We don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next ten years, it’s gonna be in a sustainable place. The question is, can we do it smarter, can we do it better? And– you know, what I’m saying to them is I am prepared to do some tough stuff. Neither side’s gonna get 100%….But ultimately, it may be that– the differences are just– too wide. It may be that ideologically, if their position is ‘We can’t do any revenue’ or ‘We can only do revenue if we gut Medicare or gut Social Security or gut Medicaid,’ then we’re probably not gonna be able to get a deal.President Barack Obama • Speaking with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulus about the chances of Congressional Democrats and Republicans reaching any sort of compromise on Washington’s latest (semi-manufactured) budget crisis. source
Listen, I don’t think our platform is the issue. I think a lot of times it’s some of these biologically stupid things that people say, you know, that I believe caused a lot of the problems.RNC chairman Reince Priebus • Diagnosing the problems faced by the Republican Party, which ostensibly played a role in their sound defeat at the voting booth last November, in an interview with Radio Iowa a couple days ago. Piebus’ words (a clear reference to damaging remarks by Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock on rape, among others) could be suggestive of the RNC’s strategic thinking on improving their chances going forward — less emphasis on new policies, perhaps, than on using more tactful rhetoric. source
Another Democrat retiring: Michigan Senator Carl Levin has announced that he won’t seek reelection in 2014. In theory, this places what would have been a safe Democratic seat up for grabs. In reality, the seat will be up for grabs until after the Republican primary, at which point it will revert back to being a safe Democratic seat. Okay, in all seriousness, Levin’s retirement is indeed a blow to Democrats hoping to retain control of the Senate, but considering that Michigan is generally a pretty blue state, it’s not as big a deal as, say Jay Rockefeller’s retirement in West Virginia (Photo credit: AP). source
“I’ll look at what’s happening right now, I wish I were there,” Mitt Romney said of the ongoing sequestration battles in Washington. “It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done. The president is the leader of the nation. The president brings people together, does the deals, does the trades, knocks the heads together; the president leads.”
(Photo credit: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)
Buck up, old fella. You’re sounding a little depressed these days. You know, there’s this thing called thought leadership that you could try. That’s what Rush and Palin try to do.
In case you were wondering what Mitt’s been up to since the election, Fox News did an interview with him. here’s a sample, above. ”We were on a roller coaster, exciting and thrilling, ups and downs. But the ride ends,” he told a captive Chris Wallace. “And then you get off. And it’s not like, oh, can’t we be on a roller coaster the rest of our life? It’s like, no, the ride’s over.” The full interview hits Sunday.
We have moved a bill in the House twice. We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something.
President Obama has said that unless he gets a second tax hike in eight weeks, he will be forced to let criminals loose on the streets, the meat at your grocery store won’t be inspected and emergency responders will be unable to do their jobs. These are false choices. We are faced with the negative effects of the sequester because Democrats have not been able to take even the smallest step towards controlling spending.Rep. Eric Cantor • Painting President Obama as the primary cause of the looming sequester, and resulting budget cuts, which will take effect if Congress doesn’t act by next week. While neither party is particularly popular at the moment, a recent Pew/USA Today poll shows that the GOP is currently eating much of the public blame for the sequester debate, which we don’t imagine sits well with the House Majority. source
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could see a primary challenge from local businessman Matt Bevin, who sources say is reaching out to Tea Party groups in the state to gauge support for a 2014 Senate run.
Sarah Duran, president of the Louisville Tea Party, told The Hill that Bevin had been in touch with her over the phone to discuss his run multiple times over the past few weeks, and that he met with the group two weeks ago to discuss his interest in the race.
While exploring one’s options is far from being the same as declaring candidacy, the emergence of a strong Tea Party alternative like Matt Bevin could hurt McConnell in the long run, particularly if it forces the Senate stalwart to move any farther to the right on hot button issues. With many expecting actress Ashley Judd to challenge McConnell as well, the five-term Senator could have his work cut out for him during the 2014 midterm elections.
Look, if we had a [Hillary] Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles as Chief of Staff of the White House or President of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now. That’s not the kind of presidency we’re dealing with right now.Rep. Paul Ryan • Offering (on this morning’s Meet the Press) an interesting take on what he thinks of the Obama administration … essentially, Obama is no Hillary Clinton.
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Republicans in Virginia and a handful of other battleground states are pushing for far-reaching changes to the electoral college in an attempt to counter recent success by Democrats.
In the vast majority of states, the presidential candidate who wins receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The proposed changes would instead apportion electoral votes by congressional district, a setup far more favorable to Republicans. Under such a system in Virginia, for instance, President Obama would have claimed four of the state’s 13 electoral votes in the 2012 election, rather than all of them.
Other states considering similar changes include Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, which share a common dynamic with Virginia: They went for Obama in the past two elections but are controlled by Republicans at the state level.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus recently voiced support for the effort, saying it is something that “a lot of states that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red ought to be looking at.”
Umm … WTF?
We must compete in every state and every region, building relationships with communities we haven’t before…Simple ‘outreach’ a few months before an election will not suffice. In fact, let’s stop talking about ‘reaching out’—and start working on welcoming in.Planned remarks by Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus for the group’s upcoming winter meeting. Since November, we’ve heard a lot from the GOP about “re-calibrating” its message to appeal to demographics it lost in 2012 (Hispanics, women, young people, African-Americans, LGBT folk, and others). What we haven’t yet heard is how, if at all, those recalibrations will manifest themselves policy-wise. Will Priebus, or anyone else at this RNC meeting, be able to articulate what policies the GOP has to offer the people who voted to reelect President Obama last year and expand the Democratic majority the the Senate? Or will they insist that it’s just a matter of messaging? Speaking of messaging, Priebus probably isn’t too happy about Republican darling Allen West’s latest. source
A debate about which party can better manage the federal government is a very small and short-sighted debate. If our vision is not bigger than that, we do not deserve to win.Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal • In a speech he plans to give to the Republican National Committee Thursday evening, during which he will use the phrase “recalibrate the compass of conservatism.” Jindal sounds like he’s running for president in 2016, and also like he’s hoping to score an era-defining speech akin to Rush Limbaugh’s defiant bit at 2009’s CPAC. Jindal’s response to the State of the Union that year didn’t get a lot of love from anyone, but he’s otherwise proven himself to be one of the country’s best Republican governors, so it’ll be interesting to see what sort of bandwidth he gets from this speech.
Congress punts on debt ceiling: The House of Representatives passed a bill today that extends the nation’s debt limit until May 18th, effectively tabling the issue for another couple of months. This time, the GOP majority didn’t ask for spending cuts in exchange for the increase; rather, it simply demanded that both houses of congress pass a budget before April 15th. Otherwise, per the bill, all members of both bodies will have their salaries withheld (there’s some debate over whether or not this provision is constitutional). Also, while the majority of Republicans did vote for the bill, enough defected that John Boehner had to rally up a couple of Democrats to get it passed. Harry Reid says it’ll fly through the Senate without issue. (Photo credit: AP) source
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