Shocking that this is even necessary. “Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a possible 2016 presidential candidate, introduced legislation on Thursday that would prevent felons from being hired as ObamaCare navigators.”
President Obama appears at the Brandenburg Gate in Germany. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)
Surprising how prescient Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was in the VP debate in 2012? It’s almost like he had read Obamacare and understood how it worked.
Stunning how quickly the thrill of victory faded. After winning, you have to govern: “In short, [Terry] McAuliffe is on thin ice. As a new governor, he is entitled to his shot. Yet he has to watch his ethical Ps and Qs far more than most incoming governors, and somehow he has to make common cause with very conservative General Assembly Republicans who will be determined to make sure he doesn’t succeed. The GOP is not about to make the mistake they committed with then-Gov. Mark Warner (D); by working with him and helping him to enact a large transportation package in the early 2000s, including tax and fee increases, Republicans brought down the wrath of the base upon them while making Warner a political figure to be reckoned with.”
This would be earth-shaking news, considering how vocally the Israeli prime minister condemned an interim deal. “White House press secretary Jay Carney claimed Thursday that there was ‘no daylight between Israel and the United States’ on preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but that comment is contradicted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that any deal with the Iranians would be a ‘mistake of historic proportions.’ Carney was asked about Netanyahu’s comment, but he nevertheless said the two countries were of one mind on the issue.” The “you can keep your insurance” thing worked out so well, they’re now using that MO on foreign policy.
Startling, perhaps, to those who inhabit the right-wing echo chamber. “Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to support a candidate who backs immigration reform compared with 18 percent who said they would be less likely. On the flip side, 54 percent said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who opposes immigration reform while only 17 percent said they would be more likely.”
Sounding nervous, those Democrats. “A good number of Democrats also think the White House should publish health care plan enrollment numbers (which the House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed late Tuesday) weekly or even daily just to get the data out there and lift the veil of secrecy. That’s a bad story that’s going to be told anyway, they argue, so tell it now and track the numbers as they rise to try to turn around the narrative. Some Democrats, like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, believe the federal website should be taken down for full repairs and not restarted until it can function fully.”
Staggering how far the country has come. “The Senate passed historic gay rights legislation Thursday to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace, another victory for the gay rights movement that has been gaining favor in the courts and electoral politics. Senators voted 64 to 32 to approve the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. . . . In a sign of rapidly shifting opinions on gay rights, every member of the Senate Democratic caucus was joined by 10 Republican senators to approve the measure.”
