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Sen. Cruz's speech will inspire you. He takes no DC elite prisoners. For instance: "Why are we here today in a lame duck? Why is there a session of congress, the 2nd week of December, with so many members voting, who the American people just said they no longer want to be represented by. Why are there so many members getting ready to land a cushy law firm and lobby interest job, and industry and trade associations? All of our colleagues , whole bunch of them, we’re going to see them again— except, they’ll have more expensive suits, more finely...

Say what you will about the compromises contained in John Boehner’s spending bill, but there is at least one thing about it I love: Nancy Pelosi hates it. At issue are the reform measures the GOP inserted in the bill to get rid of excessive regulation in Dodd-Frank and so-called campaign finance reform. Pelosi expressed enormous disappointment in the White House, which supported Boehner’s bill, would support the roll back of Dodd-Frank and the 1st Amendment violations in the name of campaign finance reform. The thing conservatives should understand about this lame duck Congress is that what they do here...

Congress gave itself until Wednesday to pass a government funding bill after the two Republican senators whose efforts led to a government shutdown in 2013 disrupted legislation that would avert a shutdown. Unable to pass a massive spending bill that would keep the government funded for a year, the Senate on Saturday approved a stopgap measure to prevent a shutdown at midnight. The maneuver came during a rare Saturday session after GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee demanded a vote Friday to defund President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, thwarting Senate leadership's hopes to pass a $1.1 trillion...

Bloomberg is title and link only: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-13/senate-push-on-final-spending-bill-thwarted-by-disputes.html

After hours of debate on the massive government spending package, the Senate adjourned until Saturday, pushing a fight that dominated Congress for days into the weekend. The Senate is expected to vote Monday on the $1.1 trillion package, which has already passed the House, Sens. Mitch McConnell and Barbara Mikulski said late Friday. Members from both parties in the Senate are trying to make last-minute changes to the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a procedural move Friday that would set up a vote on final passage in the Senate no later than Monday. In a surprise development, the...

enate Majority Leader Harry Reid is keeping senators in Washington for a rare Saturday session—and risking a government shutdown—after he went to extraordinary lengths to block Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) from forcing a vote to block President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty.

Their power ebbing, Senate Democrats launched a last-minute drive Saturday to confirm roughly 20 of President Barack Obama’s nominees, and several Republicans blamed tea partyer Ted Cruz for creating an opening for the outgoing majority party to exploit. The weekend session unfolded as measures that could prevent government operating funds from running out at midnight remained in limbo. Even so, there was little apparent concern about a shutdown that Democratic and Republican leaders said they wanted to avoid. Republicans tried to slow the nomination proceedings, but several voiced unhappiness with Cruz, R-Texas. One likened his actions to his role in...

Defying his party's leadership, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz upended plans for smooth passage of a $1.1-trillion spending bill, forcing a rare Saturday session as Congress braces to prevent a new threatened government shutdown.. Cruz launched the Senate into turmoil as he tried to use the government shutdown as leverage to stop President Obama's immigration plans. Now, Congress faces a midnight Saturday deadline to keep federal operations running. Senators were streaming into the Capitol on a sunny winter Saturday for a series of procedural votes, with many not happy about the situation. "I remind everyone, 12 o'clock midnight, 12 a.m., the...

The victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that left 13 dead and more than 30 wounded moved closer Friday to receiving the Purple Hearts many say they are due. Congress passed a defense policy bill Friday evening that includes a provision making victims of the attacks at the Texas Army post eligible for the Purple Heart. The award given to military personnel wounded in battle also offers increased retirement benefits. The Department of Defense has denied the award to Fort Hood shooting victims, calling the November 2009 attack an act of workplace violence, not terrorism. That distinction has angered...

The cromnibus had an unlikely savior Thursday afternoon in the form of a lame-duck lawmaker who used to raise reindeer. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.), who lost his primary earlier this year, was originally among the conservative Republicans who voted against the rule. Without the help of Democrats, Republicans could only lose 17 of their own to pass the rule, which sets up floor debate for the underlying "cromnibus" spending bill. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) intervened once there were 18 Republican defectors — and not a single Democrat voting "yes." Many Democrats will vote against the government spending measure because they...

Senate Republicans huddled over lunch Friday afternoon in the Capitol to discuss strategy on the House-passed spending bill and other pending legislation, exiting the meeting with a resounding message: Let's get this done and get the heck out of here. But that feeling of optimism was quickly squashed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been negotiating with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Friday afternoon to bring up a vote on the omnibus bill later in the evening, keeping the government's doors open and allowing senators to take the weekend off. Many members on both sides of the aisle were hopeful that...

Incoming Virginia congressman Dave Brat, whose historic GOP primary victory over then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor shook up Washington’s power structure this summer, is blasting President Obama’s executive fiat on immigration reform as "morally vacuous" – while stopping short of calling for impeachment.

AUSTIN A federal judge declined Friday to allow same-sex couples to immediately begin marrying in Texas. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia said allowing same-sex marriages “would only be temporary, with confusion and doubt to follow,” because the issue is being reviewed by a federal appeals court that will hear oral arguments on the matter next month. Garcia ruled 10 months ago that the Texas marriage ban violated the U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal treatment under the law, but Garcia also issued a stay halting his decision from taking effect while Attorney General Greg Abbott appealed.

WASHINGTON – Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Jeff Sessions are pushing for a vote to defund President Obama’s executive amnesty in the “Cromnibus” spending bill Friday night, The Daily Caller has learned. The trio of conservative senators is hoping to get the defund vote onto the Senate floor as a “point of order,” which would force a procedural vote on the issue without Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid having to introduce it. The senators are pushing hard on Capitol Hill for the measure as of early Friday afternoon. If successful, the vote would take place late Friday...

Wendy Davis, who lost the Nov. 4 gubernatorial election to Republican Greg Abbott, has won Texas Monthly magazine's coveted "Bum Steer of the Year" award for her "train wreck" of a campaign. The annual awards take a snarky jab at Texas politicians, odd news stories and personalities. Fromer winners include Anna Nicole Smith, Gov. Rick Perry, Lance Armstrong and Tom Delay. This year's cover depicts Davis stepping in a cow patty while wearing the bright pink Mizuno "Wave Rider" sneakers she donned during her 2013 filibuster against Texas' new abortion restrictions that brought her into the national spotlight. The magazine...

Jackson County Texas Sheriff Andy Louderback spoke at a press conference on Dec. 10, 2014 in Washington, D.C., in opposition to President Barack Obama's amnesty plan. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) (CNSNews.com) – Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in the nation’s capitol, Jackson County Texas Sheriff Andy Louderback said President Barack Obama’s plan to protect millions of illegal aliens from deportation amounts to “a large welcome sign and a saloon door mentality on our border.” "What we’re facing in Texas and in this nation is a large welcome sign and a saloon door mentality on our border," said Louderback, president...

KASIE HUNT, MSNBC: And are you smart enough to be president of the United States?"

Washington (CNN) -- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren -- not Hillary Clinton -- is the top progressive choice for president in 2016, according to a new poll. In fact, Clinton doesn't even make second place. Forty two percent of respondents favor Warren, and Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders also edges out Clinton with 24% compared to her 23%, according to results from the 2016 Presidential Pulse Poll commissioned by progressive grassroots organization Democracy for America. These results come amid a groundswell of activism from the Democratic party's more liberal wing, which has called for a contested 2016 primary and has often...

Guess when you're as brilliant as Mike Barnicle, it's OK to ridicule others for their supposed lack of smarts. Today's Morning Joe was teasing an upcoming segment about a tough question that reporter Kasie Hunt had posed to Rick Perry. Mockingly trying to imagine the question, Barnicle offered "she asked him what day it was." View the video here.

WASHINGTON – In a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday that sounded like the first foreign policy address of a presidential campaign, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called for a return to the international politics of President Ronald Reagan. Cruz contrasted Reagan’s approach with the Obama-Clinton policy of not putting distance between the U.S. and traditional allies, such as Britain and Israel, in the hope of “domesticating” long-standing enemies such as Russia and Iran. “This backfired,” Cruz argued. “The end result is that Churchill is no longer welcome in the Oval Office. He recalled one of Obama’s first acts...