Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is a Latino officeholder with national prominence, something the Democrats lack for the most part.

( Win McNamee / Getty Images / July 31, 2012 )

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is a Latino officeholder with national prominence, something the Democrats lack for the most part.

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Election law targets Democrats, favors the Republican vote

Respect.

Arizona Democrats have earned it. However, Gov. Jan Brewer and her political operatives have once again abused their power to marginalize Democrats. Signing House Bill 2305, which is designed to bolster the Republican Party's advantage in the 2014 election, is the latest example.

The victories of the past session are due in large part to the gains Democrats made in the Legislature in 2012. By restoring balance to the Legislature, moderate Republicans finally gained the confidence they lacked during the debate over Senate Bill 1070, the impeachment of a redistricting commissioner or the budget cuts that negatively impacted Arizona's schools, universities, cities and public safety, and left hundreds of thousands without health care these past five years.

Expanding health-care coverage this session was only possible because national Democrats risked and lost their political power in 2010 to pass health-care reform. Gov. Brewer is now being anointed sainthood status, though she merely swept in at the last minute to fix a problem that she helped orchestrate.

Brewer could have easily decided it would have been easier to side with the "tea party" and continue fighting Medicaid expansion, but thankfully, she decided to do what was best for Arizona. For this, she does deserve credit -- but we should not forget the foundation of her decision was prompted by 13 Democratic state senators and 24 state representatives.

The question surrounding a promise to kill or veto HB 2305 is irrelevant. The bill lacked compromise and transparency. It was designed not with the intent of making voting easier and more accessible, but with the intent of limiting voter participation and choice. It includes new restrictions on how Arizonans can exercise their right to vote early. Arizona lags behind in voter turnout and has failed to update outdated voter-registration deadlines, improve access to early-voting locations and remove antiquated precinct restrictions on Election Day.

The fight to preserve voting rights defines the modern-day Democratic Party. This right has been fought for and sealed with the blood of those who battled for civil rights. Given Arizona's dark history of discrimination and drawn-out arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Department of Justice, it is crucial that all election reforms require the highest degree of scrutiny, transparency and compromise.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected another Arizona law aimed at restricting voter participation, and the stage was set for Brewer to reverse the political bickering and continue the goodwill she built up with Medicaid expansion. Political decency could have once again prevailed in Arizona. Instead, Brewer and her political advisers did what they do best: divide Arizona.

Luis Heredia is government relations director for the Torres Consulting and Law Group and a Democratic Party national committeeman.

Copyright 2013 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Re-Election Tricky for House Republican Freshmen

“I’ve got butterflies,” Mr. Schilling, Republican of Illinois, said as he walked into a news conference about a bridge that has needed renovation for years, one that Democrats have accused him of abandoning by backing a Republican ban on setting aside federal money for such home-state projects.

“If Durbin is here,” he said, referring to Senator Richard J. Durbin, the state’s senior senator, “I’ll give it right back.”

He looked around and saw that Mr. Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate and a man unafraid of a partisan confrontation, was absent. “Whew,” he said. “Makes things smoother.”

During his 2010 campaign, Mr. Schilling, a pizza parlor owner and political novice, labored to persuade people that a Republican deserved a chance in a seat that Democrats had held for almost three decades. Now, like scores of other Republican freshmen across the country who triumphed that year in a Republican wave, he must prove he should be permitted to stay.

For Mr. Schilling and roughly two dozen other Tea Party-backed Republican freshmen who now find themselves in districts where there are more registered Democrats than Republicans, a re-election campaign is a remarkably tricky task.

They are the subject of constant attack ads, assailing them for votes on a budget that would change the Medicare system, accusing them of trying to curtail protections for women and criticizing their support for earmark bans that could impede local projects. But they are also scrutinized by conservative activists who were crucial to their election and want to make sure they do not stray too far from Tea Party orthodoxy in pursuit of a second term.

Republican freshmen like Chip Cravaack of Minnesota, Robert Dold of Illinois and Ann Marie Buerkle of New York are among those eager to prove that they are more than flukes who rode in on a wave only to paddle back out to the sea of one-termers.

It is one thing to run as an outsider taking aim at Washington dysfunction; when you are the incumbent, with Congressional license plates and a voting record for all to see, it is a whole new ballgame.

“Here’s the problem,” Mr. Schilling said. Colleagues in highly Republican districts “put up bills that make them look tough back home,” he said, “and that makes for tough votes.”

He recalled another freshman lawmaker, from a safe district in Indiana, who criticized him for “voting like a Democrat.” “I said, ‘I’ve got to vote my district, thank you very much!’ ” said Mr. Schilling, who punctuates most of his sentences with a blinding smile, a hearty laugh and “Oh, my goodness!”

Nice try, local Democrats say. “He is out of step with the district,” said Steve Brown, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Illinois. “I don’t know what he puts forth to voters that would make them retain him.” Mr. Brown said Mr. Schilling’s challenger, Cheri Bustos, a onetime alderwoman from East Moline and former baby sitter to Mr. Durbin’s children, would return the district to the Democrats.

In recent months, in part to curry favor with crucial independent voters who wish for more comity in Congress, some freshmen in closely contested districts have worked to be more bipartisan. They have spoken out against their party’s bill for long-term transportation funding and voted for measures that they had originally campaigned against.

“When it came to the debt ceiling vote, I once said, ‘Oh, I’d never do one of those,’ ” Mr. Schilling said. “But when you came down to the reality of what would happen if we didn’t, and I talked to local businesses about that,” the need to vote yes became clear, he said.

At a series of public stops on Monday, he bragged repeatedly about his work with Representative Dave Loebsack, Democrat of Iowa, to pester Illinois for money to fix the aforementioned bridge, which links their states and districts.

But Mr. Schilling and other Republicans, perhaps believing that their message will be embraced by swing voters worried about the budget deficit, still dish out plenty of tough talk against Democratic lawmakers and President Obama.

“They are very anti-capitalist,” Mr. Schilling told a dozen female Republican volunteers, who call themselves the Old Glories because all are over 70, during a recess trip home. Responding to one woman who asked whether he thought Mr. Obama had campaigned in 2008 with a strategy “to make America fail,” Mr. Schilling said of the slow economic recovery, “A lot of people think this is being done on purpose.”

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Republican Ambitions for Statewide Office Break Loose in Texas

Maybe you work in a big organization, with relatively young and healthy people at the top.

That’s just wonderful, unless your plans include upward mobility. You might as well be a Texas politician.

Democrats can’t move up the food chain in Texas until they’ve changed a political environment that will currently elect a Republican for every statewide office, whether or not that Republican is the best person for the job. It’s not the content of the candidate’s character that matters most — it’s the color of the partisan flag.

Republicans looking to move up face two obstacles: competition and a couple of stoppers at the top of the organizational chart. The competition is still there, what with a state full of Republicans and a political climate — see above — where moderates and independents who want to get into a high elected office often have to run as Republicans to succeed. That doesn’t appear to be changing right now.

But the stoppers — their names are Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Perry — might both be moving on, and the very idea of that animates Republican ambitions in Texas.

Ms. Hutchison, elevated to the United States Senate in a special election in 1993, isn’t seeking re-election. Mr. Perry could run for another term as governor in 2014. But the lines are already forming as if he won’t be on the ballot that year.

At least at the top, the 2014 ballot is as busy as the one for the current election year.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is in the Republican primary race for Ms. Hutchison’s seat. Maybe he wins, maybe he loses, but that cautionary note didn’t stop anyone from expressing interest in the office he currently holds. Comptroller Susan Combs is interested. So are Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. State Representative Dan Branch, Republican of Dallas, is looking at it, too.

There’s another race for lieutenant governor in motion, too, based on the assumption that Mr. Dewhurst will win the Senate race. That would leave the 31-member Texas Senate with the happy chore of hoisting one of its own members into that office for the remaining two years of Mr. Dewhurst’s term. That intrigue is well under way, with some members angling for just an interim position and others thinking the winner of the inside race could have a shot at winning the job outright in the 2014 elections.

That triggers another round of conversations. Who would be the new comptroller, or land commissioner or agriculture commissioner should any or all of the current occupants dive into the race for lieutenant governor?

The political tribe is full of ambitious, risk-taking characters. The rest of us might not be thinking about this stuff, but they surely are.

A recent news blurb about Senator Glenn Hegar, Republican of Katy, stirred up another race. He’s been sounding out support for a run for comptroller should Ms. Combs run for something else or step aside. Some of his fellow Republicans thought he was considering Mr. Staples’s agriculture post.

The news prompted Representative Harvey Hilderbran, Republican of Kerrville, to let reporters and others know that he would be interested in Ms. Combs’s job. Mr. Hilderbran is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the arbiter of tax and revenue legislation. The overlap between the supplicants there and the supplicants to the comptroller is significant.

Mr. Hegar’s splash sent a ripple across the agriculture commissioner race. Former Representative Dan Gattis, Republican of Georgetown, isn’t exactly looking at it and isn’t exactly not looking. He said he would be interested, maybe, if Mr. Hegar was not. But he said he isn’t thinking about it and that there is a lot of time between now and then. And he said to stay in touch.

Wouldn’t want to get left out of the conversation, now that the org chart is in play.

Nothing is a lock, particularly with elections and other decisions in the way. Ms. Hutchison is leaving, but Mr. Dewhurst might not win and might not leave the Senate. Attorney General Greg Abbott might want to run for governor in 2014, but Mr. Perry hasn’t opened that door for him. And if Mr. Abbott doesn’t run for that, then the attorney general hopefuls — whoever they are — would be stuck.

Just like they are now.

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Beyond Democrat and Republican: A Closer Look at Third-Party Campaigns (ContributorNetwork)

There has been plenty of recent speculation in the media about a possible third-party run for president by current Republican candidate Ron Paul. Whether Paul, or any other candidate, will make a third-party play against President Barack Obama and the Republican nominee this November remains to be seen. In the meantime let's look at some of the more creditable third-party presidential runs of the past one hundred years:

* Theodore Roosevelt (1912) -- A century ago the old "Bull Moose" founded the Progressive Party after a rift with his hand-picked Republican successor William Howard Taft. Roosevelt was upset with Taft for not continuing his progressive platform after he had left office. Roosevelt was so fired up that the former president decided to enter the 1912 race as the candidate for the new Progressive Party. Predictably Roosevelt split the vote and handed the election to Woodrow Wilson. Still, TR's 27 percent of the popular vote remains the high-water mark for third-party candidates still today.

* Strom Thurman (1948) -- Aside from being considered by many historians as the biggest upset in presidential election history -- incumbent Democrat Harry S. Truman beat Republican challenger Thomas Dewey -- this election was famous for Thurman's State's Rights (or Dixiecrat) Party. The Dixiecrats were white Southern Democrats who deplored the moves that the Truman Administration were making toward desegregating the South. They formed their own party and chose Thurman to run against Truman and Dewey. Thurman won four Southern states and 39 electoral votes and managed to get 2.4 percent of the popular vote.

* Ross Perot (1992) -- The Texas pro-business billionaire decided to throw his hat into the ring as an Independent candidate in the 1992 election. Concerns about the state of the economy, and a general distrust-as always-of Washington insiders, helped fuel a surge of support for his candidacy. In May, six months before the election, Perot was actually polling ahead of the incumbent Republican George Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton. In the end Perot captured nearly 20 million votes and almost 19 percent of the electorate.

* Ralph Nader (2000) -- This was Nader's third run for president and, while his ultimate vote count was modest (about 2.8 million total votes and 2.73 percent of the electorate) his presence on the ballot might have proven to be monumental. That's because Nader took part in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush. Many have suggested that, had Nader not been in the race. Gore, who actually won the popular vote, would have captured enough electoral votes to win the White House.

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Will Wisconsin Republican Gov. Walker Be Ousted in a Recall? (ContributorNetwork)

ANALYSIS | Wisconsin Democrats are attempting to oust Gov. Scott Walker as result of the messy debate over unions earlier this year. They are emboldened by recent recall elections and an Ohio referendum, but history shows it won't be so easy.

The Dairy State was treated to a fight over proposed new government powers to curtail union rights. We saw the spectacle of Democrat politicians fleeing the state to avoid a vote, Republicans going the extra mile to drag them back, and protesters disrupting the state capitol in a preview of "Occupy Wall Street." The GOP got its legislative victory, but Democrats struck back. Two Republican legislators (Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper) were recalled in special elections. In other states, two more Republicans were booted in recall elections in November, while an anti-union measure was slammed by Ohio voters.

Democrats hope to bag their biggest prize: Scott Walker himself. The recall movement kicks off less than a week after the November election. Polls show several Wisconsin Democrats (Russ Feingold, Tom Barrett) would beat Walker in an election. But Democrats may well fall short.

Hopper and Kapanke may have gone down to defeat, as did Russell Pearce and Paul Scott, but not all recall elections are successful. Analysis of the National Conference of State Legislatures data reveals that such a strategy has only worked 17 times against state legislators. In 15 cases, it didn't. This includes several GOP state legislators in Wisconsin this year (and a few Democrats in the state, as Republicans retaliated unsuccessfully).

Recall supporters point out that other politicians have been ousted, but that list includes only two governors: Republican Lynn Frazier in North Dakota in 1921 and Gray Davis in California in 2003. Many other attempts to dump governors, mayors, and municipal politicians have fizzled.

On many occasions, petitioners have tried to oust Federal officials (mostly for political reasons rather than any real malfeasance) without success, as the Constitution has no such provision (though the Founding Fathers kicked around the idea).

Recalls bids have a spotty record at best. When enough petitions are gathered, the ousting rate is barely 50 percent, and that doesn't include failed court challenges or cases where organizers couldn't muster the minimum number of petitions. And while Walker may have higher disapproval ratings and less popularity than Feingold and Barrett, a slight majority doesn't support a recall at this time. So even though Democrats are on a hot streak, they have their work cut out for them in a recall effort against Walker.

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Republican 'Fall Back Guy' Ahead by Default (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Republicans, for the second election in a row, seem determined to line up for a bite of a distasteful sandwich made of the offal and effluvium that has followed the rise and fall of the party's momentary favorites. The aftermath is sure to exsanguinate the spirit of the party, leaving them as Democrats experienced in 2004, despite rising hatred for a sitting president, rudderless and forced to select the candidate that wasn't terrible, instead of an inspiring candidate that's really great.

According to the Huffington Post, recent trouble in Herman Cain's camp and a poorer than poor series of debate flubs by once party darling Gov. Rick Perry, combined with a decline of fascination with the rhetoric of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, has left the GOP nomination as Mitt Romney's honor to lose.

Romney is ahead, but party insiders are still pushing other candidates. Newt Gingrich, for example, long disregarded as unelectable, is beginning to rise in the polls, and the news media is chomping at the bit to talk about it. Former U.S. Ambassador John Huntsman has benefited from the falls of Bachmann, Paul, Cain, and Perry as well, but in the end, he's left with the same problem as Romney-- religion. Evangelical Christians that make up the base of the Republican party are simply never going to get behind a Mormon for the presidency. Period.

I've spent most of my life wanting to be president of the United States, and right now, I wouldn't switch places with Romney for all of the tea in China. He may be ahead, but he simply doesn't have the stuff to ignite his party's soul.

So while he holds the top spot, and will likely win the nomination by default, don't look for the circus to end any time soon. Party insiders seem determined to roll out as many clown cars as they can before finally conceding that they just don't have the chops to beat the president in 2012, thereby resigning themselves to select the "also ran" mediocrity offered and rejected by voters in 2008 and now again for 2012. Sometimes that just the way it goes.

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Democrats’ favorite ‘conservative Republican’ economist is neither Republican nor conservative (Daily Caller)

As the fight over President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act heats up on Capitol Hill, Moody’s economist Mark Zandi would seem like a dream come true for liberal pundits and Democratic politicians alike.

When progressives try to make the case that all the economy needs is more spending to boost economic growth and job creation they often turn to Zandi, a former advisor to Senator John McCain’s 2008 campaign for president, as exhibit A.

“Republican economist Mark Zandi declared the President’s plan would keep the U.S. from sliding back into the recession, add two points to the GDP, and add 1.9 million jobs,” Rep. Judy Chu, a California Democrat, said on the floor last week.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” former President Bill Clinton argued that Zandi’s belief that over one million jobs could be created by the president’s new jobs plan is proof that such rosy predictions are supported “right across the economic board.”

Writing in Slate earlier this month, Jacob Weisberg said that the benefits of a new stimulus package were “received wisdom among economists, including many conservative ones.” Specifically, Weisberg cites Zandi — “John McCain’s economic advisor” — who has argued that the 2009 stimulus prevented unemployment from rising another two percentage points.

It’s true that Zandi supports more stimulus spending. “The fiscal boost from the jobs package next year would be larger than in the first year of the 2009 economic stimulus,” Zandi said in a statement released by the White House last week. However, the implication that Zandi is a conservative Republican is, at best, deeply misleading. (RELATED: New Obama plan promises to raise taxes, worry Democrats)

To his credit, Zandi has never tried to hide his ideological beliefs. “I’m a registered Democrat,” he told The Washington Post in a 2009 profile. He worked with McCain not because he agreed with the GOP’s economic agenda but because of his policy of “help(ing) any policymaker who asks, whether they be a Republican or a Democrat.” According Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s chief economic advisor, Zandi was brought on to the campaign to provide instant analysis of economic news, not to set policy.

Democrats first began citing Zandi’s tenuous conservative credentials and support for government spending during the debate over Obama’s original stimulus plan. “I’m just saying what Mark Zandi from Moody’s, an adviser to John McCain, is saying: You have to have a package of this robustness if you’re going to make a difference,” then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a press conference in early 2009.

New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer had referred to him as a “conservative Republican” in an interview with Fox News the month before.

At the time, some in the GOP complained to the media that Democrats were getting away with implying Zandi was a Republican who backed their plans. “He’s doing a press call with Schumer today and he’s advising Democrats on this bill,” said one GOP staffer in an email to The Post, “but he’s always cited as a ‘former McCain adviser’ as if that means he’s a Republican endorsing the Democratic proposal.”

With the Obama administration pushing for a new round of stimulus spending, some conservative advocacy groups are pushing back on the Democrats’ assertion that Zandi is a right-leaning economist.

“Mark Zandi is a registered Democrat and an advocate of Keynesian economics,” says Barney Keller, a spokesman for the influential Club for Growth. “He’s about as conservative as Paul Krugman, and wrong just as often.”

Zandi could not be immediately reached for comment.

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Republican Debate: 3 Things that Surprised This Democrat (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | As a registered Democratic voter, I've never watched a Republican debate. So it was with trepidation that I tuned in to the Google-sponsored Republican debate on Thursday. The debate went pretty much as expected: Texas Gov. Rick Perry talked about job creation, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich reiterated his belief that "people should not get money for doing nothing" and Ron Paul reminded us all that he basically wants to get rid of the federal government.

But there were three things that stood out for me.

Michelle Bachman changed her tune on Gardasil. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., in attempting to make Rick Perry look bad, slammed the governor for signing an order that required middle-school girls in Texas to get vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Bachmann claimed the vaccine, Gardasil, was linked to mental retardation, a claim which medical experts dismissed as bunk, according to the Associated Press. When asked about her assertion that the vaccine was dangerous, Bachmann said, "I didn't make that claim nor did I make that statement."

Herman Cain wants a national sales tax. His so-called 9-9-9 plan proposes a nine percent business flat tax, a nine percent personal income tax and a nine percent national sales tax, also known as a Value Added Tax (VAT). This is surprising to me because many countries in Europe, Sweden for example, countries that some Republicans might call "socialist," have a VAT.

The crowd booed a U.S. soldier. Openly gay soldier Stephen Hill, who is currently serving in Iraq, asked the potential candidates their feelings on the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Some members of the crowd loudly booed the soldier. Instead of thanking the Hill for his service to our country and reprimanding the crowd for being disrespectful, former senator Rick Santorum answered the question by saying, "Sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military," and that, if given the chance, he would reinstate the policy because it gives gay soldiers some unnamed "special privilege."

Did watching this debate make me want to vote Republican? Absolutely not, but it did show me exactly who President Barack Obama will be up against. The responses to the questions were basically what I expected -- canned, safe and extremely conservative--but it was the moments in between the questions that truly showed what this field of Republican presidential hopefuls are about.

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Republican legal group files ethics complaint against Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Daily Caller)

Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida is the subject of a new ethics complaint filed in the Office of Congressional Ethics. The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) filed the complaint in response to a video the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which Wasserman Schultz chairs, released last week.

As The Daily Caller previously reported, the DNC ad promoting President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act appeared to violate House ethics rules that prevent footage of floor proceedings from being used for political purposes. The 30-second ad, however, featured only footage of the president’s recent speech to a joint session of Congress — not speeches of members of Congress themselves.

Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem for the DNC. But since Wasserman Schultz is a member of Congress, some say the House ethics rules now apply to the DNC.

“This carefully orchestrated political campaign is consistent with a disturbing pattern of President Obama’s misuse of official resources for political purposes,” read the RNLA’s complaint. “Now it appears he has not only misused the resources of his own office, but he has engaged Representative Wasserman Schultz in the misuse of coverage of House proceedings, in direct violation of her ethical duties as a Member of Congress.”

The rule in question is House Rule 5, clause 2(c)(1), which says, “Broadcast coverage and recordings of House floor proceedings may not be used for any political purpose.”

Additionally, House Rule 11, clause 4(b) says that “radio and television tapes and film of any coverage of House committee proceedings may not be use, or made available for use, as partisan political campaign material to promote or oppose the candidacy of any person for public office.” (RELATED: Does a new DNC ad violate House ethics rules?

According to the Office of Congressional Ethics website, once a complaint is filed, two board members may conduct a preliminary review – a process that takes 30 days – to determine if all information available provides a reasonable basis that a violation occurred.

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Democrats launch massive ad campaign against Republican Medicare position (Daily Caller)

The Democrats’ “super” PAC launched a six-figure ad campaign Monday, just months after accepting sizable donations from wealthy liberals including that scorn of the right, George Soros.

The House Majority PAC’s radio ads will cover familiar ground for Democrats: attacking Republican congressmen for their votes in favor of Paul Ryan’s controversial budget plan that would significantly overhaul Medicare. The ads will also focus on Republicans’ personal spending and tax cuts for corporations.

The ads will target two Republicans in Arkansas, as well as Rep. Steve King in Iowa, New Hampshire’s Charlie Bass, and House members in Nevada, Illinois and Minnesota. The 30-second spot against Colorado’s Scott Tipton offers a glimpse of continued nationwide attacks on vulnerable GOP lawmakers, as Democrats hope to win back the House majority they lost in 2010.

Listen:

This is the second round of attacks from the super PAC, which recently received some hefty backing from Soros and others during last month’s special election in New York. The billionaire liberal philanthropist gave the group $75,000, which contributed to the $800,000 the House Majority PAC raised in the two months before Democrat Kathy Hochul won the seat, according to Politico. Formed after the recent Citizens United Supreme Court decision, super PACs allow for the raising of unlimited funds.

Extensive as the liberal PAC’s financial prowess is, it pales in comparison to Karl Rove’s conservative American Crossroads, which launched its $5 million dollar campaign today. The conservative ads focus on Obama’s biggest Achilles’ heel: his stay-the-course policies amidst a still-floundering economy.Read more stories from The Daily Caller

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DNC video lambasts Republican candidates at New Hampshire debate (Daily Caller)

The Democratic National Committee’s “rapid response” team lived up to its name today, with a morning-after video of the Republican debate in New Hampshire.

And nothing makes Republican politicians look dumber than splicing together 30 seconds of footage from a two-hour debate, unless some of footage is taken completely out of context that is.

(No Mitt Romney feeding frenzy; Pawlenty refuses to attack)

“The Republicans met to talk about the most pressing issues facing our country …” begins the video. What follows is quick footage of Herman Cain saying “I do not believe in Sharia law in American courts.” Cain was trying to clarify his previous statements on Muslims and Sharia law. Cain doesn’t help himself by continuing with the fringe claim that Muslims may be trying to hijack entire states.

WATCH:

Next on the hit list is former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty who said, “I support a constitutional amendment to define marriage between a man and woman.” It’s a Republican primary so this answer shouldn’t be too surprising. But it comes after the accusation that the phrase “middle class” was never used. But it would seem Republicans don’t believe in class-ism the way Democrats do. Rick Santorum prefers the phrase “middle of America,” which he used three times. And the issue of lower-middle-class jobs did in fact come up a lot; odd, since there haven’t really been any in a few years.

Pawlenty got hit again with footage of him calling Sarah Palin a “remarkable leader.” Taken in context, however, — she was being compared to Geronimo Joe Biden — that’s not an incredible statement.

Mitt Romney got called out for saying he would repeal “ObamaCare,” though he was defending himself against Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who not only had an amazing performance but more surprisingly wasn’t featured in the video, despite being a favorite target of Democrats.

The cruelest — and least honest — swipe came at the expense of Newt Gingrich and his campaign of one.

“But at least one candidate had a vision of the future …” flashed on the screen before Gingrich appeared to be caught giving away the plot of James Bond’s Moonraker.

” … we would today probably have a permanent station on the moon, three or four permanent stations in space, a new generation of lift vehicles.”

What’s lost is the context of the sentence’s previous clause: “If you take all the money we’ve spent at NASA since we landed on the moon and you had applied that money for incentives to the private sector …”

The massive money black hole that is NASA has been well documented for years, while modern-day Howard Hughes are ready to rock and roll with commercial space flights have been grounded thanks to bureaucratic regulations and general lethargy.

Meanwhile, Gary Johnson was spared any ridicule as he was not even allowed at the debate.

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