Rep. Mark Critz (D-PA) “used his deep home base support and the heft of organized labor to win his fratricidal bout” with Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), “picking up an underdog victory in an increasingly conservative district,” the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette reports.
Rubio Moonlights as a Professor
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) teaches a political science class at Florida International University in Miami “on Mondays and Fridays, when the Senate is typically off (a workload that provides its own instruction on how Washington operates),” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“Rubio does not dish Senate gossip or inveigh against President Barack Obama, as he often does in his other job. His lectures are in every sense academic, students say, only drawn from real-time experience.”
A video shows Rubio teaching a class “on why political compromise is so elusive.”
Ex-CIA Officer Defends Destroying Tapes
Jose Rodriguez, who oversaw the CIA’s once-secret interrogation program, says in a new book that he ordered the destruction of videos showing waterboarding because he “was tired of waiting for Washington’s bureaucracy to make a decision that protected American lives,” the AP reports.
He describes sending the order in November 2005 as “just getting rid of some ugly visuals.”
Scott Will Run Again in Florida
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) “made it clear” that he will seek reelection in 2014, the Miami Herald reports.
Said Scott: “I’m running for re-election. I like this job!”
Issa Claims Obama Administration is Most Corrupt Ever
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Bloomberg TV that the Obama government is “proving to be” the “most corrupt in history.”
Said Issa: “We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said perhaps because of the money, the amount of TARP and stimulus funds, was going to be the most corrupt government history and it is proving to be just exactly that. This money going though the hands of political leaders is corrupting the process, whether it is Solyndra, GSA, or a number of other scandals.”
Why Romney Could be a Transformational President
Ezra Klein points out that if President Obama wins re-election, he will likely “still be negotiating with Republican leaders in Congress. But the same can’t be said for Mitt Romney.”
“If Romney wins the election, it’s almost a sure bet that Republicans win control of both the House and the Senate. And that matters. Right now, the GOP’s agenda is the Ryan budget, and that’s entirely fiscal: It’s a premium support plan for Medicare, and tax cuts, and deep cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other domestic programs. All that can be passed through budget reconciliation — which is to say, all that can be made immune to the filibuster.”
“So if Romney wins and the Republicans take control, they could accomplish quite a lot on party-line votes, even if their majorities are slim, and Democrats are opposed. Indeed, Romney could end up being a fairly transformational president for conservatives so long as he’s paired with a Republican Congress.”
The Pivot
Mitt Romney’s big speech tonight as primary results come in is billed as his “pivot” to the general election campaign.
A quick search by BuzzFeed finds this is his 97th pivot since voting in Iowa began in January.
Media is Tougher on Obama
A new Pew Research study finds negative coverage of President Obama outweighed his positive coverage in each of the last 15 weeks — the only presidential candidate where that was true.
“While a sitting president may have access to the ‘bully pulpit,’ that does not mean he has control of the media narrative, particularly during the other party’s primary season.”
Are Democrats Anti-Mormon?
A recent Gallup poll found that 27% of Democrats would not vote for a Mormon under any circumstances, versus 18% of Republicans.
Peter Beinhart: “One reason Democrats may be more anti-Mormon than Republicans is that Democrats, on average, are more secular. Devout Protestants, Catholics, and Jews may be more tolerant of Mormonism because they understand from firsthand experience the comfort and strength that religious commitment brings. Many secular Democrats, by contrast, may start with the assumption that religious orthodoxy produces irrationality and intolerance… Democrats may exhibit greater suspicion of Mormonism, in other words, because they exhibit greater suspicion of all organized religion. It’s just that anti-Mormonism is still socially acceptable enough to confess to a pollster.”
Obama Holds Lead Nationally
The Gallup daily tracking poll, which kicked off eight days ago with Mitt Romney leading by two points, now has President Obama in front by 7 points, 49% to 42%.
Meanwhile, a new DailyKos/SEIU poll shows Obama leading Romney 49% to 44%.
Fooled by John Edwards
Walter Shapiro writes about his “political-journalistic courtship” of John Edwards “that now makes me cringe.”
“With Edwards on trial in North Carolina on charges of violating federal campaign-finance laws — after the disgrace of being caught with a mistress and denying being the father of her baby — I wish I had befriended a comparatively more honorable political figure like Eliot Spitzer or Mark Sanford… In hindsight, I feel like the jaded city slicker, bristling with self-confidence that he can never be fooled, who ends up hoodwinked by the smiling rural Southern confidence man.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I’m not sure what that is because I’m not serving right now.”
— Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Sarah Steelman (R), quoted by the Springfield News-Leader, when asked for her position on reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
Huntsman Says He’s 100% Behind Mitt Romney
Despite ripping his own party over the weekend, Jon Huntsman told CNBC that he’s still firmly behind Mitt Romney for president.
Said Huntsman: “Absolutely, I am. Listen, the economic message is going to carry the day in November, and I think that message will resonate — or not — through the critically important states in the Midwest… These are gonna be the states that will tell the story in November. I think it’s about recovery, it’s about rebuilding our manufacturing muscle in this country, and the prospects for job creation. I think he’s best positioned by virtue of his own background training to be able to provide that leadership.”
That said, Jeff Greenfield is convinced Huntsman will leave the Republican party.
Profile of a Do Nothing Congress
Jon Karl reviews Do Not Ask What Good We Do by Robert Draper.
“Mr. Draper embedded himself in the House in 2011, getting to know the key players — newcomers and old-timers alike. In his group portrait, he doesn’t make any sweeping judgments about who is to blame for the failure of this Congress to address the country’s long-term problems. But his refreshingly balanced account captures the drama of one of Congress’s most combative and maddeningly frustrating years in memory.”
Playing Hardball as Hard as Hillary
John Heilemann profiles U.N. ambassador Susan Rice and wonders if she might take the top foreign policy post in an Obama second term.
“Whatever ultimately transpires with Iran and Syria, Rice’s U.N. tenure is already seen in the administration — and particularly by the guy behind the big desk in the Oval Office — as having been a success.. along with [national security adviser Tom] Donilon and John Kerry, she is considered the likeliest successor to Clinton should Obama win reelection.”
Create Your Own Election Forecast
Ezra Klein worked with three political scientists to create a model to forecast the 2012 presidential. You predict how the economy will do, and where President Obama’s approval rating will be in 2012, and the model spits out the winner.
The inputs “may seem a bit thin. But it calls 12 of the past 16 elections right. The average error in its prediction of the two-party vote share is less than three percentage points.”
The Bush Program, Just Updated
RNC spokeswoman Alexandra Franceschi told The Fernando Espuelas Show that the Republican party’s economic platform in 2012 is going to be the same as it was during the Bush years, “just updated.”
Watch Romney’s Percentages Tonight
First Read: “Even though the general election campaign is now underway — after Rick Santorum’s exit earlier this month — there are five primaries today in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania (Santorum’s home state), and Rhode Island. As a result, this is the first primary day where Romney doesn’t face any real competition. So when we watch the returns, we’ll get a good idea of the true anti-Romney vote tonight. Does he get at least 50% in all of these contests? What about 60%? 70%?”
