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Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) told Politicker NJ that he is interested in running for U.S. Senate.
Said Holt: “There’s no point in being coy. I’ve made no secret in previous years that I would consider the Senate at the right time. But an expression of interest should not be taken as a campaign announcement.”
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) have also indicated they’re looking at possible bids.
Byron York: “Members of the Senate have left Washington for the President’s Day break, scheduled to return February 25. That means Republicans who voted to filibuster the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Defense Secretary have ten days to search for new evidence against him and lobby colleagues to keep up the opposition.”
“With 41 votes needed to uphold a filibuster — exactly the number Republicans mustered against Hagel on Thursday — the GOP has no votes to lose. And the most critical of those votes appears to belong to Sen. John McCain.”
In just two months, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years,” the New York Times reports.
“Besides suggesting that Mr. Hagel might have received compensation from foreign enemies, he has tangled with the mayor of Chicago, challenged the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat on national television, voted against virtually everything before him — including the confirmation of John Kerry as secretary of state — and raised the hackles of colleagues from both parties.”
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Roll Call: “If a lobbying campaign is war, then opposition research is the equivalent of elite special forces. K Street deploys all sorts of quiet, behind-the-scenes tactics and troops to influence legislation and policy. The most clandestine and high-risk is the use of political-style operatives to dig up dirt on foes.”
The Cloakroom: Why Americans hate Congress.
Washington Post: “A team of FBI agents has been conducting interviews in recent weeks in the Dominican Republic and the United States, looking into allegations that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) patronized prostitutes in the Caribbean nation, but has found no evidence to support the claim.”
“One person said agents have asked about whether a Florida eye doctor — a close friend and major campaign donor to Menendez — provided the senator with prostitutes on vacations there. Another person said investigators are looking into allegations involving underage prostitutes and sex parties.”
James Carville and Stan Greenberg talk on the phone about the State of the Union response delivered by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), touted as a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
They were not impressed.
Weekly Standard: “The White House confirms today that President Barack Obama will be vacationing in Florida this weekend. His wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, will be in Colorado. The two daughters will be with Michelle.”
“While the rest of his family will be skiing, Obama is expected to be hitting the links with golf pros and buddies in Florida.”
Ken Cuccinelli (R) has a new book out and the Washington Post notes Democrats are promoting it with the hope that it will help sink his Virginia gubernatorial campaign.
Just out: Dangerous Convictions: What’s Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress by former Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME).
Politico reports that for the last few days GOP leaders “have met behind closed doors to both craft an agenda that confronts the ghosts of Congresses past and figure out a way to sell it to the American people.”
There is agreement on sanding down “the party’s rough edges” and to stop talking “like the world is going to end.”
But the GOP leadership “has become
increasingly alarmed at how many lawmakers in the meeting think the
party has a messaging problem, not a policy problem.
Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) implicated his wife, Sandi, in his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, CBS Chicago reports.
“Jackson will plead guilty to one felony count of misuse of campaign funds and then let a federal judge determine his punishment… Jackson’s deal calls for him to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars spent for things like travel and meals with a mistress and a $40,000 men’s Rolex watch he bought for himself. Jackson’s resignation from Congress was also part of the deal.”
“But Jackson’s pleading guilty to using campaign funds for personal expenses could expose Sandi, his campaign manager, to tax-fraud charges. The congressman’s guilty plea says Sandi knew about improper purchases that apparently include breakfast snacks, cosmetic services, even beds purchased for campaign workers.”
Tom Vilsack (D) has ruled out running U.S. Senate in 2014, the Des Moines Register reports.
His decision clears the way for Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) “to press forward and raise money for what’s expected to be one of the most fiercely competitive races in the country.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) had her first hearing as a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and put on quite a performance. It’s worth watching.
Fox News has hired former Republican presidential candidate and Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain as a contributor, TV Newser reports.
Cain will provide political and business analysis and commentary.
David Letterman has the top 10 things going through Sen. Marco Rubio’s mind as he lunged for a drink of water during his State of the Union rebuttal.
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s upcoming budget “is expected to include savings from looming military and discretionary spending cuts worth $85 billion — the same package of cuts that Republicans have desperate tried to hang around President Obama’s neck,” BuzzFeed reports.
“According to two senior GOP aides familiar with Ryan’s thinking on the budget, the Wisconsin Republican and former vice presidential candidate will use the so-called sequester as part of the baseline level of spending for his budget. Doing so will likely make it significantly easier for him to craft a plan that balances the budget in 10 years, a time frame conservatives within the conference have demanded.”
“There’s a lot of ill will towards Sen. Hagel because when he was a Republican, he attacked President Bush mercilessly. At one point, he said he was the worst president since Herbert Hoover, said the surge was the worst blunder since the Vietnam War, which is nonsense. He was very ‘anti ‘his own party, and people don’t forget that.”
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in an interview on Fox News, explaining the GOP backlash against Chuck Hagel.
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.
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