Amy Holmes | Bio
AC360° Contributor

Wow. I did not expect the overwhelming response to my blog post about Rihanna and Chris Brown. It seems that I am far from alone in being disturbed by this story, and terribly concerned for the young lady at its center.

After reading through all of your posts, all 304 as of this writing!, I come to conclusion that Rihanna does have a moral obligation to her young fans. So many of you wrote so movingly about your own experiences, what you would do if someone busted up your baby girl, what you’ve been hearing in classrooms and school hallways, and why it is so important that we, as a society, declare that domestic violence must never be tolerated.

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Amy Holmes | Bio
AC360° Contributor

Even if Rihanna may not bear responsibility to her young fans for her private choices, surely Nickelodeon owes them more. Chris Brown remains in the running for the Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards Vote 2009. For realz:

http://www.nick.com/kids-choice-awards/vote.jhtml?categoryVote=10

Amy Holmes | Bio
AC360° Contributor

The story of the talented, young singer getting beaten up by her boyfriend may not seem to have a political angle, but bear with me. It’s not just tabloid fodder. It creates a real public dilemma.

I’ll confess that I’ve been riveted by this story. One couldn’t help be shocked by the news. A beautiful girl, on top of the world, getting beaten up by her equally charmed boyfriend. We know, intellectually, that material success, public adoration, and physical beauty don’t have magic, innoculative powers. And yet, this story shattered the fairy tale dream that maybe they can.

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Amy Holmes | Bio
AC360° Contributor

So, now we know. President Obama’s mentions of Rush Limbaugh are no accident. Democratic strategists have discovered that Rush has low approval ratings with the general public. So they have devised a strategy to paint Republicans with the Rush brush in order to marginalize conservatism and the Republican Party. In the nineties, they demonized Newt. Now, they’re after Rush. And the media is happily going along, as it so often does.

Back in December, while the Republican Party had not one, but two, highly qualified and widely respected African-Americans running for its chairmanship, the media chose instead to focus on the juvenile antics of Chip Saltsman and his Christmas CD. Show after show featured outraged democratic strategists attacking the Republican Party because of one man’s lapse of judgment. And conservative after conservative was called on to defend or attack the hapless politician. When Republicans then elected former lieutenant governor Michael Steele to lead the party, it was treated as a non-event. Michael Steele’s election as the first African-American RNC chairman received a fraction of the airtime that was devoted to the CD circus, and none of the reverence that has greeted Pres. Barack Obama at every turn of his political career. The media slid right by without a reflective pause, let alone gushing profiles and heroic magazine covers.

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Amy Holmes l Bio
AC360° Contributor

Viewers can be forgiven for mistaking today’s bill signing with a campaign rally. Introduced by the Colorado governor in front of a screaming and adoring crowd (who goes to a bill signing anyway?), President Obama did his best to spin and sell the $787 billion spending stimulus package that was passed along almost entirely partisan lines.

Which brings me to a political observation that has gone overlooked. Typically, a bill signing takes place in the East Room, or in the Rose Garden if the weather is nice. The president is flanked by the bill’s co-sponsors who get to share in the glory and bask in the reporters’ flash bulbs and television cameras.

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Amy Holmes
AC360° Contributor, CNN Political Analyst

Yesterday, on the Sunday talk shows, Democrats unveiled their new stimulus talking point. The Democratically-led House may have added unnecessary, interest group spending, but “The Senate” (unfurl the flags and blare the trumpets here) is where legislation goes to be improved upon by the gray-haired wise men and women of the greatest deliberative body.

Uh, what?

In my three years working for then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, I recalled pitched battles where Senators of both parties attempted to lard up bills with unrelated and, often times, unnecessary spending. Remember the Bridge to Nowhere? That boondoggle came to you via Alaska’s Senator Ted Stevens.

My former boss even urged the President to threaten a veto on the emergency Katrina relief bill back in 2006 because Senators were going hogwild. In fact, the Republican-led House bill totaled less than the President’s request, while the Senate version exceeded it by $14.4 billion. Some extraneous items managed to get cut like $15 million for seafood promotion and $1million for a study of Hawaiian dams and reservoirs. But Senators did not show superior restraint to their House counterparts. My former boss, it should be said, did, and voted against the lard-ridden legislation.

I called my former colleague, Marty Gold, the unofficial dean of the Senate who teaches incoming Senators the legislative ropes, and who has literally written the text book on Senate procedure. I asked him what he thought about the new Democratic talking point on the upcoming Senate debate. He was elegant, but blunt.

“It’s not that the Senators are inherently more politically mature. They’re cut from the same the cloth, but are operating in chambers where different rules apply. Once you get into these pork barrel emergency bills, then the normal deliberative process goes out the window. It’s their natural instinct to do that.”

So who puts the brakes on?

“If the idea is that the Senate is a break on the House, it requires a filibuster sustaining minority. You need a Senate minority that has sufficient power, or a White House veto. In this case, the President is not likely to apply the brakes. If he gets a bipartisan bill, it will be because bipartisanship was forced by the rules of the chamber. Senate Democrats are dealing because they have to deal. If they didn’t, you’d see the same interest groups. Look, many of the same Senators came from the House.”

And as for President Obama’s overtures to Republicans? The Super Bowl watch party, and paying the Republican caucus a visit. Marty points out that it’s smart politics. “A bipartisan vote helps to neutralize Republicans. And if they resist his overtures, it makes them look small. He can say he tried and got the back of the hand. He has every incentive to reach out.”

And one last thing, Marty pointed out that if you give the Democratic majority what they really want — a filibuster-proof majority — today’s talk of sober bipartisanship will be a quaint and distant memory. Without the political restraint of a potential filibuster, the restraints on the majority evaporate.

So, Norm, if you’re reading this blog out there in Minnesota, Senate Republicans are counting on you to keep up the fight.

And Judd, get that Senate seat deal signed, sealed and delivered before you make the Commerce post yours.

Amy Holmes: 10:40p ET – Palin: A+. The plus is for wildly exceeding expectations. She more than held her own. She was polished, direct, folksy, and on message. She stressed her personal experience both as a mom and as a governor, from the kitchen table to the executive branch, her record as a reformer and bipartisan deal maker. She even got Biden to agree with her. Read more…

Roland Martin: Expectations are high for Palin AND Biden. Many of you read my commentary this week on CNN.com and I haven’t changed my opinion.

I’m tired of Washington journalists continuing to say that the expectations are low, and the bar even lower, for Gov. Sarah Palin.

And the same goes for Sen. Joe Biden. Read more…

Amy Holmes: 9:40p ET – Were those Katie Couric interviews a devious head fake? I’ve heard Biden say at least twice now that he agrees with Palin. First on the issue of windfall profits, and then on the issue of gay marriage. Regarding the first, he actually said he and Obama would like to do what the Governor did in Alaska. Economic conservatives won’t like it. But for debate purposes: advantage Palin.

Candy Crowley: 9:35p ET - Palin veers off course — the question is about helping consumers with crushing debt, and she’s responding with energy policy. Politicians frequently change the subject, but this was a pretty obvious 180.

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Amy Holmes | Bio
CNN Political Analyst

The current Democratic spin is that House Republicans are stalling the bailout plan. Just one problem. House rules let the majority party, and that would be the Democrats, rule the roost. If Nancy Pelosi wanted to roll over the minority’s objections and pass this bill, she could.
Me thinks Pelosi is playing this out for as long as she can.

Yesterday, Congresswoman Melissa Bean, D-Illinois and self described “Obama Mama,” told me that the bailout is deeply opposed by the folks back home. Constituents are outraged that Congress is giving away $700 billion taxpayer dollars to greedy and incompetent Wall Street fat cats (okay, she didn’t actually use the term “fat cats”.) She told me in no uncertain terms that she believes that the banking system is genuinely on the brink, and legislators have no choice but to pass the bill and face an angry public and explain their vote. And it ain’t gonna be pretty.

One can reasonably presume that Pelosi knows all of this. She wants it both ways. And for at least the next six hours, she’ll get it. Duck the blame on a massively unpopular bill by running for cover under the objections of the Republican minority. Claim frustration that her party’s noble and principled efforts to do the necessary and difficult thing are being thwarted by small-minded Republicans. Don’t let Democrats get the blame for an unpopular bill, or suffer voter backlash for irresponsible inaction. Get Republicans on the hook, one way or another, squirming right alongside Democrats..

Editor’s Note: Amy Holmes is an independent conservative who has not endorsed any candidate for president.

Amy Holmes | Bio
CNN Political Analyst

Republicans have been getting heat for knocking Obama’s community organizing. It turns out that back in the day Obama knocked it, too. In a lengthy investigative piece in the New Republic, John Judis reveals that, “[w]hen Obama came to South Chicago, he believed in community organizing; within two-and-a-half years… he was clearly growing disillusioned.”

For the whole story — what Barack Obama won’t tell you about his community organizing past and why Obama actually agrees with Republicans — click here.

Amy Holmes | Bio
CNN Political Analyst

On Friday, the Obama campaign put out the spin that they were deploying Hillary to take shots at Palin. Upon reading it, I wrote that it was rather awkward to tout the woman they passed over as the answer to the woman the other guy chose as his VP.

I also wrote that a female democratic strategist told me, “Don’t think that Hillary hasn’t noticed.”

I don’t know if that same strategist brought my blog to Hillary’s attention, or if the irony of the situation was just too glaring.

But in less than 24 hours, Hillary has made it known that she intends to go after McCain, not Palin. Check it out.