Senate
The Cheney Renaissance Starts in Wyoming
Dick's daughter Liz could be getting ready for a Senate run
In early February, at the Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon, Liz Cheney gave her fellow Wyoming Republicans a pep talk. Despite President Obama’s reelection, she was bullish on the party’s prospects. The American people would eventually figure out how liberal he is, Cheney said, and come back to the GOP. But this was no time to play nice. “The gloves, in many ways, have come off,” she said. “If there was ever a time to go along to get along, this ain’t it.” READ MORE >>
Washington Is Wrong About Cruz and Warren
The freshmen senators are exactly who they promised to be
Whenever a new class arrives in Congress, and to the Senate in particular, official Washington resembles a John Hughes film: The self-serious elders rush to judge whether the incoming freshmen live up to the reputations that precede them. This well-established tradition seems more intensive than usual this year with the arrival of two high-profile members, Texas' Ted Cruz and Massachusetts' Elizabeth Warren. Might that be because the Senate has so little else to do with itself? READ MORE >>
Ashley Judd's Arsenal
She's a Hollywood feminist, but also a Southern sweetheart. Mock her at your own risk, Mitch.
The last time Ashley Judd made headlines as an actress, it was March 2012 and she was responding to plastic surgery gossip. This was no boilerplate denial. READ MORE >>
Last Friday the Atlantic Council, the Washington think tank chaired by Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, released a list of its foreign donors. The move came in response to a demand by 25 Republican senators ahead of a Senate vote on Hagel’s confirmation. In a letter addressed to Hagel, the Council’s president and CEO, Frederick Kempe, a former columnist at the Wall Street Journal, included the donor names as well as some details on the think tank’s ethics policies. READ MORE >>
Well, now we know: the Scott Brown Era lasted almost exactly three years, from January 2010, when he upset Martha Coakley to win the “Kennedy seat,” and thereby robbed the Democrats of their filibuster-proof Senate majority, imperiled and greatly complicated the prospects for passing Obamacare, and set the stage for the Republican wave the following fall. READ MORE >>
Former Sen. Chuck Hagel didn’t acquit himself well in the hearings that the Senate Armed Services Committee held today on his nomination to be Secretary of Defense. He was equivocal, often unconvincing, and seemed taken aback by questions that had been swirling around the rightwing blogosphere for weeks. READ MORE >>
Filibuster Reform Squelched
The real deal struck about reform: There would be none.
As I predicted, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's calendar-freezing machinations to reform the filibuster turned out to be much ado about nothing. Reid and McConnell have struck a deal to eliminate filibusters on "motions to proceed," leaving intact filibusters on the actual legislation. In exchange, the minority will be guaranteed the chance to bring two amendments to the floor. READ MORE >>
Roe v. Wade Is More Popular Than Ever—A Fact the Supreme Court Is Unlikely to Ignore
On this fortieth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in the abortion case, Roe v. Wade, a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found 70 percent of U.S. adults support the decision, compared to 58 percent in 1989. That marks an all-time high. 2012 saw a huge number of abortion restrictions passed through state legislatures (though significantly less than 2011). But the feminist movement’s main victories last year came on the national stage: not just the defeats of Senate wannabes Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, but also the election of President Obama himself. Fifty-five percent of women voted for Obama, making him the first president in history unambiguously elected by women when men wanted the other guy. (Bill Clinton won women in 1996, but his loss among men was within the margin of error of exit polls.)The surge of support for Roe in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll reveals that the core groups in the liberal coalition that elected Obama have a surplus to offer others. The pollsters found the new support for abortion rights, long seen as the effete preoccupation of middle class white women, was concentrated among African Americans, Latinos and women without college degrees. These highly religious groups tasted political power as the Obama campaign scrambled for re-election. Now the polls show them supporting a new cause: women’s right to abortion. And so a virtuous cycle begins. READ MORE >>
