Jonathan Chait: “In the immediate wake of the election, Republicans felt so
stunned — in no small part because they had deluded themselves into
expecting victory — that it seemed momentarily possible that the party’s
long march to the right may halt or even reverse. But the future of the
party is already taking shape, and that future will be, in some form or
fashion, a conservative reaction against the Republican leadership that
has sold them out. The smarter Republicans have already shaken off the
trauma of electoral defeat and begun positioning themselves to
capitalize.”
Jindal Aides Use Personal Email to Avoid Scrutiny
Top officials in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) administration “used personal email accounts to craft a media strategy for imposing hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid cuts — a method of communication that can make it more difficult to track under public records laws despite Jindal’s pledge to bring more transparency to state government,” the AP reports.
The Dick Morris Scam?
Paul Waldman takes another look at Dick Morris and his Super PAC, “an organization whose entire
purpose is to raise money, and its expenditures involve raising money and finding new donors. And not, say, getting Mitt Romney elected.”
“Perhaps there’s a more innocent explanation for all this, but the way it looks is that 1) People (should we call them ‘marks’?) donate money to Morris’ super PAC; 2) he pays that money to Newsmax for ‘fundraising’; then 3) Newsmax turns around and pays the money back to Morris, for access to his list of donors. Perhaps Newsmax takes a cut, or perhaps the list is their cut, because these people can then become marks for all kinds of future scams.”
The Destructive Role of Big Money
Wonk Wire highlights how money is still ruining elections even if it isn’t necessarily deciding them.
Why Republicans Will Cave on Tax Rates
Byron York: “First, many in the GOP do not believe that
raising the rate on top earners from 35 percent to 39.6 percent (the
rate before the Bush tax cuts) would seriously damage the economy.
Second, they know that most Americans approve of higher taxes on the top
bracket, and President Obama, having campaigned and won on that
platform, seems dead-set on higher rates. Third, they fear that if the
government does go over the cliff and Democrats propose re-lowering
taxes for everyone except the highest earners, Republicans would be in
the impossible position of resisting tax cuts for 98 percent of the
country on behalf of the top 2 percent.“
Cuomo Refuses to Say if He Would Back Clinton
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) refused to get pinned down on whether he would endorse Hillary Clinton if she runs for president in 2016, Politicker reports.
Said Cuomo: “There’s a long way away. We just elected a president… There’s no doubt that she’s incredibly popular, she’s got incredible support….She’s going to have to make her decision.”
Quote of the Day
“I don’t think the Republican Party schooled their candidates very well or supported their candidates very well… We had a lot of candidates quite frankly that did dumb things out there.”
— Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), in an interview with CBS News, blaming Republican leaders for the party’s losses across the country in 2012.
Boehner Worries About Possible Challenge
Should a deal to avert the fiscal cliff “go sour,” National Review reports the buzz is that Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) may challenge House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) for the speaker’s gavel.
Said one aide close to the House leadership: “Price is the person we’re all watching. We know he’s frustrated, but we don’t know much else.”
The Obama Campaign Heroes
Rolling Stone profiles the ten key operatives who helped President Obama win re-election.
Majority See No Deal on Fiscal Cliff
Even as progress is reported in the fiscal cliff negotiations, a new poll for The Hill finds a clear majority of voters expect President Obama and Congress will fail to reach a deal, 58% to 39%.
First Read: “If the plan is to get something passed by Friday, Dec. 21 (right before
the Christmas holiday), then the legislation has to be written by Dec.
18. And that means that Obama and Boehner must reach an agreement by
Dec. 14-15, if there’s going to be a deal. So the time for posturing and
P.R. is over.”
The Rahmfather
NBC Chicago reports “mob-related questions” keep coming in connection with a company awarded a $99 million custodial contract at O’Hare International Airport while Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual “skirted questions” over the process for awarding the contract.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“He looked at her and got prostate cancer and quit. Giuliani just left the fight and the struggle. But quite frankly, I
think Hillary Clinton was a helluva good reason to withdraw his
candidacy.”
— Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), quoted by Capital New York, recounting how Hillary Clinton cleared the field in her first U.S. Senate bid, which included Rudy Giuliani.
Ignoring Reality Doesn’t Make News Nonpartisan
Michael Grunwald: “I realize that the GOP’s up-is-downism puts news reporters in an awkward position. It would seem tendentious to point out Republican hypocrisy on deficits and Medicare and stimulus every time it comes up, because these days it comes up almost every time a Republican leader opens his mouth. But we’re not supposed to be stenographers. As long as the media let an entire political party invent a new reality every day, it will keep on doing it. Every day.”
Quote of the Day
“It’s not something I’m proud of here, folks, I must be blatantly honest. Nobody would know who she is if it weren’t for me.”
— Rush Limbaugh, on his radio show, blaming himself for Sandra Fluke being on the shortlist for Time Magazine‘s “Person of the Year.”
Why Immigration Reform is Unlikely
Walter Shapiro: “House Republicans probably worry far more about a 2014 primary challenge on their own right flank than they do about the party winning the White House in 2016. So all the talk about the Republican Party recasting itself to appeal to Latino voters runs up against that very personal Capitol Hill question: ‘What about my reelection campaign?'”
“The gap between national parties and the parochial concerns of individual legislators is as old as the republic. But political polarization and the proliferation of one-party congressional districts make things far more acute. That is why the number of Republican volunteers–particularly in the House–willing to take personal political risks to help the party deal with its problems with Hispanic voters is probably limited.”
Wonk Wire: Republicans push alternative to the Dream Act.
An Opening for Campaign Finance Reform?
The Economist: “If, as the the saying goes, ‘a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality’, then perhaps an advocate of stricter campaign-finance laws is a newly elected congressman or senator who has weathered months of negative ads funded by third-party groups freed from spending limits or disclosure requirements. That, at least, is the hope of many both inside and outside Congress.”
Another Poll Shows Christie Strongly Favored
A new Public Policy Polling survey in New Jersey is the third poll in recent days to suggest Gov. Chris Christie (R) is pretty safe for re-election in 2013.
Key findings: Christie’s approval rate is 67% to 25% and he would beat Cory Booker (D) in a gubernatorial match up by double-digits, 50% to 36%.
Romney Adviser Predicted Defeat
The narrative of surprise that they lost the election serves elements of the post-election agenda of Mitt Romney’s circle — it underscores their argument that they weren’t deceiving the press and donors — but it leaves out an important fact: A longtime Romney adviser was circulating a forecast that showed President Obama winning with “over 300” electoral votes, one person who saw them told BuzzFeed.
Alex Gage, who was not working directly for the campaign but began advising Romney in 2002, “emailed a “best case” scenario map that had Romney winning by just two electoral votes — but losing Colorado, Iowa, and a slew of other battleground states, many of which the Romney team swore to the bitter end that they were going to win.”
