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Ted Cruz Tag

Thursday, Senate Republicans finally unveiled their version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA). It's almost as much of a stinker as its House counterpart. If you were hoping the GOP would make good on their promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, then I have some disappointing news: the latest Republican health insurance brainchild does neither. As we discussed when dissecting the unimpressive House AHCA, the Senate GOP bill is also limited in what it can accomplish for one reason -- reconciliation. Senate Republicans are relying on the budget reconciliation mechanism to pass their first health care overhaul with a simple majority vote.

Respecting free speech has been an ongoing issue on college campuses for years now but reached a boiling point in 2017. So far this year, there was a riot at Berkeley over a planned speech by Milo Yiannopoulos. Berkeley also had to cancel a speech by Ann Coulter over threats of violence. Charles Murray was shouted down by a violent mob at Middlebury College and another student mob threatened Heather Mac Donald at Claremont McKenna. And then there's Evergreen State College. Those are just a few of the high profile examples. The situation is so serious that the Senate held a hearing on the subject. CNN reports:
Senate judiciary committee hearing focuses on campus free speech Two college students warned of increasingly stifled speech on college campuses at a Senate judiciary committee hearing Tuesday. Zachary Wood, a rising senior at Williams College, and Isaac Smith, a student at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, appeared before the committee at a hearing titled "Free Speech 101: The Assault on the First Amendment on College Campuses."

While the 2018 Texas Senate race is slowly simmering on the backburner, fundraising and campaign efforts on the ground are in full swing. Beto O'Rourke, the young Democrat Congressman from El Paso has emerged as the only challenger to incumbent Sen. Cruz thus far. Thanks to social media, O'Rourke landed on the radar of one of Hollywood's most vocal left-wingers -- Rosie O'Donnell. O'Donnell proudly tweeted her support for O'Rourke and boasted giving the max contribution to his campaign.

The 2018 midterms are going to be followed like nothing we've seen before, drawing more mainstream media coverage than did even the 2010 midterms.  Although they have lost two special elections (Kansas and Montana) and failed to avoid a runoff in Georgia, Democrats and their media allies really really want the 2018 midterms to be a referendum on President Trump. While we focus often on the fact that Democrats are divided between the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren wing and the slightly less radical Cory Booker wing, Republicans, too, are divided.  The 2018 Ohio Senate race for incumbent Sherrod Brown (D)'s seat provides a snapshot of this friction. Conservative, conservative-leaning, and Trump-supporting Republicans are already endorsing Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel in what they hope will be a successful rematch between Brown and Mandel.  Mandel lost to Brown in 2012 and last year announced he was running again in 2018.

In October 2016, less than two weeks before the election, FBI Director James Comey disclosed that the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server had been reopened after classified emails from Huma Abedin were found on Anthony Weiner's laptop as part of an unrelated investigation into Weiner's sexting with a teenager. The computer in question belonged to her husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner.  Last November, FBI notes revealed that Hillary had been sending her housekeeper emails containing classified information for the purpose of printing them out. In his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony today, FBI Director James Comey reveals that Abedin had been forwarding classified information to her husband so that he could print it out for her to give to Hillary. He further notes that no charges were pursued because the FBI could not determine intent to violate federal law.

San Antonio Rep. Joaquin Castro announced Monday he will not challenge Sen. Cruz in the upcoming Senate race. Castro has been pushing off his public announcement since February. As of last week, he was reportedly undecided.

Will Rep. Joaquin Castro toss his hat into the upcoming Texas Senate race? Castro first said in February he'd make his announcement in eight weeks, then said he'd it would be the end of April, only to recently move his self-imposed deadline to "a few more weeks" reports the Texas Tribune. Should Castro jump in, he'd first have to beat fellow Democratic Congressman, Beto O'Rourke, who declared his candidacy at the end of March, before squaring off against Sen. Ted Cruz.

Beto O'Rourke, Democratic Congressman from El Paso announced his Senate candidacy just a few weeks ago. He has an impressive $500K in the bank, an amount that pales in comparison to Cruz's $5 million. O'Rourke had a successful first quarter, raising just over $200k. Not bad for a little known Congressman, but he has a long way to go if he wants to catch up with Cruz, who raised $1.7 million in that same timeframe.

Democratic U.S. Congressman Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke will reportedly launch his 2018 Senate campaign tomorrow. The Irish-American Congressman represents Texas's 16th district in west Texas, home to border town El Paso. O'Rourke looks to be the most formidable Democratic Senate contender Texas has seen in years. At 44-years-old, O'Rourke is a former punk-rocker who ran a successful insurgent campaign in 2012, ousting a 16-year incumbent in the Democratic primary before going on to win his Congressional seat. He's consistently rated one of the top five sexiest members of Congress. In Washington, O'Rourke serves on the Veteran's Affairs Committee as well as the Armed Services Committee. He's an outspoken advocate for veterans affairs and was awarded the 2016 Vietnam Veterans of America Medal of Honor and Legislator of the Year.

A funny thing happened on the internet Tuesday night. The left wing sports site Deadspin, a creation of the now defunct Gawker, tried to mess with Senator Ted Cruz and got owned. Big league. Here are the basic facts from CNN:
Univision's Deadspin tells Sen. Ted Cruz to 'eat s---' Deadspin, which is owned by Hispanic media giant Univision Communications, sent a tweet on Tuesday night telling the Texas senator to "go eat shit." Univision spokesperson Rosemary Mercedes did not comment. Deadspin previously drew scrutiny in 2013 for telling Donald Trump "go f--- yourself." At that time, Deadspin was owned by Gawker Media. It was acquired by Univision last year.

My favorite part of the confirmation hearings so far has been Ted Cruz's statement opening his questioning of Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions. It is some of the best 5 minutes of video I've seen in a long time, and reminds me of why I supported Cruz during the primaries. And would love to see him on the Supreme Court. Cruz used his time to skewer the Democrats on the committee for their false posturing (transcript via Conservative Review and IJR):

One of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's promises on the campaign trail was to "drain the swamp," and a part of that, he announced during his "Gettysburg Address," would be his push for a Constitutional amendment requiring term limits for members of Congress. In October, I wrote about this promise:
Trump on draining the swamp: "[O]n the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue the following six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC:
  • FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;"