House

Democratic hopes of capturing the House next Tuesday are long gone. And Democrats now could wind up actually losing seats.

Republicans often find comfort in the suburbs. But for long-time Maryland congressman Roscoe Bartlett, having a slice of Washington, D.C. suburbia added to his district means the biggest fight of his life. He now faces a tough challenge from Democrat John Delaney, the founder of a successful commercial lender company.

Several months ago, President Obama’s Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, initiated the Senior Swindle, an $8.35 billion ploy (far more than either presidential campaign will raise this year) to hide the effects of Obamacare’s Medicare Advantage cuts from seniors until after the election.

President Barack Obama's closest political adviser, David Axelrod, is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser later today for a Democratic candidate for Congress who linked the Tea Party with the shooting in Tucson that injured former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The Democrat that will be joined by Axelrod is former congressman Bill Foster who is running for a House seat in the Illinois.

The new Politico/GWU/Battleground poll seems to me, from a quick perusal of its internals, to have produced solid and non-quirky results consistent with several other surveys. It has a D+3 sample, and shows an Obama margin of 3 on the presidential ballot test and a 1 point Democratic edge on the generic congressional ballot.

Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon reports:

The possibility that New York City Councilman Charles Barron could clinch the Democratic nomination today in a race against Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries has put Jewish leaders of all stripes on high alert—and could set the tone for how Jewish voters view the Democratic Party going forward...

Attorney General Eric Holder avoided commenting on the Fast and Furious scandal in Boston today. The Boston Herald reports:

Retiring congressman Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York, reflects on his time in Congress. 

"Congressman Ackerman, you’ve been here 30 years. Can you define comity as it existed when you arrived versus how it exists now?," Bloomberg Businessweek asks.

Democrat Ron Barber defeated Republican Jesse Kelly yesterday in Arizona’s special election for the House seat formerly held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Barber received 52 percent of the vote—to Kelly’s 45 percent—and will serve out the remainder of Giffords’s term, before coming up for reelection in November.

The special election to fill the last six months of Gabrielle Giffords’s term in the Eighth Congressional District of Arizona is rapidly approaching. Although the race looks close, no one can say that the candidates are neck and neck. At 6’8”, Republican Jesse Kelly stands head and shoulders above most people—not just his opponent, former Giffords staffer Ron Barber.

Telegraph: "David Cameron: world on brink of new economic crisis"

New York Times: "In Rush to Assist Solyndra, U.S. Missed Warning Signs"

Barack Obama has said that raising taxes in a struggling economy is “the last thing you want to do,” but for some Democrats on Capitol Hill raising taxes is a top priority. A proposal from Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD favors raising top marginal income tax rates to nearly 50 percent.