Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Gun Control Talk Resumes - President Barack Obama on Monday stepped onto a podium and lamented the deaths of a senseless mass shooting — just as he did after Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn.
 
This time, his remarks came as office workers scrambled for cover and police searched for suspects at the Washington Navy Yard, just a few miles from the White House.

Obama again hinted at his view that Congress must act to to help prevent future massacres, but offered no specifics and stopped short of promising a new White House campaign on that front.

We are confronting yet another mass shooting — and today, it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital,” the president said, as he pressed forward with a speech on the five-year anniversary of the economic crisis. “Obviously, we’re going to be investigating thoroughly what happened, as we do so many of these shootings, sadly, that have happened, and do everything that we can to try to prevent them.” Politico.com has more here.
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Two Weeks To Avoid Government Shutdown - Two weeks away from a shutdown, there is no endgame in sight for Congress to continue funding the government and stop many federal services from grinding to a halt.
 
The two parties aren’t negotiating; they’re sniping at each other. And the fissure between them appears wider than ever. Congress has five working days left to avert a shutdown unless it cancels the scheduled recess next week.

Budget talks between the White House and Senate Republicans have collapsed. House Republicans are in disarray and last week put off consideration of their continuing resolution to fund the government. Many House Republicans remain intent on threatening a shutdown to defund Obamacare, which is off the table for Democrats. And the two parties disagree on how much the federal government ought to spend when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 — specifically, whether to maintain sequestration levels.  TPM.com has more here.

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McAuliffe Leads Cuccinelli in Cash-On-Hand - The race for money in the Virginia governor’s campaign again went to Terry McAuliffe, with the former head of the Democratic Party raking in nearly $7.36 million in July and August, according to reports released by his campaign and a nonprofit group that tracks campaign contributions.
 
His Republican rival, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, raised about $5.69 million, according to an analysis of campaign donations released Monday by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

As the candidates head into the final stretch, McAuliffe has more than $5 million in cash on hand, while Cuccinelli has about $2.24 million.
 
McAuliffe — who as a former Democratic National Committee chairman has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for party causes as well as for Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton — has consistently beaten Cuccinelli on the financial front since entering the race.  The Washington Post has more here.

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Summers Withdrawl Makes Yellen Favorite to be Next Federal Reserve Chair - Janet L. Yellen told friends in recent weeks that she did not expect to be nominated as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. Although she had been the Fed’s vice chairman since 2010 and would make history as the first woman to hold the job, President Obama’s aides made clear throughout the summer that he wanted Lawrence H. Summers, his former chief economic adviser.

Now, awkwardly, it appears that the president may have to circle back to Ms. Yellen after Mr. Summers withdrew from consideration on Sunday, bowing to the determined opposition of at least five Senate Democrats. On Monday, Ms. Yellen became the front-runner by elimination, officials close to the White House said. The NY Times has more here.

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Democrats Frustrated With Lack of Movement By House on Immigration Reform -Democrats’ patience on immigration reform is wearing thin.

President Obama, congressional Democrats and activists have given Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) some room to maneuver on the thorny issue, but they are now saying that the clock is ticking.

Reform proponents are growing anxious nearly three months after the Senate cleared a bipartisan measure. While the House Judiciary Committee has passed narrow and largely non-controversial bills, it remains to be seen if Boehner will seek a floor vote on any of them.

Furthermore, Democrats note, there has been almost no discussion in the House of addressing the nation’s 11 million illegal residents.  TheHill.com has more here.

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