A protester flew a gyrocopter onto the Capitol lawn, making it the seventh-craziest Tax Day protest to occur there in recent memory. Today we mark the birth of Leonardo Da Vinci, whose dream of publicizing campaign finance reform by landing his ornithopter on the National Mall never materialized. And on that note, if Martin O’Malley isn’t planning a meandering, Maryland-to-Iowa gyrocopter listening tour, he needs to fire his entire political staff, pronto. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, April 15th, 2015:
::SUBMITS 'CORKER-CARDIN TICK TOCK,' WAITS FOR CLICKS:: - Hottest behind-the-scenes action since Gov Exec's "How Chris Coons's Machiavellian Tactics Brought Congressional Office Supplies Appropriations Across The Finish Line." Manu Raju and Burgess Everett: "As talks intensified through the weekend, Cardin served as a liaison between Corker and the White House, relaying concerns voiced by the president’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, and reassuring Obama about the emerging deal along the way. Meanwhile, Corker, a blunt-spoken Tennessee Republican with a heavy drawl, was burning up the phones over the two-week congressional recess, keeping at bay presidential hopefuls like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as he sought to find a middle ground on the highly charged issue...The Cardin-Corker détente over a centerpiece of Obama’s foreign policy legacy showed that sometimes the best way for congressional leaders to get a deal on a contentious issue is to stay out of it. 'Sen. Reid made it very clear to me that I was responsible and in charge, and he said, there’s one leader in this issue, and I was the person,' Cardin said in an interview Tuesday. 'He gave me complete authority to negotiate.'" [Politico]
MAN LANDS GYROCOPTER ON CAPITOL GROUNDS - And here everyone thought that Bulgolgi Wednesday at the Dirksen North Cafe would be the day's highlight. Steven Dennis: "A man has been arrested after flying a small gyrocopter onto the West Front of the Capitol, prompting Capitol Police to briefly lock down the building. The Tampa Bay Times reported a 61-year-old mailman named Doug Hughes planned to fly to the Capitol to deliver a message on campaign finance and identified him as the person arrested. Witnesses described a man flying on a gyrocopter — a contraption looking like a bike with helicopter wings. They told CQ Roll Call the copter was very loud and flew toward the Capitol from the direction of the National Mall." [Roll Call]
They see me rollin'...
U go grl: "About 1 a.m. one night last spring, a Secret Service agent accompanied by a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy rang Doug Hughes' doorbell...The agent asked him questions about his plan to save America, he said, and Hughes was honest in his replies, if not totally forthcoming with details. Yes, he did own a gyrocopter. Yes, he keeps it in a hangar at the small airport in Wauchula. Yes, he had talked of doing something big to bring attention to the issue of campaign finance reform. No, he was not planning to crash into any buildings or monuments in Washington, D.C." [Tampa Bay Times]
Also this: "Richard Burns, 27, who said he works for a marijuana lobby group in Washington, stood in wonder and solidarity. 'I don't know whatever it was he was doing but I support him.' The Capitol was briefly placed on lockdown during Hughes' landing." [Ibid.]
Haircuts: Former Wisconsin Senator Bob Kasten (h/t Nihilist In Boat Shoes)
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Republicans have a split personality when it comes to food stamps. In March, congressional Republicans unveiled a budget that could kick 11 million Americans off food stamps in future years. On Wednesday, however, Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, invited witnesses to testify about the effectiveness of food stamps. One of the witnesses, Keleigh Green-Patton of South Holland, Illinois, had received SNAP benefits at various times in her life. "Without this program, I wouldn’t have been able to start my new career," Green-Patton said. "Many people call SNAP a safety net, but for me it was like a trampoline -- bouncing my family back into work and a brighter future." [HuffPost]
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GOOD RIDDANCE, DOC FIX - Now that this and seersucker Thursday are both gone, Congress might finally be turning a corner on its worst habits. Jeff Young: "At long last, Congress on Tuesday killed off a policy with no defenders that has served as an excuse for crisis-motivated legislating for years. Over the past decade and change, the term 'doc fix' became shorthand for a nearly annual process by which Congress, facing a big, unintended cut to how much Medicare pays physicians, would scramble to find some way to stop it, as doctors issued loud, mostly empty threats to stop treating Medicare patients. This happened 17 times between 2003 and 2014. Seventeen times...This embarrassing legislative ritual could be seen a precursor to the fiscal brinksmanship and dysfunctional governance that has become more the rule than the exception in Washington. But this year, somehow, Republican and Democratic lawmakers came together, led by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), with the full-throated support of President Barack Obama, to overwhelmingly pass a $141 billion bill that fixes the doc fix, and it's is headed to the White House." [HuffPost]
HILL DEMOCRATS RALLYING AROUND CLINTON - Though Senator Hans Moleman remains firmly in Jim Webb's corner. The Hill: "Ninety-one Democratic lawmakers have endorsed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 run for president, according to a survey by The Hill. Sixty-three House lawmakers, just over one-third of the 188 Democrats in the chamber, and 28 senators, over 60 percent of the upper chamber’s 46 Democrats, are in the former secretary of State's camp. The early tally nearly equals the 93 endorsements she picked up in her 2008 presidential bid...Clinton, who is running to become the first female president, has support from 21 of the 65 female Democrats in the House. In 2013, all of the Democratic women then serving in the Senate wrote a private letter to Clinton urging her to run. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) also signed that letter, but progressives are urging the Massachusetts senator to enter the 2016 contest herself." [The Hill]
CHRIS CHRISTIE DECIDES DEAD CHILDREN ARE BAD POLITICS - Look, the guy was going to eventually tell someone at a town hall with whooping cough to shut up, so this seems like an attempt to ward off that scenario. Igor Bobic: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Wednesday expressed his full support for vaccines for children, telling a woman who favors a conscientious belief objection that he 'cannot be someone who supports voluntary vaccination.' 'Yeah, no you can’t count on me for that,' Christie said, garnering a round of applause from nearly 300 people gathered at a town hall in Londonderry, New Hampshire. 'I would err on the side of protecting public health through vaccine unless that vaccine has proven to be harmful to the public.' … The likely 2016 presidential contender took a much different approach in early February, when he said while in the United Kingdom that 'parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that's the balance that the government has to decide.'" [HuffPost]
It was fun while it lasted.
POLL: AMERICANS WANT CONGRESS INVOLVED IN IRAN FRAMEWORK - A strong follow-up question would be "What is Congress?" Janie Velencia: "A significant majority of Americans want Congress to be involved in the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran, according to a new Suffolk University/USA Today poll conducted April 8-13. The national survey of 1,000 Americans found that 72 percent -- a majority of Democrats, Republicans, and independents -- want Congress to have a say on whether the United States should support the deal. Only 19 percent disagree...A March survey from Pew Research also found strong support for Congressional involvement in any agreement. Sixty-two percent of Americans said that Congress should have the final decision on the deal, while 29 percent said Obama should." [HuffPost]
VOIR SAY-WHAAAAAAT??? - Do you think other justices rib each other for not getting selected to juries? WaPo: "One potential juror who was considered for a civil trial in Montgomery County on Wednesday morning could have brought a lot to the jury room. He’s the chief justice of the United States. John G. Roberts Jr. showed up for jury duty in Rockville like other civic-minded citizens and was being considered for a civil trial in a case involving a car crash. He answered two questions in open court about relatives — noting that his sister in Indiana is a nurse, and his brother-in-law was with Indiana State Police — but none about his own line of work, which would be listed on a questionnaire. He then talked with attorneys and the judge privately at the bench. Roberts was not selected, and left court without comment." [WaPo]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a dog dicking around with an iPad.
COLBERT PORTRAIT COMING DOWN - Jason Dick: "Stephen Colbert’s portrait is coming down from its rightful spot in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, on the second floor between the bathrooms and above the water fountain. The painting of Colbert in full satiric regalia with tchotchkes was loaned to the Smithsonian by 'The Colbert Report' in December as part of the hoopla surrounding the show’s final season. The portrait’s last day in its place of honor is April 19, well before Colbert starts playing it straight as he replaces the retiring David Letterman on CBS’s 'Late Show' on Sept. 8. In 2008, the museum installed a portrait of Colbert, then eventually sent it to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The most recent portrait is heading back to Comedy Central, according to Marielba Alvarez, public affairs associate at the Portrait Gallery." [Roll Call]
COMFORT FOOD
- Child's reaction to Scar killing Mufasa will produce all the feels
- Puppet absolutely killing Rush's "Tom Sawyer."
- Yes, Dennis Quaid's freakout was a hoax.
TWITTERAMA
It's like:
Worst Jobs:
1. Newspaper Reporter
2. Prospector
3. Buggy Driver
4. Anything at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
@imillhiser: Could someone please unleash two llamas at the Capitol because that would make for the BEST CABLE NEWS EVER!
@TonyRomm: The copter may have crashed but the Takes are about to
Take
Flight
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