Thinking about the results of yesterday’s elections, one thing sticks out to me. America isn’t really anti-incumbent, but rather anti-old school politics. Let’s start in Kentucky. Rand Paul beat Secretary of State Trey Grayson, making him the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate. Rand Paul doesn’t have a political career like his opponent, but he did […]
It finally looks like the White House is going to get out front and show America who the party of no really is: The White House is preparing late this week to aggressively go after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his GOP colleagues on financial reform. A Democratic party source said Thursday evening […]
Every blog needs to do a post on it because it shows a serious fracture that is developing in the GOP this week: In the wake of the passage of health care reform, nearly the entire slate of Republican senatorial candidates seems ready to run on a repeal of the bill. But now, the lawmaker […]
There’s been a lot of talk about the low approval ratings for Democratic leaders in Congress the new CBS poll shows, and yes they are pretty dismal. What is amazing though is that they didn’t take the time to get the approval ratings of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell. Every poll I have ever seen […]
I’ve been saying it all along and now Mitch McConnell is validating it: Before the health care fight, before the economic stimulus package, before President Obama even took office, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, had a strategy for his party: use his extensive knowledge of Senate procedure to slow things down, take advantage […]
It took the President himself going after Mitch McConnell, but finally he has some of his nominees confirmed: The Senate confirmed a huge group of administration nominees on Thursday, following a tense exchange between President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). At a White House meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Tuesday, […]
This is a very bad idea: (from TNR) According to a pair of senior Capitol Hill staffers, one from each chamber, House and Senate Democrats are “almost certain” to negotiate informally rather than convene a formal conference committee. Doing so would allow Democrats to avoid a series of procedural steps–not least among them, a series […]
Without the public option the Senate bill still will cost an additional $19 billion according to the much anticipated CBO report. Also premiums won’t go down with the removal of the public option, as some had been pushing: The CBO has concluded that, on average, premiums will be the same as they would have been […]
The Politico reports (via Aravosis): An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D. Mich.) coordinated opposition to a Senate compromise on the place of abortion in health care legislation this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, the Conference Catholic Bishops, and other anti-abortion groups, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO. […]
Talk about the duh moment to top all duh moments: In a closed-door meeting of his caucus, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, told Democrats that Republicans were not interested in passing a bill. In effect, he prepared them for trench warfare, saying the Democrats must stick together and should be ready to […]