Is There ANY Chance the R's Will Use this Opportunity to Govern?

And by all means, gentlemen, keep video of Obama’s press conference of November 5, 2014, in the vault, for use throughout the coming years and into the presidential election cycle. The President cut a beautiful campaign ad for his Republican successor.

Obama on midterms: People who didn’t vote matter more than those who did

Obama on midterms: People who didn’t vote matter more than those who did

Boehner came out today with his plans - no compromises on anything. If you wanted the answer to your thread, I think you have it by now.

Essentially, Obama was describing a political calculation. Many Republicans will never budge. By further antagonizing them, he loses nothing. On the other hand, he can pick up support in the middle and on the left—and can pressure Republicans to pass a bill—by expanding the conversation to the two-thirds of voters who stayed home. The Latino survey backs him up. It says that by a margin of 68 percent to 15 percent, registered Latino voters who skipped the midterms would be more enthusiastic about the Democratic Party if Obama issued “an executive order stopping the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants” and gave them “work permits and temporary legal status.

Advancing a Conservative Agenda to Restore the American Dream

The election is over. Now, it is time for our newly elected Congress to do what they told us they were going to do. Conservative policies help people. They will begin to restore our nation.

And while each of our organizations will work toward various elements of this agenda, as a conservative movement we call on the new Republican Congress to enact:

- A pro-growth agenda for hard-working middle class Americans that balances the budget in 10 years or less without raising taxes, starts over with a tax code that actually works for American families and businesses, ends regulations that increase red-tape and hurt job creation, and makes Congress accurately account for the bills they pass.

- Fully repealing Obamacare, using congressional authority to halt and expose it, and starting over with real health care reform that respects patients and doctors.

- Passing common-sense and compassionate legislation that protects innocent unborn human life after five months of pregnancy.

- Upholding the rule of law and Constitution by restoring the power of the states and ending the lawlessness of the Obama Administration and rogue agencies like the IRS.

- Safeguarding our freedoms by ending the assaults on our religious liberty like those we now see in Obamacare, our military, against faith in the public square, and against those who support natural marriage.

- A defense budget adequate to meet current and future threats to the country, including the threat from Islamists, non-state actors, and sovereign states.

- Securing the border and ending attempts to grant amnesty to people who break our laws.

- Expanding American energy through innovation and the market, not government regulation and cronyism.

Now is the time for Republicans in Congress to earn the trust that the American people have placed in them.

The Honorable Edwin Meese III, 
 Former Attorney General, President Ronald Reagan
The Honorable David McIntosh, Former Member of Congress, Indiana
Mike Needham, 
CEO, 
Heritage Action for America
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
Brent Bozell,
 Chairman, 
ForAmerica
Mark R. Levin
Erick Erickson,
 Editor-in-Chief,
 RedState
Marjorie Dannenfelser,
 President,
 Susan B. Anthony List
Penny Nance,
 President and CEO,
 Concerned Women for America
Gary Bauer,
 President,
 American Values
Colin Hanna,
 President,
 Let Freedom Ring
David Bossie,
 President,
 Citizens United
Herman Pirchner,
 President,
 American Foreign Policy Council
Lt. General William G. “Jerry” Boykin, (US Army, Retired),
 Executive Vice President,
 Family Research Council
Phyllis Schlafly, 
Founder and President, 
 Eagle Forum
Richard A. Viguerie, 
Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com and Fed Up PAC
Morton Blackwell, 
Chairman, 
Conservative Leadership PAC
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell, 
President,
 Constitutional Congress, Inc.
The Honorable Becky Norton Dunlop,
 Former White House Advisor,
 President Ronald Reagan
The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.,
 Former White House Domestic Advisor,
 President Ronald Reagan
The Honorable Alfred S. Regnery,
 Former Publisher,
 The American Spectator
William L Walton,
 Vice President,
 Council for National Policy
The Honorable Bob McEwen,
 Former U.S. Representative,
 Ohio
Ed Corrigan,
 Former Executive Director,
 U.S. Senate Steering Committee
Diana Banister,
 Director,
 Citizens for the Republic
Brian Baker,
 President,
 Ending Spending
Austin Ruse,
 President,
 Center for Family & Human Rights
Phil Kerpen,
 President,
 American Commitment
Phil Burress,
 President,
 Citizens for Community Values
Allen Roth,
 President,
 Secure America Now
Elaine Donnelly,
 President,
 Center for Military Readiness
Kay Daly,
 President,
 Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
Christopher N. Malagisi,
 President,
 Young Conservatives Coalition
Susan Carleson,
 President,
 American Civil Rights Union
Preston Noell III,
 President,
 Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Christian Adams,
 President,
 Election Law Center
David Denholm,
 President,
 Public Service Research Council
Francis Deluca,
 President,
 Civitas Institute
Jenny Beth Martin,
 Co-Founder,
 Tea Party Patriots
Sandy Rios,
 Director of Government Affairs,
 American Family Association
Paul Caprio,
 Director,
 Family Pac Federal

WASHINGTON — Republicans have captured control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in eight years, picking up at least seven seats in the November 4 Congressional elections.

The shift means that Republicans will control the three top Senate committees dealing with U.S. foreign policy and national security: foreign relations, armed services and intelligence.

Here is what the shift could mean in the coming months.

Foreign Relations

Ranking member Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee) is expected to take over, replacing Bob Menendez (Democrat-New Jersey).

Corker and Menendez, who are said to have a good working relationship, have generally agreed more than disagreed on foreign policy matters. They co-sponsored a bill that passed unanimously out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee slapping more sanctions on Russia and giving more military and nonmilitary aid to Ukraine. They also co-sponsored a bill to arm the Syrian rebels and sanction arms and oil sales to the Assad regime. Menendez and Corker have both said Congress should authorize the Obama administration's campaign against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria. U.S. President Barack Obama said on November 5 that he would "engage" with Congress on the matter.

Corker introduced legislation in July requiring Congressional review of any nuclear deal with Iran within three days of reaching it. He opposes any extensions beyond November 24, the current deadline for Iran and the West to reach an agreement. The Obama administration, however, has reportedly decided to try to sidestep Congress and suspend sanctions if a deal is secured. If such a deal does emerge, it could set up a major confrontation between the administration and Congress.

In Senate hearings, Corker has sharply questioned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over the administration's strategy against IS militants.

Menendez has earned praise from Armenian-American groups for his support for formal U.S. recognition of the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War I as genocide. Corker, meanwhile, voted against a 2014 resolution introduced by Menendez that commemorates the massacre and criticizes Turkey for denying that it constituted genocide.

Armed Services

Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona) is expected to become chairman of the Armed Services Committee, while Senator Jim Inhofe (Republican-Oklahoma), the ranking member, is expected to take the Environment and Public Works Committee chairmanship.

McCain is a strong advocate of U.S. military intervention and a persistent critic of U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Current chairman Carl Levin (Democrat-Michigan), who is retiring, has also broken with the Obama administration by calling for defensive military aid to Ukraine, but is not as vocal a critic on the issue as McCain.

McCain has grilled Pentagon officials at hearings, most recently in September, when he pressed Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey on whether Washington would back Syrian opposition forces it trained if they were attacked by Bashar al-Assad's forces.

McCain, who has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ruling “by corruption, repression and violence,” could also confront officials over what he considers meager U.S. aid to Ukraine and the Obama administration’s insufficiently tough stance against Russia.

Intelligence

With ranking member Saxby Chambliss (Republican-Georgia) retiring, the chairmanship goes to Richard Burr (Republican-North Carolina), who is also ranking member on the veterans affairs committee. If Burr opts to remain with veterans affairs, the spot would go to Senator James Risch (Republican-Idaho).

Burr is a staunch defender of the CIA, whereas outgoing chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (Democrat-California) has accused the agency of spying on the Senate.

"Dianne may have some problems with it but I think we’ve gotten a full accounting of what happened," he said of the CIA's snooping on Congress, according to Politico.

He also has advocated for greater secrecy with intelligence committee matters, which are already tightly guarded. "I personally don’t believe that anything that goes on in the intelligence committee should ever be discussed publicly," he told reporters in March. "Certainly classified information, it’s breaking the law to discuss that. If I had my way, with the exception of nominees, there would never be a public intelligence hearing."

It was not clear Saturday how swiftly the Senate would act to consider Lynch’s nomination. Obama said Saturday he hoped the Senate would confirm her “without delay.” But the incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Friday that Lynch’s nomination “should be considered in the new Congress through regular order.”

because in most cases it has been blocked and slowed way down.

*unless the President is a Democrat.