Cheney Still Popular Among The GOP

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which focuses on electing Republicans to the U.S. House, asked Mitt Romney to headline its March fundraising event recently.

It is reportedly the committee’s biggest fundraiser of the year, states Politico.  For whatever reason, Romney declined.

So, the NRCC moved on to its second choice: former Vice President Dick Cheney. The fallback speaker seems to have worked out well, states The Hill.

The National Republican Congressional Committee brought in $17.5 million at its annual fundraising dinner featuring former Vice President Cheney, sources told The Hill.

“That take is larger than the election-year total NRCC brought in when it had former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a headliner last year,” reports The Hill.

The NRCC’s take in 2014 – an election year – was $15 million, and the fundraiser was considered a successful, states MSNBC.

This year isn’t an election year.  The NRCC was stuck with a failed and ethically questionable V.P. as the headliner, and the party raised more than $17 million.

The Hill’s report stated, “The total shows the controversial former vice president is still a big draw in GOP circles.”

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The Hill: McConnell Fails To Deliver

According to The Hill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is failing to deliver.

After just over a month, McConnell is reportedly on the brink of breaking his promise to avoid shutting down government agencies, according to The Hill.

At the same time, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) continues to lash McConnell and Republicans in the Senate for failing to ram through a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that blocks the White House plan to halt deportations.

Just last December, McConnell claimed: “We don’t intend to engage in rhetoric nor actions that rattle the public.”

McConnell has already had to break his pledge to return the Senate to “regular order.”

He celebrated getting more votes on amendments on the Keystone XL bill than had been allowed in all of last year, but he shut down Democrats seeking to debate the pipeline.

“That led to complaints that he was in a hurry to help several Republicans get going to California for a weekend retreat with billionaire donors Charles and David Koch,” says The Hill.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) told reporters that McConnell went “Right back to a process of shutting everything down, even stopping people from having 60 seconds to speak about their amendments.”

“There is no sign that McConnell intends to reverse the ‘nuclear option’ rules change made by Democrats when they held the majority. McConnell had complained bitterly when Democrats made that shift but now shows no sign of wanting to switch the rules back again,” says The Hill.

“Sen. McConnell promised the moon but delivered a box of rocks,” said Adam Jentleson, the spokesman for Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), the Senate Minority Leader.

“The Republican Senate has started off as the least productive, most partisan, most contentious Senate in recent memory,” said Jentleson. “From bypassing committees on every single bill so far to trying to silence senators who dared to disagree with him to failing to hold a single Friday vote, Sen. McConnell is running a closed and partisan process that is extremely unproductive for the middle class.”

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http://thehill.com/opinion/juan-williams/233365-juan-williams-mcconnell-fails-to-deliver-in-senate