“Tom Harkin” on The Daily Caller

Suppose that a conservative Republican administration, in the middle of high unemployment and an economic slowdown, proposed new regulations that would most hurt lower income people and minority groups and the for-profit colleges and universities that serve them? Can you imagine the cries of outrage from liberal critics, condemning “hard-hearted” Republicans targeting the most vulnerable young people in our society? (more)

1.) Democrats who hate Democrats and the Democrats who pretend to like them a lot – They may be a minority, but House Democrats who are running for re-election on what amounts to an anti-Pelosi platform are very, very real. TheDC’s Jonathan Strong counts Alabama Rep. Bobby Bright, who joked that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “might get sick and die”; Rep. Joe Donnelly, the Indiana Dem who took Pelosi over his knee on the carbon tax just one year after supporting a vague list of supposedly quick and painless environmental fixes; as well as Reps. McIntyre, Nye, Altmire, and Childers, each of whom voted a big fat “no” on a piece of legislation close to Madame Pelosi’s heart. Ironically, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has actually given money to some of these people! That’s ironic, right? Maybe Dems are thinking that even the thorniest DINO can be Bart Stupak’d into doing something heinously stupid, making them preferable to an equally ornery but uncontrollable Republican? Meh. Who cares? It’s not like 70 seats are at play! (more)

Free market organizations that are now mobilized against the possibility of a repackaged version of “card check” legislation should remain mindful of administrative actions that could enshrine union favors without congressional approval. With mid-term elections looming, union bosses who spent millions to elect a Democratic president and congress are going for broke to secure transformative policy changes that could reinvigorate their membership rolls. (more)

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, wants to protect you from for-profit colleges.  Really. (more)

Illinois Democrat Sen. Richard Durbin warned Wednesday that the world of higher education could experience its own version of the subprime mortgage crisis if Congress does not take steps to regulate federal loans given to students at for-profit universities. (more)

A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have begun to make noise in recent days about raising taxes on the middle class and discarding President Obama’s promise not to increase the tax burden on those making $250,000 a year or less. (more)

Senate conferees named: The Senate on Tuesday named 12 conferees to reconcile legislative differences between the upper and lower chambers’ financial reform bills. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, will serve as chairman of the conference negotiations, which Democrats aim to complete before the July 4 recess. House members are expected to be named next week. The seven Senate Democrats are Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut; Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Sens. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Charles Schumer of New York, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Tom Harkin of Iowa. The Republicans are Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. (more)

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is asking lawmakers to put aside “politics and ideology” as they consider a request for $23 billion in “emergency” funding for public schools – a measure Republicans reject as a massive federal bailout for the teachers’ unions. (more)

It wasn’t a disaster for either Republicans or Democrats. It wasn’t a total bore either. And while there were some combative moments, the two sides managed to remain largely civil. (more)

Senate Democrats may go into the bipartisan health care reform summit later this month holding a legislative gun to Republicans’ heads. (more)

Two Senate Democrats on Thursday formally launched their quixotic effort to kill the filibuster. (more)

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in the next few weeks intends to introduce legislation that would take away the minority’s power to filibuster legislation. (more)