I think Senator Rand Paul’s aversion to going to war with Russia over Montenegro just triggered Senator John McCain.
While speaking from the Senate floor, in support of a bill advancing the country of Montenegro’s bid to join NATO, Senator John McCain anticipated opposition from Rand Paul. McCain requested unanimous consent for advancement of the bill.
After Rand Paul objected to the UC, Senator McCain lost it saying:

…”he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians. So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”

Watch:

Representative Jim Jordan lays out a forceful case to destroy the RyanCare healthcare proposal.  Jordan makes a lot of good points; however, the unnerving aspect is Jordan’s response to the long-term ramifications of blowing up the Senate process:  “I don’t care” if we lose elections and end up with single-payer healthcare.
Jim Jordan is scheduled to meet again with President Trump this coming Tuesday.

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Earlier on Fox Business News, House Majority Whip, Representative Steve Scalise, defended the current three-step proposal and extended the conversation into the budget ramifications and the Trump tax reform proposal.
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In the largest measure, the basic problem is in 2009 Harry Reid passed the ObamaCare legislation in the Senate with 60 votes.  The House then passed the exact same bill, and the Democrats moved to immediate reconciliation to remove the House concerns (Gator-Aid, Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase etc.).
In 2017 the Republican congress are attempting to repeal and replace that ObamaCare legislation with only 52 Senate votes available, well, maybe.
Unfortunately for the GOP there are not even 52 votes for repeal.  Portman, Thune, Collins, Murkowski, Graham, McCain, Blunt, Cochran, Cornyn, Hatch, McConnell and others, are not necessarily on board; that’s 11. (Leaving only 41).
No amount of byzantine rule changes surrounding “reconciliation” are going to overcome that factual vote hurdle.  In 2009 Senator Reid started with 60 votes.  In 2017 Senator McConnell starts with 52.

So anything coming from the House of Representatives has to keep this reality in mind.  Even if support or opposition is based on ideological principle, it still has to pass – or it’s moot.
There’s no doubt the Paul Ryan proposal holds the worst U.S. CoC aspects demanded by Tom Donohue.  Heck, Donohue poured a lot of lobbying money into the entire architecture in ’09/’10 and he’s paid republicans in congress hundreds of millions to make sure his interests in keeping ObamaCare around are protected.  Ryan is big GOPe and he’s supported by the Big Club.
And, as much as Paul Ryan is beholden to Donohue to retain some form of ObamaCare, so too are the Rand Paul / Ted Cruz types paid by billionaires like Cary Katz (Conservative Review); who want an abject repeal without compromise. (more…)

Run silent, Run deep…

…until you reach a point where periscope depth is warranted as part of the plan.
Many people could naturally see an evolving ideological synergy between Donald Trump and Rand Paul back in 2015.   Despite some divergences on international approach, Paul and Trump have a very similar domestic  pragmatic Mercerism.  T-Rex sealed the deal.
Today Senator Rand Paul surfaces on CNN to discuss current political events as they unfold against the background of an incoming Trump administration.  Paul gives Wolf Blitzer a sad face.

 
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Primary passive aggressive interviewer Jake Tapper interviews Senator Rand Paul on CNN State of the Union.

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Tapper is a toxic media duck with a personal dislike toward the incoming administration, perhaps driven by his previous employment within the Clinton family. No single media personality exemplifies the ‘David Mamet principle’ as Jake Tapper; pretending not to know things in almost every single media interview.
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We have avoided much of the debate and curiosity behind who will Donald Trump pick as a Vice-President candidate. In essence, for us -Big Picture- it just doesn’t matter that much; and regardless of the various pro and con checklists, we’re confident Mr. Trump will select the best candidate he views as most necessary for the ‘America First’ objective at hand.
However, that said, today perhaps some mental sorbet might cleanse an emotionally charged pallet. So we present our guess for a VP candidate.
Remember, it’s a guess, just a guess, and our guess carries no more independent weight or validity than any other voice who would also have their own guess.
If we were going to go personal, with the heart and head guess, someone like Senator Jeff Sessions would probably be high on our swoon list.
But CTH doesn’t just look at things as we want them to be, we look at things as they are  and as they present themselves to be.  That approach necessitates disengaging emotion, personal preferences, and applying a more comprehensive review of all possible angles.
When reviewing the possibilities we need to look carefully at factual behavior; known and identified action in the past year, and consider more than our own selfish litmus test.
We also need to consider altruistic voices that Donald Trump has a history of listening to (ie. trusting).  Altruism is a scarce commodity in the world of national politics.  As a consequence, those who exhibit it (and have an opinion) gain an exponential weighting factor for possible influence on the selection.
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Catch up mode…

Good grief. @glennbeck said he lost support for @RandPaul because rand cut deal with McConnell. Cruz cut the same deal at the same time.

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) January 26, 2016

Let it not be said that we fail to follow through.

Outlined below is part of the video from a 19 minute segment Megyn Kelly ran on her show allowing Glenn Beck to launch an attack against Donald Trump without any push-back.

The entire “interview” (actually a one-way diatribe) was targeted to a Fox audience that has not, and does not, pay attention to political comings and goings 24/7/365; in essence, the casual political follower.

There is a lot of misinformation in that entire exposition; but one very specific part of the misinformation that needs to be showcased, and, as luck would have it, exists within our archives – because of the intense importance the moment provided in understanding what was going on in DC. (more…)

DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The 2016 Online Iowa Straw Poll [ https://2016IowaStrawPoll.com ] results are now available. This has been the most inclusive Iowa Straw Poll in history because it has included ALL Iowa voters, both Republicans and Democrats.

After the GOP unilaterally canceled the traditional Iowa Straw Poll, America’s Term Limits Campaign decided to sponsor an on-line straw poll to give both parties an opportunity to register their votes.  (See Democrat Results Here)

OANN has released a post debate poll of debate “Winners and Losers” (available here).  Overall the majority saw Donald Trump as the biggest winner followed by Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.  Results below:

The same polling showed the biggest loser to be Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and John Kasich respectively.

Having sat through both the under card debate and the prime-time debate I would disagree a bit with the polling on the losers.  Lindsey Graham and George Pataki were the biggest losers of the first debate their unbridled, and often emotional, instability was on full display. (more…)

The latest Public Policy Poll (full pdf below) shows a divergent narrative from the DMR poll of Iowa released two days ago.  The PPP Poll shows Trump on top with Ted Cruz a close second – both double digits above third place Marco Rubio:

With Senator Rand Paul also in a race to keep his Kentucky Senate seat, he is in a precarious political position.  Many anticipate a coming decision to stay in the race or exit in favor of spending additional time in his home state. (more…)