Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 188
Nothing to See Here
After congressional candidate Matt Doheny (R) insisted that photos of him kissing a campaign consultant were “out of context,” the New York Post provides some context.
Doheny was “recently spotted partying in a DC bar with two women, groping both and kissing one. Neither one was his fiancée.”
And they have it on video.
“The video and photo didn’t come as a shock to some GOP insiders. They
described the former Wall Street investor as a party-hearty kind of guy.”
Wisconsin elections officials ordered a set of historic recall elections, making Gov. Scott Walker (R) the third governor in the nation to face a recall and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R) the first lieutenant governor to face one, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Recall elections for four Republican state senators were also ordered.
Primaries will be held May 8 and general elections June 5. For races that do not require primaries, the general elections will be May 8.
Just two other governors have faced recall elections. Both were defeated.
I’ve never seen more new job listings on Political Job Hunt than in the last two weeks.
And if those aren’t enough, here are some more.
The Los Angeles Times
notes that Wisconsin and the state’s “embattled governor” Scott Walker
(R) should serve as a warning for the Republican presidential candidates
of the “danger of lurching too far to the right in a presidential
battleground state.”
“The prominence of divisive social issues —
rather than a tight focus on jobs and the economy — in the race for the
Republican presidential nomination has delighted Democrats looking ahead
to November… On Saturday, Romney plans to join Santorum and Newt
Gingrich in Waukesha at a Faith and Freedom Coalition forum. The
gathering of Wisconsin conservatives will be fraught with temptation for
the presidential candidates to offer Republican primary voters still
more of what will likely cause trouble for the party’s nominee in the
fall.”
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) “vehemently denied” that she is in any way connected to a tax probe of a Sikh temple where her parents are leaders, the Columbia State reports.
Said Haley: “It is flat out not true. I have never kept their books. I’ve never made deposits. I never signed checks. I never did financial statements. This is a church that I don’t go to. There are no issues related to me and that church.”
A report yesterday suggested she might soon be indicted.
Stephen Colbert offers the Colbert Super PAC Super Fun Pack: “All you need is a burning desire for civic engagement and $99.”
Although House Republican a few years ago wanted to prohibit gay marriage by amending the U.S. Constitution, Politico notes they’re almost silent on the issue these days.
“It’s been one of the swiftest shifts in ideology and strategy for Republicans, as they’ve come nearly full circle on same-sex politics. What was once a front-and-center issue for rank-and-file Republicans — the subject of many hotly worded House and Senate floor speeches — is virtually a dead issue, as Republicans in Congress don’t care to have gay marriage litigated in the Capitol.”
“Even more than that, Republican leadership has evolved, too. It has quietly worked behind the scenes to kill amendments that reaffirm opposition to same-sex unions.”
Vice President Joe Biden offered a frank assessment of his career in remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago last night, according to the Washington Examiner.
Said Biden: “I never had an interest in being a mayor ’cause that’s a real job. You have to produce. That’s why I was able to be a senator for 36 years.”
As Mitt Romney works to solidify his lead in the Republican presidential primary, the New York Times
reports that his supporters have been “pleading with Mitt Romney to
share personal details of his life. They stood at town-hall-style
meetings and chatted before rallies, clamoring for a story or an
anecdote that would help them connect with the real Mitt Romney.”
“But
even if Republican voters appear increasingly eager to fall for him, it
is not clear that Mr. Romney can satisfy their desire for warm,
revealing moments. His campaign advisers say that as the primary season
winds down, they expect Mr. Romney will have more opportunities to talk
about himself in a personal way. He has already started to appear again
in more settings that lend themselves to intimate exchanges with voters
and will soon do longer interviews.”
“Still, the aides
say Mr. Romney has a natural reticence — he regards talking about
himself as bragging, they say. And they are all too aware of his
susceptibility to awkward or off-key statements when it comes to
disclosing personal information.”
“It could be better. It could always be better. I haven’t had that much communication.”
— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), quoted by The Hill, responding to a question about President Obama’s outreach to lawmakers.
Nate Silver notes that according to one measure, the current Supreme Court may be the most conservative in the modern era.
“Mr.
Martin and Mr. Quinn rate the current court (based on data up through
late 2010) as the most conservative in their database based on the
positioning of the median justice, the previous high having come in the
early 1950s. Although Justice Kennedy is not extraordinarily
conservative relative to all other justices who have served on the
court, he is very conservative by the standards of the median justice,
who has typically been more of a true moderate.”
“The Martin-Quinn
method suggests that there has been some overall rightward drift among
almost all members of the court, including the more liberal justices,
since Chief Justice Roberts took over for Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist. Although Chief Justice Roberts is not especially more
conservative than Chief Justice Rehnquist under their system, chief
justices can sometimes exert an overall pull on the court based on the
way they manage it, and this may be one of those cases.”
A new NBC News-Marist Poll in Wisconsin shows voters split over the recall of Gov. Scott Walker (R) with 46% showing support for him but 48% saying they’ll vote for the eventual Democratic candidate who’ll face him.
Walker’s approval rate is also divided at 48% to 48%.
A new NBC News-Marist Poll in Wisconsin shows Mitt Romney leading Rick Santorum in week’s GOP primary, 40% to 33%, followed by Ron Paul at 11% and Newt Gingrich at 8%.
“So far in all the GOP contests where there has been exit polling, Romney has won in every contest where evangelical voters have accounted for less than 50 percent of the electorate. And he has lost in every contest where that number has been higher than 50 percent. The evangelical percentage among likely Wisconsin GOP primary voters, according to the NBC/Marist poll: 41%.”
“I think I can say… no president, and I would argue in the 20th century and including now the 21st century, has had as many serious problems which are cases of first-instance laid on his table. Franklin Roosevelt faced more dire consequences, but in a bizarre way it was more straightforward.”
— Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by ABC News.
A new Rasmussen survey in Maryland finds Mitt Romney crushing the GOP presidential field with 45%, followed by Rick Santorum at 28%, Newt Gingrich at 12% and Ron Paul at 7%.
“In terms of me, I’ll be much more ready four years from now.”
— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, on whether he’ll run for president in 2016.
Newt Gingrich sank to a new low in the latest Gallup poll: He has just 10% support among registered Republicans.
Gingrich reached a high of 37% in mid-December in a similar survey.
Jose Hernandez (D) “flew in space, but his astronaut identity is now under political fire” in his race to unseat Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), the Fresno Bee reports.
A Sacramento law firm is asking a judge to block Hernandez from describing himself as an “astronaut/scientist/engineer” on the June ballot because he has left NASA.
Hernandez offered a brilliant video response.
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.