Subject: ​Correct The Record Tuesday February 17, 2015 Morning Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 09:59:50 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Tuesday February 17, 2015 Morning Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*Washington Post blog: Reliable Source: “The Clintons and Gingriches enjoy
romantic V-Day dates, while Michael Eric Dyson does NBA All-Star Weekend:
Which VIP had the best weekend?”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2015/02/16/the-clintons-and-gingriches-enjoy-romantic-v-day-dates-while-michael-eric-dyson-does-nba-all-star-weekend-which-vip-had-the-best-weekend/>*

“Former president Bill Clinton celebrated another Valentine’s Day with his
wife, former secretary of state (and 2016 presidential hopeful?) Hillary
Rodham Clinton at a swanky NYC lounge. The couple danced to a jazzy
rendition of ‘The Way You Look Tonight.’”

*The Hill: “Axelrod quips irritate Clintonland”
<http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/232811-axelrod-quips-irritate-clintonland>*

“David Axelrod, the former top strategist to President Obama, has been
annoying Hillary Clinton allies with his rash of recent comments about the
would-be presidential candidate and her potential campaign.”

*The Hill blog: Briefing Room: “Rove: Warren could give Clinton 'run for
her money'”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/232912-rove-warren-could-give-clinton-run-for-her-money>*

“Republican strategist Karl Rove said Monday that Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) could make things difficult for Hillary Clinton, should they both
try to capture the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.”

*Capital New York: “One media consultant, at least, says no to Clinton”
<http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/02/8562331/one-media-consultant-least-says-no-clinton>*

“According to a knowledgeable source, the Philadelphia-based firm Shorr
Johnson Magnus turned down an offer to work as one of the media consultants
for Clinton when she runs.”

*Mediaite: “Hillary Clinton Signs Used for ‘Wild Dance’ at Politico
Reporter’s Wedding”
<http://www.mediaite.com/online/hillary-clinton-signs-used-for-wild-dance-at-politico-reporters-wedding/>*

“According to Allen, ‘Hillary Clinton for president’ signs were ‘busted out
during one of many wild dances’ at Politico congressional reporter Jake
Sherman‘s wedding on Sunday.”

*MSNBC: “Frigid cold is no match for Warren backers’ warmth for senator”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/cold-no-match-warren-backers-warmth-senator>*

“An impending blizzard and some frigid cold didn’t stop a small band of
liberals hoping to coax Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren into
the 2016 presidential race from making a symbolic run from the U.S. Capitol
to the White House Monday, to mark the Presidents Day holiday.”

*Real Clear Politics: “EMILY's List Targeting GOP Presidential Candidates”
<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/02/16/emilys_list_targeting_gop_presidential_candidates_125622.html>*

“The war-on-women strategy will take on added meaning next year with the
expectation of Clinton as the Democratic nominee.”

*Articles:*

*Washington Post blog: Reliable Source: “The Clintons and Gingriches enjoy
romantic V-Day dates, while Michael Eric Dyson does NBA All-Star Weekend:
Which VIP had the best weekend?”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2015/02/16/the-clintons-and-gingriches-enjoy-romantic-v-day-dates-while-michael-eric-dyson-does-nba-all-star-weekend-which-vip-had-the-best-weekend/>*

By Erin C. J. Robertson

February 16, 2015, 12:51 p.m. EST

The weekend’s fun and games was part NBA All-Star weekend jamboree and part
Valentine’s Day delight for VIPs like Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and
Michael Eric Dyson.

Let’s sneak a peak:

Chef Carla Hall caught up with “General Hospital” soap star Donna Mills
behind the curtain at the Go Red For Women runway show, part of fall 2015
New York Fashion Week. Mills also shared backstage camera time with “Orange
is the New Black” actress Dascha Polanco.

Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and wife Calista Gingrich
observed Valentine’s Day — and some dinosaur fossils — at the American
Museum of Natural History’s “Night at the Museum.”

Former president Bill Clinton celebrated another Valentine’s Day with his
wife, former secretary of state (and 2016 presidential hopeful?) Hillary
Rodham Clinton at a swanky NYC lounge. The couple danced to a jazzy
rendition of “The Way You Look Tonight.”

Bill Clinton also sat courtside (with a rear, er, rare view of former
pro-baller Dikembe Mutombo) at Sunday night’s All-Star game. The seatmates
were chatty throughout.

Academic Michael Eric Dyson was in NYC for NBA All-Star Weekend events. He
crossed paths with “Sports Recall” host Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Jr. (that’s son
of NBA-legend-turned-pop-culture-columnist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

“Top Chef” runner-up Bryan Voltaggio and family dined at the Asburn, Va.,
location of his eatery, Family Meal. He apparently believes in giving the
youngest members of his clan an early start in the restaurant biz.

“News One Now” host Roland Martin and wife Jacquie Hood Martin also took in
the NBA All-Star weekend festivities. What’s a better way for Hood Martin
to cap off her 50th birthday weekend than at Madison Square Garden, where
the Western conference team squared off against — and bested — the Eastern
conference, 163 to 158?

*The Hill: “Axelrod quips irritate Clintonland”
<http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/232811-axelrod-quips-irritate-clintonland>*

By Amie Parnes

February 17, 2015, 6:00 a.m. EST

David Axelrod, the former top strategist to President Obama, has been
annoying Hillary Clinton allies with his rash of recent comments about the
would-be presidential candidate and her potential campaign.

The staunch Clinton supporters feel as though Axelrod, who is promoting his
new book “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics,” has taken unnecessary aim
at Clinton and her team.

“It's not helpful and it's definitely not appreciated,” said one Clinton
ally. “The last thing we need is another round of headlines about lingering
tension and this is doing exactly that.

“When he speaks, it gets picked up and people listen,” the ally added.

Another supporter added: “I think a lot of us are scratching our heads. Why
is any of that necessary?” A third added, "She's been a great team player,
she's been very supportive of the president and she hasn't gotten in front
of him on a lot of issues so what's he trying to do?"

Axelrod did not respond to a request for comment.

It hasn’t just been one or two comments or a rare, accidental slip up,
Clinton insiders point out. It seems as though Axelrod is going out of his
way to make a point.

On MSNBC's Hardball earlier this week, Axelrod said John Podesta, who is
expected to be Clinton’s campaign chairman in the coming months, “has to
get control of the Clinton operation.”

In a radio podcast with Politico’s Glenn Thrush, he said Clinton's paid
six-figure speeches may have hurt her chances in 2016 and that he would
have advised her to take a different approach.

Even his book reveals what Axelrod wrote to Obama in a memo about Clinton
before the two went head-to-head in the grueling 2008 Democratic primary.

“…For all her advantages, she is not a healing figure,” Axelrod wrote in a
12-page strategic memo to Obama in late 2006, “The more she tries to
moderate her image, the more she…compounds her exposure as an opportunist.”

It’s not as though Axelrod is a stranger to Clinton. The two have known
each other for well over a decade. She had spoken at Axelrod’s first annual
fundraising dinner for CURE, the epilepsy charity he launched with his
wife, Susan. Clinton also thanked Axelrod in the acknowledgements of her
tome ‘Living History.’ But tensions between the two rose during the 2008
Democratic primary.

And after the primary came to an end and Obama suggested Clinton for the
Secretary of State job, it was Axelrod who wondered aloud, “How can this
work?” according to the book HRC, State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary
Clinton. “We just had this very vigorous campaign.”

Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist
University, said Axelrod’s recent comments are simply part of an effort to
“peddle books.” But at the same time, Jillson questioned why the opinions
have to be voiced publicly for all to witness.

“Why would you be undercutting your party’s next candidate?” he asked. “If
you have something to say, call up people like Podesta and tell him what
you think.”

“You don’t want this out there if you can avoid it,” Jillson added.

But the criticism of Clintonland didn't just start recently.

In December, he though Clinton lacked a campaign message. “What happened in
2008 was that Hillary's candidacy got out in front of any rationale for it
and the danger is that it's happening again. You hear 'Ready for Hillary;
it's like 'Ready for what?” He said on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Over the summer, Axelrod hit back at Clinton after the former Secretary of
State criticized Obama's foreign policy.

“Just to clarify, 'Don't do stupid stuff' means stuff like occupying Iraq
in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision,” Axelrod wrote on
Twitter.

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, said it’s obvious that Axelrod isn’t
using White House talking points while promoting his book. Lehane pointed
to the differing views Axelrod had when discussing Obama’s views on gay
marriage in the book and in subsequent media interviews.

After Axelrod wrote in his book that Obama reluctantly followed his advice
to not support gay marriage for fear of angering African American religious
leaders, Obama claimed in an interview with Buzzfeed that, “the notion that
somehow I was always in favor of marriage per se isn’t quite accurate.”

He went on to say that his former adviser was “mixing up my personal
feelings with my position on the issue.

As for the digs on Clinton, Lehane said it’s all irrelevant and won’t have
any effect on a campaign.

“At the end of the day, it’s like the conversation that takes place before
the Super Bowl,” Lehane said. “It’s fun to talk about, it eats up inches
but once kickoff begins, it’s all moot.”

If Axelrod frustrated Clinton allies with his recent comments though, he
also might have helped to ease the ongoing chatter that Sen. Elizabeth
Warren (D-Mass.), a darling with progressives, could beat Clinton in a
primary.

“I have high regard for Elizabeth. I don’t think she would beat her,”
Axelrod said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, the prominent conservative
radio talk show host. “Look, look at the polling…Hillary is probably as
well-positioned within her own party as any open seat candidate has been in
our lifetime.”

*The Hill blog: Briefing Room: “Rove: Warren could give Clinton 'run for
her money'”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/232912-rove-warren-could-give-clinton-run-for-her-money>*

By David McCabe

February 16, 2015, 8:03 p.m. EST

Republican strategist Karl Rove said Monday that Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) could make things difficult for Hillary Clinton, should they both
try to capture the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.

"I think Elizabeth Warren's hard-left prescriptions on the economy sing to
the heart of Democratic primary voters," he said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show."
"So yeah, I think she could give her a run for her money. I don't know if
at the end of the day she could beat her."

The former secretary of State, however, has a lot strong advantages, Rove
added, including a high-level aide who just exited the Obama White House.

"Clinton is going to have a lot of money. She does have an expert political
adviser in the form of her husband," he said. "And she's about to get a
mastermind of her presidential campaign in the form of John Podesta, who's
tough enough to probably keep the warring factions that always make up a
Clinton campaign together.

Many Democratic advocacy groups have pushed for Warren to launch a
campaign, going so far as to set up a field office in Iowa. But the senator
has so far resisted calls to run.

Clinton, meanwhile, may try and tap into the party's base if she runs by
using some of Warren's rhetoric of economic populism.

*Capital New York: “One media consultant, at least, says no to Clinton”
<http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/02/8562331/one-media-consultant-least-says-no-clinton>*

By Azi Paybarah

February 14, 2015, 10:18 p.m. EST

As the strategic team for Hillary Clinton's expected presidential campaign
rapidly takes shape, there is apparently at least one Democratic consultant
who has said no to the front-runner.

According to a knowledgeable source, the Philadelphia-based firm Shorr
Johnson Magnus turned down an offer to work as one of the media consultants
for Clinton when she runs.

Reached for comment, Saul Shorr, a principal at the firm, declined to speak
in detail about his communications with the campaign, offering only the
following statement: “I strongly support Hillary Clinton for president and
believe it’s important for the future of the country that she be elected.”

It’s not immediately clear where a firm like SJM, whose clients include the
newly elected governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia and New York’s senior
senator, would have fit in among the other strategists reported lined up by
the proto-campaign.

Pollster Joel Benenson will reportedly be the lead strategist, and Robby
Mook, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 race, will reportedly be the campaign
manager.

The media team is also filling out. Clinton has Jim Margolis to be the
campaign’s media adviser, and longtime insider Mandy Grunwald as senior
communications adviser.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill did not respond to a request for comment.

*Mediaite: “Hillary Clinton Signs Used for ‘Wild Dance’ at Politico
Reporter’s Wedding”
<http://www.mediaite.com/online/hillary-clinton-signs-used-for-wild-dance-at-politico-reporters-wedding/>*

By Andrew Desiderio

February 16, 2015, 3:45 p.m. EST

So there was something buried in Mike Allen‘s “Politico Playbook” today
that you might not have expected to see.

According to Allen, “Hillary Clinton for president” signs were “busted out
during one of many wild dances” at Politico congressional reporter Jake
Sherman‘s wedding on Sunday.

Sherman married former Democratic congressional aide Irene Jefferson.

Have a look:

[PHOTO]

So, yeah, there’s that. We don’t have a clue either. File this one under:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*MSNBC: “Frigid cold is no match for Warren backers’ warmth for senator”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/cold-no-match-warren-backers-warmth-senator>*

By Alex Seitz-Wald

February 16, 2015, 5:07 p.m. EST

An impending blizzard and some frigid cold didn’t stop a small band of
liberals hoping to coax Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren into
the 2016 presidential race from making a symbolic run from the U.S. Capitol
to the White House Monday, to mark the Presidents Day holiday.

“We ran from Sen. Warren’s current office to her future office,” Luisa
Galvano, the Washington, D.C.-based organizer for the super PAC Ready for
Warren, said in front of the frozen executive mansion with about a dozen
other joggers bundled up in “Run Liz Run!” gear. While the run was extra
symbolic considering neither Warren nor President Obama were present at
either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, it was an effort to “demonstrate to Sen.
Warren that she has a huge support base behind her,” Galvano said.

It was just one of many demonstrations activists hoping to draft Warren had
planned for Presidents Day weekend, which they hope will one day honor
Warren alongside George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. That, despite the
fact that the senator has so far told just about anyone who will listen
that she’s not interested in running for the White House.

In the key early presidential state of New Hampshire, activists braved
massive snow drifts to hold signs for passing drivers, and on Saturday,
gathered to make Valentines for Warren. “We are here today to ask Elizabeth
Warren to be our Valentine and to run for president,” said Jamie Shopland,
who organized the event.

In Iowa, which holds the nation’s first presidential caucuses, activists
held their own “honk-and-wave visibility event” this weekend, while others
sent roses to Warren in honor of Valentine’s Day.

The liberal groups MoveOn.org and Democracy for America joined forces to
create the “Run Warren Run” campaign, which is not directly involved with
the Ready for Warren super PAC. All three groups have the same goal:
Gathering enough support to convince Warren she should run.

Run Warren Run is opening its second office in Iowa Monday night.
Nationally, the group says it has held more than 220 house parties, though
attendance has been sparse at at least some of the events.

Meanwhile, Ready for Warren launched a new website Monday called
DearElizabethWarren.com, where supporters can send postcards or videos to
Warren encouraging her to run. “The future of our country is too important
not to give Democrats a choice for our party’s nomination,” Ready for
Warren campaign manager Erica Sagrans said.

All this despite the fact that Warren has repeatedly said she is not
running for president, and has taken none of the steps necessary to mount a
bid. Also on Monday, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll was
released, but it did not include Warren, citing her denials of an interest
in a run.

In other polls that did include Warren, she trailed former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton by up to 50 percentage points for the Democratic
nomination, but beat out the rest of the field of potential Democratic
candidates, except for Vice President Joe Biden.

*Real Clear Politics: “EMILY's List Targeting GOP Presidential Candidates”
<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/02/16/emilys_list_targeting_gop_presidential_candidates_125622.html>*

By Caitlin Huey-Burns

February 16, 2015

Republican presidential hopefuls beware: The opposition’s war-on-women
clarion call is being sounded anew.

Last year’s focus by Democrats on “women’s issues,” namely access to
contraception and abortion, didn’t help their top candidates to victory and
actually backfired in some cases. In fact, some Democrats openly criticized
the strategy, lamenting a lost opportunity to talk about economic issues.

But even amid big midterm losses, the party won back many of the women
voters it lost in 2010. Though the strategy has been re-examined, the
argument remains in force, especially with a different electorate in play
next year, a wide-open, male-dominated Republican presidential field, and a
woman widely expected to head the Democratic ticket.

With the help of EMILY’s List, Democrats are already laying down markers on
GOP candidates. This week, the group that supports pro-choice female
Democratic candidates launched a new campaign that will document each time
a Republican candidate “ignores, insults, or offends” American women. The
“Insult & Injury” initiative, first shared with RealClearPolitics, includes
digital advertising and graphics that can be shared via social media.

EMILY’s List argues it already has a good amount of material to work with,
pointing to Rand Paul’s “shushing” of CNBC host Kelly Evans during a recent
interview, and Mike Huckabee’s description of women who curse in the
workplace as “trashy.”

But beyond those headlines, the group is focusing on the GOP candidates’
records on a variety of issues, including abortion, contraception access
and pay equity. EMILY’s List is targeting Republican presidential
candidates’ opposition to Planned Parenthood and/or their efforts to defund
it, as well as their opposition to raising the federal minimum wage, which
the group argues disproportionately affects women.

“Women and families need leaders who understand the challenges they face
and take them seriously. They deserve better than the disrespectful words
and harmful actions of the current Republican 2016 field,” said
Communications Director Jess McIntosh in a statement.

After their 2014 midterm drubbing, Democrats have argued for framing
women’s issues, including reproductive rights, through the lens of economic
security. EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock noted last year that
economic issues such as equal pay, minimum wage, paid sick leave and the
ability to make health decisions drive women to the polls.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is considered a top contender for the GOP
nomination, is also atop Democrats’ hit list when it comes to these
women-centered issues. EMILY’s List ran ads against Walker on abortion last
cycle during his re-election race against Mary Burke. The ads criticized
the governor for his opposition to abortion without exceptions for rape and
incest and his support for a state measure requiring women seeking an
abortion to undergo an ultrasound exam first.

Democrats have been running against Walker for the past three-plus years,
with his 2012 recall and his 2014 re-election campaigns taking on national
prominence. They haven’t been successful, which will be one of the
governor’s main selling points in his expected presidential bid.
(Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz got into
hot water last year for her harsh rhetoric against Walker, accusing him of
giving women “the back of his hand” and “grabbing us by the hair and
pulling us back.” The Burke campaign, for which the chairwoman was
campaigning at the time, had to distance itself from the comments.)

But that doesn’t mean Democrats are backing away from him as he prepares to
launch a new campaign. In addition to focusing on Walker’s abortion views,
EMILY’s List assails his record on women’s pay, specifically a bill he
signed in 2012 repealing a state pay equity measure. Politifact rated that
claim, as articulated by President Obama during the midterm campaign,
“mostly true.” (Wisconsin Republicans repealed a law permitting workers to
file pay discrimination claims in state court, arguing it led to additional
lawsuits that cost businesses money. However, the state’s Fair Employment
Act, which prohibits pay discrimination, remains in place.)

Walker isn’t the group’s only target, of course. Chris Christie, Marco
Rubio, and Jeb Bush are also being monitored for their positions on
paycheck fairness issues. EMILY’s List points to a Christie’s veto of a
state wage transparency bill that would have required state employers make
their wage information public. The governor opposed the bill, citing
similar provisions in an existing state laws and the potential for burdens
on businesses.  (Christie also signed a law requiring employers to issue
anti-discrimination notices to their employees.)

The GOP has been public about its efforts to educate candidates about
carefully framing women’s issues and avoiding gaffes that could cause them
trouble. But the party doesn’t seem concerned about the coming attacks,
arguing that such attempts failed in the midterms. Hillary Clinton
spotlighted many of the same issues while campaigning for Alison Lundergan
Grimes in Kentucky, but the Senate hopeful lost to Mitch McConnell, even
among women.

“If playing politics with women’s issues was a winning campaign strategy
then Democrats wouldn’t be unveiling their ‘autopsy’ in response to midterm
losses this week,” says Allison Moore, spokeswoman for the Republican
National Committee. “The reality is that Obama-Clinton liberals will
promise prosperity but their big-government, tax-and-spend policies
actually mean fewer jobs and less opportunities for American families.”

The war-on-women strategy will take on added meaning next year with the
expectation of Clinton as the Democratic nominee. In an interview with the
Washington Post, Democratic strategist Chris Lehane noted the impact
Clinton’s gender can have in the race, calling it both a sword and a shield.

“It is a sword in that, as a mom and grandmom from middle-class, Midwestern
roots, she is uniquely positioned to talk with voters [about] being on the
side of America’s families,” Lehane told the Post. “It is a shield to
deflect the predictable attacks from the opposition about the need for
change in 2016.”

*Calendar:*

*Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official
schedule.*

·  February 24 – Santa Clara, CA: Sec. Clinton to Keynote Address at
Inaugural Watermark Conference for Women (PR Newswire
<http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hillary-rodham-clinton-to-deliver-keynote-address-at-inaugural-watermark-conference-for-women-283200361.html>
)

·  March 3 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton honored by EMILY’s List (AP
<http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268798/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=SUjRlg8K>)

·  March 4 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton to fundraise for the Clinton
Foundation (WSJ
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/01/15/carole-king-hillary-clinton-live-top-tickets-100000/>
)

·  March 16 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton to keynote Irish American Hall of
Fame (NYT <https://twitter.com/amychozick/status/562349766731108352>)

·  March 19 – Atlantic City, NJ: Sec. Clinton keynotes American Camp
Association conference (PR Newswire <http://www.sys-con.com/node/3254649>)

·  March 23 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton to keynote award ceremony for
the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting (Syracuse
<http://newhouse.syr.edu/news-events/news/former-secretary-state-hillary-rodham-clinton-deliver-keynote-newhouse-school-s>
)