TPMDC Politico
Anthony Weiner
DNC Chair Explains Why Clinton Got To Stay But Weiner Has To Go
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the newly-crowned chair of the DNC, explained to a Washington audience Wednesday why she's called for embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) to resign after he lied about sex while Bill Clinton and other politicians have been allowed to keep their jobs for doing the same thing.
The answer, Wasserman Schultz said, comes down to effectiveness.
Topics: Anthony Weiner, DNC, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Politico
Politico
First Presidential Debate Pushed Back To September Due To Lack Of Candidates
The Politico/NBC News presidential debate is reluctantly ceding its title of first-in-the-nation to Fox News. The two big media titans announced today that they will push the debate back to the fall because so few candidates have officially announced their plans to run.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 2012, 2012 Presidential Primaries, NBC, Politico, Republicans
2012 elections
DeMint: Palin Has Done More For GOP Than Anyone Since Reagan
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) had some kind words for another champion of the far right in a recent interview with Politico.
In assessing the potential field of candidates for the Republican party's 2012 presidential nomination, DeMint said that Sarah Palin has, "done more for the Republican Party than anyone since Ronald Reagan."
However, despite the high praise for the half-term Alaska Governor turned conservative commentator, DeMint said he has yet to decide which candidate he'll endorse to represent the party in 2012. DeMint, who endorsed Mitt Romney in 2008, also said that he has never actually spoken to Palin, though she "left me a nice message."
Prospective GOP presidential candidates are already jockeying for support from influential politicians ahead of the primary elections. DeMint in particular is seen as a potentially crucial supporter due to his sway with the Tea Party. His 2010 reelection campaign received $7,500 from Palin, $5,000 from Romney, $8,000 from Sen. John Thune (R-SD), $3,000 from Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and $1,000 former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), even though DeMint faced no serious challenge from the hapless Alvin Greene.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 2012 elections, Jim DeMint, Politico, Sarah Palin
Health Care
Disputed Memo Tick-Tock: Where'd The 'Hoax' Start?
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Political memos from Congressional Republicans and Democrats get obtained and posted by the press every single day, but a curious PDF file instructing "Democratic health and communications staff" to avoid discussing the details of the cost of health care reform rocked Washington today. Is it a fake? A mistake?
We still don't know who wrote the memo. But we know that a Republican lobbyist (and maybe more than one) sent it to several political reporters today. Based on numerous interviews with Congressional aides, the 2-page PDF, complete with a handwritten note identifying one bit as "important," starting hitting email inboxes around noon.
[READ THE MEMO HERE]
TPMDC dug deeper into the kerfuffle after Democrats accused Republicans of an elaborate plot to try and derail health care reform in the final hours before the expected vote Sunday in the House.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: 2010 elections, Doc fix, Health Care, House Democrats, House Republicans, Medicare, Politico
Health Care
Public Option Pressure: As Stories Leak WH And Dem Leaders Say No Decision Has Been Made
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), President Barack Obama
House leadership sources are telling TPMDC they think news on the "robust" public option is leaking out to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the health care discussions are getting hotter, and closer to the final deal.
Politico's story this morning suggests Pelosi doesn't have the votes, but our sources insist the leadership isn't yet at that stage.
Presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett jabbed at the Politico story while appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe today, saying of the reporter who penned the piece, "I don't know whether Mike Allen can actually count votes or not."
But House sources think Democrats may have spoken with Allen to apply pressure on Pelosi at this late stage in the game.
Sources also knocked down a suggestion that President Obama expressed his preference for a type of public option during a huddle with Senate Democratic leaders last night at the White House.
An administration source tells TPMDC that last night Senate leaders updated Obama on their progress toward the final merger. The group discussed a public option that includes a state opt-out clause, but stressed they had not made a final decision.
Senators are "still working through the substance and talking to their members about it," the source said. "They didn't ask for the president's endorsement since no decision has been made."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: Barack Obama, Health Care, Nancy Pelosi, Politico, Public Option
Politico
Politico's Allen: SCOTUS Coverage Shows Media's Left-Of-Center Bias
Politico's Mike Allen let Sonia Sotomayor's SCOTUS nomination sink in for a couple days before settling on this fresh, and provocative analysis.
[T]he media's left-of-center bias is rarely more apparent than during court fights. The coverage running up to the pick was slanted heavily toward the notion of how "pragmatic" Obama's legal views are and how unlikely he was to pick a liberal.
Now we haven't done a sampling survey the way Allen apparently has, but I seem to recall at least a handful of reports about "concern" that Obama's front-runner (and now nominee) might lack the intellectual heft and good manners "necessary" to sit on the Court.
That, of course, was all basically laid to rest by the sorts of experts "concerned" reporters by and large didn't bother to call--a fact that explain why Allen's colleague, Jeanne Cummings reported today that, "[w]ith scant material for direct attacks, some social conservatives are trying to taint Sotomayor by association, namely with Obama."
It's an odd gambit to attack somebody by associating them with resoundingly popular things--but if there isn't much to criticize on the merits, I guess that's all they've got. And, obviously, that's not a sign of "left-of-center bias" either.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: Politico, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court
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