The “Working Families” party in New York is left of left-of-center, for perspective.

Democrat Les Roberts of German in Chenango County said Friday he has been asked by leaders of Working Families Party to run for the 24th Congressional District seat now held by Democrat Michael Arcuri of Utica.

“They are apoplectic over his decision not to support the health care bill,” said Roberts, a professor at Columbia University and one of four Democrats to seek the House seat in 2006.

(link)

Richard Hanna, the Republican who vied against Arcuri in 2008, announced earlier this year that he would also run again.

Arcuri is *ahem* not a safe incumbent. NRCC take note?

Cross-posted at 20/10 Blog.

I think the NRCC did a fantastic job with this. It would be proper to let them know.

Consider this an Open Thread.

Aaron B. Gardner

In the latest Mad-Magazine-like-Spy-vs.-Spy move, the House Dems have hatched a plan which reminds me of their ill-fated plan to delay seating Senator-elect Scott Brown until they had another ObamaCare vote on the Senate floor.

The Dems backed down. Similarly, they will back down from the Slaughter plan.

Former Speaker Gingrich describes the Slaughter plan in a tweet about a Brian Darling blog:

“Incredible. We’ve gone from passing bills without reading them to passing bills without voting on them.”

They haven’t tried it yet, they are thinking about it.

But now that the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled the obvious, that you can not vote on a reconciliation measure if the bill you are attempting to reconcile has not been signed into law — the Slaughter plan looks both desperate and comical.

It is also (obviously) unconstitutional and will, if carried out, create a public outcry that will make burning witches at the stake look rational.

Just like the Black Spy thought the White Spy was caged and an easy target, the trillion dollar President and the Speaker find themselves without the votes and trying again to cheat the U.S. Constitution, public opinion and voters who want Congress to stop the irrational ObamaCare quest and start over. Their persistent problem is they keep causing their colleagues mortal political harm with their increasingly hare-brained-Slaughter schemes.

You know, like lets-use-reconciliation-to-pass-the-hated-Senate-ObamaCare-bill. (It’s no shock that Obama has hit his lowest Gallup poll approval rating ever.)

Ironically, the trillion dollar President has created a bi-partisan health care effort, it’s just that it’s a bi-partisan alliance against his bill. What is causing cognitive dissonance in the White House and among the Democratic Party’s cognoscenti is the simple fact that the only thing bi-partisan about ObamaCare is the opposition to it.

Read More →

The Speaker’s flip-flops are catching up with her.

And the strangeness is starting to show (see the video): we have to pass the Senate bill so the public can see what is in it.

Her famed control over house members minds is fading: She supported Chairman Rangel right up until she dumped him. She did not have the muscle to impose upon the Ways and Means Committee, her choice of Chairman.

And on ObamaCare, the Speaker insisted the Senate go first, that she could not pass the Senate bill, that the House would not be a rubber stamp for the Senate, and that the Senate must prove it will act as she says it will, which is for the Senate to change their own bill into a bill the House wants. Uh, huh.

But the Speaker has flipped on all of it. Now, the House will go first, the House will pass the Senate bill without changing it (i.e. rubber stamp) and the House will act without proof the Senate will actually act in the way the House wants it to act.

Furthermore, the Speaker must now insist the following will not happen: the White House will not take the House passed Senate bill, sign it, declare victory, and move onto jobs.

The Speaker must argue that the Senate and the White House will put itself through months of more ObamaCare political pain, by letting the Republicans bog down the bill in the Senate, in a huge fight that will be another example of the Dems changing the rules and ignoring the public to pass a bill independent voters and seniors hate.

But assuming you believe that reality will be suspended — that the irrational is rational — and the White House and the Senate will act to bail out the House from passing a bill they don’t agree with, then there is the immovable Byrd rule problem on any abortion “fix.”

The Bryd rule prohibits legislating on a reconciliation bill. The rule is named after the still-serving Senator Byrd (D-WV). Sixty votes are needed to over-ride the Byrd rule on reconciliation. Both the Byrd rule and Senator Byrd himself stands directly in the path of legislating on abortion on any reconciliation bill.

You see, Senator Byrd is very vigorous in his support of the Byrd rule. He will vote with the 41 Republicans to enforce the Byrd rule. And the Byrd rule is very clear on abortion — precedents have been set — you cannot legislate on abortion on a reconciliation bill.

Read More →

The NRCC has a list of targets in the House of Representatives on the health care vote.

Go check the list, see if your congresscritter is on it, and pick up the phone. Tell ‘em to vote no on Obamacare.

The eight term Democrat and pal of Pelosi, Chet Edwards, is facing involuntary retirement. Two Republican candidates are in a runoff to face Edwards in TX CD 17 . They are Rob Curnock and Bill Flores. Curnock, with limited funding, lost to Chet Edwards in 2008. Flores is in the energy business. He has put a good bit of personal money into his campaign. Curnock is media savvy and seems to have a grassroots network. He needs cash.

Flores pulled a few thousand more votes in the March 2nd primary (five contenders) at 33% to 29% for Curnock. The runoff is set for April 13th.

For Congressman Pete Sessions and the NRCC: When the primary runoff is over, promote one of these men. Don’t mess this up. For the love of Pete (yikes) this thing is in your back yard.

These are two good candidates. The district is heavily Republican and went for McCain in ‘08, 67-33. Edwards is not in step with his constituents. He has a ZERO rating from NRLC. Big labor loves Edwards. The voters in 17 are ready for a conservative and they remember Speaker Pelosi putting Edwards forth as a shortlister for Obama’s VP. Yes sir, Congressman, your bond with Pelosi is top of mind.

So, Chet, start writing letters for your staffers. And no . . . your no vote on Obamacare will not save you. Not to worry, you will make a fine lobbyist for NARAL.

<a href=”“>

<a href=”“>

Today, the NRCC launched Code Red — a project intended to provide the public with information on the current state of the healthcare debate while alerting them that the House is the battleground for saving our healthcare freedom.

Additionally, this site provides ways for Americans to contact the Democrats whose arms Nancy Pelosi will be twisting to ensure passage of her healthcare takeover.

My team has created the hashtag #gopcodered for people to spread the word via Twitter about what they are seeing and hearing on the healthcare debate. Any tweets with this hashtag will auto-populate on the Code Red site. I hope you will use it and share it with your friends and other interested parties so that Americans can be fully educated on the backdoor tactics Nancy Pelosi will employ to takeover their healthcare. 

We cannot stop fighting to keep our freedom in healthcare. Just today Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) confirmed that Democrats will move forward with reconciliation if the House can pass the Senate’s healthcare boondoggle. This means that only simple majorities in both Chambers are required for passage – and the ability to filibuster in the Senate is gone. This means that our last hope to keep our healthcare freedom is to stop this reckless agenda in the House.

My colleagues and I will continue to fight for you, but we need you to contact Democrats and let them know they have two choices: vote with Nancy Pelosi or vote with America.

If it seems that this video fails to take today’s health care Kabuki theater summit seriously, well:

…think of it this way: it’s taking it just as seriously as the Democratic party is.  The only difference here is that the NRCC swapped out Democratic arrogance for GOP mockery.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

The combination of CPAC and a reduced feeling of urgency delayed this for a couple of days, but here are the numbers for January.  Short version: RNC over DNC, effective ties (as in, less than 10K/20K differences ) for the Congressional and Senatorial committees, and the Democrats retain their cash-on-hand advantage.

Read More →

An unusual fundraising email Wednesday greeted the inboxes of supporters of the National Republican Congressional Campaign. In an email “from” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “naive” Republicans were instructed to stop fretting over rising unemployment figures because “Democrats are in control now.”

“We are creating a dependence on the government and we are succeeding,” the email, dripping with an rare degree of sarcasm for beltway correspondence, read. “[J]ust look at how great things are one year after Democrats passed the ultra-successful stimulus bill.”

The email, which was also posted to the Committee’s web site, has not yet elicited responses from Speaker Pelosi’s office or their Democratic campaign counterpart, according to an NRCC official.

“Democrats continue to save this country through tax hikes and government bailouts. It worked during the Carter Administration and it is working better than ever now,” the email read, signaling the opening salvo of a narrative–that President Barack Obama is on the precipice of becoming Jimmy Carter–that will likely haunt Democrats in the midterm elections later this year.

While the open rate will no doubt be buoyed by flummoxed Republicans wondering why Pelosi is plaguing their inbox, the snarky fundraising plea is bound to be a hit with conservative activists, thanks in large part to successive shots at Democratic-engineered government largess.

Read More →