Jigsaw Politics

FEC to Congressional Candidates: Clothe Thyself

2009-07-16T20:50:43Z

Since 1983, long-bearded Texas rockers ZZ Top have been singing that "every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man."

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is singing a different tune: If you want to be a sharp-dressed candidate, you better pay for the threads yourself.

The FEC, in a ruling Thursday, determined that four congressional candidates "appear to have violated" a federal election rule barring the use of campaign funds to purchase clothing. But because all of the candidates had reimbursed their campaign treasuries for the expenditures, the cases were closed without further action taken.

The ruling came in response to a complaint filed last December by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a political watchdog group.

]]> The complaint named two Democratic incumbents, Robert E. Andrews of New Jersey and Loretta Sanchez of California, both of whom were easily re-elected, and two Republican challengers who were soundly defeated by Democratic incumbents: Bill Dew, who lost to Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, and William James Breazeale, who lost to North Carolina Rep. Mike McIntyre.

The case launched by CREW did not involve the most publicized candidate shopping spree of 2008: the one committed either by or for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (depending on whose versions of events you believe) after Republican presidential nominee John McCain made her his surprise pick as his vice presidential running mate. The thousands of dollars worth of togs sported by Palin during last fall's campaign were financed not by McCain's campaign treasury, but rather by the Republican National Committee.

Dropout Leaks Dampening Senate Candidate Debuts

2009-07-16T18:29:55Z

Here's the latest example of the axiom that politicians need to keep their friends close and their enemies closer:

For the second time in five days, a Republican hopeful for a major 2010 Senate race had to scramble to deflate a rumor that he is dropping out.

The latest incident, which erupted Wednesday, put Florida's Marco Rubio into damage control mode. National Journal's CongressDaily in Washington, D.C., wrote that Rubio appeared to be preparing to quit the 2010 Republican Senate primary contest, in which he is the leading conservative opponent to front-running centrist Gov. Charlie Crist.

]]> The publication said Rubio -- a former state House Speaker who is challenging the heavily recruited Crist's status as the candidate of the party establishment -- had been calling Republicans in Florida about the possibility of his switching to next year's open-seat race for state Attorney General.

But Rubio, in a speech to Tallahassee-area Republicans Wednesday night and in comments to the state media, flatly denied the rumor. "I'm a U.S. Senate candidate, been on the road all day, and I'll be out there again tomorrow," Rubio said, according to the Tallahassee Journal.

The Rubio incident came on the heels of a similar flap last Friday in Illinois. This one involved Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the GOP's leading potential candidate for the open Senate seat that Barack Obama held when he was elected president in 2008.

The Washington Post reported that Kirk was forgoing the contest. This, the report indicated, was largely because of a backlash by conservative activists over the centrist congressman's vote for a measure to limit industrial emissions linked to climate change. The legislation, passed by the Democratic-controlled House and pending in the Senate, is pilloried by most other Republicans as a looming catastrophe for the nation's economy.

But Kirk, though he has not made a definitive public announcement that he is running for the Senate, strongly denied that he has opted out of the race, and received backup from a number of his GOP allies in the state.

As long as candidates such as Rubio and Kirk can extinguish these brush fires and keep them put out, their campaigns likely won't be too badly burned.

But these incidents are the kinds of things that fledgling candidacies want to avoid. When you launch a campaign, you want to hit the ground running. You don't want to hit the ground pleading your case that you really intend to run.

Think Congress Can't Count? Meet Rep.-Elect Chu

2009-07-15T15:57:25Z

Judy Chu, the California Democrat who won a House seat in a Los Angeles-area special election Tuesday, has had a long and varied career in local and state politics.

But she also has an undergraduate degree in mathematics, earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and taught psychology at the community college level for 20 years.

Hmmm..... a psychologist who also knows how to add AND subtract.

Will GOP Wax Pragmatic? Watch Illinois Senate Race for a Clue

2009-07-13T18:27:21Z

Five-term Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the leading 2010 Senate candidate prospect for Illinois' Republicans, avoided one big hurdle with the withdrawal of a potentially strong challenger for Feburary's GOP primary.

But even with Monday's decision by state GOP Chairman Andy McKenna to step aside, it may be a while before it's clear whether Kirk will be able to completely avoid serious primary competition -- from a candidate backed by conservatives who are not thrilled with Kirk's record as one of the more centrist Republicans in the House.

The Senate contest in Illinois, which has the earliest 2010 primary of any state, will in fact be an indicator of how "pragmatic" the party's conservative base is willing to be in an effort to regain some of the massive amount of ground the party lost in the past two election cycles -- particularly in states such as Illinois, that have been trending strongly Democratic.

]]> Kirk's less-than-hardline record merges a stated devotion to fiscal conservatism with more liberal views on social issues and the environment. That has been a hit in suburban Chicago's 10th Congressional District, where voters in 2008 re-elected Kirk with 53 percent of the vote even as they gave 61 percent to homestate senator Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee.

That track record is why Republican recruiters view him as their strongest candidate for the seat currently held by appointed Democrat Roland W. Burris, who announced Friday that he won't run in 2010. This is the seat that Obama won in 2004, then vacated after he won the 2008 presidential election.

But you may have heard that there has been a "battle for the soul" of the Republican Party going on in the wake of last year's shellacking at the polls. And it pits those who say the party needs to field candidates with proven cross-party appeal (such as Kirk and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, the party establishment's prize recruit in his state's open-seat Senate race), and those who argue that the only way to prove that the GOP's conservative principles are right is to nominate candidates who stand by them steadfastly.

Kirk could find navigating these stormy waters more than a little difficult. Kirk recently was one of just eight Republicans (out of 176 voting) who favored legislation to address climate change that Democratic leaders pushed through the House by a narrow margin. Reports of a conservative backlash were so rife that they prompted a story, published Friday by the Washington Post, that Kirk had decided not to run for the Senate after all. Kirk and his aides had to scramble quickly to deny that he was quitting the race.

The conundrum Kirk faces can be seen in Congressional Quarterly "party unity" study of House votes taken so far this year.

Kirk voted with most fellow Republicans against most Democrats on 76 percent of roll calls that broke mainly along partisan lines. To some Republicans of a more conservative stripe, this well-below-the-party-average score will be seen as too great a willingness to stray from the GOP's conservative line.

Yet voting three-quarters of the time with the Republicans hardly makes Kirk a Democrat in a state where that party holds both Senate seats, the governor's office, a 12-7 lead in the U.S. House delegation and solid majorities in both state legislative chambers. And Democratic strategists undoubtedly are preparing to spend big bucks to tell Illinois voters that a center-right Republican is still too far right for Illinois.

Although Kirk would provide the Republicans with their most experienced and best funded statewide candidate in years, the inherent edge that the Democrats have been in Illinois likely will put him into at least a slight disadvantage to whomever emerges as the winner of a Democratic primary that may match up state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, businessman Chris Kennedy (a son of the late New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy), and Cheryle Jackson, president of the Chicago Urban League.

The biggest barrier to the Democrats holding Obama's former seat fell last Friday when Burris submitted to the reality of his rock-bottom approval ratings. Burris never was able to justify his controversial appointment by scandal-plagued Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, who subsequently was expelled from office and indicted on corruption charges that include an alleged attempt to "sell" the vacated Senate seat for personal or political gain.

A conservative primary challenge that forces Kirk to reach deep in to his campaign treasury -- and possibly prompts him to emphasize the "right" in that center-right equation -- thus could lengthen his odds for a general election victory. Whether he can work within Republican Party ranks to avoid such a contingency will be a good first test of his viability as a statewide candidate.

What Will Palin's 'Higher Calling' Be?

2009-07-06T10:57:23Z

Sarah Palin: "Only dead fish go with the flow."

Serving out the full term as governor to which you were elected and sworn into under your state's constitution used to be known as responsibility to the citizens who elected you.

But leave it to Sarah Palin to redefine serving out your full term as "going with the flow."

In fact, Palin's exact words - when she made her startling announcement on Friday that she is quitting just two and a half years into her four-year term - were, "Only dead fish go with the flow." This was wisdom that Palin said she'd acquired during the days she and her husband spent in commercial fishing up there in Alaska.

]]> That kind of makes it doubtful that she is going to make a swan-song appearance during the July 17-20 Biloxi, Miss., meeting of the National Governors Association. I figure that would be unpleasant for her, because who wants to hang around with dead fish? And it would be uncomfortable for those saps governing the other 49 states, who didn't realize they are entitled to quit their office ahead of time to pursue a "higher calling."

Interesting, that higher calling. Joining the priesthood is a higher calling. Going to a third-world country to work among the poverty-stricken and disease-ridden is a higher calling. Serving your country in a combat zone in the face of mortal danger is a higher calling.

But if Palin is quitting her governorship to traipse around the country denouncing big government spending and regulation and taxes that is exactly what Arkansas' Mike Huckabee and Massachusetts' Mitt Romney - conservatives who completed their full elected tenures as the governors of their home states - already are doing. And they'll probably soon be joined by Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty as he, presumably, fully serves out his full second term as governor that runs through the end of next year.

Perhaps the most astounding part of Palin's statement is that she decided, after concluding that she wouldn't run for re-election in 2010, that she would be doing her state a disservice by serving out her term as a "lame duck."

So, if she does have White House ambitions, does that mean she might resign if she were to decide halfway through a first term that she wouldn't run for re-election? If that's the case, then the Republican Party better be very careful about who they pick as her running mate if they nominate her for president.

More careful than John McCain was in 2008.

Don't Expect Sen. Franken to Be a Barrel of Laughs

2009-07-01T03:59:05Z

Al Franken is liable to surprise and disappoint a lot of people who expect him to be the cut-up of the Senate Class of 2008.

That applies both to liberals who would like to see him unsheath the rhetorical sledgehammer he often applied to conservative icons such as George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter, and to conservatives who envision Franken reverting to shtick and embarrassing the Democrats in Washington and back in Minnesota.

The clue here is the very sober demeanor that Franken projected virtually throughout his Senate campaign, his first bid for public office after many years of backing liberal causes.

]]> When Franken started touring the state a couple of years in advance of the 2008 race to meet with local Democrats, he wowed them not with a barrage of one-liners, but rather with his depth of knowledge about state issues that suggested that he had done his homework and was not treating his challenge to one-term Republican Sen. Norm Coleman as some sort of lark.

As the campaign progressed, there even were some Democrats who thought Franken might be overcompensating and was running a campaign that was a little... boring.

Funny about this comedian turned politician thing.

There have been a number of people who made a successful transition from the entertainment world to politics. Ronald Reagan, as his acting career waned, was upstaged by a chimpanzee in a movie called "Bedtime for Bonzo." But while Reagan employed his Hollywood charms to great advantage on his road to the White House, he didn't keep movie props on display (and no, the jelly bean jar doesn't count.)

We also don't expect ex-athletes to show up at the Capitol in cleats or ex-astronauts to come to work in spacegear when they are elected to Congress.

So to the CQ Politics readers who offered their own punch-line reactions to Tuesday's court ruling and Coleman's concession ("Add another CLOWN to the circus," and "This is NOT funny. Franken's performance will have the audience booing him off the stage (out of the Senate") I say don't joke too soon.

Maybe Franken will surprise me and spend what now amounts to a five and a half year term warming up the crowd for more serious senators. But at least in the short run, if you see him doing stand-up on the Senate floor, give me a holler.

I suspect that, for now, we'll have to rely on other politicians' tacky sex scandals for the laughs.

Pennsylvania's Toomey Hails Some Democrats! (Sort Of)

2009-06-29T14:28:22Z

It's always nice to start out the week on a bipartisan note, so I was intrigued by the e-mail press release sent out this morning by Pat Toomey, the staunch conservative who currently has the 2010 Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary field to himself.

The subject line reads, "Toomey Commends Reps. Altmire, Carney, Holden, and Dahlkemper on Cap-and-Trade Vote." Those named are Democrats! Specifically, the four Pennsylvania House Democrats who joined 40 other members of their party Friday in voting against a sweeping bill that would cap industrial emissions link to global warming and mandate increased use of alternative energy sources, among other provisions.

The measure -- described by most Democrats as necessary to prevent environmental catastrophe and put the nation on the road to energy independence, and portrayed by most Republicans as a massive "energy tax" -- squeaked through by a 219-212 vote.

]]> But the text of the press release doesn't really waste a lot of time waxing effusive over those reach-across-the-aisle Democrats.

Rather, they make a cameo appearance in what quickly turns into a blast at the two candidates who are likely to compete for next year's Democratic Senate nomination: five-term incumbent Arlen Specter, the moderate Republican who became a Democrat in April, in part to avoid a Senate primary rematch of the 2004 race in which he came within a whisker of losing to Toomey; and two-term Rep. Joe Sestak , who thinks Specter is still too much of a Republican to rate the Democratic nomination.

The release says Toomey "commended" Democratic party-line breakers "for joining the bipartisan opposition to the cap-and-trade bill that promises to raise taxes and destroy American jobs."

"These Pennsylvania Democrats had the courage to stand up to one-party rule in Washington," Mr. Toomey said. "They understand that protecting the environment is an important goal, but they are not willing to sacrifice American prosperity and hardworking taxpayers in the process."

But...here it comes... wait for it... "It is a shame Rep. Joe Sestak (PA-07) couldn't muster up the same courage. Instead, he voted to support Nancy Pelosi's extreme agenda." That latter reference seeks to tie Sestak to House Speaker Pelosi, the California liberal who also makes a cameo in nearly every Republican attack on any Democratic congressional incumbent.

And then, "The question is, will Senator Specter choose the same path?"

The release continues, "Only a couple of weeks ago, Senator Specter argued in support of maintaining balance in Washington in order to protect the country from extremism." [ O.K. it was actually almost three months ago, before his party switch, but time flies.]

"But now that he has joined the Democratic Party, he seems intent on marching in lockstep with his new party in order to avoid a Democratic primary, even if it means throwing hardworking Americans under the bus. Senator Specter has the chance to prove he is serious about bringing balance to Washington--will he have the courage to do it?"

We know that Specter will hear about it loud and long right through the 2010 campaign if he does vote with the Democrats on a Senate version of the energy bill. But I'm willing to bet that, unlike the four lauded House Democrats, Specter wouldn't get a shout-out from the Toomey camp if he ultimately DOES break with his new party and vote against the measure.

While using dissenters in the other party as foils is a time-tested tactic, you have to wonder whether his "compliment" thrilled Republican campaign strategists who are laying their plans to unseat Jason Altmire in the 3rd District, Christopher Carney in the 10th, Tim Holden in the 17th, and Kathy Dahlkemper in the 3rd.

If these Democrats don't use quote Toomey's line about their having "the courage to stand up to one-party rule in Washington" -- especially in campaign media directly targeted to Republican voters in their generally GOP-leaning districts -- they are too dumb to deserve a seat in Congress anyway.

The Mayor Loves L.A. -- So Who Loves Sacramento?

2009-06-22T20:27:38Z

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa decided to end his prospective 2010 bid for governor of California with some flair, revealing his decision in a nationally televised interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. But the opt-out by the Democratic mayor of the nation's second most-populous city -- and California's largest -- raises a question: Why would anybody WANT to govern California at this especially difficult point in its history?

The state's long-booming economy was already slowing when the national recession sent it into a tailspin. This has escalated a massive state budget shortfall, which in turn has pitted the overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature against Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Governator -- as "Terminator" movie star Schwarzenegger once dubbed himself -- has discovered during his relatively short political career that it's lot easier to save the world as a cinematic action hero than it is to break legislative gridlock in Sacramento.

]]> Schwarzenegger's job approval ratings, as measured by California's Field Research Corporation, plunged from a rosy 60 percent as recently as December 2007 to 33 percent in the firm's last measurement taken in late April.

The only positive aspects for Schwarzenegger are that the state's term-limit law bars him from seeking re-election anyway -- and he is WAY more popular than the legislature, which had a 14 percent approval score in that Field Poll.

So one of the biggest subtexts to next year's contest for governor will be the race by candidates to distance themselves from "the mess in Sacramento."

That's even true of the prospective candidates who currently hold statewide offices in the capital city but whose positions keep them relatively free of the budget quagmire. They include Democrat Jerry Brown, the state attorney general, who hopes his long and winding political road takes him back to the governor's office he occupied from 1975 to 1983, and Republican Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner.

Then there are other experienced politicians who are running without Sacramento ties. They include San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Republican Tom Campbell, a former U.S. House member who was the 2000 GOP challenger to Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (who could big-foot the whole bunch were she to decide to run for governor, but is consider unlikely to do so). Villaraigosa would have joined this group had he jumped in.

Anchoring the field of "outsider" candidates is Republican Meg Whitman, the former head of the online auction site Ebay -- though she is hardly a political naif, having served as an economic adviser to 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Perhaps not the most rocking credential in a state where Barack Obama trounced McCain by 24 points.

Like the crowded field of candidates who sought to succeed President George W. Bush amid a myriad of national problems, the long roster of would-be Schwarzenegger successors may seem like a victory of political ambition over common sense. Good luck to the eventual winner, whoever you are, because you'll need it.

New York's 2010 Elections Look Like a Thrill a Minute

2009-06-22T18:10:00Z

The ongoing stalemate in the closely divided New York state Senate -- with each major party arguing it is in charge -- has been aptly described as a "circus" by a number of Albany watchers. But it ultimately will be just a sideshow to the political carnival that the state will host next year.

We at CQ Politics are preparing our first House race ratings for the 2010 elections, and our early take shows nine of the state's 29 congressional districts have competitive races in store. That figure of nine is matched only by California, which has a total of 53 House seats, or 24 more than New York.

Since the Democrats have built a daunting 26-3 lead over the Republicans in the state's House delegation, it's a no-brainer that most of the seats in play are held by the majority party. And most of those are held by junior members whose takeovers of formerly Republican seats over the past two cycles held the Democrats to their current state of dominance.

]]> Democratic incumbents who seem likely to face tough or at least modestly serious challenges next year include freshman Eric Massa, Dan Maffei, Michael E. McMahon and Scott Murphy -- hey, the Four Ms! -- as well as second-termers Michael Arcuri and John Hall.

The Republicans, though, face fights for all three of their remaining seats, including the seat John M. McHugh will vacate if he is confirmed as President Obama's pick to be secretary of the Army (prompting a pre-2010 special election); the seat veteran Rep. Peter T. King may leave open to run for statewide office; and the one occupied by freshman Christopher Lee.

And these races will have to compete for attention with contests for:

Both of the state's Democratic-held U.S. Senate seats, with Charles E. Schumer a near shoo-in for re-election, but Kirsten Gillibrand facing a potentially tough special election fight to hold the seat to which she was appointed after Hillary Rodham Clinton skedaddled to become secretary of State.
A governor's race in which interim Democratic incumbent David A. Paterson, he of the deeply sagging approval ratings, faces an uncertain fate.
And a showdown to decide which party will hold sway going forward in that troublesome state Senate -- a fight that normally would be below the political radar, but will bring in big bucks and involvement by the national parties because of its impact on the congressional and state redistricting that will follow the 2010 election.

I'd be tempted to label this New York election festival as the Woodstock of 2010 politics, but I was reminded by a TV show this morning that next month will mark the 40th anniversary of that iconic rock-music event. As a member of That Generation, it's sobering to come to grips with that.

We are stardust.... we are olden.

Lesson for Comics: Pols are Fair Game, Kids are Not

2009-06-16T20:07:50Z

So late-night comic David Letterman apologized on air Monday for a crude sexual allusion he aimed at one of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughters.

Sure, it took him a week, during which he initially denied that his joke was at all inappropriate. But at least the world might get a reprieve now after Letterman bone-headedly handed conservatives a gift-wrapped opportunity to rail about how Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, was a victim of liberal media bias.

In the aftermath of this dust-up, how about this as a simple rule for comedians: Politicians are fair game. Their kids aren't.

]]> In case you possibly missed it, Letterman noted that Palin had attended a New York Yankees baseball game, then said that her daughter had been "knocked up" by the team's controversy-plagued superstar Alex Rodriguez.

The joke would have been deemed in poor taste by many people even if it had zinged its intended target, 18-year-old Bristol Palin, whose out-of-wedlock pregnancy became a national news story last summer after her mother agreed to join the national Republican ticket headed by Arizona Sen. John McCain. But the daughter who accompanied Palin to the game was not Bristol but 14-year-old Willow, prompting the governor to accuse Letterman of making a "perverted" suggestion of sexual activity involving the younger girl.

There are some who have defended Letterman by arguing that Palin herself put her children in the public fishbowl. But even if you believe that's true, the proper target for criticism and satire is Palin and not her kids.

Whether they thrive or shrivel in the public spotlight, politicians' kids didn't ask to be put there. Did Bristol Palin and her teenage Romeo look comfortable to you when the Republican Party -- in a case study of situational ethics -- put them center stage and turned their 2008 convention into what briefly appeared a celebration of unwed teenage pregnancy?

Sarah Palin's personal mannerisms and the controversies that have dogged her since she burst onto the national scene should provide more than enough fodder for the stand-up crowd. There is no reason or justification for dragging her kids through the mud.

For myself, as one of the world's most pathological New York Yankees haters, my only beef with Palin is that she was at a Yankees game. Hey, the Steinbrenners -- who own the Yankees and baseball's most expensive roster -- heard that Palin is a powerful, flame-throwing righty, so they signed her to pitch for $25 million a year.

Just joking....

GOP's Jindal Gets Free 'Advice' From Top Home-State Democrat

2009-06-11T20:56:54Z

Mary to Bobby: "Stay home a little more." (Getty)

The Republicans who consider themselves possible contenders for their party's 2012 presidential nomination may have their eyes fixed on the political horizon. But they probably should be watching their backs, too.

This was brought to mind by comments that Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary L. Landrieu made on national TV about Bobby Jindal -- her home state's governor -- who, at age 38, is widely regarded as one of the Republican Party's rising stars and a possible 2012 prospect.

Landrieu, appearing on C-SPAN's "American Morning", said, "Well, if he would stay home in Louisiana a little more and focus on being governor that would be wonderful."

]]> Landrieu, who overcame a Republican voting trend in Louisiana to win a third Senate term in 2008, continued: "He has since the legislative session has started, but you know, before that he was all over, everywhere, and our state ... just like every state, really needs a governor to stay focused. We've got a deficit; we have this oil and gas situation we got to deal with; our universities are in terrible shape right now, and he's recommending substantial cuts to our universities."

Finally, the roundhouse punch: "And spending a lot of time focused on his next office as opposed to focusing on the one he has, and I think that's unfortunate. I think people who get elected to office should serve in the position they were elected for, so I hope he will pass up any, you know, presidential run and give the people of Louisiana the four years -- full four years, he was elected for."

It isn't certain how much of a problem Louisiana Democrats could cause Jindal if he seeks a second term in the state's "off-year" 2011 election, which would conclude just weeks before the voting in the 2012 Republican campaign gets under way. Their ability to stage a comeback after years of reversals will be tested next year in their efforts to recruit a strong challenger to potentially vulnerable Republican Sen. David Vitter.

But Landrieu's salvo could at least be a shot across the bow that they are not planning to roll over and allow Jindal to win a landslide re-election victory that would burnish his reputation as a political powerhouse.

That would contrast with the soft touch that both parties gave some recent major presidential contenders. George W. Bush trounced a weak Democratic opponent in 1998 to win a second term as governor of Texas, setting him up for his 2000 White House victory. John Kerry, Bush's Democratic challenger in 2004, didn't even draw a Republican opponent when Massachusetts re-elected him to the Senate in 2002.

And the top contenders in 2008, then-Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York on the Democratic side and Sen. John McCain of Arizona for the Republicans, all coasted to landslide wins in the statewide elections that preceded their presidential runs.

Today's Guest Lecture on Dysfunctional Democracy 101

2009-06-11T20:18:50Z

Peter Schiff is a investor and financial analyst who has gotten plenty of face time on national television, thanks to the fact that he accurately predicted the decline of the nation's financial sector.

During an appearance Tuesday on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to plug his book, "Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse," Schiff revealed that he is "potentially considering" running as a Republican against vulnerable Connecticut Democratic Sen. Christopher J. Dodd -- the Senate Banking Committee chairman whose ties to the financial industry are causing him political headaches as he prepares to run for a sixth Senate term.

But if he were to run, Schiff would be asking Connecticut residents to do something he claims he doesn't make a habit. Namely voting.

]]> As blogged by our Political Wire colleague Taegan Goddard, Capitol Hill publication Roll Call reported that Schiff said he can't remember the last time he voted.

"You can't blame me for any of the politicians," the story quotes Schiff. "I didn't vote for them."

Even if said in jest, that's quite a civics lesson for you kids out there.

Since politicians are supposed to lead by example, should angry Connecticut voters express THEIR populist outrage by staying home from the polls if he runs next year?

Virginia: McDonnell's Campaign and Those Robertson School Ties

2009-06-10T09:04:09Z

Bob McDonnell

It not likely that the Washington Examiner, a D.C. daily tabloid with a strongly conservative editorial page, means any harm to Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee for governor of Virginia and former state Attorney General.

But one line in its e-mail news alert Tuesday night on the Democratic primary for governor -- won by state Sen. Creigh Deeds -- is one that could raise some eyebrows among the paper's readers in the populous, politically crucial, and increasingly Democratic-leaning northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

"McDonnell is a conservative with strong ties to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson," wrote the Examiner.

There is nothing at all untrue about this. McDonnell, who grew up in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., received his law degree from Regent University, located in Virginia Beach and initially founded by Robertson as an adjunct of his Christian Broadcasting Network.

]]> McDonnell settled in Virginia Beach and launched his political career there by winning seven two-year terms in the state House of Delegates.

An article in the Regent University magazine, published after he eked out a razor-thin victory over Democrat Deeds in the 2005 race for Attorney General, emphasized the influence of his faith on his politics.

But "close ties" to Robertson is not the image that McDonnell has been projecting in his campaign to win the governor's office -- and stanch the strong surge that the Democratic Party has enjoyed of late in Virginia politics.

His TV ads, aired often in the days before the primary even though he had no Republican opposition, present a genial and soft-spoken McDonnell emphasizing his ideas for allowing the private sector to drive an economic recovery in the state.

There is no question that McDonnell will have to generate enthusiasm and heavy turnout this fall among the state's sizable constituency of Christian conservatives who might warm to the idea of a governor associated with Robertson.

But in order to win, it is virtually imperative for McDonnell to reclaim ground for the GOP in northern Virginia, where a population boom has been accompanied in recent years by a shift to the Democrats. This vital region, today more Northeast Corridor than Old South, is not a place where the name Robertson plays all that well.

Going From Chairman McAuliffe to . . . 'Terry Who?'

2009-06-10T01:54:03Z

If Democrat Terry McAuliffe's weak performance in Virginia's primary for governor proves anything, it's that it is a risk for the chairmen of the parties' national committees to get too carried away with their own importance.

McAuliffe had spent most of his adult life as a major support player in national Democratic politics, a mover, shaker and big-time campaign money-raker. He was best known for his longtime alliance with President Bill Clinton -- at whose behest McAuliffe was installed in 2001 as Democratic National Committee chairman, a position he held for four years - and Hillary Rodham Clinton, now secretary of State, whose campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination was chaired by McAuliffe.

McAuliffe's positions, and his extroverted personality, earned him frequent invitations to appear on television news shows.

But all this, according to nearly complete returns Tuesday night, mattered to fewer than 85,000 Virginians -- or a bit more than 26 percent out of more than 300,000 who participated in the low-turnout, three-candidate primary for governor won by state Sen. Creigh Deeds.

]]> And that was among those who did bother to vote. Overall, McAuliffe motivated fewer than 2 percent of the nearly 5 million registrants in Virginia, all of whom were eligible to vote in the primary because the state does not register by party.

It's not that party chairman never make it as candidates on their own. Mississippi Republican Haley Barbour, who chaired the RNC during its successful 1994 congressional campaign, is in his second term as governor of Mississippi.

But there is a big difference. Barbour is a native of Yazoo City, Miss., and in his younger days was one of the founders of his home state's modern Republican Party, which emerged from historical obscurity and now commands the upper hand in statewide politics. McAuliffe, though he is now a longtime resident of northern Virginia's affluent suburbs of Washington, D.C., is a native of Syracuse, N.Y., and most Virginians seemed to view him as a slick outsider.

Party chairmen with relatively high profiles - such as McAuliffe a few years ago and Michael Steele, the political lightning rod currently heading the Republican National Committee - certainly are big men on the political campus. But for the most part, they are ciphers to all but those few Americans who live and breathe politics.

Since we write about the subject for a living here, we wish there were a lot more of them, but there aren't.

Somebody Please Help Out Michael Steele With This Metaphor

2009-06-09T21:14:34Z

OK, readers, we need your help making heads or tails of this one.

The Minnesota Independent reports that Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, during an appearance at the College Republicans' national convention was reaching for a better metaphor to describe today's Republican Party than "big tent." And what Steele came up with was... a hat.

Yes, a hat.

As the Web site reported (with a link to a YouTube video): "Some people wear a hat frontwards, others cocked to the left, he explained. Some wear it backwards, he added, echoing a past statement, 'because that's how they roll.' But 'the strength of the party is in this: ... the fact that you're willing to put the damn thing on... The problem we've had as a party is: too many of our friends, neighbors, colleagues are taking the hat off, because we've decided we don't like the way they wear it... The GOP is not about how you wear the hat, but the fact that you want to wear the hat.'" ]]> So please, hit that comment button and answer any of the following three questions. Only rules are keep it clean and play nice.

1) What the heck is Steele talking about?

2) In the style of Barbara Walters, if the Republican Party were a hat, what kind of hat would it be?

3) Is there a better metaphor for the GOP circa 2009 than either a "big tent" or a "hat?" Really, there has to be. (We're looking here for a metaphor that the Republicans would want to apply to themselves, though I suspect we'll get some that aren't.)