John Kasich said people against the Medicaid expansion should read the Bible, particularly Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have expanded Medicaid, with coverage for newly eligible adults fully funded by the Federal Government until 2017." Ben Carson criticized the victims of the Umpqua school shooting for letting themselves get shot, because if he'd been there Carson would have used his sweater-vest and whispers to intimidate the shooter. And a former member of Congress said he regrets helping block the CDC from studying the public health effects of gun violence, because when you're out of Congress you can stop worrying about having to placate all the angry people with guns. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, October 6th, 2015:
DEMS MOVE TO ABOLISH BENGHAZI COMMITTEE - Amanda Terkel: "Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) plans to offer an amendment on Tuesday to dismantle the House Select Committee on Benghazi, causing further headaches for Republicans after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) recent comment that the panel's purpose is actually to sink Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions. Slaughter will offer her amendment at Tuesday night's Rules Committee meeting. She plans to strike language from a GOP bill to create a new select committee on Planned Parenthood and replace it with text abolishing the Benghazi panel, Slaughter spokesman James Owens said. Slaughter is ranking member on the Rules Committee. Since Democrats do not have a majority in Congress, they are unlikely to prevail in this effort." [HuffPost]
THIS IS THE SOUND OF A LAME DUCK QUACKING - Honk, honk - our democracy is broken. Michael McAuliff: "Enough Senate Democrats sided with Republicans on Tuesday to advance a key defense bill, defying a veto threat by President Barack Obama….The Senate voted 73 to 26 to prevent a filibuster of the measure, all but guaranteeing it will pass later this week. The bill has already passed the House, meaning Senate passage will force Obama to decide whether to issue just the fifth veto of his presidency." [HuffPost]
TRUE CONSERVATIVES REJECT JOHN KASICH'S HIPPIE SAVIOR - Hey, Kasich, why don't you try reading the conservative edition of the New Testament, which clearly states: "And Jesus said to them, blessed are those who pick thyselves up by thine sandalstraps; for they shall build that." Igor Bobic: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) has a suggestion for those who criticize his decision to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act: Read the Bible. In a Q&A session hosted by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, the presidential candidate talked up his willingness to do what he thinks is right, even if that put him at odds with members of his own party." It sure did. [HuffPost]
Tomorrow's your chance to have breakfast with Mark Meadows.
COMO SE DICE 'MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING?' - Hillary Clinton won't force your loved ones to Mexico, like that meanie Barack Obama did. Elise Foley: "Obama started out his presidency by deporting record numbers of immigrants in what ended up being a failed effort to convince Republicans to agree to immigration reform. But in an interview that aired Sunday and Monday with Telemundo News’ María Celeste Arrarás, Clinton said she wouldn't go that route. The former secretary of state promised to push for comprehensive immigration reform 'as soon as' she gets into office. 'In the meantime, I'm not gonna be breaking up families,' she continued, according to a transcript provided by the network." [HuffPost]
JUST A DISHEVELED BUNDLE OF SWEATY HAIR AND CONFUSION 2016! - Hillary Clinton is DOOMED in New Hampshire, you say? Jason Linkins: "But really, all that needs to be said is that these oh-so-savvy 'veterans of the family's old campaigns' are of the mind that the best thing to do to respond to Bernie Sanders' hardy challenge in New Hampshire is to freak out, pull out of an early primary state and get every news organization in America a-twitter with headlines like 'Clinton Panics in New Hampshire' and 'Sanders Has Clinton On The Run' and 'Clinton Campaign Now Just A Disheveled Bundle Of Sweaty Hair And Confusion.'" [HuffPost]
Bet you didn't know that gross rich lawyers paid homeless people to wait in line for them at the Supreme Court. Well, the court just said they have to wait in line their own damn selves from now on.
CONGRESS MAD AT FANTASY FOOTBALL COMPANIES - And really, who isn't? Those ads gotta stop, man. Travis Waldron: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other lawmakers called for increased federal examination of daily fantasy sports Tuesday, just days after a new scandal engulfed the fast-growing industry. Last week, an employee of DraftKings, one of the two largest daily fantasy web sites, admitted to releasing confidential data about the prevalence of NFL players in users’ fantasy lineups, a seemingly inadvertent privacy breach, which drew more attention when
With some prodding from the Obama administration, the District is consdering some real generous family policies -- and not just for government workers, either.
7 TIMES JASON CHAFFETZ HAS CHAFFETZED SOMEONE - From Darrell Issa to dreidels. Ryan Grim and Amanda Terkel: When Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) announced that he's running for speaker of the House, facing off against current majority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), many people were surprised that the four-term congressman would take on the GOP leadership that helped him rise through the ranks. But they shouldn't have been that shocked. Chaffetz, 48, has gone through so many permutations over the course of his life that his name has morphed into a verb. 'To Chaffetz' now means to turn on somebody who at one time was a mentor or supporter." See our list of People And Things That Have Been Chaffetzed.
HEY, SOMETHING BERNIE'S NOT SUPER-LIBERAL ABOUT! Vermonters heart firearms! Thomas Kaplan: "In the aftermath of the massacre at an elementary school in Connecticut, Mr. Sanders voiced support for new gun control measures, but also noted that the rights of law-abiding gun owners 'must be protected.' In fact, Mr. Sanders sounded downright skeptical of the push for tighter new laws." [NYT]
DOES SMOKING CIGARETTES HELP YOU SLEEP? Surgeon General Vivek Murthy knows how @#*$ing tired you are all the time. Sam Stein: "'As all of us know,' Murthy said, 'health is deeply intertwined with culture: what we eat, how active we are, how much we sleep. These are rooted in cultural norms. When I was training in medicine for example, there was a culture in medicine that strong people didn’t need sleep, that the less you slept, the more you just powered through a tough call not on no sleep, the stronger you were. That is not helpful to have a culture that supports healthy practices like that.'" [HuffPost]
Haircuts: Jason Cherkis, Ike Blake (h/t Preston Maddock).
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THE LATEST ON JOE BIDEN'S AUTHENTICITY - Edward-Isaac Dovere: "Joe Biden has been making his 2016 deliberations all about his late son since August. Aug. 1, to be exact -- the day renowned Hillary Clinton-critic Maureen Dowd published a column that marked a turning point in the presidential speculation. According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her, painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because 'the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.'" [Politico]
HILLARY CLINTON READY TO AUTHENTICALLY KILL JOE BIDEN IF NECESSARY - Gabriel Sherman: "If Joe Biden jumps into the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton will be ready to go on the offensive. According to a Clinton campaign source, a team of opposition researchers working on behalf of Clinton is currently digging through Biden’s long record in office to develop attack lines in case the vice-president runs. The research effort started about a month ago and is being conducted by operatives at Correct the Record, the pro-Hillary superpac founded by David Brock, which is coordinating with the Clinton campaign." [NYMag]
NOW HE TELLS US - Sam Stein: "Looking back, nearly 20 years later, Jay Dickey is apologetic. He is gone from Congress, giving him space to reflect on his namesake amendment that, to this day, continues to define the rigid politics of gun policy. When he helped pass a restriction of federal funding for gun violence research in 1996, the goal wasn't to be so suffocating, he insisted. But the measure was just that, dampening federal research for years and discouraging researchers from entering the field. Now, as mass shootings pile up, including last week's killing of nine at a community college in Oregon, Dickey admitted to carrying a sense of responsibility for progress not made. 'I wish we had started the proper research and kept it going all this time,' Dickey, an Arkansas Republican, told the Huffington Post in an interview. 'I have regrets.'" [HuffPost]
AWW - Don't read the replies though. @SteveScalise The face you make when your wife surprises you in DC for your 50th birthday!
'DELIBERATELY BOMBED' - Will Frej: "A top U.S. commander said Tuesday that the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Afghanistan was accidental -- but the humanitarian group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, claims otherwise. The hospital, the only one of its kind in the region, was 'deliberately bombed,' according to a statement released Tuesday by Dr. Joanne Liu, MSF's international president. 'The attack was unacceptable.' The explosion rocked the northeastern Afghan city of Kunduz in the middle of the night, killing 22. This was the 12th U.S. airstrike in the area in a five-day period. The hospital was hit several times, causing some patients to be burned alive." [HuffPost]
I'LL TAKE 'HEADLINES FROM 1992, ALEX' - "Clinton Jabs at Bush as They Circle Each Other." Trip Gabriel and Matt Flegenheimer: "Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Bush circled each other in Iowa on Tuesday as the struggling standard-bearers of their parties’ establishments. Both were once seen as almost inevitable general election opponents. Now they each face serious challenges from populist outsiders." [NYT]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - We re-enacted scenes from Ed Klein's latest book, which of course features Hillary Clinton dropping F-bombs.
BEN CARSON THINKS SHOOTING VICTIMS WERE LAZY, PROBABLY ON WELFARE - Amanda Terkel: GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson implied Tuesday that the Oregon shooting victims didn't do enough to save themselves, and that if he himself had been there, he would have been more aggressive in confronting the attacker. 'I would not just stand there and let him shoot me,' Carson said on 'Fox & Friends,' as seen in the clip above. 'I would say, 'Hey guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.''... Notwithstanding Carson's claim that the UCC victims just 'let' [Christopher] Harper-Mercer shoot them, Army veteran Chris Mintz did fight back. Harper-Mercer shot Mintz seven times. Mintz survived, but is still recovering from his wounds." [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- Jay Leno goes undercover as a taxi driver instead of just going away forever like everyone wants.
- Drunk UConn kid is literally the worst.
- Florida man has great insight into differences between England and America.
TWITTERAMA
@EvanMcSan: i come from the future where we try to make fake trump hat slogans that shame people who enjoy making fake trump hat slogans
@lizzwinstead: Carly Fiorina gonna use her Medieval History degree to take on ISIS. Vows to commit troops in Westeros and Essos.
@katherinemiller: BIDEN TO DECIDE IN NEXT 5 TO 15-ISH DAYS. ANSWER IS YES OR NO, BUT MAYBE MORE YES THAN NO, BUT HARD TO SAY, REALLY WHAT IS THE NATURE OF YES
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