President Barack Obama declared that a “transformation” is taking hold in Egypt as reports said President Hosni Mubarak was on the verge of stepping down. “We are witnessing history unfold,” Obama said. “The people of Egypt are calling for change.”
“America will continue to do everything we can to support an orderly and genuine transition to democracy in Egypt,” he added.
This seems like the best reason yet to ban GOProud from CPAC:
GOProud is trying to launch a write-in effort for Donald Trump in the CPAC straw poll. A man with a GOProud badge is handing out quicky fliers with Trump's picture and telling people he's speaking. Flyer says "Write in Donald Trump in the CPAC straw poll."
Last year, the group ran the Cheney '12 write-in effort, a hint that this may be just a little bit more about publicity than conviction.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sharply condemned New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's response to an attempted bombing in Times Square last year, in which Bloomberg urged against a rush to judgement and suggested that the suspect could be an opponent of Obama's health care plan.
"This would be a psychological problem if it were not a public official," Gingrich said in a speech at CPAC.
Conservative concerns about Islam are one of many themes at the conference, which is hosting a panel on Sharia law and a dueling film produced by people who think the conservative gathering has been compromised by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Gingrich's criticism focused on the government reaction to the Fort Hood shootings, a frequent theme, but his hard shot at Bloomberg was a departure.
Cillizza floats the name of deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton as the Democrat for Chis Lee's seat.
There's some superficial plausibility to this -- the Buffalo-bred Burton has talked in the past about going into politics, and between Obama donors and the California donors he could rally through mother in law, California Rep. Lois Capps -- he could raise the money.
The downside: This isn't the Democratic Buffalo seat, but a safe Republican seat in Erie County that would be a heavy, heavy lift for any Democrat -- and where an Obama connection wouldn't exactly be an advantage.
An interesting number in a new poll of Hispanic voters: Immigration, which typically trails jobs as the top issue for, is now viewed as the single most-important issue.
Pilar Marrero of Impremedia, which sponsored the Latino Decisions poll, writes that the number reflects real frustration with the gridlock in Washington, the failure of the Dream Act, and the talk of modifying the Constitution to change citizenship rules -- all of which seem likely to get blamed on the GOP.
The White House, straining to navigate a complicated situation over which it has little influence, has been criticized from some on the right and in Israel for pushing Mubarak too hard even as news outlets in Cairo report rising disillusion at Obama's failure to stand with the protesters.
It sounds like the White House is going to face another choice today:
Egypt’s armed forces on Thursday announced that they had begun to take "necessary measures to protect the nation and support the legitimate demands of the people,” a step that suggested the military intends to take a commanding role in administering the strife-torn nation.
To date, the Administration has praised the military -- when it was seen as allied with the protesters -- for its restraint and tried largely to articulate principles about non-violence and free assembly, as well as a transition to an election. The choice today appears to be the extent to which the White House blesses the military takeover as a step toward transition -- or warns that it could be the end of the transition.
With Jon Kyl retiring, the former Arizona governor's name is among those floated.
But a colleague points out that Washington has been unkind to her ratings back home: A recent survey put her unfavorable figure at 55%.
There's little worse in politics than playing to type:
The other major change comes in a chapter on health care. In the original hardcover, Romney tried to carefully distinguish between the Massachusetts law and the national version that was nearing passage as he wrote.
But the Massachusetts model has become Romney's bête noire among conservatives, who loathe the national reform they call "Obamacare." The rewritten paperback swings much harder, proclaiming that "Obamacare will not work and should be repealed," and "Obamacare is an unconstitutional federal incursion into the rights of states."
Other additions in that section blame the Massachusetts legislature for altering his plan, and the current Democratic administration of Governor Deval Patrick for botching the implementation.
Our colleagues report:
Biggest gathering ever: Based on registration numbers, organizers are calling this the largest CPAC in history. So far attendance totals 11,000 — beating out last year's record of 10,000.
For full CPAC coverage, follow along with POLITICO's 2012 team here.
One other bit from Byron's and my story this morning:
President Barack Obama was a galvanizing force for the last two years of the conservative revival, but some conservatives believe that the GOP triumph in the midterm elections has tamped down the fear and loathing, and requires that the conservative movement switch from reaction to a more positive platform.
CPAC’s candidate speeches and its overall temperature will offer a glimpse of whether that shift is real: Does the president’s name draw the same reaction it did a year ago, or will speakers find their applause lines elsewhere?
“We crushed him. He’s only half his previous size,” said [Americans for Tax Reform president Grover] Norquist. “He’s an irritant. He’s not scary anymore.”
Andrew Ian Dodge, a Maine Tea Party Patriots organizer who will be speaking at CPAC, said the changed political climate means a shift in substance as well.
“The GOP now holds the House – they’ve made gains in the Senate,” he said. “I think [the movement is] more focused on making sure that the Republicans live up to their promises.”
Josh Rogin tried last night to tease out the mixed messages the U.S. has sent Egypt's leaders and its people, and settled (with help from Steve Clemons) on this formula:
On his blog the Washington Note, Clemons wrote that a senior White House official told him they want to see the emerging transitional process look like a "potluck dinner," where everyone brings their own ideas and has real power off the bat, rather than a hosted "dinner party" where Suleiman decides the guest list, the agenda, and thereby the results.
"The State Department is advocating a hosted dinner, where the power still resides with the incumbents," Clemons told The Cable. "That's not good enough for the White House."
The perception of a rift was bad enough yesterday that State and White House officials held a joint conference call to make the case the message had been "clear" and to demonstrate that they're on the same page. And it is hard to tease out stumbles -- like Frank Wisner's surprise support for Mubarak -- from the shifts in the Administration-wide response, from actual policy differences.
Jonathan Martin and Jim VandeHei spent yesterday in Indianapolis with Mitch Daniels:
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels boasts that he would turn heads with his fundraising firepower and roster of big- name GOP supporters if he jumps into the 2012 presidential race.
“If I were to decide to do this, we would have an unbelievable letterhead,” Daniels predicted in a POLITICO interview Wednesday, lighting up as the hour-long conversation turned to why he could win.
“I don’t know if we’d raise the most, but for whatever reason there are an awful lot of people standing by who I think know how to do this a lot better than I do,” he said, noting that he’s being pushed to run by an array of business types and political figures.
Daniels suggested three things could keep him from plunging in: his wife’s concerns, the calculation that his party or the country aren’t ready for his tough-love message or the emergence of another capable candidate.
People close to the governor say his wife, Cheri, is very cool to a run. It “would be safe to say” she is uneasy with a campaign, he allowed.
Just as concerned about the possibility are some high-profile social conservatives in the GOP who were upset with his call last year for a truce on cultural battles to focus on economic matters. They won’t be happy to learn that Daniels told POLITICO he stands by that message and won’t back down from it when he addresses CPAC on Friday.
But the Hoosier said he has been heartened by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s blunt approach to his state’s fiscal difficulties and argued that such a take-your-medicine brand of governing shows that voters are further ahead of the political class in the difficult decisions they’ll swallow.
“It appears that it’s more in vogue these days than it may have been in the past,” Daniels said. “I don’t buy that, you know, it’s certain death to present these facts and some constructive suggestions for how we get out of this fix.”
Daniels also made clear that he thinks there's political space for straightforward talk of cutting benefits that many officials of both parties avoid:
On Social Security, he proposes for workers not currently in the system or nearing it a higher retirement age, means-testing and benefits that aren’t as “overprotected” for inflation as it is today.
Daniels would also means-test Medicare and make it a defined contribution system while doing away with what he called “the command-and-control” distribution of benefits.
And he wouldn’t spare the Pentagon, saying flatly that he’d make cuts there.
“I think you have to start by reviewing the missions that we’ve committed to,” he said. “Is every one of them essential? “
Byron and I did our version of this one for this morning, and while the presidential candidates are obviously the central story -- so central that Donald Trump is apparently showing up to get some free press.
One other dynamic is the still-uneasy relationship between Tea Party leaders and the GOP:
A glance at CPAC’s schedule demonstrates the degree to which the tea party has taken over the establishment. The closing keynote will be delivered by bomb-throwing Florida freshman Rep. Allen West, and the speaking schedule is studded with tea party freshmen including Idaho’s Raul Labrador, who beat the GOP establishment candidate with tea party support.
“With the electoral wins under their belt, they have only enhanced their standing within the conservative movement,” said ACU board member Suhail Khan of the tea partiers.
But while some prominent tea party figures, like the Tea Party Express’s Amy Kremer, will be present at CPAC, others are keeping their distance out of the perpetual fear of being co-opted by the Republican Party. Tea Party Patriots, a national umbrella group, was present last year – but won’t be at this year’s event, national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin said.
“CPAC is so Republican and we’re not about just being Republican,” said Martin. “We decided it was a better use of our time to be on the ground helping local groups.”
Chris Lee's shocking resignation has prompted a scramble among Republicans for the traditionally GOP seat, but a Democratic candidate is also likely to declare tomorrow.
Jimmy Vielkind has the long list of Republicans who could seek the seat through a county committee process: It includes ex-Rep. Tom Reynolds, gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino and, perhaps more likely, a state assemblywoman, Jane Corwin.
But despite the fact that it's typically a GOP seat -- Lee got 55% in the Democratic year of 2008, and 74% in the 2010 wave -- a serious Democratic candidate could jump in as well.
A source close to Kathy Konst, a former county legislator who is now Commissioner of Environment and Planning in the Republican-led Erie County government is "being heavily lobbied to run for the seat" and likely to announce tomorrow.
So the key decision will likely be made by the local GOP Establishment -- but don't totally write off November.
And here I'd been ignoring this because it didn't seem like news:
Rep. Chris Lee resigned Wednesday evening after half-naked photographs surfaced of him on an Internet gossip site.
Lee, an upstate New York Republican, was the subject of a Gawker story Wednesday morning that had him on Craigslist allegedly looking for a female companion.
“It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of Western New York,” he wrote in the release. “I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness.”
He said that the “challenges we face in Western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue, and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress effective immediately.”
From left, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of Calif., walk past construction at the White House complex in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011, after they met with reporters after having lunch with President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak).
Senate Dems vow to block abortion bills.
Moderates aren't dying, they're just Republicans.
Rendell agrees with GOP governors on hurrying the health care ruling.
Michelle Rhee presses her case to Florida lawmakers.
Asking "What would Gabby want" keeps Giffords' staff functioning.
Obama's cutting a heating program for the poor.
Deval Patrick nearly resigned his governorship over wife's depression.
Labor already running radio ads for Sen. Casey.
Romney rewrote his book to be more critical of stimulus and health care.
Santorum gets blowback for Palin CPAC comments.
But he adds NH staff.
Theft trial reveals the inner workings of the Bloomberg campaign.
Horowitz defends Beck over caliphate remarks.
Did Arianna Huffington sell out progressives?
FLOTUS says no dye in Obama's hair.
Did Scientology's founder lie about being wounded in combat?
And officials don't want to name a building after "Harry Baals"
The statement:
From his courageous service in Vietnam to his tireless work in the United States Senate, Jim Webb has dedicated his life to serving our nation and those who defend it. Jim has been a relentless advocate for our veterans who helped to pass the post-9/11 GI Bill; a strong voice for American leadership in the world who strengthened our relationships in Southeast Asia; and a leading reformer who is improving our criminal justice system. Michelle and I thank Senator Webb for his distinguished service, and I look forward to working with Jim over the next two years on behalf of Virginians and the American people.
House Republicans endured another embarrassing floor loss Wednesday, one day after a vote on the Patriot Act failed on their watch.
A bill that would retrieve money already paid to the United Nations failed Wednesday afternoon 259-169, 290 votes were needed for passage. The bill is the third to fail under House stewardship this week. The U.N. bill would have return $179 million that was paid into the U.N. tax equalization fund.
The measure was brought up under House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) signature budget slashing initiative, known as YouCut, under suspension of House rules that required two-thirds vote for passage.
Several GOP sources said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) had lobbied against the U.N. bill, at the urging of New York city officials. King had spoken to New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly about the funding.
King spoke on the House floor Wednesday, saying defeating the bill is “a matter of life and death.”
With Haley Barbour in Herzliya, Alex Burns notes that Israel has become a required stop for Republican presidential candidates:
A stop in the Jewish state is becoming as critical to a would-be president’s political resume as an early trip to Iowa or New Hampshire, a sort of global two-fer. Get some early foreign policy street-cred and play a little dog-whistle politics with Christian conservatives who are deeply invested in Israel’s fate - some because they view it as critical to the Biblical vision of the end of days.
Not only that, you get to look presidential by having your picture taken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has played host to no less than three Republican contenders in recent weeks. Particularly for governors – who always face the question of whether they’re ready for the foreign policy part of the job — you can’t buy an ad that good.
“It’s not the Ames straw poll, but I do think a visit to Israel is an important stop for folks who are running for president,” said Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matthew Brooks.
“You have a lot of governors and former governors running – folks who have not necessarily had a chance to immerse themselves in these issues,” Brooks said. “So much of what our commander-in-chief will deal with in the White House is rooted in this part of the world.”
VIDEO: Quickest Capitol Hill sex scandal
VIDEO: POLITICO Playback
VIDEO: Palin on Santorum, 'Neanderthal'
