Scott Brown forgets (again) he's not from Massachusetts.
Ed Kilgore:
The sharp exchange last weekend between Rick Perry and Rand Paul over Iraq — and more broadly, its relationship to the “Reagan legacy” in foreign policy — may have seemed like mid-summer entertainment to many observers, or perhaps just a food fight between two men thinking about running against each other for president in 2016. But from a broader perspective, we may be witnessing the first really serious division in the Republican Party over international affairs since the 1950s.
Is there a Republican civil war, still? Why, yes there is. And since Rand Paul wants to be president and in many ways is the frontrunner, it matters.
Jill Lawrence:
On its face, the Southwest border crisis makes comprehensive reform of the United States’ broken immigration system seem more hopeless than ever. As a result of the minors streaming in from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the debate is now focused on border control while a broader overhaul bill languishes in the House.
Though there is no dramatic surge overall in undocumented immigrants, the surge of children puts an intense spotlight on the border and fuels the impression that we can’t control it. If we needed more evidence of the dire need for reform, the undocumented Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist-turned-activist Jose Antonio Vargas was detained Tuesday as he tried to leave the border town of McAllen, Texas, on a Philippine passport. He was released after hours in custody.
More politics and policy below the fold.
Paul Waldman on the super-rich's paranoia, leading to less than stellar GOP PAC fundraising:
Not to let facts intrude on their paranoid fantasies, but let's not forget what the IRS scandalette actually involved. There's never been any credible allegation that anyone was audited because of their political beliefs. There's never been any allegation that the IRS "targeted" donors to Republican super PACs. The worst thing that happened was that some Tea Party groups that had applied for 501(c)(4) status—claiming, utterly falsely, that they were charitable, non-political organizations, I might add—had to wait longer than they should have to get approval on their applications. (And, I have to repeat, when you're waiting for your approval, you're permitted under the law to act as though you've gotten your approval. You can raise and spend money, which they did.)
Senate Ds will likely pass House highway trust fund bill next week, a source confirms. Will have 2 votes on alternate amendments first.
— @samsteinhp
Paul Waldman again:
While we’ve gotten used to Tea Party primary challenges to popular and seemingly secure Republican incumbents, something unusual is happening in Kansas. Governor Sam Brownback is facing an organized revolt from centrist Republicans, over 100 of whom just endorsed the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, so disgruntled are they with the effects of Brownback’s rule.
In many ways, Brownback’s term has been a perfect experiment in Republican governance. Take a crusading conservative governor, give him a legislature with Republican super-majorities so he can do pretty much whatever he wants, and let him implement the right’s wish list. The result was supposed to be a nirvana of economic growth and budgetary stability. But the opposite happened.
Politico:
A Senate Democratic bid to reverse the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision and require employers to pay for contraception in workers’ health plans failed on a test vote today.
The procedural vote to begin debate on the bill failed 56-43, falling short of the 60 votes needed. Three Republican — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Lisa Murkowski — joined Democrats in support of the measure.
No D defections. Sometimes, I think they actually get it.
John Harwood, interviewing Chris Christie, who still thinks he's presidential material:
JOHN HARWOOD: One dumb thing that everybody -- the whole world knows about that happened on your watch was the bridge closure. I was talking to an aide to one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington. He said here's what I want to know. When you are a senior aide to an important politician like that, you develop a sense of what's okay with them and what isn't. And most staffers do not go rogue and do things they know their boss would disapprove of. He said the issues isn't whether Christie [knew] about the lane closures. It's how did he [run] an administration where people very close to him thought that was okay [to do].
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Well, the key part of that brilliant aid[e]'s analysis, who's probably never run anything in his or her life is when he or she said most aides don't do that. Key part of that. Most aides. The whole point is that when someone goes rogue, as -- the definition is you are doing something that isn't acceptable. Someone went rogue on my watch. Now, listen. I'm accountable for that, and if you haven't watched what's been going on the last six months, I think there's been a decent amount of accountability thrown my way, and I have accepted.
But it does not mean -- this is the normal Washington -- that's why I'm glad to hear it's from a Washington aide. When this happens, first happens, they want to put you in cuffs and send you away. He had to have known. He knew. And you look at the beginning of the coverage, he knew.
Christie has one thing, and one thing only, going for him. The rest of the field sucks. But, hey. That's not enough.
More on Christie from NBC News:
As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie heads to Iowa Thursday, prompting another round of talk about his presidential ambitions, he faces a 2016 obstacle maybe as daunting as the “Bridge-gate” scandal rocking his administration: A sizable number of Republican voters there dislike him.
A third of Republicans in Iowa (33 percent) and New Hampshire (31 percent) view the GOP governor negatively, according to new NBC News/Marist polls of those two states.
By contrast, half of Republicans in Iowa (50 percent) and New Hampshire (52 percent) view him positively.
Indeed, Christie’s negative numbers among Republicans in these two states are higher than all the other GOP presidential prospects the NBC/Marist poll tested:
• Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., gets a 66 percent-to-18 percent fav/unfav score in Iowa, and a 71 percent-to-15 percent rating in New Hampshire.
• Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sits at 63 percent positive, 18 percent in Iowa; and 65 percent positive, 20 percent negative in New Hampshire.
• Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is at 57 percent positive, 13 percent negative in Iowa; and 58 percent positive, 10 percent negative in New Hampshire.
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is at 44 percent positive, 11 percent negative in Iowa; and 50 percent positive to 7 percent negative in New Hampshire.
• And Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is at 44 percent positive, 19 percent negative in Iowa; and 50 percent positive, 14 percent negative in New Hampshire.
So conservatives don't like Christie and Dems don't like Christie. My early money is on Rand Paul right now.
Jonathan Capehart (via Lawrence Tribe) has a nice summary of what's wrong with Speaker Boehner's plitical stunt lawsuit against the WH:
Boehner lawsuit flies in the face of two long-held conservative stances
Libby Nelson:
Many people imagine a bright line between college and vocational education — Ph.Ds on one side, plumbers on the other. That line doesn't exist, and it hasn't for at least a generation. Particularly at two-year colleges, programs for future English majors and future auto mechanics often exist side-by-side. One path might lead to an associate degree, the other to a certificate, but they're both at a place called "college."
As higher education economist Sandy Baum wrote in a report for the Urban Institute: "It is common to hear the suggestion that many students should forgo college and instead seek vocational training. But most of that training takes place in community colleges or for-profit postsecondary institutions."
Monkey Cage blog:
Americans of different ethnicities vote at very different rates. Whites and blacks tend to vote more frequently than Latinos and Asians. Older people and wealthier people vote more frequently than the young and the poor. Increasing turnout among groups that tend to vote at lower rates can not only increase their political power, but also change the outcomes of elections. Indeed, this is a major reason that Democrats are concentrating so much on mobilizing voters who don’t vote in midterm elections.
Could this strategy work? Is it possible to mobilize people who are otherwise uninterested in voting or reluctant to vote? We now have good answers to these questions. People who have not participated much before can indeed be moved to go to the polls.