Mediaboss Marketing

Forget Jeb, Rand and Ted. For Democrats, its all about Charles and David.

The announcement this week that the vast political network backed by the wealthy industrialist Koch brothers aims to spend nearly $1 billion on the 2016 elections has reignited Democratic hopes of casting the brothers as electoral villains and linking them closely to Republican candidates.

Its a campaign strategy that yielded little success for the party in 2014, a banner year for the GOP. But Democratic officials and operatives say they are hopeful that their anti-Koch message will have more potency in a presidential election year.

Groups supporting potential Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as the House and Senate Democratic campaign arms, plan to single out the Kochs in their advertising and fundraising efforts.

I think the Koch brothers dumping a billion dollars on the elections is definitely something the American people are interested in learning about, said Rep. Ben Ray Lujn (N.M.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He said the DCCC plans to mention the brothers in online fundraising efforts. The DCCC raised $70 million in the last election cycle.

David Brock, founder of the pro-Clinton American Bridge political action committee, said his group will be retooling a 2014 war-room operation called Real Koch Facts, which he acknowledged did not achieve big results. The project aims to educate potential voters about what Democrats say is the Kochs largely hidden agenda and to attempt to shame recipients of Koch money.

Said Peter Kauffmann, a spokesman for the pro-Clinton Priorities USA Action super PAC: Will Priorities USA Action talk about the Koch brothers attempt at a hostile takeover of the government of the United States? Stay tuned.

But former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who ran for president in 2012, compared Democratic attacks against the Kochs to failed GOP efforts to tar Democrats for receiving support from organized labor.

The fact is we never got anywhere trying to explain to the country all of the extra advantage they got, for example, from labor unions, Gingrich said. Its too indirect an argument.

Read more:
Democrats see new chance to attack Kochs after $1 billion spending announcement

It was an opening salvo in what is surely going to be an ugly battle to get the politically-sensitive agency funded before it runs out of money on Feb. 27.

READ: GOP immigration showdown looms

"As we rapidly approach the date on which the Department of Homeland Security's funding expires, and as law enforcement officials face major threats to our nation's safety and security, we write with one simple request: work with us to pass a clean bill that funds Homeland Security for the remainder of the fiscal year," said a letter to McConnell that was signed by all Senate Democrats.

McConnell announced on Tuesday the Senate would turn to the DHS funding bill once it wraps up a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which could be later this week or early next week. Republicans will need support from at least six Democrats to pass the House DHS bill -- the letter signals that will be hard to get unless the riders are removed.

"The House bill cannot pass the Senate," the Democrats wrote.

At issue are two amendments the House approved when it passed its bill earlier this month. One would block funding within DHS to carry out President Barack Obama's recent executive orders on immigration that would allow millions of immigrants who are in the U.S illegally to stay. The second would roll back the Obama's 2012 Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals order that allowed so-called "Dreamers" to stay in the country.

SEE ALSO: Boehner opens door to Obama immigration lawsuit

McConnell declined to say how he planned to get around the standoff.

"All I can tell you right now is that we're going to the DHS bill after we finish Keystone," he said at a news conference. "The procedure by which we deal with that will be determined later."

The bill is a vexing problem for leaders of both parties. That's because it's unlikely Democrats can get the necessary 60 votes to strip out the added House amendments while Republicans are unlikely to get the 60 votes they need to pass the bill with them attached. A stalemate is possible.

Read more:
Democrats press McConnell to drop immigration fight on DHS bill

Washington, D.C. Democrats in the U.S. Senate blocked the Keystone XL pipeline bill from moving forward on Monday, but supporters of the project vowed to push ahead and eventually get a vote on the measure.

The Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to limit debate, voting 53 to 39 on the measure.

TheKeystone bill allows Congress to approve TransCanada Corp's project to link Canada's oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Democrats, who lost control of the Senate as a result of November's elections, flexed their muscles to deliver a message to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he will have to deal with them even on bills that enjoy some bipartisan support.

McConnell has pledged that amendments to bills will be debated in an open process. But Democrats said McConnell cut off debate last Thursday on several amendments.

"He's got to work with us and not try to jam us," Senator Chuck Schumer said of McConnell. Democrats are not trying to delay the bill, but they don't want McConnell to shut down the open process at his whim, said Schumer, the Senate's third ranking Democrat.

Republicans have made passing the Keystone bill the first priority of the new Senate.

But the White House has said President Barack Obama would reject the bill, andKeystone supporters are four votes short of the 67 needed to overcome any veto.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, the chairman of the energy committee, vowed to work with Democrats on her panel to consider additional amendments.

View post:
Senate Democrats block swift passage of Keystone XL pipeline bill (+video)

Democrats Respond to Otter #39;s State of the State
Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise, discusses prospects of the so-called "add the words" amendment to the state Human Rights law in the 2015 legislative session.

By: Idaho Statesman

See the original post here:
Democrats Respond to Otter's State of the State - Video

Republicans Want Democrats to Kill Santa...
Thom Hartmann says Democrats need to be careful not to fall into Jude Wanniski #39;s 2 Santas trap when it comes to Social Security disability. If you liked this...

By: thomhartmann

More:
Republicans Want Democrats to Kill Santa... - Video