U.S. Preps 3-Day Syria Attack; MI Approves Medicaid Expansion; Commemorating the March on Washington
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WHAT'S NEWS
"The U.S. could hit Syria with three days of missile strikes, perhaps beginning Thursday, in an attack meant more to send a message" to Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad "than to topple him or cripple his military" (NBC News). Great Britain "will put forward a resolution Wednesday to the U.N. Security Council condemning" Assad's regime "for the alleged chemical attack that has killed hundreds of civilians" (AP).
Treas. Sec. Jacob Lew "challenged Congress on Tuesday to raise" the debt ceiling before the Oct. deadline, telling CNBC that Pres. Obama "is 'not going to be negotiating over the debt limit'" (CNBC).
VA AG Ken Cuccinelli (R) "got in a sharp exchange over his past support for 'personhood' legislation Tuesday while bringing" his VA GOV campaign pitch "to a bipartisan audience of senior citizens" in Ashburn (Washington Post).
Ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) launched three newNYC mayoralTV ads on Tuesday (New York Daily News).
MI Gov. Rick Snyder (R) "overcame stiff opposition Tuesday" from fellow GOPers as the GOP-controlled state Senate "approved his highest legislative priority," Medicaid expansion under the '10 federal health care law (Detroit News).
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) "wrote a personal check" for $350K to Taxpayers for Responsible Democracy, a CO-based cmte "fighting the recalls" of CO state Senate Pres. John Morse (D) and state Sen. Angela Giron (D) (KDVR-TV).
TX Gov. Rick Perry (R) visit IA in Nov. to "be the guest speaker" at the Polk Co. GOP's fall dinner (Des Moines Register).
OUR CALL
Hotline editors weigh in on the stories that drive the day
• A profile of former MTA chairman Joe Lhota (R) in Wednesday's New York Times highlights the awkward relationship Lhota's NYC mayoral campaign has with his previous gig: It was Lhota's deft handling of the city's mass transit system before and after Hurricane Sandy that first prompted calls for him to run for mayor. But the general unpopularity of the MTA, as well as the fare hikes he signed off on near the end of his tenure, have led him to focus more on other lines on his resume as he fights for the GOP nomination.
• The MI state Senate Medicaid expansion vote is a major victory for Snyder, who has spent months pushing hard for it despite GOP opposition: He traveled the state advocating for expansion this summer and penned an op-ed Monday in advance of the vote. Keep an eye on OH next, where Gov. John Kasich (R) is also lobbying for Medicaid expansion while facing resistance from GOP lawmakers.
• Sen. Mark Pryor's (D-AR) camp's hit against Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR) for a past editorial blasting "race-hustling charlatans" Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson was designed to outrage the inside-the-Beltway crowd. But if they thought the garden-variety conservative argument would hurt Cotton in conservative AR, they should pay closer attention to the state's electorate.
• First Matt Bevin's campaign forgot to include that he approves the message in his first TV ad. Now, the FEC is faulting him for failing to indicate which state he's running in. These are small mistakes -- and Mitch McConnell's campaign will no doubt try to make bigger issues out of them -- but they could be early signs of larger organizational issues, the kind an under-funded political newcomer just doesn't have room for.
• Want a sneak peek at '14 campaign ads? Just look up some TV spots from '12 on YouTube. The GOP is prepping to re-up two cycles worth of "Obamacare"-themed hits against Dems, while swing-seat GOPers can expect another torrent of hits on abortion and the "war on women." With no new political themes emerging, what's old is new again.
HAIR OF THE DOG
FRESH BREWED BUZZ
"On the spot where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. described his dream 50 years ago" Wednesday, Obama "will define a new front in the fight for equality and identify the mounting threats to progress emerging today" (Washington Post).
"[L]et me just say for the record right now, it won't be as good as the speech 50 years ago" -- Obama, on his speech at Wednesday's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington ("Tom Joyner Morning Show").
"George W. Bush, still recuperating from a heart procedure this month, will not attend the official celebration Wednesday" (Dallas Morning News).
"We're going to do something even harder than what [Obama] did. Replicating what they did isn't that hard" -- RNC chief technology officer Andy Barkett, on the RNC's plan to share their new voter-mobilization technology with GOPers across the country (Washington Examiner).
"The New York Times and Twitter on Tuesday became the latest" U.S. media orgs "to succumb to hacking attacks, in another series of disruptions apparently caused by the shadowy group known as the Syrian Electronic Army ... which is aligned with" Assad (Washington Post).
Weiner "is having such a hard time generating support for his ... campaign that he has resorted to paying a rent-a-crowd firm to provide 'supporters' for his events" at a rate of $15 per person per hour (New York Post).
"I was on the rules committee for years and years, but, yes, I can understand people reading it that way" -- Ex-WH Dep. CoS Harold Ickes, on suggestions that his reappointment to the DNC Rules Cmte is a sign of a possible WH '16 bid by ex-Sec/State Hillary Clinton (D) (New York Times).
'12 OH SEN nominee/OH Treas. Josh Mandel (R) "might have violated state and federal campaign laws by traveling" across OH this year "in a Jeep bought by his failed ... campaign" (Columbus Dispatch).
"'Oh, whatever.' That's something we expect John McCain to say, not Jeff Flake" -- A second Senate Conservatives Fund radio ad against Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), one day after Flake dismissed their first ad on Twitter (The Hill).
SWIZZLE CHALLENGE
The Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest building in 1920.
The winner is Jim McAvoy, and here's his Swizzle Challenge: "On Aug. 28, 1996, the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana was finalized. The only POTUS to ever be divorced is Ronald Reagan. What was the name of the woman Reagan was married to for nine years?" The 4th correct e-mailer gets to submit the next question.
NJ'S EARLY BIRD SPECIALS
SHOT...
"It's kind of weird. As a guy, I personally like being a guy. I don't know if you saw the stories last year. They've been out for quite a bit about how he likes to go out at three o'clock in the morning for a manicure and a pedicure" -- NJ SEN nominee Steve Lonegan (R), on questions about Newark Mayor Cory Booker's (D) sexuality, in an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday (Newsmax.com).
...CHASER
"I don't have a filter, that's my problem" -- Lonegan, in a New York Times profile published on Wednesday (New York Times).
Josh Kraushaar, Editor-in-Chief
Steven Shepard, Executive Editor
