Morning Briefing: Seriously GOP?

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New Gov't Operation Denies Citizens Access to Guns & Gold

This Is What It Comes To I was an elected Republican official. Before that I was a Republican political consultant and campaign manager. I have been a lawyer for a number of Republican candidates. Today, I see Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)N/A collaborating with Democrats to line up votes to expand government. I see Republicans in Congress waffling on Obamacare and thinking of fixing it. I see Republican Governors slowly folding over expanding medicaid and state exchanges. I see John Kasich tell me Jesus wants him to expand government in Ohio. I see 300 Republicans beg the Supreme Court to impose gay marriage on the nation by unilateral fiat because they're inconvenienced by it as a political issue and want to move on. In Georgia, I see the State GOP raising taxes and refusing to pass religious liberty legislation. I see a party in the pocket of millionaires giving the middle finger to the middle class. And I see a bunch of politicians prostituting themselves to billionaires and trying to repackage their policies as "conservative" when they are not. What the hell does the GOP stand for anymore other than "we're not Obama"? No kidding. He's more competent. The GOP, at this point, stands for nothing and the highest bidder at the same time. Read More

Dear @ScottWalker, Liz Mair Is a Friend of Mine Leftwing activists recently ganged up on Elizabeth Lauten. She was a staffer no one knew who worked for a Congressman no one knew. The left drove her from her job and ruined her career because on her personal Facebook page she made comments critical of the President's daughters. It is really appalling to see self-described Christians showing as little grace towards Liz Mair as the left showed to Elizabeth Lauten. Read More Sponsored New Gov't Operation Denies Citizens Access to Guns & Gold FREE BOOK: Defend Your Money against Gov't Confiscation Latest Gov't Programs Threaten to Confiscate Citizen Savings

Battleground Israel Turns Out Like Battleground Texas Team Obama poured amazing resources into Battleground Texas to help Abortion Barbie, Wendy Davis, win and to turn Texas blue. Arguably, the Obama team had so many resources directed at Texas that they weakened themselves elsewhere. But they had a tremendous media operation and their acolytes in the press wrote hagiographic story after hagiographic story on how awesome Battleground Texas was. The media even lumped Battleground Texas's money with Wendy Davis's money to build the narrative that she was financially competitive with then Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. It all went down in flames. Reporters who were openly cheering for Battleground Texas put a pillow over it and held down till there was no pulse. And then they did the same in Israel. Read More

Boehner Trades $200B in New Spending Now for Nothing Later Most people (including me) who are even vaguely familiar with Medicare's reimbursement rates for doctors agree that the current reimbursement scheme is already an atrocity, and that it will get much worse if planned scheduled cuts that are over the horizon are allowed to kick in. Further cuts to the Medicare reimbursement schedule would in fact likely affect quality of care for many Medicare beneficiaries. So I agree with Boehner that something should be done to fix the scheduled upcoming cuts. Read More

Sponsored New Gov't Operation Denies Citizens Access to Guns & Gold FREE BOOK: Defend Your Money against Gov't Confiscation Latest Gov't Programs Threaten to Confiscate Citizen Savings The Hastert Rule is dead; Nancy Pelosi runs the House This is an unfortunate but foreseeable situation that was bound to happen as the House GOP caucus became progressively more conservative than the GOP leadership and as Boehner has shown he has less and less stomach for fighting. The fact that the Speaker went to the Democrats first to get votes on this spending deal shows the extent to which Boehner has been mortally injured as a leader. It also tells us that the House may very well have become less conservative than the Senate. Read More

Most Transparent Administration in History Ceases Honoring FOIA Requests Score another one for the Most Transparent Administration in History, as the Obama Administration's White House Office of Administration has declared (on National Freedom of Information Day) that they will no longer be honoring FOIA requests. Read More

Reuters Vox-splains the Iran negotiations Vox-splaining, for those who don't know, is what the doofs at Vox.com engage in. Allegedly, they are the "smartest thinkers" dealing with the "toughest questions." They are the people who were puzzled by why Miami hasn't expanded westward: "I'd been interested to know what, if anything, is legally or practically preventing the city from just expanding further and further west if anyone happens to know." Read More

POLITICO: Bob Corker is a Reasonable Republican and totally a grown-up Periodically, the left wing political pundits find a member of the GOP that they like. Unlike conservatives, this person will not be a wild-eyed fanatic with a 5-gallon can of gas and a Zippo. This person will be nuanced. They will be Reasonable. They will see the big picture. Most important, they don't really believe all that Constitution and individual liberty hokum. They are in politics to govern the underclasses and lead them to enlightenment. He is there to Make It Happen. To Get Stuff Done. It doesn't matter much what the IT or STUFF is, the important thing is that he MAKES IT HAPPEN. For the longest time the Reasonable Republican in favor was John McCain. Anytime the press wanted a pithy quote slammimg other members of the GOP they would beat a path to the door of John McCain. Read More Sponsored New Gov't Operation Denies Citizens Access to Guns & Gold FREE BOOK: Defend Your Money against Gov't Confiscation Latest Gov't Programs Threaten to Confiscate Citizen Savings

Sincerely yours, Erick Erickson Editor-in-Chief, RedState