Search Results for: save the senate

Save the Senate: Loose ends

Featured image While Paul Mirengoff was on vacation, I attempted to fill his accustomed role with a look at critical Senate races in three posts: Save the Senate: Takeaway opportunities, Save the Senate: On defense, and Save the Senate: Long shots. John has written several times in support of Karin Housley’s challenge to appointed incumbent Minnesota Senator Tina Smith. I want to revisit one race and note two that I should have »

Save the Senate: Long shots

Featured image If nothing else, the past week brought home the importance of keeping the Senate under Republican control. Paul Mirengoff usually takes the time to sort the races out for us, but we have let the task go this year. Now is the time. In previous posts I took a look at top takeaway opportunities and top seats to be defended. John made an appeal on behalf of Minnesota’s Karin Housley »

Save the Senate: On defense

Featured image The Kavanaugh confirmation horror show impresses on us the need to keep the Senate under Republican management for the next two years. Paul Mirengoff usually takes the time to sort the races out for us, but we have let the task go this year. Yesterday I looked at top takeaway opportunities and linked to the sites of recommended campaigns. Below is my unscientific selection of the four races where Republican »

Save the Senate: Takeaway opportunities

Featured image If nothing else, the past week brought home the importance of keeping the Senate under Republican control for the next two years. Paul Mirengoff usually takes the time to sort the races out for us, but we have let the task go this year. Now is the time. Last night John took up Minnesota’s Karin Housley v. Tina Smith race in the post nearby. Below is my unscientific selection of »

There Is Still Time To Help Save the Senate

Featured image Pretty much all observers expect the Democrats to capture the House in November. If they do, they will impeach President Trump. But the much more serious danger is that they may also take the Senate. If that happens, the Trump administration will be paralyzed. The Democrats likely will refuse to confirm a single significant appointment. I would not rule out the possibility of a constitutional crisis, if the Democrats try »

Can we be saved from SAVE?

Featured image The Biden administration has fashioned another program of student debt relief forgiveness. The so-called SAVE plan was promulgated by regulation last year. It takes the load off the fanny of beneficiaries of certain federal college loan programs and puts it right on the back of taxpayers. Politico reports that Biden is emailing 153,000 student loan borrowers that he’s canceling their debt. “I hope this relief gives you a little more »

Can the FBI Be Saved?

Featured image On Friday, Republican House Judiciary Committee staff released a report titled “FBI WHISTLEBLOWERS: WHAT THEIR DISCLOSURES INDICATE ABOUT THE POLITICIZATION OF THE FBI AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.” The report is 50 pages long, but it also includes an appendix of approximately 1,000 pages consisting of letters Judiciary Committee members have written to DOJ and the FBI, requesting information that, I take it, has rarely if ever been forthcoming. The report’s contents »

Podcast: The 3WHH, God Save the Queen

Featured image With John Yoo sitting in the host chair this week, we decided to post this episode a day early partly on account of travel schedules (John and I are headed for the NatCon conference in Miami over the weekend), and partly because of the breaking news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Also because it turns out that the favorite whisky of King Charles III is reportedly Laphroaig 15, »

Can Elon Musk Save Twitter? [Updated]

Featured image I have been concerned for a long time that it might be nearly impossible to build social media platforms that can compete effectively with behemoths like Facebook and Twitter. This is because of network effects, which come into play when the value of a service depends on the number of people who use it. Because of network effects, social media platforms may be natural monopolies like the water company, in »

Will the economy save the GOP?

Featured image Joel Kotkin asks, “Can the Trump Economy Trump Trump?” In other words, will our strong economy enable Republicans to prevail electorally notwithstanding the unpopularity of President Trump? John raised this question during the session we did last week for our VIP subscribers. He recalled the time, not long ago at all, when political scientists could successfully predict the outcome of presidential races based primarily on a few economic indicators. Can »

Senate Republicans block Lee Amendment, preserve AFFH

Featured image The Lee Amendment to defund President Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation failed in the Senate yesterday because not enough Republicans backed it. The Amendment was tabled by a vote of 60-37. Jeremy Carl aptly describes this vote as a defeat for conservatism, community control, and common sense. It is a victory, as Carl says, for turning the federal government into a National Zoning board, forcing high density housing »

Leading Dem insider: Save America; scrap the Constitution

Featured image Harry Reid is a determined radical, intent on limiting freedom, overturning American traditions, and remaking our institutions in the name of crushing the opposition and empowering the left. His attempt to amend the First Amendment to curb free speech is a natural extension of his obliteration of longstanding Senate rules that promote deliberation and minority input. But Reid seems almost moderate by left-wing Democrat standards. Take Donna Brazile, vice-chair of »

Can the spirit of 2012 save the Democrats in 2014?

Featured image Democrats are quite nervous about this year’s mid-term election, and understandably so. But they have a strategy for survival — replicate the turnout that propelled President Obama to victory two years ago. According to the Washington Post: Democrats are banking on the belief that they can better identify potential supporters, motivate them and get them to the polls — in essence, reshape the midterm electorate to make it look more »

“To Save Venezuela, Sanction Iran and Starve the Castros”

Featured image That is Ted Cruz’s formula, as delivered on the Senate floor today. Cruz is, obviously, a controversial figure. He is unquestionably one of the most brilliant men in Washington, but at times his judgment has been subject to legitimate criticism. Still–speaking for myself–I like brilliance, especially in the Senate. In his speech today, Cruz pointed to the critical connections among Venezuela, Iran and Cuba. He acknowledged, and elaborated upon, Marco »

How Harry Reid Is Destroying the Senate

Featured image We often hear that Washington is “broken,” that Congress is “gridlocked,” and so on. While such complaints are usually imprecise and sometimes misguided, the sense that Congress is not functioning as intended is correct. Yesterday Senator Jeff Sessions delivered an important speech in which he decried the decline of the Senate under the leadership of Harry Reid. The extent to which the Senate’s traditions have been undermined to the detriment »

The Senate Benghazi Report: What Does It Say?

Featured image Yesterday, the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence released what I take to be its final report on Benghazi. You can read it here. The main body of the report is attributed to the committee as a whole, while the majority and minority each added separate comments. The bipartisan nature of the report (for better or worse) is apparent from these comments by the Democratic majority: The Majority would like to »

Senate Dems prepare to throw Obama under the Obamacare bus

Featured image 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 »