All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

In an interview with CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer, Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod said that the two Republican gubernatorial candidates who won yesterday avoided what he called "the Palin/Pawlenty scorched earth platform" of Washington Republicans.

"I don't think the Republicans ran particularly on a Republican message in Virginia and New Jersey," Axelrod said, arguing that the most important lesson from yesterday's contests is that "their party is deeply divided."

Axelrod described New Jersey Republican Chris Christie and Virginia Republican Bob McDonnell as "moderate or moderate sounding" candidates who avoided "the themes that you hear from Washington Republicans."

The GOP-backed candidate who lost, conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman (who was running for an upstate New York House seat), is the one who embraced those themes, he said.

"They've got a deep problem in their party, and they better heal it or they're going to continue to lose market share," argued Axelrod.

Listen to the interview

The White House adviser said the House race, in which the moderate Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, withdrew amid poor poll and fundraising numbers, was "telling and instructive" because it showed how a "civil war" had erupted in the Republican Party.

Axelrod said the message to moderate Republicans from the contest was that "there's no place for you in this party." He pointed to the fact that Tim Pawlenty, the potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, had been critical of moderate Maine Republican Olympia Snowe as further evidence.

Read full post…

As Barack Obama marks one year since his historic election, one of the architects of his campaign acknowledges the president has not forged the post-partisan atmosphere that he had hoped to achieve.

Senior Adviser David Axelrod said the president "is not a magician. You don't with a wave of a wand make everything different."

The top White House aide said while the president has "extended a hand of cooperation, some in the other party made a political decision that isn't in their interest." Speaking with CBS Radio News in his West Wing office, Axelrod was hard-pressed to specify areas of cooperation with Republicans on any major issues. He pointed to relatively easy areas including national service and child health care.

But on the tough issues including health care reform he noted, "There's an awful lot of pressure from the right wing of the Republican party that has made it more difficult for moderate Republicans to step forward." The longtime Democratic strategist said, "I don't think being in the opposition on every major issue is a winning formula for the Republican Party."

Speaking before the outcome of Tuesday's elections was known, Axelrod discussed the upstate New York Congressional race that saw a moderate Republican bow out after a stiff challenge from a conservative. Axelrod said, "The Palinistas went in and staged what was essentially a hostile takeover of the Republican Party and basically went with a third party candidate and basically said to the moderates there's no place for you in our party." Axelrod said, "Ultimately, that's not a winning strategy."

Read full post…

The White House and the pharmaceutical industry are pushing back against allegations that one of President Obama's senior advisers is personally benefiting from industry cooperation on health care reform.

On Tuesday, the House Republican Conference published a one-page talking points memo that says, "Even as President Obama campaigned on a platform of change and transparency, recent dealings between the pharmaceutical industry and the administration raise serious questions as to whether the drug lobby is helping to bankroll a multimillion dollar severance package for one of the president’s senior advisors."

The memo refers to two ad deals, worth a total of $24 million, bankrolled by the pharmaceutical industry that went to an advertising firm founded by White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod. Although Axelrod no longer works for AKPD Message and Media, his son works there, and the firm still owes Axelrod $2 million.

AKPD is in part responsible for two separate $12 million ad campaigns funded by in part Americans for Stable Quality Care, a coalition led by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry association also known as PhRMA.

The drug industry stands to profit greatly from Mr. Obama's health care plans and has negotiated deals with the White House to move the reform process along.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday called the claim that Axelrod will personally benefit from the ad deal "ridiculous."

Read full post…

Up against increasingly vociferous criticism of and opposition to the health care plan President Obama wants, White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod has launched an e-mail campaign to fire back.

Axelrod wants to refute what he calls "the viral emails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies and distortions."

His Internet outreach reflects growing concern at the White House that the president’s efforts to enact an overhaul of the health insurance system in America are encountering unexpectedly tough resistance and are in trouble.

Mr. Obama is doing three town hall meetings this week to make his case on health care. He did one Tuesday in Portsmouth, NH. He has another tomorrow in Bozeman, MT and a third on Saturday in Grand Junction, CO.

At the start of Axelrod's e-mail, which he addresses to "Dear Friend," he quotes the president from Tuesday's event, speaking out against "wild misrepresentations" of the health care plan he wants. He said opponents were citing provisions "that bear no resemblance to anything that's been proposed."

Read full post…

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said President Obama's push for health care reform is more about rhetoric than reality.

"His marketing is the best part of this," the Republican governor said Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show", the morning after Mr. Obama addressed the nation in a prime time news conference aimed at jumpstarting support for his health initiative.

"[Obama] said, he does not want to increase the deficit, does not want government control of healthcare. He wants people to keep their insurance. He wants to crack down on the abuse, the over utilization. All that's great. The problem is that's not what's in the House Democrat bill. The House Democratic bill increases the deficit by $250 billion [and] increases the burden on employers. Why would we want to do that during one of the worst recessions in decades?"

In his news conference, Mr. Obama emphasized the importance of reform, but pledged that he would not support any plan that increased the federal deficit or placed an economic burden on middle class families.

Read full post…

When Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor for being a racist on Twitter, he ignited a debate over her objectivity.

Speaking to Face the Nation guest moderator Harry Smith Sunday, senior White House advisor David Axelrod defended Sotomayor against charges that she is a racist.

"I think what she believes, Harry, is that everyone is the product of their experiences. She's the product of hers."

Axelrod called Gingrich's comment "unfortunate" and said, "I think that it is so unfair and so unreflective of who she is."

Later in the program, Gingrich said he wished to "reframe" his initial comment calling Sotomayor a racist, when really he does not know the nominee and meant that her words were racist.

Read full post…

Senior White House advisor David Axelrod said that should Guantanamo detainees be allowed to plead guilty, avoid trial and possibly receive the death sentence, as The New York Times reported Saturday, there are concerns the U.S. would be allowing criminals to "martyr themselves."

Appearing on CBS News' Face The Nation Sunday, Axelrod said "grave concerns" had been raised about such a possibility, and that because discussions at the White House are still ongoing, President Obama has not made a decision on the matter.

Axelrod was also asked about President Obama's speech in Cairo last week and his call for Israel to stop settlement building in Gaza. He said he was happy with the foreign reaction.

"One of the most heartening things about the speech was the kind of reaction that it got across the region, from Arab leaders, from Israeli President Shimon Peres and others in Israel," he said.

Guest moderator Harry Smith noted that Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu did not support a halt to settlements, and Axelrod admitted that the peace process is "difficult."

Read full post…

President Obama assembled the most powerful, experienced team of White House key staffers in memory, and many, in their own, unique ways, have left an imprint on his first 100 days -- and not in the ways you'd expect.

Gregory Craig (White House Counsel): History will record Craig as being the President's chief ally in the fight with intelligence officials to declassify Bush-era documents documenting the CIA's interrogation of terrorism suspects.

Mr. Obama had made the decision early on, and his entire national security cabinet, including his influential chief counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, objected voraciously. Craig held his own, and won out, in the end, with only a small compromise: those officials who had acted in good faith wouldn't be prosecuted.

Some officials complain that Mr. Obama circumvented the policy process and concentrated power in the hands of a few White House lawyers. Yep -- that's exactly what he did -- and that's why the decision, whether you support or not, is so audacious.

Craig's deputy, Mary De Rosa, has been the staff lead on most of the administration major national security decisions. Craig's views on executive power and institutional conflicts within the national security establishment will prevail upon Mr. Obama.

Ellen Moran (Chief of Staff, Department of Commerce; former White House Communications Director): The first administrational official to leave the West Wing, behind the scenes, Moran took charge of making sure that Mr. Obama is communicating his message broadly, to the proper constituent audiences, and that the American people know precisely what their government is doing for them.

Moran supervised a staff of press officials who work with the specialty publications, ranging from agriculture newspapers in Iowa to US Weekly. The tabloid magazines have been friendly to Mr. Obama because they've gotten good access -- scooplets, like how the Obamas parent.

It was Moran who organized the very successful transition coffees and dinners with liberal and conservative columnists. Her name isn't quoted in the papers much, but her influence is significant.

Though her new job – chief of staff at the Department of Commerce – is low-profile, it is quite powerful, and Moran will retain influence over the administration's economic policy.

One unsung hero from Moran's former department: Lauren Page, who translates the messaging ideas of the senior staff into plans that can be implemented. (A friend in the press office says of Page: "Coming from a meeting that she was running just now I can tell you that she does a lot of everything that actually matters.")

Read full post…

"The American people and the markets can handle the truth," senior White House advisor David Axelrod said, when discussing the Treasury Department's bank stress tests to be released this week.

Face The Nation host Harry Smith noted that there is fear among some that if information about certain banks' financial standing were released it could give way to a run on some of them.

Axelrod argued instead the importance of disclosure. "I think the banks are going to want that, because they're going to want the markets and the country and the world to know exactly what their condition is.

"Yes, some [banks] are going to have some very serious problems," Axelrod said, but he feels confident they have the tools to fix the situation.

On the president's 2010 budget, Axelrod said that the Republican Party has taken an unfortunate political stance in rejecting the proposal.

Read full post…

A senior White House official defended the release of previously-classified torture memos last week, saying there was no legal rationale for keeping them secret.

The Justice Department documents, which the Obama administration simultaneously released and repudiated on Thursday, provided the legal cover the Bush administration sought for committing torture against detainees held by the CIA. The documents provide grim details about the abuse that was used against terror suspects — procedures which many claim violate international law but which some former administration officials (including Vice President Dick Cheney) continue to defend. ( The memos can be read here.)

On CBS News' Face The Nation, White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod said that many details in the memos had already been revealed, and that there was no credence to the argument that their release would help terrorist by letting them know what was is in store for them if captured.

"It is not what is going to happen to them," Axelrod said, because President Obama "banned these enhanced interrogation techniques.

"The truth is that, because these were in the public domain, because even the last administration has revealed the most serious aspects of this, and because the president has banned these techniques, there was no legal rationale for keeping them classified.

Read full post…