Republicans
From NBC's Mark Murray President Obama's handling of the economy (even though, as we pointed out this morning, that the huge job losses began back in 2008 ).
RNC Chairman Michael Steele : “June’s unemployment report shows a job loss of 467,000 and proves that the stimulus package is not a ‘Recovery Act.’ Today President Obama will hold another White House PR event with presidential spin instead of putting forth real world, free market solutions that will put Americans back to work."
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor: "House Republicans laid out a serious and substantive agenda that put jobs first. House Democrats, along with the White House, instead took an unfocused, ‘go it alone’ approach that has fallen well short of its goals and has failed to create jobs."
And House Minority Leader John Boehner has released a Web video that asks, "Where are the jobs?"
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"Gov. Mark Sanford’s long and emotional interview with The Associated Press Tuesday appears to have been the final straw for South Carolina’s Republican establishment, much of which is now actively seeking his resignation… Fourteen GOP state senators -- more than half the Senate Republican caucus -- have already called for Sanford’s resignation, joining a list that, as of Wednesday afternoon, included 11 Republican members of the state House and six of the state's biggest newspapers. And three leading South Carolina Republican officeholders, including the state’s two U.S. senators, called Sanford today for what sources close to the lawmakers described as frank conversations about the governor’s ability to carry out his job." Washington Post's Cillizza : "Sanford's interview with the AP amounted to a political kamikaze mission that seems to suggest that the operative question now is not if he will resign but when he will resign." New York Daily News : "He's still crying for you, Argentina!"
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From NBC’s Danielle Weisberg In Meghan McCain 's most recent Daily Beast contribution, she writes a blog entitled, "Forgive Mark Sanford,” in which she makes the argument that "sex scandals ... are private matters that don't affect public policy and shoot down rising political stars."
McCain strives to draw a line for politicians and privacy. The daughter of Sen. John McCain argues, "At the end of the day, a politician’s job is to fix our country and take care of the states they represent.”
Critics would argue that Sanford, in fact, wasn’t taking care of the state he represents. He’s governor of a state of more than four million people, disappeared for four days, during which time neither staff nor his family could reach him, and it’s unclear he left instructions for a chain of command.
McCain makes the point that "what goes on in Governor Sanford's personal life...just isn't relevant to his role as a public official."
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From NBC's Mike Viqueira John Boehner is golfing out at Congressional Country Club today with Tiger Woods . The occassion is the pro-am before the annual tournament sponsored by Woods, known as the AT&T National.
For at least one hole, anyway, all those hours that the 7.5 handicap Boehner logs on the golf course paid off. Boehner sank a 35-foot putt for birdie on the 8th hole. The near-immortal Woods made a mere par.
Many have speculated that the leader's deep tan is a product of his many hours on the course. He often plays Burning Tree Country Club, about a mile down the road from Congressional in Bethesda, Md.
The foursome today included Tony Romo , quarterback of the locally reviled Dallas Cowboys.
From NBC's Chuck Todd If you needed any more evidence that Republicans are starting to collectively believe Chris Dodd is the single most vulnerable Democratic senator seeking re-election, here's yet another leaked poll. This survey, conducted by the GOP firm Wilson Research Strategies, was conducted last week on behalf of potential Republican candidate Peter Schiff, a financial commentator who was credited with predicting the current economic downturn. bare bones of the survey among 400 likely voters:
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Politico's Martin looks at the fallout from the Vanity Fair piece that exposed rifts between the McCain-Palin camps. "Rival factions close to the McCain campaign have been feuding since last fall over Palin, usually waging the battle in the shadows with anonymous quotes," Martin writes. "Now, however, some of the most well-known names in Republican politics are going on-the-record with personal attacks and blame-casting." The players include on one side Steve Schmidt -- who ran McCain's campaign -- Nicolle and Mark Wallace against Bill Kristol and Randy Scheunemann. How about this bomb lobbed by Schmidt after Kristol criticized Schmidt in a blog post: "I'm sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign. ... After all, his management of [former Vice President] Dan Quayle’s public image as his chief of staff is still something that takes your breath away.”Runner's World , the governor of Alaska expressed how she'd do in a race against President Obama. 'If [it] were a long race that required a lot of endurance I'd win,' she said, boasting that while she may lack the physical strength to take on the President, she could outlast him by sheer will power. 'I betcha I'd have more endurance,' she said. 'If you ever talk to my old coaches they'd tell you, too. What I lacked in physical strength or skill I made up for in determination and endurance.'" Is that a metaphor or what? No matter how hard some try, she won't go away...
Meanwhile… "In an interview with The Associated Press , Sanford admitted to as many as seven meetings with Maria Belen Chapur since 2001, including five during the year Sanford has said he was engaged in a romantic relationship with her. Further, the two-term Republican governor said he had casual encounters with other women, but that he did not have sex with them. Those encounters happened, he said, outside the United States but before he met Chapur." And: "Sanford's wife, Jenny, discovered the affair in January when she discovered a letter he had written her. Sanford told the AP he asked his wife to visit Chapur with him several times, but she refused. In the interview, Sanford called Chapur his 'soul mate,' but said he is trying to fall back in love with his wife."New York Post : "SC Gov: My harem of honeys."
From NBC's Mark Murray Mark Sanford (R) wasn't telling the whole truth at that press conference where he revealed his affair with an Argentine woman.
In an interview with the AP , Sanford
disclosed that met seven times with the woman -- more than he initially claimed. The governor "described five meetings with Maria Belen Chapur over the past year, including two romantic, multi-night stays with her in New York before they met there again intending to break up. He said he met her two other times -- their first meeting in 2001 at an open-air dance spot in Uruguay and a coffee date in New York in 2004 during the Republican National Convention. He said neither time was romantic."
More: "It was the first disclosure of any liaisons with Chapur in the United States and contradicted a public confession last week during which Sanford admitted to a total of five encounters over their eight-year relationship."
From NBC's Ken Strickland Jeff Sessions , ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, applauded the Supreme Court's New Haven firefighters ruling, while criticizing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's . She sided with the judges on the lower court whose ruling was overturned today.
"The Supreme Court found that Judge Sotomayor was wrong to allow the city to change its promotion exam after it was given, solely to favor a group because of race," Sessions said in a written statement.
He went on to say judges should rule on the law, the facts, and the Constitution, "and not play favorites. This case sharpens our focus on Judge Sotomayor's troubling speeches and writings, which indicate the opposite belief: that personal experiences and political views should influence a judge's decision."
Video: University of Maryland Law School Prof. Sherrilyn Ifill and author Cliff Sloan debate the Supreme Court's New Haven firefighters decision. Senate Republican Leader
Mitch McConnell added, "Not only did Judge Sotomayor misapply the law, but the perfunctory way in which she and her panel dismissed the firefighters' meritorious claims of unfair treatment is particularly troubling ... underscoring my concern that she may have allowed her personal or political agenda to cloud her judgment and affect her ruling."
Similar views were also expressed by other Judiciary Committee Republicans. Sen.
Orrin Hatch said, "The Second Circuit should have recognized the serious and unique issues this case raised and given it the thorough treatment it deserved." And Sen.
John Cornyn said, "[W]hile the Justices divided on the outcome, all nine Justices were critical of the trial court opinion that Judge Sotomayor endorsed."
From NBC's Mark Potter Mark Sanford (R) said categorically he will not resign as governor of South Carolina.
He said he intends to spend the last 18 months of his term improving his approach to proposing legislation.
He says he has consulted with a number of friends and spiritual advisers. All encouraged him to stay in office, which he says now he will do.
From NBC's Mark Murray very interesting break down of Friday's narrow 219-212 House vote approving the energy/climate change/cap-and-trade legislation. According to Brownstein, politics perhaps played a bigger role than geography did in determining who voted for the bill.
"Of the 49 House Democrats who represent districts that McCain carried last year, fully 29 voted against the measure. By contrast, just 15 of the 207 Democrats from districts that Obama carried last year voted against the bill... Put another way, while 59 percent of the Democrats from districts that McCain carried voted no, just 7 percent of Democrats in Obama-majority districts opposed the White House on the vote."
Video: Senior White House adviser David Axelrod discusses President Barack Obama’s energy legislation with NBC’s David Gregory on “Meet the Press.” More: "Similarly, seven of the eight Republicans who supported the measure represent districts that backed Obama last November... Still, in contrast with the Democrats from split districts, 27 of the 34 Republicans from Obama-districts held with their party and voted against the legislation. California crystallized that trend: Of the eight Republicans there in districts that Obama carried last year, only
Mary Bono Mack from Palm Springs supported the bill."
