podesta_email_19424.txt

podesta-emails 7,573 words email

P17 D6 P21 P22 V11

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*​**Correct The Record Thursday January 8, 2015 Morning Roundup:* *Headlines:* *Roll Call opinion: Rep. Tim Ryan: “Progressives Are Ready for Hillary” <http://www.rollcall.com/news/progressives_are_ready_for_hillary_commentary-239087-1.html>* “I am ready for Hillary. Should she run for president, she would be the best person to lead our country forward.” *Associated Press: “Warren aims to shape Democrats' debate as 2016 race begins” <http://bigstory.ap.org/article/87273b2f35dd420e804232c72a75aa62/warren-aims-shape-democrats-debate-2016-race-begins>* “Clinton, the former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady, has dominated early polls, but is being pushed by many Democrats to take a more populist stance on economic issues.” *The Daily Beast: “Sen. Warren’s Main Street Crusade to Pressure Clinton” <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/08/sen-warren-s-main-street-crusade-to-pressure-clinton.html>* "Warren may never formally enter the race. She doesn’t want to be a spoiler, and Clinton’s commanding lead in surveys of Democrats (66 percent) suggests a better way to influence the debate and move Clinton as the nominee to a more populist left, is for Warren to use her power within the party as a freshman senator to inflame or blow up issues to advance her agenda." *Washington Post: “President Obama, Elizabeth Warren have different message on the middle class” <http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/president-obama-elizabeth-warren-share-different-message-on-the-middle-class/2015/01/07/8c0eb516-9681-11e4-8005-1924ede3e54a_story.html>* "'We have spent years now clawing our way back, out of the hole that was dug in 2008, but we have a lot more to do if we want to release our full potential and make sure that American families finally feel the rewards of recovery,' Clinton said while stumping for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf in Pennsylvania." *Reuters: “Podesta: Clinton to draw differences with Obama if she runs” <http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/07/us-usa-politics-podesta-idUSKBN0KG21520150107>* “Hillary Clinton will draw differences with President Barack Obama if she runs for the White House and Obama expects that, according to John Podesta, an adviser to the president and a potential campaign chairman for the former secretary of state.” *MSNBC: “Hillary Clinton’s 2016 timeline finally comes into focus” <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-2016-timeline-finally-comes-focus>* “The quiet personnel moves come even at a time when Clinton’s public schedule remains conspicuously empty.” *CT News: “Jeb Bush takes swipe at Hillary Clinton” <http://blog.ctnews.com/politics/2015/01/07/jeb-bush-takes-swipe-at-hillary/>* “A physically-fit and newly ‘unemployed’ Jeb Bush took a veiled shot at Hillary Clinton Wednesday night when the former Florida GOP governor was asked to handicap the 2016 presidential field by a well-heeled network of contributors in his father’s hometown.” *Politico: “Jeb to come clean” <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/jeb-bush-tax-returns-114045.html?hp=t2_r>* “Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, amassed tens of millions of dollars over the last 14 years. Republicans are expected to press for disclosure of extensive tax return information as well as more detailed accounting of the finances of the non-profit Clinton Foundation.” *Daily Caller: “Newt On ‘Boring’ Hillary: She’s ‘A Celebrity Like Kim Kardashian’” <http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/07/newt-on-boring-hillary-shes-a-celebrity-like-kim-kardashian/>* “In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday night, the former Speaker slammed the former First Lady, telling the host that Hillary is ‘boring’ and compared her to Kim Kardashian.” *Articles:* *Roll Call opinion: Rep. Tim Ryan: “Progressives Are Ready for Hillary” <http://www.rollcall.com/news/progressives_are_ready_for_hillary_commentary-239087-1.html>* By Rep. Tim Ryan January 8, 2015, 5:00 a.m. EST The progressive values and policies that Hillary Rodham Clinton represents have Democrats and Americans across the country more excited than ever. But lately, pundits and some in the media have attempted to drive a narrative that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is not unified behind Hillary. As a progressive myself, and one who proudly hails from the ultimate battleground state of Ohio, this could not be further from the truth. Clinton’s record speaks for itself. Progressives support Clinton because of her experience and leadership on many of the issues that matter most. In Arkansas, she expanded childhood education throughout the state. As first lady, she worked to increase access to health care for every American. As a senator, she repeatedly fought to increase the minimum wage and extend unemployment benefits. While secretary of State, she worked to empower women and expand LGBT rights and more recently, through the Clinton Foundation, she has developed initiatives to help children and low-income families. Simply put, Clinton understands the importance of investing in the fundamental building blocks that make America the envy of the world. As an economic populist, protecting and growing our economy while putting Ohioans back to work is a consistent priority of mine. Being progressive is about assuring the safety of our citizens and our economy with a strong manufacturing base, both old-line manufacturing and the newer fields of advanced and additive manufacturing. I believe we can achieve this by re-establishing the United States of America as the world’s leading innovator in advanced manufacturing — with my district’s national additive manufacturing and 3-D printing facility and through the No. 1 ranked university incubator in the world — both right here in Youngstown, Ohio. These types of ideas and innovation are happening in places such as Youngstown largely thanks to a long-term vision for our nation and public-private partnerships, something Clinton has spent a lifetime forging as a first lady, senator and secretary of State. I know that Hillary Rodham Clinton shares these same progressive and American values. Throughout her career, she has consistently worked to advance middle-class families, ensuring that Ohioans and all Americans can make more money and have the means to support their families. Democrats have unified behind Clinton in an unprecedented way, in part, because of her advocacy on these core progressive policies that ensure everyone has a fair shot at success. From the people who know her best and for those like me who have fought alongside her to ensure that everyone has access to the American Dream, there is no question that Clinton has the message and vision — and will have the agenda — to be the Democratic Party’s standard bearer to lead America on the world stage. I am ready for Hillary. Should she run for president, she would be the best person to lead our country forward. I believe her progressive and American values can lift up all Americans and I know the people of Ohio stand ready to assist her should she decide to run. *Associated Press: “Warren aims to shape Democrats' debate as 2016 race begins” <http://bigstory.ap.org/article/87273b2f35dd420e804232c72a75aa62/warren-aims-shape-democrats-debate-2016-race-begins>* By Ken Thomas January 7, 2015, 4:15 p.m. EST WASHINGTON (AP) — Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday hammered Washington's leaders — Republicans and Democrats alike — for failing to help middle-class workers since the 1980s. Left unsaid: That time period includes President Bill Clinton's administration. As Warren continues to insist she won't run for president, and all of politics is waiting for Hillary Rodham Clinton to announce her candidacy, it was a notable omission during Warren's speech at a conference sponsored by the AFL-CIO. Bill Clinton famously declared "the era of big government is over" in 1996, and Warren's indictment of three decades of economic policy referenced complaints among liberals that the policies of Democrats contributed to Wall Street excess in the past decade. "Pretty much the whole Republican Party — and if we're going to be honest, too many Democrats — have talked about the evils of 'big government' and called for deregulation," Warren said, arguing the policies turned loose "big banks and giant international corporations" and "juiced short-term profits even if it came at the expense of working families." That sort of rhetoric has some liberals pining for Warren to enter the Democratic presidential contest, a move that would likely pit her against Hillary Rodham Clinton, the party's leading contender should she enter the campaign as is widely expected. It wasn't just Warren who didn't mention a Clinton by name. One panelist, Jennifer Epps-Addison of Wisconsin Jobs Now, won applause from the audience when she suggested the party was hurting itself by appearing ready to simply anoint the apparent favorite as its next presidential nominee. "I don't want to get in trouble, but I'll say it anyway," Epps-Addison said. "It starts with this idea that we have a presumed front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, because if we don't accept that ... if we say that we demand somebody to actually meet our needs before we're going to give them a candidate for the presidency, then that can make a difference." Clinton, the former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady, has dominated early polls, but is being pushed by many Democrats to take a more populist stance on economic issues. Warren has resisted calls to enter the campaign, but her appearance before labor leaders served notice that she intends to influence the agenda this year. "For more than 30 years, Washington has far too often advanced policies that hammer America's middle class even harder," she said. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called Warren "an inspiration" and said the labor organization would hold similar summits this year in the first four presidential primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — to advocate for policies aimed at boosting wages. During last year's midterm elections, Clinton touted the 1990s economic growth during her husband's administration, noting that it helped bring prosperity to many middle-class families. She voiced support for raising the federal minimum wage and promoting paid family leave policies to help working families, particularly mothers. Bolstering wages and household income remains at the top of the agenda for many Democrats, who acknowledge that while the labor market has begun to recover from the deep recession that began in 2008, wages have barely kept up with inflation. President Barack Obama unsuccessfully sought to increase the federal minimum wage last year but several states and big cities have taken steps to boost their minimum wages. Warren said the economy had made strides — a soaring stock market, rising corporate profits and economic growth — but that progress had failed to translate into higher wages for workers. She said Washington leaders too often had chosen to shackle the "financial cops," bail out Wall Street banks, sign trade deals that hurt workers and cut taxes for the wealthy. Neera Tanden, a former Hillary Clinton policy adviser who leads the Center for American Progress, said Warren was "absolutely right," adding the country shouldn't be "fatalistic" about its ability to overcome economic challenges. "So many people in Washington and in the country are pessimistic about our country's chances and believe this kind of story out there that stagnating wages in the United States are just the way it is. That is false," Tanden said. *The Daily Beast: “Sen. Warren’s Main Street Crusade to Pressure Clinton” <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/08/sen-warren-s-main-street-crusade-to-pressure-clinton.html>* By Eleanor Clift January 8, 2015 [Subtitle:] She isn’t running for president unless lightning strikes, but there’s something she’s already won—influence over financial appointments. Should lightning strike and Hillary Clinton forgoes a presidential run, Democrats have a nominee in waiting. Elizabeth Warren’s shadow campaign is taking shape on Capitol Hill as Clinton moves closer to a decision that will highlight the divide in their party between Main Street and Wall Street. Warren may never formally enter the race. She doesn’t want to be a spoiler, and Clinton’s commanding lead in surveys of Democrats (66 percent) suggests a better way to influence the debate and move Clinton as the nominee to a more populist left, is for Warren to use her power within the party as a freshman senator to inflame or blow up issues to advance her agenda. Warren never shrinks from a fight where she believes she’s on the side of the little guy. She’s been known to say, “I love throwing rocks,” sometimes even when she’s cautioned against repercussions. Her stand against the nomination of investment banker Antonio Weiss to a top position at the Treasury Department stalled the appointment and created bad blood with the White House, forcing President Obama to re-nominate him in the new Congress. “They believe in Weiss, and they don’t want to be pushed around on this,” says Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. Weiss is likely to get confirmed even as Warren and a handful of other progressive Democrats vote no. But Warren’s very public fight against the influence of Wall Street within the administration bloodied the White House, and key aides are less likely to cut her out of the loop again on key appointments, having just experienced how much grief she can cause for Obama with his Democratic base. The fight over Weiss teed up a nomination more to Warren’s liking when Obama announced on Tuesday that Allan Landon, the former CEO of Bank of Hawaii, would fill one of two vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Landon led a bank with under $10 billion assets, a far cry from the too-big-to-fail investment behemoths that populate Wall Street. Camden Fine, president and CEO of the Independent Community Banks of America, lauded the choice of Landon, noting that because of the backlash on Weiss, “The White House is worried enough on the Federal Reserve they’ve called me three times in the last few days vetting the nomination.” Fine says his opposition to Weiss is nothing personal; it’s just that “community banks are pretty much fed up with every single senior post at the Treasury Department going to people right out of Wall Street.” Out of 16 assistant secretaries, 15 are former partners or senior executives of investment firms. It’s cultural, he says, a pattern that goes back to the Clinton era of Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, and it’s been the accepted practice since, with few voices challenging Wall Street orthodoxy. There are a lot more community banks, 6,500 in all. Their assets are small compared to the top 20 Wall Street firms, but they are everywhere, they are Main Street, and they didn’t leverage the debt that caused the global meltdown. The Big Five banks dubbed too big to fail, are 35 percent bigger than they were when the meltdown was triggered. An aide to Warren ticks off her objections to Weiss, whose appointment she made her cause célèbre, and that otherwise would have passed unnoticed. First, his credentials: He did international mergers and acquisitions at Lazard, a financial and asset management firm. It has nothing to do with the regulatory job he is nominated for. Weiss supporters note that he co-authored the tax reform plan for the liberal Center for American Progress, and point out that he’s the publisher of The Paris Review, “a non sequitur,” scoffs Warren’s aide. Second, Weiss played a key role in shaping Burger King’s attempt at inversion, which Illinois Senator Dick Durbin cited as his reason for opposing Weiss, the only Obama nomination he has ever opposed. Republican Senator Charles Grassley put out a press release calling the administration “hypocrites” for publicly lambasting the practice of inversions, a loophole to avoid U.S. taxes, while nominating one of its practitioners. Third, the $20 million parachute Lazard is giving Weiss stuck in everyone’s craw. It’s to compensate him for the money he would otherwise receive if he remained at Lazard. The sum is not something ordinary Americans can fathom, and Warren sees her role as giving voice to the people who don’t have expensive lawyers and lobbyists, and don’t get rewarded with golden parachutes. “This is a proxy war about something bigger, which is Wall Street influence,” says Warren’s aide. “She has voted for a lot of people from Wall Street (including Treasury Secretary Jack Lew). It’s not a litmus test; it’s more like a balance issue. You put it all together and it’s just too much.” While Clinton and Warren share similar views on social justice and building the middle class, Clinton has a strong association with Wall Street. As a senator, she represented the money capital of the world, and as a partner in the Clinton Global Initiative, she’s accustomed to hobnobbing with the financial services elite and feeling their pain. Clinton hasn’t taken a position on the Weiss nomination, and the fight will be over and the issue in the rear view mirror by the time she announces, probably in the spring. “I don’t think it should shock the conscience that someone who is familiar with Wall Street is good for that job. He’s not someone you go to the mattresses over, he’s the wrong target,” says Third Way’s Bennett. “There’s enormous hunger in the party to hang on to the White House, particularly after losing Congress, and that tends to make people get pretty practical.” For Warren, she’s playing a long game. If there is another Democratic president, and it’s Clinton, she wants some say over who is the next Treasury Secretary, and who gets all those big policy-making jobs. It’s a movement for change that she’s leading, not necessarily a presidential campaign — unless lightning strikes. *Washington Post: “President Obama, Elizabeth Warren have different message on the middle class” <http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/president-obama-elizabeth-warren-share-different-message-on-the-middle-class/2015/01/07/8c0eb516-9681-11e4-8005-1924ede3e54a_story.html>* By Steven Mufson, Karen Tumulty, and Anne Gearan January 7, 2015, 2:08 p.m. EST At a moment when President Obama is seeking to convince Americans that the economy is finally back on track, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered a major address Wednesday in which she argued that average Americans are being left behind because Washington has failed them. In a speech to an AFL-CIO conference in Washington, Warren ticked off a list of upbeat indicators: Corporate profits and economic growth are up, the unemployment rate is down, inflation remains low and the stock market is booming. “But the overall picture doesn’t tell us much about what’s happening at ground level to tens of millions of Americans,” she said. “Despite these cheery numbers, America’s middle class is in deep trouble.” Warren’s speech before the union’s National Summit on Raising Wages, scheduled more than a month ago, fell on the day that Obama was set to visit Detroit to highlight the recovery of the auto industry. And the contrast between the two highlighted a dilemma facing Democrats as they set about framing their message about an improving economy: Should they claim credit for the rebound or tell people still struggling that the party’s leaders feel people’s pain? “There’s a delicate line that has to be walked here,” said Mark S. Mellman, chief executive of the Mellman Group, a polling and political consulting firm for Democratic candidates. “No question people are feeling better, but not everybody is feeling a lot better.” He said that “talking up the economy” would help people feel better, “and the better they feel, the better they feel about the president and Democrats.” But he warned that the danger is that people who don’t feel better about the economy would conclude that party leaders are simply “out of touch with their circumstances.” Warren’s speech comes as the Democratic Party is already looking to 2016, with former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton likely to declare her candidacy and many party activists looking to Warren as an alternative. Even if Warren doesn’t run, her popularity and message could influence the rhetoric of the ultimate party standard bearer. Obama, without having to worry about another election, is using the megaphone of his office to claim credit for the recovery, which gained speed at the end of 2014 after puttering along at a modest and inconsistent pace earlier. His visit to Detroit today is part of a warm-up lap around the country before his Jan. 20 State of the Union address. The president also will stop in Phoenix on Thursday to draw attention to the resurgence of the housing market, and will discuss education and jobs during a visit to Tennessee on Friday. The president has trumpeted a record 57-month streak of consecutive job creation, the strongest year of job creation since the 1990s and signs that job growth in high-paying industries would mean that wages were “on the rise again.” Asked whether it was “morning in America” — the campaign theme Ronald Reagan used campaigning for reelection in 1984 — Jason Furman, chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers demurred. “I’m not saying it’s morning in America. I think we’re digging our way out of a really deep hole, and we’re still not all the way out of that hole,” he said in a December press briefing. “Wages are certainly not all the way to where they want to be, but absolutely moving in the right direction.” Warren has a different take on recent advances. “A lot of broad national economic statistics say our economy is getting better, and it is true that the economy overall is recovering from the terrible crash of 2008,” Warren said. “But there have been deep structural changes in this economy, changes that have gone on for more than 30 years, changes that have cut out hard-working, middle-class families from sharing in this overall growth.” Warren faulted Washington — including leaders of her own party — for buying into “trickle-down policies,” such as deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy, that she said benefited corporations and the wealthy in hopes that they “could be counted on to create an economy that would work for everyone else.” Nothing in Warren’s critique was new. “Making the economy work for everybody. This is the core of why people have voted for Democrats since the Great Depression,” Mellman said. “The exact formulation of message can change, but the core idea is the same one Democrats have been about since the Depression and there’s no sense in changing it now.” Moreover, Austan Goolsbee, professor of economics at the University of Chicago business school and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during Obama’s first term, warns that the recovery might not last until 2016. “If you take the risk of the slowdown in China and the continued risk of a financial crisis in Europe, I think that’s fairly sobering even if the United States is gradually standing up a little stronger.” He said “the chances of extended 5 percent GDP growth seem not that high.” Warren’s broadside comes as many liberals are hoping that she will reconsider her previous declarations that she will not challenge likely candidate Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. The organization MoveOn.org last month announced the start of what it says will be a $1 million campaign by its members to draft Warren. Warren — an outspoken critic of Wall Street’s coziness with Washington — is admired by many in the party’s base for her ability to frame an argument that the system is rigged against the interests of ordinary workers. That kind of message, some say, is what was missing during the 2014 midterm elections, which turned out to be a disaster for Democrats. Such is Warren’s appeal — and her fundraising abilities — that Senate Democrats created a new position in their leadership for the first-term senator from Massachusetts. But that effort to bring her inside the tent has not made her any less willing to engage in battles, even against more senior figures in her party. In the waning days of the lame-duck session, she fought a spending bill that included a provision to weaken part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that tightened oversight of Wall Street. She also is a leading opponent of the White House’s bid to nominate investment banker Antonio Weiss for a top position at the Treasury Department. Warren’s rhetoric, and the need to boost turnout among the Democratic base, may have already pushed Clinton’s economic rhetoric to the left. During the 2014 midterm elections, Clinton combined personal anecdotes about the difficulties faced by working women with a lament that too many working people lack economic security. Her speeches became more partisan as the election neared, and the probability of heavy Democratic losses became clearer. “We have spent years now clawing our way back, out of the hole that was dug in 2008, but we have a lot more to do if we want to release our full potential and make sure that American families finally feel the rewards of recovery,” Clinton said while stumping for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf in Pennsylvania. She appeared alongside Warren once during the midterm stump season, and said she admires Warren’s zeal. She also appeared to borrow a page from Warren’s anti-Wall Street message, a tricky issue for Clinton as a former New York senator with deep and lucrative ties to the corporate and financial elite. Moreover, some of Warren’s targets — bank deregulation and free-trade agreements — were ones put in place by Bill Clinton when he was president. In the same Pennsylvania speech Clinton said that “corporations seem to have all the rights and none of the responsibilities,” of ordinary Americans, while “working people haven’t had a raise in over a decade, and it becomes harder and harder.” Wolf was among the few Democrats who appeared with Clinton and went on to win last year. Since then, Clinton has quietly sought advice from a range of business, civic and philanthropic leaders about the main challenges they see in their respective spheres, people familiar with some of the meetings said. The private discussions are one way Clinton is honing an updated economic message that will attempt to combine optimism about the improving economy with an appeal to working- and middle-class voters who feel left out of the recovery. “This story is at the center of where the presidential race is going to be,” said former Obama political strategist Bill Burton. “The economy is undoubtedly doing better as a whole, but if the middle class doesn’t feel it then that is the opening through which the winner of the next presidential election will walk.” *Reuters: “Podesta: Clinton to draw differences with Obama if she runs” <http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/07/us-usa-politics-podesta-idUSKBN0KG21520150107>* By Jeff Mason January 7, 2015, 2:25 p.m. EST Hillary Clinton will draw differences with President Barack Obama if she runs for the White House and Obama expects that, according to John Podesta, an adviser to the president and a potential campaign chairman for the former secretary of state. Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton who is now counselor to Obama, said he would depart the White House next month. "I'm probably going to leave in early February," he told Reuters in an interview. "Then I've got to figure out what I'm doing in life." Figuring that out will depend largely on whether Clinton, a former senator and first lady, decides to run for president again, as she is expected to do. Podesta has been mentioned frequently as a likely chairman of her campaign. "If she decides to run, I told her I'd do anything I can to help her," he said, adding it was "up to her" whether he served as chair. "I started going door to door in Iowa in 1967. Maybe I'll come back and do that again," he joked. Iowa is the first U.S. state to hold a nominating contest in the presidential primary race. Clinton came in third there in the Democratic contest in 2008, behind Obama and former Senator John Edwards, a defeat that marked the beginning of the end of her campaign. Though Obama and Clinton fought bitterly for the 2008 Democratic nomination, they formed a bond when she served as his secretary of state. Podesta said they agreed on a lot, but she would highlight divergent opinions as well, if she runs. "I'm sure she'll have some different views from the president. The president understands that, I think, expects that," Podesta said. "I'm sure there will be differences, but for the most part I think that she respects greatly what the president's been able to accomplish with respect to the economy, national security and healthcare in particular," he added. "They both have a progressive view of what it's going to take to try to ensure that the economy's working for the middle class." As for his own legacy at the White House, Podesta hates the term and had it banned from Bill Clinton's White House, he said. But he noted he was proud of his contributions to Obama's plan to fight climate change and believed global warming would be an issue in the 2016 presidential campaign. *MSNBC: “Hillary Clinton’s 2016 timeline finally comes into focus” <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-2016-timeline-finally-comes-focus>* By Alex Seitz-Wald January 7, 2015 5:05 p.m. EDT Hillary Clinton’s delayed 2016 timeline is finally coming into focus. John Podesta, who is expected to serve as Clinton’s campaign chairman or in another senior role, said Wednesday that he plans to leave the Obama White House next month, ahead of a Clinton announcement expected in the late Spring. “I’m probably going to leave in early February,” Podesta told Reuters. “If she decides to run, I told her I’d do anything I can to help her.” While some in Clinton’s orbit pushed for her to get into the race early, she has opted for a slower time frame, scheduling non-political paid speeches as late as March 19. Democratic insiders increasingly point to early April as the most likely launch window, which would allow her to avoid filing a campaign finance report to the Federal Election Commission for the first quarter of the year. Easter falls on April 5 this year, so the week after appears likely. Nothing is confirmed, Clinton insiders stress, and she could still decide not to run, though that appears increasingly unlikely. Podesta’s departure has been broadly telegraphed, but it comes at a time of increasing action under the surface among potential Clinton aides. On Friday, Marlon Marshall, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and would likely work on another, announced that he, too, was leaving the White House. Marshall is a longtime friend and compatriot of Robby Mook, who managed Clinton friend Terry MCauliffe’s 2013 Virginia gubernatorial campaign and is said to be among Clinton’s first choices to be campaign manager. Guy Cecil, the outgoing executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, recently pulled himself out of contention for the top job on the campaign. On Wednesday, Politico confirmed that Mook would play a senior role on a Clinton campaign, which will also include Obama pollster Joel Benenson. That’s a potentially major change from her controversial 2008 pollster, Mark Penn. The quiet personnel moves come even at a time when Clinton’s public schedule remains conspicuously empty. She has only two public appearances coming up this month, both in Canada. February and March are equally quiet for the former secretary of state thus far. A Clinton spokesperson did not return msnbc’s request for comment. Podesta served as Bill Clinton’s last White House Chief of Staff and joined the Obama administration as counselor in late 2013. Podesta also founded the Center for American Progress and has been credited with helping Obama make the most out of his second term, especially advocating for the aggressive use of executive actions to advance the president’s agenda in the face of a recalcitrant Congress. The White House would like to keep Podesta around even longer, sources say, but he long ago agreed to stay with Obama only through the upcoming State of the Union Address. Podesta also told Reuters that while he’s “sure” Clinton will differ from Obama on certain issues, Obama won’t mind. “The president understands that, I think, expects that,” Podesta said. *CT News: “Jeb Bush takes swipe at Hillary Clinton” <http://blog.ctnews.com/politics/2015/01/07/jeb-bush-takes-swipe-at-hillary/>* By Neil Vigdor January 7, 2015 GREENWICH — A physically-fit and newly “unemployed” Jeb Bush took a veiled shot at Hillary Clinton Wednesday night when the former Florida GOP governor was asked to handicap the 2016 presidential field by a well-heeled network of contributors in his father’s hometown. Bush, 61, did not mention Clinton by name but told supporters at a Greenwich fundraiser for his recently-launched leadership PAC that the former secretary of state would have a lot to answer for concerning the foreign policy miscues of the Obama administration, according to multiple people who heard Bush’s remarks. Seriously exploring a bid for the White House, Bush poo-pooed the mystique of the Clintons during the kickoff reception for his Right to Rise political action committee. “He said, ‘If someone wants to run a campaign about 90s nostalgia, it’s not going to be very successful,’” an insider told Hearst Connecticut Media. The person asked not to be identified because the event, held at the $7.2 million Belle Haven estate of former Goldman Sachs investment banking boss Charles Davis, was closed to the media. Bush spoke for about a half-hour to some 175 prospective supporters and took questions for another 30 minutes on a wide range of topics from his stance on immigration reform to so-called “Bush fatigue.” Bush, who recently resigned from all corporate and nonprofit boards that he sat on, emphasized to the crowd that he is his own man. “He said, ‘Do you have a father? Do you have a brother? Are you the same person?’” the insider said. The guest list included a bevy of heavy hitters from the financial services industry and political appointees of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, some of whom gave up to $5,000 to the PAC. David Walker, a former U.S. comptroller general under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, gave the presidential prospect high marks for his appearance. “He was clearly on tonight,” said Walker, who characterized Bush as personable and forthright. Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. was also in attendance. “He was extraordinary,” Labriola said. Greenwich was the home of the late Bush family patriarch Prescott Bush Sr., who served in the U.S. Senate and was the grandfather of Jeb Bush. In April 2014, Connecticut Republicans welcomed Jeb Bush as the keynote speaker at the Prescott Bush Awards fundraising dinner in Stamford. Labriola said it was an honor to have Bush return to the state as he tests the waters for a presidential run. By choosing Greenwich for his debut as a prospective contender, Democrats say, Bush is no man of the people. “Jeb Bush isn’t a different type of Republican,” said Ian Sams, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. “We can see that in his actions. He’s opened his campaign by cozying up to the same special interest, corporate, Fox News, donor set that today’s GOP fights tooth and nail to protect, at the expense of working Americans.” Michael Mukasey, who served as George W. Bush’s third and final attorney general, was in attendance. So were Richard Breeden, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during the first Bush presidency, and David McCormick, a former Treasury under secretary during the second Bush presidency who is president of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. Bush doubled-down on his sympathetic views toward undocumented immigrants, a position that has put him at odds with hardline conservatives who oppose amnesty. He also defended his support of the national educational initiative known as Common Core. Bush chose his words carefully so as not to declare himself a candidate, which would make him subject to more rigid campaign finance rules, according to those in attendance. He gave off the strongest impression yet that he is all-in for 2016, however. “It is fair to say that everyone in that room believes that he has every intention of seeing this through,” the insider said. *Politico: “Jeb to come clean” <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/jeb-bush-tax-returns-114045.html?hp=t2_r>* By Ben White January 7, 2015, 3:35 p.m. EST [Subtitle:] Bush is willing to release decade of tax returns, associates say. As he lays the groundwork for a likely presidential campaign, Jeb Bush is prepared to make an early disclosure of a decade or more of personal tax returns, according to people close to the former Florida governor. The effort is meant in large part to eliminate comparisons to 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who waited until September of 2012 to release just two years of tax returns after months of pressure from Democrats and even members of his own party to be more open about his extensive wealth. As Romney held off on the tax return release, Democrats successfully painted him as an out-of-touch multi-millionaire who had something to hide. The nascent Bush campaign – which is already attempting to craft a message to appeal to middle and working class Americans – plans to move early on to crush efforts by either Democrats or rival Republicans to paint the former governor as a super-wealthy creature of Wall Street. Part of that effort was on display this week as Bush announced the creation of his “Right to Rise” political action committee with casual remarks in English and Spanish made directly to the camera on a New York city street and posted on Facebook. The new PAC’s web site shows that Bush is looking to tap into the current national mood of economic populism. “While the last eight years have been pretty good ones for top earners,” the site’s mission statement reads, “they’ve been a lost decade for the rest of America.” This week also displays Bush’s challenge in pushing back against efforts to portray him as a wealthy member of a political dynasty with patrician, Wall Street roots. Bush is scheduled to be in Greenwich, Conn. on Wednesday, home to some of the wealthiest financial elite, for a fundraiser for his newly created PAC. Greenwich was home to Bush family patriarch and former Senator Prescott Bush. No final plans for the release of Bush’s returns or other financial information have been made. But people close to the matter note that as governor of Florida and as a candidate for the office, Bush released over 20 years worth of tax returns. These people say he is prepared to make a similar move in any presidential campaign. “People forget that he spent eight years as governor in a state with the most pro-transparency laws in the country,” a person close to Bush said. “He is used to living in the sunshine. Most of the other likely candidates aren’t.” Candidates for president are not required to release tax returns. But many have done so – to greater and lesser degrees – for decades. Bush associates and other senior Republicans say that in addition to dispelling comparisons to Romney, the effort to be transparent about his finances is also meant to contrast with Hillary Clinton, the favorite for the Democratic nomination. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, amassed tens of millions of dollars over the last 14 years. Republicans are expected to press for disclosure of extensive tax return information as well as more detailed accounting of the finances of the non-profit Clinton Foundation. “It’s smart and the main advantage is that Jeb gets to be in control of the release of this information rather than having that control dictated by his opponents and the media,” said Kevin Madden, a strategist at Hamilton Place Strategies who served as a top adviser and spokesman for Romney in 2012. “You also have more certainty around it by putting it other there and telling the story and then it is not new information coming out later.” Madden added that the Obama campaign in 2012 successfully turned the tax return question into a “character issue” that hurt Romney. “In that sense it would become a character attribute for Jeb Bush to get ahead of it and proactively put this financial information out there.” Bush’s possible plans to release detailed financial information come as the former governor winds down the lucrative corporate board assignments, investment ventures and well-paid public speaking he has done since leaving the Florida governor’s mansion. Bush, who worked as a real estate developer before becoming governor, left office in 2007 with a net worth of just over $1 million and set out to aggressively build wealth for himself and his family. He set up Jeb Bush and Associates, a consulting firm, in 2007. He followed that in 2008 with Britton Hill Partners, the umbrella organization for his investment funds. (Britton Hill is the tallest point in Florida.) Among Bush’s investment ventures are UK-based BH Global Aviation, which raised $61 million – much of it from foreign investors — to invest in Hong Kong-based aviation firm Hawker Pacific and BH Logistics, which is involved in the shale oil industry. Bush served as an adviser to Lehman Brothers before its collapse and later advised Barclays, the British bank that bought Lehman out bankruptcy. Bush ended his relationship with Barclays at the end of 2014. He has also stepped down from the boards of real estate investment trust Rayonier and Tenet Health Care. Bush also ended his role as a paid adviser to for-profit education company Academic Partnerships. He is also no longer accepting the kind of speaking engagements that earned him him tens of thousands of dollars each over the last several years. Tax returns would likely show how much wealth Bush managed to build from these endeavors over the last seven years. However, Bush is still in the process of exiting the private investment funds, people close to the matter say, so gains or losses might not show up in prior years’ returns. They could, however, appear on financial disclosure forms Bush would have to fill out under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act should he formally announce his candidacy for president. In August of 2011, Romney’s disclosure showed a range of between $85 million and $264 million in assets. The campaign later said the figure was between $190 million and $250 million. Bush is not likely to show assets anywhere near that range. Democrats relentlessly attacked Romney for the limited nature of his financial disclosure as well for how he earned the money, much of it through private equity investments at Bain Capital. Some of those investments included restructuring companies in ways that eliminated jobs. Romney never found a strong rebuttal to these critiques though he argued that most of his private equity work actually saved companies that might otherwise have failed. Bush is planning a much earlier and more robust defense of his private sector career. Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell declined to comment on any plans for financial disclosure, saying nothing was finalized as Bush continues to explore a possible run. But she cited the release of 250,000 private emails from Bush’s tenure as governor in arguing that he will set a high standard of transparency. And she said Bush will hide nothing about his private investment or corporate work and that extensive scrutiny of that work will turn up nothing that would damage Bush’s presidential campaign. “There is absolutely nothing about Governor Bush’s business interests that would hinder a run for president in any way,” she said. Democrats, of course, disagree. Outside groups are poring over Bush’s business records and plan to make an issue of how he earned his money after leaving office. “There is no doubt that Jeb’s business career will be heavily scrutinized in the coming months, as it should be,” said Jesse Lehrich of the left-leaning research and tracking organization American Bridge 21st Century. The Bush campaign is banking on American Bridge – and others – coming up empty. *Daily Caller: “Newt On ‘Boring’ Hillary: She’s ‘A Celebrity Like Kim Kardashian’” <http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/07/newt-on-boring-hillary-shes-a-celebrity-like-kim-kardashian/>* By Al Weaver January 7, 2015, 3:44 p.m. EST Note to all: Newt Gingrich really doesn’t think much of a 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential run. In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday night, the former Speaker slammed the former First Lady, telling the host that Hillary is “boring” and compared her to Kim Kardashian. “What is Hillary’s greatest weakness, Mr. Speaker?” Hewitt asked Gingrich. “Boring. She’s just, you know, she’s a celebrity like Kim Kardashian,” Gingrich said. “But I mean, tell me what she’s done, and tell me what she stands for,” Gingrich told the radio host. “I mean, she currently stands for the idea that it’s time for her to be president because she’s been standing around waiting for the time for her to be president.” “So she’d like to be president, because after all, I mean, she and Bill think it would be good to be president, and why don’t we make her president,” the former Speaker said. “Well, that’s not a ticket.” “I mean, I have no idea is she going to be different than Obama, or if she’s going to be Obama’s third term. If she’s going to be different than Obama, can she take the heat of disagreeing with the incumbent Democratic president?” Gingrich asked Hewitt. “And if she’s going to be his third term, do you really think the country’s going to vote for four more years of this mess?” “I just think her candidacy has some big internal contradictions,” the former presidential candidate added. *Calendar:* *Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official schedule.* · January 21 – Saskatchewan, Canada: Sec. Clinton keynotes the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s “Global Perspectives” series (MarketWired <http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/former-us-secretary-state-hillary-rodham-clinton-deliver-keynote-address-saskatoon-1972651.htm> ) · January 21 – Winnipeg, Canada: Sec. Clinton keynotes the Global Perspectives series (Winnipeg Free Press <http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Clinton-coming-to-Winnipeg--284282491.html> ) · February 24 – Santa Clara, CA: Sec. Clinton to Keynote Address at Inaugural Watermark Conference for Women (PR Newswire <http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hillary-rodham-clinton-to-deliver-keynote-address-at-inaugural-watermark-conference-for-women-283200361.html> ) · March 19 – Atlantic City, NJ: Sec. Clinton keynotes American Camp Association conference (PR Newswire <http://www.sys-con.com/node/3254649>)