Basically, Republicans are attacking Obama where he is least vulnerable and at a time when they have minimal credibility. It isn’t working. By trying to turn everything into a scandal rather than saying Obama’s policies are wrongheaded—and rather than fixing their own image problems with minority, female, younger, and moderate voters—Republicans are focusing on attacking a guy whose name will never again appear on a ballot.Polling guru and political analyst Charlie Cook, explaining why Republicans’ attacks on President Obama may ultimately fall flat. Despite the media feeding frenzy over the three concurrent scandals to hit the Obama White House, the President’s approval rating has hardly suffered at all: In general, it’s hovered around 51%, with one poll even showing an uptick since April. Meanwhile, a recent CNN poll showed the Republican Party with the highest negative ratings—59%—that either party has received in more than 20 years. “Americans may not be ecstatic about President Obama and his policies,” Cook writes, “but compared with the Republicans, they think Obama doesn’t look so bad.” source
The Iowa Republican said immigrants that Ronald Reagan legalized by signing a 1986 “amnesty” bill were responsible for Obama’s election.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Thursday that President Obama would not be president if it weren’t for the 1986 amnesty bill that Ronald Reagan signed into law.
King is a leading GOP critic of efforts to pass an immigration reform bill, and has often said on the House floor that Republicans are overreacting to the 2012 election, which some Republicans saw as a sign that the GOP needs to get behind a reform bill.
Well, we certainly didn’t expect to see that headline when we woke up this morning…
Their minds are perverted, they’re frankly very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally and they see everything through the lens of homosexuality. When they talk about love they’re not talking about love, they’re talking about homosexual sex.E.W. Jackson, the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia, on homosexuality. Jackson also believes that Planned Parenthood is worse than the KKK, and has called Obama “an evil presence” who might be a secret Muslim-Atheist (no, it’s not possible to be both; “I don’t know how this combination works,” he admits). Some on the right think he’ll doom the GOP’s odds in the state; some on the left feel the opposite. source
The Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the Tea Party targeting controversy will refuse to answer questions from lawmakers Wednesday.
Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, will exercise her rights under the Fifth Amendment when she appears before the House Oversight Committee as scheduled Wednesday.
Can’t say we’re shocked by this news, considering all those involved are likely to end up in court at some point in the future.
The Justice Department (DOJ) seized the personal emails of Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen and used other surveillance methods to investigate whether he was complicit in a leak of classified information, TheWashington Post reported Monday.
According to the report, the DOJ also examined Rosen’s phone records and tracked his visits to the State Department using security-badge data during the 2009 probe.
Looks like it’s going to be another great week in White House PR…
White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler will likely come under quite a bit of fire this week, thanks to a new Wall Street Journal report which claims she knew about the IRS audit scandal weeks before the media. Some have questioned President Obama’s competency as POTUS, after he claimed to find out about the scandal along with the public on May 10, though it seems Ruemmler indeed may not have informed the President about the issues after she was briefed on them by Treasury Department attorneys. (Photo via National Journal) source
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley on Thursday signed into law one of the United States’ toughest gun control measures, even as opponents vowed to overturn it.
The legislation prompted by the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre requires handgun buyers to undergo safety training and submit fingerprints to obtain a license.
It also bans the sale of 45 types of assault weapons, which have been linked to at least 461 U.S. deaths since 2004, according to the governor’s office.
Opponents of the changes say they aren’t planning to seek any sort of public vote/referendum on the bill, but will instead offer support to an NRA lawsuit which challenges the legality of the new regulations. Similar legislation has been passed in Colorado, New York, and Connecticut following a recent uptick in mass shooting incidents.
Without authorizing the use of force or additional spending, this legislation will begin to implement a more coherent U.S. strategy, both now and for the day after Assad, that is focused on trying to shift the momentum on the ground toward moderate opposition groups while also helping them build support within and outside Syria for a new government.Sen. Bob Menendez • Commenting on a bill he introduced in the Senate last week that would create a $250 million transitional fund for the Syrian rebels and post-Assad government that would inevitably follow a toppling of the existing Syrian regime. While the bill may have found new life in the Senate, thanks to changes which earned the support of Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, we suspect the Obama Administration will have a harder time selling support of the Syrian opposition to the American people if rebel forces fail to prevent future war crimes like the cannibalism story making the rounds today. source
The Obama administration asked Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Wednesday morning to reintroduce legislation that would help reporters protect the identity of their sources from federal officials, a White House official told The Huffington Post.
The scope of the bill and how effective it would be remains unclear, however, given prior administration opposition to a “reporter shield” law.
The request is opportunistically timed, coming just days after it was revealed that the Department of Justice had subpoenaed telephone records of 20 AP phone lines and more than 100 reporters and editors. The White House has faced heavy criticism for the subpoena, though the president has said that he was unaware of it and Attorney General Eric Holder said that he had recused himself from the investigation.
While the timing absolutely can’t be ignored, it’s hard for us not to get behind any effort to further protect reporters and their sources from federal prosecution. Still, if the Obama Administration was hoping to save face with a new reporter shield law, we suspect we aren’t the only ones who think this is too little too late.
CNN’s Jake Tapper has managed to get his hands on the critical White House email suggested as the proof that the White House was more interested in removing references to possible terrorist attacks in the now infamous Benghazi talking points then they were in telling the truth to the American public.
The actual email, written in the days following the Benghazi attack, reveals something else entirely. We now know that whoever leaked the contents of the email to various media outlets last week seriously misquoted the document, choosing to paraphrase the content in a way that made it appear that the White House was focused on protecting the State Department’s back and covering up information.
And the plot thickens…
But seriously … I am not kidding.
I’m not watching all of...
Yahoo wants to buy Hulu now too. They’re going on an “I...
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
It put the American people at risk and that is not hyperbole. Trying to determine who was responsible required very aggressive action.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder • Defending the Department of Justice’s decision to collect roughly two months worth of various Associated Press employees’ work and personal phone records as part of a criminal investigation. The DoJ is apparently investigating a leak which occured last year, revealing the existence of a failed plot to bomb a U.S. plane, during a time when the Obama Administration insisted the U.S. government was unaware of any terror attacks which might be planned to coincide with the annviersary of Osama bin Laden’s death. source
The Minnesota Senate is expected to give final approval on Monday to a bill that would make the state the 12th in the United States to allow same-sex couples to marry and only the second in the Midwest.
Leaders in the Senate, where Democrats hold a 39-28 majority, have said they believe they have the support to approve a bill legalizing gay marriage. They set a vote for Monday on the measure that members of the state House approved last week.
Democratic Governor Mark Dayton has said he would sign the bill, which would make Minnesota the third state this month to legalize gay marriage after Rhode Island and Delaware. The law would take effect August 1.
If you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and nonpartisan way, then that is outrageous. It is contradictory to our traditions, and people have to be held accountable.President Obama • Commenting on an admission that the IRS targeted conservative groups, many associated with the tea party, during the 2012 election cycle, following an apology from an IRS official on Friday and this morning’s leak of the Inspector General’s report to ABC News. President Obama’s comments came during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who’s currently visiting Washington D.C. to discuss the war in Syria. source
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