GOP Debate Turmoil; Obamacare Fed Win

09 November 2011 |permalink | email article

WEDNESDAY night’s Republican debate in Michigan is supposed to focus on the economy but is likely to be sidetracked for the first time because of allegations of sexual impropriety which has rocked Herman Cain’s presidential bid. His troubles loom large—whether or not his rivals address the accusations directly during the two-hour face off.

With the GOP nomination race set to begin in fewer than 60 days both the contenders and GOP officials are near hysteria that the political conversation has been hijacked by Cain. Jon Huntsman, far back in the polls, told the Associated Press that the distraction is “sucking all the oxygen out of the room. That’s the price we pay when these things happen.”

Does Cain Have Amnesia?

A second woman—Karen Kraushaar, a communications official at the Treasury Department—has now come forth to identify herself as a woman who says she was sexually harassed by Cain. Kraushaar, 55, told Politico which first broke the story that she would like to band together with the three other women accusing Cain of harassment. “My preference would be we go together in a joint news conference.” But Cain remains defiant and
rails against the “Democrat machine.”

Blow to Romney

In a major development influential RedState editor Erick Erickson, perhaps the most influential voice in the Tea Party blogosphere, posted a brutal broadside Tuesday against Mitt Romney and said he was reconsidering whether to support Huntsman, the former Utah governor. Erickson’s move was surprising because last May he denounced Huntsman and explained why he could not support him. In his post Erickson added that the rest of the field is a “pathetic lot.”

Obamacare Ruling

A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals—comprised of two judges appointed by Republican presidents and one by a Democrat—upheld the constitutionality of a key section of President Obama’s healthy care law in a ruling released Tuesday. Senior Judge Laurence Silberman and Judge Harry Edwards ruled to uphold the law –specifically the mandate that requires Americans to purchase health insurance—on the merits. Silberman was nominated by Ronald Reagan, while Edwards was Jimmy Carter nominee. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee, dissented, but he, too, would have ruled against the plaintiffs seeking to overturn the mandate.

Quotable

Mitt Romney said that President Obama shouldn’t have written “a check first” to the auto industry. The White House response: If Mitt Romney was President, there would not be an American auto industry. Industry experts have been clear: our auto companies would have faced liquidation…and more than a million Americans would have lost their jobs.”

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