War On Christmas

The Biggest Battles In This Year's War On Christmas

Rachel Slajda | December 24, 2010, 8:53AM

Every year, there is a war that rages throughout the nation. The 76 percent of Americans who call themselves Christian face a nearly existential threat from the myriad forces that come together to conspire against them. This year, the battles raged on, and TPM was there to document them.

This, friends, is the story of the War on Christmas 2010.

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Conservative Leadership Summit

Conservative Movement Leaders Discuss 2011 Agenda Behind Closed Doors

Ryan J. Reilly | November 11, 2010, 3:30PM

Another indicator of the changing of the guard in Washington came yesterday as dozens of representatives and leaders from conservative groups convened for a private meeting in the suburbs of Virginia. Representatives of a wide variety of Tea Party groups, mainstream conservative think tanks and right-wing media outlets came together to talk about the future of the conservative movement, TPMmuckraker has learned.

The agenda indicates that they attempted to hash out some of their priorities for the legislative agenda in the upcoming Congress, which will feature a GOP-controlled House for the first time in four years.

The hush-hush meeting was sponsored by the Conservative Action Project (CAP), an offshoot of the Council for National Policy.

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Jim DeMint

DeMint: Sexually Active Unmarried Women And Gay Teachers Should Be Barred From Classrooms

Ryan J. Reilly | October 4, 2010, 2:37PM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says that even though "no one" came to his defense in 2004 after he said that gay people and unwed mothers should be banned from teaching, "everyone" quietly told him that he shouldn't back down from his position.

He also implied that not banning gay people and women who have sex before marriage from teaching would be an attack on Christians, and defended his position on banning gay teachers because he holds the same position on women who have sex outside of marriage.

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Health Care

Republican AGs Cycle Through Thin Constitutional Arguments Against Health Bill

Justin Elliott | December 29, 2009, 5:40PM

Attorneys General John Suthers of Colorado and Henry McMaster of South Carolina

The group of Republican state attorneys general waging a public campaign against the Nebraska Medicaid provision in the Senate health bill appear to be scrambling to come up with a valid constitutional argument, already discarding one obscure objection and coming up with two new arguments -- which legal experts say are still flimsy.

When the effort was first announced last week, the Republican AGs  stuck to vague language about the (undisputed) unfairness of the "Cornhusker Kickback." Now, they've begun to do more research, or perhaps get more advice, and the result has been no less than three successive arguments against the measure.

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Health Care

Law Prof: GOP State AGs' Objection To Health Bill Is 'Crazy Talk'

Justin Elliott | December 28, 2009, 1:03PM

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC)

The arguments of a group of Republican state attorneys general who are talking up a constitutional challenge to the "Cornhusker Kickback" provision of the health care bill are "strictly political" and do not have legal merit, a law professor tells TPMmuckraker.

"If a private individual brought the suit, the court might assess a fine for bringing a frivolous suit," says Timothy Jost, a health law specialist at the Washington and Lee University School of Law who favors the reform bill.

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Health Care

GOP State AGs Prepare To Challenge Health Care Provision

Justin Elliott | December 24, 2009, 9:50AM

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster

Here's one that bears watching in the new year ...

South Carolina's attorney general is leading nine other state AGs -- all Republicans -- in threatening to sue over the provision of the health care bill that exempts Nebraska from new Medicaid costs, a measure secured by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE).

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C Street

C Street House No Longer Tax Exempt

Zachary Roth | November 17, 2009, 1:40PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)

Residents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house's owners to avoid paying property taxes.

Previously, the house -- despite being home to numerous lawmakers -- had been tax exempt, because it was classified as a church. That arrangement had allowed the building's owner, the secretive international Christian organization The Family, to charge significantly below market rents to its residents. In recent year, Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) have all reportedly called C Street home.

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