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Matthew Tully Published 10:27 a.m. ET May 10, 2017 | Updated 40 minutes ago

President Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey, is drawing comparisons to a controversial figure from 44 years past, President Nixon. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) explains. Buzz60

Jan 20, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; President Donald Trump waves to the crowd after taking the oath of office during the 2017 Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY(Photo: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports)

I found myself missing Richard Lugar on Wednesday morning.

Thats not unusual; Ive felt many times in recent months that our political system could use a dose of Lugars logic and reason, and that the Senate was in desperate need of another person of principle willing to put truth and country ahead of partisanship. The election of President Donald Trump has made the countrys loss of leaders like Lugar even more painful.

But Lugar isnt coming back to the Senate. His political career came to a conclusion back in 2012, when Indiana Republican primary voters tossed him aside in favor of a bomb-thrower of a candidate who ended up losing that years general election, but whose rabid partisanship would actually fit in quite well in Washington right now. Lugar left the Senate, taking with him a belief in bipartisan compromise and deep thinking.

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We could use a lot more of both of those traits right now. Washingtons problems are not limited to or caused by only one party. But one party is in charge, and we sure could benefit from more Republicans with the courage to simply do the right thing.

So lets ask the question: In Lugars absence, is there an elected Republican of note in Indiana willing to stand up and question a presidency that is becoming more troubling, more authoritarian and more dangerous by the day?

Is there even one member of the GOP congressional delegation willing to step out of the partisan line and ask serious questions about the firing of FBI Director James Comey? Its sad that this next question seems so silly, but is there a sole congressional Republican elected by the people of Indiana who can convince us that not everything comes down to party loyalty and concerns about the next election?

Ive seen no evidence as of yet that the answer to any of those questions is yes.

Sen. Todd Young, elected to the Senate in November, issued a statement saying, I'm working to learn the facts behind the presidents decision, but I hope new leadership at the FBI will help restore Americans' confidence."

Well, it wont.

What will help restore Americans confidence is a congressional majority that stops treating this failed presidency with kid gloves. What will restore Americans confidence is the emergence of more senators willing to demand answers from the White House. What will restore Americans confidence is a reaction to an historically stunning firing that adds up to more than silence and wishy-washy statements.

Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita, a pair of House Republicans expected to run for the Senate next year, have downplayed the issue, either with silence or, in Rokitas case, with typical partisan rhetoric and a pathetic fundraising appeal.

Politically, thats understandable, as both will need to win over the most loyal Republicans in the state, including a lot of Trump die-hards, in next years Senate primary. But its hard to understand at a time like this how anyone could remain quiet, or just toe the party line, or be so cynical as to exploit the issue for campaign cash. And its hard to imagine that the two lawmakers would have responded similarly if this weeks firing had been carried out by a President Hillary Clinton.

I know each of us sees the world through our own lens, and I know most of us judge behaviors and actions at least a little differently depending on whether they are carried out by those on our side of the aisle, or those the other side. But we should expect more of those elected to lead us. Things like the firing of an FBI director who was conducting an investigation that the president who fired him did not like well, thats when we need true leaders. Thats when we need lawmakers willing to question those on their own side of the aisle. Thats when we need acts of political bravery.

Is there one elected Republican from Indiana with the courage to ask tough questions and demand answers that are not simply spin? The coming days will answer that question.

Thank you for reading. Please follow me on Twitter:@matthewltully.

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Tully: Will any Indiana Republican question President Trump? - Indianapolis Star

But in the week since, Senate Republicans are quickly coming up against some of the same obstacles that dogged House Republicans -- and dealing with new problems of their own creation.

Republican leaders have spent the early days of their Obamacare repeal effort pelted with questions about why they announced a 13-man working group last week that didn't include a single female senator.

"I would have recommended a little diversity there from a gender perspective," Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters Tuesday.

Throughout the health care debate in the House, Republican senators didn't shy away from criticizing the negotiations happening across the Capitol. More than one senator warned that policies in the House were dead on arrival in the Senate. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul led the press corps in a search for the bill he accused House leaders of keeping under lock and key even from members of the Republican Party. And, just after the House bill was passed, Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted that it should be viewed with extra "caution" having been finalized the night before.

Now in the hot seat, Republican senators are finding it's not so easy to tackle the party's signature campaign issue.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to deflect questions about the working group's lack of women during his weekly press conference Tuesday by arguing that health care would be negotiated between all 52 Republican members of the Senate and that women were invited to speak up on the issue of health care reform whenever they wanted.

"Well, the working group -- the working group that counts is all 52 of us and we -- we're having extensive meetings, as I said a few minutes ago, every day. Nobody's being excluded based upon gender," McConnell said.

But there was no denying that the working group -- which had been intended to help bridge divisions between moderates and conservative s-- had morphed into its own story. A GOP leadership aide acknowledged the issue was a "'distraction' for Republicans who already have a very difficult task ahead of them."

Tuesday there was a concerted to shift the optics. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, was invited to speak on the Medicaid program in her state during a health care meeting Tuesday afternoon. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, presented on her state's high risk pool program during the GOP member luncheon. Vice President Mike Pence even tweeted out a photo of he and Capito talking about health care, a kind of proof of inclusion photograph.

But the issue of including women in the working group only revealed another delicate relationship senators will have to manage in upcoming months: the one with the White House.

Tuesday, the Senate got an early taste of how the White House can insert itself into Capitol Hill negotiations at any moment. As Republican leaders were taking heat for not officially including women in their working group, one senior White House official told CNN that there would be a woman added to the 13-member, all-male group to clear up the optics.

"You'll see those optics addressed," the official said.

The suggestion from the White House followed a familiar pattern from when health care was being debated in the House. Despite GOP congressional aides' insistence that House leaders set the floor schedule and wouldn't set a bill on the floor until they were sure they had the votes, the White House often applied pressure to move the legislation along, leaking frequently that a vote on health care was imminent.

Senate Republicans have tried to be clear: They respect the White House's opinions on policy and process, but need to be given the time to hash out a bill themselves.

"Look, we have to work it our way," said South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds. "They can help us, they can assist us, they can provide information, they can be responsive to our needs in terms of getting good data, but I think the Senate will work at an appropriate pace."

Sen. Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the Senate health committee and member of the health care working group, said that "we're going to take the time we need to get it right. That is the Senate's attitude."

"They know the Senate's got a unique role to play," Sen. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota told reporters earlier this week of the White House.

As if managing the optics and the White House's role weren't enough, Republicans also have the hard work of actually negotiating a bill between two disparate factions ahead, something they warn could take quite a bit of time. Senators also are waiting for the House bill to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office before they can even really dive in. Under budget reconciliation, the process Republicans are using to pass a bill with just 51 votes, they must have an estimate of how much their House bill will cost before they can commit ideas to paper for their own plan.

Senate aides insist that the process won't happen overnight. One Republican Senate aide with knowledge of the negotiations told CNN that having health care done by August recess would even be "incredibly optimistic."

"I think if you were incredibly optimistic, you would have something done by August, and that is if everything goes according to planned and if everyone sitting around the campfire is singing Kumbaya," the aide said.

CNN's Ted Barrett, Phil Mattingly and Elizabeth Landers contributed to this report.

Read the original here:
Senate Republicans start health care push with missteps - CNN

New York Times

Critics at Town Halls Confront Republicans Over Health Care New York Times But this week, with the House on a break, few of the 217 Republicans who approved legislation to repeal and replace critical parts of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, chose to defend their votes at public meetings. Those who did were, in several ... Few Republicans hold town halls after health care voteABC News Democrats Shame Republicans With 'Adopt a District' Plan to Hold Town Halls for Missing GOP RepresentativesAlterNet Democrats Are Shaming Republicans by Holding Town Halls in GOP DistrictsNew Republic Mother Jones -The Guardian all 46 news articles »

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Critics at Town Halls Confront Republicans Over Health Care - New York Times

Democrats hold a 16-point lead over Republicans in a generic House ballot, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

TheQuinnipiac University Pollfound that54 percent of respondents said they would like to see the Democrats control the House of Representatives, while 38 percent said the Republicans. Eight percent said they did not know or had no answer.

A majority of Americans disapproves of the job both parties are doing in Congress.

Fifty-eight percent disapprove of the job Democrats are doing, while 34 percent approve.

Republicans currently hold 238 seats in the House, meaning Democrats need to flip at least 25 seats in the 2018 mid-term elections to gain a majority in the lower chamber.

The same poll also found that President Trumps job approval rating has dipped to a near-record low of 36 percent.

There is no way to spin or sugarcoat these sagging numbers, Tim Malloy, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a press release.

The erosion of white men, white voters without college degrees and independent voters, the declaration by voters that President Donald TrumpDonald TrumpWarren: Trump wants to cut off any investigation of him Le Pen's defeat in France aside, assess populism case by case Dem lawmaker rips Trump for making friends with top Russian diplomat MOREs first 100 days were mainly a failure and deepening concerns about Trumps honesty, intelligence and level headedness are red flags that the administration simply can't brush away.

The Quinnipiac survey was conducted from May 4 to 9, surveying 1,078 voters across the country. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

By comparison, Democrats currently hold a 5.8 point lead on Republicans, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average of the generic House ballot.

Original post:
Poll: Dems lead Republicans by 16 points on generic House ballot - The Hill

President Trump says he is "so confident" the Senate will pass the American Health Care Act and send it to his desk to be signed into law but Republican senators say there's a lot of work to be done. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Some more literally and clumsily than others, Republican lawmakers are running from the House-passed American Health Care Act. Back home, Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa) ran away from questioning about the AHCA, Newsweek reports: On Monday afternoon, the staunchly conservativeRepublican andmember of the House Freedom Caucusfled an interview withJosh Scheinblum, a reporter with TV9 in Dubuque, after Scheinblum had the temerity to ask Blum a series of difficult questions.

Asked why he wanted to exclude those from outside his district from a town hall, Blum got testy:

I dont represent all Iowans, Blum countered, still smiling but with a newfound edge to his voice. I represent the First District of Iowa.Thatd be like saying, shouldnt I be able to, even if I live in Dubuque,go vote in Iowa City during the election because Id like to vote in that district instead?

A child behind Blum offereda charming grin, likely unrelated to the healthcare debate. [Local reporter Josh] Scheinblum then posedthe following question: Would you still take donations from a Republican in Iowa City?

At this point, Blum rose and beganto pull off the microphone attached to his gray pullover sweater.

This is ridiculous, a visibly agitated Blum declared as he prepared to leave.Hes just gonna sit here and just, just badger me.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that his town hall didnt go much better:

Rep. Rod Blum, R-Iowa, met a hostile crowd Monday night in his hometown while fielding questions on topics ranging from health care and immigration to school vouchers and climate change.

He took the podium to a mix of cheers, boos and applause from a crowd of about 1,000 at Dubuque Senior High School. After an introductory statement, Blum took questions from crowd members selected at random during the town hall event.

The two-term incumbent faced regular interruptions from shouted questions, stomping feet and boos when delivering answers in support of last weeks U.S. House bill repealing and replacing major provisions of the federal health care law known as Obamacare. Blum voted in favor of the bill.

Even before his vote, Blum was one of the Republicans at risk in 2018. He may be even more vulnerable than initial ratings projected after Mondays meltdown.

By contrast, Republican senators are carefully pivoting from the terms of a bill that they know is without policy or political merit. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), just reelected in Ohio by a huge margin, told Fox News, I think we can do better bytaking what the House haspassed, improving it in certainways, being sure we arent pulling therug out from under peoplewho are currently getting coverage and at the end of the day, over timebegin to see these premiums andthese co-pays and deductibleslevel off and not continue torise. Obviously, the Trumpcare bill doesnt help matters. Portman added: This is the biggest problem wehave really in our economy, too.Wages are flat and yet expensesare up and the number oneincreased cost is healthcare.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is painting quite a contrast with the feverish, irresponsible process the House went through. This process will not be quick or simple or easy, but it must be done, he said on Monday.

So why was it then that the House felt so compelled to throw together a bill with no Congressional Budget Office scoring, no robust debate, no hearings and no participation by Democrats? House leadership obviously made a political calculation pass an indefensible bill and then lieaboutit. Thats not an option for the Senate, which will be expected to pass something that works. Judging by what Blum encountered, the House approach isnt working even on political terms.

See the article here:
Republicans are running from the AHCA - Washington Post (blog)