THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL

White House Watch

The President’s Schedule A pretty quiet day for President Obama today:

At 11 AM, he will deliver the keynote address at the National Peace Officers

Memorial Service on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. National Peace

Officers Day, which is celebrated on May 15, honors local, state, and federal

peace officers. The holiday was first created by presidential proclamation in

1962. The Memorial Service at the Capitol, which has been held every year

since 1981, honors peace officers killed in the line of duty since the last

Peace Officers Day, and it is traditional that the President speaks.

At 12:30 PM, President Obama and Vice President Biden will have lunch

together in the Private Dining Room of the White House.

The President will, of course, be speaking with advisors throughout the day,

and boy, do they have a lot to talk about. Right now, the Obama

Administration is in the midst of a trifecta of scandals: questions on the

September attack on the Benghazi, Libya attack and the Administration’s

response to it and what they were doing before it to make sure the embassy

had enough security; the admission by the IRS that they targeted

conservative groups by name for special scrutiny at the tax-exempt division;

and a new one, that the Justice Department has seized records from more

than 20 AP telephone lines. As The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza put it

yesterday, “It’s only Tuesday, but President Obama is already in the midst of

one of the worst weeks…of his Administration.”

State faces questions over Benghazi; the IRS is deep in a scandal over targeting Tea

Party groups; and now it’s been reported that Justice seized AP phone records.

What more could go wrong for the President this week?

On the IRS front, the Justice Department and FBI began an investigation of

the scandal after agency officials apologized last week. And on Tuesday, a

report from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax

Administration released a report on the scandal, saying that the IRS used

“inappropriate criteria” when giving special scrutiny to Tea Party groups.

Read the report here.

In addition, President Obama released a written statement on the Inspector

General’s report, saying

Vice Presidential Schedule At 2:30 PM, Vice President Biden will meet

with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic at the White House.

Wake Up To Politics Exclusive Interview with

Chris Koster

For the first-ever Wake Up To Politics exclusive interview, I sat down with the

Attorney General of Missouri, Chris Koster. Mr. Koster is basically Missouri’s

attorney, the chief legal officer of the Show-Me State. Missourians account for

over 40% of the Wake Up To Politics mailing list, so I, being the math genius (not)

that I am, know that means 60% of you do not, like me, hail from the Gateway to

the West. Still, though, I think my interview with Attorney General Koster might

“I have now had the opportunity to review the Treasury Department watchdog’s report on its

investigation of IRS personnel who improperly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-

exempt status. And the report’s findings are intolerable and inexcusable. The federal

government must conduct itself in a way that’s worthy of the public’s trust, and that’s

especially true for the IRS. The IRS must apply the law in a fair and impartial way, and its

employees must act with utmost integrity. This report shows that some of its employees failed

that test.

I’ve directed Secretary Lew to hold those responsible for these failures accountable, and to

make sure that each of the Inspector General’s recommendations are implemented quickly, so

that such conduct never happens again. But regardless of how this conduct was allowed to

take place, the bottom line is, it was wrong. Public service is a solemn privilege. I expect

everyone who serves in the federal government to hold themselves to the highest ethical and

moral standards. So do the American people. And as President, I intend to make sure our

public servants live up to those standards every day.”

interest you. Before I start, I would like to thank Mr. Koster for consenting to this

interview in his Jefferson City office and for taking me around the Capitol. And I

also cannot thank the Hykens enough (Rusty, Julie, and Court – Wake Up

subscribers all) for taking me to Jeff City in the first place!!!!

The Attorney General just won a second four-year term last November, getting

55.9% of the vote against his Republican opponent, attorney/politician Ed Martin,

who is now the Chairman of the Missouri Republican Party. Right after the 100th

day-mark of his new term passed, I asked Koster about his priorities for his next

four years in the Attorney General’s office.

He told me about one of the challenges that he was working on at the moment – the

Bridgeton landfill case. As Koster put it, “…there’s a landfill, an old quarry that is

filled with trash that is on fire up near the airport. Right now, we are working on a

plan to cap it, to reduce the incredible odor that is coming from it, but in doing

that, we have to temporarily do a few things that will make the odor even worse

than it is today. That will be the temporary situation and we’ll put it back hopefully

very quickly but when…[we go] into this temporary situation…people are going to

find it really pretty smelly up there and hard to have a quality of life for a few

days.” The Attorney General also spoke about what his office was doing to address

the problem: “We are right now in the process of making sure all the human health

issues are addressed, all the people are moved into temporary living situations out

of their homes, and all that is happening really quickly over the next few days…”

Koster also told me that he is working to “structurally leave the Attorney General’s

office in the best possible condition,” by “keeping…the physical structures up to

date, the computers up to date, and the salaries competitive with salaries in the

private sector…”

One of the issues from the 2012 campaign that looms large across the country

today is gun control. Chris Koster was endorsed by the NRA and given an “A”

rating from the group in the last election, and was the only statewide Democratic

candidate in Missouri to earn one or both of those things. When asked if he

supported the gun deal that had been reached, and had failed, in the Senate, the

Attorney General said “…I think that the U.S. Senate needs to find a way to keep

guns out of the hands of criminals and out of the hands of the mentally ill, and it

seems to me that that is a very attainable goal, and I’m disappointed they didn’t

make more progress achieving that.” He did however, say that he supported the

NRA, but still said that he “agree[d] with most Missourians, most Americans that

we need find a way to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and out of the hands

of the mentally ill.”

And while that may have been the last time he will run for Attorney General, I

asked Mr. Koster about the likelihood of a Koster gubernatorial campaign in 2016.

Since the Democratic incumbent, Jay Nixon, will be term-limited, Attorney

General Koster has been seen as the most likely Democratic nominee for Missouri

Governor in light of State Treasurer Clint Zwiefel’s announcement that he would

not run. Koster told me that “… we are moving around the state right now and

meeting people and trying to see if there’s a consensus there for a candidacy and

building consensus, building support. And then, at some point in time, in the

future, we’ll make an announcement, most likely that we would be running.” The

Attorney General refused to go into much speculation about 2016, saying that he

didn’t “… want to look so far ahead that I miss the opportunities that are here right

now. This job that I am fortunate enough to serve in is an incredible job, a fantastic

job, and sometimes in life it’s easy to look downfield to a different time and miss

the real opportunities that are occurring right now, so I’m trying not to spend too

much time looking too far ahead, because we’re trying to build the best Attorney

General’s office that we can, and I’ve got a limited period of time to do that in, and

I want to make sure that I don’t waste that time.”

Today In…

1756 England officially declares war on France, beginning hat is known as

the Seven Years War or the French and Indian War. The two nations had

been battling for control of North America for years, but this particular War

started as France claimed territory in the Ohio River valley. The fighting

dragged on for, well, seven years, until the Treaties of Hubertusburg and

Paris were signed in February 1763, banishing France from Canada, giving

Louisiana to Spain, and giving Britain Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and

other French land around the globe.

The Seven Years War had a number of effects on the next war Great Britain

would fight: the American Revolution, which began 12 years after the

French and Indian War ended. 1) America’s fight for independence kind of

all started following the unfair English taxes on paper, tea, etc., even though

Americans had no representative in Parliament. The British needed the

money because of the debts the country were in following their war with

France, so they justified the taxes on the colonists by saying that they had

protected them from the French in the war. Also, it was the wounds that had

been inflicted in the French and Indian War that led to France aiding

America as they fought the British. Without French help, the Patriots might

never have been able to win the Revolution and secure independence.

1800 President John Adams orders that the federal government leave

Philadelphia for the new national capital, known as the District of Colombia.

Today was the last meeting of Congress to be held in Philly, and the city

officially ended its service as the capital on June 11, with Washington, D.C.

replacing it on June 15. All 125 federal employees had moved in, but the

President and his wife Abigail would not move into the new Executive

Mansion until November.

1969 Following the filibuster of his nomination as Chief Justice, and amid

investigation into a scandal over legal fees, Supreme Court Justice Abe

Fortas announced that he was resigning from the Court.

1972 As he campaigns for the Democratic presidential

nomination at an outdoor event in Laurel, Maryland, Alabama

Governor George Wallace is shot by a 21-year-old named

Arthur Bremer. Wallace was permanently paralyzed from the

waist down, and he stayed in a hospital for many months

following the shooting. On the up side, the day after the

shooting, Wallace won victories in the Michigan and

Maryland primaries. But his extended hospital stay effectively

ended his third run for the Presidency. On another note, even

though he remained in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, four

years later, Wallace ran his fourth consecutive presidential bid.

Happy Birthday To…

Madeline Albright The first woman Secretary of State turns 76 today.

Kathleen Sibelius It is the 65th

birthday of President Obama’s Health and

Human Services Secretary.

Richard J. Daley This would be the 111th birthday of the Mayor of Chicago

from 1955 to 1976. He is the second longest serving Mayor of the city,

surpassed only by his son, Richard M. Daley, who served from 1989 to

2011.

Question of the Day

Today’s Question When Madeline Albright was born 76 years ago today it

was not in the United States, but in Czechoslovakia. She is one of 20

Cabinet secretaries to be born out of the U.S. Can you name the first

foreign-born Cabinet secretary and/or the most recent?

Yesterday’s Answer Yesterday I asked in which elections did both major-

party presidential nominees share a home state. Possible answers were 1860,

Abe Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas, both of Illinois; 1920, Warren G. Harding

vs. James Cox, both of Ohio; and 1944, Franklin Roosevelt vs. Wendell

Willkie, both of New York. GREAT JOB…Steve Gitnik, Marlee Millman,

and Ross Brewer, who all got at least one of those matchups! Also, Steve

Gitnik gets extra credit for pointing out that George Bush and Michael

Dukakis, the 1988 presidential candidates, were both born in Massachusetts,

although Bush would consider Texas his home state. Thanks for answering

everybody!