Political Wire

Margaret Thatcher Dies

April 8, 2013 at 8:05 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister who became one of the most influential global leaders of the postwar period, died Monday, three decades after her championing of free-market economics and individual choice transformed Britain’s economy and her vigorous foreign policy played a key role in the end of the Cold War.”

The Week has a great round up of coverage.

First Read: “It’s rare for a foreign to leader to be beloved by some many in the
United States, but Thatcher was — especially among conservatives. If
Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan are the founding fathers of modern
conservatism, then Margaret Thatcher is its founding mother. Thatcher
also set the template for tough-as-nails female world leaders.”

Why It’s Hard for Obama to Push His Agenda

April 8, 2013 at 7:10 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The days ahead could be decisive ones for the main pieces of President Obama’s second-term agenda: long-range deficit reduction, gun safety and changes to immigration law,” the New York Times reports.

“Members of both parties say Mr. Obama faces a conundrum with his legislative approach to a deeply polarized Congress. In the past, when he has stayed aloof from legislative action, Republicans and others have accused him of a lack of leadership; when he has gotten involved, they have complained that they could not support any bill so closely identified with Mr. Obama without risking the contempt of conservative voters.”

Politico: “The window for action on these issues will start to close as the 2014 midterm election cycle whips into full swing at the end of the year. After that, the next Congress figures to be colored by partisan posturing for the 2016 presidential election.”

The Boring Sequester

April 8, 2013 at 7:04 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jon Favreau: “From the outset, Washington never treated the sequester with the seriousness it deserves. And really, who would have expected otherwise? The word is a verb being used as a noun to describe $85 billion in defense and domestic discretionary cuts to the federal budget. I almost fell asleep just writing that sentence.”

“Much of the political press lost interest in covering the substance of
policy debates late last century, so it wasn’t too surprising that by
February, some reporters were bitterly tweeting about how particularly
boring they found this sequester business.”

Prospects for Gun Control Improve

April 8, 2013 at 6:16 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Prospects for a bipartisan deal to expand federal background checks for gun purchases are improving with the emergence of fresh Republican support,” the Washington Post reports.

“The possibility that after weeks of stalled negotiations senators might be on the cusp of a breakthrough comes as President Obama and his top surrogates will begin on Monday their most aggressive push yet to rally Americans around his gun-control agenda.”

Politico says Obama “finds out this week whether he scratches out a narrow victory on gun control — or ends up with nothing at all.”

But Roll Call notes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) may be in no hurry to push for a vote.

Immigration Bill Expected This Week

April 8, 2013 at 6:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that a bipartisan group of eight senators is “on track” to introduce comprehensive immigration legislation by the end of this week, despite recent “kerfuffles” in its negotiations and competing items on the congressional agenda, Roll Call reports.

But the Washington Post reports that Republican members “expressed skepticism” about that timetable.

“The timetable is important because President Obama has called for a comprehensive immigration reform measure that could be approved by the Senate and House in time for him to sign it into law by the end of the year. Under the timetable eyed by the Senate group, whose proposal is expected to be the template for a potential deal, the legislation would be introduced in the Judiciary Committee this month for the amendment process.”

Politico has five things to watch in the immigration debate.

Newtown Families Speak Out

April 7, 2013 at 8:52 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Families of the Newtown massacre victims were interviewed on 60 Minutes segment ahead of efforts to push for new gun control legislation in Washington, D.C.

[Read more…]

The Republican Party is Broken

April 7, 2013 at 8:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Bernstein: “I think the emphasis on partisan polarization is misplaced. There’s nothing about strong partisanship that makes effective government in the U.S. impossible… Indeed: I suspect the game theorists might actually find that it should be easier for two well-organized parties to cut those deals, even if their ideal points are quite distant, than it would be to reach a deal between unstructured, factionalized parties, even if there are no extremists among them… And yet: dysfunction, crises, threats of shutdown and irrational outcomes no one claims to want.”

“My conclusion? It’s not partisanship. It’s not polarization. It’s not even extremism. It’s the Republican Party. The GOP is broken.”

Wonk Wire looks at a new paper on political dysfunction from Rick Hasen.

Bonus Quote of the Day

April 7, 2013 at 6:23 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democrats don’t want to fight; they just want to get behind Hillary and go on from there.”

— James Carville, quoted by Maureen Dowd.

Most Politicians Survive Scandals

April 7, 2013 at 5:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Scott Bassinger finds that of the more than 250 members of the House of
Representatives have been involved in various scandals since Watergate, roughly 40% did not “survive” their scandal.

“Incumbents who stood for
reelection
lost 5 percent of the general election vote share,
on average, but the electoral repercussions vary across types of
scandals
and could be magnified in the presence of a quality
challenger. A scandal-tainted incumbent defending his or her seat does
not necessarily fare better than an untainted
open-seat candidate, a finding that provides a justification for
stronger ethics
rules.”

Former Baucus Aides Cash In

April 7, 2013 at 5:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “To make their case as Congress prepares to debate a rewrite of the nation’s tax code, this diverse set of businesses has at least one strategy in common: they have retained firms that employ lobbyists who are former aides to Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which will have a crucial role in shaping any legislation.”

“No other lawmaker on Capitol Hill has such a sizable constellation of former aides working as tax lobbyists, representing blue-chip clients that include telecommunications businesses, oil companies, retailers and financial firms… At least 28 aides who have worked for Mr. Baucus, Democrat of Montana, since he became the committee chairman in 2001 have lobbied on tax issues during the Obama administration — more than any other current member of Congress.”

How Texas Became Texas

April 7, 2013 at 4:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Just published: Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right: What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas by Erica Grieder.

New York Times: “As a Texas-raised journalist, I can tell you two things with confidence about my native state. One, its economy has been humming nicely for years. Two, this appears to greatly offend a certain breed of Northern writer, several of whom have descended on the state in an attempt to rebut stories of a ‘Texas miracle.'”

The Senate as a Social Network

April 7, 2013 at 11:11 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Chris Wilson: “To find out how united or divided both Republicans and Democrats are in the current senate, I started with a simple concept: For every member, I calculated which other senators voted the same way at least 75 percent of the time. In effect, this organizes the senate as a mini-Facebook of 100 users, in which any given pair of senators are friends if they meet this 75-percent threshold. When visualized, the picture looks like the final stages of cell division when a Paramecium reproduces, in which a formerly unified body has nearly split into two distinct creatures.”

Quote of the Day

April 7, 2013 at 11:09 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Running for president is like sex. No one ever did it once and forgot about it.”

— James Carville, quoted by Maureen Dowd.

Democrats Hold Near Lock on Electoral College

April 7, 2013 at 11:06 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mike Murphy: “The GOP’s greatest challenge is the fact that Democrats begin each presidential election with a near lock on the Electoral College. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have given their electoral votes to the Democratic presidential nominee in at least five out of the last six elections. These states represent 257 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to win the presidency. Under current trends, the GOP nominee has to pull the equivalent of drawing an inside straight in poker to get to the White House.”

Lawmaker Recommends Bullet Proof Vests

April 7, 2013 at 9:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Arizona state Rep. Bob Thorpe (R) sent an email to colleagues “inviting them to an event at the State Capitol to learn about tactical vests,” KNXV-TV reports.

Thorpe wrote that the purpose of the event is “to inform our members about the costs and options for those wishing to purchase a vest for personal use, for example at town halls, parades and other events.”

Top Clinton Aide Advising Super PAC

April 7, 2013 at 9:04 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Harold Ickes, a top Democratic fundraiser and confidant of Bill and Hillary Clinton for more than two decades, told the London Sunday Times he is advising a new “Ready for Hillary” super PAC laying the foundations for a possible 2016 presidential bid by the former secretary of state.

Ickes said that he had held conversations with wealthy Clinton donors that have been “totally informal and have no direct relationship with Mrs Clinton” or her husband.

James Carville is backing the same group.

How the Drone War Started

April 7, 2013 at 9:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The New York Times reports on a secret deal in which the CIA agreed to kill a Pakistani enemy “in exchange for access to airspace it had long sought so it could use drones to hunt down its own enemies.”

“That back-room bargain, described in detail for the first time in interviews with more than a dozen officials in Pakistan and the United States, is critical to understanding the origins of a covert drone war that began under the Bush administration, was embraced and expanded by President Obama, and is now the subject of fierce debate. The deal, a month after a blistering internal report about abuses in the C.I.A.’s network of secret prisons, paved the way for the C.I.A. to change its focus from capturing terrorists to killing them, and helped transform an agency that began as a cold war espionage service into a paramilitary organization.”

Democrats Recruit Problem Solvers for House Races