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Key Peele Black Republicans

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Key & Peele Black Republicans - Video

Republicans want top officials from the Dayton administration to answer questions about what they knew of problems with the MNsure health exchange before its rocky launch on Oct. 1.

Citing recent news reports, Republicans on a MNsure oversight committee said that DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and his top advisers were warned about health exchange defects "well in advance of their decision to make the website available to consumers," they wrote in a letter sent Monday to the DFL chairs of the committee.

Asking that Dayton's human services commissioner, former chief of staff and the former MNsure executive director attend a committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, the Republicans wrote: "Minnesotans deserve answers to the continued questions about the management failure at MNsure prior to its launch."

Sen. Tony Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, co-chairman of the legislative oversight committee, said in a voicemail message Monday that he had forwarded the letter to Dayton and expected "the administration to have people to answer questions appropriately" during the meeting.

Linden Zakula, a spokesman for Dayton, blasted the request in a statement, saying Republicans should be "as interested in hearing current good news, as they are in dredging up old bad news."

Two proposed witnesses are no longer employed by the state, Zakula said. Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson said Monday she is scheduled to testify at a Senate committee meeting on funding for the state security hospital in St. Peter -- but if that ends soon enough, she may be able to attend the oversight hearing.

The Republicans' letter, Zakula said, makes "outrageously false statements about MNsure's current condition, while they attempt to divert the committee's attention to circumstances that are six months old."

Republicans said in their letter that the Wednesday session provides "a unique opportunity to follow up with those from the governor's office and MNsure about their joint decision to go live on October 1."

The letter was written by oversight committee members Sen. Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake; Sen. Sean Nienow, R-Cambridge; Rep. Tara Mack, R-Apple Valley; and Rep. Joe Hoppe, R-Chaska.

On Sept. 19, Dayton was briefed by MNsure leaders and told there was a possibility that the health exchange website might not be able to launch on Oct. 1, Zakula said. The meeting with Dayton was reported Sunday by the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune newspaper.

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Republicans on MNsure oversight panel seek answers on rollout problems

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina Republicans expanding their majorities at the General Assembly in 2012 are now wielding even more influence, according to a biennial effectiveness survey released Tuesday by a nonpartisan research group.

Republicans held the top 15 spots for effectiveness in the House and first 16 in the Senate during the 2013 session, according to survey results accumulated by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research.

Two years earlier, after Republicans took control of the Legislature for the first time in more than 140 years, Senate GOP members claimed the highest 10 spots and House Republicans 12 of the top 15 slots in their respective chambers. Republicans won an additional 11 seats during the 2012 elections. They now hold 33 of the 50 Senate seats and 77 of the 120 House seats, giving the majorities the ability to override a governor's vetoes if they largely remain united.

As expected, House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, and Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, held the No. 1 spots in their chambers for the second time in a row based on the surveys of legislators, lobbyists and state government reporters.

Here's a closer look at what the survey found:

NEAR THE TOP: In the House, Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, ranked No. 2 in effectiveness, followed by Rep. Julia Howard, R-Davie and senior co-chairwoman off the House Finance Committee at No. 3. Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, was 4th. Lewis is a finance panel chairman and helped shepherd a voter identification law through the House in 2013.

Rules panel chairman Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, was No. 2 in the Senate, followed by ex-Sen. Pete Brunstetter, R-Forsyth, at 3rd and Majority Leader Harry Brown, R-Onslow, at No. 4. Brunstetter resigned in December to become an executive at a hospital network. Brunstetter and Brown were both Senate Appropriations Committee co-chairmen in 2013.

SECOND WIND: Some second-term legislators saw their effectiveness ranking rise substantially in 2013. Sen. Rick Gunn, R-Alamance, rose 22 places from two years ago to 11th, with Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, rising 19 places to 8th and Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, 11 spots to No. 7. The House member with the largest second-term increase was Rep. Susi Hamilton of New Hanover County, going up 60 spots to No. 42.

TOP DEMOCRATS: In the Senate, Minority Whip Josh Stein of Wake County was considered the most effective Democrat in the chamber, ranked 17th. The late Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, who died last month, wasn't included in the rankings. His successor, Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, was No. 23. The top House Democrat was Rep. Rick Glazier of Cumberland County at No. 16, followed by Minority Leader Larry Hall of Durham County at No. 23.

FIRST STEPS: Sen. Jeff Tarte, R-Mecklenburg, was ranked the top Senate freshman at No. 24, while Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union, ranked the highest among first-term House members at No. 38.

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NC Republicans hold more top effectiveness spots

Now that was a speech. Thomas Mulcairs words to his federal council Sunday were surely music to Stephen Harpers ears. The Prime Minister should send the NDP Leader a bottle of gin.

The truculent Mr. Mulcair picked apart Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, portraying him as a silk-stockinged, Tartuffian lightweight. He didnt actually cite Molires theatrical comedy about the pious charlatan, but he might as well have.

The problem is, Justin Trudeau will never know what middle-class means, Mr. Mulcair intoned. He just doesnt understand the real challenges that families are facing. Never has. Never will.

The bearded former Liberal took time to remind one and all that he grew up cue the school-of-hard-knocks schtick in a family of 10. They had to scrap to make do. Mr. Trudeau? Well, he was at 24 Sussex Dr., surrounded by maids and Downton Abbey footmen.

There was also a suggestion in the speech that the young Mr. Trudeau is in over his head just like those Conservative attack ads say.

To be sure, the NDP Leader took a run at Mr. Harper as well, zeroing in on pensions, health care and the much-scorned Fair Elections Act, which he said will be a focal point of the next election campaign. With it, he said, the Conservatives are trying to rig the next election in their favour.

But the bulk of the campaign-style oration was aimed not at the governing party, but at boy blunder, as some Tories like to call Mr. Trudeau. It was the kind of talk that progressives who dream of defeating Mr. Harper dread. It signals a fevered fight between the two major opposition parties, one that drags both down while allowing Mr. Harpers Conservatives some breathing room.

Mr. Mulcair has little choice but to target the Liberals because, as polls repeatedly reveal, Mr. Trudeau is a grave threat to the New Democrats prospects particularly in Quebec, where the NDP won a stunning 59 seats in the last election. Mr. Harper need not worry about Quebec. He has just five seats to lose there and is capable of re-election simply by virtue of his strength in Ontario and the West.

Mr. Mulcair, once a rather slick lawyer, portrayed himself as a kitchen-table guy. Thats the place where you get to know Canadians, he said. But that feel for the population is also something youve had to experience yourself, that you have lived or havent lived. And if youve got no connection to it other than a line in a speech that somebody else has written for you, well then of course its going to sound hollow.

The heated rhetoric marked a new stage of aggression for Mr. Mulcair. Some might suggest that with an election likely still 18 months away, hes starting to sound a little desperate. That is not a good idea, because hes already seen by many as being too aggressive and power-hungry to begin with.

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Progressives battle, Harper smiles

Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timipre Sylva | credits: File copy

A former Governor of Bayelsa State and leader of All Progressives Congress in the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, has assured that the APC will work with the Rivers State Governor and Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, to flush out the PDP-led federal Government in 2015.

Sylva stated this when he led party executives and supporters of the APC in Bayelsa State on a courtesy call on Amaechi at the Government House in Port Harcourt.

The former governor said they were in Rivers to show solidarity with Amaechi, adding that though President Goodluck Jonathan hails from Bayelsa, the majority of the people from the state were frustrated with his (Jonathan) administration.

We of the APC in Bayelsa State have decided to come to you (Amaechi) to show solidarity, to tell you that not everybody in Bayelsa State is against progress, not everybody in Bayelsa State is an enemy of progress, that you also have a family in Bayelsa State that identifies with you all the way and we will stand with you all the way.

When the time comes for us to sweep away the government of the day at the national level, Bayelsa people will stand by you and be in the vanguard of sweeping away this government that has brought only misery to the Niger Delta.

The APC is the platform for progress. You (Amaechi) are an epitome of progress, not only in the Niger Delta but in Nigeria. Everybody that comes to Rivers State will bear witness to what you have done, to your commitment and we will stand by you and we will continue to support you, Sylva said.

He described the APC as a better alternative to the PDP and added that the APC had provided a credible platform for progressives to come together and sweep away the corruption and ineptitude of the current administration at the federal level.

The former governor pointed out that Jonathans presidency had opened cracks in the unity of the people of the South-South geo-political zone.

He said, Today, we in the Niger Delta have the presidency of this country, but what has this brought to us? It has brought divisions; in fact, put a crack in the unity of the Niger Delta.

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Well work with Amaechi to sack PDP Sylva