A Florida “dream ticket,” two nuggets about leadership questions in Congress and coming tests for Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich filled our final March trip around the “Inside Politics” table.
1. Another “Draft Warren” movement?
If you follow politics, you have heard this one: Liberals say Elizabeth Warren has to run for president because Hillary Clinton is too cozy with Wall Street.
And now that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is planning to retire — creating an opening in the top Senate Democratic job — you are about to hear this: Warren has to run for leader because Chuck Schumer is too cozy with Wall Street.
The senator from Massachusetts is likely to give the same answer as she did on a presidential run, but Jackie Kucinich of The Daily Beast says the liberal clamoring tells us something about anxiety on the left.
“What this does show is there is a lot of skepticism with the base with Chuck Schumer, because he’s so close to Wall Street, and it’s an issue they’ve really been hammering on,” Kucinich said.
“So watch for more of that, because I have a feeling that they are going to make their voices heard, through Warren or not.”
2. A good week for Boehner. Yes, you read that right.
It has been a rocky year for House Speaker John Boehner, but his allies think they may have just turned a corner.
The House of Representatives passed the Republican budget last week as well as a big Medicare change known as the “doc fix” because it clarifies reimbursement rates to Medicare providers.
NPR’s Juana Summers shared reporting on how Team Boehner hopes that ending the month with a little momentum will carry over when other big legislative battles come to the fore.
“Part of (his success) is because of the speaker’s willingness to use unconventional tactics, to work with Democrat Nancy Pelosi for that Medicare reform,” Summers said.
“Congress has a lot of big deadlines when they return. So whether or not he can hold onto that power instead of seeing it slip will be really fascinating.”
3. Bush-Rubio? Rubio-Bush? Watch the real estate listings!
Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio both call Florida home. And both want to be the Republican nominee for president. They also happen to be on friendly terms.
So among Florida Republicans who love them both — there is talk of a “dream ticket.” Of course, it won’t happen. Can’t happen. Rules and all that pertaining to the president and vice president coming from the same state. (Dick Cheney changed his residency from Texas to Wyoming right before joining the George W. Bush ticket.)
But Ed O’Keefe of The Washington Post said the obstacles aren’t preventing Florida Republicans from doing a little dreaming.
“They say, look, Bush has all this executive experience, he’s bilingual, he has a Mexican-American wife,” O’Keefe said. “Rubio is young. He has an interest in foreign policy. Why not?”
4. Ted Cruz wants to “rock” the youth vote.
Much was made of the fact that Liberty University students had no choice but to attend the campus convocation at which Ted Cruz announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
But it gave Cruz a big crowd — and Robert Costa of The Washington Post reports that Team Cruz is determined to build a relationship with young conservatives such as those on hand for the announcement.
“He’s playing at a lot of happy hours with young conservatives in the coming weeks and months,” Costa said. “And he really believes he can ignite those young conservatives, who aren’t really familiar with Bush and are looking for someone new.”
5. Is Kasich waiting for a “summer wave”?
John Kasich had a well-regarded visit to New Hampshire last week. And he got a decent buzz out of a New York fund-raising stop, too.
So is he ready to launch and join the crowded GOP 2016 presidential field?
Not so fast.
Two New Hampshire Republicans keeping close tabs on GOP visitors say he wouldn’t give a firm answer about his intentions — something they took as a hesitation to run.
A national GOP source plugged into to the Kasich operation says the governor hasn’t made a firm decision, and is talking about waiting until the summer to make a final call. That, too, is interpreted widely as a reluctance to run.
This national source said Kasich is one of two GOP governors who want to wait and see if those in the current field stumble after their official spring rollouts and create an opening for a “summer wave” of new entries.
The other, according to this source, is GOP Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.
