Updated at 11:35 am EDT

President Barack Obama acknowledged a federal investigation of terrorism today, the day after the fatal bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

“This was a heinous and cowardly act,” Obama said at a press briefing in the White House before noon. “Given what we now what about what has taken place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism; Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror.

“What we don’t know, however, is who carried out this attack or why,” he said,  and whether it was executed by an international or terrorist organization “or a malevolent individual… But we will find out..”

“We also know this” Obama said, “that the American people refuse to be terrorized.”

Photo of POTUS mtg w FBI Dir Mueller et al this am:

— petesouza (@petesouza) April 16, 2013

“Yesterday, terror was brought to the city of Boston,” Tom Menino, longtime mayor of Boston, said this morning, the morning after a bombing at the finish line of the marathon on the city’s Patriots Day, an attack that claimed three lives and injured more than 150. “This is a tragedy, but Boston is a strong city,” he said. “Boston will overcome.”

The White House is deeply involved in an investigation spearheaded by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said at an FBI briefing in Boston where the mayor, governor and others spoke.

“We did not have to reach out to the president,” Warren, a Democrat, said. “The president reached out to us… The president is actively involved here.”

“We will go to the ends of the Earth” to find those responsible,  Rick Deslauriers, the FBI’s special agent in charge, said at the press briefing.

It’s worth noting, as has been noted in Boston and elsewhere, that the president did not publicly call the Boston bombings an act of terrrorism yesterday, though federal officials were saying so privately.

From the Boston Globe: “In a three-minute address from the White House, Obama urged caution, saying “people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts.”

“Significantly, reflecting caution about the unknown motive and perpetrators, the president himself did not call the incident a terrorist attack. However, a White House official speaking after the president’s remarks but only on the condition of anonymity, said that the administration views it that way.”

“Any event with multiple explosive devices – as this appears to be – is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror,” a White House official said. “However, we don’t yet know who carried out this attack, and a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was planned and carried out by a terrorist group, foreign or domestic.”

The people who lived through this attack were terrorized. The motive, still unknown to the public, will determine how official Washington characterizes it. The scope of the bombing is not as wide as originally feared yesterday.

“It’s important to clarify that two, and only two, explosive devices were found yesterday,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said at the briefing. “Other parcels in the area have been examined. There are no unexploded bombs.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has 30 agents on the scene, according to Gene Marquez, ATF agent in charge. They are scouring the area and people who were there for any video or media evidence. “The scene is going to take several days to process,” Marquez said.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz pledged today to “get to the bottom of who did this and why.”

We are a strong city. We will pull together as neighbors.

— Mayor Tom Menino (@mayortommenino) April 16, 2013

However this attack in Boston is eventually labeled, the deaths and injuries and stunning nature of an assault on the general public in a celebratory event is a reminder, once again, of what a difference one terrible day can make:

GOOD LUCK to all the runners headed to start of @bostonmarathon & THANK YOU to all the volunteers who make today such a great one in Boston.

— Mayor Tom Menino (@mayortommenino) April 15, 2013

Original post is ‘Terror’ in Boston, by Any Other Name — Obama Today: ‘Terrorism’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Massachusetts Governor's Office

This undated photo released by the Massachusetts Governor’s office shows
William “Mo” Cowan, right, former chief of staff for Gov. Deval Patrick.

William “Mo” Cowan, the choice of Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick for John Kerry’s Senate seat, is joining a chamber that will have two black members for the first time in its history.

Cowan, a Democratic lawyer and Patrick’s former chief of staff, will join a Senate that includes Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who entered the Senate by way of appointment this month as the first black senator from the South since the Reconstruction era more than a century ago.

At the same time, Cowan will serve on an interim basis for about five months and isn’t running in a special election planned June 25. Kerry is vacating his Senate seat on Friday to become Secretary of State.

Cowan will become just the eighth black senator in history, adding his name to a short list that includes President Barack Obama, who was an Illinois senator for four years. Obama’s successor, Democrat Roland Burris, served for less than two years on an interim basis; one of their predecessors, Democrat Carol Moseley Braun, served from 1993 to 1999 and remains the only black female senator in history.

Edward Brooke, a Massachusetts Republican who held the seat Cowan will assume, served from 1967 to 1979 as the first black senator to enter the chamber by popular vote.

Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, both Mississippi Republicans, served in the Senate during the Reconstruction era, though never together.

Original post is Senate: Two Black Members a First by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Sen. John Kerry testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become the next Secretary of State on Capitol Hill on Jan. 24, 2013.

That’s how many votes Sen. John Kerry received yesterday as he was confirmed by the Senate to be the next secretary of state.

Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, received the same number of votes for confirmation as his predecessor, former Sen. and first lady Hillary Clinton, who became the top U.S. diplomat in 2009.

After Kerry’s easy confirmation, “attention will turn to Obama’s more contentious choices for other national security positions,” including Chuck Hagel for defense secretary, Bloomberg’s Indira A.R. Lakshmanan wrote yesterday.

Kerry’s confirmation also paves the way for him to resign the Senate seat he has held since 1985. Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick will appoint an interim senator who will serve through a special election on June 25. Democratic Rep. Ed Markey is running in the special election.

The dissenters were Republicans Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Texans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. Kerry voted “present.”

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 94 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte.

A petition drive aimed at nudging Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to  put the ever-fiesty Barney Frank temporarily into the Senate seat vacated by John Kerry’s confirmation as secretary of state ended up collecting close to 10,000 signatures — and won’t be submitted.

John F. Kelley, the Massachusetts resident who launched the petition push with the help of the MoveOn.org liberal advocacy group, gave us an update today on the signatures, but also said he had been advised recently by an aide to Frank, who last year didn’t seek re-election after 32 years in the House, not to pass it along to the Patrick’s office.

Patrick, according to local press reports, didn’t care for Frank’s open declaration in early January that he wanted the governor to pick him, and Kelley said he was told it wouldn’t be “politically expedient” for him to turn in his petitions.

Kelley accepted the political setback with good grace, saying simply of his bid to help out Frank: “It was a valiant effort.”

The Boston Globe reported today that the leading contenders for the interim appointment, which Patrick, a Democrat, is expected to announce tomorrow, include a former top aide, William “Mo” Cowan, and Victoria ­Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

The newspaper said that Patrick, the nation’s second-ever black governor, “has suggested he will choose a woman or a person of color to reflect the changing face of politics in Massachusetts.”

Cowan, if he gets the seat, would be the sixth black to serve as a senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction period ended in the late 1870s. And he would give the Senate two black members at the same time, joining South Carolina Republican Tim Scott, who earlier this month took over the seat that Jim DeMint gave up.

This burst (relatively speaking) of racial diversity in the Senate, if it happens, apparently would be short-lived. Patrick has indicated he will only select someone for the Kerry seat who won’t then seek it in a special election he plans to schedule for June 25.

Scott, named to his seat by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, will hold it for two years, under the state’s laws. He has said he will then run for it in a 2014 special election.

Original post is Barney Frank Senate Petition Push Appears for Naught by Political Capital.

Photograph by Cliff Owen/AP Photo

Retiring Rep. Barney Frank on Capitol Hill on Jan. 3, 2013, prior to the start of the 113th Congress.

Barney Frank broke somewhat with traditional political decorum — such as that is — with his public pitch to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat that will come open upon Democrat John Kerry’s expected confirmation by his colleagues as secretary of state.

“Coach, put me in,” Frank memorably said last week on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, confirming that he has asked Gov. Deval Patrick to make him the interim appointee until a special election is held later this year to fill Kerry’s seat through the 2014 election.

Frank’s cause now is getting some active public support, courtesy of a petition drive started yesterday by Norfolk, Massachusetts, resident John F. Kelley, 63.

Upon hearing of Frank’s desire to follow his 32-year House career with a brief Senate stint, Kelley told us today that he thought to himself, “There’s got to be something we can do here” to help make that happen.

So, as a member of the MoveOn.org liberal advocacy group, Kelley launched his petition effort through the group’s online platform, SignOn.org. That means the petition will be sent to all Massachusetts MoveOn members, Kelley said.  He also posted his pro-Frank push on his Facebook page.

Kelley, a semi-retired telecom executive, said his effort had garnered about 5,000 signatures as of this afternoon.

Although Kelley was never directly represented by Frank, 72, he said, “I’ve always admired” the lawmaker and believes his experience will come in handy as the new Congress grapples with a raft of fiscal issues. Frank, as chairman a few years back of the House Financial Services Committee, co-authored the bill tightening regulation of the banking industry.

Kelley also is looking for the notoriously pugnacious Frank to offer an effective counter to Republican efforts to cut and privatize programs such as Social Security and Medicare in the debate on reducing the federal deficit.

“I think that’s wrong,” Kelley says flatly.

Patrick’s office had no reaction when asked for comment on the petition drive.

And, of course, it’s technically a moot matter until Kerry actually resigns his seat, which won’t happen until he wins confirmation. Given the snail’s pace with which Congress these days approaches even pressing concerns, Kelley can likely count on an extended period to gather signatures.

Original post is Barney Frank’s Senate Bid Backed by Petition Drive: MoveOn Member by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts, speaks at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte.

Presidential surrogates Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia both predicted their party’s nominee will win the White House on this week’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt.”

“He’s going to earn this win,” Patrick, a Democrat, said on the show. ”And I think he’s going to come right back to work on Wednesday, working not just for Democrats and those who voted for him, but for everybody.”

McDonnell said Mitt Romney will win, but only by a “razor-thin” margin.

“Turnout and enthusiasm means that we win by a couple of points” in Virginia, McDonnell, a Republican, said in a separate interview. “We just need a change, and everybody knows that.”

Read the full story and watch the show below:

Original post is Political Capital: Partisan Predictions by Political Capital.

Photograph by Josh Reynolds/AP Photo

Rep. Barney Frank and his partner Jim Ready in Newton, Mass.

Wedding bells rang for Barney Frank this weekend.

The first sitting member of Congress to have a same-sex marriage called for a unique celebration.

Nancy Pelosi dancing to ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” qualifies as unique.

(And here’s a sign of the political  campaign times: Call up a YouTube of ZZ Top live in Texas and start with a Web-ad by President Barack Obama labeling Republican rival Mitt Romney “outsourcer-in-chief.”)

In the year in which the first sitting president of the United States has voiced personal support for same-sex marriage (it took Bill Clinton years to say he was wrong about opposing it), the marriage of the retiring representative from Massachusetts to longtime partner Jim Ready seems like a bookend of sorts. Or simply another wedding in the first state to recognize such a union?

It’s another milestone that matters to millions of Americans. Money poured into Obama’s campaign when he announced his support for gay marriage, making May 9 one of the top fundraising days of his re-election effort. Federal Election Commission reports show his campaign collected $1.8 million, more than six times as much it did the previous day.

“It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama said in an ABC News interview, portions of which first aired May 9 and was broadcast again May 10. Throughout his first term, he had said, his views on the issue were “evolving.”

Frank, 72, and. Ready, 42, who met at a political fundraiser in 2005, married in Newton, Massachusetts, on the banks of the Charles River in Frank’s congressional district.  Governor Deval Patrick officiated. The guest-list included  Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and Representatives Dennis Kucinich and Steny Hoyer.

Frank and Ready vowed to love one another “on MSNBC or on FOX…”

And “In Congress or in retirement.”

Pelosi, the House minority leader and former speaker from California, took a turn on the reception dance floor with Frank’s best man, Terry Bean.

Original post is Barney Frank Weds, Pelosi Spins to ZZ Top (with `Outsourcer-in-Chief’) by Political Capital.