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Mary Landrieu is dedicated to the well being of Louisiana residents. Even her vote for the Affordable Care Act, which is being used to attack her, reflects concern for the hundreds of thousands of her constituents who lack health insurance. Seniority matters in the Senate. Although Democrats lost control of the chamber in the midterm elections, Sen. Landrieu would be one of the highest-ranking members of the minority party in the next Congress. Her track record demonstrates her ability to work successfully with Republicans on a variety of matters. Louisiana needs Sen. Landrieu's knowledge, energy and influence in Washington as...

WASHINGTON - President Obama and the Democrats have been peddling some whoppers lately about women in the workforce and Obamacare that are patently untrue, or based on questionable, exaggerated data. Obama and his party are betting they can get away with such falsehoods because the news media swallows them whole, regurgitating their charges as facts. Washington's ultra-liberal press corps rarely digs into the veracity of his claims. The first is the White House's election year claims that average working women are paid a great deal less than men, often for the same amount of work. Here's what Obama said...

WASHINGTON - President Obama's bogus promises, predictions and claims are legendary, but perhaps you've forgotten his "sky is falling" forecast about the $85 billion budget sequester. Last February, as Congress's automatic budget cuts began chipping away at the government's out-of-control spending levels, Obama went hyperbolic. The spending cuts would deal a "huge blow... to our economy as a whole" and "all our economic progress could be at risk." In a string of speeches, the president played his fear card again. Air traffic control operations were being put at risk. Cancer research projects would be halted. Your food safety was in...

ERICK ERICKSON FRONT PAGE WRITERS FEATURES E-LETTERS COFFEE & MARKETS GATHERING FRIENDS RedState Gathering Set For Atlanta in 2015! Click here for more information. « BACK | PRINT RS FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR 2014 and Republican Morale By: Dan McLaughlin (Diary) | November 24th, 2014 at 05:00 PM | 15 RESIZE: AAA Share on Facebook 12 57 SHARES Sexy Karl Rove 622 There’s been a lot written about the impact of the 2014 elections, but let’s not overlook one of the really crucial points: its effect on Republican morale. Republicans didn’t just need a win: we needed a win that met...

New England is beyond a doubt the most socialist section of the country. For all their talk about “Boston Strong” and “Hearty New Englanders,” they are the most committed supporters of Democrat liberals. Last Wednesday their loyalty to Barack Obama was rewarded with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) crushing blow to New England’s cod fishing industry. Obama’s henchmen at NOAA placed a, “six-month ban on most cod fishing off New England this week and are threatening to cut next year’s catch by up to 75 percent.” Given the extent of the damage this ban will do, observers have...

Finally. An additional 7,286 votes were added to the Alaska Senate totals today so far. And while Begich received almost 58% of those votes, Sullivan still leads by 6,211 votes. It is believed there will no more than 3,000 additional ballots to count by this Wednesday (Nov 19).

The day after the 2014 election, the president made one of his Olympian pronouncements: "To everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you," he declared. But, "to the two-thirds of Americans who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you too." But what are non-voters saying, that they love the president so much that they couldn't bear to take part in an election where he'd be crushed? It's more likely non-voting is due to laziness, apathy or cynicism about a political process that offers Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as alternatives. In 2014,...

The fate of a little-noticed ballot measure in strongly Democratic Oregon serves as a warning to President Barack Obama and his party about the political perils of immigration policy. Even as Oregon voters were legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding Democratic majorities in state government, they decided by a margin of 66-34 to cancel a new state law that would have provided driver's licenses to people who are in the United States illegally. "The Oregon measure tells you these measures are not easy or simple," said Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute. "The political cost may be significant, even in...

There is an idiom that parents and employers likely put in practice when an important task has to be completed correctly; “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” President Obama certainly understands that sentiment with a slight variation; if the nation wants anything done at all, the President has to do it himself due to Republicans who have done nothing since January 2009. Sometime next week, after waiting patiently for Ted Cruz to order House Republicans to take up, and pass, the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform, the President will take action on immigration reform. The...

A scientific national poll of those who voted in Tuesday's congressional elections found that only 20% support "President Obama changing immigration policy on his own." THE POLL QUESTION: President Obama recently said that he plans to go around Congress and take executive action on immigration policy. Which do you support more: (ROTATED) President Obama changing immigration policy on his own, or President Obama working with Congress to change immigration policy? 74% PRESIDENT OBAMA WORKING WITH CONGRESS TO CHANGE IMMIGRATION POLICY 20% PRESIDENT OBAMA CHANGING IMMIGRATION POLICY ON HIS OWN 5% DO NOT KNOW/CANNOT JUDGE (VOL.) 1% REFUSED (VOL.) Majorities of...

Senator Mitch McConnell said yesterday that he would not shut down the government, over immigration or anything else, after he takes over as Majority Leader in January. On the same day, Speaker John Boehner refused to rule out a shutdown. Both were being deceptive, but Mr. McConnell, as usual, was a little more clever about it. The House produced last year’s government shutdown when it insisted on attaching the repeal of various parts of the Affordable Care Act to spending bills necessary to keep the government open. That was a huge embarrassment for Mr. Boehner, making his caucus appear feral...

Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who shockingly toppled former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in a primary this summer, says he'll support John Boehner (R-Ohio) for Speaker. Brat told The Hill he plans to vote for Boehner on the floor in January when the Speaker is elected by the full House for the new Congress. "As of right now, yeah," Brat said. "I'm optimistic our leadership's going to move forward on the principles I ran on."

The police chief of a small town near La Crosse accused of harassing a local tea party activist is leaving his job. The Town of Campbell and Tim Kelemen have reached an agreement which pays the chief for about 330 hours. Kelemen admitted to using the activist's personal e-mail address to sign him up for online dating services, and even pornographic websites. Kelemen's lawyer says the chief will apply for disability benefits for a mental health condition he says stems from harassment by the local tea party activists.

Republican Senate contender Bill Cassidy and his conservative allies have outspent endangered Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu by roughly a 180-to-1 margin on television since their campaign went into overtime. It was a reverse from earlier in the campaign, when Landrieu blanketed the airwaves and conservatives held onto their cash. No outside groups so far have come to Landrieu's aid, while GOP groups have ramped up their support of Cassidy.

In the old Soviet Union, Kremlinologists would read the state party newspaper Pravda not so much for the news it contained, but to glean what the commissars wanted readers to believe the commissars were thinking. The closest we have to that in America is the New York Times. Obviously, it's not a state organ and there are many fine journalists there, but it does play a similar role for the Democratic Party, often reporting less on what Democrats actually think and more on what Democrats want readers to believe is the current state of Democratic thinking. Two days after the...

IN POLITICS, there’s nothing harder than realizing that it’s time to go. For Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, that moment has arrived. With the Democrats’ midterm losses, the two 74-year-olds should announce that when this session of Congress ends, they will relinquish their roles as leaders of their respective Democratic caucuses. And if Reid and Pelosi don’t soon come to the conclusion on their own that it’s time to bow out? Well, then, their fellow Democrats, recognizing that you can’t begin a new era with old leaders, should let both know that the time has come to go.

Looking back on the 2014 election cycle, I see two largely unnoticed turning points that worked against Democrats and in Republicans' favor. The first came in response to the October 2013 government shutdown. This was blamed, as shutdowns usually are, on Republicans, partly because of their skepticism about big government, and partly because media professionals tend to fault the GOP in any partisan fight. The shutdown occurred because about 40 Republican House members refused to support a continuing resolution funding the government without a proviso defunding Obamacare. Texas freshman Sen. Ted Cruz had been barnstorming the country arguing that this...

Senate Democrats are split over whether to ram through the White House's stalled nominees. Reid’s approach would keep the holiday season from ending in a series of bitter midnight sessions and could avoid antagonizing Republicans. But other Democrats argue Republicans may have little interest in approving the bulk of the president’s nominees regardless of what happens in the next few weeks, so it’s now or never to act on a slate of new judges, ambassadors and perhaps even the confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch. “Let’s clear the decks, unless we can get some agreement with Republicans,” said Sen....

Alaska will begin counting nearly 50,000 absentee and questioned ballots on Tuesday in an effort to resolve the state's unsettled contests for the Senate and for governor. Democratic Sen. Mark Begich trails Republican challenger Dan Sullivan by about 8,100 votes. ... The Alaska governor's race is also too close to call. Independent candidate Bill Walker leads incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell by about 3,000 votes.

The more serious problem for Democrats is the drubbing they’ve taken in the states, the breeding ground for future national talent and for policy experimentation. Republicans have unified control — the governorship and the legislature — in 23 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Democrats control just seven. Democrats hold 18 governorships, but only a handful are in the most populous states. In California, Gov. Jerry Brown won again at age 76, his fourth, non-consecutive term in the governor’s office. His victory means that younger Democrats will have to wait until 2018 to compete for one of...