By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
Gun owners who cheered when the Senate failed to pass numerous anti-gun bills last week should temper their enthusiasm. The liberal wing of the Democratic party, led by President Obama and funded by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, has already started to use the votes to oust pro-Second Amendment senators in 2014.
President Obama's health care law passed Congress three years ago and remains almost entirely intact, but Republicans say they are still gathering support to dismantle it, betting that the overhaul will lose its political heft as Americans feel the brunt of its taxes and regulations.
Two Democrats on Capitol Hill are seconding President Obama's call for real political muscle to address climate change and vowed to form a bipartisan task force — but they haven't found any Republican takers yet.
When the new Congress cranks up in January, there will be more women, many new faces and 11 fewer tea party-backed House Republicans from the class of 2010 who sought a second term.
Taking little time to celebrate, President Barack Obama is setting out to leverage his re-election into legislative success in an upcoming showdown with congressional Republicans over taxes, deficits and the impending "fiscal cliff." House Speaker John Boehner says Republicans are willing to consider some form of higher tax revenue as part of the solution — but only "under the right conditions."
Congressional moderates are down in numbers after Tuesday's elections, but they're not quite out, despite the highly charged partisanship that has engulfed Capitol Hill in recent years.
Former presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich says Missouri voters can send a powerful signal to "the moneyed Republican establishment" by electing Rep. W. Todd Akin over Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.
There's no stopping Democrats out for political blood. Richard Mourdock, the Indiana Republican locked in a close contest with Democrat Joe Donnelly for a U.S. Senate seat, offered a badly phrased comment about abortion in rape cases during a debate Tuesday.
U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock apologized Wednesday to anyone who misinterpreted his statement during a Tuesday night debate that "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, it is something that God intended to happen," but the move did little to quell the drumbeat of Democrats quickly trying to tie the comments to Mitt Romney, who recently taped an ad endorsing Mr. Mourdock.
With his statement Tuesday that pregnancy from rape is God's will, Senate candidate Richard Mourdock became the latest Republican to stumble into trouble attempting to articulate a key pro-life argument against abortion — that life begins at conception — but doing so in a way that appears insensitive to women.
Top Republicans were slow to embrace tea-party-backed Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock after he beat longtime GOP Sen. Richard G. Lugar in the May primary. Though Mr. Mourdock eventually won their support — and money — he could see both fade after telling a live television audience that when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape, "that's something God intended."
President Obama leads polls in Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts but that has not yet translated into strong support for Democrats in those states' crucial Senate races.
Senate Republicans will jump into Indiana's pitched Senate battle this week, responding to a Democratic ad-buy with one of their own as they seek control of the Senate in November.
Tea-party-backed candidate Richard Mourdock defeated longtime Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana in Tuesday's GOP primary, ending the career of one of the chamber's two senior Republicans and giving Democrats a better chance at capturing the seat in November.
U.S. Sen. Richard G. Lugar was ousted Tuesday by a tea party-backed challenger in Indiana's Republican primary, abruptly ending the nearly four-decade career of a popular politician who built a reputation as a diplomat but whose critics argued had ceded too much ideological ground to represent a conservative state.
"My work will not be done until every Hoosier who wants a job has a job, and the Keystone XL pipeline means jobs for American families and energy security for our country," Mr. Donnelly said Thursday.
"There is an understanding and a recognition on my part that we need to reduce spending, we need to get back to balanced budgets, we need to reduce the deficit," Mr. Donnelly said. "I hope I can be a part of making that happen."
