Mitt Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades hasn’t given a single on-the-record interview this entire cycle, and never goes on television, BuzzFeed reports.

“This determined obscurity is part of the myth of Matt Rhoades, the behind-the-scenes operative successfully steering the Romney campaign down a narrow path to the nomination… Indeed, like a hipster for the blue-blazer-and-loafers set, Rhoades’s political persona is deeply invested in giving the impression that he doesn’t care what you think of him.”

“For a guy who keeps insisting he has no interest in being vice president, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio appears to be feverishly positioning himself for the job,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.

He’s asked the Florida Ethics Commission to “close out a complaint” that he misused campaign money, his PAC spent more than $40,000 for investigators to research for negative attacks that could surface against him, and he announced he is rushing publication of his memoir to this summer which “will help him frame his story before a presumably less-flattering unauthorized biography is released in July and will ensure him waves of publicity before the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August.”

Rick Santorum grew heated and accused a New York Times reporter over the weekend of distorting a statement he made in an earlier speech, yelling “It’s bullshit” to him, ABC News reports.

Here’s the video.

Santorum defended himself on Fox News this morning: “If you haven’t cursed out a New York Times reporter during the course of a campaign, you’re not a real Republican.”

[Read more…]

An interesting exchange between President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev was picked up by microphones as reporters were let into the room at the end of a 90-minute meeting, ABC News reports:

Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.

Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…

Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.

Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

“If Romney wants to diminish Santorum the way Clinton did Brown, he’s going to have to beat him in Pennsylvania,” said Paul Begala, the Democratic strategist who was a top Clinton aide in 1992.”

— Paul Begala, quoted by Politico, looking ahead to the next GOP primary contests.

Walter Shapiro: “Despite Newt Gingrich’s best efforts, it looks like the world is going to have to save itself. A humiliating third-place finish in Saturday’s Louisiana primary should have extinguished the last embers of Gingrich’s wildfire dream of a second-ballot victory at the GOP Convention. Any Newtonian fantasy about stopping Mitt Romney in Tampa requires the former House speaker to continue to accumulate convention delegates. But Gingrich — after winning a combined 9 percent of the vote in Louisiana and the prior Illinois primary — is now in the goose-egg phase of his descent into irrelevance.”

In an explosive resignation letter, a disabled veteran and aide to Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) told the lawmaker that she’d “rather be at war in Afghanistan” than continue working for the congresswoman and accused a senior staff member of engaging in improper political activity on government time, Politico reports.

Brenda Cruz wrote that Richardson and the senior staffer “mistreated her during and after her pregnancy, forcing Cruz to conclude she had to leave the office for her own health and that of her child. More important to a sprawling House Ethics Committee investigation into Richardson, Cruz alleges the congresswoman used her staff for political purposes.”

Jim Romenesko reports 25 news employees of Gannett newspapers in Wisconsin signed petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R).

Green Bay Press-Gazette: “A number of the journalists told their editors they did not consider signing the petition a political act. They equated it to casting a ballot in an election. But we do not make that distinction.”

Rick Santorum is out with an eerie new ad attacking President Obama: “Imagine a small, American town two years from now if Obama is reelected.”

It’s the first of an eight part series from the Santorum campaign.

[Read more…]

Here are the next contests in the Republican presidential primary race:

April 3: District of Columbia, Maryland and Wisconsin

April 24: Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island

The New York Times interviews Sandra Lee, girlfriend of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D):

Q. Chester Arthur was the last president to serve a full term as a single man. People without spouses don’t get elected president anymore. When are you two getting married?

A. That’s a loaded question. Andrew is focused on being governor. He’s not running for president. We’re happy in the relationship the way it is. Still, I can tell you that Andrew’s kids want us to get married. It’s very sweet.

“You know, this Republican primary at some points has been more of a
circus show and a clown show.”

— White House adviser David Plouffe, in a CNN interview.

A new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in California finds Mitt Romney leads Rick Santorum in the GOP presidential race, 42% to 23%, followed by Newt Gingrich at 12% and Ron Paul at 10%.

Key finding: There remains a palpable lack of enthusiasm for the Republican field. Half of GOP voters said they wished other candidates were running for president.

The California primary is on June 5.

The AP reports Rick Santorum “is the winner of the Louisiana Republican presidential primary, defeating GOP front-runner Mitt Romney in yet another conservative Southern state.”

“The Louisiana victory was unlikely to change the overall dynamics of the race. Santorum still dramatically lags Romney — the former Massachusetts governor — in the hunt for delegate to the GOP’s summertime nominating convention. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia was far behind in the Louisiana vote count.”

Politico: “While all of the candidates made stops here this week — including Newt
Gingrich, who stayed in Louisiana for a week — none stuck around to see
the votes get counted.”