A common ploy in parliamentarian scheming is for leaders to hand out hall passes for vulnerable members to vote against leadership’s proposal, knowing that it has the votes to pass anyway. The rationale is that those members should be able to hoodwink their constituents without compromising passage of the bill. This dynamic usually plays out with the leadership and rank-and-file of the same party, but | Read More »
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee began its markup of the gang of 8 immigration deform bill (s.744). The striking thing about the markup is that any casual observer would think we were living in 1965 or 1986, when there was either relatively low legal immigration or no failed amnesty to look back upon. To most of the senators sitting around the table, the border is more secure than ever (despite the sharp rise in crossings), our record levels of immigration don’t exist, and there is no reason to implement the enforcement before the legalization.
Read More »Liberals despise a legislative process that is open and conducted under regular order. That is why they seek to pass the most sweeping, consequential, and onerous pieces of legislation through expedited means. Their plan to rush through an ‘amnesty now, enforcement never’ bill is the latest example of their aversion to a transparent legislative process. In an effort to prevent Senate Democrats from jamming through | Read More »
Rand Paul has done a brilliant thing filibustering the President’s appointment to the CIA. By keeping the filibuster going through prime time, Rand Paul forced ABC, CBS, and NBC — chief sources of news for low information voters — to cover the issue. Along the way, Rand Paul had help giving him time to rest his voice. Ted Cruz came down a few hours in | Read More »
How often do you find Democrats scoring points for the opposing team on a daily basis? Never. Yet that is what Lindsey Graham and John McCain, the defacto leaders of the GOP Senate, accomplish every day. Worse, they use their bully pulpit to muddle the GOP message in the eyes of the public and convince the rest of the conference to join their merry band | Read More »
If a man is judged by the quality of his enemies, Ted Cruz should be a national hero. Over the past few days, The New York Times and Politico have run stories describing Cruz’s first 6 weeks in office as combative and McCarthy-like by his enemies. Let us use this as an opportunity to take a victory lap for helping to elect this great patriot. | Read More »
Last Wednesday, speaking in reference to Grover Norquist’s tax pledge, Senator Saxby Chambliss revealed himself to be a big government statist. Then again, we always knew that. He told a local TV station that if we hold the line on the anti-tax pledge, “then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.” This line of thought is emblematic of | Read More »
Over the past few months, there has been a daily trickle of establishment Republicans coming out before the media in hostage style confession statements to declare that they would accept tax increases as part of a “grand bargain” to cut the deficit. The latest member was Lindsey Graham, who stated his newfound opposition to the taxpayer pledge of Americans for Tax Reform, which he considered | Read More »
It’s another week in Washington, and another story is out containing a plethora of quotes from Republicans who are willing to “put revenues on the table.” Here are some quotes from today’s article in Politico: “Nobody wants to raise taxes, but the question is can you lower tax rates, lower loopholes and deductions and apply that to debt reduction? I think the answer is yes,” | Read More »
I’m seeing some real panicked shouting online about CISPA, a new bill that some are calling “the new SOPA.” It’s absurd. The bill may not be perfect. It could have flaws. But the argument being hammered against CISPA again and again is that it may be used against copyright infringers who abuse networks. So? The only reason to oppose that is if you wish to | Read More »
I’m getting a lot of emails from tea party members rather upset with members of Congress today. The funniest story I’ve heard today from several people on the hill is that the House GOP held a budget “listening” session to learn how to message better for tea parties and independents. The House GOP leaders really thought that they had the policy right and just needed | Read More »
Whenever we attempt to evince bold distinctions between ourselves and the Democrats, Lindsey Graham and John McCain can always be counted upon to muddle those distinctions. Foreign policy, in particular, is a subject in which voters struggle to perceive clear differences between the parties. Consequently, we must repel the rapturous support for the so-called Arab Spring emanating from Obama’s tag team of favorite Republicans. Back | Read More »
A lifetime appointment to the federal bench is now selling for $700,000. At least that was the cost for Rhode Island judicial nominee Jack McConnell, who has donated that sum of money to Democrats in the two decades before President Obama tapped him for federal district court. McConnell faces a Senate confirmation vote as early as today, setting the stage for a high-stakes showdown that | Read More »
As always, I completely agree with the ever brilliant Mr. Steyn. He wrote the following at National Review in response to the craven and vile response by Senators Reid and Graham to the deadly Afghan riots. Lindsey Graham, in particular, wants to take away rights from American citizens — to appease people who wish to kill us. I did not think it would be necessary quite so soon to take the | Read More »
This is utterly revolting: U.S. lawmakers said Sunday they would consider a request by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to formally condemn a Florida pastor’s decision to burn the Koran, after the act triggered deadly riots in Afghanistan. Note that once again it is being said that one act – the burning of paper – “triggered” the deadly riots. Not the ideology nor the people who committed the | Read More »
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