By: Zack Stanton – politico.com – January 23, 2018 Tony Perkins head of the Family Research Council says that evangelicals are willing to overlook Trump’s past behavior so long as he delivers for them on policy. Donald Trump is still the answer to many conservative evangelical leaders’ prayers. Or at least to their continuing grievances. They embrace Trump the policymaker,...

By: Scott Wong – thehill.com – January 18, 2018 Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) delivered a stern warning to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his fellow Senate Democrats on Thursday night, minutes after the House voted to avert a government shutdown. “Sen. Schumer, do not shut down the federal government. Do not jeopardize funding for our military and for our...

By: Haley Byrd – weeklystandard.com – January 17, 2018 Republicans are scrambling to pass a short-term spending bill to keep the government up and running, just 72 hours before a shutdown deadline. House Republicans revealed their strategy for the stopgap funding bill during a GOP conference meeting Tuesday night, and they plan to whip support for the measure throughout the...

By: Ed Stetzer – washingtonpost.com – January 12, 2018 When my ancestors came to America from Ireland, they left what many people considered a “s‑‑‑hole” country. A potato famine, combined with Ireland’s bad reputation in much of Europe, led many to call for an end to the immigration of the unwashed Irish. “Filthy,” they called my family. But, let’s face it,...

By: Thomas Kaplan, Noah Weiland and Michael D. Shear – nytimes.com –  January 14, 2018 After three days of denunciations from around the world, President Trump declared that he is “not a racist” on Sunday, even as the uproar over his vulgar remarks on immigration overshadowed critical issues facing the capital, including efforts to protect young undocumented immigrants and avert...

By: Victor Davis Hanson – nationalreview.com – January 11, 2018 By cutting off hundreds of millions in American aid to the Palestinian Authority, President Trump could radically alter the Middle East. President Trump set off another Twitter firestorm last week when he hinted that he may be considering cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in annual U.S. aid to...

By: Lauretta Brown – townhall.com – January 10, 2018 A record number of Republicans are leaving the House of Representatives in 2018, either to retire or to seek higher office. A total of 31 House Republicans will not be running for re-election in 2018 with Rep Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) retirement announcement Wednesday. There are different factors going into each member’s retirement...

David Brooks – nytimes.com – JAN. 8, 2018 The quality of the opposition is deteriorating. Let me start with three inconvenient observations, based on dozens of conversations around Washington over the past year: First, people who go into the White House to have a meeting with President Trump usually leave pleasantly surprised. They find that Trump is not the raving...

By: Catherine Lucey - washingtonpost.com – January 10, 2018 President Winfrey? No way, says political prognosticator Donald Trump. “I’ll beat Oprah,” the president declared flatly at a White House meeting Tuesday — though he quickly added, “I don’t think she’s going to run.” Asked about all the presidential speculation suddenly swirling around Winfrey, the typically pugilistic Trump steered clear of nasty...

By: Seung Min Kim, Heather Caygle, Ted Hesson and Rachel Bade – politico.com – January 9, 2018 President Donald Trump’s freewheeling, televised — and, at times, incoherent — immigration meeting with lawmakers Tuesday accomplished one thing at least, according to attendees: They agreed on what they would try to agree on. Yet even that tentative outline is prompting pushback from...