The DCCC outraised the NRCC in 2011 — $61 million to $54 million.

Eight House members are questioning Google about its new privacy policy.

A North Carolina lawmaker wants to bring back public hangings.

A Connecticut mayor receives 2000 tacos after saying he “might have tacos” to help Latinos.

Sen. Marco Rubio is criticizing conservatives for "harsh and intolerable" rhetoric on immigration.

Rep. Ron Paul's former secretary claims Paul personally reviewed his controversial newsletters.

Former GOP presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry is back at home, shooting things.

Exposed: Seven former lawmakers are now lobbying on behalf of projects they started in Congress.

ThinkProgress has compiled a montage illustrating the racial politics of the GOP.

Last December, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that an investigation into online gun sales had revealed multiple instances of illegal purchases. After examining 10 websites, the investigation found that "Seventy-seven of 125 online sellers agreed to sell a gun to someone who said he could not pass a background check — a 62% fail rate." The investigation looked at websites specializing in gun classifieds as well Craigslist, which has unsuccessfully attempted to ban firearms sales on the site.

Today, an article by Adrian Chen of Gawker reveals that the notorious Silk Road website is getting into the business of hosting online gun sales. Chen had previously reported that, using sophisticated technology to ensure user anonymity, Silk Road hosted a brazen open market for illegal drug transactions. Initially, it appeared that guns were not allowed to be sold on the website, but when Chen revisited the site he found that gun sales now seem to be common. While using the Internet to facilitate selling a gun isn't illegal, it goes without saying that a website known as the "Amazon.com of illegal drugs" could act as a magnet for illegal gun sales and trafficking.  

Chen also profiled a top gun seller on the site named "Dbush." In addition to selling illegal drugs, Dbush's business model appears explicitly aimed at helping people violate gun laws. Dbush echoed the familiar conservative emphasis on the importance of preparing for military conflict against the government, telling Gawker that citizens "should have enough firepower that the government fears the citizens":

One of the most well-regarded vendor [sic] of firearms is a user named Dbush, who sells guns from the U.S. and Mexico and has 100% feedback from over 100 transactions. (Those weren't all guns; he also sells meth, LSD and ecstasy.) Dbush's user profile on the site boasts he can procure "AK pistols, AR15 pistols, and many tactical style guns. Additionally regular style shotguns, rifles, and handguns are available."

President Obama released his birth certificate nearly a year ago, but the birther conspiracy train continues to chug stubbornly along. Former GOP presidential candidates Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) and Gov. Rick Perry (TX) flirted with the issue in the weeks and months after the certificate's release.  Now the state of Georgia — via Secretary of State Brian Kemp — is issuing threats to the president for refusing to appear at an official hearing exploring the complaints of several Georgia voters who are challenging the president's eligibility to appear on the state ballot. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Late Wednesday, Obama's lawyer, Michael Jablonski, wrote Secretary of State Brian Kemp, asking him to suspend the hearing. "It is well established that there is no legitimate issue here -- a conclusion validated time and again by courts around the country," Jablonski wrote.

Jablonski also served notice he would boycott the hearing.

In response, Kemp said the hearing to consider the challenges is required by Georgia law. "If you and your client choose to suspend your participation in the [Office of State Administrative Hearings] proceedings, please understand that you do so at your own peril," Kemp wrote.

AJC columnist Jay Bookman sat in on the hearings, and suggested suggested the birthers' testimony was as "really and truly stupid."

Until I sat in that courtroom yesterday, I wasn't sure why the Obama legal team had chosen not to appear. But in hindsight, they were right. Showing up to refute the nonsense presented would have given the birther arguments a dignity they do not deserve. You cannot refute air and sheer fantasy. How many times can an opposing lawyer say, in so many words, "Your honor, this is just really and truly stupid"?

In either case... [t]he official decision on whether Obama will be listed on the ballot will be made by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican.

In addition, one of the attorneys representing the birthers is none other than Republican State Rep. Mark Hatfield. From the Savannah Morning News:

The attorneys representing the clients include California attorney Orly Taitz and Georgia State Rep. Mark Hatfield. Hatfield previously filed a bill in the legislature requiring presidential candidates to produce their "original, long form birth certificate," despite no legal description or standard for such a document exists outside the confines of conspiracy based websites.

Atlanta's WSB-TV summarized the day's proceedings:

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay leveled heavy criticism against his former colleague Newt Gingrich in the wake of Monday's presidential debate in Florida, where Gingrich gave a bit of a revised historical recount of his exit from Congress. Eliding his ethical violations and well as an attempted 1997 coup by his own party, Gingrich said he stepped down as speaker because he "took responsibility" for the 1998 election results not being "as good as they should be." 

DeLay remembers it a little differently, telling KTRH radio, "He had to step down because Republicans, conservative Republicans, wouldn't vote for him again as speaker."

DeLay isn't the only one coming out to say Gingrich is "not really a conservative" or that "when he was speaker, he was erratic, undisciplined." Here's a short list of Gingrich's former congressional colleagues who are voicing the same criticisms on his "erratic," "egotistical," and "confused" behavior.

Read the full entry ...

To hear the Republican candidates speak about the Affordable Care Act, you'd think that the Obama administration and congressional Democrats had enacted something similar to a Soviet five-year plan, a ruinous initiative that will soon take America off the cliff and towards the hell that is Canada and Western Europe.

But during last night's GOP presidential debate in Jacksonville, Florida, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum inadvertently let the cat out the bag: The fight over the Affordable Care Act isn't about the merits of the legislation, but about ideology and trying to win the election. After former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney defended his record on health care, he was rebuked by Santorum, who pointed out that if Romney wins the nomination, he's going to have to claim that the approach doesn't work — a task that will be nearly impossible if he keeps on telling the truth about the success of the plan he signed into law in the Bay State. In other words, Romney's admission that "top-down government-run medicine" worked in Massachusetts weakens the argument that "top-down government-run medicine" won't work on a national level.

SANTORUM: What Governor Romney just said is that government-run top-down medicine is working pretty well in Massachusetts and he supports it. Now, think about what that means—

ROMNEY: That's not what I said.

SANTORUM: —going up against Barack Obama, who you are going to claim, well, top-down government-run medicine on the federal level doesn't work and we should repeal it. And he's going to say, wait a minute, Governor. You just said that top-down government-run medicine in Massachusetts works well. Folks, we can't give this issue away in this election. It is about fundamental freedom.

Watch:

Last year, it seemed like it was almost certain that the health care reform bill would be a big issue in the upcoming presidential race between the eventual GOP contender and the president. But with each debate, it's become more and more evident that the leading Republicans are not quite comfortable fighting the battle. Romney's baggage is well-known, but there's a lot of evidence that the other candidates have also been effectively neutered when it comes to the issue. Newt Gingrich, for instance, had recently championed the idea of an individual mandate. And what about Santorum? It turns out he too supported the idea of a mandate at one point in his long political career.

As Romney has pointed out, the core idea of a mandate is based on the conservative-friendly notion of individual responsibility. The Heritage Foundation, which is now championing an effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act because they see the mandate as unconstitutional, was one of the first groups to propose a mandate in the late '80s. Now, they've flipped on the issue. What was once the conservative alternative to universal health care is now the express lane on the road to serfdom.

Of course, it isn't anything of the sort. But as Santorum pointed out last night, claiming that it's terrible is a much better strategy for Republicans than admitting that it actually works.

A daily look at the Republican presidential primary campaign.

Mitt Romney and his wife Ann baptized her atheist father as a Mormon over a year after he died.

Rick Santorum calls glitter bombers "the radical left," showing "how intolerant they really are."

Newt Gingrich's proposal for an American moon colony could violate the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

According an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Gingrich is leading Romney nationally by nine points...

...and Romney is leading Gingrich by nine points in Florida, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.

Gingrich's campaign accuses Romney's team of packing last night's debate hall with supporters.

Romney has worn a blue tie in 17 of 18 debates.

New York magazine sums up last night's GOP presidential debate in Jacksonville:

Speaking on the Jordan Sekulow Show earlier in the week, freshman Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) complained that President Obama's reference to class disparities during the State of the Union address was "un-American."

HUELSKAMP: What is most disturbing about his speech, you know, rhetoric is one thing. Absolute misrepresentations, falsehoods and lies are another. I think the president very clearly made up things that weren't true. But even more distrustful is what the president is attempting to do. He is attempting to divide Americans, pit one class of Americans against another, so they don't look at him as the man responsible for this. And, you know, that is completely un-American. It does no service- it might win this president reelection, but I really think, at the end of the day, Americans are gonna say "we want someone who's going to bring us together."

Listen:

According to American Community Survey, the overall poverty rate in Huelskamp's congressional district is 14 percent. Twenty-one percent of children live in poverty, as do nearly one-third of his African-Americans constituents (31 percent). According to data from the Urban Institute, 15.2 percent of his constituents are also without health insurance.

It would be interesting to find out exactly what is un-American about the president's efforts to help Huelskamp's constituents by calling on the more fortunate (and on those who are taking advantage of the tax loopholes that people in poverty aren't in a position to exploit) to pay a fairer share.

On Tuesday during the State of the Union address, President Obama stated that despite an eight-year high in American oil production, he would still like to focus on expanding the domestic energy industry. Apparently that wasn't enough for 22 Republican senators, who on Wednesday penned a letter to Obama asking him to "re-consider" his decision on the Keystone XL pipeline and open "more access to both onshore and offshore resources." From the letter:

Finally, let us be clear in our disappointment in the recent decision to not approve the Keystone XL pipeline project, which is clearly in our national interest. Considering the potential for supply disruptions in the coming year, the federal government could well be facing price constraints that are a result of international conflicts, for example, in the Strait of Hormuz. It would be unfortunate if the only tool available to calm markets is further sales from our strategic reserves. Providing more access to both onshore and offshore resources and construction of a strategic pipeline from Canada are clear ways forward. We urge you to re-consider this decision and provide a clear path forward for increasing domestic production and transporting new energy supplies.  

The oil industry seems to be doing pretty well — domestic oil production is at its highest level since 2003 and, as of August, more rigs are drilling for oil in the United States than any time since 1987. But it's easy to see why these senators would like to keep oil profits soaring even higher. In addition to the $145 million the oil and gas industries spent lobbying Congress in the last year alone, the industry has contributed directly to every single member who signed the letter to President Obama — over $5.6 million in total between 2007 and 2012. One stand-out, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), has received over $1 million from the oil and gas sectors this cycle alone. The full list of signees and their respective totals are below.

Last night's GOP presidential primary debate in Florida — the last before the state's primary on Tuesday — was again a showdown between frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Right off the bat, the two delved into a back-and-forth on immigration, with Gingrich scrambling to defend an ad calling Romney "anti-immigrant," which he had had to pull down after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) voiced criticism of its content. Romney, for his part, stumbled when he denied responsibility for an ad running on the radio in Florida that highlighted Gingrich's "language of the ghetto" comments, saying, "I doubt it's mine." CNN, however found the ad and pointed out that it concluded with Romney saying, "I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message."

Another portion of the debate focused on the future of the space industry, following Gingrich's recent promise to establish a moon base by the end of his second term. In the debate, the candidates mostly tried to hover somewhere between pandering to Florida voters affected by dwindling jobs in the space industry and emphasizing the low priority of space travel given worries about the deficit. Gingrich seemed to have few concerns about the deficit, suggesting that the government offer prizes to private companies who achieve space milestones and envisioning a future with "six or seven" rocket launches each day.

Fellow candidates Rick Santorum and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) didn't garner nearly the attention of the other two, but Santorum, at least, found time to attack President Obama over the administration's handling of the Honduran coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Watch highlights below the fold.

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During tonight's GOP presidential debate in Jacksonville, Florida, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney claimed that President Obama had not made a reference to or condemned rockets being fired into Israel by Palestinian militant groups when he spoke before the U.N. last September.

ROMNEY: This president went before the United Nations and castigated Israel for building settlements. He said nothing about thousands of rockets being rained in on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Watch:

President Obama did in fact refer to rockets during his speech. From the president's speech before the United Stations General Assembly in September 2011.

OBAMA: Let us be honest with ourselves: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, look out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile and persecution, and fresh memories of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they are. Those are facts. They cannot be denied.