Friday's Starting Lineup
Good Friday morning. Best wishes to Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid's wife and daughter, who were in a car accident yesterday, for a speedy recovery.
Here's today's Starting Lineup, previewing the people who will make headlines this grey and rainy Friday:
BUSINESSMAN TIM BURNS: He's the GOP's pick to run in a special election to replace the late Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), and Burns will have some advantages: He is little-known, making him hard to define, and he has personal resources he can put into the race. Burns will face ex-Murtha staffer Mark Critz (D) in the 5/18 special election.
But that isn't the only time Burns' name will be on the ballot that day. He will likely face a primary challenge from '08 nominee William Russell (R), whose fundraising strength has given him an early lead in the CoH race. Don't be entirely fooled by Russell's money, though; he raises cash via direct mail, which means of the $2.9M he's banked, he has kept just $211K in the bank -- a stunningly high burn rate common to candidates who use the Postal Service to make money.
The GOP has spent the last week downplaying its chances in the district, and they have reason to; the party faces a 2-1 voter registration disadvantage, and the special election will be held the same day as the primary, when Dems will head to the polls to pick SEN and GOV nominees. GOPers don't have very competitive primaries in those 2 races, leading some to conclude their turnout will be way down. Meanwhile, the cash-strapped NRCC has not made the decision to spend money in the race, while the DCCC has much more in the bank to play with.
ALAN FRUMIN: He's a name few know, but Frumin may become world famous by the end of this seemingly interminable health care debate. Frumin is the Senate parliamentarian, someone with rarely-used but very influential power. And yesterday, he threw Dems for a loop, ruling that Pres. Obama must sign health care legislation before the Senate can take up a bill providing legislative fixes via reconciliation.
That's bad news for the majority, not because Dems need to hunt for the 51 votes required to pass the legislative fix in the Senate, but because an increasing number of House members have voiced their displeasure with, or outright distrust of, their upper chamber colleagues. If Dems in the House don't believe Dems in the Senate can or will pass the legislative fixes, they won't stick their necks out by voting in a way that advances the process. Meanwhile, it will be tough for any Dems to convince Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) that they will revisit abortion language, something he says is essential to winning his bloc of 12 Dems not satisfied with the Senate language.
But Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid is pushing forward with reconciliation, saying he will seek a simply majority vote on a bill that's already passed the Senate with 60 votes in a letter to Senate Min. Leader Mitch McConnell. Reid blasted GOPers for "misleading" the public by spreading "debunked myths and outright lies." Reid didn't pull many punches in officially notifying McConnell that Dems will need only 51 votes to pass the fixes.
NY AG ANDREW CUOMO: Cuomo has spent as much time investigating his fellow office-holders as he has on anything else, it seems. Now, he's done looking into Gov. David Paterson's (D) handling of a domestic abuse scandal. Yesterday, Cuomo's office recused himself from the investigation and appointed NY's former top judicial official to take over.
The investigation is not likely to be short, or sweet, and Cuomo has some other business to attend to. He is, after all, widely expected to seek Paterson's job this year, and investigating the office one is running for isn't exactly the way Cuomo would want to start off his new campaign.
Still, remember when Cuomo was going to announce his candidacy in March? Cuomo has a DC fundraiser set for Mar. 22, but it looks like his official entrance into the race will be pushed back into next month. That suits ex-Rep. Rick Lazio (R), Cuomo's likely general election opponent, just fine, though.