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Senate Bill 97, introduced byKeith Regier (R-Kalispell) bans the application of foreign law in Montanas courts, with the debate particularly focused on Sharia Law, a form of Islamic law typically used in the Middle East.

Although the bill passed on party lines by 56-44,Democrats claimed it was designed to target Muslim communities.

I think it sends a dangerous message to minority groups both here living in our state and wanting to come visit our state, just merely on the fact that you may be different, said Rep. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula, while debating the bill. I truly believe this law is repugnant. I believe this is not who we are as Montanans.

Meanwhile,Rep. Ellie Hill Smith (D-Missoula) proposed a failed amendment to the bill to include a ban on both Sharia Law and the Law of Moses, in order to show the state of Montana that it is not just about Islamic Law.

The courts have said that laws that single out certain religions violate the First Amendment, Smith said, claiming that it was peppered with anti-Muslim bigotry.

Another Democrat,Rep. Laurie Bishop (D-Livingston) urged legislators not to forget the roots of this bill, adding that our children are watching.

Meanwhile, Rep. Brad Tschida (R-Missoula) said the bill was an attempt to push back against a constitution [that] is constantly under assault.

Bills specifically targeting Sharia Law have passed in statessuch as North Carolina, Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Tennessee. The bill will now be passed on to Gov. Steve Bullock (D) for signature or veto.

You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew,oremail him at bkew@breitbart.com

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Montana Democrats Vote Against Bill Banning Sharia Law, Call ...

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US|Fist or Glove: California Democrats Debate Response to Trump New York Times Many Democrats in the state say they want to go to the barricades, but others are urging a more measured diplomacy. and more »

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US|Fist or Glove: California Democrats Debate Response to Trump - New York Times

They just don't care.

"The filibuster is such a silly, non-intuitive tactic that most people don't even believe it exists," Markos Moulitsas, founder of the liberal blog DailyKos.com, told CNN in an email.

Inside the Senate, some red-state Democrats and longtime institutionalists have fretted that mounting an all-out battle to stop Gorsuch will hurt the party's chances of winning future fights and further degrade the more deliberative chamber of Congress. The 'nuclear option' would lower the bar from 60 senators needed to break a filibuster to 51, and Republicans currently control the chamber with a 52-48 margin.

But off Capitol Hill, Democrats -- from Washington insiders to progressive activists across the country -- are sick of hearing about those precautions.

Fueled by the base's anti-Trump energy, Democrats across the spectrum don't want to hand Trump any easy victories. They are insisting on showing Republicans that blocking Merrick Garland's Supreme Court nomination in President Barack Obama's final year won't go without retaliation.

And they see the filibuster -- which McConnell could erase at any point -- as a gun with no ammunition.

"The filibuster is effectively gone. If you don't filibuster Gorsuch, McConnell will just get rid of it next time," said Adam Jentleson, a former Harry Reid aide who's now a senior strategic adviser for the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Many Democrats were frustrated by senators' initial openness to supporting Gorsuch, but the nominee bungled the opportunity to win many of them over with what Democratic senators viewed as dismissive answers to questions during his confirmation hearing and to written follow-ups, Jentleson said.

Contrary to some institutionalists' hopes, McConnell would be even more likely to invoke the nuclear option to get the next Supreme Court nominee confirmed, he argued.

"Next time, the balance of the court would be at stake, so the motivation to go nuclear is even stronger. It goes both ways," he said. "It's false to say Democrats don't care. But I think it's just not their choice."

"Reid put up with years and years of incredible amounts of obstruction, and pressure from his base, before he finally went nuclear," Jentleson said. "McConnell, by sort of signaling he's going to do it beforehand -- literally the very first opportunity to go nuclear, he's pulling the trigger."

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, was the 41st Democrat to pledge to oppose Gorsuch, guaranteeing a filibuster. He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he is open to negotiating with Republicans to find an agreement on avoiding the nuclear option -- so long as the GOP doesn't invoke it on the next confirmation battle.

"I said, 'I will vote against closure unless the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate can somehow find an agreement that is trustworthy and reliable, where on the next Supreme Court nominee they won't change the rules and we will have input, and a more confirmable, consensus nominee will be put in front of the Senate,'" Coons said. "I'm not saying that I'm insisting that we force the Republican majority to break the rules. That's a choice they're going to have to make."

Like Coons, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, publicly agonized over his decision. But on Monday, he said he would filibuster Gorsuch, saying he "cannot vote solely to protect an institution."

Campaigning Friday in New Jersey, Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez and deputy chair Keith Ellison, a Minnesota congressman, both called for a filibuster of Gorsuch, knowing it would likely lead McConnell to invoke the nuclear option.

"If you do not have enough support, we should not change the rules for you," Ellison told Democrats in Asbury Park. "We should change the nominee."

Perez made the point again in a statement Monday, after it became clear Democrats would filibuster Gorsuch.

"It's plain and simple: Gorsuch has not earned the votes in the Senate to join the Supreme Court," he said. "Republicans can't fix Gorsuch by changing the rules. They need to change the nominee."

Other Democrats directly called for the filibuster's elimination, taking the long view that it could help the party if and when it regains Senate control.

Moulitsas mocked the hand-wringing about the loss of the 60-vote threshold, saying "it's mostly been a tool used by conservatives" and noting that the Heritage Foundation and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had talked about keeping an eight-seat Supreme Court through the entire tenure of a President Hillary Clinton before the election.

"Majority rule means accountability to the voters," he said. "It also means that elections really do matter, since the losers can't hide behind parliamentary maneuvers. So if McConnell really has the votes to kill it, good riddance."

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Why Democrats aren't worried about the 'nuclear option' - CNN

White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short met with Blue Dog Democrats, a moderate wing of the caucus whose membership has dwindled in recent years. | Getty

Marc Short, President Donald Trump's Capitol Hill liaison, huddled with moderate and conservative Democrats Monday evening in the first major White House outreach to members of the House minority.

Short met with Blue Dog Democrats, a moderate wing of the caucus whose membership has dwindled in recent years. A person with knowledge of the meeting said discussion mostly focused on tax reform and infrastructure, while some Democrats also complained about Obamacare's impact in their district.

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One congressman in the room said Short called House Speaker Paul Ryan's border adjustment tax proposal "dead on arrival in the Senate."

Short also suggested that spending bills to keep the government funded past this month would not have provisions loathed by Democrats. "You got the sense the [continuing resolution] was going to be clean," the congressman said.

Trump has acknowledged he may need Democratic votes to score wins on his legislative priorities after his Obamacare repeal push collapsed amid deep GOP divisions.

The meeting also comes as conservative House Republicans are working with the White House on a deal to try to resurrect the GOP's health bill.

"We are not taking Ryan's word for broad outreach this time," a senior administration official said, in a reference to Ryan's failure to pass the Obamacare repeal bill last month.

Short, Trump's director of legislative affairs, has experience in the House, having worked for Vice President Mike Pence when he served there.

One person present at the meeting said Short promised to return and talk with the group again.

"He said, 'I'll meet whenever you want,'" the congressman said. "There are opportunities here to actually work together."

Short declined to comment.

The New Democrat Coalition, another centrist group in the caucus, was not part of the meeting, according to a spokeswoman.

Originally posted here:
Trump legislative director meets with moderate House Democrats - Politico

Democrats are looking to turn the Donald Trump resistance movement into an army of candidates to try to take back the House in 2018.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee leaders have already met with 255 potential candidates across 64 districts, convinced that the shifting political environment has opened new opportunities that theyll chase in next years midterms.

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A rough profile of their ideal candidate has started to emerge: veterans, preferably with small business experience too. Theyd like as many of them to be women or people whove never run for office before and having young children helps.

With the 2018 Senate map tilted heavily in Republicans favor, House races may prove the first real test for how much 2016 was a realignment election, and how much Democrats are able to turn the energy in the streets against President Donald Trump into actually winning races.

We are going to be on offense, we are going to take this fight to the American people, said DCCC Chair Rep. Ben Ray Lujn (D-N.M.) last week at an event taking a victory lap over the defeat of Obamacare repeal. It was held to tout a poll showing how badly the bill played in 54 swing districts.

While winning the majority would require a tidal wave in 2018, Democratic recruiters are giddy over the surge in energy and interest among potential candidates, and they are starting the process earlier than ever.

This past Saturday, candidates preparing to be in the first round of campaign announcements quietly made their way to DCCC headquarters in Washington for the first pre-launch boot camp, following several staff training sessions. Half the attendees were women, and half were veterans, according to a DCCC official.

Theyll formalize the focus on recruiting veterans on Tuesday, with a meeting at headquarters between DCCC leaders and Vote Vets, a liberal group focused on veterans issues, convened by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), herself a veteran who was one of the Democrats to flip a Senate seat last year.

Especially among the younger generation of veterans, you have a community that is far less conservative than people might think, Duckworth said, adding that shes talked in depth about House races in 2018 or 2020 to a dozen veterans among people just back from tours and those expecting to be completing them soon including two female helicopter pilots.

Duckworth says shes been urging them to think of Congress as to how to extend their service and have a voice on the Defense budget and international affairs.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), wholl also be at the Tuesday meeting, is already deep into his own personal recruitment project, claiming 22 fellow veterans who have either committed to run or are in deep conversations with Democrats about the possibility.

I dont think you have to be a veteran to run for office, but when youre looking for a group of people who might be able to rise above the bitter partisan gridlock, veterans are a good place to look, Moulton said.

Moulton said for the most part, the conversations have started with veterans reaching out to him, calling Trumps election a turning point. Hes guided some to statehouse races instead, but brought many of them into the DCCC process and started getting them flown to Washington for meetings with leaders and staff.

Washington seems like a dirty place. But so was Afghanistan. And so was Iraq. And were going to clean it up, Moulton says he tells them. Donald Trumps policies are terrible for our national security what group of people better to point that out than a group of Democratic veterans?

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In 2016, the DCCC built a strategy around latching Republican candidates to Trump, hitting them with a party over country attack for those who didnt distance themselves from either him or their congressional leadership. For 2018, though, they dont think a Trump attack will be enough and have begun compiling more extensive research on Republicans, including in districts not previously top targets, tracking committee votes and digging into members finances in the hopes of feeding a message of Trumps and the GOPs failing to drain the swamp.

The special election for the seat formerly held by Tom Price, who now serves as Health and Human Services secretary, is proving a test case of this approach: The DCCC has been holding focus groups of people who went with Mitt Romney in 2012 and Hillary Clinton in 2016, who look to them like potentially trending blue voters.

In addition to the veteran-specific recruiting and ongoing outreach to women, theyre leaning heavily on their new five regional recruitment vice chair system to provide more personal attention to both prospective candidates and donors.

The road to 218 is going to take us in many places that conventional wisdom would suggest that we shouldnt look and the road to 218 is going to take us to the South, said Rep. Don McEachin (D-Va.), a freshman responsible for recruiting in the south whos talking to potential candidates in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, as well as further reach territory like South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama.

Especially among the younger generation of veterans, you have a community that is far less conservative than people might think, Sen. Tammy Duckworth said. | AP Photo

Republicans say theyre neither impressed nor worried. With many more incumbents to defend, theyre looking at taking back a few of the seats that flipped last year, like Rep. Josh Gottheimers in northern New Jersey, as well as moving early into perennially hard-fought districts, like the one Rep. Scott Peters represents in San Diego.

They also see opportunities of their own to expand into parts of the country where they think Trumps win may have cemented Republican trends, such as Ron Kinds district in Wisconsin and Matt Cartwrights in Pennsylvania, both of whom had weaker challengers in races that the National Republican Campaign Committee didnt start paying much attention to until late in the cycle last year.

NRCC press secretary Jesse Hunt argued that Democrats are going to have trouble meshing any realignments that may have happened with whats going on in their base.

The activist-base Democratic Party is demanding all-out obstruction in Washington, D.C., to the entire Republican agenda, and its going to make it difficult for Democratic to make the necessary course correction in these competitive Congressional districts, Hunt said. As a result of that, youre going to see the Democratic base demand far left progressive candidates that dont fit the suburban districts they need.

With more territory to defend and less need to recruit, NRCC leaders have met with 100 prospective candidates so far. Republicans have led Democrats in fundraising each month of 2017, helped by the $30 million brought in by Trumps appearance at their dinner at the National Building Museum last month, but the NRCC declined to detail its online fundraising, which Democrats say is a measure of enthusiasm: They raised $13.68 million online from 750,000 separate donations in just the first quarter, compared with $19.7 million in all of 2015 though money from both committees will likely be dwarfed by super PAC spending.

Democrats say theyre looking at Rep. Robert Pittengers seat in North Carolina and several seats in Southern California, but theyre desperate to regain their footing in Ohio and throughout the Midwest. And while they have started to identify their own early targets, theyre not publicizing most of the names, in part because they want to get more candidates in motion before Republicans start going on the attack.

I want them to be asleep at switch, McEachin said. I want them to have a false sense of security.

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Democrats recruit veterans early for 2018 battle - POLITICO - Politico