Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said over the weekend that Senate control hinges on Iowa.

“It’s the definition of a political stunt,” said Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga., who was recently named the interim chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.

Wasserman Schultz predicted Democrats would retain a majority in the Senate and pick up seats in the House — although she stopped short of predicting that they would gain the 17 seats needed to capture the majority. Explaining her reasoning, Wasserman Schultz said the midterm election will be driven by individual campaigns and she believes a strong Democratic candidate pool will help the party outperform expectations.

The speaker is planning to sue the president because he allegedly “created his own law” by waiving the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act.
-
All that’s needed is a simple majority of the House of Representatives to impeach a president and put an asterisk next to his name in the history books.
-
The House impeaches, but the Senate convicts with a two-thirds majority or 67 votes. 

At a monthly panel discussion with conservative lawmakers, members were asked if they would support impeaching President Barack Obama for selective enforcement of some laws and dramatic reinterpretations of others.
-
“I think it’s debatable,” Barton said. “I certainly think the president has gone out of his way to not enforce some of the laws that the Congress thinks he should be enforcing. Impeachment is for high crimes and misdemeanors. The Constitution doesn’t really define what that is.”

The stock market continues to test and make new highs, and the housing market is much improved. All in all, there is plenty of reason for optimism about the overall economy and the job market.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) trail Hillary Clinton by only 6 percentage points in 2016 hypothetical matchups in Iowa, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday.

Lankford leads Shannon 43 percent to 35 percent in the automated survey conducted by SoonerPoll for News9. State Sen. Randy Brogdon was taking 4 percent, which could deny a candidate an outright win; if neither candidate reaches 50 percent there will be a two-month runoff.

Mr. Scalise, 48, was not a shoo-in to succeed Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who was elected majority leader. (Mr. McCarthy will replace Representative Eric Cantor, who is stepping down after losing his primary bid for re-election in his Virginia district.)

The most tart exchange came as Berwick, a former federal Medicare and Medicaid chief, pressed for a single-payer health care system in the state, in which the government would provide health insurance, rather than private firms. The push for what he often calls “Medicare for all” has been one of his banner issues.

The jury’s still out on whether Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary Tuesday night because he was perceived by voters to be in support of rewriting the country’s immigration laws.

“All the focus, all the hope, in the conservative world now rests with convincing Jim Jordan to make a majority leader run,” according to a senior GOP aide.

Re: Julian Castro

 President Barack Obama will make it official Friday afternoon, when he will announce his intent to nominate Castro to be the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

He’ll still have to navigate the Senate confirmation process, but Republicans will not be able to filibuster either nomination after Democrats last year detonated the “nuclear option” getting rid of the 60-vote rule for nominations.