Hotline Sort: Failure To Launch
By Sean Sullivan // July 29, 2011 | 8:16 a.m.
Updated: August 1, 2011 | 7:15 p.m.
Welcome back to Hotline Sort. There's deadlock in the House, as conservative Republicans refuse to budge, the NRCC up with a big ad buy in NV-02 and liberal groups begin to play House hardball. Here's today's rundown:
7) As GOP freshman in the House ponder whether or not to support House Speaker John Boehner's debt ceiling proposal, Sarah Palin offered the group a not-so-subtle reminder on her Facebook page Thursday, asking them to re-read a letter she sent them in November of 2010. The key line: "P.S. Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries."
6) The National Republican Congressional Committee's first television ad in Nevada's 2nd District special election -- which comes the same week that Democratic nominee Kate Marshall launched an ad that goes after her GOP opponent, Mark Amodei -- focuses squarely on the economy, and refutes Marshall's claims about her record on the issue. House Race Hotline's Jessica Taylor has the story.
5) Americans United For Change is teaming up with AFSCME, SEIU, and NEA to launch what they say is a six-figure television ad campaign today warning seven House Republicans and Sen. Dean Heller , R-Nev., that if Congress does not act on the debt ceiling by Tuesday, Social Security checks and veterans' benefits could be at risk.
"Tell Sen. Heller to stop holding the interests of ordinary Americans hostage," says the ad mentioning Heller.. The other spots target Reps. Bobby Schilling, R-Ill. Steve King, R-Iowa, Chip Cravaack, R-Minn. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., Ann Marie Buerkle, R-N.Y., Lou Barletta, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.
4) A Republican Senate contender in Maryland? Del.
Patrick McDonough said he would take a serious look at making a Senate bid or run for the House in the 2nd District, with the determining factor being redistricting, the
Baltimore Sun reports.
3) Visiting the National Press Club Tuesday, Rep.
Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said she wants the conversation surrounding her presidential campaign to be on her,
not her family. "I'm extremely proud of my husband; I have tremendous respect and admiration for him," she said. "But I am running for the presidency of the United States. My husband is not running for the presidency. Neither are my children, neither is our business, neither [are] our foster children."
2) Will the biggest casualty of the debt ceiling crisis be the fragile alliance between the GOP establishment and its tea party insurgents? Witness the nastiness in Ohio where Boehner, may or may not be pulling strings to have GOP Rep.
Jim Jordan redistricted out. Even nastier: the attacks on Sen.
John McCain, R-Ariz., after McCain delivered a lecture to the Tea Partiers.
"It's politicians like him that have gotten us to this point where we have a government we can't afford," declared Rep.
Joe Walsh, R-Ill., on CNN.
A telling statistic: of the 25 House Republicans against or leaning against the Boehner debt ceiling plan, 12 received endorsements from the anti-tax Club for Growth. Grover Norquist may be known as the conservative movement's enforcer (even though he supports the Boehner plan), but it's the Club that's providing the conservative cavalry.
1) In an acknowledgment that Boehner's debt ceiling proposal did not have the votes to pass, House leaders late Thursday
delayed a vote on the measure.
National Journal's
latest whip count shows 22 GOP Members who have committed to voting no on the Boehner measure, as the speaker can afford to lose no more than 24 Republican votes, if he does not pick up any Democratic support.
Next up: House Republicans and Senate Democrats are both set to convene in separate closed-door meetings on this morning at 10 a.m. to discuss the next options.
-- Kathy Kiely contributed to this post
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