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Hagel Has Enough Support For Defense Secretary

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Photo Credit: Susan Walsh/APBarring any new, damaging information, Chuck Hagel has secured the necessary votes for the Senate to confirm him to be the nation’s next defense secretary. A vote ending the bitter fight over President Barack Obama’s choice for his revamped second-term, national security team is expected next week.

Hagel cleared the threshold when five-term Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said he would vote for the former GOP senator from Nebraska after joining other Republicans last week in an unprecedented filibuster of the Pentagon nominee.

“He’s probably as good as we’re going to get,” Shelby told the Decatur (Ala.) Daily.

Although a Republican, Hagel has faced strong GOP opposition, with many of his former colleagues voting last week to stall the nomination. Republicans have questioned Hagel’s support for Israel, tolerance of Iran and willingness to cut the nuclear arsenal. His opposition to the Iraq war after his initial vote for the conflict angered his onetime friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

GOP lawmakers demanded more time to review the nomination that a divided Armed Services Committee had approved on a party-line vote.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ted Cruz Has the Establishment in Panic Mode

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Photo Credit: Doug MillsAs the Senate edged toward a divisive filibuster vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sat silent and satisfied in the corner of the chamber — his voice lost to laryngitis — as he absorbed what he had wrought in his mere seven weeks of Senate service.

Mr. Hagel, a former senator from Mr. Cruz’s own party, was about to be the victim of the first filibuster of a nominee to lead the Pentagon. The blockade was due in no small part to the very junior senator’s relentless pursuit of speeches, financial records or any other documents with Mr. Hagel’s name on them going back at least five years. Some Republicans praised the work of the brash newcomer, but others joined Democrats in saying that Mr. Cruz had gone too far.

Without naming names, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, offered a biting label for the Texan’s accusatory crusade: McCarthyism.

“It was really reminiscent of a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such and such a date,’ and, of course, nothing was in the pocket,” she said, a reference to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s pursuit of Communists in the 1950s. “It was reminiscent of some bad times.”

In just two months, Mr. Cruz, 42, has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years. Besides suggesting that Mr. Hagel might have received compensation from foreign enemies, he has tangled with the mayor of Chicago, challenged the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat on national television, voted against virtually everything before him — including the confirmation of John Kerry as secretary of state — and raised the hackles of colleagues from both parties.

He could not be more pleased. Washington’s new bad boy feels good.

Read more from this story HERE.

Murkowski Joins Dems in Failed Attempt to Force Confirmation Vote on Hagel Nomination For Defense Secretary

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Photo Credit: Secretary of DefenseSenate Republicans in a 58-40 vote Thursday blocked former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s (R-Neb.) nomination as Defense secretary from proceeding to a final up-or-down vote.

Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mike Johanns (Neb.)— joined 55 Democrats and Independents in supporting the nomination. Sixty votes were needed to cut off debate, leaving Democrats one vote short.

The final 58-40 tally reflected a no vote from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who switched his vote from yes to preserve his ability to bring up the nomination again.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) voted present and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) missed the vote. Republicans said it was too early to clear Hagel’s nomination, but that they would consider allowing an up-or-down vote after the Senate returns to business on Feb. 25.

They blamed Democrats for rushing the vote and the White House for not providing additional information about Hagel’s compensation for paid speeches.

Read more from this story HERE.

Judd Uncertain of 2014 Run: McConnell Now At-Risk of Conservative Challenger

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Photo Credit: Genevieve719Actress Ashley Judd and Indy Car driver Dario Franchitti are ending their marriage after 11 years, and, yes, the news impacts Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Judd is weighing whether to jump into politics and challenge McConnell in Kentucky in 2014. She was in Washington for the inauguration and attended an event at EMILY’s List, the group that backs pro-choice Democratic women running for governor or Congress. Judd even carpooled with Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who demonstrated she knows how to win in a red state after defeating the self-injurious Todd Akin.

In a statement, the former couple said they mutually agreed to end the marriage. Judd tweeted at Franchitti suggesting they plan to remain close — making a reference to “family,” an awfully politically correct tweet.

Given this development, there’s a chance Judd won’t want to jump into a messy political campaign.

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DeMint On Prospect of Jenny Sanford Replacing Him: ‘She’s Great’

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WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim DeMint suggested in a brief interview with The Daily Caller on Thursday that he would approve if former South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford is tapped to take over the Senate seat he is vacating next month.

“She’s great,” DeMint said Thursday afternoon, as he walked off the Senate floor after a vote.

DeMint, a Republican, announced last week that he’s resigning from the U.S. Senate to take over as head of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based conservative think tank.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will appoint DeMint’s successor. Haley is thought to be considering at least five people for the seat, including Sanford, whose ex-husband, Mark Sanford, was governor of the state.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate votes to raise taxes on 1.2 million small businesses, over 700,000 may lose jobs

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Photo credit: Sean MacEntee

Yesterday, the Senate narrowly voted (51-48) to raise taxes on 1.2 million small businesses, which will likely kill more than 700,000 jobs at a time when nearly 13 million Americans are out of work. Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Jim Webb (D-VA) joined all Republicans in bipartisan opposition to the tax hike.

This is President Obama’s economic plan. This is what he asked Congress to do. And he recently told a fundraising crowd that his economic plan has been working.

“Just like we’ve tried [Republicans’] plan, we tried our plan—and it worked,” he said.

But Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, said yesterday that “the economy is not growing fast enough,” acknowledging that “unemployment is very high.” “The institutions with authority should be doing everything they can to try to make economic growth stronger,” he said.

The President’s plan, now endorsed by the Democratic majority in the Senate, has little chance of going anywhere in the House of Representatives. But it has put the 51 Senators who want to raise taxes on record.

Perhaps the biggest lie in the tax debate is that this vote affects only “the rich.” That’s simply not true. Many small businesses, known as flow-through businesses, pay their taxes through the individual income tax. Ernst and Young estimates that these types of businesses “employ 54% of the private sector work force.” This tax hike squarely hits 1.2 million of these businesses that hire workers and have incomes above $200,000.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska’s GOP Rep. Young endorses extreme-liberal Democrat for US Senate (+video)

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Today, Alaska’s long-time lone U.S. Representative Don Young endorsed pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, and pro-Obamacare Democrat Mazie Hirono in the contested U.S. Senate Race in Hawaii.  Young’s shocking support of a liberal Democrat is even more surprising given the fact that this candidate received an “F – –” – that’s right an, F minus minus – from Gun Owners of America.

This fall, Hirono will face one of two Republicans in the general, either pro-life former state legislator John Carroll or former GOP Governor Linda Lingle.

In the below-advertisement for liberal Hirono, Representative Young explains that his support for Hirono arises out of their bipartisan efforts on native issues.  In other words, they’ve been working aggressively together to continue the cycle of government dependency in Alaska and Hawaii.  And just why is Representative Young so confident that he’ll escape accountability this fall for his endorsement of a Democratic US Senate candidate that supports all the wrong issues?  Because he apparently believes any successful Alaskan candidate needs only the support of the crony capitalists, establishment types, and Alaska native corporations to win.  Looks like Don Young thinks he learned something from Alaska’s 2010 US Senate race.

Here’s the video: