“Anti-Christian religious bigotry” is apparently what conservatives are now calling LGBTQ rights

NOM president Brian Brown is seeing a rise in “anti-Christian” bigotry, which is just a rise in LGBTQ rights







Salon.com

“Anti-Christian religious bigotry” is apparently what conservatives are now calling LGBTQ rights

Conservatives and Libertarians Meet for Florida Liberty Summit as Establishment GOP Plans Retreat

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Conservatives and Libertarians Meet for Florida Liberty Summit as Establishment GOP Plans Retreat

Brandon Eich was a victim of market forces, conservatives should applaud

Brendan Eich, pondering the sanctity of marriage.

Brendan Eich is a tech legend, the inventor of Javascript—a programming language that powers much of what’s cool on the web. He is also a bigot, a donor to California’s successful Prop 8 effort in 2008 to enshrine hate in the state constitution by banning same-sex marriage.

Last week he was named as CEO of the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit organization best known for the Firefox browser. It is an organization in turmoil, as the mobile revolution makes desktop computers increasingly irrelevant, and with that, Mozilla’s core product. (Daily Kos’s traffic is now nearly 50-50 mobile traffic, as you can see in this chart. The dark blue band is mobile.)

The problem with Eich is that, well, he’s a bigot. And worse than that, he hasn’t “evolved” since 2008, like so much of America. He held steadfast to his beliefs, out-of-step with the world his product serves. So the Mozilla community erupted in anger, and after a half-assed effort to hang on, Eich resigned the position. So of course, you have people screaming about “persecution” from the usual conservative suspects to contrarians like Andrew Sullivan.

When people’s lives and careers are subject to litmus tests, and fired if they do not publicly renounce what may well be their sincere conviction, we have crossed a line. This is McCarthyism applied by civil actors. This is the definition of intolerance.

Please read below the fold for more on this story.

Daily Kos

Brandon Eich was a victim of market forces, conservatives should applaud

To Train Up a Child -- Religious Conservatives and the Struggle over Schooling

Hollywood Conservatives Claim IRS Harassment: Documents Show They Were Gaming the System

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Hollywood Conservatives Claim IRS Harassment: Documents Show They Were Gaming the System

Conservatives" Hilarious, Doomed Efforts to Be Cool

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Conservatives" Hilarious, Doomed Efforts to Be Cool

Conservatives" Hilarious, Doomed Efforts to Be Cool

Nothing is less cool than trying too hard to be cool.

Conservatives have a problem with cool. If they were smart, right-wing pundits and Republican political consultants would just ignore the whole concept of cool. Being conservative is inherently uncool, since the whole point of conservatism is to reject the forward-looking and liberated attitude that has always defined cool. Worrying much about it is just a waste of time. Trying to be cool just makes you look ridiculous, and paradoxically, more uncool. It’s a no-win situation, and yet conservatives continue taking the bait, forever trying to get this whole concept of cool to work for them and always, always failing.

The latest example of the Republicans trying to figure out to work this cool thing and failing is an ad campaign running in 14 states with Senate campaigns in 2014 that shows Scott Greenberg, a 30-year-old Audi driver saying things like he is “ticked off at politicians” for passing regulations, which he believes are the source of unemployment. We are clearly meant to believe that Greenberg is a hipster, demonstrating the infallible conservative ability to hop on any trend right after it’s run out of steam. Greenberg wears a striped shirt and glasses and has a scraggly beard, but sadly for Scott Greenberg and his benefactors, none of that does much to conceal the eau de dweeb that hovers over anyone who takes seriously the idea that wealthy businessmen are the major oppressed class of America.

It’s hard to see why Republicans even bother. Even if it were possible to trick young voters into thinking you can vote Republican and still be cool, it isn’t really necessary. It’s not like the millennial crowd is dweeb-free, for one thing. For another, the usual tactics of using catchphrases like “small government” and “personal responsibility” to cover up race-baiting pandering to white people is working pretty well on white millennials, though perhaps not quite as well as it did on white people before.

No, it’s safe to say that this attempt to be cool is less about really peeling off votes from the Democrats. No, this is about something deeper, a long-standing jealousy and resentment of the left for being a giant vacuum that sucks up all the cool people, leaving behind the right. (Let’s be clear, by no means am I saying all Democrats are cool. They have their fair share of dorks and dweebs. But it is, and many Republicans are keenly aware of this, true that most cool people are pretty liberal. It just comes with the territory.) This creates a major insecurity on the right, and periodically there are embarrassing attempts to deal with it by asserting, laughably, that they have cool people on their side of the aisle, too. It’s painful to watch.

The “nuh-uh, we’re cool, too!” thing has a long and sordid history on the right. Take Andrew Sullivan’s embarrassing attempt to coin the phrase “South Park Republican” in 2001, to describe the younger and cooler form of Republican that was supposedly emerging at the time, and was characterized by being into the show South Park, or at least the worst part of the show, which was its tendency to devolve into half-baked reactionary moralizing from the perspective of writers who clearly didn’t understand the issues. Even the conservative website Daily Caller had to admit recently that “South Park Republicans” had no traction, calling them the “political equivalent of a dodo bird,” which is overgenerous. Roy Edroso more correctly called it more of a fantasy than a reality, pointing out that even at its strongest, South Park Republicanism was straight-laced and more concerned with policing “morality” than letting loose and having fun.

It’s the same urge that, among the Christian right, leads to Christian rock and churches like Mars Hill in Seattle, where the pastor attempts to fool you into thinking he’s cool because he rocks a beard and likes rock music, but you find out at the end of the day, he’s just selling the same old fundamentalism as the more buttoned-up crew.

This is a more secular version of the same urge, and frequently leads to conservatives identifying as “libertarian” without having any meaningful policy differences from the same old Republicans of yore. In the media, it leads to unconvincing attempts to craft hip, bold, young conservative voices—like S.E. Cupp or Greg Gutfeld—that don’t really seem to be fooling anyone except the cranky old conservative audience that can’t really tell the difference. (Gutfeld, at least, has decided to embrace his lack of cool, writing a new book called Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and Their War On You, where he takes another tack of trying to pretend that he wasn’t into that whole “cool” thing anyway.)

But where these attempts to make conservative cool reliably come across as the most pathetic is in the realm of rock music, the great white whale of the right. Conservatives, particularly Baby Boomers, have never really gotten over the fact that they were on the wrong side of the "60s. Witness the insistence on calling CPAC—or the Bakersfield conference or the Tea Party—“Woodstock for conservatives.” Woodstock happened 45 years ago, and clearly the right is still upset that they weren’t a part of it. This, too, explains how, no matter how outrageous or racist or sexually predatory Ted Nugent gets, Republicans can’t let him go or stop using him in fundraising. He’s a rock-and-roller, really the only one they’ve got, so they’re clinging to him like a barnacle on a sinking ship. The only other option is pulling a Chris Christie and following Bruce Springsteen around, trying to make him validate you even though he’s clearly not having it. (Witness the saddest non-serious headline in possibly all of the 21st century: “Chris Christie hopes Bruce Springsteen will be his friend someday.”)

If conservatives were smart, they’d simply ignore cool altogether and go golfing and spend money and simply give up any hope of being cool whatsoever. That strategy of indifference worked for Ronald Reagan. Say what you will about him, he seemed perfectly content to be himself in all his utterly out-of-touch glory, and he was all the more popular for it. The current strategy of being all hung up about it, and desperately casting around for something, anything, that shows that Republicans can be cool, too, only ends up backfiring. After all, nothing is less cool than trying too hard to be cool, and failing.  

 

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Conservatives" Hilarious, Doomed Efforts to Be Cool

Conservatives Are the Big Roadblock to Improving Head Start

Robert Gordon and Sara Mead say that Head Start is better than a lot of its critics give it credit for:

But this much is true: Head Start could do better….Evaluations suggest that strong state preschool programs sustain gains in reading, math, or both in ways that Head Start doesn’t. There’s no reason to think Head Start can’t produce similar results. In fact, some individual Head Start programs already do: Kids in them achieve vocabulary gains more than twice the Head Start average. But it will require some changes.

Some of the program’s defenders may bristle at such talk, for fear that any questioning of Head Start’s effectiveness will reinforce the arguments of [Paul] Ryan and those eager to downsize or even eliminate the program. But now is the time to talk about improving Head Start. Replicating results from the best Head Start programs would be a big boost for our nation’s poorest youngsters, enabling many more of them to start school much better prepared.

This is the eternal problem. There are plenty of liberals who would like nothing more than to make Head Start—and pre-K programs in general—better than they are today. In fact, if there’s any group which should be most concerned about making sure that taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and that social programs show real results, it’s liberals.

So why is there often so much resistance to improvement? Obviously inertia is part of it. Most of us tend to get a little lazy once we find a comfort zone. But there’s a more substantive reason too: As Gordon and Mead say, defenders of social welfare programs know that acknowledging problems won’t lead to kumbaya sessions with conservatives where we all agree on improvements. It merely gives conservatives fodder for arguments to cut spending on the poor.

This sounds simpleminded and uncharitable. So be it. But the plain truth is that there are vanishingly few conservatives who are genuinely dedicated to improving social welfare programs. They just want to cut taxes and cut spending. Sometimes this is out in the open. Sometimes it gets hidden in the language of “block grants.” Sometimes it’s buried even further in spending caps that obviously starve domestic programs without admitting that any particular program will ever get cut. But one way or another, it’s there.

So what’s the answer? I wish I knew. But as long as conservatives remain dedicated to using problems with social programs as nothing more than convenient excuses to get the Fox News outrage machine rolling, progress is going to be hard to come by.

MoJo Blogs and Articles | Mother Jones

Conservatives Are the Big Roadblock to Improving Head Start

Conservatives" Darling Just Told Them To Vote For Republicans They Don"t Necessarily Like

Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call/Getty

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Dr. Ben Carson, a conservative darling who has built up one of the most devoted followings here at the Conservative Political Action Conference, told an audience on Saturday that it was important to vote for Republican candidates in the 2014 midterms — even if they didn’t support that candidate in the primary.

Before a standing-room-only crowd, the retired neurologist Carson explained his logic using a ship and barnacles metaphor.

“The ship is about to sail off of Niagara Falls and we’re going to be killed,” Carson said in his speech Saturday. “And we have a bunch of people looking over the side of the ship saying ‘There’s barnacles on the side of it. We’ve got to get the barnacles off.’

“Forget about the barnacles. We’ve got to get the ship turned around first.”

Carson said he understood voters’ predicament. Every lawmaker who votes to raise the debt ceiling should be voted out of office, he said. But if that lawmaker happens to be the nominee, things change.

“You can call them a RINO [Republican In Name Only] or a ‘Tea Bagger.’ Just vote for them!” Carson said.

Carson’s speech, which roused an audience full of supporters who held up signs saying, “Run, Ben! Run!,” was unabashedly politically incorrect. He talked about gay marriage, saying gays should get “equal rights” but should not be able to “redefine marriage.”

“I still believe marriage is between one man and one woman,” he said.

He referenced his past comments comparing Obamacare and slavery. “Of course,” he said, Obamacare isn’t as bad as slavery — but it doesn’t mean Obamacare isn’t dangerous. 

Carson didn’t give any hint to his plans in 2016. God has a plan for him, he said, but he was not “sure what the culmination of that plan is.”

Politics

Conservatives" Darling Just Told Them To Vote For Republicans They Don"t Necessarily Like

McConnell to Conservatives: "I Won"t Let You Down"

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is currently facing a primary challenge from his right, delivered a simple message to activists present at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference: If Republicans retake the Senate, you can trust me.

“If I’m given the opportunity to lead the U.S. Senate next year, I won’t let you down,” McConnell assured those in attendance at the gathering outside Washington, D.C. “I will lead with integrity. We will fight tooth and nail for conservative reforms.”

After coming on stage with an antique firearm in hand, which he handed to retiring conservative favorite Sen. Tom Coburn, McConnell offered critiques of Obamacare; controversial recess appointments; the EPA; the IRS; big business taking advantage of government; and the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi.

“President Obama and the Democratic Senate have literally failed American families. … Under this president and Harry Reid, the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and the middle class is being squeezed like never before,” he said applause.

McConnell did not reference Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin, whom he is favored to easily beat in the May primary. Nor did he mention his likely general election challenger, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. Instead, McConnell’s remarks were aimed well past Election Day in November.

He vowed, “The U.S. Senate will be a place that Tom Coburn can be proud of again.” 

RealClearPolitics – Articles

McConnell to Conservatives: "I Won"t Let You Down"

When it comes to war, Americans learned their lesson. Even conservatives

Not our problem to solve.

Good.

The latest research from YouGov shows that the American public has little appetite for any involvement in Ukraine. Asked whether the international community as a whole has a responsibility to get involved in resolving the situation in Ukraine, less than a third of Americans (30%) think that what is going on in Ukraine is the world’s business [...]

Support for any US intervention to defend Ukraine against a Russian invasion is even lower. Only 18% say that the US has any responsibility to protect Ukraine, while 46% say that the US does not. Support for helping to protect Ukraine is higher among Republicans (26%) than among Democrats (13%) but just under half of both groups say that the US has no responsibility to defend Ukraine.

Neocons are desperate to reignite the Cold War, while other Republicans just want an excuse to attack the president, once a calculating dictator, now a feckless appeaser (consistency is not their strong suit). The punditry is giddy with idiot proclamations like “biggest test of Obama’s presidency” because it’s March and they’d be otherwise bored.  

The reality is that this is an unfortunate flareup in a part of the world that is only tangentially relevant to US interests. And it concerns a nuclear superpower over which the United States has little direct influence. Think about it—conservatives gush over Putin’s “leadership” because he doesn’t take shit from anyone and wrestles bears! So if that’s the case, why would Putin listen to Obama? And what is Obama supposed to do, issue military threats it can’t back up, try to wield moral authority our nation lost in Iraq? Should he challenge Putin to a wrestling match?

Luckily, the American people are smarter than the idiot pundits and blood-crazed conservatives. This isn’t our problem. We are not the world’s policemen. And the last decade of war has clearly stripped the American people of any new warlust.

Daily Kos

When it comes to war, Americans learned their lesson. Even conservatives

Conservatives Brand Wendy Davis A Liar For Inaccuracies In Her Bio

Conservative pundits on Monday piled on a Dallas Morning News report that clarified some inaccurate details in Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis’ (D) biography.

Their attacks included branding the gubernatorial candidate a liar and suggesting she abandoned her children to run for political office.

Davis admitted to the newspaper that she was 21 when she divorced her first husband, not 19 as previously stated in media reports. She also revealed that her second husband paid for a portion of her education before their separation.

RedState editor-in-chief Erick Erickson, who once referred to Davis as “Abortion Barbie,” weighed in:

Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro drew a parallel between Davis and another rising star in the Democratic Party accused of fudging her background, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), before mockingly calling Davis a “feminist hero:”

And his Breitbart colleague John Nolte asked why the mainstream media hadn’t picked up and ran with the inconsistencies in Davis’ “fake” bio with the same relish as the bridge scandal plaguing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration:

Based on her own experience growing up as the child of a single mother, conservative radio host Dana Loesch wrote a series of tweets lambasting Davis for “lying” about her success story:

The Dallas Morning News piece even spawned a mocking hashtag, #MoreFakeThanWendyDavis.

All TPM News

Conservatives Brand Wendy Davis A Liar For Inaccuracies In Her Bio

Religious Conservatives Crying over Gay Marriage - "Who Cares?"

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Religious Conservatives Crying over Gay Marriage - "Who Cares?"

Conservatives slam Benghazi report

Louie Gohmert says too many questions remain to produce a comprehensie report.

Conservative critics on Wednesday slammed the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee’s Benghazi report, which called the attacks on the U.S. consulate there preventable.

“There is never a shortage of bipartisanship when we don’t have all the facts,” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) charged of the report.

Continue Reading

Gohmert — one of the most critical voices in wake of the September 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens — said there are too many unanswered questions for the committee to have produced a comprehensive report.

“Once we get all of that information, once this administration stops keeping the roadblock up to the truth, then you’ll see a bipartisan report that gives you real facts and not opinions,” he said.

The report concluded that the attacks could have been prevented if more attention was paid to intelligence warnings. But it disputed allegations that military assets that could have saved lives were not mobilized and that talking points used after the attacks were changed for political reasons.

Gohmert pointed to an allegation that has failed to get much traction beyond conservative circles: that the CIA was secretly gathering guns that had been given to fighters in Libya in order to distribute them to rebels in Syria.

“The unanswered questions of was this administration trying to rescue weapons in Libya that this administration had provided to rebels and were there American assets in Libya who were reviewing sites to store such weapons to be sent to Syria?” Gohmert said. “Until those questions are answered, we will not have a definitive report.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) called attention to the report’s findings that the intelligence community was aware of the threat beforehand but did little to improve security at the site.

“The administration looks very flatfooted and certainly inept and incompetent when it came to Benghazi,” Bachmann said.

She criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has been a conservative target in the charge that the administration covered up key facts about the controversy.

“Why did Clinton fail in her job as the head of the State Department to safely protect the people in Benghazi when they knew it was a problem?” Bachmann said. “Today more than ever Benghazi stands as the symbol of incompetency of the Obama administration. It’s a high hurdle Clinton has to overcome in the future.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) disputed the report’s finding that military assets weren’t available and in close enough proximity to save lives during the attack.

“That flies in the face of what we uncovered in the [House] Oversight Committee,” Massie said.

Massie said while the military assets would not have arrived in time, teams based in Washington D.C. were told to stand down before the attack was over and it was known they couldn’t arrive in time.

“I hope the report takes into account all the facts we’ve uncovered in the Oversight Committee,” Massie said.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) also disputed the report’s findings that the controversial talking points then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used on Sunday morning news programs were the product of incomplete intelligence reports.

King said the administration knew the attack wasn’t the product of a protest in response to an anti-Islam video.

King said the administration briefed Congress in a classified setting days after the attack, and while he didn’t disclose what was said in the briefing, “They told us the same lies that they told America on Sunday TV.”

POLITICO – Congress

Conservatives slam Benghazi report

New, Moderate Conservatives Are Coming

(Newser) – You wouldn’t know it to listen to Republican politicians, but there’s a new eminently reasonable brand of conservatism brewing, based on the principle of “skeptical reform,” writes David Brooks at the New York Times. Current Republicans have defined themselves as anti-government, leaving them “no governing agenda for people facing concrete needs.” This new breed of thinkers instead focuses on remedying specific social ills—even if that means using government as a tool. “Government is not the only solution, but it is not the only problem.”

These thinkers acknowledge “that the world is too complicated to be centrally planned,” and hence strive to harness markets—instead of dictating them like ObamaCare. But unlike today’s often too-fervent Republicans, they’re skeptical of their own solutions as well, so they aim for gradual, mindful reform. Brooks thinks this school will catch on, because “the Republican style of recent years has produced a vacuum where concrete proposals should be.” When Republicans need policies of their own, they’ll “find there is no other game in town.” For examples of these kinds of policies, see the full column.

Politics from Newser

New, Moderate Conservatives Are Coming

Senate Conservatives Fund invests $227,000 in Sasse

Senate Conservatives Fund invests $227,000 in Sasse
http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/11/Ben-Sasse-portrait-300x199.jpg

By Deena Winter | Nebraska Watchdog

LINCOLN, Neb. – A national conservative group that is working to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has invested nearly $ 227,000 in Republican Ben Sasse’s campaign so far.

Midland University President Ben Sasse

The Senate Conservatives Fund announced Friday it invested $ 2 million five U.S. Senate campaigns in the last quarter of 2013, with Sasse receiving the fourth-biggest haul.

Sasse’s total includes nearly $ 118,000 donated directly to his campaign, and nearly $ 109,000 in independent purchases, with most of that being spent on direct mail so far, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Senate Conservatives Fund Executive Director Matt Hoskins said the fact that the group raised $ 2 million in less than three months shows how determined people are to elect “true conservative leaders who will stand up to the big spenders in both parties.”

“Our members in Nebraska and across the country are very excited about Ben Sasse and they’re working hard to help him get his message out,” Hoskins said via email.

The SCF was founded by Tea Party leader and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint and often endorses underdog challengers rather than incumbents or establishment candidates. The group has been locked in a bitter feud with McConnell, who has criticized its strategy for fighting Obamacare, which led to a government shutdown. According to the National Review, Sasse was berated by the minority leader in November for working with SCF and for accusing Republicans of failing to lead in a campaign video, specifically calling out McConnell. McConnell has accused SCF of giving conservatives a bad name and being counterproductive.

Last year, SCF spent $ 1.4 million on the Nebraska Senate race, supporting State Treasurer Don Stenberg, who finished third in the GOP primary race, losing to darkhorse state Sen. Deb Fischer.

Sasse is also benefitting from help from another outside group, the Legacy Foundation Action Fund, which reported spending about $ 24,000 on billboards (including one on 10th Street in downtown Lincoln) saying Sasse would bring conservative Nebraska values to Washington, according to FEC records.

The Iowa-based group says it educates the public on fiscal issues, the creation of an entrepreneurial environment, education, labor-management relations, citizenship, civil rights, and government transparency issues.

Contact Deena Winter at deena@nebraskawatchdog.org.

Editor’s note: to subscribe to News Updates from Nebraska Watchdog at no cost, click here.

Please, feel free to “steal our stuff”! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more

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Read more about Senate Conservatives Fund invests $227,000 in Sasse and other interesting subjects concerning NSA at TheDailyNewsReport.com

Senate Conservatives Fund invests $227,000 in Sasse

Senate Conservatives Fund invests $227,000 in Sasse
http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/11/Ben-Sasse-portrait-300x199.jpg

By Deena Winter | Nebraska Watchdog

LINCOLN, Neb. – A national conservative group that is working to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has invested nearly $ 227,000 in Republican Ben Sasse’s campaign so far.

Midland University President Ben Sasse

The Senate Conservatives Fund announced Friday it invested $ 2 million five U.S. Senate campaigns in the last quarter of 2013, with Sasse receiving the fourth-biggest haul.

Sasse’s total includes nearly $ 118,000 donated directly to his campaign, and nearly $ 109,000 in independent purchases, with most of that being spent on direct mail so far, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Senate Conservatives Fund Executive Director Matt Hoskins said the fact that the group raised $ 2 million in less than three months shows how determined people are to elect “true conservative leaders who will stand up to the big spenders in both parties.”

“Our members in Nebraska and across the country are very excited about Ben Sasse and they’re working hard to help him get his message out,” Hoskins said via email.

The SCF was founded by Tea Party leader and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint and often endorses underdog challengers rather than incumbents or establishment candidates. The group has been locked in a bitter feud with McConnell, who has criticized its strategy for fighting Obamacare, which led to a government shutdown. According to the National Review, Sasse was berated by the minority leader in November for working with SCF and for accusing Republicans of failing to lead in a campaign video, specifically calling out McConnell. McConnell has accused SCF of giving conservatives a bad name and being counterproductive.

Last year, SCF spent $ 1.4 million on the Nebraska Senate race, supporting State Treasurer Don Stenberg, who finished third in the GOP primary race, losing to darkhorse state Sen. Deb Fischer.

Sasse is also benefitting from help from another outside group, the Legacy Foundation Action Fund, which reported spending about $ 24,000 on billboards (including one on 10th Street in downtown Lincoln) saying Sasse would bring conservative Nebraska values to Washington, according to FEC records.

The Iowa-based group says it educates the public on fiscal issues, the creation of an entrepreneurial environment, education, labor-management relations, citizenship, civil rights, and government transparency issues.

Contact Deena Winter at deena@nebraskawatchdog.org.

Editor’s note: to subscribe to News Updates from Nebraska Watchdog at no cost, click here.

Please, feel free to “steal our stuff”! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more

Watchdog.org

Read more about Senate Conservatives Fund invests $227,000 in Sasse and other interesting subjects concerning NSA at TheDailyNewsReport.com

Conservatives Rip Budget Deal -- But Not Ryan

It was not surprising Wednesday when a group of conservative House Republicans slammed the budget agreement forged by their own Paul Ryan and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. Indeed, some had registered their disappointment before the details emerged, while others did so after hearing more at the GOP’s weekly conference meeting in the Capitol basement.

But despite a willingness to criticize party leaders at other times, particularly when fiscal issues are involved, these members did not direct their ire at Ryan, the Budget Committee chairman whose credentials as a conservative star are on the line in this deal.

“Ryan has done the best job I think you can do given the overwhelming liberal nature of the Senate,” Maryland Rep. Andy Harris told reporters. “[He] has advanced several conservative principles. Are they principles every conservative is going to agree to? No, probably not. But we have to realize the environment in which Mr. Ryan functions, and I think he will be held in that regard.”

Ryan also described the deal as the best possible outcome given Washington’s divided government. “We need to find a way to make divided government work,” the 2012 vice presidential candidate said, echoing a sentiment he expressed when he and Mitt Romney lost last fall.

Harris isn’t the only conservative acknowledging the limits of GOP clout. “Everyone is trying to be optimistic. We don’t control the Senate and the White House,” said Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon. “So a lot of the things we might want, may not be a political reality.”

After two months of negotiations, Ryan and Murray announced a budget deal Tuesday night that set discretionary and defense spending at $ 1.012 trillion — an increase from the Budget Control Act mandate of $ 967 billion, and considered a halfway point between the two sides’ preferred numbers. It would also alleviate $ 63 billion in across-the-board sequester cuts for two years. That restoration would be financed through the trimming of military pensions and increased pension contributions from federal workers, among other changes. The Congressional Budget Office estimated $ 85 billion in deficit reduction over a decade.

While it was a small-bore agreement — there were no changes to, or even avenues toward, entitlement programs; no tax reform; and no tax increases — it was considered a significant breakthrough given Congress’ long pattern of short-term resolutions, which have left the country perpetually on the edge of a fiscal cliff.

The agreement “gives Congress the power of the purse back,” Ryan told reporters Wednesday after briefing the GOP conference on the plan. He said he felt “very good about where we are with our members,” citing deficit reduction and no tax increases as major selling points of the deal.

But not all his colleagues see it that way. Some conservatives bashed the higher spending levels and deficit reduction that doesn’t occur for several years, and complained that the plan restores sequester cuts without tradeoffs such as entitlement reform. In short, they wanted a continued commitment to sequester numbers that some members said were established during the annual conference meeting last January in Williamsburg, Va.

“I think it’s a terrible plan,” said Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador. “I think it undoes everything we set out in the Williamsburg accord. I think it violates every principle we talked about in the W accord. It also makes promises to the American people that are false. “

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan echoed those sentiments: “This agreement, while it has some positives … is a marked departure from what we’ve said we’d set out to do, and it’s not going to put us on that path to balance.”

Kansas Rep. Tim Heulskamp remarked sarcastically, “It could be Hillary’s second term before you can achieve what was noted as deficit reduction.”

Salmon admitted that “we’re in a situation where we’re not controlling all three branches of government, and it’s frustrating. But with the cuts we’ve done to spending over the last two years, and watching those go up in smoke is disheartening. It seems as though we have incredible leverage with sequestration, and I’m not sure we used it to its full extent.”

Still, members were reluctant to criticize Ryan for the compromise.

“I don’t think this deal enhances or diminishes Paul Ryan,” Labrador said.

“My question to Paul is not whether he’s a good conservative or not. He is,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney. “My question to Paul would be: What makes you think the Democrats are going to be any different in September than they are right now?”

The South Carolina lawmaker said the deal “does not undermine [Ryan’s] conservative credibility or bona fides.” But, he noted, “I worry that Paul is being overly optimistic about how the Senate intends to act going forward.” 

RealClearPolitics – Articles

Conservatives Rip Budget Deal -- But Not Ryan

McConnell Campaign Calls Senate Conservatives Fund Attack "Profoundly Stupid"

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) re-election campaign has a response for the Senate Conservatives Fund’s (SCF) accusation that McConnell rolled over as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) changed Senate filibuster rules: that’s “profoundly stupid.”

“That argument is so profoundly stupid that it is hard to fully ascertain whether their deficiency is in math or logic,” McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore told TPM on Friday. “It does however help further illuminate why SCF is so bad at what they do.”

Moore’s statement on Friday is in response to a fundraising email from SCF, which is backing McConnell primary challenger Matt Bevin, arguing that Reid was able to enact the “nuclear option” removing the filibuster option from judicial and executive nominees.

“Harry Reid did this because he knows Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will let him get away with it,” Senate Conservatives Fund executive director Matt Hoskins wrote in an email to supporters Friday. “The only way to deter a nuclear attack is to make it clear that the response will be equally devastating. Unfortunately, weakness is the only message Mitch McConnell has sent the Democrats on this issue.”

The statements by both Moore and Hoskins come a day after the Senate rules change. Right after the rules change Bevin’s campaign released a similarly critical statement of McConnell.

“Kentuckians deserve better than a pretend leader who does nothing more than wave his arms for the cameras,” Bevin said in a statement referring to McConnell.

All TPM News

McConnell Campaign Calls Senate Conservatives Fund Attack "Profoundly Stupid"

House conservatives still fighting on Obamacare

For House conservatives, the government shutdown isn’t quite something to mourn.

After all, they are still looking to celebrate Obamacare’s demise.

Continue Reading

They’ve tried to defund, delay and eliminate portions of the president’s health care law, and they’re still not wavering. Instead, they are demanding that Senate Democrats and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) come to the negotiating table.

But at the first post-shutdown meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, conservatives ignored questions about a realistic way out of the current standoff. They didn’t answer the question of whether they continue to seek — as a condition of the government re-opening — the defunding of Obamacare, delaying of the individual mandate or elimination of subsidies for Hill lawmakers and staff.

(POLITICO’s full government shutdown coverage)

All but 12 House Republicans voted for the last resolution before midnight on Tuesday to keep the government funded with changes to Obamacare.

At least one Republican — fiery Iowa Rep. Steve King — said the stalemate would help clarify things for voters.

“We passed the witching hour at midnight last night and the sky didn’t fall, and the roof didn’t cave in,” King on Tuesday afternoon. “We’re closer now to getting an agreement. But we’re closer also to the American people knowing what’s going on. This will be decided in the hearts and minds of the American people, who say hold your ground — we don’t want Obamacare — save us from that. Then we can hold our ground and get that done.”

“Why is it us [that has] to give up the fight? How about we actually negotiate?” asked Oklahoma GOP Rep. Markwayne Mullin, summing up the feelings of his colleagues.

(PHOTOS: D.C. closes up shop)

On shutdown Day One, conservatives — many of whom were elected in the 2010 tea party wave — didn’t see an endgame the defunds Obamacare, nor a way to delay the individual mandate. They ignored questions about what victory really meant at this point.

“It’s not about us or them — this is about America,” insisted Georgia Rep. Austin Scott (R), when the question was put to him. Asked again, Scott repeated the exact same answer. Asked a third time, Scott lowered his voice, “It’s not about Obamacare, it’s about America.”

He wasn’t alone in expressing that the pathway forward isn’t up for discussion.

Georgia GOP Rep. Phil Gingrey, also from Georgia, simply read talking points, including boiling the path forward down to three Twitter hashtags. The first criticized the Senate for failing to negotiate the government funding bill, the second attacked Obamacare and the third slammed lawmakers for not signing onto a measure that eliminates health care contributions for members, their staffs and other political appointees.

(WATCH – Man on the street: Shutdown reactions)

But as for what those negotiations should accomplish, Gingrey wouldn’t say.

“We want [the Senate] to come to the table,” said Gingrey, a 2014 Senate candidate.

Conservatives most common refrain was to lay blame on the Senate.

“We’ve got to have [the Senate] come to the table,” Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said. “You’ve a situation where they didn’t show up to work on Sunday, didn’t come to work until Monday after 2 [p.m.] and then rejected even our most modest proposals.”

“Democrats have been unwilling to compromise,” Michigan GOP Rep. Justin Amash aid. “We offered four proposals — we didn’t a single counterproposal of any note and here we are.”

(WATCH: Obama defends health care glitches)

And many took to just criticizing the law instead of saying what, at this point, they think can be done to change it.

“The whole issue is about fairness and treating the American people the same way,” Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) said. “Bottom line is, we want the American people to be treated fairly and we want the Senate to act.”

The first shutdown in nearly 20 years holds distinct political risks for House Republicans with the 2014 midterms approaching. But conservatives are not worried. Instead, there was a chorus of criticism for Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

“There is a risk for Democrats — they’re the ones who have appeared to the public as being totally unwilling to compromise,” said Amash said. “We’re not wanting to shut down the government. What we want is for government to be funded but for there to be a compromise.”

(PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)

“I cannot explain why Harry Reid is so mean-spirited and so determined to keep the government shut down that he won’t even appoint conferees,” Rep. Louie Gohmert of (R-Texas) said when asked what could be accomplished by conservatives. “All he’s got to do is appoint conferees and then we have an agreement.”

“We’ve been as reasonable as we can possibly be,” Rep. Jim Jordan of (R-Ohio) said.

Oklahoma GOP Rep. Jim Bridenstine, a big supporter of attaching defund Obamacare provision to the government funding bill, said he is unconcerned about being blamed for the shutdown.

“The Senate should be willing to talk to us — it appears they’re not,” he said. “When the American people realize the Senate doesn’t want to talk to us, they’re going to make up their minds.”

(Also on POLITICO: Collision course: CR and debt ceiling)

Added Idaho GOP Rep. Raul Labrador: “I think that if we continue to hold strong, and we continue to take reasonable steps. … …I think the American people will understand that all we’re trying to do is to get to the table.”

“When the Democrats won’t even deal with conference on this issue, I think it’s telling you what their position is these proposals.”

No one, except maybe King, would say says they think the shutdown is a good thing.

“They would like for us to get the government going again, and I think the best way to do that is for the Democrats to sit down with Republicans and think of the best way forward,” Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith said. “We’re happy to continue to represent the American people and say members of Congress should not get special treatment.”

But specifically, what can be gained? “I don’t know what’s going to come out of it, I just know people expect Republicans and Democrats to sit down and talk and right now the Democrats are not doing that,” Smith said.

Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

POLITICO – TOP Stories

House conservatives still fighting on Obamacare