Latest StoriesRSS
i saw this stopped above me on my way home - fingers crossed its not one of the cars w/ a tendency to explode @maddow pic.twitter.com/2eIORxhJTB
— teddy (@semihomemade) May 27, 2014
Turning the conventional wisdom on its ear
It was just a few months ago that the political world took solace in a few obvious facts. The Affordable Care Act was failing; it stood no chance of meeting its enrollment projections; and Republicans would use "Obamacare" as a cudgel for the rest of the year, beating Democrats who would no doubt try to change the subject.
That was then; this is now. All of a sudden, the ACA looks like a great success; the system has already exceeded its enrollment projections; and Democrats are suddenly willing to take the offensive on the issue they were supposed to avoid. The Wall Street Journal reports today that some Dems have even begun "attacking Republicans" for trying to repeal "popular benefits of the law."
Not long ago, many Democrats were in a defensive crouch when it came to health care, amid public anger about the botched rollout of the federal website to sign up for insurance and stories of people who lost existing coverage because it didn't meet federal standards. Many focused on fixes they said should be made to the law rather than trying to convince voters of its benefits.Now, in at least half a dozen competitive Senate and gubernatorial races, Democrats and their allies are airing TV commercials that directly support the legislation, focusing on its guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, preventive-care benefits and a ban on charging women more for insurance.In some cases, the ads talk up how the Democrat candidate has worked to guarantee these benefits; in others, they attack a Republican for wanting to take them away.
This was largely unimaginable last fall. The very idea that Democrats would put Republicans on the defensive by condemning the GOP's repeal efforts just didn't seem like a feasible political strategy.
And yet, here we are.
Wednesday's Campaign Round-Up, 5.28.14
Today's installment of campaign-related news items that won't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* To the surprise of no one, Sen. Thad Cochran's (R-Miss.) campaign is airing a new television ad targeting primary rival Chris McDaniel over the recent scandal involving the break-in at Cochran's wife's nursing home.
* In Texas' run-off primaries, 91-year-old Rep. Ralph Hall's (R) career came to an end, losing to Tea Party lawyer John Ratcliffe. Hall will be the last World War II veteran to serve in Congress.
* In Michigan's closely watched U.S. Senate race, a new EPIC-MRA poll shows Rep. Gary Peters (D) leading Terri Lynn Land (R) by six, 44% to 38%. The last survey from the same pollster showed Land up by three.
* In related news, the results were better for Michigan Republicans in the gubernatorial race, where the EPIC-MRA poll found incumbent Gov. Rick Snyder (R) with a nine-point advantage over Mark Schauer (D), 47% to 38%.
* In Wisconsin, the Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity is poised to invest another $900,000 in support of Gov. Scott Walker's (R) re-election campaign. Recent polls show a very tight gubernatorial race in the state.
* Things are looking up for Rep. Jack Kingston's (R) Senate campaign in Georgia. Though he finished second before the run-off primary, the 22-year House member leads David Perdue in a statewide poll and will get an endorsement from Karen Handel, who finished third in the primary.
Hatch eyes amendment that everyone 'except the nuts' will support
Ordinarily, America's elected leaders honor Memorial Day by paying solemn tribute to Americans who wore the uniform and made the ultimate sacrifice.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) this week chose a different course.
Memorial Day celebrations around Utah were filled with folks carrying flags, patriotic speeches, little kids impossibly excited by the presence of so many fire trucks and -- at least in Woods Cross -- a bit of partisan politics from Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch and the city's mayor. [...]Circling back to Obamacare, Hatch pointed to the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores case currently before the Supreme Court, in which the owners of the craft stores contend they should not be required to cover contraceptives for their employees.Hatch clearly sides with Hobby Lobby, telling the crowd, "I hope the Supreme Court doesn't screw that up is all I can say ... Because if they foul up the First Amendment again, we are going to have a constitutional amendment. And I believe I can put one on that everybody in this country, except the nuts, will support."
At this Memorial Day service, at which the senator spoke without notes, Hatch added, "I shouldn't talk like that, but I've reached an age that I can say whatever I want." According to the report in the Salt Lake Tribune, Hatch also took the opportunity in his remarks to "assail the nation's courts" and "urge voters to cast their ballots for Republicans in 2014 and 2016."
Honestly, it's sometimes hard to know where to start.
Contract with America, Part III?
The AP reported yesterday that Republicans are "gambling that ramping up new inquiries into old controversies" can serve as the party's campaign platform in 2014. Running on "Obamacare" and the economy is out; running on the discredited Benghazi and IRS controversies is in.
As a practical matter, GOP leaders don't seem to have a whole lot of choices. The Affordable Care Act is working. The job market is improving. Congressional Republicans have no accomplishments of their own, so they're left with what amounts to a Fox News Platform -- find some issues that get the base excited, whether it makes sense or not, and talk about little else.
There are some in the party, however, who believe this just isn't good enough.
A faction of Republicans including Sen. Lindsey Graham is agitating for party leaders to unveil a policy manifesto in the midterm elections, detailing for voters what the GOP would attempt with a Senate majority its members are increasingly confident they'll achieve.Advocates of the strategy, which has triggered a closed-door debate in recent weeks among the party's current 45 senators, say it would serve as a firm rejoinder to Democrats casting the GOP as the "party of no." They say voters should know what they'd be getting by pulling the lever for Republicans in November.
The idea, apparently, is to model a policy agenda after the "Contract with America," which the party touted in advance of the 1994 midterms.
It's easy to understand the appeal of the idea. If Republicans unveil a platform, they'd give voters a chance to see what GOP policymakers would do with greater power. If the party does well, they might even have a plausible claim to a popular "mandate."
But it's still a bad idea.
McConnell wants to have his cake and repeal it, too
Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) raised a few eyebrows with a deeply odd argument: he still intends to destroy the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, which he sees as "unrelated" to Kentucky's exchange marketplace, made possible through the Affordable Care Act.
Dave Weigel called McConnell's argument an "Obamacare word salad."
Yesterday, the Republican senator tried again.
The McConnell campaign made clear he does not endorse the state exchange, but indicated it could survive a full blown repeal if the GOP takes over the Senate."If Obamacare is repealed, Kentucky should decide for itself whether to keep KyNect or set up a different marketplace," McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore told WFPL."But Kentuckians shouldn't have been forced to lose the plans they had and liked, shouldn't have seen their premiums skyrocket, shouldn't have had their Medicare cut, and shouldn't have had their taxes raised because of President Obama and his friends in Washington forced it down their throats."
Most of this is so wrong, it's only natural to wonder if even McConnell believes his own rhetoric. A small fraction of Kentuckians had to give up substandard plans through the individual market, but they transitioned to better coverage. Premiums haven't skyrocketed. Medicare wasn't cut. The vast majority of Kentuckians received a tax cut, not a tax increase. Shouldn't the senator know this?
Regardless, perhaps the most important part of this is McConnell's apparent belief that he can destroy the federal health care system, "root and branch," while leaving one of the largest branches in place. As Joe Sonka joked, "McConnell saying that Kynect can survive the repeal of Obamacare is like saying that the Oklahoma City Thunder can trade Kevin Durant, but keep his jump shot."
Senate press conferences shouldn't be for 'mature audiences' only
In recent years, plenty of Senate candidates have held plenty of press conferences, but yesterday in South Dakota, one candidate seemed to break new ground: an R-rated press conference that was vulgar by design.
U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Annette Bosworth warned that nobody less than 18-years-old would be admitted to her latest press conference.The Republican candidate has held numerous press conferences throughout the month leading up to the South Dakota Primary Election. Now, she's using a tactic that proves to be for mature audiences only.Those who attended the press conference expressed shock upon walking into the venue, as they saw the graphic words used as a backdrop for the event.
The Argus Leader posted the full, half-hour event, though I should note its published warning: "Because of the language contained on some of the signs, viewer discretion is advised."
Again, that's not the phrase one usually associates with Senate campaign press conferences.
Apparently, Bosworth and her supporters found obnoxious comments about her "on blogs, on the Internet." In order to denounce the vulgar criticisms, Bosworth's team painted the obnoxious words on a wall and then had the candidate hold a press conference in front of the disgusting comments.
The Republican candidate insisted that the vulgarities are proof of progressive misogyny: "The Democrats talk about a war on women, but much of what you see is written by the supposedly tolerant liberals. Their message is clear: conservative women are fair game. If you are a female and a Republican, anything goes."
There's reason for some skepticism here.
Cantor's cause for concern in the Commonwealth
The idea that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) would worry at all about his re-election seems hard to believe. The conservative Republican has fared quite well in all of his campaigns; he's already quite powerful by Capitol Hill standards; and in the not-too-distant future, Cantor might even be well positioned to be Speaker of the House.
And yet, the Majority Leader appears to be feeling quite a bit of anxiety about his future.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is boasting in a new campaign mailer of shutting down a plan to give "amnesty" to "illegal aliens," a strongly worded statement from a Republican leader who's spoken favorably about acting on immigration.The flier sent by his re-election campaign comes as Cantor is under pressure ahead of his June 10 GOP primary in Virginia -- and as the narrow window for action on immigration legislation in the House is closing fast. Cantor's flier underscores how vexing the issue is for the GOP.
In the larger context, it's not helpful for Republicans when the Majority Leader brags about killing a bill that gives "amnesty" to "illegal aliens," while his party tries to maintain a half-hearted pretense that blames President Obama for the demise of immigration reform.
But at this point, Cantor doesn't appear to care too much about the larger context or message coherence. He's worried about losing -- the rest can be worked out later.
In fact, the degree of Cantor's anxiety is pretty remarkable. The Majority Leader is up against David Brat, a conservative economist at Randolph-Macon College, who's eagerly telling primary voters that Cantor isn't right-wing enough. What was once seen as token opposition, however, has clearly gotten the incumbent's attention.
Cantor was concerned enough last month to launch a television attack ad, which was followed by Cantor's anti-immigrant mailing, which culminated in yet another television attack ad that the congressman's campaign unveiled yesterday.
These are not the actions of a confident incumbent.
In Michigan, a minimum-wage hike with a twist
With a proposed increase in the federal minimum wage stuck on Capitol Hill, unable to overcome fierce Republican opposition, attention has turned to states, where there's been all kinds of recent activity -- including one new wage hike in an unlikely location.
Proponents of an increase have had quite a bit of success of late, but only in blue states: Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, and Minnesota have each acted on their own to raise their respective state minimum wages, and we've seen similar action in Delaware, Vermont, and even West Virginia, where Democrats are in the majority.
But yesterday brought an exception to the rule. Michigan, with a Republican-led legislature and a Republican governor, also passed a wage hike, though this one comes with an interesting twist.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Tuesday signed a bill to hike the minimum wage in the state to $9.25 over the next four years after the Republican-led legislature gave its stamp of approval. [...]"This was a great exercise in bipartisanship and both chambers working together in close partnership, coming up with an agreement and executing on that," Snyder said, according to the AP. "It's good for the hard-working people of Michigan."
That certainly sounds nice. Indeed, just as impressive was the fact that state policymakers acted with remarkable speed: it took one day to reach a compromise, and once a deal was in place, "it passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder in less than one hour."
And if you're thinking, "There has to be catch," you're right. Michigan Republicans became the only GOP majority in the nation to pass a minimum-wage increase, not because they love the idea, and not because they were responding to public demand, but actually to prevent a larger wage increase in the fall.
Obama gives Boehner one last shot at immigration
When President Obama asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to oversee a comprehensive review of U.S. immigration policies, the point was to help give the White House options. With Congress no longer able to govern effectively, Obama wanted to know just how far he could go if he chose to act unilaterally.
In a bit of a surprise, the president has agreed to delay this review process -- but only a little.
President Barack Obama won't act to reduce deportations on his own until the end of the summer -- giving Speaker John A. Boehner one more chance to vote on an immigration overhaul.Two administration officials confirmed that the president has directed Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to hold off on releasing the results of his review of immigration policy in the meantime.The hope in the White House is that once Republican primary season largely wraps up on June 10, Boehner will have the political space to get something done.
It's unclear whether House GOP leaders requested the accommodation, though under the circumstances, that seems like a safe bet.
And on the surface, the delay may even make some sense. If House Republicans are afraid to govern because their far-right base won't tolerate compromises, it stands to reason that GOP lawmakers will feel more flexibility once the primary season has come and gone.
If the assumptions are true, and unilateral action from the president would effectively end all legislative prospects, there's little harm in pushing off an administrative decision and giving Boehner & Co. one last chance to do what Republican leaders have failed to do in recent years: lead and govern effectively.
Everyone's waited this long, and June 10 is just two weeks away.
But below the surface, there's very little for reform proponents to be optimistic about.
Deportation relief delay and other headlines
Pres. Obama asks Homeland Security to delay a review that could reduce deportations . (NY Times)
Rep. Ralph Hall became the first Congressional incumbent this cycle to lose in a primary. (Dallas Morning News)
14 Moral Monday protesters were arrested during a sit-in yesterday. (Raleigh News & Observer)
House panel to question VA officials about destroyed documents today. (Washington Post)
Pres. Obama's commencement address at West Point will seek to recast postwar foreign policy. (AP)
Edward Snowden says he's in Russia because the U.S. trapped him there. (NBC News)
White House to investigate the accidental outing of the CIA's top spy in Afghanistan. (Time)
MI Gov. Rick Snyder signs bill raising minimum wage before voters can raise it even more. (AP)
A photographer looks at what the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls left behind. (NY Times)
Doin' a heckuva job, Brownies! RT @petesouza: Brownies from Tulsa, Ok talk to President about their science project pic.twitter.com/lyESDFFJFY”
— Paul Myers (@pulmyears) May 28, 2014
