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The Republican Study Committee chaired by Rep. Tom Price releases a “greatest hits” compilation video of Democrats over the last eighteen months that speak to their attitude and approach to constitutional government.

Ace: Holy Frickin’ Reagan: Best Advertorial You’ll See.
Ed @ HA: “Those voices don’t speak for us”
RSM: VIDEO: Ronald Reagan Still Kicks Butt

Indeed he does. Video embedded:

Watch the full speech here.

From Smart Politics:

As Democrats brace for a Republican pullback in the 2010 election cycle, the question on the minds of officeholders, party leaders, and D.C prognosticators is not whether the GOP will gain seats in the midterm elections across state and federal legislative and executive offices, but how many.

While the Republican Revolution of 1994 is perhaps most remembered for the tremendous gains the GOP made to take back the U.S. House (+54 seats), Republicans also won 24 of 36 gubernatorial races that year.

But in light of the current political environment and the latest horserace polls, political reporters may need to come up with a new term in 2010 that is even more grandiose than ‘revolution’ to describe the Republican advantage this November.

A Smart Politics analysis of nearly 1,800 gubernatorial elections since the beginning of the 20th Century finds that Republicans are poised to win more gubernatorial seats in 2010 than they have in any election cycle over the past 90 years.

In 2010, 37 states will hold gubernatorial elections – one more than normal due to a special election in Utah after John Huntsman became U.S. Ambassador to China last summer.

The latest public opinion polls give Republicans the advantage in a whopping 28 of these states, including more than half by double digits (Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming).

The GOP also has more narrow advantages in the latest polling out of Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

Democrats,by contrast, currently lead in the latest polling in just seven states (Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and New York.)

This is, in no small part, due to the excellent work that Haley Barbour and Co. are doing at the Republican Governors’ Association.

RGA Video: Remember November

Remember the Dream. Remember November. from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

From the WaPo:

Randy Millam, 52, traveled from his home in Lowden to Iowa City to have his voice heard.

“The president just about declared war against the American people last weekend,” he said. And it is a war Millam intends to fight.

He walked to the front of the protest crowd and lifted the megaphone to his mouth.

“Fellow patriots,” he bellowed. “We are standing outside the arena right now because the president controls the crowd, controls the message, controls the people of this country. That is not freedom! That is not democracy! That is not the America I grew up in!”

The demonstrators cheered and began to gather around Millam, and two police officers came to stand nearby. “If you’re going to deny me my constitutional rights, you can arrest me,” Millam told the officers. Then he leaned into the megaphone and started shouting again.

“I got news for you, Barack,” Millam said. “You can’t blame everything on Bush anymore. You either are the president, or you’re not. We’ve got 17 percent real unemployment. Home sales are at historic lows. . . . And now the most pro-choice president this nation has ever elected is forcing us to have health care. Every single person’s body in this whole country belongs to the government now.”

Attorneys general from at least 11 states say they will challenge the constitutionality of the healthcare reform bill passed by the House of Representatives Sunday night.

“The health care legislation Congress passed tonight is an assault against the Constitution,” said South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster. “A legal challenge by the states appears to be the only hope of protecting the American people from this unprecedented attack on our system of government,” he said in a statement.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum issued a similar statement late Sunday. “If the president signs this bill into law, we will file a lawsuit to protect the rights and interests of American citizens,” he said.

The comments came after a Sunday night conference call of attorneys general from 11 states, in which most expressed support for legal action to block the law. In addition to Florida and South Carolina, the attorneys general backing legal action were from Alabama, Nebraska, Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Contact Info for Iowa Attorney
General Tom Miller
Iowa Attorney General
1305 E. Walnut Street
Des Moines IA 50319
Phone: 515-281-5164
Fax: 515-281-4209

Washington is increasingly trouncing on your freedoms. Its time to fight back from the states. Join America’s Comeback by visiting governorsalliance.com

The US Census Bureau’s annual population estimate predict that Iowa will be among the handful of states to likely lose a congressional seat after the 2010 decennial census.

Of the states losing seats, only Ohio would suffer multiple losses, with two. The remaining states that are projected to have downsized House delegations include four in the Northeast (Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania), four in the Midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota), plus Louisiana.

The biggest likely winners of the census are Texas, with a likely gain of four, and seven states — four in the West (Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Washington) and three in the South (Florida, Georgia and South Carolina) each likely to gain one.

Based on recent historical experience, these projections will likely be close to the final results when the actual House reapportionment is officially announced in December 2010.

Using the complex formula for apportioning the House, Missouri would be on the cusp with the 435th seat and Minnesota is listed for the mythical 436th seat — by a margin of roughly 10,000 persons each. Those states, consequently, will be among those states with the most at stake to assure a full count of their residents.

Politico Reports:

Sen. Tom Harkin told POLITICO that Senate Democratic leaders have decided to go the reconciliation route. The House, he said, will first pass the Senate bill after Senate leaders demonstrate to House leaders that they have the votes to pass reconciliation in the Senate.

Harkin made the comments after a meeting in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office including Harkin and Sens. Baucus, Dodd, Durbin, Schumer and Murray.

When asked whether the leaders had made the decision, Durbin said: “We are moving ahead with a version of the health care reform bill that we believe has a good chance of passing both the House and the Senate.”

He then put the onus on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to signal whether she can provide enough votes to pass the Senate bill, followed by a package of fixes through reconciliation.

“The first step is with Speaker Pelosi and so I will let her decide what it takes in the House,” Durbin said.

Reconciliation “has always been an option. But she has to make her own decision on what it takes to enact this in the House,” he added.

Durbin said Democrats are “coming to closure” on legislative language to send to the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate — a step that can take weeks. “It has not been sent yet, but we are hoping it can be sent soon.”

It remains unclear what kind of guarantee the Senate can provide to the House that the upper chamber will make fixes to the bill, Durbin said.

“I don’t know what the gesture will be but it will be a convincing gesture,” he said.

Tags: harkin, Health Care, Wreckoncilitaion

Segregation? Tom Harkin wants to stop charging higher premiums to people who incur greater health costs.

Courtesy of BigGovernment.com

This will make Steve King no friends in the White House. Rep. King has been increasing his visibility lately and, as a result, has become a favorite target of the left. Much like Michele Bachman
Washington News Observer interviewed Congressman Steve King (R-IA) on Obama’s senior advisor – Valerie Jarrett.

Ms. Jarrett has known President Obama for several decades and moved to Washington, DC following the successful election of her candidate. Currently, Ms. Jarrett is is a senior advisor and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Tags: Steve King

From Radio Iowa:

Christie Vilsack, the wife of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, sounds as if she may be the “mystery candidate” the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party said was poised to run for the U.S. Senate.

Republican Chuck Grassley will seek a sixth term in the U.S. Senate in 2010 and, so far, two eastern Iowa Democrats who once served in the state legislature have announced they’re running. But during an interview with WHO TV, Christie Vilsack — a lifelong Democrat — revealed she’s considering a run for the senate herself.

During the interview, Vilsack said she wasn’t “at that place, yet” to make a decision, but made clear she’s been thinking about a race against Grassley. For example, Vilsack said her husband, U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, emailed her Tuesday afternoon, telling her Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine was the only Republican on the Senate Finance Committee to vote for the health care reform bill. Mrs. Vilsack made reference, then, not only to Snowe’s “yes” but to Grassley’s “no” vote.

“You don’t make history by voting ‘no,’ and so Olympia Snowe is making history today and I’m really proud of her as a legislator, as someone who is stepping up to the plate and I’m proud that she’s willing to work in a bipartisan fashion and I think that that’s really what we should all be doing right now,” Vilsack said. “It’s what I do in my work every day. It’s what I did as first lady.”

Tags: vilsack