“The Pope is the head of his religion, and he makes those calls for himself, but I represent 700,000 people from East Texas and a vast majority agree with me.”
— Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), quoted by Politico, after Pope Francis moved to recognize a Palestinian state.
“The state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan secretly funded an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference at Baku on the Caspian Sea in 2013 for 10 members of Congress and 32 staff members… Three former top aides to President Obama appeared as speakers at the conference,” the Washington Post reports.
“Lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000, according to the ethics report. Airfare for the lawmakers and some of their spouses cost $112,899, travel invoices show.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who praised John Kerry’s nomination as Secretary of State and raved about his “exemplary statesmanship” and “indefatigable persistence,” is now one of Kerry’s biggest critics, Politico reports.
In recent months McCain has branded Kerry a “human wrecking ball,” urged him to “recognize reality,” called him “delusional” and said he has “accomplished nothing except mileage as secretary of state.” Last month, for good measure, he suggested that he considers Iran’s Supreme Leader a more believable source on the nuclear talks than Kerry.
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“North Korea executed its defense chief by putting him in front of an anti-aircraft gun at a firing range, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers, which would be the latest in a series of high-level purges since Kim Jong Un took charge,” Reuters reports.
“Hyon Yong Chol, who headed the isolated nuclear-capable country’s military, was charged with treason, including disobeying Kim and falling asleep during an event at which North Korea’s young leader was present.”
“The U.S. government was informed months ago that an international monitoring body found traces of chemical weapons that President Bashar al-Assad had promised to turn over, including sarin gas — a clear violation of the deal he struck with President Obama after crossing the administration’s ‘red line’ two years ago,” Bloomberg reports.
“What is under way is a transition to a new order, and that’s going to take a long time. What we now regard as extraordinary turbulence in the Middle East is going to be the norm over the next several decades.”
— Former Sen. George Mitchell (D-ME), in an interview with Bangor Daily News.
First Read: “There are at least four reasons why the GOP candidates are focused so heavily on foreign affairs — more so than at this time in the 2012 presidential cycle. One, the economy has improved (223,000 jobs were created last month, and Obama’s economic handling is up to 49% in the latest NBC/WSJ poll), while the deficit has decreased. Two, there’s the rise of ISIS. Three, there’s the Iran deal that the Obama administration is racing to finalize by next month. And four, there’s the GOP recognition that focusing on foreign policy is maybe the best way to go after Hillary Clinton’s record as secretary of state.”
“Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that its new monarch, King Salman, would not be attending meetings at the White House with President Obama or a summit gathering at Camp David this week, in an apparent signal of its continued displeasure with the administration over United States relations with Iran, its rising regional adversary,” the New York Times reports.
Wall Street Journal: “The decision marks a diplomatic snub from one of the top leaders in the region, and follows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the Saudi capital last week.”
The World Health Organization declared that Liberia was finally free of Ebola virus transmission.
“Forty-two days have passed since the last laboratory-confirmed case was buried on 28 March 2015. The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia is over.”
Justin Wolfers: “British voters are heading to the polls Thursday, and it looks as if it’s going to be a nail-biter. Political prediction markets suggest that it’s basically a 50-50 bet as to whether the Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, will serve another term or be ousted by Labour’s leader, Ed Miliband. I can recall very few elections where the bookies couldn’t pick a favorite by election eve.”
“The traditional two-party system is breaking down in Britain, which makes the outcome more uncertain because it renders traditional approaches to predicting the outcome less useful. Multiparty elections bring a type of complexity that traditional polling — and computer models based on polling — are ill-equipped to deal with.”
Washington Post: “After a bitter, bruising and unusually fragmented six-week election campaign, British voters began to vote Thursday knowing just one thing with near certainty: Nobody is going to win.”
The final pre-election Guardian/ICM poll shows Labour witha a one point lead.
“Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Middle East is bad news.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by TPM.
“Months after President Obama formally declared that the United States’ long war against the Taliban was over in Afghanistan, the American military is regularly conducting airstrikes against low-level insurgent forces and sending Special Operations troops directly into harm’s way under the guise of ‘training and advising,'” the New York Times reports.
“In public, officials have emphasized that the Taliban are not being targeted unless it is for ‘force protection’ — where the insurgents were immediately threatening American forces. But interviews with American and Western officials in Kabul and Washington offer a picture of a more aggressive range of military operations against the Taliban in recent months, as the insurgents have continued to make gains against struggling government forces.”
“King Salman of Saudi Arabia issued a series of surprise royal decrees early Wednesday, shaking up the line of princes slated to succeed him to the throne, replacing a number of ministers and further enhancing the power of his own line,” the New York Times reports.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “said flatly that it had been a mistake for the United States to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. And he suggested that the situation in Libya had deteriorated because of the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi,” thew New York Times reports.
Said Paul: “Each time we topple a secular dictator, I think we wind up with chaos, and radical Islam seems to rise.”
Sen. Marco Rubio and other foes of a nuclear deal with Iran “are readying several poison-pill amendments — some of which could have broad appeal — aimed at unraveling the bipartisan compromise endorsed by President Obama,” Politico reports.
“The compromise legislation, which would allow Congress to review a nuclear accord and potentially reject it, has already survived one test, passing committee on a surprising 19-0 vote after sponsor Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) offered concessions to Democrats. But opponents say the administration has been too soft on Tehran, and they’re prepping another salvo that could scuttle the measure when it hits the floor this week.”
“Some of President Obama’s email correspondence was swept up by Russian hackers last year in a breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system that was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged,” the New York Times reports.
“The hackers, who also got deeply into the State Department’s unclassified system, do not appear to have penetrated closely guarded servers that control the message traffic from Mr. Obama’s BlackBerry, which he or an aide carries constantly.”
John Gruber: “In 2009 it seemed forward-thinking that the president carried a BlackBerry. Now, it feels preposterously behind the times.”
“The findings of a Republican-led committee investigating Hillary Clinton’s response to the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, likely will not be released until next year, just months before the 2016 presidential election,” Bloomberg reports.
“Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, chairman of the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi, has been emphasizing a desire for the panel to finish investigative work by the end of 2015, including its review of Clinton’s e-mail practices as secretary of state. Now that seems less likely.”
Huffington Post: Clinton’s attorney puts ball in Gowdy’s court
Jon Stewart made a pretty compelling case that it is Dick Cheney, not President Obama, who actually strengthened Iran and gave it time to build up a nuclear program.
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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