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The GOP accepts the notion of climate change - but not the way Democrats wanted them to.Senate Republicans head-faked Democrats on climate change Wednesday, agreeing in a floor vote that the planet’s climate was changing, but blocking language that would have blamed human activity. In a complicated maneuver that was the first politically perilous test for Senate Republicans, the new majority party split up the votes that Democrats had hoped would force the GOP into an awkward roll call on whether they believed in the science behind climate change — just hours after President Barack Obama slammed Republicans in his...

Watching Sen. Joni Ernst Tuesday night, I found myself thinking: If there’s a GOP establishment, it must consist of secret Democrats, because they so reliably sabotage their rising stars by assigning them the reply to President Obama’s annual State of the Union address, way before they’re ready. Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sen. Marco Rubio moved from 2016 contenders to punch lines in moments. Ernst seemed headed the same way, with her robotic sing-song delivery and her head-scratching anecdotes about bread bags on her shoes and working the biscuit lines at Hardees. She was clearly working to show voters that she’s...

Prepare yourself at 9 p.m. ET for the magic that only a seventh-year State of the Union speech can create. Every SOTU is a political Groundhog Day but tonight’s looks to be more repetitive than usual — tax hikes on the rich, some whining about the Citizens United decision, a few studiously vague sentences on “progress” made in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, etc. Seventh verse, same as the first. What’s novel is the new reality in Congress and Obama’s reaction to it. Having just seen Democrats obliterated in an election which he himself sold as a referendum on his...

When President Barack Obama speaks tonight during his State of the Union address, all Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will be hearing is actor Christopher Walken’s iconic voice. Asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he found anything to like in Obama’s proposal to impose new fees on big banks, Politico reported that Cruz compared the president’s ideas to Walken’s most famous “Saturday Night Live” sketch where the actor plays a music producer. “To every problem his solution was, ‘more cowbell, more cowbell.’ This president, to every problem his solution is ‘more taxes, more government,'” Cruz said. “He’s not listening to the...

Paul’s claims about judicial activism raise fundamental doubts about his positions on social issues. He says he is for judicial activism, but he also asserts he is pro-life. So does that mean he is for or against Roe v. Wade, perhaps the ultimate case of judicial activism in conservative eyes, a case where even liberal heavyweight scholar John Hart Ely said, “It is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.” Paul claims to be against gay marriage. So does he support the Court’s activism in United States v. Windsor in 2013, which...

Much of the 2016 political oxygen on the Republican side of the aisle has been sucked up by establishment-leaning figures so far -- Jeb Bush forming his exploratory committee, Mitt Romney heavily weighing launching version 3.0, Chris Christie making telltale moves, etc. On the more conservative end of the spectrum, we have Bobby Jindal almost assuredly running (do read his hard-hitting speech on radical Islamism delivered in London yesterday), Scott Walker staffing up and sounding like a presidential candidate, and Marco Rubio reportedly inching closer to taking the plunge. And then there's Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson,...

Four leading Republican presidential prospects are expected to appear this weekend in the California desert before an exclusive gathering of rich conservatives convened by the Koch brothers’ political operation, several sources tell POLITICO. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, received coveted invitations to speak to the vaunted network assembled by the billionaire industrialist mega-donors Charles and David Koch, the sources said. The meeting, set to be held at a Palm Springs hotel, is the annual winter gathering of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the nonprofit group...

We need to notice and be aware of the injustices embedded in our criminal justice system.In his 1967 address to Stanford University, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of two Americas. He described them as, “two starkly different American experiences that exist side by side.” In one America, people experienced “the opportunity of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in all its dimensions.” In the other America, people experienced a “daily ugliness” that dashes hope and leaves only “the fatigue of despair.”(continued)

With 2016 rumblings abounding, we forgot about Rick Santorum. The former Pennsylvania Senator threw some early punches last week at his potential rivals, calling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “bomb throwers,” who had no real accomplishments on their resumes (via NYT): Discussing Mr. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses, Mr. Santorum raised four policy issues that he said would prompt questions about Mr. Huckabee’s fealty to conservative principles. Mr. Santorum was even harsher when discussing Mr. Paul of Kentucky and Mr. Cruz of Texas, both first-term senators, dismissing them as...

There is no shortage of lawyers on Capitol Hill — they comprise 45 percent of the 114th Congress. But unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, whose nine justices hail from just three elite law schools, a state school law degree won't hamper and may even smooth the way to the U.S. House of Representatives or Senate. The sitting crop of lawyer-­lawmakers passed through 105 law campuses on their way to Washington. The 20 law schools that sent the most alumni to Congress include some of the country's most prominent — Harvard Law School tops the list with 18, followed by...

Where his Republican rivals draw attention to themselves with a tuba or a trumpet, Rand Paul puffs his Highland bagpipe. This analogy has little to do with his support for medical marijuana: Paul's sound is so different, it's compelling. As his probable presidential campaign moves forward, don't lump him in with the conventionally conservative gadflies — former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Ted Cruz, or former Sen. Rick Santorum. The major activists and donors who chase those candidates are Paul skeptics. But he's not a governor (or former governor) with executive experience and a reputation for governing, like Jeb Bush, Mitt...

Will the latest news about Ted Cruz hurt his chances for the 2016 GOP nomination? Click to learn the betting odds for the junior Texas senator and other contenders for the Oval Office.When Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was a teenager, he was caught doing teenage things, as revealed in documents obtained by BuzzFeed. In his application to become Texas solicitor general, Cruz was required to list any prior convictions. That included one "guilty plea for minor in possession of alcohol." Apparently when Cruz was a high school senior in 1987, authorities found an unopened case of beer in his vehicle....

Republicans on Capitol Hill weighed in on news that Mitt Romney might be exploring a possible third bid for the White House, but it was Arizona Sen. John McCain who might have drawn the most laughs of the day in talking about the potential presidential aspirations of his best friend Sen. Lindsey Graham. McCain said Romney was dedicated to serving the country and was a fine and decent American with a reservoir of support and called himself "a great admirer of Mitt Romney's", but he said he was pushing Graham to run. "My illegitimate son Lindsey Graham is exploring that...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has more than the White House on his mind–he’s also taking a shot at Gracie Mansion. The conservative Republican, a probable presidential contender in 2016, blasted Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, for his educational views in a speech he gave yesterday at the Heritage Action Conservative Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. Mr. Cruz, a supporter of charter schools, said Mr. de Blasio’s opposition to Eva Moskowitz’s charter network amounted to throwing “young African-American kids” out of school. “In my view school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. And I gotta say...

Rick Santorum may have his faults as a potential presidential contender, but he is dead right about Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.): “Do we really want someone with this little experience? And the only experience they have basically — not [Sen. Marco] Rubio, but Cruz and Paul because I don’t think Rubio is going to go — is bomb throwing? Do we really want somebody who’s a bomb thrower, with no track record of any accomplishments?” Cruz may suffer from a lack of consistency, an erratic foreign policy and a grossly inappropriate temperament, but he does, to...

Like a good driver, a good politician knows when to avoid a pothole. And Sen. Ted Cruz swerved clear of a deep one this afternoon. At a speech to conservative activists at the Heritage Foundation, a member of the audience asked Cruz whether the Obama administration – by “releasing U.S. enemies from Gitmo and trying to put Gen. Petraeus in jail” – has justified the question “which side we’re on.” David Petraeus, the former CIA director, is under investigation for leaking classified information to a mistress. Cruz thought for a split second. “This administration has a very difficult time differentiating...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Following the ratification of Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) as chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committtee last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was named chair of the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, where he will oversee NASA and science programs. Appointed Jan. 8, Cruz is expected to be confirmed to the new role by the end of the month as one of many changes to the new Republican-controlled Congress. But the Republican senator's words and actions during his time in office have painted him to be a far cry from an advocate for the sciences, leaving many...

The California technology industry has a rare opportunity: An open U.S. Senate seat from the Golden State. Could Silicon Valley put up one of its own? It's a potentially powerful idea. A tech-savvy leader replacing Sen. Barbara Boxer, who announced this week she would not seek re-election in 2016, could use the Senate as a bully pulpit to promote how Silicon Valley innovation can improve people's lives. And with a "Tech Senator," Silicon Valley, which has struggled to gain a footing in national politics, could finally achieve the influence it sees itself deserving. The Senate seat "presents an opportunity to...

Dr. Savage says that "this means the election was for naught." John Boehner is still speaker of the House. This confirms what we have known forever: That this country is no longer a republic. It is an oligarchy: A government of the powerful, by the powerful, for the powerful. John Boehner is a tool of the establishment. This means he and Obama are one and the same. The government is immune to the people. The people be damned. Where does that leave us? We are back where we started before the American Revolution. We might as well have a British...

HOUSTON – Like other visitors to the Harris County Jury Plaza, the prospective juror with neatly combed black hair emptied his pockets as he approached the metal detector, took off his belt, removed his boots and proceeded through in his white socks. But he wasn’t your average citizen come to perform his civic duty – it was Sen. Ted Cruz. “It is both a privilege and responsibility to serve on a jury. One of the best aspects of being an American is our right to trial by jury,” Sen. Cruz said. “When I received my jury summons, I was proud...