Of all the Senate seats the Republicans have to defend in 2016, Illinois is probably the one they dread most. Mark Kirk is a weak candidate with an undistinguished, uninspiring record in a blue-leaning state. Although there are no party registration statistics available, recent elections gave the Democrats 40 seats in the Illinois state Senate to the GOP's 19 and 71 in the state House to the GOP's 47.
Politicians are widely seen as legitimate-- even healthy-- targets of skepticism, derision and raucous humor. Rachel Maddow's opening piece on one of her MSNBC shows this week-- a look at Jeb Bush's tech campaign-- was nothing short of hilarious. I have two broken ribs and I was in pain from laughing so hard while I watched it.
The bastion of right-wing extremism-- and some kind of sick notion of ideological "purity-- in Congress has been the Republican Study Group. That's ending. The RSG was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich and other right-wing paranoids to keep an eye on GOP House leaders they feared would sell out to a more mainstream perspective.
This morning, Boehner-- once banished from the GOP leadership for handing out bribery checks on behalf of tobacco lobbyists on the floor of the House (see video above)-- was elected to his third term as Speaker of the House. "I'll never di it again," whined Boehner, when caught. "It's a bad practice; we ought to stop this." In 1923, another 3-term Republican Speaker, Frederick Gillett (R-MA), was elected Speaker for the last time.
Utah's Mike Lee (R), Jim Matheson (D)-- it doesn't get any worseFar right Utah Republican Mike Lee has been playing Tonto to Ted Cruz's Lone Ranger since the day he managed to get into the Senate. And plenty of Utah Republicans don't appreciate that-- nor the way he did get into the Senate, namely by smearing mainstream conservative 18-year Senate veteran Robert Bennett.
In the last cycle Club for Growth Action spent $8,949,420. Their biggest investments were $2,417,659 against Senator Thad Cochran (R) in Mississippi, $815,420 against Senator Mark Pryor (D) in Arkansas, $758,501 against Rep. Ann Kuster (D) in New Hampshire, and $478,802 against Rep. Mike Simpson (R) in Idaho.
No, not a character from a Harry Turtledove alternative history novelThe go-along-to-get-along crowd-- the 2 transpartisan Beltway party establishments-- were happy enough how the Cromnibus vote went down Thursday night. But those with actual political-- rather than transactional or careerist-- agendas are frustrated.
Ted Cruz has a vision: President Ted Cruz, the first U.S. President born in another country. From a family of Cuban fascists who found Texas compatible with their authoritarian ideology, Cruz is eager to implement a plan to force Obama to rescind his executive action delaying the deportation of Hispanic and Asian immigrants whose children are U.S. citizens.
