Mike Allen: “Gen. David Petraeus has retained superlawyer Robert Barnett of Williams
& Connolly for advice on post-governmental issues, and to assist him
in planning his future. No book is planned. The two had met and talked a
little over the years. Petraeus is facing probes by Capitol Hill, the
Justice Department and the CIA, and now has Barnett’s 250-member firm on
his side.”
The Economist: The questionable legacy of General David Petraeus.
The Economist: “At the most fundamental level, the reason it is absurd to suspect the existence of a ‘cover-up’ over the Benghazi attack is that such a cover-up could not have had any conceivable goal.”
“Back to the beginning: the underlying accusation about Benghazi is that the Obama administration deliberately mischaracterised the terrorist attack there as having grown out of a spontaneous demonstration because that would be less politically damaging. Such a cover-up would have made no sense because the attack would not have been less politically damaging had it grown out of a spontaneous demonstration. The attack on the Benghazi compound would not have been any less politically difficult for the administration if it had grown out of a riot, nor would any normal voter have expected it to be less politically damaging, nor would any normal campaign strategist have expected any normal voter to have expected it to be less politically damaging.”
Rep. David Curson (D-MI) was sworn-in last week to complete the remainder of former Rep. Thad McCotter’s (R-MI) term — but he’ll only be there until the end of the year, the AP reports.
“He was one of four members of the House sworn in this past week to fill a partial term, but he’s the only one who didn’t win a full, two-year term to go with the temporary gig. In January, he’ll drive his truck home and be replaced by Republican Rep.-elect Kerry Bentivolio, whom Curson beat out for the partial term.”
The BBC caught scam call center workers on hidden cameras as they laughed at the people they were tricking.
The BBC caught scam call center workers on hidden cameras as they laughed at the people they were tricking. One worker bragged about making $250k from victims. The disturbing truth? Scammers don’t pick phone numbers at random. They buy your data from brokers.
Once your data is out there, it’s not just calls. It’s phishing, impersonation, and identity theft. That’s why I recommend Incogni: They delete your info from the web, monitor and follow up automatically, and continue to erase data as new risks appear. Try Incogni here and get 55% off your subscription with code POLITICALWIRE.
Note to readers: I use Incogni myself and highly recommend it.
“Oh shit, I’m in the wrong meeting. Where are the Republicans meeting?”
— Rep.-elect Chris Collins (R-NY), quoted by Roll Call, when he found out he was in a House Democratic Caucus meeting.
Just published: The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw.
New York Times: “Kennedyland is terrain notably susceptible to idolatry, hatemongering, whitewash, conspiracy-thinking, sensationalism and other agendas. Nasaw credibly avers that he has taken forensic pains to excise anything that could not be confirmed by primary sources. I am no historian, but the evidence appears to support his claim. His research is Robert Caro-esque; barely a paragraph is not footnoted. And he is unsparing about his subject’s shortcomings, which are numerous.”
Marc Ambinder clarifies some myths that the political elite has been building in the aftermath of the presidential election.
“I’m tired now of the elections. People spoke. Move
on, get on with it. I want to do other things and not to be ugly.”
— Barbara Bush, quoted by Reuters.
Ben Smith: “There appears to be no Romney Republicanism to propagate. No Romney strategy to emulate. No Romney technology to ape. No generation shaped by his failed effort. And no Romney infrastructure to inherit, though he may still be asked to write and bundle quite a few checks…”
“Romney is being erased with record speed from his party’s books for three reasons. First, many Republicans backed him because they thought he had a good chance of winning; that appeal, obviously, is gone. Second, Romney had shallow roots, and few friends, in the national Republican Party. And those shallow roots have allowed Republicans to give him a new role: As a sort of bad partisan bank, freighted with all the generational positions and postures that they are looking to dump.”
The Week: Why Republicans want Mitt Romney to take a hike.
Take part in polls (and possibly win prizes) by joining the Ipsos Survey Panel.
The Economist: “It is a tiring business running a big chunk of the federal government. Mrs Clinton has racked up 918,375 miles on the job visiting 112 countries. Tim Geithner, the treasury secretary, has had to cope with a state of near-perpetual crisis since he took office four years ago. Leon Panetta, the secretary of defense, is running an organization of some 2m people and overseeing the war in Afghanistan at the age of 74. The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives is pursuing a legal battle with Eric Holder, the attorney general, who has ignored some of their subpoenas. All four have signaled, with varying degrees of clarity, that they are ready to move on–leaving vacancies in the four grandest cabinet jobs at the very least.”
Doyle McManus: “It’s not surprising that House conservatives see things their own way. Even if the country as a whole voted for President Obama this month, conservative House members did just fine in their own districts … Of 216 House Republicans who ran for reelection, only 14 were defeated, a mortality rate of just over 6%. Members of the tea party caucus did even better than that; only about 5% were defeated.”
“Which Republicans lost their seats? Moderates and moderate conservatives, disproportionately. Among the incumbents who ran for reelection, 48 were members of a group called the Republican Main Street Partnership, nonradical conservatives who sometimes call themselves ‘center right.’ Seven of those 48 lost their seats — a mortality rate of 15%, more than twice as high as Republicans in general. When you add retirements and other departures, more than a dozen moderate conservatives won’t be coming back next year. Moderate Republicans were an endangered species in Congress even before this year’s election. Now they’re even closer to extinction.”
The Palm Beach Post reports a canvassing board decided to
recount all 37,379 ballots from early voting in the tight congressional
race between Rep. Allen West (R-FL) and Patrick
Murphy (D) after elections officials revealed that 306 ballots had gone uncounted.
Rick Hasen: “Just imagine if the presidential race hinged on Florida. How many
more stories of missing and miscounted ballots would have emerged
(beyond the ones we’ve already heard about) if the fate of the
presidency hinged on the outcome.”
Five days before his re-election bid for district attorney in upstate New York, Mark Suben was adamant he had never appeared in pornographic movies. He told the Syracuse Post-Standard the allegation was part of a smear campaign by his opponent.
Said Suben: “My response to that is, it is simply not true. I did no such thing… This would cost me the election and ruin my career.”
On Friday, Suben admitted he lied, holding off a story long enough to win re-election.
What forced his hand was a Youtube video that identified him as an actor who
went by the name of Gus Thomas and performed in 12 porn movies in the
1970s.
“Some of the groups that would have agreed with us on a lot of issues,
they don’t even look at us. We scare them.”
— Former Rep. Tom Davis
(R-VA), quoted by Politico, offering a blunt assessment of the Republican Party.
Newt Gingrich told Evan Smith that Mitt Romney’s explanation of why he lost the election — by giving “gifts” to minorities and young people — was “insulting and profoundly wrong.”
Said Gingrich: “He had enough billionaire supporters that if buying the electorate was the key, he could have got all of his super PAC friends together and said, ‘Don’t buy ads, give gifts.'”
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told party officials that he will run for a second two-year term in January and already has locked down support from most of the committee, Politico reports.
Moving to preempt any potential challenge, Priebus said he has the support of at least 130 of 168 state chairs and committee members.
The Week has a hilarious video history of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) temper tantrums.
Even though Puerto Rico voted for the first time in favor of statehood, The Economist notes “the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has little incentive to address the topic. According to exit polls, 83% of boricuas on the mainland voted for Barack Obama. Statehood would add two Senate seats and a House delegation of five, the same size as Oregon’s and probably as reliably Democratic.”
“Unless the island holds another vote that yields a different result, however, Puerto Rico has now officially requested statehood. If Democrats retake the House in 2014, they would be well-advised to try to add a 51st star to the flag.”
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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