The Fix

Why the Murtha special election is no sure thing for Republicans

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:00:00 -0500

At first glance, the special election to replace the late Rep. John Murtha (D) in Pennsylvania is a golden opportunity for House Republicans looking to build momentum heading into what is widely expected to be a very good midterm election for the party. Murtha's 12th district, located in western Pennsylvania, was the only seat in the country that went for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 and switched to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008 -- this in spite of the fact that Kerry won the state by three points while Obama carried it by 10. Add that demographic trend line to the fact that the national political environment is tilted away from Democrats -- as evidenced by Sen. Scott Brown's special election victory in Massachusetts last month -- and it would seem as though Republicans enter the race as clear favorites to score a takeover. But, as (almost) always

Sarah Palin's soundbite strategy

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:58:00 -0500

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addresses the national tea party convention in Nashville. AP Photo/Ed Reinke Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has mastered the art of the political soundbite and has used it to devastating -- and some would say irresponsible -- effect since emerging on the political scene in the fall of 2008. Witness her speech at the national tea party convention over the weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. "America is ready for another revolution," Palin said. "When you're 0 for 3, you had better stop lecturing and start listening," she scolded the Obama Administration. "How's that hopey, changy stuff working out?" she asked supporters of the president. "We win, they lose," Palin responded when asked about her approach to the war on terror. Palin's way with a folksy zinger is nothing new; it can be traced directly back to her emergence on the national stage at the 2008

Obama, congressional Republicans in a staring contest over health care

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:13:50 -0500

1. House Republicans' threat to boycott President Obama's proposed health care meeting on Feb. 25 creates the political equivalent of a staring contest with each side waiting for the other to blink. "A refusal to show up to a discussion of health care would show that Republicans would rather play politics than solve problems," one senior Democratic party official told the Fix. "The question is whether the White House sincerely wants bipartisan reform," retorted a House Republican leadership aide. "We've asked for some gestures of good faith, because Republican leaders have zero interest in being used as props." Context matters when analyzing how we got to this standoff. The televised face-off between Obama and House Republican late last month was regarded as a wild success by the White House (Obama has taken questions at nearly every event since then) and something short of that by House Republicans who were stung

John Murtha dies, special election looms

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:34:00 -0500

Your Browser DoesNot Support IFrames. The death of longtime Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha (D) this afternoon will set off a special election in his very competitive western Pennsylvania 12th district. According to state law, the governor has ten days once the vacancy is officially declared to decide on the date for the special election, which can come no sooner than 60 days following that proclamation. That likely means the special election will be held on May 18, which is the date already set for federal primaries around the state. (Special elections costs the state huge sums of money and it's likely that Gov. Ed Rendell will choose to go with an already established election day to save some cash.) Murtha's passing comes at a tenuous time for House Democrats as they seek to convince some of their older members to re-up for another term in the face of what looks

Can Democrats dissuade Dan Coats from running?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:30:00 -0500

In the six days since former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats (R) made clear he was preparing to challenge Sen. Evan Bayh (D) in the fall, national Democrats have unleashed an all-out assault aimed at making Coats reconsider his candidacy. First came a detailed dossier from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee running through the clients Coats represents as a federal lobbyist -- including PhRMA and Goldman Sachs. Then the DSCC released a video from 2008 in which Coats tells a Republican audience he and his wife are planning to move to North Carolina -- not Indiana -- when he retires. (Coats currently lives in the D.C. area.) And, finally, there was today's report that Coats had lobbied for a number of foreign governments including Yemen. The goal of this onslaught is two-pronged. First, Coats hasn't been involved in a competitive political campaign since the early 1990s -- a time when things

"Saturday Night Live" takes on the Rahm Emanuel apology

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:00:00 -0500

Any time Andy Samberg does anything on "Saturday Night Live", we watch. And, when he decides to impersonate White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, we can barely contain our glee. Below is Samberg/Emanuel's "apology" for the impolitic remark he made about disabled people in a health care strategy session last summer. WARNING: While there are no actual swear words used -- this being broadcast television and all -- you can read between the lines pretty easily. So, if that's the kind of thing that offends you, you might want to steer clear of the video.

White House moves to make the filibuster a campaign issue

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:47:00 -0500

The Senate -- and filibusters in particular -- are the focus of a new White House campaign. Over the past week, President Obama and his senior aides have repeatedly cited Republicans' filibuster threats as the primary reason for the lack of progress on big ticket legislative items, an early sign that Democrats will seek to use this bit of legislative arcana against the GOP in the coming midterm election. At a meeting -- televised, natch -- with Senate Democrats last week, Obama harped on the GOP's willingness to invoke the filibuster, noting that Democrats had taken more cloture votes to end debate and force votes in 2009 than they did in the 1950s and 1960s combined. Added Obama: "We've had scores of pieces of legislation in which there was a filibuster, cloture had to be invoked, and then ended up passing 90 to 10, or 80 to 15. And

Obama to convene bipartisan health care meeting on Feb. 25

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:29:56 -0500

1. The big news out of President Obama's pre-Superbowl interview with CBS News's Katie Couric is that the White House will convene a health care meeting with congressional leaders of both parties on Feb. 25. One notable element of the half-day gathering is that it will be televised in its entirety -- much like the now-famous tété-a-tété between the president and House Republicans in the immediate aftermath of the president's state of the union address. "What the president will not do is let this moment slip away," said an administration official. "He hopes to have Republican support in doing so -- but he is going to move forward on health reform." Of course, Obama did not -- and has not -- laid out specific ways in which the impasse currently gripping the health care debate on the Hill can be broken. "The president has a decision to make: show some

Palin speaks at tea party convention

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:05:00 -0500

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was in Nashville, Tennessee last night to address the first-ever national gathering of the tea party. Her speech was heavy on folksy, applause lines -- "We win, they lose" was her answer on national security -- and light on specific policy proposals. Wrote the Associated Press' Liz Sidoti: "The speech also was rife with criticism for Obama and Democrats who control Congress, but delivered with a light touch. But, aside from broad conservative principles like lower taxes and a strong national defense, the speech was short on Palin's own policy ideas that typically indicate someone is seriously laying the groundwork to run for the White House." Palin made little reference to her political future in the speech -- although a mention of "President Palin" brought chants of "Run Sarah run!" from the audience. But, whether or not Palin runs for president in 2012, the night

Chatting tea party convention, the "Shelby hold", Senate races and more!

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:30:00 -0500

Successfully bunkered in the Fix home for the coming snowpocalypse, we managed to carve out an hour in our busy schedule of stockpiling evaporated milk and other canned goods to field questions from loyal readers on the political hot topics of the day. A few of our favorite questions and answers from the "Live Fix" are below. Miss the chat? You can check out the full transcript here and make sure to put a re-occurring event on your calendar from 11 am to noon every Friday! Tea Party Convention: Please explain who are, or what is the 'Tea Party'? Chris Cillizza: Good question -- I just did a segment that will run Monday on the "Newshour" -- WHAT WHAT!!! -- addressing this very subject. The honest answer is no one knows exactly who the tea party movement includes or how big it actually is. The broadest definition is a group

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Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:30:00 -0500

Primary season is underway!

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:15:00 -0500

The Illinois primaries on Tuesday delivered a series of nasty ads, close contests and a few surprise nominees for both sides (including one Democrats could probably do without) -- a great start to one of the Fix's favorite times of year. (Some people wait all year for hunting season, others for the start of the NFL season. For us, primary season is where it's at!) With Illinois out of the way and Texas' primary not until March 2, we have a little time to reflect on the best of the intraparty skirmishes to come. Below is our list of the top 10 primaries set for this year. The races are rated by their overall impact on the national political landscape, the amount of money involved and, of course, their sheer entertainment value. We don't want to ruin the surprise but we have a new number one race. As always, your

Tea party test run in Nashville

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:29:00 -0500

1. All eyes -- not focused on the coming snowpocalypse in Washington -- will be looking toward Nashville this weekend where the first ever national gathering of the tea party movement is taking place. The marquee event will be Saturday night when former Alaska governor Sarah Palin delivers the keynote address at the gathering but, more broadly, this weekend should tell us something about whether the tea partiers are a passing political fad or have staying power within the political arena. Already several planned speakers -- Reps. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee -- have withdrawn from the convention because of the high prices being charged attendees. And, in the first test of the tea parties' strength in a campaign, the the Illinois gubernatorial and Senate primary contests, the movement's candidates came up well short. Those developments aside, the planned schedule for the weekend is packed with

Charlie Baker: Scott Brown, part deux?

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:23:00 -0500

Charlie Baker is the likely Republican nominee for governor in 2010. AP Photo/Josh Reynolds Sen. Scott Brown's (R) special election victory last month in Massachusetts was cast by many political operatives -- of both parties -- as a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, the result of the confluence of factors that would be almost impossible to replicate in a future contest. Charlie Baker sure doesn't think so. "The biggest lesson [from Brown's victory] is that voters expect to be asked for their vote and they don't expect you to take anything for granted," said Baker in an interview for the Fix's "Rising" series that highlights up and coming politicians. Baker, the near certain Republican nominee against embattled Gov. Deval Patrick (D) this fall, is following that advice to the letter in his campaign. In just five months of active fundraising in 2009, Baker collected nearly $2.3 million in campaign contributions -- a

Bill O'Reilly vs Jon Stewart (VIDEO)

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:39:00 -0500

Like them or not, it's hard to dispute that Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly and Comedy Central's Jon Stewart are two of the prime movers in the world of politics (and television). So, when O'Reilly had Stewart on "The Factor" last night, it was a moment worth marking. It was a surprisingly cordial exchange, which you can watch for yourself below. And, tune in to "The O"Reilly Factor" tonight for more of the conversation between the two men. Part one: Watch the latest news video at video.foxnews.com Part two: Watch the latest news video at video.foxnews.com

Obama lays out 2010 strategy to Senate Democrats

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:42:16 -0500

1. President Obama spoke to -- and took questions from -- his former Democratic Senate colleagues on Thursday, the second time in a week that he has conducted a question-and-answer session with members of Congress. Unlike last week's tété-a-tété with House Republicans, which the White House believes was a critical pivot point heading into the midterm elections, the questions Obama received were largely friendly and the mood generally upbeat. Missed it? Here's what you need to know: 1) Like his state of the union speech, Obama was unyielding in his insistence that Democrats are expected to lead and produce results. "Those problems haven't gone away," he said at one point. "It's still our responsibility to address them . . . we still have to lead. At another moment, Obama said that the lesson from Democrats loss in Massachusetts was "not to do nothing . . . the American people are