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Author: Mike LaChance

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Mike LaChance

Mike LaChance has been covering higher education and politics for Legal Insurrection since 2012. He has also written for American Lookout, Townhall, and Twitchy.

Since 2008 he has contributed work to the Daily Caller, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, the Center for Security Policy, the Washington Free Beacon, and Ricochet.

Mike is a Generation X, New England lifer who describes his political views as conservative and libertarian.

You can find him on Twitter @MikeLaChance33

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 02, 2014 5 Comments
In a turn of events, the GOP is now slamming Democrats for their sexist criticisms of Republican women. A new video featuring some nasty moments from the 2014 campaign was released Friday. The Washington Free Beacon reported:
New GOP Video Slams Offensive Democrat Attacks on Women A new GOP ad highlights the Democrat Party’s tendency this cycle to degrade women, especially if they represent the Republican Party. “Democrats sure like to insult Republican women,” the ad says. A series of clips features women and political commentators responding to various Democratic attacks against Republican woman during the current campaign cycle. Democrat Vincent Sheheen referred to Republican incumbent Gov. Nikki Haley as a “whore” during a stump speech in the South Carolina gubernatorial campaign and couldn’t contain his laughter after the offensive slip of the tongue.
Take a look:

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 02, 2014 7 Comments
Prof. Jacobson recently said "May a thousand Martha Coakleys bloom in the Democratic Party." As a Massachusetts resident, I'd like to second that statement. The Republican Governors Association recently put together the ultimate Coakley blooper reel. David Rutz of the Washington Free Beacon reported:
Hilarious RGA Ad Shows Martha Coakley ‘Stumbling’ to Campaign Finish Democratic Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley’s numerous missteps and cringeworthy moments are captured in a new ad from the Republican Governors Association. In one exchange, Coakley repeatedly dodged a question on whether she would raise fees in lieu of raising taxes and was asked by a moderator if she would pledge not to raise them. When her Republican opponent Charlie Baker promised he wouldn’t, Coakley said, “Then I’m not going to raise fees either.” In another, Coakley was booed by a debate audience when she answered “I don’t know” to a direct, yes-or-no question about whether illegal immigrants should get driver’s licenses in the commonwealth. When Baker was asked, he immediately answered, “No.”
This is painful to watch: The Boston Globe's most recent poll has Republican Charlie Baker ahead by 7 points.

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 01, 2014 23 Comments
Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana made some stunning comments about her constituents this week. While speaking to NBC's Chuck Todd, she implied that if she loses her bid for reelection next week, it could be due to racism and sexism. The exchange was captured on video: Her remarks were certainly newsworthy but some people in the media saw a different angle to the story which was much more important; the Republican reaction. This happens quite often, as noted by Jim Treacher: The article in Treacher's tweet is by Melinda Deslatte of the Associated Press:
Sen. Landrieu's remarks on race anger Republicans Republicans are calling on Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu to apologize after she suggested Thursday that President Barack Obama's deep unpopularity in the South is partly tied to race. In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, Landrieu was quoted as saying that the South "has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans."
Isn't it strange how the very first word in the AP article is "Republicans?" Surely that's an isolated incident, right? Nope.

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 01, 2014 10 Comments
Last Sunday, we told you about the Democratic Party's attempt to use the Federal Elections Commission to regulate free speech on the internet. Bill Whittle has put perspective on the issue in a new video from Truth Revolt. Here's an excerpt:
This smiling, normal-looking woman is Ann Ravel. She heads the FEC — the Federal Elections Commission. She’s a Democrat in a Democratic administration pursuing the Democratic party’s goal of intimidating, jailing and otherwise harassing their political opponents, who are mean because they don’t like being told what to do, or to think — the way nice people do. So she has been ordered to weaponize the government against unregulated speech — we don’t call it “free speech” any more because that term is archaic and also probably racist. It’s not like she doesn’t want to! As a typical progressive Democrat, Ann Ravel has two overriding psychological needs: First, regulate everything. How on earth with people like Ann Ravel and, for that matter, the President of the United States, ever be able to feel secure when the American people are just running around starting businesses willy-nilly, or irresponsibly making internet videos that don’t conform to the Official Truth, or reading news stories — “news stories!” — on places like Fox or the Drudge Report.
Watch the video: This actually dovetails perfectly with Professor Jacobson's new column at Townhall.com:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 31, 2014 19 Comments
What's one to do when it looks like the midterms aren't going their way? Stealing Republican lawn signs is always an option, as long as you don't get caught. One Delaware Democrat wasn't so lucky. Thomas Lifson of American Thinker provides this stunning yet funny report:
Dem state senator's husband busted while stealing GOP lawn signs The Democrats have become the win-by-cheating party, so much so that the President of the United States jokes about vote fraud to a party rally, just as he joked about using the IRS to punish his political opponents. Just as a fish rots from the head down, so too does a political party that depends on the votes of ineligible aliens and that fights tooth-and-nail against the sort of voter identification measures common in other advanced (and not-so-advanced) democracies. The ethos, one that predates Obama by a century or more, has filtered down to the local level, for instance a contest for the Delaware State Senate (hat tip: The Blaze). In the town of Middletown, GOP lawn signs bearing the slogan “Fix the Economy! Vote Republican” had been disappearing, so GOP volunteers set up a surveillance operation and caught the miscreant, who happened to be the husband of an incumbent state senator, one Sen. Bethany Hall-Long.
The sting was caught on video and here it is:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 30, 2014 8 Comments
To be fair, Senator Kay Hagan wasn't the only Democrat who said people would be able to keep their healthcare plans and doctors under Obamacare. Lots of Democrats made that claim, including Obama and many of his supporters in the media. It's funny how they're so tongue tied now. Kay Hagan was asked about her position in a TV Interview Tuesday night. Transcript and video by the Washington Free Beacon:
Kay Hagan Won’t Say She Regrets Falsely Telling People They Could Keep Their Health Plans Senator Kay Hagan (D., N.C.) refused to answer whether she regrets repeating President Obama’s famous lie that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” Hagan talked about failed legislative proposals to help North Carolinians keep their health care plans instead of expressing regret over her endorsement of President Obama’s statement in a TV interview Tuesday night. “But if you knew then what you know now, do you think you would have said it that many times?” the anchor asked.
Here's the video: The North Carolina senate race took an especially nasty turn recently when Harry Reid's super PAC tried to blame Hagan's Republican challenger Thom Tillis for the death of Trayvon Martin.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 29, 2014 10 Comments
Elizabeth Warren appeared on The View on Tuesday and gave ringing endorsement to Jeanne Shaheen for working so hard for the people of... Vermont. From the Washington Free Beacon:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) gave an impassioned endorsement of senator Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.) on Tuesday’s The View. The only problem was that she forgot which state Shaheen is from. Warren touted Shaheen’s historical significance, but made a crucial slip-up when trying to sell her case to Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O’Donnell (as if they needed convincing): “The only woman in the history of the United States who has been both a governor and a Senator,” Warren said. “Independent, out there working for the people of Vermont.” Unfortunately, Shaheen is running for re-election in New Hampshire.
Here's the moment on video: You can watch the extended version here. You'll notice Warren doesn't correct herself and neither does anyone else. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post is seeing a pattern:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 28, 2014 24 Comments
Back in September, Prof. Jacobson asked How long before Bill Maher is banned on campus? It turns out the answer is... about a month. Greg Piper of the College Fix reported yesterday:
UC-Berkeley students try to derail Bill Maher from speaking at graduation Comedian, pundit and HBO host Bill Maher is scheduled to speak at the University of California-Berkeley’s December graduation, and students are already lining up to get him disinvited, citing his controversial remarks on Islam, the Daily Californian reports:
The Change.org petition was authored by ASUC Senator Marium Navid, who is backed by the Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian Coalition, or MEMSA, and Khwaja Ahmed, an active MEMSA member. The petition, which urges students to boycott the decision and asks the campus to stop him from speaking, has already gathered more than 1,400 signatures as of Sunday. … “It’s not an issue of freedom of speech, it’s a matter of campus climate,” Navid said. “The First Amendment gives him the right to speak his mind, but it doesn’t give him the right to speak at such an elevated platform as the commencement. That’s a privilege his racist and bigoted remarks don’t give him.” … “(Jon) Stewart and (Stephen) Colbert are critical of religion, too, but Bill Maher has, on several occasions, said to rise up against religious people and religious institutions and take action,” Ahmed said.
Here's an example of what's gotten Maher into trouble with Berkeley students. (language warning – NSFW) If you watched the video, you may have noticed that Maher mentioned Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 26, 2014 20 Comments
This is just another case of Democrats doing something they would be outraged about if Republicans tried it. In this instance, they want to use the power of government to silence opposition. Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reports:
Dems on FEC move to regulate Internet campaigns, blogs, Drudge In a surprise move late Friday, a key Democrat on the Federal Election Commission called for burdensome new rules on Internet-based campaigning, prompting the Republican chairman to warn that Democrats want to regulate online political sites and even news media like the Drudge Report. Democratic FEC Vice Chair Ann M. Ravel announced plans to begin the process to win regulations on Internet-based campaigns and videos, currently free from most of the FEC’s rules. “A reexamination of the commission’s approach to the internet and other emerging technologies is long over due,” she said. The power play followed a deadlocked 3-3 vote on whether an Ohio anti-President Obama Internet campaign featuring two videos violated FEC rules when it did not report its finances or offer a disclosure on the ads. The ads were placed for free on YouTube and were not paid advertising.
This is all about the accumulation and retention of power. As John Hinderaker of Powerline recently noted, that's just how the left rolls:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 26, 2014 80 Comments
Non-citizens, who should not be voting, wield significant influence in American elections according to a new report from the Washington Post. Can you guess which party they typically vote for? Jesse Richman and David Earnest reported, here are some highlights:
Could non-citizens decide the November election? In a forthcoming article in the journal Electoral Studies, we bring real data from big social science survey datasets to bear on the question of whether, to what extent, and for whom non-citizens vote in U.S. elections. Most non-citizens do not register, let alone vote. But enough do that their participation can change the outcome of close races... Because non-citizens tended to favor Democrats (Obama won more than 80 percent of the votes of non-citizens in the 2008 CCES sample), we find that this participation was large enough to plausibly account for Democratic victories in a few close elections. Non-citizen votes could have given Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health-care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) won election in 2008 with a victory margin of 312 votes. Votes cast by just 0.65 percent of Minnesota non-citizens could account for this margin. It is also possible that non-citizen votes were responsible for Obama’s 2008 victory in North Carolina. Obama won the state by 14,177 votes, so a turnout by 5.1 percent of North Carolina’s adult non-citizens would have provided this victory margin.
That's kind of a big deal, isn't it? Oh, and then there's this:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 25, 2014 5 Comments
Some people think Obamacare is ancient history and Democrats would certainly like to believe that but it's still an important issue. Byron York of the Washington Examiner explains the how and why:
Who says Obamacare isn't major factor in midterms? Some Democrats and their advocates in the press believe Obamacare, a year into implementation, is no longer much of a factor in the midterm elections. But no one has told Republican candidates, who are still pounding away at the Affordable Care Act on the stump. And no one has told voters, especially those in states with closely contested Senate races, who regularly place it among the top issues of the campaign. In Arkansas, Republican challenger Tom Cotton is pulling ahead of incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor partly on the strength of a relentless focus on Obamacare. Cotton's newest ad attacks Pryor over the law, as did two of Cotton's four previous ads. "In our polling, [Obamacare] continues to be just as hot as it's been all year long," says a source in the Cotton campaign. "If you look at a word cloud of voters' biggest hesitation in voting for Mark Pryor, the two biggest words are 'Obama' and 'Obamacare.' Everything after that is almost an afterthought."
Voters have every reason to be suspicious. It turns out there are some things we won't be told until after the election. Valerie Richardson of the Washington Times has the story:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 25, 2014 26 Comments
Wow. While campaigning for Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton took a jab at trickle down economics and in the process of doing so, claimed that corporations and businesses don't create jobs. The Washington Free Beacon has the story:
Hillary Clinton: Corporations and Businesses Don’t Create Jobs At a Democratic rally in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton’s attempt to attack “trickle-down economics,” resulted in a spectacularly odd statement. Clinton defended raising the minimum wage saying “Don’t let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs, they always say that.” She went on to state that businesses and corporations are not the job creators of America. “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” the former Secretary of State said.
Here's the video: On a related note, do you know who's a big fan of trickle down economics?

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 24, 2014 9 Comments
Early voting is looking good for Iowa Republican Joni Ernst. In fact, it's looking better than usual. Kirsten Hunter of the Washington Free Beacon reports that even CNN is acknowledging the trend:
CNN: Iowa Early Vote Data Shows Unprecedented Republican Numbers Elated Republicans are celebrating the unprecedented success of U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst (R) in Iowa’s early voting. Iowa Republicans banked a surge of early voters this week, a practice usually dominated by Democrats in the state. Ernst’s unprecedented success is also the result of her opponent, Rep. Bruce Braley’s, failure to mobilize Iowa Democrats despite receiving support from high-profile figures including the Clintons and the seat’s current holder, Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa). “Braley hasn’t run a great campaign,” said CNN reporter Peter Hamby. “Look at the early vote numbers in that state. Democrats in the last two or three cycles have really done well by running up the early vote number.” Hamby elaborated that Republicans are at a “parity” with Democrats after assessing this week’s early Republican votes. This “has never happened before,” Hamby said. “Braley wants that number to be higher.”
Here's the video segment: This surge may explain why liberal news sites are attacking Joni Ernst for expressing her completely Constitutional views on the Second Amendment.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 23, 2014 8 Comments
It's remarkable to watch Democrats scrambling to get away from Obama just six years after they and the media declared the death of the GOP. The latest example comes from Josh Kraushaar of National Journal:
Senate Democratic Officials Start Lashing Out at White House The relationship between the White House and Senate Democrats hit a new low Tuesday evening after the administration's press office released a transcript of first lady Michelle Obama's appearance in Iowa on behalf of Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley. The problem: The subject line of the e-mail referred to Braley as the "Democratic candidate for governor." The botch came after the first lady repeatedly referred to the Democratic Senate nominee as "Bruce Bailey" in a campaign appearance earlier this month—and it took an attendee in the crowd to correct her mistake... Indicating the sensitivity of the mistake, top Senate Democratic officials wasted no time lashing out at the Obama administration's political team in response, suggesting it was acting like a junior varsity operation two weeks before the midterms. The slipup comes one day after President Obama told Rev. Al Sharpton on his radio show that Senate Democrats keeping their distance from him are still "folks who vote with me. They have supported my agenda in Congress." That alarmed Senate Democrats up for reelection this November, most of whom are working hard to distance themselves from an unpopular president. "The ineptitude of the White House political operation has sunk from annoying to embarrassing," one senior Senate Democratic aide told National Journal. Another Senate official told the Washington Post that Obama's comments were "not devised with any input from Senate leadership."
The problem for Democrats is Obama's ego. He just can't stand not being part of the story.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 22, 2014 3 Comments
If you missed the debate between Scott Brown and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire last night, consider yourself lucky. Brown did very well despite the tremendous odds stacked against him. The debate was sponsored in part by the University of New Hampshire and moderated by the not-at-all biased Chuck Todd of NBC News. Scott Brown went out of his way to tie Shaheen to Obama's poor record and at one point, she helped him out. While many Democrats are running as fast as they can from Obama, Jeanne Shaheen admitted that she has voted with Obama 99% of the time. The Washington Free Beacon caught this moment:
Jeanne Shaheen Admits To Voting WIth Obama 99% Of Time Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D., NH) admitted Tuesday night that she has voted with President Barack Obama 99% of the time. At her second debate against Republican senate candidate Scott Brown, Shaheen conceded the fact after being pressed by a debate moderator. After reminding Shaheen of her voting record the moderator questioned Shaheen, “How does your voting record sort of jive with serving the citizens of New Hampshire?” Faced with the facts, Shaheen admitted to the number and tried to pivot. “Scott Brown talks a lot about one survey and 99% of the time I voted with the president,” Shaheen replied, “but the numbers I’m proudest of are the 259 people now working at the Berlin prison because I was able to get the prison open after it sat empty for two years.”
Here's the video:
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