Jay Carney- (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)
Quite a change. “A growing coalition of denominational leaders, Christian college and seminary presidents, and influential pastors — including leaders of many of the Chicago area’s largest churches — has affirmed an Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform. Policies once advocated by President Bush and now being considered in our current Congress are supported by 75 percent of evangelical Christians, according to a recent CBS News poll.”
Does the administration really think people will change their minds and flock to HealthCare.gov? “HealthCare.gov is ripe for cyberattacks targeting personal information, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee charged Wednesday. The site is vulnerable because the federal agency charged with ensuring the security of government websites played virtually no part in its development, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said. Apart from two emails and a phone call, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not participate in the development of the enrollment portal, led by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), McCaul said.”
The only thing “permanent” in politics is constant change. “In just six weeks, Republicans have completely erased a 9-point deficit in a generic congressional ballot question and are now running even with Democrats.”
The real question for Sen. Kay Hagen (D-N.C.) is whether knowing what she knows now she’d change her original vote on Obamacare. “A reporter from the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record asked why Hagan, like President Obama, had told people that if they liked their health plans they’d be able to keep their health plans. There was a long pause before Hagan responded, then a deep intake of breath. ‘You know, Doug,’ she responded, ‘the, um’ — here she exhaled and paused again — ‘the way these, the — the regulations and the law, uh’ — pause — ‘came forward recently, I think people were surprised that the, uh, the — the actual original plans would be, um, would be canceled.’” Got that?
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) is changing his tune since he was the one who authored the Patriot Act. “Since the bulk metadata program broke, the former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has been on a campaign of denunciation of both agency activity under the Patriot Act — the law he helped write. And he has been denouncing the administration for having misled him about how Section 215 is being used too. He has done so with a breathtaking dishonesty that puts him in a different category from those members who have a policy dispute with the administration.” This is like Democrats whining about Obamacare.
Senate Republicans reject plea to change course and nix new sanctions. “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters he believes ‘we ought to be actually ratcheting up the sanctions against Iran. It’s pretty obvious that what the administration is promoting is something the Israelis think is a bad deal for them. It’s pretty clear the Sunni Arab allies of ours also think its a bad deal. Looking at it strictly from an American point of view, I think i’ts a bad deal as well. So I’d be surprised if we do not have a debate on enhanced Iran sanctions.’”
Don’t expect a leopard to change his spots. “Mistreatment of Bahais is only one aspect of Iran’s human rights disaster. In Iran, there is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no independent judiciary, no free elections. There is no freedom of religion — not even for Shiites, who are forced by Iran’s theocracy to adhere to one narrow set of official rules. The “quietist” school, which believes that politicians should lead the government while clerics provide moral and religious guidance but do not rule, is considered heretical. Those who believed that Rouhani, once elected president, would move toward greater respect for human rights have been disillusioned. Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the two former presidential candidates whose reformist ideas led them to be placed under house arrest in February 2011, remain in detention; since Rouhani took office, they have been permitted more family visitors but not freedom.”
