George Zornick

Leading Banking Committee Democrat Backs Warren

George Zornick on November 9, 2012 - 6:15 PM ET

Almost immediately after Elizabeth Warren was elected to the United States Senate, speculation began about whether she would receive a prestigious spot on the Banking Committee. This is a possibility that makes sense given her experience, and terrifies the financial sector: “she will be the banks’ worst nightmare,” an attorney who works in the industry told The Wall Street Journal Friday.

Her colleagues seem to be behind the idea—Senate aides told Reuters there was a “good, but not guaranteed” chance she would get that committee assignment. On Friday afternoon, I spoke with Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the second-highest-ranking Democrat on the panel, and he strongly endorsed her selection.

Reed stressed that it’s first up to Warren if she wants to be on the committee—she has not actually said that she does. He noted that, as one of the nation’s leading experts on bankruptcy law, she might find the Judiciary Committee equally compelling. “She has some tough choices to make about where she can best use her talents,” he said.

Voters Did Not Choose Austerity

George Zornick on November 9, 2012 - 1:22 PM ET

On the top line, it’s pretty simple: Barack Obama ran on an unambigious platform of government investment, higher taxes on the wealthy and a protected safety net. Mitt Romney ran on an equally clear platform of vastly decreased federal spending, including on “entitlement” programs, and lower taxes for everyone (and, though he frequently denied it, mostly the wealthy).

Now, the political conversation turns immediately to the fiscal cliff, which requires big decisions on tax rates and government spending. Obama’s re-election should be a clear enough sign of how voters want this handled, but of course there are hitches: pundits and politicians can invent all sorts of other reasons why Obama was re-elected, and on several occasions during the campaign Obama voiced support for the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan, which would lower rates in all income brackets and cut the safety net.

So it’s therefore important to make clear that voters quite consciously chose a different path. The polling data bears that out.

In Victory, Obama Aims to Truly Enact an Agenda

George Zornick on November 7, 2012 - 12:46 PM ET

President Obama declares victory Tuesday night in Chicago. Photo by George Zornick.

The chief problem of President Obama’s first term was the recalcitrant, sometimes rabid opposition from congressional Republicans and their allies. Such it was, then, that his victory speech Tuesday night—after he achieved a dominating re-election tally—was aimed directly at busting that logjam open:

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Obama Campaign Believes Early Vote Has Put Them Over the Top

George Zornick on November 5, 2012 - 7:28 PM ET

McCormick Place in Chicago is outfitted for President Obama’s planned speech tomorrow night, after the results of the election are known. Photo by George Zornick.

Chicago—As President Obama barnstorms the country with high-wattage celebrities, designed to maximize news coverage of rallies where he delivers his closing argument for re-election, campaign staffers in Chicago are projecting serious confidence about the final results. The convention center at McCormick Place is a flurry of activity as it is outfitted for a speech from Obama tomorrow night, and early voting tallies have campaign officials sure that it will be a victory address, and not a concession speech.

Getting Progressive Candidates on the Record Against Safety Net Cuts

George Zornick on November 2, 2012 - 4:23 PM ET

Politico has a very interesting story this morning that gave voice to what a lot of progressives in Washington have been nervously worrying about: the possibility that a freshly re-elected President Obama could sell his base down the river only weeks after the election during fiscal cliff negotiations. (Liberals fear grand bargain betrayal if President Obama wins.)

The concern is that he tried it before: Obama reportedly offered House Speaker John Boehner a deal during the debt ceiling negotiations that would have made all Bush tax cuts permanent while also raising $800 billion in additional tax revenue, and also cut both Medicare and Social Security benefits. Just last month, he told the Des Moines Register editorial board that “I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I’ve been offering to the Republicans for a very long time.”

Optimists would point out that Obama has nevertheless taken a much more progressive approach since the dark days of the debt ceiling debacle. He released a debt plan last year that was much, much better than what he offered Boehner—it repealed Bush top tax rates and largely stayed away from safety net benefit cuts.

October Jobs Report: There’s Work to Be Done

George Zornick on November 2, 2012 - 12:02 PM ET

The US economy added 171,000 jobs in October, beating economists’ predictions of 125,000 new jobs and, if not adding a boost to President Obama’s re-election campaign, at least denying Mitt Romney any real ammunition.

The unemployment rate ticked up a statistically insignificant 0.1 percent, to 7.9 percent, which is a full point lower that what it was one year ago. The slight increase was a result of more people entering the workforce looking for work—which is a promising sign. (Though, even with the increase, the labor force participation rate hasn’t been this low since the early 1980s.)

Other good news: the economy is clearly improving from where it was earlier this year. The August and September numbers were revised upwards, meaning 173,000 jobs were added on average per month over the last four months, compared with 67,000 in the previous quarter. Manufacturing added 13,000 jobs in October, stopping a slide the previous two months (when 13,000 and 14,000 manufacturing jobs were lost) and overall this year factory employment is up 189,000 jobs. Virtually every sector saw gains: the professional services, retail and hospitality all ticked upwards as well. There have now been thirty-two straight months with private-sector job creation.

Did Mitt Romney Break the Law by Failing to Disclose Delphi Investments?

George Zornick on November 1, 2012 - 6:33 PM ET

We now know, thanks to Greg Palast’s recent scoop in The Nation, that Mitt Romney reaped a large financial windfall from the auto bailouts. Romney didn’t talk up this shrewd investment while touting his business experience on the campaign trail, for obvious reasons—he is a strong critic of those bailouts.

But while Romney had ample political reasons to conceal his investment, he apparently had no legal justification for doing so. Federal law requires that candidates disclose stock holdings that are affected by government action—and Romney’s million-dollar (at least) investment in a hedge fund that bought up Delphi stocks surely fits that bill.

Now, unions and good-government groups are calling on the feds to investigate Romney’s oversight.

Through the Back Door, a Late Money Surge for Akin

George Zornick on November 1, 2012 - 12:20 PM ET

Big-dollar donations from outside groups and the national party dried up for Representative Todd Akin after his heinous remarks about “legitimate rape.” But now, with only days before the election, the faucet has suddenly been turned back on. And thanks to our opaque campaign finance system, we don’t know who is behind the late money—and it seems quite likely the groups who publicly swore off supporting Akin have reversed their stance.

Yesterday, a group called Now or Never Political Action Committee announced it would dump $800,000 into the race on behalf of Akin, while Akin’s campaign and the Missouri Republican Party announced a $700,000 ad-buy for the final stretch.

This additional $1.5 million is truly notable because it dwarfs the support Akin has seen so far—as we noted recently, the outside groups that stood by Akin have been doing so with much smaller contributions. Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund has spent $114,773 on an e-mail campaign and also raised $390,000 from members, which it donated to Akin's campaign, according to Matt Hoskins, the group's executive director.* Freedom’s Defense Fund, the only Super PAC to really get behind Akin since his remarks, kicked in $201,562 to date. So this is a significant late push.

Progressives to Chamber: Show Us the Money!

George Zornick on October 31, 2012 - 5:37 PM ET

Post by Nation DC intern Nick Myers

The US Chamber of Commerce’s disingenuous ad campaign is close to its goal to spend $100 million to influence next week’s elections. The Chamber has already spent more than $1 million per race against seven of the top ten candidates it has bought ads in opposition to this year.

According to OpenSecrets.org, the Chamber has used more than $27 million to attack Democratic and progressive candidates for Congress, and that number is sure to go up before Election Day. Among it‘s top targets: the Chamber has dropped $2.3 million opposing Sherrod Brown, $1.8 million opposing Tim Kaine, $1.3 million opposing Tammy Baldwin, and $900,000 opposing Martin Heinrich.

Now Begins the Dirtiest Week in Politics

George Zornick on October 30, 2012 - 3:23 PM ET

One week from today, voters across the country will head to the polls and elect a president and a Congress. Literally billions of dollars have been spent so far to influence the outcome, not to mention countless hours of personal sacrifice and effort. Alas, politics is a zero-sum game: there will be no return on investment for the losers. Even if a candidate wins by a single vote, his or her backers can be rewarded with extraordinary power, access and profit, while the very narrow loser gets nothing, and the supporters, less—just red ink on the ledger.

So in this last week of campaigning, all the stops come out. For too many political operatives that have long since discarded notions of professional ethics, the only question about a dirty tactic is: will it work? In July, the answer is likely to be “probably not,” because the trick can be discovered and the candidate branded as dirty, or a cheater.

But now, with so little time left—with no real time for tricks to be exposed nor for narratives about questionable tactics to shape up—dirty moves look pretty appealing. (It also helps that the national press, aside from being overwhelmed with the conclusion of so many important races, is also distracted by a historically catastrophic storm).