“I can’t do modern politics,” Newt Gingrich confessed to a Rotary Club breakfast early Friday morning in Des Moines, Iowa.
Clearly feeling the “G’s” from soaring to the top and then plummeting in the polls, the former House speaker looked tired. (Later, when asked about his mother, tears flowed.)
Gingrich recalled running a “positive, issue-oriented campaign” to take over the House in 1994 and said he’d wanted to do the same in the presidential campaign. When he surged a month ago, his opponents spent perhaps $10 million in attack ads.
Newt — of all people — said he was blindsided by how “cynical” the contest was.
With Congress at an 11% approval rating, who wants to be chummy?
President Barack Obama is not a schmoozer, The New York Times has discovered, especially when it comes to members of Congress. He spends his downtime with a small — and shrinking — inner circle of aides and old friends.
Remote, distant and perfunctory are some of the adjectives used to describe the president.
In Hawaii, for example, Obama is with close outside-the-Beltway friends, including a Chicago doctor and two old schoolmates, one of whom was arrested last spring on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute. He plays golf with midlevel aides.
“This is not a Lincoln Bedroom guy,” said Democratic strategist James Carville, referring to the White House bedroom where top guests and donors to other administrations stayed. “In fact, he’s the anti-Lincoln-Bedroom guy. He doesn’t seem to relish, or even like, having politicians around.”
Hearing the call of the wild?
Alexandra Pelosi, a filmmaker and daughter of the House minority leader, said recently that her mother “would retire right now, if the donors she has didn’t want her to stay so badly.”
“They know she wants to leave, though. They think she’s destined for the wilderness. She has very few days left. She’s 71, she wants to have a life, she’s done. It’s obligation, that’s all I’m saying.”
“Totally untrue,” Nancy Pelosi’s office was quick to say.
Alexandra Pelosi later noted: “I don’t speak for Nancy Pelosi — I was merely projecting my own personal opinions.”
Those crazy Kims, always good for a cackle
The Onion recently posted this headline on events in North Korea:
Kim Jong-Un Privately Doubting He’s Crazy Enough To Run North Korea
Over the years, the satirical newspaper has had some fun with Kim’s late dad and dear leader. Here are some favorite heads:
Kim Jong Il Interprets Sunrise As Act Of War
N. Korea Detonates 40 Years of GDP
Tensions Mount After North Korea Destroys All Of Asia
In the Know: Kim Jon Il’s Approval Rating Plummets To 120%
Kim Jong Il Ends Nuclear Program For Lead In Next ‘Batman’
Bachmann’s battle rattle
First, Michele Bachmann’s Iowa chairman, Kent Sorenson, left her for Ron Paul. Then Citizens for a Working America, a so-called Super PAC, defected to Mitt Romney.
We might recommend caution. Speaking at an Iowa radio station, Bachmann mentioned a fondness for assault rifles.
“My favorite is an AR-15,” she said. “I love it. It’s a great gun.”
‘That’s %@//&#*+!’
Jim Messina, the president’s campaign manager, pushed back strongly on the talk that the camp will raise $1 billion for his re-election.
We can’t use his noun, but you might find it in a feedlot.
“We don’t take PAC money, unlike our opponents,” he said. “We fund this campaign in contributions of $3 or $5 or whatever you can do to help us expand the map, to put more people on the ground, to build a real grassroots campaign that is going to be the difference between winning and losing.”
Can’t say we’ll notice
Melody Barnes is leaving the White House. Her job? Chief domestic policy adviser.
Compiled from the invisible reams of political reports on the Web.
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