McCaskill Says Dems Don’t Need Obama To Win 2014 Races February 12, 2014

KC Star:
You want some straight talk?

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill has some straight talk for you.

If she was up for re-election this year, she wouldn’t campaign alongside President Barack Obama, she said Tuesday morning.

Why? His poll numbers are lousy in Missouri. And they aren’t good in Arkansas, North Carolina and Louisiana where Democrats are seeking re-election this year.

“You know, probably not,”McCaskill said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” when asked if she would campaign with Obama this year. “I’m trying to be really candid and honest on this show. You know, the president’s numbers are not strong in my state, or in Arkansas, or Louisiana, or North Carolina. He did not win those states when he ran for reelection in 2012.”

She insisted, though, that Democrats continue to have a good shot at retaining control of the Senate after this year’s mid-term elections.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t win. These candidates in those states are strong candidates,” McCaskill said. “They have been an independent voice for their states. They know how to stay on offense. … I think this issue of whether or not you have Obama come to your state is something you like to focus on in Washington that probably is not that important when you get out to these states.
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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/11/4814697/mccaskill-if-i-was-running-this.html#storylink=cpy

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McCaskill Says Missouri Voters May Think All Politicians Are Crazy September 25, 2013

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill says she is not surprised that many
Missourians think all Washington politicians are crazy.
“I think frankly most of the voters in my state think we all lost our minds and they are not big fans of any of us,” McCaskill said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program Wednesday according to Politico.
“We’ve got a bunch of people in my state that … think we’re all crazy,” she added.
McCaskill’s remark came after she was asked about President Obama’s slipping poll numbers.
She also criticized Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s all-night Senate speech against the President’s health
care plan, often called ‘Obamacare’.
McCaskill thinks Cruz is just drawing attention to himself.
She said Cruz’ reading of the Dr. Seuss classic ‘Green Eggs and Ham’, misses the point.
Cruz said he he read the story on the Senate floor as part of his speech as a bedtime story to his children at home.
McCaskill said Cruz’ use of the story misses the point.
“My daughter texted me this morning and said, ‘Mom, does he not know the point of the story?’ It’s that you can’t knock things until you try it, which is ironic that he used it in the filibuster,” the Missouri Democrat said, according to Politico.

Huelskamp & Scarborough Spar on Air Over Gun Control December 21, 2012

Politco:
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough confronted Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp on-air Friday, after the Republican lawmaker charged that President Barack Obama and his allies were politicizing the Newtown massacre by pushing for additional gun control.
“Will that solve the problem?” Huelskamp said when asked about an assault weapons ban. “I don’t believe so. It’s not a gun problem, it’s a people problem. It’s a cultural problem.”
CoHuelskamp said “this president and his people” were politicizing the tragedy.
Scarborough, a former Republican House member from Florida who had opened his show on Monday with an impassioned plea for gun control, said that refusing to change gun laws after Newtown was akin to not changing American policy after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Let’s talk about September 11th, congressman,” Scarborough said. “Were there some changes made in this country because of the tragedy of September 11th? Was that just using a tragedy, 3,000 deaths, to try to make Americans safer? Do you dare come on my show and say I am using the slaughter of 20 little six and seven-year-old children, I’m using that for political purposes, Tim?”
“Joe, how many children do you have?” Huelskamp asked.
“I’ve got four children, Tim,” Scarborough retorted. “Answer my question.
“So do I,” the Kansan said. “And I refuse to let you say that because you have children, or anybody else, that we need to actually politicize this.”
Huelskamp said he wasn’t trying to insult Scarborough, but said politicians were jumping to conclusions.
“I didn’t say it was you politicizing it,” Huelskamp responded. “You’re not even a politician anymore, and I understand that. You look around this town, you look within 24 hours, folks running on and saying ‘Hey, we need to change the laws’ when they don’t even know the situation.”
The congressman also said the White House was using Newtown as an excuse to push a long-standing agenda.
“All I’m saying is let’s spend time looking at that, but not to use the tragedy,” Huelskamp said. “As a very famous political strategist from Chicago said, ‘Don’t let any crisis go unused.’ I do not want to politicize this.”
“Wow, wow,” can be heard on the set by uttered by someone as the show went to commercial break after the tense exchanges.
Mika Brzezinski, Scarborough’s “Morning Joe” co-host, had a succinct reaction on Twitter.
”wooooooooooow!” she wrote. “That was disturbing. There is the problem for the Republican party right there. Woooooooooooooooow!!!!!!!!!!”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/huelskamp-scarborough-spar-on-air-85399.html#ixzz2FhDFk3eg

Cleaver Supports Means Testing for Medicare December 9, 2012

Politico:
The chair of the Congressional Black Caucus on Friday said he would accept means-testing of Medicare as part of a deficit reduction deal.

“I think we’ve got to do Medicare,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It’s going to pull this economy down. We’ve got to deal with it. And I think most rational people, including Democrats, realize that we’ve got to make some cuts or deal with Medicare. But, you know, let’s have some means testing.”

Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat whose term as caucus chair is ending at the end of this congressional session, said means-testing Medicare for wealthy retirees would be a more palatable option than across-the-board cuts.

“I don’t think that cutting benefits at this time is going to go over well,” Cleaver said. “We can do means testing and reduce the payments.”

Republicans have pushed cutting and means-testing entitlements as one possible bargaining tool as part of a broader fiscal cliff deal.

McCaskill Says GOP Senate Leader McConnell “Has Lost His Mind” July 14, 2011

Politico:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has “lost his mind,” Sen. Claire McCaskill said on “Morning Joe” Thursday.

Speaking of her frustration with Republicans approach on the debt ceiling, the Missouri Democrat said she couldn’t figure out McConnell’s thinking.

“I think Mitch McConnell, frankly, has lost his mind,” she said.

McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday proposed a deal that would allow President Barack Obama to raise the debt limit with congressional approval, requiring three separate votes to do so before the 2012 elections.

Asked by host Joe Scarborough how she would justify her statement to McConnell, McCaskill said: “I would just say Mitch, honestly, with a straight face, do a press conference and say, ‘Here’s the solution to the problem: Let’s let the Democrats do it and we want them to do it three times before the next election and it will be OK with us if they do it as long as we don’t have to touch it.’ And people aren’t ridiculing that? This is when we’re supposed to come together.”

McCaskill, a chief attack dog for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, is now locked in a fierce reelection fight of her own.

“This is when we’re supposed to show the country that we’re capable of governing, not figuring out the best strategy for (McConnell) to become majority floor leader,” she said. “This is all about trying to take out me and other people in tough states so that Mitch can become majority floor leader.”

She called the McConnell plan “brazenly political” and said: “What’s the rationale to make us do it three times? These are the guys have said certainty, certainty, certainty. … “The way he proposed it, it was like putting a big sign around his neck that says, ‘This is all about winning for the Republicans.’”