Showing posts with label Washington Examiner Political Digest. Show all posts

Monday, November 07, 2011

Washington Examiner Daily Political Digest: Timothy P. Carney - Conservatives shouldn't play the race card, either

Washington Examiner Daily Political Digest

Timothy P. Carney - Conservatives shouldn't play the race card, either

The last things conservatives should want to do is lend some legitimacy to the race card.

Byron York: Why Santorum runs

Santorum likes to call himself "the William F. Buckley candidate," referring to Buckley's dictum that conservatives should support the most conservative candidate who is also electable. "We think we're the most electable conservative," Santorum tells the Fairfield group.

Susan Ferrechio - White House rebuffs GOP subpoena on Solyndra loan

It's a familiar piece of political theater in Washington: Congress subpoenas the White House demanding information. The White House refuses to comply, asserting executive privilege. To avoid the courts, the two sides often strike a deal that pleases neither of them. And it's happening again.

Byron York: How Gingrich wins by debating Cain

The Gingrich-Cain debate pitted the candidate with the most detailed policy knowledge against the candidate with the least detailed knowledge. It was a good thing for Cain that it was a friendly encounter; if Gingrich had wanted to run circles around Cain, he could have.

Michael Barone: Can Cain keep flouting rules of politics?

Cain's stance as a non-politician who refuses to obey the rules of the great game of politics is at least momentarily a political asset in a year when opinion about conventional politicians of both parties is

*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/ or http://kevindayhoffart.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/ or http://www.westgov.net/ = www.kevindayhoff.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ = www.newbedfordherald.net Explore Carroll: www.explorecarroll.com The Tentacle: www.thetentacle.com

Friday, July 01, 2011

Washington Examiner Political Digest: Nothing funny about government limits on political speech

Nothing funny about government limits on political speech

According to liberal dogma, last year's Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC was the worst thing to happen to American democracy since Watergate. Hoping to prove that the ruling would allow "unlimited corporate money" to influence elections, Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert announced in March that he would form ColbertPAC, a political action committee. Yesterday, almost three months later, the Federal Election Commission narrowly granted him permission to do so. But that was far from the first obstacle on Colbert's march to undo the evils of the moneyed class in politics.

Examiner Local Editorial: Fairfax's posh subsidized housing features pools, spas

Fairfax County taxpayers are being forced to subsidize so-called "affordable housing" that includes luxurious amenities many of them cannot afford to provide their own families. That's the conclusion of an eye-opening new study by the Springfield-based Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a nonpartisan research and education organization.

What the Times didn't tell you about Ian Urbina

By: Diana Furchtgott-Roth

You're Ian Urbina, a senior New York Times reporter. In February and March, you write that hydraulic fracturing, a method of natural gas extraction, is contaminating Pennsylvania drinking water. Your accusations are disproved by government tests.

A huge political storm is stirring over farm dust

By: Ron Arnold

What is the doom of America? To borrow a mystical metaphor from an old Bob Dylan song, "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind." And what might that mighty answer be? Farm dust, everyday rural American farm dust.

Obama's stimulus road to nowhere

By: Steve Chapman

Mired in excruciating negotiations over the budget and the debt ceiling, President Obama might reflect that things didn't have to turn out this way. The impasse grows mainly out of one major decision he made early on: pushing through a giant stimulus.

Madison on the Thames

By: Michelle Malkin

LONDON -- Big Labor looks the same wherever you go: petulant, irrational and wholly aggrieved beyond its means. I'm here on vacation with family as some 750,000 public-sector employees strike in protest over modest pension reform proposals. It's a taste of Wisconsin on the Thames. U.K. government teachers are just as shameless and entitlement-mongering as their American counterparts. More than half of England's schools shut down on Thursday as union members took to the streets.

President Richard M. Obama

By: Mona Charen

How many times have we heard awestruck references to Barack Obama's history as a law professor? Many came from the man himself, as when he told a crowd at a 2007 fundraiser, "I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president, I actually respect the Constitution."

What if President Obama had said this instead?

By: David Limbaugh

What if -- instead of blaming Republicans, big oil, the "wealthy" and corporate jets -- President Obama had used his recent news conference to say the following?

Washington Examiner Political Digest: Nothing funny about government limits on political speech

*****

Friday, June 24, 2011

Washington Examiner Political Digest: Dems jump the stimulus shark

Washington Examiner Political Digest Dems jump the stimulus shark

Desperate Democrats jump the stimulus shark

"Jumping the shark" refers to TV sitcoms that have run out of ideas and resort to desperate stunts to stay on the air. Yesterday, Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his chief deputies, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, showed that jumping the shark happens in politics, too. As Reuters reported, Reid and company are demanding that a new stimulus program be included in any deficit reduction agreement, including billions in new spending on highways and clean energy projects.

Michelle Obama: 'I can't stop eating French fries. But eat your vegetables.'

by Byron York

During her visit to South Africa, First Lady Michelle Obama stopped by the University of Cape Town for an event with young people. She told the audience how she came from modest circumstances and was able to attend top schools and build a career at a big law firm, saying they too can achieve their dreams if they try hard enough. After her speech, she was asked a series of soft questions like, "What advice can you give the youth today?"

Examiner Local Editorial: Blame the feds for Metro's 'security gap'

By: Examiner Editorial

"Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Is There A Security Gap?" is the subject of a congressional hearing today before the House Subcommittee on District of Columbia, Census and National Archives.

Trial lawyers won't give up on Wal-Mart lawsuits

By: Diana Furchtgott-Roth

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. That's what trial lawyers are saying about the Supreme Court's Wal-Mart decision, released earlier this week. Wal-Mart is America's largest private employer. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the class-action lawsuit alleging sex discrimination filed by three current and former employees on behalf of all 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees.

Big Green rolls off its logs

By: Ron Arnold

Taegan Goddard's Political Dictionary tells us that logrolling isn't just the exciting lumberjack athletic contest that looks like a ballet for tough guys, but also refers to an "informal agreement between legislators to vote for each others' priorities."

*****

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Washington Examiner Politics Sat. EXTRA

Examiner Politics Saturday EXTRA: Weekend breaking news & comment from The Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blogger

David Freddoso - No Choice '08: McCain and Obama were both going to get us into more wars
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., spoke yesterday from the Senate floor in support of the unauthorized military action in Libya. McCain argued that, for the sake of national unity, the Congress should pass a resolution approving the use of force, even though President Obama, in clear contravention of the War Powers Act and the Constitution, insists that Congress has no role in approving wars. Read More

Timothy P. Carney - Highway spending is a subsidy for driving
President Obama says he wants to decrease oil imports and stop oil subsidies, yet at the same time, he's subsidizing oil consumption -- by spurring new highway spending. When I tell the story of the oil executive who told me that his biggest subsidy is highway spending, people sometimes tell me this is wrong -- that gas taxes cover the cost of highways. But they don't. Read More

Philip Klein - AARP still playing it both ways on Social SecurityI had been meaning to write a blog post arguing that today's Wall Street Journal report likely overstated its claim that AARP was making a major shift toward more openness on cutting Social Security benefits, but the group's CEO has beat me to it. Read More

Michael Barone - Gangster Government at Treasury?

If this article by professors at Harvard Law School and Indiana University Business School is correct (hat tip to Paul Caron’s taxprof blog and Glenn Reynolds's Instapundit), the Treasury acted contrary to law when it ruled that post-bankruptcy General Motors could utilize $45 billion in pre-bankruptcy net operating losses to reduce any corporate income taxes it may owe. Read More

Mark Tapscott - Judicial Watch: Tax dollars for La Raza skyrocket after Obama appoints one of its leaders to White House post
Should anybody care when a radical left-wing special interest group gets a big boost in federally funded grants and contracts after one of its most visible leaders is appointed to a key White House job? That's exactly what happened after President Obama appointed Cecilla Munoz, the National Council of La Raza's (NCLR) senior vice president, as his director of inter-governmental affairs, according to an investigation by Judicial Watch. Read More

Conn Carroll - Pawlenty’s Obamacare problem
Why did T-Paw back off his Obamneycare line at Monday’s debate? Could it be because his own health care proposals are too close to Obamacare for comfort? Earlier this month I noted a striking similarity between the way Obamacare plans to cut Medicare and Pawlenty’s Medicare proposal. Read More

Philip Klein - ATM industry not happy about Obama comments

The Automated Teller Machine industry is not happy about President Obama's comments that the development of ATMs has cost jobs. Here's a sampling of some of the feedback I've been getting. Mike Lee, CEO of the ATM Industry Association, emailed me the following response: Read More
David Freddoso - Redistricting update: New map in Michigan

What you see here is Detroit, the next locus of the redistricting wars. The new congressional map proposed by the Republican-majority state legislature in Michigan achieves the Republicans’ goals – eliminate one Democrat, and shore up all the Republicans. Read More

Operation Fast and Furious should end Holder tenure

By: Examiner Editorial

Watergate cliches though they are, two questions beg to be asked about the exploding Fast and Furious scandal at the U.S. Department of Justice: What did Attorney General Eric Holder know and when did he know it concerning the underlying concept, operational protocols and legal status of Operation Fast and Furious?

Weiner's woes: No skillz to pay the billz

By: Michelle Malkin

"There is life after Congress for Anthony Weiner," New York Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey grimly assured reporters on Thursday before his resignation announcement. But Weiner's life has been nothing but Congress. Nothing but government. Nothing but taxpayer-subsidized self-perpetuation. In other words: the life of a pathetic public leech.

A new paradigm for the Left?

By: David Limbaugh

If you compare the Carter malaise with the Obama debt doomsday machine, any GOP 2012 presidential candidate should sail to victory with greater facility than Ronald Reagan did in 1980. But will she or he? I am optimistic but also believe that in making his economic case, the Republican candidate will have different challenges because of the ongoing growth of our welfare state and the attitudes it has ushered in, along with heightened class warfare.

NLRB assault on Boeing will cost countless jobs

By: Diana Furchtgott-Roth

SEATTLE -- It's a cloudy day in Seattle. On the road leaving the airport, one of Boeing's plants stretches out next to the highway, just before the cranes of the port. I am in Seattle to speak to Women of Washington, a nonprofit women's group focusing on public policy issues, on why America isn't creating jobs and what to do about it.

In praise of the pulchritudinous Michele Bachmann

By: Emmett Tyrrell

So there are two. Two pulchritudinous ones, that is. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are very beautiful, and the feminists tell us, "So what?" Well, they never say "So what?" when an attractive male, usually a Democrat, comes onstage. They call him charismatic.

Examiner Local Editorial: Bad old days of D.C. government corruption are back

By: Examiner Editorial

Hard as it is to believe, major scandals involving Mayor Vincent Gray's campaign and transition team are being eclipsed by almost daily revelations of venality and highly questionable judgment by members of the D.C. Council. With six of 13 council members, including the chairman, currently or previously under ethics clouds, D.C.'s hard-won reputation as a professionally managed, modern city has quickly eroded.

Obama is packing the government with Big Green ideologues

By: Ron Arnold

President Obama has packed his Cabinet agencies with left-wing ideologues, just like President Roosevelt tried with his 1937 "Supreme Court packing bill." Roosevelt failed, but Obama is still at it.

States can still push back on Medicaid

By: David Freddoso

States need not stand by and be trampled by Obamacare, when they can use it to their advantage.

*****

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Washington Examiner: K-Street readies for Tea Party candidates, House GOP claims mandate

Timothy P. Carney - GOP's K Street wing ready for insurgent challenge

The insurgent conservative Republicans and Tea Party candidates elected Tuesday are obviously a pugnacious and determined bunch, but they're not the only ones fixing for a battle over the direction of the party. The Republican Beltway establishment and the K Street wing of the GOP are ready to fight any effort to end pork-barrel spending and kill corporate welfare.The first fight will come mid-November, when the newly elected senators join returning senators to set party rules for the next two years.

Susan Ferrechio - House GOP claims voter mandate to limit government, taxes

Topping Republicans' to-do list is the repeal of President Obama's landmark health care reforms, which proved unpopular with the public and which Republicans portrayed as an unwarranted and expensive expansion of government.
Appearing at a Capitol news conference still flush from his party's historic election gains, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, now the House speaker designate, told reporters the GOP would begin to lay the groundwork "to repeal this monstrosity and replace it with common sense reforms that will bring down the cost of health insurance in America."

Hayley Peterson - Obama says 'shellacking' in election not a rejection of his agenda

The president accepted some of the blame for Democrats' historic losses at the polls, when Republicans took control of the House and increased the size of their Senate minority. He said he is "doing a whole lot of reflecting" on what the election meant for him, Democrats and their shared agenda.But Obama rejected Republican claims that the election proved the public opposes the president's initiatives, including health care reform.

Mark Hemingway - You know who was a big loser in this election? George Soros

While Democrats went out of their way to portray the Koch brothers as evil billionaires puppeteering this election, I’d venture they feel pretty good about the outcome. However, after last night I’d venture that that George Soros is one unhappy Hungarian.

Timothy P. Carney - Republicans made almost no incursions into Democratic turf

The pickups made by Republicans were mostly “snap-backs” (winning back seats the GOP had lost in 2006 or 2008), or continuations of the ongoing realignment in the countryside and the South (winning seats that McCain and Bush both won). A full list of the turnover seats follows.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Byron York - For Justice Department, Times Square case Christmas Day all over again

Washington Examiner Political Digest

Byron York - For Justice Department, Times Square case Christmas Day all over again

As it investigates the Times Square bombing plot, the Obama administration is taking steps to correct some of the mistakes made after the Detroit Christmas Day bombing attempt. But the administration seems as determined as ever to handle Times Square suspect Faisal Shahzad in the civilian justice system and not treat him as an enemy combatant, even though it appears Shahzad is connected to the Taliban in Pakistan.

Michael Barone - In downcast Britain, a pox on all three parties

If Labour were to win more seats than any other party—theoretically possible, but looking highly unlikely—Gordon Brown would remain prime minister and would try to form a government, presumably with support from the Liberal Democrats.

They would presumably try to get him to commit to a proportional representation system, which would make it exceedingly unlikely that Conseratives or Labour would ever get a House of Commons majority again and which would leave the choice of government in the hands of the Liberal Democrats—a horrifying result in my opinion, considering the eccentric character of the Lib Dem party and its determination to turn the power of the British state over to the European Union.

Susan Ferrechio - Reid wants to speed up bank bill

If there is any agreement between Democrats and Republicans on a sweeping financial regulatory reform bill now under debate, it is that neither side likes it very much as it is currently written. But efforts to change it through the amendment process may be cut short.

Julie Mason - Obama's election year plan suddenly scrambled

Recent events and political realities are narrowing President Obama's election year agenda, a dynamic that puts a greater emphasis on jobs.

In quick succession, the BP oil spill and Times Square car bomb refocused the administration's priorities, as immigration and a climate bill appeared to fall away.

Mark Tapscott - GM named in deceptive advertising complaint filed with FTC

The problem, according to CEI in its complaint, as well as a wide swath of financial and political analysts and media outlets, is simple: GM's repayment of one of its government loans was made with funds the company received from another government loan as part of its $49.5 billion bailout deal last year.

David Freddoso - Primary night #2

Tonight was the first big primary night after the Illinois election in February. Votes were held in Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina. There were a few surprises, but only a few.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Michael Barone - Low-tax Texas beats big-government California

Texas is a different story. Texas has low taxes -- and no state income taxes -- and a much smaller government. Its legislature meets for only 90 days every two years, compared with California's year-round legislature. Its fiscal condition is sound. Public employee unions are weak or nonexistent.

But Texas seems to be delivering superior services. Its teachers are paid less than California's. But its test scores -- and with a demographically similar school population -- are higher. California's once fabled freeways are crumbling and crowded. Texas has built gleaming new highways in metro Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

In the meantime, Texas' economy has been booming. Unemployment rates have been below the national average for more than a decade, as companies small and large generate new jobs.

Chris Stirewalt - Iraqis may prove war was a mistake worth making

Our forefathers had to wait 12 years after the Declaration of Independence to have their first direct congressional elections. The Iraqis have now completed their second legislative elections in just seven years.

It would not have been possible without the unstinting sacrifices of the American military and the support of the citizens of the United States. But neither would it have been possible without the sheer cussedness of the Iraqis.

David Freddoso - Bankers don't need another senator, Obama said. Except in Illinois.

Bankers don't need another vote in the United States Senate," President Obama said as he urged Massachusetts voters to support Attorney General Martha Coakley over Republican Scott Brown. He also railed against "the same fat-cats who are getting rewarded for their failure."

But in Illinois, Democrats have nominated a banker for Obama's old Senate seat

Susan Ferrechio -Democrats try to manage stream of scandals

Democrats have suffered from a string of scandals reminiscent of the corruption that plagued the GOP before the party lost the majority in Congress four years ago. While Democrats appear to have taken some important lessons from 2006, when they rode to victory on the "culture of corruption" attacks against Republicans, their response may not be enough to spare them the same fate as the GOP. "They need tougher ethics rules now, no ifs ands or buts," said Democratic strategist Doug Schoen.