NY Times:
Jeb Bush shuffled his political team on Monday, moving to address persistent questions surrounding his presidential candidacy a week before he plans to announce his formal entry into the race.
Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor who has struggled at times to present a compelling vision and establish himself as more than the son and brother of presidents, said Monday that he was naming Danny Diaz, a hard-charging operative who had been serving as an outside consultant, as his campaign manager.
Politico:
The changes at the top weren’t the only recent personnel moves. Matt Lira, a former National Republican Senatorial Committee official and one of the party’s top digital strategists, decided to depart recently under unclear circumstances. Lira, according to a source, felt that the Bush campaign was too focused on TV advertising and not enough on building a digital presence – which is what he’d planned to do. Bush’s team would only say that Lira had done some work for the political team, but it wouldn’t say what that was or why he left.
As in any campaign reshuffling, there are conflicting accounts about the level of squabbling and back-stabbing that took place, but most sources familiar with the campaign’s inner workings agreed that both [David] Kochel and [Sally] Bradshaw had different personalities that sometimes didn’t mix.
No longer the frontrunner, no longer leading in the polls, and no longer the model of the professional campaign. He's been out of the game a long time. Come to think of it, what does he have going for him?
WaPo:
A super PAC backing former Florida governor Jeb Bush is likely to fall short of collecting $100 million by the end of this month, despite widespread expectations that the group would hit that record-breaking sum, according to people close to the operation.
They'll have plenty of money, just not enough to buy the election.
More politics and policy below the fold.
Michael Gerson:
Rand Paul’s presidential campaign, by many recent accounts, is sputtering. The candidate, according to the Atlantic’s Molly Ball, is “flailing.” His campaign, reports National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar, has been called a “disaster.”
These judgments, even if true, are provisional. Pretty much any candidate in the Republican pack is one killer debate performance, one strong poll result, one especially good fundraising report away from a narrative of resurgence.
But there is little question that the initial, ineffable appeal of the Paul campaign has faded.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D):
A recent study by the American Civil Liberties Union found that blacks and Native Americans in Minneapolis are nine times more likely to be arrested for low-level offenses than whites. The study was released two weeks after 10-year-old Taye Montegomery was pepper sprayed while peacefully protesting against police brutality in Minneapolis. “At least I got maced and not shot,” Taye said.
Taye’s not being overly dramatic: young black men are 21 times more likely to be shot by police than young white men in US.
Steve Benen:
At a German press conference yesterday after the G7 Summit, President Obama fielded a question about the pending King v. Burwell case at the Supreme Court. The president noted what is already plainly true to everyone involved in the process: “[T]his should be an easy case,” Obama said, “Frankly, it probably shouldn’t even have been taken up.”
And once he got started talking about the Affordable Care Act, it seemed the president just couldn’t help himself. “What’s more, the thing is working,” Obama added. “I mean, part of what’s bizarre about this whole thing is we haven’t had a lot of conversation about the horrors of Obamacare because none of them come to pass.”
Today, the president was back in the nation’s capital, and went even further while delivering remarks at the Catholic Hospital Association Conference, offering a candid, spirited defense of one of his signature domestic policy initiatives.
Funny thing is, I remember spending a lot of time on this site defending ACA. Sure, it's not single payer. But it's tough enough getting this done.
Dennis Hastert:
After days of silence, J. Dennis Hastert, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he illegally structured bank withdrawals and lied to the authorities about millions of dollars he had promised to pay someone for misconduct that occurred decades ago.
It's about child sexual abuse, Coach. The rest is detail.
LA Times:
National headlines ask: "The End of California?" News stories track the diminishing snowpack and disappearing reservoirs, and a small fish in the Delta is scapegoated, almond growers and consumers are shamed and the mythology of Western resolve is questioned.
The crisis has led many to wonder whether the state has lost its historic resilience.
But the drama hides reality and for those who have studied California's long relationship with its water, the drought is serious but hardly a disaster.
"The sky is not falling," said Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California.
Love that first paragraph!
Ruth Marcus:
All of which presents an easy narrative for political reporters: Egged on by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), heels nipped by rivals Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, Clinton wants to get right with a skeptical base whose turnout is essential.
Except, nothing Clinton is saying is outside the 2015 Democratic Party mainstream — or, more to the point, is likely to hurt her in a general election.
Sure, the Clinton campaign wants to placate the base. But if Clinton’s recent positions are pandering, this is pandering with a purpose, and without an obvious cost. She’s saying everything she can to make the left happy — without backing herself into a left-wing corner. Where’s the downside in chiding Republicans on voting rights?