Gov. Chris Christie calls for Republican Party rebranding

Chris Christie Calls for Republican Rebranding
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday in an interview with Politico outlined a path for the GOP to rebrand as the party keeping "our eye on the cash register,” while also praising some Democrats for taking the right approach to tackling major issues like education.   Christie, a darling of Conservatives after staring down Democrats over the Budget and Tax Cuts, demonstrated his own distinct brand of Conservatism over a breakfast interview. Without naming names, the seven-year...

Chris Christie vs. the demagogues
I'm a big fan of New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, who I think is doing an incredibly good and thankless job at working to balance the state's Budget while also cleaning up the public schools in the face of bitter Union opposition. Politico has an interesting interview with the Governor, in which Christie warns the GOP against demagoguery and insists that Republicans and Democrats can work together on a number of issues: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday in an interview with...

Gov. Chris Christie calls for Republican Party rebranding
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday in an interview with Politico outlined a path for the GOP to rebrand as the party keeping "our eye on the cash register,” while also praising some Democrats for taking the right approach to tackling major issues like education. Christie, a darling of Conservatives after staring down Democrats over the Budget and Tax Cuts, demonstrated his own distinct brand of Conservatism over a breakfast interview. Without naming names, the seven-year...

For Senate Advocates of Unemployment Insurance Extension, a Battle to Nowhere
Senate Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell (Ky.), have repeatedly blocked attempts to extend Unemployment Insurance over Deficit concerns. (epa/ZUMApress.com) On Wednesday night, a bare-bones measure to keep federally funded Unemployment Insurance checks headed to the long-term unemployed failed in the Senate. Moderate Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine had signed on to vote for cloture on the $34 Billion bill. But without Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who passed away...

Chris Christie Calls for Republican Rebranding
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday in an interview with Politico outlined a path for the GOP to rebrand as the party keeping "our eye on the cash register,” while also praising some Democrats for taking the right approach to tackling major issues like education.   Christie, a darling of Conservatives after staring down Democrats over the Budget and Tax Cuts, demonstrated his own distinct brand of Conservatism over a breakfast interview. Without naming names, the seven-year...

Wonkbook: House passes FinReg; unemployment insurance fails; CBO makes the case for stimulus
The House passed the revised conference report for FinReg, but with the Senate delaying its vote until after the Fourth of July, final passage remains uncertain. The Senate, meanwhile, did not pass the standalone Unemployment Insurance extension, meaning checks will cease for millions of Americans. Testimony from CBO director Doug Elmendorf suggests that short-term Stimulus may make budgetary sense, and can play nice with long-term Deficit reduction. A Senate proposal to eliminate the cap on...

Christie: GOP Should Avoid Demagoguery
In a wide ranging interview with Politico , New Jersey Governor Chris Christie warns the Republican party against demagoguery, and points out areas where Conservatives could work with the White House, such as education: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday in an interview with Politico outlined a path for the GOP to rebrand as the party keeping “our eye on the cash register," while also praising some Democrats for taking the right approach to tackling major issues like...

In speech, Obama to argue for immigration overhaul
Washington — President Barack Obama hopes to rally new momentum behind the push for an Immigration overhaul by explaining why he thinks a comprehensive approach is the only way to fix what he and others say is a system badly in need of repair. Obama was laying out his rationale in a Speech Thursday, his first as president on the issue. Obama wasn't expected to announce any new proposals or policy changes. But feeling pressure from a range of supporters, he was aiming to jump-start the...

In speech, Obama to argue for immigration overhaul
Washington— President Barack Obama hopes to rally new momentum behind the push for an Immigration overhaul by explaining why he thinks a comprehensive approach is the only way to fix what he and others say is a system badly in need of repair. Obama was laying out his rationale in a Speech Thursday, his first as president on the issue. Obama wasn't expected to announce any new proposals or policy changes. But feeling pressure from a range of supporters, he was aiming to jump-start the...

Christie warns of demagoguery
Maggie Haberman and I sat down yesterday morning with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday in an interview with Politico outlined a path for the GOP to rebrand as the party keeping "our eye on the cash register,” while also praising some Democrats for taking the right approach to tackling major issues like education. Christie, a darling of Conservatives after staring down Democrats over the Budget and Tax Cuts, demonstrated his own distinct...

Charlie Crist Sued
By Larry Thornberry on 7.1.10 @ 6:08AM TAMPA -- Florida's former RINO Governor Charlie Crist, who shed his Republican disguise in April to seek a U.S. Senate seat as an independent, has shaken both sides of the money tree to great effect. But it's not clear now if he'll get away with it. A Florida Republican legislator and attorney in Naples is suing Crist in an attempt to get Crist to, as we phrase it in the South, do right. When Crist filed for the Senate seat in the spring of 2009 as a...

POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Thursday, July 1, 2010
From CNN's Leslie Bentz The CNN Washington Bureau's morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world. Washington/POLITICAL For the latest political news: www.CNNPolitics.com CNNMoney: House OKs Wall Street Reform Bill The House voted 237-192 Wednesday to pass a sweeping package of Reforms to the Financial regulatory system, moving the Bill a step closer to the finish line. But the Senate isn't likely to take up the measure until the week of July...

RGA banks $19 million for the quarter
The Republican Governors Association brought in just under $19 million in the second quarter of 2010 and ended the month of June with $40 million in the bank, according to an RGA source. The massive haul brings the campaign Committee’s total for the first six months of the year to a towering $28 million – approximately the same amount as the RGA raised for the entire year of 2006, under the leadership of then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The RGA’s powerful financial...

Filibuster Filigree
By Quin Hillyer on 7.1.10 @ 6:09AM The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings have highlighted so many concerns about Solicitor General Elena Kagan's record that senators should not vote to confirm her to the Supreme Court before giving their constituents a thorough opportunity to weigh in. It would be entirely consistent with past Republican positions, and not just defensible but highly advisable, for Republicans and moderate Democrats to announce a specifically time-limited Filibuster of Ms....

Filibuster Filigree
By Quin Hillyer on 7.1.10 @ 6:09AM The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings have highlighted so many concerns about Solicitor General Elena Kagan's record that senators should not vote to confirm her to the Supreme Court before giving their constituents a thorough opportunity to weigh in. It would be entirely consistent with past Republican positions, and not just defensible but highly advisable, for Republicans and moderate Democrats to announce a specifically time-limited Filibuster of Ms....

Chris Christie: The GOP Needs To Rebrand Itself As The Credible Party of Fiscal Conservatism... And Support A Clear Path To Citizenship For Illegals
Eh, not sure if this is disqualifying per se , as most politicians, including Border-enforcement types, talk up this possibility at some point. He is down on the Arizona Law, though. On the hot-button topic of Immigration Reform, he said he has long declined to "demagogue" the issue as a former U.S. Attorney, because "I come from Law Enforcement and it's not an easy issue." But he did intimate that he thinks stringent state-by-state Laws

Chris Christie on immigration: We need a path to citizenship
Some righties, Ace among them, are shrugging this off, which I kind of understand. For one thing, conservative rock star though he be, Christie’s still a Republican leading a deep-blue state. We may want to believe he’s Reagan reincarnated but there’s probably a little of Rudy Giuliani in that political DNA. For another thing, he’s wisely chosen not to be too specific about this issue so the quotes end up being ambiguous. What kind of path to Citizenship,...

Have Obama and the Democrats forgotten how to fight?
One of the strangest lead sentences I have ever encountered appeared in Politico last week . It read: "John Kerry has been the most aggressive advocate of Climate Change Legislation in the Senate this year -- so aggressive that it's rubbed some of his colleagues the wrong way." This Story The story went on to say that Kerry's "zeal" is "making some Swing-vote Democrats cringe at the thought of negotiating with someone they fear is tone-deaf to the political realities...

President Obama to deliver immigration speech
President Barack Obama will deliver a Speech Thursday to hammer home the need to fix the nation’s broken Immigration system and push a comprehensive Reform Bill. In preparation, the president has spent hours this week huddling with his Reform allies — grass-roots leaders and 22 leading members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — to strategize how to break through the current Republican Blockade of all Immigration-related Legislation. Before joining a White House meeting...

SPIN METER: What happened to the Kagan standard?
Washington— Elena Kagan declined to discuss her passions, demurred when asked anything that might tip her hand on the Supreme Court and invoked her right to remain inscrutable even on cases buried in the past. In short, Kagan did her best to ensure her High Court nomination Hearing was just the kind of benign event she criticized years ago for lacking "seriousness and substance." Her dodges over two days of questioning prompted chuckles in the Senate Judiciary Committee as members, keenly...

U.S. Deficit-Reduction Panel Gives Priority to Spending Cuts
By JOHN D. MCKINNON Democrats on a blue-ribbon Deficit-reduction panel suggested Spending Cuts would likely have to outweigh Tax Increases if the nation is to seriously tackle its ballooning financial obligations. The discussions came as Congressional Budget analysts projected that federal Debt would rise to 62% of gross domestic product by the end of 2010, the highest level since the aftermath of World War II. That's up from 40% at the end of 2008. Erskine Bowles, the Democratic co-chairman...

Chris Christie Refuses To Endorse Hard-Line Approach On Immigration
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been the darling of the conservative wing of the GOP for his no-nonsense approach to fiscal policy, but they’re not likely to be happy with his stand on Immigration: On the hot-button topic of Immigration Reform, he said he has long declined to "demagogue" the issue as a former U.S. Attorney, because "I come from Law Enforcement and it's not an easy issue." But he did intimate that he thinks stringent state-by-state Laws " such as in...

Tea party influence swaying centrists
The Politico 44 / Click Story Widget Requires Adobe Flash Player . Stung by a series of setbacks on must-pass Legislation, Democrats think they’ve found a culprit: local Tea Party influence in the home states of usually reliable moderates. In a span of just a few days, Maine Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe have forced Democrats to dramatically scale back an Unemployment Benefits and Tax bill, and they were part of a small coalition that effectively killed a Bank Tax...

Barton leads GOP ball team to defeat at bats of congressional Democrats
Barton leads GOP ball team to defeat at bats of congressional Democrats 12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, July 1, 2010 By MELANIE MASON / The Dallas Morning News [email protected] Washington - Rep. Joe Barton may have to answer to his House GOP colleagues for another failed performance on a Big stage. This one came at Nationals Park, where Democrats beat the Republican team that Barton coaches, 13-5, on Tuesday night. Barton earlier had to fend off calls that he step down from a House...

Rep. Pete Stark's tussle with Minutemen: a deserved "smackdown to the crazies" -- or over over the line? (VIDEO)
0 0 0 Fremont Democratic Rep. Pete Stark had quite a confrontation at a recent town hall over the issue of Mexican Illegal Immigration, asking outraged Minutemen in the audience, "who you going to kill today" and then quipping "we'll try to get you more arms and get you down there." Stark is equally blunt when they accuse him of making fun of them: "I don't have to make fun of you, sir...you make a fine job (of it) all by yourself." Pressed on his plans for Retirement, Stark -- who...