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How Republicans Get Paid Attacking Republicans

October 23, 2015 at 8:14 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments

New York Times: “The calls to oust Republican leaders in Congress did not come from Democrats. They came from conservative websites and bloggers who have helped stoke a grass-roots rebellion to make Congress more conservative, a fevered continuation of the six-year Tea Party movement.”

“But these politically charged appeals to conservatives around the country were often accompanied by a solicitation for money, and the ultimate beneficiaries, records suggest, are the consultants who created the campaigns rather than the causes they are promoting. It is a practice that has accelerated with the explosion of social media.”

Quote of the Day

October 23, 2015 at 7:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 86 Comments

“I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has the previous times she’s testified.”

— Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), quoted by Politico, when asked if he learned anything new after 11 hours of testimony by Hillary Clinton before the Benghazi committee.

Clinton Had a Very Good Week

October 23, 2015 at 7:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 30 Comments

Politico: “The remarkable week puts Clinton in better standing than she was at this point eight years ago, when Barack Obama changed the course of the election with an electrifying speech at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. It was a pivotal moment that marked the beginning of the end of Clinton’s presidential hopes that cycle. Today, as she gears up for that same dinner this weekend, Clinton appears to be the one enjoying a pivotal, game-changing moment.”

Todd Purdum: “In fact, across the board in the past 10 days—and after months when every news cycle seemed to bring more bad news for her—Clinton has seen event after event break her way, starting with last week’s strong debate performance.”

Ryan Goes ‘All In’ for Speaker

October 23, 2015 at 7:28 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 22 Comments

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) “officially declared his bid for House speaker Thursday after consolidating the support he needs to be elected by his colleagues next week,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Ryan: “I never thought I’d be speaker. But I pledged to you that if I could be a unifying figure, then I would serve — I would go all in.”

Politico: “Ryan has agreed to delay a discussion about reforming the procedural motion used to remove a House speaker, a major concession to the House Freedom Caucus.”

Carson Begins Running Ads in Early States

October 23, 2015 at 7:12 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 6 Comments

Ben Carson’s surging campaign will begin airing two television ads in key early voting states on Friday, NBC News has learned.

“The $500,000 ad buy will air in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, and includes themes centered on Carson’s history as a doctor and status as an outsider in the 2016 race. Both ads end with the tagline: ‘Heal, Inspire, Revive.'”

Carson Surges Past Trump in Iowa

October 23, 2015 at 7:03 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 34 Comments

A new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll in Iowa finds Ben Carson taking the lead over Donald Trump in the GOP presidential race, 28% to 19%.

Key findings: “Even Carson’s most controversial comments — about Muslims, Hitler and slavery — are attractive to likely Republican caucusgoers. The poll shows just two perceived weaknesses: his lack of foreign policy experience and his research using fetal tissue during his medical career.”

Ted Cruz was in third at 10%, followed by Marco Rubio at 9%, Jeb Bush at 5%, Rand Paul at 5% and Carly Fiorina at 4%.

Who Are 2012 Donors Supporting This Time?

October 23, 2015 at 7:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 5 Comments

“A Time analysis of Federal Election Commission records indicates that, while donors to Barack Obama in 2012 have largely transferred their support to Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney’s donors are divided in their support of the 2016 hopefuls. While those donors favor Jeb Bush, having given the former Florida governor more than $5.4 million since through Sept. 30, they are also giving Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson significant financial support.”

“Perhaps most surprising, more Romney money has flowed into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s coffers (more than $640,000 so far) than has been given to Republicans Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina or Chris Christie.”

McConnell Pressures Paul to Focus on Senate Race

October 23, 2015 at 7:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 6 Comments

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his allies “are quietly ratcheting up pressure on Rand Paul to pay more attention to his Senate reelection next year — and less to his flagging 2016 presidential candidacy,” Politico reports.

“So far, those efforts have stopped short of urging the Kentucky senator, whose presidential bid McConnell has formally endorsed, to outright abandon his national campaign. But there are growing concerns that Paul, as a senator still in his first term in office, is courting trouble by dividing his time between the two races, raising the prospect that a rock-ribbed Republican seat could be put into play and jeopardize McConnell’s fragile 54-seat GOP majority.”

Clinton Back on Top in Iowa

October 23, 2015 at 7:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 2 Comments

A new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa finds Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential race, 51% to 40%.

Chafee Will Address Future of His Campaign

October 22, 2015 at 10:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 30 Comments

“Lincoln Chafee, the struggling Democratic presidential candidate, is planning to make an update about the state of his campaign on Friday morning,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Chafee is a former governor and senator from Rhode Island and his poll numbers have been hovering around zero and he has only raised about $30,000 in his campaign. He did not help his cause at last week’s Democratic presidential debate, when he stumbled on questions about his record or and in trying to make a case for his candidacy.”

Trump Super PAC Will Shut Down

October 22, 2015 at 10:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 4 Comments

“A super PAC with ties to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is shutting down in an effort to put an end to building questions about the closeness of the two operations,” the Washington Post reports.

About to be Released by Sidney Blumenthal

October 22, 2015 at 9:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 8 Comments

Coming next year: A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809 – 1849 by Sidney Blumenthal.

Ryan Consolidates Support for House Speaker

October 22, 2015 at 5:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 26 Comments

“House Republicans continued to coalesce behind Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as their next speaker Thursday as two influential GOP blocs threw him their support as was widely expected,” the Washington Post reports.

“The moderate Tuesday Group, which has 55 members, backed Ryan by acclamation in a morning session, while the conservative Republican Study Committee, which has more than 170 members, announced its endorsement in the afternoon… Ryan requested both endorsements as part of a three-pronged condition of GOP unity set set out before he formally agreed to serve as speaker. The third prong, the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday night Ryan had ‘supermajority’ support in its ranks.”

Shouting Match Dominates Benghazi Hearing

October 22, 2015 at 5:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 181 Comments

Republican lawmakers sharply questioned Hillary Clinton, “seeking to build a case that the former secretary of state had been derelict in her duty to secure the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, in the months before the 2012 terrorist attacks that resulted in the deaths of four Americans,” the New York Times reports.

Washington Post: “Six hours after it began, a House committee’s questioning of Hillary Clinton has provided few new details about the 2012 attacks on American installations in Benghazi, Libya – and, so far, no clear victory for Republicans seeking to trap Clinton in an admission of bad judgment.”

A shouting match between Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the committee chair, and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the ranking Democrat, about the focus on Clinton’s email exchanges with Sidney Blumenthal was a key highlight. Watch here:

LePage Compares Public Financing to Giving Your Wife a Checkbook

October 22, 2015 at 3:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 58 Comments

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) lashed out at an initiative strengthening Maine’s system of public financing campaigns, the Maine Beacon reports.

Said LePage: “That’s like giving my wife my checkbook. I’m telling you, it’s giving your wife your checkbook.”

Polis Trolls Republicans on Debt Limit Bill

October 22, 2015 at 1:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) “introduced his personal debt limit wish list on Thursday, poking fun at moves by House Republicans who, not in jest, may attempt to tie an increase in the debt ceiling to a host of GOP policy proposals,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“It would tie a $1.5 trillion debt limit increase to such demands as immediate enactment of any bill he sponsors without so much as a word of debate and a shifting of the House’s working hours to between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. ‘because Representative Jared Polis is an evening person and does his best work at night.’ The proposal also would also require all Republicans to drop their efforts to repeal the 2010 health-care law and instead ‘personally endorse the law’ by signing their names to it in the U.S. code.”

“And it would impose silence on conservative Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on topics ranging from same-sex marriage to cantaloupes.”

Clinton Moves to Win Over Biden Supporters

October 22, 2015 at 1:36 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 6 Comments

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign “is moving swiftly but delicately to try to win over Democrats who wanted Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. to challenge her for the party’s nomination, assuring them that she shares his devotion to hard-working Americans and that the darkest days of her campaign are now behind her,” the New York Times reports.

What Does Joe Biden Do Now?

October 22, 2015 at 11:09 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 60 Comments

Holly Bailey: “The vice president, who will turn 73 in November, is facing the potential twilight of the only career he has ever really known, one he has inhabited in a way few other politicians have. He was just 27 when he was first elected to political office — a seat on the New Castle County Council in Delaware. Three years later, he ran for U.S. Senate and won. Just 30 at the time, he was the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history. All told, he’s spent nearly 46 years in office — more than half of his life — and Biden seems to have enjoyed nearly every minute of it.”

“Perhaps no politician since Lyndon B. Johnson has thrived on and loved public office more than Biden. Like LBJ, a creature of the Senate who also ascended to the White House, Biden has delighted in the nitty-gritty details of lawmaking and the art of making a deal and forging compromise even among political enemies.”