Just look at the fight over unemployment insurance in the Senate.
North Carolina Senate candidate says food stamps “enslave” recipients.
Robin Marty on the Supreme Court rejecting Arizona’s 20-week abortion ban: “Yet, as nice as it is to celebrate a win – especially in light of the over 200 abortion restrictions passed in just the last three years – we also need to be aware that the Supreme Court’s decision isn’t that they wouldn’t strike down Roe over a 20 week ban. They just said that this isn’t the case that will prompt them to do it.”
Gov Christie says he had not had any contact with David Wildstein in a long time. “I have had no contact with David Wildstein in a long time, a long time, well before the election.” But now there are pictures of him and Wildstein and Bill Baroni appearing together and talking at a 9/11 commemoration, on the third day of the traffic debacle.
Ed Kilgore on the Christie scandal’s effect on the next round of presidential candidates: “So the ‘16 cupboard is suddenly looking a tad bare for the Republican Establishment.”
TPM Reader TC on the difficulty of getting young adults to sign up for Obamacare:
Love your reporting and wanted to drop a line tonight to offer my position on the ACA.
I’m a 32 year-old healthy male that wants, but can’t afford, Obamacare. I think the law is a step in the right direction, it just doesn’t go far enough to capture my peers in large numbers.
Let me offer my situation:
Vincent Prieto (D), incoming Speaker of the State Assembly, says State Sen. Richard Codey (D) is wrong when he says that “Democratic Power Brokers” are trying to stymie the BridgeGate investigation.
Want to understand what this is all about? Who’s right and how Prieto fits into the “power brokers” Codey is talking about? Then read this truly epic TPM Reader email from last night about who’s who and how they do politics in the Garden State.
The geniuses who run the Multnomah County Republican Party in Multnomah County, Oregon are honoring Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln by raffling off a rifle in their honor.
One of the most interesting things out of the BridgeGate story today was former Governor, now State Senator Richard Codey’s claim that “Democratic Power Brokers” were and still are trying to block the investigation into the bridge closure. I don’t know Jersey politics enough to be sure. But everybody I talked to today who really knows New Jersey politics was certain this was a reference to George Norcross, the Democratic boss in South Jersey, probably the most powerful Democrat in the State. Earlier this evening I got an email from a longtime TPM Reader, very knowledgeable about New Jersey politics, whose initials I won’t even use, giving me some background on Codey and Norcross and what this jab was about.
The details themselves are quite interesting. But as much as that you’ve just got to read it for the bracing flavor and imagery it gives you of how this state runs if you have never lived here or followed its politics before …
It’s pretty cool for those of us who have been involved in New Jersey politics now that the rest of the nation is getting an education on the “Game of Thrones” nature of NJ politics.
So, about this comment, here’s some critical background that explains it
1) First, he is undoubtedly talking about the nexus of George Norcross (South Jersey power broker and the most powerful D in the State), Joe Divincenzo (The Essex County Executive) and his patron, Steve Adubato, State Senator Brian Stack from Hudson County, who is also mayor of Union City. These three are the major political bosses whose organizations and associations have provided Christie with the necessary Democratic votes on any initiative he has successfully passed. All of the South Jersey Democrats, including State Senate President Steve Sweeney from Gloucester County are part of Norcross’ organization, while some key Essex and Hudson Dems are aligned with Stack and Divincenzo.
A lot of important new details out today about the initial enrollments in Obamacare during 2013. One number is 2.2 million enrollments in private plans through the state and federal exchanges through December 28th. That’s about what we thought at the end of December when the number was just over 2 million. The bigger news is the critical demographic breakdown of the enrollees. Or to put it more bluntly, how many young healthy people signed up? The short answer is the number is not great but not bad either. Dylan Scott has the details here.