Wake Up To Politics - January 29, 2015
Today's edition of Wake Up To Politics is available in a PDF format here. Continue reading to find the text of the Wake Up in the body of the email!
Thursday, January 29, 2015
649 Days Until Election Day 2016It's Thursday, January 29, 2015, I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
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White House Watch
- The President’s Schedule At 11 AM, President Obama will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing.
- At 3:20 PM, he meets with Secretary of State John Kerry.
- At 7:10 PM, the President will speak at the House Democratic Caucus retreat in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- The caucus retreat is a chance for the House Democrats to shape a strategy for the year ahead. The theme of the gathering is, “Grow America’s Economy, Grow American Paychecks,” a continuation of the President’s “middle-class economics” vision from his State of the Union address last week.
- Vice President Joe Biden will speak at the retreat Friday.
- Capitol Hill News
- Senate: Status Update After a cloture vote on the Keystone bill failed to receive the required 60 votes, the Senate has returned to the bill.
- To try to pick up Democratic votes, Senate Republicans have allowed as many as amendments as possible (offered by senators of both parties) to get votes. The Senate held 18 amendment votes Wednesday, with 11 more set for today. Another cloture vote will also be held, and if it is successful, a vote on passage.
- Also, on the committee side: Today is the second and final day of Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings on Loretta Lynch’s nomination to be U.S. Attorney General.
- After eight hours of testimony from Lynch yesterday, today the committee will hear from outside witnesses chose by both parties. Those testifying on Lynch will include investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson (who has sued the Justice Department earlier this month), professor Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz (who has sued the Justice Department), sheriff David Clarke (who has sued the Justice Department), Jonathan Turley (who has sued the Justice Department), and Catherine Engelbrecht (who has sued the Justice Department).
- In addition, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing titled, “Global Challenges and the U.S. National Security Strategy”. Three former Secretaries of State will give testimony on the hearing: Henry Kissinger (who served under Nixon and Ford), George P. Schultz (who served under Reagan), and Madeline Albright (who served under Clinton).
Question of the Day
- Wednesday’s Answer Yesterday’s question was, “Name at least one of the four states (besides Kentucky, which I had written about earlier in the Wake Up) that holds statewide elections on odd-number years.”
- The answers are…New Jersey and Virginia, which hold state elections on the year after presidential contests (2013, 2017); and Louisiana and Mississippi, which, like Kentucky, hold state elections on the year before presidential elections (2011, 2015).
- GREAT JOB…Steve Gitnik and Rick Isserman, who got all four; Joe Bookman, who got NJ and VA; @SLGuerard, who got VA, and @VoterAidApp, who got all four – who both answered via Twitter.
- ALSO…extra credit to Patrick Nowakowski, who not only answered all four, but also sent in a really intersting article from the National Conference of State Legislatures on why these states have off-year elections. Thanks Patrick!
