Become a member. Already a member? Log in.
“See, one of the things we’re going to do, we’re going to change part of the Republican Party. They’re wrong on too many issues. I mean, you know, you gotta realize, they gotta realize we’re in the 21st century.”
— Massachusetts Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez (R), quoted by WBUR-TV, running against his own party.
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi convicted in sex-for-hire trial and sentenced to 7 years and barred from office, the AP reports.
BuzzFeed: “Earlier this month on June 10th the New York Times inadvertently briefly posted an article on the lives of the women involved in Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal… It was quickly deleted before being replaced with a production note:”
“But while the story was deleted from the Times website, large portions of it remained cached by the search engine Google. By looking at search result listings in a series of more than a hundred searches in Google News, it was possible to reconstruct what appears to be the bulk of the article — 1,342 words.”
Sarah Palin ripped into Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and his immigration reform proposal, the Sunshine State News reports.
Said Palin: “Just like they did with Obamacare, some in Congress intend to ‘Pelosi’ the amnesty bill. They’ll pass it in order to find out what’s in it. And just like the unpopular, unaffordable Obamacare disaster, this pandering, rewarding-the-rule-breakers, still-no-border-security, special-interests-ridden, 24-pound disaster of a bill is not supported by informed Americans.”
“Palin promised to make immigration a major issue in the 2014 election cycle, comparing it to 2010 when the tea party movement helped propel Republican gains as Americans rallied against President Barack Obama’s federal health-care law.”
The Supreme Court “has sent a Texas case on race-based college admissions back to a lower court for another look,” the AP reports.
“The court’s 7-1 decision Monday leaves unsettled many of the basic questions about the continued use of race as a factor in college admissions. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, says a federal appeals court needs to subject the University of Texas admission plan to the highest level of judicial scrutiny.”
Wonk Wire will round up reaction.
Decisions on marriage equality cases and the Voting Rights Act were not announced but could come tomorrow.
Chris Frates:
“GOP lawmakers, strategists, and insiders say Boehner and House
leadership are enabling foot-in-mouth disease by allowing divisive
social issues to reemerge at a time when Republicans were finally
winning the daily messaging war against a controversy-plagued White
House.”
The Supreme Court “agreed to decide the scope of a president’s constitutional authority to make recess appointments, a power that Democratic and Republican administrations have used for decades to install nominees without Senate confirmation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The justices agreed to consider an appeal by the Obama administration, which is seeking to overturn a lower-court ruling that invalidated President Obama’s use of recess appointments to fill vacancies at the National Labor Relations Board.”
Though she has laid the ground work for her 2014 re-election bid, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) “stopped short of committing to a run to keep the governor’s mansion next year,” the Florence Morning News reports.
“With a husband currently deployed in Afghanistan and two small children, she said if it’s bad for the Haley family, she won’t seek re-election.”
Said Haley: “If we look and it’s too much on the family, I could absolutely see (not running again).”
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said that “he’s sorry if anyone was offended by his crude sexual remark a day earlier about a Democratic leader in the state Senate,” the Kennebec Journal reports.
“The Republican governor, in impromptu comments to reporters outside his office, also said he is considering abandoning his re-election bid in 2014 and running instead for Congress.”
David Hawkings: “A four-day weekend for the House is affording GOP leaders extra time to go over the long list of lessons they were retaught by the farm bill’s catatonic collapse. Perhaps the most obvious and the most important among them: If you’ve got the votes, then vote. If you don’t, bide your time. But be sure you can count well enough to know the difference.”
“Forgetting this one lesson next time, on the immigration bill, will almost surely prove fatal to the most sweeping domestic policy overhaul of this decade. It will very likely lead to the dismissal of all three men at the helm of the majority caucus. And it could well poison the Republican Party for years in the eyes of the nation’s fastest-expanding demographic group.”
“Ben Quayle, who lost re-election to Congress last year, is joining a law firm with Republican ties and doesn’t plan to run again in 2014,” the Arizona Republic reports.
“Quayle, the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, could have taken up a midterm battle against freshman U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in her metro Phoenix district. But he said he is focusing on work instead, while still staying involved in policy matters on the side. Several other Republicans have already started campaigning for Sinema’s seat.”
A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds Sen. Marco Rubio’s favorabilty in free fall among Republican voters.
While the poll found Rubio with a 58% favorability rating, it’s down 10 points from May and down 15 points from February.
A new Urban Institute study finds the net worth of today’s 30-somethings — adjusted for inflation — is down 21% from what 30-somethings enjoyed in 1983, CBS News reports.
A new Pew/USA Today poll
finds substantial support for immigration reform — 71% think undocumented
immigrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S but by a 49% to 43% margin people are split on when they should
be allowed to apply – while border security improvements are being made or when they are actually implemented.
Wonk Wire: Why more border security won’t work.
“I’m confident I’m going to win. But as a famous general once said in World War II, I shall return.”
— Gabriel Gomez (R), quoted by The Hill, hinting at another bid if he loses tomorrow’s special election in Massachusetts.
National Journal: “Advocates of immigration reform, who once hoped to have a bill on President Obama’s desk before Congress leaves for their annual August recess, should be nervously checking the calendar. If the House and Senate adjourn before a bill is finished, members will begin feeling pressure, especially from conservative critics who think the bill amounts to little more than amnesty.”
“Immigration reform backers need only recall four years ago, when the August recess gave rise to scenes of angry protests at town hall meetings across the country, protests that effectively ended any hope Democrats had of winning Republican support for comprehensive health care reform.”
Even though not a single poll has shown Gabriel Gomez (R) ahead in the Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election, his aides — many of whom worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign — “are still predicting a shocker, saying low-turnout special elections are notoriously unpredictable,” Politico reports.
“West Virginia was last in the nation in voter turnout in November, the only state where less than half of eligible voters voted,” the Charleston Gazette reports.
“Young West Virginians in particular lagged behind. Less than 23 percent of 18- to 24-year olds voted in West Virginia, the worst voting record of any age group in any state in the country.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.