The news was all good for Florida Gov. Rick Scott (Tea/GOP) in a recent Quinnipiac University poll…if you consider losing re-election to any competitor by at least six points to be good news. In a match-up with former Gov. Charlie Crist (who is considering running against him as a Democrat), Scott would lose 47 – [...]

So Republicans think Joe Arpaio should be allowed to stop me and demand my papers, as long as he doesn’t look at my phone records?

– @TheDailyEdge, on Twitter

And if I were Republicans, I would say to Issa, in the parlance of his old business, “Please step away from that car.”

– David Axelrod, Democratic strategist, asserting that Republicans are approaching overreach concerning the IRS. Axelrod was alluding to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who, prior to being in Congress, was charged with grand theft auto, investigated for arson, arrested on weapons charges, and convicted of carrying an unregistered and concealed firearm.

Forget the nonexistent “crisis” surrounding budget deficits and — as you’ll hear again soon — raising the debt ceiling. Let’s talk about what’s really threatening to end America as we know it, and that’s income inequality. When Congress starts unraveling the policies they have put in place to help the rich get richer, like taxing [...]

You’ve probably heard about it but you have to see it to believe it. Watch for yourself the spectacle of Republicans coming to the realization that they live in a new world — if you consider all the years of most of our lifetimes “new.”

There is no question that Rep. Michele Bachmann (GOP/Tea – Minn.) is among the squirreliest of the squirrels in Congress. But as she announces her decision not to seek re-election next year, the web site capitolwords has ranked the words and phrases most used by the head of the tea party caucus. And the number [...]

+5

Change in the GOP’s unfavorability ratings, according to a new CNN poll in which 59% of respondents said they have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican party, while 35% were still favorable. The numbers were more even for Democrats, with 52% of those polled saying they view the party favorably and 43% seeing it unfavorably. The response to the tea party movement was, as would be expected, the strangest, with 37% seeing it favorably, 45% unfavorably, an astounding 7% reporting that they never heard of it, and 11% withholding any opinion.

I hope NY and NJ senators tell Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe to suck a donkey dick on disaster relief.

@rudepundit on Twitter, no doubt recalling that most Republicans, even those from the tornado-prone Midwest and prairie states, voted against providing disaster relief to the areas worst affected by super storm Sandy.

If the justices are going to behave like legislators, they ought to receive lawmakers’ pay.

— Iowa state Rep. Larry Sheets (R), member of the group of Iowa Republican lawmakers that has attached an amendment to a judicial branch budget bill that would reduce the salaries of the four remaining justices who were part of the groundbreaking case to legalize same-sex marriage in the state, the Sioux City Journal reports. Their salaries would be reduced from about $163,000 annually to $25,000, the amount legislators are paid.</h2>

23%

Of Americans believe the Republican Party is “in touch with the concerns of most people in the United States today,” while 70% believe that it is “out of touch,” according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Among independents, those numbers are 23% to 70%. Among moderates they’re 20% to 75%. By contrast, Americans say by 51% to 46% that Obama is in touch. Among moderates that’s 56% to 42% (he fares worse among independents, 44% to 53%, though far better than Republicans).