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GOP Congress aims to focus on issues, avoid slip-ups in 2015

When you fix one thing, you don’t want to break another.
House Republicans are all too aware of this axiom as members jet into Washington over the next few days to launch the 114th Congress on Tuesday.
The GOP will feature a robust, 246 seats in the House. That’s the largest Republican House majority since the Great Depression. Republicans also captured the Senate and will start the Congress with 54 seats.
A Republican-controlled House and Senate. This is precisely what the GOP asked voters for. Republicans are especially energized about these prospects to serve as a check on President Obama and his policies, which many on the right view as out-of-step with the country.
The House plans not one but two votes next week on ObamaCare. The House is also teeing up a bill to expedite construction of the Keystone pipeline. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says a Keystone bill is the first measure his body will tackle.
House Republicans may even try to tackle a bill this month to show how they would cut into Obama’s executive order on immigration by tightening the purse strings on the Department of Homeland Security.
In short, Republicans aim to focus on the issues and demonstrate their political bona fides. They don’t want to fumble to start the new Congress.
Just a few days ago, Republicans looked as though they may face one big headache in the new year. The issue centered on a solitary member. But it threatened to command lots of headlines and serve as a general problem for the party. But that issue resolved itself. Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., initially planned to remain in office despite his guilty plea on federal tax evasion charges just before Christmas.
Grimm’s presence on Capitol Hill at the start of the new Congress would serve as a distraction for the Republican majorities. Reporters would pursue Grimm down hallways, hounding him about whether he was fit to serve. The press would inevitably pepper GOP leaders with questions about whether they would move to expel Grimm.
After his court appearance, Grimm declared he intended to say in Congress. But a few days later, Grimm reversed himself and announced his intention to quit. Grimm’s pending resignation foamed the flames of one GOP problem. But just as Grimm agreed to step aside, another more cyclonic political storm developed.
Grimm may have been a relative backbencher. But that’s not the case for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Word came this week that the Louisiana Republican spoke to a white supremacist group associated with David Duke 13 years ago when Scalise served in the state legislature.
If this controversy erupted when Congress was in session, it’s possible (possible) it may have run its course by now and been laid to rest. But the Scalise story emerged over the holiday recess in the middle of a congressional information vacuum -- to say nothing of a numbingly slow news period. That means that whatever developments that may have percolated with Scalise over the past few days won’t fully form until next week.
Scalise has generally kept his head down since the news broke. He released a statement to reporters saying it “was a mistake I regret” and “wholeheartedly condemn” the views of the group. The whip declined an invitation to appear on “Fox News Sunday” to discuss the misstep. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, declared that his colleague’s decision to speak to the group “was an error in judgment.” But Boehner added he knows “Steve to be a man of high integrity and good character. He has my full confidence as our whip.”
The fact that Boehner had to tell the world that Scalise has the speaker’s “full confidence” reflects the potential volatility of this story.
It also reflects the depth of the consequences for the top echelons of the House Republican leadership. After all, this controversy touches on race -- an issue that is bathed in footlights after incidents in Ferguson, Mo., on Staten Island and the murders of two New York City cops.
Moreover, the GOP generally struggles with appealing to black voters, though they elected several Republican persons of color to congressional ranks this cycle.
Naturally, Democrats sense blood in the water and went for the jugular.
Some Republicans winced privately about Scalise’s association with the group. Other Republicans whispered about his somewhat bumpy start as the top GOP vote counter.
House Republicans elected Scalise to the job in mid-June with the presumption he would formally take over the whip post during the dormant August recess.
As the newest senior member to the House Republican leadership, the public and many in politics have barely unwrapped Scalise. Some opportunists seek to define him specifically on the race topic.
Democrats aimed to paint many Republicans in the extreme for associating with a group that is so politically radioactive.
Congress hasn’t been in session much since Scalise’s election to the leadership.
On one hand, it may seem that such a respite would enable him to develop his sea legs in the leadership. But the hiatus also has a downside. At the end of July and early August, Scalise was only partially on the job as Republicans struggled to approve their own plan to tackle the border crisis.
The GOP-plan went through several iterations before leaders rolled out the bill. Then the House appeared to lack the votes to pass the GOP plan. Congressional leaders were on the verge of sending everyone home for the August recess until they decided to rework the package yet again and hold members in Washington for an extra day-and-a-half before adopting the rejiggered measure.

It wasn’t fair to pin the uncertainty associated with that vote on Scalise because technically, he wasn’t supposed to be on the job yet to whip the vote. But once the calendar flipped to August 1 and members were still here, fair or not, Scalise was the de facto whip and took some heat in the press.
There were also issues in mid-December when the Republican majority struggled to clear a major procedural hurdle to bring the so-called “CRomnibus” spending bill to the floor to avoid a government shutdown.
After some arm-twisting, Republicans clumsily vaulted the procedural barrier by a single vote. The GOP majority had to rely on lots of Democrats to pass the overall bill. The House went into a nearly seven-hour recess as CRomnibus supporters from both sides of the aisle tried to nail down the votes.
Again, the predicament was not all Scalise’s fault. But some GOP Scalise detractors are unimpressed with his vote-counting skills.
That criticism may be fair to Scalise. But the race controversy hits as he has a limited body of work in leadership. Scalise really hasn’t had a chance to fully ensconce himself in the leadership suite with Congress in session. Some Scalise opponents may use any excuse to come after him. And some of those adversaries are on the right.
Fair to Scalise? Not at all. But it reflects how things work in Washington. Moreover, there’s precedent for this when it comes to scandals involving congressional leaders and the race issue.
Since Congress is away, the shelf-life of Scalise’s troubles are hard to read. This may blow over very quickly or a more muscular news story may shove it aside. But keep in mind the controversy involving then-Senate GOP Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., in 2002.
Lott spoke at the 100th birthday celebration for the late-Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. During his remarks, Lott implied that some of Thurmond’s formerly segregationist attitudes (later self-denounced) may have actually been good for the United States.
Lott’s remarks simmered quietly on a back news burner for several days before exploding as a full-blown conflagration. The tempest ultimately cost the Mississippi Republican his leadership post.
Fair to Lott? Not entirely. But this is Capitol Hill.
Before the Thurmond episode, there were also daggers out for the Mississippi Republican. Many were in senior Republican circles on Capitol Hill and in the administration of President George W. Bush. Lott adversaries viewed the leader as too conciliatory toward Democrats. They held particular contempt for Lott after he agreed to cede control of the Senate to Democrats once the late-Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vermont,  dropped his GOP affiliation and caucused with the other side. Jeffords’s maneuver propelled Democrats to the majority in the spring of 2001.
In early 2001, the Senate was evenly-divided 50/50. Republicans held a nominal advantage as then-Vice President Cheney could break ties. So Lott and the Democratic leader, Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.C., forged a power-sharing arrangement. Republicans would control the Senate so long as they had a majority of seats or Cheney served as tiebreaker. However, Democrats would take the helm if they added seats at some point during the Congress.
Once Jeffords abandoned the GOP, Lott’s foes increased in number. Some were incensed he relinquished control. They argued that Lott should have fought hammer and tong for Republicans to maintain the majority. They pointed out that in the mid-1950s, Republicans never turned over the majority to Democrats in the middle of a Congress -even though at one point, Democrats held more seats.
Lott’s enemies were simply looking for a reason to pounce. And when an issue as toxic as race reared its head, Lott’s antagonists shoved him out the door.
It’s unknown if such political animus lurks around the corners for Scalise. But the universe surrounding his controversy hasn’t quite formed. Granted, some Democrats, including former Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, and Rep. Cedric Richmond, Louisiana Democrats, have spoken highly of the majority whip since the scandal hit the headlines.
But back on Capitol Hill, Scalise will have to face the issue head on next week. Reporters will hound him in the hallways. Rank-and-file members from both bodies and congressional leaders will have to answer questions about Scalise.
Will the GOP bring Scalise to speak publicly at leadership events --tempting the press to ask him about the issue? Or would Scalise’s conspicuous absence fan the flames? Congressional Republicans will also be back in the same place for the first time in weeks and get the chance to mull over the issue with one another.
The holidays and break between the two Congresses deferred the usual course surrounding the Scalise story. And in a few days, we’ll know if this dies down or has legs.

Edward Brooke, 1st black elected US senator, dies at 95

Former U.S. Sen. Edward W. Brooke, a liberal Republican who became the first black in U.S. history to win popular election to the Senate, died Saturday. He was 95.
Brooke died of natural causes at his Coral Gables, Florida, home, said Ralph Neas, Brooke's former chief counsel. Brooke was surrounded by his family.
Brooke was elected to the Senate in 1966, becoming the first black to sit in that branch from any state since Reconstruction and one of nine blacks who have ever served there -- including Barack Obama.
Brooke told The Associated Press he was "thankful to God" that he lived to see Obama's election. And the president was on hand in October 2009 when Brooke was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award Congress has to honor civilians. Obama hailed Brooke as "a man who's spent his life breaking barriers and bridging divides across this country."
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recalled his first impression of the newly elected senator when McConnell was a Senate staffer and described Brooke as "a model of courage and honesty in office."
"... even from across the Senate chamber, you could sense that this was a Senator of historic importance," the Kentucky Republican said in a statement Saturday. "Indeed, he was."
A Republican in a largely Democratic state, Brooke was one of Massachusetts' most popular political figures during most of his 12 years in the Senate.
Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, the state's first black governor, remembered Brooke for his unselfish public service.
"He carried the added honor and burden of being `the first' and did so with distinction and grace," Patrick said. "I have lost a friend and mentor. America has lost a superb example of selfless service."
Brooke earned his reputation as a Senate liberal in part by becoming the first Republican senator to publicly urge President Richard Nixon to resign. He helped lead the forces in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment and was a defender of school busing to achieve racial integration, a bitterly divisive issue in Boston.
He also lent his name to the Brooke amendment to the federal housing act, passed in 1969, which limited to 25 percent the amount of income a family must pay for rent in public housing.
However, late in his second term, Brooke divorced his wife of 31 years, Remigia, in a stormy proceeding that attracted national attention.
Repercussions from the case spurred an investigation into his personal finances by the Senate Ethics Committee and a probe by the state welfare department and ultimately cost him the 1978 election. He was defeated by Democrat Rep. Paul E. Tsongas.
Tsongas' widow, U.S. Rep. Nikki Tsongas, said Saturday that Brooke's career was "as courageous as it was historic."
In a Boston Globe interview in 2000, Brooke recalled the pain of losing his bid for a third term.
"It was just a divorce case. It was never about my work in the Senate. There was never a charge that I committed a crime, or even nearly committed a crime," Brooke said.
In 2008, pioneering newswoman Barbara Walters said she had an affair with the then-married Brooke in the 1970s, but it ended before he lost the 1978 election. She called him "exciting" and "brilliant."
Brooke received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony in 2004. Five years later, when Brooke received the congressional honor in Washington, he cited the issues facing Congress -- health care, the economy and the wars overseas -- and called on lawmakers to put their partisan differences aside.
"We've got to get together," Brooke said, turning his eyes to Senate GOP Leader McConnell. "We have no alternative. There's nothing left. It's time for politics to be put aside on the back burner."
As Brooke sought the Senate seat in 1966, profiles in the national media reminded readers that he had won office handily in a state where blacks made up just 2 percent of the population -- the state that had also given the nation its only Roman Catholic president, John F. Kennedy.
He beat Democrat Endicott Peabody, a former governor who also supported civil rights, by a 3-to-2 margin despite predictions of a "white backlash" against him.
Commenting on Brooke's election and other developments that day, Martin Luther King Jr. commented that "despite appeals to bigotry of an intensity and vulgarity never before witnessed in the North, millions of white voters remained unshaken in their commitment to decency."
Brooke had parlayed his probes of local corruption into a successful run for state attorney general in 1962 when he became the highest ranking black elected official in the nation. He won re-election as attorney general in 1964 even though Democrats dominated other races.
Somewhat aloof from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, especially the militant wing, he said blacks had to win allies, not fight adversaries. But he also said of civil rights leaders: "Thank God we have them. But everyone has to do it in the best way he can."
He had refused to endorse Sen. Barry Goldwater for president in 1964, commenting later, "You can't say the Negro left the Republican Party; the Negro feels he was evicted from the Republican Party."
The son of a Veterans Administration lawyer, Brooke was raised in a middle-class black section of Washington, attending segregated schools through his graduation from Howard University in 1941. He served in an all-black combat unit in World War II, and later settled in Boston after graduating from Boston University Law School.
Brooke was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 and went public the following year, saying he wanted to encourage men to perform self-examinations and advocating that insurance companies cover male mammograms.
Brooke is survived by his second wife, Anne Fleming Brooke; their son Edward Brooke IV; his daughters from his first marriage, Remi Goldstone and Edwina Petit; stepdaughter Melanie Laflamme, and four grandchildren.

Long-shot Republican candidates weigh spicing up 2016 race

The 2016 Republican presidential field could be bigger than any in recent memory – thanks to a growing second tier of potential contenders.
While several prominent politicians already have insinuated themselves into the mix, from Ted Cruz to Rand Paul to Chris Christie to Jeb Bush, a number of under-the-radar names are now flirting with a 2016 candidacy. 
They may be the long shots, but could shake things up -- by playing the spoiler in key primaries, positioning themselves as a potential running mate for the eventual nominee or even becoming a dark horse competitor in the final stage. 
"It is definitely a new phenomenon," Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley said of the increasingly crowded fields. (The 2008 and 2012 GOP contests were a political demolition derby.) "I don't think this has anything to do with the growth of the United States, you just have more people who are convinced they are qualified to run for president." 
Some potential candidates are hardly new to the game, including Rick Santorum and others. 
Longtime Republican pollster Glen Bolger said the lure is especially strong for pols who have inhabited that spotlight. "They figure, Barack Obama can come out of nowhere," he said, referring to the president's leap from one-term senator to president. "They think, 'I can be different, I can break the mold and get the nomination'." 
He added: "[But] it's like catching lightning in a bottle. I won't say it can't be done, but that's what a lot of these candidates are relying on." 
Here's a look at a few of them:

• 1. George Pataki

  

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  George Pataki, the three-term former New York governor, has said he's weighing a 2016 run, and he seems to be taking the idea seriously. He launched a super PAC called Americans for Real Change, which produced an ad this fall timed with appearances in New Hampshire. His message: fiscal responsibility, with a populist twist. 
  "Big government benefits the rich and powerful. They can afford to play the game -- you can't," he says in his televised ad. "It's time for a new America, with much smaller federal government. Washington can't run the economy, and shouldn't try to run our lives." 
  Asked about a possible bid, Pataki told Fox Business Network in November: "I'm thinking about it." 
  Some analysts consider him a long shot, however. Once a shining light of the Republican revolution in 1994 -- the first year he was elected governor of New York -- his support for gun control and gay rights could cause problems with the conservative base. 
  "It helps to be known, it helps to be supported by some key element of the base and it helps to raise money," Bolger said. "I'm not sure he fits in any of those categories, much less all three."

• 2. Rick Santorum

  

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  Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum remains popular among social conservatives, particularly evangelicals who support his position on abortion issues. And during the crowded 2012 race, he enjoyed a brief period as the "it" candidate.
  So would he run again?
  After The Washington Post in early December declared that he, indeed, would run, Santorum told Fox News the report might be "hyperbole."
  But he acknowledged he's thinking about it.
  "No announcements, but we're working at it right now and we are calling people in those [early primary] states ... and we'll make a decision sometime later next year," Santorum said.
  The former senator is a divisive figure in politics, but said a "blessing" of his career is that "we've always been underestimated."
  Meanwhile, Santorum continues to stay visible in the media as a voice on conservative issues, and has been making the rounds at conservative gatherings, including the Values Voter Summit, where he came in fourth in the straw poll (Cruz won with 25 percent).
  According to the Des Moines Register, which is tracking candidate visits to Iowa, Santorum has been there nine times for events since 2012.

• 3. Carly Fiorina

  

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  Ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has maintained a political profile since leaving HP. She worked on John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and ran for Senate, unsuccessfully, in California in 2010.
  The Hoover Institution's Bill Whalen noted in a recent op-ed that Fiorina is so far the only woman showing an interest in the GOP nomination. He also called her the only potential candidate with "serious business experience."
  She hasn't said she is in, but Fiorina is actively exploring the possibility, according to The Washington Post, which reported she has been talking privately with potential donors and recruiting staffers and grassroots activists. 
  On Friday, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores also announced she was going to work for Fiorina's Unlocking Potential PAC. Flores previously did consulting work for Mitt Romney in 2012. 
  Fiorina made a stop in the New Hampshire on Dec. 5, delivering remarks at a breakfast hosted by the state's Independent Business Council. She touched on her role as a woman in Republican politics. "Parties need to look as diverse as the nation and speak to people about issues that matter to them," she said.
  She, too, hit an anti-big government message. "People who succeeded in bureaucracies want to preserve status quo because it benefits them," she said. "I could be talking about Washington or HP ... we need to think about reform in Washington, which is desperately needed in a systematic way." 

• 4. Bobby Jindal

  

  AP
  
  The son of Indian immigrants, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was once considered a rising star in the party. After he gave the Republican rebuttal to President Obama's 2009 State of the Union address -- and got mixed reviews -- his star dimmed.
  But he's kept his hand in national politics, and though he has not said whether he will run, he's been making all the moves. He's taken four trips to Iowa since 2012, according to the Des Moines Register, and has been hitting the conservative gatherings hosting 2016 hopefuls over the last year.
  "He's an undervalued stock," top aide Timmy Teepell told the Washington Examiner in October. The paper noted that pundits were skeptical of Jindal's chances, especially since he only had a 33 percent approval rating among his own constituency in Louisiana as of November. "Fortunately D.C. pundits don't get to decide elections," Teepell quipped.
  Jindal came in third in September's Values Voter straw poll, indicating he still has a strong appeal to the social conservative base. Most recently, he gave a rare foreign policy speech at the conservative Foreign Policy Initiative. When asked on "Fox News Sunday" about his low ratings among presidential contenders, Jindal said he was substance over style. "This isn't about politicians [who are] popular by kissing babies and cutting ribbons."
  "I was at less than two percent when I ran for governor," he said, and since, "we have transformed our state."

• 5. Robert Ehrlich

  

  AP
  
  Robert Ehrlich, a former Maryland governor, has been giving speeches and keeping his name out there -- even if he's rarely mentioned alongside the Jeb Bushes and Ted Cruzes of the world.
  "It all started pretty organically. I got invited to go to New Hampshire this summer and from that, been back a couple more times," Ehrlich told a Baltimore CBS affiliate. Ehrlich said he doesn't know how far he might go as a potential presidential candidate.
  While he served as a Republican governor of a very blue state from 2003 to 2007, Ehrlich's name recognition beyond Maryland is lacking, and doesn't even register in the preliminary polling, political experts say. 
  While he hasn't formalized any exploratory apparatus, he told The Baltimore Sun in early December "there's been some discussion in the last week or so with some people who count."

• 6. John Kasich and Mike Pence

  

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  John Kasich and Mike Pence, the current governors of Ohio and Indiana, respectively, also have been mentioned as possible GOP nominees but neither has said whether he will run. Kasich is a former congressman whom pundits say might have trouble with the party due to his support for a Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare.
  Pence, also a former congressman, is popular with Tea Party activists and Christian conservatives -- and has been giving speeches outside his home state.
  He also got an endorsement from Steve Forbes at his Reinventing America summit in Indianapolis in November.