[ Posted Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014 – 17:53 UTC ]
Believe it or not, this is the current obsession of the inside-the-Beltway chattering classes. Of course, the statement can be read in more than one way, can't it? The literal interpretation is the main one being obsessed over -- the relative wealth of Hillary Clinton, and how it relates to her possible run for the presidency. This is inane on a number of levels, to be sure. But there's also a second reading, which might be better expressed by doubling the first word: "Poor, poor Hillary Clinton." Expressing pity for Clinton for one reason or another (the media making inane attacks, the fact that she has to put up with such nonsense, or maybe the inaccurate storyline "Clinton's book tour goes disastrously wrong!") is a secondary topic of this conversation, mostly put forth by her defenders. Neither interpretation makes much sense, though, which is why I went with the mocking use of a question mark: "Poor Hillary?" -- as in: "Are you people kidding me?"
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[ Posted Friday, June 27th, 2014 – 16:52 UTC ]
'Tis the season when the political press all goes a-courtin'. So to speak.
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[ Posted Wednesday, June 25th, 2014 – 17:28 UTC ]
Enough digression, though. Last night, Senator Thad Cochran pulled off an upset of sorts, by defeating his Tea Party primary challenger in the rematch atmosphere of a "top two" runoff election. His chance of victory had been seen by many (at least before the election results began coming in) as increasingly unlikely -- which is why the political world is abuzz over what just happened down in the Magnolia State. Consider the fact that Cochran came in second in the original primary, and it was only due to a third candidate being in the race that he was even given the second chance of a runoff election (because main Tea Party challenger Chris McDaniel failed to reach 50 percent of the vote, to put this another way). Because of this, and because of what was perceived as the growing national momentum of the Tea Party after Eric Cantor's epic defeat (more on this in a moment), it seemed Cochran was doomed. The energy was supposed to mostly be on the Tea Party's side, and turnouts for runoff elections are notoriously low, so most watchers of politics had all but written off Cochran's chances to pull off an upset victory. And yet, against all this conventional wisdom, Cochran still won -- he successfully "iced out" the Tea Party.
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[ Posted Tuesday, June 24th, 2014 – 16:27 UTC ]
As we were entering into the shank of primary season a few weeks back, I wrote an article discussing how the political world would view the gains and losses of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. Since that time, we have seen the Tea Party lose many big races, and spectacularly win at least one race. Today, voters in Mississippi are going to add another chapter to this saga, as they decide the runoff election between sitting Senator Thad Cochran and his Tea Party challenger.
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[ Posted Friday, June 20th, 2014 – 17:07 UTC ]
Today, we're going to have a special edition of the talking points, where we get to know a Montana politician who seems to be seriously considering taking on Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. But before we do so, it was a busy week otherwise, so let's just dive right into it. First, a look at what's going with Republicans.
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[ Posted Thursday, June 19th, 2014 – 17:14 UTC ]
The votes are in, and the Republican House caucus has just elected Kevin McCarthy as their new Majority Leader and Steve Scalise as their new Majority Whip. All of this was precipitated, of course, by the current Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, being handed his hat by the voters in his home district. After a roughly one-week "campaign" (which many have likened to a high school popularity contest such as the election of class president), McCarthy will now move up from the third-ranking Republican leadership position to the second, and Scalise will now take over from McCarthy.
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[ Posted Friday, June 13th, 2014 – 17:39 UTC ]
I have to begin this week by apologizing for the irreverent nature of that title, but then how often do you get a chance to coin a cool word like "selenofriggatriskaidekaphobia"? The proper answer is that the chance won't come again until 2049, which explains why we couldn't resist. The word is a mashup of two phobias, the fear of a full moon (selenophobia) and the fear of Friday the 13th (friggatriskaidekaphobia, not to be confused with fear of the number 13, which is just triskaidekaphobia, of course). The rare occurrence of a full moon on a Friday the 13th won't happen again for another 35 years, so today's pretty much it for this generation of selenofriggatriskaidekaphobics, at least. But enough of this looney etymological fun, let's get on with a week chock-full of political happenings, shall we?
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[ Posted Thursday, June 12th, 2014 – 16:56 UTC ]
In one week, House Republicans will vote on a replacement for Eric Cantor, who will be stepping down from his Majority Leader position (due to his loss in this week's primary). This vote will provide a test of strength for both the Tea Party faction and for the Establishment Republicans. Who wins this power struggle may eventually determine the direction of the Republicans in the House for years to come, meaning it'll be a fairly important vote.
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[ Posted Wednesday, June 11th, 2014 – 16:51 UTC ]
Every so often, the American political world is turned upside down. Last night was one of those moments, as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was "primaried" out of a job. Nobody (including me) predicted this upset. Today, pundits are falling all over themselves to come up with an appropriate metaphor for the magnitude of Cantor's loss on the political scene. Living in California as I do, I'm going to go with earthquake terminology: this was a massive and cataclysmic temblor for Republicans -- the equivalent of about a 9.0 on the political Richter scale.
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[ Posted Tuesday, June 10th, 2014 – 18:51 UTC ]
When we look back at this particular week much later on, it seems we'll remember it as the week the 2016 presidential race truly began in earnest. Measured by the sheer volume of headlines generated and punditry produced, now will be seen as the moment when Hillary Clinton reintroduced herself to America. With the kickoff of her book tour, Clinton has already started tongues wagging (in a major way) about what her chances will be in 2016.
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