Senate
May 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
We’ve been saying for some time that Obamacare will be a central issue in the 2014 election, and that it offers Republicans the hope, if they nominate solid candidates, of taking control of the Senate. Now, Senate Democrats have figured this out, as well. Ron Wyden is latest example. He frets: There is reason to be very concerned about what’s going to happen with young people. If their (insurance) premiums
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April 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Max Baucus has announced that he will not seek reelection. Baucus has served in the Senate since December 1978. Clearly, his retirement should improve the prospects for a Republican pick-up in Montana next year.
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April 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Returning from a business trip to Washington, D.C., tonight I was delighted to find Senator John Thune waiting to board the 7:15 p.m. flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul at Reagan National Gate 21. As I said hello, Senator Thune could not have been warmer. I asked him about his trip home. If I understand correctly, he said he was going home for the induction of his father, age 93, to the
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April 9, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Washington is abuzz over Mother Jones’s publication of secretly-recorded audio of a meeting between Senator Mitch McConnell and a small group of his campaign advisers. McConnell and his aides are heard discussing the potential candidacy of actress Ashley Judd, and suggesting ways in which she could be vulnerable. (Judd has since announced that she will not seek the Democratic nomination to run against McConnell.) Politico, like many other outlets, tried
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April 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Eliana Johnson reports that four Republican members of the Senate Judiciary — Jeff Sessions, Chuck Grassley, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz — are calling for transparency from their GOP colleagues in the “Gang of Eight” that is drafting immigration reform legislation. In a letter to John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and Jeff Flake, the four Judiciary Committee members express concern that an immigration reform bill will be rushed through
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April 3, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Baton Rouge doctor elected to Congress in 2008, is set to announce his candidacy for the Senate. He will become the first major Republican challenger to Sen. Mary Landrieu. As a Democratic Senator from a Red State, Landrieu is inherently vulnerable. However, according to a PPP poll from February, she currently leads all prospective Republican challengers. Her lead over Cassidy in the PPP poll was 10
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March 31, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
As of late last week, an impasse between business and labor over work visas appeared to be all that stood in the way of a Senate bill on comprehensive immigration. And, as we noted, since this dispute pertained only to dollars and cents, not principles, resolution seemed likely. Now, it has occurred. “Labor and business reach deal on immigration issue” reads the headline of this article in the New York
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March 25, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) does not plan to run for re-election in 2014, according to this report by Reuters. Johnson has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow. Mitt Romney carried South Dakota by 18 points last year. But we shouldn’t assume that, therefore, the South Dakota Senate seat will be an easy pick-up. Romney carried North Dakota and Montana comfortably, yet the Dems elected Senators in both states, including a
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March 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
When Ted Cruz raised with Dianne Feinstein the question of the constitutionality of legislation she was proposing, the Senator from California reacted testily, stating that she is not a sixth-grader. I would have thought that, if anything, Cruz’s attempt to engage her in a discussion about the Constitution showed respect for Sen. Feinstein. Too often, Feinstein (a non-lawyer) has marginalized herself as a Judiciary Committee member by opting to play
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March 21, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The Senate continues to debate the Democrats’ budget, which features massive deficits as far as the eye can see. Tonight Jeff Sessions moved to recommit the budget in order to produce a budget that balances sometime in the next ten years. This is the language of Sessions’ motion: Mr. Sessions moves to commit S. Con. Res. 8 back to the Committee on the Budget with instructions to report back no
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March 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
A poll released Tuesday by the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund finds that our friend Rep. Tom Cotton leads Sen. Mark Pryor by 8 points in a projected 2014 contest for the Pryor’s Arkansas Senate seat. The poll also finds that Pryor is viewed favorably by only 36 percent of Arkansas voters. I should add that Tom has not made a decision about whether to run for
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March 19, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Geraldo Rivera says he is excited about the prospect of running for the Senate from New Jersey. As a Republican! Who knew? Geraldo says he feels the need to give back by serving the people. Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. So what do you think about the prospect of Rivera running for the Senate?
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March 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The New York Times and other newspapers have devoted a large number of column inches to the Senate investigation of the multibillion dollar losses incurred by JPMorgan Chase in its so-called London Whale trades. See, for example, Jessica Silver-Greenberg’s Saturday Business article and Gretchen Morgenson’s Sunday business column. Why should we care about the bank’s trading losses? Morgenson gets around to the question at the end of her column, but
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March 16, 2013 — John Hinderaker
CPAC is drawing to a close. The speakers who got the most press, and the most enthusiastic receptions, were mostly those you would expect: Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was also well worth listening to, and to some, I suspect, surprisingly hard-hitting: There has been talk about a primary challenge to McConnell next year by someone ostensibly more conservative. We conservatives
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March 9, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Heading into this session of Congress, any list of young, rising Republican Senators would have included not just Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul, but also Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. However, that was before she joined the McCain-Graham-Ayotte trio. The formation of that trio seemed like a good idea at the time. It offered McCain and Graham a fresh, diverse face. And since Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton
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March 8, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Remember when we were told that the Republican Party, cowed by the Tea Party and other “extremists,” was marching in lockstep towards its doom to the tune of a single drummer? If that seems to you like only yesterday, you aren’t far off. But check out the Senate. The Democrats are in lockstep on virtually every vote. Even in response to President Obama’s controversial, seemingly illiberal drone policy, the only
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March 3, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Caitlin Halligan is the general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney’s office. President Obama nominated Halligan to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010. In 2011, she failed a cloture vote by a count of 54 for proceeding with her nomination to 45 vote against. Since then, Obama has re-nominated her four times. But until recently, Harry Reid has not brought her nomination back to the Senate floor for
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