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GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson to resign at end of year BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 08/28/19 10:41 AM EDT GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson to resign at end of year GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.) announced Wednesday that he will step down from the Senate at the end of the year, citing health issues. "After much prayer and consultation with my family and my doctors, I have made the very tough decision to leave the U.S. Senate at the end of this year. I have informed Georgia Governor Brian Kemp today that I will resign my Senate seat effective December 31, 2019,"...

Hopefully, Republican Party leaders realize that in the 2018 elections, the American people will not be played for fools again Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been a disaster for the Republican Party and has been a totally ineffective partner for President Trump in passing critical legislation. After failing on the vitally important bill to repeal Obamacare, McConnell and his Republican colleagues face a major test in the tax reform bill. The stakes could not be higher for the GOP and President Trump. If they cannot show results to the American people, there will be a political bloodbath in the...

The new, freewheeling Senate of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell presided over an agitated debate on the Keystone XL pipeline that churned into Friday’s wee hours and ended with aggrieved Democrats crying Koch. Around midnight, a seemingly endless series of amendment votes and quorum calls shifted as McConnell moved to end debate on a bill that would yank President Barack Obama’s authority over the proposed oil pipeline — after quickly disposing of five Democratic amendments. Story Continued Below . . Blindsided Democrats accused the Kentucky Republican of shutting down a Senate that he had promised to run in a more open...

House conservatives are taking aim at a new target: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Tea Party lawmakers on Wednesday directed their ire at the Kentucky Republican after Senate leaders signaled they don’t have the votes to pass a House-approved bill that would fight President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. It’s a new tack for the Tea Party members in the House, who have repeatedly criticized Obama, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). House lawmakers say their conservative allies in the Senate have a responsibility to force the upper chamber to aggressively challenge Obama’s actions. But...

Gird your loins, Beltway Republicans. Election Day is over, but the progressive left is locked and loaded for battle over President Obama’s next U.S. attorney general. Liberals unhappy with the administration’s failure to deliver a mass illegal alien amnesty fast enough want a consolation prize. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent Obama a demand letter last week promoting Labor Secretary Tom Perez as Eric Holder’s replacement. Mother Jones ran with “Why Picking Tom Perez for Attorney General Would Be a Smart Move for Obama.” California Democratic Rep. Linda Sanchez gushed to Politico: “Being around him makes me a little bit giddy....

One question I’m asked in every electoral cycle is, “What are the surprise races in this election?” My answer in recent years has been, “There are no surprises, because any unexpected development becomes universally known in seconds.” There have been two such developments in this cycle. One in Kansas: the emergence about five weeks ago of independent Greg Orman (and the withdrawal from the ballot of the Democratic nominee) as a strong competitor against 34-year Capitol Hill veteran Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. The other was in South Dakota: a poll showing Larry Pressler, a former Republican senator running as an...

A BAD NIGHT FOR DEMOCRATS If you can divine a national trend from a runoff election in Mississippi, be our guest. But rather than pondering the motives of 3,188 Mississippi voters who made the difference in a bitter, hyper-local election, there’s a more useful consideration today. What’s at stake nationally this year is control of the U.S. Senate, and Republican chances of taking the majority went up significantly Tuesday night. [During New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel’s victory speech, the stage nearly collapsed. Rangel asked “heavier people on the stage… to take safety over ego” and step down.]

Putting aside the prospect of a Hillary Clinton candidacy for the 2016 presidential election, the GOP has an extremely hard row to hoe, or needle to thread if that analogy suits the situation, in the Electoral College. If on election night 2016 the early returns show that Florida has gone for the Democratic candidate, that would be an indication of an early night for Republicans as there are no realistic Electoral College permutations that would give the GOP candidate a victory. With Florida won and out of the way, all the "Romney" states won in 2012 also have to be...

A Republican takeover of the Senate this fall could scuttle one of President Obama’s biggest second term goals — a nuclear deal with Iran. Republicans have lambasted the interim agreement with Iran, calling for the Senate to move an Iran sanctions bill. The House last year passed a measure in an overwhelming and bipartisan 400-20 vote. Both the Obama administration and Iran have warned moving such a measure could kill a final deal. A number of Democrats have also criticized the interim accord, which lifted $6 billion in sanctions on Iran in exchange for a commitment to restrictions on enriching...

Senator Scott Brown has tried to distance himself from Governor Mitt Romney during this election, but Brown could get an important boost from Romney’s debate performance Wednesday night. Romney’s dismal poll numbers in Massachusetts have been Brown’s biggest hurdle, so anything that makes Romney even slightly more competitive in the state could help Brown in a tight election against Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren. Most observers have crowned Romney the victor of Wednesday’s debate, though it’s uncertain what impact that will ultimately have on the presidential election..... Warren on Wednesday night worked to align herself with Obama, sending frequent tweets cheering...

Hard to imagine, but maybe Washington's political pros have a better handle on Florida's sleepy U.S. Senate race than Florida's most experienced politicos. Because the national Republican strategists and fundraisers determined to gain control of the U.S. Senate have already pumped in more than $9 million for TV ads hammering Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. They see Florida as a prime pickoff opportunity — and they are right. U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV on Tuesday night officially became the Republican nominee after trouncing his little-known, cash-strapped primary challengers. With Congress' approval ratings at record lows, and voters fed up with the...

Estimates are that Barack Obama will initiate his 2012 re-election drive with a $1 billion war chest. The need to raise such massive funding to mount a credible campaign means candidates must likewise ramp up earlier and earlier in the election cycle, which in turn feeds on itself, especially in an era where professional consultants have supplanted unpaid volunteers. ([Meg] Whitman spent $1 million to lure heavy hitter Mike Murphy before he did one thing for her campaign.) The example of [Jerry] Brown, however, shows that a candidate can take advantage of the right circumstances to minimize wasteful excess and...

Senate Republicans launched a successful filibuster Tuesday to uphold the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year that allows corporations and unions to spend freely on campaign ads. Democrats had sought to undo much of the ruling by adding strict disclosure requirements for those who run ads, and banning any ads from companies that have federal contracts. They argued the court's ruling would amount to letting corporations buy elections. But they fell shy of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster and begin debating the bill. "This bill is a partisan effort, pure and simple, drafted behind closed doors by current...

Dear Republican supporter, What will the cost of the Democrat Senate be to you? Be the first to see what the Democrat Senate is costing you at the NRSC's new website, www.CostOfDemocrats.com. We will be detailing the Democrats' liberal agenda and what it will mean to you and your family. In its first 100 days, the Democrat Senate passed the largest tax increase in history -- more than $700 billion and that's just the start. Next, Democrats are expected to force through legislation to strip workers of their right to a secret ballot. What's next? Cost Of DemocratsAll it takes...

RUSH: Sylvia in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, welcome, nice to have you with us. CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you? RUSH: Fine, thank you. CALLER: I want to commend you on your interview with the vice president for not caving in to him. I feel exactly the way you do. I feel so disappointed in this nomination. I feel like we've been let down over and over and over again by the Republicans. I, like you, would put up a fight. I'd put the most conservative judge out there, who had even picketed abortion clinics if I could find one and...

A fastidiously crafted bill to authorize foreign aid and other State Department programs has been ready for Senate floor action since July. It has not yet been brought up, and there are no plans to do so when Congress reconvenes after Labor Day. The reason is Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who as the Senate's liberal lion dominates that nominally Republican-controlled body. Kennedy's power was most dramatically demonstrated during the prescription drug debate when his mere act of setting up an easel with charts, in preparation for a filibuster, impelled Republicans to immediately drop demands for means-testing. He is the strategic...

It's full speed ahead for emboldened White House With GOP Congress, Bush pushes agenda, but will he overreach? 01/09/2003 By DAVID JACKSON / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON - President Bush wasn't exactly shy about pushing his agenda when he took office two years ago, even after a disputed election in which he lost the popular vote. So why would he be reticent after voters gave him a Republican Congress? Mr. Bush isn't wasting any time showing his hand, pitching bigger-than-expected tax cuts and renominating two controversial jurists the very day the new GOP-controlled House and Senate took office....

The epilogue of a new biography of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) flat out predicts that if Republicans win the Senate by one seat, the maverick will switch parties to swing control of the chamber back to Democrats. Author Paul Alexander, a political writer who hosts a popular radio show based in New York, writes in the epilogue that the Senator would then decide whether to launch a presidential campaign early next year. Alexander writes in the book to be released Friday, "Man of the People: The Life of John McCain," that he floated the following scenario to an unnamed "McCain...

NEW HAMPSHIRE UPDATE THREE WEEKS OUT: The Crystal Ball promised, and we deliver: a University of New Hampshire poll shows Shaheen ahead 47% to 43%. Therefore we move this race into the toss-up category. Note that we have had it as "leans Republican" since September 17. Sununu had so many advantages this year that we did not believe he could blow it, but thanks to a lackluster effort on his part as well as a bad sport opponent (Bob Smith, see above) the Crystal Ball recognizes that the Democrats could ice their Senate majority with a Shaheen victory in the...

<p>"The other possibility for Coleman [to beat Wellstone] is structural. The Minnesota election of 2002 is being driven by the governor's race. Wellstone will receive virtually all the votes cast for Democrat Roger Moe, Coleman will receive virtually all the votes cast for Republican Tim Pawlenty and the deciding votes in the Senate race will be cast by the supporters of Independent Tim Penny. If the Penny voters break decisively for a new face in the Senate race too, Coleman could score his upset. This tight and unpredictable race will go down to the wire."</p>