Rise and Shine

A year ago: President Obama greets participants after a Land Titling event at the Plaza de San Pedro, Cartagena, Colombia, April 15, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Today:

12:30 Jay Carney briefs the press

2:05: The President honors the BCS National Champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide

4:30: Participates in an Ambassador Credentialing Ceremony (Closed Press)

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Greg Sargent: Over the weekend, Senator Susan Collins revealed that she will vote Yes on the expanded background check compromise reached by Senators Pat Toomey and Joe Manchin. This is good news, but the case of Collins perfectly captures why it is almost impossible to get anything done in today’s Washington. With the possible exception of immigration, some on the right simply won’t allow moderate Republicans to embrace anything that constitutes even the narrowest of compromises with Obama and Democrats.

It turns out Collins has embraced expanded background checks in spite of the fact that she’s facing a relentless assault from the right back in her home state. As it happens, the “gun rights” group targeting her, which is well to the right of the NRA, has enjoyed fundraising help from none other than Collins’ Senate colleague Rand Paul.

More here

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The Hill: A bipartisan bill on background checks is inching closer to the necessary 60 votes for passage, but it still has a long way to go.

The upcoming vote on a new proposal crafted by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) is expected to go down to the wire….

There are now four Republicans who have publicly committed to supporting the amendment: Sens. Toomey, Mark Kirk (Ill.), Susan Collins (Maine) and John McCain (Ariz.).

…. To pass Manchin-Toomey, at least five Republicans must back it. Fifty-five senators caucus with the Democrats, but not all are sure bets to embrace the background check legislation.

More here

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oh boy….

Washington Post: …. Rick Perry, whose bid for the White House depends heavily on support from religious conservatives, finds himself confronting an issue that is a flash point for that part of his base: his attempt to order schoolgirls to take a vaccine that would protect them against a sexually transmitted virus.

The uproar over the Gardasil vaccine – manufactured by Merck, a major Perry campaign donor – knocked the candidate off-stride during a Republican debate Monday night ….

Perry bristled at accusations from Michele Bachmann that he had pushed the vaccine in 2007 at the bidding of Merck, a Perry donor that also employed a former aide to the governor as a lobbyist.

“It was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them,” Perry said. “I raise about $30 million. And if you’re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended.”

But campaign disclosure records portray a much deeper financial connection with Merck than Perry’s remarks suggest.

His gubernatorial campaigns, for example, have received nearly $30,000 from the drugmaker since 2000, most of that before he issued his vaccine mandate, which was overturned by the Texas legislature.

Merck and its subsidiaries have also given more than $380,000 to the Republican Governors Association (RGA) since 2006, the year that Perry began to play a prominent role in the Washington-based group…

Perry served as chairman of the RGA in 2008 and again this year, until he decided to run for president. The group also ranks among the governor’s biggest donors, giving his campaign at least $4 million over the past five years….

…. One of Perry’s closest confidantes, his former chief of staff Mike Toomey, was then working as an Austin-based lobbyist for Merck, which was in the midst of a multimillion-dollar campaign to persuade states to make the vaccine mandatory.

Toomey, who has declined requests for comment, has since helped found Make Us Great Again, a pro-Perry super PAC that can accept unlimited donations from corporations and wealthy donors. The group plans to raise as much as $55 million to help Perry compete for the GOP nomination, according to media reports.

Full article here

the players

dems face wipeout!!!! oh….wait

Democrats got a boost of good news yesterday in a batch of new tracking polls that show previously written-off Senate candidates in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Wisconsin running significantly closer to their Republican opponents. New polls yesterday also confirmed close margins in critical battlegrounds like Washington and West Virginia, but a Democratic comeback in either Pennsylvania, Colorado or Wisconsin would all but end Republican hopes to gain a majority in the U.S. Senate.

Huffington Post