The Note: The Marco Rubio Moment
— -- --ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: Get ready for a Marco moment. A new Quinnipiac poll is the first national poll to have Sen. Marco Rubio as the frontrunner, garnering 15 percent of the GOP vote, to Jeb Bush's 13 and Scott Walker's 11. It's an announcement bump, surely, but a well-timed one: Rubio is just not making the case to donors and activists that he belongs in the top tier of contenders, the ones for whom big wallets should rightfully open. This poll seems likely to put him in the big leagues. What might keep him there is his remarkable and stable strength in the poll among a range of subsets of the Republican electorate. He's drawing between 13 and 16 percent of voters among evangelicals, tea partiers, "very" and "somewhat" conservatives, and moderates, in addition to both men and women. Early polls are like scoring first in a baseball slugfest, of course -- not that anyone doesn't like an early lead. "The early polls are going to bounce all over the place, so we'll let others analyze them while we stay focused on our positive conservative vision for a new American Century," Rubio spokesman Alex Conant told ABC.
--CLINTON CASH DAY: ABC's CECILIA VEGA reported for "Good Morning America" on today's flurry of stories about allegations in the new "Clinton Cash" book and how her campaign is reacting. The Clinton campaign's national press secretary Brian Fallon has been circulating a memo meant to arm supporters and allies with ammunition to fight back against the allegations in the forthcoming book by Peter Schweizer. "It goes without saying that the Clintons are rightfully proud of the critical work done by the Clinton Foundation," Fallon writes in the memo, obtained by ABC News. "It is a world-class philanthropy that has helped millions of people around the world tackle issues from HIV/AIDS to children's health to climate change. It is sad, but not surprising, that their philanthropic work has become the subject of false, right-wing attack." WATCH: http://abcn.ws/1OhaGG5
--BOEHNER ON BENGHAZI AND HILLARY: With the Benghazi Select Committee's investigation dragging on into the presidential campaign, House Speaker John Boehner criticized the Obama administration and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for a lack of cooperation in the House's investigation into the deadly Benghazi terrorist attacks in 2012. Although Chairman Trey Gowdy has signaled that his committee's report will not be issued until sometime next year, Boehner said the committee "is doing fine work" but has "a lot more work to do," ABC's JOHN PARKINSON reports. "They could clean this up a whole lot quicker if the administration and...former Secretary Clinton were in a position to actually cooperate with the committee and turn over the kind of information that we've been seeking for some time, but the administration has made it virtually impossible to get to the facts surrounding Benghazi," Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters yesterday.
--THE MCCAIN-PAUL BRAWL: Sen. John McCain bit back at Sen Rand Paul's characterization of him as a "lapdog" to President Obama yesterday by calling Paul the "worst possible candidate" on foreign policy. "Sen Paul is the worst possible candidate of the 20 or so that are running on the most important issue which is national security," the Arizona Republican and 2008 presidential nominee said on Fox News. McCain laughed off Paul's "lapdog" label, saying that a colleague joked that he would be more accurately described as a Doberman Pinscher, ABC's JORDYN PHELPS. If Paul were to become the nominee, McCain said he would support him as a "loyal Republican" but quickly added that he hopes "good sense would prevail here, because the realities of the world today do not allow for isolationist policies."
POLLING NOTE
SUPPORT FOR GAY MARRIAGE REACHES A RECORD HIGH. A week before a closely watched U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the issue, public support for gay marriage reached a new high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, with 61 percent of Americans -- more than six in 10 for the first time -- saying gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry legally, according to ABC's GARY LANGER. Identical or similar majorities favor gay marriage on two key issues before the court: Sixty-one percent oppose allowing individual states to prohibit same-sex marriages. And 62 percent support requiring states to recognize gay marriages performed legally in other states. These views extend a dramatic, decade-long evolution in public attitudes on gay marriage - one of the most remarkable re-evaluations of views on a basic social issue in more than 30 years of ABC/Post polling. As recently as June 2006, just 36 percent of Americans said it should be legal for gays and lesbians to marry. That advanced to 49 percent in 2009, reached a majority, 53 percent, in early 2011, and, as noted, 61 percent now. http://abcn.ws/1EsKCmW
HAPPENING TODAY: A VOTE ON LORETTA LYNCH. Yesterday, the Senate approved new anti-human trafficking legislation to help victims of sex trafficking and cleared the way for a vote on Loretta Lynch's nomination to be the next attorney general. Republicans insisted on passage of the trafficking measure before voting on Lynch's nomination. For the past month, Democrats and Republicans were at odds over a provision that would have subjected the funding in the legislation to the Hyde amendment, which prohibits the use of taxpayer funds on abortions. The Senate will now proceed to vote on Lynch's nomination to be attorney general, ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ reports. Lynch was nominated to the position 166 days ago -- the longest confirmation period for an attorney general nominee in recent history.
THE BUZZ
with ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI
ELIZABETH WARREN IS OFFICIALLY IN A FIGHT WITH OBAMA OVER TRADE. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, came out with a forceful blog yesterday on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, saying the administration is hiding the details of the deal from the American people. "The Administration says I'm wrong - that there's nothing to worry about. They say the deal is nearly done, and they are making a lot of promises about how the deal will affect workers, the environment, and human rights. Promises - but people like you can't see the actual deal," Warren writes. This came after President Obama said in an interview with MSNBC that Elizabeth Warren is "wrong" for opposing TPP, ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ and MARY BRUCE note. Asked about Democratic opposition to the trade deal, the White House yesterday admitted that "this has been a difficult political issue for Democrats and political allies in the past" but that it doesn't mean "we're going to shy away from this conversation."
NOT JUST 'W'S BROTHER': HOW JEB BUSH IS DEALING WITH HIS DYNASTY PROBLEM. Jeb Bush, the son of one president and the brother of another, is almost certainly going to pursue a White House bid of his own in 2016. But he wants voters to know one thing: He's his own man. "I love my brother. I love my dad," Bush told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in February. "I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. But I'm my own man and my views are shaped by my own thinking and my own experiences." But that hasn't stopped the steady stream of questions he fields from reporters and voters alike. They usually go something like this: How are you different from your father and brother? As he travels the country as a potential candidate, Bush, who served as Florida's 43rd governor, hasn't run from the family name -- but he's careful not to run on it either. Before he's even a declared candidate, ABC's BENJAMIN SIEGEL and AJ FEATHER look at how he has handled the questions about the Bush dynasty. http://abcn.ws/1EcSd78
GYROCOPTER PILOT DOUG HUGHES 'SHOULD HAVE BEEN BLOWN OUT OF THE AIR,' REP. JASON CHAFFETZ SAYS. The pilot of the gyrocopter that landed last week on the West Lawn at the U.S. Capitol "should have been blown out of the air," House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz said Wednesday, adding that Doug Hughes is "lucky to be alive" after pulling off the wild stunt. "He is lucky to be alive because he should have been blown out of the air, and very well could have been," Chaffetz, R-Utah, said. "If it was up to me, I would have taken care of the problem." Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, agreed that there should be serious consequences for anyone threatening Washington, D.C. in a no-fly zone, ABC's JOHN PARKINSON writes. "The last thing we want is people get ideas that they can penetrate our defense systems," Cummings, D-Maryland, said. "We've got to send a very strong message out there that if someone comes within that airspace, they're going to have a problem, a major problem." http://abcn.ws/1DCZWGT
WHAT IT WILL BE LIKE TO HAVE BILL CLINTON BACK ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL. Former President Bill Clinton has been keeping quiet when it comes to directly commenting on his wife's latest bid for the White House -- but he's starting to make more obvious hints now that she is officially two weeks into the race. "We're not big on quitting in my family. You may have noticed that," he said at a Tuesday event held at his alma mater, Georgetown University. Moving past Hillary Clinton's return to the race for, what she described in her 2008 concession speech as "the highest, hardest glass ceiling," her bid also means that Bill Clinton will be returning to the campaign fray. The former president brings some undeniable advantages with him, including his well-worn Rolodex of supporters and automatic public interest. But Hillary's staffers are likely already factoring how they can avoid some of the pitfalls he made during his wife's first White House bid, ABC's MEGHAN KENEALLY reports. http://abcn.ws/1Gj8k5o
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
--AL FRANKEN HOSTS THE (HOTTEST) DISH COMPETITION IN DC. Nothing brings lawmakers together like a Minnesota hotdish. Sen. Al Franken hosted the fifth annual Minnesota Hotdish Competition on Capitol Hill Wednesday, where Minnesota lawmakers had the chance to put their best fork forward. A hotdish is the Minnesota term for casserole, and consists of a starch, a protein and a liquid. Trash talk, cheese and laughter flowed generously though the committee room as the lawmakers-turned-culinary competitors openly heckled one another. This was the second year that all 10 lawmakers in the Minnesota congressional delegation competed in the event, and the competition was as hot as the Crock-Pots their dishes were stored in. ABC's KATELYN MARMON has more. http://abcn.ws/1JvjEJ6
--LITTLE GIRL ASKS MICHELLE OBAMA (GASP) 'HOW OLD ARE YOU?' It's the one question you're told never to ask a woman. But that didn't stop a cute little girl at the White House Wednesday from asking Michelle Obama, "How old are you?" "How old are you?" the first lady bemoaned. "I'm 51," she confidently told the crowd of eager, fidgety children in the East Room during her annual question-and-answer session as part of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, ABC's MARY BRUCE notes. But, then, the girl gave some inaudible reaction. "Say that again? Give her the mic," the first lady said, motioning to a member of her staff. "What was that, babe? I didn't hear you." "You look too young for a 51-year-old,' the girl said, much to Obama's delight. "Thank you," the first lady exclaimed. "You should come up here and give me a hug...Come give me a hug for that one." http://abcn.ws/1Qk6nIy
WHO'S TWEETING?
@scottwongDC: Ire from right puts House education bill in jeopardy http://thehill.com/homenews/house/239802-ire-from-house-conservatives-puts-education-bill-in-jeopardy …
@WordsOfSarah: Homeless man who works in the Senate says he can't stay in shelters, because people kept kept stealing his insulin http://wapo.st/1Qnmllm
@ZekeJMiller: Exclusive: Clinton charities will refile tax returns, audit for other errors http://reut.rs/1IKUje1 via @Reuters
@jonallendc: Better for someone seeking access or favor to give big check to the Clinton Foundation than small one to the campaign http://www.vox.com/2015/4/18/8447919/why-hillary-clintons-foundation-problem-isnt-going-away …
@rollcall: You could be seeing a new Democratic challenger in California soon ... http://roll.cl/1aSktA7 via @CahnEmily