Political Wire

GOP Consultants Plot New Tech Infrastructure

March 4, 2013 at 7:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Time reports on a group of Republicans consultants who believe the the conservative movement does not have what liberals have: “An infrastructure to train and nurture the next generation of campaign operatives and develop cutting-edge techniques. So they decided to take a shot at filling the void, by developing a proposal for a suite of new outside groups that would mimic, and eventually outpace, Democratic efforts.”

“The first part of that ecosystem, for which incorporation papers were filed last week, will be called the Empower Action Group. It is envisioned as a conservative answer to the New Organizing Institute, a place for training and connecting young conservative talent. It will aim to increase the ranks of people with digital, data and organizing know-how working for the GOP.”

Obama Moves to Remake Judiciary

March 4, 2013 at 6:54 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Obama “is moving quickly to change the face of the federal judiciary by the end of his second term, setting the stage for another series of drawn-out confrontations with Republicans in Congress,” the Washington Post reports.

“The president has named three dozen judicial candidates since January and is expected to nominate scores more over the next few months, aides said. The push marks a significant departure from the sluggish pace of appointments throughout much of his first term, when both Republicans and some Democrats complained that Obama had not tried hard enough to fill vacancies on federal courts.”

“The new wave of nominations is part of an effort by Obama to cement a legacy that long outlives his presidency and makes the court system more closely resemble the changing society it governs.”

Obama to Make Picks for EPA and Energy

March 4, 2013 at 6:48 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Obama will nominate EPA air chief Gina McCarthy as the agency’s next administrator and MIT physicist Ernest Moniz to take over the Energy Department, Politico reports.

“The long-anticipated announcements will place McCarthy and Moniz in crucial roles in Obama’s agenda to tackle climate change while building an economy based on green energy, yet taking advantage of a boom in domestic production of oil and natural gas.”

Maldonado Weighs Bid for California Governor

March 4, 2013 at 6:13 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado (R) told the San Francisco Chronicle he is “seriously considering” a 2014 run for governor against incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown (D).

Obama Taps Burwell for Budget Chief

March 3, 2013 at 7:52 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Obama will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell as his next budget director, the AP reports.

Burwell served as OMB’s deputy director in the Clinton administration and chief of staff to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

March 3, 2013 at 7:02 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I look at what’s happening right now, I wish I were there. It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing
what needs to be done.”

— Mitt Romney, in an interview on Fox News Sunday.

GOP Leaders Open Door Again to Grand Bargain

March 3, 2013 at 5:56 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Republican congressional leaders opened some room “for a longer-term deficit reduction agreement that eventually could blunt the effects of the $85 billion in automatic spending cuts now in place,” Roll Call reports.

The catch: GOP leaders “insisted that any revenue from a tax overhaul would have to be reserved for reducing tax rates and not used to fund government spending or lower the deficit.”

“The leaders appeared determined to keep the level of spending cuts in place but signaled that a longer-term deal to lower the deficit, overhaul the tax code and rein in spending on entitlement programs could still be had.”

Walesa Says Gay Legislators Should Sit Behind a Wall

March 3, 2013 at 4:50 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Lech Walesa, Poland’s communist-era democracy campaigner, said homosexuals shouldn’t demand more rights and gay legislators should sit “behind a wall” in Parliament, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Welesa: “They need to know they are a minority and adjust to smaller things instead of rising to the greatest heights, taking peak time, organizing the biggest provocations designed to spoil others or pick up people from the majority.”

He added that he refuses to accept public gay-rights marches that “coax my children and grandchildren.”

The Independent says Walesa “has risked shattering his legacy.”

Adelson Admits to Bribing Foreign Officials

March 3, 2013 at 4:48 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the largest Republican donor in last year’s presidential campaign, has informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that his company likely violated a federal law against bribing foreign officials, the New York Times reports.

Bonus Quote of the Day

March 3, 2013 at 3:24 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“You would be giving off more CO2 if you are riding a bike than driving in a car.”

— Washington state Rep. Ed Orcutt (R), in an interview with the Seattle Bike Blog, arguing that bicycle riding also causes pollution.

Why Obama Can’t Make a Deal with Republicans

March 3, 2013 at 11:56 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ezra Klein: “The bottom line on American budgetary politics right now is that Republicans won’t agree to further tax increases and so there’s no deal to be had. This is not a controversial perspective in D.C.: It’s what Hill Republicans have told me, it’s what the White House has told me, it what Hill Democrats have told me. The various camps disagree on whether Republicans are right to refuse a deal that includes further tax increases, but they all agree that that’s the key fact holding up a compromise to replace the sequester.”

“There’s no deal even if Obama agrees to major Republican demands on entitlements. There’s no deal because Republicans don’t want to make a deal that includes taxes, no matter what they get in return for it.”

Paul Krugman: Well, duh.

Boehner Sees No Resolution for Sequester

March 3, 2013 at 10:10 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Speaker John Boehner told NBC News there “is no easy way to stop the budget cuts — known as the ‘sequester’ – that began taking effect Friday night, and voiced uncertainty over how Washington can solve the overall fiscal problems that have consumed the nation’s politics for more than two years.”

Said Boehner: “I don’t think anyone quite understands how it gets resolved.”

Romney Admits He Thought He Would Win

March 3, 2013 at 10:07 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mitt Romney told Fox News that “his heart said he was going to win the presidency, but when early results came in on election night, he knew it was not to be.”

“Romney says the loss hit hard and was emotional. Ann Romney says she cried.”

Quote of the Day

March 3, 2013 at 9:24 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Granted, the percentage of pregnancies due to rape is small because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized.”

— Celeste Greig, president of the California Republican Assembly, quoted by Bay Area News Group, after saying former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) should have apologized for his rape remarks last year.

Obama Making Push to Take Back Congress

March 3, 2013 at 7:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Obama “is taking the most specific steps of his administration in an attempt to ensure the election of a Democratic-controlled Congress in two years,” the Washington Post reports.

“Obama, fresh off his November reelection, began almost at once executing plans to win back the House in 2014, which he and his advisers believe will be crucial to the outcome of his second term and to his legacy as president. He is doing so by trying to articulate for the American electorate his own feelings — an exasperation with an opposition party that blocks even the most politically popular elements of his agenda.”

Republicans Force Obama Into a Corner

March 2, 2013 at 8:24 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Cloakroom: By holding firm on the sequester, the GOP leaves President Obama with a very risky strategy.

Fox News Took Graphics Directly from GOP Press Release

March 2, 2013 at 6:04 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Fox News took research and graphics directly from a National Republican Campaign Committee press release without disclosing their origin in order to attack President Obama’s “sequester priorities,” Media Matters reports.

Lawmaker Says He Only Wants Male Interns

March 2, 2013 at 5:08 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Connecticut state Rep. Ernest Hewett (D) refused to resign after making a lewd remark to a teenage girl at a legislative hearing and denied he has a problem with women, the Hartford Courant reports.

Said Hewett: “I purposely will not have female interns. My intern now is a male. I want to keep it like that. I’ve had female interns in the past that sit in my office all day. I thought it was totally weird and I didn’t want another. As a matter of fact, I went four, maybe six years without having an intern at all because of stuff like that. I have a male intern, the last two I’ve had were male.”

He added: “I don’t get to choose. That’s why I was so leery about staying away from interns. I don’t know what they’re going to give me. They may give me a female, but I don’t want a female intern. That may sound sexist but I really don’t. That way that keeps me good and that keeps everybody else good.”

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