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Subscribe to RSSThe Washington Post’s Greg Sargent: “Dems in charge of the party’s strategy for retaking the House next year are planning to campaign aggressively on not just tax fairness and defending entitlements, as in the last two elections, but on issues like gun control and the minimum wage, too. In an interview today, DCCC chair Steve Israel told me the party’s House candidates will be running aggressively on Obama’s proposals to reduce gun violence and raise the minimum wage.”
“Twice burned, Republicans are treading carefully around tea party groups as they pursue a Senate majority that slipped through their fingers in 2010 and 2012,” the AP writes.
National Journal: “Bashing ‘Obamacare’ just isn’t what it used to be. Just over two years ago, the rallying cry against President Obama’s health care overhaul unified Republicans and hoisted the party to historic electoral gains in state capitals and in Washington. But in the latest sign the script has flipped, Florida Gov. Rick Scott — who rode that tea-party-fueled crusade to victory in 2010 — this week became the seventh Republican governor to agree to the new law’s Medicaid expansion.”
“The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised just $1.5 million in January, according to its most recent fundraising report,” Roll Call writes. “That’s significantly less than the $4.2 million the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee brought in last month.” The DSCC, though, had more debt.
GEORGIA: Rep. Phil Gingrey’s set to run for the Senate, too, The Hill reports.
ILLINOIS: Robin Kelly, the Cook County chief administrative officer, looks like the favorite to replace convicted ex-Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in next week’s special election.
MASSACHUSETTS: “Representative Edward Markey is refusing to back down from comments he made this week that seemed to compare the US Supreme Court’s decision on campaign finance law to the high court’s 19th-century Dred Scott decision, which upheld slavery,” the Boston Globe writes.
NEBRASKA: Is the next Scott Brown this man, one of People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people?
NEVADA: Harry Reid, retiring to make way for Chuck Schumer? Not so fast… Reid isn’t up again until 2016, but asked by local reporters if he plans to run again, he said, “Sure, why not?”
SOUTH CAROLINA: Grooms-ing him for the seat? “Palmetto State Republican Reps. Jeff Duncan and Mick Mulvaney backed state Sen. Larry Grooms on Thursday for the GOP nomination in the 1st District special election,” Roll Call reports. “Grooms, who faces 15 opponents including former Gov. Mark Sanford in a March 19 primary, will likely receive a major boost from their endorsements. GOP insiders see Grooms as ideologically similar to Sanford — very conservative — but without the former governor’s political baggage.”
The Hill calls the endorsements “a blow to Sanford, who hopes to return to the House and revive a once promising political career.”
SOUTH DAKOTA: John Thune told a class of second graders he has no plans to run for president. Roll Call: “Do I plan on running for president?” Thune said. “I don’t. I enjoy the job I have. And being the president is a very, very hard job.”
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Because voters realize universal healthcare is a worthy goal, and ought to be in our reach, as the wealthiest nation on earth. Not to mention the fact, it was a goal Republicans used to agree was a priority, until a certain articulate Democrat was elected to the Presidency, at which time getting people to cough up for health insurance became tantamount to sending dissidents to forced labor camps.
That crook in Florida Sick Scott is now thinking Medicare will work after years of fighting it, what a fool !!!
The new norm, part time workers.
All the GOP has to do is just wait for all these policies to take effect (obamacare, taxes, restrictive laws, etc..) and the American public will be turning against the Dems in droves. Everything has a cause and effect and patience is a virtue.
The minimum wage has always been a 'starting wage' to give new inexperienced workers (typically teenagers) a chance to gain work experience, and then use that as a 'stepping stone' for better wages and jobs in the future. EVERY responsible economist will tell you that when you raise the minimum wage, it results in fewer teens getting that valuable work experience which helps them have a better future.'
While it sounds 'noble' to force employers to pay these people more to start, the reality is that it creates fewer opportunities for work at a time when unemployment is already historically high.
If merely raising minimum wages was that simple, why not just make it $50 per hour? I think just about everyone would understand that this would lead to massive unemployment for everyone. THINK.
King Richard III "All the GOP has to do is just wait for all these policies to take effect (obamacare, taxes, restrictive laws, etc..) and the American public will be turning against the Dems in droves. Everything has a cause and effect and patience is a virtue."
It will take a LOT of patience - just look at the results of Obama's policies so far;
Unemployment has risen from 7.2% in December 2008 to 7.9% now. (BLS.gov)
The average number of people working in 2012 is about 3 million LESS than in 2008. (BLS.gov)
The economy is barely limping along.
The National Debt has increased from $9.986 Trillion at the end of fiscal 2008 to $16.5 Trillion now. (Treasury.gov)
And yet Obama won reelection easily.
It appears that he is able to "Fool MOST of the people ALL of the time"
As an Independent I will never vote Republican again, this party burned all their bridges !!!
Note to the GOP-TP, "Oink-Oink" !!!
Peek-A-Boo, How can the GOP-TP exist when they go against the will of the American people, you really have to wonder - Wink-Wink !!!
Has anybody noticed that what ever the American people are for, the tea people republicans are against?
Mo., 4.0,
Those Representatives were elected to rep' their district, not the nation at-large. They reflect the political leanings of their district.
If you don't live in one of those districts, your opinion is just so much hot air. Just as their opinion of your district's rep' is.
The biggest problem is the potus Obama. He is stuck in campaign mode and needs a swift kick in the transmission to shift into leadership mode, as Wm. Clinton did. Bill had it worse with Newt, yet Bill got things done.
Hoisted, all right, by their own pitard. The Republicans are realizing that the Affordable Healthcare Act isn't so bad after all. So all the unnecessary posturing, showboating and time wasting just didn't pay off for them. Yet, they continue to do the same time wasting malarky every chance they get. The 112th Congress was the worst in decades and possibly the worst ever. Will the 113rd Congress be as bad? We may have to wait until the Democrats regain control of the House in the 2014 election before we see anything of real substance coming from Congress.
Nominating Mark Sanford in SC in March would be a PR disaster for the entire Republican party, which already has more than its share of (ahem) "eccentric" characters.
Yea Dr. Gingrey for Senate! a true Conservative for a change!
Buhby Saxby!!!!
Guns and minimum wage will get them the majority in the house next year, lmao, bring it on morons. By then obamacare will ensure a lot of workers will go to part time, or lose their job. Minimum wage will make sure that more jobs are lost and prices will rise. Gun control have always been a downfall for libs, so it's all a win / win for Republicans.
VL., # 8.0,
I believe it was Einstein who said "Insanity is doing the same thing again and again, while expecting different results". This cost the dems in the 1990s, it will again in 2014.
Gun control will not pass the house, a vote in the senate will just vote out dem senators from red states. No way is Harry Reid giving up his title as senate majority leader for a vote that will do nothing to get a law to the potus for signing.
The minimum wage increase ignores that many of those businesses operate on thin margins and do not have the cash reserves to pay higher wages, while awaiting this new imagined boom in business.
The business owner will cut costs, by cutting his labor force, his greatest expense which is only going to increase under ACA/obamacare.
You don't load down a ship that is already taking on water.
VLGil: Give that old song about raising the minimum wage costs jobs a break. That is more TP/GOP BS. Studies of past raises in this standard on both state and federal level have shown it does not. You watch too much Faux.
Besides, it could get some folks off food stamps and still will not raise most folks above poverty level. If you are willing and able to work full time, you should not be below the poverty level in our great country. I know MacDonalds and some of the other service giants will fight it claiming it will kill jobs but since most if these folks are in service industries like fast food, someone has to do the work in the USA. These jobs cannot be shipped overseas. Inflation? I will gladly pay a little more to ensure folks make enough to feed themselves and have a life.