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Democrats are playing a dangerous game with Israel by snubbing the prime minister of Americas staunchest Middle East ally.

Four Democratic senators, as well as almost two dozen House members, have already announced that they wont attend Benjamin Netanyahus speech to a joint session of Congress on March 3.

By doing so, they may curry favor with the White House, but they risk sending a dangerous message to Israels enemies especially Iran.

As recently as November, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that the only cure for Israel is to be annihilated.

Is it any wonder that Netanyahu considers a nuclear-armed Iran an existential threat to Israels very existence?

Israel is the only nation in the world that, from its inception, has been constantly threatened with extinction.

Its Arab neighbors have fought repeated wars to destroy the Jewish state. Terrorist groups have periodically slaughtered Israelis aiming their attacks at innocent civilians, even schoolchildren.

Last year alone, Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel from Gaza. Only the Iron Dome defense system prevented the rockets from killing hundreds if not thousands of Israelis who were Hamas intended victims.

So why on earth have Democrats chosen to pick this fight?

And make no mistake: It is a handful of Democrats who have turned Netanyahus speech into a partisan issue.

Read more from the original source:
Comforting the enemy: Bottom line of the Bibi boycott

TIME Politics Congress T.J. KirkpatrickGetty Images House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, at center, reads a letter she sent to colleagues in congress, with Democratic leaders including, from left, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. Joseph Crowley and Rep. Rosa DeLauro at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 27, 2015 in Washington, DC.

With just hours to go before a midnight deadline, Congress passed a one-week extension to fund the Department of Homeland Security and prevent sending 30,000 government employees home on furlough.

The vote ended a tumultuous day in the House as Republican Speaker John Boehner and his aides lost control of their right flank, failing to deliver a three-week funding measure for the department and relying instead on Democrats to pass the one-week measure to avoid a DHS shutdown.

Boehner had hoped the three-week extension would buy his conference time to figure out how to protest immigration measures put forward by President Obama last year, without shutting down DHS. But his fellow Republicans turned on the bill and it failed by a handful of votes late in the afternoon.

The Senate, led by newly elected Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, then calmly passed a one-week extension of funding for the department and sent that bill back across the Capitol to the House. After House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi spoke with Obama, House Democrats opted to vote with Boehner and the Republican leadership rather than allow funding for the department to fail.

The one-week extension in funding for DHS meant that McConnell could technically uphold his promise that there would be no government shutdowns under his leadership. But House conservatives effectively ended McConnells other major promise as leader: that the party would no longer be scary.

On the Senate side of the Capitol, the House disarray brought scorn from Democrats and Republicans alike. Hopefully were gonna end the attaching of bullshit to essential items of the government, Illinois GOP Sen. Mark Kirk, whos up for reelection in 2016, told TPM. In the long-run, if you are blessed with the majority, youre blessed with the power to govern. If youre gonna govern, you have to act responsibly.

The DHS fight originated in November, when Obama announced he would unilaterally, temporarily defer deportations up to five million immigrants who came to the country illegally. While Republicans in Congress were furious at what they called the unconstitutional action, they were faced with few good options to effectively negate Obamas executive actions.

Their best option emerged last week, when a federal judge in Texas ordered Obama to stop his action through an injunction. Still, some of the top legal experts in the country say the presidents actions are lawful. Some Republicans applauded the three-week plan put forward by Boehner Thursday night, saying that it gave time to highlight the ruling.

America should have an opportunity to understand why we object to the presidents action [and] why a federal judge found that the president didnt have the authority, said California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa. So the Speaker has offered a very reasoned way to create space in which to have that debate with the Senate.

Read this article:
House Democrats Save DHS From Shutdown, Republicans From Themselves

Liberal Democrats update
News report following the Liberal Democrats update.

By: Thames News

See more here:
Liberal Democrats update - Video

As the two political parties begin to gear up for next years presidential election, the public has a more positive general image of the Democrats but trust Republicans more on specifics, a newly released survey shows.

The survey released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center suggests an important underlying dynamic for the presidential contest:

A Republican nominee may be able to count on a presumption that he or she will be able to handle major issues, but will be challenged on empathy and tolerance, as Mitt Romney was in 2012.

The Democratic nominee may be able to take those attributes for granted, at least to some extent, but will need to reassure the public about his or her abilities on managing issues.

Large segments of the public believe each party has strong principles. Asked if either has "good policy ideas," just over half say the Democrats do and just under half say Republicans do.

But the overall images of the parties differ markedly.

About six in 10 American adults say the Democratic party cares about the middle class and is tolerant and open to all groups of people, the poll found.

By contrast, only about one-third of Americans say Republicans are tolerant and open to all, and just over four in 10 say they care about the middle class.

Half say the Republicans are too extreme, considerably more than the share -- just over one-third -- who say that about the Democrats.

But asked which party could do a better job on seven major issues, the public gives Republicans the edge on three and the Democrats on only one, the survey showed.

More:
Americans have more positive view of Democrats, trust GOP on issues

Washington Ohio is always big in presidential races. Its the ultimate bellwether state. Now add Ohio to the column called marquee Senate races of 2016.

Ted Strickland, the states Democratic former governor, announced Wednesday that hes running against Republican Sen. Rob Portman, a big score for the party out of power on Capitol Hill. Democrats need a net gain of five seats to retake control of the Senate, in a cycle whose map favors the Democrats.

Republicans are defending 24 seats in 2016, versus only 10 for the Democrats. Of those, 10 Republican-held seats are competitive, while two Democrat-held seats are, according to the Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report.

Democrats are also better at turning out their base minorities, single women, and young voters in presidential election years.

Mr. Strickland is a Democratic elder statesman, with a strong statewide profile. He lost reelection to current Gov. John Kasich (R) in 2010, a tough year for Democrats, by two percentage points. Senator Portman, respected in Washington as a leader of the center-right, isnt so popular at home. Only 37 percent of Ohioans gave him positive job marks in a recent Quinnipiac poll.

Strickland is the second Democrat to enter the race to take on Portman, a sign of the incumbents vulnerability. Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld announced in January and has raised $500,000 so far, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Though its only February 2015, Democrats are moving fast to fill slots in the 2016 Senate cycle. Heres a rundown:

California. California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) declared for the Senate within days of Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxers announcement Jan. 8 that shes not running for reelection. On Tuesday, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced he wont run, leaving Ms. Harris as the early front-runner to replace Senator Boxer in solid-blue California.

A Field Poll of likely California voters released Feb. 18 shows former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice coming out on top, three percentage points ahead of Harris, but Ms. Rice says she wont run.

New Hampshire. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) is seen as vulnerable in this presidential tossup state, and Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) would be her partys top get if she agrees to run. An NBC News/Marist poll released Feb. 17 shows Governor Hassan beating Senator Ayotte 48 percent to 44 percent.

Read more from the original source:
Why are Democrats suddenly cheering in Ohio? (+video)