Don #39;t Be Fooled! Republicans Don #39;t Care About Inequality
How Republicans are trying to lie about caring for inequality and the real anti-inequality agenda Filling in for Sam Seder: Majority Report contributor Michael Brooks This clip from the...
By: Sam Seder
Read more:
Don't Be Fooled! Republicans Don't Care About Inequality - Video
Story highlights As part of a Black History Month celebration, Republicans paid tribute to record-setting members of Congress It's part of the Republican National Committee's effort to build a more welcoming brand for the GOP
The committee held its third annual awards lunch at the Howard Theatre, a historic black landmark in Washington where the RNC and more than 400 attendees also paid tribute to the late Republican Sen. Edward Brooke, the first African-American popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, who died last month at the age of 95.
The event recognized Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the first black senator elected from the South since Reconstruction (in 2014 he was elected to the same seat he was appointed to in December 2012); Rep. Will Hurd, the first black Republican elected to Congress from Texas; and Rep. Mia Love of Utah, the first black Republican woman to serve in Congress.
READ: Kasich heads to South Carolina
Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and a major GOP donor, helped introduce the three lawmakers.
"It's amazing to me that we're dealing with 'firsts' in this century," Johnson told CNN in an interview after the event. "There should be 'seconds, thirds and fourths,' and really the Republican Party is open to all."
While Republicans had a big year in 2014, Scott and Love still won largely with the support of white voters, while Hurd won with the support of white and Hispanic voters. In South Carolina, for example, Scott won 10% of the black vote, only slightly more than the other South Carolina senator, Lindsey Graham, who's white and brought in 6% of the black vote.
"We've got a ways to go," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said on stage Wednesday. "I know we're not going to carpet the world here in one or two years or one election cycle, but it's an improvement, and we always have to be improving as a party."
Black voter turnout in the midterm election this past November did reach into the double-digits in some states, like Florida (12%), Wisconsin (10%) and in Ohio, where Gov. John Kasich won re-election with 26% of the black vote.
For her part, Love told a story about a student who asked Love how she's able to be a black Republican woman living in a red state like Utah in "today's America."
See the article here:
RNC pays tribute to record-setting black Republicans
Why Republicans Love the Benghazi Story
You might already be aware that Republicans are crazy, but why so crazy about Benghazi in particular? Adam gets you up to speed and explains how this fits th...
By: AdamKokesh
With about two weeks to go before the Department of Homeland Security runs out of funding, congressional Republicans appear to be stuck. You have House Republicans saying they've done their part by passing their DHS spending bill, which includes language rolling back President Obama's immigration actions. And you have Senate Republicans throwing the ball back in the House's court, because the House GOP measure -- due to Democrats' successful filibusters -- can't get 60 votes in the Senate. And right now, no one knows (or at least is telling us) how we get out of this mess. Now two weeks is a lifetime in Washington politics. But if cooler heads are going to prevail, they need to start working on a solution ASAP. Don't forget this reality of governing in times of divided government: For legislation to become law, it needs to get 1) 218 votes in the House, 2) at least 60 votes in the Senate, and 3) the president's signature. In other words compromise. And that's something that's been missing all too often over the past four-plus years.
The blame game is already beginning
For their part, Republicans are blaming Senate Democrats for the impasse, saying that the Dem filibusters are blocking even BEGINNING debate on this spending bill. They also point out that the "clean" DHS funding bill that Democrats want can't pass the GOP-controlled House and Senate, and that Democrats aren't acknowledging that reality. What's more, Republicans are even using some frightening imagery if the Department of Homeland Security does shut down (it runs of out funding on Feb. 27). "The Republicans - if there is a successful attack during a DHS shutdown - we should build a number of coffins outside each Democratic office and say, 'You are responsible for these dead Americans,'" Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) said yesterday, per Politico. But as we've said before, playing politics with security is a dangerous game. While Republicans believe they are standing on principle on this, so do the White House and Democrats. And the fact of the matter is that Republicans were the ones that decided to use this vehicle -- DHS funding -- as the way to protest the president's immigration actions. So unless they can someone get a bill passed that forces a presidential veto, Republicans are likely to own any shutdown of DHS. It will be much harder for them to sell the public that compromising on DHS funding is essential to protest the president's immigration actions.
Mistake Tuesday Part 1
To err is human, of course. But errors get magnified in the rough-and-tumble world of American politics. And yesterday we saw plenty of mistakes. The first came from the Obama administration in trying to play clean up over President Obama's interview with Vox, in which he clumsily referred to that Paris violence as random. "It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you've got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris." Now the president and his administration have referred to that violence as anti-Semitic in the past, but people took exception to the president calling it random violence (fueling the growing narrative on the right that the president goes out of his way to downplay the threat). Then administration officials tried to clean up Obama's language, and whiffed. "Both spokespeople Jen Psaki of the State Department, and Josh Earnest of the White House actually embraced Obama's strange and incorrect statement rather than revise it," New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait writes. After even more criticism, Earnest later tweeted, "Terror attack at Paris Kosher market was motivated by anti-Semitism. POTUS didn't intend to suggest otherwise." What an unforced error, err, errors.
Mistake Tuesday Part 2
The other mistakes came from Jeb World -- first the email release that actually revealed folks' Social Security and phone numbers (which they later said they would redact), and then the resignation of Bush's new chief technological officer over past controversial tweets. For Bush World, it is a reminder of how difficult it is to build the metaphorical plane as you attempt to take off. Bush doesn't have a full-fledged operation and yesterday, it showed.
Pouring more gasoline on the David Brock-vs.-Priorities USA fire
Speaking of mistakes, it appears that folks are pouring more gasoline on the fire of the recent David Brock-vs.-Priorities USA spat. And it increasingly looks to be some Obama-ally-vs.-Clinton-ally drama. The New York Times: "The dispute broke into the open on Monday after David Brock, a Clinton ally, accused Priorities USA Action a pro-Clinton "super PAC" whose co-chairman is Jim Messina, Mr. Obama's 2012 campaign manager of planting negative stories about the fund-raising practices of Mr. Brock's organizations. Mr. Brock resigned from the super PAC's board in protest." The problem here for Democrats: They're litigating their problems through the press. And they probably don't realize that it doesn't take much to feed the narratives of Clinton drama or Clinton-vs.-Obama drama.
Priebus to speak at luncheon marking Black History Month
More here:
Stuck: Can Republicans Find a Way Out to Avoid a DHS Shutdown?
By Alexis Levinson Posted at 5 a.m. today
Nevada Republicans worry their efforts to oust Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in 2016 could be thwarted again by a crowded GOPprimary.
In 2010, Republicans nominated one of their weakest candidatesin the primary, Sharron Angle,froma large field ofchallengers to face Reid. In a banner year for the GOPacross the country, Reidwon re-election by a handful of points and nowRepublicans are anxious history could repeat itself in 2016.
We just need to take control of our primaries and make sure that doesnt happen this time, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., recently told CQ Roll Call in the Capitol. Yeah, Im always concerned with that.
HellersHousecolleagues echoed that sentiment.
Always concerned with that situation, said freshman Rep. Crescent Hardy, R-Nev. We sometimes are our own worst enemy.
Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., was one of those many candidates who wanted to challenge Reid in 2010, but he dropped out after six months. He later sought election to the House.
I mean, just based on the most recent experience, it didnt have a positive result if youre looking for a Republican in the seat, said Amodei recentlyoutside the House floor.
Reid tops the GOPs target list for 2016, when the party haslittle opportunity to play offense because most of the incumbents up for re-election are Republicans. Democrats must win a net of five Senate seats to ensurecontrol of the chamber this cycle.
The GOPstop choice for the seat is Gov. Brian Sandoval. Republicans believe the popular Hispanic polcould easily defeat Reid.
See more here:
Republicans Fear 2010 Redux in Nevada Senate Race