Hillary Clinton will announce her presidential campaign Sunday, her presidential campaign announced. On this day in history, the Confederacy's mission of ending the North's politics of division and race-baiting was mercilessly snuffed out. And the Dodd-Frank financial reform prompted a major reshuffling at GE. All the staffers who worked on the bill are popping champagne bottles in their lobbying offices right now. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, April 10th, 2015:
CLINTON ANNOUNCING SUNDAY, WILL RAISE LOTS OF MONEY - David Freedlander: "Hillary Clinton will announce her presidential campaign this Sunday, sources in the Clinton operation tell The Daily Beast. After that, the nascent campaign will embark on a fundraising push that the Clinton camp says will dwarf anything seen in the history of presidential politics. 'They are going to raise in one week what some Republican presidential candidates are going to raise the entire cycle,” said one Clinton aide. On Saturday afternoon, Ready for Hillary, the super PAC that has been a Clinton campaign-in-waiting in the years since Clinton left the State Department, will host what is likely a final fundraising push at SouthwestNY, a sleek Tex-Mex restaurant steps from the rebuilt World Trade Center. From then on, Ready for Hillary will encourage its 3.6 million supporters to give to Clinton’s real campaign while the super PAC quietly dissolves." [Daily Beast]
CLINTON CONFIDANTS HOLD OFF-RECORD DINNER WITH REPORTERS - "See, what Phillip really meant to say when he told you to gargle a glass of thumbtacks…" Michael Calderone: "Hillary Clinton's campaign team held an off-the-record dinner Thursday night in Washington, D.C., for roughly two dozen journalists and staff members at John Podesta's house, according to sources familiar with the matter. The dinner signals that the Clinton team is trying to engage with top reporters in the days before the Democrat's expected announcement of a 2016 presidential run. It also suggests the new campaign team is looking to change course from the toxic relationship with the press that plagued the 2008 race. The Clinton team is also holding a private event in New York on Friday night for journalists, according to sources. Podesta, the campaign chairman and a seasoned cook, made a pasta with walnut sauce for the dinner guests, which included reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, McClatchy, Reuters and several major TV networks." [HuffPost]
Oh, right: "With the announcement of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid close at hand, one of her potential Democratic rivals, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, says it could be late May before he shares his decision about moving forward. O’Malley said in an interview Thursday night that there are “fewer and fewer” factors left for him to weigh and that he continues to hear from fellow Democrats that “our country’s looking for new leadership.” But O’Malley said he remains engaged in conversations with friends and family about what would be 'a colossal undertaking.'" [WaPo]
SINCE HILLARY MIGHT RUN FOR PRESIDENT... Did you know that the Clintons had a dog named Buddy who died when he was hit by a car? And that the Clintons subsequently bought a dog named Seamus? Can't think of where we've heard that name for a dog before. [Old ABCNews story]
CBO analyzed the budgetary impact of the Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act with its usual dry wit: "CBO estimates that implementing the bill would not have a significant cost because the use of government property for unauthorized purposes is already prohibited."
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Former welfare recipient Chelsi Henry writes that state laws banning poor people from spending benefits on steak and cruise ships are a good idea. "My hope is that the Kansas and Missouri bills are the start of demanding more accountability across the board for the way taxpayer money is spent." Indeed. We look forward to proposals to drug-test beneficiaries of America's biggest housing subsidy, the mortgage interest deduction. [WaPo]
DAVE DOWNER - The use of restrictive noncompete agreements with low-wage workers may have made a laughingstock of Jimmy John's last year, but so far the sandwich chain is doing just fine defending those agreements in court. [HuffPost's Dave Jamieson]
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DODD-FRANK TAKES SCALP -Zach Carter: "General Electric said Friday that it will sell off most of its financial operations, in what will be the most dramatic restructuring of the American banking system yet effected under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. 'I see this as a win not just for too-big-to-fail, but for the extension of the regulatory perimeter in Dodd-Frank,' said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform...GE will sell off real estate assets to Wells Fargo and the private equity firm Blackstone. The industrial behemoth will retain its financing operations related to aircraft, energy and health care, but the overall value of its banking business will shrink to $90 billion, down from $538 billion in 2008 and $363 billion at the end of 2014. GE said it would "work closely" with regulators to take whatever action is needed to shed its status as a 'Systemically Important Financial Institution,' which subjects the firm to tougher capital and regulatory standards." [HuffPost]
AMERICANS SUPPORT IRAN DEAL: POLL - Mike McAuliff: "Americans mostly approve of the outline of the Iran nuclear deal, and don't want Congress to block it, according to a poll released Friday. The survey by Hart Research on behalf of the Democratically-aligned Americans United for Change found that 61 percent of the country favor the deal, while 34 percent oppose it. And perhaps more importantly, 65 percent of voters don't want Congress to block the deal, compared to 30 percent who do. The poll, done this week of 806 voters, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. It also reveals a partisan divide on the issue, with Republican voters being the only ones who oppose the deal -- 52 to 41 percent -- and who are split on whether Congress should interfere, with 48 percent saying to block it, and 47 wanting the lawmakers to let it advance. For its questions, the survey largely adopts the descriptions of the United States government, although Iranians have characterized some points differently." [HuffPost]
@ianbremmer: BREAKING: British PM bores small child to death.
PUTTIN' ON ON THE RITZ - Presumably Harry Reid uses room service to have the walnuts he crushes with his bare hands delivered. Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman: "Washington has a new Watergate: the Ritz-Carlton Residences. Harry Reid practically ran the Senate Democratic Caucus from his second-floor apartment after his eye injury earlier this year. He could have sought out advice from former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who became the most recent power player to move in. He plunked down $2.175 million for a three-bedroom apartment in January, according to Washington, D.C., property records...The Daschles have already started making use of the posh amenities, throwing a catered and open-bar bash in mid-March for about 100 current and former aides and political allies in the first-floor Guarisco Art Gallery at the Ritz. Attendees included Democratic pooh-bah John Podesta, the expected chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign; Pete Rouse, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama; Maryland Democratic congressional candidate Glenn Ivey; Julianna Smoot, former Obama White House social secretary and onetime Daschle fundraiser; and South Dakota-based political strategist Steve Hildebrand." [Politico]
The Oregon Trail, but for Republicans.
LAFFER LOL - The Washington Post's Jim Tankersley has a good story on the inexplicable staying power of Art Laffer in Republican campaigns. "Laffer is as confident as ever -- and so are many of the Republicans who follow his proposals. 'What I tell candidates today -- and there are not many who are very economically literate -- is to push something simple, or do something that has worked in the past,' he said. 'I’ve been to this barbecue before,” he added. “Today is almost exactly like 1978,' two years before Reagan’s election." The top marginal tax rate in 1978 was nearly 70 percent. Thanks, Art! [WaPo]
Here's Glenn Kessler taking a whack at Rand Paul's most recent Lafferism. Major Pinocchio territory.
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here are kids meeting their siblings for the first time.
CAPITOL POLICE CHIEF RESIGNING - Bridget Bowman and Emma Dumain: "U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim C. Dine has submitted a letter of resignation to the Capitol Police Board, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation have confirmed to CQ Roll Call....A recent CQ Roll Call report detailed growing frustration among rank-and-file officers regarding alleged policies passed down from department brass that officers should not participate in 'low value' stops around the Capitol campus." [Roll Call]
COMFORT FOOD
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" performed by hard drives.
- Dog really takes Sam Smith to heart.
- Japan is making some impressive yogurt advances.
TWITTERAMA
@brianbeutler: Chafee/Clinton '16
@timothypmurphy: Pretty sure "watch Mike Huckabee debate Christianity with Bill Maher" was actually part of the Unabomber's sentence
@mattbai: Per @nytimes, Clinton campaign aiming at "everyday Americans." Not those of us who are Americans only on weekends, and sometimes Tuesday.
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