JHPolitics Quick Hits

[jhpquickhits-blog]

The point is to win “taxpaying married adults with families” over to the Republican side and make them the objects of a conservative welfare state (just as presumably liberals have made blue-collar, working class people the objects of a liberal welfare state). These people, Continetti claims, “tend to have been ill-served by the last couple of decades of American government, which has promised them the bounty of a global economy but left them paying the tab for the mistakes of Republican and Democratic elites, bankers, and bobos.”

http://reason.com/blog/2013/03/09/do-republicans-need-a-conservative-versi

[jhpquickhits-blog]

Political hashtags come with a host of inherent risks — as the Mitt Romney campaign discovered when it tried #areyoubetteroff last summer to question Obama’s economic record and the White House learned when it promulgated #My2K to alert people to a potential $2,000 middle-class tax increase that might have hit were it not for the fiscal cliff deal. Both ideas were hijacked. Flocks of Obama supporters tweeted that, yes, they were better off; The Heritage Foundation bought “my2K” as a Twitter search term so people looking for it would be confronted first with Heritage’s anti-Obama message.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/expect-pols-to-keep-making-hash-of-twitterverse-88343_Page2.html

[jhpquickhits-blog]

If President Barack Obama does not deal with entitlement spending in a meaningful way in the next four years, he will not leave behind a successful legacy, Alan Simpson, former GOP senator of Wyoming said Tuesday at a breakfast event put on by Politico at the Newseum. “If he can’t cut the mustard with solvency of Social Security under honest appraisals of the trustees and he can’t get a handle on an automatic pilot rig of health care, he will have a failed presidency,” Simpson said.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/19/alan-simpson-failed-presidency-if-obama-cannot-rein-in-entitlement-spending/

[jhpquickhits-blog]

This Friday the TEA Party Patriots are going to deliver a petition to Governor Kasich demanding that he stop the expansion of Medicaid in Ohio.

http://www.ohiolibertycoalition.org/sign-the-petition-to-stop-kasichs-proposed-expansion-of-medicaid-in-ohio/

[jhpquickhits-blog]

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police Monday detained 10 women, including the sister of American comic Sarah Silverman, as they tried to pray at a Jerusalem holy site, the head of a liberal Jewish women's group said. Anat Hoffman, who was among those detained, said the women were stopped because they were wearing religious garb that Orthodox Judaism reserves for men only. The incident occurred at the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/comic-sarah-silvermans-sister-detained-israel-18462207

[jhpquickhits-blog]

FEC records indicate Dr. Salomon Melgen’s financial support is not limited to only Democrats in office. Records show that Dr. Melgen and his wife Flor Melgen have donated a combined total of nearly $20,000 to GOP House Representatives’ Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). Both Representatives have Cuban backgrounds and reside in southern Florida.

http://viralread.com/2013/02/06/accused-florida-doctor-also-has-ties-with-gop/

[jhpquickhits-blog]

3. You’ll have more sex… A LOT MORE SEX – Okay so you may not want kids. You may despise them. I get it. Sticky hands. Let’s say you’re just another selfish, narcissistic bachelor (or bachelorette) who quite frankly, isn’t deserving of the unconditional love you may oh-so-luckily find. You just want the sex. Statistically, not only do married people have more sex, they have better, more satisfying sex. If the two of you should hold off on sex until marriage, those statistics become even more promising. Here’s a perfect example of where Hollywood gets it wrong. In the real world, while Alfie fruitlessly toiled away at picking up harlots from the bar, suffering a mean case of whiskey-wiener, Mr. Cleaver was getting busy on the regular. Them’s the real breaks.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/26/man-top-5-reasons-to-grow-up-and-get-married/

[jhpquickhits-blog]

Reed Exhibitions has decided to postpone, for now, the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show given the controversy surrounding its decision to limit the sale or display of modern sporting rifles (also called ARs) at the event. The show was scheduled to take place February 2-10 in Harrisburg, PA.rn

[jhpquickhits-blog]

Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which describes itself as "the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States and one of the leading Christian grassroots movements in the world," will bring over two hundred Christian leaders from around the country to Washington, D.C. early next week to lobby the Senate against the confirmation of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) as Secretary of Defense.

[jhpquickhits-blog]

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) released the following statement after voting in favor of H.R. 325, the No Budget No Pay Act: “The United States has a serious debt problem, and I do not take lightly our responsibility to pay bills and get our debt under control. It is hoped that the No Budget No Pay Act will help to break the logjam by requiring the Senate to pass a budget.

[jhpquickhits-blog]

Boehner then states the case that today's deficits are ruining the financial future of these children and the children know it. The children ask for our help. He asks "How can we deny them their future?" The Speaker then squeaks out a tear as he vows to not let these children down. He says we need common sense and a balanced approach for the future of these children. And his plan to save these children and cure our fiscal woes offers just those qualities. He asks the Nation to stand with him in this right and just cause, for the children.

[jhpquickhits-blog]

Later this week, Obama will formally announce his proposals to reduce gun violence, which are expected to include renewal of the assault weapons ban, universal background checks and prohibition of high-capacity magazine clips.

[jhpquickhits-blog]

10. Kentucky (Republican-controlled): The only GOP-held seat on this list will be tough for Democrats to pursue; after all, it’s Kentucky. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) isn’t quite bulletproof back home. A recent poll showed he has a 51 percent approval rating and a 42 percent disapproval. What’s more, Democrats have some big names that could run against him. Gov. Steve Beshear (D) just won a resounding reelection victory in 2011 and can’t run again in 2015. Other Democrats being mentioned include actress Ashley Judd (who has suddenly become more politically active) and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

[jhpquickhits-blog]

When Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan on Tuesday, he will be meeting — most likely unknowingly — with a fellow “Libertarian.” At least, Abbas lists his political views as “Libertarian” on his Facebook profile. Nothing in Abbas’s record suggests he is actually philosophically libertarian – or, for that matter, a member of the Libertarian Party in the United States. Libertarian legal scholar Eugene Volokh first pointed out the bizarre claim on his blog The Volokh Conspiracy. As a commentator on his blog suggested, Abbas, who is also chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, may be confusing “libertarian” with “liberation.”

[jhpquickhits-blog]

A group of disaffected conservatives had agreed to vote against the Ohio lawmaker if they could get at least 25 members to join the effort. But one member, whose identity could not be verified, rescinded his or her participation the morning of the vote, leaving the group one person short of its self-imposed 25-member threshold. Only 17 votes against Boehner were required to force a second ballot, but the group wanted to have insurance. Even with 24 members, the group would easily have been able to force a second ballot round, but the effort was aborted in frenetic discussions on the House floor. “There was an effort to get to a particular number,” said one Republican member who voted for Boehner but was familiar with the effort to oust him.

[jhpquickhits-blog]

There will be quite a bit of discussion in the coming days about Hagel's views on Israel (he is more skeptical of Israel's provocative actions publicly than many previous SecDefs, but his public views are close to the private views of many in the administration), the Afghanistan drawdown (how many troops will remain and what will they do) as well as gays in the military. (Hagel will be a fine, if somewhat forced, convert to the new gospel). His confirmation hearing will be interesting, because he will confront former colleagues who think he's a showboat and turncoat. Good television!

[jhpquickhits-blog]

The next engagement will be over the debt limit, they say, which is likely to expire in February, and Republican congressional leaders had better prepare to engage on that and the sequester, which was punted for another two months in the cliff deal, as well as a continuing resolution to fund the government set to expire in March. If not, say activists willing to support challengers, Republican lawmakers could pay the price in 2014 primaries.