By: Rachel Weiner

The surprise resignation of Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has major implications for another Nevada Republican: former assemblywoman Sharron Angle.

Angle, who lost last fall to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, was planning to run for Rep. Dean Heller’s seat when the Republican congressman ran for Senate next year. Now that Ensign is stepping down, Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) is likely to appoint Heller to the Senate. That means a special election for his House seat. Depending on how the election law is interpreted, things look better or worse for Angle.

If Sandoval appoints Heller, he must call for a special election in 180 days. The law could be used to call for a free-for-all election in which candidates from all parties compete. That favors Angle, who has wide name recognition and who carried the district in her Senate campaign. However, it could also be used to call for a party nomination process followed by an election. If party committees pick the candidates, Angle has far less of a chance.

“I would urge all players involved in setting up the election to be fair, transparent, and not to manipulate the process for their favored candidates. There is a long recent history across the country of voter backlash resulting from bias by establishment leaders,” said John Yob, a consultant to Angle’s Senate campaign. “Regardless of the system, Sharron Angle will have a clear path to success.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix

by: Emily Miller

Congressional Democrats and President Obama are blocking every effort by Republicans to cut runaway government spending, leaving Washington at a stalemate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) even failed to pass a token spending cut last week. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has fought any cut from current spending levels in a Continuing Resolution (CR). And, Obama announced for the second time that he will veto the Republican spending cuts, while he refuses even to negotiate with Congress on the budget.

After months of refusing to cut any spending, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) finally came out with a Democratic offer to cut spending for this current fiscal year by a mere $4.7 billion. The budget deficit for the current fiscal year is projected to be $1.6 trillion. So, the Senate Democrats’ spending cuts would lower the federal deficit by a mere .004%.

“At a time when Washington is borrowing about $4 billion a day, Democratic leaders want to cut about four and a half billion in government spending for the rest of the fiscal year and then call it a day,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.).
When the Democrats’ spending proposal came to the floor for a vote last week, Reid could not even keep his own Democrats on board because the spending cuts were so insignificant. When the Democratic alternative spending bill came to a vote in the Senate, 11 Democrats voted against it. The final vote was 42-58.

In contrast, the Republican House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR) which cuts government spending this year by $61 billion got more votes (44-56), but did not meet the 60-vote threshold needed to pass. McConnell held together all his Republicans for the CR (H.R. 1), except three who wanted even deeper cuts, Jim DeMint (S.C.) and freshmen Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.). So all of the Republicans in the Senate and 11 of the Democrats want to cut government spending this year, while Reid and other Democratic leaders fight to keep almost all the taxpayers’ money in Washington.

The Democratic House and Senate last year did not pass a budget or any of the appropriations bills. To keep the government from shutting down, McConnell and Obama negotiated a three-month CR in December. On February 19, the House Republicans passed a CR (H.R. 1) that cut $61 billion in government spending for the current fiscal year, which goes through September 30.

Reid at first refused to take up the House CR, calling the cuts “draconian,” and Obama said that he would veto the bill if it passed the Senate. So to keep the government funded after March 4, Congress had to pass a short-term CR. However, Boehner said that any short-term CR to keep the government funded while budget negotiations continued would have to include cuts in spending. Thus, the House passed a two-week CR last week that cuts spending by $4 billion and expires March 18.

While the Senate Democrats blocked the House CR, the House Democrats were claiming that they had already compromised on spending cuts. Pelosi said last week that the House Democrats “have, I repeat, have cut $41 billion from President Obama’s budget already.”

“We’ve come up more than halfway to meet the Republican proposals, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D.-Md.) told reporters this week.

But, the Democratic leaders’ saying that they had already cut spending is merely a reference to the December CR which was $41 billion less than Obama’s proposed budget, which was never enacted. So the House Democrats are not willing to cut a single penny from current spending, but claiming that they have already come “halfway”.

Read more @……

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42277

It came as no surprise that the Republican controlled Congress were able to get a repeal on Obamacare.  On the final vote, 245 to 189 the GOP manged three vote from rival Democrats.  As all the eyes looked towards Sen. Harry Reid’s desk and waited for his next move – no one bothered to do the math of those three votes.

When Obamacare passed in 2010, 39 Democrats voted against it.  When the November 2010 Mid-Terms came around, 17 of those nays lost their seats while 13 survived.  Out of those remaining in this congress, only 3 voted to repeal Obamacare.

THE BIG QUESTION

If these so called ‘Blue Dogs’ were so apposed to Obamacare, why is their post re-election flip-flop not being scrutinized more by political pundits?  There is no doubt any of these Blue Dog Democrats would’ve used language that clearly demonstrated they were adamantly against Obamacare in 2010 during their re-election campaign.

Their masquerade to stay in office is stunning, and you would hope it doesn’t work a second time for them.  If the 2010 voter sentiment was anything to go by, these 10 might want to start penning their concession speech ahead for 2012.

Craig Edwards

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes the tea party’s days are numbered.

By: Shira Toeplitz

POLITICO

“The tea party will disappear as soon as the economy gets better. And the economy’s getting better all the time,” Reid said in a pre-recorded interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” scheduled to air Sunday.

Reid argued that the tea party “was born” because the economy “is probably the worst it’s ever been except for maybe the Great Depression.”

Reid survived a difficult reelection contest last year against a candidate with strong tea party ties, Republican Sharron Angle. Now back at his perch as the Senate’s leader, the Nevada Democrat came out swinging in his first television interview of the new Congress, according to excerpts provided by NBC.

In an interview with host David Gregory from his Senate office, Reid went on to call Republican efforts to repeal the health care law passed last year “a gesture in futility.”

“Even the reporters, people who read the news, report the news, not the pundits, not the editorial writers, even the people who report the news recognize that this is just a gesture in futility. Was the bill that we passed perfect? Of course not,” he said.

The new Republican majority in the House voted overwhelmingly Friday to schedule debate next week on a repeal of the health care legislation passed last year. Reid has not committed to bringing the repeal legislation to a vote in the Senate, where it is almost certain to fail, but he has not shied away from criticizing Republicans for their efforts – particularly any costs incurred by it.

“They can’t be serious,” said Reid. “To increase the debt by more than a trillion dollars? They can’t be serious to want, have people now that have preexisting disabilities no longer be able to get insurance. They can’t be serious when people who are on Social Security now can get a free checkup, wellness checks anytime they want and not have to pay for it.”

Earlier this week, Democrats persistently pushed the Congressional Budget Office’s estimated price tag of repealing the health care law – about $230 billion. Republicans have rebuffed that number as fictional, saying that the health care law is detrimental to the economy as a whole.

Read more at……
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/