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Obama Invites Republicans to Dinner

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President Obama has invited a group of Republican senators to the
White House for dinner tonight, a source familiar with the
event confirmed to CNN.

Roll Call notes Obama “in recent days has called a handful of rank-and-file Republicans.”

First Read: “In other words, he’s going around the Republican leadership to build relationships to get things passed. You aren’t going to get Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn to vote for your initiatives, but perhaps it’s possible to get a Lindsey Graham or Lamar Alexander. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush went around leadership all the time to find Democrats they could work with. Obama, on the other hand, has always tried to work with the GOP leadership.”

Booker Will Wait to Make Announcement

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Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) confirmed to BuzzFeed that he would not make his bid for U.S. Senate official until after the New Jersey gubernatorial race this fall.

“Although Booker has since started to campaign — he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee in January, and he is headed later this month to a fundraiser in Florida in support of his Senate bid — he has declined to say definitively that he will be a Senate candidate, despite a universal acknowledgement that his candidacy is all but certain.”

Boehner Pledges to Stick to Hastert Rule

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Speaker John Boehner sought to assure his conference that the “Hastert rule” is still regular practice, Roll Call reports.

“Republicans breached the rule — under which the speaker only brings forward bills that enjoy support from the ‘majority of the majority’ — last week when a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act passed with a majority of Democratic votes. Of three major bills passed this session, two have passed in violation of the rule. The House passed the fiscal-cliff deal Jan. 1 despite the rule as well.”

Congress Starts Work on a Budget

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“After two years of chaotic fiscal clashes, Congress on Wednesday will begin a more orderly process to get the nation’s finances in order – or at least to keep the government open,” the New York Times reports.

“The so-called regular order on the federal budget still holds little promise of resolving the long-term federal debt or partisan divide. But it will look more like a typical bit of Congressional business and less like a deadline-driven manufactured crisis.”

Former GOP Lawmaker Slams Boehner

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National Journal reports that disgraced former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) makes dramatic accusations against Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in his new memoir, Sideswiped.

Writes Ney: “If the Justice Department were ever to make John produce receipts for his addiction to golf just for the years from 1995 to 2004, he would be hard-pressed to comply. John got away with more than any other Member on the Hill.”

Hugo Chavez is Dead

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died, CNN reports.

The announcement came hours after Vice President Nicolas Maduro met with the country’s top political and military leaders about Chavez’s worsening health condition and suggested someone may have deliberately infected Chavez with cancer.

Wall Street Journal: “Chavez led the country virtually as a one-man show for 14 years. Just months into his fourth term, his death plunges Venezuela into political uncertainty.”

Dealing with Bush

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Samuel Goldman: “It takes a long time for political parties to recover from defeat. Since winning suggests that they’re doing something right, it takes even longer to recover from victory. Because it reassured Republicans that aggressive war, fiscal policies that favor the rich, and the ideologically-inspired transformation of beloved domestic programs were fundamentally popular, the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004 was like a drug that relieves symptoms without treating the underlying disease. Conservative intellectuals must help the GOP break its dependence on these dangerous nostrums — and its continuing allegiance to the doctor who prescribed them.”

Bush Quietly Lays Groundwork for Campaign

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BuzzFeed: “If Jeb Bush decides to convert his media tour into a presidential bid in a couple years, he won’t have to look far for a campaign staff: The well-funded education foundation he runs out his office in a Miami hotel is stacked with former political operatives, a large communications team, and a rapidly growing staff whose work stretches into 40 states.”

“It is common practice for undeclared presidential candidates to build a campaign infrastructure under the guise of a political action committee, but Bush appears to be laying the groundwork for a potential campaign through his foundation.”

Brennan Clears Hurdle After White House Concession

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The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 12 to 3 to confirm John Brennan as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, “hours after the White House agreed to provide more information on the legal basis for targeted killings of Americans believed to pose a terrorist threat,” the New York Times reports.

“The vote, in a closed committee meeting, clears the way for Mr. Brennan, a 25-year C.I.A. veteran who has been President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, to be confirmed by the full Senate later this week.”

Lawmakers Think Voters are More Conservative

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A fascinating new study finds that politicians significantly overestimate the conservatism of their constituents on several key issues, including universal health care and same-sex marriage, the Huffington Post reports.

For example, a survey of voters found they supported gay marriage and universal health care by 10 percentage points more than their own politicians had estimated in a separate survey. For conservative politicians, the spread was near 20 percentage points.

The authors conclude: “Most politicians appear to believe they are representing constituents who are considerably different than their actual constituents.”

Lawmaker Worries Divorce Makes Girls Promiscuous

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Seven Republicans in the Iowa House are pushing a bill to prohibit parents of minor children from getting a “no fault” divorce, Radio Iowa reports.

Rep. Tedd Gassman (R) explained the issue is “near and dear” to his heart because his daughter and son-in-law recently divorced, putting his granddaughter at risk.

Said Gassman: “There’s a 16-year-old girl in this whole mix now. Guess what? What are the possibilities of her being more promiscuous? What are the possibilities of all these other things surrounding her life that a 16-year-old girl, with hormones raging, can get herself into?”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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.

Praise for Political Wire

“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”

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— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

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— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

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— 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.