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Senate Confirms Mick Mulvaney as OMB Director

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The Senate voted 51-49 Thursday to confirm Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., who will be tasked with addressing the nation’s $20 trillion in national debt, as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Mulvaney, a Republican representing South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District in the House since 2011, will be responsible for directing the budget process and reforming entitlement policy at the Office of Management and Budget.

Romina Boccia, deputy director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an email that Mulvaney has a proven track record of conservative leadership.

“With the national debt soon to exceed $20 trillion as spending on health care, old-age entitlements, and net interest is projected to grow steeply, driving our debt to ever greater heights, it’s extremely encouraging to see a fiscal conservative with a conservative track record, such as Mick Mulvaney, confirmed as director of the White House budget office,” Boccia said.

Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said Mulvaney will serve President Donald Trump’s administration well.

“The House’s loss is President Trump’s gain,” the North Carolina Republican said in a statement. “In my time serving in Congress, Mick Mulvaney is truly one of the sharpest minds and most principled men I have come to know. His passion for his work and his relentless commitment to fiscal responsibility will make him a tremendous OMB director.”

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., voted against Mulvaney’s confirmation, citing concerns that Mulvaney would support cuts to military funding.

During his confirmation hearing, Mulvaney acknowledged the importance of the military.

“The No. 1 priority of the United States federal government is to defend the nation,” Mulvaney said.

Other Republican lawmakers, however, voiced full confidence in Mulvaney’s ability to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Mulvaney will “improve the way government does the people’s business.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., said Mulvaney is a “tireless advocate” for a responsible budget.

“Mick Mulvaney has been a tireless advocate for a sustainable budget that reduces the national debt,” Black said in a statement. “ … I am confident he will be a great partner in the White House as we work toward a balanced budget.”

Mulvaney has been a leader of the conservative movement in Congress.

He is one of the founding members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of members in the House who “support open, accountable, and limited government; the Constitution and the rule of law; and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans.”

Before representing South Carolina in the House, Mulvaney served in the South Carolina state Senate.

In Congress, Mulvaney served on the House Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Boccia said she is confident that Mulvaney will work to reform entitlement programs and address government spending.

“I am hopeful he’ll be able to move the needle in the right direction on entitlement reforms, tackling the nation’s out-of-control spending and debt problem head on, to secure opportunity and prosperity for current and future generations,” she said. (For more from the author of “Senate Confirms Mick Mulvaney as OMB Director” please click HERE)

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History Was Just Made in the Senate — and Hell Hath Frozen Over

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If you’ve been around politics for at least five minutes or more, you learn there are certain unwritten rules that conservatives are just supposed to accept to our own detriment. And if you stick around another five minutes longer, you learn those unwritten rules are never to be applied the other way to our favor.

Until now.

Last week there was a shocking sight in Washington. Something not seen since the days when everybody smoked like John Boehner. In fact, we here at Conservative Review didn’t believe it ourselves at first, but we can now confirm that just happened.

A moderate-to-liberal Republican evolved to the Right.

That’s right my fellow randomly evolved via natural process alone primates. If there really was such a thing as Hell it would’ve instantly frozen over at the visual alone of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (F, 30%) standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (A, 97%) — whom he once joked about killing on the floor of the Senate — arguing for the defunding of the United Nations, otherwise known as the progressives’ Taj Mahal.

And it even happened on MSNBC, no less.

“Jesus, take the wheel.”

“Rapture me now.”

“This is the big one. I’m comin’ for you.”

“Goodbye cruel world!”

Whichever parting words you prefer are now appropriate. For there was Graham, the sort of Republican who would typically offer to give the UN even more of our money than the Democrats ask for just to show he’s not one of us, being one of us. Of course, this leads to instant and suspicious speculation, and you really can’t blame conservatives for it. Lucy has pulled the football away from us so often we don’t even try to kick it anymore. We just embarrassingly fall down on our own when it’s offered just to get the disappointment over with.

“What did Cruz sell us out on in return?”

“Let me guess, this doesn’t really defund anything and that’s why Lindsey Grahamnesty supported it, right”

“Maybe defunding the UN isn’t a good idea at all if John McCain’s, R-Ariz. (F, 32%) lap poodle is for it?”

Far be it for Mr. Total Depravity here to be a beacon of hope, but perhaps we should just shut up listen to nana when she taught us “never look a gift horse in the mouth.” I know it seems unlikely, but perhaps Graham simply saw how overtly anti-Israel the UN’s latest actions are and decided to act on his courage of conviction?

Stop laughing. No, really, I wasn’t trying to be funny. That might’ve happened. I mean, it’s not like we just elected a reality TV star, who violated every unwritten rule of decorum and protocol, to the presidency or something.

So maybe it is a brand new day? Or maybe a leopard really never changes his spots? Or maybe we should just be adults and practice that whole discernment thing we tend to cast aside for pack-like, binary-choice thinking. Remember that adults draw distinctions, because the world — as well as the people in it — are more complicated than simple either-or at all times scenarios.

Sometimes people are right for the wrong reasons, and sometimes they’re wrong for the right ones. Sometimes the people you disagree with on everything else are right about this one thing, and sometimes the people you do agree with on everything else are wrong about this one.

In fact, I’ve found myself agreeing with Graham more in the past month than I have the past decade. Why? Because I think he’s been right, that’s why. That doesn’t mean we’re right about what we agree on, by the way, but it does mean as an adult I have a choice to make. Do I believe the truth is the truth, regardless of the one wielding it? Or do I believe truth is determined by the one wielding it? In other words, is truth its own transcendent thing to be sought and found, or do we make our own truth or determine what the truth is?

One view of truth makes you a conservative, and the other doesn’t. Can you guess which is which?

So, yes, typically Graham has not been my kind of Republican. And back when I still was a Republican it’s unlikely I was his type, too. A child considers that knowledge and doesn’t accept Graham’s help when it’s offered, but instead criticizes its own ally like Cruz for accepting it. An adult takes help whenever it’s offered, even from unconventional sources, provided it doesn’t require compromising your own integrity in return and is grateful for it.

And I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention lately, but America is suffering from a dearth of adults at the moment.

“When I was a child I thought, spoke, and reasoned as a child. When I became an adult I set aside such childish things.” – St. Paul

(For more from the author of “History Was Just Made in the Senate — and Hell Hath Frozen Over” please click HERE)

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What’s Going on With the Senate Races?

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It’s Labor day. There’s roughly two months to go before Election day, and while the media has been obsessed with coverage of the presidential election, less attention has been paid to U.S. Senate races.

It is very possible control of the United States Senate could change hands this November. With Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. (F, 2%) retiring, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY (F, 2%) is next in line to become majority leader should the Democrats wrest control from the hands of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY. (F, 42%).

As rated by the Cook Political Report, there are nine Senate races that could be considered “toss-ups” right now. Of those nine, eight seats are currently held by Republicans and only one is held by the Democrats.

Those nine senate races are in: Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Remember, the Democrats only need to win five seats to obtain a majority in the Senate; just four seats if Hillary Clinton wins the election and Tim Kaine can break ties in the Senate.

So where do these races stand? Let’s go state by state, looking at polling data obtained from Real Clear Politics and financial information obtained from the Federal Election Commission to find out.

Florida

The Republican candidate is incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (C, 77%). After initially denying that he would seek a second term in the Senate, Rubio was tapped by Republican leadership and GOP nominee Donald Trump to run for reelection following his unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for president.

The Democratic candidate is Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla. (F, 13%). There has been controversy surrounding Murphy’s campaign after he was caught lying about his experience as an accountant. Liberals are also unhappy with Murphy, perceiving him to be too moderate.

Rubio has had a consistent lead in Florida polls. The RCP average of recent Florida polls currently has Rubio up 5.7 points as of last Friday. Rubio also has the advantage in fundraising. He has raised an impressive $53 million, a war-chest doubtless supplemented by donors who contributed to his presidential campaign. Rubio has spent a good chunk of that money, with his campaign having $4.7 million ending cash on hand.

Murphy has raised much less, clocking in at $11 million. He will be hard pressed to build his name ID against an incumbent Senator who is prepared to vastly out spend him. His campaign currently has $3.9 million ending cash on hand.

Illinois

Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. (F, 17%), fearing for his political life, became the first member of Congress to repudiate his party’s nominee. His opponent, Democrat Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. (F, 15%), is an Iraq War veteran and wounded warrior, having lost her legs when the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was shot down in 2004. She has been traveling extensively around the state of Illinois in a vigorous campaign to unseat Sen. Kirk.

National Republicans seem uninterested in investing resources to preserve this seat, and Kirk is lagging behind Duckworth in fundraising. Duckworth has $5.5 million ending cash on hand to Kirk’s $3.1 million.

This race has seldom been polled and Real Clear Politics currently does not have an average of polls available. The last major polling firm to poll the race was Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, which found Duckworth has a slight 3-pt lead at the end of July.

Indiana

The U.S. Senate election in Indiana is for an open seat, with incumbent Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind. (F, 42%) declining to seek reelection. The Republicans nominated Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind. (F, 53%), while the Democrats recruited former Sen. Evan Bayh to run for the seat.

Bayh has a considerable name recognition advantage, as he previously held the seat from 1999-2011. His father Birch Bayh held it before him from 1963-1981. He entered the race late, however, prompting the Democratic nominee who won the primary to withdraw his candidacy. Bayh’s late entry makes it difficult to ascertain how much money his campaign has on hand, as it will not be reported until the next FEC report. Republican Todd Young has $1.2 million cash on hand.

The only poll recorded by RCP has Bayh up seven points as of mid-August. Democrats in Indiana hope his name id will make up for his late start to help them win the seat.

New Hampshire

In the Granite State, incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. (F, 32%) is squaring off against the Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan. Both are incumbent politicians who have appeared on statewide ballots previously, so both candidates are well-known.

The Republican Party is fighting hard to keep Ayotte in the Senate, and she is currently sitting with $7 million cash on hand. Gov. Hassan has $4.2 million on hand, and has spent about $1 million less than Ayotte.

It is a very close race, with Hassan leading by a difference of less than one point in the RCP Average.

Nevada

The Senate race in Nevada is the only close race this cycle in which the prize is a seat held by a Democratic member of Congress. Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev. (F, 2%) announced his retirement in March of 2015. Former Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. will face Republican Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev. (F, 40%) in November.

The Democrat, Cortez Masto has raised roughly $1.5 million more total than Heck, who has also spent about $2.4 million than his Democratic opponent, although Heck has more cash on hand: $4.7 million to Cortez Masto’s $3.4 million.

The polls show a close race with both candidates tied at 37 percent as of mid-August.

North Carolina

Incumbent Senator Richard Burr, R-N.C. (F, 41%) leads his Democratic opponent Deborah Ross in both fundraising and polling.

Burr’s campaign coffers are brimming with $8.3 million total raised and $6.9 million ending cash on hand. The Democratic candidate Ross hasn’t raised half as much as that and has only $1.9 million on hand. Burr is in a very good position to spend the last few weeks of the campaign vastly outspending his opponent with television and radio ads.

Burr’s lead in the polls is slimmer, ahead by only 2.6 points in the RCP average, but that’s out performing other Republicans in toss-up states. Burr’s cash on hand should help him maintain that lead.

Ohio

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio (F, 49%) is widely expected to win reelection in the Buckeye State. Though his Democratic opponent Ted Strickland is the former governor of Ohio, and as such has a higher name ID than an unknown challenger, Portman has been leading in the polls and has even earned the endorsements of four Ohio labor unions—typically not a GOP constituency.

Portman has blown Strickland away in terms of fundraising, raising $13 million to the Democrat’s $6.6 million. He is currently leading Strickland in the RCP average by 7.5 points.

Democrats are so unenthused about their chances that two Democratic outside spending groups have delayed “tens of thousands of dollars in television ads supporting Strickland.”

Pennsylvania

Democrats are more enthusiastic about unseating Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. (D, 61%) who is facing a tough reelection battle against Kathleen McGinty, the former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Recent polling has put McGinty in the lead by four or five points, depending on the poll, and she leads in the average by 1.8 points.

Toomey has the fundraising advantage, however, with $7.6 million cash on hand to McGinty’s $2.4 million. Toomey has outspent McGinty 3-to-1. If the polls are accurate though, McGinty’s dollars seem to be having more impact.

Wisconsin

The race in Wisconsin is a rematch between incumbent Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis. (F, 58%) and the former senator he defeated in the Tea-Party uprising of 2010, Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

It’s looking bad for Johnson. Russ Feingold is leading him by nearly 10 points in the RCP average and is also outstripping him in fundraising. Feingold has raised $15.6 million and is currently is holding $7 million cash on hand while Johnson raised $11 million with $5.7 million cash on hand. Feingold has outspent Johnson by about $2 million.

And there is where things stand.

Should the Democrats win the White House, they will need to pick up four Senate seats to obtain a majority (with ‘Vice President Kaine’ breaking ties). The Republicans that seem to be in the deepest trouble are Mark Kirk of Illinois and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. That’s two.

Can these GOP candidates use the next two months to pull up their bootstraps and keep the Senate out of Democratic hands? (For more from the author of “What’s Going on With the Senate Races?” please click HERE)

What’s Going on With the Senate Races?

GOP-Led Senate Passing Bills at Rate Not Seen in Decades

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The Senate is off to its best year since 1990 by at least one measure, with more than 30 of its bills having been signed into law by President Obama.

Eighteen months into Republican control of the Senate, the upper chamber has settled into a new normal. The partisan fights remain, and senators aren’t spending much time on the floor debating bills — but they are passing them, and at a surprising cli

All told, including the 31 Senate bills and 42 House-written bills, Congress approved 73 measures that Mr. Obama signed into law from January through the end of June. That’s nearly three times the number of bills approved in the first six months of 2015 and 20 more than in 2014, which was the last year Democrats had control of the Senate.

“The new Republican Congress, under the leadership of Sen. McConnell, operates under a dramatically different approach than the Democrats in the previous Congress,” Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said in a statement. “Sen. McConnell opened the Senate, and despite efforts by the Democrat leadership to block bipartisan legislation, we have returned to a more functioning Senate, and allowed senators to participate in the legislative process. While this isn’t the easy way, it allowed members to have more than dysfunction to show for their time in the Senate.”

Democrats say Congress doesn’t deserve the platitudes. (Read more from “GOP-Led Senate Passing Bills at Rate Not Seen in Decades” HERE)

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Time To Remove RINO Grassley From Chairman of Senate Judiciary

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There is ubiquitous sense of betrayal among Republican voters. They went to the polls in 2014 to elect a Republican Senate and out popped a Senate controlled by Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer. Nowhere is this identity crisis more evident than within the Senate Judiciary Committee under the stewardship of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

Grassley is, by all accounts, an incredibly nice man. People in Washington and his home state of Iowa speak very highly of him.

Grassley was a fresh-faced conservative in 1980. But he has served 36 years in the Senate, and is seeking a seventh term (which, if he were to complete it, would mean he would serve in the Senate for 42 years). It’s possible that Grassley is still the same conservative warrior he was in 1980 in his heart, but his “leadership” of the Senate Judiciary Committee raises serious questions about whether he is the right person to lead that all-too-important committee.

As we note in his profile, Grassley is “perhaps one of the most ideologically complex members of the Senate.” Coupled with his weak grasp of judicial issues, Grassley’s inconsistent foundation has proven a disaster as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. After being term limited as Chairman of the Finance Committee, Grassley, who has no formal legal training, shoved Jeff Sessions aside for the lead spot on Judiciary in 2011, even though Sessions was eminently more qualified.

Beyond these general concerns, there are recent, more specific reasons why Grassley might not be the right standard-bearer for Republicans on this committee.

Jail Break

Grassley has spent the first half of this allegedly Republican-led Congress catering to a laundry list of leftist legislative items and policy preferences. But one example predominates: A longtime and vocal opponent of the Smarter Sentencing Act and other misguided bills aiming to release dangerous drug traffickers and drug dealers, he is now the leader of a bipartisan effort to release not only drug traffickers and drug dealers, but traffickers and dealers who possessed firearms while committing their crimes.

This bill was a horrific idea a year ago, but as police blotters across the nation reveal the new crimes being committed each and every day by federal drug felons who were released from prison early, the legislation is becoming downright insane. And of course, we have not heard a peep from Grassley in terms of oversight of the DOJ’s war on police and its role in rising crime rates.

Judges

On judges, Grassley’s record is equally disappointing. Notwithstanding the fact that President Obama has appointed roughly 31% of all federal circuit court judges and 37% of all district court judges in the United States, Grassley seems to be tripping over himself to help Obama fill every last remaining judicial seat before Obama walks out the door on January 20, 2017. The actions are akin to a senator that actively wants Obama’s Constitution-mangling judges on the bench, since such judges make it easier for his fellow senators to avoid leadership by shirking decision-making to a leftist bench.

Raw numbers aside, Grassley has also let more than a few radical judges move through the committee to confirmation, forgetting that his role is to prevent the names of such radical judges from ever making it onto the Senate floor. The most recent (but certainly not the only) example is new federal district court judge Wilhelmina Wright, who helped publish an article in law school where she openly discussed the “whiteness” of private property and the belief that people living in poor neighborhoods might have a substantive right to move into wealthy neighborhoods. Grassley was asleep at the switch with this nominee. Wright was unfortunately confirmed, but many Republican senators woke up at the last minute to prevent her confirmation from being unanimous. Grassley failed in his constitutionally required gatekeeping role.

And of course, as the power of the judiciary continues to grow beyond even the worst nightmares of the Warren era, Grassley has not used the committee to hold hearings on judicial tyranny or propose judicial reform ideas.

Hearings

What about hearings? Surely, Grassley has thrown some punches on hearings? Planned Parenthood harvesting of fetal tissue, rampant IRS targeting and abuses, the war on immigration enforcement, a broken and racist Department of Justice, the administration’s blind eye toward domestic terrorism threats, Hillary Clinton’s private server, which exposed intelligence assets and collection methods… there is almost no end to the significant damage done to this Republic by the administration or to how its actions have breached the public trust. Surely, Grassley has looked into each of these with an aggressive desire to find the truth?

The reality will disappoint. Check out the lineup of hearings that Grassley has conducted at the full committee level. In the final days of what is perhaps the most corrupt administration this nation has ever seen, the Senate Judiciary Committee it tackling weak-sauce topics like the transparency of asbestos trusts and ensuring a right to counsel for federal misdemeanor offenders. It is almost like they made a deal with the administration to avoid any and all topics that would even remotely make the president uncomfortable. This is a failure of the committee’s function and a disservice to the American people.

In fairness to Grassley, he has held some important hearings this Congress, including one examining the life-and-death nature of the sanctuary cities that are violating federal law, and another on the job-killing qualities of the H-1B visa program. But even in these instances, good legislation that was written in the wake of these hearings has stagnated, including sanctuary city defunding legislation and H-1B reform legislation. One might almost get the impression that these hearings and their resultant bills were done for show, to create the illusion of listening to the American people.

Grassley spends lot of his time during committee hearings and business meetings (seemingly, most of his time) talking about his “good friend from Vermont.” His good friend from Vermont, in case you didn’t know, is the extreme leftist senator and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). Based on the contours of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s actions this Congress, it is arguable that Grassley’s “good friend from Vermont” is dictating the agenda of the committee. Americans did not turn out to the polls in record numbers in 2014 to allow Patrick Leahy to finish Obama’s legislative agenda and push through as many radical leftist judges as time would allow.

Moreover, the committee hearings are often full of Democrat witnesses, including the former Iowa state Supreme Court justice who struck down the state’s marriage law, with the entire tenor and direction of the meetings rooted in far-left, anti-law enforcement premises. How about having a hearing with victims of anti-religious bigotry, such as the Kline family in Oregon?

The Judiciary Committee is not a JV panel. The Republican Party cannot afford to have a Senate Judiciary Committee that is happy just “being there.” Those days are gone, if they were ever here. Grassley’s dedication to the people of the state of Iowa is admirable, but the time has come for a more forceful, leftist-opposing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. No one can be sure what the future holds for the Republican Party, especially in its current dynamic, but the one thing that probably is a guarantee is that continued weak leadership by Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee will give Democrats back the Senate starting in 2017. Based on how the Senate Judiciary Committee is currently being run, we might not even notice when the changeover happens. (For more from the author of “Time to Remove RINO Grassley From Chairman of Senate Judiciary” please click HERE)

Watch a recent interview with the author below:

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Senate Approves Obama's Anti-Gun Surgeon General Nominee

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Credit - Newsy

Credit – Newsy

The Senate on Monday approved President Obama’s nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy to serve as U.S. surgeon general, despite opposition from Republicans and some Democrats over his support for gun control and past statements that gun violence is a public health issue.

Murthy, 37, a physician at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School, won confirmation on a vote of 51-43. He’s a co-founder of Doctors for America, a group that has pushed for affordable health care and supports Obama’s health care law.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said most of Murthy’s career has been spent as an activist focused on gun control and other political issues, rather than on treating patients. “Americans don’t want a surgeon general who might use this position of trust to promote his own personal campaign against the Second Amendment of the Constitution,” Barrasso said.

Supporters said Murthy is well-qualified and noted his promise not to use the position as a bully pulpit for gun control.

The nation has been without a Senate-confirmed surgeon general since July 2013. The surgeon general does not set policy but is an advocate for the people’s health.

Here is the Roll Call.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cromnibus Passes Senate – Here's the Roll Call

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Credit - Daily Signal

Credit – Daily Signal

The Senate tonight passed a $1.1 trillion bill to fund most of the federal government through the current fiscal year, averting another partial shutdown amid sharp disagreements on regulating immigration, financial institutions and election campaigns.

The Senate’s bipartisan 56-40 vote, coming after an unusual Saturday session, cleared the way for President Obama to sign the spending bill, which he has said he will do.

Senate conservatives, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had tried to slow passage of the bill — forcing senators to work the weekend rather than return Monday. They objected that it did not “defund” Obama’s executive actions to grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.

The upper chamber’s action follows a 219-206 vote by the House of Representatives less than three hours before a midnight deadline Thursday night. As in the House, both liberals and conservatives were unhappy with aspects of the spending bill.

When the final vote came just before 10, more Senate Democrats (21) voted against the bill than did Republicans (18), signaling the odd alliances created by the funding measure. One independent, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, also rejected the measure. (Here is the roll call.)

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Dems Dangerous CIA Report And The Top Republican Who Joined Them

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Screen Shot 2014-12-09 at 6.30.26 PMBy Julian Hattem and Kristina Wong.

Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released an exhaustive review of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects under President George W. Bush.

The executive summary of their controversial report runs more than 500 pages, and contains new information based on a review of more than 6 million classified documents provided by the CIA. Here are some of the highlights.

CIA wrongly held 26 people and accidentally interrogated sources

Of the 119 people detained and harshly questioned by the CIA during its program, at least 26 were wrongly held, the report concludes.

In one instance in the spring of 2004, the CIA realized that it had detained former sources only after shackling them upright in a position where they could not sleep for 24 hours.

“The two detainees had tried to contact the CIA on multiple occasions prior to their detention to inform the CIA of their activities and provide intelligence,” the report says, but their messages were not translated until after the interrogation.

Read more from this story HERE.

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McCain Joins With Dems In Support of CIA Report

By Alexandra Jaffe.

Republican Sen. John McCain broke with members of his party Tuesday, lauding the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture and decrying the use of torture as having “stained our national honor” and doing “much harm and little practical good.”

McCain, a survivor of torture himself from his Naval service during the Vietnam War, said from the Senate floor that the techniques outlined in the report “not only failed their purpose — to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies — but actually damaged our security interests, as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world.”

Many Republicans have argued against releasing the report, especially as the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria grows, and U.S. intelligence officials have warned that its release could cause backlash from nations and groups hostile towards the nation. American embassies in the Middle East have been put on heightened security alert for its release.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Intelligence Chairman Rogers: Report Will Spur Attacks

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Tensions grew Sunday over the impending release of a Senate report examining the alleged use of torture by the CIA, with a top House lawmaker saying that the release will cause “violence and deaths” abroad.

The comments by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, came after Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday urged Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the senator in charge of the report on CIA interrogations, to reconsider the timing of the release. Obama administration officials said they still support making the report public.

Rogers is regularly briefed on intelligence assessments. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that U.S. intelligence agencies and foreign governments have said privately that the release of the report on CIA interrogations a decade ago will be used by extremists to incite violence that is likely to cost lives.

“I think this is a terrible idea,” Rogers said. “Our foreign partners are telling us this will cause violence and deaths…Foreign leaders have approached the government and said, ‘You do this, this will cause violence and deaths.’ Our own intelligence community has assessed that this will cause violence and deaths.”

Rogers questioned why the report needed to become public, given that the Justice Department investigated and filed no criminal charges.

Read more from this story HERE.

O-Bliterated: Senate Flips, Republicans Ready to Rule

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Photo Credit: GettyEven A Blue State Republican Facing 20 Indictments Just Won

By Alex Griswold.

Congressman Michael Grimm, a New York Republican with 20 federal indictments against him, is now projected to win the 11th Congressional District.

Grimm, who allegedly paid employees under the table, hired illegal immigrants, and lied about it all under the oath, was expected to face a tough race…

Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: APGOP WANTS TO SHOW IT CAN GOVERN

By Jake Sherman and Burgess Everett.

The Senate flipped, John Boehner expanded his majority in the House and now Republicans want to show they can govern.

Before the election, top-level Republican aides and lawmakers described the strategy they hoped would let them notch some early victories before the presidential election season is in full swing in the second half of 2015 — a play by Boehner and other leaders to quickly shift away from crisis governing and toward a positive agenda.

At the top of the list is to get a funding bill passed to keep the government open through most of next year, freeing up the calendar to take on other issues like a GOP budget and a long-term highway bill.

Legislating won’t begin until after Thanksgiving. Both parties intend to spend the weeks immediately after election organizing for the new partisan makeup of Washington. Capitol Hill will burst back into action by Dec. 1, and that’s when serious lawmaking could break out.

Republicans are desperate to avoid fiscal fights in the first half of 2015, which is why they will try to use the first few weeks in December to pass a long-term spending bill to keep the government open through most of the next year. Funding runs dry Dec. 11, as does the authority for President Barack Obama’s administration to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels in their fight against the Islamic State. That provision could complicate the calculus for lawmakers’ hopes for a drama-free spending bill.

Read more from this story HERE.

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REPORT: EXEC AMNESTY ‘NO MATTER HOW BIG A SHELLACKING’ FOR DEMS

By Breitbart TV.

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jon Karl reported that according to WH officials “the president will move forward with an executive order on immigration reform “no matter how big a shellacking Democrats get tonight” during ABC’s Election coverage on Tuesday.

Karl said “White House officials are saying that you can expect the president to set an aggressive, and defiant tone tomorrow…”

Read more from this story HERE.