Turncoats Shelley Moore Capito and Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday they’ll oppose a repeal of the Affordable Care Act

Capito and Murkowski should be run out of the party on a rail. They both voted for repeal last time.

Story here.

McConnell reportedly set to bring full repeal bill like HR 3762 to a vote in the Senate

Here and here for the story.

There were 52 "Yeas" for the HR 3762 Obamacare repeal bill in the Senate on December 3, 2015 out of 54 Republicans, which Obama subsequently vetoed. It was the only repeal bill ever to reach Obama's desk:

Alexander of Tennessee

Ayotte of New Hampshire (seat lost to Democrats in 2016)

Barrasso of Wyoming

Blunt of Missouri

Boozman of Arkansas

Burr of North Carolina

Capito of West Virginia

Cassidy of Louisiana

Coats of Indiana (Todd Young)

Cochran of Mississippi

Corker of Tennessee

Cornyn of Texas

Cotton of Arkansas

Crapo of Idaho

Cruz of Texas

Daines of Montana

Enzi of Wyoming

Ernst of Iowa

Fischer of Nebraska

Flake of Arizona

Gardner of Colorado

Graham of South Carolina

Grassley of Iowa

Hatch of Utah

Heller of Nevada

Hoeven of North Dakota

Inhofe of Oklahoma

Isakson of Georgia

Johnson of Wisconsin

Lankford of Oklahoma

Lee of Utah

McCain of Arizona

McConnell of Kentucky

Moran of Kansas

Murkowski of Alaska

Paul of Kentucky

Perdue of Georgia

Portman of Ohio

Risch of Idaho

Roberts of Kansas

Rounds of South Dakota

Rubio of Florida

Sasse of Nebraska

Scott of South Carolina

Sessions of Alabama (Luther Strange)

Shelby of Alabama

Sullivan of Alaska

Thune of South Dakota

Tillis of North Carolina

Toomey of Pennsylvania

Vitter of Louisiana (John Neely Kennedy)

Wicker of Mississippi.

There were two Republican "Nays":

Collins of Maine, who is still there

Kirk of Illinois, who lost his seat to the Democrats.

Now out of 52 Republicans in the Senate we have 48 votes this time for repeal that we had last time, plus 3 Republican freshman in the Senate to pressure to vote for repeal, which would bring the total to 51, assuming Collins of Maine again votes "Nay".

We'll see if they have the guts.

Ted Cruz concluded Mitch McConnell is a liar in 2015, now Ron Johnson appears to be doing the same

The Ted Cruz incident with McConnell involved the Export-Import Bank (story here).

Now, Ron Johnson is reportedly concluding McConnell committed a breach of trust by privately telling moderate senators that the Medicaid cuts in the healthcare bill won't actually occur, as reported here.

The current Republican bill in the Senate appears dead as four senators in the Republican caucus have said they don't support it. With a 2-seat majority, only 3 defections are tolerable (the tie-breaker vote is cast by the Vice President, Mike Pence).

When all is said and done we might find out that the loss of support is all intentional and orchestrated in order to save the Senate from having to vote on the issue again at all. The nay-sayers may be handsomely rewarded at some future date while getting to please their constituencies.

Remember, Republicans generally don't believe in anything except for what is. In other words, maintaining the status quo is their objective. They are pragmatists who are willing to accept progressive creations once passed, like the income tax, Social Security, Medicare and now Obamacare, and will defend those programs no matter how they became law.

Lighting their hair on fire for anything is completely out of the question, including for the constitution.

The only thing that will save us now is a meteor strike on the Senate chamber while they are all in session.

Mark Levin lies again, says Obamacare was passed under reconciliation when it wasn't

As if it's germane anyway. Levin is just trying to appear to respect the tradition of the Senate.

Well, Harry Reid did away with that by going nuclear on appointments.

And Mitch McConnell went nuclear on Gorsuch.

Two blows to tradition right there.

Like tits, if you've seen one you might as well see the other.

So, Mitch just needs to keep going nuclear.

The Republican Senate should simply jettison the filibuster rule, and pass repeal with the clean Republican majority.

Trump's instincts on this are correct on spending, which means on Obamacare as well, and on every bill which might come the Senate's way.

Then we can focus our attention on Paul Ryan, who hides behind the Senate's filibuster rule like a little boy hides behind his mommy's skirts to restrain what he does in the House.

Trump's Mick Mulvaney is letting the Senate's 60-vote rule stand in the way of funding The Wall

Screw the 60-vote rule.

It's a rule dating to 1917, last revised by the Democrat-controlled Senate in 1975.

It's not in the constitution, and the Senate can change the rules any time it wants.

Now would be a good time, but Trump, McConnell & Co. seem content to leave some water in The Swamp, the better to bog down what the people want, my dear.

Mulvaney, quoted here:

MICK MULVANEY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT & BUDGET: Yes. The problem is the Senate rules, people forget this sometimes, that the spending bills are different than the budget. The underlying budgets sort of move through the House and Senate differently. Anything that passes on reconciliation moves differently. But most bills, including spending bills, take 60 votes in the Senate.

TAPPER: So you need eight Democrats. 

MULVANEY: Got to have eight, which means that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have a place at the table. We recognize that. But that's why we just can't do it on our own.

TAPPER: A source close to efforts to avoid a government shutdown tells CNN that the Republican proposal in the House will not include funding for President Trump's border wall with Mexico. 

Is President Trump willing to sign a government spending bill that does not include that money? 

MULVANEY: Yes, because I think the bill -- at least the offer that we received from the Democrats the last couple of days included a good bit of money for border security. The Democrats said they would go to the mat and shut the government down over the border wall, the bricks and mortar. 

Mark Levin's twisting of Mitch McConnell's statements about Obamacare repeal failure is as bad as MSM

Levin is proving to be as untrustworthy as the main stream media in reporting the news, as for example the source of the McConnell quotations provided below. But read the statements, and forget the commentary, whether The Hill's or Levin's.

McConnell isn't resigned to Obamacare staying in place forever as Levin implied on the radio tonight. McConnell is resigned to the recent failure to overturn Obamacare, that's all.

Of course the bill that failed is out of the question going forward.

McConnell, quoted in the story here, acting above it all and nonpartisan for public consumption, which is his job as Senate Majority Leader:

"[W]e have the existing law in place and I think we’re just going to have to see how that works out." 

"We believe it will not work out well, but we’ll see. [Democrats] have an opportunity now to have the status quo go forward, regretfully," he added. ...

"I want to thank the president and the Speaker, they went all out to try to pass a repeal and replacement," McConnell said. "I’m sorry that didn’t work, but our Democratic friends now have the law that they wrote in place, and we’ll see how that works out."

Just another day at the office: Mitch McConnell lets Donald Trump know what's what

Don't get into a pissing match with the Senate Majority Leader, if you know what's good for you.

Quoted here:

“I think this level of national debt is dangerous and unacceptable,” McConnell said, adding he hopes Congress doesn’t lose sight of that when it acts next year. “My preference on tax reform is that it be revenue neutral,” he said.

Congress has abdicated its spending oversight responsibilities for 20 years, and just did so again

From the story here:

Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) have repeatedly promised a return to regular order instead of relying on take-it-or-leave-it omnibus bills and short-term CRs to fund the federal government. However, they have not kept that promise. On Thursday, the House passed a $1.1 trillion short-term CR (HR 2028) to keep the federal government operating until April 28, 2017. Lankford said Thursday that he will vote against the CR when it gets to the Senate on Friday. Despite some gains made since 2014, when Republicans took over control of the Senate, Lankford pointed out that Congress has been “missing out on real oversight” by passing supposedly temporary CRs for the past 20 years.

Trump rewards Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for stonewalling Obama's Supreme Court appointment by picking his wife for Transportation

I don't view this as "nepotism" per se as others have who are much too quick to criticize Trump's centrism post-election.

Mitch McConnell withstood Obama's appointment power all through this period since the death of Scalia, enduring severe attacks for it from the left. People on the right who won't recognize what he accomplished are simply malign. They are like those who didn't recognize John Boehner's achievement getting the Bush tax cuts made permanent, and in many cases they are the same people, and unfortunately they are Legion.

McConnell's wife Elaine Chao had eight years' cabinet experience as head of Labor under Bush II and is competent to govern Transportation now under Trump. Not that we want her to have much to administer.

It is not a consequential appointment, except in the broad sense that Trump is not in the least setting about to take a machete to the federal Leviathan. Chao will maintain the status quo, more or less.

Thanks to Mitch McConnell the Scalia seat will be filled by Donald Trump

Jonathan Turley is saying right now that Trump is going to make almost unprecedented changes to the make-up of the Supreme Court.

Trump declares war on incumbents, calls for term limits of 6 years on US House, 12 years on US Senate, 5-year ban on lobbying

That's basically telling Justin Amash, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell they are fired, along with Dick Turban Durban, Nancy Pelosi, Chucky Shumer and that commie Jan Schakowsky, not to mention all the rest of them we love to hate.

Here's the lede:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Donald Trump served up a proposal to offer a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress in the first of two campaign stops planned in Colorado Tuesday.

Good idea: John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell call for transcript of FBI interview with Hillary Clinton

That's good. If there's nothing to see here, the FBI won't mind us having a look.

Story here.

Bob Dole endorses Trump after previously supporting Jeb Bush and questioning Ted Cruz' loyalty to the Republican Party

Sen. Dole, US Army 10th Mountain Division veteran, wounded since April 1945

Quoted here:

Former senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole on Friday endorsed Donald Trump, becoming the latest GOP leader to back the real estate mogul even as others have distanced themselves from the candidate.

"The voters of our country have turned out in record numbers to support Mr. Trump," Dole said in a statement released by the Trump campaign. "It is important that their votes be honored and it is time that we support the party's presumptive nominee."

Dole had previously endorsed Jeb Bush and slammed Ted Cruz as an extremist liked by nobody in Congress. Interviewed in December here, Dole took particular exception to Ted Cruz calling Mitch McConnell a liar on the floor of the Senate.  The irony of the campaign is that Donald Trump has made that charge stick to Ted Cruz instead. There are the Ted Cruz principles, and then there are the Bob Dole principles.

Ten Senate Republicans got Loretta Lynch confirmed as Attorney General, maybe to SCOTUS too?

Without these ten Republican traitors, Loretta Lynch never would have been confirmed to the post of Attorney General (Roll Call Vote: 56-43 here, April 23, 2015):

Ayotte, New Hampshire !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cochran, Mississippi

Collins, Maine

Flake, Arizona

Graham, South Carolina

Hatch, Utah

Johnson, Wisconsin !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kirk, Illinois !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

McConnell, Kentucky

Portman, Ohio !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: vulnerable to defeat in election 2016)

Ted Cruz was too busy to vote, but Marco Rubio did.

From a story about Lynch here:

Lynch would be the first black woman ever nominated to the nation's highest court — and the GOP would have a political problem during an election year if the Republicans refused to even consider her nomination, Goldstein wrote.

"I think the administration would relish the prospect of Republicans either refusing to give Lynch a vote or seeming to treat her unfairly in the confirmation process," Goldstein wrote. "Either eventuality would motivate both black and women voters." 

You can blame Nikki Haley, who responded to Trump not Obama, on Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell

Reported here:

". . . House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell picked Haley to deliver the GOP response to President Obama’s final State of the Union address."

National Review updates editorial about "disappointing spending bill" which bashed Trump who had not one thing to do with it

Here.

Girly men still.

Sean Trende spells out the achievements of John Boehner

Sean Trende notes that:

• federal expenditures on a quarterly basis flatlined beginning in early 2011, right when Republicans took control of the House under Boehner, largely because of sequestration won in the debt ceiling showdown that year despite controlling only one chamber of Congress, "no small feat";

• even "more impressive" was the fiscal cliff deal brokered by John Boehner in late 2012, making the Bush tax cuts permanent, again with control of only the House of Representatives;

• Boehner "managed to kill" the immigration bill that came out of Mitch McConnell's US Senate, despite "substantial internal pressures" all around to pass it.

Much more at the link.

And they say liberals have a death wish: Why Republicans fail

Republicans fail because instead of attacking Democrats, they would rather attack and eat their own.

And it's not like both sides in the Party haven't done this, or that conservatives don't have a case against the leadership. The long history of establishment attacks against conservatives goes back to the George Romney failure to endorse Goldwater in 1964, book-ended most recently by the Mitt Romney campaign's vicious attack of the totally hapless Todd Akin of Missouri, a mere pimple on the butt of the elephant. The kinder gentler conservatism of the Bush clan was, after all, a repudiation of the Reagan era. Kinder and gentler it wasn't, nor conservative.

Pressuring their own Speaker of the House John Boehner to resign last week, however, marks a new low in the history of Republican politics. And this morning Laura Ingraham is endorsing the "frenzy" to get rid of the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. People caught up in this have more in common with the Jacobin Club than they do with the men who prevented the revolution against the rights of Englishmen in 1776.

Conservatives now find themselves in the ignoble position of doing the job the voters didn't do in 2014. And they say liberals have a death wish. 

What goes around comes around, but for the faction which drapes itself in the US Constitution there is nothing conservative, or wise, about any of this. Conservatives should ask themselves whether the citizens of the state of Kentucky and Ohio are entitled to the representation they have or not. And if not, then why are conservatives entitled to theirs?

Defunding Planned Parenthood fails in the Senate thanks to Democrats, but Republicans Mitch McConnell and Mark Kirk are also to blame with Lindsey Graham a no show

The roll call vote is here. Three Republicans broke ranks in the 53-46-1 outcome:

Lindsey Graham was a worthless no show, running for president. Ha ha.

Mitch McConnell the Senate Majority Leader should lose his job for voting No.

And Mark Kirk is going to lose to Tammy Duckworth in Illinois next year anyway so he had nothing to lose by voting No.

60 votes were needed to end government funding of the baby butchers, to whom most Democrats pledged allegiance except for Donnelly in Indiana and Manchin in West Virginia, stand up guys who voted No.

President signs Trade Promotion Authority (Fast Track) knocked off the news by Supreme Court decisions

The Senate passed TPA last Wednesday, on the 24th, 60-38, but the next day ObamaCare was upheld by the Supremes and the following day Same Sex Marriage, both of which sensational developments obliterated the trade story from the news cycle. The trade vote story from last Wednesday is here. The roll call vote is here. Once again just five Republicans in the Senate voted against the job-destroying measure: Collins, Cruz, Paul, Sessions and Shelby. The same five who voted against bringing the measure to the floor.

The signing story from today is here.

They do what they want to do. We have no say in the matter. But if we vote for any of the principals, we are complicit in the deed.

The country is shell-shocked by it all, walking about in a daze, the part of it that cares anyway.

Obama has had a huge week, winning everything consequential, with Republican help in the Congress and the Court, meaning Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader McConnell and Reagan appointee Justice Kennedy.

The only thing Obama lost and the people won was the Supremes' rebuke of the EPA on coal. Your electric bill will go up later rather than sooner.

The last days of this administration are dark indeed.