Like one of my twitter friends said, “the clown car has pulled up” and the clowns are hopping in. Add Mike Huckabee to the list of Republican clowns vying for the White House in 2016!
Television host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he is leaving his Fox News talk show as he considers whether to seek the 2016 Republican nomination for president — a decision he expects to reach in the spring.
Huckabee said Saturday night’s edition of “Huckabee” would be his last as he ponders his political future. “There’s been a great deal of speculation as to whether I would run for president. And if I were willing to absolutely rule that out, I could keep doing this show. But I can’t make such a declaration,” he said at the end of Saturday’s program.
“Now, I’m not going to make a decision about running until late in the spring of 2015, but the continued chatter has put Fox News into a position that just isn’t fair to them — nor is it possible for me to openly determine political and financial support to justify a race. The honorable thing to do at this point is to end my tenure here at Fox. Now, as much as I have loved doing the show, I cannot bring myself to rule out another presidential run.”
Republican Louie Gohmert, the man who might easily be the dumbest person in Washington now that Michele Bachmann has hit the road jack, Gohmert has announced that he will challenge John Boehner for the House Speaker position.
He got immediate support from Sean Hannity, the influential talk radio star and Fox News Channel host who Tweeted his reaction: “Your Buddy, Veteran, great American Louie Gohmert challenging Boehner for Speaker of the House! YES! I support Louie!”
“After the November elections gave Republicans control of the Senate, voters made clear they wanted change,” Gohmert said in a statement today. “There have been numerous examples of problematic Republican leadership, but we were hopeful our leaders got the voters’ message. However, after our speaker forced through the Cromnibus by passing it with Democratic votes and without time to read it, it seemed clear that we needed new leadership. There had been much discussion. But, until yesterday, no one had stepped up.”
Stuart Scott passed away today from cancer at the age of 49. Below is ESPN’s moving tribute to the sportscaster who spent over two decades working at the station.
It took about 35 years, but the Republican Party is just where it wants to be. They have a Congressional majority and are flush with the optimism of a political movement that they believe has broad popular support. They are looking forward to perhaps winning the presidency in 2016 and finally being able to implement the agenda that Ronald Reagan gave voice to in 1980. Democrats are supposed to be on the run. President Obama is spent.
It’s a nice tale, this one. The problem is that it’s full of inaccurate assumptions and leaves out the fact that the Republican Party is split and the far right has so far given no indication that they are in any mood to compromise. They will pass bills and send them to the president, and he will veto most of them. Obama will propose legislation that the Congress will not consider. In many ways, the gridlock will continue.
But there is cause for optimism on both sides. The GOP knows that they will be burnt toast in 2016 if they can’t pass some kind of immigration bill that allows people to stay in this country with their families. They also know that they are on the wrong side of history when it comes to marriage equality and that very soon most southern states will be forced to recognize all marriages performed in other states. After all, this is the party that wants government out of people’s lives and wants United States citizens to be free to follow the lives that they choose to live.
On health care, the Republicans will vote one more time, probably within a week or so, to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Then they will need to get serious about how they would implement health care without taking it away from the approximately 10 million people who’ve bought it on the exchanges or qualified for it under the expanded Medicaid program. It is true that the party could wait until the Supreme Court rules in June on whether people who bought policies on the federal exchange qualify for subsidies, but I believe that they will be disappointed. Supreme Court justices read the news and they know that denying people subsidies would cause a mammoth disruption in the lives of millions of people. John Roberts will once again come to President Obama’s rescue and provide the fifth vote to uphold the law.
Democrats have essentially lost the fracking debate because not enough people are having their tap water catch fire to offset the millions of people who are now paying $2.00 for unleaded gasoline. Yes, Governor Cuomo outlawed fracking in New York State last year, but that will mean that upstate will remain an economic wasteland for years to come, but at least will have casinos so people with little money can lose it on their own rather than having to pay higher taxes.
The low gas prices will also make the XL Pipeline a moot point. There is little need now to push for more oil when oil producing states will be experiencing budget crises over the next year or so. If anything, many Republican lawmakers will need to hope that gas prices moderate a bit so they can pay for the services their constituents sorely need. That was a joke, by the way. In the end, though, low gas prices will provide a nice boost to the economy and another boost to American foreign policy, which will see much more pain for Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
What the GOP cannot argue, thought, is that much of this optimism and hope will greatly help President Obama. The economy is already improving and having people spend less on gas will help it more. Does the right believe that people will give the president no credit? If Russia and Iran have to pull back their dastardly initiatives because of falling revenue, does the GOP believe that they will get credit for that? Of course not. The president gets the blame when things go wrong and the credit when things go right, and an expanding economy is the number one issue on most Americans’ minds.
Perhaps this is the moment when both parties realize that they do need to work together if they want to achieve anything, and activists on both sides will need to recognize that they will have to give something up in order for legislation to move forward. I can confidently say that there will be no broad tax cut this year, nor will an immigration bill contain a path to citizenship. There will be no carbon tax or an increase in the gasoline tax. The Common Core is not going away. Neither is Social Security or Medicare.
Our country was born of compromise. It’s the only way we will move forward.
Yes, we get to watch Sylvester Stallone, who is almost the oldest man on earth, play the baddest man on earth in yet another Rocky movie.
The Rambo star tweeted Dec. 28 that the title of the forthcoming fifth film in the franchise will be Rambo: Last Blood. The title refers to 1982’s First Blood, which launched the character.
“Doing Scarpa based on Gangster Greg Scarpa after LAST BLOOD RAMBO…” Stallone wrote about his upcoming projects.
Stallone, who wrote the script for the new Rambo film and is set to direct, will first film a role in director Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Rocky spinoff Creed, which stars Michael B. Jordan (That Awkward Moment) as Apollo Creed’s grandson Adonis.
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