NBC’s Sarah Blackwill points out Marco Rubio’s ability to walk the line on the McCain-Paul divide to conservatives last night. Asked by FOX’s Sean Hannity what he thought of the whole situation and McCain calling Paul and Ted Cruz “wacko birds,” Rubio answered this way:
“Well, look I know Sen. McCain feels very strongly about national defense. We all admire his service to our country. And I have a good working relationship with him. I think we're always best served when we don't -- especially within our own party and our own movement -- call each other names. And let me just say this about the filibuster. I stood for the right of a senator like Rand Paul or anybody else, if it was a Democrat I would have said it too, to have a serious question answered. Now, we have some diversity of opinion about drone programs. Obviously, I think he raised a very legitimate issue about how they would be used here in the U.S. He deserved an answer, and I'm glad he got one.”
Laura Bush on CNN said some women were “frightened” by the GOP in 2012: “Every candidate was different. Each one of them there were obvious examples of candidates that I think frightened some women but they were the exception rather than the norm in the party. And you know all of those social issues are very, very heart felt by people. I understand that there are differences; there will just be. And I'm glad that in our party there we have room for all of them. I think that's important too."
Of course, GOProud is still not invited to CPAC…
KENTUCKY:Steve Kornacki has a “reality check” for Ashley Judd: “There are remarkably few recent examples of Senate incumbents losing in states where their party enjoys the kind of edge Republicans now have in Kentucky. And Judd figures to be a particularly ripe target for the GOP, given the very liberal views she’s already staked out. It would probably take a huge Democratic tide or an indictment of McConnell (or maybe both?) to propel her to victory in ’14. And that’s a lot to hope for.”
MICHIGAN:Stu Rothenberg makes the open Senate race “safe” Democrat. “Michigan’s fundamentals still pose major problems for Republicans. Democrats have won the past six presidential elections and 11 of the past 12 Senate elections in the Wolverine State,” he writes. “The sole Senate victory came in 1994, when a huge national Republican wave helped Spencer Abraham win retiring Democratic Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr.’s open seat. Abraham lost the seat, albeit narrowly, six years later to the seat’s current occupant, Democrat Debbie Stabenow."
WISCONSIN: “U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says he plans to seek re-election in 2016,” AP writes. “Some Republicans have speculated the senator who calls himself a `citizen legislator' might only serve one term.”
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “Sen. Ron Johnson is now saying publicly what some fellow Republicans apparently had doubted privately - that he plans to run for re-election in 2016.”
