Monday, March 7, 2016
Money Pours In as Move to Stop Donald Trump Expands
A Bunch of Idiots? |
Republicans hoping to halt Donald J. Trump’s
march to their party’s presidential nomination emerged from the
weekend’s voting contests newly emboldened by Mr. Trump’s uneven
electoral performance and by some nascent signs that he may be peaking
with voters.
Outside
groups are moving to deploy more than $10 million in new attack ads
across Florida and millions more in Illinois, casting Mr. Trump as a
liberal, a huckster and a draft dodger. Mr. Trump’s reed-thin
organization appears to be catching up with him, suggesting he could be
at a disadvantage if he is forced into a protracted slog for delegates.
And
vote tallies on Saturday made clear that Mr. Trump has had at least
some trouble building upon his intensely loyal following, leaving him
increasingly dependent upon landslides in early voting.
In
Louisiana, where Mr. Trump amassed a lead of more than 20 percentage
points among those who cast votes before Saturday, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas effectively tied him among voters who cast their ballots on Saturday.
“Trump
has to worry about the consistent late-voter rejection of his
candidacy,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and Republican
presidential candidate.
Mr.
Trump’s losses to Mr. Cruz in Kansas and Maine on Saturday, coupled
with closer-than-expected victories in Louisiana and Kentucky, have
heightened the prospects for a two-man race, though many Republican
leaders eye Mr. Cruz warily.
As
his rivals have despaired over the race’s vulgar turn, Mr. Trump struck
a subdued tone, by his standards, as returns came in late Saturday
night. He aborted his first attempt to take the stage and left the room
after asking reporters if the race in Kentucky had been called.
When
he finally did speak, some of his usual bombast was missing, even as he
insisted that it was time for Senator Marco Rubio to quit the race and
that Mr. Cruz cannot win more moderate northeastern or coastal states.
“Donald
Trump was uncharacteristically low energy,” Mitt Romney, the Republican
nominee in 2012, said in an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,”
taunting Mr. Trump with the insult Mr. Trump had employed against Jeb
Bush. Yet despite the renewed optimism of his opponents, the path to
deny Mr. Trump the nomination remains narrow and arduous.
Mr.
Cruz’s emergence as the most credible alternative to Mr. Trump has
proved both a boost and a complication for those seeking to derail the
New Yorker. Mr. Cruz has tried to undercut calls for a contested
convention to deny Mr. Trump the nomination, which Mr. Cruz says would
yield a “manifest revolt” among voters. But Mr. Cruz has done little so
far to threaten Mr. Trump’s lead in the delegate race.
Much
of Mr. Cruz’s late-breaking support on Saturday seemed to come at the
expense of Mr. Rubio, not Mr. Trump. And the Cruz campaign’s message of
ideological purity and religious faith is a less natural fit for many of
the delegate-rich Midwestern and coastal states that remain on the map.
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“Saturday
proved that Trump can be contained and even beaten,” said Scott
Jennings, a longtime Republican strategist, who looked ahead to this
summer’s Republican convention in Cleveland. “The question is whether
the field is going to allow for it moving forward. The most likely
scenarios remain that Trump gets enough before Cleveland, or nobody
does. The latter moved a little closer to realistic Saturday.”
Mr.
Rubio’s path is much less certain, despite his lopsided victory in
Puerto Rico on Sunday. Even his supporters said that the results on
Saturday seriously undercut the premise of his bid: that he is the only
candidate who can unify the Republican Party and defeat Mr. Trump.
“Look,
I’m supportive of Marco; I’m very hopeful,” said Mel Martinez, the
former senator from Florida, who had supported Mr. Bush. “But it’s a
great concern that time has kind of caught up with this whole thing.”
The
Stop Trump forces are beginning to pour money into television ads, with
a particular focus on the big states voting on March 15. Four different
groups have reserved at least $10 million in airtime in Florida so far,
according to trackers of media spending. That number is expected to
grow, but television stations in Florida are already awash in such ads.
Two
from the American Future Fund, which has spent $2 million so far in
Florida and Illinois, show decorated veterans assailing Mr. Trump as a
poseur on military matters. Michael Waltz, a retired Special Forces
colonel, blisteringly calls Mr. Trump a draft dodger and, effectively, a
coward. “Donald Trump hasn’t served this country a day in his life,” he
says. “Don’t let Trump fool you.”
And
a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, Tom Hanton, bluntly questions Mr.
Trump’s toughness: “Trump would not have survived the P.O.W. experience.
He would have been probably the first one to fold.”
Separately,
Club for Growth Action, an arm of the anti-tax group that was the first
to run ads in Iowa against Mr. Trump, has placed $2 million in
commercials attacking him in Illinois on top of $1 million in Florida.
A
third group, Our Principles PAC, which was created to defeat Mr. Trump,
has reserved $3.5 million in Illinois and Florida and is also sending
direct mail to voters’ homes in Florida. A group supporting Mr. Rubio,
Conservative Solutions, is spending several million dollars in Florida
as well.
The
deluge of negative messages from a patchwork of groups — highlighting
claims by angry customers of Mr. Trump’s defunct educational company and
his history of shape-shifting positions — already appears to have hurt
Mr. Trump’s cause.
In
conversations with some of his allies, who insisted on anonymity to
relay those private talks, Trump campaign aides have expressed concern
about the money being spent against him on television. The Trump
campaign has no pollster, so it is governed by public polling and what
the candidate himself observes while watching cable news.
This
off-the-cuff approach, and a string of self-inflicted wounds — refusing
to clearly and immediately reject the support of the white supremacist
David Duke, boasting about his sexual endowment on the debate stage and
withdrawing from the Conservative Political Action Committee’s
conference over the weekend — have fueled days of unfavorable coverage
of Mr. Trump’s candidacy.
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“Trump
has total disdain for the professional political class,” said Scott
Reed, a veteran Republican strategist. “He thinks they’re all about
making money. Pollsters are hacks. Organization doesn’t matter. Their
idea of a political organization is taking phone calls from some elected
officials who wanted to endorse and making it work in the schedule. And
that’ll catch up with you eventually.”
Still,
members of the Republican establishment have been left to grapple with
what was once unthinkable: rallying around Mr. Cruz, a senator who built
his reputation bashing them.
“Some
hope with Ted, no hope with Donald,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina said on “Meet the Press,” summarizing the party’s dim view of
its remaining options. Neither, he suggested, would be likely to expand
the Republican tent: “We’re in a demographic death spiral.”
Less than two weeks ago, Mr. Graham joked about murdering Mr. Cruz on the Senate floor.
And
yet, Mr. Graham said, he received a phone call from Mr. Cruz after
Super Tuesday — part of efforts by the Cruz campaign to reach out,
discreetly, to donors and party officials who might be interested in
rallying around him.
With
Mr. Rubio faltering badly across the board on Saturday, Mr. Cruz is
moving to compete aggressively in Florida. He has also weighed the
merits of a significant push in Ohio, the home state of Gov. John
Kasich.
Both
states are winner-take-all, and the Cruz campaign insists it would only
dedicate substantial resources if it thought it could win outright. But
the effort is risky: It could boost Mr. Trump, if Mr. Cruz diminishes
his non-Trump rivals without a victory.
The
Cruz campaign says it can reach the requisite delegate threshold of
1,237 without winning Florida or Ohio, thanks to its superior
organization in later-voting states, many of which are closed to
non-Republicans.
But
several party strategists have disputed this math, even if the contests
on March 15 force some of Mr. Cruz’s competitors from the race.
A
moment of reckoning for Mr. Rubio will come Tuesday in Michigan, a
state that has concentrations of the kinds of voters he performs well
with: professional, younger, highly educated and upper-income. But a
poll released on Sunday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal showed
Mr. Rubio trailing Mr. Cruz and Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump received 41
percent, followed by Mr. Cruz at 22 percent, Mr. Rubio at 17 percent and
Mr. Kasich at 13 percent.
Despite
this, some Michigan Republicans say that Mr. Kasich may emerge as the
state’s establishment choice. And in a race that has often felt like a
reality television show, Mr. Kasich secured an apt endorsement on
Sunday: that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will replace Mr. Trump as the
host of “The Celebrity Apprentice.”
Correction: March 6, 2016
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the location of a Conservative Political Action Committee conference. It was in National Harbor, Md., not Alexandria, Va.
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the location of a Conservative Political Action Committee conference. It was in National Harbor, Md., not Alexandria, Va.
Romney touts Cruz wins over Trump, will not reject GOP nod if drafted at convention
Choker? |
Mitt Romney said Sunday that GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz winning two primary states this weekend proves the Texas senator can stop front-runner Donald Trump, but declined to rule out his own White House scenario.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the Republicans' 2012 presidential nominee, repeated remarks from last week, telling “Fox News Sunday” that he wouldn’t launch an eleventh-hour campaign for president. But he declined to reject being “drafted” at the GOP convention in July to be the party’s general election candidate.
“It would be absurd to say that if I were drafted I’d say no,” Romney said. “We have four strong people running for the nomination. One of them will be the nominee.”
Romney has occasionally weighed in on the 2016 GOP race. But he emerged in full force Thursday when he gave a speech in which he called Trump a “phony” and urged voters to instead back an establishment candidate like Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
“It was a big night for Ted Cruz,” Romney said Sunday about the Texas senator's Saturday wins in the Maine and Kansas caucuses. “That’s because people are starting to take a better look at Donald Trump.”
Romney returned to his argument that Trump touts being a successful New York real estate magnate and billionaire businessman. However, he has a long list of businesses failures including a commercial airline and his Trump University real estate school, Romney said.
“He’s not the real deal,” Romney told Fox. “He’s a phony.”
Still, Romney was pressed to explain why he accepted Trump’s 2012 endorsement and acknowledge that all of Trump’s business flops didn’t happen after 2012.
“Sixty-one million people voted for me,” Romney said. “I don’t think all 61 million should be president of the United States.”
Rubio wins Puerto Rico GOP primary
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday won the Republican primary in Puerto Rico, his second victory in the 2016 race, according to the Associated Press.
Rubio won the Minnesota GOP Caucus on Super Tuesday and is struggling to keep his campaign alive through March 15, when his home state holds a primary in which the winner takes all 99 delegates.
Twenty-three delegates were up for grabs in Puerto Rico. Rubio was the only candidate in the four-man GOP field to campaign on the island, whose residents cannot vote in the general election.
The first-term senator trails front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in the 2016 GOP race.
Rubio had at least 70 percent of the vote with most precincts reporting, followed by Trump, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Florida is widely considered a must-win for Rubo, considering that losing one's home state could be debilitating for a presidential campaign.
The Puerto Rico win should help Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, rally South Florida's big Latino voting bloc.
Sanders turns up attacks on Clinton at feisty debate, Dem front-runner fights back
Fresh off a series of weekend victories in state caucuses, Bernie Sanders turned up the heat on Hillary Clinton at Sunday’s debate in Flint, Mich., sharply challenging her economic credentials and suggesting her gun control stand would ban guns in America. But the Democratic front-runner fought back, blasting him for voting against the auto bailout, dismissing him as a “one-issue candidate” and hitting him once again for his stance on guns.
The Vermont senator reached back to the 1990s as he went after Clinton’s support for “disastrous trade agreements” like NAFTA. His rhetoric was notably more pointed and, reflecting the tension in the race, Sanders even cut her off at times as she tried to speak over him.
“Excuse me, I’m talking,” Sanders snapped, during one feisty exchange on the economy.
But Clinton pushed back, and defended the country’s economic progress during her husband’s administration.
“If we’re going to argue about the ‘90s, let’s try to get the facts straight,” she said, touting the jobs and income growth that came with the era.
Sanders also tried to cast Clinton as soft on climate change, while declaring he unequivocally does not support fracking. Clinton maintained she has the “most comprehensive plan to combat climate change.”
The clashes came after Sanders won the Maine Democratic caucuses, adding to wins the night before in Nebraska and Kansas — by far the most successful two days of his campaign.
But Sanders remains significantly behind in the race for delegates, with Clinton having won more – and more valuable – state contests, as well as enjoying the overwhelming support of so-called “superdelegates.” Sanders is looking for a game-changer as the race heads next to states like Michigan this coming Tuesday, and Ohio and Florida the week after that.
Sanders cited his most recent wins at the end of Sunday’s debate, in arguing he would be the better candidate to go up against Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
He began to joke he’d give his “right arm” to run against the billionaire businessman and then cited polls saying, “Sanders versus Trump does a lot better than Clinton versus Trump.”
But while Sanders said he’s “exciting” working-class and young voters, Clinton pointed to the raw numbers.
“There’s only one candidate [in either primary campaign] who has more votes than [Trump], and that’s me,” Clinton said. “I will look forward to engaging him.”
With the CNN-hosted debate held in Michigan, the state’s economic and crime problems were front and center.
On gun control, the two candidates sparred sharply, with Clinton using the Sandy Hook massacre to make a point about holding gun makers responsible for crimes – and Sanders arguing that position would effectively mean an America without guns.
The dispute started when Sanders defended his past support for a bill to help protect gun manufacturers and sellers from lawsuits. He said if gun sellers and makers are held liable in many of these cases, “What you’re really talking about is ending gun manufacturing in America.”
Clinton countered that no other industry in America has “absolute immunity,” and invoked the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
The Democratic rivals were most heated when talking about their respective records on the economy. Sanders went after Clinton over what he called “disastrous trade agreements” like NAFTA.
She countered by pointing out he opposed the auto industry bailout. He tried to describe it as the Wall Street bailout, and got a little feisty when she started to speak over him.
“Excuse me, I’m talking,” he said. “Your story is for voting for every disastrous trade agreement.”
Clinton then called him a “one-issue candidate.” And on the auto bailout, she said, “If everybody had voted the way he did, I believe the auto industry would have collapsed, taking 4 million jobs with it.”
“My one issue is trying to rebuild a disappearing middle class. That’s my one issue,” Sanders said.
Meanwhile, at the top of the debate, Clinton and Sanders momentarily set aside their differences, to lament the plight of the people in the host city of Flint, and call for the governor’s resignation over the toxic water crisis.
Sanders said there’s “blame to go around” but Republican Gov. Rick Snyder should resign.
Clinton echoed the remarks, saying, “Amen to that.”
“The governor should resign or be recalled,” she said, while also calling on the federal and state governments to send more money to the city.
The city’s water crisis started when the city switched to the Flint River in 2014 while under a state-appointed emergency manager. While the state has taken much of the blame, officials with the city and federal government – as well as the state – have also resigned.
Clinton faced Sanders on the debate stage as she fights to shake her lone primary rival, who keeps notching just enough primary and caucus wins to keep his campaign alive, and a threat to her bid.
Sanders rode to victory in Maine in part on a huge turnout — Sanders beat Clinton by a ratio of nearly 2-to-1. The turnout was so big Sunday that some voters had to wait in line for more than four hours in Portland.
The victory gives Sanders a total of three victories over the weekend to Clinton’s one, in the Louisiana primary.
The results from Maine Sunday aren't binding, but will be used to select a slate of delegates to the state convention, where national delegates will be elected. Maine will send 25 delegates and 30 superdelegates.
On Super Tuesday last week, Clinton won seven states to Sanders’ four. She maintains a sizeable delegate lead – which before the Maine contest stood at 1,121 to 481. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.
But Sanders, even by winning lower-profile contests, has managed to at least demonstrate lingering weaknesses in the front-runner’s campaign as he draws an enthusiastic response in the grassroots-driven caucus states. Sanders sees upcoming Midwestern primaries as a crucial opportunity to slow her momentum by highlighting his trade policies – though Clinton has led in the polls in Michigan.
“Geographically, we’re looking good,” Sanders said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “We have a path.”
Sanders acknowledged his campaign has yet to connect with African-American voters, which hurt him badly in his South Carolina loss last month to Clinton.
However, he told ABC, “I think you’re going to see those numbers change.”
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Republican Leaderboard
Delegates Leaderboard
See how many delegates each candidate has racked up thus farRepublican
1,237 needed-
378Donald Trump
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295Ted Cruz
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123Marco Rubio
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34John Kasich
Lousy food, low pay ... lawmakers testify (gripe) about working on Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill is a terrible place to work -- That’s the lasting impression one might have after listening to lawmakers this week discussed the budget for Congress at a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.
Here are some of complaint and concerns the lawmakers debated at the session:
-- Low wages for aides
-- How crummy and expensive the food is in the cafeterias.
-- The vulnerability of House garages to a terrorism attack.
- How security precautions make it a pain for staff to navigate the workplace.
-- The need to update the electronic voting system in the House chamber (Keep in mind that an accurate tabulation of voting on the House is the quintessence of the entire enterprise).
-- Nobody knowing how many lawmakers carry firearms into the Capitol complex, perhaps increasing safety risks.
-- The convenience store in the Longworth House Office Building and in women’s restrooms.
-- Whether women should be charged for the aforementioned feminine hygiene products in the House.
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the top Democrat on the Legislative Branch Appropriations panel and chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, posed multiple questions to acting House Chief Administrative Officer Bill Plaster at the hearing about the availability of tampons and sanitary napkins.
“When you need a feminine hygiene product, you need one. Immediately,” lectured Wasserman Schultz. “For the convenience store to stop stocking products like that is really inconvenient. It’s the opposite of the purpose of a convenience store.”
She even showed Plaster a photo of out-of-order signs slung across feminine hygiene dispensaries around the Capitol.
Multiple (female) congressional sources indicated that many of the machines hadn’t carried the appropriate products in about a year. And when supply was on hand, the product was described as outdated.
Moreover, Wasserman Schultz groused that women shouldn’t have to pay the required 25 cents when in need.
“It’s like charging for toilet paper,” she protested, then she didn’t “want to go into too much detail” about the issue.
Plaster responded that the vendor “has responded with additional stock,” Wasserman Schultz pointedly retorted the new supply was “insufficient.”
Still, Capitol Hill, with its marble floors and magnificently landscaped grounds, is for many a desirable place to work.
The time-off, include long winter and summer recesses, for example, help compensate for the wages. And for many, the opportunity to work in arguably the world’s most powerful legislative body is a huge stepping stone for future endeavors.
A few years ago, Congress trimmed the overall spending it allocates for itself. This was an effort to “lead by example.” Plus, it looked like good politics back home -- even if constituents received less from the members they elected.
The cuts hit Capitol Hill hard -- putting a squeeze on congressional salaries and the ability to retain good people. The total reductions only amounted to $362 million. That’s a big impact internally but barely a dent when the federal government inches close to spending $4 trillion annually and runs a $19 trillion debt.
Legislative branch spending climbed to $4.36 billion in the latest spending measure. That’s a $1.5 billion increase over the previous year but still below what Congress allocated for Capitol Hill operations seven years ago.
“It means having to let people go,” said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif.,
Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., told Plaster that “any restoration” of money to the accounts lawmakers use to pay staff and run their offices “would be helpful.”
Last year, the House switched vendors for dining services in its cafeterias. The old vendor, Restaurant Associates, still runs Senate eateries as well as those in the Capitol Visitor’s Center.
French food services provider Sodexo succeeded Restaurant Associates in the House. That sparked an immediate outcry from the Capitol Hill community. The food wasn’t as good. Prices were higher. There wasn’t as much variety.
Wasserman Schultz said it was “pretty bad” when the dining discord prompted an article late last year in the New York Times. She also questioned how some lower-rung aides could survive while paying them such paltry salaries.
“After paying for rent and eating in the House cafeteria, we’re lucky we can keep anyone on staff,” she complained. “It’s costing them an arm and a leg to eat.”
Clerk of the House Karen Haas told lawmakers the electronic voting cards lawmakers use during roll call votes are so outdated that an outside company makes them specifically for Congress.
She added that the voting system in the House chamber needs rewiring soon -- a project which involves digging under the floor of the chamber. Moreover, Haas said Braille type must be added to voting stations sprinkled around the chamber for visually impaired lawmakers.
Security has long been paramount on Capitol Hill.
But a lingering problem involves the risks terrorists could pose to congressional garages across the street from the Capitol beneath the House office buildings.
The garages are not what is known as “clean,” meaning aides and lawmakers can drive in, then move into the office buildings without ever clearing security.
Individuals entering on foot pass through magnetometers. Inspecting every car and screening workers offsite would create catastrophic delays and traffic jams around Capitol Hill.
So, the U.S. Capitol Police operates with a lower level of security in the House office buildings. Persons going through the underground tunnels to the Capitol itself from the office complex are screened at checkpoints located there.
Of late, magnetometers recently showed up in the Longworth garage in an effort to bolster security. But the Rayburn garage still lacks the equipment.
At the hearing, Wasserman Schultz later took aim at House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving. She suggested the appropriations committee never signed off on implementing the additional security measures. Other lawmakers see it differently, adding that the Appropriations Committee, which controls the purse strings, in fact allocated funds properly.
Wasserman Schultz hectored Irving with queries about who gave him the go-ahead to install the magnetometers. Irving said he took “responsibility,” later adding he did so in concert with the Speaker’s Office and House Administration Committee.
“I don’t think I’m getting responses to my questions,” Wasserman Schultz protested, in apparent exasperation.
Irving said the House garages carry “tremendous vulnerabilities to us.”
Wasserman Schultz responded by saying that terrorists weren’t stupid since the magnetometers were installed in only one garage. She said terrorists would simply “go to the garage that’s not secure.”
Sam Farr piped up. He suggested the extra screening was “an affront to staff.”
“We’re building an empire on the Hill,” he said.
The California Democrat then asked if Irving knew how many lawmakers arm themselves when they walk through the Capitol. By statute, lawmakers are allowed to pack heat at the Capitol and are not required to go through security screening.
Staff and visitors cannot carry firearms at the Capitol complex.
“We don’t know that number,” Irving replied.
Farr argued it was a fairness issue and that lawmakers shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns at work -- especially if they were trying to “lead by example.”
There also concern the Capitol could join the long list of venues that have experienced deadly, workplace violence -- just like Fort Hood, the Washington Navy Yard and San Bernardino.
Under such a nightmare scenario, there are questions as to whether lawmakers carrying their own guns could make a nightmarish shootout even more volatile if they started to fire their own weapons -- in addition to U.S. Capitol Police officers. Would extra firepower help neutralize a situation or contribute to “friendly fire” injuries or deaths?
Physical security isn’t the only concern at the Capitol. So too is cybersecurity.
Plaster told lawmakers that hackers pose a constant threat.
“They’re not knocking at the front door anymore,” he said.
Plaster says that the House has about 12,000 people on its network, receiving some 200 million emails a year. He estimates that about one-third of all email traffic received is an effort to bore into the House computer system.
And with so many emails and so many users, it’s challenging to harden those defenses.
So if you want to understand Congress and its internal operations, look at Legislative Branch appropriations. That could shed light into how lawmakers tackle issues ranging from ISIS to health care to the economy. It also says a lot about what it’s like to work on Capitol Hill.
Hardly a week goes by without a report demonstrating that Congressional approval ratings are in the tank.
Those are polls that study the performance of lawmakers. And one wonders if aides who toil on Capitol Hill would rate Congress much higher.
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