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May 23, 2013
Murkowski Says Palin is Too Detached to Run
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told The Hill not to expect a Senate bid from Sarah Palin because she's not really connected to Alaska anymore.Said Murkowski: "I think there are a lot of outside interests that would like to see Sarah Palin in some form of elected office. Most in Alaska recognize our former governor is really not involved in or engaged in the state anymore, that she's moved to other interests. In order for you to represent the state of Alaska, you've got to be in the state."
Walker Heads to Iowa
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) "comes to Iowa tonight amid speculation that he'd be a smash with Republicans here if he were to run for president, as some top Iowa politics watchers predict," Des Moines Register reports.USA Today: "Walker may be playing down the presidential talk, but there's no question he's making some moves that fuel such chatter. He's also writing a book with former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen on his tenure as governor and the challenges facing the nation, due out sometime this fall."
McCain Says Lee Doesn't Know How Congress Works
A clearly frustrated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) lashed out at Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) on the Senate floor suggesting, "Maybe the senator from Utah ought to learn a little bit more about how business has been done in the Congress of the United States."See more...
GOP Sends Operatives to Massachusetts
"National Republicans have dispatched staff to Massachusetts to assist with the Senate special election that has become tantalizingly close," Roll Call reports.The NRSC "has committed at least four staffers to help nominee Gabriel Gomez in the final weeks of the June 25 contest. The moves come amid fresh polling that showed Gomez running just behind Democratic Rep. Edward J. Markey in this solidly Democratic state."
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
"Shame on us."-- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), in an interview with the Syracuse Post-Standard, on if New York City elects Anthony Weiner as mayor.
Weiner Begins His Apology Campaign
In his first live interview since announcing a comeback mayoral bid, Anthony Weiner (D) told WNYC that he would continue to apologize to voters about the scandal that ousted him from office two years ago, and promised that the behavior would not occur again.Said Weiner: "There's no doubt about it. I made very big mistakes. I compounded it immeasurably by being dishonest about it. I have apologized many, many times to my wife, and frankly I know that part of this process is going to be doing a lot of apologizing."
When asked if his illicit online activity could be described as an addiction, Weiner dismissed the characterization: "I don't know what it was. It's none of those things. It was simply a blind spot. It was a thoughtfulness I had about my private behavior."
Bonus Quote of the Day
"They know they have a political problem--that's obvious. But I don't think they've come to grips with the fundamental issue, which is their governing philosophy. I think they're going to have to lose one more."-- Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute, quoted by The Atlantic, on whether the Republican Party learned lessons from its defeat in 2012.
Rove Says Benghazi Will Be Corrosive to Obama
Karl Rove tells Newsmax that the questions surrounding the Benghazi attack of last September 11 is already undermining the Obama administration.Said Rove: "These things will be corrosive. They'll eat away at the president's rating. We'll see it over time and, particularly, as Congress asks more questions in the weeks ahead."
He added: "This stuff is only starting to seep in. It will take a while for these things to sort of sink in. I am not surprised that it hasn't begun to impact his job approval just yet."
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Virginia is New Gay Rights Battleground
Politico: "In the 2013 off-year elections, a state that once leaned solidly to the center-right has become the newest focal point in the national debate over same-sex relationships. A gubernatorial race already defined partly along culture-war lines has grown even more contentious since last weekend, when Virginia Republicans nominated as their lieutenant governor candidate a firebrand minister who has called gays 'very sick people psychologically' and suggested a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.""Remarkably, in a New South battleground where Democrats have traditionally won by carving out independent, non-partisan reputations, it's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe who's most eager to keep gay rights on the political front burner."
Quote of the Day
"It's pretty inconceivable to me that the president wouldn't know. I'm just putting myself in his shoes. I deal with my senior staff every day. And if the White House had known about this, which now it appears they've known about it for about a year, it's hard to imagine it wouldn't have come up in some conversation."-- House Speaker John Boehner, quoted by the Washington Post, on whether President Obama knew of the IRS targeting of conservative groups.
Rumsfeld Suggests Gay Marriage Will Lead to Polygamy
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to tell Larry King whether he supported same-sex marriage but he suggested it could lead to polygamy.Said Rumsfeld: "You know, I'm, I guess, of a generation that I don't -- I wonder -- I listened to some of the Supreme Court justices and one of them said, 'Well what's next after that? Is it two people, three people?"
See more...
Warren Gets a Book Deal
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) "has found a publisher two months after she began shopping her book proposal," the Boston Globe reports.Publisher Henry Holt and Co. characterized the book as telling both "Senator Warren's improbable rise from a working class family in Oklahoma to the United States Senate," as well as providing "a rousing call for protecting the middle class."
The book will be published in the spring of 2014.
Cuccinelli Referred McDonnell Investigation to Prosecutor
At the direction of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), Richmond's top prosecutor has been investigating Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's (R) statements of economic interest for possible violations of disclosure laws, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports.
Tancredo Will Announce Campaign Today
Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R), known for his strong stances on immigration, said he plans to formally announce a run for governor on a conservative talk radio show today, the Denver Post reports.Said Tancredo: "This Dunlap thing is the last straw."
Tancredo was referring to Gov. John Hickenlooper's (D) decision to grant a temporary reprieve on the execution of death row inmate Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted of killing four people in 1993.
McCain Seeks to Defuse Nuclear Option
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "finds himself once again pushing his colleagues to avoid giving fodder to Democrats seeking to use the 'nuclear option' to change Senate rules with a simple majority," Roll Call reports."The Arizona Republican's latest endeavor is to persuade GOP senators to allow the appointment of conferees to hammer out a House- Senate budget agreement without binding instructions against raising the debt limit. But his efforts have yet to win over the GOP's tea party wing."
Obama Restarts Bid to Shut Guantanamo
The Obama administration is set to restart transfers of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "kick-starting a long-stalled drive to close the prison," the Wall Street Journal reports.In a speech today, President Obama "will reassert his case that closing Guantanamo is crucial to U.S. counterterrorism goals. While he isn't planning to detail how to speed up transfers from the prison, officials said the president in coming weeks plans to lift the administration's prohibition on sending detainees to Yemen."
Obama Moves to Limit Drone Strikes
President Obama "plans to open a new phase in the nation's long struggle with terrorism on Thursday by restricting the use of unmanned drone strikes that have been at the heart of his national security strategy and shifting control of them away from the C.I.A. to the military," the New York Times reports."As part of the shift in approach, the administration on Wednesday formally acknowledged for the first time that it had killed four American citizens in drone strikes outside the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, arguing that its actions were justified by the danger to the United States."
Washington Post: "The secrecy surrounding the program -- including the criteria for choosing targets -- has led to widespread opposition from international law and human rights advocates and, increasingly, from Congress and the public. Although the administration has stressed the precision accuracy of drones, independent groups have charged that thousands of civilians have been unintentionally killed."
May 22, 2013
Christian Lawmaker Seeks Do-Over After Atheist Prayer
"An atheist lawmaker's decision to give the daily prayer at the Arizona House of Representatives triggered a do-over from a Christian lawmaker who said the previous day's prayer didn't pass muster," the AP reports.State Rep. Steve Smith (R) said the prayer offered by Rep. Juan Mendez (D-AZ) "wasn't prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in 'repentance.'"
Weiner Has Not Spoken to Obama or Pelosi
Anthony Weiner told Politicker that he hasn't spoken with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) since his resignation following the sexting scandal that forced him to resign from Congress nearly two years ago."When it came to President Barack Obama, he said he'd have to check with his wife to make sure they hadn't attended a same event, but couldn't recall speaking to the nation's top executive. Mr. Obama said at the time that he would resign if he were in Mr. Weiner's shoes."
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
"Let me be clear, I don't trust the Republicans. And I don't trust the Democrats."-- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted by TPM, responding to criticism from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for blocking budget negotiations.
Not All Sex-Scandal Comebacks are the Same
Anthony Weiner announced his comeback attempt earlier today, but Karen Tumulty notes his challenge is greater than Mark Sanford faced earlier this month."Sanford, once it became clear that he had not been hiking the Appalachian Trail, pretty much owned up to where he had really been and the truth about his relationship with Maria Belen Chapur. Weiner continued to deny that the crotch photos sent through his Twitter account were in fact of his own crotch, even as the falsehood became more and more transparent."
"And where Weiner was forced to resign, Sanford remained in office, surviving an effort to impeach him, paying the largest ethics fine in South Carolina history, and ultimately enjoying the most productive period of his governorship. Indeed, he left office in 2011 on something of a high note, with approval around 55 percent--which, as the Charleston Post and Courier noted at the time, made him more popular than half the nation's governors."
Senate Democrats Face Tougher Political Environment
Stuart Rothenberg: "While national polls haven't shown a shift in the public's opinion of President Obama's performance, recent controversies have, in my view, significantly changed the political landscape."
GOP Aides Worry About Partisan Overtones on Benghazi
Senior GOP aides tell Roll Call they are worried that the "partisan overtones" in the investigation of the Banghazi attacks "are diverting Congress from identifying and addressing the real lessons learned from the attack.""In particular, these aides say key staffers have been overly consumed with chasing down or addressing inaccurate or unfounded accusations emerging from the inquiry."
Exchange of the Day
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) was asked about Latinos working in his administration during a moderated discussion in Philadelphia last week:Moderator: Do you have staff members that are Latino?
Corbett: No, we do not have any staff members in there. If you can find us one, please let me know.
Moderator: I am sure that there are Latinos that...
Corbett: Do any of you you want to come to Harrisburg? See?!
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