If Ohio gun nuts are breathing easy it's because they probably figure that either incumbent Republican Rob Portman will win the 2016 Senate race or he'll be defeated by conservative Democrat Ted Strickland. Both are devout NRA-shills, Portman with an NRA rating of A and Strickland, believe it or not, with an even better NRA rating of A-plus!
I've been meaning to get around to this all week. It's another poll-- but not one about Trump or Hillary or Dr. Ben. Republicans have been trying to rile up their brain-dead base with horrible stories of terrorists coming to get them. How many times in their now boring debates have you heard talk about Christians being crucified and innocents being beheaded? But this is starting to wear thin, even to the poor deluded souls who admit that they're Republicans.
The Democratic Party's congressional leadership looks like a geriatric home-- and, increasingly, has been acting like one. Steyn Hoyer wants Nancy Pelosi to retire already. She'll be 76 in March. A couple months later, though, Hoyer will turn 77. The #3 in the House Democratic Leadership, Clyburn turns 76 next July. The only youngster in top leadership is Xavier Becerra, a mere 57. A comparison with the Republican House leaders is startling. Ryan is 45. McCarthy is 50, same as Scalise and #4, Cathy McMorris Rodgers is just 46. California has the biggest House delegation-- 53 members.
It must be frustrating for Alan Grayson, in his run for the open Florida Senate seat that Rubio is giving up-- see the clip of Grayson above explaining Rubio's dreadful Senate record to Chris Hayes-- to have Wall Street's Senator, Chuck Schumer, pushing Wall Street's favorite candidate in the primary, "former" Republican Patrick Murphy.
When conservatives were earning their keep from their Wall Street financiers-- working first to water down Dodd-Frank and then to defeat it and, more recently, to repeal it-- they made several arguments they hoped would appeal to the voting public.
Yesterday President Obama succumbed to the same pressure from serious activists that made Hillary Clinton switch positions on the Keystone XL Pipeline a month or so ago. Friday morning he announced that the 7-year "review" of the Keystone XL Pipeline project was over and that the controversial and dangerous Pipeline would not be built.
Hillary Clinton's team looked high and low for a position or policy where she was more "progressive" than Bernie Sanders. There isn't one. She's a moderate, poll-driven corporate-oriented politician who very carefully and methodically gets a sense of what positions will benefit her politically and then follows the herd. She never actually leads, not on anything.
Chris Van Hollen, top Dem on the Budget Committee-- as slimy as any RepublicanAs you may have seen yesterday, I was going through the campaign contributions of the Members of Congress Wall Street likes best.
