Tag: gop

Republican party coming out in support for Uber’s cheaper cab rides.

Short version: it’s an app that matches people who need a taxi to somewhere with a local driver willing to sell them a ride.  The taxi companies hate it with the white-hot fury of a billion exploding suns, because it’s: cheaper; more reliable; more transparent (you can look up the drivers and leave feedback on rides); and threatens to make a taxi medallion pretty much worthless.  Which is why some urban areas – Democratic controlled, naturally – are starting to protect the taxi companies by effectively banning cheaper cab rides.

But that’s fine: that means that the GOP can weigh in on the side of free markets and cheaper cab rides.  I am so totally happy to encourage them to do that:

The RNC last week launched a pro-free market, anti-government regulations petition to show support for the Uber – building their own lists and raising money in the process.

“Government has a role to play, but that role isn’t to protect the status quo. It should be consumers, not government bureaucrats or legislators, that decide what companies get our business,” Priebus said.

Priebus echoed that sentiment with an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune, coordinated with the RNC’s annual summer meeting in that city, that lauded Uber-friendly Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner over Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.

Continue reading Republican party coming out in support for Uber’s cheaper cab rides.

Cook Political Report House race update: 17 races +GOP, 4 +Dem.

This is not precisely a ‘Boom!’

…and I’d hold off calling DOOM on this, either. But it’s getting there. There are two interesting data points, here:

  1. Cook’s main ratings now show that there are five Republican seats that are seriously at risk of flipping, as opposed to fifteen Democratic ones.
  2. Looking at the race changes themselves: Cook took 6 Republicans and one Democrat effectively off of the board completely by rating their races as Solid.  Cook also put one race  (IA-02) into play by upgrading it from Solid Democratic to Likely Democratic.

That last point is important because it shows in stark relief the shrinking of the Democratic playing field. Right now Cook ranks the house as: 204 Solid Republican, 160 Solid Democratic. The Republicans currently control 15 seats that are ranked Likely Republican: even if you spot the Democratic party every other race (including the two Democratic-controlled seats that are ranked Likely Republican) the GOP would still have a majority in the House next year. Not that will happen: what is expected to happen is that the Democrats will probably lose a net six seats or so. Continue reading Cook Political Report House race update: 17 races +GOP, 4 +Dem.

Quote of the Day, I Love This Long-Term Plan For The GOP By @TheRickWilson edition.

Rick does not believe in impeachment, for a very practical reason – to wit: there is no plan* – but he does believe in pain, and how the GOP can apply it to the executive branch in 2015 and beyond. Basically, it’s So you like bureaucracy, huh?  Here! Have some!

Congress should be devouring the bandwidth of the targeted agencies. Flooding the zone with requests, constant depositions of senior leaders, a constant legal barrage of inquiry for every email, every piece of paper, everything, all the time. Who cares if we use it? Torture them every minute of the day and force them to live in fear of contempt charges. Make their execs lawyer up, and dig dig dig at every inconsistency.

Second, the power of the purse is entirely underutilized, and Congress as a rule has no creativity. Don’t cooperate? Zero out every executive bonus in the agency for a decade. Don’t cooperate? No more conferences, training seminars, trips. Don’t cooperate? No more drivers for senior execs. Don’t cooperate? Every construction project for every building your agency wants is zeroed. Don’t cooperate? We’re relocating 98% of your manpower to Omaha. Don’t cooperate? Zero out the public affairs budget. Don’t cooperate? Every program with ‘green’ ‘affirmative’ ‘equal opportunity’ ‘LGBT’ ‘diversity’ or ‘awareness’ is zeroed out.

Sure, it sounds petty, but the agency people we’re talking about are the most parochial, small-minded bureaucratic weasels, and their perks and powers are all they care about. All it takes is a more bloody-minded approach.

Continue reading Quote of the Day, I Love This Long-Term Plan For The GOP By @TheRickWilson edition.

Thank God: the 2016 GOP convention will be in Cleveland, OH.

I got nothing against Dallas, but Texas gets hot in the summertime. And Cleveland is a nice, respectable, straightforward choice. We are going to be running the Mother Of All A Return To Normalcy campaigns in 2016: there is a time for drama and there is a time for no-drama, and this is a time for no-drama.

Via Hot Air: I’m surprised that they didn’t use this video.

Tweet of the Day, Mitt Romney Does The GOP A Solid edition.

The funny part is, you can easily believe that Mitt Romney means it when he indicates that he won’t run again.

He’s a pretty honest guy, is what I’m saying. Honest. Reliable. Steady. Obviously not good at campaigning, but, shoot, he’s going to make a great Cabinet Secretary in 2017.

Rumors that Establishment GOP is backing off in MS-SEN.

There will be a great and terrible compulsion for some to cackle over this.

Establishment Republicans are in a tough spot in Mississippi.

They want Thad Cochran to win the coming runoff, and could spend tons of cash to attack tea-party challenger Chris McDaniel. But they know the sitting senator is more likely to lose, and going after his opponent will only damage the party’s ability to beat the Democratic candidate and take over the Senate.

Don’t.  They’re going in the direction many of you probably want them to go.  Kicking them along the way might feel nice, but it also runs the risk of stiffening their spines.

 

NRSC: Senate map is nicely expanding for the GOP.

A quick bite:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, a group tasked with getting Republicans elected to the Senate, believes Republicans have expanded the 2014 playing field with five more contested races as the GOP seeks to retake control of the chamber.

In a memo released to consultants Friday morning, NRSC political director Ward Baker writes that Republicans have become competitive in Colorado, New Hampshire, Virginia, Oregon and Minnesota since the start of the year.

Continue reading NRSC: Senate map is nicely expanding for the GOP.

Hey, everybody! @TheFix wrote a GREAT campaign ad for the GOP! #obamacare

Here.

Close your eyes for a minute and fast forward to October. And imagine yourself sitting in a Charlotte hotel room watching TV. And this ad comes on: “Kay Hagan voted for Obamacare, a law whose rollout was so botched that a million people decided to not even sign up for health coverage. And the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says Obamacare will cost America 2 million jobs. Kay Hagan voted wrong. Now it’s time to vote her out.” That’s a VERY tough hit on any Democratic incumbent who voted for the Affordable Care Act.

…RUN THAT PUPPY. Run a version in every state with a Democratic incumbent. It’s not the Holy Grail, but as written it’s danged useable. I might suggest we also try a version that ends with If you like your Senator, you can keep your Senator… but that’s just me.

Thanks, Chris Cillizza!

Moe Lane

Primaries and the eternal Establishment v. Insurgency debate.

I understand why Glenn Reynolds is bugged about this, but there’s a structural issue in the primary system that’s going to exist independently of how the GOP sets it up.  To wit: there are three groups in the GOP.

  • Group A largely thinks that while the political system can of course be improved, and in fact could be improved quite comprehensively, the system as such would work fine, so long as Group B would only stop messing with things that they do not understand before it catches on fire and kills us all.
  • Group B largely thinks that Group A has taken a perfectly good political system and smacked it sixteen or so times with a hammer, grabbed what fell off and used it for their own benefit, and is now actively trying to stop Group B from fixing the mechanism before it catches on fire and kills us all.
  • Both groups are dwarfed by Group C, which largely feels that whoever makes it through the primary system will be fine enough, and look, we have people in the party who worry about the politics for us, and they’re all patriotic Americans, right?

Continue reading Primaries and the eternal Establishment v. Insurgency debate.

Tweet of the Day, The #GOP MUST Tell Their Stories Every. Single. Day. edition.

All of the GOP. Every committee. Every politician. Every group. Put faces to the pain that Barack Obama is imposing on the public.

Don’t get me wrong: this post by Speaker Boehner’s office is also good information to have. But I want more. I want to start hearing a little regional dialect in our politicians’ voices whenever they start talking about this monstrosity of a health care coverage disaster. I know they’re as angry as I am; I encourage them to start showing a bit of it.