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“Gun Owners of America [has] blasted the bill as a ‘fake pro-gun bill designed to re-elect endangered anti-gun [Senators] up in 2014 in pro-gun states.’” -- Roll Call, July 9, 2014 Earlier today, the “Harry Reid Preservation Act,” S. 2363, went down to defeat, as pro-gun Senators successfully filibustered the bill by a vote of 56-41. As you know, S. 2363 was a “nothing-burger bill” which existed solely to elect anti-gun Democrats in Red States. This includes Senators like sponsor Kay Hagan (D-NC) -- pluscosponsors such as Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mark Udall (D-CO), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Al...

A few recent developments have revealed the tea party temperament in its most distilled, potent form. Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin called for the impeachment of President Obama on the theory that his border policies are "the last straw that makes the battered wife say, 'no mas.' " Excavating the layers of mixed metaphor - the straw that broke the camel's back is somehow causing an abused woman to surrender in Spanish - Palin demands the ousting of an American president on the constitutional theory that "enough is enough." Republicans who disapprove of this plan, according to Palin,...

Mr. Chairman, this is the single most radical and most dangerous proposal introduced in the 113th congress. If this proposal were adopted, it would repeal the free speech protections of the first amendment. The breadth of this proposal is astonishing. It should lead the evening news on every station. It saddens me that 46 democratic senators have signed their name to a constitutional amendment expressly repealing the free speech provisions of the Bill of Rights. Ted Cruz continues....

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and a group of House lawmakers are building a case for impeaching Attorney General Eric Holder. “Impeding justice is intolerable and he should not be permitted to refuse the American people a true investigation into the actions of those who used the machinery of government to target, intimate, and silence them for politically driven reasons,” Cruz said during a June 26 floor speech. Cruz had made such comments before, but this speech was different. He spent 40 minutes laying out the case for Holder’s impeachment — spending the bulk of that time on the IRS...

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) called the crisis of unaccompanied minors flooding the border a “disaster of the president’s own making.” Speaking on the Senate floor, Cruz denounced the president for his refusal to visit the border during his trip to Texas, despite his own administration designating it a humanitarian crisis: “President Obama today is down in the state of Texas but sadly he’s not visiting the border. He’s not visiting the children who are suffering as a result of the failures of the Obama policies. Instead, he’s doing fund-raisers . He’s visiting Democratic fat cats to collect checks and...

Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin teamed up to show "Reformicons" just how tough reforming the GOP will be. The last couple of weeks have been a coming out party of sorts for the “Reformicons,” the group of conservative intellectuals who have taken it upon themselves to reform the Republican Party into something less dogmatic and more electable. They were the subject of a New York Times Magazine profile and countless thinkpieces. They were the topic of a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution. Pundits were commenting on the resurgence of conservative intellectualism and wondering whether a gaggle of economics-obsessed conservatives...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted Google Map directions to border towns from President Obama’s planned fundraiser stops in Austin and Dallas. “If President Obama wants to have a real border meeting with @GovernorPerry, here are a couple suggested detours,” the Republican tweeted Tuesday to his 327,000 followers. Mr. Cruz has joined Gov. Rick Perry in criticizing the president for refusing to visit the troubled southern border while he fundraises in Texas, a Houston CBSaffiliate reported. One map shows the driving route from Austin to the border town of Laredo, and another shows the route from Dallas to border town McAllen....

Hardball host Chris Matthews made some bizarre comments about the potential Republican candidates for president in 2016 on Tuesday night. Speaking to Jeanne Cummings of Bloomberg News and Republican strategist John Feehery, Matthews took a swipe at Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and suggested “he's the Republicans' John Edwards.” [See video below.](VIDEO-AT-LINK)The Hardball host never explained why in the world he would compare a man who cheated on his wife while pursuing the presidency to Senator Marco Rubio, but nevertheless the snide remark took his panelists by surprise. While Republican John Feehery didn’t directly condemn Matthews’ unusual comparison of Edwards and...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called for a thorough investigation into allegations of voter fraud in the heated Republican Senate primary runoff election between U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and his intraparty challenger, state Sen. Chris McDaniel. In an interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin, Cruz criticized the Cochran campaign and his allies for their "conduct" in last month's runoff election, which he called "appalling." "What happened in Mississippi was appalling," said Cruz, the vice chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Primaries are always rough and tumble. But the conduct of the Washington, D.C., machine in the Mississippi runoff was...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a clear lead in the Democratic primary, topping her potential challengers by an almost 50 percentage point margin, yet fails to hit the 50% mark against any of her potential Republican opponents, a Quinnipiac University National Poll, published Tuesday, shows. Hillary leads the Democratic primary with 58 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts with 11 percent, Vice President Joseph Biden with 9 percent and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo with 4 percent. No other candidate tops 1 percent, the poll found. On the contrary, the Republican presidential primary is wide open....

Joe Scarborough on Tuesday slammed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s refusal to meet with the parents of the Sandy Hook shooting, calling his defense one of the “stupidest arguments” he’s ever heard. The Republican governor declined to meet with the families of children who were killed in the December 2012 shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, who wanted to discuss gun control legislation. Christie last week vetoed a state bill that would have banned ammunition magazines that held more than ten rounds. The governor said that it would have been “really hypocritical” to meet with the families who wanted...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued that the allegations of voter fraud in the Mississippi Senate runoff between Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel in an interview on Monday’s “Mark Levin Show.”“What the D.C. machine did was not try to grow the party, instead, the ads that they ran were racially charged, false attacks and they were explicit promises to continue and expand the welfare state, and nobody has suggested that the Democrats who voted in the primary will actually vote Republican in the general election,” Cruz said. “Instead, they were just recruited to decide who the Republican nominee was, and that’s...

Some of Texas' moderate Republicans say the state's far-right turn since Sen. Ted Cruz's political ascendancy could have unintended consequences.At a breakfast in Washington’s St. Regis Hotel in June, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, took a moment to gather his thoughts before he was ready to answer a question about how junior Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had changed his home state. “Texas is pretty big and pretty diverse,” Perry said peering intently through his black horn-rimmed glasses. “I’m not sure one person has the ability to change all of that.” A few seconds later, he clarified exactly where he think...

The Supreme Court's recent decision in the Hobby Lobby case demonstrates that the court, at least the five justices who voted in favor of Hobby Lobby, has little concern for, and probably little understanding of, women's health care. By ruling that corporations, on the grounds of the alleged religious views of their owners, can deny women access to some forms of contraception, the court set a horrible precedent that if followed will endanger the health and lives of many American women. The Hobby Lobby ruling may at first seem like a victory for the minority of Americans who think that...

On Thursday night’s Politics Nation, MSNBC host Al Sharpton wrapped up his show from New Orleans by insisting the Fourth of July is a great day to unload your talking points in defense of Barack Obama. Just like Thanksgiving. And Christmas. And perhaps at weddings and funerals. “It's a day to celebrate our great are country, to rest, relax and maybe have a barbecue. But you know what that means. Your wacky uncle or your Ted Cruz-loving neighbor or your cousin who watches Fox News all day may swing by for a burger or a dog,” he suggested. “But...

A look at the frontrunners currently making waves.Mitt Romney hasn’t disappeared from the political scene the way many people thought he would after coming up on the losing end in the 2012 presidential race. But that doesn’t mean he’s running for president — or even thinking about running for president — in 2016. Talk of a possible third presidential bid for Romney has surfaced of late, with poll numbers showing that he is well regarded by Republican voters and a growing sense within the GOP smart set that no candidate has really emerged from the pack as yet. Romney has,...

It takes 90 minutes for Dinesh D’Souza’s rambling, mistitled “America: Imagine the World Without Her” to get to its real point. “America” sets itself up as a piece of documentary counter-history. Where would the world be if America wasn’t here? But D’Souza abandons that as he posits his main thesis – that a conspiracy by academics and activists has created a culture of “shame” about American history. He lists five “indictments” that Native American activists, Mexican-American academics, African-American leaders, leftist historians and the Occupy Movement have sold the American public – that we stole Indian land, Mexican land, African slaves,...

Claiming that the uncompromising nature of new conservative politicians and their actions, like the 2013 federal government shutdown, are personally distressing and internationally damaging, Hillary Clinton said that Americans should not be supporting and funding “organizations that take that kind of view.” Without mentioning names or groups, Clinton in a C-SPAN interview airing Saturday at 7 p.m. ET was clearly attacking the Tea Party and their Senate leaders like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by mentioning the Cruz-led shutdown and the uncompromising positions several conservatives, even House Speaker John Boehner, have taken on key issues. “We have to make sure we...

We don’t know who the GOP candidate will be, but we know what he needs to be. This week, Gallup found Americans are losing faith in their government: “Americans’ confidence in all three branches of the U.S. government has fallen, reaching record lows for the Supreme Court (30 percent) and Congress (7 percent), and a six-year low for the presidency (29 percent).” Gallup also finds Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with their freedom to choose what they can do with their lives: Gallup also finds Americans increasingly believe corruption is widespread throughout the government. Note that this question does not specify...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Wednesday named Nick Muzin as senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for strategy, effective Monday, July 14. “Nick’s broad range of experience and networks make him the ideal person to help us craft a positive, forward-looking vision for America and take that message to every corner of the country,” Sen. Cruz said in a statement. “I am delighted to have him on our team, and look forward to working together.” Muzin, 38, an Orthodox Jew, is a physician and attorney, and is currently the director of coalitions for the House Republican Conference,...