Shawn Griffiths1. State director for Oregon's Working Families Party explains why his organization endorsed the state's top-two primary initiative.
"As a minor political party we understand as intimately as anyone that election rules matter, and as an organization with a fundamental belief that change comes from the bottom up, we believe that progressive change can only be accomplished if we fundamentally change the game on our broken elections system."
Steve Hughes, the state director of Oregon's Working Families Party, adds that the organization believes the initiative not only protects, but enhances their ability to have meaningful participation in selecting elected officials.
2. Joe Lieberman says he is concerned about the growing "neo-isolationism' in both the Republican and Democratic parties.
“The world suffers and the American people suffer eventually both in terms of our security and our prosperity—and ultimately our freedom—if we’re not engaged in problems elsewhere,” he says
Lieberman said he has not made a decision on who he will endorse in 2016, but he is concerned about the rise of U.S. Senator Rand Paul. Though he was once a Democrat, he has since become an independent and endorsed John McCain in 2008 over Barack Obama.
3. The most vulnerable Senate Democrats are asking President Obama to slow down on immigration.
Obama is locked between a progressive base demanding aggressive action and voters in conservative states that will decide the fate of the Senate and hold outsized importance in shaping the final two years of his presidency. The White House is weighing how far it can go, legally and politically, in delaying deportations for millions of undocumented immigrants.
Just one more example of election politics being put ahead of real, practical reform.
4. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) calls impeachment talk a "ridiculous gambit" during Christian Science Monitor breakfast.
The president's actions don't warrant impeachment, he said, because they do "not rise to the high crimes and misdemeanor level” required by the Constitution. The House is expected to vote on a resolution to sue the president on Wednesday.
Speculation is rising that Ryan is going to run in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. Ryan does support suing the Obama administration.