By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; mallen@politico.com) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; dlippman@politico.com)
WHY THEY HATE YOU -- “The lobbying reform that enriched Congress: Nine years after Congress tried to halt the revolving door, the influence industry is larger and filled with former members. This wasn't an accident,” by Politico Influence author Isaac Arnsdorf: “[T]he Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, was embraced by both parties as a historic breakthrough. ... Instead, it made things worse. Nine years later, the result of the law is very nearly the opposite of what the American public was told it was getting at the time.
“Not only did the lobbying reform bill fail to slow the revolving door, it created an entire class of professional influencers who operate in the shadows, out of the public eye and unaccountable. Of the 352 people who left Congress alive since the law took effect in January 2008, POLITICO found that almost half (47 percent) have joined the influence industry: 84 as registered lobbyists and 80 others as policy advisers, strategic consultants, trade association chiefs, corporate government relations executives, affiliates of agenda-driven research institutes and leaders of [PACs] or pressure groups.” http://politi.co/29f0Mb7 ... Subscribe to PI http://politi.co/1Oianoy
Happy Sunday to you and yours from Lake Gaston (“35 Miles of Paradise”), on the Virginia-North Carolina border, where my brother Scott and his wife, Sheri, are hosting some of the Oregon nephews before they head up to Boston (the guys’ first trip to Fenway). Some pics from last night, when Scott and Sheri took their boat out for fireworks over the water (with a soundtrack of patriotic music from Pandora, and fireworks noises from Anders’ iPhone):
People decorate their boat houses for the Fourth as if they were manger scenes http://bit.ly/299jPgQ ... Gus celebrates 13, with a hoverboard injury visible on his left hand; Evan, 21, will be in D.C. in August http://bit.ly/29nbOum ... Morgan, 19, is wearing a shirt showing George W. Bush with six-shooters, as Sheri drives the boat, with Scott in foreground. http://bit.ly/29mJiJ0
--SNAPCHAT from the Hamptons: Rob Saliterman and Teddy Downey (guess which one is wearing a terry blazer) http://bit.ly/29ciuXs
--Ryan Williams (@RyanGOP): “Spotted at the 17th Annual North Country ATV Independence Day Parade: @KellyAyotte driving a festive Polaris RZR.” http://bit.ly/29elaGm
THE LIST! “Obama campaign machine revving up to elect Clinton,” by AP’s Josh Lederman: “The crown jewel of Obama’s machine, an email list of supporters that included 20 million addresses in 2012, is now fully available to Clinton. That list had been closely held within an Obama campaign committee that still exists to pay off old debt.” http://apne.ws/29meLKp
DRIVING THE CONVERSATION -- “Crunch time for Clinton’s VP contenders,” by Gabe Debenedetti: Virginia’s Sen. Tim “Kaine remains the odds-on favorite to get the job ... But a divide has emerged among his backers between those who are confident he’ll be chosen and those who fear that all the favorable attention he’s gotten has been a head fake before Clinton chooses someone more surprising. ... Clinton herself has specifically praised Warren behind closed doors,” http://politi.co/29esYrR
--“Cory Booker no longer denies being vetted for VP” – AP: “Booker has said in recent weeks that it was flattering to be mentioned but that he wasn't being vetted. Speaking on CNN's ‘State of the Union,’ Booker now says ‘If you have a question like that, please direct it to the Clinton campaign.’” http://yhoo.it/299stfb
N.Y. POST COVER, with Photoshop image of a grinning Hillary in blue pantssuit, on skewer next to vegetable kabobs, atop a blazing grill: “GRILLARY! Feds put the heat on Clinton with 3 1/2 hour interrogation” http://nyp.st/29qwqiI
--Clinton aide tells reporters Clinton interview “occurred at the FBI Headquarters in Washington, ... and lasted approximately three and a half hours.”
--NYT’s Amy Chozick: “Clinton had no public events scheduled on Saturday, but after her F.B.I. interview she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, went to New York and saw the Broadway show ‘Hamilton.’” http://nyti.ms/29E9Lyv
--Addisu Demissie (@ASDem): “Intermission at Hamilton. Crowd screaming and applauding Hillary Clinton. Nice.”
--PIC -- Adriano Espaillat (@EspaillatNY): “No better company to watch @HamiltonMusical w/ than Speaker @MMViverito and our next president @HillaryClinton.” http://bit.ly/29eu5ri
--@seanspicer: “.@HillaryClinton campaign statement says She ‘voluntarily’ met w @FBI for 3.5 hours this morning - yeah, lots of people volunteer 2 do that ... On #FourthOfJulyWeekend do your part & #volunteer! Feed the homeless, help a neighbor or spend 3.5 hours with the @FBI like @HillaryClinton.”
“THE WORLD MOURNS” – Boston Globe banner, “Elie Wiesel, unblinking witness to horror, dies [in New York at 87]: Auschwitz survivor, Nobel laureate, author, and professor, he was driven by his love of Judaism and the grave necessity of remembrance,” by Joseph P. Kahn: “His deeply held faith in Judaism, robust intellectual curiosity, and harrowing adolescence — his mother and younger sister perished in the camps and his father died in the Buchenwald camp with his son nearby, helpless to save him — set him on a lifelong quest to make sense of what defied rational understanding.” http://bit.ly/29eRv2D
--ALAN DERSHOWITZ in the Boston Globe, “A tribute to humanity’s teacher”: “Among his most enduring contributions will be his great memoir ‘Night,’ which has become required reading in many schools around the world and has influenced many young people to join the enduring battle against injustice.” http://bit.ly/29lYOne
BREAKING -- "White house says Baghdad attacks strengthen U.S. resolve in Iraq" -- Reuters: "The White House on Sunday condemned Baghdad bombings in which nearly 120 people were killed and 200 wounded ... 'We remain united with the Iraqi people and government in our combined efforts to destroy ISIL.'"
TAMRON HALL interviewed in the “What I Love” column on NYT’s Real Estate cover by Dan Shaw, “A Soft Landing After All That Hard News”: “Hall ... leaves her downtown apartment in her pajamas at 4 a.m. for Rockefeller Center, where she is a host of the 9 a.m. hour of the ‘Today’ show, and then shifts gears to anchor ‘MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall’ from 11 to noon. ... Ms. Hall, 45 ... [keeps] the television on all night long, she said, because she doesn’t want to miss a breaking news story.’” http://nyti.ms/29bLWkk
MEDIAWATCH – NYT Cairo bureau chief Declan Walsh’s Thursday front-pager, “A Slow, Steady Siege on an ISIS Stronghold in Libya,” was a new form of storytelling that The Times has been experimenting with lately. Walsh’s piece used first person in a couple instances instead of “this reporter.” Times international editor Joe Kahn and graphics editor Steve Duenes emailed the staff on June 21: “Walsh ... often uses his iPhone as a multimedia reporter’s notebook. He records his interviews, snaps images and shoots video as he travels. That comes in handy when he sits down to write his stories. On his recent trip to Syria, Declan wrote several outstanding stories. But that catalog of images and sounds on his iPhone served a different purpose as well. ...
“Our viewers experienced the story as Declan reported it, saw what he saw, and struggled with the contradictions of life Syria in its 5th year of civil war just as he did. The notebook took people to ALEPPO in a way words or images on their own could not do. It is all about presence. You don’t need a big screen to enjoy it. Just as it began on an iPhone, the interactive package is made for mobile. ... [I]t is thrilling to see how the tools we use everyday can help us immerse our readers in the experience of our journalism.” Declan’s Libya piece http://nyti.ms/29zql2r ... His Syria piece http://nyti.ms/24XIfQy
SCOOP – WashPost lead Metro article, “Early red flags in [Rolling Stone] rape article,” by T. Rees Shapiro: “[C]ourt documents, submitted as evidence in U-Va. Associate Dean Nicole Eramo’s $10 million defamation lawsuit against the magazine, ... show that aspects of Jackie’s account of her gang rape closely mirror details from prominent books about sexual assault survivors ... and the plotline of a ‘Law & Order: SVU’ episode ... Jackie mentioned those books and the television show in her first interviews, and [reporter Sabrina Rubin] Erdely was warned that the nature of Jackie’s claims had changed over time.” http://wapo.st/29et6rk
VALLEY TALK – L.A. Times A1, at fold, “Two routes to self-driving cars: Google and Tesla have taken markedly different approaches,” by Tracey Lien in S.F.: “After seeing how people misused its technology despite warnings to pay attention to the road, Google has opted to tinker with its algorithms with the goal of making them human-proof. The ... firm is focusing on fully autonomous vehicles—cars that drive on their own without any human intervention.” Tesla’s autopilot mode can require driver intervention.
TEXIT? Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announces digital and social campaign in Britain urging London executives to “declare independence from high taxes” and relocate to Texas – Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek: “TexasOne, a non-profit organization that serves as the marketing arm, ... is [using] the Financial Times home page and 7,000 other London-based website[s], as well as ... Facebook and Twitter.” http://bit.ly/29ivIoz
GLOBAL DISRUPTION – “Brexit vote makes united Ireland suddenly thinkable,” by Reuters’ Conor Humphries and Amanda Ferguson in Belfast: “The Brexit referendum suggests a new center ground could form of people from both faith communities who fear the economic uncertainty of leaving the EU.” http://reut.rs/29quvun
ISIS “INTERNATIONALIZING” -- N.Y. Times 2-col. lead, “Slaughter in Bangladesh As ISIS Broadens Reach: Survivors Recall Islamic Militants’ Sparing Locals and Picking Foreigners to Die,” by Julfikar Ali Manik in Dhaka, Geeta Anand in Mumbai and Ellen Barry in N.H. (online: “Bangladesh Attack Is New Evidence That ISIS Has Shifted Its Focus Beyond the Mideast”): “Friday night’s assault on the Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic district of Dhaka, in which at least 20 hostages and two police officers were killed, marks a scaling up of ambition and capacity for Bangladesh’s Islamist militancy, which has until now carried out pinpoint assassinations, mostly of critics of Islam and members of religious minorities.
“Among the dead from Friday’s attack ... were nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one American and one Indian. The attack ... suggests that Bangladesh’s militant networks are internationalizing ... Western intelligence officials have been watching the organization pivot to missions elsewhere in the world [from its core territory of Iraq and Syria], launching attacks on far-flung civilian targets that are difficult to deter with traditional military campaigns.” http://nyti.ms/29obLPn
SNEAK PEEK – MARK SINGER in a “Comment” for The New Yorker’s Talk of the Town, “Trump, The Man and the Image: His words increasingly signify his confusion about who he is and what he has got himself into”: “[T]he words paradoxically seem both calculated and careless. Trusting a G.P.S. all his own, Trump is most at ease wandering syntactically all over the map until he spots an off-ramp: ‘Lyin’ Ted,’ ‘Crooked Hillary,’ ‘Goofy Elizabeth Warren,’ ‘Build a Wall.’ ... [F]or Trump it is all a game, one in which ... he has outsmarted himself fatally.” http://bit.ly/299eSoa
SPOTTED: Don “Stew” Stewart, celebrating his 40th birthday in the Hamptons yesterday with his OMies, including #stewmeetsdogs Rocco (the dog with the Mohawk spotted in East Hampton yesterday), and bff’s Kona and Maggie. ... On a Shaw rooftop yesterday: Andrew Rafferty and Zeke Miller, eating homemade hummus and drinking Poorch Rockers. Pic http://bit.ly/29cckGH
BONUS GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:
--“Twin campaigns: My secret mission to get pregnant while covering the presidential election,” by WSJ’s Heather Haddon in Salon: “Covering the presidential field and tackling fertility in tandem was mad. It was also funny, exhausting, isolating and strange.” http://bit.ly/29catCo
--“Afghanistan’s Theorist-in-Chief,” by The New Yorker’s George Packer: “President Ashraf Ghani is an expert on failed states. Can he save his country from collapse?” http://bit.ly/28YADgH
--“Edward Snowden Is Alive and Well and Living in the United States (As a robot.),” (online headline: “I, Snowbot,”) by Andrew Rice in New York Magazine: “For a man accused of espionage, and effectively exiled in Russia, Edward Snowden is also, strangely, free.” http://nym.ag/29fju0M ... The cover http://bit.ly/29nehEP
--“The McCarthy Era in Idaho: The Singing Senator vs. Little Joe from Idaho,” by Marc C. Johnson in The Blue Review: “The short period from 1947 to 1956 may well have been the most tumultuous and also the nastiest period in Idaho political history. In under a decade, eight different men represented Idaho in the United States Senate.” http://bit.ly/29o02jF
--“The $3 Billion Family Art Feud,” by WSJ’s Kelly Crow: “The trove of several hundred pieces included 11 Picassos, six van Goghs, five Cezannes and a rare pair of Monet’s 1894 views of the Rouen Cathedral, one bathed in blue hues and the other one in pink. The couple also had a bronze ballerina by Degas, a Pollock and a Balthus.” http://on.wsj.com/297LJcY
--“Money for Nothing,” by Gary Rivlin in The Intercept: “Confessions of a payday lender: ‘I felt like a modern-day gangster.’” http://bit.ly/299n74W
--“Why bad ideas refuse to die,” by Steven Poole in The Guardian: “They may have been disproved by science or dismissed as ridiculous, but some foolish beliefs endure. In theory they should wither away – but it’s not that simple.” http://bit.ly/29bIqWI (h/t ALDaily.com)
ASPENWATCH ... YURI MILNER, a venture capitalist funding a $100 million probe to Alpha Centauri and a major search for extraterrestrial intelligence, said at the Aspen Ideas Festival, interviewed by The Atlantic’s Ross Andersen: “[S]cientists who have been conducting the previous searches, ... told me that they always had a bottle of champagne in the fridge in case they hear something. And when we launched our project, I basically put champagne on the table right away and I said let's drink champagne ahead of time so that we -- you know, we don’t have this thing hanging out in the fridge. ...
--On advances in how small space probes can become: “[W]hat is incredible is that now we do have enough energy to accelerate a very small probe to about 20 percent of speed of light ... And the developments in the last 10 years allow us to build a spaceship which will be very small, you know, like maybe an inch big and will weigh a few grams. So ... this little spaceship will have capability to take images and send those images back to our planet.”
DEADLINE WEDNESDAY – It’s (Paul) Miller time! Deadline Wednesday to apply for National Press Foundation’s Paul Miller fellowship for journalists who are new(ish) to Washington. Join the ranks of 600+ journalists who are proud Paul Miller alumni. http://bit.ly/298tswS
WELCOME TO THE WORLD – EDDIE VALE, V.P. at American Bridge, and Katey Vale, who works at Sidwell Friends, email “Baby surprise!”: “Evidently he wanted to get here in time for 4th of July so came along two weeks early! Meet Charles Henry Vale! Weighs in at a healthy 7 pounds 5 ounces. ... [A]mazingly his hands are already bigger than Trump’s!” Pic http://bit.ly/29ccSN9
WEEKEND WEDDINGS: OBAMA ALUMNI -- “Laura Wilson and Toby Fallsgraff: A Mission From the President,” by NYT’s Jaclyn Peiser: “The bride, 31 ... is a documentary filmmaker and the director of engagement for the Kindling Group, a documentary production company in Chicago. ... She graduated from Georgetown and received a master’s degree in international development studies from [GWU]. ... The groom, 34, will soon join Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as the director of digital communications. He graduated from Ohio University and received a master’s degree in political management from [GWU]. ... The couple met in the fall of 2011 while working on the digital team for President Obama’s re-election campaign and began dating shortly after Election Day.
“After President Obama’s victory, Mr. Fallsgraff became the digital director for Organizing for Action ... In 2015, Mr. Fallsgraff and his team were filming a video with Mr. Obama at a hotel in Washington during [OFA’s] Spring Organizing Summit. Knowing he was planning to leave in June, Mr. Fallsgraff took the opportunity to talk with the president. ... Mr. Fallsgraff [later told POTUS] he was sure that he would be proposing to his girlfriend ... ‘You got a rock picked out and all that?’ Mr. Obama asked. ... Mr. Obama suggested Mr. Fallsgraff get help from someone Ms. Wilson trusted and understood her taste. When Mr. Fallsgraff suggested that he was thinking of asking Ms. Wilson’s best friend, the president responded, ‘I think that’s the right strategy, but you’ve got to swear her to secrecy.’ The next time Mr. Fallsgraff saw Ms. Wilson’s best friend, he pulled her aside. ‘I told her I had a mission for her from the president of the United States,’ he said.” With a pic http://nyti.ms/29qRhm0
--“Kinsey Casey, Rick Siger” – Times: “The bride, 36, is the deputy chief of staff for the chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. She has held positions at the State Department, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security. ... The groom, also 36, is the director of strategic initiatives and engagement at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He previously worked at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Department of Commerce. ... The couple met in 2004 as staff members on John Kerry’s presidential campaign. They reconnected in 2008 when working on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. After spending two years as colleagues in Washington, the couple began dating.” With a pic http://nyti.ms/29cxEvZ
ERIN CALLANAN, a member of Sen. John Thune’s press team at the Senate Republican Conference, married Nicholas Perrine, special assistant to the president of the NRA, yesterday at The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. The couple met in 2010, working on the Ron Johnson for Senate campaign, and began dating in 2013. After the recent passing of Erin’s brother, Eamon, the bride honored him by having a piece of his shirt sewn into her dress. Reception at Osteria Morini. Pic http://bit.ly/29o56Vj
--“Adam Ciarleglio, Devin Dwyer” – Times: “Mr. Ciarleglio ... 33, is a research scientist in the division of biostatistics at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan and teaches in the Department of Biostatistics at Columbia University ... Mr. Dwyer, also 33, is a contributing on-air correspondent and a coordinating producer at ABC News in Washington.” With a pic http://nyti.ms/29bKXk5
BIRTHWEEK (was Thursday): Kristen Ellingboe, researcher and the keyboard behind CAP Action social media (h/t Emily Tisch Sussman)
BIRTHDAYS: Dave Barry is 69 ... WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is 45 ... Don “Stew” Stewart is 4-0 ... Rick Powell, president of Teneo Strategy and the pride of Knoxville, Tenn. (h/t Dina) … Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) is 76 ... Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisc.) is 61 ... Dave Carney, CEO and president of Norway Hill Associates, Inc. (h/t Rick Ahearn) ... Gloria Allred is 75 … CNN alum Rick Sanchez, now a FOX News contributor and a “Journalist, author & news anchor dedicated to family, friends, & truth,” per his Twitter ... Kristen Morgante, partner and COO at Purple ... Peter Sherman, SVP of PAC Services at DDC Advocacy, celebrating with Tina ... Nick Baldick, managing partner of Hilltop Public Solutions (h/ts Jon Haber) ... Jim McGreevy, president and CEO of the Beer Institute ... WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is 45 ... newly-married AFP music reporter Shaun Tandon ... Patrick Stranix, DNC senior research associate …
... Alicia Criscuolo, press assistant for U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (h/t Kristina Baum) ... Charlotte Brown, project director for Public Opinion Strategies and a Romney alum (h/t Natalie Boyse) ... Rina Shah Bharara ... Mary Erickson, senior associate at Next Level Partners and a DNC alum ... Ian Martinez, operations program manager at Microsoft ... Kate McCarty … Jay Oliver Sax ... Scot Faulkner ... Mary Beth Anania … Jim Davis ... Mari-lynn Evans ... Barbara Lee (not the Rep.) … Rob Fyrst (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... actor Tim O’Connor is 89 ... playwright Tom Stoppard is 79 ... Montel Williams is 60 ... country singer Aaron Tippin is 58 ... Tom Cruise is 54 ... TV chef Sandra Lee is 50 ... actress Kelsey Batelaan is 21 (h/ts AP)