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How Many More Republicans Will Be Forced To Resign In Scandal This Month?

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Across the country, several Republican lawmakers, politicians, and their operatives have been forced to resign amid scandal this month, as the “family values” “fiscal conservative” party shed their anti-gay politicians because they were caught violating their marital vows or fiscal responsibilities — or just plain did stupid things.

In Minesota, the Senate Majority leader who successfully led the GOP fight to get a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage onto the ballot just resigned her leadership post after she — a married mother of one — was caught having an affair with a state senate staffer. Amy Koch, in stepping down as Minnesota Senate Majority Leader also announced she will not seek re-election, though she will serve out her term. Koch has held the valued leadership position for only one year.

“It was gratifying. We did wonderful things. It was exhausting. I think you just know when it is time to let someone else have the reins, and it’s time,” she said, according to the Minnesota Star-Ledger, which conveniently forgot to mention Koch’s affair until later in the day, confirming the staffer in question was male.

The local St. Paul Fox News station did mention the affair, quoting a fellow Republican Senator:

He said he doesn’t know how long the relationship was going on and legally cannot discuss the name of the Senate staffer involved with Sen. Koch. The Edina senator could only specify that it was “inappropriate” a “conflict of interest” and created an “unstable work environment for staff.”

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch’s abrupt resignation follows the abrupt resignation of Minnesota’s Republican state party chair earlier this month. Tony Sutton resigned after it was discovered the Minnesota Republican Party was  $581,000  in debt. Oh, scratch that. A new report states, “the party is likely more than $1 million in debt.” So much for fiscal conservatism.

Then there’s Mississippi conservative family values Republican Mayor Greg Davis, who “admitted this week that he was gay after an audit revealed that he spent taxpayer money at a gay adult store in Canada,” according to The Raw Story:

“At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case,” the mayor, now in his third term, told The Commercial Appeal.

“While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual — and still continue to be a very conservative individual — I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay,” he added.

Davis claimed that he has already paid $96,000 of the of more than $170,000 in expenses that state officials allege he improperly billed the city for.

Thousands of dollars were spent on lavish meals and liquor, but it’s a $67 charge that Davis made to Priape, “Canada’s premiere gay lifestyle store and sex shop,” while on a recruiting trip that has gotten the most attention.

The mayor said that he didn’t remember what he bought while at the shop.

Davis has not resigned, but he also hasn’t decided if he’ll run for office again.

Earlier this week, Newt Gingrich accepted the resignation his new political director in Iowa, Craig Bergman, after he had told a focus group, before being hired by Gingrich, that, “A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon. There’s a thousand pastors ready to do that,” according to Reuters.

Earlier this month, the Republican mayor of Medford, New Jersey, resigned after denying claims he had hired a male prostitute.

The New York Daily News reported:

Republican Chris Myers, a married father of two, was scandalized in October on a website that accused him of hiring the escort, and published a photo of a man in his underwear who appeared to be Myers.

The accuser, who says he is the prostitute Myers paid $500 to rendezvous at a hotel in Newport Beach, said he made the story public because the politician did not fulfill promises that included a car and gifts.

And in Perry County, Pennsylvania, the treasurer-elect of the local Republican committee, Mary Reisinger, was censured after  it was revealed she neglected to reveal she was arrested for shoplifting.

Of course, let’s not forget the famous resignations of both Chris Barron and Andrew Breitbart from their posts at GOProud, the gay Tea Party group, and the decision by Herman Cain to “suspend” his presidential campaign, just two weeks ago.

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Judge Rebukes Trump Admin for Defying SNAP Payment Deadline

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A federal judge chastised the Trump administration for defying his order issued last week to fully distribute SNAP payments by Monday, or at least partially by Wednesday. The administration had said it would release 65 percent of the funds but offered no timeline for doing so.

Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island sharply rebuked the Trump administration “for what he said was defying his order to make full SNAP payments by Nov. 5,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported on Thursday. “He has ordered USDA to make the *full* payment to states by tomorrow.”

“It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” McConnell said, according to Cheney.

READ MORE: ‘Make Lots of Trump Babies’: Dr. Oz Highlights Midterm Goals

The judge alleged that “Trump and his allies have admitted to withholding SNAP benefits for ‘political reasons’ rather than to preserve child nutrition programs, which the judge said was a pretext,” Cheney also reported.

Judge McConnell cited a Truth Social post President Trump made in which he vowed to hold up the SNAP funds. The President wrote that food stamp benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

The White House later walked back the President’s remarks, claiming he was referring to any future shutdowns.

The judge “said Trump’s Truth Social post was essentially an admission of his ‘intent to defy the court order,'” according to Cheney.

“The defendants failed to consider the practical consequences associated with this decision to only partially fund SNAP,” McConnell said, according to the Associated Press. “They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial Snap payments and failed to consider the harms individual who rely on those benefits would suffer.”

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’

 

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‘Make Lots of Trump Babies’: Dr. Oz Highlights Midterm Goals

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shared a few of his goals for next year’s midterms with reporters.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, Oz promoted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform.

“We’ve dropped the [price of] infertility drugs to make lots of Trump babies — I’m hoping by the midterms,” he told reporters, as HuffPost reported.

READ MORE: ‘Clown Show’: House Dem Leader Slams ‘Divorced From Reality’ Senate GOP Head

Praising President Donald Trump’s plan to lower prices on popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs, Oz said, “America will have to get fit in order to rightsize the health care system.”

Dr. Oz has talked about making “Trump babies” before.

“Now I know what you’re all thinking, and you’re probably right, that there are going to be a lot of Trump babies,” Oz said in October at a White House event focused on making in vitro drugs more accessible. “I think that’s probably a good thing.”

“But it turns out the fundamental, creative force in society is about making babies,” he continued. “It’s about creating. And this country, the one that President Trump is leading so beautifully has been a country of abundance, not scarcity.”

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’

 

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‘Clown Show’: House Dem Leader Slams ‘Divorced From Reality’ Senate GOP Head

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As the federal government shutdown enters its 38th day with no end in sight, the Speaker of the House and the House Democratic Minority Leader appear united — on one aspect only: blaming the Senate.

Amid reports that a few Senate Democrats might agree to vote to reopen the government if Republicans guarantee a date-certain vote on restoring the Affordable Care Act subsidies, Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to attempt to scuttle that potential bargain on Thursday.

Asked if he would assure that the House would vote on restoring the Obamacare subsidy funding, which would be the basis of a Senate deal, Johnson refused.

READ MORE: ‘Really Hurting’: U.S. Job Cuts Surge to Decades-Level High Amid Trump Recession Fears

“No, because we did our job, and I’m not part of the negotiation,” the Speaker told reporters on Thursday. “The House did its job on September 19th” when it passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has effectively declared that legislation is dead, unless he can change the end date.

“I’m not promising anybody anything,” Johnson continued. “I’m gonna let this process play out.”

Over on the Democratic side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted the Senate Majority Leader.

“Not a partisan thing, a patriotic thing: We have to decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” Jeffries declared.

“And John Thune is divorced from reality,” he charged.

“I mean, it’s a clown show over in the Senate,” Jeffries continued.

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’ 

“Fourteen, fifteen times, you bring the same partisan Republican spending bill?” he said, referring to the House-passed continuing resolution that Leader Thune has been putting before the Senate several times a week.

“Expecting a different result? That’s the classic definition of legislative insanity. Doing the same thing, over and over and over again,” he said while blasting Thune, saying he “has no ability to actually negotiate in good faith.”

Weeks ago, Jeffries told MSNBC, “what I’m saying is that we need an ironclad path forward that decisively addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”

“In terms of the Affordable Care Act, you know, this is a group of people, Republicans, who have tried to repeal the Affordable Care more than 70 different times since 2010. They can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer. We need a real path forward to address the crisis that Republicans have visited upon the American people in terms of healthcare, the cost of living, and affordability.”

READ MORE: Trump to Talk About Cost of Living Next Year White House Says

 

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