The Polling Report [3.16.13]

5 Comments
NATIONAL--PRESIDENT--2016--Quinnipiac: Former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (D) 45, Governor Chris Christie (R) 37; Clinton (D) 50, Representative Paul Ryan (R) 38; Clinton (D) 50, Senator Marco Rubio (R) 34 With Chris Christie the only GOP candidate polled making it a race against Clinton, it really is a shame that he has as much chance of winning the Republican nomination as I do. NATIONAL--PRESIDENT--2016--Quinnipiac: Christie (R) 43, Vice President Joe Biden (D) 40; Biden (D) 45, Rubio (R) 38; Biden (D) 45, Ryan (R) 42 NATIONAL--MARRIAGE EQUALITY--Quinnipiac: Support for same-sex marriage is inching up and now stands at 47% to 43%, including 54% to 38% among Catholic voters.
Said pollster Peter Brown on the surprising and ironic finding about Catholics: "Catholic voters are leading American voters toward support for same-sex marriage. Among all voters, there is almost no gender gap, but a big age gap. Voters 18 to 34 years old support same sex marriage 62% to 30%; voters 35 to 54 years old are divided 48% to 45% and voters over 55 are opposed 50% to 39%."
And we have much more on the Pennsylvania and Michigan gubernatorial races and other Senate races inside...

Saturday Open Thread [3.16.13]

Roll Call points out that Paul Ryan is required by law and all that is holy to get down on his knees and praise President Obama and his policies, for without him and them, his budget plan would be nothing.
Ryan’s budget eliminates the deficit in 2023 not because of large new spending cuts relative to his past budgets, but because he’s keeping hundreds of billions of dollars a year of President Barack Obama’s own budget policies in place. Ryan’s claim to a balanced budget rests entirely on the 2010 health care law, known in GOP circles as “Obamacare.” Ryan’s budget keeps the tax revenue from the health care law, as well as its $700 billion-plus Medicare trims and other cuts. Ryan included those Medicare cuts in his previous budget blueprints but campaigned against them when he joined Mitt Romney’s GOP presidential ticket last year. Ryan’s budget also would not balance without the $600 billion-plus increase in taxes extracted by the president in the fiscal cliff deal. What Ryan would repeal is the $1.8 trillion in new spending on the health care law, which primarily subsidizes the purchase of private insurance. That includes $263 billion in spending on the law in 2023 alone.

The Weekly Addresses

4 Comments
The weekly addresses from President Obama and Governor Markell (who hands it off to Secretary O'Mara this week), as well as the West Wing Week video about this past week at the White House. And we also have a video of the Governor playing a charity ping pong game. I am not sure why he is shorts and a t-shirt for a ping pong game.

Empathy, or why liberals are better than conservatives.

16 Comments
There is a saying that a liberal is a conservative who has not been mugged yet, or has not paid taxes yet. You can really adapt it to whatever policy position you want. And now we liberals can modify it once more: A conservative is a liberal who has not been affected by what he opposes yet. Yes, I am talking about Senator Rob Portman and his announcement yesterday that 1) his son his gay, 2) and because his son is gay, he has changed his mind about gay marriage.

NRA Chooses Greg Lavelle and Ernie Lopez to Scuttle Criminal Background Checks.

15 Comments
Any doubts that the Delaware Republican Party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association should now be laid to rest. Former NRA Executive Director (and State Rethug Chair) John Sigler has anointed his serial bloviator and vice-chair Sen. Greg Lavelle as the person best-suited to kill mandatory criminal background checks on firearms transactions.  With an assist from self-styled 'moderate' Sen. Ernie Lopez. Lavelle's tortured explanation as to what his newly-proposed legislation would do goes like this. According to the News-Journal quote, his bill:
"...doesn't mandate background checks. It doesn't create a registration. It allows people to make smart decisions for themselves."
Great. Because people always make smart decisions for themselves. Especially when it comes to deadly weapons that they're unloading for cash. And, if they don't, they could be in trouble once the bodies are scraped off the bloody sidewalk. Lavelle's attempt to scuttle criminal background checks would make 'it a crime to sell a firearm to someone prohibited from possessing guns'. Got that? It would be up to the seller to conduct a criminal background check on a prospective purchaser. (Or, perhaps, to look soulfully into their eyes.) Except, of course, any seller would not have access to any sort of data base. And Ernie Lopez, marching in lockstep, has proposed a bill to increase penalties for those who 'knowingly' sell firearms to someone prohibited. Even by NRA standards, this is pathetic. Without background checks, the gun sales addressed by HB 35 would be 'unaddressed' by the Lavelle and Lopez proposals. After all, under their proposals, ignorance is a deliberate defense. 'I didn't know that this guy was a three-time loser.' All righty then. Let's call this for what it is: An attempt to muddy the waters just enough to deep-six common-sense legislation. It's up to you to let your legislators know that you will not stand for this. And for you Brandywine Hundred/Greenville denizens who supported Greg Lavelle and, for that matter, Ernesto Lopez last time? They're both up for reelection in 2014.

Hall-Long outed as gay marriage swing vote

25 Comments
I don't know how true this is with regard to BHL being a gay marriage swing vote, but I think the more pressing question is - when did Bruce Vilanch start writing for Pray4de.org?
"Please pray for the technology of the righteous to work speedily and properly and the technology of the unrighteous to fail!!"
Really? That's a thing now?

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., March 14, 2013

4 Comments
Ladies and gentlemen, to the barricades! Or, at least, to your phones, your e-mail, you know the drill. The Forces of Ee-vil are afoot in Leg Hall. The gun nuts, the Chamber of Commerce shills. Their goal: Stop progressive legislation from passing. For the gun nuts, it's the backgrounds check on gun purchases. For the Chamber fat-cats, it's minimum wage. I believe that there is enough legislative support to pass both bills. But it won't happen unless you contact your legislators, and either let them know that you've got their back, or that you expect them to do the right thing. The background check bill is in House committee. An outpouring of gun nuts prevented the bill from moving out of committee yesterday. So, the committee meets again, next Wednesday, starting at 11:30 a.m. until...whenever all those who wish to speak have spoken. Here's what you can and should do. Contact your own State Rep and politely tell them that you support HB 35 and ask them to do the same. The odds are that you will speak to a staffer first. These are good people. Be polite and friendly. Make sure that they've gotten the message correctly. If you wish to participate in the discussion, either directly or via correspondence, here's how....