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The recent ruling of the House Ethics committee against Charlie Rangel has attracted a tremendous amount of attention and has put substantial pressure on House Democrats, especially Nancy Pelosi. The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder even reported one Democratic strategist claiming that it “loses us the House.” The basics of the story [...]

I highly recommend the book How Congress Evolves by the late Nelson Polsby to any student or practitioner of politics. Polsby documents the interplay between Congressional rules, demographic shift, and partisan realignment. The essential fact was that Southern congressional districts fell to the Republicans as a result of southern migration from the traditionally Republican Northeast [...]

Candidate — Congress
Party
Total
Percentage

PATRICIA A. MADRID
DEMOCRAT
93,709
50.16%

HEATHER A. WILSON
REPUBLICAN
93,105
49.84%

Candidate — Sheriff
Party
Total
Percentage

JOSE E. CHAVEZ
DEMOCRAT
69,781
36.92%

DARREN WHITE
REPUBLICAN
119,201
63.08%

Candidate — Governor
Party
Total
Percentage

[...]

Democratic Congresional leaders campaign against trade in Latin America. Appalling.

One of the things that Republicans have done better than Democrats is staff organizations on the Hill. One of my favorite from being on the Hill is the Republican Communicators Association. Every blogger in Washington should come. And, furthermore, the bloggers can share ideas with staffers, and, perhaps we can become more effective.
Here’s the next [...]

Richard Nadler wrote an important piece in the Journal a couple of days ago. First, Nadler’s conclusion is simple:
Immigration policies that induce mass fear among illegal residents will induce mass anger among the legal residents who share their heritage.

In other words, we are alienating Hispanics who are voters.  Why? Because they hear the restrictionist position [...]

Reps. Jeb Hensarling and Marsha Blackburn had a very brief conference call with bloggers.
They noted that S-CHIP was vetoed by the President. They pointed out all the details about this being more than a children’s healthcare program. 17 states are adding  adults with this. Dropping the citizenship requirement. Clearly this call (and further calls) are [...]

Rep. Terry Everett (R-AL) just announced his retirement. I just got off the phone with a party leader in Alabama. It is looking like a two-way primary, at least.
One option is George Wallace Jr. The other is State Senator Harri Ann Smith. She is an up-and-comer, while he is very, very good at pulling Democrats. [...]

This is bad news. Jim Ramstad (R-MN-03) announces that he is retiring. This is a marginal seat. Ouch.

With Chuck Hagel’s announcement that he is retiring, an open seat has emerged. Nebraska is a red state. I have one of the 2004 Roll Call election maps. Every county in Nebraska was won by George Bush. Only a single county was under 55%. That’s dark red.
It appears, according to Chris Cilliza that there could [...]