Gowdy In The Hot Seat, Ala. Forces Poor Offenders To Pay In Blood, and Ryan Open To Speakership

By db

October 21, 2015 9:27 a.m.

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October 21, 2015

The Gist: Just one day before Hillary Clinton is due to testify before the committee, it’s Chairman Gowdy who finds himself in the hot seat.

Senate Dems Want The RNC To Pay For The Benghazi Committee

The Gist: In a letter to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Senate Democrats demanded that the Republican party cover the costs of the House committee on Benghazi.

Rep. Paul Ryan To Seek Speakership If He’s ‘Unity Candidate’ Of Party

The Gist: The Wisconsin congressman said in a statement that as long as he is a unifying candidate, he “will be all in.”

From The Reporter’s Notebook

As Tierney Sneed reported Tuesday, Heritage Action urged Republicans to vote “no” on a Obamacare repeal measure because it only targeted some aspects of the law. It would be vetoed by the president, regardless, but conservatives see the effort as a test run assuming a Republican taking the White House after 2016. They fear a partial repeal attempt now will mean GOP lawmakers will only try to repeal Obamacare partially when they have a president who will sign it.

Agree or Disagree?

Ed Kilgore writes that if there is any room for an independent candidate in the 2016 race, indie voters are “not sitting there in the middle of the road where earnest centrists tend to sit until they are run over by fast-moving ideologues.” Instead, they are “actively alienated from both parties not because the Democratic and Republican parties are ‘extreme’ but because they tend to exclude points of view deemed incompatible by the parties—but not by these voters.”

Say What?!

“I just don’t like the guy.”

– George W. Bush is not a big Ted Cruz fan.

BUZZING: Today in the Hive

From a TPM Prime member: “I think Trump ’16 ends when he gets Cosbied. I just have a sneaky suspicion that women are out there that he’s taken advantage of, and that some of them have stories to tell about not being completely willing partners. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that democratic operatives already have this teed up, and are waiting to use it during a post-convention campaign, should it be needed.”

Related: Trump has made multiple jokes about dating his daughter Ivanka.

Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.

What We’re Reading

For offenders who can’t pay, it’s a pint of blood or jail time. (The New York Times)

Jim Webb and the curse of the 2008 VP candidates. (Mother Jones)

To understand everything wrong with American healthcare, look to a horrifying trend in amputation. (The Morning News)

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