Day: April 4, 2012

Republicans Flip-Flop on Federal Power: No on Obamacare Last Week, Yes on DOMA This Week

Jon Ponder

Andrew Cohen at the Atlantic:

Congress has no constitutional authority to punish people who don’t want to have health insurance, Paul Clement argued last week before the United States Supreme Court. This week? The heralded attorney is arguing, to another panel of federal judges, that Congress has plenty of constitutional authority to punish people who don’t want to marry someone of the opposite sex. Last week, Clement defended states’ rights and labeled as “unprecedented” the federal health care policy. This week, he says that Congress can dictate terms of a federal marriage policy over the objections of states which have legalized same-sex marriage.

Welcome to the forlorn world of the Defense of Marriage Act, the teetering federal law which defines marriage as solely that between a man and a woman and thus deprives same-sex married couples of certain federal rights and privileges.

Mainstream Republicans Support Romney Because They Assume He’s Faking Right-Wing Views

Jon Ponder

Stu Rothenberg:

Nobody — not his critics and not his allies — really believes Mitt Romney.

Romney’s great problem in the GOP race, as pretty much everyone has already observed, is that conservatives don’t really believe that he is one of them.

Despite all his conservative rhetoric — on taxes, government spending, traditional marriage, immigration, abortion and health care — conservatives aren’t buying it. They believe that Romney is simply pandering to them because he knows that is what he needs to do to lock up the Republican nomination.

Whether it is his multiple positions over the years on abortion, his support for an individual mandate in Massachusetts, his Mormon faith or simply his profile as a wealthy, impeccably dressed businessman, the most conservative Republican voters (many of whom are evangelicals) don’t believe that he is a passionate conservative who is ready to take on the political establishment.

What’s interesting about Romney and his supporters is that, despite his conservative rhetoric, moderates and country club conservatives continue to support his candidacy.

[…]

Has Florida Become the Homer Simpson of America?

Trish

The Florida brand is being portrayed in a negative light each and every day on all of the major networks.

State Sen. Chris Smith (D – Ft. Lauderdale), (who might have missed the Bush v. Gore case) announcing his own task force to look into Florida’s NRA-penned “Stand Your Ground” law which is being used to justify killing Trayvon Martin. Gov. Rick Scott says he will also have a task force to examine the law, but only after special prosecutor Angela Corey concludes her investigation of the death. We presume that if that inquiry goes well for the shooter, the governor will see no further need to consider the law.