Pat Toomey

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Gun Control Heads for Showdown This Week

Bipartisan deal on background checks could be coming

(Newser) - It's a big week for gun control supporters, as the issue heads to the Senate floor this week. Democrat Joe Manchin spent the congressional recess looking to forge ahead on background checks with GOP support, and he and Republican Pat Toomey have spent the past few days hashing out...

House GOP's New Idea: Short-Term Debt-Limit Boost

It would then shift focus to other deadlines

(Newser) - House Republicans are coming around to the idea of raising the debt ceiling—for a few months anyway. At a closed-door session at the caucus' annual Williamsburg, Va., retreat yesterday, Paul Ryan championed a plan to pass an extension of, say, one to three months, and shift the debate to...

Fitch Threatens Downgrade If Debt Deal Is Too Weak

Meanwhile, Pat Toomey introduces backup bill

(Newser) - The US credit rating is once again in danger thanks to a debt ceiling showdown. Fitch today announced that it may downgrade the US even if lawmakers manage to strike a deal, CNN Money reports. Fitch already has a negative outlook on the US' AAA rating, and said that would...

Lawmakers Ignore Earmark Ban
 Lawmakers Ignore Earmark Ban 

Lawmakers Ignore Earmark Ban

So two lawmakers are out to ban them by law

(Newser) - Remember that informal ban on earmarks lawmakers agreed to last year to great fanfare? Well, they’ve been doing their best to ignore it, the Washington Post reports. Lawmakers have tried to slap hundreds of earmarks on at least 10 bills this summer and fall. While some have insisted their...

Super Committee Members Blame Each Other, Say There's Still Time for a Deal
 Super Committee 
 Busy Pointing Fingers 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP

Super Committee Busy Pointing Fingers

Legislators play the blame game, say there's still time

(Newser) - With the super committee's deadline now a matter of mere hours away and reports of the committee's demise rampant , members of the panel took to the talk show airwaves today, with Democrats blaming Republicans, Republicans blaming Democrats, and some managing to sound hopeful for half a second, reports...

GOP Battles Itself Over Taxes
 GOP Battles Itself Over Taxes 

GOP Battles Itself Over Taxes

Toomey and Hensarling under fire for tax plan

(Newser) - The proposal that super committee Republicans put forth to raise about $300 billion in new tax revenues may not have been enough to win over Democrats , but it’s been more than enough to stir up dissension in the GOP ranks, with anti-tax hardliners suddenly at odds with long-time compatriots...

GOP Makes Its Debt Super-Committee Picks

Here you go: Hensarling, Camp, Upton, Kyl, Toomey, Portman

(Newser) - We're three-quarters of the way there. The GOP today announced its picks to serve on the debt "super committee," bringing the total number of seats filled to nine. At the top of John Boehner's list is Texan Jeb Hensarling, who will co-chair the committee with Democratic...

GOP Senators Take Secret Afghanistan Trip

Mitch McConnell and crew return with praise for Obama's strategy

(Newser) - Mitch McConnell and a handful of other Senate Republicans took a secret trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan this weekend, announcing the trip only today—just before their return flight. The group, which included Lindsey Graham, Richard Burr, and freshmen Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Pat Toomey, and Kelly Ayotte, met with...

Where The Big Races Stand
 Where the Big Races Stand 
polling roundup

Where the Big Races Stand

Rand Paul and Marco Rubio up big, Harry Reid, Sharron Angle too close to call

(Newser) - With T-Minus one day to the election, here's where the most-watched races in the country stand:
  • Harry Reid and Sharron Angle are locked in a dead heat; the latest Public Policy Polling survey has Angle squeaking ahead 47% to 46%.
  • Looks like harping on the Aqua Buddha incident didn't help
...

Democrats Hammer GOP on Wall Street Ties

Pat Toomey's taking especially heavy fire

(Newser) - As the midterms heat up, expect to hear the words “Wall Street” a lot. Democrats are hammering Republicans on their ties to Wall Street, no matter how tangential, and on their party’s opposition to financial reform legislation, the LA Times reports. Republicans, meanwhile, speak angrily about bailouts and...

Republicans Trounce Dems in Small Donors

GOP pulls in $70M in checks of $200 or less, to Dems' $44M

(Newser) - Republicans are cashing in the populist outrage they've helped stir up, raising more money from small donors than Democrats for the first time since 1998. GOP candidates have raised $70 million from small donors this year, compared to $44 million for Democrats, the Washington Post reports. That's still only 16%...

GOP Must Throw Rand Paul Under the Bus
GOP Must Throw Rand Paul
Under the Bus
OPINION

GOP Must Throw Rand Paul Under the Bus

Civil Rights Act comments could hurt libertarians everywhere

(Newser) - If Republicans are smart, they'll kick Rand Paul to the curb so fast he won't know what hit him. Paul's statements opposing the public accommodations provision of the Civil Rights Act make him absolutely radioactive, argues David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix . “I think that Dr. Paul truly does...

Obama Embraces Sestak
 Obama Embraces Sestak 

Obama Embraces Sestak

Meet the man who beat Arlen Specter

(Newser) - Barack Obama was lined up against Joe Sestak until Tuesday, as was much of the Democratic establishment, but, well, that was Tuesday and this is now. The president called the Pennsylvania rep yesterday to congratulate him on beating Arlen Specter, and promised him his full support—including campaigning on his...

Facing Primary Battle, Specter Shifts Leftward

Has voted with Dems 97% of time since Sestak announced bid

(Newser) - Since going blue, Arlen Specter voted with Democrats some two-thirds of the time on “Contentious Votes”—defined by Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com as “anything that comes up for a floor vote and where the majority of each party splits their votes.” That is, up until...

Republicans Slam Party-Purist Outfit

Club for Growth backs unelectable righties, say some in GOP

(Newser) - Some in the GOP have had it with the Club for Growth, an organization that identifies Republicans it deems weak on low-tax, small-government values, the Wall Street Journal reports. Party members argue that the Club backs Republicans too far right to win elections. “If their goal is to increase...

Specter Enjoys 20-Point Lead Over Toomey

But Tom Ridge would be a stiffer challenge if he nabbed GOP nom

(Newser) - Arlen Specter beat Pat Toomey 53% to 33% in a Quinnipiac poll of Pennsylvanians’ preferred candidate for US senator. But against Tom Ridge, who may become the Republican candidate, Specter's lead grows more precarious—voters prefer Specter to Ridge by a margin of 46% to 43%, the Quinnipiac poll showed....

Republicans Play Blame Game Over Specter

Steele, Club for Growth in crosshairs

(Newser) - Arlen Specter’s departure has set off a wave of finger pointing within the Republican Party, Politico reports. Some blame Specter for not having the ideological purity to stick with the party. But others single out various Republicans they claim helped push Specter out the door, from Michael Steele, who...

2004 Foe Will Challenge Specter for Nomination

(Newser) - Riding a wave of dissatisfaction with Arlen Specter's vote on the federal stimulus, conservative Pat Toomey will again campaign to be the GOP's Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Although Toomey didn't announce until today, the two have been arguing publicly in the last few weeks. Specter, who...

Stories 21 - 38 | << Prev