The Note: Notes On A Rope

— -- NOTABLES

--WHY HILLARY CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN KEPT REPORTERS BEHIND A ROPE: At the Fourth of July parade Hillary Clinton marched in over the weekend in Gorham, New Hampshire, reporters following the candidate were kept -- and at moments, dragged -- behind an actual moving rope line, ABC's LIZ KREUTZ notes. The rope, which two Clinton staffers held on to on either side, was meant to give Clinton space as she walked down the parade route, but photos of reporters being dragged behind the rope as she marched went viral on Twitter. Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement: "While the GOP may want to spin a good yarn on this, let's not get tied up in knots. We wanted to accommodate the press, allow her to greet voters, and allow the press to be right there in the parade with her as opposed to preset locations. And that's what we did." http://abcn.ws/1TcOUSP

--THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GOP RELEASED A STATEMENT saying her campaign's use of the rope "insults the traditions of our First-in-the-Nation primary" and touted the Republican presidential candidates for marching in parades without "obstruction from their staff."

--ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: It's time for some midsummer political nightmares - and they're bipartisan, of course. For the Republicans, two weeks of Donald Trump castigation has finally grown to include the frontrunners. Now it's not just George Pataki and Rick Perry, but Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, and even Mitt Romney condemning The Donald, who is responding with ... more lawsuits, and more name-calling. On the Democratic side, the image of a roped-off, moving press scrum trailing Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire didn't shatter democracy. But for a candidate whose chief rival is drawing record crowds (and whom nobody thought could be Clinton's rival to anything), strictly controlled access hardly projects a willingness to engage with voters and the press. Trump's antics and Clinton's campaign restrictions may mean nothing in terms of who wins the nominations. But they both point to campaigns and parties that are still learning the, well, ropes.

TODAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC's CHRIS GOOD: Bernie Sanders will hold a town-hall in Portland, Maine, at Cross Insurance Arena at 7 pm ET. The campaign says it's expecting 5,000 attendees and had to change venues. Mike Huckabee will be in South Carolina, where he'll visit an Oconee County GOP luncheon at 11:30 am ET, hold a "Mike at Work" event at a Chick-fil-A in Anderson 2:30 pm ET, hold a media availability at the Anderson Civic Center in Anderson at 5:45 pm ET, and attend a town-hall series hosted by Tim Scott at 6 pm ET. Bobby Jindal will be in New Hampshire, where he'll walk the streets of Manchester with the mayor at 2 pm ET and hold a town-hall at The Governor's Inn in Rochester at 6 pm ET. Carly Fiorina will be in New Hampshire, where she'll tour Turbocam International at 4:30 pm ET in Barrington and attend an event with the Strafford County Republican Committee in Barrington at 5:30 pm ET.

THE BUZZ

RICK PERRY ON DONALD TRUMP: 'I WAS OFFENDED BY HIS REMARKS'. Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said he didn't believe that his fellow 2016 contender Donald Trump "understands the challenge" of strengthening the U.S.-Mexico border, adding he was "offended" when Trump labeled Mexicans "rapists" during a speech last month, according to ABC's BEN GITTLESON. "The fact is that I've said very clearly that Donald Trump does not represent the Republican Party," Perry, the former governor of Texas, said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week." "I was offended by his remarks." Trump, a billionaire businessman who is also a Republican, lost business partners and has endured criticism from fellow candidates after he said in his presidential announcement speech last month that Mexico was not sending "their best" people to the United States. "They are bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they are rapists, and some are good people," he said. http://abcn.ws/1evgCLo

PERRY ALSO DISTANCED HIMSELF FROM HIS CRITICISM DURING HIS 2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF THE REPEAL OF THE "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" POLICY that prevented gay people from openly serving in the military. "You don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know that there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school," Perry said in a 2011 ad. He suggested Sunday that, if elected president, he would not bring back "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," saying "the horse is out of the barn." "I have no reason to think that that's going to be able to be done," he said. http://abcn.ws/1evgCLo

IS DONALD TRUMP GOOD OR BAD FOR THE GOP? Rep. Joaquin Castro, Rep. Tom Cole, Anne Gearan, and Bill Kristol discussed on the "This Week" roundtable. WATCH: http://abcn.ws/1G1yZxm

5 STORIES YOU'LL CARE ABOUT IN POLITICS THIS WEEK. Here's a glimpse at some of the stories the ABC News political team is tracking in the week ahead: http://abcn.ws/1H7mS5Y

SEN. TOM COTTON: MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN MUST REMAIN AN OPTION. As the deadline to reach a final agreement with Iran over its nuclear program rapidly approaches, Sen. Tom Cotton said the threat of military action should "remain an option" to ensure a strong deal, ABC's HAYLEY WALKER notes. "It's never the preferred choice, but military force does have to remain an option if our diplomacy is going to be credible," Cotton, R-Ark., told ABC's George Stephanopoulos Sunday on "This Week." "All of our allies in the region wish we would take a more forceful position and keep that military option on the table because it would result in a better deal." The freshman senator is one of the most vocal opponents of the current state of negotiations. He cast the lone dissenting vote against a bipartisan Senate bill in May that granted a 30-day Congressional review period for any deal, saying the bill would not limit President Obama enough. http://abcn.ws/1febWud

WHAT WE'RE READING

"SCOTT WALKER'S WIFE, TOUGHENED BY LIFE, ADDS STEEL TO CANDIDATE'S SPINE," by the Washington Post's Mary Jordan. "Tonette Tarantino's year of sorrow came when she was only 30. First she lost the grandmother who helped raise her, like a second mother. Weeks later her brother, her only sibling, died of bone cancer. Then her husband died of kidney failure. Now, as Tonette Walker, the wife of Wisconsin governor and GOP presidential hopeful Scott Walker, looks back, she says those brutal 12 months in the mid-1980s prepared her for her life ahead - and most especially for the rough ride of politics. 'My mom was tough. She didn't give you a break,' Tonette Walker said in an interview at the Camp Bar, a neighborhood hangout here. 'Days after my first husband died, my mom said, 'Get up, get moving, you are not going to wallow in this. You're going to be great, you are going to be fine. Life is going to go on.'" http://wapo.st/1gjhO5L

WHO'S TWEETING?

@mlcalderone: Hillary Clinton to finally give national media interviews amid growing tensions with the press: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/06/hillary-clinton-interviews_n_7734372.html?1436187088 ...

@WSJPolitics: Sanders outpaces O'Malley as Clinton alternative and more in CJ Daybreak http://on.wsj.com/1CgLpq2 (photo:AP)

@PhilipRucker: A serial litigant as president. #America @Olivianuzzi's "Donald Trump Sued Everyone but His Hairdresser" http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/06/trump-sued-everyone-but-his-hairdresser.html ...

@nationaljournal: What did Tom Steyer say when he met David Koch for the first time? http://buff.ly/1NIcpj7

@JohnJHarwood: takes more than 2016 @HillaryClinton victory to win Dems the House, says Cook Report's Wasserman: "Takes a landslide" http://nyti.ms/1NJis7w