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When U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., up for re-election this year, announced his opposition to the health care repeal bill this month, an outside group launched a retaliatory attack.

America First Policies is run by a group of President Donald Trump loyalists that includes Nick Ayers, a Georgia GOP operative now in line to be Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff.

When the TV attack was launched, we heard that a number of then unnamed Republican senators voiced hard objections. It turns out, one of them was U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

We know this because during his Tuesday evening telephone town hall meeting, Isakson was asked by Laura from Decatur why he hadnt held the White House accountable for the divisive nature of politics in Washington. Isakson said he had:

Two weeks ago, I had a luncheon in the Mansfield Room in the U.S. Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol. I questioned the vice president as to why they were using a certain type of advertisingagainst Dean Heller, one of our members whos up for re-election in Nevada, on the health care issue.

I didnt think people in the administration ought to be running ads, one way or another, against an elected official, trying to force their position one way or another.

I try to do it on a selected basis, but when it really means something.

Later in the conversation, Joe in Atlanta, said he wished Isakson would be more vocal about the secretive nature of the Senate Republican attempt at repealing Obamacare. A new version is to drop Thursday again, without Democratic participation.

Isakson said he had raised his concerns: Ive said it publicly, in more ways than one. Not enough to start an argument, but enough to let them know where I stood, he said.

***

As we reported yesterday, the Rev. Joseph Lowery will endorse Council President Ceasar Mitchell today in the race to become the next mayor of Atlanta. The press release from the Mitchell campaign says that civil rights icon will address Atlantas millennial voters and discuss a city at a crossroads.

Itll all happen on the Clark Atlanta campus at 2:30 p.m.

***

Newly elected state GOP chair John Watson has begun cleaning house. Hes tapped campaign veteran Carmen Foskey to serve as executive director.

Foskey, a native of Warner Robins, has managed Republican political campaigns across the state, including Republican Eddie DeLoachs 2015 upset victory in the Savannah mayors race, and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins most recent re-election bid.

Watson also announced that Leigh Ann Gillis, veteran political fundraiser for both Sonny and David Perdue, will serve as the partys finance director.

Gone are executive director Adam Pipkin, political director Brad Hughes, and the two leaders of the GOPs minority engagement effort, Leo Smith and Lisa Kinnemore.

***

State Court of Appeals Judge John Ellington has bench-pressed $370,309 in his race to

Georgia Supreme Court candidate John Ellington/AJC file

replace the retiring Carol Hunstein on the Georgia Supreme Court.

Thats more COH than Attorney General Chris Carr ($356,919) and two Democratic candidates for governor Stacey Abrams ($220,000) and Stacey Evans ($360,000).

But not as much as four candidates for mayor of Atlanta. Of course, their contest is in November. Non-partisan judicial races will be settled in the May primary.

***

Attorney General Chris Carrs retinue of donors also includes lobbyist Brad Alexander, political operative Keith Mason, Southern Co. executive Hank Linginfelter and Intercontinental Exchange chief executive Jeff Sprecher.

The Tarbutton clan gave Carr at least $1,000. The familys patriarch, Charles Tarbutton, is a Sandersville rail executive whose family has ties to Nathan Deal, former Gov. Zell Miller and other successful gubernatorial candidates stretching back the last half-century. Hes chairing Cagles campaign.

And the Wilheit family signaled its support with a pair of $1,000 checks from Phil Wilheit Jr. and his son. The Wilheits, owners of a Gainesville packaging firm, were Deals closest allies and have rallied behind Cagle in the 2018 race.

One of Carrs first donations was a $1,000 check from U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, his mentor and former boss. Two other one-time senators chipped into his campaign: Saxby Chambliss and Mack Mattingly.

Another tidbit: Former Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a Democrat, donated $1,000 to Carr.

***

Democrat David Kim, one of a gaggle of contenders challenging U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall in the Gwinnett-based Seventh District, will report this week raising about $260,000 in less than a month since announcing his campaign.

***

Get ready: An event that bills itself as the largest political convention of the year for the nations progressives is coming to Atlanta next month.Netroots Nation, organized by the liberal Daily Kos advocacy site, will be held at the Hyatt Regency downtown starting on Aug. 10.

The lineup includes former Vice President Al Gore, civil rights advocate Bernice King and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the runner-up in this years race to lead the Democratic National Committee.

Also among the speakers: Former Georgia House minority leader Stacey Abrams, one of two leading Democrats in the hunt for Georgias open governor seat in 2018.

You might remember Daily Kos for another reason: The site helped Democrat Jon Ossoff raise millions of dollars and propel him to national attention in this years 6th District race.

***

A man accused of threatening U.S. Rep. John Lewis staff is considered competent enough to stand trial, according to the Associated Press.

A judge had ordered a mental health evaluation for defendant Dante Antione Rosser after he was accused threatening the safety of Lewis aides during a visit to the Atlanta Democrats office and subsequent phone calls. From the AP:

Rosser made 46 calls over two days in February and demanded the congressmans staff seek financial reparations for his family, according to a sworn statement from a U.S. Capitol Police special agent. The statement says Rosser threatened to splatter their heads all over the ground.

A federal grand jury in March indicted Rosser, saying he threatened to assault and murder a congressional employee.

***

U.S. Rep. Austin Scotts new chief of staff has deep ties to Georgia Republicans and the National Rifle Association.

The congressional tracking site LegiStorm reports that the Tifton Republican has hired Jason Lawrence as his top aide. Lawrence was a lobbyist for the NRA for the last two years. Before that, he worked with several other current and now former GOP lawmakers, including former U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, U.S. Rep. Tom Graves and retired U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

***

The Heritage Foundation has hired CarterBaldwin, an Atlanta-based head-hunting firm, in its search for a new president, according to Politico.com.

The top job at the conservative think-tank has been vacant since May, when the Heritage Foundations board of directors unexpectedly sacked former South Carolina senator Jim DeMint. He had led Heritage since 2012.

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Your Daily Jolt: Johnny Isakson says he stood up to Mike Pence ... - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

Kansas City Star (blog)

Melinda Henneberger: What Mike Pence gets wrong and right about baby Charlie Gard and health care Kansas City Star (blog) Mike Pence is all kinds of mistaken in his view that the tragic case of 11-month-old Charlie Gard, whose ventilator may effectively be switched off by a British judge on Thursday, is a story of single-payer health care. That's where it takes us ... VP Mike Pence: 'We Hope and Pray that Little Charlie Gard Gets Every Chance'Breitbart News all 220 news articles »

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Melinda Henneberger: What Mike Pence gets wrong and right about baby Charlie Gard and health care - Kansas City Star (blog)

BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Mike Pence at CPAC. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)Shortly after the November election, The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill observed that while Mike Pence is often seen as the adult in the room, and a "counterbalance" to Donald Trump, "there is every reason to regard him as, if anything, even more terrifying than the president-elect." Scahill called Pence's ascension to vice president "a tremendous coup for the radical religious right."

While many in the nation were celebrating Pride Month held in June to commemorate the activists who began the modern gay rights movement at the Stonewall Riots -- the White House was silent.

During the same period, Vice President Mike Pence was off singing the praises of Dr. James Dobson, one of America's premier conservative Christian anti-gay political leaders. Pence told a cheering crowd at a celebration in Colorado Springs, Colorado, of the 40th anniversary of James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" radio program, that they have "an unwavering ally in President Donald Trump."

Pence said that the passage of President Trump's health care bill will finally "defund Planned Parenthood once and for all," and he added that "the time is now" to re-engage in politics.

Earlier in June, at Ralph Reed's Faith & Freedom Road to Majority conference, Pence praised Dobson, calling him his "mentor," when the founder of Focus on the Family received the organization's Winston Churchill Lifetime Achievement Award. Pence assured the audience that Trump will "never stop fighting for the values and ideals that make this nation great."

"You've done more for faith and freedom in your lifetime ... than any one person could do in ten lifetimes," he told Dobson. "Not only is your country grateful, but I say with confidence, great is your reward. You've made an eternal difference in the lives of millions."

"Raised Catholic, in a Kennedy Democratic household," he became a devout evangelical after being "converted at a Christian music festival in Kentucky while in college," Scahill pointed out. "Pence now describes himself as 'a Christian, a Conservative, and a Republican, in that order.'"

As the Elite Daily's Lisa Dunn pointed out, Pence's record on gay rights is abysmal: In 2006, Pence led the conservative Republican Study Committee, who among other things, sought to ban gay marriage and legally define marriage as between one man and one woman. The following year he voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, stating that "this sets up something of a constitutional conflict between the right to religious freedom in the workplace and another person's newly created right to sue you for practicing your faith or acknowledging your faith in the workplace."

In 2009, he voted against legislation that would expand the 1969 Federal Hate Crimes Act to include sexual orientation and/or gender identity. In 2010 he voted against the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, maintaining that "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service because the presence of homosexuals in the ranks weakens unit cohesion."

"From his time as U.S. Congressman to being Indiana's governor, Pence's anti-LGBTQ activism spans decades, and it would only continue if he reached the nation's highest political office," Sarah Kate Ellis, the President and CEO of GLAAD, agreed, told AOL News.

Given the breadth of Pence's synchronization with the religious right's agenda, he was a natural fit to sing the praises of Dobson.

Dobson the Kingmaker

Focus on the Family, "rejects reproduction freedoms for women, opposes sexuality education in schools except 'abstinence-only,' works to ban curricular materials it deems inappropriate including notions of multiculturalism and specifically anything it has determined promotes the so-called 'homosexual' or 'gay agenda,' encourages prayer in schools, supports private school vouchers to pay for parochial education at tax payer expense and to the detriment of public schooling, and many other conservative causes," lgbtqnation.com's Warren J. Blumenfeld recently pointed out.

James Dobson's radio program, which he began in 1977, "eventually grew to 7,000 stations in 150 countries and at its peak reached 220 million people each day," CBN News' Wendy Griffith recently pointed out, and led to the founding of the Focus on the Family organization, which at one time, was one of the most powerful and influential organizations on the Christian Right. At its height, FotF employed over 1,000 people. Dobson became a much sought out voice for anti-gay, and anti-abortion political action.

In the early 1990s, Dobson was one of the major backers of the notorious anti-gay Amendment 2 in Colorado, "a ballot measure to block any anti-discrimination laws aimed at protecting gays in cities and counties in the state."

While Amendment 2 passed (53 percent to 47 percent), the Colorado Supreme Court later ruled that "fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote," and it never went into effect.

In his 2004 book, Marriage Under Fire, Dobson wrote: "Like Adolf Hitler, who overran his European neighbors, those who favor homosexual marriage are determined to make it legal, regardless of the democratic processes that stand in their way"

After Dobson left the organization in 2010, Focus on the Family shrunk to about half of its peak size. According to Associated Press' Nicholas Riccardi and Kristen Wyatt, FotF's new leader Jim Daly, "scaled back involvement in politics see[ing] himself as part of a younger generation of religious leadership."

While Dobson heartily endorsed Trump, saying "I believe he really made a commitment but he is a baby Christian." Daly chose to remain neutral.

As part of its 40th anniversary celebration, CBN's Griffith noted that Family Talk Dobson's current radio program -- is launching the Dobson Digital Library, which "brings four decades of tried-and-true, family-centered content to a new generation of families on the worldwide web."

In June, Dobson was presented with the Winston Churchill Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ralph Reed's Faith & Freedom Coalition's Patriot's Gala. In presenting the award to Dobson, Reed said that Dobson had "served at the forefront of the evangelical conservative movement in America for decades, fighting for traditional marriage, the sanctity of human life and encouraging godly families."

At Dobson's anniversary dinner, Pence was determined to un-neutralize Focus on the Family supporters, getting them to gear up for more political action.

Focus on the Family is not disengaged from politics, Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State told the Associated Press. "Look at the data they put out," Lynn said, referring to Focus' arguments against bans on conversion therapy and suggestions that transgender children are being misled. "This is really hard-core stuff and it's not easily distinguished from the way Jim Dobson talked when he ran the place."

"What LGBTQ Americans are witnessing since Donald Trump became president is a systematic erasure to the LGBTQ community," Ellis continued. "The Trump Administration has removed LGBTQ people from government websites and the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census, but if Mike Pence were to ever become president, this erasure would be placed into overdrive."

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Inside Man: Mike Pence Is the Religious Right's White House Agent - Truth-Out

It was a short twenty minute meeting. A nothing burger. There was a time I didn't know the Trumps.

These are certainly strange times. Every day there's something new coming out of the White House...most of it is troubling. If the general public is stressed by all the revelations, you can only imagine what the people who work for #45 think.

The quotes at the top are words said by Conway, Priebus and Pence. It usually takes less than twenty-four hours before the Trump family makes their words sound foolish. That was about the timeline for this one.

Kellyanne Conway and Reince Priebus are bright, well-spoken people....most of the time. They both played major roles in electing the fool that is now President. It wasn't an easy job. You have to give them and the Russians credit for that. Congrats guys. But then they went all in. They took jobs in the White House working for a guy who doesn't have a clue. Okay...I get that, too. It's a chance to shape policy and make a difference...not to mention the power.

But I bet they never figured they'd be babysitters and apologists for the Trump children. Turns out that working for 45 is like dating a person who has children. It's a package deal. You might love the person but you better find a way to love the kids, too or there's trouble. Kellyanne, Reince and Mike found trouble.

Here are words I never thought I would type...poor Kellyanne. First she has to defend little Ivanka's fashion line. She gets in trouble for saying she was goingbuy some shoes. Now there's this with Junior and Jared.

Here are more words I never thought I would type...poor Reince. First, what the Hell is a Nothing Burger. It sounds like what I order at McDonald's....just the sandwich plain. On Sunday, Reince says to Chuck Todd it's nothing. A day later, Junior makes Reince look like a schmuck.

Then there's Mike Pence...Vice-45. He's been such a good company man for the last year. There's nothing that his boss can do that he can't explain away. He loves his wife, family and God. Nothing wrong with that and when he says that stuff, it rings true. He doesn't have a single political view that I agree with, but I buy into his character. You have to believe that all this crap was wearing him down. Does he have a breaking point? Looks like he does because he threw his boss and the kids under the bus. The explanationis he's getting ready to be President but that would be cynical and I'm above that (eyeroll).

But hey....it's jut another day in D.C.

These jobs don't pay that much. Kellyanne and Reince make $170,000ish/year. Mike makes $230,7000. They can all do better in the private sector. You can easily picture all of them going home each night and pounding their head against the wall and wondering if it's all worth it. Kellyanne, Reince and Mike....is it?

Related Post: Kellyanne Conway ruined my Sunday

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Kellyanne Conway, Reince Priebus and Mike Pence: Second thoughts? - ChicagoNow (blog)

Vice President Mike Pence issued a statement today about Donald Trump Jr.s email dump that confirmed POTUS son accepted an invitation to meet with a Russian government attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Trump Jr. this morning released what he said was his entire email chain with publicist Rob Goldstone, setting up the meeting. President Donald Trumps oldest son said he was doing so in an effort to be totally transparent. The New York Times was about to publish yet another report on this meeting with Veselnitskaya who would come to Trump Tower bearing high level, sensitive dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump including the email chain.

The newspaper first reported word of this meeting over the weekend, adding Trump Jr. to the pantheon of Trump associates who forgot to acknowledge meeting with Russians until reminded by reading about it in the media. That list also includes former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and current First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trumps former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn

In his statement, issued by his press secretary, Marc Lotter, Pence reminds people the meeting took place at a time when he had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump. The meeting between Veselnitskaya and Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort, took place on June 9. Candidate Trump named Pence his running mate on July 15.

Here is Pences statement: The Vice President is working every day to advance the Presidents agenda, which is what the American people sent us here to do. The Vice president was not aware of the meeting. He is not focused on stories about the campaign, particularly stories about the time before he joined the ticket.

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Veep Mike Pence Puts Distance Between Himself And Donald Trump Family - Deadline