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A broad majority of senators voted Monday to install President Trump's choice to be the U.S. ambassador to China in his first term. Gov. Terry Branstad, R-Iowa, was supported by several Democrats in the final vote, but that didn't spare him completely from the partisan gamesmanship that has dominated Trump's nominees' path through the Senate. Republicans faulted Democrats for slow-walking his nomination, despite their approval of the pick. "It's been disappointing to see so much pointless obstruction by our friends across the aisle," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. "And they've done so not to...

This time next week, Gov. Terry Branstad is likely to be the United States ambassador to China, Sen. Chuck Grassley predicted Thursday. The Iowa Republican expects a vote on Branstad’s appointment as early as Tuesday, despite Democratic senators forcing a cloture vote on President Donald Trump’s nomination. “Realize he got out of committee on unanimous consent,” Grassley said. After a hearing last week, the Foreign Relations Committee recommended Branstad’s conformation unanimously on a voice vote. “Now we want to get him through the United States Senate and we have to file a cloture motion on it.” The objections may not...

DES MOINES — The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday on Gov. Terry Branstad’s nomination to be ambassador to China. The 21-member committee will question Branstad about a range of issues, including his views on U.S.-Chinese relations based on him leading trade missions to China and his personal relationship with President Xi Jinping. Branstad already has submitted extensive background material documenting his education and work experience to the committee, as well as to the Department of State and the FBI. If a majority of the committee, which is chaired by Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker...

As reported in Frontrunning, President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the next U.S. ambassador to China, choosing a longstanding friend of Beijing after rattling the world's second-largest economy by speaking to Taiwan's president. Earlier in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang called Branstad an "old friend" of China when asked about a report on the appointment, although he added Beijing would work with any U.S. ambassador.The appointment of Branstad will likely ease trade tensions between the two countries, the world's two biggest agricultural producers, diplomats and trade experts said according to Reuters. It also suggests...

America's Future Fund, a political action committee that opposed Sen. Ted Cruz in Iowa, has purchased $1.5 million in negative advertising against Cruz that will run on television in the weeks leading up to the Feb. 20th South Carolina primary. The ad, "Weak," attempts to discredit Cruz's national security bona fides in a state with a heavy military and veteran population. America's Future Fund is run by GOP establishment operative Nick Ryan. As CR's Rob Eno wrote in "Why The Establishment Fears Cruz More Than Trump": "Ryan is a longstanding force in Iowa politics, allied with the moderate Governor Branstad....

Governor Terry Branstad is crediting Ted Cruz for running an "old-fashioned", 99-county campaign that yielded victory in Monday night's Iowa Caucuses, but Branstad is joining the chorus criticizing Cruz for "questionable" campaign tactics. "This thing that they distributed on Caucus night saying that Dr. Carson was likely to drop out and his supporters should support Cruz, that is, I think, unethical and unfair," Branstad said this morning. "I think there'll be repercussions to that." Cruz has apologized to Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who finished fourth in the Caucuses on Monday night. Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Cruz backer, helped spread...

I'm rather torn as to whether this is some sort of indicator that's worth watching tomorrow or just a piece of inevitable political minutia like so many others which gets flushed away with the next dawn. We learned something about Iowa Governor Terry Branstad's primary preferences last month at that same time that he celebrated the milestone of becoming the longest serving governor in the nation's history. He insisted that he wasn't going to be endorsing anyone or playing favorites, but he definitely didn't want Ted Cruz to carry the day. At the same time we saw how the rest...

It was another interesting week on the presidential political scene on several fronts. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad was vocal, Sarah Palin took a stand and Hillary Clinton raised her attacks on Bernie Sanders. Former Illinois Congressman Phil Hare and former Iowa State Representative David Millage addressed these issues during an appearance on 4 the Record. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad got involved in presidential politics. It's not typical of him, but, he doesn't want Ted Cruz to win the Iowa caucuses because of his stance on ethanol. Cruz is ahead in the polls for Iowa....

As party elites gang up on the Texas senator chasing Trump, he's winning the money race. Ted Cruz turned his bad day in Iowa into a cash cow. The Texas senator's campaign announced it had raked more than $700,000 just on Tuesday, after he was singled out by Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad as a bad choice for the GOP and passed over by Sarah Palin, who instead announced her endorsement of real estate mogul Donald Trump. The eye-popping haul "put us over the $50 million mark for this campaign," Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler said on CNN Wednesday night. "We...

... Washington (CNN)Republican Party leaders and prominent senators are sharpening their knives against Ted Cruz, expressing growing alarm over his candidacy as he continues to mount a serious threat in Iowa. In interviews with CNN, a growing number of Republicans are beginning to echo remarks made by the likes of former Sen. Bob Dole and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, warning that the party would suffer deep losses down the ticket and risk electing a Democratic president if the Texas senator wins the nomination. "I think we'll lose if he's our nominee," said Orrin Hatch, the most senior Republican in the...

Obradovich: Branstad puts ethanol over caucus futureLink only

The idiot governor of Iowa has come out today saying he wants Ted Cruz defeated because he doesn’t support ethanol subsidies: DES MOINES REGISTER – “Ted Cruz is ahead right now. What we're trying to do is educate the people in the state of Iowa. He is the biggest opponent of renewable fuels. He actually introduced a bill in 2013 to immediately eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard. He's heavily financed by Big Oil. So we think once Iowans realize that fact, they might find other things attractive but he could be very damaging to our state,” Branstad said.Branstad added that...

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad would like to see Ted Cruz defeated, he said on Tuesday. The Iowa governor, whose powerful network of supporters is a prized political commodity, was speaking to reporters at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit. Branstad's son Eric is leading efforts to portray the Texas senator as hostile to ethanol, a narrative Cruz has been trying to stifle in recent weeks. Asked if he'd like the Texas senator to lose, Governor Branstad said, "Yes." "I think it would be very damaging to our state," he continued, according to Iowa's Channel 13 news. "I believe it would be...

Of course, to hear Branstad say it, what he actually said was that he hopes Ted Cruz loses. The problem with Branstad's jeremiad against Cruz is that Brandstad is everything that is wrong with both the Republican Party and the political class in the country as a whole. The fecklessness and self-dealing of Terry Branstad would put any fat cat Republican Senator in the caucus to shame. It's the shameless behavior of people like Branstad who have given rise to the Trump/Cruz phenomenon in the first place. Basically, at the end of the day, Republican voters have shown that they...

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) said Monday that the birthplace of Sen. Ted Cruz is "fair game," adding to a growing chorus questioning whether the Texas Republican's Canadian birth could affect his ability to secure the GOP presidential nomination. "When you run for president of the United States, any question is fair game. So let the people decide," Branstad told reporters Monday. Cruz, speaking to reporters in Baton Rouge, La., noted that Branstad's son has thrown his support elsewhere, hosting fundraisers for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad believes the question of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's eligibility in the presidential race is "fair game." "When you run for president of the United States, any question is fair game. So let the people decide," Branstad told reporters on Monday during a weekly press briefing, according to The Des Moines Register. Canada-born Cruz has said that the legal case for his eligibility is clear based on his mother's U.S. birth, and he released his mother's birth certificate on Friday. Branstad has vowed to stay neutral in the Feb. 1 caucuses. But those close to him say...

...Senator Ted Cruz, already under attack in Iowa for opposing government support for ethanol, has won the support of an out-of-state conservative leader, Ken Cuccinelli II, who on Tuesday aimed an unusually blistering attack on "Big Corn"......"The Governor of Iowa is a Big Corn cheerleader, and his son is running a super PAC hitting Cruz for not bowing to worship Big Corn..." wrote Mr. Cucinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia.He described an agricultural forum in Iowa early in the year attended by presidential hopefuls as a "Big corn kiss up confab."Mr. Cruz is leading Iowa polls of likely Republican...

Iowas six-term governor marks an important milestone Monday. He will become the longest-serving governor in U.S. history. On Monday, Terry Branstad will have been Iowas governor for one out of every eight days that Iowa has been a state according to calculations by a University of Minnesota political science professor. It will be a total of 7,642 days. It pushes him past record-holder George Clinton, a Revolutionary War hero who served as the governor of New York for nearly 21 years.Branstad was first elected governor in 1982, then reelected in 1986, 1990 and 1994. For that 1994 election, Branstad went...

Washington (CNN)—Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad predicted Thursday that GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump would lose his state's caucuses, despite the billionaire developer's continued perch atop the polls there. "I think it will change between now and February 1. I have a lot of confidence in the Iowa voters in making that decision," Branstad told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day."(continued)

<p>DES MOINES — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) collapsed at an event Monday in the Des Moines suburbs and is currently receiving medical attention, according to an aide.</p> <p>“Gov. Branstad fell ill at an event today at DuPont Pioneer,” said Jimmy Centers, a Branstad adviser. “An ambulance was called and he was transported to Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. The governor was conscious and alert during the transport to the hospital. The governor had been suffering from the effects of a cold for a couple of days.”</p>