GOP: now & in the future

Another Rethug jumps ship.

A longtime Nevada elected official has left the Republican Party over its increasingly extreme positions.

Sue Wagner, 73, who has served as a Reno assemblywoman, state senator, lieutenant governor and gaming commissioner registered as a nonpartisan voter last week.

“I did it as a symbol, I guess, that I do not like the Republican Party and what they stand for today,” Wagner told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “I’ve been a Republican all my life. My dad was active (in the GOP) in the state of Maine where I was born. It was more of a moderate, liberal Republican Party.”

“It’s grown so conservative and Tea Party-orientated, and I just can’t buy into that,” Wagner continued. “I’ve left the Republican Party and it’s left me, at the same time.”

Wagner was the first woman in Nevada history elected as lieutenant governor and served from 1991 to 1995.

She had been mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate but left elected office following her first term as lieutenant governor due to injuries suffered in a 1990 plane crash while campaigning.

A poll released last month shows just 30 percent of Americans view the Tea Party favorably, while a 51 percent majority held an unfavorable view of the arch-conservative faction.

Heh...Politico reported yesterday that Democrats had decided on a triage strategy - they would abandon their pathetic efforts to take control of the House in order to direct all resources to attempting to hold the Senate.

Democrats: Cede the House to save the Senate

With Democrats’ grasp on the Senate increasingly tenuous — and the House all but beyond reach — some top party donors and strategists are moving to do something in the midterm election as painful as it is coldblooded: Admit the House can’t be won and go all in to save the Senate.

Their calculation is uncomplicated. With only so much money to go around in an election year that is tilting the GOP’s way, Democrats need to concentrate resources on preserving the chamber they have now. Losing the Senate, they know, could doom whatever hopes Barack Obama has of salvaging the final years of his presidency.

The triage idea is taking hold in phone conversations among donors and in strategy sessions between party operatives. Even some of the people who have invested the most to get House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi back into the speaker’s chair are moving in that direction.

“There is no question that Democratic donors are shifting towards the Senate in 2014. They will continue to support Nancy, but everyone agrees that the emphasis is going to be on the Senate,” said Joe Cotchett, a prominent San Francisco trial attorney and friend of Pelosi’s who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic Party candidates and causes. “When you see people like [longtime California Democratic Rep.] George Miller announcing that they are not running again, you know where the money will be going.”

Plus, Monster-Face - Harry Waxman, is throwing in the towel and that's a good thing! :D

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Originally Posted by Boon Mee

[/B] With Democrats’ grasp on the Senate increasingly tenuous — and the House all but beyond reach — some top party donors and strategists are moving to do something in the midterm election as painful as it is coldblooded: Admit the House can’t be won and go all in to save the Senate.

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As usual, they will pump money and efforts into targeted districts that show a possible House victory for the Dems.

If the focus is on the Senate, most of this money will be allocated to Senatorial election coming up.

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Their calculation is uncomplicated. With only so much money to go around in an election year that is tilting the GOP’s way, Democrats need to concentrate resources on preserving the chamber they have now. Losing the Senate, they know, could doom whatever hopes Barack Obama has of salvaging the final years of his presidency.

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The triage idea

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Interesting term....

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Originally Posted by robuzo

Michael Grimm (R- Staten Island, NY) gets cranky when a reporter asks an unexpected question:
NY1 Reporter Provides His Account of Grimm Encounter - NY1
Grimm: "Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this fucking balcony."

Scotto: "Why? I just wanted to ask you..."

[[cross talk]]

Grimm: "If you ever do that to me again..."

Scotto: "Why? Why? It’s a valid question."

[[cross talk]]

Grimm: "No, no, you're not man enough, you're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy."
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"Like a boy"? Does that stuff to boys, does he? Beeg beeg man.

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Heh, this story has everything.

Turns out the little reporter that Rep Grimm (R-oid rage) threatened is related to Anthony Scotto, former head of the Brooklyn longshoremen’s union and a former boss in the Gambino crime family! Oops..

Rep. Grimm couldn’t intimidate Scotto | Page Six

Heh...the year 2013 political fundraising numbers out and outside conservative groups are doing very well. :D

Four Republican-leaning groups with close ties to the party’s leadership in Congress — Crossroads and its “super PAC” affiliate; the Congressional Leadership Fund; and Young Guns Action — raised a combined $7.7 million in 2013. By contrast, four conservative organizations that have battled Republican candidates deemed too moderate or too yielding on spending issues — FreedomWorks, the Club for Growth Action Fund, the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Tea Party Patriots — raised a total of $20 million in 2013, according to Federal Election Commission reports filed on Friday.

“This is by far the biggest nonelection year we’ve ever had,” said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which has feuded with party organizations. “It shows how committed people are to electing true conservatives and to advancing conservative principles.”

Howzat midterm goal of taking back the House workin' out for you? :)

^ I would not wring your greasy palms just yet. They will use the majority of that money fighting each other in the primaries not against the Dem's in the general.

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Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Heh...the year 2013 political fundraising numbers out and outside conservative groups are doing very well.

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Article summary: The style of attacks pioneered by Karl Rove's American Crossroads to attack democrats, have been co-opted by republican groups and are being used against other republicans.

Ha ha.

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Originally Posted by quimbian corholla

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Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Heh...the year 2013 political fundraising numbers out and outside conservative groups are doing very well.

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Article summary: The style of attacks pioneered by Karl Rove's American Crossroads to attack democrats, have been co-opted by republican groups and are being used against other republicans.

Ha ha.

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:doglol:


it's going to an interesting summer full of republican-on-republican violence.


:chitown:

a good Republican is a dead Republican,

Please forgive me to keep going on about Florida. But it’s great news to hear (as a Floridian) over and over and over again.

Rick (I’m a Dick) Scott is going to be out of a job. Hopefully.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...Jan_2014~0.JPG

A poll of registered voters in Florida by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida in collaboration with UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research revealed high interest in Florida’s governor’s race, with 95 percent of likely voters reporting either “a great deal of interest” (66 percent) or “a fair amount of interest” (29 percent).

“For months now, political analysts have been describing Florida’s 2014 governor’s race as the top race in the nation. The only question has been whether Floridians are as interested in the race as national election forecasters are,” Susan MacManus, political science professor at the University of South Florida, said. “Now we know they are, and it’s only February.”

The poll also found that 47 percent of likely voters would vote for Democratic candidate Charlie Crist if the election were held today, while 40 percent would vote for Republican incumbent Rick Scott. In a matchup with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, 46 percent would vote for Nelson, a Democrat, and 42 percent would vote for Scott.

In a race against former state Sen. Nan Rich, 41 percent would vote for Scott and 36 percent would vote for Rich, a Democrat.

63 percent of respondents approved of Crist’s tenure as governor, and 27 percent expressed disapproval. When asked about Scott’s performance, 45 percent expressed approval, and 46 percent expressed disapproval.

I have my doubts about this poll but it is was it is,….

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) trails Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) by 4 percentage points in this year’s U.S. Senate race, 46-42, according to the latest Bluegrass Poll of likely statewide voters.

And, according to the poll, McConnell’s biggest problem may be himself — only 27 percent of Kentuckians hold a favorable opinion of the five-term incumbent, while 50 percent said they had an unfavorable view. And only 43 percent of conservatives, who McConnell is courting heavily, said they had a favorable opinion of him.

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Originally Posted by Butterfly

a good Republican is a dead Republican,

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Bring back Eisenhower!!

House approves debt limit increase with most Republicans voting once again for default:
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
Only 199 Republicans tried to hold us hostage this time. I guess that's an improvement....

idiots

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Originally Posted by TonyBKK

House approves debt limit increase with most Republicans voting once again for default:

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Raphael's tantrum should be hilarious! :)

You've got to give it to the GOP, or rather their right wing-

"I’m pleased that Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to pay for what they’ve already spent, and remove the threat of default from our economy once and for all. The full faith and credit of the United States is too important to use as leverage or a tool for extortion. Hopefully, this puts an end to politics by brinksmanship and allows us to move forward to do more to create good jobs and strengthen the economy. Instead of wasting time creating new crises, Congress should be focused on creating new jobs and opportunities. That’s what the American people deserve from their representatives in Washington, and that's what they should get."
Obama Has Declared Total Victory On Dismantling The Debt Ceiling - Yahoo Finance

It appears Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has had it with Republicans refusing to let judicial nominees get votes. So he moved forward without them on Wednesday night.

Reid filed a so-called cloture motion that sets up votes on four federal district court nominees who have been waiting all year for action, but were stymied by Republican delays.
Republicans Reject Effort To Vote On Judicial Nominees, So Harry Reid Moves Forward Anyway

After years of trying, the Tea Party has succeeded- in making the republican party as irrelevant as is humanly possible within the legislative and governmental process. Take a bow, teabaggers. :)

The sad twat tried his filibuster antics again but they weren't having it.

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WASHINGTON – In case you weren’t glued to C-Span2 for the last hour, here’s what you missed.

The Senate voted 67-31 to quash a filibuster by Sen. Ted Cruz that would have blocked the Senate from lifting the federal debt ceiling. Cruz voted against cloture, naturally. But the top GOP leaders, fellow Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, sided with Democrats to cut off the filibuster.

The measure raising the federal credit line through March 2015 sailed through the House on Tuesday, after Speaker John Boehner decided that it would be better to let Democrats own it (only 28 Republicans voted aye) than to dig in, insist on budget concessions, and force a stalemate that would spook world markets and risk a default.

Cruz announced the same day that he wouldn’t let the Senate raise the debt ceiling via a simple 51-vote majority. The filibuster threat pushed the threshold to 60.

As GOP strategist John Feehery pointed out, Democrats control 55 votes, so without Cruz’s maneuver, they would have been fully responsible, politically, for raising the debt ceiling. Instead, Cruz put GOP leadership on the spot.

Cornyn and McConnell – both facing tea party challengers for reelection – took the heat, and voted for cloture. (Roll call here.)

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Another Republican resorting to lies and blackmail, this time in an attempt at pressuring Tenn. Auto workers to reject Union representation.

The background?

VW, being a German company, works closely with Unions, and in Germany it is not uncommon to have Union representatives on the board of a company.

So VW want to form a German-style "Worker's Council" at it's Tenn. plant, primarily so that management and the workers freely communicate and collaborate on issues that affect them both. Sounds reasonable no? Not to Republican Senator Bob Corker.

The "problem" is that US Law requires a Union to be present for there to be a Worker's Council.

So Bob Corker told the workers that if they rejected the UAW to represent them, VW would add another vehicle, an SUV, to the plant.

Except that VW never said anything of the kind. VW want worker representation in the plant. VW have stated that it has nothing to do with Union vote and workers are free to vote however they like.

So Bob Corker is lying.

But then, the blackmail is there too:

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Earlier this week, Tennessee Republican lawmakers said if the UAW was voted into the Chattanooga plant, Volkswagen could lose millions of dollars in state incentives. In order to entice Volkswagen to build its new U.S. plant in Corker's hometown of Chattanooga, the state gave it about $580 million in incentives.

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Unsurprisingly, faced with the lies and intimidation, the workers rejected the UAW.

Who's running the GOP? What will it take for the Republicans to get their act together?


Vice President Joe Biden: ‘There isn’t a Republican Party’

Biden: 'There Isn't A Republican Party' - YouTube

"There isn’t a Republican party. I wish there were, I wish there was a Republican party. I wish there was one person we could sit across the table from and make a deal and make the compromise and know when you got up from the table that the deal was done," Biden said

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Originally Posted by TonyBKK

House approves debt limit increase with most Republicans voting once again for default:
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
Only 199 Republicans tried to hold us hostage this time. I guess that's an improvement....

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Increasing the debt - once again - is a good thing?

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Originally Posted by barbaro

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Originally Posted by TonyBKK

House approves debt limit increase with most Republicans voting once again for default:
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
Only 199 Republicans tried to hold us hostage this time. I guess that's an improvement....

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Increasing the debt - once again - is a good thing?

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Certainly beats the alternative!! :chitown:

debt is always a good thing when used right,

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Originally Posted by TonyBKK

"There isn’t a Republican party. I wish there were, I wish there was a Republican party. I wish there was one person we could sit across the table from and make a deal and make the compromise and know when you got up from the table that the deal was done," Biden said

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He's right, and he said it: How many responses were there to the State of the Union?!

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Originally Posted by Butterfly

debt is always a good thing when used right,

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No, never. It should be outlawed that governments spend more than they take in taxes and profits from state-run enterprises, and run up debts. It's a method to generate profits for private banks. While there are a few situations where running into debt might be justified, for example when a war is forced upon a country, it mustn't become a habit, and the debt should be paid back asap.

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Originally Posted by Rainfall

It should be outlawed that governments spend more than they take in taxes and profits from state-run enterprises, and run up debts.

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what an unrealistic delusional assumption you are making here, typical of conservative lunatics

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Originally Posted by Rainfall

It's a method to generate profits for private banks

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oh please, you have no clue, there is no huge profits in Treasury Bonds, even as a market maker or proprietary trading. It's actually so bad, that the provisions in the Volcker Rule for Treasury Bonds and Sovereign Debt are being relaxed in fear that the market will collapse for lack of interests by heavy market participants (banks).