Senate Republicans block more nominees of Obama

BY ALAN FRAM, ASSOCIATED PRESS THE

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans blocked a lot of nominations mostly lower by President Barack Obama following the democratic movement of the month past weakening the traditional ability of the minority party block presidential appointments later on Monday.

Action demonstrated that the Republican Party was intent of demanding a price most of the changes of the filibusters Senate Democrats muscled, or procedure slows the minority Senators you can use for nominations delay or kill or invoices.

Showdown on Monday came as the Senate returned to work for the first time since the Democrats made these changes on November 21.

It moved democratic had angered Republicans, because weakened it the capacity of wage filibusters Republicans and Democrats made the change with a simple majority of votes. The Republicans said that Democrats should have been forced to win a two-thirds majority to make the change, which is most commonly used to make important changes rules.

On Monday, Senator Lamar Alexander, R - Tenn., objected to the request of the leader of the majority of the Senate Harry Reid, D - Nev., for the unanimous approval of more than 30 mostly minor appointees.

"Until understand you best how to operate in a Senate without rules, protested, a United States Senator", said Alexander.

Blocked nominees include positions as Undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, a peak for the chemical safety and Hazard Investigation Board. It also included Deborah Lee James, election of Obama to be Secretary of the air force.

Fast approval for those candidates who Reid was seeking required the consent of all senators, by Alexander objections were enough to stop them.

The dispute came to head last month after Republican blocked Obama collects three vacancies for the Court of appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit. The candidates were not included in the Group blocked on Monday.

This Court is very powerful because it governs on the actions of the administration. Its eight judges currently divide evenly among those elected by past democratic and Republican presidents.

When Alexander compared objections from the Republican party to the democratic actions against judges chosen by the President of the Republican Party George W. Bush, Reid said: "this explanation is as flat as a bottle of beer open for six months".

Democrats modifications allow filibusters which was completed by a simple majority of senators, not the 60 votes needed since 1975. The changes apply to almost all candidates, but not affect designated judges of the Supreme Court or the law.

Reid also set in motion votes to end filibusters against Jeh Johnson, elected to lead the Department of Homeland Security and nine minor candidates.

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House Republicans shifted right by primaries

WASHINGTON - House Republicans feel increased pressure to head firmly on the issues, thanks to changes in the policy of the primary election that is complicating the ability of Congress to solve large problems.

Independent research supports the belief of these lawmakers they owe their jobs to more conservative activists, and is more secure that never turn right on many issues, instead of seeking compromise with the Democrats.

On the other hand, the Democrats of the House facing an electorate leaning more liberal in their own primaries. But the trend is less dramatic for the Democrats, whose supporters are more open to compromise to help government work, polls show. And Republican control of the House makes more consistent dynamic GOP.

The recent struggles of the House to handle routine tasks once - such as passing a bipartisan bill in the farm and raise the federal debt limit - in part come from the millions of Republican primary voters who elect representatives with severe warnings not to compromise with the Democrats. It is also one reason that efforts to rewrite immigration laws in the nation face problems in the House, where Republicans quickly dismissed the Senate's bipartisan approach.

In interviews, House Republicans often cite concerns about a possible challenge from the right in their next primary. Many of them represent Republican districts so strongly that it is almost impossible for the party's candidate to lose a general election to a Democrat. Also, these lawmakers say, it is very unlikely that a moderate Republican can wrest the nomination from an incumbent conservative party.

"There are a lot of moderate Republicans who participate in primaries in a conservative district," said representative Kenny Marchant, r-Texas.

That leaves many Republicans of the House with the only requirement to ensure his re-election: never give a room pretty conservative hard-charging right to mount a viable challenge in the primary.

In practice, the task does not seem so difficult. Only six Republican House lost primaries of his re-election last year. Half of them fell to fellow holders in districts redrawn forcing two colleagues who oppose each other. The other three lost to rivals with strong tea party support.

Loss of the Deputy Jean Schmidt was instructive. A conservative by almost any measure, the Ohioan three periods was attacked however to vote to raise the federal debt ceiling and give a kiss on the cheek to President Barack Obama as the House by its 2012 of the direction of the Union State.

Memories of what happened to Schmidt--and for veteran Republican senators like Bob Bennett and Richard Lugar, who also lost the primary to tea party-backed rivals--will rise several times in political debates, House of extradition. Republican legislators regularly take the temperature of conservative activists in their districts, which are crucial in the primary elections, which often attract modest turnouts.

"The members of the House are better in the reading of their districts than anyone else," said Republican lobbyist and pollster Mike McKenna.

McKenna said that it is not unusual to discuss immigration reform with Republicans House that says, "I'm getting e-mails from people who voted in the primaries. "" They say ' I don't care what the Farm Bureau, say I hate these things. ""

Representative John Fleming, R - LA, tracks such e-mails and phone calls. He said that his Office recently received 80 calls about immigration, "and all of them were against Senate Bill."

The Senate Bill would create a path to citizenship - or what many conservatives call "Amnesty" - for millions of immigrants living here illegally. Fleming, you wondered if he is always concerned about going too far for the Republican party primary voters in his district, said: "What is the chance that a moderate Republican coming in and saying, 'Oh, I'm for amnesty'?"

Marchant, the Congressman from Texas, said that it is a permanent conservative seen by voters the Republican party in his district oeste-Dallas primary lean more and more to the right. Tea partiers once voted for the nominees of the libertarian party, said, they are now full-fledged Republicans.

"The Republican mainstream, as a result, have become more conservative," said Marchant. The tea party activists, he said, "found that they could enter the Republican primary and make a real difference."

The representative of the Republican party, Howard Coble, chosen by 15 of central North Carolina, data change in the behavior of primary voters in the middle of the 1990s. Conservative groups, said, "were challenging Bob Dole for not being sufficiently pure."

"That opened the doors to primary races" against Republican incumbents, said Coble.

Surveys of voters support the view that Republican voters are becoming more conservative.

On average, from 1976 to 1990, 47 per cent of the people who voted Republican in House races were considered to be conservative, according to exit polls. A slightly smaller participation had called moderate politicians.

During Clinton presidency - which includes bruising fights over the care of health, gun control, taxes and the uprising began his impeachment - Republican conservatism. From 1992 to 2006, the voters of the Republican party were on average 52% conservative and moderate 41 percent.

And in the most recent elections for the House, 2008-2012, more than 6 in 10 voters who supported a candidate of the party Republican described as conservative. Approximately one-third called themselves moderate.

Meanwhile, those who vote for the Democrats in the House more Liberals have become. But self-proclaimed Liberals understand still less than half of that group. In the years pre-Clinton, 25 per cent is considered to be liberal; on average 33% did so from 1992 to 2006; and it stands at 40 percent in the last three elections.

Michael Dimock, which tracks these trends by the Pew Research Center, said several years ago, there was a noticeable difference between social conservatives and business conservatives of the Republican party. Today, he said, are more Republican voters unified - and solidly conservative.

"The socially conservative right has adopted that you principle anti-Government, pequeno-gobierno and consolidates to a large extent", said Dimock.

House Speaker John Boehner, r-Ohio, put a positive spin on Sunday in what many see as the paralysis of Congress.

"We should not will be judged by how many new laws that we created," Boehner said on CBS "face the nation". "We should be judged on how many laws repeal".

___

Associate Director of press polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

___

Follow Charles Babington on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbabington

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The Republicans could see Senate primary divisions in 2014

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* Cheney's run renews concerns about party divisions

* In bid to take back Senate, party can afford few missteps

* Tension between party's establishment, Tea Party movement

By John Whitesides

WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) - Liz Cheney's decision to challenge Wyoming U.S. Senator Mike Enzi in a Republican primary next year sets up the type of divisive, intraparty fight that Republican leaders vowed to avoid after the 2012 elections.

The move this week by Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is unlikely to open the door for a Democrat to win the Senate seat in Wyoming, which is heavily Republican.

But it is rekindling Republicans' concerns that party feuds could lead to a reprise of the 2010 and 2012 elections, when bitter Republican primary fights in several states produced weakened, gaffe-prone nominees who went on to lose winnable races to Democrats - and thwart Republicans' hopes of winning a majority in the Senate.

In next year's elections, Republicans will need a net gain of six seats to take control of the 100-member Senate. Most analysts expect the party to gain some seats - possibly enough to reclaim a majority - but say it cannot afford the types of missteps it has made in the past two elections.

The fields of candidates are still shaping up, but already there are signs of brewing Senate primary fights among Republicans in several states, including Iowa, Georgia and Alaska.

"The Republican path to success in the Senate is pretty narrow. If they lose one or two seats because of a difficult primary, that's a huge problem - and it's possible," said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

"They can't afford a lot of unforced errors," she added.

Many Republicans still have painful memories of the last two elections, when contentious primaries produced Senate nominees such as Todd Akin in Missouri, Richard Mourdock in Indiana, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware.

Each rode the momentum of the conservative Tea Party movement to the Republican nomination, then withered amid campaign-trail missteps. Akin and Mourdock stumbled in 2012 by making controversial comments about rape.

During the 2010 campaign, Angle warned that Islamic law was taking hold in some U.S. cities, while O'Donnell - who previously had acknowledged dabbling in witchcraft - made a commercial to try to assure voters she was not a witch.

In the aftermath of the Republican losses last November, party leaders pledged to cut back on internal squabbling and focus on producing disciplined general election candidates.

Republican strategist Karl Rove announced a new political action committee, the Conservative Victory Project, that would back candidates deemed by party leaders to be the most "electable."

That drew criticism from Tea Party and other conservative groups, whose challenge to party leaders' authority is at the root of much of the tension within the Republican Party.

'FISSURES IN THE PARTY'

Cheney's announcement seemed to reinforce the message that some Republicans were not on board with the party's unification drive.

She implicitly criticized Enzi's sometimes accommodating style, saying on Tuesday that "we can no longer afford simply to go along to get along" - an echo of past party clashes between ideologically driven activists and more moderate party pragmatists.

"I think it's going to open a lot of fissures in the party," former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said on MSNBC. "I think this is an insurgent move by Cheney."

Republicans have some clear advantages heading into the 2014 campaign, including a playing field in which Democrats must defend 20 Senate seats to 14 for Republicans.

Democrats also are defending seven seats in states won by Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election - Arkansas, Louisiana, Alaska, South Dakota, North Carolina, Montana and West Virginia.

But the prospect of ugly Republican nominating battles has given Democrats hope. In conservative Georgia, where Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss is retiring, several Republicans including three members of Congress - Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston - already have said they will seek the seat.

In politically divided Iowa, a few little-known Republican contenders are lining up to replace retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin. Democrats have rallied around U.S. Representative Bruce Braley as their candidate.

In Alaska, where Republicans are targeting Democratic Senator Mark Begich, Tea Party favorite Joe Miller is facing Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell in a race that could be complicated by the potential entry of another Republican: former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Palin said this month she was "considering" entering the race. Miller defeated Senator Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 Republican primary, only to lose to her in the general election after she mounted a write-in campaign.

SEEKING 'DISCIPLINED' CONSERVATIVES

Other states where competitive Republican primaries could develop include South Dakota - where former Governor Mike Rounds is running for retiring Democrat Tim Johnson's seat - and West Virginia, where conservatives are exploring a challenge to Republican Representative Shelley Moore Capito's bid for the Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Jay Rockefeller.

Two Republican senators who had been considered vulnerable to primary challenges - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina - do not have strong primary opponents, but could still get them, analysts say.

Both have drawn the ire of conservatives at times. As his party's leader in the Senate, McConnell has been accused of not pushing a strong enough conservative agenda, while Graham has been criticized for straying from the party line - most recently in backing a plan to overhaul the country's immigration system.

"There is definitely a lot of frustration in the (conservative) grassroots and a real hunger for new leadership in Washington and new blood and new energy in the Senate," said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund. The "Super PAC," or political action committee, once was led by former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, an early booster of the Tea Party movement.

Hoskins said the fund was exploring whether to back conservatives in several states, including potential challengers to McConnell and Graham.

"In Kentucky, Republicans would be better off with a different Republican candidate. Mitch McConnell is a very weak general election candidate," Hoskins said.

Polls indicate McConnell is vulnerable in Kentucky, but he has nearly $10 million in campaign funds for his race against Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, the secretary of state. McConnell also has formed an alliance with fellow Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite.

Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for Rove's PAC, said the party's losses in 2012 had reinforced the need for a more disciplined approach to elections.

That new caution was most evident this year in Iowa, where staunchly conservative Representative Steve King chose not to enter the Senate race after some Republicans expressed concern that his views were out of step with most voters in the state.

"There appears to be a broad recognition now that in order to win general elections, we need high-quality candidates who aren't just conservatives but are also good fundraisers and disciplined campaigners," Collegio said.

But Hoskins said his group was still looking for credible conservatives who could win general elections.

"We have primaries for a reason. Republican voters should have choices and there should be a healthy debate," Hoskins said. "Once you are elected, you aren't entitled to be there forever. It's not a lifetime entitlement." (Editing by David Lindsey and Peter Cooney)

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Republicans Want Grover Norquist To Lean Farther Right

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Enough Republicans have derided the Tea Party-backed plan to shut down the government unless President Obama agrees to kill the Affordable Care Act, as “suicidal” and “dishonest” that it’s fair to assume it won’t happen.

Read the whole story at Salon

Jan Brewer calls special session to Republicans to Medicaid expansion coiling

Discomfort in what his Office called "final straw" by Republicans who refuses to proceed in its plan of expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer r responded on Tuesday by calling a special session to force lawmakers to move forward on the issue.

Brewer movement followed an announcement by Republican superiors that delay still more debate on budget plans, including the expansion of Brewer's Medicaid proposal. At the beginning of the week, a panel in the House of the State controlled by conservative Republicans rejected his absolute plan.

With the Arizona law that requires the State to have a budget instead of 1 July, Brewer was apparently running out of patience. His spokesman, Matthew Benson, told reporters that it had been forced to latest Republicans move to extend the skirmish already months duration on the provision of Medicaid hand of Brewer.

"The Governor has been extraordinarily patient these past five months working with the leadership of the House and the Senate," Benson told reporters, according to the Arizona Republic. "But it's time to move. "This will allow the legislature complete the business of the people".

Moderate lawmakers in both houses of the State legislature, whose ranks include apparently enough Republicans to approve the package of budget of Brewer, took control on Tuesday evening after the vote to suspend the normal rules, the Associated Press reported. The maneuver allowed the skirt required Commission hearings and limit the debate on the divisive legislation.

At the extraordinary session, projects budget bill that contains the Brewer Medicaid expansion plan will be debated on Wednesday, with final approval expected Thursday.

The war for Medicaid in Arizona has fostered a series of unusual associations and rivalries as Brewer, an enemy of President Barack Obama's health care law, has tried to dispute of support for a key provision of the reform of the signal. It hopes that the Brewer plan add rolls of approximately 300,000 people to State Medicaid.

Conservative Republicans were quick to denounce the decision by Brewer to force the opponents of the measure.

"We are frustrated and puzzled by its open hostility and contempt by the budgetary process, which was already well under way," State House speaker Andy Tobin (R) and State Senate President Andy Biggs r said in a statement. "The flagrant lack of respect and these practices exhibited by the Executive are less than what was expected of it and more that should be tolerated."

But Democrats rose to Brewer, saying that his reaction was an appropriate response to the Republican obstruction.

"We had a minority of legislators trying to lift most of the legislators and the Governor," said state House, leader of the minority Chad Campbell (D) to the Republic. "That is not how this process is going to work".

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Rachel Maddow Blasts Republicans For Being More Concerned With Media Than Policy (VIDEO)

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Rachel Maddow offered another blistering critique of the Republican Party and its heavy reliance on media personalities on her show Tuesday night.

The MSNBC commentator offered several examples of conservative news outlets like Fox News and the Drudge Report getting up in arms about "shocking" speeches that would supposedly reveal President Barack Obama or First Lady Michelle Obama to be terrible people who are clearly unfit to run a country. But there was no smoking gun to actually back up any of their claims.

"The Republican Party has a nonsense problem when it comes to policy, and it comes right from the top. And if you do not like policy, that’s fine," Maddow said. "… But in Washington, the fact that one of the two parties is just unsuited for policy at this time -- it is not their strong suit -- that right now is a problem.”

On Monday, a report by the College Republican National Committee found that most students described the Republican Party as "closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned." And when asked to identify leaders in the GOP, the students did not list former or currently elected officials, instead choosing media personalities like O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. This, Maddow said, is further proof that Republicans are far more concerned with media than policy.

"If one of the two political parties in our country is not a policy-based thing anymore, if the leaders of the party are talk show hosts, if the only point of Congress is stuff that helps with messaging and collecting email addresses for future fundraising, that probably has a lot of different big picture consequences for our democracy that are too depressing to think about on a Tuesday," Maddow said.

(h/t Mediaite)

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AlaskaDispatch.com: Alaska Republicans Elect Third Party Boss in 13 Months

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The Alaska Republican Party's State Central Committee voted Saturday in Homer to uphold two decisions that left the party without a clear leader for more than a month. Former party chairs Russ Millette and Debbie Brown each appealed complaints to the committee but failed to overturn the decisions -- neither of them will hold the top spot.

Instead, standing chairman Peter Goldberg, who has been accused of trying to purge the party of Christians, has permanently taken the position.

In choosing Goldberg, the central committee determined party rules had been followed when booting Brown and Millette.

Goldberg, a retired military officer who resides in Eagle River, was a minor player in Republican politics until this year. The newly minted Alaska GOP leader has done ...

Read the full story and follow Alaska politics at Alaska Dispatch.

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