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POLITICO Playbook, presented by Comcast – CRUZ vies to be Consolidation Man – JEB JAB at Trump backfires: Some donors sm...

2015-10-27

By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; <a href="mailto:mallen@politico.com">mallen@politico.com</a>) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; <a href="mailto:dlippman@politico.com">dlippman@politico.com</a>)JUST POSTED: CRUZ INTERVIEW – “Cruz’s plan to pick off the competition ... consolidate the conservative vote,” by Shane Goldmacher in Glenwood, Iowa: “‘I think three of the lanes are collapsing into one, which is the evangelical lane, the conservative tea party lane, and the libertarian lane are all collapsing into the conservative lane and we’re seeing those lanes unify behind our campaign.’ ... “Perhaps the most significant variable for Cruz is the dropouts ... Cruz and Walker were on a collision course for hard-line conservative voters, especially in Iowa. ... And the departure of Perry cleared the way for a flood of Texas money. ... The fact that the campaign’s senior leaders work beside one another [in Houston] is a particular contrast with the sprawling Bush operation.” <a href="http://politi.co/1k6E845">http://politi.co/1k6E845</a>Good Tuesday morning. THE CONVERSATION: Very few soundbites live past a news cycle, but top Republicans were still buzzing last night about comments Jeb Bush made Saturday in South Carolina that were taken as churlish, even defeatist. He was speaking at a Sen. Tim Scott “Presidential Town Hall” on Daniel Island. CNN’s Ashley Killough reported from the hall that it was “one of his strongest campaign performances to date,” and said the audience of more than 500 people was “about twice the number Bush normally attracts on the campaign trail.”But this clip, originally played as a hit on Trump and gridlock, is being cited as a sign of Jeb agitation – threatening to take his toys and go home: “If this election is about how we’re going to fight to get nothing done? Then I don’t anything – I don’t want any part of it. I don’t want to be elected president to sit around and see gridlock just become so dominant that people literally are in decline in their lives. That is NOT my motivation. I gotta a lot of REALLY cool things that I could do other than sit around, being miserable, listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them. THAT is a joke. ELECT TRUMP if you want that.” THIS HURTS because for the long-march strategy to be credible, Jeb has to be all in on Jeb. A well-wired Republican said: “It’s not the specific language, but the level of frustration that it demonstrated, that caused a ripple with donors.” The Bush campaign view is that people should chill: What people are missing is that the core of Jeb’s message in S.C. was that what animates him is fighting to actually fix things in Washington. That’s why it had such a great crowd reaction. People are yearning for that. This is what will separate him from this field in the end. Who else is actually arguing for fixing our problems? Marco has given up on the Senate because he thinks it’s too hard to fix anything. The clip <a href="http://bit.ly/1MoAob3">http://bit.ly/1MoAob3</a> CNN’s article <a href="http://cnn.it/1GFF9ur">http://cnn.it/1GFF9ur</a> MAUREEN DOWD ASSIGNMENT DESK: Chubby Jeb was happier.WHAT IOWA IS READING – Des Moines Register front page hits Trump hard: “IOWANS: ATTACKS ON FAITH WILL FAIL -- With Ben Carson ahead, ... Trump questions Seventh-day Adventist,” by Jennifer Jacobs: “Trump ... said at a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday: ‘I love Iowa. And, look, I don’t have to say it, I’m Presbyterian. ... Boy, that's down the middle of the road, folks, in all fairness. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don’t know about.’ ... Trump didn't name Carson ... But Republican caucusgoers say they got the message.” <a href="http://dmreg.co/1LU3YQ5">http://dmreg.co/1LU3YQ5</a>HUGE MOMENT -- “Trump to help RNC raise money,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Trump has told the RNC that he will attend a Dec. 9 dinner in New York City benefiting the committee. The RNC Presidential Trust Dinner is also expected to draw ... RNC Chairman Reince Priebus ... [incoming Speaker] Paul Ryan ... [and] major GOP fundraisers, including hedge fund manager Paul Singer, wrestling executive Linda McMahon and investor Ken Griffin.” <a href="http://politi.co/1NxyHoL">http://politi.co/1NxyHoL</a> THE NEXT 11 DAYS -- L.A. Times, bottom of A1, “Trump on ‘SNL’ fires up protests,” by Meredith Blake: “Latino advocacy groups, politicians and some media observers are calling for NBC to [him] from the [Nov. 7] gig, citing inflammatory remarks Trump made about Mexican immigrants in the speech announcing his White House run in June.” <a href="http://lat.ms/1O4w1Cg">http://lat.ms/1O4w1Cg</a>--An L.A. Times A1 teaser: “Slipping in Iowa: Voters will get a chance to see how Trump reacts to an adverse moment.”POLITICO MAGAZINE’s “What Works” series- “U.S. Mayors to Congress: ‘Get a Backbone’ and Pass Gun Control,” by Ben Wofford: “Nearly across the board, the urban and suburban mayors—where the vast preponderance of the nation’s crime and gun violence occurs—were disturbed by rising homicide trends.” <a href="http://politi.co/1k6bOyJ">http://politi.co/1k6bOyJ</a> LIFE ONLINE: 8 of the top 10 BuzzFeed videos on Facebook this month were recipe-based (hat tip: NiemanLab) <a href="http://bzfd.it/1PRrgv8">http://bzfd.it/1PRrgv8</a> ... 7 of ESPN’s top 10 stories in September were related to fantasy football (h/t Deadspin) <a href="http://es.pn/1RbHAFo">http://es.pn/1RbHAFo</a>TV TONIGHT: Hillary on CBS’ “Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”** A message from Comcast: Helping to Close the Digital Divide: Learn more about how Comcast’s Internet Essentials program is helping to close the digital divide by providing low-cost high-speed Internet to millions of people at <a href="http://comca.st/ie">http://comca.st/ie</a>. **GORE INTERVIEW: indoctrinates “mini-Gores” for new campaign – “Al Gore: Optimist? The slide show is alive and well, and now he’s training hundreds of mini-Gores. And he claims that in the ‘struggle between hope and despair,’ these days he's a hope guy,” by Mike Grunwald in Miami: “The former vice president still begins and ends ... with photos of the earth from space, iconic reminders of what’s at stake. He still lectures in that much-mocked wooden style, with sporadic flashes of passion detectable more by changes in volume than delivery. ... [A]decade ago, Gore mostly warned about what could happen. Now he shows what’s already happening. ... “[B]ut now there are graphs showing how wind and solar prices are plummeting while wind and solar installations are soaring, how global investment in renewables exceeds investment in fossil fuels.” <a href="http://politi.co/1XvMd0T">http://politi.co/1XvMd0T</a> ... Interview transcript <a href="http://politi.co/1S7C8Ez">http://politi.co/1S7C8Ez</a> ABOUT LAST NIGHT -- “Conservatives already trashing new budget deal,” by Seung Min Kim, Burgess Everett and Jen Haberkorn: “GOP leaders from both ends of the Capitol met privately with their rank-and-file Monday evening to outline the general contours of the emerging agreement between Congress and the White House. It would boost defense and domestic spending over the next two years, and lift the nation’s debt limit through March 2017 — thereby eliminating the twin threats of a government shutdown and a debt default until after the November 2016 elections.” <a href="http://politi.co/1KCjYV1">http://politi.co/1KCjYV1</a> --Full text of Discussion Draft, “Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015” (144-page PDF) <a href="http://1.usa.gov/1Wffu2R">http://1.usa.gov/1Wffu2R</a>LAST TITLE of budget deal: “13 TITLE XII—DESIGNATION OF SMALL HOUSE ROTUNDA SEC. 1201. DESIGNATING SMALL HOUSE ROTUNDA AS ‘FREEDOM FOYER’. The first floor of the area of the House of Representatives wing of the United States Capitol known as the small House rotunda is designated the ‘Freedom Foyer.’”SPOTTED by Blake Hounshell at Pho 75 in Rosslyn: Jon Huntsman ... at Del Frisco’s Grill: Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in the private dining room, holding a working dinner with Democratic Members of Congress. ... Chip Reid at Black Salt.IF YOU CLICK ONLY 1 THING – “How Dan Barry wrote a New York Times baseball game story as if it were 1908,” by Poynter’s James Warren: “Barry ... is on assignment for the sports section as he takes a break after eight impressive but grueling years traveling the country for his ‘This Land’ column. It explains an unusual creative gambit he pulled off last week, covering a New York Mets-Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field as if he were a 1908 sportswriter. ... “‘Cubs’ Dreams Dashed in Loss To Metropolitans; Prayers Of Wrigley Faithful Go Unanswered’ was the headline above a sepia-toned photograph. ... One read of a ‘mighty Californian’ who ‘smote a home run;’ ... ‘Cubs twirler Rick Sutcliffe, known as the Red Baron for his fiery tonsorial hue’; of ‘events unfolding on the diamond-shaped greensward.’” <a href="http://bit.ly/1POyEZg">http://bit.ly/1POyEZg</a> --See the full page in Friday’s Times, with a pic of “the ginger-haired second-sacker.” <a href="http://nyti.ms/1S7BSoT">http://nyti.ms/1S7BSoT</a> ... Read the article, “Even in the Language of 1908, the Cubs Come Up Losers,” by D. Francis Barry. <a href="http://nyti.ms/1Mg6Cix">http://nyti.ms/1Mg6Cix</a>“THE MOST ENDANGERED REPUBLICAN IN THE COUNTRY,” by Anna Palmer and Burgess Everett in Northbrook, Ill., with Lauren French: “It’s hard to tell ... that Mark Kirk is running for reelection ... as a Republican: In ... two days on the campaign trail last week, the first-term senator name-checked Bernie Sanders as an ally [and] pitched himself as a champion of the environment.” <a href="http://politi.co/1GFIQA8">http://politi.co/1GFIQA8</a> TOP TALKER -- “Meat producers cry foul over cancer report,” by Chase Purdy: “Already reeling over a U.S. dietary report recommending reduced meat consumption, beef and pork producers struck back ... against a damning World Health Organization report linking bacon and burgers with increased cancer risks. ... Unexpected support for the meat industry came from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who downplayed the WHO report, saying it would not factor in the Obama administration’s own effort to update federal nutrition advice, which is expected to be completed by year’s end.” <a href="http://politi.co/1LTPYpC">http://politi.co/1LTPYpC</a> THURSDAY is third anniversary of Superstorm Sandy landfall. (AP)PLAYBOOK IN-BOX, from a Clinton ally: “[H]ow tough a time Sanders had on Maddow tonight -- he was pressed on his in inconsistencies on gay marriage and he was pressed on how he’s running a typical, regular campaign despite his claims of sparking some kind of revolution. Thankfully, it seems that Sanders is finally 1. getting vetted a little -- though still not nearly enough, 2. His campaign is succumbing to the pressure of what a great month HRC has had ... “It’s been a bad month for Bernie -- partly because of how well HRC has done, but also because of his own missteps: He gave her a gift in the debate when he chastised her for ‘shouting’ because she is passionate about doing something about gun violence, he had a backward-looking speech filled with negative attacks at the JJ (made all the worse because he said he would stay positive), his supporters didn’t do him any favors when they walked out on HRC at the JJ.”INSIDE THE CAMPAIGNS -- “Bankers for Bernie: Inside the ‘socialist’ senator’s lonely Wall Street fan club,” by Ben Schreckinger: “[A] small minority [is] ... shattering taboos across New York City’s finer eateries and trading pits this primary season: Wall Street financiers who support ... Sanders.” <a href="http://politi.co/1LZ31ts">http://politi.co/1LZ31ts</a> --“NYC mayor to endorse Clinton,” by AP’s Jonathan Lemire: “Ending months of delay that drew criticism from some fellow Democrats, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to endorse Hillary ... in the coming weeks.” <a href="http://bit.ly/1GuLtVH">http://bit.ly/1GuLtVH</a> MITCH McCONNELL to publish a memoir next May: “McConnell ... reached a publishing agreement with Sentinel, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group ... World rights were sold at auction to Adrian Zackheim, the President and Publisher of Sentinel, by Robert B. Barnett of the law firm Williams & Connolly [after a multi-day and hotly contested auction].” <a href="http://politi.co/1O4ll6L">http://politi.co/1O4ll6L</a> HOLLYWOODLAND – “Jeffrey Katzenberg Thanks Tesla’s Elon Musk After Car Accident [in Beverly Hills on Oct. 19],” by Hollywood Reporter’s Chris Gardner: “[T]he DreamWorks Animation vet, known to drive a Tesla Model S, ...... made his first public appearance ... Oct. 23 at GLSEN's [Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network] Respect Awards, held at the Beverly Wilshire ... Sporting a neon pink cast enclosed in an over-the-shoulder sling ... ‘Thank you, Elon Musk — you saved my life ... I shattered my arm and wrist and destroyed the car.” <a href="http://bit.ly/1LU1RMb">http://bit.ly/1LU1RMb</a> --@elonmusk: “Compliment from Jeffrey is much appreciated, but the people of Tesla deserve all the credit.”PIC DU JOUR -- @greta: “@JenGriffinFNC office at Pentagon,” which doubles as a live-shot backdrop <a href="http://bit.ly/1Wf4ehz">http://bit.ly/1Wf4ehz</a> (h/t TVNewser)REMEMBERING ED WALKER – WashPost’s Paul Farhi: “Walker, who amused and entertained a generation of Washington-area listeners as half of ‘The Joy Boys’ radio team with Willard Scott and spent 65 years on the local airwaves as a deejay, news host and genial raconteur, died” yesterday at 83. <a href="http://wapo.st/1RbkhM1">http://wapo.st/1RbkhM1</a> FUTURECAST – “Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery, pickup,” by Reuters’ Nathan Layne: “Wal-Mart Stores Inc applied Monday to U.S. regulators for permission to test drones for home delivery, curbside pickup and checking warehouse inventories, a sign it plans to go head-to-head with Amazon in using drones to fill and deliver online orders.” <a href="http://reut.rs/1H68EQO">http://reut.rs/1H68EQO</a> THE NEW GILDED AGE -- “All-You-Can Fly, for a Monthly Subscription,” by NYT’s Amy Zipkin: “[A] new service called Rise ... offers subscription memberships for $1,650 to $2,650 a month for unlimited scheduled travel among four Texas cities — Austin, Dallas, Houston and Midland. ... The flights are on eight-seat Beechcraft Air King 350 planes ... [P]assengers can arrive within minutes of departure.” <a href="http://nyti.ms/1RbnZ8y">http://nyti.ms/1RbnZ8y</a> CLICKER -- “Confessions of a Hill Staffer: Top Ten Worst People on the Hill” – FamousDC: “2. The lobbyist who knows nothing about your boss. ... 6. The male staffers who wear sneakers with suits. ... 9. Everyone who talks on their phone in the bathroom. ... 10. The people who submit nominations to the ‘50 most beautiful people’ list.” <a href="http://bit.ly/1POrZhF">http://bit.ly/1POrZhF</a> BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- “To save money, states give up on repairing some rural roads,” by AP’s Scott McFetridge: “[S]tate and county agencies [are] quietly giv[ing] up on maintaining many rural roads and bridges to spend on bigger, more essential projects in busier areas.” <a href="http://yhoo.it/1Nxxkqb">http://yhoo.it/1Nxxkqb</a> BUSINESS BURST -- “Blackstone Partner Peter Rose to Retire as Public Affairs Head,” by Bloomberg’s Devin Banerjee: “Rose, 64, will leave ... at the end of January and become a senior adviser to the firm ... He’ll be replaced by Christine Anderson. ‘He has fostered an incredibly wide network of close relations around the world, and built up a level of trust and respect that is rare,’ [Steve] Schwarzman and [Tony] James wrote ... “Anderson previously worked for former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, UBS Group AG, the 2004 John Kerry-John Edwards presidential campaign and the White House. Her husband is Jake Siewert, Goldman Sachs’s global head of corporate communications.” <a href="http://bloom.bg/1kKE0bh">http://bloom.bg/1kKE0bh</a> MEDIAWATCH -- “City Room, a Blog With a Broad Mandate, Is Retiring,” by NYT’s Andy Newman: “[E]ight years, 20,000 posts, 425,000 reader comments and perhaps 100 million clicks later, City Room has an announcement to make: This is our last post. The reasons are mostly boring journalism-business stuff. In 2007, blogs were the wave of the future. At its blogmaniacal peak, The Times had about 80 of them. ... Now The Times has only about 20 active blogs.” <a href="http://nyti.ms/1Mor7zI">http://nyti.ms/1Mor7zI</a> TRANSITIONS -- Katie Boyd is joining the D.C. office of Senator Roy Blunt as Press Secretary; she was assistant comms director for Speaker Boehner. OUT AND ABOUT: Ogilvy welcomed its newest principal, Tim McGivern, with a soirée last night at Stanton Green on Capitol Hill, hosted by Ogilvy’s Chris Giblin, Dee Buchanan and Conrad Lass. Over 18 members of Congress attended, including Sen. Jerry Moran; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy; Chairmen Fred Upton, Bill Shuster and Greg Walden; Reps. Hurt, Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lehtinen, Long, Graves, Flores, Whitfield, Denham, Yoder, and Long. --SPOTTED: Rob Collins, Val Nelson, Sandra DePoy, Jennifer Jones, Mike Thompson, Shelley Rubino, Lucie Gikovich, Hollyn Schuemann, Sam Lancaster, John Lively, Peter Davidson.BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Betsy Hoover, a partner at 270 Strategies (h/t Andrew Godinich, who was on time) ... DNC’s Kaylie Hanson, a proud WolverineBIRTHDAYS: Matt Drudge is 49 ... Mike McCurry is 61 ... HuffPost’s Michael Calderone … Nina Easton ... Richard Clarke … Stuart Roy of Strategic Action Public Affairs and the pride of Starkville, Miss. … Will Ris, SVP at American Airlines and head of their D.C. office (h/t Hilary Rosen) ... Phil Anderson, founding partner of Navigators Global (h/t Paul Equale) ... Jon Doggett, EVP at the National Corn Growers Association, is 6-0 (h/t Jennifer Myers) ... Chris Vlasto of “Good Morning America” ... Sara Latham, senior advisor to the chairman of Hillary for President (h/t Team Brooklyn) ... Lori Punke, former head of Starbucks public policy, excited for the film version of brother-in-law and Assistant USTR Michael Punke’s book, “The Revenant” (h/t Stewart Verdery) ... ... Clark Reid, director of legislative and external affairs in the office of the Inspector General at Commerce … Nicholas Roosevelt ... Ed Dippold ... BuzzFeed’s Ali Watkins ... GPG’s Christina Mountz ... Mike Appel, who signed Springsteen ... Jennifer Mandel … Abbey Shilling … Jonathan Sender … Gretchen Lee … Jackie Bray … Victoria Hargis ... Mollie Rorrer Gore ... George Landrith, president at Frontiers of Freedom Institute ... actress Nanette Fabray is 95 ... actor-comedian John Cleese is 76 ... author Maxine Hong Kingston is 75 ... country singer Lee Greenwood is 73 ... Garry Tallent (Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) is 66 ... author Fran Lebowitz is 65 ... violinist Vanessa-Mae is 37 ... Christine Evangelista is 29 ... actor Troy Gentile is 22 (h/ts AP)DESSERT -- “12 Must-Have Political Halloween Costumes For 2015,” by IJ’s Benny Johnson and Colin Chocola: “1. Workout Speaker Paul Ryan! ... 2. Hillary Wipes Her Server! ... 3. Enthusiastic Jeb! ... 4. Weekend at Bernie’s! ... 5. Marco Polo Faceball ... 6. Sad Joe Biden.” <a href="http://bit.ly/1LZ4Je4">http://bit.ly/1LZ4Je4</a> ** A message from Comcast: Helping to Close the Digital Divide: Comcast’s Internet Essentials program has brought the power of the Internet to low-income students and families in schools and communities across America. More than 2 million low-income people have been connected – and that’s just a start. We recently announced plans for low-income senior citizen pilot programs in Palm Beach County and <a href="http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/comcast-extends-internet-essentials-to-low-income-senior-citizens-in-san-francisco">San Francisco</a>, which will allow a new demographic to access the Internet in their homes so they can communicate with friends and family, access healthcare and financial information, and enjoy online news and entertainment. Find out more at <a href="http://comca.st/ie">http://comca.st/ie</a> **