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  • First thoughts: Minimize and move on

    The White House shows it’s more nimble in dealing with distractions… Facing reality, the Senate declares it won’t take up comprehensive energy/climate legislation… Charlie Rangel’s three options… Norm Coleman eyes RNC chair post… Another day, another bad headline for Colorado Republicans… First Read’s Top 10 favorite House races… Previewing AR-2… And Rubio gets the Chamber’s endorsement.

    From NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
    *** Minimize and move on: The past 30 days have thrown more distractions at the Obama White House and the Democratic Party -- Gen. McChrystal’s firing, the furor over Robert Gibbs’ factual remark that the House is in play, the Shirley Sherrod story, and now Charlie Rangel’s new ethics woes. But what we’ve begun to notice is that Team Obama has become MUCH better at dealing with these distractions. They haven't figured out how to prevent distractions. (What White House can?). But they are getting better at minimizing the damage and then moving on. In fact, despite all the week’s distractions, the White House racked up some important wins. Signing the financial legislation into law. Seeing the unemployment benefits finally pass Congress. And getting Elena Kagan one step closer to become the nation’s next Supreme Court justice. Yes, the White House still can’t stay on message, but they’re showing they’re more nimble in dealing with distractions. Will they ever get to focus two straight weeks on the economy? It hasn't happened yet.

    *** Bowing to reality: The one thing the White House won’t end up achieving this Congress, however, is comprehensive energy/climate reform. The New York Times: “Bowing to political reality, Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, said the Senate would not take up legislation intended to reduce carbon emissions blamed as a cause of climate change, but would instead pursue a more limited measure focused on responding to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and tightening energy efficiency standards.” We’ve said this before, but Scott Brown’s victory in January didn’t stop health care. But the two extra months on health care -- and extra tough votes the Democrats had to take on it -- effectively killed any chance of getting a big energy/climate bill.

    *** Rangel’s three options: Speaking of Rangel’s new ethics woes, he has a decision to make, the Washington Post reports. “He can resign, accept the charges and try to stay on, or defend himself. Pressure could build from Democratic members for him to resign rather than endure a public trial that would be humiliating for him and his party so soon before the November midterm elections.” The Post adds that a judge-like House Ethics Committee panel will read the charges against Rangel on Thursday, and that a full trial would begin around the week of Sept. 13. We can tell you what option Democrats prefer, and it's not the one where he defends himself… The fact is, by voting to have a public trial, the House Democrats are signaling to Rangel that they want him to resign. But he's been stubborn about this from the beginning (the attempts to get him to give up the gavel were excruciating).

    *** Hey Norm! We still have more than three months until Election Day. But in a sign of how much of a lame duck Michael Steele has become, the race for the cycle’s next RNC chairman is already underway. Politico’s Martin broke the news yesterday that former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman (R) -- whom Al Franken defeated in one of the longest electoral overtimes in memory -- is considering a bid for RNC chair. “Coleman is planning to attend the RNC’s summer meeting next month in Kansas City… [And] senior Republicans say the former senator’s appearance at the committee’s gathering will also allow him to meet the party members who will pick the next chairman and signal to them that he’s interested in the job.” In a way, it seems that Coleman is already auditioning for the job via the American Action Network group he’s heading, which is airing TV ads against Patty Murray in Washington state and Charlie Crist in Florida. Success in helping the GOP in just one of those races could be enough for Coleman.

    *** Coleman as RNC chair is a mixed bag: But Coleman is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the story of an ex-Democrat who left the party because it "left him" is a good selling point. That said, Coleman has the legacy of losing elections to Al Franken and Jesse Ventura -- not exactly the record of an electoral juggernaut. And his lone statewide victory was handed to him following the death of Paul Wellstone. Still, Coleman is someone who is viewed within GOP circles as a team player and who is through with his own political ambition. The only other wrinkle? Will folks like Haley Barbour, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich be nervous that Tim Pawlenty is somehow getting an upper hand for 2012 with Coleman's ascension?

    *** Tancredo back in the spotlight: Another day, another bad headline for Republicans out in Colorado. Here’s the Denver Post: “Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo demanded today that the two GOP gubernatorial candidates [Scott McInnis and Dan Maes] drop out of the race. If they don’t, he said he will run for governor as an American Constitution Candidate, a move likely to split the Republican Party in November’s general election. ‘There’s nothing left to split. The reality is that with the two candidates we have, we will lose the general election,’ Tancredo said in an interview.” Tancredo said he wants the men to commit to exiting the race AFTER the Aug. 10 primary, so “a Republican vacancy committee could appoint a replacement. Tancredo said he doesn’t care if the substitute is not himself.”

    *** 75 House races to watch: AR-2: And here’s another House seat we’re watching, AR-2, which is being vacated by seven-term Rep. Vic Snyder (D). The Dem nominee for this open seat is state Sen. Joyce Elliot, who won her run-off with 54% (and if she wins in November, she would be the state’s first black member of Congress). The GOP nominee is former prosecutor/U.S. attorney/Bush White House official/RNC oppo-researcher Tim Griffin, who won his primary with 62%. McCain won 54% of this district in ’08, and Bush won 51% in ’04. Both Cook and Rothenberg rate it “Lean Republican.”

    *** More midterm news: In Florida’s Senate race, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is backing Marco Rubio…

    Countdown to OK primary: 4 days
    Countdown to KS and MO primaries: 11 days
    Countdown to CO and CT primaries: 18 days
    Countdown to Election Day 2010: 102 days

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  • Congress: Democrats wrangle with Rangel story

    The New York Daily News' lead on Rangel: "House probers handed aging warrior Rep. Charlie Rangel the battle of his political life on Thursday, slapping the Harlem Democrat with damning ethics charges."

    The New York Post's cover: "Charlie Charged."

    The New York Times on the charges: “Democrats with knowledge of the investigation said the committee found evidence to support accusations that Mr. Rangel, 80, wrongly accepted four rent-stabilized apartments in Manhattan and misused his office to preserve a tax loophole worth half a billion dollars for an oil executive who pledged a donation for an educational center being built in Mr. Rangel’s honor. The committee also found evidence to support a charge that Mr. Rangel failed to report or pay taxes on rental income from his beachfront Dominican villa.”

    The Times adds that Rangel, if he decides to fight the charges, “must face a public trial before the House ethics committee, the first member of Congress to be forced to do so since 2002, when Representative James A. Traficant Jr. was expelled from Congress after a corruption conviction.”

    "The ethics trial sought by the New York congressman and former Ways and Means Committee chairman will coincide with campaign season. Democrats will have to defend their party's conduct," AP writes, adding, "Republicans are already going negative, reminding voters that Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised to "drain the swamp" of ethical misdeeds in Congress."

    The Washington Post on the death of the climate bill: “Conceding that they can't find enough votes for the legislation, Senate Democrats on Thursday abandoned efforts to put together a comprehensive energy bill that would seek to curb greenhouse gas emissions, delivering a potentially fatal blow to a proposal the party has long touted and President Obama campaigned on. Instead, Democrats will push for a more limited measure that would seek to increase liability costs that oil companies would pay following spills such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico. It also would create additional incentives for the development of natural gas vehicles and would provide rebates for products that reduce home energy use. Senate Democrats said they expected to find GOP support for the bill and pass it in the next two weeks.”

    The efficiency of Congress on display again... "The Senate rejected the House’s broad version of a supplemental war spending bill late Thursday night, after Democrats were unable to complete work on a small-business jobs bill despite hours of tense negotiations with Republicans," Roll Call says. "The Senate was stalled almost all day Thursday as Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) negotiated a settlement on the small-business measure. Those talks broke down late Thursday evening, forcing Reid to turn to the supplemental spending bill."

    "After a lengthy debate Thursday, the Senate voted 60-37 to end debate on an amendment that would create a $30 billion fund for community banks to lend to small businesses," The Hill writes.

    Reid "has committed the Senate to a showdown on campaign finance legislation aimed at undoing a controversial Supreme Court ruling, despite the fact that he does not have the votes to break a GOP filibuster. Following the Senate’s rejection of a House version of the supplemental war spending bill late Thursday night and Reid’s inability to move a small-business bill, the Democratic leader abruptly decided to turn to the campaign finance bill. Reid filed a cloture on the bill Thursday night, and the vote will be held Tuesday."

  • Obama agenda: All about race…

    With the conclusion (it seems) of the Shirley Sherrod story, the big papers all focus on the issue of race. Here’s the New York Times: “No matter how hard his White House tries to keep the issue from defining his presidency, it keeps popping back up, fueled in part by high expectations from the left for the first black president, and in part by tactical opposition politics on the right.”

    The Washington Post: “Two years ago, in a powerful speech in Philadelphia, presidential candidate Barack Obama warned that Americans will not be able to overcome their divisions if they continue to ‘tackle race only as a spectacle.’ This week, however, the subject of race returned to the forefront as just that: A spectacle over a selectively edited Internet video that led to the hasty firing of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod for seemingly making racist comments. Then came a rush of recrimination and vindication when a fuller version revealed that she had actually been giving a speech about overcoming prejudice.”

    In response to the Sherrod story in an interview with ABC, Obama said he told "my team" to make sure "that we're focusing on doing the right thing instead of what looks to be politically necessary at that very moment. We have to take our time and think these issues through." Also: Sherrod says she's considering suing Andrew Breitbart. And Ann Coulter, by the way, says Breitbart was the victim. "The whole key to this story is that Andrew Breitbart was set up," she said on Fox.

    The AP looks at the politics being played with the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and the influence of the Heritage Foundation on Republicans.

    "Federal investigators have identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, according to investigative reports," the Boston Globe reports.

    So liberals don't like OMB pick Jacob Lew, either? "They suspect Jacob “Jack” Lew may share an affection for market-driven reforms they say were too popular among Clinton’s staff and that he would support cuts to Social Security and Medicare," The Hill writes.

  • The midterms: DCCC plays defense

    The New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny writes, “The Democrats’ strategy to preserve their House majority became clearer Thursday as the party made a $28 million investment in television advertising for the final weeks of the fall campaign, a plan meant to build a defensive firewall to protect freshmen and some vulnerable longtime incumbents… The list of at-risk Democrats also contains well-established members, including John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, chairman of the Budget Committee; Ike Skelton of Missouri, chairman of the Armed Services Committee; and Paul E. Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, a senior member of the Financial Services Committee. None of the 40 districts are held by Republicans, a signal that the Democratic plan is rooted in defense.”

    The New York Times also reports on the “Great Recession paradox”… “Even as voters express outrage at the insider culture of big bailouts and bonuses, their search for political saviors has led them to this: a growing crowd of über-rich candidates, comfortable in boardrooms and country clubs, spending a fortune to remake themselves into populist insurgents.” The Times’ top example: Florida Senate candidate Jeff Greene.

    ARIZONA: Republican Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth is calling for Sen. John McCain to take down a campaign ad featuring the endorsement of a sheriff who recently appeared on a talk show that identifies itself as "pro-White." According to the Arizona Republic blog AZ Central, "Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, noted Babeu has already said he regrets calling into this radio show and was 'unaware of its hosts' repugnant views.'"

    COLORADO: President Obama started sending robo-calls out for Sen. Michael Bennett yesterday.

    "Former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo is negotiating with the American Constitution Party to run for Colorado governor and replace their candidate on the ballot," AP writes. "The move would give Tancredo a way to get on the November ballot without running as a Republican. Tancredo had raised the possibility of running unaffiliated or for a third party because he doesn't believe the two GOP candidates in the Aug. 10 primary can win against Democratic Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper."

    The Denver Post: "Tancredo demanded [yesterday] that the two GOP gubernatorial candidates drop out of the race. If they don’t, he said he will run for governor as an American Constitution Candidate, a move likely to split the Republican Party in November’s general election. 'There’s nothing left to split. The reality is that with the two candidates we have, we will lose the general election,' Tancredo said in an interview."

    Tancredo is a hard-liner on immigration, and approximately 20% of Colorado’s population is Hispanic.

    CONNECTICUT: Oh, those are just PSAs... "Former Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.) insists he is not campaigning for a Senate seat, except for the TV ads he’s running and the occasional campaign appearances he’s making," The Hill reports, adding, "In an interview with The Hill, Simmons said he thinks of the ads more as 'public service announcements.'"

    INDIANA: A sheriff by any other name still enforces law… “Indiana voters might get the idea that Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth was a sheriff for 25 years from his recent campaign ads for U.S. Senate,” AP writes. “Ellsworth says so himself in the two ads. But he was sheriff for only eight years. He was a deputy for the other 17. The campaign said Thursday that the ads refer to the congressman's 25 years with the sheriff's department and were not meant to mislead.” Is there really a there there with this story? Ellsworth was a "sheriff" and a "deputy sheriff" before that. The article also criticizes Ellsworth for not mentioning his Washington ties, but breezes by Republican Dan Coats' much lengthier Washington ties, including nearly three decades as a member of Congress, Senator, and lobbyist.

    IOWA: The Des Moines Register on the negative tone and wide scope of this year’s governor’s race: “Gov. Chet Culver and Republican challenger Terry Branstad have already spent more than $1.2 million on advertising in the early weeks of the general election campaign, most of it attacking each other,” the Register writes. “The pace and volume of advertising at this point are far ahead of those in any other Iowa campaign for governor and 10 times the levels of four years ago. The aggressiveness and critical tone most closely resemble the conditions of the 2002 campaign, when then-Gov. Tom Vilsack stood for re-election during difficult economic times.”

    LOUISIANA: "Sen. David Vitter continues to be one of the luckiest men in politics," the Times-Picayune writes. First came the revelation that former state Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor was married to the late ex-wife of his former friend, state Rep. Noble Ellington, and that Traylor was "significantly involved" in the Ellingtons' divorce. And there was the news that Traylor is "romantically involved with the estranged wife of his stepson Ryan Ellington. Ryan Ellington and his brother are also suing Traylor for access to various records related to their mother's estate."

    NEVADA: Playing off Sen. Harry Reid's tagline, "No one can do more," Sharron Angle has a new ad out today in which she speaks to a group of voters, telling them that he's done more to raise unemployment, foreclosure rates and bankruptcy than anyone else.

    TEXAS: “Last year, [Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill] White bought a newspaper ad picturing him with Obama under the headline ‘The Dream. The Hope. The Change. ’On Wednesday, White took pains to underscore his differences with the president on federal spending and climate and energy legislation -- at one point mirroring the anti-Washington theme that Perry capitalized on in the Republican primary.”

    WEST VIRGINIA: "Ten Republicans on Thursday entered the race for the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Robert C. Byrd, joining a field where West Virginia's popular Democratic governor is seen as the front-runner," the AP writes. "John Raese, an industrialist and media owner, and recent U.S. House candidate Mac Warner are the best known among the GOP hopefuls. Gov. Joe Manchin and two other Democrats filed their paperwork earlier this week."

  • Arizona: Blame the feds for lack of enforcement

    From NBC's Pete Williams
    It isn't Arizona that's interfering with enforcement of the nation's immigration laws, it's the federal government, the state's lawyers claimed, as a federal judge in Phoenix heard several hours of argument Thursday over a strict new immigration law due to take effect next week.

    The Justice Department urged U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton to block the law, arguing that states cannot establish their own immigration policies if they would interfere with federal enforcement of the nation's immigration laws. Arizona's law would divert attention from the federal approach, government lawyers argued, which concentrates on illegal immigrants of greatest concern, such as those who have committed other crimes and constitute a threat to public safety.

    In their written briefs, the government's lawyers also argued that the Arizona law would complicate relations with other countries, interfering with foreign policy, a uniquely a federal responsibility. Mexico and several other Central and South American countries filed friend of court briefs opposing the Arizona law.

    It requires Arizona police making arrests or traffic stops to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. Those arrested could not be released until police verify their immigration status by checking with federal authorities.

    Arizona lawyers, in their written submissions, claimed that the state is not acting contrary to federal law and is instead working to pick up the slack resulting from the federal government's limited enforcement of laws passed by Congress.

    "Arizona merely seeks to assist with the enforcement of existing federal immigration laws in a constitutional manner," the state argued. It is the federal government, Arizona said, "that is attempting to impose immigration policies and priorities that contravene and conflict with federal law and unambiguous congressional intent."

    The judge has not said whether she would issue a ruling before the law takes effect July 29th.

  • Rangel ethics hearing next week

    NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports: A public hearing will be held next Thursday (July 29) to hear evidence on the Rep. Charlie Rangel matter and that is likely when we will learn what specific findings have been reached.

    Today the Committee has "Transmitted a Statement of Alleged Violation" to the Chair and Ranking member. This means the Committee believes there is evidence of wrongdoing. (View the letter here.)

    "That's what I have been asking for at long last," Rangel said when asked about the hearing, per NBC's Shawna Thomas. "I look forward to airing this thing."

    But the finding of the Committee means Democrats also voted against Rangel. Aides say "this is big" and could if proven could lead to serious consequences.

    The 80-year-old New York Democrat has been under scrutiny by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct known as the ethics committee.

    He said he will speak at the public hearing whether the rules allow.

    For two years, Rangel's personal finances, fundraising and more have been under scrutiny. Rangel requested the inquiry himself and the highly secretive committee made public that it was reviewing Rangel's actions.

    The issues: Rangel failed to pay taxes on rental income from a vacation villa he owns in the Dominican Republic. He later paid about $10,000 in overdue villa related taxes after the omission was discovered. Rangel faced allegations that he received a special deal not available to the public on rent for three New York City rent-controlled apartments. His use of his official Congressional stationery to solicit funds for a City College of New York center bearing his name is also under review.

    In his 20th term, Rangel has filed to run again in New York's Sept. 14th primary. Rangel has been a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and had served as chairman of the powerful tax writing, Ways and Means Committee, until he stepped aside in March after being admonished for gift rule violations. Rangel and other Members had accepted a Caribbean trip that was paid for by corporations without proper disclosure.

    Republicans were quick to jump on the news and widen the scope.

    "This is troubling news not only for Congressman Rangel, but for his most ardent defender -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi," said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is charged with trying to elect Republicans. "For over two years, the Charlie Rangel saga dragged on while Speaker Pelosi not only sat idly by, but encouraged her members to vote against an investigation into the deeply troubling matters at hand. It appears that Charlie Rangel will finally be judged by a jury of his peers, but unfortunately for the Speaker, the verdict is already out on what she promised would be the 'most ethical congress in history.'"

    In office since 1971, Rangel is No. 2 in House seniority.

  • Blog Buzz: Sherrod, Day 4

    It's Day 4 of the Shirley Sherrod/USDA narrative, and after almost a full week of hashing the story out, some bloggers seemed ready to throw in the towel, while others were still finding new points of the story to analyze.

    Conservative blogger Allahpundit of Hot Air asked a poignant question: "Is Sherrod week in the blogosphere finally over?"

    Earlier in the day, before President Obama's staff got Sherrod on the phone, Allahpundit wrote that it was "understandable" if Sherrod didn't want to accept an outreach position at the USDA because she "doesn’t want the headache of being the “race czar” or whatever at Agriculture," but that President Obama may be the only one that could convince her to come back: "a direct appeal from the throne might be the only way to get her to accept."

    After the call, Allahpundit comments on its substance and brevity: "As expected, The One asked her to accept Vilsack’s job offer. Is seven minutes long enough for a thoughtful conversation on race?"

    NRO's Michael Ledeen drew a political conclusion from the course of events: that the chain of command at the White House was too lockstep to voice any dissent about firing Sherrod. In a post fraught with Spanish Inquisition metaphors, Ledeen wrote, "In an administration staffed with true believers, her alleged crime was a thought (and speech) crime.

    "Bad news, not least of all because it documents the unanimity demanded of 'public officials.' Remember how Obamaphiles were comparing him to Lincoln, who famously elevated folks who disagreed with him? The Sherrod affair puts the lie to that myth, doesn’t it? Not to mention contempt for 'innocent until proven guilty,' even when the charge is blasphemy."

    And yesterday evening, Red State's Moe Lane also used the Sherrod firing to draw a conclusion about the way the Obama administration works. "The Right is hardly abashed that Ms. Sherrod ended up being maligned by the Obama administration and defended by Glenn Beck; the Left is infuriated that their precious man-god stomped all over their favorite narrative before it could even get started; and the Middle is mostly going to take away from all of this the sight of the White House apologizing to a black woman for passing instant judgment on her based on the color of her skin, rather than the content of her character.

    "And, oh yes," Moe added, "there’s a media circus, too."

    AMERICAblog's John Aravosis excerpted from a Washington Post article criticizing what she sees as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the NAACP's "rush to judgement" on Sherrod, an article in which Aravosis said the writer later "takes a small slap at the blogosphere.

    "She fails to note 'conservative blogosphere.' I challenge her to find that kind of false reporting from the top liberal blogs," he wrote in defense of his side's analysis of the Sherrod case.

    Writing at DailyKos, Lawrence Lewis linked traditional media's coverage of the ACORN scandal with that of the Sherrod events, condemning those platforms for their reliance, as he sees it, on conservative sources of commentary for the basis of stories more nuanced than those outlets describe them.

    "ACORN had been all but destroyed, and the traditional media that had done so much to inflict the damage mostly ignored that news," Lewis wrote. "Beyond blaming Breitbart, Faux News, and the gullibility of both Obama administration officials and Congressional Democrats, will the traditional media ever take a good hard look at themselves? Breitbart and Faux would not get away with their lies if the rest of the media weren't using their own bullhorns to blindly promote those lies, repeating without reporting, as has become their habit. Sources either prove credible or they do not, and Breitbart and Faux are not credible."

  • Obamas to vacation at Gulf

    President Obama and the first family will spend the weekend of Aug. 14th and 15th on Florida's Gulf Coast, the White House announced. The White House did not specify where yet.

    The move comes after criticism from some that the president chose to vacation in Maine last weekend, but not the Gulf following the oil spill.

  • Dems abandon energy overhaul

    The New York Times: "After a meeting of Senate Democrats, party leaders on Thursday said they had abandoned hope of passing a comprehensive energy bill this summer and would pursue a more limited measure focused primarily on responding the Gulf oil spill and including some tightening of energy efficiency standards."

    Majority Leader Harry Reid lamented a lack of Republican support: “We don’t have a single Republican to work with us. ... We know where we are. We don’t have the votes.”

  • Ad Watch: These boots were made for... ?

    Colorado Republican Senate candidate Jane Norton went right up with an ad highlighting her opponent Ken Buck's statement involving high heels, cowboy boots and bull excrement; Linda McMahon wins over some Connecticut drivers; also in the Nutmeg State, don't call it a comeback -- Republican Senate candidate Rob Simmons might have a new ad out but he's been on the ballot the whole time; and like Norton, California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman uses her opponent Jerry Brown's words against him, in this case to make him sound unprepared for the governor's mansion.

    CO SEN, Norton "High Heels"
    7/22
    NORTON: "I'm Jane Norton. I approved this message." ANNCR: "Ken Buck is attacking Jane Norton. What's he saying? You might be surprised. Here's Ken Buck caught on tape." BUCK CLIP: "Why should you vote for me? Because I do not wear high heels." ANNCR: "Play that again." BUCK: "Why should you vote for me? Because I do not wear high heels. I have cowboy boots. They have real bullsh** on them. That's Weld County bullsh**." ANNCR: "Now Ken Buck wants to go to Washington. He'd fit right in"

    CT SEN, McMahon, "Cup of Tea"
    7/22
    LINDA ON RADIO: I'm Linda McMahon. It's time for something different. WOMAN 1: So what do you think about Linda McMahon? WOMAN 2: Well, I like what she's saying. WOMAN 1: Well, what about the wrestling stuff? WOMAN 2: [laughs] well, not exactly my cup of tea. WOMAN 1: It's a soap opera. WOMAN 2: Really. WOMAN 1: Look, she trained the traveling show world of professional wrestling, turned it into a global company and created 500 jobs here in Connecticut. WOMAN 2: Alright. Think she can shake things up in Washington? WOMAN 1: Oh yeah. BOTH WOMEN: Ohhh, yeah.

    CT SEN, Simmons
    7/22
    SIMMONS: "Today, it's important to vote with your heart and your head. Bailouts and tax increases have crippled the economy and cost us jobs. Small business is our backbone. Let's help them. National security must remain strong. Put your trust in the candidate who is and will be an advocate for veterans. These issues will have a lasting effect on our children. In the Republican primary on August tenth, you do have a choice. I'm Rob Simmons, I'm still on the ballot, and I approved this message."

    NH SEN, anti-Binnie (Cornerstone Action PAC), "Shockingly Liberal"
    7/22
    MAN: "Have you seen Bill Binnie's ads on tv? Or all those mailers? He seems like a very interesting candidate for US Senate." WOMAN: "I have, but did you know that his flashy ads are actually hiding his shockingly liberal positions on almost every issue?" MAN: Shockingly liberal? WOMAN: "Yes. Did you know Bill Binnie said that he might have voted for the $700 billion dollar bank bailout? And he's excited about New Hampshire's new gay marriage law." MAN: "Excited about gay marriage?" WOMAN: "He's actually described himself as being intellectually liberal." MAN: "And he's running as a Republican!" WOMAN: I know. He also opposes Arizona's new common sense law that cracks down on illegal immigration." MAN: "He is shockingly liberal. What else isn't he telling us?" WOMAN: Well, he supports key elements of President Obama's takeover of our health care system. And Bill Binnie has a history of donating money to Democrats like Massachusetts liberal Marty Meehan and Jeanne Shaheen! MAN: "Well, his ads make him seem like he's a conservative, but he really is shockingly liberal." ANNCR: "Paid for by Cornerstone Action"

    CA GOV, Whitman, "No Plan"
    7/22
    ANNCR: Jobs leaving. A budget disaster. California on the brink. Jerry Brown's plan? BROWN: You run for office and your immediate assumption is, oh, I know what to do. You don't! I didn't have a plan for California. ANNCR: With our staste in crisis we need a governor with a plan. BROWN: We need a real plan as something I'll acknoweldge I did not have . ANNCR: Jerry Brown. No plan then, no plan now. Meg Whitman. A plan for jobs. Log on, learn more.

    MI GOV, Tom George, "Citizen Legislator"
    GEORGE: "I'm Dr. Tom George and I'm running for governor. Michigan deserves a governor who will reform our state health programs, the single biggest expense within our budget, freeing up resources to afford tax relief and investment in education and roads. With our hard working people and our bountiful natural resources, Michigan has a bright future. If we work together we can fix Michigan. Join my team at georgeforgovernor.com and let's fix Michigan"

    OK GOV, Brogdon, "Back to the Basics"
    7/22
    BROGDON: As governor, my goal is to lead Oklahoma to the restoration of her founding principles. Limited government. Personal responsibility. Expansion of freedom. Those are the principles that will give us a better future. I'm a man of faith, I'm a husband, and I'm a dad. Those are the priorities that give me a purpose in life. And my purpose is to lead this state back to the basics so we can have a brighter future.



    TN GOV, Haslam, "Enough is Enough"
    7/22
    If you've seen Zach Wamp's television commercials, or received his emails, you've been misled. About my record and his. I'm Bill Halsam. I'm trying to focuse on the issues in this campaign for governor. Enough's enough. Zach Wamp knows I support the second amendment. He knows that Knoxville, where I'm the mayor, has the lowest property tax in over 50 yeras. He's on record. Praising our family business as a good corporate citizen. He wants to talk about my money because he doesn't want to talk about what he's doing with yours. Spent his career in Washington. Broke his promise on term limits, and special interest contributions. Voted for billions in earmarks. Helped turn up the federal debt to record highs. Never met a payroll or balance a budget. That's not the kind of experience our next governor needs. I hope you'll listen to the facts, and ignore his attacks. Thank you. I'd be grateful for your support.

  • House passes unemployment benefits extension

    NBC's Luke Russert reports: The House just passed the $34-billion unemployment benefits bill, 272-152, with 31 Republicans joining 241 Democrats in voting for it; 10 Democrats opposed.

    The bill is now literally being driven down Pennsylvania Ave where President Obama will sign it as soon as possible. Benefits will take two-to-four weeks to reach people that need them.

  • Obama speaks with Sherrod

    NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports that President Obama today called and spoke with Shirley Sherrod. The meeting took place in the president's private office. The call lasted about seven minutes.

    Sherrod did not make any indication about the job offer. President Obama tried to reach her twice last night, but was unable to leave a message. Staff were then trying to reach her this morning; she called back, and the president spoke with her.

    Here's the White House's readout of the call:

    The President reached Ms. Sherrod by telephone at about 12:35. They spoke for seven minutes.
    The President expressed to Ms. Sherrod his regret about the events of the last several days. He emphasized that Secretary Vilsack was sincere in his apology yesterday, and in his work to rid USDA of discrimination.
    The President told Ms. Sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need, and he hopes that she will do so.

  • Romney to raise money for NH GOP

    Mitt Romney will raise money for the New Hampshire Republican Party Aug. 12.

    Mitt Romney's heading back to New Hampshire.

    The likely 2012 candidate, who owns a home in the Granite State, will raise money for the New Hampshire Republican Party Aug. 12. (View Invite here.)

    The fundraiser is $250 a head and at a private home. Party spokesman Ryan Williams told First Read the New Hampshire GOP has sent out a "couple hundred" invitations, and that, for New Hampshire, $250 is considered high-priced.

    A week earlier, Aug. 5th, Romney will also raise money for the New Hampshire Republican House Victory PAC in Manchester. The PAC helps elect Republican state House candidates.

    The former Massachusetts governor, no surprise, leads the pack of 2012 hopefuls who have donated to the state party and state GOP candidates. Romney has donated already $30,000 to the state party, Williams said. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is next biggest contributor of the group with $5,000. Pawlenty was in New Hampshire July 10th for a state party fundraiser.

    Romney has also given $7,500 to other local and state special election candidates in New Hampshire, and $1,000 to Chris Sununu, who is running for the state party's executive council. Chris Sununu is the son of state party chairman John Sununu, a former governor.

    Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) is headed to the Granite State Monday to raise money for the state Senate PAC, as well as Chris Sununu.

  • Democrats debate extending Bush tax cuts for the rich

    From NBC's Luke Russert and Domenico Montanaro
    Recently a few House Democrats have publicly come out in support of extending President George W. Bush's tax cuts for families making over $250,000 for two or more years. These Democrats are of the view that with the nation expected to continue in a severe recession for the next 18-to-24 months, according to respected economists, and that the tax cuts should not expire, because wealthy families would tighten their belts and not put as much of their fortune toward disposable income. Politically, many also fear being labeled as tax-raisers in the months before the contentious midterm elections.

    The idea has gained traction within the Democratic Caucus over recent days, Gerry Connolly, a vulnerable freshman House Democrat from Virginia, told The Hill newspaper, "I think the recovery is sufficiently fragile that we ought to leave tax rates where they are."

    In her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill today, though, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) all but closed the door on the idea. Pelosi said passionately, "Our position has been that we support middle income tax cuts, the tax cuts at the high end have increased the deficit enormously, and they have not created jobs over the last eight years of the Bush administration. Think of the inconsistency of what the Republicans have said about these tax cuts, they insisted that the unemployment benefits be paid for, but the tax cuts for the wealthiest in the country should not -- $34 billion for unemployment insurance benefits which create jobs, $700 billion dollars for the wealthiest Americans that don't want to pay for it, and they do not create jobs. I think we have a clear distinction here -- if we want to lower taxes for the middle class and reduce the deficit and create jobs, extending the tax cuts at the high end are not conducive to reaching those goals."

    The New York Times on July 16 noted, "The economic recovery has been helped in large part by the spending of the most affluent. Now, even the rich appear to be tightening their belts."

    Mark Zandi of Moody's said, “One of the reasons that the recovery has lost momentum is that high-end consumers have become more jittery and more cautious."

    More: "[T]he Top 5 percent in income earners -- those households earning $210,000 or more -- account for about one-third of consumer outlays, including spending on goods and services, interest payments on consumer debt and cash gifts, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Moody’s Analytics. That means the purchasing decisions of the rich have an outsize effect on economic data. According to Gallup, spending by upper-income consumers -- defined as those earning $90,000 or more -- surged to an average of $145 a day in May, up 33 percent from a year earlier. Then in June, that daily average slid to $119."

    It'll be interesting to see how this story develops after the August recess, if rank-and-file members, back from town halls, report to the House Democratic Leadership that letting the tax cuts expire could be politically damaging, perhaps there could be a change in Democratic policy.

  • Obama signs improper payments bill

    From NBC's Athena Jones
    In a bid to show voters his administration is concerned with reducing wasteful government spending, President Obama signed a bill aimed at cutting improper payments to individuals, organizations, and contractors.

    The White House says payments made in the wrong amount, to the wrong person, or for the wrong reason totaled nearly $110 billion in 2009, the highest amount to date. The president noted that the $110 billion figure was more than the budgets of the Department of Education and the Small Business Administration combined, calling that "unacceptable."

    The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA) is aimed at cutting such payments by $50 billion between now at 2012, through increased recapture auditing and other payment monitoring.

    "We have to challenge a status quo that accepts billions of dollars in waste as a cost of doing business and enables obsolete or under-performing programs to survive year after year simply because that's the way things have always been done," Obama said during brief remarks in the State Dining Room. "When we continue to spend as if deficits don't matter that means our kids and our grand kids may wind up saddled with debts that they'll never be able to repay."

    Even as the slow pace of the economic recovery has raised concerns among businesses, investors and consumers, many in the halls of Congress and the White House have been engaged in a debate about whether more federal stimulus is needed or whether the government should instead focus on deficit reduction. The discussion has even gone global, with European governments -- notably the coalition government in the United Kingdom -- determined to slash spending and Obama arguing that too much focus on deficit reduction could hurt the global recovery.

    The president has argued for more help for states facing budget shortfalls and to boost lending for small businesses, while also showing a commitment to getting the nation's fiscal house in order by establishing a bipartisan debt commission to look at ways to reduce the deficit and by calling for a three-year freeze on non-defense discretionary spending. Obama said the freeze would reduce such spending to its lowest level as a percentage of the economy in 50 years -- or, as he put it, to the "lowest level since JFK."

    In naming Jacob Lew as his choice to replace outgoing budget chief Peter Orszag -- who sat in the front row at today's event, the president made a point of noting that Lew was the only head of the Office of Management and Budget in history to have presided over a budget surplus for three consecutive years, a comment he repeated today.

    Among examples of the kinds of payments the new law aims to stop are the $180 million in benefits paid out over the past three years to some 20,000 dead Americans and more than $230 million in benefits paid out in the same period to roughly 14,000 fugitive felons or people in jail who were not eligible for benefits.

    Also on hand for the remarks where Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tom Carper (D-DE), as well as Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Dina Titus (D-NV).

  • The gloves, er shoes, come off in Colorado

    Earlier today, we noted the gone-viral Web video of GOP Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck giving this response to the question why voters should support him instead of primary opponent Jane Norton: "Because I do not wear high heels."

    (The context here is that, prior to this, Norton attacked Buck's manhood. “You'd think he'd be man enough to do it himself,” Norton said in an ad referring to outside groups blasting her.)

    Well, Norton is now going up with a TV ad hitting Buck for the "high heels" comment.

  • A vote of 'no confidence' for Congress, media

    Big banks blamed for the deepest economic dip since the Great Depression? Public schools scathingly dubbed a failure to the nation’s children? Journalists gloomily surveying this week’s ham-handed bobbling of a delicate story about politics, race, and the state of the media?

    You can all breathe a small sigh of relief. People still like you better than Congress.

    Public confidence in the group dubbed “the world’s greatest deliberative body” has hit an all-time low in this year’s Gallup Confidence in Institutions poll, with only 11 percent of Americans saying that they have "a great deal" or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress.

    Confidence ratings for Congress have historically been fairly low, never rising far above 40 percent since the poll began in 1973. But this year’s confidence drop – down 6 points since last year and almost 20 since the early 2000s – puts Congress dead last among the 16 institutions tested by Gallup this year.

    “If you’re looking for a way to infuriate the public, just do what we’re doing,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., recently quipped. (Graham is fond of wondering aloud who exactly makes up the miniscule portion of Americans who DO approve of the job Congress is doing.)

    Also bringing up the rear in the poll: the news media. Only 22 percent of respondents expressed much confidence in television news, with newspapers faring only a few points better. Organized labor, big business, and HMOs also earn confidence from less of a quarter of Americans, while the military and small businesses lead the pack with the highest public faith.

    Here’s the complete list of institutions, with the percentage of respondents who said they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in each one:

    The military – 76 percent
    Small business – 66
    The police – 59
    The church/organized religion – 48
    The medical system – 40
    The presidency – 36
    The Supreme Court – 36
    Public schools – 34
    The criminal justice system – 27
    Newspapers – 25
    Banks - 23
    Television news – 22
    Organized labor – 20
    Big business – 19
    HMOs – 19
    Congress – 11

  • Memo to liberals: You're outnumbered

    From NBC's Mark Murray
    As the liberal blogosphere confab, Netroots Nation, kicks off today in Las Vegas, it will inevitably further the "Why are progressives disappointed in Obama?" storyline.

    In the past few months, liberal commentators have bemoaned that the public option wasn’t included in the health care law, that the financial reform legislation -- which President Obama signed into law yesterday -- isn’t strong enough, and that Gitmo still isn't closed. The Nation's Eric Alterman even penned a widely discussed essay explaining these disappointments on a system that's stacked against progressives.

    But here is something to consider: It's the country -- not the system -- that's stacked against liberals and progressives.

    From 1989 (after Reagan's presidency) to now, the most stable data in the NBC/WSJ poll has been that roughly one-fifth of the country identifies as being liberal, while one-third identifies being conservative. Even in 2008, when Obama decisively won the presidency, the average in the poll was 25% liberal, 36% conservative. And in 1996, when Bill Clinton easily won re-election, it was 22% liberal, 34% conservative.

    For Democrats, this means that if they want to win national elections, they need to win about 60% of the self-described moderate vote -- which Obama did in '08 and congressional Dems did in '06, per the exit polls. By comparison, however, John Kerry got 54% of the moderate vote in 2004.

    So the bigger question for Democrats and liberals shouldn't be: "Why isn't Obama's presidency more progressive?" Instead, it should be: "Why isn't the country more progressive?"

    During the '08 presidential campaign, Obama declared (controversially at the time): "Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not."

    He was correct.

    Indeed, progressives -- as well as historians -- might better judge Obama 10 to 15 years from now on whether his administration was able to bend the trajectory of American politics like Reagan did after '88.

  • First thoughts: Race to the top

    Why, in the Obama era, the issue of race almost always surfaces to the top… What does that say about the media, about Obama, and about the country we live in?... Profiling Newt Gingrich’s inner circle… Previewing Netroots Nation, which begins today in Vegas… Look out, but Rob Simmons is back in CT SEN… More GOP woes in Colorado… And previewing AR-1.

    From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
    *** Race to the top: As the Sherrod/USDA/Breitbart story extends yet another day -- Shirley Sherrod continues her non-stop media tour; she said on “TODAY” that she would like a phone call from the president -- it’s only fitting, we guess, that today is the one-year anniversary of when President Obama weighed in on the controversial arrest of Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. If you recall, Obama gave a primetime press conference that night that was 99% about health care. But the 1% came at the end, when a reporter asked Obama about Gates’ arrest and when Obama -- uncharacteristically for him -- chimed in and said the Cambridge police acted “stupidly.” That remark sparked a multi-day media firestorm that only ended after Obama’s “beer summit” with Gates and the Cambridge cop.

    *** The three-ring circus in Washington: In Obama’s first year and a half as president, there haven’t been any sex scandals, any stories of widespread corruption, or any plans to wage war against a nation without WMD. But what does it say -- about the media, about Obama, and about us as a country -- that when the topic turns to race, Washington instantly transforms into a three-ring circus? As for the media, we’ve allowed this story over race bury one of the more consequential weeks of Obama’s presidency thus far (the financial reform legislation becoming law, Senate passage of the jobless benefits, and Kagan clearing the Senate Judiciary Committee). Whether it's Sherrod, Gates, or Jeremiah Wright, the topic of race pushes the media's buttons like no other issue.

    *** Obama’s broken promise: As for Obama, it is clear that his hope of creating “a more perfect union” on the subject of race -- the title of his famous 2008 speech in Philly -- has so far been a broken promise. As Ben Smith observed yesterday, “The election of Barack Obama, America’s first black president, was supposed to be a sign of our national maturity, a chance to transform the charged, stilted ‘national conversation’ about race into a smarter and more authentic dialogue, led by a president who was also one of the nation's subtlest thinkers and writers on the topic. Instead, the conversation just got dumber.” It is clear that Obama -- perhaps correctly -- has decided that it is more important to govern than it is to tackle the issue of race. Still, it is a broken promise, and Robert Gibbs implied yesterday we won't see a so-called "national conversation" on race anytime soon. In truth, it's probably a topic the president can't tackle until he's, well, an ex-president.

    *** Are we mature enough to have a conversation about race? But even if Obama tries to tackle race during his presidency, is Washington mature enough to listen? Probably not when there are so many questioning whether the president was born in this country, when the NAACP is accusing the Tea Party of being racist, when a handful of "new" Black Panthers are on the prowl (who, btw, aren't really members of the actual Black Panthers AND who are about as relevant on the left as the John Birch Society is on the right), and when someone like Andrew Breitbart is so fixated on proving via a concerted campaign that somehow there is racial bias being practiced by this president or members of his administration (whether it’s ACORN, Sherrod, etc.).

    *** 2012 Thursday: In our weekly series looking at the inner circles of the possible 2012 candidates -- we’ve already focused Romney’s and Pawlenty’s -- we turn our attention today to Newt Gingrich’s team. Despite the fact that Gingrich says political consultants are generally bad these days, he has his share. Among the names: veteran GOP operative Joe Gaylord, who was Gingrich’s top political adviser when he was speaker; attorney Randy Evans, who was Newt’s outside counsel; daughter Kathy Lubbers, who is the president of Gingrich Communications; daughter Jackie Cushman, who co-wrote a book with Gingrich; Nancy Desmond, who heads Gingrich’s Center for Health Transformation; spokesman Rick Tyler, founding director of the Gingrich-affiliated Renewing American Leadership; Dan Varroney, chief operations officer of Gingrich’s American Solutions 527; and Vince Haley, who’s the policy chief at American Solutions. The American Solutions 527 has raised more than $17 million this cycle, and it has spent $19 million. The money he's raised and spent always gets overlooked when folks write about Romney, Pawlenty and Palin. Overlooked, folks, at your own peril.

    *** Netroots Nation: The liberal blogosphere confab, Netroots Nation, kicks off today in Las Vegas. The major speakers over the three-day conference include Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (today), former administration official Van Jones (Friday; wonder if Shirley Sherrod will come up?), Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Saturday), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Saturday), and Sen. Al Franken (Saturday). Among today’s panels: “Primaries Matter: Reclaiming the Dem. Party,” “Tweeting the Revolution,” “Right-wing Populism and the Tea Parties,” and “Blogging a Red State Blue.”

    *** Simmons is back: Look out, but Rob Simmons is back in the Connecticut Senate GOP primary. After suspending his campaign when he lost to Linda McMahon for the party’s endorsement, Simmons announced yesterday that he was airing a TV ad reminding Connecticut voters that he’s still on the ballot. “For the past two months, I have been traveling the state supporting my fellow Republican candidates for public office who I believe will bring to Connecticut and the nation the leadership we need at this most difficult time,” said in a statement to supporters. “Everywhere I go people ask me if I am still running for the U.S. Senate because they want to lend their support. My response has been ‘I'm still on the ballot.’”

    *** The GOP’s woes in Colorado: About a week ago, we started asking, “What’s the matter with Colorado [for Republicans]?” And since then, things have become even more problematic. First, likely GOP gubernatorial nominee Scott McInnis got embroiled in a plagiarism scandal. Writes Dan Balz: “When the 2010 election cycle began last year, national Republicans viewed Colorado as one of their best opportunities to take a governor's office from the Democrats. Today they wonder whether they'll even have a viable candidate for November.” And now, a video is making the rounds of Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck giving this answer to a voter’s question why they should vote for him over Jane Norton in the GOP primary next month: “Because I do not wear high heels.”

    *** Programming note: “The Daily Rundown” today interviews chief White House economic adviser Larry Summers.

    *** 75 House races to watch: Previewing AR-1: Today, we look at AR-1, which is an open seat after seven-term incumbent Marion Berry (D) announced his retirement. The Dem nominee is Chad Causey (a one-time Berry staffer), who won his run-off with 51% of the vote. The GOP nominee is businessman Rick Crawford, who won his primary with 72% of the vote. McCain got 59% of the vote in this district in ’08, while Bush got 52% in ’04.

    Countdown to OK primary: 5 days
    Countdown to KS and MO primaries: 12 days
    Countdown to CO and CT primaries: 19 days
    Countdown to Election Day 2010: 103 days

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  • Congress: Jobless benefits move to the House

    “The Senate voted 59 to 39 Wednesday to restore emergency jobless benefits to millions of people who have been out of work for more than six months,” the Washington Post writes. “House leaders said they will ratify the measure Thursday and send it on to the White House, where President Obama plans to immediately sign it.”

    Dick Lugar is the second Republican senator to announce he’s supporting Elena Kagan. Per the AP: “The Indiana Republican’s announcement could lead to a trickle of support among the Senate’s band of GOP moderates.”

    “Republican members of the new Tea Party Caucus on Tuesday committed themselves to promoting smaller government, lowering taxes and making sure Congress operates within its constitutional limits. But this is not the first time these Members have joined a group dedicated to these principles,” Roll Call points out. “In fact, each member of the Tea Party Caucus is also part of the Republican Study Committee and several other task forces and caucuses focused on limited government.”

    Roll Call profiles the caretaker senators: The Senate has four members holding seats they do not expect to run for: Carte Goodwin (D-WV), Roland Burris (D-IL), Ted Kaufman (D-DE), and Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL). “There haven’t been this many since 1954,” the paper writes. “But it’s certainly not unprecedented: Of the 188 appointments since 1913, more than a third of the appointed Senators did not go on to seek the seat they held.”

    “Democrats are considering a plan to delay tax hikes on the wealthy for two years because the economic recovery is slow and they fear getting crushed in November’s election,” The Hill reports. “It could mean a big reprieve for families earning $250,000 and above annually. President George W. Bush’s tax cuts will expire at the end of the year unless Congress acts to delay their sunset.”

    The Wall Street Journal adds, “Two more Senate Democrats called for extending tax cuts for all earners—including those with the highest incomes—in what appears to be a breakdown of the party's consensus on the how to handle the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts. Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said in an interview Wednesday that Congress shouldn't allow taxes on the wealthy to rise until the economy is on a sounder footing. Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) said through a spokesman that he also supported extending all the expiring tax cuts for now, adding that he wanted to offset the impact on federal deficits as much as possible.”

    Question: How are these folks proposing to pay for these tax cuts so they don’t add to the deficit?

    “As they fight to keep their jobs past November, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his third-ranked lieutenant, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), find themselves battling each other in the Capitol over the fate of a controversial nuclear waste site in Reid’s backyard,” Roll Call writes. “Reid has worked for years to try to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository and now has the support of the Obama administration. But Murray announced plans this week to offer an amendment that would resume the process of readying the site -- 100 miles from Las Vegas -- to accept the nation’s nuclear waste.”

  • Obama agenda: Financial reform signed into law

    The New York Times: ‘President Obama signed a sweeping expansion of federal financial regulation on Wednesday, signaling perhaps the Democrats’ last major legislative victory before the midterm elections in November, which could recast the Congressional landscape.”

    “Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, whose rise to prominence has been fueled partly by her proposal for a federal consumer protection bureau, now is at the center of a political fight over whether President Obama should nominate her to run the powerful regulatory body,” the Boston Globe writes, adding: “That has prompted an uprising among Warren’s legion of supporters, many of whom have come to know her from her appearances on newscasts, ‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,’ and in a Michael Moore documentary about capitalism. The possibility that Warren might be passed over for the job has prompted her backers to launch a lobbying campaign that had gained more than 160,000 online signatures this week.”

    The Washington Post notes how the Obama White House is besting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

  • The midterms: Look who's back...

    Stu Rothenberg on the Senate field: “[A]t the same time that Republican prospects have brightened overall, they suddenly look less bright than previously in at least a couple of states: Nevada and Illinois.”

    “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has reserved airtime for the final two weeks before the election in key congressional districts across the country,” The Hill reports. “It has banked more than $5.2 million worth of airtime in 50 television markets, according to a Republican consultant who tracks Democratic ad purchases.”

    “Heirs to the late senator, Edward M. Kennedy, are giving $185,000 from his campaign account and their personal wealth to Democratic House candidates in gratitude to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her role in enacting a landmark health care law,” the AP reports.

    CALIFORNIA: Jerry Brown tells Time magazine this about Meg Whitman: "I've done this," he explains. "I've been in government and overseen thousands of businesses. I've run charter schools. Those are businesses. She ran her ... her website. She can say whatever she wants. But if you have never worked in government...It's a different world. That's like someone who's never dove in a river and says, I know what swimming in a river is like."

    COLORADO: "A videotaped comment by U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck that voters should support him because 'I do not wear high heels' -- a shot at his Republican primary opponent, Jane Norton -- has taken life on the Web," the Grand Junction Sentinel writes. "It also earned Buck a comparison to other politicians whose bids for office foundered on videotaped comments they made." Buck said in response to a question of why people should vote for him, "Why should you vote for me? Because I do not wear high heels."

    CONNECTICUT: "Rob Simmons, who halted his campaign for the Republican Senate nomination [in Connecticut] after losing the party endorsement to former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, will begin airing TV ads urging voters to 'look at the issues' before voting in the Aug. 10 primary," the New London Day reports.

    FLORIDA: Taegan Goddard finds this story, the latest fold in Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene's unconventional campaign: After DNC member Jon Ausman wrote an email asking whom he should support in the Democratic Senate primary, Jeff Greene promptly sent a check, hiring Ausman for "political consultation and strategy," the Palm Beach Post writes."Six days after that, Ausman announced his endorsement in another e-mail: He was endorsing Greene. He signed the endorsement e-mail as a DNC member but didn't mention that he was being paid by Greene. He says he provided 35,000 e-mail addresses in exchange for the money."

    MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe looks at how Deval Patrick’s stance on immigration has evolved – “Patrick’s approach to illegal immigration has undergone a marked shift, from populist to pragmatic, at a time when the national battle over the issue has exploded in Arizona and spread to Massachusetts. Four years ago, he said he would sign a driver’s license bill and expressed admiration for hard-working undocumented immigrants. In this campaign, his initiatives on behalf of immigrants are less controversial, and he is more measured in his public positions on the issue.”

    NEW YORK: "Republican Congressional hopeful [and Richard Nixon grandson] Chris Cox announces he's scored the campaign backing of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush," the New York Daily News writes.

    RHODE ISLAND: The AP dives into Lincoln Chafee’s sometimes lonely independent bid for governor: “Chafee is making his first run for office since 2007, when he left the Republican Party after losing his Senate seat to a Democrat. And while he's forging his own identity, he's taking a gamble: waging a campaign without major party funding and manpower. Chafee is one of several high-profile independents running in a year of voter discontent, including Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who's leading in the polls after leaving the Republican Party for his U.S. Senate run; Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill, a one-time Democrat running for governor; and Eliot Cutler, running for governor of Maine.”

  • Prosecutor won't file charges related to US attorney firings

    From NBC's Pete Williams
    After a nearly two-year investigation, a career federal prosecutor has concluded that no criminal charges should be filed in connection with the firings of nine U.S. attorneys during the Bush administration.

    Nora Dannehy, a prosecutor from Connecticut appointed by Michael Mukasey when he was attorney general, concluded that no prosecutable criminal violations were committed in the most controversial of the firings -- of David Iglesias in New Mexico.

    It's true, she concluded, that former Sen. Pete Domenici and other state Republicans tried to get him fired. But the investigation found that none of them -- or anyone in the White House or Justice Department -- sought to lean on him to bring voter fraud or public corruption cases against Democrats in the days leading up to the 2006 elections.

    She concluded that Domenici's actions were at least partly politically motivated, but that "a public official does not violate the law by seeking the removal of a United States Attorney for his failure either to pursue a particular case the official believes is legitimate or to pursue certain types of cases the official believes should be brought, even if the public official's motives are partisan and inconsistent with the values" of the Justice Department.

    She also concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge any former Bush Justice Department officials with misleading Congress or other investigators about the reasons for the firings.

    In a letter to members of Congress disclosing the prosecutor's conclusions, the Justice Department says investigators questioned more than 60 people and that the Bush White House "fully cooperated."

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