December 2012
2 posts
'Dr. No' of Senate says 'yes' to taxes - Scott... →
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...
“More Republicans must put their country before someone else’s agenda, and...”
– GOP, break Grover Norquist’s grip on you - CNN.com
November 2012
122 posts
Watch(via Peter King says wife would ‘knock’ Grover Norquist’s head off - Jonathan Allen - POLITICO.com)
John Kerry stays quiet as secretary of state... →
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,...
Rouzer concedes in N.C. - POLITICO.com →
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.
Sen. Charles Schumer says Republicans want... →
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...
Watch(via Alan Simpson trashes Grover Norquist on anti-tax pledge - Kevin Robillard - POLITICO.com)
GOP hangs hopes on Cuccinelli - James Hohmann -... →
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...
Tom Cole, GOP Congressman, Urges Republicans To... →
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...
Nevada secession plan fizzling out - Las Vegas... →
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...
Kelly Ayotte to block anyone involved until she’s... →
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...
Bob Dole Hospitalized - Yahoo! News →
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...
House committee chairs all men - Jake Sherman -... →
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...
Secession petitions ignore state's fiscal... →
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.
Why is Shelley Moore Capito a target of the far... →
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...
Former Florida GOP leaders say voter suppression... →
A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.
Republican leaders said in proposing the law that it was meant to save money and fight voter fraud. But a former GOP chairman...
State Bar of Wisconsin | InsideTrack | Wisconsin,... →
Nov. 21, 2012 – The U.S. Supreme Court may soon decide whether states can collect DNA samples from individuals upon arrest for serious crimes, just as Wisconsin lawmakers prepare to propose a law requiring felony and some misdemeanor arrestees to submit DNA samples.
Currently, only individuals who are convicted of felonies and certain sex-related misdemeanors are required to submit DNA samples...
Newspaper disciplines copy editor after adding... →
The Montana Independent Record disciplined a copy editor for changing a line in an Associated Press story to read “Obama was allegedly born in Hawaii.”
The change appeared in the Sunday edition of the Helena newspaper in an AP story about President Barack Obama’s visit to Asia. The line in the Independent Record read: “The Asia trip underscores Obama’s efforts to establish the...
Rep. Scott DesJarlais says he has no plans to quit... →
Rep. Scott DesJarlais said he no plans to resign and denied he intentionally misled voters about a past that includes his wife’s two abortions and affairs he had with two medical patients, three co-workers and a drug company representative.
“I am human,” the Tennessee Republican told the Knoxville News Sentinel on Wednesday. “I don’t think I ever put myself out there to be somebody that was...
Social conservatives say they deserve seat at... →
Republicans’ soul searching following the 2012 election could shortchange social conservatives, who say they’re hardly to blame for the party’s difficulties at the polls.
The snapshot analysis as for why Republican nominee Mitt Romney and a slew of downballot GOP candidates fell short on Nov. 6 has centered on changing demographics — an increasingly diverse electorate, but also...
Romney lost by playing defense, Santorum says –... →
(CNN) - Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum offered no insight into his own political future in a Friday CNN interview, but did offer his thoughts as to why the Republican nominee lost to President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
“What Mitt Romney, in my opinion, didn’t do was go out and vigorously defend the beliefs that he said he espoused and didn’t go on the...
Chambliss fires off on Norquist’s anti-tax pledge... →
(CNN) – A top Republican U.S. senator brushed off the anti-tax pledge pushed by activist Grover Norquist and embraced widely for years by GOP lawmakers.
“I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss told Georgia television station WMAZ, a CNN affiliate, on Wednesday. “If we do it his way, then we’ll continue in debt and I just...
Democrats preparing candidates in case Kerry moves... →
Democrats in Massachusetts are culling a list of candidates for a 2013 special election should Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) be appointed to President Obama’s Cabinet. Recently defeated Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is the most likely pick for the GOP, but Democrats don’t want a repeat of the 2010 special election — when they lost the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat to Brown — and they’re looking to groom a...
Vote in 'urban areas' up, but doesn't fully... →
With provisional ballots counted in the last few days, the president did increase his vote total in many “urban areas” in swing states he won. On Election Night, as votes were coming in, it wasn’t the case that the president was running up the score.
The president’s margins weren’t atypical for Democrats. They run up margins in population centers, and President Obama...
GOP Intel chairman talks about potential CIA... →
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., did little to tamp down speculation that he’s under consideration to become the next CIA director, saying he could neither confirm nor deny conversations with the Obama administration about the vacant position.
Speaking Tuesday on WJR radio in Detroit, Rogers, a former FBI agent who’s helmed the intelligence panel for the...
Raul Ruiz win tells story of Election 2012 - Kate... →
If the growing sway of Latinos in American politics was the story of election 2012, Raul Ruiz’s triumph in California’s 36th Congressional District was a dramatic subplot.
The son of migrant farmworkers who scraped his way through UCLA and then Harvard Medical School, Ruiz dislodged Rep. Mary Bono Mack, a 14-year fixture of the Republican Conference who didn’t seem to fully appreciate the...
Cory Booker, Chris Christie For New Jersey... →
Visions of a Booker-Christie match-up make political junkies weak at the knees, even though both were bloodied a bit during the presidential campaign. Booker was forced into an awkward mea culpa that looked like a hostage video after he called attacks on Bain Capital “nauseating.” Christie’s keynote speech at the GOP convention, meanwhile, was widely panned for focusing on himself and New...
3 remaining undecided House races - First Read →
And then there were three — undecided House races, that is.
On Thursday, two close California races were decided: Republican incumbents Dan Lungren in CA-7 and Brian Bilbray in CA-52 lost their seats. The Undecided Three now include LA-3 (which is scheduled for a runoff in three weeks) and NC-7 and AZ-2 (where Democratic incumbents cling to narrow leads).
Meanwhile, in FL-18,...
No, it's not 'Christians'' fault Obama won - First... →
The outspoken Rev. Franklin Graham claimed today that the “majority of Christians” did not vote.
“We know that from of the statistics that I’ve heard that the majority of Christians in this country just did not vote for whatever reason,” he told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody. “The vast majority of evangelicals did not go to the polls.” He added, “God is in control, and if...
GOP plots to prevent more Todd Akins - Manu Raju -... →
Read their lips: no more Todd Akins.
In the wake of the GOP’s Election Day beatdown, influential Republican senators say enough’s enough: Party leaders need to put the kibosh on the kind of savage primaries that yielded candidates like Akin — and crippled Republican prospects of taking the Senate in two straight election cycles.
Changing U.S. Electorate Worries Wyoming... →
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - By now, voters here are over the initial shock. The ranchers, businessmen, and farmers across this deep-red state who knew, just knew that Americans would never re-elect a liberal tax-and-spender president have grudgingly accepted the reality that voters did just that.
But since the election, a blanket of baffled worry has descended on conservatives here like early snow across...
Democrat Barber retains Giffords' old House seat... →
TUCSON, Ariz. - Democratic U.S. Representative Ron Barber, a former aide to Gabrielle Giffords who was wounded alongside her in a deadly 2011 shooting, has won a full term in Congress after defeating Republican Martha McSally in a closely contested race.
Barber, 67, who won a special election in June to finish out Giffords’ term, said McSally called him on Saturday morning to concede. They...
Secession not likely to succeed →
Individuals in all 50 states have petitioned the White House to secede from the Union following the Nov. 6 election.
These efforts aren’t likely to come close to succeeding. Governors in several states have openly stated they don’t support such efforts.
There also is the majority opinion in an 1869 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Texas v. White, to consider. The ruling in essence declared that a...
Republicans Retool Rhetoric on Fiscal Cliff as... →
Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) — It’s not the ideas, it’s the image.
That’s what many Republicans, stung by their losses in this month’s U.S. elections and searching for ways to rebrand their party, are concluding as they position themselves for negotiations over averting the so-called fiscal cliff, a set of automatic tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January.
Far from jettisoning...
Republicans lost because they forgot marketing |... →
If early reports are any guide, the Obama campaign will be dissected like no other. But if Republicans are to gain anything from this loss, it must be this: Obama was the better marketer and if the Grand Old Party wants to have a chance of resetting the electoral map they need to respect marketing – something the party simply didn’t do in this election.
This lack of respect was clear from the...
How Hurricane Sandy Has Upended Politics As Usual... →
With the power in the State Senate hanging in the balance after last week’s election and the impact of Superstorm Sandy overshadowing the civic debate, the political calculus in Albany has shifted.
Members of the New York State Senate at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. AP/Hans Pennink
Where only a few weeks ago lobbyists and policy makers were debating the possibility of a special session of the...
Gallup: Obama favorability jumps to 3-year high -... →
President Obama’s favorability has jumped to a three-year high in the week following his reelection, with 58 percent of Americans now saying they have a positive opinion of the president. The number represents a three-point improvement for the president since a similar survey conducted by Gallup in the days immediately preceding last week’s presidential election. And it is...
California GOP Rep. Brian Bilbray concedes →
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) has conceded defeat in his San Diego-area district, handing Democrats another pickup with just two intra-party races yet to be determined.
Bilbray trails San Diego Port Commissioner Scott Peters (D) by 3,877 votes. He called Peters to congratulated him and issued a statement acknowledging Peters’ victory.
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.). (AP photo)
“While Scott and I...
Senate Democrats Earned Every Seat They... →
It’s hard to talk about the 2012 congressional elections without starting with the Senate and the remarkable election night for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Democrats scored a net gain of two seats, something that was inconceivable 90 days ago or, for that matter, on Nov. 5. They held five of their six most vulnerable seats, and no Democratic incumbent lost reelection. Of 10...
Scott DesJarlais Abortion Scandal: Congressman's... →
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee testified during divorce proceedings that he and his former wife made a “mutual” decision for her to have two abortions, according to divorce transcripts released Thursday.
The 2001 court transcripts were released by the state Democratic Party, which had tried to air the documents before the Nov. 6 election. A...
Chief Justice John Roberts American of the Year -... →
Barring a catastrophic health event, some kind of personal scandal that seems unimaginable, or a sudden desire to become a beachcombing wastrel on a Polynesian island, John Roberts is going to be the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court for a very long time. He is fifty-seven years old. That means, all things being equal, Roberts could easily surpass the record tenure of John Marshall,...
City GOP chief: Romney shutouts not new →
As news spread that Mitt Romney received no votes in about 3 percent of Philadelphia voting divisions, many Republicans expressed surprise, outrage and disbelief.
Michael Meehan, the city’s GOP party leader, wasn’t one of them.
“It’s not something that is new,” he said.
He has seen such patterns before, most noticeably in 1999, when Sam Katz, who ran as a...
Republicans to Mitt Romney: Exit stage left →
That sentiment was in full bloom following Romney’s first post-election comments — made on a phone call with donors earlier this week. On the call, Romney attributed his loss to the “gifts” President Obama’s campaign doled out to young people and minorities. For many, the comments had an eerie echo of the secretly taped “47 percent” remarks Romney made at a May fundraiser.
“There is no Romney...
Republicans weigh how to broaden base, without... →
House candidate Mia Love looked every bit the future of the Republican Party, with her prime-time convention speech, backing from Mitt Romney and a run for office in deep-red Utah.
But Love was narrowly defeated in a race that essentially unfolded like so many on Nov. 6 and emerged as a telltale for what went wrong for Republicans in 2012.
Love, a black Republican who fired up the crowd in...
Angus King, Maine’s independent senator-elect,... →
WASHINGTON — Angus King of Maine, who ran as an independent for the US Senate, said Wednesday he would caucus with Democrats, giving the party a 55-45 majority.
King’s decision was widely expected, but the former two-term governor maintained that he would not be bound by partisanship and would remain an independent voice for his state.
“By associating myself with one side, I am not in automatic...
Nancy Pelosi and the question of age - The... →
It’s quite a thing to see a large group of female politicians boo a reporter who asks about their leader’s age.
But that’s exactly what happened Wednesday morning when NBC reporter Luke Russert asked Nancy Pelosi, during her press conference announcing she intended to remain her party’s leader in the House, whether it might be time for the party to usher in younger leadership. Pelosi, who has...
With Senate wins for Elizabeth Warren and others,... →
Elizabeth Warren’s race in Massachusetts may have been the most closely watched win by a female senator-elect from Tuesday night.
But her election points to another big win for women in the Senate. The returns so far show at least 20 women will be serving in the upper chamber come January, a historic high. All of the incumbents won their races, and the elections of Warren, Democrat Tammy...
CEOs offer Obama support to avoid fiscal cliff -... →
Business executives who met with Barack Obama Wednesday to discuss the fiscal cliff said the president was receptive to their suggestions but said the onus remained on Congress to avoid not going over the cliff.
Xerox CEO Ursula M. Burns said the meeting was “very constructive, very positive” but that the leaders “didn’t get into too many specifics.” She said they would stand by if the...
Reality check: Bipartisan hopes already dampened... →
Anyone thinking senators would return from last week’s elections inspired by voters’ desire for problem solving and cooperation has gotten a strong dose of reality in the first two days since the Senate came back into session this week.
Related: GOP senators say they would try to block Rice nomination
Despite the talk of the need for bipartisan solutions, inflammatory issues were already...
