MAINE HEARTS SANDERS - HE WINS CAUCUSES (DEMS VOTING GIMMICK)

Maine caucus

Last updated Mar 7, 2016 at 1:41 PM ET

REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

Mar 625 delegates

91% reporting	Delegates	Votes
Sanders (won)	15	64.3% 2,231
Clinton	7	35.5% 1,232

MAINE HEARTS SANDERS - HE WINS:

SANDERS IS DEMOCRAT'S GIMMICK TO ATTRACT VOTERS WHO DON'T LIKE HILLARY.

VOTING FOR SANDERS IS A VOTE FOR HILLARY.

Sources:  AP, NBC News, Youtube

**** Bernie Sanders Wins Maine Caucuses

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wins the Maine caucuses, NBC News projects. 

This is the latest caucus state Sanders has won in the Democratic presidential nominating process. 

He also won two caucuses Saturday - Nebraska and Kansas. Sanders will win 15 of Maine's 30 delegates, while Clinton will be awarded eight, according to allocation estimates by NBC News.

 Including super delegates, the statewide totals are 16 for Sanders, who has the support of one super delegate, and 11 for Clinton, who has the support of three super delegates.

"With another double-digit victory, we have now won by wide margins in states from New England to the Rocky Mountains and from the Midwest to the Great Plains," Sanders said in a statement. "This weekend alone we won in Maine, Kansas and Nebraska. 

The pundits might not like it but the people are making history. We now have the momentum to go all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia."

TED CRUZ TAKES MAINE, RUBIO NOTHING

CRUZ TAKES MAINE; RUBIO NOTHING

Sources:  CNN, CBS News, Youtube

**** Ted Cruz edges out Donald Trump for a Maine Republican caucus win

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz notched another victory in Maine's Republican caucus late Saturday evening, edging out current GOP front-runner Donald Trump by 13 points.

Cruz earned about 46 percent of the vote, with Trump coming in second with about 33 percent of the vote. Ohio Gov. John Kasich came in third with approximately 12 percent of the vote and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio trailed with just 8 percent of the vote.

Cruz will receive 12 delegates, Trump nine, and Kasich two.

Trump had gained some support from the state's party leadership last month, when Maine Gov. Paul LePage endorsed him, shortly after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced his backing of the billionaire. But the nod from LePage -- himself a bombastic governor who has drawn criticism over inflammatory, off-the-cuff remarks -- was not enough to tamp down Cruz's base.

Three other states weigh in Saturday for the Republican primary race: Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana.

Earlier in the day, Cruz won in a landslide victory in Kansas, trouncing Trump by double digits. Cruz won 48 percent of the vote, Trump earned 23 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had 17 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich had 11 percent.

Saturday's states have a total of 155 delegates up for grabs.

Maine will award 23 delegates in the Republican primary race.

BERNIE SANDERS TEAMS UP WITH HILLARY CLINTON TO DEFEAT TRUMP IN 2016

BERNIE SANDERS TEAMS UP WITH HILLARY CLINTON TO DEFEAT TRUMP IN 2016:

SANDERS IS SHIFTING FROM OPPONENT TO HILLARY'S MENTOR.

WAS THERE A 2016 DEAL MADE BETWEEN HILLARY & SANDERS?

Two weeks ago 2016 Presidential Candidate and Socialist U.S. Senator BERNIE SANDERS issued an public apology on air to his Opponent HILLARY CLINTON for a Voter Data Breach during a DEMOCRAT party debate in New Hampshire.

This past weekend BERNIE SANDERS joined Key DEMOCRAT leaders in attacking Jewish Billionaire and GOP Donor SHELDON ADELSON.

For several months SANDERS has attacked HILLARY over her close ties with Wall Street and Elite BILLIONAIRES.

Now it appears as if SANDERS is Collaborating with HILLARY'S campaign to defeat the presumptive 2016 GOP nominee DONALD J TRUMP.

Was there a 2016 Deal made between HILLARY and SANDERS?

~ In Nevada, Sanders mocks Republicans for running to casino mogul for a financial lift

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, starting a two-day swing through Nevada, took aim Sunday at members of the Republican field for seeking the blessing of billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

At a rally in Reno that drew more than 2,000 people, Sanders spoke facetiously of an “Adelson caucus,” a reference to Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and other Republicans who have met with the mega-donor in the hopes of securing a financial boost ahead of the first nominating contests.

“Sheldon Adelson has not invited me to speak with him,” said Sanders, who routinely decries the political influence of the “billionaire class.” During the rally, which was live-streamed on Periscope, Sanders said that the average contribution to his campaign has been less than $30.

Sanders's two-day swing through Nevada comes ahead of a month in which he plans to hunker down in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states with the first nominating contests. 

Many analysts say that the senator from Vermont would probably need to win both to become a real threat to Hillary Clinton in the contest for the Democratic nomination.

Nevada holds its Democratic caucuses on Feb. 20, following the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 and the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9.

“We think we have a shot here,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said of Nevada. “Obviously, we’re working hard in Iowa and New Hampshire, but Bernie is running a national campaign.”

Sanders, who is scheduled to return to Iowa on Tuesday and New Hampshire this weekend, also sparred over social media on Sunday with the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump.

During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sanders argued that he would better represent the economic interests of Trump’s working-class supporters, citing prior statements by Trump that wages in America are “too high.”

“Lie!” Trump said on Twitter after the broadcast, denying that he had said wages are too high.

Sanders responded with a tweet saying that Trump is “getting nervous that working families are catching on to whose interests he truly represents.” In an accompanying news release, Sanders pointed to multiple instances in which Trump said wages were too high.

Trump is among the Republican hopefuls who has met with Adelson, whom Forbes magazine estimates is worth $23.7 billion and who provided a financial boost during the 2012 presidential race to super PACs supporting GOP aspirants Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

Prior to his meeting with Adelson, Trump described it as a courtesy call rather than a solicitation for campaign donations. The two reportedly got together at the Venetian, a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas strip that is owned Adelson and was the site of a CNN-sponsored Republican debate this month.

Sanders plans to campaign Monday in the Las Vegas area, including at an evening rally planned in North Las Vegas.

 Sources:  ABC News, Washington Post, NBC News, YouTube

BILL MAHER (A LIBERAL) CRITICIZES RADICAL ISLAMIST IDEOLOGY

“This idea that somehow we do share values, that all religions are alike, is bullshit.

And we need to call it bullshit,”

BILL MAHER

Some 2016 Voters are concerned that if Syrian & Iraqi Refugees are allowed entry onto American soil without passing a thorough Certified Background Check, Pres OBAMA'S intentions might not be in our nation's best interest.

Other Voters are concerned a certain percentage of these Refugees (at least 13%) ascribe to extreme Anti-Western ideology, including orders from ISIL to help destroy the United States.

What do you think?

I say we need to Wake up!

Sources: Arab Center of Research & Policy, Investors.com, The Wrap, YouTube

Newt Gingrich Should Drop Out & Endorse Romney Or Santorum

Gingrich brushes aside dropout talk, but retools strategy


Coming off several disappointing primary performances, Newt Gingrich said Monday he's not dropping out -- but that he is retooling how he campaigns.

Gingrich brushed aside a call from the conservative National Review to quit the race to make room for Rick Santorum, saying it has called for him to abandon his campaign in the past. Santorum, for his part, has not called for Gingrich to abandon his bid.

The former House speaker said he has decided he's at his best when he focuses on problems and solutions and not on attacking his opponents. During his speech here, he avoided any mention of Santorum or front-runner Mitt Romney.

Special Section: Campaign 2012
"I do dramatically better when I focus on the nation's problems and I focus on the nation's solutions," he told the press following the event. "I don't do nearly as well when I focus on my competitors."

Gingrich acknowledged that he's shifting gears, after recent polls have shown his support plummeting.

"I think our strategy has to change to.a strategy of having better positive bold ideas." He pointed to earlier periods in Iowa and South Carolina when he rose to the top of the field as examples.

"The two periods where I focused on communicating those ideas, I ended up number one in [the Gallup poll] both times. And we're going to go back and do what we did that worked."

But the former speaker could not avoid the topic of his slide in the polls. When asked by a voter at his second stop in Pasadena how he would "bounce back," Gingrich pointed out that only one week ago the political conversation was focused on his win in South Carolina and two second place finishes in Florida and Nevada.

"Santorum ran fourth in all three places," he said. "He had a really good Tuesday. And suddenly the very people who told me I was dead in June came back and said 'see, I told you so.' Well I have a message for them. I'm still here and we're going to come back again."

Gingrich also called on Republicans in Congress to be "much, much more aggressive" in standing up to President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget plan.

"The time to have the fight over the next debt ceiling is not this fall," he said. "We have no choice. Time to stop it is right now. What the congress ought to do right now is passing the kind of reform that would make the debt ceiling increase unnecessarily."


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Sources: CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, Newsy, Youtube, Google Maps

Paul LePage vs NAACP : "Kiss My Butt!"

Paul LePage: NAACP Can "Kiss My Butt"


Paul LePage, Maine's new Tea Party-backed Governor, will reportedly not attend an NAACP event to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and if the NAACP doesn't like it, LePage said, they can "kiss my butt."

"They are a special interest. End of story ... and I'm not going to be held hostage by special interests," LePage said, according to local station WCSH. "And if they want, they can look at my family picture. My son happens to be black, so they can do whatever they'd like about it."

LePage has an adopted son from Jamaica, WCSH reports.

The NAACP had invited the governor to visit black inmates at a Maine prison, according to CNN. LePage reportedly contends that the organization was upset he insisted on meeting with white prisoners as well.

However, WCSH reports:

Denise Lord, associate commissioner in the Department of Corrections, tells NEWS CENTER that she is not familiar with this specific invitation, but that she would be surprised if the prison had allowed an event that was only for black inmates.

LePage Spokesman Dan Demeritt told the local outlet that the governor had prior commitments during the proposed time slots.

LePage's gruff rhetoric also raised eyebrows during the 2010 campaign season when he told a group of fishermen at a Republican forum that they could expect to see him tell President Barack Obama to "go to hell."


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Sources: Huffington Post, Maine.gov, NAACP, wcsh6.com, Wikipedia, Google Maps

Maine Welcomes Pres. Obama & Family (Much Need R & R)

Obamas Continue Busy Maine Holiday


The nation's coastlines have been good to President Barack Obama this week – first with news BP's gushing oil well is finally capped, then with a family vacation that got off to a spectacular start.

In the first day alone, the trip spanned the tallest mountain peak along the Eastern Seaboard, a bicycle ride beside a pristine lake and an exhilarating boat ride through a wind-whipped bay.

The vacation for Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha continued Saturday with other planned activities centered on Acadia National Park, a 47,000-acre gem that brackets this upscale summer resort.

The weekend was an idyllic punctuation mark at the end of a good week for Obama.

On Thursday, Congress sent him the most sweeping overhaul of financial market rules since the New Deal. Obama plans to sign it next Wednesday.

Friday, BP confirmed it had closed the valves on the new cap fitted to its Deepwater Horizon well, meaning for the first time in 12 weeks, no oil was flowing into the Gulf. Obama called it welcome news, even though he noted it's a temporary fix, and even after the well's cemented shut a massive cleanup remains.

But after speaking to reporters about the spill Friday, Obama left those matters behind, flying to Bar Harbor for a short holiday in this famous summer refuge for the well-heeled and well-known.

Aides said they had prepared a menu activities for the first family to choose from during their stay, which ends Sunday. From the look of things, they checked "all of the above."

The Obamas began with ride along a secluded park bike trail next to Witch Hole Pond, then motorcaded up a switchback road to the summit of the 1,530-foot-high Cadillac Mountain to take in a breathtaking, sun-drenched view of Frenchman Bay.

After a stop for ice cream in Bar Harbor, the Obamas boarded a National Park Service boat for a tour of the bay, only to have it cut short when clouds and fog rolled in, and rain threatened.

But that just made the first family a little early for dinner at a harborside restaurant. A small crowd gathered along the seafront to watch the Obamas' boat chug up to the dock – the president seated in the stern, one arm around Malia, 12, the other waving at well-wishers snapping pictures on shore.


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Sources: WRAL, Google Maps

Why Olympia Snowe Won't Attend Health Care Summit

Why Olympia Snowe Won't be There




The White House specifically invited Sen. Olympia Snowe to the event. (She is the only Senate Republican to have cast a vote in favor of health reform in 2009 - for the Senate Finance Committee bill.) But since her own leadership apparently did not want her there, Snowe declined the White House's late invitation, and a spokesman said in a statement (h/t Chuck Todd):

"Senator Snowe did receive a call from the White House this morning to attend tomorrow's bipartisan health care summit. While she greatly appreciates the invitation, the Republican leadership understood the rules of the summit, as established by the Administration weeks ago, were that the Democratic and Republican leadership would select their own members to participate in the event.

The Republican leadership had long since selected their team and therefore, it would have been inappropriate for Senator Snowe, under those circumstances, to accept the invitation.

This is a summit between the leadership and the President and she believes it is a critical opportunity for the respective leadership teams to convey their ideas directly with the President. Throughout this process, Senator Snowe has been sharing her views with the White House and she assured the White House today that she will continue to play a leadership role on this vital issue in the days and weeks after tomorrow's event."

Sources: TIME

Feingold Angry Over Loss Of Public Option, Snowe Voting No

Feingold: Obama Responsible For Loss Of Public Option

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) formally announced on Sunday that he would support the Senate's final version of health care reform. But in doing so he cast blame for the loss of a public option for insurance coverage partially on the president's shoulders and urged House and Senate negotiators to re-insert the government-run plan back into the legislation during conference committee.

From the Wisconsin Democrat's press office came the following statement:

I've been fighting all year for a strong public option to compete with the insurance industry and bring health care spending down. I continued that fight during recent negotiations, and I refused to sign onto a deal to drop the public option from the Senate bill. Unfortunately, the lack of support from the administration made keeping the public option in the bill an uphill struggle. Removing the public option from the Senate bill is the wrong move, and eliminates $25 billion in savings. I will be urging members of the House and Senate who draft the final bill to make sure this essential provision is included.


But while the loss of the public option is a bitter pill to swallow, on balance, the bill still delivers meaningful reform, and the cost of inaction is simply too high. This bill significantly expands coverage and helps protect Wisconsinites from high costs and insurance company abuses, such as denying or restricting coverage based on pre-existing conditions. The bill also improves a flawed Medicare formula that denies Wisconsin fair reimbursement rates, encourages the kind of low-cost, high-value care practiced in our state, increases access to home and community-based long-term care, and reduces federal budget deficits by $132 billion over the next decade.

One of the prominent progressives in Congress, Feingold's statement gives voice to the frustration that many Democrats have felt when watching the health care debate unfold. The Obama White House, quite consciously, refused to draw a line around the public plan even as Senate Democrats practically begged for them to do so.

The decision may have been strategically astute -- positioning the president appropriately for when the public option was to meet its natural sacrifice. But it also opens the president to criticism like Feingold's and it feeds the meme of Obama's timidity.




Olympia Snowe Will Vote Against Health Care Reform


Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), considered one of very few Republicans who might vote for the Senate health care bill, said Sunday that she would not.

"This process denies us the opportunity to thoroughly and carefully and deliberately evaluate what's at stake," she said on CBS.

She also told the New York Times it was a rushed vote on a "a take-it-or-leave-it package."

Democrats no longer need Snowe's vote -- but the Washington Monthly's Steve Benen points out that they courted her anyway only to have her object over the debate's speed.

I just can't figure out what on earth Snowe is talking about. She voted with Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee reform plan, but now appears to be looking for an excuse to oppose the effort. But to sound even remotely credible, Snowe will have to do better than this.

Snowe has been complaining about the speed of the legislative process since July, but therein lies the point: how could this possibl[y] get slower?



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Sources: Huffington Post, CBS News, The Hill, Washington Monthly, Google Maps

Olympia Snowe Backpedaling On Public Option

No Snowe for the holidays?


Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who is still being wooed by Democrats on health care, was highly skeptical of a proposal to expand Medicare and Medicaid — signaling Tuesday that her support for an emerging public option compromise will be difficult to secure.

Democrats have been hopeful they could attract Snowe’s vote for a final health reform deal and gain a little breathing room in trying to reach 60 votes. But Snowe said the latest proposals on the table would take the legislation in the wrong direction, adding more government involvement at a time when voters want less.

“My deep concern is about the breadth and scale of this legislation, taking it in a more expansionistic approach for government’s role rather than reverse,” Snowe told reporters. “You can design incentives in this legislation to maximize the power of the marketplace in making sure the industry performs."

Already, one of the areas of Snowe’s concern — an expansion of Medicaid to cover more of the uninsured — is fading as a realistic option in the bill, senators said, amid concerns among moderates and many governors that it would put too much of a burden on state governments, which pick up a portion of the coverage costs.

West Virginia Sen. John Rockefeller, one of the leading Democrats calling for a public option, said there is "not a lot" of discussion anymore on expanding Medicaid to people at 150 percent of the poverty level. Rockefeller said he is seeking other concessions, including boosting the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

"Some senators are a little less enamored about that," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said of Medicaid expansion.

The Medicaid expansion was viewed as trade-off for liberals who were disappointed that the public option is falling out of the bill. An expansion for Medicare is still under serious consideration because it’s easier to control the costs by controlling who can “buy in” to the program.

Snowe spoke with reporters after she left a private meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), steps away from the room where five moderate and five liberal Democratic senators were in negotiations to break a deadlock over the public option.

The group met for almost three hours Tuesday in hopes of reaching an agreement by the end of the day and plans to meet again Tuesday. Reid needs to keep the process moving along if he hopes to keep the bill on track for passage by Christmas.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said the group is still committed to reaching an agreement.

"We do have a framework, a general framework that we're working on in terms of how something might be structured, but certainly we understand that time is of the essence," Pryor said. "We want to get it done right, but we also understand that we're under some time constraints."

Added Rockefeller: “All in all, I have to say we are in a pretty good place right now. You can see a kind of overarching sense of ‘Well, yes, let’s do this,’ but we have to see what the (Congressional Budget Office cost estimate) is.”

Snowe has not attended the meetings, but she has remained in close contact by Reid and been briefed by Pryor, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.).

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), another undecided moderate who opposes any version of the public plan, hasn’t sat in on the meetings either. But his staff is present, and he speaks with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) every day, Lieberman told reporters Tuesday.

He said he is encouraged by a proposal to remove the public option and replace it with a national nonprofit insurance program administered by a federal agency. Regarding Medicare and Medicaid, Lieberman said he needed to examine the additional costs.

“I want to make sure that we're not either adding a big additional burden to the Medicare system, which we gotta figure out how to save anyways because it's going bankrupt,” he said. “But again, these are trade-offs."

Snowe would not say she is opposed to the proposed compromise as long as it includes the Medicare and Medicaid expansions. But she said she expressed concerns to Reid about the Medicare “buy in,” which would allow people between 55 and 64 to purchase coverage in the popular insurance program for the elderly.

“It just adds a potential for exponential uncertainties with respect to the Medicare program,” Snowe said. “In addition to that overall is adding to the weight of the providers through lower reimbursements. That is obviously a persistent problem. Now you are adding more to that equation — 2 or 3 million more Americans at a time when you are having lower reimbursements.”

Both the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals sent alerts to its members Tuesday urging them to call senators in opposition to the proposals.

"Remember that we worked hard to successfully and significantly change the House bill so its public option was not entirely based on Medicare rates, but largely negotiated rates, and in the Senate we worked to ensure that the Finance Committee bill has a nonprofit, nongovernmental public option based on negotiated rates and not tied to Medicare or Medicaid," read the alert from the American Hospital Association.

"Adding millions of people to these programs at a time when they already severely unfunded hospitals is unwise and should be opposed."

Snowe said she was not aware of the proposal to expand Medicaid coverage to individuals with incomes 150 percent above the poverty line, up from 130 percent. But she was highly critical of the idea when talking to reporters.

“It is a huge burden on the states,” Snowe said.

Schumer said a pure Medicaid expansion is not the only option under discussion.

“There are different things you can do on the Medicaid end of things,” Schumer said.



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Sources: Politico, Google Maps

Olympia Snowe Returns To Public Option Bargaining Table

Snowe Rejoins Dems At Public Option Negotiating Table


In a breakthough in Senate negotiations around a public health insurance option, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) sat down with centrist conservative Democrats for the first time Saturday since the bipartisan Gang of Six broke up shortly after returning from the August recess.

Since then, Snowe, the most likely Republican to cross the aisle on health care reform, has been meeting individually with Democrats, but had yet to rejoin negotiations in a formal way.

Snowe, emerging from a meeting on the first floor of the Capitol, Saturday afternoon, told a few reporters hovering outside the room that she had been approached earlier that morning about attending.

She said that no agreement had yet been reached, but that the group was considering "another option," aside from those already under discussion. An agreement had been reached that it would not be publicly discussed, she said, until more details were worked out. Earlier Saturday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) also mentioned the new option being kicked around but said he couldn't discuss it.

Kerry said that Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) was one of the leading intellectual fathers of this new approach, an assertion Snowe confirmed, adding that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) were also closely involved.

Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colorado), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) also attended the meeting.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) was not at the meeting and has vowed to filibuster any bill that has any version of a public option. If Lieberman holds to his threat, Democrats would need Snowe to break a GOP-Lieberman filibuster.

Snowe said she was still pushing her "trigger" proposal and met yesterday with Kerry to discuss it. Kerry, she said, has long been open to such a plan. Under her trigger, the public option would only be available in states where private insurance is deemed unaffordable to a certain percentage of residents. Advocates of the public option say a trigger is as good as no public option at all, because it will be gamed by insurance companies so that it never "triggers."

Snowe said Kerry's been in discussions with her about her proposal for months. "[She and Kerry] have, even prior to this, [had discussions] on the Finance Committee about the possibility of a trigger and how it would work and so on," she said.

As the conservative meeting was breaking up, a separate meeting on the Hill began, where liberal Democrats met to discuss their own strategy around the public option.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was also in the Capitol Saturday, but didn't attend either meeting.

"I've talked to a lot of senators and encouraged the good work that's gone on," she said as she left the building and was met by a driving snow. "I know that lots of very positive conversations are underway with lots of members of the Senate and that's just what needs to happen."

President Obama plans to address the Senate caucus on Sunday afternoon, a meeting she said she planned to attend, as well.

HuffPost asked what she thought Obama would tell his party.

"Pass health care," she said.

UPDATE: Conservative Arkansas Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor joined the liberals on the second floor of the Capitol following the centrist meeting earlier. Snowe didn't join, but said she'd continue talking.

Following the meeting, Pryor declined to get too specific, but did say that a leading proposal involves increasing the ability of the Office of Personnel Management -- which oversees the federal employee health plans -- to negotiate on behalf of individuals and small businesses. Pryor told a HuffPost and an AP reporter that it was unclear how exactly it would be set up, but that it would take the place of the public option managed by the Health and Human Services Secretary.

Lincoln, also interviewed after the meeting, said that the OPM plan would not need additional seed money and would be similar to a proposal she introduced earlier this year called the SHOP Act. She said that she continues to oppose a "government-run plan," but that this proposal would meet the twin goals of keeping down costs and increasing competition. Snowe and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are cosponsors of the SHOP Act.

The Lincoln proposal appears to be the alternative option that the conservatives and centrists discussed at the earlier meeting. Snowe had said the proposal was both old and new and Lincoln's measure answers that riddle.

It does little, however, to answer liberals' demands for a nationwide public option. Pryor said, however, that the progressive senators they met with were willing to continue discussions and cautioned that it would be several days before a deal was reached.

They plan to meet again Sunday evening after Obama departs.



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Sources: Huffington Post, Google Maps

Gay Activists Blame Obama For Voters Repeal Of Maine's Same Sex Marriage Law

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Gay leaders blame ads, Obama for loss in Maine


Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate.

Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage.

"Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian legal group. "Maine dramatically illustrates the will of the people, and politicians should wake up and listen."

Gay activists were frustrated that Obama, who insists he staunchly supports their overall civil rights agenda, didn't speak out forcefully in defense of Maine's marriage law before Tuesday's referendum. The law was repealed in a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent.

"President Obama missed an opportunity to state his position against these discriminatory attacks with the clarity and moral imperative that would have helped in this close fight," said Evan Wolfson of the national advocacy group Freedom to Marry. "The anti-gay forces are throwing millions of dollars into various unsubtle ads aimed at scaring people, so subtle statements from the White House are not enough."

Marriage debate simmers

The White House, asked about the criticism, had no immediate comment.

The marriage debate is simmering in at least a half-dozen states where a same-sex marriage bill is pending or where a court ruling or existing law is being eyed by conservatives for possible challenge.

Had Maine's law been upheld by voters, it would have become the sixth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to affirm it by popular vote. In Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Iowa, gay marriage resulted from court decisions or legislation. In Washington state, a referendum to expand the state's domestic-partnership law — termed "everything but marriage" — was narrowly leading after Tuesday's vote.

California is sure to be a major battleground over the next several years. Last year, conservatives succeeded in winning public approval of Proposition 8, which overturned a state court ruling allowing gay marriage. Gay rights groups want to take the issue back to the voters but are divided on a timetable.

In the aftermath of the Maine vote, some California activists appealed to their supporters for money to help them put a measure on the 2010 ballot. Other activist leaders want to wait until 2012.

"It's never too early to go back to right a fundamental wrong," said Chaz Lowe of Yes! on Equality, who favors shooting for 2010. "A lot of people are angry, a lot of people are upset. It at least has the potential to be a mobilization for the grass roots."

High court could be arbiter

Some California activists said the outcome in Maine strengthened their belief that it will fall to the U.S. Supreme Court — not the voters — to make gay marriage legal. A federal lawsuit challenging Prop. 8 is scheduled to go to trial in January, the first step in a legal journey that is expected to reach the high court in a few years.

"The results in Maine underscore exactly why we are challenging California's same-sex marriage ban," said Chad Griffin, president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the Los Angeles group spearheading the lawsuit. "The U.S. Constitution guarantees equal rights to every American, and when those rights are violated, it is the role of our courts to protect us, regardless of what the polls say."

The situation elsewhere:

* In New Jersey, the election Tuesday of Republican Chris Christie as governor puts extra pressure on gay rights supporters to win passage of a pending same-sex marriage bill before the legislative session ends in January. Christie says he would veto such a bill, while lame-duck Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, says he would sign it.
* In Iowa, where the state Supreme Court legalized gay marriage last April, conservatives have no quick way to overturn the ruling. Their only option would be to amend the state constitution through a ballot measure — in 2014 at the earliest — and that effort would need approval from a legislature whose current Democratic leaders don't even want to debate the issue.

* In New Hampshire, conservatives have filed legislation to repeal the state's new gay-marriage law and amend the constitution to ban such unions. Kevin Smith, executive director of the conservative Cornerstone Policy Research, said he doubts the measures will pass, but hopes the vote in Maine will give gay-marriage opponents ammunition for the 2010 elections.

"It gives us more fodder to go back to people and say, 'Look, they aren't letting you vote on it,'" Smith said.

* In Washington, D.C., conservatives are trying to force a popular vote on a bill headed toward City Council approval that would legalize gay marriage. Michael Crawford, one of the leaders of the local pro-gay marriage campaign, said the result in Maine increased his determination to avoid a ballot measure.

"The same cabal of anti-gay groups who stripped away marriage equality from our families in California and Maine now have their sights on D.C.," he said.



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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

Maine Voters Say No! To Same Sex Marriages...Repealed Gay Marriage Law

Maine vote repeals gay marriage law


Maine voters on Tuesday repealed a state law granting same-sex couples the right to marry, defeating an effort by gay activists who hoped the state would become the first to approve gay marriage at the polls.

Nearly 53 percent of voters opted to throw out a same-sex marriage law passed by the state Legislature in May, while 47 percent voted to uphold it, with 87 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday morning.

The vote in Maine was being closely watched by both supporters and opponents of gay marriage across the country one year after voters in the most populous state, California, passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Only five states currently allow same-sex marriage.

As voters went to the polls on Tuesday, gay marriage advocates were emboldened by what appeared to be higher than expected turnout in Maine. Even before polls opened on Tuesday roughly one-tenth of the state’s registered voters submitted mail-in ballots or voted early.

And in an interview late Tuesday night on MSNBC, Maine Democratic Gov. John Baldacci said that at polling places it looked like “the presidential election all over again.”

“A lot of young people were showing up, a lot of first-time voters were showing up,” Baldacci said. “I was encouraged by that.”

Supporters also hoped money would make a difference in the outcome. The main group working to keep the state’s marriage law on the books, Protect Maine Equality, outraised the leading opposition group, Stand for Marriage, by more than $1 million.

Gay marriage supporters were looking to make Maine the sixth state — in addition to Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — to legalize same-sex marriage.

In Washington state, voters also were poised to decide whether to endorse the state’s “everything but marriage” law, which would give gay and lesbian couples more of the rights that married couples now enjoy.

In all, 26 measures appeared on the ballot in six states on Tuesday, making 2009 one of the slowest years for ballot initiatives in the past decade, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.




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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Google Maps

Good Day For Republicans! Super Tuesday...Democrats & Independents Are Fed Up Too!

GOP unity, support from independents key today


We think tonight will be very good for Republicans.

Two of the main reasons for that are superior party unity and pretty overwhelming support from independents.

In NY-23 despite the presence more or less of two Republican candidates on the ballot, Doug Hoffman is winning 71% of the GOP vote to Bill Owens' 67% of the Democratic vote. Hoffman leads Owens 52-30 with independents.

In New Jersey Chris Christie is getting 82% of the Republican vote while Jon Corzine is at 72% of the Democratic vote. Christie leads 52-29 with independents.

In Maine 77% of Republicans support the overturn of gay marriage while 71% of Democrats are opposed to it. Independents say they'll vote for it by a 52-46 margin.

In Virginia 94% of Republicans are for Bob McDonnell to 87% of Democrats for Creigh Deeds. McDonnell is up 63-33 with independents.

In Charlotte 89% of Republicans intend to vote for John Lassiter to 81% of Democrats for Anthony Foxx. Lassiter leads 51-40 with independents.

From the high levels of party unity it's clear that Republicans voters see the path back to power will require staying on the same page. And whether it's because the Democrats have bad candidates or they're unhappy with President Obama, independents are giving the GOP very high levels of support. It should be the best Republican election night since George W. Bush got reelected.



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Sources: Public Policy Polling, Google Maps

Maine Voters Have Their Say On Same Sex Marriage

Same-sex marriage debate lands in Maine. The state’s rugged shores are forming the backdrop for the nation’s latest bruising fight over marriage.

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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps