Establish Lead in Party Affiliation
A new Gallup survey finds “an average of 47% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic in 2012, compared with 42% who identified as or leaned Republican. That re-establishes a Democratic edge in party affiliation after the two parties were essentially tied in 2010 and 2011.”
Tight Race for Virginia Governor
A new Quinnipiac poll in Virginia finds a close race for governor with Terry McAuliffe (D) just edging Ken Cuccinelli (R), 40% to 39%.
With Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling running as an independent, the race stays tight with McAuliffe and Cuccinelli tied at 34% and Bolling at 13%.
A PPP poll yesterday found McAuliffe with a solid lead.
GOP Fever Hasn’t Broken
“Throughout the 2012 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress confidently predicted that the re-election of the president would break the partisan ‘fever’ they claimed had enveloped Washington and the Republican Party,” NBC News reports.
“But the weeks since the election have found Republicans as dogged as ever in their resistance to Obama, whose initiatives – including gun control, immigration reform and efforts to boost renewable energy – still face an uncertain path forward, particularly in an unruly House of Representatives still controlled by a Republican majority. And Republicans are signaling a willingness to go to great lengths to bend coming battles in their favor.”
Politico: “After four-plus years of embittered partisan combat, he views his GOP
bargaining partners with more than a little contempt, and he momentarily
vanquished enemies who just can’t say ‘yes’ to him.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“Unfortunately when the Republican party needs to be a big tent party it seems to me we are doing everything we can to become a pup tent party.”
— Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R), quoted by WTVR-TV.
McAuliffe Stakes Out Early Lead in Virginia
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) leading Ken Cuccinelli (R) in the gubernatorial race, 46% to 41%.
If Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is thrown into the mix as an independent he gets 15%, with McAuliffe’s lead expanding over Cuccinelli to 40% to 32%.
From Montgomery to Memphis
Out next week: King: A Filmed Record… From Montgomery to Memphis.
Christie Up By Huge Margins
A new Fairleigh Dickinson poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie (R) absolutely crushing three potential Democratic challengers.
Christie leads Steven Sweeney (R), 65% to 19%, beats Dick Codey (D), 59% to 26%, and tops Barbara Buono (D), 64% to 21%.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“His jobs package is a hurricane. I guess he prayed a lot and got lucky that a storm came.”
— New Jersey Senate president Stephen Sweeney (D), quoted by the Newark Star Ledger, on Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Hurricane Sandy before saying, “I shouldn’t say that. I apologize for saying that.”
Congress Less Popular Than Cockroaches
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that Congress only has a 9% favorability rating with 85% of voters viewing it unfavorably.
Key finding: That’s less popular than cockroaches, traffic jams, root canals and even Nickelback.
Moderate GOP Group Removes Republican from Name
The Republican Main Street Partnership, a group that has promoted moderate GOP lawmakers and policies, will remove the word “Republican” from its name, Yahoo News reports.
The organization’s board of directors voted to scrap party identification from its title and be known simply as “The Main Street Partnership.”
Quote of the Day
“1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms! It doesn’t matter how many lemmings (mindless followers) you
get out on the street begging for them to have their guns taken! We will
not relinquish them! Do you understand?”
— Radio host Alex Jones, in an unreal interview with Piers Morgan.
Strickland Will Not Run Again for Ohio Governor
Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) announced that he will not seek a 2014 rematch with incumbent Gov. John Kasich (R), the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
“Strickland, who lost a close re-election bid to Kasich in 2010, had been weighing another run for months, hinting strongly at last summer’s Democratic National Convention that he was interested. His statement did not indicate why he decided not to run again, and his spokesman did not immediately return telephone calls.”
U.S. May Default in Just Five Weeks
The federal government “may default on its debt as soon as Feb. 15, half a month earlier than widely expected, according to a new analysis adding urgency to the debate over how to raise the federal debt ceiling,” the Washington Post reports.
“The government hit the $16.4 trillion statutory debt limit on Dec. 31
, but the Treasury Department is able to undertake a number of
accounting schemes to delay when the government runs into funding
problems.”
