More: One-party control in states highest since WWII

“Beginning in January, 46 states will have one-party control of their legislatures, the highest number since World War II, and in many of those states the majorities are now big enough to sweep aside any objections from the other party,” USA Today reports. “In 38 of those states, the ruling party will also control the governors' mansion, creating opportunities for activists to press ambitious and highly controversial measures through the state government. For an election year that failed to provide a sweeping mandate in Washington, 2012 did produce a state legislative map of deeper blues and richer reds. One-party dominance is at a high-water mark -- the last time parties shared power in only three state legislatures was 1944, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.”

Gone to pot… “President Obama says the federal government will not target recreational users of marijuana in states that have now legalized pot,” USA Today writes.

Said Obama in an interview with ABC: "We've got bigger fish to fry. It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal.”

Bobby Jindal wants over-the-counter birth control

Reince Priebus on where the RNC went wrong to National Review: “This is what I generally think about not just the RNC but also the campaign in general, the Romney campaign: I think in the year and a half that we had, I think we did a great job. Unfortunately, I think the other side did a great job for four years. I think that’s really what we’re coming down to.” More: As far as what went wrong, my general answer is “all of the above.” You can look at all kinds of things: messengers, message, mechanics, data, demographic groups, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians. All of those things need to be looked at, all of that can be improved. But what we’re going to see is that they have to be improved over a long period of time. This idea that we tear down every three years and build up for a one-year monster campaign — I just don’t see that being the future. I think the future is a much broader operation for a long period of time.”

And this: “One of the major topics that people discuss is the debate issue — controlling the debates and tying the nomination process to the debate calendar is something we’re going to look at. Now, we didn’t have that opportunity two years ago; there is no mechanism to tie the nomination process to the debate calendar. But we have that opportunity now. We can do that with a three-quarters vote of the Republican National Committee. Here’s a hypothetical. The RNC could hypothetically say, ‘Look, here’s the debate calendar. Here are the moderators. We’re going to have one debate a month starting on this day.’ And adherence to the calendar will be a requirement to achieving the nomination to the presidency — either through bonus delegates or penalties of delegates subtracted.”

Hillary for Mayor? Fuhgeddaboudit, says Bill.

Discuss this post

Red ... white...and blue ...

... red states and blue states: America is more divided than ever before. But the faked outrage of GOPTP is misplaced. In today's world, many other countries are doing better than the US in economic productivity. America is no longer that exceptional. This may not be a bad thing. This is a warning to conservatives, time to end your conservative nonsense, and be progressive and open-minded.

  • 7 votes
Reply#1 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:15 AM EST

Piggy, you are so right, our country has been on a steady down hill since Ronald Reagan brought trickle down economics into the land scape. Infrastructure is crumbling, the health care system is broken and ranked real low in the world, education, we are behind and falling farther behind. All this is placed on republicans. In Michigan the lame duck one party rule is reeking havoc. Pass another law this week where it is ok to carry in schools, hospitals, churches and other places where a gun fight is not necessary. One party rule is never real good but when that one party is republican it is terrible.

  • 9 votes
Reply#2 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:33 AM EST

John--agree that R's "reek" (stink) but they also wreak havoc where they are in charge. Laws on guns apparently don't matter one way or another now. There are so many guns floating around the country that any nut job can get anything like Tucson, Aurora, Oregon, and now Conn. In PA a well-trained civilian still managed to kill his child accidentally. Why do they/we need all this firepower? Is anyone safer?

  • 1 vote
#2.1 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 2:21 PM EST
Reply

The Tea Party gained control of the Maine governorship and legislature and immediately implemented policies that turned out to be both ineffective and widly unpopular:

Passed health insurance "reform" that raised premiums on the rural and elderly residents (ironically, the Tea Party base.)

Attempted to cut 20,000 Mainers from Medicaid (ditto)

Cut taxes for the wealthiest Mainers (now we are facing a huge budget shortfall, leading to more cuts to education and services for the elderly.)

Failed to move Maine off the very bottom of Forbes Magazine's list of business-friendly states.

Now, the pendulum has swung, and Republicans have lost the majority in the state legislature and will likely lose the governorship in 2014. And, they did it the honest way: their policies hurt Maine.

  • 9 votes
Reply#3 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:43 AM EST

Well if you don't like the Tea Party we have to get our lazy liberal friends off there butts and vote in 2014. Never forget that RWNJ's vote. Remember '10!

  • 4 votes
Reply#4 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:56 AM EST

God bless you, Exit0, and cannuhgedduhAYMEN! Remember back in Dec. '08 to Feb. '09, Rachel Maddow got a little carried away- OK, we all did, after the eight-year nightmare we'd all been through!- and ran a series of pieces under the rubric, "The GOP in Exile"?

While we Progressives were dancing in the end zone, the Forces of Darkness were feverishly drawing up contingency plans to halt progress in its tracks (the filibuster) and then reverse it (the Tea Party, the phoniest, most destructive, and overall most idiotic mass movement in American history).

The Forces of Darkness are diabolically clever. They are staggeringly wealthy. They already own most of the mass media outlets worldwide. And as long as there are weak, ignorant, confused, resentful and- it has to be said!- stupid people in the world, they will never run out of footsoldiers- "useful idiots", as Lenin said in a different context.

Knowledge is power! We need to keep on with rescuing liberty and justice for our posterity, and we'll have to do it one conservative at a time.

Peace!

  • 3 votes
#4.1 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:48 AM EST
Reply

Possibly the best time for the OWS crowd, other Progressives and admirers of the spirit of Fighting Bob LaFollette to push elected officials to pass laws requiring that reapportionment of state and federal election districts be done by non-partisan commissions. With GOP control and the SCOTUS blessing we now have the most gerrymandered House of Representatives ever. There is simply no mathematical way for the Democratic Party to regain even the state legislatures in the Blue states of Michigan, Wisconsin or Penn., even in landslide years. Despite Boehner's claim - the US House of Reps is nowhere near the ideal of being the "People's House."

  • 4 votes
Reply#5 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:01 AM EST

Exito, you are so right. We dropped the ball in 2010. We got lazy and our friends didn't show up to vote and this is what happens. But will the President assist in 2014 with his lists and his support for progressive candidates? I hope he does. Because it would be a great dry run for 2016 when Hillary runs. Also McCain and company should be ashamed of themselves. I hope he doesn't pick Kerry I hope he picks another woman or latin American or African American. His pick for the top posts are too white all of a sudden. The boys club is a nasty group. No one wants to become a mirror of the Republicans.

  • 6 votes
Reply#6 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:09 AM EST

michigan is on the attack and the bills against women and education will be passed in these last 5 days of lame duck.

  • 3 votes
Reply#7 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:38 AM EST

Unfortunately kr-2875346, elections have consequences. Many were hoodwinked by the tea party traitors in '10.. Hopefully we have been educated and the evil that these people have done can be undone and Michigan can move forward. By the way this started with the demonetisation of Governor Granholm. She was an outstanding individual and Governor, yet the republicans managed the conversation to blame her for their failures in the legislature.

  • 1 vote
#7.1 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:59 AM EST
Reply

The only way to reverse this trend in the state houses is for Democrats to get out and vote in 2014 and some moderate conservatives to wake up and see what your radical republican friends are doing to this country. I doubt this will happen, Democrats have a bad habit of not caring what happens in the midterms and not voting as do moderate conservatives. So remember Democrats and moderate republicans you put these people in office by not voting, only you can remove them from office by voting in 2014.

  • 3 votes
Reply#8 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:26 PM EST

Ya gotta love those union guys who beat up on the minority-owner of the hot dog cart, right?

Real true to the bone union zealots.

How about some additional news on this item MSNBCFR?

    Reply#9 - Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:44 PM EST
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