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Republicans Tag

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 12, 2014 8 Comments
The last time we checked in with former White House spokesman Jay Carney he was predicting doom for Democrats in the midterms. It looks like he hasn't changed his mind. It's also interesting to note that Carney is acknowledging the fact that so many Democrats are distancing themselves from Obama. From the Washington Free Beacon:
Jay Carney: ‘No Question’ It Will Be A Good Year For Republicans, Bad Year For Democrats “The Democratic candidates have to thread this needle very carefully,” Carney said. “It is true that when you have an unpopular president of your party, you don’t want to be associated with him.” Carney acknowledged that a number of candidates are jumping the Obama ship and going to great lengths to distance themselves from the president, but warned them against “going too far.” “Look, it’s not a good dynamic for Democrats out there,” Carney said. “The goal has to be, in this cycle, to run local and state races and not have their races be nationalized. Because if they’re nationalized, they’re going to be hurt by the overall perception of president Obama right now.”
Here's Jay Carney on Don Lemon's CNN show: Carney may be onto something.

Posted by New Neo on May 10, 2014 10 Comments
Fact-checker Glenn Kessler at the WaPo says that Obama's gone and lied again:
In addressing a dinner of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Los Angeles, President Obama made a rather striking claim — that Senate Republicans have filibustered “500 pieces of legislation that would help the middle class.”... ...[W]hen you go through the numbers, there have just been 133 successful filibusters — meaning a final vote could not take place — since 2007. But, even if you accept the way Senate Democrats like to frame the issue, the president is still wrong. He referred to “legislation” — and most of these cloture motions concerned judicial and executive branch nominations. In the 113th Congress, for instance, 83 of the 136 cloture motions so far have concerned nominations, not legislation. Even then, while Obama referred to “500 pieces of legislation,” the same bill can be subject to as many as three cloture motions, further inflating the numbers...So far in the 113th Congress, 36 pieces of legislation were subject to a cloture motion — and 12 were actually filibustered... Obama’s count also includes at least a half-dozen instances when Republicans were blocked by Democrats through use of the filibuster.
But that's not all, although it would be enough to earn as many Pinocchios as the WaPo allows. In what Kessler refers to as "the biggest oddity":

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 09, 2014 32 Comments

If you've ever read my blog, you may know that I'm a big fan of Bill Whittle and his series of Afterburner videos from PJ Media. In his newest video, titled Time to Go, Bill looks at Mitch McConnell and John Boehner with an eye to...

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 03, 2014 13 Comments

Republican Monica Wehby slightly ahead in recent poll for U.S. Senate...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 06, 2013 43 Comments
Ace describes this as sort of true (quote from Daily Caller)
“Bobby Jindal and his political team totally blew it,” harrumphed one advisor for Ken Cuccinelli the morning after a closer-than-expected loss. Cuccinelli, who narrowly lost last night’s gubernatorial election to Terry McAuliffe, was badly outspent in the days and weeks leading up to the election. The New York Times‘ Jonathan Martin described Cuccinelli’s plight as having been “close to abandoned at the end.” He was. As Politico’s James Hohmann reported, ”The Republican National Committee spent about $3 million on Virginia this year, compared to $9 million in the 2009.” And as the Roanoke Times noted, in 2009, the Chamber of Commerce spent $973,000 on Bob McDonnell, but “[t]his year, the chamber gave Cuccinelli nothing.” But it was the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) and chairman Bobby Jindal who drew the most ire from a Cuccinelli advisor I spoke to on Wednesday morning — this, despite the fact that the RGA spent millions on the race.
The gripe against the RGA is that it spent money on ads itself, rather than giving the money to the Cuccinelli campaign directly, as the Democratic Governors Association did for McAuliffe, who used the money to hammer a war on women strategy. These are details, details, details. The bigger issue with Republicans is that it's a one-way loyalty.  When an establishment candidate wins a primary, Tea Party and others are expected to fall in line.  And that did in fact happen with the Romney presidential campaign. But it doesn't work the other way around.  When an establishment/incumbent Republican loses a primary, there is no rallying around the insurgent nominee with any enthusiasm. That's not the way it works for Democrats.  First, there are few if any insurgents in the Democratic Party.  Once in a while you'll get a true progressive, but those are dwindling.  There is a greater homogeneity of thought in the Democratic Party.  And when you do get a whack job like Alan Grayson, Democrats circle the wagons instead of creating a circular firing squad as Republicans do. https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/397915363444150272

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 12, 2013 43 Comments
Who could have seen this coming? Senate Republicans undercut the House proposal for a 6 week debt ceiling extension by proposing a longer extension: Senate Republicans Look To Jam Boehner Obama sided with the Senate Republicans, rejecting a short term extension.  Via Keith Koffler, Obama Reverses, Opposes Short-Term Debt Ceiling Hike:
Perhaps sensing Republican weakness, President Obama reversed himself and is pushing back against short-term debt ceiling hike, stressing in his weekly address released this morning what a bad idea it would be.
It wouldn’t be wise, as some suggest, to just kick the debt ceiling can down the road for a couple months, and flirt with a first-ever intentional default right in the middle of the holiday shopping season.
After the GOP was offfered earlier this week what I described as a cave-in by Obama – a willingness to accept a short term debt ceiling increase while negotiations Obama has previously rejected kicked in – Republicans failed to act, dithering for days and failing to forge a unified position between their House and Senate caucuses. Instead, sloppy Republican leadership allowed competing proposals to emerge from the House and Senate, with a Senate plan that would extend government financing for six months and raise the debt ceiling through January 2014. House Republicans sought to raise the debt limit until the week before Thanksgiving. As any general knows, when your opposition is divided, you win. Obama acted smartly to abet the divisions among Republicans by inviting them separately to the White House. At his meeting with GOP senators, Republicans were reduced to asking Obama what was in the House plan. What a joke. Republicans should have gotten their act together and insisted on a meeting between House and Senate GOP leaders and the president. This would have made sense unless, of course, House Speaker John Boehner was never serious about the House position to begin with . . .
Paul Ryan recognizes that the Senate Republicans undercut the House: https://twitter.com/brithume/status/389059172345864192 You know what I say? Primary them. Update: It's not as if undermining the House even got Senate Republicans anything:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 11, 2013 44 Comments
A conversation I had with myself on Twitter this morning. Just because I could. (added) Be sure to read Anne's study on how embarrassed Republicans were of the Republican Brand long before the current "shutdown," New study sheds light on why Republicans won’t call themselves Republican. Also available on Storify. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/statuses/388635508047216641 https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/statuses/388635827816771584 https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/statuses/388636232642600960 https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/statuses/388636692166348800
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