H4a news Clips [May 1, 2015] Summary of Today’s news


Chris Christie headed back to Iowa in June [David Sherfinski, Washington Times, April 30, 2015]



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Chris Christie headed back to Iowa in June [David Sherfinski, Washington Times, April 30, 2015]
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to head back to the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa in early June as he approaches an announcement on his 2016 plans.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to head back to the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa in early June as he approaches an announcement on his 2016 plans.
Mr. Christie is slated to speak at the Polk County Republicans’ spring dinner as part of a longer trip likely to include a town hall meeting and other stops, The Associated Press reported. It will be his fifth trip to Iowa this year.
Mr. Christie has said recently he is planning to announce a decision in May or June on whether he’s running for president in 2016.
National Blogs
Ted Cruz Addresses Hispanic Group With Rare ‘We’ [Nick Corasaniti, NYT First Draft, April 30, 2015]
Sen. Ted Cruz begins to identify with Latinos.
On the campaign trail, Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican presidential candidate from Texas, often tells the story of how his father immigrated to the United States from Cuba, but he rarely refers to himself as Hispanic.
But, at an event on Wednesday hosted by the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he repeatedly used inclusive pronouns when making reference to Hispanics.
“We are an entrepreneurial community,” he said.
It was one of the most direct personal connections that the Texas senator with the Hispanic last name has made with Latinos.
“I think the Hispanic community is a fundamentally conservative community,” Mr. Cruz said, repeating a line that some dispute and reiterating his claim that the Republican Party can attract the Latino vote.
He offered another claim from his stump speech that has been called into question: He doesn’t think he’s ever seen a Hispanic panhandler.
“And the reason is, in our community, it would be shameful to be begging on the street,” Mr. Cruz said.
During questioning, much of what Mr. Cruz said he has said previously. He stuck to talking points on immigration, foreign policy, energy, jobs and the economy. When put on the spot about discrepancies between his Spanish-language ads and English-language ads, he answered with repeated attacks against the news media.
At the end of the session, Javier Palomarez, the group’s president, thanked Mr. Cruz for attending, and added, “It’s darn hard to get you to open up.”
Jeb Bush Sticks to Guns on Immigration, Common Core [Beth Reinhard, WSJ Washington Wire, April 30, 2015]
Jeb Bush raised hundreds of thousands of dollars at a reception hosted mostly by lobbyists before bashing big government and congressional gridlock at a forum sponsored by the National Review Institute, the think tank arm of the conservative magazine.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush came to Washington, D.C., on Thursday and engaged in a timeworn ritual for outside-the-Beltway politicians: Raise some money and throw some punches.
The all-but-declared presidential candidate raised hundreds of thousands of dollars at a reception hosted mostly by lobbyists before bashing big government and congressional gridlock at a forum sponsored by the National Review Institute, the think tank arm of the conservative magazine.
Mr. Bush didn’t criticize any of his likely 2016 rivals serving their first terms on Capitol Hill – Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas or Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul – and he avoided commenting directly on Mr. Rubio’s tax reform plan or his amendment regarding the Iran nuclear deal. But Mr. Bush made it clear that he thinks his two terms as governor make him better prepared for the Oval Office.
“I’m not a United States senator, thank God,” he quipped. Asked if a governor or former governor was ready to be commander in chief, he drew applause, saying: “Let me think. Ronald Reagan.”
“You can be prepared from day one by being a governor,” added Mr. Bush, saying you can’t “hide behind the collective skirt and say I have some amendment about this. They have to lead. They have to make decisions.”
Mr. Bush also sought to set himself apart from the rest of the Republican field by defending his support for policies largely opposed by the conservative base: the Common Core national academic standards and legal status for undocumented workers. “You think I’m wrong on immigration and I think you’re wrong,” he said. “Maybe I’m stubborn.”
The former governor argued that economic growth will be stymied without an overhaul of immigration law. He also pointed to the political ramifications, saying that President Barack Obama flogs Republican immigration hardliners to push Hispanic voters away from the GOP.
“He uses this as a wedge issue and we always lose,” he said, adding that Mr. Obama “doesn’t want immigration reform” but benefits from delays and inaction. “We’re going to turn people into Republicans if we’re much more aspirational in our message, and our tone has to be more inclusive as well,” Mr. Bush said.
Democrats responded with a statement from Pablo Manriquez, hispanic media director for the Democratic National Committee. “Jeb Bush is the one playing politics with the future of these families by standing with Republicans who are obstructing commonsense policies that keep families together and refusing to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” he said.
On Common Core, Mr. Bush said instituting high standards and measuring whether children are meeting them is the best way to improve student achievement and compete in the global economy.
“Lowering expectations and eliminating accountability is going to doom a whole generation of people, and I for one won’t take it,” he said.
Mr. Bush called the unrest in Baltimore following the death of a black man in police custody “disturbing” but said, “It’s important to reflect on the fact that a young man died and that’s a tragedy for his family. This is not just a statistic. This is a person who died.”
He added a swipe at President Obama and the left, saying they put too much faith in the federal government to solve inner-city problems. The best remedy to poverty, he said, is a two-parent household and a better education system.
“At what point do you have to conclude that the top-down government poverty programs have failed?” he asked. “I think we need to be engaged in this debate as conservatives and say that there’s a bottom-up approach.”
Mr. Bush, who has been in Miami Beach and Puerto Rico in the last few days, plans to keep up a hectic travel schedule over the next three weeks, with planned stops in North Carolina, New York, Chicago, Nevada, Phoenix and Michigan.
Scott Walker Plugs 'Jesus Calling' Devotional Book, Sales Promptly Skyrocket [Kimberly Winston, Religion News Service, April 30, 2015]
When Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker spoke last Saturday (April 25) to an influential gathering of Christian conservatives in an Iowa church, he brought along Jesus Calling.
When Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker spoke last Saturday (April 25) to an influential gathering of Christian conservatives in an Iowa church, he brought along a little reading material.
Standing before more than 1,000 people at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, the Wisconsin governor used part of his time to read from “Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence,” a Christian devotional written in the first-person voice of Jesus by missionary-turned-author Sarah Young.
“‘The way to walk through demanding times is to grip my hand tightly,’” Walker read to the crowd. “‘Regardless of the day’s problems, I can keep you in perfect peace as you stay close to me.’”
According to reports, the crowd was “rapt.” In the days after Scott’s talk, the book shot to the top of a couple of online retailers’ best-seller lists, including Amazon.
Not that the book needed Walker’s help.
“‘Calling Jesus’ didn’t need Scott Walker to get a bump,” said Marcia Z. Nelson, until recently the religion reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, which tracks the publishing industry. “Christian publishing has had a massive hit on its hands ever since ‘Jesus Calling’ was published in 2004.”
And that may have been the point of Walker’s use of the book: a quiet signal, to evangelicals that Walker is one of them, that he even reads the same books. “Jesus Calling” is more of a megaphone for the still-undeclared candidate, a preacher’s son who opposes hot-button issues such as gay marriage and abortion.
Phyllis Tickle, former religion editor for Publishers Weekly and the author of multiple Christian titles herself, said she could not remember another book — let alone a religion book — being read in public by another presidential hopeful.
“I mean, sure, candidates will cite books,” she said, “but not like this.”
Walker would be a lucky candidate if some of the success of “Jesus Calling” rubbed off on him. According to Publishers Weekly, the book sold about 59,000 copies in its first few years, largely through word-of-mouth, and then seemed to hit a tipping point. In the first half of 2013, it outsold a book that was more dog-collar than dog-whistle, “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Publishers Weekly reports that “Jesus Calling” has now sold 14 million copies in its many iterations — calendar, smartphone app, children’s book.
“It’s a franchise,” Nelson said.
And one with a lot of company. Devotionals are the bread-and-butter of religion publishing. The first devotional, “My Utmost for His Highest,” was written in 1924 by Oswald Chambers, a Scottish pastor who died before its publication. Its rerelease in 1990 by Barbour Publishing garnered 6.5 million sales to date and kicked off a Christian craze for devotionals.
Today, it is hard to find a single religion-oriented publishing house without at least one. Thomas Nelson, the Christian branch of Harper Collins and publisher of “Jesus Calling,” has been devoted to devotionals for at least two decades.
“We had no idea Scott Walker had the book and would use it,” said Stefanie Schroeder, a HarperCollins publicist. “It’s always nice to hear about how ‘Jesus Calling’ touched someone’s life.”
“Jesus Calling” is not the first book to get a bump from a politician. In 2008, when President Obama was still Senator Obama, his book-bump abilities were second only to Oprah Winfrey’s, as books he mentioned reading became immediate best-sellers. And in 2012, Republican candidate Mitt Romney lent attention to Jared Diamond’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner, “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.”
That instance did not end happily. Days after the mention, Diamond, a geography professor, wrote in The New York Times that Romney mischaracterized his work.
“(It) is so different from what my book actually says that I have to doubt whether Mr. Romney read it,” Diamond wrote.
Top Jewish Donor for Rand Paul Switches to Scott Walker [Melissa Clyne, Newsmax, April 30, 2015]
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has poached Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's "most prominent pro-Israel backer," The Washington Free Beacon reports.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has poached Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's "most prominent pro-Israel backer," The Washington Free Beacon reports.
Rich Roberts, a major Republican donor who Politico described as "a kingmaker among ultra-Orthodox Jews" in his home state of New Jersey, had been a benefactor to Paul, even paying for the senator's 2013 trip to Israel.  
But Roberts is now throwing his support to Walker, who has not yet declared his candidacy, though it's expected, because he believes the Wisconsin governor is more electable.
"I like Rand Paul a lot, our relationship goes back now about three or four years," Roberts told the Free Beacon. "I like him as a person, I think he's very well-intended.
"But I think that Scott Walker is [a greater] likelihood of being the next president. I think Scott Walker is also a tremendous individual."
Paul's campaign did not return a request for comment by the Free Beacon.
In October, the Jewish publication JP Updates wrote a profile on Roberts, who earned both a doctor of medicine and a doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He was raised in a secular Jewish home but after taking over his father's pharmaceutical companies — he was successful and sold them in 2012 for $800 million — he became an Orthodox Jew, according to JP Updates.
"Roberts believes that Jewish teachings gave him the wisdom and fortitude to turn the two businesses into profitable entities," it writes.
Roberts retired and moved to Lakewood, New Jersey, where he studies the Torah and regularly hosts Republicans seeking his support. Both Walker and Paul, along with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, have been guests there.
He had been considered Paul's "ambassador to the Jewish community" as well as an "informal adviser" on Israel, according to the Free Beacon, until his decision to support Walker.
He has a bit of history with Walker, to whom he contributed $50,000 during his recall campaign, saying he admired Walker's "strength and resilience on labor unions," the Free Beacon reported.
When he was flooded with hate mail from union supporters after his donation was made public, Roberts sent another $50,000 check.
Walker, and the rest of the GOP field, have been courting the Jewish vote. He is embarking on his first political trip to Israel in the coming weeks, though he is doing so without reporters. His campaign said the governor "wants to use it as an opportunity to see for himself and learn before discussing it as he continues talking about big issues facing our country through Our American Revival," JP Updates reported.
"Gov. Walker's trip to Israel will be a listening tour," said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Walker's Our American Revival PAC. "He is interested in hearing first-hand Israel's concerns about the future of our alliance and identifying ways to restore the ruptured bonds between our two countries.
"He is very concerned about the rise of Iran, the spread of radical Islamic terrorism, and the turmoil in Syria and Iraq, and is interested in understanding the views of the Israelis on how we confront these shared challenges."
Walker made headlines in 2014 for a gaffe he made in an undated letter written to a constituent some 10 years earlier, when Walker was the Milwaukee County executive.
In it, he mistakenly confused the words Molotov — short for Molotov cocktail, an incendiary device — and Mazel tov, a Yiddish phrase expressing congratulations.
The letter — which Walker wrote to a prominent Milwaukee lawyer, Franklyn Gimbel, saying he'd be happy to display a Hanukkah menorah at the Milwaukee County Courthouse — concluded with the phase: "Thank you again and Molotov."
Walker, the son of a Baptist preacher, has said he doesn't recall writing the letter and blamed the mistake on a typo, according to The Christian Science Monitor.
Carly Fiorina Super PAC’s Name Suits Its Mission [Reid Epstein, WSJ Washington Wire, April 30, 2015]

Republican Carly Fiorina’s official campaign committee will be called Carly for President when she launches Monday. Her super PAC is called Carly for America.
Throughout their five-year history in federal campaigns, super PACs have been used almost exclusively as vehicles for television advertising. They were easy to spot – a gravelly-voiced announcer intoned that a blandly named PAC was responsible for the content of the ad.
The reason for the cryptic names was simple: To keep low-information voters from determining that the PAC slamming one candidate was doing so on behalf of another candidate. The super PACs existed almost entirely to run negative ads — last year of the $47.5 million Senate Democratic super PAC Senate Majority PAC spent, $44.1 million went to attacking Republican candidates, according to the Sunlight Foundation.
Now with super PACs taking on more responsibilities of the campaigns, the names are beginning to change too. Republican Carly Fiorina’s official campaign committee will be called Carly for President when she launches Monday. Her super PAC is called Carly for America. Its executive director, Steve DeMaura, said the committee’s unambiguous name was picked because Carly for America would function as an auxiliary to the official campaign, not just as a mechanism to air negative TV ads.
“It’s a name, it could be Carly for Puppies, it could be Carly for Freedom,” said Mr. DeMaura. “There’s no legal prohibition against the type of name that we use. I think the reason that many don’t do it is for practical political reasons not based in legal fact.”
The Federal Election Commission may disagree.
The agency bars super PACs from including the names of declared candidates in their names. This week the FEC instructed the Stop Hillary PAC to remove Mrs. Clinton’s name from its moniker. Last month, a PAC called Stand with Rand changed its name to SWR PAC – two years after the FEC first asked the group to remove Mr. Paul’s first name from its name.
Not every 2016 super PAC is as brazen as Carly for America. Average voters will have trouble telling which candidate is supported by America Leads (Chris Christie), Conservative Solutions PAC (Marco Rubio), Opportunity and Freedom PAC (Rick Perry) or the four separate Keep the Promise PACs (each for Ted Cruz). The committee backing Scott Walker is Unintimidated PAC, after the title of the Wisconsin governor’s 2013 memoir. Jeb Bush’s super PAC is branded Right to Rise, the same as his pre-campaign leadership PAC.
“You can’t have a name of a federal candidate in your name if you have a non-connected committee,” said FEC spokesman Christian Hilliand.
Mr. Hilliand said Carly for America should expect to receive a letter from the FEC asking that it change its name shortly after Mrs. Fiorina formally launches her presidential campaign Monday.
Big National News
National Stories
Findings indicate Gray got head injuries in van [Lynh Bui, Arelis Hernandez, & Matt Zapotosky, WaPo, May 1, 2015]
Investigators believe Freddie Gray suffered serious head injuries while he was in a police transport van, although they have not concluded how the injuries occurred, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
BALTIMORE — Investigators believe Freddie Gray suffered serious head injuries while he was in a police transport van, although they have not concluded how the injuries occurred, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
One wound occurred when Gray struck his head on a bolt that jutted out in the van, the official said, but that was not Gray’s only head injury. And the injuries overall are consistent with what medical examiners often see in car collisions, the official said.
The findings, which have not been publicly released, are part of an investigation into Gray’s death that Baltimore police handed over to prosecutors Thursday. The new information leaves many unanswered questions for a city roiled by riots and unrest after the 25-year-old’s death from injuries that occurred while in police custody.
Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said at a news conference that his department provided the report a day before his self-imposed deadline because he understood residents’ anger and their eagerness to learn more about how Gray died. Still, he and a department spokesman declined to provide many details about what investigators uncovered.
“I understand the frustration. I understand the sense of urgency . . . and that is why we have finished it a day ahead of time,” Batts said. “I also know that getting to the right answer is more important than the speed.”
Although cellphone video showing Gray being dragged into the back of a police van with limp legs has ignited much of the attention, police have been focusing their probe on what happened to him in the back of the van. Police say his legs were shackled and he wasn’t wearing a seat belt, which authorities say was a violation of policy. They said officers ignored his pleas for medical help.
The van made four stops before arriving at a police station, including one that police officials on Thursday said they had not initially known about. They said that stop was captured by a private security camera but did not provide additional details. From the police station, Gray was taken to the hospital, where he died a week later. Authorities said he suffered a severe spinal injury.
Some residents had feared that turning over the report to prosecutors might spark more violence in the city, where on Monday cars were torched, stores looted, and rocks and bottles thrown at police. But with the National Guard patrolling the streets and a 10 p.m. curfew still in effect Thursday, Baltimore remained calm.
[Events leading to Gray’s arrest and hospitalization]
Just before 5 p.m. Thursday, about 500 people — some carrying signs or wearing shirts that read “I bleed Baltimore” or “I ♥ being black” — marched in the streets, chanting and raising their fists in the air. They soon met up with another group, and together they moved peacefully toward City Hall.
Gray’s death has sparked marches in other parts of the country. In Philadelphia, a peaceful rally turned tense Thursday night when a group of protesters who tried to enter Interstate 95 clashed with police.
Baltimore police said that more demonstrations were planned for Friday and beyond and that they intended to maintain a large presence of law-enforcement officers.
Events leading to Gray’s arrest and hospitalization View Graphic
“Although we’ve had two days of peace and quiet, we still have a weekend to make it through,” Batts said.
Also on Thursday, the national response team from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began investigating the site of a three-alarm fire Monday night that destroyed a senior center being built next to a church in East Baltimore.
The blaze at the Mary Harkins Senior Center on North Chester Street is one of seven fires the ATF team is investigating as possible arsons, said Special Agent David Cheplak, an ATF spokesman. The others include fires at two CVS pharmacies and a Rite Aid pharmacy.
In many parts of the city Thursday, residents tried to return to business as usual. In the West Baltimore neighborhood that was at the center of the rioting, some people waited for buses. Next door to a CVS that was looted and burned Monday, about 60 senior citizens who live in a building there worried about how they would get their medication, food and toiletries. But on Thursday, some of their concerns were alleviated as residents, businesses and sororities dropped off donated items.
“This is such a blessing,” said Reginald Hope, 72, one of the residents.
Some groups, including CASA de Maryland and members of the Baltimore United for Change coalition, criticized authorities for not being transparent enough.
“The public has a right to know the details of the investigation,” said Kim Propeack, director of CASA in Action, the political arm of the immigrant-advocacy organization.
Local authorities defended their handling of the case and pleaded for patience, noting that their investigation and related federal probes are continuing. On CNN, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) seemed to lash out at people who have criticized her response to the crisis.
“The record is clear. I invited the Department of Justice in here to reform our Police Department. . . . I know we have problems, and I was determined to fix them. Don’t get it twisted,” she said.
The office of Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby released a statement confirming that it had “received the hard copies” of the police investigative file but that the results of the probe were “not new to us.”
“We have been briefed regularly throughout their process while simultaneously conducting our own independent investigation into the death of Freddie Gray,” the statement said. “We ask for the public to remain patient and peaceful and to trust the process of the justice system.”
The case is fraught with unanswered questions and controversy.
When Gray was taken into custody, two officers put their knees into his back, then dragged his seemingly limp body to the van as he cried out, according to a video shot by bystanders.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) has questioned the cause for stopping Gray: A police document says he ran from officers and he was later found to have a knife.
[Gray’s life is a study in the sad effects of lead paint on poor blacks]
Authorities have said previously that the transport van stopped once to put Gray in leg irons, another time to check on him and a third time to pick up another arrestee.
Kevin Davis, a deputy police commissioner, said investigators had found out about an additional stop — at North Fremont Avenue and Mosher Street — after reviewing footage from a private surveillance camera, although he did not specify what happened during it.
Batts has said an officer driving the van has described Gray as “irate,” and an application for a search warrant says that Gray “continued to be combative in the police wagon.”
The search warrant affidavit said another prisoner in the van told investigators he heard Gray banging against the sides of the vehicle as if he “was intentionally trying to injure himself.” But the law enforcement official said that the prisoner may have heard Gray’s body thrashing uncontrollably after sustaining a “catastrophic injury to his spine.”
An attorney for Gray’s family has disputed the notion that Gray could have “severed his own spinal cord” and questioned the accuracy of some police reports.
Officials with the state medical examiners office would not discuss details of Gray’s case.
Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said the autopsy work is not complete. “We don’t do preliminary findings,” he said.
[Prisoner says Freddie Gray was ‘trying to injure himself’]
Six police officers, including a lieutenant and a sergeant, were suspended after the incident.
Mitch McConnell unplugged [POLITICO, Manu Raju, May 1, 2015]
Four months into his tenure as majority leader, Mitch McConnell says don’t expect any legacy-making deal with Barack Obama in the final stretch of his presidency.
Four months into his tenure as majority leader, Mitch McConnell says don’t expect any legacy-making deal with Barack Obama in the final stretch of his presidency.
“This is not Reagan or Clinton,” McConnell told POLITICO Thursday. Obama “is not a guy who easily goes to the middle. And there’s no indication since the elections that he wants to go to the middle.”
“I hope this will be a Congress of significant accomplishment,” McConnell added. “I don’t think it’s going to be of huge accomplishment.”
In an unusually blunt interview in his Capitol office, the Senate majority leader said he’s concluded the chances of striking a major agreement with Obama on tax reform or raising the eligibility age on entitlements are nil. So McConnell said he’s setting his sights on smaller but still tangible accomplishments — reforming how the Senate functions and passing bills on trade, education, surveillance, Iran and cybersecurity that members of both sides parties agree on.
The typically taciturn McConnell was forthcoming about the challenges he faces as majority leader in balancing the needs of GOP and Democratic senators, the four Republicans in his caucus running for president and the band of conservatives eager for confrontation with the White House. Despite serving in one of the most powerful positions in Washington, McConnell has learned quickly that the most carefully lain plans can be upended by demanding senators.
Case in point: Minutes before the interview, McConnell huddled privately in an urgent session with Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to resolve the White House hopefuls’ issues with a pending Iran review bill.
As for a third presidential candidate, Sen. Rand Paul, McConnell reiterated that he’s officially endorsed his fellow Kentuckian’s bid — but “that’s about all I’m going to do” for his campaign.
“I got a rather full-time job here,” McConnell said.
At 73 years old and after three decades in the institution, McConnell is finally in his dream job of Senate majority leader, allowing him to drive the chamber’s agenda and significantly influence the final two years of Obama’s presidency. Yet with 24 Republican seats in contention in 2016, he is at risk of returning to the minority in 2017. So he’s trying to make good on his vow to ease the Senate’s state of gridlock by advancing narrow policy items and ending the constant cycle of fiscal crises.
In the interview, McConnell candidly acknowledged that he may have erred in allowing a battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security to drag on early this year. He warned Republicans not to fall into the same trap again.
“What will happen is the bills will start out the way we like them; in order to move them – we’ll probably have to make compromises,” McConnell said of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund the government. “That’s the way the legislative process works when it’s functioning.”
But underscoring the conflicting challenges for McConnell — he’s expected to be adversarial with the White House, yet conciliatory to see laws enacted — he signaled that the GOP wouldn’t roll over when it comes time to raise the national debt ceiling later this year.
“I always think a debt ceiling is a good tool to carry something,” McConnell said when asked if he’d heed White House demands to keep the measure free of restrictions. “I hope we can add something to it.”
After being blamed by Democrats for bottling up the Senate when he served as minority leader, McConnell has sought to rebuild frayed relations. He has privately sat down with nine Democratic senators for one-on-one meetings — with plans for many more — and he says he and his adversaries have a mutual goal of seeing the Senate cast more votes.
“I think we do have more opportunities to offer amendments,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), “but I’m not sure we’ll have more opportunities to solve problems.”
McConnell has quickly found that running a chamber where virtually any senator can upset the process is an arduous task. “You know what I told several of the [presidential candidates] today? I said, ‘You think running for president is hard?’” McConnell said with a big laugh.
McConnell’s Senate has already had more amendment votes than last year when then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tightened his grip on the process and Republicans declared war on Reid for changing filibuster rules. But an open system has created its own problems. Many senators demand votes on their amendments, but any one senator can prevent that vote from occurring. The result is a more deliberative floor process, bringing the chamber to a crawl and passing even fewer bills than dysfunctional Congresses of the past.
Such a dynamic forces McConnell to intervene and try to accommodate — or sideline — his fellow senators.
That occurred Thursday over a bill to give Congress an opportunity to reject the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rubio each demanded votes on controversial amendments that would have undermined the carefully crafted compromise, offered by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Democrats refused to let those amendments come for a vote, and Corker pushed back on efforts to change the bipartisan deal, forcing McConnell to make a decision on how to handle the demands of his conservative upstarts.
“Cotton and Rubio blindsided him,” said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is in line to be the next Democratic leader. “On every bill, he has trouble from his right wing.”
In a late afternoon meeting Thursday, McConnell summoned Cotton, Rubio and Cruz, who is also demanding votes on amendments. But with Democrats refusing to let those votes occur, and McConnell eager to move on to Trade Promotion Authority legislation next week, the GOP leader is likely to file a motion Monday to cut off further debate. The four men discussed the matter for about 30 minutes Thursday.
“Except for the people who are in here who are also running for president — which made it more interesting to you – this is not an unusual thing,” McConnell said. “Sometimes it happens on a daily basis.”
Asked if he had resolved the dispute, McConnell chuckled and said, “Well, we’re working on it.”
To pass the Iran bill, McConnell will likely have to employ a tactic he criticized Reid relentlessly for when the Nevada Democrat ran the chamber the past seven years to limit amendments and shut down debate. McConnell is realizing he’ll have to do the same thing to take control of the unwieldy legislative process. McConnell did it once already to pass the DHS funding bill and he’ll resort to it in the future “occasionally,” he said, when Congress is facing a deadline or in an “impossible” place.
“Welcome to my world,” McConnell said, when asked about the persistent hurdles in legislating. “This is life in the Senate.”
The lowest point of McConnell’s short tenure so far was over the DHS funding fight in February, when the Senate was brought to a halt. Time after time, McConnell forced Democrats to block the measure, which they opposed because it would have restricted Obama’s executive actions on immigration. After weeks of GOP feuding, Republicans capitulated to Obama’s demands and funded the agency without any immigration restrictions — on the brink of a shutdown.
Looking back at it, McConnell suggests he may have done it differently.
“The House asked me to try on several occasions to see if we could get cloture. When it became absolutely apparent we couldn’t, we split the bill and ended the controversy,” McConnell said. “If I had to do it over again, I might have done that sooner. Because it did take up some time and floor time is the biggest challenge in the Senate. … The more time you spend on it, the more it’s going to affect the next one and the next one and the next one.”
Indeed, after prolonged delays, the Senate eventually passed a bipartisan bill to crack down on human trafficking and confirmed Loretta Lynch as attorney general. It also passed a House deal to overhaul how physicians are reimbursed through Medicare, fixing a persistent problem that has long dogged Washington.
Next week, McConnell’s chamber is likely to pass a GOP budget accord, overcoming many skeptics who believed fiscal and defense hawks wouldn’t be able to resolve their differences. And the chamber will soon act on a bipartisan bill produced by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to overhaul the controversial No Child Left Behind law.
“You just have to keep massaging the process and making some headway every day until you have the sense that as many people as possible have had a chance to have a say,” McConnell said of his philosophy of running the Senate.
After passing the Iran bill, the Senate will set its sights on the trade measure, which would enact a fast-track process to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping agreement that would affect 40 percent of the global economy.
On this, McConnell offered rare praise for Obama. “I think he did an excellent job last week taking on his base” and providing “comfort” to shaky Democrats, the Republican leader said.
McConnell said that allowing his caucus to vent at daily lunch meetings has helped resolve internal differences. He will interject during those talks, but he rarely lets senators know what his next step is on a particular issue, often leading to persistent questions — even among his own leadership team— about the majority leader’s intentions.
“If I’m too vocal on every issue, then you’re writing about it every day,” McConnell said when asked about his secretive nature. “Sometimes, it’s not to my advantage … It’s why I don’t run up and down the hall doing interviews with you guys. It’s not that I don’t love you, I’m not afraid of you, it’s just that it doesn’t serve my purpose.”
Capitol Police Left Guns in Bathrooms [Hannah Hess, Roll Call, May 1, 2015]
When a member of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s security detail left his Glock and magazine stuffed in the toilet seat cover holder of a Capitol Visitor Center bathroom stall, a CVC worker found the gun, according to a source familiar with the Jan. 29 incident and two other disturbing instances when Capitol Police left loaded firearms in problematic places.
When a member of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s security detail left his Glock and magazine stuffed in the toilet seat cover holder of a Capitol Visitor Center bathroom stall, a CVC worker found the gun, according to a source familiar with the Jan. 29 incident and two other disturbing instances when Capitol Police left loaded firearms in problematic places.
A 7- or 8-year-old child visiting the Capitol with his parents found the next loaded Glock lost by a dignitary protection officer, according to the source. A member of the security detail for John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, allegedly left the firearm in the bathroom of the Speaker’s Suite on March 24.
A third Glock was found the night of April 16 by a janitor cleaning the Capitol Police headquarters building on D Street NE. The weapon was left in plain sight, sparking additional concern about the department charged with protecting one of the world’s most important and frequently visited complexes.
Unlike a gun with a traditional safety, a Glock will fire if you pull the trigger — making the young boy’s alleged discovery of a gun in Boehner’s office particularly concerning. The gun lost by McConnell’s detail was left in a CVC bathroom within the Senate office space portion of the complex, lowering the likelihood it would be found by a tourist or visitor.
A report to the Capitol Police Board, obtained by CQ Roll Call on Thursday, showed the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility recommended six days of suspension without pay for the officer involved in the Jan. 29 incident. The latter two are still under investigation, which consists of matching the serial number to the department’s inventory record, then interviewing the officer.
How often do officers leave their guns unattended around the Capitol complex? The answer is unknown because Capitol Police are not required to disclose such incidents. The Jan. 29 incident went out over the radio system, but the other two have been kept quiet, based on conversations with nine Capitol Police employees from various divisions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal issues. None seemed surprised, and two offered other examples of officers who were investigated for leaving their guns unsecured or unattended.
“The Department takes very seriously all breaches of Department rules and has established policies that address such matters,” said Lt. Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol Police spokeswoman, in an email. “Each disciplinary matter is thoroughly investigated and reviewed, employees are held accountable for their conduct, and they are provided due process in adjudicating these matters. Depending on the nature and seriousness of the violation, an employee’s record, and other ‎required considerations, an appropriate penalty is applied, up to and including termination of employment. As a matter of policy, the Department does not routinely discuss internal personnel matters, in order to maintain the integrity of the Department.”
It’s unclear how thoroughly the two top Republicans in Congress were briefed on lost gun incidents involving their respective security details. Boehner’s office had no immediate comment. McConnell’s office also did not immediately comment.
The top law enforcement officials in the Capitol also stayed silent. Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Frank Frank J. Larkin, chairman of the Capitol Police Board, referred questions to the Capitol Police Public Information Office. House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul D. Irving also had no comment.
Reports of the lost guns come at a tumultuous time for Capitol Police. On Wednesday, Chief Kim C. Dine was on the hot seat for poor communication with the congressional community during the April 15 gyrocopter landing on the West Front, and a lack of critical facts after the incident.
House Administration Chairwoman Candice S. Miller, R-Mich., said the chain of command could be clarified. “Who’s his boss?” she asked rhetorically of Dine during a Thursday interview. “When you look at communication protocols, chain of command in any military organization — which every police force is — is always a very critical component of that.”
Miller, who also serves as vice chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Committee, suggested the 9/11 Commission Report contained an important lesson for Capitol Police: “We need to move from the need to know information, to the need to share information.”
Patriot Act Faces Revisions Backed by Both Parties [Jonathan Weisman & Jennifer Steinhauer, NYT, April 30, 2015]
After more than a decade of wrenching national debate over the intrusiveness of government intelligence agencies, a bipartisan wave of support has gathered to sharply limit the federal government’s sweeps of phone and Internet records.
WASHINGTON — After more than a decade of wrenching national debate over the intrusiveness of government intelligence agencies, a bipartisan wave of support has gathered to sharply limit the federal government’s sweeps of phone and Internet records.
On Thursday, a bill that would overhaul the Patriot Act and curtail the so-called metadata surveillance exposed by Edward J. Snowden was overwhelmingly passed by the House Judiciary Committee and was heading to almost certain passage in that chamber this month.
An identical bill in the Senate — introduced with the support of five Republicans — is gaining support over the objection of Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, who is facing the prospect of his first policy defeat since ascending this year to majority leader.
The push for reform is the strongest demonstration yet of a decade-long shift from a singular focus on national security at the expense of civil liberties to a new balance in the post-Snowden era.
Under the bipartisan bills in the House and Senate, the Patriot Act would be changed to prohibit bulk collection, and sweeps that had operated under the guise of so-called National Security Letters issued by the F.B.I. would end. The data would instead be stored by the phone companies themselves, and could be accessed by intelligence agencies only after approval of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.
The legislation would also create a panel of experts to advise the FISA court on privacy, civil liberties, and technology matters, while requiring the declassification of all significant FISA court opinions.
The debate has resulted in a highly unusual alliance of House Speaker John A. Boehner, the White House, the Tea Party and a bipartisan majority in the House. They are in opposition to Mr. McConnell, his Intelligence Committee chairman, and a small group of defense hawks. In addition, two Republican presidential candidates in the Senate, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have made it clear they will not accept a straight extension of the current Patriot Act.
Unlike last year, when a similar bill passed the House overwhelmingly but failed in the Senate, this year’s USA Freedom Act was drafted in delicate negotiations among the House Judiciary Committee, House Intelligence Committee, House Republican leaders and supporters in the Senate. The Senate, now in Republican control, includes four freshmen who supported the bill in the House last year.
The act, which expires June 1, is up for its first reauthorization since the revelations about bulk data collection. That impending deadline, coupled with an increase of support among members of both parties, pressure from technology companies and a push from the White House have combined to make changes to the provisions more likely.
The overhaul bill passed the Judiciary Committee 25 to 2, uniting the likes of politicians who rarely agree, like Representatives Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, and Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York. An identical measure, by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, was unveiled Tuesday, a week after Mr. McConnell proposed a blanket five-year extension of the Patriot Act passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“I don’t think he’s listening to America,” Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah and a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, said of Mr. McConnell. “The seminal question is how much liberty are we going to give up for security? People are on the brink. They’re scared out of their wits.”
But Mr. McConnell holds powerful levers as the Senate leader that could halt the momentum or eventually alter the legislation.
For the moment, Mr. McConnell and Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina and Intelligence Committee chairman, seem to be increasingly isolated.
The Snowden disclosures, along with data breaches at Sony Pictures, Target and the insurance giant Anthem, have unsettled voters and empowered those in Congress arguing for greater civil liberties protection — who a few years ago “could have met in a couple of phone booths,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon.
That has proponents of the metadata collection straining to gain support. “I think people are reacting to a program they don’t know,” Mr. Burr said. Asked about turning back the momentum against him, he conceded, “I’ve got a big task.”
Mr. Snowden’s disclosures prompted a public backlash that ultimately convinced President Obama to back an end to that part of the program. But since the president declared an end to “bulk metadata program as it currently exists” in January 2014, little has changed, Intelligence Committee members said.
Lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee pushed for changes in the legislation to allow intelligence agents to continue to track suspected foreign terrorists when they enter the United States, even though at that point they are supposed to get a warrant. Agencies could continue their surveillance for 72 hours while they obtain legal authority.
The Intelligence Committee also insisted on a new procedure to use the Patriot Act to sweep up data in an emergency, but that information would have to be destroyed if the FISA court subsequently denies the request.
Mostly, though, the committee insisted the bill steer clear of the amendments of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, added in 2008, which legalized warrantless surveillance so long as the target is a noncitizen abroad. The current legislative effort in Congress would not stop surveillance of noncitizens overseas.
“I believe that the work of the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee has produced a very good package,” Mr. Boehner said just before the Judiciary Committee vote.
The government would still be able to conduct some bulk data collection. The N.S.A. has used a section of the law that created the FISA court for vast sweeps of phone and email data. Judiciary Committee members from both parties sought to end that data-collection avenue as well, but leaders of the committee beat that effort back, saying the Republican leadership would torpedo the bill if it passed.
“If the perfect defeats the good, then bad prevails,” said Representative James Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, an author of the Patriot Act who is now leading efforts to change it.
Mr. McConnell’s allies are trying to build support. Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas who voted for a similar bill last year as a House member, met with freshman senators on Thursday to try to sway them to the leader’s side.
Along with Mr. Cotton, four other Republican Senate freshmen supported last year’s failed House bill.
Besides Mr. Lee, the Senate USA Freedom Act has four other Republican co-sponsors, including Mr. Cruz.
Another White House hopeful, Mr. Paul, does not think the bill goes far enough.
Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, said, “After 9/11 I have been a supporter of the Patriot Act.” But he added, “At the end of the day you have to look at what you can craft with the current majority.”
A strong bipartisan House vote, expected as early as mid-May, “will send a strong message to the Senate that in the House, both sides of the aisle want reforms,” said Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee.
Facing a tight deadline, Mr. McConnell is also likely to bring his alternative bill to the Senate floor soon. It is unclear whether he would have the votes for his measure, although it is possible that with a slew of amendments, the Senate could produce a bill on the floor that could be melded with the House version.


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