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POLITICO: WH SCOTUS PUSH, TAKE 9 -- Trump gets a little Hill love -- Mainers love their senators -- LEE GOES AFTER BOEHNER
Washington,
April 29, 2016
WH SCOTUS PUSH, TAKE 9 -- Trump gets a little Hill love -- Mainers love their senators -- LEE GOES AFTER BOEHNER
THE NEW 9-9-9 PLAN – Without Herman Cain paving the way, it’s tough to say whether the White House’s allies on the Supreme Court issue would have come up with this recess marketing ploy. That’s nine senators under pressure in nine states to confirm Merrick Garland and have nine justices. “To date, the outside allies have focused on the states with the five most vulnerable GOP incumbents (New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois) and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley’s Iowa. Now they’ll be expanding the map to cover three more incumbents up for reelection: Arizona’s John McCain, North Carolina’s Richard Burr and Missouri’s Roy Blunt ...The plans represent an unspoken acknowledgment that the Supreme Court fight is less about actually trying to get Garland on the bench before November, and more about turning the Republican resistance into a campaign issue to maximize GOP losses in the Senate.” Edward-Isaac Dovere: http://goo.gl/jpVXCQ RELUCTANT MOVEMENT TO TRUMP: Two powerful House members, Veterans Chairman Jeff Miller and Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster, endorsed Trump on Thursday, perhaps the most overt movement in Trump’s direction yet. And Trump dialed by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker to talk foreign policy, although Corker insists he’s not planning to make an endorsement imminently. His media tour praising Trump’s foreign policy speech, he told me, represents an “atta boy” for Trump’s views. “I think when somebody transitions and gives a serious speech about something, I think giving an 'atta boy' is an appropriate thing to do," Corker explained to me. http://goo.gl/ne3n1i FUN WITH NUMBERS -- Popularity: As we Washingtonians sit in a weather simulation of spring in my homeland of Maine, we find out that New Englanders really like their senators. Per Morning Consult, The five most popular senators by approval rating: Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Susan Collins of Maine, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Angus King of Maine and Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Most unknown: Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, John Cornyn of Texas (???), Rob Portman of Ohio, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Dean Heller of Nevada. Most unpopular: Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Pat Roberts of Kansas, John McCain of Arizona, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Harry Reid of Nevada. McConnell, Cornyn and Roberts all just won reelection, so I wouldn’t read TOO much into these. https://goo.gl/AP1d7L Conservatism: The Club for Growth is out with its annual scorecard, and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Reps. John Ratcliffe of Texas and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas all scored perfectly. I like to look at the middle, where Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas is rated more highly than two of his GOP Republican colleagues. On the Senate side there’s no such overlap: Collins is rated the least conservative Republican and Joe Manchin of West Virginia the most conservative Democrat. Peep it: http://goo.gl/wqe55H |