DNC vice chairwoman says she was disinvited from Democratic debate

A congresswoman known for taking on her own party is in a scrap with party leaders again, saying she was disinvited to Tuesday’s Democratic debate after calling for more of them.
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, who serves as a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, told the New York Times on Sunday that DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s chief of staff rescinded the invitation just a day after Gabbard appeared on MSNBC calling for more than the currently scheduled six debates.
A DNC spokeswoman said Gabbard was not “uninvited,” but was asked to keep the focus on the candidates.
“The focus of the debate in Nevada as well as the other debates and forums in the coming weeks should be on the candidates who will take the stage, and their vision to move America forward,” said Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for the DNC. “All that was asked of Ms. Gabbard’s staff was to prioritize our candidates and this important opportunity they have to introduce themselves to the American people.”
Shulman told FoxNews.com the Democratic Party “is a big-tent party” that embraces its members’ “diversity of opinions and ideas.”
Gabbard and R.T. Rybak, vice chairs of the DNC, had issued a joint statement calling the DNC’s decision to limit presidential candidates to six debates a “mistake.”
“It limits the ability of the American people to benefit from a strong, transparent, vigorous debate between our Presidential candidates, as they make the important decision of who will be our Democratic Presidential nominee,” Gabbard and Rybak said.
It was not immediately clear if Rybak also suffered any fallout from the statement.
Gabbard, a twice-deployed 33-year-old Army combat veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, was unavailable for comment Monday because she was participating in a ceremony promoting her to military police major with the Army National Guard.
Gabbard has taken on her party leaders before, including President Barack Obama over investing $500 million to train and arm Syrian rebels.
Gabbard also challenged the president, her home state's favorite son, last February over his refusal to identify terror groups like the Islamic State as driven by "radical Islam.”
Gabbard’s spokeswoman said the congresswoman will watch the debate on television from her home in Hawaii.

Sanders Cartoon

Sanders, O'Malley jab Clinton ahead of first Democratic debate

Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday staked out their positions against front-runner Hillary Clinton ahead of the party’s first primary debate, challenging her stances of such issues as trade, domestic oil and gay marriage.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, ahead of the debate Tuesday, made the case that he has been steady in his views on U.S. trade deals and other policy issues while Clinton, a former secretary of state, has flip-flopped.
“People will have to contrast my consistency against the secretary’s,” Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Sanders, Clinton’s closest challenger, also argued that he has never liked a single U.S. trade deal, while Clinton last week opposed President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which she backed as the country’s top diplomat.
Clinton leads Sanders, an Independent, by double digits in essentially every national poll, but trails him 41-to-32 percent among likely Democratic voters in early-voting state New Hampshire, according to a NBC News/Marist poll released last week.
Vice President Joe Biden, who still has an open invitation to join Tuesday’s debate from host CNN, got 16 percent in New Hampshire, in the poll.
Reporters are essentially following Biden’s every public move this weekend in his home state of Delaware should he make an unscheduled announcement about his plans.
While Clinton and Sanders have so far declined to attack each other and are not expected to during the debate, the other Democratic candidates will likely be much more aggressive.
"I didn't shift positions right on the eve of the first Democratic debate," challenger and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said about Clinton on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Clinton also has shifted her support for same-sex marriage and more recently opposed the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, moves largely considered attempts to appeal to the more liberal or progressive voters attracted to Sanders, a Socialist.
O’Malley, who also opposes the TPP trade deal, is polling at about 1 or 2 percent, according to essentially every major survey.
O’Malley, Clinton and Sanders -- who are all calling for more gun control in the wake of another mass shooting on campus -- will be joined on the debate stage in Las Vegas by former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island governor and Sen. Lincoln Chaffee.
Webb and Chaffee also are polling at about 1 percent.
O'Malley also told CNN that he’s not worried about his low poll numbers heading into the CNN/Facebook Democratic debate.
"This race is really just beginning for the Democratic Party," he said.
Also on Sunday, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida, said the party is open to a Biden run.
O’Malley has criticized the DNC and its leader for not having more than six sanctioned debates, suggesting the limited number protects the front-running Clinton. Sanders has called for more debates, too.

Powerful, conservative Republican caucus open to Ryan as next speaker

The leader of the House Republicans’ most powerful conservative caucus said Sunday that his group would consider Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan as the chamber’s next speaker.
“Paul Ryan is a good man,” Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told “Fox News Sunday.” “If he gets in the race, certainly our group would look favorably on him.”
The caucus, which was influential in ousting House Speaker John Boehner last month, has officially endorsed Florida Rep. Daniel Webster, one of the caucus' roughly 40 members.
However, Jordan said the group would consider Ryan, who as a veteran House committee chairman and 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate is now widely considered the Republicans' best choice to unite the fractured caucus and become the next speaker.
Ryan, now chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has so far declined to accept invitations, even from Boehner and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
However, he appears to be considering his options while Congress is in recess this week.
Jordan on Sunday said that Ryan -- or whoever becomes the next speaker -- can no longer run the chamber from an authoritarian, top-down style.
“No more business as usual,” said Jordan, whose group wants to see more bills from rank-and-file members get full floor votes and House leaders awarding committee chairmanships to a wider range of members.
He pointed out that in 2012 Boehner removed conservative Rep. Tim Huelskamp, of Kansas, from assignments on the Budget and Agriculture committees, after Huelskamp voted against a budget proposed by Ryan, who was then the Budget committee chairman.
“That kind of stuff has to stop,” Jordan said. “This place has got to change.”
Jordan also dismissed criticism that his group refuses to compromise on a new leader, despite having only about 40 of the 218 votes needed to appoint a House speaker.
The GOP House conference postponed its internal speakership vote last week after the presumptive favorite, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, abruptly quit the race, amid speculation he didn’t have the support or votes. However, the full chamber vote is still scheduled for Oct. 29.
“Of course we’re willing to compromise,” Jordan said.

Gowdy: Fired Benghazi panel staffer decided to 'run to the press' after failed effort to get money

The leader of the Republican-led special Benghazi committee tried Sunday to discredit a former staffer’s claim that he was fired for not joining in a partisan-driven effort to tarnish Hillary Clinton, saying he never even spoke to the ex-staffer.
South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said he never met with the staffer, investigator and Air Force Reserves officer Bradley F. Podliska, and that Podliska was, in fact, warned about his own efforts to discredit Clinton, who was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
“Because I do not know him, and cannot recall ever speaking to him, I can say for certain he was never instructed by me to focus on Clinton, nor would he be a credible person to speak on my behalf,” Gowdy said.
He also said Podliska has never mentioned Clinton -- from when he was counseled about his “deficient performance” to when he was fired and through the entire legal mediation process.
Furthermore, Gowdy said, Podliska has “run to the press with his new salacious allegations” after failing to get money from the committee.
The mediation process is scheduled to conclude Tuesday.
Podliska’s complaint was reported first on Saturday by The New York Times.
The committee was formed last year to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed.
However, Democrats argue the committee was really formed to attack the Democratic presidential front-runner.
Party leaders got a foothold on efforts to dismantle the committee a few weeks ago when House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that Clinton’s poll numbers have dropped as the committee continues to investigate her role in the tragedy and her related use of a private server and emails to conduct official State Department business.
And they appear to be taking advantage of Podliska’s allegations and purported lawsuit to further their efforts.
“These are extremely serious whistle-blower charges,” said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s top Democrat. “Republicans have been abusing millions of taxpayer dollars for the illegitimate purpose of damaging Hillary Clinton’s bid for president.”
Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans -- Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods -- were killed in the 2012 attacks.
Gowdy said Podliska mishandled classified information and was told as far back as April that he was “improperly” focused on Clinton and told to stop.
He also said the committee denied Podliska’s request to use interns for a project focused on Clinton and the National Security Council, saying Podliska was hired to focus on intelligence, “not the politics of White House talking points.”
Gowdy is also refuting Podliska’s claims that committee leaders retaliated against him for taking leave to go on active duty, which if true would be a violation of federal law.
He also argued that the committee has interviewed 44 new witnesses and recovered more than 50,000 pages of new documents, while “only half of one interview” has focused on Clinton’s server-email arrangement since news about it broke this spring.
“This committee always has been and will be focused on the four brave Americans we lost in Benghazi and providing the final, definitive accounting of the Benghazi terrorist attacks for the American people,” Gowdy said.

Obama says Clinton email server a 'mistake', but denies national security jeopardized

President Barack Obama said Sunday that Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server to conduct her correspondence while secretary of state was a "mistake", but denied that U.S. national security had been jeopardized as a result. 
"She made a mistake. She has acknowledged it. I do think that the way it's been ginned up is in part because of politics,"Obama said in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes". "I think she'd be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly."
Obama added that he was not initially aware that Clinton was using the private server, which was kept at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. as opposed to a professional data center. When CBS' Steve Kroft pointed out that the Obama administration has prosecuted people for having classified material on their private computers, the president said he didn't get the impression there was an intent to "hide something or to squirrel away information."
The FBI is currently investigating whether classified information that passed through Clinton's server was mishandled. Last week, the bureau extended its investigation to obtaining data from a second tech company, which had been hired by another firm in 2013 to back up data on Clinton's server.
Meanwhile, the State Department is in the process of releasing monthly batches of the 30,000 emails Clinton deemed "work-related" and handed over following her tenure as America's top diplomat. Clinton has said that she deemed another 30,000 messages on the server to be "personal" and deleted them from the server. An  intelligence source close to the investigation told Fox News last month that the FBI has "the highest degree of confidence" that those "personal" emails are being recovered.
Republicans have demanded to know if any of those emails were really work-related emails that should have been turned over to the State Department along with other federal records.

More on this...

• Trey Gowdy goes on offensive against Hillary Clinton

• Hillary Clinton distances herself from President Obama

In addition, Senate investigators recently discovered that Clinton's private server was subjected to unspecified hacking attempts in 2013 from China, South Korea and Germany.
Clinton, who remains the front-runner for the Democratic nomination despite seeing her once-overwhelming lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders shrink in the polls, has yet to answer specific questions about the security protections in her unusual email setup.
"What I think is that it is important for her to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the American public," Obama said Sunday. "And they can make their own judgment."

Paul Ryan Cartoon

Sources: Ryan taking Packers weekend to consider pleas to take the field for speakership race

For about 30 seconds on Thursday afternoon, during which Annie Daines was supposed to be the most-important person in Washington, D.C.
Daines is a press aide for House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and the daughter of Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.
At about 1:45 p.m., Daines was expected to stride before a bouquet of microphones and phalanx of television cameras arranged in the echoic vestibule of the Longworth House Office Building. Daines would come bearing critical news: Who Republicans chose in a nearby conclave as their nominee for House speaker. Perhaps, more importantly, Daines would declare how many votes that candidate received.
Daines’s pronouncement never came.
Just feet away, inside the cavernous House Ways and Means Committee hearing room, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., stunned his colleagues. He was expected to secure the nomination with the lion’s share of votes inside the Republican Conference. He’d probably log roughly 200 of the GOP Conference’s 248 members (including one non-voting delegate to Congress). But McCarthy needed to marshal somewhere around 218 votes on the House floor in an October 29 vote to succeed House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The night before, the Freedom Caucus, the most-conservative bloc of Republicans in the House, declared that most of its 30 to 40 members would back Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., for the speaker’s gavel.
McCarthy faced an onerous path to 218. Between Thursday afternoon and October 29, right-wing radio would sizzle with anti-McCarthy invective. House Republicans would face chafing rhetoric at home from staunch conservatives adamantly opposed to the “establishment.” There was an increasing likelihood that neither McCarthy -- nor any other candidate -- could ever secure 218 backers.
A paralyzed House poses profound implications. The lower chamber is not permitted to conduct any business without a speaker. That’s a dangerous scenario considering that Congress must soon grapple with raising the debt ceiling and deduce a way to avoid a government shutdown.
Just after 8 am Thursday, McCarthy walked confidently into a session of House Republicans in which he would make his closing argument for the speakership.
“It’s going to go great,” McCarthy beamed exuberantly, a skip in his step.
Nearly two hours later, he exited the confab. I asked the majority leader if he “nailed down the votes.” McCarthy snapped his head upwards and roared with a belly laugh. He slapped me on the back -- but didn’t answer the question.
Still, was he getting anywhere? Could McCarthy close the deal on 218?
“It went really well,” McCarthy stated. “We are going to get the votes.”
With that, he bounded up a towering staircase in the center of the Capitol and bolted into his office suite. A cadre of Honor Flight veterans from McCarthy’s district awaited an audience with perhaps the next speaker of the House.
Two hours later, McCarthy was out of the running. Boehner cancelled the election. The acoustically-challenged Longworth corridors of granite and alabaster devolved into bedlam.
McCarthy determined this just wasn’t his time. Multiple sources close to McCarthy indicated it may be a bloodbath to get to 218 -- and he didn’t want colleagues to expend valuable political capital defending and promoting him just to seize the speaker’s gavel.
After all, many observers suggested the House was such a toxic cesspool now that a McCarthy’s speakership would be short-lived. He’d have to immediately wrestle with the debt limit and government spending bills. McCarthy would enjoy no honeymoon. Perhaps it was best to play the long game. Maybe a pathway to the speakership for McCarthy would emerge in a few years once the torrent calmed.
Meantime, members of the Freedom Caucus saw a road to the speakership on Thursday. They immediately questioned why Boehner called off the vote when the favorite quit.
“They probably wouldn’t have delayed it if I was the one dropping out,” Webster groused during an appearance on Fox Business.
A meeting will never be an orphan on Capitol Hill. So after the longer speaker candidate nominating session Thursday and the stunted, nine-minute episode in which McCarthy withdrew, Republicans conducted yet another assemblage Friday morning.
“We must have an orderly transition from one speaker to the next, and stepping down before we elect a new speaker would hurt the institution,” Boehner said. “It is my plan for this House to elect a new speaker before the end of October. But at the end of the day, that’s really up to the people in this room.”
The problem with the GOP leadership race is that Republicans struggle to unite around anything, let alone anyone.
Moreover, the preferred candidates of many wings of the party never stepped onto the field. A movement to draft Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., fizzled. Some conservatives hoped Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, would run. Others on the right favored House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.
“Mr. Chairman,” I called out to Hensarling as he walked into the House chamber Thursday afternoon to vote. “Would you run for speaker?”
“Chairman,” Hensarling answered, musing over the word for a moment, “Chairman is a really good, good title.”
Republicans knew at the Friday morning huddle there was but one House GOPer capable of filling the void: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
But there’s trouble with Ryan. If you look at his history, Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon stand a better chance of going to dinner together than Ryan seeking a congressional leadership post.
Ryan is the same lawmaker who some courted to run against Boehner for minority leader in 2008, after Democrats handed the GOP their heads at the polls that fall.
He’s the same congressman who took a pass at running for president, governor, senator and even majority leader after the unexpected primary loss of then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. -- to say nothing of speaker after Boehner announced his departure a few weeks ago.
“Ryan would be transformational,” predicted Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a South Carolina Republican and a conservative who backed Webster.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, indicated he’d drop his dark horse candidacy for speaker if Ryan entered the contest.
“I do believe that Paul Ryan is the one person who could clear the field,” added Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss.
Not surprisingly, Ryan declined to grab the baton -- at least not publicly or right now. Ryan’s aides published multiple statements declaring that he was -- like Hensarling -- enjoying the title of “chairman.”
But behind the scenes, Republicans deluged Ryan with a cascade of pleas. Boehner called. Mitt Romney phoned. Source say Ryan switched privately from a “no” to a “maybe.” He’d consider it over this weekend.
One source close to Ryan believed he would eventually come around. The source characterized Ryan as a “Boy Scout” who always did the right thing -- including salvaging the U.S. House of Representatives.
Others weren’t so sure.
“He told me ‘Hell no’ three times yesterday,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis. “He's told me ‘no’ enough times that I don't even ask any more.”
A window into Ryan’s thinking lies in the statement he issued when begged by some to challenge Boehner.
“My first priority in life will always be my wife and my three young children,” Ryan said. “As I reflect upon the strains that this position would place on my young family, I have decided not to enter my name as a candidate.”
One could crystallize Ryan’s confliction into the final moments he spent on Capitol Hill on Friday afternoon. The House completed its last vote series of the week. Not long after votes, Ryan sprinted out of the Capitol, down the House steps and into an awaiting, green SUV parked on the plaza. He declined to entertain reporter’s questions as he hustled toward the vehicle.
“Right now I'm going to make my flight so I can make it home for dinner,” Ryan said.
Someone asked what where Ryan’s plans for the weekend.
“The Packers are at home and they’re going to beat the Rams and cover the point spread,” he predicted.
Quintessential Ryan. Rushing home to spend time with his family and watch football. You can’t do that when you’re speaker of the House.
“I think the last thing we could do is pressure a reluctant warrior into service,” said Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo.
“He shouldn't be guilted into it,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
There’s concern that the political cloudburst to coax Ryan to run was too intense.
Some GOP sources worry the full-court press may have overwhelmed Ryan, cementing his inherent reluctance.
That said, Ryan could face a problem similar to McCarthy’s. Granted, there’s more musculature to the Republican support for Ryan. But the chasms are so deep in the GOP Conference now, it’s not certain that Ryan wouldn’t face similar criticisms from the far-right.
As speaker, Ryan could be forced to immediately cut deals on the debt ceiling and government funding with Democrats and the White House.
Conservatives would howl. The conventional wisdom is that he could lock up the speaker’s race quickly. But others question that theory. They point to his legislative and voting history: Support for the controversial fiscal rescue package in 2008 known as TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Plan). There are various votes to raise the debt limit and keep the government operating. He forged a controversial budget agreement nearly two years ago with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
“He's become a mouthpiece of the establishment,” said one Republican lawmaker who asked not to be identified. “He’s the go-to guy for Boehner.”
We haven’t even discussed immigration. Fair or not, several Republican lawmakers characterized Ryan’s view as “amnesty.”
There’s chatter now that Republicans could enlist Ryan to at least serve as speaker for just the remainder of the current Congress.
It’s widely believed that Ryan eventually wants to run for president. The speakership has a way of collecting a lot of political burs.
But serving as interim speaker limits the fallout. Plus, it ushers the House through the current crisis. As a result, Ryan looks like the hero, only bolstering his aura. He was willing to step into the fold when no one else could. Imagine what that looks like when he runs for president in few years or two decades from now? Hard to compete with those bona fides.
In Statuary Hall of the Capitol, a bronze floor plaque denotes the desk location of President James Polk. He is the only House speaker who later served as president.
The House was a raucous place in the mid-1830s. Churlish lawmakers frequently challenged one another to duels. One of Polk’s objectives as speaker was to tame the House and make it less cantankerous.
A comparable goal that faces Paul Ryan or whomever emerges as the next speaker.