Capitol Culture
The Oklahoma senator and obstetrician known as “Dr. No” has taken on the most unlikely of roles: getting Republicans to say “yes” to tax hikes.
Tom Coburn, who has blocked dozens of bills, infuriated Democratic leaders and been on the lopsided end of some 96-3 votes, has been encouraging fellow Republicans both publicly and behind the scenes to break with the anti-tax orthodoxy that has come to define — some say hamstring — the modern GOP.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/dr-no-of-senate-says-yes-to-taxes-84877.html#ixzz2EkOk7c9Y
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kerry is angling to be the nation’s top diplomat by being, well, diplomatic.
The longtime Massachusetts lawmaker has largely stayed quiet while President Barack Obama considers him for his next secretary of state. Kerry has asked his supporters to avoid lobbying the White House on his behalf. And he’s defended his chief rival for the State Department post, Susan Rice, amid Republican criticism of her explanation of the deadly attack on Americans in Libya.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84342.html#ixzz2Da5OmSt2
Republican David Rouzer has conceded to Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre in North Carolina’s 7th District.
Rouzer’s loss means that Democrats netted eight seats this year. Democrats will need to flip 17 Republican seats in 2014 in order to seize the speaker’s gavel.
There is one remaining undecided congressional, in Louisiana’s 3rd District, where two Republicans are paired in a Dec. 8 runoff.
Republicans want a “divorce” from Grover Norquist and his no-tax-hike pledge, Sen. Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
“Republicans in both the House and Senate are deciding they no longer want to be married to this pledge,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “Republicans are saying they want a divorce from Grover Norquist.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84311.html#ixzz2Da5EXJGk
On the day that his chief rival for the GOP gubernatorial nod dropped out of contention, Virginia Republicans rallied around Cuccinelli — their attorney general who spearheaded a lawsuit against Obamacare and ruled in 2010 that police officers are allowed to check the immigration status of those they stop or arrest.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling dropped out of the governor’s race Wednesday after it became abundantly clear he had no real chance to win the nomination at a May party convention that will be dominated by conservative activists.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84363.html#ixzz2Da4vkT6t
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) on Tuesday pressed his fellow Republicans to go along with President Barack Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans for the time being in order to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
In an interview with Politico, the Republican said he has encouraged his colleagues in the House to extend the Bush tax rates for incomes below $250,000 immediately, after which they could push for an extension of the cuts for incomes above that level. Without any congressional action, all of the Bush tax cuts will expire on Jan. 1.
“I think we ought to take the 98 percent deal right now,” Cole told Politico. “It doesn’t mean I agree with raising the top two. I don’t.”
With just 13 days left to gather 25,000 signatures and compel a White Houseresponse, the petition to have Nevadasecede from the Union appears to be fizzling out.
As of Tuesday, Nov. 27, the petition has accrued 10,559 signatures and needs to gather 14,441 more by Dec. 10, to meet the threshold and get a response.
The petition, started by a Cody D. (no last name given) of Sparks, Nev., was posted on the White House website, WE THE PEOPLE, on Nov. 10, four days after President Obama was re-elected to office.
All 50 states have signed petitions to secede from the United States, but only seven have so far gathered the required number of signatures to merit a response.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (UPI) — Sen. Kelly Ayotte says she will block any secretary of state nominee, not just front-runner Susan Rice, until she is satisfied on the Libya U.S. mission attack.
“My view is we should hold on this until we get sufficient information,” said Ayotte, adding she “would place a hold on anybody who wanted to be promoted for any job who had a role in the Benghazi situation.”
The New Hampshire Republican’s words were echoed by fellow GOP Senate Armed Services Committee member Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/11/28/Ayotte-vows-to-block-any-Clinton-successor/UPI-53581354089600/#ixzz2DVJx3RJ2
Former Senate Republican Leader and presidential nominee Bob Dole has been hospitalized atWalter Reed Army Medical Hospital, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Reid, D-Nev., told colleagues on the floor of the U.S. Senate Tuesday evening that Dole, 89 years old, called him a few days ago to tell him that he is at Walter Reed and that it is “not for a checkup.”
“He is infirm, he is sick,” Reid said of Dole, who has been hospitalized many times over the years. “We should do this to recognize what a great leader Bob Dole is,” Reid said.
At the top of House committtees, it’s a man’s world.
Not a single woman will lead any of the major House committees in the 113th Congress.
After a day of meetings closed to the public, the House Republican Steering Committee announced an all-male slate of committee chairs, including 12 returning lawmakers who will head up some of the most important panels in Washington. The chairs for the House Ethics Committee and House Administration Committee have yet to be chosen, so a woman could end up in one of those slots.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84293.html#ixzz2DUjP1cBi
There are some willing to write off the online secession petition movement that emerged after President Barack Obama was re-elected as “angst” over the outcome of the election. Perhaps that’s true, but the fact is that the very notion of secession defies any true understanding of the state’s fiscal realities.
You need look no further than today’s headlines for a primer on why Republicans get themselves into trouble in national elections.
After years in which prominent Republicans courted her to run for the Senate, the popular Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) announced today that she will run for the Senate in 2014, when Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) may retire. She has statewide name recognition and a 70.27 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union.
But lo and behold the Club for Growth — which backed such stellar (not!) Senate candidates as Richard Mourdock in 2012 and Sharron Angle in 2010 and losers like Mark Neumann (who did a good job beating up eventual nominee Tommy Thompson in the Wisconsin Senate primary) and Don Stenberg of Nebraska — comes out to blast Capito for voting for ”big government.”
