Eric Cantor's Concession Speech

Oh boy, Brat crushed Cantor nearly 56 to 44 percent.

Megyn Kelly is on right now with an early repeat Kelly File, where we'd normally be watching O'Reilly reruns.

I'll have more.

Here's Cantor at the clip, "Obviously, we came up short."

And at Politico, "CANTOR LOSES":

LIVE FROM CANTOR HQ: The Cantor team appears to have shut off the projector screen showing the primary tally.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) June 10, 2014

RICHMOND, Va. — It wasn’t enough that Eric Cantor spent $1 million in the weeks leading up to the election, when his primary opponent hardly had $100,000 in his campaign coffers.

It didn’t matter that the House majority leader, 51, branded Dave Brat a liberal hack, and himself as the guardian of the Republican creed. On Tuesday night, Cantor, who was swept into the majority leader’s suite in a tea party wave, was swept out by the same movement.

Cantor conceded the race around 8:25 p.m. — shortly after the Associated Press pronounced Cantor’s 13-year political career at least temporarily over. With nearly 98 percent of precincts reporting, Brat had 55 percent of the vote, while Cantor had 44 percent. People close to Cantor said internal polls showed him hovering near 60 percent in the runup to the race.

It’s one of the most stunning losses in modern House politics, and completely upends the GOP hierarchy in both Virginia and Washington. Cantor enjoyed a meteoric rise that took him from chief deputy whip, to minority whip to majority leader in the span of 13 years.  Cantor was seen by many as the next speaker of the House, biding his time until Ohio Rep. John Boehner wanted to retire.

But now, Cantor has just six months left in Congress. He is the second incumbent to lose this primary season: 91-year-old Texas Rep. Ralph Hall was the first.  The loss will ripple across Washington, too: from political consultants who worked for Cantor to his aides who decamped for K Street, there will be reverberations...

More.

Tea Party Challenger Takes Out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

Wow.

I had no clue Cantor's seat was in jeopardy.

From Guy Benson, at Town Hall, "EARTHQUAKE: Eric Cantor Loses Primary to Unheralded, Under-funded Tea Party Challenger."

And at WaPo, "Eric Cantor succumbs to tea party challenger Tuesday":

In a stunning upset propelled by tea party activists, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was defeated in Tuesday’s congressional primary, with insurgent David Brat delivering an unpredicted and devastating loss to the second most powerful Republican in the House who has widely been touted as a future speaker.

The race called shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern by the Associated Press.

Brat’s victory gives the GOP a volatile outlook for the rest of the campaign season, with the party establishment struggling late Tuesday to grapple with the news and tea party conservatives relishing a surprising win.

“This is an earthquake,” said former Minnesota congressman Vin Weber, a friend of Cantor’s. “No one thought he’d lose.” But Brat, tapping into conservative anger over Cantor’s role in supporting efforts to reform federal immigration laws, found a way to combat Cantor’s significant financial edge.

Brat, an economics professor, simply failed to show up to D.C. meetings with powerful conservative agitators last month, citing upcoming finals. He only had $40,000 in the bank at the end of March, according to first quarter filings. Cantor had $2 million.

Despite those shortcomings, Brat has exposed discontent with Cantor in the solidly Republican, suburban Richmond 7th Congressional District by attacking the lawmaker on his votes to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown, as well as his support for some immigration reforms. At a May meeting of Republican activists in the district, Cantor was booed, and an ally he campaigned for was ousted as the local party chairman in favor of a tea party favorite.

Expect updates.

ADDED: At Twitchy, "‘Truly stunned’: Eric Cantor getting clobbered in Virginia; Dave Brat shows early lead; Update: Brat takes it."

The Ghastly Transaction That Freed Sgt. Bowe #Bergdahl

From former Attorney General Michael Mukasey (via Memeorandum):

The seeds of what blossomed grotesquely in the Rose Garden last weekend — a celebration of the release of five senior Taliban military leaders in exchange for a U.S. sergeant purported to be a deserter — were sown a long time ago: on the second and third days of President Obama’s first term, to be precise.

On his second day in office, the president signed an executive order directing that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed. You can watch the cringe-inducing video of the signing ceremony on YouTube, as the president stumbles through a reading of the order to close the facility “consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice,” signs with a flourish, and asks then-White House counsel Greg Craig, whether there is a separate executive order describing what is to be done with the Guantanamo detainees; Craig is heard to reply off camera that “a process” will be set up, whereupon the president repeats solemnly into the camera that “a process” will be set up.

The following day, the president met with congressional leaders to discuss his economic stimulus. When Republican House whip Eric Cantor offered some suggestions, the president reminded him and others of the vanquished who were present that “elections have consequences” and “I won.”

The president apparently hadn’t thought through how he would accomplish the goal and serve the interests he had announced. But he had indeed won.

Fast forward, and characteristically the Obama administration has apologized only for the least of the president’s transgressions in this sorry affair: his failure to consult Congress 30 days in advance of freeing any Guantanamo detainees, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act. At the time the president signed that law he issued an accompanying signing statement taking the position, I believe probably correctly, that the law is unconstitutional as a restriction on his Article II executive powers. However, his own criticism of his predecessor for alleged misuse of executive authority apparently left him diffident about relying on that, so he relied instead on two excuses with neither legal nor factual basis: concern for the rapid deterioration of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s health, which does not explain why no notice was given; and simple neglect due to the rush of events, which contradicts the first.

It is difficult to believe that the president actually understood last weekend the enormity of what he had done...

Keep reading.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Operation Enduring Weakness."

Still more at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup," and "From Director Blue................... ERIC CANTOR: Brazenly Lying to the People of Virginia in order to Cram Amnesty Down Our Throats."

Faux Conservative Carl DeMaio Releases Campaign Ad Featuring His Homosexual Partner

The Wall Street Journal reports, "Gay Republican Candidate's Ad Poses Test for Party."

Look, this Carl DeMaio cat's been around for sometime. He ran for mayor in San Diego in 2012, losing to Filthy Filner. He's previously been slammed by conservatives, although he's currently being embraced by top Republicans, like GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy.

And Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, has long exposed DeMaio as a damned RINO. See, for example, "The Soul of the Republican Party":

Who is Carl DeMaio? you might ask. DeMaio is a liberal who happens to have an "R" after his name. What does he believe in? Abortion on demand. Gun control. Redefining marriage. Medical marijuana. Force the Republican Party to abandon social issues and focus national policies on what big corporations want.

DeMaio isn't the first RINO to run for the US House of Representatives, but it sure is disappointing to see so many establishment Republican leaders in Washington line up to help him. They are so desperate to be seen as "tolerant" and "inclusive" in supporting a homosexual candidate like DeMaio that they are willing to abandon any semblance of principle.

But think about the message they are sending: If a guy like Carl DeMaio can win as a Republican, then what the heck does being a Republican mean?

A new generation homosexual. Just like the old generation homosexual. Radical and depraved. And San Diegans might elect this man? A damned shame.

House Republicans Preparing Plan for Immigration Overhaul

I had to read that headline twice, at the New York Times.

And here's the House GOP's press conference yesterday: "1/8/14 Republican Leadership Press Conference." They're not talking about immigration reform. Jobs and ObamaCare --- the "Obama economy" --- is the focus. I'm not sure what Republicans hope to gain by agreeing to immigration reform, especially amnesty, since nothing's gonna pass without some kind of legalization.

From the article:

Rebecca Tallent, a longtime immigration adviser to Senator John McCain of Arizona whom Mr. Boehner recently hired, has been spearheading the effort out of the speaker’s office, working with other key Republican lawmakers: Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader; Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, who has been pushing for a broad immigration overhaul; Representative Bob W. Goodlatte of Virginia, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, his party’s 2012 vice-presidential nominee and chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The goal of the principles is to gauge the Republican conference’s willingness to tackle immigration this year, as well as to receive feedback from lawmakers before embarking on a legislative strategy.

Well, there's your clue. Rebecca Tallent? And she was "a longtime immigration adviser" to John "Complete the Dang Fence" McCain? Michelle Malkin has the flashback, "Johnny-come-lately McCain: The sickly smell of desperation."

Yeah, maybe Speaker Boehner's got some desperation going on as well. And rumor has it he may be retiring, so perhaps he wants some kinda legacy besides the mainstream media's "obstructionist" laurels.

39 House Democrats Vote for Upton Bill

At LAT, "Dozens of House Democrats back Republican healthcare bill":

WASHINGTON — Dealing a blow to President Obama’s effort to fix problems with his healthcare law, more than three dozen House Democrats voted Friday to support a Republican-sponsored bill to address the crisis, brushing aside White House warnings that the legislation would only make matters worse.

Thirty-nine Democrats joined Republicans in a 261-157 vote  to approve the legislation, offered by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), which would allow insurers to continue selling individual policies that do not meet new federal standards.

The Democratic defections, which the White House and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) had hoped to prevent, highlighted the growing unease among House Democrats over the botched rollout of the program and dissatisfaction with the administration's proposed fix, announced by the president on Thursday.

Both the Upton bill and the president's administrative fix were crafted to respond to the number of cancellation notices being sent to customers in the individual insurance market, despite repeated promises by Obama that Americans would be allowed to keep their plans if they wanted.

The GOP-controlled House was always expected to approve the bill, which Republicans described as the first step in a campaign to kill the Affordable Care Act.

“The president repeatedly said that if you liked your healthcare plan you could keep it,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). “We knew this was a promise he could not keep, and now it’s a promise he has broken.”

The vote was seen as a critical test of Democratic unity. The president sought to tamp down a revolt from congressional Democrats by announcing the administrative remedy, which gave insurance companies federal permission to renew policies for one year.

Also at NYT, "House Passes Bill Letting People Keep Their Health Plans."

House Republicans Vote to Defund #ObamaCare

At NYT, "House approves Stopgap Money, Setting Up Fight." (Via Memeorandum.)

And WSJ, "Health Law Thrust Into Fiscal Fights: House GOP Votes to Strip Money for Insurance Overhaul as Oct. 1 Shutdown Deadline Approaches":

House Republicans on Friday thrust President Barack Obama's health law into the middle of two looming fiscal battles, a strategy that roils Congress's efforts to keep the government solvent this fall and avoid a partial government shutdown in less than two weeks.

The House on Friday passed a Republican bill to keep the government funded starting Oct. 1. That measure, however, also eliminates money for the health-care law. It was a triumph for a wing of the Republican Party that has campaigned for months to convince GOP leaders to make a fight over the health law a top priority.

With the government-funding issue unresolved, House Republicans opened another front Friday. Following a closed-door GOP strategy session, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) set a vote for the coming week on legislation that would link a yearlong postponement of the health law's implementation to a yearlong extension of the government's borrowing authority. The law's online insurance marketplaces are set to go live Oct. 1 for policies that will take effect in January.

Neither challenge to the health law is likely to survive the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The simultaneous showdowns and the injection of the health-care issue risk creating a market-rattling impasse reminiscent of the fight over raising the debt limit in 2011 that resulted in the U.S.'s credit rating being downgraded.

The budget that currently allocates funds to the federal government expires Sept. 30. Then, by mid-October, Congress would need to raise the federal debt limit or the government will run out of ways to keep paying its bills.

Mr. Obama called House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) Friday night to say he wouldn't negotiate on the debt limit, according to an aide to Mr. Boehner, reiterating comments the president made earlier in the day in Claycomo, Mo. The speaker replied that "the two chambers of Congress will chart the path ahead," the Boehner aide said.

"We're not some banana republic. This is not some deadbeat nation," Mr. Obama said earlier at the Missouri event. "So what I've said is, I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States."

The House bill would cut off all federal spending for implementing and running the health law, including subsidies to help low-income people pay their premiums and federal funding for states expanding their Medicaid programs.

The conservatives' victory Friday could be short-lived. The Senate in the coming week is expected to restore the health-care money and throw the government-funding bill back to the House. Republican leaders are hoping they will build up enough momentum to pressure Democrats to accept health-law cuts or other budget concessions during the debt-limit fight instead.

"The key thing is we are going to negotiate over the debt limit. The president isn't going to be able to say, 'I'm just simply not going to talk with anybody,' " Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) told reporters Friday.

No Republicans Speak at Ceremony Marking 50th Anniversary of March on Washington

This is sickening.

Sickening and reprehensible.

Event organizers claim they invited "a long list of Republicans to come," but for some reason that list didn't include Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, currently the only black senator in the upper chamber of Congress.

At the Wall Street Journal, "At 50th Anniversary of March, No GOP Speakers."

The idea that only Democrats are the sole rightful owners of MLK's legacy is deeply offensive, indeed, it's anti-American. #Freedom #History

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 28, 2013

No elected Republicans will speak at today’s event marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, but that hasn’t stopped GOP officials from honoring the occasion.

A parade of current and former elected officials issued remarks calling for greater racial equality and praising the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader who delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech 50 years ago today.

Former President George W. Bush, who was invited but missed the event because he is still recovering from heart surgery, issued a statement calling on “every American to help hasten the day when Dr. King’s vision is made real in every community – when what truly matters is not the color of a person’s skin, but the content of their character.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.), who earlier this year retraced the 1965 march from Birmingham to Selma, Ala., called for Americans to “rededicate ourselves to ensuring equality for every American.” And South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only black senator, described himself as “living my mother’s American Dream.”

Wednesday’s event on the National Mall is not overtly political, but the early undertones were hard to ignore. A number of Democrats are set to address the crowd, including Mr. Obama and former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Labor leaders also talked about the importance of mobilizing large groups of American workers – a key theme 50 years ago. And some speakers stressed the importance of preserving voting rights for all Americans.

Mr. Bush was invited to attend the event, but he declined because he recently underwent surgery to place a stent in a blocked heart artery. Mr. Scott was not invited to speak, but a spokesman said, “The senator believes today is a day to remember the extraordinary accomplishments and sacrifices of Dr. King, Congressman John Lewis and an entire generation of black leaders.”

Also, at Red Alert Politics, "Nation's only black Senator not invited to speak at March on Washington." (At Memeorandum.)

Push to Gauge Value of College Gains Steam

We'll be seeing more of this, especially since continued high unemployment rates leave recent graduates with woefully diminished chances.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Cost of College: Push to Gauge Bang for Buck from College Gains Steam":

U.S. and state officials are intensifying efforts to hold colleges accountable for what happens after graduation, a sign of frustration with sky-high tuition costs and student-loan debt.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) are expected to reintroduce this week legislation that would require states to make more accessible the average salaries of colleges' graduates. The figures could help prospective students compare salaries by college and major to assess the best return on their investment.

A similar bipartisan bill died last year, but a renewed push has gained political momentum in recent weeks. "This begins to introduce some market forces into the academic arena that have not been there," said Mr. Wyden, adding that support for the move is unusually broad given the political divide in Washington. Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.), the House majority leader, said he intends to support a similar measure in the House.

High-school seniors now trying to decide which college to attend next fall are awash with information about costs, from dorm rooms to meal plans. But there is almost no easy way to tell what graduates at specific schools earn—or how many found jobs in their chosen field. Supporters say more transparency is needed as students graduate deeper in debt and enter the rocky job market.

The Wyden-Rubio bill doesn't spell out exactly how this information has to be assembled. The goal is that students and parents could use the U.S. Department of Education website to query data from all 50 states. But the bill relies on states to knit together wage data submitted by employers with information on graduates submitted by colleges.

Virginia, which recently began publishing wages by colleges and program on its own, linked these two data sets using Social Security numbers. It didn't publish the Social Security numbers.

Some colleges are resisting the broader push, saying it would be a burden for states to compile the information, and that it would tell students little they don't know already.

"You don't need a database to tell you that people who major in fine arts won't earn a lot of money when they graduate," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, a trade group that hasn't taken a position on the bill by Messrs. Wyden and Rubio. Some officials worry that salary is too narrow a measure of the value of a liberal-arts education.

Privacy advocates have concerns with compiling so much data. One potential issue, they say, is that the data could be sliced so thinly that it would reveal information about individuals. "It's the risk of re-identification in small samples," says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Still, Bryce Harrison, who graduated last May from Goucher College, a private school in Baltimore, said wage data could have helped him pick his major. Mr. Harrison, 23 years old, hoped his political-science degree would land him a job with the government.

He has had no luck. With about $100,000 in student loans to repay, Mr. Harrison spent the summer working for his father, power-washing houses. But business slows in the winter, so he is now unemployed and is considering joining the National Guard.

"Was college worth getting in the amount of debt I'm in?" he asks. "At this point, I can't answer that."

Pro Tip: Don't take out unsustainable student loans for an undergraduate degree, to say nothing of graduate or law school. Work your way through college even if it takes longer to complete. It can be done. Avoid the maw of the student loan/student scam industry. This debt can't be wiped out by bankruptcy. Some people are immediately indebted for life.

Broadwell and Benghazi

Read it all at the link, from James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal.

And from the editors, "The Petraeus Probe":

Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein said Sunday she intends to investigate who knew what and when about l'affaire David Petraeus, and rightly so. The facts that are dribbling out suggest that all sorts of people knew about the CIA director's personal predicament—except the President for whom he worked.

If the leaks are correct, the FBI was investigating Mr. Petraeus for months. The unidentified sources claim that the bureau stumbled across the affair when his paramour, Paula Broadwell, sent a threatening email to another woman. The G-men then pursued the matter out of concern for a national security breach, which they say they never found.

Let's hope so, although it's hardly reassuring that the CIA chief was communicating with Ms. Broadwell via a Gmail account. Our operating assumption is that every Gmail account can be ransacked by hackers from China and elsewhere, no matter Google's GOOG +0.43% best efforts at security. For America's chief spook to leave himself vulnerable in this way is an astonishing lack of judgment for such a disciplined and experienced man.

It's also passing strange, not to say politically convenient, that these sources say the FBI alerted the White House for the first time at 5 p.m. on Election Day. The leakers say the bureau told Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who then advised Mr. Petraeus he would have to resign.

But why wait weeks to tell the White House if a CIA chief is compromised in a way that might force his resignation? A report of this kind had to have gone up the chain of command to FBI Director Robert Mueller, and probably to Attorney General Eric Holder. Did they not tell anybody at the White House, not even the general counsel? This is odd, if not a dereliction, and the information chain needs to be understood.

All the more so because House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has confirmed a news report that he was told by a whistleblower in late October about the Petraeus affair, and he then had his staff alert the office of FBI Director Mueller. Mr. Cantor deserves credit for showing discretion and good judgment in the middle of an election campaign.

But the same credit should not go to Administration officials if they kept this problem bottled up until President Obama was safely re-elected. No one wants to see Mr. Petraeus or his family further humiliated, but there are security implications that need to be explained.

Still more, "FBI Agent in Petraeus Case Under Scrutiny."

Paul Ryan, Fundraising Powerhouse

I didn't know this about Ryan, and it says more about scaling the heights inside the Congress than anything else. Although the major corporate backing for the GOP ticket is a huge plus.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Paul Ryan runs well-oiled fundraising machine":

WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul D. Ryan has cultivated his "affable wonk" persona into an effective moneymaker, winning over CEOs and K Street lobbyists to build a fundraising machine that has boosted his standing on Capitol Hill and helped make him one of the GOP's most influential figures.

In 2002, the Wisconsin congressman established a so-called leadership PAC, a fund that allows him to raise money to give to other lawmakers, but the fund did little until 2006, when he began his rapid rise in the House Republican hierarchy. That year, Ryan's PAC distributed $322,000 to Republicans, a 607% increase in giving from the cycle before, according to the nonpartisan campaign finance group Center for Responsive Politics.

After the 2006 election, Ryan, who is now the GOP vice presidential candidate, became the top Republican on the House Budget Committee.

"Part of what you do when you're a member of Congress who has ambitions and wants to become committee chair is you start raising money and you start giving money to your colleagues," said Steve Northrup, a Republican healthcare lobbyist who has hosted several Ryan fundraisers.

"You can't divorce that from his personality and his smarts," Northrup added.

The high-profile post and the exposure it has brought has helped Ryan raise even more, which, in turn, has allowed him to cement ties to his congressional allies. In this election cycle, he has brought in $8.5 million to his campaign account and political action committee combined. Of that, Ryan still has more than $6 million in the bank, a notably high reserve compared with his congressional colleagues.

The PAC so far has given more than $539,000 to Republican candidates and lawmakers, a figure that ranks among the top 10 leadership PACs in contributions to federal candidates, alongside prolific congressional fundraisers Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

"Even the most idealistic members of Congress realize that the way to power is to raise money and to spread it around to your colleagues," said David Donnelly, executive director of Public Campaign Action Fund, a campaign finance reform group. Ryan "certainly learned that early on."

Ryan has become one of the most requested fundraising surrogates for House Republicans. And he has invested in a multimillion-dollar direct mail campaign that has bolstered his name recognition and given his finance network a national scope.

RTWT.

VIDEO CREDIT: The Other McCain, "Paul Ryan in Roanoke, Virginia: ‘This is President Obama’s Imaginary Recovery’."

GOP Congressman Apologizes for Nude Swim in Israel

Rep. Kevin Yoder took off his clothes before jumping in the water --- the only one of six GOP members of Congress present for the drunk skinny-dipping in Israel.

Sounds like fun to me. At The Hill, "Rep. Yoder apologizes for skinny-dipping in Sea of Galilee."

And here's the report at the New York Times, "House Member Is Rebuked After Nude Swim in Israel":

WASHINGTON — They came to town promising something new and different, a fresh reprieve from the antics and proclivities of a “Washington” they disdained.

But during a trip to Israel last summer, several House Republican freshmen engaged in a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee, complete with one skinny-dipping congressman whose choice threatened to tarnish the reputation of the House newcomers as superserious number-crunchers who sleep on their office couches and go to bed before midnight.

On a trip billed as a foreign policy fact-finding mission last year, a large group of Republican members of Congress, and some of their staff and family members, decided to take a swim in the sea after a long day.

Several members — including Representative Steve Southerland II of Florida, who jumped into the water holding hands with his 21-year-old daughter — said they were moved to dip for religious reasons. (The sea is believed by Christians to be the location where Jesus walked on water.)

While most of the members remained clothed, or largely so, Representative Kevin Yoder of Kansas decided to disrobe entirely, as reported first by Politico on Sunday. This sent most of the members fleeing for the shore, said a participant, and prompted a harsh rebuke the next day from  Representative Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who was on the trip but did not swim in the sea.

More than 80 members of the House went on the trip, which was arranged by Mr. Cantor, as guests of the American Israel Education Foundation, a charity affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group. It was believed to be the largest number of members of Congress to make the trip during a single recess, according to the organizers at the time. Mr. Cantor’s comments were made to the entire traveling group, said one person there, saying that members should not detract from the trip’s mission.

RELATED: At LAT, "FBI not investigating Republican skinny-dipping, drinking in Israel."

Just Half of American Voters Identify Obama as Christian

And the number of Americans identifying Obama as Muslim has increased since 2008.

See Pew Research, "Little Voter Discomfort with Romney’s Mormon Religion: Only About Half Identify Obama as Christian":

The new survey on religion and politics finds that nearly four years into his presidency the view that Barack Obama is Muslim persists. Currently, 17% of registered voters say that Obama is Muslim; 49% say he is Christian, while 31% say they do not know Obama’s religion.

The percentage of voters identifying Obama’s religion as Christian has increased since August 2010, from 38% to 49%, while there has been little change in the percentage saying he is Muslim (19% then, 17% today). Still, fewer say Obama is Christian – and more say he is Muslim – than did so in October 2008, near the end of the last presidential campaign. The increase since 2008 is particularly concentrated among conservative Republicans, about a third of whom (34%) describe the president as a Muslim.

Overall, 45% of voters say they are comfortable with Obama’s religion, while 19% are uncomfortable. Among those who say Obama is Christian, 82% are comfortable with Obama’s religious beliefs. Among those who describe him as a Muslim, just 26% are comfortable with his beliefs.

RELATED: "The Obama Administration Has Lost its Senses on Muslim Brotherhood."

Caroline Glick argues the administration's selling out U.S. interests to the Islamists.

Also at Atlas Shrugs, "'HALF OF AMERICANS DO NOT KNOW THE PRESIDENT’S RELIGION' .... DUH."

BONUS: At Politico, "Eric Cantor defends Michele Bachmann."

Will Super Tuesday Put Republicans at Ease?

Well, Tuesday's the big day, and frankly, the candidates are all over the map, literally. Ohio's the big prize for either Romney or Santorum, but Georgia also key, since Newt Gingrich is resting his final hopes there.

I'll have more on all of this. Meanwhile, at Los Angeles Times, "Republicans grow anxious for primary race to end":

After a dozen contests, 20 debates and the prospect of weeks or even months of continued skirmishing, there is a growing clamor among Republicans to bring the presidential nomination race to a close for fear of hopelessly damaging the party's chances against President Obama.

Republicans designed their plan for picking a nominee to test their candidates with a longer, more grueling campaign. But the move threatens to backfire in favor of a Democratic incumbent who has gained strength as the increasingly nasty GOP contest has worn on.

"There's been plenty of preliminaries," said Curt Steiner, a Republican strategist in Ohio, the most important of the nearly dozen states voting this week on Super Tuesday. "It's time to focus on the general election."

Steiner backs Mitt Romney, so it's no surprise he would like to end the primary season with the former Massachusetts governor ahead, if still far short of the 1,144 convention delegates needed to secure the nomination. Sending a signal from Washington, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia on Sunday announced his endorsement of Romney ahead of his state's Tuesday primary.

It's not just Romney backers, though, who worry about the toll of a prolonged and increasingly nasty contest.

"The campaign has become deeply personal and very negative," said Steve Schmidt, who managed Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and is staying neutral this time. "There is no optimistic vision. It's all about stabbing the opponent."

The damage, Schmidt said, is evident in polls that show Obama gaining ground against challengers while negative views of the Republican field increase. More worrisome from the GOP perspective is the shift of political independents toward Obama and the risk of further alienating those swing voters as the discussion strays from economic issues to the merits of contraception and the separation of church and state.

"This is stuff that will do great harm to the Republican Party," Schmidt said, a view shared, quite happily, by the Obama camp.

That sounds like a lot of establishment fear-mongering to me. Let's see how it all plays out on Tuesday. Then we'll really know how this primary race will affect the GOP. If Romney's not wrapping things up there's good reason for that. He's not broadening his base of support, which so far has been the media's attack on the other challengers to frontrunner status.

That said, here's this at NBC News, "NBC/WSJ poll: Primary season takes ‘corrosive’ toll on GOP and its candidates" (via Memeorandum).

More later...

Jobs Crisis

From Adam Davidson, at New York Times, "Can Politicians Really Create Jobs?":

The current economic downturn has been called a housing crisis, a financial crisis and a debt crisis, but the simplifying logic of the political season has settled on what is really more a result than a cause. We are now, according to nearly everyone running for office, in a jobs crisis. Every politician currently has a “jobs plan,” very often a list of vague proposals filled with serious-sounding phrases like “budget framework” and “regulatory cap” that are designed, for the most part, to mean both everything and nothing at all.

RTWT.

GOP leaders say they have a plan, and at Minority Leader Eric Cantor's page, "The Republican No Cost Jobs Plan."

Tea Party Terrorists?

The partisan rhetoric is already over the top, but slamming conservative Republicans as "terrorists" is beyond the pale. William Yeomans, at Politico, is not cool: "The tea party's terrorist tactics" (via Memeorandum).

It has become commonplace to call the tea party faction in the House “hostage takers.” But they have now become full-blown terrorists.

They have joined the villains of American history who have been sufficiently craven to inflict massive harm on innocent victims to achieve their political goals. A strong America has always stood firm in the face of terrorism. That tradition is in jeopardy, as Congress and President Barack careen toward an uncertain outcome in the tea party- manufactured debt crisis.

This guy is talking about the GOP's elected representatives in Congress, and this is after Anders Behring Breivik, a real terrorist, killed dozens in Norway. And this is also while Army Private Nasser Jason Abdo, and antiwar leftist, is being arraigned in Texas and could face federal terrorism charges. But Yoemans isn't the only one. Idiot Washington Monthly columnist Steve Benen is slamming GOP members as "the suicide squad", and Little Boy Ezra at Washington Post is bemoaning the GOP's aversion to compromise, saying this reflects badly on John Boehner.

It's to be expected, I guess. So, let's hear it from the other side, from Byron York, "In debt fight, Dems reject Republican compromise":

House Speaker John Boehner has introduced two bills that would raise the nation's debt ceiling and end the current default crisis. The first, known as "Cut, Cap and Balance," was tabled by Senate Democrats without an up-or-down vote. The second, Boehner's plan to cut more than $900 billion in federal spending and raise the debt ceiling by a slightly smaller amount, could face a similar fate if it first passes the House ...

While Obama preaches the virtues of compromise, his Democratic allies and surrogates are bashing Republicans for rejecting what the White House characterizes as earnest, good-faith efforts to find common ground. "I hope that Speaker Boehner and [Minority] Leader McConnell will reconsider their intransigence," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a few days ago. "Their unwillingness to compromise is pushing us to the brink of a default." (At the same time, Reid has been issuing absolute, inflexible statements like, "I will not support any short-term agreement.")

But the fact is, the Republicans who admitted defeat on "Cut, Cap and Balance" showed a unmistakable willingness to compromise. "The president has asked us to compromise," House Minority Leader Eric Cantor said Thursday afternoon. "We have compromised."

RELATED: At New York Times, "House Passes Boehner’s New Debt Plan."

Obama Bails on Debt Talks

Well, the news you've all been waiting for!

At Los Angeles Times, "Obama ends tense debt talks with a warning":

Reporting from Washington— President Obama abruptly left debt negotiations with congressional leaders Wednesday at the White House when a top Republican said there was no longer time to engage in the large-scale deficit reduction discussions the White House is now seeking as part of a vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

The flare-up came at the end of the nearly two-hour session during which House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told the president that Congress should instead consider a series of debt ceiling votes based on spending cuts that already have been identified. Talks could then continue to identify additional cuts for subsequent votes, he said.

Republicans have refused Democrats' call for taxes on the wealthy. The president responded by ending the meeting, sources said.

"I suggested we were so far apart I didn't see in the time before us how we get to where he wants us to be," Cantor told reporters after the meeting.

Obama warned Cantor not to set such an ultimatum, and according to congressional and administration aides repeated his vow to veto legislation that would extend the debt ceiling only for a short period.

"The president told me, 'Eric, don't call my bluff. I'm going to take this to the American people,' " Cantor said.

Aides described it as the tensest meeting yet in the months of discussions, with the president at one point accusing both sides of posturing.

More at the link above. And at National Review, "Obama ‘Abruptly’ Walks Out of Debt Talks."

BONUS: Also at Politico, "No yelling at Obama today." And the segment's a little after 20 minutes:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl Suspend Participation in White House Debt Ceiling Negotiations

At ABC News, "Top Republicans Walk Out of VP Biden's Debt Talks":

Vice President Joe Biden's debt ceiling talks hit a brick wall Thursday after two key Republicans walked out in a dispute over the idea of raising taxes.

The departures of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Thursday morning left the formerly bicameral, bipartisan talks with no Republicans left at the negotiating table.

Cantor said the group had reached an "impasse" because Republicans oppose any and all tax hikes, while Democrats say they are a necessary in a balanced attempt at deficit reduction.

"As it stands, the Democrats continue to insist that any deal must include tax increases," Cantor said. "There is not support in the House for a tax increase, and I don't believe now is the time to raise taxes in light of our current economic situation. Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be resolved before discussions can continue."

Also at Wall Street Journal, "Tax Dispute Stalls Debt Talks" (via Memeorandum).

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at AIPAC Policy Conference: VIDEO

At Weasel Zippers, "GOP Leader Eric Cantor Rips Obama at AIPAC Conference, Says Arab “Hatred” of Jews to Blame For Lack of Peace…" (Via Memeorandum.) And at Weekly Standard, "Eric Cantor: 'It Is Not About the '67 Lines'."

Plus, a long analysis from Jennifer Rubin, "Reaction to Obama’s AIPAC Speech."

Added: From Ron Radosh, "Eric Cantor Gives AIPAC Delegates a Lesson on Which Political Party Really Supports Israel and America’s Alliance with the Jewish State."