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INSIDER MEMO: Ex-Hill Staffer Takes on Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell

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To: Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker Paul Ryan
From: Rachel Bovard, former policy director, U.S. Senate Steering Committee
Subject: Conservatives are right, eliminate the lame duck

Dear Leader McConnell & Speaker Ryan,

Do you ever feel like you’re having the same conversation over and over again when it comes to Congressional spending? It’s because you are.

Here we are, again, talking about the need to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR).

Despite all the lip service paid to “regular order,” “passing individual spending bills” and “getting back to work,” you and Senator McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 44%) have not been able to send a single appropriations bill to the President’s desk.

With one week to go before a two-month election year recess, moving forward with appropriations bills is not only futile, it’s actually wasting time that could be spent on other Republican priorities – like protecting religious liberty, instituting regulatory reform, combating the zika virus or, I don’t know, repealing Obamacare?

As always, the issue comes down to one of timing and of length. How long should the CR be extended? To the end of the year? Or into the new one?

Conservatives like Congressmen Dave Brat, R-Va. (A, 100%) and Mark Meadows, R-N.C. (A, 93%) are focused on extending this year’s spending levels into the March or April of next year, saving the spending decisions for the new Congress, and the new president. Such an extension also protects the CR from becoming an end-of-the-year grab bag of parochial projects, various extensions of unauthorized programs and higher spending.

It also effectively eliminates the “lame duck” session of Congress – the period of time after the election, when a bunch of members who have been defeated or decided to retire – can come back and make all kinds of spending decisions over which they’ll never face any accountability, all the while encouraged by a president who is also on his way out the door.

However, the House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky. (F, 34%) prefers a CR that extends to December, and loves lame duck sessions. Lame ducks provide Rogers and his appropriator colleagues maximum leverage to extract concessions out of their membership, and the opportunity to squeeze conservatives who demand lower spending levels or other policy changes. You may recall this as the annual December dance in Congress – members want to go home, and so do the staff, and because of that, they’ll pretty much vote for anything and bully anyone who stands between them and Christmas dinner. (Remember, there’s a reason that Obamacare was passed on Christmas Eve.)

The conservatives are right on this issue. The CR should be passed into the middle of next year, or beyond. This isn’t simply a matter of avoiding further spending increases, it’s a matter of good governance. It’s removing the ability of Members of Congress (and the president) who are leaving the Congress from making significant decisions over the nation’s fiscal future – one in which they will no longer play a part.

You wouldn’t let your ex come in and manage your bank account, right?

Then why would you let a Member of Congress who has just lost an election come back and extract all he can from the taxpayers till?

Stop trying to pass pointless appropriations bills, and instead direct your committee chairs to start crafting a CR that goes well into the new year. Even better, have it lower spending.

Doing so will make you the first House Speaker in a very long while who doesn’t cave to special interests, to the desire of departing Members to line their pockets, and who finally stands up for the taxpayer by effectively eliminating the lame duck session of Congress.

(For more from the author of “INSIDER MEMO: Ex-Hill Staffer Takes on Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell” please click HERE)

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Mitch McConnell Faces One Question on Trump That He Won’t Answer

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On ABC’s This Week Sunday, host George Stephanopoulos asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell whether Republican candidate Donald Trump is qualified to be president of the United States.

“Well look, I think there’s no question that he’s made a number of mistakes over the last few weeks,” McConnell said. “I think they’re beginning to right the ship. It’s a long time until November, and the burden obviously will be on him to convince people that he can handle this job.”

Stephanopoulous, who was communications director for President Bill Clinton, the husband of Trump’s Democratic opponent, pressed the senator about the issue, saying, “I didn’t hear you say whether you thought he was qualified.”

McConnell answered, “Look, that’ll be up to the American people to decide.”

“You know, he won the Republican nomination fair and square. He got more votes than anybody else against a whole lot of well-qualified candidates,” he said. “And so our primary voters have made their decision as to who they want to be the nominee.”

In a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, 64 percent of the respondents said they didn’t think Trump was qualified to be president.

“I think a good step in the right direction was the changes he made in the campaign,” McConnell said. “He’s beginning to use a prepared script more often, which I think is absolutely appropriate for any candidate, whether you’re a longtime politician like Hillary Clinton or whether you’re new to the game like Donald Trump.”

The Trump campaign is working to raise money in order to compete with Democratic rival Clinton, who has a much larger war chest. McConnell’s closing statements acknowledged that Trump would not be able to win if he was unable to raise more money.

“He needs to be able to compete financially,” the majority leader said. “Where the money comes from, whether it comes out of his own pocket or from others, it doesn’t really make all that much difference. But he’s going to have to have way more than he has now in order to run the kind of campaign he needs to win.” (For more from the author of “Mitch McConnell Faces One Question on Trump That He Won’t Answer” please click HERE)

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McConnell Can’t Follow His Own Guidelines for Fighting and Winning

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., (F, 44%) represents the worst attitude of D.C. politics. His recent book encapsulates all that is wrong with Washington and his attitude is one of elitism, putting his ascent to power and his control of detractors ahead of the people.

But putting aside all of his obtuse treatment of the American citizen, there is a point in his book where McConnell reveals a powerful truth that conservatives should not only embrace, but patent, mass produce, package, and market.

As McConnell winds about his book, describing the great things he has done which basically center on getting reelected, he throws in a lightening rod of truth.

While describing his growth of influence as a second term senator backbencher, he recalled how his elementary school principal would keep boxing gloves for when boys would have disputes and tell them to don the gloves and fight it out. McConnell noted that it wasn’t the one who swung the most, but the one who stood the firmest that typically won those fights. He said that he applied that concept to his strategy in the Senate, as well as to learning the rules of the Senate, holding solid principles of the Constitution, and making tough decisions your friends don’t like.

Now, unlike conservatives, McConnell fakes an adherence to constitutional principles if he thinks he can label the other guy with being worse on these principles than he is. Also, unlike conservatives, the decisions his friends don’t like are described as tough because his friends are in the D.C. Cesspool Club and any friction might mean his growth to power might be hindered. However, the strategy of whoever stands the firmest the longest wins, understanding the rules of engagement, standing for the constitution at every turn, and making decisions the powers that be do not like, are the winning applications for conservatives, and upon engagement of the strategy, will show how people like McConnell are complete frauds.

McConnell’s memoir was written because he finally attained his lifetime goal of Senate Majority Leader. He proudly announces that the best way to become a great senator is to remain one. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have never heard a solitary American who is stifled under an oppressive, obese federal government scream out for great senators. Instead, we prefer to champion and reward men who will take on the federal leviathan in any capacity and turn it on its ear.

With the goal of shutting down the influence of government in our lives, conservatives ought to remember to stand firm, because McConnell is not wrong when it comes to who ultimately wins. Even though his life was wasted standing firm against limited government, you cannot claim his strategy has not worked beautifully.

Understanding the rules of the body conservatives serve in is imperative, and though Senator Ted Cruz has understood them completely, and worked within them to defund Obamacare, McConnell continues to claim that the strategy promised more than could be achieved, after he voted in favor of cloture, no less. It would seem that understanding how to use the public ignorance of the rules is really what McConnell is more inclined to do.

Standing for the Constitution is a no-brainer, however, giving lip-service to it like McConnell does will get increasingly difficult to do once more than just a handful of constitutional conservatives reintroduce its brilliance. The 30-plus years of standing firm for the status quo that McConnell wants to be praised for will be forgotten soon enough, but the decisions conservatives make to threaten centralized power and return the power taken by McConnell and his Cesspool Club back to the industrious, ingenious, creative and talented hands of the American citizen will be worth it. (For more from the author of “McConnell Can’t Follow His Own Guidelines for Fighting and Winning” please click HERE)

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How McConnell Botched the Senate’s Response to Orlando

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Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-K.Y. (F, 44%) handling of the fallout from the Orlando terrorist attack in recent weeks has been an unprecedented disaster. Here’s why.

The floor of each chamber can be a powerful tool, just ask Senators Rand Paul, R-K.Y. (A, 95%) and Ted Cruz, R-K.Y. (A, 97%) who through epic speeches captivated the attention of the country. Just last week Democrat Senator Chris Murphy, D-C.T. (F, 8%) was able to draw the attention of the national media to his cause of gun control by commanding the Senate floor in a 15-hour-long filibuster.

The goal of competent Republican Senate leadership after the Orlando attack should have been to respond by controlling the debate and defining the narrative on its terms. After all, Republicans control the Senate floor and thus the agenda.

The preferred way of Republicans defining the narrative on their terms would have been for McConnell to announce that because of the threat of radical Islamic terrorism in the United States the Senate would immediately move to consideration of the appropriations bill that funds the Department of Defense. A bill that literally funds the troops who will take the fight to radical jihadists.

Doing so would have unified Republicans and split Democrats. Democrats would have been left with the choice between funding our nation’s troops or filibuster their funding in an effort to push forward a radical gun control agenda — an agenda that would have done absolutely nothing to stop the Orlando attack. Instead, McConnell divided Republicans on the issue of guns and allowed Democrats to have the upper hand in controlling the narrative and legislative agenda.

If Republicans had successfully moved the Department of Defense funding bill, they would have been able to offer a series of amendments that deal directly with radical Islamic terrorism and would have defined the debate on their terms. Media coverage would be about amendments intended to address ISIS, domestic terrorism, and an immigration system that is arguably one of our nation’s biggest national security threats, instead of the gun control theatrics we’re seeing today.

As a byproduct of moving to the Department of Defense funding bill, Rule XVI in the Senate would have precluded Democrats from bringing up any of the gun control amendments, which Republicans are currently being forced to vote on. Thereby protecting any vulnerable GOP members in tough general election races.

Instead, to show that Republicans can “govern” McConnell opted to stay on the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) funding bill. A huge tactical blunder.

Because spending bills must originate in the House, the House version of the CJS funding bill is used to determine what amendments can be offered in the Senate. And the House CJS funding bill has provisions that have allowed Democrats to successfully achieve their goal of gun control votes and pushing their message of more gun control.

Committed to his course of seeing through the CJS funding bill to prove Republicans can “govern,” McConnell on Monday agreed to allow two votes on Democrat gun control proposals, along with two Republican side-by-sides. Significantly, these side-by-sides are not pro-gun designed to highlight the GOP standing up for Second Amendment rights. Rather, they are gun control lite proposals.

But Thursday, things got even worse as McConnell stumbled into his biggest blunder yet, forcing a vote on a motion to kill the latest gun control proposal from fellow Republican Senator Susan Collins, R-M.E. (F, 12%).

Collins’ gun control proposal survived the motion as 54 senators voted to keep the proposal alive, but the vote also demonstrated Collins proposal did not have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Therefore, not having 51 votes to table the proposal or 60 votes to pass the Collins proposal, the Senate is effectively stuck.

And stuck on a debate of gun control, not terrorism, or protecting the Second Amendment, but gun control. The exact topic and terrain that Democrats want to discuss. The result? A divided Republican party in the Senate and forcing vulnerable Senators in general election races to take high profile gun control votes. Meanwhile the media runs with the preferred Democrat narrative that their proposal has bipartisan support.

The overall narrative on display to the Republican base plays into the critique and reality that Washington Republicans are not principled, they will do anything to show they can “govern”, and absolutely incapable of standing on principle.

The sad truth is that this entire scenario was absolutely avoidable if Republicans in the Senate had competent leadership. (For more from the author of “How McConnell Botched the Senate’s Response to Orlando” please click HERE)

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McConnell Waves White Flag, Steers GOP Away From ObamaCare Fights

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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has urged GOP colleagues in private to avoid distracting political fights, yielding a surprising ceasefire on labor and health issues, two of the bloodiest battlegrounds in Congress.

For the first time in seven years, the Senate Appropriations Committee last week passed a bipartisan bill funding the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. It’s the largest spending bill after the one for the Defense Department and a perennial source of partisan strife.

The bill is not likely to go anywhere because the House has slim chance of passing a Labor-HHS spending bill, but the drama-free passage was an important victory for McConnell, who has staked the Senate Republican majority on the argument that Republicans know how to govern.

“We went eight years in the minority and during that time we didn’t pass these bills and then the public’s outraged,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). “Behind the closed doors of the conference, he emphasizes over and over again that he wants to keep the extraneous things off and do what people expect us to do.”

The full Senate is now poised to act on the Labor HHS bill, which hasn’t passed the chamber as a stand-alone measure since 2007. (Read more from “McConnell Steers Republicans Away From ObamaCare Fights” HERE)

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PATHETIC: McConnell May Rescind Trump Endorsement

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By Betsy Fischer Martin, Tammy Haddad and Steven T. Dennis. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Donald Trump needs to pick an experienced running mate because “he doesn’t know a lot about the issues” and strongly urged him to change course on his rhetoric.

In an extraordinarily frank interview with Bloomberg Politics’ Masters in Politics podcast, McConnell, who is on a book tour touting his autobiography The Long Game, also expressed broader concerns about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

“He needs someone highly experienced and very knowledgeable because it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t know a lot about the issues,” McConnell said. “You see that in the debates in which he’s participated. It’s why I have argued to him publicly and privately that he ought to use a script more often—there is nothing wrong with having prepared texts.”

The Kentucky Republican’s frustration with Trump has been clear, especially this week after Trump’s tarring of Judge Gonzalo Curiel as biased against him because the Indiana-born former prosecutor is “Mexican.” Still, McConnell said he remains “comfortable” backing Trump. (Read more from “PATHETIC: McConnell May Rescind Trump Endorsement” HERE)

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McConnell: Trump ‘Doesn’t Know a Lot About the Issues’

By Newsmax. …McConnell, perhaps the most careful and strategic politician in Washington, rarely goes off script himself, and has been sending Trump the same message for weeks in hopes he’ll pivot to the general election.

McConnell said staying on script “indicates a level of seriousness that I think is important to convey to American people about the job you are seeking.”

“I think he’d have a much better chance of winning if he would quit making so many unfortunate public utterances and stick to the script,” he said.

McConnell said he delivered that message in person when the two were in the green room together at the recent National Rifle Association convention in Louisville. (Read more from “McConnell: Trump ‘Doesn’t Know a Lot About the Issues'” HERE)

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What McConnell’s Surrender on Women’s Draft Shows About GOP Leadership

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has apparently given up on another battle front: Stopping America’s young women from being forced into military combat.

That isn’t exactly what he said this week when asked his views on whether women should be made to register for the draft, but it’s the logical outcome of his position. The question arose because the National Defense Authorization Act, likely to come to the Senate floor next week, contains language to draft women.

Here is what McConnell said, according to the New York Times:

First of all, I don’t anticipate going back to the draft. The professional voluntary Army has been very successful. We’re talking here about registration for Selective Service, should we ever go back to a draft. And given where we are today, with women in the military performing virtually all kinds of functions, I personally think it would be appropriate for them to register just like men do.

That is a very good example of a politician trying to have it both ways—kind of a “I’m for something because it won’t happen but if it does happen I support it.”

Welcome to what leadership looks like in Washington in the year 2016.

In reality, the debate over the draft is an outcome of a larger debate we never had—whether America’s daughters should be forced into military combat.

As McConnell himself admitted, it’s because all roles in the military, including combat, are now open to women that it only seems fair to force women to be part of any future draft.

The debate over whether women in combat is good for them, for the military, or for society at large never occurred because that would have meant taking on the Obama administration. And as anyone who has followed past political skirmishes between GOP congressional leadership and the Obama White House might predict, this was another hill the GOP just wasn’t willing to charge.

Late last year, the Obama administration handed down another “we know better than anyone else, including experts” mandate declaring all military combat positions must be open to women.

This was done despite studies conducted by branches of our own military that raised serious red flags about the performance of co-ed units. And oh, the American people had had no say, either.

Yet it was done with little to no objection by Republicans in Congress.

This is what happens when social experiments, political agendas, and being scared of your own shadow becomes more important than standing up and doing what is best for the country.

The mission of our armed forces must be the standard for determining who plays what roles in them.

And evidence evaluating the effectiveness of putting women in direct combat should not be ignored. A study conducted over 9 months in 2013 by the Marine Corps’ Gender Integration Force evaluated 134 ground combat tasks. The results? All-male units outperformed co-ed units in 69 percent of the tasks. Female training course completion rates lagged well behind men and the injury rate among women was much higher.

These realities drive up casualties and costs and they reduce our military’s effectiveness. That is not only a threat to women and men wearing our country’s uniform, but also a threat to all of us they are sworn to protect.

Congress should prohibit any measure that would force women to register for the draft and be forced into combat roles. You can’t be for one and not be for the other and lawmakers such as McConnell shouldn’t pretend otherwise. If you’re for women being drafted, you’re for women in combat. (For more from the author of “What McConnell’s Surrender on Women’s Draft Shows About GOP Leadership” please click HERE)

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TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHIEF/LOBBYIST MANAFORT: Yeah, We’re Secretly Working With Mitch McConnell

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Paul Manafort is the new head of Donald Trump’s campaign. A longtime Washington insider and heavy duty lobbyist for third world dictators, Manafort appeared this morning on Fox News Sunday and inadvertently let slip some revealing truths.

MANAFORT: …What we’re trying to do right now is work with the Mitch McConnells who we didn’t depose in Kentucky even though he won the election and we worked with him to put a unity slate together. We’re trying to bring the party together. That’s what —


WALLACE: Wait, because I think this is interesting. You’re saying that you’re working with the Senate majority leader, who to a lot of the grassroots is a symbol of the problem?

MANAFORT: We’re working with party officials and that was an example on Saturday where we could have — we won the state. We could have gone in there and tried to be disruptive as Cruz does in these states.

Manafort’s lobbying firm has been termed “the torturer’s lobby”, having represented Filipino dictator Marcos, Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi, ousted Ukrainian president and Putin ally Victor Yanukovych, to name but a few.

Yes, Donald Trump would be vastly superior to Hillary Clinton, because a malfunctioning pencil sharpener would be vastly superior to Hillary Clinton.

But anyone expecting Trump to fight the McConnells and Ryans and the Chamber of Commerce is going to sorely disappointed. Trump has surrounded himself with Beltway cronies, lobbyists and insiders. He is a longtime Democrat and liberal.

That is what he is and will always be. Caveat emptor. (For more from the author of “TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHIEF/LOBBYIST MANAFORT: Yeah, We’re Secretly Working With Mitch McConnell” please click HERE)

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Top GOP Official Calling for McConnell to Resign

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By Ralph Z. Hallow. With John Boehner now departing as House speaker, an influential Republican Party official is now seeking the ouster of another GOP leader who has frustrated conservatives: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“McConnell needs to resign!!” Louisiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere wrote in a Facebook posting.

Mr. Villere isn’t just any Republican. He’s the longest-serving state GOP chairman in the nation, with 12 years on the job, and is the vice chairman of the Republican National Committee, the GOP’s national governing body. He also serves on the RNC’s executive committee that makes decisions alongside Chairman Reince Priebus.

“Mitch is a good and honorable guy, but the base is leaving our party,” Mr. Villere said in an interview with The Washington Times. “I’m out in the field all the time and we have all our elections this year for state offices, and it’s hurting us tremendously with our elections.”

Aides for Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, did not return repeated calls and emails seeking comment. A spokeswoman for Mr. Priebus said he was unavailable Sunday. (Read more from “Top GOP Official Calling for McConnell to Resign” HERE)

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Conservatives to 2016 GOP Field: Defy Us at Your Own Peril

By Steve Peoples and Jill Colvin. The Republican Party’s conservative wing, pumped up by House Speaker John Boehner’s stepping down, is warning the 2016 presidential candidates that defying its wishes will come at their peril.

Religious activists forcefully conveyed this message Saturday: embrace our uncompromising stance against abortion rights and gay marriage, among other priorities, even if doing so risks a federal government shutdown.

An emboldened conservative movement signals fresh trouble for White House candidates viewed by the party’s frustrated base as insufficiently committed to their cause. Chief among them is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. (Read more from this story HERE)

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No Surprise: Mitch McConnell Has Funded the Abortion Industry for Years

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants you to think he opposes the effort to defund Planned Parenthood in the continuing resolution (CR) because it could cause a government shutdown.

He also wants you to think it’s because he doesn’t have 60 votes in the Senate when in fact it only takes 41 votes to filibuster funding for the organization . . .

Here are the facts that he doesn’t want you to know:

(1) In 1992, McConnell voted to allow taxpayer-funded research using body parts from aborted babies . . .

(2) Also in 1992, McConnell voted to overturn the so-called “Reagan Rule” that prohibited Planned Parenthood from using taxpayer dollars for pro-abortion counseling.

(Read more from “No Surprise: Mitch McConnell Has Funded the Abortion Industry for Years” HERE)

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