The Edge: Don't Blame Obama for Leaving Washington
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Don't Blame Obama for Leaving Washington
Last year, Barack Obama skipped his Martha's Vineyard vacation because golfing with the wealthy was less than alluring to voters. But this year he's going and hopefully he'll be less abashed.
Presidents need vacations, and the Vineyard is more complicated than its posh cliché. Settled almost 150 years before the Declaration of Independence was written, it's at once ancient and modern.
Today, Brazilian immigrants ply the island's construction trade alongside old New England fishing families who cast nets and lobster pots in ways their forebears would recognize. The island has a year-round population that struggles with housing costs and school budgets, just like the rest of us. Obama gets to shed Washington, exchanging it for an island that's less different than the rest of America than you might think.
Who can blame him?
Matthew Cooper
mcooper@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
OBAMA: 'AMERICA IS NOT INTERESTED IN SPYING ON ORDINARY PEOPLE.' At a Friday afternoon press conference in the dead of summer, President Obama announced major proposals to change how his administration carries out national security policy. The president laid out four goals, National Journal's Matt Berman and Brian Resnick report. In his announcement, he said "it's not enough for me, as president to have confidence in these programs. The American people need to have confidence in them as well." The changes include reforming the Patriot Act, working with Congress to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, increasing transparency, and starting an outside group that would review surveillance technologies. Read more
U.S. REMOVES OFFICIALS, ADVISES AGAINST TRAVEL IN PAKISTAN. The U.S. said Friday that it had removed nonessential diplomatic personnel from Lahore, Pakistan, the Associated Press reports. The State Department also told Americans to avoid traveling to the country. The development comes in the wake of the U.S. government's decision to temporarily close 19 embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa, but U.S. officials said the two decisions are not related. "We received information regarding a threat to the consulate," said U.S. embassy spokeswoman Meghan Gregonis. "As a precautionary measure, we are undertaking a drawdown of all except emergency personnel." The consulate was already scheduled to be closed Thursday through Sunday. Read more
DETAILS EMERGE ON QAIDA PLOT IN YEMEN. Al-Qaida's Yemeni branch—and not the group's Pakistani-based chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri—proposed the terrorism plot that led to the closure of 19 U.S. embassies and consulates, The Wall Street Journal reports. Nasir ul-Wuhayshi, the Yemeni branch leader, proposed the plan and Zawahiri then signed off, a senior U.S. official said Thursday. "Zawahiri isn't directing the plot that we're concerned about emanating from Yemen. He certainly provided inspiration and support," the senior U.S. official said. At least seven Saudi Arabian militants have been killed in the recent wave of U.S. drone attacks in Yemen that are targeting the country's Qaida branch. Read more
Who is Nasir ul-Wuhayshi? The Yemeni-born Qaida commander and Osama bin Laden's former secretary has eluded U.S. forces for years, The Daily Beast's Eli Lake writes. Read more
KERRY AND HAGEL MEET WITH TOP RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS. Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel welcomed Russia's foreign and defense ministers to Washington on Friday for high-level talks that acknowledged differences on issues, including missile defense, Syria, and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the Associated Press reports. The meeting came just two days after President Obama canceled a planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month. Read more
Snowden's father has applied for a travel visa to Russia and is hoping to visit his fugitive son next week, the Associated Press reports. Read more
NSA REDUCING SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS BY 90 PERCENT. National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander said Thursday that his agency is planning to cut roughly 90 percent of its system administrators in an effort to reduce the number of people who can access the agency's secret programs and classified documents, Reuters reports. The NSA said the plans existed before former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about the agency's domestic and international surveillance programs, but the situation has accelerated the process. Meanwhile, Lavabit, the secure e-mail service that Snowden is believed to be using, is shutting down operations but can't "legally share" why it made the decision. Read more
Whether e-mail services like Lavabit shut down or decide to comply with government requests for data, the NSA is still getting what it wants, The Atlantic Wire's Rebecca Greenfield writes. Read more
REP. GUTIERREZ PLEDGES '40 TO 50' GOP VOTES TO PASS IMMIGRATION. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said he can round up between 40 and 50 Republican votes in the House to help pass immigration reform, The Washington Post reports. "If they asked me today, go find those 40 or 50 Republicans, I'd tell them I found them," Gutierrez said. "I know where they're at. They're here. They're present." Read more
Although time may be running out, there still exists a "murky and full of landmines" road that Democrats can walk down to pass immigration reform, Talking Points Memo's Sahil Kapur writes. Read more
GILLIBRAND SAYS MILITARY IS RESISTING REFORM. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said Thursday that the military has been uncooperative and even combative toward reforms to its justice system in every step of the process, Politico reports. Gillibrand said that any reform effort in the military "is very difficult for them," and claimed that military brass has "used the same narrative" year after year when it came to resisting change. Gillibrand alleged that the military has always resisted reform by saying, "You can't possibly do that; it will somehow undermine good discipline." Read more
'HOLDING MY NOSE' COULD BE TROUBLE FOR McCONNELL. Jesse Benton, the campaign manager for the reelection campaign of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he is currently "holding my nose for two years," at the McConnell campaign, The Washington Post reports. For Benton, who is a loyalist to Ron Paul and Sen. Rand Paul, linking up with McConnell was a chance to both work for the Republican establishment—bringing a tea-party spirit, and potential voters, to McConnell's campaign—and a way to perhaps help a possible Rand Paul presidential campaign in 2016. For McConnell, the statement is problematic because it provides fodder for his primary opponent, Matt Bevin. Read more
FATE OF SOUTHERN DEMS COULD DICTATE SENATE CONTROL IN 2014. A number of Democratic senators in the South face tough battles ahead in their 2014 reelection campaigns, and whether they can hold onto their seats could decide which party controls the upper chamber in 2014, the Associated Press reports. Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Kay Hagan of North Carolina all hold vulnerable seats in GOP-trending states. Even with 15 months to go before Election Day, Republicans already see those seats as a ticket to a Senate majority—but only if McConnell can keep his seat in Kentucky. Read more
Understanding how Democrats like Pryor navigate gun politics in Arkansas is no easy task, BuzzFeed's Evan McMorris-Santoro writes. Read more
AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T GREEN ITSELF. President Obama has made it a goal to decrease the federal government's reliance on fossil fuels, but the Capitol Power Plant, which provides heating and cooling to 23 government facilities, is the largest source of carbon emissions in D.C., according to The New York Times. The plant is run by Congress, and attempts to update the facility have been bogged down by national politics, with Democrats blaming Republicans for a lack of oversight. Despite emissions limits, the plant has routinely exceeded national standards. Read more
QUOTABLE
"He literally murders one member. If I could murder one member, I'd never have to worry about another vote." -- House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., referring to Kevin Spacey's House of Cards character, the fictional Rep. Frank Underwood, who is also the House majority whip (The Hill)
BEDTIME READING
GIVING UP THE CHASE. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Foghorn Leghorn, Atticus Finch, Dan Rather, Zeus, and Uncle Jesse from The Dukes of Hazzard are the ways The New York Times Magazine's Sam Anderson describes Gary England, the chief meteorologist of Channel 9 in Oklahoma City. England, who has held his position since 1972 and reported on some 2,000 tornados, will step down from his post at the end of the month. At 73, he's watched over the weather during a time of major change for meteorology and become a local celebrity in the process. After a devastating tornado hit Moore in 1999, survivors painted "God Bless Gary England" on the remains of their homes. There's even a popular Gary England drinking game that Anderson says "if, followed literally, would probably destroy as many lives through alcohol poisoning as extreme weather does." Read more
OVERLOOKED
EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT BEZOS. WHAT ABOUT GRAHAM? While much of Washington has focused on Jeff Bezos, whose purchase of The Washington Post was announced this week, what will happen to Don Graham? At 68, Graham is about to undergo a startling transition, from the man atop one of the most influential papers in the country—and certainly the most visible in Washington—to a role that may be more akin to a successful local businessman. "He has always been associated with The Washington Post—it gave him entry into wherever he wanted to be," said Newspapers & Technology columnist Doug Page. "That will change." But, as National Journal's Mike Magner reports, Graham will likely remain one of the most important power players in Washington. Read more
TREND
HAS AMERICA OUTGROWN TOWN HALLS? When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke at the Fancy Farm picnic, Kentucky's traditional kickoff to the political season, opponents tried to shout him down. When his presumptive Democratic rival, Alison Lundergan Grimes, spoke, the same thing happened. As lawmakers nationwide gather with their constituents at town halls back in their districts, the Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn questions whether America has outgrown the medium. "Technology and the tenor of the times have combined to render obsolete the quaint idea that people of often sharply differing opinions can gather in the presence of their elected leaders for a productive, even enlightening exchange of views," he wrote. Read more
