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Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/10/06/editorial-ted-cruz-wrong-syrian-refugees/73486846/

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he is "increasingly optimistic" that voting at the Republican National Convention in July will go to a second ballot, seeming to suggest he does not want to see Donald Trump become the nominee. The Kentucky Republican has studiously sought to remain neutral in public, although he has on occasion condemned Trump's remarks and reportedly told senators in private earlier this year that down-ballot Republicans might drop Trump "like a hot rock." McConnell's comments on WHAS-TV in Louisville over the weekend gave additional insight into his thinking. McConnell explained the convention process...

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed a bill Wednesday that removes the names and titles of county clerks from marriage licenses, giving legal "finality" to the religious accommodation that Rowan County clerk Kim Davis was looking for. Davis, who made headlines when she spent over five days in jail last September for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses with her name and title on them because of her Christian beliefs, had called on the state's then-Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear to create a religious accommodation allowing her to drop her name and title from marriage certificates that her office issued. The accommodation,...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has decided he may want some help from Washington after all to stop Trump. But alas, his entreaties to his Senate colleagues aren't going very well. Cruz is facing varied and dynamic obstacles in his quest to build support on the Hill. Some senators are stubbornly nursing grudges against the freshman senator's 2013 government shutdown gambit or any other number of slights and affronts he committed as a freshman senator that made him deeply unpopular. Other senators endorsed candidates who already dropped out of the race and are unwilling to repeat that mistake with Donald Trump...

Ted Cruz stands by his claim that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a liar arguing, “Every word I said there was true and accurate.” In a town hall on MSNBC hosted by the moderator of “Meet the Press” Chuck Todd on Thursday, Todd asked Cruz, “You called Senate Majority Leader a liar on the Senate floor. That has not sat well with your colleagues. Do you regret calling him a ‘liar’ on the Senate floor?” “You know, Washington is an amazing place,” Cruz said. “When somebody stands up and lies to you, and someone else points out that they...

A federal judge said Tuesday that the Confederate emblem on the Mississippi flag is "anti-American" because it represents those who fought to leave the United States. But U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves is not yet saying whether he will fully consider a lawsuit that seeks to eliminate the flag as a state symbol. Reeves heard more than three hours of arguments about motions in the lawsuit that Carlos Moore, an African-American attorney from Grenada, Mississippi, filed against the state. Moore is asking Reeves to declare the flag an unconstitutional relic of slavery.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley told Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to his face Tuesday that the Senate won’t consider his nomination. Over breakfast, the Iowa Republican “explained why the Senate won’t be moving forward during this hyper-partisan election year,” his office said. The statement added that Mr. Grassley “thanked Judge Garland for his service,” and that their 70-minute meeting in the Senate dining room was “cordial and pleasant.” Both men arrived early for the meeting and avoided journalists later. Mr. Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are blocking Judge Garland’s nomination, saying voters should have a role in...

Investigators identified nearly 2,000 cases of potentially phony disability claims stemming from a massive Social Security fraud scheme, but three years after the scam was first exposed, the government says it’s still struggling to stop the payments. Only slightly more than 300 cases have been disqualified, and Social Security is still “in the process of effectuating those terminations,” the agency told The Washington Times just days after the accused ringleader and two lead accomplices were indicted on federal fraud charges. Despite three investigations into suspicions of massive fraud, Social Security officials say they are assuming all of the applications are...

This is probably just the right balance for Ted Cruz: Senior Republicans have been asking Cruz to apologize to [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell so they can unite behind his bid to defeat Donald Trump. But Cruz did offer some kind words for McConnell Thursday. “Now I will tell you this, I am happy to praise Mitch McConnell and praise him effusively for his stand, along with (Senate Judiciary Chairman) Chuck Grassley, saying we are not going to hold hearings on a replacement” to the Supreme Court, Cruz told Bash. “Mitch McConnell’s doing the right thing, Chuck Grassley’s doing the right thing,...

Every election cycle, U.S. Congressman Thomas Massie said he is “extorted” by the Republican Party to pay $300,000 for his committee assignments. “I call it extortion, they call it assessments,” he said. These “assessments,” essentially dues to the Republican party, are fundraised through political action committees and lobbyists as a price to pay for committee positions, Massie told a crowd of about 25 during a recent coffee and pizza forum in Flatwoods. He told them, “I can’t go and do a fundraiser and raise $300,000 and stand up in front of people and tell them, ‘Well, you know what? It’s...

Senator Ted Cruz has at least eight Super-PAC’s assisting his presidential campaign; and according to a recording obtained by Politico a Cruz’s campaign bundler was directing large donors toward one PAC specifically. The “Stand for Truth” PAC. However, the campaign appears to have, yet again, gone into the land of illegality with the following statement (via audio recording): “If you hit your max then we have a table for you that is the unlimited table,” Keet Lewis, a bundler for the campaign and co-host of a Dec. 30 fundraiser in Dallas, says on the recording provided to POLITICO. “It can...

<p>Ted Cruz said Thursday he will not apologize to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for accusing him of lying last year, despite suggestions from Senate colleagues it would help them unite behind his campaign.</p> <p>"That ain't gonna happen," Cruz told CNN's Dana Bash in an interview that aired on "Erin Burnett OutFront." "And if the Washington lobbyists want to see that happen, they can hold their breath a long, long time. My focus is on the American people and uniting Republicans behind shared values and a shared vision." Cruz has presented himself as the candidate best poised to unite the Republican Party against Hillary Clinton in November. But he has struggled with his own colleagues in the Senate, winning limited support from Republican senators.</p>

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/02/nky-delegates-support-cruz/82526228/

It may be April 1, but apparently Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is not joking about supporting Donald Trump for the Republican nomination if — if — he emerges as the party's nominee in the general election. Paul said Friday morning that he would support whoever is named the Republican nominee, even if it's Trump, telling a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter during a visit to the metro area in Kentucky that backing the Manhattan businessman would be better than going for Hillary Clinton. The senator, according to the report, specifically criticized Clinton's comments in Ohio that she would "put a whole lot...

An ad created by the super PAC supporting John Kasich has adopted Donald Trump’s nickname for rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): “Lyin’ Ted.” New Day Independent Media Committee’s video ad begins, “Many just call him Lyin’ Ted,” as a narrator proceeds to list Cruz’s alleged “lies.” “Lied about Ben Carson to steal a win in Iowa; lied about being the best for the GOP when polls show he can’t even beat Hillary Clinton; his TV ad about John Kasich lied. Stations had to pull it off the air.”“If Ted Cruz’s mouth is moving, he’s lying,” the ad continues.

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — Time and time again Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has failed to usher conservative priorities successfully through the Senate. He failed to pass legislation that would deter illegal immigration. He failed to defund Planned Parenthood, much to the dismay of conservatives. And he failed to stop the nuclear deal with Iran. Now he is being pressed to usher through the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. If he fails, conservatives say, he could be forced out of leadership. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was introduced and shepherded through the House last fall by Rep. Trent...

Talk about your Hobson's Choice . . . on today's Morning Joe, Nicolle Wallace, citing GOP consultants, suggested that--other than social conservatives--Republicans concerned with foreign policy should consider supporting Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Hillary supporter Harold Ford, Jr. could be heard chiming in with a "well said." Wallace was echoing the argument laid out by Joe Scarborough: that on a range of issues from foreign intervention to Israel, taxing the rich to breaking up the banks, Clinton's positions are closer to those of the GOP establishment than Trump's. But Joe, Nicolle and those Republican consultants are forgetting one overriding...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told CNNÂ’s Dana Bash today that the Senate would not confirm Judge Merrick Garland, who was nominated by President Obama earlier this week, in the lame duck session. Senate Republicans have been adamant that the next president, whoever that may be, should decide this nomination. This has drawn the ire of Democrats who feel that Republicans are skirting their constitutional obligation to advise and consent on judicial nominations, despite the fact that the Constitution doesnÂ’t say the Senate must consider a nominee upon recommendation by the president. Yes, Senate Republicans can sit on their...

The EMW Women’s Clinic in Lexington has put off performing abortions until a judge rules next week on a request from Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration to stop the procedures. “We’re taking a timeout,” Lexington attorney Scott White, who is representing the clinic, said Wednesday. The Bevin administration’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services claimed in a lawsuit filed last week in Fayette Circuit Court that the clinic at 161 Burt Road, off Nicholasville Road, is operating without a license. The cabinet sent a letter March 4 to Dr. Ernest Marshall, who runs the clinic, asking it to “cease and desist”...

I have been an attentive observer of political protests for many moons. You might say I was present at their creation. For me, that would be back in 1968 at Chicago, Illinois's Grant Park. My brother and I stood between a line of young Chicago policemen as they grew increasingly anxious, their backs to the hotels that faced the park. In the park, luminaries of Democratic politics -- Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey -- were putting the final touches on their convention performances. What provoked the young cops (those mainly of Irish and Italian descent) was a mob of college-age...