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The Trump phenomenon is neither a disease nor a symptom - he is instead the beta-test of a cure that the American people are trying out. On Face the Nation this Sunday, I attempted to explain the 2016 cycle in 40 seconds. Pull back from the close ups on Donald J. Trump's tweets, and the political realignment we are experiencing becomes obvious and impossible to ignore. The post-Cold War left-right politics of the nation have been breaking down in slow motion for two decades. They are now being replaced by a different type of inside-outside politics. Of course, as one...

The Times piece also describes the intense pressure on Gov. John Kasich of Ohio to leave the race, and Kasich’s equally intense refusal to do so. But perhaps the best gauge of the panic setting in comes from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: “While still hopeful that Mr. Rubio might prevail, Mr. McConnell has begun preparing senators for the prospect of a Trump nomination, assuring them that, if it threatened to harm them in the general election, they could run negative ads about Mr. Trump to create space between him and Republican senators seeking re-election. Mr. McConnell has raised the...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has assured Senate candidates running for reelection that they can run ads against Donald Trump even if he wins the GOP nomination for president. According to the New York Times, senators attending private lunches with the Majority Leader have been advised to take the position that Donald Trump will lose badly in the general election and should prepare themselves for a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Greg Nash President Obama is ratcheting up the pressure on Senate Republicans to at least talk about his plan to nominate someone to the Supreme Court to replace the late conservative justice Antonin Scalia. Obama has invited Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to meet with him and Democratic leaders Thursday at the White House. So far, Republicans don't appear inclined to accept the invitation, which one GOP aide dismissed as "a photo op." A spokesman for McConnell confirmed that the White House is trying to set up a meeting. But...

Since the reporting of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, most Republicans have rallied around the pledge to hold no hearings or votes on any potential replacement nominated by Barack Obama. The media has tried to find cracks in the front for almost as long, and found a couple of them with Senators Mark Kirk and Susan Collins, both of whom face uncertain electoral prospects in purple-to-blue states. Yesterday, however, Mitch McConnell declared that the Senate Republican Caucus had reached a firm consensus that no hearings or votes would take place: “I can now confidently say the view shared...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a group of staunch House conservatives there isn't "a snowball's chance in hell" that he will back down from his opposition to confirming a Supreme Court justice before a new president is elected. The Kentucky Republican received a friendly reception from the board members of the House Freedom Caucus Tuesday evening. During a 45-minute meeting, the lawmakers expressed broad support for McConnell's position on the high court vacancy.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says the Senate will “withhold” consent of President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. The Republican leader said on the Senate floor the new president should choose the nominee who replaces Justice Antonin Scalia, who died February 13.

Conservative leaders are sending a blunt message to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: The Supreme Court is more important than your majority. McConnell’s (R-Ky.) top priority since becoming majority leader last year has been to put his colleagues in a strong position to win reelection, in part by showing that Republicans can govern. But bottling up President Obama’s nominee to replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia could bring the work of the chamber to a screeching halt if Democrats choose to retaliate. Conservatives say that’s the risk McConnell has to take. Taking action on a Supreme Court nominee —...

According to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, his conversations with the president have led him to believe that Obama will nominate a Supreme Court justice soon. "We're going to have someone in the next few weeks," Reid said in an interview with MSNBC. "I think it will be a little over three weeks." Reid predicted that after all the talk coming from Senate Republicans, the GOP would eventually agree to a vote on confirmation. That would be a devastating, if unsurprising, betrayal; already, several Republicans - including Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley - have softened their tone on blocking an Obama...

PastPresident Obama has begun to consult with key senators from both parties on nominating a successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the White House said Friday. In the past 24 hours, Obama phoned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), press secretary Josh Earnest said. Both senators have said replacing Scalia should be left to the next president. Earnest described the calls as "entirely professional" and said Obama made clear "he is going to nominate someone." "He is committed to talking to Congress," the spokesman added. "He reiterated his firm...

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday that the next US president should be the one to nominate a justice to fill the vacancy left on the Supreme Court by the death of Antonin Scalia. "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president," McConnell said in a statement.

Manchester, New Hampshire (CNN)A super PAC spending millions of dollars to bash Ted Cruz's Republican rivals is shielding the names of many of its top donors and strategists, accepting and directing donations through a particularly high number of hard-to-trace companies, new documents reveal. Stand for Truth, Inc., an emerging player in the orbit of often clashing constellation of pro-Cruz super PACs, recently pledged to air more than $4 million in television ads to back Cruz in Iowa and South Carolina. Super PACs can accept unlimited contributions but are required to disclose their financial backers. The twist here is that Stand...

When you were a rowdy teen, your parents were the Establishment. Now that you're a parent, what are you? The anti-establishment, cool parent? Not likely. Rather, you're a grownup who tries to keep the peace in your discordant household; who tries to negotiate among self-interested, imperfect family members who have competing goods and goals; and who tries to instill a long-range vision for the future in your desire-ridden family who wants instant self-gratification. Welcome to the Establishment. You're a bona fide member now. Here's a defense of the amorphous, notional Establishment, as I see it, if it even exists in...

House Speaker Paul Ryan called on Republicans Wednesday to stop fighting angrily among themselves and not to be distracted by guns or other "hot-button" issues that President Barack Obama raises this election year. "We can't fall into the progressives' trap of acting like angry reactionaries," Ryan, R-Wis., said at a Heritage Action for America policy meeting. "The left would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad, so the progressives can win by default." ...

President Barack Obama plans to meet next week with the top two Republican leaders of Congress to hash out legislative priorities for this election year. It will be Obama's first formal face-to-face meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan since the Wisconsin Republican was elected to the leadership role late last year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will join Ryan at Tuesday's White House meeting. ...

Conservative radio host Mark Levin is criticizing Glenn Beck's widely publicized CPAC speech this weekend attacking Republicans. (SNIP) But on his show Monday night, Levin called on Beck to "stop dividing us" and suggested he "stop acting like a clown." "What I see across the horizon today in my 40 years or so of conservative activism is unity like I've never seen before," the popular radio host and author said, which was first flagged by the blog Radio Equalizer. "It's unity not because of hate for [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell or [House Minority Leader John] Boehner or whatever. It's...

This is one of those ah-ha moments when several political variables seem to reconcile simultaneously. For those who doubted the Earlier Tripwire, here's the evidence. There is a Super-PAC called "Stand for Truth" registered out of Lexington Kentucky headed by a guy named Eric Lycan. .. Mr. Eric Lycan was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's lawyer during his re-election campaign against Matt Bevin. Lycan also has deep tentacles within the entire GOPe apparatus, including the Chamber of Commerce. You can confirm identity from the filing paperwork and the reported contact information which is the same as THIS LINK to the...

"....That $100,000 gift from Trump to the Boehner-allied super PAC was twice as big as his next-biggest contributions. [Trump's] given $50,000 .. to Karl Rove's American Crossroads (2010) [and $50,000 to] the pro-Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Kentuckians for Strong Leadership (2013)..."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) caught nearly everybody off guard late Wednesday by quietly clearing the path for new legislation to declare war on the self-described Islamic State -- an issue he'd signaled for months he had no interest in touching. McConnell introduced a sweeping authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, that would give the president new authority to take action against the militant group also known as ISIS or ISIL. It wouldn't put any limits on the duration, geography or use of U.S. ground combat troops in the war, or on the means by which...

There’s no way these media reports are accidental or not directly connected. And none of this looks the least bit good against the larger dynamic of the Syrian crisis and President Stompy Feet’s prior position on ISIS.