Politco:
A seemingly innocuous tweet Monday from incoming National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Jerry Moran that was promptly deleted.
The scramble to get rid of the tweet — 6 minutes after it went up, according to the Sunlight Foundation’s Politwoops website — is a sign Moran is very quickly learning the hazards of his new job.
Between this week’s conservative pushback to West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito’s Senate bid and growing speculation about a primary challenge to Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Moran is getting a taste of what his NRSC successor, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, has had to deal with for the past two election cycles.
And keep in mind the conversation hasn’t even shifted yet to Sens. Susan Collins or Lindsey Graham or the others in the GOP conference who are being sized up for primary challenges.
The good news for Moran, however, is that there are some promising early signs for the GOP, among them the fact that a handful of Southern Senate seats will be up in a six-year-itch election and the prospect of Democratic retirements elsewhere.
Moran Pulls a Touchy Tweet
November 29, 2012
McCaskill Says McCain Skips Benghazi Briefing to Hold Benghazi News Conference
November 15, 2012
Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill says Arizona Senator John McCain skipped a top-secret Senate briefing on the Benghazi attack to hold a news conference on—Benghazi.
In an interview with KMBC TV, McCaskill says she and McCain sit on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
McCaskill says the Committee had a closed-door Benghazi briefing Wednesday morning, given by the Department of Defense, the Department of State and other intelligence agencies. McCaskill says McCain, however, was not at the meeting.
She says he was at another part of the Capitol giving a news conference. McCain says the Congress needs a special Select Committee to investigate what happened when the Benghazi consulate was attacked and the US Ambassador to Libya and three others were killed.
McCain’s staff told KMBC today his absence was due to “a scheduling error”.
Thursday, CNN reported McCain became irritated with a reporter who asked by he was not at the Homeland Security Committee hearing.
“When CNN approached McCain in a Capitol hallway Thursday morning, the senator refused to comment about why he missed the briefing, which was conducted by top diplomatic, military and counter-terrorism officials. Instead, McCain got testy when pressed to say why he wasn’t there.
“I have no comment about my schedule and I’m not going to comment on how I spend my time to the media,” McCain said.
Asked why he wouldn’t comment, McCain grew agitated: “Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment and who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?”
When CNN noted that McCain had missed a key meeting on a subject the senator has been intensely upset about, McCain said, “I’m upset that you keep badgering me.”
McCaskill says only two Republican Senators were at the entire secret briefing.
McCaskill opposes McCain plan for a Select Benghazi Committee. She thinks existing Congressional Committees can ask the same questions
Kansas Senator Jerry Moran’s staff says Moran arrived late to the Homeland Security session.Moran is also a member of the Homeland Security panel.
He was in the Republican Caucus leadership meeting.
Moran was elected to lead the Republican Senate Campaign Committee for the next two years. His office says that leadership election process ran overtime.
Moran Named to Key GOP Campaign Post
November 14, 2012
Kansas freshman Senir Jerry Moran us about to have his Repuican profile raised.
Moran gas been named the Chair of the Relublican Senatorial Campaign Committee. That’s job that puts him at the head of the GOP effort to retake control of the Senate in 2014.
In a brief statement on Twitter, Moran said, ” I pledge to rebuild our Senate Majority and help elect candidatwho can turn out country around.”
THE NRSC plated a key role in Missouri’s 2012 Senate race.
The Republican Senate campaign pulled $5 million it intended to spend on the Missouri campaign. That took place after GOP nominee Todd Akin’s controversial remark about “legitimate rape”.
Ohio Senator Rob Portman, who chose not to rung for the NRSC top job, will lead the group’s fundraising effort.
Roll Call reports there was some grumbling about Moran’s choice. It is due to the fact that Kansas is not considered a fertile source of Republican fund raising dollars.
Taxes freshman Senator-elect Ted Crus, a Tea Party favorite, will lead grass roots organizing.
Moran Told There May Be More Investigations Underway into GSA Spending
April 19, 2012
An Inspector General for the troubled General Services Administration (GSA) told Kansas Senator Jerry Moran there may be more than one investigation underway into the GSA.
Genera Brian Miller testified at the Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee meeting Wednesday.
The GSA is under intense scrutiny after it was revealed top administrators threw a lavish Las Vegas party for GSA officials from its western regions. The 2010 4-day conference cost more than $800,00 in taxpayer money.
After the scandal broke, GSA Administrator Martha Johnson resigned and some other top officials were fired.
Moran asked General Miller how many GSA investigation were underway.
Miller indicates the Western Conference party may not be the only one.
“It’s a little difficult because, as I said in my opening statement, every time we turn over a stone, we find 50 more – and we find other instances. You know, even today, we found out that the wife of the regional commissioner had a parking space throughout the year of 2012 at the federal building,”,Miller said.
He added, “We did report on western regions conference, and we have a number of ongoing investigations”.
Miller also told the committee they were working with the Department of justice to see if there any possibility of criminal indictments stemming from the Las Vegas party.
Miller says the results of some of the other investigations have not be released yet.
Obama Appoints Financial Regulator, Morans Blasts the Pick
July 18, 2011
Politico reports, President Obama has selected former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead the embattled Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Obama will make the announcement Monday from the White House. The report first appeared Sunday in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.
Cordray, 52, currently serves as the director of enforcement for the Bureau, and has been among names discussed for the position, although he has largely been absent from the public rumor mill surrounding the nomination in recent weeks.
“Richard Cordray has spent his career advocating for middle-class families, from his tenure as Ohio’s attorney general, to his most recent role as heading up the enforcement division at the [Bureau] and looking out for ordinary people in our financial system,” Obama said in a statement.
In the newspaper report, Elizabeth Warren endorsed Cordray’s nomination, even though she was not ultimately nominated to lead the agency that she has been credited with proposing.
But even before the nomination was made official, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran blasted the pick in a Sunday afternoon news release.
“Today’s announcement, nearly 12 months after the President created this new agency, does nothing to increase transparency or accountability,” Sen. Moran said. “I along with 43 of my Senate colleagues have made our intentions quite clear, but the Administration has yet to respond to our May 5th letter calling for the Bureau’s leadership structure to be strengthened. I fear today’s decision is just the beginning of an end-run around Congress. I would urge the President to put the best interests of consumers ahead of politics and seriously consider my proposal.”
