Today at TPMPrime we’re discussing Republican plans to rig the electoral college to keep competitive even with a shrinking voter base.

One of the difficulties of the debt ceiling hostage dramas is that the mechanics are not readily understood. That makes public opinion squishy and tends to enable destructive behavior. But the public seems to be getting it this time. 58% of respondents in the new WaPo/ABC poll say the debt ceiling shouldn’t be held hostage to spending cuts, 36% say it should.

When the New Hampshire Union Leader tells the House Republicans, Guys, don’t be nuts on this debt ceiling thing, you know Boehner and the House firebreathers are losing. Read More

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the top filibuster reform supporter in the Senate, is answering your questions right now in a TPMPrime Live Chat. Join us.

We’re talking about whether Senate Democrats are going to push forward with deep or more modest filibuster reform. Here’s an update on the issues in play from Sahil Kapur from earlier this week.

A growing number of Republicans seems to have concluded that the risk of a debt ceiling hostage caper outweighs the potential gains.

It takes a lot for the NRA to shock. But this is just beyond disgusting. The NRA has launched a new ad campaign calling President Obama a ‘hypocrite’ for allowing armed Secret Service agents to protect his school aged daughters.

There are so many vile things about this ad. But one thing to note is the ad is really only designed to appeal to people who have a deep — really deep — animosity toward the President. The sort of people who don’t think he and his daughters should be in the White House and wish him the sort of ill citizens should never wish upon a freely elected head of state.

Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns tells TPM: “At some point the NRA’s Washington lobbyists may realize that this kind of thing is making them irrelevant. It does nothing but offend the reasonable people who make up the bulk of their country – and the bulk of their own membership.”

The White House is declining comment on the ad.

Oregon Sheriff decides he’ll decide what new national gun regulations do and don’t violate the constitution and won’t permit them to be enforced in his Sheriffdom. Read More

So what’s happening with Filibuster Reform? If you’ve been following the news here at TPM it was looking good and it still seems like something will happen. There’s a core of very strong advocates for changing the filibuster, centered around Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) of Oregon. There are various details. But the gist of his plan is the so-called ‘talking filibuster’. The minority can still hold things up but you really have to talk on the floor to do it. So it’s visible and conspicuous. Now though Harry Reid is expressing support for a more limited set of changes that proponents like Sen. Merkley, Udall, Warren and others say doesn’t go far enough. It all comes down to the wire early next week. Because these changes can in practice only be made by a majority vote at the beginning of a new Congress. So it happens next week or there’s not another chance until 2015.

I’m very interested to find out what’s happening here, what’s going to happen, who’s supporting and who’s not. So tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM eastern, Sen. Merkley is going to join us for a TPMPrime Live Chat to answer your questions about the state of play. Get your questions in now.

It wasn’t so long ago, coming off a bruising presidential election, that Republicans were looking at ways to increase vote percentages among younger and minority voters to remain a contender in national elections. But it appears professional Republicans have decided that’s either impossible, unnecessary or perhaps just too hard. Because now they’re going for another possibility: rig the electoral college to insure Republican presidential victories with a decreasing voter base.

In other words, nuclear gerrymandering. Read More

Momentum for wingnut fantasy impeachment grows: Now on the bandwagon: Reagan confidante and Attorney General Ed Meese.