Here are the 14 Senate races for seats presently held by Democrats but for which Republicans are either favored to win or serious contenders:

1. West Virginia: Rep. Shelley Moore Capito v. no one.

Jay Rockefeller quit after Capito got into the race.  She will win, going away.

2. South Dakota: Former Governor Mike Rounds in South Dakota v. no one in South Dakota

This is a mortal lock for the popular Rounds.

3.  Arkansas: Rep. Tom Cotton v. the hapless legacy senator Mark Pryor in Ark

Pryor won his seat because his dad held it for years.  Now the combat veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq Tom Cotton has a lead and is building it day by day, as shrinking Pryor struggles to erase all his positive endorsements of Obamacare.  Most recently he was for repealing the cuts to career military COLAs after he was for them. Continue Reading

The weekly column from Clark Judge:

Charles Krauthammer and Frederick Hayek in Newport Beach

By Clark S. Judge: managing director, White House Writers Group, Inc.; chairman, Pacific Research Institute

The Pacific Research Institute held its annual Baroness Margaret Thatcher Orange County (California) Dinner last week.  The site was the Island Hotel in the coastal town of Newport Beach.  The honoree was former California gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon.  The main speaker was syndicated columnist and Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer.

A dour man on camera, in person Krauthammer on stage is as funny as a comedy star, but a comedy star with a bite –- hilariously ferocious.  He once wrote speeches for then Vice President Walter Mondale.  “People ask, how did I go from writing for Mondale to the conservative I am now?” he said.  “Simple.  I was young once.” Continue Reading

Sure, it is a low bar, but Representative Tim Ryan is a Warren JFK Eagle, and he serves on the Subcommittee on Defense of the House Committee on Appropriations, so I was glad to have him on the program today to talk DOD as well as Obamacre and the minimum wage:

Audio:

03-13hhs-ryan

Transcript:

HH: Whether you’re in Hawaii or down in Florida, up in New York or way up in Alaska listening in now, my favorite Democrat. Actually, my favorite Democrat joins me now, Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, which is my hometown. And Tim Ryan also happens to be a graduate of Warren’s John F. Kennedy High School, so my own high school. He is sadly a Democrat, but a smart one. Congressman, welcome, great to have you on the program.

TR: I appreciate the kind words. You know, we’ve got Blue Pride, and we’ll start from there and see where we can go.

HH: Yeah, go Eagles. And I want people to know, I actually have seen you talking to Republican before, whether Sam Covelli or Kim and Scott Phillips or Rob Ganary. You know Republicans, and you don’t, you deign to speak with them occasionally.

TR: I do. I hang out, I watch football with them, and you know, we talk a little politics here or there, but we try to stay focused on the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cleveland Browns.

HH: And the Browns are having a good day today. But let’s focus on this hearing today. I just had your chairman on, Chairman Frelinghuysen, and talking about that committee hearing. And you had some pretty interesting comments in particular, Congressman Ryan, about Ukraine, natural gas and the Defense base. But let’s start overall. This isn’t enough money for the military. Do your colleagues on your side of the aisle recognize that?

TR: Well, we’ve got to balance a lot of different interests here. And the reality of it is we’re winding down two wars. I didn’t get to hear Chairman Frelinghuysen’s entire interview, but you know, we’re balancing, winding down Iraq, winding down Afghanistan. There’s a lot of uncertainty in Afghanistan right now. And I think this budget reflects us downsizing our responsibilities, at least the increased responsibilities we had in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And you know, it’s a tough budget time, and we’ve got a lot of people saying that we need to cut government back, and this is just a reflection of the political reality and the reality of winding down these wars.

HH: Now how many years have you been on Approps?

TR: I got on Approps in ’06 and I was on until ’10, and now I just got back on this year. So I’ve been on Appropriations for five years, and I was on Armed Services before that, back to 2003. Continue Reading

Today’s hearing before the Subcommittee on Defense of the House Committee on Appropriations will be very different than yesterday’s hearing before the House Armed Services Committee which focused on the force structure of the United States Marine Corps.  The constant attrition of forces across the board is crazy in this world, and the GOP has to point this out in the context of massive expenditures on transfer payments.  70% of the federal budget is talking money from some taxpayers and giving money to other people in the form of transfer payments.

This is the heart of the 2014 campaign: The federal government has to stop scooping money out of the private sector and giving it to entitlements while not fully funding the core duty of the federal government: providing for the common defense.