January 2011
74 posts
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DCCC Targets the Bassmaster
“Tell Congressman Charlie Bass to oppose the partisan plan to cut education and research by 40%. It will cost hundreds-of-thousands of jobs and make America less competitive.”
That’s the message of a a paid advertising and grassroots campaign from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) targeting Rep. Charlie Bass. Bass beat Democrat Ann McLean Kuster by less...
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Focused Like A Laser: Bring Back Epidemics
Two bills making their way through the New Hampshire House seek to limit childhood immunizations.
HB 416 would allow parents to become conscientious objectors in the war against childhood disease. Their children would then be exempt from state mandated immunizations. This bill will have its public hearing in the Children and Family Law committee.
HB 422 would forbid vaccinations —...
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Guinta: End Medicare As We Know It
Speaking in Laconia Saturday, Rep. Frank Guinta expressed support for privatizing Medicare.
“Everything needs to be on the table,” in terms of Medicare reform, Guinta said, including moving toward a defined contribution approach rather than a defined benefits approach.
The “defined contribution approach” Guinta refers to is a Republican plan to eliminate Medicare as we...
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NH Republicans Privately Predicting 2012 Obama Win
Roll Call has the story:
Some New Hampshire Republicans privately concede that whichever candidate emerges from the cloudy field of GOP presidential hopefuls is unlikely to defeat President Barack Obama in the general election.
“Let’s face it, the chances of Obama being defeated anyway are slim,” one top New Hampshire Republican operative said. “I’m just being a realist. The guy’s going to...
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Five Places a Political Junkie Must See in NH
Travelated, an online travel magazine and group blog, says New Hampshire is a political junkie’s dream place to visit — and they list their five must-see spots:
1. New Hampshire State House, Concord “the first-in-the-nation-primary … all starts in the State House”
2. Union Leader Building, Manchester “the place where Muskie cried”
3. Nashua City Hall...
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Defund NHPTV Because NPR Fired Juan Williams?
New Hampshire Rep. Steve Vaillancourt (R-Manchester) is on a mission to deny state funds to New Hampshire Public Television. Why?
“Juan Williams,” Vaillancourt said of the political commentator who was fired by National Public Radio in October for controversial remarks about Muslims. “This is not a good thing I said at the time, and I decided we should defund PBS in this state....
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That Was The Week That Was: January 23 - 29, 2011
Don Booth, who asked us to give peace a chance, dies at 94. Booth was active for over half a century in peace and justice causes, receiving the Martin Luther King Award in 2001. For years, he maintained a noonday vigil at the State House. “Like the dome on top, Booth was there all the time. He didn’t move, and he stood for something deeply meaningful.”
In Concord, a overflow...
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Remembering Christa McAuliffe
Dean Barker:
I do not think a Christa McAuliffe, once an inspiration to all of America, is possible today. Not because of who she was. But because of who we have become.
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Gingrich on the 2012 GOP Field
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich handicaps the 2012 GOP presidential field:
“Romney’s the front-runner in fundraising, Palin is the front-runner in celebrity status, and Huckabee is the front-runner in polling data,” Gingrich said. “All three of them should feel pretty good about where they’re positioned right now.”
Regarding his own plans for a...
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Ayotte at the Children's Table
New Hampshire’s Sen. Kelly Ayotte attended the State of the Union Address with fellow freshman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). They were among the last to enter the chamber and had trouble finding two seats together.
Kelly Ayotte, headed to the furthest aisle on the Democrats’ side, but could not find an empty seat. She was directed by an usher to sit in the front row behind the...
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Ayotte to Tea Party Caucus: Thanks, but No Thanks
Today’s entertainment was watching Republican Senators decline an invitation to join the Tea Party caucus without insulting Tea Party activists.
Every senator, it seems, has a reason for not joining — even those who generally agree with the tea party’s small-government principles.
Asked if she’d join the tea party trio, freshman Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said: “Right now, I’m...
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Sharron Angle in a Granite State of Mind
She’s back. Would-be Nevada Senator and Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle is coy about her plans, but they involve early presidential caucus and primary states.
The Patriot Caucus will begin setting up offices in Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida and Nevada in early 2011. Upcoming announcements will outline the PAC’s intentions to organize a ground game across most battleground states for...
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A State Gun? Why Didn't We Think of That?
New Hampshire legislators take notice:
Utah lawmakers are moving ahead with a bill designating the Browning 1911 pistol as the official state gun.
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Quote of the Day: When He's Been Smoked
Obama’s approval ratings have been rising ever since he acknowledged his “shellacking” in November. He keeps signaling to the public that he’s reaching out to Republicans, even though he’s still pushing policies they’ve been denouncing for two years. It wasn’t his choice to swim upstream — the midterm voters made that call — but evidently he’s got...
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Judd Gregg: An Excellent Speech
“I thought it was an excellent speech, as you would expect. He was elegant, especially at the end in his language. That we do big things, is a very American way of saying what we’re about.
“And he was actually pretty specific, I thought, on some of the things he’s willing to put on the table: Social Security, tort reform, the issue of addressing the health care bill —...
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Kelly Ayotte to Crack Wise at Congressional Dinner
The Washington Press Club Foundation’s annual Congressional Dinner has been politely described as “two hours worth of politicians who don’t know how to joke trying to make jokes.” This year’s event should be no exception as New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte takes to the podium to entertain the audience with her take on “the lighter side of adjusting to life in Washington,...
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Quote of the Day: We Do Big Things
We may have differences in policy, but we all believe in the rights enshrined in our Constitution. We may have different opinions, but we believe in the same promise that says this is a place where you can make it if you try. We may have different backgrounds, but we believe in the same dream that says this is a country where anything’s possible. No matter who you are. No matter where you...
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Another NH "Mitt Romney & the Seven Dwarfs" Poll
Public Policy Polling’s Tom Jensen looks at the polling for the New Hampshire presidential primary and says,
“[W]e don’t need another poll showing that Mitt Romney is the mid-30s with everyone else at least 20 points back.”
But we’ve got one anyway. Newcomer Strategic National is out with a poll showing just that. Matching earlier surveys from Magellan and PPP,...
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Weaksauce and Corrupt
In drawing up a target list of potentially vulnerable House Republicans, Swing State Project identifies the two New Hampshire congressmen as obvious choices.
Bass will be his usual weaksauce self, all but inviting a top-tier challenge. And Bass’s next-door neighbor, the corrupt Frank Guinta, will probably wind up in the same boat.
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Tweet of the Day: Seating Scheme I'd Like to See
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New Hampshire, She's Just Not Into You
Politico takes note of how Sarah Palin has avoided setting foot in the Granite State since her vice presidential run, and wonders if it might cost her when the 2012 presidential primary rolls around.
If Sarah Palin decides to run for president, she could quickly find that it’s not Arizona, but New Hampshire that poses the bigger threat to her candidacy.
That’s because in all of her travels...
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NH Tea Party: Mitt Will Never be Winner in NH
Fresh from their takeover of the GOP party organization, the New Hampshire Tea Party takes aim (metaphorically speaking) at Mitt Romney.
Mitt will never be the winner of anything in NH:
In 2005, Mitt said that John McCain’s open borders/amnesty bill was “reasonable”, but now he says he is against it.
As Governor of MA, Mitt enthusiastically promoted, lobbied for, and proudly signed a big...
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Romney's Less Than Convincing Straw Poll Win
Much is being made of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s straw poll win in yesterday’s GOP state party gathering. Romney won 35% of the votes cast and easily surpassed his nearest rivals: Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty and Sarah Palin. But a close look at the numbers may be cause for concern in the Romney camp.
Romney’s path to victory in the New Hampshire presidential primary...
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Seacoast Dems Celebrate Past & Look to Future
Friday night, 150 Seacoast-area Democrats dug themselves out of the snow and got together to celebrate years of Democratic accomplishments and public service.
The energized audience heard Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and House Minority Leader Terie Norelli honor Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, Executive Councilor Bev Hollingworth and numerous state representatives for their...
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That Was The Week That Was: January 16 - 22, 2011
Charismatic leader announces he is stepping away from successful venture he founded, leading some to wonder about its future. (Oh, Apple’s Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence from his business also.)
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell woos Sen. Kelly Ayotte with a date in Afghanistan. Ayotte returns his ardor by joining him in calling for the war to be extended indefinitely.
Rep. Frank...
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Ayotte to Present GOP SOTU Response?
National Journal odds makers give Sen. Kelly Ayotte a 6-1 chance of being named to present the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address next week. This places her just behind favorites Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) (3-1), New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (5-1), and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (5-1).
Ayotte has already given a response to President Obama’s...
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What a $100B Spending Cut Looks Like
During the campaign, Republicans pledged to slash $100 billion from the federal budget without identifying the specific cuts. Opposition is easy, governing is hard. Yesterday, the Republican Study Committee announced their plan. As promised, it cuts $100 billion from non-defense discretionary spending. Here’s what a $100 billion spending cut looks like:
$30 billion in savings comes from...
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Why is the 2012 Presidential Race Starting so...
I think Mark Halperin has it about right.
No one is in a hurry to jump in because there isn’t a strong-armed front runner threatening to squash the rest of the pack the way George W. Bush did in 2000. None of the hopefuls want the scrutiny or expense that goes with becoming an official candidate. And no one but the most fervent activists and hyperpolitical reporters is itching to get another...
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HCR Repeal: Bought and Paid for by Citizens United
People for the American Way documents the crime we witnessed firsthand: the House repeal of health care reform was bought and paid for by Citizens United.
[E]mpowered by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, corporate-backed groups intent on the repeal of the health care reform law spent an enormous amount of money to help defeat vulnerable supporters of reform and elect candidates who...
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Quote of the Day: Opposition is Easy, Governing is...
Opposition is easy, governing is hard. You have to get your members to agree on a single piece of legislation. You have to make the tough tradeoffs that are the hallmark of governance.
Democrats did that for health care. … They governed. They sought to move the country forward.
Boehner’s GOP, in deciding against offering the promised replacement for the Affordable Care Act, ducked...
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Straw Poll to Measure Support Among NH GOP...
Saturday, we’ll get a sense of how much support the potential GOP presidential candidates are generating among New Hampshire’s party activists.
January 22, ABC News and WMUR-TV are teaming up for a first ever “straw poll” sanctioned by the New Hampshire Republican State Committee to see just what kind of buzz these 2012 candidates have among the party faithful.
This Saturday, the...
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NH Primary on Critical Path for GOP Hopefuls
The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin takes a look at the battle for the Republican 2012 presidential nomination by sketching out a potential winning scenario for each candidate. She expects New Hampshire to play a pivotal role as usual.
As the favorite, Mitt Romney’s best bet is to run the table early. Rather than risk losing Iowa in his first contest, Rubin suggests he may “put...
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Viral Video of the Day: Sarah Palin Battle Hymn
Sa-rah Palin, she won’t listen to their bunk. Sa-rah Palin’s coming south to hunt some skunk. Sa-rah Palin, she’ll throw ‘em all in jail. And when she gets to Washington, it’ll be cold as hell.
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Birds of a Feather
Frank Guinta’s boss on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Issa has, shall we say, a checkered past.
The insurance company, meanwhile, had found something peculiar about Issa, unrelated to the arson: there was no indication of where his initial capital came from. After interviewing a family member, an investigator reported, “She was unable to...
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Frank Guinta's "Vanity Exercise"
Frank Guinta brags that he’s a co-sponsor of the House bill to repeal last year’s health care reform legislation. It’s so important, he writes, “I made it my very first piece of legislation in Congress.” Guinta’s first speech on the floor of the House will be to speak in favor of the bill.
It’s not an auspicious start for the freshman Congressman.
...
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Ayotte: No Timetable for Afghanistan Troop...
After touring Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kuwait, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte says she is opposed to setting a fixed timetable for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
Ayotte said she endorses the NATO approach reached in November in Lisbon, with President Barack Obama’s support, which sets the end of 2014 as an “aspirational goal” for the handover of all security to Afghan forces, as long...
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "I Refuse to Accept...
I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding...
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Mapping the Partisan Vote Change from 2008 to 2010
Neil Stevens maps the partisan change in the House of Representative vote from 2008 to 2010. Red districts went more Republican in 2010, blue districts went more Democratic. Bright blue and bright red districts saw large shifts, darker, purplish seats had smaller shifts.
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Quote of the Day: Another Tragedy
Let’s also face another tragedy: The only two civic reforms that might have actually stopped [Loughner] — tighter gun control and an effective mental health safety net — won’t materialize even now.
No editorial — or bloodbath — will move Congress to enact serious gun control …. Enhanced mental health coverage is also a nonstarter when the highest G.O.P. priority is to repeal the federal...
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That Was The Week That Was: January 9 - 15, 2011
After GOP house organ Union Leader blasted the move to remove Rep. Mike Brunelle as a “sleazy, sophomoric trick to expel a Democratic leader they dislike,” Republican House leaders broke into song with “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.”
Committee Chairman John Reagan turned away citizens and advocates from testifying at a House committee public hearing on bedbugs....
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Paul Krugman: A Tale of Two Moralities
Paul Krugman describes a fundamental divide between the right and left over public morality, with each maintaining divergent beliefs over what constitutes justice.
One side of American politics considers the modern welfare state — a private-enterprise economy, but one in which society’s winners are taxed to pay for a social safety net — morally superior to the capitalism red in tooth and claw we...
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Ayotte Joins Shaheen in Kumbaya Request
New Hampshire’s junior senator, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, has joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in signing Sen. Mark Udall’s letter proposing Democrats and Republicans sit side-by-side during the upcoming State of the Union address. The bipartisan seating plan, originally proposed by Democratic centrist organization Third Way, now has support from 17 senators.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid...
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Gregg Outlines GOP Plan to Undo Healthcare Reform
In a keynote address at J.P. Morgan’s Health Care Conference, former Sen. Judd Gregg said the vote to repeal the heathcare reform law will be just the first of a series of votes to dismantle the reforms.
Gregg expects the GOP to follow-up the first vote with a series of more targeted votes to repeal items like the individual mandate, the MA cuts, and so on, with each vote intended to dramatize...
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Shaheen Signs Udall State of the Union Letter
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has signed on to Sen. Mark Udall’s proposal that Democrats and Republicans sit next to each other at the State of the Union address.
Said Udall: “As the nation watches, Democrats and Republicans should reflect the interspersed character of America itself. Perhaps, by sitting with each other for one night, we will begin to rekindle that common spark...
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A Tale of Two Speeches
Wednesday was bookended by two remarkable — and remarkably different — political performances that demonstrated the vast expanse of America’s political landscape.
The day began at 5 a.m. when Sarah Palin posted a 7½- minute video statement that captured with precision the bubbling anger and resentment that is an undercurrent of the national conversation about our public discourse.
Sarah Palin...
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Quote of the Day: I Believe We Can Be Better
I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here - they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.
—President Barack...
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Alexander on Ayotte: Diversity, Brains and Ideas
Washington Republicans embrace New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte. She’s not another old, white guy.
“What Kelly brings to our caucus is the diversity of being a mother of two young children, the wife of a small-business man, she’s a woman and she’s from the Northeast. For all those reasons, she brings more diversity to our party.
“We’re looking primarily to her brains and her ideas. She’s...
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Quote of the Day: Crap Shoot
It’s a crap shoot, and I think Palin makes an interesting element in it if she gets in. The other guys will have to be careful what they say if she does get into it because they don’t want to offend potential Tea Party people. It’ll be a hell of a lot more interesting if she’s in it than if she’s not in it.
—Joe McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union...
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Santorum vs. Santorum
While campaigning in New Hampshire, former Sen. Rick Santorum warned against intrusive governmental action as a response to the Arizona shooting that left six people dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically injured. He was less concerned when he defended the USA PATRIOT Act.
There is always the call for the state to do more. We don’t need the state to do more. We don’t need the...
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Which Side is More to Blame?
Was the violent imagery and incendiary tone of our political rhetoric a contributing factor in the Arizona shooting that left six people dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically injured? While campaigning in New Hampshire, former Sen. Rick Santorum says if anyone is to blame, it’s the Left. George Packer offers the devastating rebuttal.
“Do we need civility in our political discourse?...
