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"Probably that champagne that wasn't popped in November may be utilized this evening," he said. "We'll see."

He was right.

Moments later, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that Republicans were nixing their high-stakes health care bill after failing to get enough support from within their own party. Obamacare would stay.

Democrats celebrated immediately, taking to social media and holding press conferences declaring a "sigh of relief" for the American public.

"In the words of my friend Joe Biden: This is a BFD," Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.

"Today is a great day for our country," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters. "It's a victory. What happened on the floor is a victory for the American people."

After President Donald Trump's upset win last year, Democrats were downright mournful. Not only did they lose the presidential election, but Republicans maintained control of both chambers in Congress and it was clear that the GOP's No. 1 target was going to be Obamacare.

Democrats say Republicans' inability to uphold their campaign promise should further embolden and amplify their party both in Congress and at the grassroots level.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California, told CNN the bill's downfall was not only owed to Republican intra-party disagreement, but also to the liberal movement that's been pushing back against the new Republican government since Trump's first day.

Groups have actively been organizing phone and letter-writing campaigns to oppose the bill, and they've turned out in force at congressional town halls across the country.

"We showed (those constituents) there's going to be legislation coming through this House that we have to hold members accountable. This was, I think, the first real test of that," Swalwell said. "So yeah, we're fired up."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday that the health care disaster sets a poor precedent for Republicans in the new Congress, adding that they're unlikely to have much luck with the president's budget plan -- something many Republicans have already criticized.

"So they have to re-examine how they are going to govern," Schumer said on a call with reporters. "They have to be much more capable and competent. I can't believe a bill like this was put on the floor with so little initial support."

Fresh off their victory in the House, Democrats are also entering what will likely be an ugly fight, this time in the Senate over Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

Democrats were already planning to filibuster, and Republicans can still get around that by lowering the threshold needed to end a filibuster from 60 votes to a simple majority. But that would require changing the rules, thus repeating an intense and unpopular move that Democrats pulled four years ago.

Whether the health care bill fiasco will have a real impact on the Gorsuch nomination is unclear, but it could give Democrats some momentum as they head into the week.

"Let's not forget, had Mitch McConnell not held up (Supreme Court nominee) Merrick Garland for a year, we wouldn't have been talking about this," Schumer said Friday night on CNN.

Schumer argued that if Gorsuch couldn't get to 60 votes, then Republicans shouldn't change the rules, they should "change the nominee."

In a sobering press conference, Speaker Paul Ryan acknowledged the Republican setback Friday.

"I will not sugarcoat this," he said. "This is a disappointing day for us. Doing big things is hard."

And it wasn't long before Republicans were fretting about next year's midterm elections.

"2018 will be tough," one senior GOP official told CNN.

Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, chairman of the House Democratic campaign arm, was already forecasting Friday which Republicans they could start targeting over the debacle. He told reporters there were 15 Republicans from competitive districts who voted to advance the bill in various committees during the legislative process.

"Their constituents deserve answers as to why they were voting yes on this bill which was horrible then, it was horrible today," he said. "And we'll continue to take this fight to the American people."

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, told CNN now is a time for House Republicans "to reflect and be a little bit humble."

"If they want to do something constructive, they'll work with us to find ways to improve the Affordable Care Act," he said. "If they want to play politics and go down the same road again or drop their hands and do nothing, I think that's unfortunate because we have to wait for the Democrats to take over."

CNN's Manu Raju, Ted Barrett, Sunlen Sefarty, and David Siegel contributed to this story.

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Emboldened Democrats look ahead to next fight - CNN

Five Democratic lawmakers are raising ethics concerns about a Chinese conglomerates potential investment in a Manhattan office building owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps son-in-law and a senior White House adviser.

The lawmakers asked the White House in a March 24 letter to explain whether Kushner was involved in any talks about the possible partnership with Chinas Anbang Insurance Group Co. They also asked for additional details on Kushners divestment from his familys company, Kushner Cos.

This deal, if executed, would appear to present a clear conflict of interest, the lawmakers wrote to Stefan Passantino, White Housedeputy counsel. Anbang has close ties to the Chinese state, they added.

The White House didnt respond immediately to a request for comment.

Bloomberg reported earlier this month on a financing proposal that would make Anbang and Kushner Cos. partners in the marquee office tower, located at 666 Fifth Ave. Some real estate experts considered the terms of the $4 billion transaction unusually favorable to the Kushners. The property has struggled financially.

Anbang subsequently denied there was a planned deal, saying in a statement that there is no investment.

Kushner has said he sold his stake in the building to family members to comply with federal ethics rules.

Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tom Carper of Delaware, Gary Peters of Michigan andSherrod Brown of Ohio, along with Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, signed the letter.

They wrote separately to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who heads the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews foreign business transactions on whether they could jeopardize U.S. national security. The committee previously rejected a proposed Anbang property acquisition because of its proximity to a naval base in San Diego.

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Democrats Question Potential Kushner Deal With China's Anbang - Bloomberg

Pretty much everyone thinks the Houses failure to pass the GOPs repeal-and-replace bill is a disaster for Republicans. The Democrats are giddy with glee, and Matt Drudge calls it a catastrophe. Perhaps they are right, but I doubt it.

Obamacare is in a death spiral. It is rapidly collapsing, and steadily becoming more unpopular as it fails more and more Americans. Congress will now move on to other tasks, like cutting taxes and building up the military. The Democrats had one chance to save Obamacare and they blew it: why isnt that the conventional narrative?

Minnesotas own Amy Klobuchar writes on Facebook:

So now what? Are we just going to walk away, as the White House suggested? Or are we going to work together to bring healthcare costs down? Theres so much we can do reduce prescription drug costs, help out people on the exchange, reform delivery systems, eliminate the medical device tax and more. We cant walk away from the American people. Moving beyond healthcare isnt an option.

Oh, yes, it is. If the Democrats have ideas on reducing prescription drug costs, helping people on the exchange, and so on, where have they been for the last seven years? And since when are Democrats interested in working together? They passed Obamacare with zero input from Republicans and zero Republican votes. When they had an opportunity this week to save Obamacare, not a single House Democrat was willing to vote for it.

Fine. Democrats are stuck with the Obamacare they passed. It wont be reformed, and it will limp along for the time being. But the day will come, before long, when Obamacares collapse is so complete and so manifest that repeal will be revisited. In the meantime, I see no reason why Republicans should take the hit for the Democrats disastrous overreach.

Is that too optimistic a view of the situation? Maybe. But that is how it looks to me.

Excerpt from:
Democrats' Celebration Is Premature - Power Line (blog)

Renegade Democrat Tim Sheldon's LD-35, which is located west of Tacoma, swung from 51-46 Obama to 47-44 Trump. However, Democrats may have a Sheldon-proof majority a year before the 2018 elections. Last year, Republican state Sen. Andy Hill died of lung cancer, and there will be a special election in November of 2017 for his old LD-45. This seat, which is located east of Seattle, went from 58-40 Obama all the way to 65-28 Clinton, making it the bluest GOP-held seat in either chamber.

Republican Dino Rossi, who ran for governor in 2004 and 2008 and the U.S. Senate in 2010, was appointed to replace Hill, but Rossi says he's not interested in running in the special. Democrats have consolidated behind prosecutor Manka Dhingra, while it's unclear whom the GOP will field. If Democrats can flip this seat, they'll have control of the Senate for the first time since Sheldon and now-former state Sen. Rodney Tom launched their coup in late 2012.

LD-45 will be up again in the fall of 2018, and Democrats have a few other GOP-held Senate seats they can target next year. LD-30, held by Republican Mark Miloscia (a former Democratic state representative) went from 59-39 Obama to 57-36 Clinton. LD-47, represented by Republican Joe Fain, went from 56-42 Obama to 54-38 Clinton. Both Miloscia and Fain decisively won during the 2014 GOP wave but if next year is good for Democrats, they could be in for a tougher fight. The GOP-held LD-26 and LD-42 both narrowly backed Clinton (she carried the latter seat by just 10 votes), but they'll be tough targets.

Democrats could also try exacting revenge on Sheldon next year, but their best bet may be to deny him a place in the general election rather than try beating him in November. Indeed, this almost happened in 2014, when Democrat Irene Bowling took first in the top-two primary with 35 percent while Sheldon edged Republican Travis Couture by just 600 votes for the second-place spot. However, Sheldon ended up beating Bowling 54-46 a few months later.

We'll turn next to the state House. In the 2014 GOP wave, Republicans chipped the Democratic majority down from 55-43 to just 51-47; in the fall of 2015, the GOP picked up a Democratic seat in a special election. Democrats hoped that the presidential race would allow them to expand their majority, but their narrow 50-48 majority didn't move.

Just like in the state Senate, ticket-splitting overwhelmingly helps the GOP. Eleven Republican represent Clinton seats, while state Rep. Brian Blake is the one Democrat to hail from a Trump district. Blake represents the same aforementioned LD-19 that sends Dean Takko to the state Senate. After Blake, the House Democrats in the reddest seat are Mike Chapman and Steve Tharinger, whose LD-24 went from 54-43 Obama to 49-43 Clinton.

Team Blue will get the chance to play offensive next year. The bluest GOP-held seat is LD-05, which elects Republican state Reps. Jay Rodne and Paul Graves to the lower house, even though it has a Democratic state senator. This seat, located east of Seattle, went from 53-44 Obama to 55-37 Clinton, but Rodne won a seventh term 52-48 while Graves won his first term 54-46. Three other Republicans hold seats where Clinton's margin of victory was over 10 percent, while those remaining six Republicans hold districts where her margin was no greater than 3.2 percent.

AL-Gov: Next year's open-seat GOP primary has not been easy to follow. To begin with, it's not clear that this will be an open seat. GOP Gov. Robert Bentley is under investigation for allegedly using state resources to conceal an affair with a staffer. If the state House votes to impeach him, Bentley's powers will pass to GOP Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey unless the state Senate acquits him; if the state Senate votes to convict Bentley, Ivey will officially become governor. It also doesn't help that, while several Alabama Republicans have made noises about running for governor, many of the biggest names in state politics have been publicly silent. Political columnist Steve Flowers provides some new details about what some of the potential GOP candidates are up to, but we may be waiting a while for this contest to take shape.

One of the names we've occasionally heard mentioned is Public Service Commission President Twinkle Cavanaugh. However, Flowers says that Cavanaugh is "already out running for governor," though Cavanaugh has yet to announce anything publicly and her social media pages don't identify her as a candidate. Flowers also says that state Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan, a longtime politician who was first elected to the legislature in 1974 as a Democrat, is planning to get in. Flowers adds that Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle is "seriously considering," but that while Secretary of State John Merrill is being encouraged, Flowers doubts he'll go for it. State Treasurer Young Boozer (who won in 2010 with the tagline "Funny name, serious leadership") is keeping his 2018 plans very quiet.

But wait there's more! Roy Moore, the twice-disgraced former chief justice of the state supreme court, has been publicly flirting with a third run for governor, but he's also talked about challenging appointed GOP Sen. Luther Strange or running for attorney general. Moore was suspended from office last year for defying federal courtorders on same-sex marriage; In 2003, Moore was outright removed from the bench for refusing to comply with a federal judge's order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the grounds of the state supreme court. But while Moore's 2006 primary challenge to incumbent Bob Riley badly failed and he took a distant fourth in 2010, Flowers writes that unreleased polls show that Moore is popular in this very conservative state.

State Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh is also talking about running for either the Senate or for governor, but he likely starts with little name recognition. But Flowers says that Marsh reportedly is wealthy, and he's "itching to pull the trigger on the governor's race."

We've also heard from plenty of other Republicans, though some seem more serious than others. State Auditor Jim Zeigler, a longtime Bentley critic, is talking about running, and he even recently self-published a novel about a candidate who "stood up in the Bentley years and, in 2018, stood out from the rest." We've also heard interest from Jefferson County Commissioner David Carrington; Troy University Chancellor Jack Hawkins Jr.; and former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, while Rep. Rep. Bradley Byrne hasn't said no. One person who has been quiet is Ivey, who may end up becoming governor without being elected to the post.

NJ-Gov: On Tuesday, Democratic state Assemblyman John Wisniewski announced that he had raised the $450,000 he needed to qualify for state public matching funds in the June primary. Under this system, candidates receive $2 for every $1 they raise, though they're not allowed to spend more than $6.4 million in the primary. Clinton-era U.S. Undersecretary of the Treasury Jim Johnson has already qualified, while state Sen. Ray Lesniak recently said he doubts he'll raise enough. Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and ambassador to Germany who is backed by the state's powerful Democratic establishment, is personally wealthy and can spend whatever he needs to spend.

CA-49: Last cycle, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa pulled off a 1,621-vote victory over Marine veteran Doug Applegate in a contest that looked completely uncompetitive for most of the cycle. Applegate quickly announced he would seek a rematch, but this time, he'll have some intra-party competition. Environmental attorney Mike Levin, who served as executive director of the Orange County Democratic Party a decade ago, kicked off his bid earlier this month, but Applegate is arguing that he has the inside track to face Issa again. Applegate is out with a Strategies 360 poll of the June 2018 top two primary that gives Issa a 43-39 lead, while Levin takes third with just 9. In California, the two candidates with the most votes in the June primary advance to the general regardless of party.

Levin unsurprisingly starts out almost completely unknown, while Democratic voters have a good opinion of Applegate after he almost beat the hated Issa. This seat, which includes both the San Diego media market and the very expensive Los Angeles market, is not cheap to advertise in at all. Things could very well change if Levin can raise or self-fund enough to get his name out, but it's too early to know Levin's capabilities. This suburban San Diego seat swung from 52-46 Romney to 51-43 Clinton, and both parties are likely to get involved here far earlier this time.

MN-03: Last cycle, this suburban Minneapolis seat swung from 50-49 Obama to 51-41 Clinton, but Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen decisively beat highly-touted Democratic state Sen. Terri Bonoff 57-43. Paulsen is a very strong fundraiser and a formidable campaigner, but if Trump damages the GOP brand across the country, he could be vulnerable. No one has publicly expressed interest in challenging Paulsen, though the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says that Dean Phillips, a businessman and philanthropist who is the heir to the Phillips Distilling Company fortune, may be interested. According to state Rep. Jon Applebaum, "a lot of national and local people are asking him to run and that he is strongly considering it." The paper says that Phillips, who is also the grandson of the original Dear Abby, can self-fund.

Special Elections: On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Democrats competed for HD-197, a Philadelphia seat that gave Obama 97 percent of the vote but there was no Democrat on the ballot. As Johnny Longtorso recently explained, the Democrats originally nominated Freddie Ramirez, who was struck from the ballot when it was determined that he didn't live in the district. After the courts ruled that it was too late for Democrat Emilio Vasquez to make the ballot, Team Blue mounted a write-in campaign for him. So, how did it go? Johnny Longtorso checks in:

Democrats handed out stamps spelling "Emilio Vazquez" outside of polling places, while the Green Party did the same thing for their write-in candidate, Cheri Honkala. Another Democrat, Edward Loyd, also launched a write-in campaign, but he didn't have any organizational muscle behind him.

The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, and James Lambert.

The rest is here:
Morning Digest: Washington Democrats might retake the state Senate as soon as this November - Daily Kos

Great Falls Tribune

Eyes on 2018, Democrats salivate over GOP health plan Sacramento Bee The attacks are ready. Democrats just need Republicans to go ahead and pass the bill. Republicans in the House of Representatives have been racing to a vote on President Donald Trump's health care overhaul, and on a parallel track, Democratic ... GOP looks to wrest public access issue from DemocratsGreat Falls Tribune The Democrats' ditch is only getting deeperWashington Post (blog) all 15 news articles »

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Eyes on 2018, Democrats salivate over GOP health plan - Sacramento Bee