Friday's Starting Lineup
Good Friday morning. How is it we're so ready for a 3-day weekend just 2 full weeks into the year? Just imagine what it will be like this summer.
Here's Hotline OnCall's Starting Lineup, previewing the people who will matter in today's political debate:
STATE SEN. SCOTT BROWN: The latest survey out of MA's hot Senate race show the GOPer leading by 4 points, giving his party hope that they will retake a seat they have not held since the '50s in a state where Dems control every major office. The Suffolk Univ. survey, conducted Monday to Wednesday, shows Brown leading by a 50%-46% margin.
While a win would be huge for the GOP, Dems have proven over several elections last year that they have these special contests down. The party has invested heavily in turnout operations, and SEIU and other labor groups are organizing their own get-out-the-vote operations. The higher the turnout, the better the chance AG Martha Coakley has of regaining the lead.
Dems are having fits over the contest, and WH CoS is placing calls to top MA strategists to gauge whether a visit by Pres. Obama could change the race, AP's Glen Johnson writes. Coakley's schedule is open on Sunday, in hopes that Obama will swoop in and save the day, but the admin's focus on Haiti could make politicking look crass. Keep an eye on the Sunday pool reports.
PRES. OBAMA: As he contemplates a last-minute visit to Boston, Obama faces what could be the end of his major legislative accomplishments, at least for his first term. A Brown win would effectively shut down any legislative efforts that don't have significant GOP involvement, and would leave Dems in a state of panic before they face voters this fall.
But Obama insists that health care and the economy will be positives for Dems, he told his party's House caucus yesterday.
Dem strategists have settled on an effort to refashion the midterms as a contrast between the 2 parties, and sources say they intend to rely heavily on accusations that their GOP rivals want to take the country back to the Bush era.
That strategy is Dems' only hope of saving seats, but accomplishing it is much more difficult than it seems. An angry public still blames the Bush admin for the economic decline, but it's Obama's problem now, and voters aren't seeing the pace of recovery speed up. House and Senate Dems need to buy into the notion that contrast is the way to save their own jobs, and Obama's speech yesterday is the latest step in what will become an ongoing effort to convince them to do so, rather than circling the wagons and playing defense.
DEFENSE SEC. ROBERT GATES: As military units mobilize and head to Haiti to help rescue and clean-up efforts, the DoD today will release a report detailing the missed warning signs that led to the Nov. 5 shootings that claimed 13 lives at Ft. Hood.
Several top officers are expected to face discipline for failing to spot the red flags, the LA Times reports, and the DoD review will encourage the Army to share more information internally about its personnel. The report will also examine the DoD's relationship with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Gates is expected to refer the matter to the Army to take action against those who didn't point out the danger posed by Maj. Nidal Hasan. But the matter isn't closed on Capitol Hill, and coupled with the thwarted attempt to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day, terrorism and national security is slowly presenting new challenges to an already-overloaded WH.
Transcript of Master asking George W. Bush to help with Haiti fundraising. Arf!
http://www.goodboybo.com/2010/01/master-and-doubleyou.html
Bo
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