Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof



Retired Military Officers Call For Gun Control Legislation - A group of retired military officials are featured in a new ad from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control group.
 
"Guns in the right hand protect us," retired Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton said in the ad, which was posted online Monday.

"Guns belong on battlefields," retired Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Cheney added.
Assault weapons are "not for cowards to use," retired Rear Adm. Malcolm MacKinnon III said.

Several of the officials featured in the ad are scheduled to meet with Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday at the White House to discuss gun violence.

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Obama Visits Newport News, Bernanke Warns Sequester Cuts Will Slow Economy - President Obama will visit a Newport News, Va., shipyard on Tuesday, the latest in a series of events designed to highlight the potential effects of the billions in budget cuts set to trigger at the end of this week.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress risks slowing the economy by allowing $85 billion in automatic spending cuts to be triggered on Friday, arguing they should be replaced with more deliberate, long-term cuts.

In prepared testimony for the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke argued the sequester would pose a “significant headwind” to the economic recovery.  TheHill.com has more here.
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62% Believe Republicans Out of Touch with the American People - A majority of the country believes the Republican Party is out of touch with the American people, too extreme and inflexible to change, according to findings released Tuesday by Pew Research Center, placing the GOP in decidedly lower public esteem than the Democratic Party.

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High Profile Republicans Sign Brief Supporting Same Sex Marriage - Advisers to former President George W. Bush, governors and members of Congress were among the dozens of notable Republicans to sign a legal brief arguing in favor of the constitutional right of gay people to get married, the New York Times reported online Monday.
 
The brief will be filed with the Supreme Court this week to show support for a suit that seeks to strike down Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.

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Obama To Meet With McCain and Graham To Discuss Immigration - President Barack Obama will meet Tuesday at the White House with Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to discuss immigration changes, a White House official said.

McCain has complained in previous years that Obama dropped the ball on the issue — after one meeting at the White House early on in his presidency. McCain and Graham are the senior Republicans in the “gang of eight” that is pushing the immigration effort.

McCain and Graham also have been among the harshest critics of the president’s foreign policy, particularly the handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as secretary of Defense. The Senate will vote Tuesday on overcoming a filibuster of Hagel’s nomination.

Graham, meanwhile, signaled an interest again in reaching a broad budget deal, telling CNN that he was open to $600 billion in new revenue if Democrats agreed to entitlement cuts.  RollCall.com has more here.

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Senate Finance Committee Approves Lew Nomination - The Senate Finance Committee approved the nomination of Jack Lew to be Treasury secretary on Tuesday, paving the way for a full Senate vote.

The nomination was approved by the committee on a 19-5 vote. Senate leaders have not yet scheduled a vote by the full Senate.  Politico.com has more here.

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Senate Vote on Hagel Nomination Expected Today - Chuck Hagel’s seven-week struggle to win confirmation as secretary of defense appears near the end with an expected Senate vote Tuesday on his nomination.

President Barack Obama’s choice to run the Pentagon is expected to win confirmation since a few Republicans announced that they’ll join Senate Democrats in voting for him.

The vote would put an end to a rocky nomination process that came after Hagel’s GOP foes succeeded in delaying the confirmation.  MSNBC.com has more here.

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