After six budget showdowns, Wonk Wire notes the size of the federal government has barely budged.
Ginsburg Vows to Stay on Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the New York Times she would stay on the Supreme Court as long as her health and intellect remained strong, saying she was fully engaged in her work as the leader of the liberal opposition on what she called “one of the most activist courts in history.”
“She said repeatedly that the identity of the president who would appoint her replacement did not figure in her retirement planning.”
A History of Conspiracy Theories
Just out: The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory by Jesse Walker.
“A comprehensive history of conspiracy theories in American culture and politics, from the colonial era to the War on Terror.”
Candidate for San Diego Mayor Has Alleged Sex Issues
Carl DeMaio (R), a potential candidate to succeed disgraced San Diego mayor Bob Filner (D), has been caught openly masturbating in restrooms on multiple occasions, according to Voice of OC.
“In the months before last November’s mayoral election, Ben Hueso, the City Council’s president in 2009, acknowledged to this reporter that he witnessed DeMaio engaging in the practice twice. Hueso, now a Democratic state senator, and others suspected DeMaio’s alleged inappropriate activity was more frequent.”
Quote of the Day
“We’re stuck with him.”
— Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), quoted by the Salt Lake Tribune, telling constituents it was not going to be possible to impeach President Obama.
Iowa GOP Fears Its Role in Presidential Selection Is Diminishing
New York Times: “On the surface, Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses seem healthier than ever: would-be candidates are flocking here mere months after the last White House race ended, drawing sizable crowds and ample news coverage… But Iowa’s political leaders, always looking ahead to the next campaign, worry that looks can be deceiving and that the prized role of the Republican caucuses is in jeopardy. Establishment Republicans fear that conservatives have become such a dominant force in the nominating process here that they may drive mainstream presidential candidates away.”
“That would relegate the caucuses to little more than a test of the party’s right-wing sentiment, and would do little to identify and propel the eventual nominee.”
Clinton Ramps Up Fundraising for Foundation
Washington Post: “The Clintons are in fundraising mode again… But this current quest for cash, which shifts into high gear this fall, is not to fund a run for political office. It is to boost the financial standing of the newly rechristened Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.”
“As he contemplates his legacy, former president Bill Clinton is trying to build an endowment with the declared goal of $200 million to $250 million to ensure that the charitable foundation he started lives on after his death.”
“While this fundraising push is philanthropic in nature, there are political implications. There is an unspoken deadline, for example. Clinton insiders said they hope the endowment drive will be completed ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign so that if Hillary Clinton chooses to run, the foundation fundraising would not distract from her campaign.”
Cruz Admits Tough Odds to Defund Obamacare
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said it would take a political “tsunami” of grassroots pressure to win his fight to defund President Obama’s healthcare law in the coming budget showdown, The Hill reports.
Said Cruz: “It is going to take a tsunami, and I am going to do everything I can to encourage that tsunami.”
Little Support for Military Intervention in Syria
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria’s civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria’s government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed.
Key findings: About 60% surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria’s civil war, while just 9% thought President Obama should act.
The Reselling of President Obama
Out next month: The Message: The Reselling of President Obama by Richard Wolffe.
“At the start of an epic election, the team trying to reelect President Obama faced a mountain of challenges: a dismal economy, the faded hopes of the first campaign, and a struggle to raise enough cash to compete. No president had risen so fast, or fallen so far, in the modern era. And no president in living memory had earned a second term in such troubled times. To resell the president, they needed to redefine the world they were living in. They needed to retell their own story and rewrite the characters.”
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Republicans Dream of Impeaching Obama
New York Times: “At least two other House Republicans told voters this month that the impeachment process could happen… There is also a grass-roots movement in which citizens across the nation have been hanging signs on overpasses that call for impeachment.”
“The lawmakers have not laid out any specific charges of high crimes and misdemeanors against Mr. Obama, though the health care law and I.R.S. scrutiny of applications by conservative groups for nonprofit status seem to be among the motivating factors.”
The Campaign Managers Look at 2012
In paperback: Campaign for President: The Managers Look at 2012 from the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.
I was an observer at this conference and it was awesome.
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Filner Finally Agrees to Step Down
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner announced his resignation “following a tumultuous six weeks in which lurid allegations of repeated sexual misconduct against women crippled his ability to lead and turned him into a subject of national ridicule,” the San Diego Union Tribune reports.
“In a dramatic appearance before the council, Filner apologized to his few remaining supporters and the women he offended while at the same remaining defiant that he did nothing wrong.”
Said Filner: “In a lynch-mob mentality, rumors become allegations, allegations become facts, facts become evidence of sexual harassment, which have led to demands for my resignation and recall. Not one allegation … has even been independently verified or proven in court. I have never sexually harassed anyone.”
The Senate Math
The Cook Political Report has a must-see chart that shows how the race for
Senate in 2014 is shaping up.
Assessing Bernanke
Wonk Wire: Is Ben Bernanke the best Fed chairman ever?
The Weakest Generation?
Dana Millbank: “Certainly, there are young leaders serving in the capital who are as enlightened as those of any previous generation, just as there are volunteer warriors fighting for America as bravely as any conscript ever did. But as a whole, my generation, untested by trial, is squandering American greatness by turning routine give-and-take into warfare.”
“Tom Brokaw justifiably called the cohort that survived the Great Depression and fought the World War II the greatest generation. I’m afraid that my generation will someday be called the weakest.”
Filner’s Ex-Fiancee Speaks Out
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s ex-fiancee Bronwyn Ingram told CBS News that Filner’s sexual harassment was all about power.
Said Ingram: “I don’t think it has anything to do with sex or love. I think it has to do with power and control, so of course, it feels awful, it feels horrible. Like any woman would feel if the person she thought she had an exclusive relationship with isn’t behaving the same way. It’s very hurtful.”
What’s Next for San Diego?
If Mayor Bob Filner (D) does step down, as expected, “an all-party primary would be held within 90 days of his resignation, with a runoff between the top-two vote-getters to follow within another 45 days,” NBC News reports.
“The biggest question with implications for local and national politics is what Republican Carl DeMaio will do: continue his campaign for Congress against freshman Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, or jump into an abbreviated special election for the mayor’s job that he came close to winning last November?”
“The possibility of DeMaio jumping to a mayoral special election is something that’s worried GOP strategists ever since it became clear that Mayor Filner’s job might suddenly become available. Both parties see the district — which voted just 52% for President Obama in 2012 — as up for grabs.”
