The Edge: Land of Opportunity
The Edge is National Journal's daily look at today in Washington -- and what's coming next. The email features analysis from NJ's top correspondents, the biggest stories of the day -- and always a few surprises. To subscribe, click here.
Land of Opportunity
Republican Rep. Tom Cotton's announcement that he's going to challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas has grassroots activists and conservative Republicans united in a rare love fest for the 36-year-old warrior scholar.
And Republicans have a lot to celebrate. The first-term congressman is unlikely to draw a tough primary opponent and polling shows a close general election, leading TheCook Political Report's Jennifer Duffy to move the race into the Toss-Up column. And the fact that Pryor's campaign welcomed Cotton into the race with a negative ad only underscores that he's worried.
But despite all the good news for Republicans, incumbents can be stubbornly difficult to knock off. And former Rep. Mike Ross's run for governor will help Pryor as the Blue Dog Democrat takes his moderate message statewide.
If Republicans hope to regain control of the Senate, the path runs through Arkansas. It's a must-win, which means it'll be a hell of fight.
Chris Frates
cfrates@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
OBAMA CANCELS SUMMIT MEETING WITH PUTIN. Citing a failure of progress on the "bilateral agenda," the White House today announced President Obama will not attend a planned September summit meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, The New York Times reports. "Given our lack of progress on issues such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last twelve months, we have informed the Russian government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement, adding that Russia granting temporary asylum to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden was a "disappointing decision." Read more
Obama has tried to downplay Snowden's significance, but today's decision makes it abundantly clear how much potential the leaker's future has to rile U.S. diplomacy, National Journal's Matt Berman writes. Read more
YEMENI OFFICIALS: AL-QAIDA PLOT TO SEIZE PORT FOILED. Yemeni security officials said today that they had successfully derailed an al-Qaida plan to seize a port and kidnap or kill foreigners who work there, a plot believed to be unrelated to the threat that prompted closures of several U.S. embassies in the Middle East and parts of Africa, The New York Times reports. The claim, however, is drawing some skepticism from Yemenis and terrorism analysts, TheTimes notes. The announcement comes a day after the U.S. and Britain began withdrawing personnel from Yemen in the face of growing concerns that al-Qaida-linked terrorism was imminent. A suspected U.S. drone reportedly killed seven alleged al-Qaida members in Yemen on Tuesday. Read more
The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf writes that it's hard to tell whether the terrorism alert is earnest or overhyped—and strange either way that our secretive government revealed surveillance details the public didn't need to know. Read more
OBAMA WRAPS UP WESTERN SWING WITH HOUSING Q&A, MILITARY BASE VISIT. Obama travels to Camp Pendleton today to meet with U.S. service members and their families to thank them for their service, the Associated Press reports. The stop at the Marine Corps base is the last stop on Obama's western trip, which previously saw him unveil his principles for overhauling America's mortgage finance industry. The two-day trip has focused on housing, and the president said during an interview today with real estate website Zillow that he will push for passage of housing reform legislation before year's end. Obama also said he could save money by refinancing the mortgage on his Chicago home, but that he has not done so. Read more
EGYPTIAN LEADERS: FOREIGN EFFORTS FAILED TO END TURMOIL. Egypt's leaders declared today that foreign diplomatic efforts to mitigate political turmoil in the country have failed and that crackdowns against two Cairo protest sites are inevitable, the Associated Press reports. The statements indicate that the ongoing crisis in Egypt may soon lead to more bloodshed. Delegations from a handful of countries, including the United States, have been working to help resolve the crisis that has enveloped the country since President Mohamed Morsi was deposed on July 3. More than 250 people have already been killed in the conflict, including at least 130 Muslim Brotherhood supporters in two large-scale confrontations with security forces. Read more
After their attempts to calm tensions in Egypt were spurned by the country's leaders, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that Egypt is "just days or week away from all-out bloodshed, Talking Points Memo reports. Read more
OBAMA ASSAILS FANNIE AND FREDDIE DURING PHOENIX SPEECH. Obama touted the virtues of homeownership and backed congressional efforts to unwind government mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, The New York Times reported about his Phoenix speech (during which the crowd sang him "Happy Birthday"). "We give to more hard-working Americans the chance to buy their first home," the president said. "We have to help more responsible homeowners refinance their mortgage. And above all, we have to turn the page on the bubble-and-bust mentality that created this mess, and build a housing system that's durable and fair and rewards responsibility for generations to come." National Journal's Major Garrett explains that Fannie and Freddie are homeless orphans. Read more
Freddie Mac reported today a $5 billion profit for the second quarter, a gain amounting to the second-largest quarterly profit in company history, The Wall Street Journal reports. Read more
FIRST CRIMINAL CHARGES FILED IN BENGHAZI PROBE. The Justice Department has filed murder charges against Libyan militia leader Ahmed Abu Khattala in connection with the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi last year, CNN reports. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department has filed sealed criminal charges against an unknown number of suspects. The filing occurs just a week after congressional Republicans said they were writing a letter to new FBI Director James Comey to focus his attention on the Benghazi probe. Meanwhile, CIA Director John Brennan made public his May 30 letter to CIA employees who survived the blast, welcoming them to testify before Congress. Read more
Khattala denied involvement in the Benghazi attack during an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, saying, "I am a Libyan citizen, and the American government has nothing to do with me." Read more
LAWMAKERS AND HILL STAFFERS WON'T FACE EXTRA COSTS UNDER ACA. The Affordable Care Act will essentially require lawmakers and personal office staffers to obtain insurance on the health insurance marketplace, but the government will continue to pay for a portion of health insurance under a rule proposed by the Obama administration, Politico reports. The proposed rule aims to alleviate fears that staffers would leave Capitol Hill en masse as a result of new health insurance costs. It remains to be determined which exchanges staffers and lawmakers will enter, and how exactly the federal contribution will factor into coverage plans. Staffers and lawmakers will still qualify for coverage on the exchanges with a government contribution after retirement. Read more
DOZENS OF SYRIAN REBELS KILLED IN AMBUSH. More than 60 Syrian rebels were killed by government forces today during an ambush near Damascus, according to activists. No government soldiers were reported killed in the attack, after which a state-run television station aired images of bloody corpses. An activist speaking to the Associated Press said that 65 rebels were traveling along a "secret road" from the eastern suburbs of Damascus toward an army post when the ambush took place. The ongoing civil war has that began as a predominantly peaceful demonstration in March 2011 has now claimed more than 100,000 lives. Read more
Saudi Arabia is attempting to bait Russia economically with incentives—including a major arms deal and a pledge to not challenge Russian gas sales—if Moscow agrees to lessen its backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reports. Read more
QUOTABLE
"That's how a classic romantic comedy goes. Initially, you're not getting along, and then you keep bumping into each other." —President Obama, during an interview with NBC's Jay Leno, on his "bromance" with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. (The Hill)
BEDTIME READING
ARE YOU IN, OR ARE YOU OUT? When a group of women decided to leave high-powered jobs in the early 2000s to stay home with their children, it caught the media's attention, Judith Warner, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, reports for The New York Times Magazine. About a decade later, Warner caught up with 22 women who had left the workforce, and found—as had similar studies—mixed results. Some women—usually those who maintained their networks and had graduated from top colleges—had found work easily; others struggled. Some said that the decision had changed the balance in their marriages; others got divorced. But overall, the women focused not on the financial consequences of their decision, Warner writes, but "what haunted many of them ... was a more unquantifiable sense of personal change." Read more
THE QUIRK
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. Real estate listing website Zillow, which hosted a question-and-answer session with Obama this afternoon, has created a hypothetical listing for the White House, Politico reports. The listing estimates the value of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. at nearly $320 million, though it notes that the property is "not for sale." Per Zillow, the White House measures 55,000 square feet, sits on an 18-acre lot, and contains 16 bedrooms and 35 bathrooms. The listing includes numerous photos of the residence, courtesy of the White House. Read more
OVERLOOKED
DOWN IN A SINKHOLE. Residents of Bayou Corne, La., have been dealing with a literal hole in their lives since August 2012, when—after months of unusual seismic activity and strange bubbling—a sinkhole emerged on land leased by Texas Brine, a petrochemical company. A forced evacuation of Bayou Corne's 350 denizens followed. The sinkhole has continued to grow, prompting Louisiana last week to file a lawsuit against Texas Brine and the principal landowner, Occidental Chemical Corporation. The ongoing saga makes Bayou Corne "The biggest ongoing disaster in the United States you haven't heard of," Mother Jones reports. Read more
