Eric Cantor to Resign From Congress

At Roll Call.

And watch Cantor's final speech yesterday as Majority Leader:

AUDIO: Vote-Challenging Conservatives Crash Thad Cochran Conference Call — #MSSen

This is hilarious, at Roll Call, "Thad Cochran Conference Call Descends Into Chaos."

And the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, "Cochran presser: Most entertaining conference call ever."

Charles C. Johnson helped crash the party, heh.

The dude is inside the loop and inside the GOP establishment's head.

Press conference details... Crash it with me in fifteen minutes? Call is 3 PM CST Tuesday Call in number: 530-881-1000. PIN: 287517# #mssen
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) July 2, 2014

Listen to the audio here.

Mississippi Tea Party Leader Mark Mayfield Dead of Apparent Suicide

At the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, "Update: Tea party leader Mayfield dead of apparent suicide."

Also at the Los Angeles Times, "Mississippi tea party leader arrested in bizarre photo scandal is dead":

Tea party official Mark Mayfield, charged in connection with a scandal involving photos of Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran's ailing wife, has been found dead and police said they suspect suicide.

Ridgeland Police Chief Jimmy Houston said the body of Mayfield, who was an attorney, was found Friday morning at his house outside Jackson, Miss., and that a suicide note was found at the scene, the Associated Press reported.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant released a statement early Friday...

More at Twitchy, "Reports: Mississippi attorney charged in Cochran nursing home photo scandal commits suicide."

Coincidence or Crime? Anti-McDaniel Race-Bait Flyers Look Like Work of Haley Barbour Super-PAC

From Charles C. Johnson, at Patterico's, "Anti-McDaniel Race-Based Flyer Sure Looks Similar to the Work of Barbour’s Super-PAC."



And follow Charles C. Johnson on Twitter.

State Sen. Chris McDaniel Keeps Legal Challenge Open — #MSSen

At the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, "McDaniel still pondering challenge: Spokesman Noel Fritsch hangs up when reached by phone about McDaniel's next move:

The day after incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran won the GOP primary runoff, challenger Chris McDaniel had not conceded and said his team would be looking at voting irregularities “in coming days” to determine whether to challenge the results.

McDaniel’s campaign spokesman Noel Fritsch, reached by phone late Wednesday morning, promptly hung up without answering questions about McDaniel’s next move but later issued a written statement from McDaniel. McDaniel also appeared on the Sean Hannity radio show.

Cochran, in unofficial results, defeated McDaniel with 190,633 votes to 184,260, or 51 percent to 49 percent on Tuesday.  Cochran spokesman Jordan Russell said: “We are moving forward. The election is over, and now it’s time to get ready for November. Chris McDaniel, his campaign and his supporters ran a great race. They have a lot to be proud of.”

McDaniel says Cochran’s campaign brought in Democrats to steal the GOP primary. He told Hannity he might launch a court challenge on “a civil conspiracy to violate state law.” In his written statement he said, “After we have examined the data we will make a decision about whether and how to proceed.”

Asked by Hannity whether he could support Cochran if he remains the nominee or mend fences with the state Republican establishment, McDaniel said he has been praying about it.

“It’s too early right now to get those raw emotions out of the way,” McDaniel told Hannity. “... They used everything from the race card to food stamps to saying I would shut down public education. ... I’ve fought for this (Republican Party) all my life, but they abandoned us, made fun of us and ridiculed us and brought in 35,000 Democrats to beat us.”

More.

And listen to the interview at the Right Scoop, "Chris McDaniel: “We’re not going to concede right now, we’re going to investigate”."

Rush Limbaugh: 'Black Uncle Tom Voters' Boosted Thad Cochran — #MSSen

The full transcript from Rush, "Thad Cochran's Coalition of the Lied To."



EARLIER: "The Bottom Line on Mississippi's GOP Runoff Primary — #MSSen."

The Bottom Line on Mississippi's GOP Runoff Primary — #MSSen

Here's Jonathan Tobin, in all his usual perspicacity, "Contentions Will GOP Regret Torching Miss. Tea Party?":

Cochran’s ability to turn out black Democrats in huge numbers to offset his unpopularity among members of his own party in an open primary state could also be interpreted as a triumph for GOP outreach. For a party that desperately needs more minority support, some may argue that Cochran’s tactic of paying black political organizers to persuade hard-core Democrats to vote in a Republican primary is a sign that African-Americans can be enticed to support a GOP candidate under some circumstances.

While that is a rather dubious assumption, the bottom line about the Mississippi primary is that the Tea Party got out-organized, out-spent and outflanked by an incumbent. Cochran was able to use support from the party establishment, business, and local constituencies who were influenced by the senator’s ability to manipulate the federal budget. That bought him a win in a primary that should have been dominated by the highly motivated conservative activists who wanted to retire him.

But the general satisfaction among establishment Republicans today needs to be tempered by the knowledge that what Cochran did in Mississippi may hurt the party in ways they may not quite understand...

Continue reading.

Tobin's right to indicate that the establishment is burning its bridges to the conservative base, and perhaps irreparably.

On that, especially, see Erick Erickson, "The Marionettes Remain Uncut."

Yet, all of this overlooks the illegal nature of Cochran's win last night. Follow Charles C. Johnson for all the latest on this, and more. That's the bottom line:

Here's your proof of mass voter fraud, people bragging about illegal votes, bribes... in #mssen pic.twitter.com/QaifWx0S3V

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

It's bullshit that McDaniel won't challenge #mssen results. I heard it from the source. Tell that to the face of any "reporter" who lies.

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

Superintendents all over #MS sent out letters to staff warning of McDaniel win, lying about cuts to education. #mssen pic.twitter.com/yp5hUnBFke

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

The amazing @jason_howerton publishes this & gave me shout out. Rush Limbaugh weighs in, too. #mssen http://t.co/1eF1hrFEpE

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

Many people have asked me this. I have not taken a penny from #McDaniel campaign & would not take anything if offered. Period. #mssen

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

VIDEO: Chris McDaniel GOP Runoff Election Night Speech — #MSSen

At C-SPAN, "Chris McDaniel Primary Night Speech."

And ICYMI: "State Sen. Chris McDaniel Won't Concede to Decrepit Race-Baiting Incumbent Thad Cochran — #MSSen."

State Sen. Chris McDaniel Won't Concede to Decrepit Race-Baiting Incumbent Thad Cochran — #MSSen

The GOP runoff election in Mississippi was a nail-biter by all accounts, and extremely fascinating to follow on Twitter in real time:

#MSSen keeps freakin' tightening.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 25, 2014

But in the end it's becoming increasingly clear that this was no normal come-from-behind win for the incumbent Thad Cochran:

Decrepit race-baiter Thad Cochran edges tea party's Chris McDaniel in #MSSen. http://t.co/BFGoO0covM
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 25, 2014

Twitchy has the key tweets, "Miss. Senate primary: Pro Cochran ads accuse McDaniel, tea party of racism [pics, audio]."

Radio ad says Tea Party wants to send blacks back to the "good old bad days" #mssen https://t.co/85Yhzg7FId
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 24, 2014

I'd like to know how widespread were these smears. Alleged, racist flyers were distributed, robo-calls along the same lines were reported, and most of all is that wildly inflammatory and racist radio spot, which if true is absolutely mind-boggling for mud-slinging Machiavellianism.

We'll certainly know more about this tomorrow, because challenger Chris McDaniel refuses to concede.

Defiant Chris McDaniel declines to concede in speech to supporters http://t.co/1xzGCCS3Fu | Getty pic.twitter.com/CNgfQUTOR8
— POLITICO (@politico) June 25, 2014

Expect updates...

Amid #Illegal Alien Onslaught, Mexican Cartels Boost Drug Smuggling Into U.S.

We're being invaded and the system is overwhelmed.

At the Washington Post, "Wave of Central American migrants strains Border Patrol, reducing number of drug busts":

MCALLEN, Tex. — With the Border Patrol distracted by a surge of Central American migrants crossing into south Texas, Mexican cartels have had an easier time smuggling illegal drugs across the border, according to agents and state officials here.

The arrival of large groups of women and children on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande is pulling agents away from their patrol stations elsewhere along the border, creating gaps in coverage that the traffickers can exploit, according to Chris Cabrera, the Border Patrol union representative here.

The smugglers wait on the southern banks of the Rio Grande as migrant groups as large as 250 wade across at dusk and turn themselves in to the Border Patrol, he said. Then groups of single men proceed to cross under cover of darkness, hoping to slip through.

“After that they send over the dope,” Cabrera said, with U.S. officers too busy to stop it.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) and Gov. Rick Perry (R) have echoed the complaints. In a letter this month to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Abbott asked for $30 million for law enforcement officers to fill in the gaps because “we have grave concerns that dangerous cartel activity, including narcotics smuggling and human trafficking, will go unchecked because Border Patrol resources are stretched too thin.”

The most recent statistics from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) show that narcotics seizures have fallen across the entire border with Mexico this year, with the drop being larger in Texas than the average.

In Texas, combined seizures of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine fell by 34 percent — from 374,812 to 246,976 kilograms — between Jan. 1 and June 14 compared with the same period last year. Seizures in Arizona and California fell by 26 percent in each state. The decline was greatest in New Mexico — 62 percent — and the overall amount of drugs captured was also far lower than in other states...

Paul Ryan Eviscerates 'Lying' #IRS Commissioner John Koskinen

Whoa!

Paul Ryan gets fired up!

From Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "IRS Commissioner in the Hot Seat on Capitol Hill Over 'Lost' Emails."

And from Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "Videos: Paul Ryan, Kevin Brady expose holes in the IRS’s story."

Obama Suggests 'Targeted and Precise' Airstrikes Against #ISIS Jihadists

No boots on the ground but the U.S. "will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action, if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it."

Transcript of the president's press conference at CNN, "Transcript: Obama's remarks on U.S. response to Iraq crisis."

And a report at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama to send up to 300 advisors to 'train, advise and support' Iraq."

Major Garrett, below, reports for CBS Evening News.

And at the Washington Post, "White House beginning to consider conflicts in Syria and Iraq as single challenge":

The Obama administration has begun to consider the conflicts in Syria and Iraq as a single challenge, with an al-Qaeda-inspired insurgency threatening both countries’ governments and the region’s broader stability, according to senior administration officials.

At a National Security Council meeting earlier this week, President Obama and his senior advisers reviewed the consequences of possible airstrikes in Iraq, a bolder push to train Syria’s moderate rebel factions and various political initiatives to break down the sectarian divisions that have stirred Iraq’s Sunni Muslims against the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Senior administration officials familiar with the discussions say what is clear to the president and his advisers is that any long-term plan to slow the progress of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, as the insurgency is known, will have far-reaching consequences on both sides of the increasingly inconsequential desert border that once divided the two countries.

Although spreading faster in Iraq, the advance of ISIS could also force the administration to reconsider its calculations in Syria, where Obama has taken a cautious approach, declining to arm moderate rebel factions or conduct airstrikes on government airstrips, as some advisers have recommended.

“The key to both Syria and Iraq is going to be a combination of what happens inside the country, working with moderate Syrian opposition, working with an Iraqi government that is inclusive, and us laying down a more effective counterterrorism platform that gets all the countries in the region pulling in the same direction,” Obama said at a news conference Thursday. “Rather than try to play whack-a-mole wherever these terrorist organizations may pop up, what we have to do is to be able to build effective partnerships.”

More.

Grim Overcrowding, Filthy Conditions at Illegal Alien Detention Centers in #Arizona and Texas

At the Los Angeles Times, "Overcrowded, unsanitary conditions seen at immigrant detention centers":

Immigrant youths covered the dirty concrete floors of the Border Patrol holding cells here, sprawled shoulder to shoulder and draped in grubby Red Cross blankets, enveloped in a haze of sweat and body odor.

Groups of girls and boys stared out the windows of their cells, some of the girls holding babies of their own, as agents watched from a central monitoring station. A girl could be seen scrubbing her armpits at the back of the cell.

This 4,900-square-foot detention center near the Mexican border in south Texas was built to house 250, but for the last few months it has been holding twice that, thanks to what U.S. officials say is an unprecedented influx of children and families, most from Central America, hoping for refuge in the United States.

More than 800 of the youngsters are being held at a former warehouse in Nogales, Ariz., now also deployed as a detention center for migrant youths.

Facing growing controversy over reports of crowded and unsanitary conditions, Border Patrol officials on Wednesday provided the first limited public access to the two facilities, allowing reporters on brief, controlled tours for glimpses of children and a few mothers detained there at the end of their often long journeys from places as far away as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

In Arizona, most were corralled behind chain-link fences topped with razor wire, huddling for warmth on plastic mats under flimsy metallic Mylar blankets. A television was suspended from the ceiling. Banks of portable toilets served as sanitary facilities. Beside a recreation area, a camouflage tarp had been strung up to shield temporary showers.

In Brownsville, the group included young mothers, many of whom looked exhausted. Some of the children looked dazed or stared blankly from the cells, while others waved and smiled. Many slept.

In Nogales, children clung to the towering chain-link fences around their cells, staring at visitors. Some appeared to have been crying, with swollen and red eyes. Others simply stared.

Immigrant advocates say the latest images of overcrowded cells and dirty floors reinforce their concerns that U.S. Customs and Border Protection is ill-prepared for the influx and is not properly safeguarding immigrants rounded up along the border...

It's a leftist Democrat Party scam to put pressure on Republicans to pass amnesty.

More from Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "After Leaked Photos Expose Unaccompanied Child Crisis, Border Patrol Agents Threatened With Firings," and "Texas Allocates $1.3 Million For Law Enforcement Surge on The Border":

As the federal government continues to be overwhelmed by a new surge of illegal immigrants from Central America, states are taking matters into their own hands by allocating more resources for border protection.

Yesterday Texas Governor Rick Perry announced the allocation of $1.3 million for a law enforcement surge at the border with a goal of stemming the ongoing crisis...

More.

'Morning Joe' Panel Mocks IRS for Lost Lois Lerner Emails

They're cracking up, "MSNBC Panel Mocks and Ridicules IRS for Losing Lois Lerner Emails."

In Texas' Rio Grande Valley, a Seemingly Endless Surge of Immigrants

This was at the Los Angeles Times over the weekend, now at Memeorandum.

Here's a video, in Spanish, of illegals taking a raft over the Rio Grande a month ago: "Immigrants crossing the Rio Grande river."

More at Gateway Pundit, "35,000 Illegal Immigrants Stream Across U.S. Border EACH MONTH."

Laura Ingraham on Sunday's News Shows

Ingraham played a huge hand in the Dave Brat win last week.

Watch, from "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," with Jonathan Karl moderating, "'This Week': Powerhouse Roundtable I."

Fact that #luisgutierrez said on @ThisWeekABC that he is not for amnesty is funnier than my #Cantor Taliban prisoner swap joke.

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) June 15, 2014

And on Howard Kurtz's show, on Fox News, "Radio Host Helped Sink Cantor - Ingraham Campaigned With David Brat."

Laura Ingraham Helped Propel Dave Brat's Campaign — #VA07

Laura Ingraham slams sham tea party "patriot" Jenny Beth Martin at the clip below.

And boy, Ingraham really racked up the creds with this insurgent win out of Virginia's 7th congressional district.

Even the far-left New York Times pumped and praised her impact on the race, "Potent Voices of Conservative Media Propelled Cantor Opponent: David Brat Was Aided by Influential Figures Like Laura Ingraham":

If Eric Cantor needed evidence that his political career was in real trouble, all he had to do was look outside his living room window one night last week. At a stately country club about half a mile from his home in the affluent Richmond suburb of Glen Allen, so many people had come to see the radio talk show host Laura Ingraham stump for Mr. Cantor’s opponent in the Republican primary, David Brat, that the overflow parking nearly reached his driveway.

Ms. Ingraham was so taken aback at the size of the crowd — inside the clubhouse, hundreds of people crammed onto staircase landings, leaned over railings and peered down at her from above — she wondered aloud what was really going on.

“We all looked at each other, saying, ‘He could totally win,'” Ms. Ingraham said in an interview. “I’ve had two moments in American politics in the last 15 years where I knew there was a big change afoot. One was when I left the Iowa caucuses in 2008. I walked out of there and said to a friend, ‘Barack Obama is going to win.’ And the other was when I left that rally last Tuesday.”

Few people did more than Ms. Ingraham to propel Mr. Brat, a 49-year-old economics professor who has never held elected office before, from obscurity to national conservative hero. And few stories better illustrate how his out-of-nowhere victory was due in large part to a unique and potent alignment of influential voices in conservative media.

Crucially, voices like Ms. Ingraham’s combined with shoe-leather, grass-roots campaign work by a highly organized local conservative movement to fill a void left by the absence of support from national Tea Party organizations and boldface Republican Party names.

Mr. Brat may have been turned away when he asked for financial support from well-funded conservative groups, and he was largely ignored by the national and local news media, which considered Mr. Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, a shoo-in. But he was a known quantity to the loyal audiences of radio personalities like Ms. Ingraham and Mark Levin, a Reagan aide and a revered figure in the conservative movement, and Breitbart.com, the website founded by the provocateur Andrew Breitbart.

Together, Mr. Levin and Ms. Ingraham reach nearly 10 million people each week. And the Breitbart sites log 60 million page views each month. Those audiences are heavy with engaged, politically motivated voters who turn out in Republican primaries — the kind of voters who came out for Mr. Brat on Tuesday.  “Of the 70,000 voters yesterday in Virginia, I am sure 95 percent go to Drudge, Breitbart, Mark Levin or Laura Ingraham every day, multiple times a day,” said Stephen K. Bannon, who wears many hats as a radio host, a filmmaker and the executive chairman of Breitbart.

More.

FLASHBACK: "Jenny Beth Martin Makes More the $450,000 Annually as National Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots!"

Civil Rights Groups Allege Mistreatment of Illegal Aliens Warehoused in Arizona

Yeah, well, I'm just all torn up about this.

At Fox News, "Civil Rights Groups File Complaint Alleging Over 100 Cases of Child Abuse On the Border."

It's the ACLU, among others, so you can see what this is all about.



And at Poor Richard's, "Obama is Using a Cloward-Piven Scheme to Collapse Immigration System with Thousands of Children."

Eric Cantor's Home Style — #VA07

An outstanding piece, from Sean Trende, at RealClearPolitics, "What Cantor's Loss and Graham's Win Mean":

In his political science classic, “Home Style: House Members in Their Districts,” Richard Fenno hypothesized that members of Congress have three goals: re-election, power in Washington, and enacting policy preferences. To pursue the second two goals, a member must achieve the first, and to do that, he or she must adopt a style that suits the district. If these images are not consistently reinforced, the incumbent will have trouble. Crucially, Fenno notes that the adoption of an effective home style involves a two-way communication process: Telling the constituents about oneself, but also listening to constituents. With the benefit of hindsight, we can probably apply this model to explain most of the Tea Party wins and losses over the past few years.

I have yet to read anything suggesting that Cantor had a good home style. His staff is consistently described as aloof, and his constituent service is lacking. This is consistent with my experience. Anecdotes are not data, but after passage of the Affordable Care Act, I called his office with a question about what autism therapies for my son would now be covered (I lived in Cantor’s district for six years). I never heard back. This surprised me, as constituent questions rarely go unanswered. I never once saw Cantor, not at county fairs, not at school board meetings, and not in the parades that would sometimes march past our house (we lived on a major thoroughfare). This isn’t to say that Cantor never did these things, only that they weren’t frequent enough to register; he wasn’t the stereotypical Southern politician whose face showed up at every event.

In short, Cantor seemed more focused on the second and third goals of a politician -- power and policy -- to the detriment of the first. I am guessing he didn’t realize he might have a problem until he was booed at a district meeting a month ago. If he’d run scared, the result might well have been different. But he didn’t, and he lost. This is really the big-picture message for GOP incumbents. You don’t have to remake yourself into a Tea Partier. But you do have to care.

Leftist Garance Franke-Ruta Smears Dave Brat Campaign Manager Zachary Werrell

"The Garance" is "sensationalizing" Zachary Werrell's Facebook postings, "David Brat campaign manager scrubs Facebook page after election":

The campaign manager for the tea party-backed Republican who ousted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in one of the biggest upsets in congressional history is a 23-year-old class of 2013 Haverford College graduate who posted a slew of provocative opinions on a public Facebook page that was removed from view overnight following David Brat's victory.

From comparing George Zimmerman’s shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin to abortion to calling for the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration and encouraging the adoption of the silver monetary standard, Zachary Werrell – one of just two paid staffers for the upstart campaign of Randolph-Macon College economics professor David Brat – sought in 2012 and 2013 to build a public profile as a socially conservative libertarian voice. The Facebook postings were either taken down or made private overnight Tuesday in the wake of Brat's win, but Yahoo News took screenshots of some of the remarks before they were removed from view. A cached version of Werrell's page remained available on Google as of midday Wednesday.

"The Garance" looks like a skeezy bimbo.

Sometime back Ann Althouse just destroyed "The Garance" in a Bloggingheads episode.

The left circled the wagons around "The Garance," who was clearly unable defend herself in a simple diavlog.

A total skanky progressive loser now tryna dog the victorious Dave Brat campaign. Pathetic.

Via Memeorandum.