Chuckle of the Day

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When Your Vote Doesn't Matter

The other day, this blog referred to Ted Cruz's dirty tricks in Colorado. The backstory is still unfolding, but it looks like Team Cruz worked with the GOP elites in Colorado, within the framework of their rules. The net result is that Colorado voters are disenfranchised by those rules. The GOPe takes full credit for getting delegates for Ted, an establishment insider. As the Drudge headline said, it was a "voterless victory."

American Thinker reproduced the resolution to exclude Donald Trump as a candidate for Colorado GOPe delegates. From another tweet from "Former CO GOP Chair: "The Message We're Sending Is Your Vote Doesn't Matter and Doesn't Count." 

The Colorado GOPe party controlled the selection. It followed the rules, and Colorado voters are going to protest those rules on Friday. 

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Clint Gets It

Imported from a FB posting.

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Party planner

art credit: www.freerepublic.com

GOPe to “We The People” Part 2: 

Drop Dead

(Part 1 is here). 

TheWashington Examiner (probably the most user-UNfriendly website) reports that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told pro-Cruz Charlie Sykes on WTMJ 620 Radio Tuesday that “the party” is choosing the nominee:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus cautioned supporters of Donald Trump who vocally disapprove of the GOP's delegate allocation and selection process.

"By the way, this is a nomination for the Republican Party," Priebus told 620 WTMJ in Wisconsin. "If you don't like the party, then sit down. The party is choosing a nominee."

Priebus said he does not think Trump will run as a third-party candidate, and added that he expects all remaining Republican candidates to support the party's nominee.

As far as the Republican Party elite are concerned, your vote does not count.

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Establishment candidates galore

cartoon credit: thecomicnews.com

Sundance reported:

Kasich won Ohio; therefore he has to stay in. 

Why?

Because if Kasich dropped out according to Ohio election law all of his 66 delegates become bound to the second place finisher, Donald Trump.

John Kasich cannot exit the race without helping Donald Trump.  Senator Ted Cruz knows this.  Senator Ted Cruz does not want Governor John Kasich to leave the race because of it. Yet Ted Cruz goes on TV demanding a Kasich exit.

When you accept these fundamental truths, you clearly see, yet again, the GOPe scheme involves Ted Cruz.

It sounds outrageous, but it would seem to be confirmed by a Politico story by Eli Stokols:

GOP elites line up behind Ted Cruz

Establishment is increasingly prepared to lose with Cruz

than hand the party to Trump

Republican elders, desperate to stop Donald Trump, are increasingly convinced they would rather forfeit the White House than hand their party to the divisive Manhattan billionaire.

That’s why the party’s establishment is suddenly rallying behind Ted Cruz, a man they’ve long despised and who has little chance, in the view of many GOP veterans, of defeating Hillary Clinton on Election Day.

Read the rest here.

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Governor Kasich: Which party do you belong to?

art credit: thebullelephant.com

From RyanLovelace yesterday at The Washington Examiner (beware of the link; it’s a user-UNfriendly website):

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he isn't willing to serve as anyone's vice president, but he indicated party affiliation would not matter to him when choosing his own running mate.

After losing the Arizona primary and trailing a candidate who is no longer running for president, Kasich hit the campaign trail in Wisconsin and told voters only he could beat the Democrats in November.

He ruled out the possibility of serving with any GOP nominee, but would not oppose putting a Democrat near the top of the Republican ticket himself in November.

“I'm going to be nobody's vice president, OK?” Kasich said, interrupting a questioner at a town hall in Wauwatosa. "I will not be anybody's vice president. Just so you know."

So, he won’t run for Vice President on the GOP ticket, but if nominated for President by the GOP (presumably nominated at a brokered convention, since mathematically he cannot win with delegates), he’d be happy choosing a Democrat as his running mate?!?!

Who’s side is he on? Actually, it looks like he’s on the side of the elite establishment political class, both GOP and Democrat (the so-called Uniparty). He’s accepted campaign contributions from George Soros and his surrogates; see CTPP’s earlier blog here. The GOPe does not care whether it wins or loses, as long as the elite noses are still in the trough. And Gov. Kasich is part of the elite’s game plan.

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GOP elites to Republican voters: Drop Dead

cartoon credit: niftyatheist.com

CNBC reports (h/t Gateway Pundit):

Political parties, not voters, choose their presidential nominees, a Republican convention rules member told CNBC, a day after GOP front-runner Donald Trump rolled up more big primary victories.

“The media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination. That’s the conflict here,” Curly Haugland, an unbound GOP delegate from North Dakota [and a Republican convention rules member], told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. He even questioned why primaries and caucuses are held.

Haugland is one of 112 Republican delegates who are not required to cast their support for any one candidate because their states and territories don’t hold primaries or caucuses.

Even with Trump’s huge projected delegate haul in four state primaries Tuesday, the odds are increasing the billionaire businessman may not ultimately get the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the GOP nomination before the convention.

This could lead to a brokered convention, in which unbound delegates, like Haugland, could play a significant swing role on the first ballot to choose a nominee.

Most delegates bound by their state’s primary or caucus results are only committed on the first ballot. If subsequent ballots are needed, virtually all of the delegates can vote any way they want, said Gary Emineth, another unbound delegate from North Dakota.

“It could introduce Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, or it could be the other candidates that have already been in the race and are now out of the race [such as] Mike Huckabee [or] Rick Santorum. All those people could eventually become candidates on the floor,” Emineth said.

And at Politico we see that (h/t HotGas)

Former Speaker John Boehner said Paul Ryan should be the Republican nominee for president if the party fails to choose a candidate on the first ballot.

"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference here. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."

Wading into the GOP nominating battle for the first time since leaving office last fall, Boehner said that "anybody can be nominated" at the convention in Cleveland this summer.

The GOP establishment / elite (GOPe) couldn’t breathe life into the Jeb! campaign. Then they tried to push Marco Rubio as the Jeb! surrogate and that maneuver failed. Gov. Kasich’s job in the race was to deprive any momentum candidate of the 66 Ohio winner-take-all delegates. Kasich succeeded, but otherwise it is now a two-candidate race. Neither Cruz nor Trump is acceptable to the GOPe. So we are seeing the GOPe preparing to force a brokered convention. And it's now out in the open.

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What's wrong with the GOP?

Art credit: Riehlpolitics.com

Some patriots may want to skip the links to Conservative Treehouse, because the principal blogger, Sundance, has come out in favor of Trump. Having disclosed that, here is the concluding section of a post from yesterday (here), summarizing why some of us are so angry at the GOP. You probably won't agree with every single point, but you will probably agree with most of the issues:  

• Did the GOP secure the border with control of the White House and Congress? NO.

• Did the GOP balance the budget with control of the White House and Congress? NO

• Did the GOP even pass a FY 2016 budget with control of the House and Senate? NO.

• Who gave us a $2.5 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill in December 2015? The GOP

• Who eliminated, not just raise but eliminated, the debt ceiling? The GOP

• Who gave us the TSA? The GOP

• Who gave us the Patriot Act? The GOP

• Who expanded Medicare to include prescription drug coverage? The GOP

• Who created the precursor of “Common Core” in “Race To the Top”? The GOP

• Who played the race card in Mississippi to re-elect Thad Cochran? The GOP

• Who paid Democrats to vote in the Mississippi primary? The GOP

• Who refused to support Ken Cuccinnelli in Virginia? The GOP

• Who supported Charlie Crist? The GOP

• Who supported Arlen Spector? The GOP

• Who supported Bob Bennett? The GOP

• Who worked against Jim DeMint? The GOP

• Who worked against Rand Paul? The GOP

• Who worked against Ted Cruz? The GOP

• Who worked against Mike Lee? The GOP

• Who worked against Ronald Reagan? The GOP

• Who is working against Donald Trump? The GOP

• Who said “I think we are going to crush [the Tea Party] everywhere.”? The GOP (McConnell)

[See yesterday's CTPP blog if you are not yet registered to vote.]

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Mo' Money, Mo' Money, Mo' Money! How Boehner Kept Control

The below article from Open Secrets will shed some light on soon to be former Speaker John Boehner and how he was able to maintain support within Congress and the Republican Party. 

Most of all you will see the Speaker position is rarely about "conservatism."  Right or wrong, a Speaker position is more about being able to hold together a coalition of supporters than it is spreading or doing conservative things. 

Boehner was able to hold the his coalition of supporters together through years of building a huge fundraising machine and political patronage. Much of this fundraising and patronage was at the expense of conservative voters.

From Open Secrets -- (Emphasis Added)

Whatever else is said about him, you can’t say he didn’t share.

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) raised $97 million for his House campaigns and leadership PAC from the time he received his first donations in 1989, Center for Responsive Politics data shows — far more than any other sitting House member. Only Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) have raised more in their careers, and both of them have been presidential candidates.

But the soon-to-be-former speaker’s political money profile depicts a party leader trying to raise most Republican boats with his fundraising tide. No current lawmaker, House or Senate, has given away more money to the party and its congressional candidates, a total of $41.1 million from his campaign committees and PAC — nearly double the gifts of the No. 2 on that list, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Where’d all the loot come from? Boehner received contributions from every state in the country. Even when facing an opponent in name only in 2012 — one who spent no money against him — the speaker laid out $21 million that cycle. But he gave most of it — nearly $12 million — to the National Republican Congressional Committee. In 2014, Boehner gave $8.3 million to the NRCC from his campaign account.

Still, Boehner’s power to direct traffic in Congress made him highly popular in the Washington, D.C. metro area in every election since he assumed the post. Boehner’s Washington fundraising totals jumped from $252,555 in 2010, the year his party took over the House, to $805,481 in 2012 and $707,292 in 2014. In fact, almost five years as speaker were enough to make Washington and its environs Boehner’s all-time top metro area for fundraising at $2.5 million — edging out the $2.4 million he received from the Cincinnati area back in his home state.

Washington’s desire to shower leaders with cash may make for a kind of catch-22 for politicians who need money for the party, not just themselves, yet have to corral members for votes amid an anti-establishment revolt among Republicans. The geography of Boehner’s contributions mirrors more conservative lawmakers’ critiques of the speaker as a Republican too comfortable with Washington’s political culture.

Similar reproaches launched by a relatively unknown outsider helped oust Boehner’s former second-in-command, former Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, in 2014. Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who beat Cantor in part by pillorying him for being too cozy with the Washington money machine, is now a member of the House Freedom Caucus, the far-right wing trying to pull Republican leadership in their direction.

Perhaps like Boehner, Cantor’s generosity with the money he raised couldn’t overcome the criticism: Only Cantor’s PAC gave away more to fellow Republicans than Boehner’s leadership PAC in 2014. Of the 25 lawmakers who voted against Boehner for speaker earlier this year, 19 had received money from Boehner’s leadership PAC.

 

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is the name most frequently mentioned as a possible successor to Boehner, and the outgoing speaker game McCarthy his blessing today. But McCarthy may well not be radically right enough for the Freedom Caucus. The top 10 donor industries to both men look remarkably similar; in fact, they share seven in common: securities & investment (aka Wall Street), insurance, real estate , oil & gas, lawyers & law firms, electric utilities and health professionals.

 

The GOP Final Four?

 

The Washington Times goes through some of the candidates and rates the Final Four. Do you agree or disagree?  Who are your Final Four?

 

From The Washington Times -- 

NEWS ANALYSIS:

With the Governors Club members Scott Walker and Rick Perry gone, the bloated Republican presidential field is showing the inevitable signs of radical shrinkage by year's end, with donors' reluctance to bet on long shots.

A few more debates and some bad fundraising reports this fall almost certainly will winnow the field, veteran observers say.

"A number of candidates are having a hard time raising sufficient hard cash," said former New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Steve Duprey, a member of the Republican National Committee's governing body.

"I don't see any of them following Walker and Rick Perry out of the race at this moment. But after a couple more debates, it's entirely possible by year's end more candidates will be forced to suspend their campaigns," he said.

Added former Reagan White House official Mary Ann Meloy, a conservative activist from Pennsylvania: "It won't surprise me if the field narrows to five or six or even four by the end of this year — it's the money, or the lack of it, that will force so many out."

The expectation that fundraising organizations would help keep what was once a field of 17 Republican candidates in the race for a long time was dispelled when Mr. Walker abruptly dropped out despite having a healthy super PAC behind him.

With the reality setting in that even the 15-candidate field is unsustainable, Republicans are beginning to contemplate what the Final Four might look like.

Here is a handicapping of who is up and down, and who might not be around by spring.

IN TROUBLE

Bobby Jindal

He can talk policy with the best of conservatives and has an impressive record in Louisiana, but Mr. Jindal just doesn't seem to resonate as presidential material with rank-and-file primary voters. His parents are immigrants from India who retain their Hindu religion even though their son, the governor, became an evangelical Catholic in high school. He has always been a favorite of Republicans looking for someone who is smart, accomplished and conservative and reflects the diversity of America. But the only thing electric about him as a speaker is the microphone he's holding.

"Why he's not getting traction, honestly I don't know," said Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere. "He's kept taxes from rising, defunded Planned Parenthood in this state, changed ethics rules for the better, brought new businesses into Louisiana, led the nation on school choice — and on charter schools."

Mr. Jindal seems stuck in low gear, registering no better than 4 percent in early-states polling.

Rand Paul

The latest fall for the senator from Kentucky was a big one. Ed Crane, a founder of the libertarian Cato Institute and of a super PAC backing Mr. Paul's candidacy, has announced that he won't ask major donors for more money because he can't justify the appeal on behalf of a man whose commitments to a freedom-first, noninterventionist agenda he no longer trusts.

Time magazine once named Mr. Paul the most interesting man in politics. He went to Israel a few years ago to assure Israelis and their supporters in the United States that he wasn't to be feared as a presidential contender. A straw poll winner for three years straight at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr. Paul, 52, was an early favorite, but the endorsement of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Kentucky Republican, has cost him dearly with many rank-and-file conservatives. His back-and-forth stands in an attempt to sound less doctrinaire than his libertarian father, former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and his lack of personal warmth have pushed his support into the single digits. Fundraising bumps and an inner-circle gaps only add to his campaign's woes.

Supporters have seen him waffle on some basics of libertarian conservatism. He told the Detroit Economics Club that he favors county-sized enterprise zones with tax breaks that direct capital to some businesses and away from others. He proposed what he styled as a flat, single-rate tax that turned out to be a single rate for individual incomes but a value-added tax for businesses, even though many on the right despise VATs as concealed licenses to raise taxes.

Mr. Paul, banking on the support of younger voters, is the only candidate prodigiously mining high schools and colleges for February's first-in-the-nation contest in Iowa.

He has registered 4 percent in a recent Iowa poll, but supporters prefer to think it is actually 8 percent because surveys don't normally sample people too young to be on voter registration lists.

Mike Huckabee

Polling in the early states in the middle to low single digits, the 60-year-old Mr. Huckabee has done it all before, having been a popular Arkansas governor, a Fox TV show host, a Baptist preacher, a winner of the 2008 Iowa presidential preference caucuses, a second-place finisher in the delegate count behind John McCain and a third-place finisher behind Mitt Romney in the popular vote. Some conservatives in past years labeled him soft on crime — as governor, he pardoned some convicted murderers — and soft on spending and tax restraint. He was the favorite of many evangelical conservatives for years, but they are dividing their vote this cycle mainly among Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz. Some are staying with former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Mr. Paul and almost everyone else running.

George Pataki

As New York governor, Mr. Pataki, 70, never made a big splash. He has not held an elected office for almost a decade and has not made it on the radar screens of voters outside New York. His is not a name that falls readily from the lips of any conservatives anywhere in the U.S.

He can give a good, coherent speech but rarely generates sparks. He has barely registered in any polls anywhere. His popularity extends mainly to his family and friends.

Rick Santorum

At 57, Mr. Santorum has won a few races, getting elected to the House and then to two terms in the Senate from Pennsylvania. He finished second to Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican presidential nomination contest and established himself as a full-menu religious conservative. He has barely registered in Iowa polls — though he won the caucuses four years ago — and he's been virtually invisible in New Hampshire polls. He has competence and tenacity without dazzle on the stump. His shelf life for the race is considered somewhere between short and expired.

Lindsey Graham

A talented, knowledgeable hawk and superinterventionist, the 60-year-old senior senator from South Carolina is in the low-to-zero portion of the single-digit poll range in the early primary states. He got no lift out of his sharp-witted, entertaining performance in the undercard debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Sept. 16.

He has no political base to speak of and will make an undoubtedly graceful exit soon enough.

Jim Gilmore

Mr. Gilmore, 65, has more resume than performance to his credit and is polling below 1 percent in the early states. This is his second time around the GOP presidential nomination track. He's not showing signs of improvement. More than intellectually competent in any debate on foreign policy, terrorism (he headed a presidential commission on the subject) and constitutionally protected freedoms, he conveys the gravitas but not the magnetism of a serious presidential contender.

ON THE BUBBLE

Jeb Bush

At 62, the former Florida governor has something of a Scott Walker problem — he isn't turning out to look and talk like what voters remember when he was in Tallahassee and was thought to be the smartest of the Bush boys. Surprised and disappointed Republicans were saying similar things about Mr. Walker when he quit the contest Sept. 21.

Mr. Bush's wake-me-when-it's-my-turn performances on the debate stage and campaign stump and his massive campaign bureaucracy could sink this onetime favorite, but anyone who can raise more than $140 million can't be counted out yet.

Despite Mr. Bush's failing aspiration to be the Energizer Bunny, he has a huge advantage besides money. Two generations of voters will go to the polls in November 2016 having lived under at least one president named Bush. Having a third Bush at the nation's helm will seem only natural and even comforting to many of them.

Rumors have it that even with all that advantage, Mr. Bush faces pressure to start producing in the polls lest major donors start looking elsewhere.

He has had a surprisingly difficult time deciding whether he wants to separate himself from his brother's eight-year presidency and, if so, by how much. His latest take on all this is that the oceans of blood and trillions of dollars expended for the Iraq War were wrong not because regime change unleashed the bloodthirsty sectarianism now threatening the world but because there were no weapons of mass destruction buried in Baghdad bunkers after all. Regime changes in Iraq and Afghanistan may have been unwise in retrospect, but, Mr. Bush notes, his brother did keep America safe.

John Kasich
Mr. Kasich, 63, was a House Budget Committee chairman who managed to bring smiles to liberals, moderates and conservatives. He supported President Clinton's 1995 assault weapons ban that liberals and some moderates loved. He introduced a genuine welfare reform bill that Mr. Clinton finally signed that had moderates and conservatives beaming. In 1997, he made his biggest splash nationally as what he called the "architect" of a deal with Mr. Clinton that balanced the federal budget for the first time since 1969.

Though unpredictably prickly at times, Mr. Kasich is far more popular in Ohio than tough-guy Gov. Chris Christie is in New Jersey or than the union-slaying but sleepy-eyed Mr. Walker is in Wisconsin. Who cares? Ohio has been a make-or-break state in the general election. Conservatives are somewhere between skeptical and downright hostile to Mr. Kasich for stances such as support for Common Core education standards and agreeing to sales, cigarette and fracking taxes. His temper makes even those tempted to consider him as a vice presidential nominee worry that instead of bringing Ohio to the Republican Party, he would manage tick off enough leaners to sink the ticket in a close general election. He is averaging under 3 percent in Iowa and New Hampshire polls and under 4 percent in South Carolina.

Ted Cruz

Some people say that if you close your eyes and listen, Mr. Cruz, 44, sounds a bit like Ronald Reagan. But with eyes wide open, the senator from Texas seems too caustic and finger-waggingly preachy to be a Reagan replica. Glaringly missing is that all-important Reagan likability factor.

Mr. Cruz has gone to the mat for conservative principles since his arrival in the Senate in 2013. He has been able to do much of what Donald Trump so far can only promise to do. Yet Mr. Trump got instant traction while Mr. Cruz has been stuck in the middle-single-digit range in national polls. But Mr. Cruz has raised more money than most of his rivals. He knows the issues better than almost all of his rivals. Mr. Cruz takes on the fights over principle, but he doesn't win. He hasn't shown himself the successful dealmaker in legislating that The Donald has shown himself to be in business.

Apples and oranges? Yes. Who said life's fair?

Chris Christie

Now 53, the former state's attorney was for a few years a favorite of some conservatives and many middle-of-the-roaders for his pugilistic directness in speech and nose-punching in action toward teachers unions as governor of blue-state New Jersey. But his office's ham-fisted retaliation against a Democratic mayor who failed to endorse Mr. Christie for re-election turned off a lot of his fellow Republicans and further convinced movement conservatives that he wasn't one of them.

His ceiling in polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina has been 3 percent. As a presidential aspirant, he seems to have gravitas but more from build than presence. That leaves a lot of hill-climbing for Mr. Christie to do quickly before donors stop huffing and puffing with him.

THE PROJECTED FINAL FOUR

Donald Trump

The Great Deal Maker, 69, is included in the Final Four for all the unconventional reasons. He successfully defies conventional wisdom about who may run — and how — for the top office in the major leagues of politics. He started out with the name recognition of a big-time entertainer. He talks with supremely self-confident disjointedness and occasional non sequiturs that hit his more-scripted candidates just right.

He also has more money to spend in the expensive media markets of the biggest states than all the other candidates and their super PACs combined.

Mr. Trump is the toughest, most forthright candidate in the field on dealing with the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States and on virtually sealing the southwestern border. What makes him the weakest of the projected Final Four is the tarnishing of his image. He began what a few analysts thought would be a downward slide to oblivion when he apologized on the Reagan Library stage to Carly Fiorina for remarks critical of her looks.

On what he calls the "stupidity" of launching a war to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq, his arguments are at least as firmly enunciated as those of Mr. Paul. The most-feared billionaire turned nonpolitician politician in America, Mr. Trump — even interviewers and news anchors revealingly use the honorific in front of his name — has begun talking more diplomatically in general, sounding to some perked-up ears like the scripted pol he had successfully ranted against.

But the latest polls suggest those who think the wheels have come off the Trumpmobile might want to think again.

Ben Carson
In the year of the anti-politician, a likable former pediatric neurosurgeon who can raise boatloads of money is likely to stick around, even if his policy pitches sound inexperienced and his stage presence at times seems sheepish alongside bigger personalities.

His popularity stems from his obvious intelligence and his ability to learn the crux of campaign issues quickly — but not thoroughly. He is new to the politics craft in a way Donald Trump is not. Mr. Trump dealt all his life with politicians — "buying" them and their favors as he puts it. Until recently, Mr. Carson has stuck to his Bible and to performing near miracles surgically on infant patients. He has disappointed some of his enthusiasts by retreating from or clarifying the clarification of a few of his more contested statements, including his disapproval of a Muslim as president.

A sizable number of the estimated 90 million or more evangelical Christians are predisposed to reject Mr. Carson because they see his Seventh-day Adventist faith as marginally Christian at best and a cult at worst. This is similar to the negative predisposition some evangelicals had toward former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012 for his adherence to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints.

Carly Fiorina

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO, the most fluent and fluid of stump speakers in the Republican field, got the mother of all bounces in the Reagan Library debate by rocketing from low single digits to 15 percent in the CNN postdebate poll. That put her second only to Mr. Trump's 24 percent score.

Ms. Fiorina has been talked about in the press and in political circles as likely to run circles around most of her rivals, including, eventually, The Donald. Though still in the low double digits to high single digits in Iowa and New Hampshire polling, she is expected to climb well into the double digits after the third Republican debate.

Commentators in both parties say she has already shown she has the right stuff when it come to intellect and style. Ms. Fiorina, 61, answers all questions without a pause, in complete, grammatically perfect sentences that contain facts and nuance.

A millionaire but far from a billionaire, she has kept her expenses to a minimum, with a staff of only about 20, though she is ramping up staff and spending now that she is in the top tier of the field.

Her sometimes stern, serious countenance and Iron Lady composure make her a potential American Margaret Thatcher, which many Republicans and independents say would fulfill their dreams that this nation finally elects a woman who can make it great again.

Marco Rubio

Mr. Rubio, 44, has lots going for him. He could satisfy the yearning of the Republican Party to attract the make-or-break Hispanic vote. He has never been shy about reminding audiences that his parents immigrated from Cuba.

(OK, Mexico might have been more electorally useful, but a pol's parentage is what it is, and Mr. Rubio does speak Spanish.) Polls and focus groups are showing that he brings out the motherliness in female voters — a big, unalloyed plus. He talks like a man possessed of more than just a passing acquaintance with the issues that trouble America. But some think he sounds scripted, especially when he is teleprompting his wisdom and insights.

For all his youth and attractiveness, the senator from Florida is still polling in the middle single digits among likely Republican voters in early-state caucuses and primaries, and there are some vulnerabilities in his record.

"If he starts to gain traction, rivals will attack him over his misuse of that state GOP-issued American Express card when he was Florida House speaker," said former Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen.

"He used the card many times for personal expenses instead of just party purposes and not just the one time he claimed," Mr. Pullen said, nothing that former Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer went to the slammer for credit-card-related hanky-panky.

Where’s the 2016 budget?

One trillion dollars in $100 bills on a football field with a 747 in the back.

Credit: Demonocracy

The U.S. government has not passed a budget since Pres. George W left office. Yet today, the GOP holds majorities in both the House and Senate. From Conservative Treehouse:

The fiscal year starts next week. Where’s the 2016 budget?

Boehner and McConnell control both houses. Where’s the budget?

It’s worse than you think. Read the whole thing here.

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Stop the Iran “deal” rally report from Sept. 9 in DC

Donald Trump posing for a photo with Capitol Police at the rally on Weds. 

Photo credit: Roll Call

Some reports, photos, and videos of the "Stop the Iran "deal" rally yesterday (Weds.) are here (yahoo), here (CNN), and here (Roll Call).

As Rep. Gohmert said toward the end of the rally, the latest development, that GOP leadership was scrapping the vote on the rule, was a sign that the rally was effective. 

PJ Media reports: Conservative Revolt Forces GOP to Delay Iran Vote, Alter Strategy. Let’s hope it’s not just for show. But paving the way for a future lawsuit against the White House does not inspire confidence. Check out some of the reader comments over at Lucianne.

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GOP "leadership" caves on Iran

Andy McCarthy reports the bad news at PJ Media:

Senator Barbara Mikulski has announced that she will vote in favor of President Obama’s Iran deal. Sen. Mikulski’s support is critical because she becomes the 34th Democrat to announce that she will vote yea. Under the Corker framework so ingeniously conceived by Republican leadership in Congress, this means Obama’s deal cannot be defeated – under the legislation Congress is deemed to endorse the agreement unless it can muster a now unattainable 67 Senate votes (and a similar two-thirds of the House) to enact a resolution of disapproval over Obama’s veto.

It is worth repeating that Republicans rationalized this abdication of their duty to use their constitutional powers to block Obama’s empowerment of America’s sworn enemies by claiming that the legislation ensured that Congress would get to review the deal. This, of course, was always preposterous.

. . . 

Good job, Mr. President, Sen. Mikulski, congressional Democrats, and GOP leadership. What better way to “reaffirm our commitment to the safety and security of Israel” than to conceive and grease the wheels for a deal that gives breathtaking aid and comfort to its enemy – and ours.

Read the rest here. The Sept. 9 rally protesting the Iran “deal” in DC is still on, but sadly, it looks like the fix is already in.

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Off-Script Ohio

h/t Flopping Aces

A cartoon that all you OSU TBDBITL fans will appreciate.

Presidential Primary Debates : Links

The first GOP primary debate between Republican candidates for President is in Cleveland in a couple of weeks:

Thursday, August 6, 2015

9pm ET - Republican Primary Debate 

Aired On: Fox News Channel

Location: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH

Sponsors: Fox News, Facebook

Moderators: Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace

Rules: Top 10 candidates in an average of 5 national polls

Candidates: To be determined

Notes: Fox News has added a candidate forum at 1pm ET the same day for candidates who don't make the debate cut

The website with details on subsequent debates is here. 

The website for upcoming primary debates between Democrat candidates is here; details are not yet posted.

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Action Alert: Call Senate GOP Leaders Now! Stop Them From Caving on DHS Funding!

           Action Alert        

Throughout the election cycle Republicans vowed to do everything they could to stop the President's overreach. 

Now, the Republicans in the Senate under Majority Leader McConnell's guidance are playing games. Bowing to President Obama, Sen. McConnell now plans to bring a bill to the Senate floor that would fully fund the Department of Homeland Security without defunding executive amnesty! 

McConnell is now offering a stand-alone anti-amnesty bill, but the current plan is to vote on it after they pass the DHS funding. This means the vote will be meaningless because it will not be attached to something that must pass Congress and be signed by the president.

Congress has the "power of the purse" and is responsible for serving as a check on the President's actions. We have a very narrow window of time to put a stop to President Obama's executive amnesty, and Congress needs to act now!

Please call Sen. McConnell, the Senate Republican Leadership & Ohio Senator Rob Portman to let them know that you want Congress to defund executive amnesty. 

Remind them of their oath to support and defend the Constitution and urge them to vote on one bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security, while stripping funds from President Obama's unilateral amnesty.

Tell them that the Senate must vote to defund President Obama's amnesty before they vote on a clean DHS appropriations bill.

Senate Republican Leadership:

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Phone: (202) 224-2541

Twitter: @McConnellPress

Email: Click Here

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Phone: (202) 224-2934
Twitter: @JohnCornyn

Email: Click Here

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

Phone: (202) 224-2321

Twitter: @SenJohnThune

Email: Click Here

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)

Phone: (202) 224-6441

Twitter: @SenJohnBarrasso

Email: Click Here

Senator Rob Portman (R-OH)

Phone: (202) 224-3353
Twitter: @PortmanPress
Email: Click Here

Boehner's back in as Speaker

Photo credit: westernfreepress.com

Angry citizens melted the phones in DC, but he's back in as Speaker. From The Hill: 

Ohio Republican John Boehner beat back a conservative rebellion on the House floor Tuesday, winning a third and possibly final term as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

But on the opening day of the new Republican-controlled Congress, a bloc of Tea Party insurgents fired off a warning shot to GOP leadership.

In a public roll call, 25 House Republicans defected from Boehner in the Speaker vote, double the dozen who launched a failed coup attempt against him exactly two years ago.

The anti-Boehner crowd’s message was simple: Don’t expect any cooperation in the 114th Congress — even with Republicans in charge of the Senate and holding a historic majority in the House.

Boehner needed a simple majority of the 408 lawmakers present to secure another two years in the top job; he won 216. 

But a dozen Republicans backed GOP Rep. Daniel Webster, the former Florida state House Speaker. Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) received three votes, while Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) got two votes, including his own.

Former Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also received two votes, while Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) received one vote apiece.

Since the Constitution allows lawmakers to vote for any U.S. citizen for Speaker, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Jeff Sessions received one vote each, as did former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) received 164 votes.

In recent history, no sitting Speaker has seen so many defections from his or her own party in the first vote of a new Congress. Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) saw nine defections in 1997, while Dennis Hastert watched five fellow Republicans cast votes against him in 2005, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

The Republicans who voted against Boehner were Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Rod Blum (Iowa), Dave Brat (Va.), Jim Bridenstine (Okla.), Curt Clawson (Fla.), Scott DesJarlais (Tenn.), Jeff Duncan (S.C.), Chris Gibson (N.Y.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Scott Garrett (N.J.), Tim Huelskamp (Kan.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Steve King (Iowa), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Mark Meadows (N.C.), Richard Nugent (Fla.), Gary Palmer (Ala.), Bill Posey (Fla.), Scott Rigel (Va.), Marlin Stutzman (Ind.), Randy Weber (Texas), Daniel Webster (Fla.) and Ted Yoho (Fla.).

Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) voted present.

# # #

ACTION ALERT: Calls Needed to Stop Obama's Executive Action Amnesty

Action Alert

The House is about to leave for their Christmas break without doing a thing to stop the President's executive amnesty. Yes, that's right... after they ran for re-election on the promise to do everything they could to stop it!

We MUST ACT TODAY and TOMORROW 

to get them to KEEP their PROMISE!

Tea Party & Liberty groups across the country will be making calls today and tomorrow to ALL of the below squishy members of Congress. While calls need to be placed to all of the targeted congress members, in Ohio, we need calls and pressure put on;

Speaker Boehner

DC PH: 202-225-6205
District PH: 513-779-5400
District PH: 937-339-1524
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Jim Renacci

DC PH: 202-225-3876
District PH: 330-334-0040
District PH: 440-882-6779
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Dave Joyce

DC PH: 202-225-5731
District PH: 440-352-3939
District PH: 330-425-9291
Contact: Click Here 

We know that Christmas is just a few weeks away and you are busy preparing for the holidays, but that's what makes this lame duck Congress so dangerous for America. Congress also knows we're busy with the holidays and they're hoping we don't notice their broken promises. WE NEED TO MAKE SURE EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS FEELS THE HEAT AND KNOWS THAT THEY MUST STOP EXECUTIVE AMNESTY!

Click Here for the complete list of Representatives  

that we need to call today & tomorrow! 

Tell them to keep their promises and use the spending bill to stop the funding for the President's executive amnesty. Pass the list of targets in your state on to your lists and ask them to do the same.

If your representative isn't on this list, call them as well. You can find their contact info on our website at this link:
http://www.teapartypatriots.org/category/my-government/my-legislators/