All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Members of the Republican National Committee are pushing a resolution built on "conservative principles and public policies" and opposition to "Obama's socialist agenda" that Republican candidates would have to largely accept and adopt if they want the party's support.

The New York Times reports that ten RNC members have signed onto the resolution, which was circulated today. It contains ten principles, among them support for the Defense of Marriage Act, gun rights and "military-recommended troop surges" in Iraq and Afghanistan; opposition to President Obama's health care reform efforts, cap and trade legislation, a card check bill and amnesty for illegal immigrants; and support for "smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes."

Any Republican who breaks with more than two of the ten principles, the resolution says, would be denied

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Updated at 10:45 a.m. ET with reaction from RNC Chair Michael Steele.

The Republican National Committee offers its employees insurance coverage for elective abortions, the Politico reports. That’s a seeming contradiction to the party platform and the GOP’s current position on an abortion amendment added to the House health care bill.

The GOP platform calls elective abortion "a fundamental assault on innocent human life," according to Politico.

RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho reportedly said the policy has been in effect since 1991, long before current RNC Chairman Michael Steele assumed his leadership role. Upon learning of the coverage in their insurance plan, Steele instructed the RNC to opt out of any coverage for elective abortion services.

"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," Steele said in a statement. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."

Originally, the RNC chose not to opt out of abortion coverage, Cigna representatives told Politico.

Almost every single Republican in the House of Representatives voted in favor of an amendment to the Democrats' health care bill, offered by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.), that explicitly prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for plans that cover abortion. It also effectively limits private insurers from being able to offer abortion coverage within the proposed national health insurance exchange. The amendment passed with some Democratic support.

The only Republican who bucked the party and voted "present" on the amendment did so in an attempt to foil the overall health care bill's chances of passage.

"We believe in the sanctity of life, and the Stupak-Pitts Amendment addresses a moral issue of the utmost concern," House GOP leaders John Boehner (R-Ohio), Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said in a statement after the vote. "It will limit abortion in the United States. Because of this, while we strongly and deeply oppose the underlying bill, we decided to stand with Life and support Stupak-Pitts."

The head of the Republican National Committee today unveiled a "Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights," claiming that the GOP's first priority in health care reform is protecting seniors.

"The Democrats' plan will hurt American families, small businesses and health-care providers by raising care costs, increasing the deficit, and not allowing patients to keep a doctor or insurance plan of their choice," RNC Chairman Michael Steele wrote today in the Washington Post. "Furthermore, under the Democrats' plan, senior citizens will pay a steeper price and will have their treatment options reduced or rationed."

While Democrats have proposed making cuts to Medicare, President Obama has insisted that the cuts will come from waste in the system -- and that benefits for seniors will not be reduced.

Steele attacks the president's proposal to have a commission of experts evaluate Medicare payment rates, as well as his proposal to eliminate subsidies to insurance companies participating in Medicare Advantage.

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The Republican National Committee launched an offensive against President Obama's government-run health insurance option, with a television ad that will be broadcasted in select markets in Arkansas, Nevada and North Dakota.

Titled "The Grand Experiment," the 30-second ad labels Mr. Obama's proposed reform as a “risky experiment with our health care,” saying that such a program will drive up the nation’s debt while unemployment rates remain at historic highs.

Dubbing the stimulus package as the "the biggest spending spree in our nation's history," the ad claims that the next generation will be forced to pay for new health care spending.

Children are seen in the background of the video with a voice-over stating, " they’ve loaned Barack Obama their future, without even knowing it. Trillions for rushed government bailouts and takeovers, banks, the auto industry.”

In addition to the ad launch, RNC Chairman Michael Steele strongly criticized the president's health care plan at the National Press Club this morning today, calling Mr. Obama's plan "socialism."

"Obama-Pelosi want to start building a colossal, closed health care system where Washington decides. Republicans want and support an open health care system where patients and doctors make the decisions," Steele said.

The video is accompanied by a RNC Web site, the Barack Obama Experiment website, aimed at raising opposition to Mr. Obama's health care reform. On the Web site, Steele describes the president's plan as proposing "more debt, more risk, and more experimentation."

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As Democrats and Republicans argue over the components of health care reform on Capitol Hill, their respective party organizations are taking the fight directly to the public.

The Republican National Committee today unveiled an ad targeting President Obama's health care agenda.

"President Obama talks about a 'public option,'" the ad says. "When he says 'public option,' that means putting government bureaucrats in charge... instead of patients and their doctors."

The RNC would not disclose to Hotsheet the amount it is spending to run the ad, but the 60-second spot will air on select national cable outlets on Wednesday. It is timed with Mr. Obama's prime-time ABC interview about health care.

"Today a national TV network turns its airwaves over to President Obama’s pitch for government-run health care," the narrator complains in the RNC spot.

Meanwhile, the political arm of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, has launched Health Care Stories For America, a database full of hundreds of thousands of stories about American citizens and businesses that have been burdened by rising health care costs. The database is searchable by location and invites visitors to input their own stories. It also allows visitors to "amplify" stories they like, so others browsing the database will be more likely to see it.

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The economic stimulus package – also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – turns 100 days old today, and the Obama administration is marking the occasion in two ways.

The first is a speech by the president at 2:40 ET in Nevada "on the important early investments included in the Recovery Act." And the second is a just-released report on the results of the $787 billion piece of legislation, from Vice President Joe Biden.

In the report, the administration argues that the stimulus package has already created or saved 150,000 jobs – though it should be noted that jobs "created or saved" is a notoriously difficult figure to measure. It also says that $112 billion in money from the package has been "obligated" to programs and projects so far.

The Republican National Committee, unsurprisingly, is not impressed by these figures: It sent a "research briefing" to reporters arguing that "after 100 days, the stimulus has produced waste and fraud, but no jobs."

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The Republican National Committee released a video (see below) that draws a connection between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Pussy Galore , a character in the 1964 James Bond movie, “Goldfinger.” The 1.38-second video deals with Pelosi’s accusation from May 14 that the CIA and Bush administration misled her about waterboarding detainees, and attempts to equate the 69-year-old Congresswoman with the fictional Ms. Galore, who was part of the Goldfinger’s evil gang intent on robbing Fort Knox of all its gold.

The RNC’s tasteless video isn’t going over well in the Beltway. Politico reports that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was offensive and not in the best interest of the Republican party:

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After backtracking last month from comments that conservative talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh was "incendiary" and a mere "entertainer," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is following the firebrand host's lead on the latest issue dogging the GOP.

When asked on CBS' The Early Show Thursday whether his view of Arlen Specter's defection to the Democrats mirrored Sen. Olympia Snowe's (regret) or Limbaugh's (good riddance), Steele was quick to side with the controversial radio host.

"Rush. I'm sorry, I'm not weeping here."

Steele called Specter's maneuver a "cold, crass political calculation by a senator who could not get reelected through a nominating process in the Republican party."

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In an interview with the Washington Times, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said he was planning a public relations effort to bring a message of conservative principles “to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

Steele said his new public relations team will “come to table with things that will surprise everyone - off the hook.”

Steele, who is the RNC’s first black chair, told the newspaper that his party will use the Internet and advertising to reach out to young voters, blacks and Hispanics.

“We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section,” he said. “... We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

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Michael Steele has become the first African-American chair of the Republican National Committee.

"We've been misdefined as a party that doesn't care" about minorities and average Americans, Steele said. "Nothing can be further from the truth."

Read all about it here.