Indiana Gov. Mike Pence could become the next vice president of the United States, but he has gone out of his way to prevent people from seeing his congressional record. If the man was proud of his work, would he have sealed it from the public? I doubt it!
Pence is believed to be on Donald Trump’s shortlist of potential vice presidential candidates.
His congressional library, housed at Indiana University in Bloomington, is closed until either Dec. 5, 2022, or Pence’s death.
“It’s not standard, but it’s not unusual,” Dina Kellams, the school’s director of university archives, told The Huffington Post.
The website noted that former Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) put similar restrictions on his own congressional papers before opening up some parts of his archives.
Kellams said Pence could open up his library if he chooses.
Pence met with the presumptive Republican nominee and his children Wednesday in Indiana as the businessman inches toward naming a running mate. Trump is expected to pick his VP by the end of the week.
These are confusing times for the Republican party. After the whipping they took from President Obama during the two presidential campaigns, the Republican establishment thought variety was the spice of life, and the key to victory if they were to win the White House again. Party leaders embarked on a fact-finding mission to figure out ways to make the GOP appeal to a broader spectrum of the electorate, and the results of that mission were shocking to no one but the GOP – the party needed to be more diverse.
So with the results of that mission in hand and the 2016 Presidential election right around the corner, what would be the best winning strategy for the GOP? To appeal to more white people… apparently!
There has been a debate within the party — and the political class — about whether Republicans need to diversify to win or whether it just needs to attract even more of its core constituencies. So far in 2016, led by Cruz and Donald Trump, the election has moved decisively toward the latter. The exceptions, such as Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham, are either out of the race or on the edges of it.
Trump is making the most visceral, raw appeal to people who feel left out of the economic recovery and ignored by the political establishment. He espouses hard-line views on immigration that border on nativism, protectionist trade policies and a tough approach with countries like China, Japan and Mexico that he portrays as thieves of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Cruz, a Texas senator, is taking a similar tack, especially on immigration, airing a provocative television ad last week that depicts illegal immigrants racing across the U.S. border in suits and high heels to steal jobs from Americans.
If you’ve been paying attention over the last few uears you’ve already come to the realization that Republicans love Ronald Reagan. Forget Mike, Reagan is the man they all want to be like. Republicans Want you to believe that he is them and them is he.
But do Republicans really want to be like Reagan? Do they aspire to follow in Reagan’s footsteps like they often claim? And although his name is interjected at every juncture, do Republicans really believe Reagan would approve of their tactics?
According to Reagan’s daughter, the answer is a HUGE “NO!” In fact, according to Patti Davis, her dad would be “appalled” by what is going on in today’s Republican Party.
“My father would be so appalled at what’s going on, and he would be so appalled at probably all of these candidates,” Patti Davis said in a Sirius XM interview. “I don’t think he would be a Republican. And if another Ronald Reagan came along, I don’t think the Republican Party would accept him.”
Neff said. I mean, what else could you add to that?
The Republican Party is a national and international disgrace.
I’ll second that notion. I want my money back! I did not sanction this and the politics behind this committee stink!
In a letter sent to the Republican National Committee (RNC), Democratic leaders are demanding a reimbursement for the over $4.7 million already spent on the political witch-hunt called The Benghazi Special Committee.
“We write today to demand that the Republican National Committee reimburse the federal taxpayer for the costs incurred by the Select Committee on Benghazi. Over the past several weeks, several House Republicans have made clear what many observers have suspected all along: that the Select Committee has conducted a political inquisition aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”
“Due to the political nature of the committee, we believe it is inappropriate that a reported 4.7 million taxpayer dollars were used to finance its operations and that the RNC subsequently orchestrated numerous fundraising opportunities in its wake.”
If you haven’t signed the petition yet, well here’s your chance. The petition is here, just click on this link.
The petition is accusing the 47 Republicans who sent a letter to Iran, with treason.
The petition, created on Monday, accuses these Republicans of violating the Logan Act (which, if you’ve been following the news at all this week, you’ve heard about at least once). The Logan Act forbids unauthorized American citizens from “carr[ying] on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof.”
The petition reads, “This is a clear violation of federal law. In attempting to undermine our own nation, these 47 senators have committed treason.”
Quick poll. A show of hands. Are you really surprised that a Republican compares black people as zoo animals?
The spokesman for rising Republican star Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) allegedly compared two black people to zoo animals in one of several racially charged Facebook posts, ThinkProgress reported Thursday.
Schock’s communications director Benjamin Cole posted a series of videos to his Facebook page in October 2013 that mocked black people walking outside his Washington, D.C. apartment, according to screenshots of the posts obtained by ThinkProgress.
The news website reported that one post, which included a video of a woman who appeared to be arguing with someone off-screen, read “so apparently the closing of the National Zoo has forced the animals to conduct their mating rituals on my street. #gentrifytoday Pt. 1.”
The race of the woman is unclear in the screenshot.
A second post reportedly read “#gentrifytoday Pt. 3. This is where she finds another glass bottle, and breaks it on their stoop to use as a weapon.” The race of the woman is also unclear from that screenshot.
In a more recent post dated Jan. 29, Cole allegedly described an experience he had with a black police officer when he went to file an assault report against a black woman he said threw an elbow at him on the street.
“‘Do you have a problem talking to me?’ That’s what the Black Metro police officer said to me when he began asking me to explain what happened,” Cole wrote, according to a screenshot of the post obtained by ThinkProgress.
Cole did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TPM on Thursday.
While dishing out soup the other day, Sarah Palin told a reporter that she is considering a run for the White House in 2016. On Friday, the Washington Post got Palin to say again that she really wants to be president…. like “seriously!”
“You can absolutely say that I am seriously interested,” Palin said, when asked to clarify her thinking about a possible presidential bid.
Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice-presidential nominee, said she stood by comments she made Thursday in Las Vegas to ABC News, where she first expressed enthusiasm about potentially competing for the Republican presidential nomination.
“I am. As I said yesterday, I’m really interested in the opportunity to serve at some point,” Palin said Friday, as former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, a potential 2016 rival, looked on.
The Republican clown car is gassed up. The engine is revving as the last few clowns jump on board. Sarah don’t know where the White House is, but she wants to be president. Sarah’s next stop? ‘1400′ Pennsylvania Ave or somewhere in Philadelphia.
And this is why I say they lie. I simply cannot believe that the Republican Senator representing Texas never heard of the Republican Representative from New York. Cruz is not a new comer to Washington, and neither is Peter King. Both have been frequent “guests” on many television shows over the last few years and they’re both in the same party. But Cruz insists that he never heard of the man, Peter King, a member of the Homeland Security Committee and Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
Rep. Peter King? Never heard of him, Sen. Ted Cruz says.
The Texas senator says he had never heard of the New York Republican who has repeatedly and harshly attacked him until recently.
“I don’t know Mr. King,” Cruz, a Texas Republican, said on CNN on Tuesday evening. “I’ve never met him. To be honest, I don’t think I had ever heard of him until he started getting on television attacking me.”
Before the senator’s comments, host Erin Burnett played a clip from last week of King calling Cruz “a fraud” and saying that the October 2013 government shutdown that he championed was ineffective.
In his appearance Tuesday night, Cruz elected not to push back, saying instead that there is too much bickering in Washington on both sides.
“He’s welcome to express his opinions, and he is entitled to them,” Cruz said of King. “I think there are far too many politicians in Washington in both parties that spend their time attacking each other rather than focusing on the substance.”
One of four gubernatorial candidates introduced to California Republicans recently is a registered sex offender who spent more than a decade in state prison, convicted of crimes including voluntary manslaughter and assault with intent to commit rape.
Glenn Champ, 48, addressed hundreds of GOP delegates and supporters Sunday at the site of the state party’s semi-annual convention. Introduced by party chairman Jim Brulte and allotted 10 minutes, Champ spoke in between the main GOP candidates, former U.S. Treasury official Neel Kashkari and state Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County.
Champ, a little-known political neophyte from the Fresno County community of Tollhouse, did not directly mention his criminal past during his speech but said, “In my life, I’ve been held accountable because of my stupidity. I do not want anyone else to be enslaved because of their lack of knowledge.”
Champ’s rap sheet is lengthy. Court records show that in 1992, he pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed firearm. In 1993, he was convicted of two counts of assault with intent to commit rape and as a result was placed on the state’s sex-offender registry.
In March 1998, he accepted a plea deal on a charge of loitering to solicit a prostitute; later that year, he pleaded no contest to a voluntary manslaughter charge after hitting a man with his vehicle, for which he was sentenced to 12 years in state prison, according to court records.
Words if wisdom coming from the woman who is probably the last black woman left in the Republican party.
Secretary Rice recently urged the GOP to be more inclusive and inviting to women and people of color. The GOP is facing a demographic shift that will allow them to compete gerrymandered House districts but that will make them obsolete in the long run as a national party.
On the issue of immigration, Secretary Rice said, “We have a responsibility to those who do not yet have the liberties and the rights that we enjoy..We cannot abandon them … We were once them.”
According to census data by 2020, deep red states like Texas could finally turn blue, thanks to an emerging majority of Latino voters. Simply put, the math doesn’t do the GOP any favors.
In 2012, 71 percent of Latinos voted for President Obama. According to Pew, the Latino vote helped Democrats win in three critical battleground states: Florida, Nevada, and Colorado. And while immigration continues to dominate the discussion surrounding Latinos currently, it’s the economy and jobs that topped the list of issues the community cared about most in the last presidential election cycle.
And despite the GOP paying lip service to communities of color about “reaching out” not much has changed since they got pummeled in 2012. The Republican party does not have anything to offer and has stuck in an endless loop of faux investigations and symbolic Obamacare repeal votes. Their lack of policy proposals that will help Latinos in any way shape or form, is partially to blame for their lack of support. Their open hostility to diversity and occasional refusal to see Latino people as humans is also likely a major factor.
You’re wasting your time Ms Rice. The Republicans have already gerrymandered their districts to avoid reaching out to anyone who is not an old white and male. Women and people of color can just keep it moving. They are not a necessary part of the Republican equation.
After sending out a tweet asking the good folks on Twitter to tell them their issues, the good folks on Twitter took them up on it and began telling the GOP their issues. Below are just some of the responses.
I'm still pissed when I think about the Red Wedding. RT @GOP: Tell us your top issues. Let’s win big in 2014.
One evening around Christmas in 1986, Terry Young heard a noise outside his home in Redington Beach.
He opened the door to find his father, Rep. C.W. Bill Young. The congressman had come bearing gifts for Terry, his wife and their four young children.
Terry Young said he relished the opportunity to share such a moment with his father. The two had been out of touch for more than a year after Bill Young divorced his wife of 36 years — Terry’s mother — and married his former secretary eight days later.
The son had called and left messages with his father, but they weren’t returned. So he backed off.
That December night, Terry asked his father to come inside. The kids were giddy to see their grandfather, who had thrilled them on Christmases past by playing Santa Claus.
“I’m sorry, Terry, I just can’t,” Bill Young said.
The Republican congressman returned to his car, where his new wife, Beverly, was waiting.
According to Terry, Bill Young never tried to contact him or the grandchildren again.
After Bill Young died Oct. 18 at 82, he was given a funeral befitting a legend. Speakers — including House Speaker John Boehner and high-ranking military officials — praised his skills at crafting legislation and advocating for his constituents.
There was a second theme amid the accolades: Bill Young, family man.
A lengthy photo montage showed the congressman with the three sons (one adopted) and eight grandchildren who resulted from his marriage to Beverly.
But no one mentioned the three children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren from his marriage to the former Marian Ford. Nor were any of those family members included in the photo presentation.
Then an unscripted moment changed the tenor of the service. It happened 1 hour and 39 minutes in, after speeches from two of Young’s sons and a Marine corporal close to the family.
One son stayed behind at the lectern.
“I would also like to say that he also has three other children who are adults,” Robert Young announced. He gave their names — Pam, Terry, Kimber — and said that they are “not really speakers” and that he “didn’t want to put them on the spot.”
“Actually, I don’t know what their last names are,” he added, eliciting nervous titters from the section closest to the stage reserved for family and friends, including more than 30 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Afterward, questions swirled about the congressman’s first family. Why were they absent from the service and why were their names not included in most obituaries?
Hardly anyone knew it, but two of Bill Young’s children mentioned in Robert Young’s statement — Pamela Ernest, 63, and Kimber Butts, 59 — were actually seated seven rows from the front during the funeral.
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