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Groups Vow to Push Anti-Union Drive in Other States

December 13, 2012 at 10:04 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Conservative groups “that supported Michigan’s new ‘right to work’ law — winning a stunning victory over unions, even in the heart of American labor — vowed to replicate that success elsewhere,” the Washington Post reports.

“National unions, caught flat-footed in the Wolverine State, pledged
to offer fierce opposition wherever the idea crops up next. They
consider the laws a direct attack on their finances and political clout
at a time when labor influence is already greatly diminished.”

Wonk Wire: Do “right-to-work” laws make sense?

How Republicans Engineered a Big Blow to Unions

December 13, 2012 at 5:25 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“From outside Michigan Republican circles, it appeared that the Republican drive to weaken unions came out of the blue – proposed, passed and signed in a mere six days.”

But Reuters reports the transformation had been in the making since March 2011 when two state senators “first seriously considered legislation to ban mandatory collection of union dues as a condition of employment in Michigan… The upstarts were flirting with the once unthinkable, limiting union rights in a state that is the home of the heavily unionized U.S. auto industry and the birthplace of the nation’s richest union, the United Auto Workers. For many Americans, Michigan is the state that defines organized labor.”

“But in a convergence of methodical planning and patient alliance building — the ‘systematic approach’ — the reformers were on a roll, one that establishment Michigan Republicans came to embrace and promised to bankroll. Republicans executed a plan — the timing, the language of the bills, the media strategy, and perhaps most importantly, the behind-the-scenes lobbying of top Republicans” including Gov. Rick Snyder (R).

Film’s Portrayal of Torture Reopens Debate

December 13, 2012 at 4:34 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Zero Dark Thirty, the new movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, offers an “unflinching portrayal of the Central Intelligence Agency’s brutal interrogation of Al Qaeda prisoners hews close to the official record” including a “gruesome sampling of methods like the near-drowning of waterboarding,” the New York Times reports.

“What has already divided the critics, journalists and activists who have watched early screenings is a more subtle issue: the suggestion that the calculated infliction of pain and fear, graphically shown in the first 45 minutes of the film, may have produced useful early clues in the quest to find the terrorist leader, who was killed in May 2011.”

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Republicans Have Run Out of White Voters

December 12, 2012 at 4:34 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

GOP pollster Whit Ayres and the Hispanic Leadership Network’s Jennifer Korn released a strategy memo saying that Republicans risk becoming a “regional party” if they don’t increase support among Hispanic voters.

“Mitt Romney won a landslide among white voters, defeating Barack Obama by 59 to 39 percent. In the process he won every large segment of white voters, often by double-digit margins: white men, white women, white Catholics, white Protestants, white old people, white young people. Yet that was not enough to craft a national majority. Republicans have run out of persuadable white voters. For the fifth time in the past six presidential elections, Republicans lost the popular vote. Trying to win a national election by gaining a larger and larger share of a smaller and smaller portion of the electorate is a losing political proposition.”

Illegal Immigrant Sex Offender Worked for Senator

December 12, 2012 at 2:49 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) employed as an unpaid intern in his Senate office an illegal immigrant who was a registered sex offender, now under arrest by immigration authorities, the AP reports.

The Homeland Security Department instructed federal agents not to arrest him until after Election Day.

Fed Extends Efforts to Jump Start Economy

December 12, 2012 at 2:46 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Federal Reserve “refashioned its bond-buying programs, extending its far-reaching effort to revitalize the jobs market and boost the economic recovery into 2013,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“In addition, the Fed shifted its communications strategy by specifying the levels of unemployment and inflation that might prompt it to begin raising short-term interest rates, which are now near zero.”

Wonk Wire has more details and reaction.

Judge Declares Mistrial in Cahill Corruption Case

December 12, 2012 at 2:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The jury in the corruption trial of former Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy Cahill (I) declared themselves deadlocked, leading the judge to declare a mistrial in the case that was the first test of a 2009 law that criminalized what was once considered unethical conduct by public officials, the Boston Globe reports.

Christie Says He’s Not Too Fat to be President

December 12, 2012 at 2:20 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) told ABC News that even though he is “more than a little” overweight, it’s “ridiculous” to think that he is too heavy to be president of the United States.

Said Christie: “I’ve done this job pretty well. I think people watched me for the last number of weeks during Hurricane Sandy doing 18-hour days and getting back up the next day and still being just as effective in the job, so i don’t think that will be a problem.”

Large Majority Want Fiscal Cliff Compromise

December 12, 2012 at 2:10 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds nearly two-thirds of Americans say they favor a balanced deal to reduce the deficit — consisting of both higher tax rates and cuts to key entitlement programs.

Key findings: 65% say congressional leaders should make compromises to deal with the budget deficit, even if that means Democrats would need to accept targeted spending cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and that Republicans would need to accept targeted increases in tax rates.

That includes 68% of Democrats, 66% of Republicans and 56% of political independents who support this position.

Tips for Surviving Crisis

December 12, 2012 at 1:27 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ron Fournier has an interesting review of Masters of Disaster by Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani, two political strategists who helped Bill Clinton survive Whitewater, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and impeachment.

He notes: “I covered the Clinton White House and frequently dealt with both Lehane and Fabiani. While we had our share of tussles, I benefited from their strategy to selectively leak information, at times damaging to Clinton. The tactic gave them some measure of control over the story (when it would break and what reporter would cover it) and, according to their book, generated for their client the single most important commodity in a crisis: trust.”

Disaster Awaits Republicans at Bottom of Fiscal Cliff

December 12, 2012 at 12:22 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Noam Scheiber says President Obama should let Republicans takes us over the fiscal cliff.

“They will see that they have been completely repudiated by the public in a way that even the election didn’t impress on them. It will, in other words, be as close as you get in politics to a total victory for one side. It will highlight the perils of following one’s base too slavishly, a lesson that will come in handy not just on future fiscal policy fights (there will in all likelihood still be a debt ceiling to raise next year), but, one can imagine, also on an issue like immigration. Which is to say, it’s only by forcing the GOP off the cliff that Obama will find the space he needs to govern.”

Andrew Sullivan: “Unless his strategy permanently embitters them and prompts them to use the debt ceiling – once again – as a cudgel.”

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

December 12, 2012 at 12:16 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The president and his allies have taken so many things off the table
the only thing left is the varnish.”

— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by The Hill, on the fiscal cliff negotiations.

Bonus Quote of the Day

December 12, 2012 at 12:01 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I really don’t believe that’s something I will do again.”

— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview with ABC News, once again downplaying speculation that she’ll run for president in 2016.

Fiscal Cliff Talks May Extend Past Christmas

December 12, 2012 at 11:20 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Republican leaders warned their members they may have to return to Washington after Christmas, claiming that “serious differences” remained in negotiations to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” according to The Hill.

Meanwhile, TPM reports that Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) thinks House Speaker John Boehner may be waiting until he’s re-elected Speaker when he’ll have greater flexibility to cut a deal.

Said Van Hollen: “I’m getting increasingly concerned that one of the reasons the Speaker is deciding to, I think, string out these discussions is that he wants to wait til January 3 when the election for Speaker takes place and he’s concerned that any agreement he reaches if it violated the so-called Hastert Rule could undermine support for him in his caucus and make it more difficult on January 3.”

Lie of the Year

December 12, 2012 at 9:48 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politifact gives the award to Mitt Romney.

“It was a lie told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a
close campaign — that Jeep was moving its U.S. production to China. It
originated with a conservative blogger, who twisted an accurate news
story into a falsehood. Then it picked up steam when the Drudge Report
ran with it. Even though Jeep’s parent company gave a quick and clear
denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.”

“And they stood by the claim, even as the media and the public expressed
collective outrage against something so obviously false.”

What’s Next for Labor in Michigan?

December 12, 2012 at 9:16 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Organized labor and its allies essentially have two options to overturn the state’s new “right-to-work” law signed yesterday by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R).

First Read: “First, they have filed legal actions charging that the process violated the state’s Open Meetings Act… Second, critics say they could overturn it by passing a voter-initiated law, which would require getting 258,000 signatures to get on the ballot. And, of course, there’s 2014, when Snyder is up for re-election.”

Fox News: Snyder braces for union backlash.

Romney Spent More on Ads But Got Less

December 12, 2012 at 9:12 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Obama and his allies spent less on advertising than Romney and his allies but got far more — in the number of ads broadcast, in visibility in key markets and in targeting critical demographic groups, such as the working class and younger voters in swing states. As the presidential race entered its final, furious phase, for example, millions of college football fans tuning in to televised games saw repeated ads for Obama but relatively few from the Romney campaign.”

Esquire: Republicans still can’t grasp why they lost.

Jackson’s Wife Will Not Run

December 12, 2012 at 9:06 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sandi Jackson, wife of recently resigned Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr (D-IL), told the Chicago Tribune that she will not run for her husband’s former seat.

Said Jackson: “No. I am not a candidate for Congress. I intend to remain an alderman.”

Jackson also said “she is undecided about whether to move back to Chicago full time from Washington, where she said her husband currently is staying with the couple’s children while continuing to see his doctors regularly.”