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House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) joined forces early Wednesday evening as the House passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government after the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and that will permit funding for Planned Parenthood (the nation's largest abortion provider), the entirety of Obamacare, and an amendment requested by President Barack Obama "to train and equip appropriately vetted elements of the Syrian opposition." The bill passed 319 to 108 with four members not voting. But there were not enough Republican members to pass the bill without significant support...

Two polls released Monday show Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan opening up a lead over Republican challenger Thom Tillis. Raleigh polling firm American Insights, which has Republican ties, had Hagan with a 9 percentage point lead among likely voters, while Elon University Poll gives Hagan a 4-point lead. The polls are the latest in a string showing Hagan gaining ground in the campaign. Of likely voters surveyed by American Insights, 43 percent said they would back Hagan, 34 percent said they backed Tillis, the current state House speaker, and 5 percent backed Libertarian Sean Haugh. "The race has unmistakably shifted...

Mohamed Elibiary announced that he has left his position as a senior advisor with the Department of Homeland Security. Elibiary, a stalwart supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood , said he was leaving so he can focus on “reforming” the conservative movement ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Under the Obama Administration, Elibiary served on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Homeland Security Advisory Committee for five years. He also served on the DHS Countering Violent Extremism Working Group and the DHS Faith-Based Security and Communications Advisory Committee. Elibiary is a long-time Texas Republican Party official and was a delegate for...

House Republicans are preparing a continuing resolution to keep the government open. In doing so, they’ve decided to be total sluts for K Street and Wall Street. The Crony Capitalists, emboldened by the Chamber of Commerce’s help during primary season, are doing some very unusual things. Here’s what I hear is happening. First, they will reauthorize the Ex-Im bank, which is something K Street is desperate to see happen. Second, current reports are that they will spend more than the original Paul Ryan — Patti Murray deal that had included a tax hike. However, that is subject to change. Third,...

Earlier this year, House Republicans had 12 potential problems that stood in the way of extending their majority. A dozen primaries could ruin the House GOP’s prospects by electing unpalatable nominees in otherwise competitive races. But when primary season concluded Tuesday, House Republicans had essentially run the table with their party’s picks, nominating the strongest general election candidate in nearly every hot race in 2014. Republican and Democratic operatives credit the success to a handful of factors, including intervention from outside groups, self-funding candidates and — in some cases — luck. For the National Republican Congressional Committee, this started by...

Several Republican candidates in the year's most competitive Senate races have begun their fall sprint to Election Day, not by embracing Tea Party-fueled conservatism but by defensively tacking leftward. Let’s start in Colorado, site of a strategic GOP retreat in the “War on Women.” The Republican backtracking there is being done by Rep. Cory Gardner, following withering attacks by Democrats on his past support for “personhood amendments” that bestow rights to fertilized human eggs and effectively ban some forms of birth control. Gardner released an ad claiming he would make access to “the pill … cheaper and easier” than would...

The smart take on social media last night was that Romney’s new op-ed on national defense is a signal that he’s quietly thinking of running too. So maybe we’ll finally get that Mitt versus Jeb match-up that conservatives have been dreaming about lo these many years. In fact, I tend to think the only rational explanation for the Jeb buzz is that it’s some sort of sly “Romney 2016″ psy op. There’s just no way, no way, that the Republican Party’s going to take another bite at the Bush apple. The donor class may despise the base and would doubtless...

The federal government’s number crunchers believe some 21,318 same-sex couples call Georgia home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent accounting, and new research forecasts that as many as half would jump the broom within three years if allowed by their government. I’m one-half of one of those aggrieved couples — denied, for more than five years, the social stability and legal protections of marriage. And, as a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee and adviser to prominent party figures, I’m also a professional political operative who’s helped install in government those who perpetuate marriage bias in America....

Karl Rove and his Crossroads GPS PAC are about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the senate -- by campaigning to the left of incumbents Mark Pryor and Kay Hagan on behalf of Republican challengers Tom Cotton and Thom Tills. So blatant is this attempt in the latest round of TV ads that the Washington Post teased Rove with a headline that taunted him as a "bleeding heart liberal." Reporter/blogger Greg Sargent said in the story that the two ad campaigns "show Republicans once again hitting Dems from the left on entitlements." Salon ridiculed the North Carolina...

It's THAT close Friend, POLL UPDATE: Polls in six of our top Senate races show that there isn't one candidate ahead by more than three points. Leading pollsters predict Republicans can win four to eight seats — but nothing is guaranteed. And it’s just too close to call. I cannot stress this enough: just a few votes could determine control of the Senate. It’s THAT close. This is so important that the RNC is investing an additional $8 million in target Senate states to help Republican state parties and campaigns with get-out-the-vote efforts. This brings our total investment in Republican...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, announced his resignation late Friday, citing potential distractions over renewed attention to a controversy from the Iowa 2012 caucuses. Benton, a longtime associate of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, was tapped to run the McConnell campaign early in the election cycle. But he’s been dogged by a scandal involving the elder Paul’s 2012 Iowa campaign. A former Iowa GOP state lawmaker pleaded guilty in recent days to charges of accepting money to change his endorsement in 2012 from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul. Benton...

In a wide-ranging interview with The Huffington Post's Howard Fineman, Glenn Beck took the opportunity to again blast conservatives critical of his decision to greet the recent wave of underage illegal immigrants with toys and hot meals. "I don't understand those who cannot see the plight of children," Beck told HuffPo. The border issue is one example. Beck took heat from fellow conservatives for his decision to distribute large amounts of relief supplies through churches and other organizations in McAllen, Texas, to undocumented children caught at the southern border. Sen. Cruz was at his side. Beck's view is that the...

Mitt Romney and his former running mate, Paul Ryan, will be making their first public appearance together since losing to Obama/Biden two years ago. Ryan is traveling the country to promote a book and is also said to be considering a run for the White House himself. Romney will interview Ryan Thursday night on stage at the Union League Club of Chicago. Ryan's book has met some criticism given its handling of the immigration issue - which is increasingly being exposed as a stone cold loser of an issue in the very mid-term elections Ryan suggested it be used by...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) suggested that Republican candidates in this year's midterm elections should run on granting a pathway to citizenship for all of the country's illegal immigrants. Ryan, who had reportedly been working behind the scenes with Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) to get House Republicans to support a broader immigration bill, said that he was "having problems" convincing conservatives to support immigration reform, which he said was "very important." In a Wednesday interview with Bloomberg News, Ryan said he supported a "path to legalization" for all of the country's illegal immigrants. He said illegal immigrants should be able to...

On July 31, when all eyes were focused on the Ted Cruz-stoked chaos unfolding in the House chamber over the border bill, the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee did something rather remarkable. It voted to declassify its Benghazi report. After two years of investigation, it found no evidence to buttress any of the conspiracy theories surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans. We didn’t get this news from committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). Nope. There was a story in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday. A press release...

The executive director of the Missouri Republican Party said Sen. Rand Paul was "unhelpful" when he said that black Americans have every right to feel that they are being specifically targeted by their government and police. Matt Wills told The Hill that he feels for the community, but Paul's comments were closer to those made by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who also called for the police to be demilitarized. Willis said he lives "about 4.5-miles outside of Ferguson" and the "political response from Paul and McCaskill to what happened is a little premature" and "unhelpful." "This is a tragedy for...

Robert Patterson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, said Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) gave "aid and comfort to the rioters and the protestors" with his op-ed in Time against the militarization of local police forces. Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday, Patterson said that Paul was "outdoing" President Barack Obama's "attempt to show moral equivalence between the rioters and the police" with a Time op-ed that even Al Sharpton praised. Patterson said that it is "another illustration of out-of-touch Republicans who are looking for love in all the wrong places" by "pandering to liberal and corporate elites instead of...

Mississippi's state Republican Party is refusing to hear challenger Chris McDaniel's effort to overturn his June 24 GOP runoff loss to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. The party says McDaniel would do better taking his challenge to court. In a Wednesday letter to McDaniel's lawyer, state Republican Party Chairman Joe Nosef said a court is needed to ensure a "prudent" review of the challenge.

Tea Party hopeful Chris McDaniel lost his Republican primary challenge to six-term Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi on June 24. Cochran beat him by about 7,700 votes. On July 7, the state's Republican Party certified Cochran's victory. Six weeks after the run-off election, McDaniel is having a tough time moving on. On Monday, McDaniel, a state senator, announced he was formally challenging the results and asking the Mississippi Republican executive committee to declare him the party's nominee in the November general election. "Justice has no timetable, and yet here we stand," McDaniel, 42, told reporters assembled at a press conference...

You didn’t think I was going to let this tasty morsel from Saturday go undevoured, did you?Pay attention to the timeline. Asked whether he and other Republican officials are coalescing around Romney as a 2016 favorite, [Wyoming Gov. Matt] Mead said: “There is a movement afoot. . . . I’d tell him, ‘Governor Romney, people here in Wyoming and around the country would encourage you to take another look at it.’ ”…In June, Romney’s donor retreat in Park City, Utah, had the feel of a revival. Although Christie and Paul spoke at the elite confab, the buzz was about drafting Romney…Still, the Chamber’s...