Are House and Senate Republicans bringing back Earmarks?

This morning, Erick Erickson of RedState.com posted concerns about the possible return of earmarking under the new Republican majority in Congress. I recently was speaking with a top Senate aide who said almost the exact same thing. We definitely need to keep pressure on Congressional Republicans to maintain the earmark ban.

Next Week, House and Senate Republicans Might Legalize Bribery

Erick Erickson, RedState.com

Sources in both the House and Senate are expressing grave concern to me that Republicans are about to legalize bribery. If you will recall, several years ago after a host of arrests of members of Congress, indictments, and bridges to nowhere, public outrage caused Congress to ban earmarks.

The earmarks were serving as bribery. Politicians would get earmarks sent to state and local public institutions and congressional leaders would grant and withhold earmarks as bribes to get congressmen to vote particular ways.

Senate Republicans are dragging their feet and there are, according to Senate sources, strong signals the GOP intends to end the Senate earmarks ban. Just yesterday, Senate Republicans refused to approve the earmarks ban.

On the House side, Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL) is introducing an amendment to House rules that would allow an exception to the earmarks ban for “State, locality (including county and city governments), or a public utility or other public entity.” A House source tells me Speaker Boehner has been firmly committed to keeping the earmarks ban, but worries other Republicans may latch on to Rogers’ exception.

It is worth noting that virtually all earmarks go to “State[s], localit[ies] (including county and city governments), [and] public utilit[ies].”

With Senators Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint out of the picture, the Senate seems more likely than the House to move forward on this issue. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) referred to earmarks at “the gateway drug” for big spending. The earmarks themselves were often relatively small, but they were given by leadership to members of Congress as a form of bribery to induce those members to vote for much larger spending packages.

It would be a shame for either the House or Senate to give up on the earmarks ban — particularly when outrage over Republican behavior related, in part, to corruption induced through earmarks led to their devastating losses in 2006.

You can connect to your member of Congress through the congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and express your support for continuing the earmarks ban.

Erick Erickson endorses T.W. Shannon for Senate

This morning, RedState.com's Erick Erickson endorsed T.W. Shannon's Senate bid:

T.W. Shannon for Senate

I was genuinely disappointed that Jim Bridenstine did not get into the race in Oklahoma. He would have been the best candidate hands down. But we must take the race as it is, not as we wish it to be. That leaves a potential rock star and a congressman.

Count me with T.W. Shannon in Oklahoma. Sarah Palin has already endorsed him. I’m sure others will join in soon.

T.W. Shannon is the Speaker of the House in Oklahoma. He is a small government conservative and he has shown he can learn from his mistakes. Shannon was, at first, willing to consider health care exchanges in Oklahoma. But he listened to the voters and turned his back on the idea. His opponent seems to march to the beat of Washington.

T.W. Shannon is going to become a rockstar within not just the GOP, but the conservative movement. I believe he will also be more consistently conservative in his votes than his opponent. I hope you will join me in supporting T.W. Shannon for the U.S. Senate in Oklahoma.

Shannon was endorsed last week by Sarah Palin, and a recent poll released by a pro-Shannon group shows Shannon gaining ground against front-runner James Lankford.

RedState: Bridenstine among "gold standard for House conservatives"

Rep. Jim Bridenstine and Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) made an effort to include the defunding of ObamaCare in the Continuing Resolution that the House passed today. Their amendment was rejected.

Oklahoma Republicans will find this article by Erick Erickson posted on RedState.com today:

Sixteen Republicans voted against the rule on the continuing resolution. Sixteen.

I actually thought we would get about eight.

Sixteen is a good number.

Several of them have other ambitions. Two who surprised me were Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston of Georgia, who I suspect did not want to get beaten up on the radio tonight on the nation’s most listened to talk station, which so happens to be in Atlanta with a microphone I control during drive time.

Others are standing up too.

I will have the full list below, but RedState and other conservatives and the media should take notice of the Conservative Fight Club shaping up in the House of Representatives. There are ten members of the Conservative Fight Club. They are the nine members of the House Republican Conference who voted against the rule on the continuing resolution and voted against John Boehner for Speaker plus one guy who voted against today’s rule and was the ring leader the last time the GOP took out a Speaker.

The ten members of the Conservative Fight Club are:

Amash
Bridenstine [emphasis mine]
Broun
Gohmert
Huelskamp
Jones
Massie
Pearce
Salmon
Yoho

They are now the gold standard for conservatives in the House. They replace men like Jim Jordan and Tom Graves. Matt Salmon, who has been urging conservatives to vote down rules, is rapidly becoming a conservative leader in Congress. Though he did not vote against John Boehner, history shows he helped lead the movement to oust Newt Gingrich back in the day.

He’s finding his footing again and it is a very good thing.

The other congressmen who stood with the Fight Club are:

Brooks
Fleming
Gingrey
Kingston
McClintock
Rohrabacher

They should all be commended.

Noticeably absent from this list are any of Oklahoma's other House members (looking at you, Reps. Lankford, Mullin, Cole and Lucas).

Let last US WWI vet Frank Buckles lie in honor in Rotunda

Erick Erickson of RedState.com posted this earlier today. I concur.

Speaker Boehner, Allow Frank Buckles Into the Rotunda

I think Speaker John Boehner is making a terrible mistake.

The Speaker’s Office is blocking a request that Frank Buckles be allowed to lie in state (or in honor as the case may be) in the rotunda of the United States Capitol.

Frank Buckles is not just anybody. I agree that we should not let just anybody lie in state in the rotunda. I totally understand John Boehner’s reasoning. The right should be reserved for a very special few. While I understand his reasoning, I think the last of the WWI and the last of the WWII servicemen should be given the honor.

Frank Buckles is not just a special few. He is the last of his kind. The very last.

Precisely 4,734,991 Americans served in World War I. Frank Buckles was the last of them to die. He lied to get into the Army at age 16 so he could fight the Kaiser. He is the last of a generation of Americans who heard the calling for freedom in a way others did not and rose up to fight.

He is the last of those men and boys who fought under an American flag across an ocean in a land most had never been who did so not because we were attacked or brought into a war, as we were in World War II, but because they heard the call of freedom in the first great war.

He, as the last of the embodiment of the men and boys who heard that first call for freedom across the seas, deserves to lie in the Rotunda.

The Speaker may be reached at (202) 225-0600.

I called Speaker Boehner's office to respectfully request that the last American veteran of World War I be given this honor. Frank Buckles represents millions of Americans who fought (and in 116,708 cases died) for the United States overseas. We should honor their memory and sacrifice.

Speaker Boehner's Washington D.C. office: (202) 225-0600
Sen. Coburn's Washington D.C. office: (202) 224-5754
Sen. Inhofe's Washington D.C. office: (202) 224-4721
Rep. Boren's Washington D.C. office: (202) 225-2701

I called... will you? Let's honor the memory of our World War I veterans in this small way. Allow Corporal Frank Buckles to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

The Battle over Texas House Speaker

On the other side of the Red River, a big fight is shaping up in the Texas State House whether or not to keep current Speaker Joe Straus, a Republican who was elected Speaker by 65 Democrats and 11 moderate/liberal Republicans in 2009.

The folks at RedState.com have covered this topic extensively, and to far greater detail than I can. Watch the video above, then go to this link to read more about this controversy.

Must-read post on SAMHSA mental illness study

Blogger "streiff" over at RedState.com has a post tonight that you simply must read.  I won't re-post it here, but he has an interesting insight into the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's study that came out today on mental illness.

Click here for to read his post, "Facts and Science and Argument".  Enjoy!

News from the Blogosphere

Publicly-funded OSU: "LGBT History Month"

Michael Bates of BatesLine.com reports that Oklahoma State University has recognized October as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) History Month, and is having atheist/pro-homosexual philosophy professor John Corvino deliver a lecture on "What's Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?", where he intends to discredit religious objections to such perversions. This is what Oklahoma taxpayers are paying for with their hard-earned money... what a disgrace and an outrage...

'No Pressure': Environmentalist video blows up kids

Moe Lane at RedState.com has posted a eco-propaganda video entitled No Pressure, produced by British environmentalists to promote the environmentalist campaign "10:10" [cut "carbon" emissions by 10% per year starting in 2010]. In the video, they blow up schoolchildren, soccer players, and employees who are not as zealous for the environmentalist cause, spewing bloody guts all over the surrounding schoolchildren, soccer players, and employees. The 10:10 campaign has now pulled the video, after making this statement:

With climate change becoming increasingly threatening, and decreasingly talked about in the media, we wanted to find a way to bring this critical issue back into the headlines whilst making people laugh. We were therefore delighted when Britain's leading comedy writer, Richard Curtis - writer of Blackadder, Four Weddings, Notting Hill and many others – agreed to write a short film for the 10:10 campaign. Many people found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn't and we sincerely apologise to anybody we have offended. [emphasis mine]

I will warn you - this short, four-minute film is graphic and gory (schoolchildren blow up at their desks in a crowded classroom, splattering the rest of the class in gore, a soccer team manager and employees at a business meet the same fate, all in a nonchalant manner).

Coburn Donates to GOP Senate Efforts

Chris Casteel at the Oklahoman's political blog reports that U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D., has transferred $1M from his campaign account to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to be used to help efforts to win back the Senate. Joining him was U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who also gave $1M to the NRSC; those are the two biggest contributions this cycle for the NRSC.

MUST READ: Senate Prohibits Future Congresses from Changing 'Death Panels' w/o Supermajority

This is a must-read post from RedState's Erick Erickson:

If ever the people of the United States rise up and fight over passage of Obamacare, Harry Reid must be remembered as the man who sacrificed the dignity of his office for a few pieces of silver. The rules of fair play that have kept the basic integrity of the Republic alive have died with Harry Reid. Reid has slipped in a provision into the health care legislation prohibiting future Congresses from changing any regulations imposed on Americans by the Independent Medical Advisory Boards, which are commonly called the “Death Panels.”

It was Reid leading the Democrats who ignored 200 years of Senate precedents to rule that Senator Sanders could withdraw his amendment while it was being read.

It was Reid leading the Democrats who has determined again and again over the past few days that hundreds of years of accumulated Senate parliamentary rulings have no bearing on the health care vote.

On December 21, 2009, however, Harry Reid sold out the Republic in toto.

Upon examination of Senator Harry Reid’s amendment to the health care legislation, Senators discovered section 3403. That section changes the rules of the United States Senate.

To change the rules of the United States Senate, there must be sixty-seven votes.

Section 3403 of Senator Harry Reid’s amendment requires that “it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.” The good news is that this only applies to one section of the Obamacare legislation. The bad news is that it applies to regulations imposed on doctors and patients by the Independent Medical Advisory Boards aka the Death Panels.

Section 3403 of Senator Reid’s legislation also states, “Notwithstanding rule XV of the Standing Rules of the Senate, a committee amendment described in subparagraph (A) may include matter not within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Finance if that matter is relevant to a proposal contained in the bill submitted under subsection (c)(3).” In short, it sets up a rule to ignore another Senate rule.

Senator Jim DeMint confronted the Democrats over Reid’s language. In the past, the Senate Parliamentarian has repeatedly determined that any legislation that also changes the internal standing rules of the Senate must have a two-thirds vote to pass because to change Senate rules, a two-thirds vote is required. Today, the Senate President, acting on the advice of the Senate Parliamentarian, ruled that these rules changes are actually just procedural changes and, despite what the actual words of the legislation say, are not rules changes. Therefore, a two-thirds vote is not needed in contravention to longstanding Senate precedent.

The rest of this post can be read here.