Open Thread

45 Pathetic Cowards. Let's see if any Delaware Democrats or Republicans in the Delaware Senate join them. 1. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 2. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) 3. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) 4. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) 5. Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) 6. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) 7. Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) 8. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) 9. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) 10. Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) 11. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) 12. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) 13. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) 14. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) 15. Sen. Michael Crapo (R-ID) 16. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 17. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) 18. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) 19. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) 20. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) 21. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) 22. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) 23. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) 24. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) 25. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) 26. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) 27. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) 28. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) 29. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) 30. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) 31. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 32. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) 33. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) 34. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) 35. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) 36. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) 37. Sen. James Risch (R-ID) 38. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) 39. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 40. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) 41. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 42. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) 43. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) 44. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) 45. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Unusual Hillary Speculation -- Could Hillary Clinton Be America’s Thatcher? This is from Margaret Carlson and this piece is something of a mess -- largely faulting Hillary for being married to Bill Clinton. Both Hillary and Bill have more than their fair share of issues, but Hillary does have accomplishments, not the least of which is making sure that she was pulling other women up the ladder with her and fighting for women's issues around the world. Thatcher cared not one whit about other women or the rights or well-being of anyone else, for that matter.

The news is focused on the Boston Marathon bombing, and for so much ink being spilled, there is precious little new information. So 2 bombs, 3 people dead, more than 150 sent to the hospital with injuries. There's no one in custody yet, law enforcement of all kinds are at the scene and working to ID the bomber and apparently they are getting tons of tips. And right on cue, the right wingnuts are spinning up their conspiracy theories -- this one claiming that the bombing is meant to frame the tea party and expand the TSA. Just so you can be certain that there is a national tragedy, the Westboro RatBastards have already pledged to picket funerals from this.

Tomorrow, the bipartisan "Gang of Eight," which includes Senators Dick Durbin (D), Chuck Schumer (D), John McCain (R), Lindsay Graham (R), Jeff Flake (R), Marco Rubio (R), Robert Menendez (D) and Michael Bennet (D) is set to unveil a proposal that would represent the most far-reaching overhaul of immigration laws since 1986. Come inside for the details of the bill from the Washington Examiner....

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) reported his campaign fund earned $75,637 from interest and investments during the first quarter of 2013, according to Political Moneyline. That doesn't seem legal to me,…

Vice President Joe Biden "faces a situation unique in the annals of modern American politics," the New York Times reports.

"He is the vice president, the highest-ranking member of his party interested in running for president, yet he is not the heir apparent. While every sitting vice president who sought it in the last half-century captured his party's nomination, Mr. Biden would start as the underdog if he ran against Mrs. Clinton, the former secretary of state."

Which is why he won't run if she does. Hillary and Joe are also good friends, which I think makes the decision not to run easier, not harder.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds most Americans support "creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are working in this country illegally -- and one with a shorter timeline than that contemplated by Congress."

"Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they favor giving citizenship to those who came here illegally and now hold jobs. Support jumped to 76% for a plan that required immigrants to pay fines, back taxes and pass a security check, among other measures, to gain citizenship. Bipartisan legislation now being written in the Senate could open a pathway to citizenship with similar requirements."

In addition, 51% say illegal immigrants with jobs should gain citizenship after five years with an additional 18% backed immediate citizenship. The plan being discussed in Congress has a 10 year time frame.

So this is a thing -- opting out of the high-stakes standardized tests that are destabilizing teaching and politics. I knew that there were parents working at ending it in some places, but did not know that opting out was it's own movement. This is from Philly:

Anglin is one of the first, small batch of Philadelphia parents to join a national "opt-out" movement - a grass-roots rebellion against the outsized role that standardized tests like the PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment) play in the day-to-day classroom experience, in the closure of urban schools rated as "failing," and in stressing out both students and their teachers, whose careers may soon ride on the results.

Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died. It is interesting that I feel the same way about her as I did about Ronald Reagan: I liked her personally even though I did not always agree with her policies (indeed I mostly disagreed with them). That is probably why both were successful leaders of their countries. God speed Baroness Thatcher. Back to American politics.... "Running for president is like sex. No one ever did it once and forgot about it." -- James Carville, quoted by Maureen Dowd.

Robert Shrum in the wonderfully titled "Be Afraid, GOP: Hillary Clinton Is Back and She Will Beat You in 2016:"

And all of [the Hillary in 2016 talk] does something else: it sends the chill wind of a potential 16 years of Democrats in the White House, along with a Supreme Court where the justices actually do justice, through the fevered right-wing swamps of the Clinton-haters and the Obama-abominators who see the white-male dominated America of their imagining fading away. My colleague, friend, and podcast sparring partner David Frum is certainly not among them—instead he's offered the GOP perceptive counsel, fortunately spurned so far and perhaps indefinitely, about how to remake the party in substance as well as style. Now, however, on CNN and in The Daily Beast, he has weighed in with advice for Democrats and Clinton herself: She would be "a mistake for 2016." It is a provocative, fresh, and seemingly well-argued piece—but it's just plain wrong.

Nemski bait: A new political action committee launched this week to support bearded candidates from across the political spectrum, according to The Hill.

Said spokesman Andy Shapero: "It's been 125 years since our last bearded President, Benjamin Harrison, was elected. We're hoping that with our support, bearded individuals will shrug off over a century of political irrelevance and start running for office again."

I said on Wednesday at the PDD Meeting that Gun Control on the Federal level so long as the Republicans are in control of the House, and hell, so long as Democrats are cowardly preserving the filibuster privileges of the Senate Republicans. Indeed, it is a mystery to me why some Democrats and everyone in the media thought somehow that Republicans would abandon the NRA and pass even the most innocuous gun control measure. On state level, things look better, in Connecticut and Colorado and Maryland, and also here in Delaware, where at least one bill, the Universal Background Check bill, has a good chance of passing if we lobby our legislators so that the hear sane reasonable voices in addition to the insane pro-gun arguments. But whether legislation is successful on the state or national level, the issue is back as a cultural wedge issue, and this time the case can be made, based on the poll numbers I showed you in the Polling Report today, that it benefits Democrats.

Here are two stories with somewhat of a similar theme to them, and that is, "if people know the truth, they wouldn't like us," with us being the Republican Party and organized religion. First, the good old GOP. Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate and religious right stalwart, told some truth about the varied and now disperate factions of the GOP:

"If we gave our voters an accurate portrayal of our ideas, that we want to cut the rate of growth on Social Security, give tax cuts to billionaires and then the values issues, the values issues would be more popular than the economic agenda of the current Republican Party.”

It is always refreshing when a Republican tells the truth, if only because it is so rare.