HANITY

Thursday, March 7th

Rand Paul's Epic Filibuster Since the election, I've been saying that conservatives now have a few real stars in the Senate: Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Utah Senator Mike Lee and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Yesterday, in an incredible display of principled tenacity, Senator Rand Paul proved why he is on that list. There is also something interesting happening as a result of Rand Paul's filibuster and that is a seeming divide within the Republican Party. Today, Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain took to the floor of the Senate to chastise Rand Paul for his "political stunt" and express disappointment with Republican colleagues who supported him. McCain says, "If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids. I don't think what happened yesterday is helpful to the American people." If anything, Rand Paul managed to bring to the forefront an issue that most in t he mainstream media haven't really covered. Politically, the groundswell of support for Senator Rand Paul, particularly on Twitter, was remarkable. Perhaps this is just the type of principled leadership that conservative Americans have been craving, though some within the Republican leadership apparently beg to differ. For more of Sean's thoughts on Rand Paul's filibuster, please click here. Congressman Kevin McCarthy Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Majority Whip of the United States House of Representatives since 2011, discussed with Sean the vote on the continued resolution. Going forward, McCarthy explained, the Republican House will stick to the rule, "no budget no pay." The Senate has not passed a budget since before the iPad was released into market. The President's budget was due on February 1st and has yet to be received. The House has extended its acceptance of whatever the Senate is planning to propose until March, and is now going to have a counter budget which has been devised by Congressman Paul Ryan. In Ryan's ten year budget he does not raise taxes, he defunds Obama care, and will be revenue neutral which will effectively lower the tax rate. "Once this budget from the House Republicans goes through committee, we can get to the business of implementation," McCarthy explained. McCarthy promised Sean that the budget Paul Ryan plans to present, if passed, will save our seniors, feed our families and give a future back to our children.

Obama's New Strategy
Did the Campaigner-in-Chief finally get the message? Since the election, Barack Obama hasn't left the campaign trail. The most extreme example of this behavior was his handling of sequestration. He engaged in weeks of a PR parade, predicting apocalyptic consequences if the Republicans didn't agree to his tax increases and allowed budget "cuts" to go through. I've got to be honest, I'm incredulous in believing that Barack Obama is not doing this solely for political gain - to look reasonable and bi-partisan in the eyes of the public. For the sake of our country and our children's future, I hope that the outreach is indeed sincere and leads to productive compromise. But it's hard to go from doom-and-gloom President Panic to reasonable bi-partisan negotiator in a matter of one week without raising some eyebrows. For more on Obama's new strategy please click here.

Today's "Hot Topic" On The Hannity Forums:
North Korea Threatens Nuclear Attack on US - Jagergeist
In a sharp increase in the usual North Korean rhetoric "an unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for "a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors" because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North."

>> TV Tonight (Hannity FoxNews at 9pm ET):
Yesterday marked a historic day on Capitol Hill punctuated by a good old-fashioned filibuster. Newt Gingrich explains the political implications of Sen. Rand Paul's stand.