Sunday, March 13, 2016

Political Rally Disruptors Cartoon

Wyoming and D.C. Leftist Is Winning with their Rally Disruptors

Rubio Wins in Washington

But in Washington, where Republicans are relatively rare and tend to work as lobbyists, lawyers and Capitol Hill staff members, Saturday amounted to what might be the establishment’s last chance to roar back at the angry anti-Washington masses who have dominated the electorate so far. The two so-called establishment candidates, Mr. Rubio and Mr. Kasich, won 37 percent and 36 percent of the vote, with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz far behind.

Long lines of men in khakis and women in standard-issue white dresses and pearls had snaked for hours through the one voting site, the Loews Madison Hotel downtown. They passed people handing out fliers for Mr. Rubio, the Florida senator, infants in strollers wearing “All-American Baby” onesies and the “Stop Trump” desk, where anti-Trump editorials from the country’s largest newspapers were on offer.

They also passed Vinnie Roma, 22, a Trump volunteer from Toms River, N.J., who wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and stars-and-stripes pants. (“They roll their eyes,” he said with a shrug.)

After voting in the presidential race, the Republicans also picked delegates from among choices including a former White House chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and several former ambassadors.

Nicholas Rodman, 29, a staff member of the House of Representatives, wore a Reagan-Bush ’84 ball cap and voted for Mr. Rubio. “He’s strong on national security, and he’s pro free-trade,” he said, echoing longstanding party orthodoxy.

J. J. Burke, 33, a consultant who works on the websites of Fortune 500 companies, said he preferred Mr. Kasich, the Ohio governor.

“I relate to him more, and he has legislative experience,” said Mr. Burke, 33, who wore a gingham shirt and blue blazer and joked that he was one of downtown’s “few young Republicans.”

Registered Democrats living in Washington outnumber Republicans more than 10 to one, but Patrick Mara, the executive director of the DC Republican Party, noted the national party had granted it 19 delegates to the convention, not an insignificant number considering that all of Florida, the biggest state voting on Tuesday and many times the size of the capital, has 99.

As a result, Mr. Mara said he was surprised candidates did not campaign here, though he acknowledged, “It’s hard to run here in a public way when you are spending your whole campaign running away from Washington.”

Wyoming represented the day’s other prize. Three of the state’s 29 delegates are unpledged state party officials, and only 12 delegates were contested on Saturday, with Mr. Cruz, the Texas senator, winning nine of them. The remaining 14 will be pledged at a state convention on April 16. Officials in Wyoming have begun studying whether to abandon their complicated voting system, which involves three separate elections, and move to a primary.

“We don’t see a lot of attention,” explained Tom Wiblemo, executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party.

But the Wyoming party’s chairman, Matt Micheli, pointed out that Mr. Cruz had visited in August, hosting a couple of large rallies on opposite ends of the state, and that the Cruz campaign had remained engaged throughout the primary season. Donald J. Trump never made it to the state, Mr. Kasich visited last year and Rubio surrogates held several events.

Saturday’s elections actually began on Friday evening, Eastern Time, in Guam, about 8,000 miles from Washington and on the other side of the international date line. About 300 Republicans met in a hotel ballroom there to vote to send nine delegates to the party’s convention in Cleveland.

The delegates are not yet officially pledged to any candidate, though one of them, the territory’s governor, Eddie Calvo, has endorsed Mr. Cruz. Mr. Cruz’s campaign had dispatched a surrogate on a five-week tour of the United States territories to win over their delegates, and the senator also sent Mr. Calvo a birthday cake in August.

On Saturday, a letter sent by Mr. Cruz to Guam’s Republican Party (“It’s Guam’s time,” it began) was read on the caucus floor, and the candidate’s wife, Heidi, called in to the ballroom, according to The Pacific Daily News. So did Mr. Kasich and Mr. Trump, who told the assembled Guamanians, “I understand the tourism industry better than anyone else who’s ever run for president,” and “I thought it was very, very important to call in. I didn’t want to give it to one of my assistants to do it. It’s very, very, important if we can get Guam and the delegates. And I will never forget you people.”

Democrats voted in the Northern Mariana Islands, a territory about 130 miles north of Guam. The island, which has seen the arrival of pregnant Chinese whom the local governor has called “birth tourists,” has about 50,000 American citizens. As in Guam, they cannot vote in the general election but can participate in the nominating contests.

Mrs. Clinton won four of the territory’s delegates awarded on Saturday, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont took two.

Though Washington has only a nonvoting delegate in Congress (“Taxation Without Representation,” its license plates say), its residents do get to vote in the general election, as well as during the primary season.

At one point Saturday, the line outside the Loews Madison curved around the block, prompting Ben Ginsberg, a prominent lawyer who was national counsel to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, to joke about “voter suppression.”

As he walked to the back of the line, he waved to prominent Washingtonians he knew by name. But when asked whom he supported, Mr. Ginsberg played coy, insisting he was less interested in voting for president than for the delegates themselves.

“I’m voting for my friends,” he said.

Ryan, GOP House budget vows seem paralyzed by angst over GOP White House battle

Another Establishment Guy?

The Cuyahoga River, which slices through downtown Cleveland twice, caught fire in the 1950s and 1960s.
There is so much dread and acrimony about the GOP presidential contest, one wonders if the Republican convention in Cleveland could be the scene of a similar conflagration.
Talk of a brokered or contested convention abounds. Angst paralyzes some Republican lawmakers about the prospects of Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, heading the GOP ticket. There’s worry about outright discord and no clear winner come convention time.
Is it any wonder some Republicans briefly launched an effort to recruit House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to seek the presidency?

Former U.S. Ambassador to Finland Earle Mack wanted to garner one million online signatures to compel Ryan to run.
“If you do not get 1,238 delegates on the first ballot, then the confusion starts. The chaos starts,” Mack told the Fox Business Channel. “Because of the disarray, they would need someone to heal it. And that would be Paul Ryan.”
The speaker’s political team wasn’t amused. Ryan’s counsel, Timothy Kronquist, sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission on Monday disavowing the organization.
Kronquist followed up with a cease-and-desist letter Thursday to the pro-Ryan group. The dispatch accused the outfit of giving voters the impression its activities are “in coordination with Speaker Ryan.”
Kronquist noted that Ryan repeatedly said he isn’t running for president.
Of course, Ryan was also adamant that he wasn’t running for speaker of the House …
Until he was.
An effort to quash political activity even if Ryan doesn’t support the draft effort? Weren’t Republicans lathered up when they accused the IRS of trying to temper political activities? Where’s Lois Lerner?
By Friday afternoon, the pro-Ryan group halted its efforts. It issued a statement saying the recruitment mission “could become an unwanted distraction from the Speaker’s current responsibilities.”
However, the group argued that “in an open convention, the best person to lead our country would be Speaker Paul Ryan.”
Ryan’s done all he can to distance himself from chatter of a brokered convention.
“That’s ridiculous,” Ryan exclaimed in January when asked about the likelihood of the brokered convention scenario. When asked if he could guarantee there wouldn’t be a fight in Cleveland, he replied “How would I know?”
House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., knows the risks Republicans would face at a multi-ballot confab.
“If they think that they’re going to upset the verdict of the people in terms of the elections, that can really be opening a very big Pandora’s Box,” she said. “I think that you change that to your peril.”
The GOP’s political consternation over the top of the ticket translates to a legislative frailty on Capitol Hill.
This angst and division in the party is crystalized in the current fight in Congress to approve a budget -- and maybe spending bills later this year.
“We believe we have an obligation, a duty, to offer another way forward. To offer an alternative,” Ryan said in January.
Ryan talked repeatedly about how “Americans want progress” and said he’s “really excited about “being bold.”
He codified 2016 is “a year of ideas.” The speaker said he wants to “offer our fellow citizens solutions.”
Lofty rhetoric. But the GOP is struggling with the budget. No budget and it’s hard for Congress to crank through the 12 annual spending bills that fund the government.
These can be the basic -- at times boring -- mechanics of Congress. And it’s challenging to match soaring talk about agendas and ideas when the oratory of the Republican presidential frontrunner focuses on the size of his jockstrap.
The success of Donald Trump and recalcitrance of House conservatives is now giving Ryan the same headaches encountered by former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
"Speaker Ryan is the ultimate optimist, and the job has only energized him," spokeswoman AshLeeStrong said Saturday.
Republicans may yet try to advance an annual budget through committee next week and on the House floor later this month. Rank-and-file House Republicans huddle in the Capitol basement late Monday afternoon to assess matters.
Moving soon is important if the House is to actually knock out spending bills this year and truly legislate.
That would prevent cramming everything into an ugly, omnibus measure in December. But a failure to move any sort of budget doesn’t match Ryan’s bold agenda talk. It could be a significant embarrassment for the speaker since he’s touted as the “numbers” guy.
In fact, the die for Ryan and this budget may have already been cast the day before he became speaker.
Last October, the House voted 266-167 to establish topline spending numbers for the current budget cycle and the one that now stymies the House.
Boehner engineered that agreement with President Obama. It set the annual appropriations figure (often called “discretionary” spending) for fiscal 2017 at $1.070 trillion. That meant Congress would then fillet the $1.070 trillion among the 12 annual spending bills to run the government.
But examine the October, 28, 2015, roll call. Of the 266 yea votes, Republicans only provided 79. Boehner and Ryan were among that group.
Now, conservatives demand Ryan boot the $1.070 trillion figure in favor of $1.040 trillion.
If the leadership had the votes, they would have moved the budget through committee and onto the floor a few weeks ago.
House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., whipped the budget last week. There’s no formal green light just yet despite a hope of action soon.
Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, chairman the Republican Study Committee, the largest bloc of conservatives in the House -- roughly 170 members of the 246 member House GOP conference.
“I have not backed off,” Flores said. “I’m not endorsing $1.070 trillion.”
However, he did say a plan which helped with broader savings -- even while sticking to $1.070 trillion -- might be worth considering.
“You have to look at the whole picture,” Flores said.
There are also political considerations. A number of incumbent Texas Republicans were jumpy about their primaries earlier this month. There was concern that voting for a budget at the higher level could lend ammo to their opponents.
But all Texas GOPers won and avoided runoffs. So, the delay may help.
Ryan still hasn’t solved the most-pervasive problem in the House Republican Conference. It’s an issue that dogged his predecessor.
“There are about 100 people here who would vote no and hope yes,” said one knowledgeable source.
That flies in the face of a memo Scalise penned to his colleagues in November.
“Too many in our conference are falling into the pattern of voting no on tough bills while actually hoping the bill passes because they know that the outcome will be even worse if the bill fails,” he wrote.
Failing to adopt a budget cripples the House from completing most spending bills. No bold agenda there. And it’s awkward for Republicans -- and Ryan in particular -- who browbeat Senate Democrats for not adopting budgets.
Members of the House’s ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus would like $30 billion in immediate cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. It is unclear how such cuts could impact current beneficiaries.
GOP Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., wants to slash the entitlements in appropriations bills, though that violates the much-vaunted “regular order” by running afoul of multiple budget rules and regulations.
“I am a strong supporter of cutting mandatory spending, just not on Appropriations bills,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky. “Any such attempt would stop the appropriations process in its tracks -- risking the passage of appropriations bills in the House, in the Senate, and most certainly White House approval.
“This would ultimately lead us once again to Continuing Resolutions and an omnibus, which is the opposite of the ‘regular order’ we are all seeking to achieve.”
It’s typical to alter entitlements via a special budget process called “reconciliation.” Reconciliation usually comes later in the year. But the House can’t employ the reconciliation maneuver unless it approves a budget. Still, Brat and other conservatives are skeptical about waiting.
“I prefer to see (changes) in appropriations because they come first,” he said. “I have to see it in writing.”
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., is also unimpressed.
“I haven’t heard anything that would change my mind,” he said. “It’s always a hope and a prayer. All other hopes and prayers have failed.”
Brooks was not concerned about demands for “regular order,” though some approaches floated by Freedom Caucus members seem to deviate from doing things by the book.
“I’m not concerned with the process,” Brooks said. “I’m concerned with substance.”
This boils down to a math problem. A scant 79 Republicans voted for the $1.070 trillion budget deal in the final hours of the Boehner regime. Ryan is now trying to convert 79 into 218 yeas to pass a budget. The math might not work.
All the while, there’s rhetoric of big ideas and a big agenda ahead of the convention and election. And if the House is impaired legislatively, there are questions if the talk rings hollow.

In Saturday balloting, Clinton wins islands caucus, Rubio wins in D.C., Cruz wins majority of Wyo. delegates at stake

Rubio & Cruz are not winning, the Left is.

Democrats and Republicans are balloting Saturday in a mix of primaries and caucuses in Wyoming, the District of Columbia and a U.S territory.

The Associated Press declared Sen. Marco Rubio the winner of caucuses in heavily Democratic Washington, D.C. The turnout of just several thousand voters is so small that balloting has been limited to one downtown hotel. However, 19 delegates were stake.
It's the third presidential contest victory for the Florida senator. Earlier this month, Rubio won the GOP caucuses in Minnesota and the party's primary in Puerto Rico.
Rubio picked up 10 delegates with his Saturday caucus win in the nation's capital. Runner-up John Kasich was just 50 votes behind Rubio, and the Ohio governor will get nine delegates.
None of the other candidates in the race won enough votes to earn any delegates.
However, 2016 GOP frontrunner and anti-establishment candidate Donald Trump last week won the D.C. Republican Party’s straw poll.
Kasich on Saturday delivered his harshest criticism yet of Trump, saying at a rally in Heath, Ohio, that he has "had it" with the "toxic" nature of Trump’s campaign.
"Why don't we talk about our vision?" Kasich asked attendees at the town-hall style event. "Let's not try to separate people from one another."
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton on Saturday won the party’s caucus in the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean, near Guam.
Clinton received 54 percent of 189 votes cast to earn four of the six delegates at stake. Rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won the two remaining delegates. Results are expected later on the GOP side from Guam.
In Wyoming, Republicans held caucuses to select the state's first 12 presidential delegates. They will choose 14 more delegates at their state convention in mid-April. The other three are the state GOP chairman, national committeeman and national committeewoman.
Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz was the only active Republican candidate to have campaigned in the state, which will bring a total of 29 delegates to the national convention this summer.
Cruz won most of the delegates at stake in Saturday's Republican county conventions in Wyoming.
Cruz won nine of the 12 delegates that were up for grabs. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and billionaire businessman Donald Trump won one apiece. One delegate was uncommitted.
The Associated Press is not declaring a winner in Wyoming on Saturday because another 14 of the state's delegates will be awarded at the party's state convention on April 16.
The candidates this weekend are largely looking ahead to the five primaries on Tuesday, including the essentially winners-take-all contests in Ohio and Florida that will likely be make-or-break for Kasich and Rubio.
And big wins by Trump, who leads Rubio in Florida, could be decisive in his march to the party nomination. Trump has a single-digit lead over Kasich in Ohio, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average.
The other states holding primaries Tuesday are Missouri, North Carolina and Illinois.

Thomas Dimassimo barrier jumper

Trump threatens to 'press charges' against protesters after latest chaos

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said he was “going to start pressing charges” against the protesters who kept interrupting him on the campaign trail on Saturday.
Following Friday night’s unrest in Chicago before one his rallies, Trump was met with protests and countless interruptions in Ohio and Missouri.
“I hope they arrest these people, because honestly they should be,” Trump said to cheers from the crowd. “The only way to stop the craziness is to press charges.”
The Chicago Police Department said in a news release sent Saturday night that three men from Chicago and a 45-year-old woman from Michigan were arrested and charged for participating in a disturbance at the protest Friday night.
At a rally in Dayton, Ohio, Saturday, a man tried to breach the security buffer at the event and he was removed “rapidly and professionally,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said. Secret Service agents rushed the stage to protect the billionaire business mogul.
Thomas Dimassimo was identified as the barrier jumper. He was charged with inducing panic and disorderly conduct, Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer said.
Trump’s path continued onto Kansas City, Mo. where he was interrupted numerous times. At least seven individuals stalled the rally in the first few minutes.
"I think they're Bernie [Sanders] supporters," Trump said of the protesters, pointing to at least one protester the Republican frontrunner said was holding a sign in support of the Democratic presidential candidate.
Trump canceled his rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago on Friday after violence broke out in the arena where he was scheduled to speak. He spoke later to Fox News, saying he canceled the event because he didn’t want to see “people get hurt.”
He said he made the decision to cancel after meeting with law enforcement authorities. Trump also said his First Amendment rights had been violated.
Hours earlier, Trump supporters and opponents stood calmly in a line together waiting to get inside. Police horses and barricades kept the bulk of the demonstrators across the street.
Trump opponents were protesting what they called his divisive comments, particularly about Muslims and Mexicans. Dozens of UIC faculty and staff had petitioned university administrators to cancel the rally, citing concerns it would create a "hostile and physically dangerous environment."
At one point, nearly 20 officers who had been manning barricades suddenly bolted for an intersection across a street bridge over a freeway -- where protesters shouted at and jostled with police already there. An officer was seen walking from that intersection with blood on his head.
For Sunday, Trump is expected to make a stop in Bloomington, Illinois. He is expected to be met with more protests and local officials said they would be deploying extra police.