The chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) on Sunday said it was the fault of President Barack Obama and the Democrats for reports that a super PAC supporting presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney was considering attack ads featuring Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"I know how it works," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus insisted to CNN's Candy Crowley. "It's the Democrats and Barack Obama that want the story out there. He wants this story to play out in the media because for every day that [Obama strategist] David Axelrod and this President don’t have to talk about their broken promises when it comes to jobs, the debt, and the deficit — and the more time they can talk about hypotheticals that may or may not come true — is a day they want to win on."

He added: "So, look, this president’s got a bigger problem and his problem is no matter what he puts out there, no matter what distractions he puts out there, he can’t change the truth and escape the reality of where we are in this American economy. And it’s no good."

The New York Times revealed last week that the the pro-Romney super PAC had proposed an ad campaign linking Obama to Wright. Their plan went so far as to suggest possible responses to charges of race-baiting if ads were to mention Wright’s “black liberation theology.”

After learning of the proposal to use Obama’s former association with Wright, Romney told reporters that he repudiated the effort.

“I think it’s the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign,” the candidate said. “I hope that our campaigns can be respectively about the future and about issues and about vision for America.”

But on Sunday, Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said Romney had only “tepidly and reluctantly” condemned the super PAC’s proposed ad campaign.

“We have said [that Romney's faith is] not fair game,” Axelrod told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “And we wish Governor Romney would stand up as resolutely and consistently, to refute these kinds of things on his side.”

(h/t: Think Progress)

President George W. Bush's former adviser Karl Rove says that using Rev. Jeremiah Wright to attack President Barack Obama is a "stupid" idea.

The New York Times revealed last week that a super PAC supporting presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was considering an ad campaign linking Obama to Wright. Their proposal goes so far as to propose possible responses to charges of race-baiting if ads were to mention Wright’s “black liberation theology.”

"Speaking from the position of a super PAC, you want to do things that will be helpful to the candidate and not things that will be hurtful," Rove told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. "And frankly, trying to dredge up Jeremiah Wright -- right or wrong -- after this issue was litigated four years ago by [former Republican presidential nominee] John McCain deciding not to litigate it was stupid."

"So, you want to try and do things that are helpful, not hurtful. And look, I thought it was very smart for the Romney campaign to immediately go out an denounce the tactic. It certainly sent a message to everybody in America what they wanted the campaign to be about. And it certainly sent a message to people involved in the super PACs, don't be doing stupid things like this."

After learning of the plan to use Obama's former association with Wright, Romney told supporters that he repudiated the effort.

"I think it’s the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign," the candidate said. "I hope that our campaigns can be respectively about the future and about issues and about vision for America."

But on Sunday, Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said Romney had only "tepidly and reluctantly" condemned the super PAC's proposed ad campaign.

"We have said [that Romney's faith is] not fair game,” Axelrod told CNN's Candy Crowley. “And we wish Governor Romney would stand up as resolutely and consistently, to refute these kinds of things on his side.”

Crossroads GPS -- a pro-Romney super PAC created by Rove -- last week launched a $25 million ad blitz accusing the president of breaking promises.

House Budget Commitee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) says that his plan to slash government spending on programs for the poor while increasing defense spending and giving tax cuts to the wealthy would actually "prevent austerity."

NBC's David Gregory on Sunday pointed out that the debate over whether slashing budgets would grow the economy was not just happening in Europe, but in the U.S. as well.

"This question of austerity in Europe, they had failing economies, nearly depressed economies," Gregory told Ryan. "The answer throughout the region was to slash their budgets. Has it failed?"

"No, David," Ryan replied. "I would say they've also raised taxes. This is a cautionary tale of what happens when politicians who make a lot of empty promises end up running out of the ability to borrow money at cheap rates and now they are broken promises. It's a cautionary tale of what will happen to us if we stay on the path we are on."

"What we're saying is let's get on growth and prevent austerity," he continued. "The whole premise of our budget is to preempt austerity by getting our borrowing under control, having tax reform for economic growth and preventing Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid from going bankrupt. That preempts austerity."

"The president, his budget, the fact that the Senate hasn't done a budget in three years puts us on a path to European-like austerity. That's what we're trying to prevent from happening in the first place."

The budget plan Ryan unveiled earlier this year aimed to cut spending by privatizing parts of Medicare, slashing Medicaid programs for the poor by $810 billion, spending 38 percent less on transportation and 33 percent less on education than the Obama administration has proposed.

The White House has said that Ryan's budget would also "shower the wealthiest few Americans with an average tax cut of at least $150,000."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday challenged House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to bring middle-class tax credits up for an immediate vote to prove they wouldn't be "held hostage" to tax cuts for the rich.

"I challenge the Speaker right now to bring the middle income tax cuts to the floor," Pelosi told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, agreeing with Boehner that budget discussions shouldn't wait until after the election.

"Bringing middle-income tax cuts to floor now, passing those would help our economic recovery, would be a clear signal that the upper-end tax cuts for the wealthy will expire because middle-income tax cuts would not be held hostage to those."

Pelosi also said that the Speaker's threat to allow the government to default by blocking increases to the debt ceiling in order to force the Obama administration to accept deep budget cuts were "over the edge."

"Here we go again," she warned. "Last year, the threat of not lifting the debt ceiling caused our credit rating to be lowered. This is not a responsible, mature, sensible place for us to go. We all know we have to reduce the deficit. We have to do it in a balanced way. The Speaker wants to go over the edge."

(h/t: National Journal)

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Sunday dismissed financial regulations that could have stemmed $3 billion or more in losses on derivatives by JPMorgan Chase & Co. because the company "should be help accountable by the market."

"There’s no law against stupidity, no law against stupid trades," Boehner told ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

"And as long as the positives, money wasn’t at risk, and as long as there’s no risk of a taxpayer bailout– they should be held accountable by the market and their shareholders -- and they are," the Speaker insisted.

Boehner also shrugged off the notion that implementation of the Dodd-Frank bank reform law could have prevented the losses.

"I don’t believe there’s anything in Dodd-Frank that would’ve prevented this activity at JPMorgan," he explained.

Boehner's comments echo presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's sentiment that the bank's losses are "the way America works."

“I would not rush to pass new legislation or new regulation,” Romney said during a Wednesday interview with Hot Air blogger Ed Morrissey. “This is, in the normal course of business, a large loss but certainly not one which is crippling or threatening to the institution.”

“This was not a loss to the taxpayers of America; this was a loss to shareholders and owners of JPMorgan and that’s the way America works,” the former Bain Capital executive explained. “The $2 billion JPMorgan lost, someone else gained.”

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

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A member of the Fox News Medical A-Team on Thursday warned that legalizing polygamy was inevitable if "narcissistic" LGBT couples were allowed to adopt children.

During a discussion about President Barack Obama's recent "evolution" on marriage equality, psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow wandered off topic to tell Fox Business host Lou Dobbs that there was "some psychology in the background of this issue" that had to do with children being adopted by same sex couples.

"Children in same sex households, unless the donor of sperm or ova -- eggs -- is known, which is unusual, unless that's the case, these kids don't know their biological parents," the Fox News "expert" pointed out. "Now, we don't know the psychological impact of that at all and we need the data, we really do."

"We are making public policy, as you suggest here, on the adoption of children without an understanding of the psychological impact that effect will have on their conduct and behavior," Dobbs agreed. "And we seem to be doing so as though we've been inspired on high to do so. It's really been remarkable the manifestation of our disregard for successive generations."

"And it's the opposite of inspiration on high, which suggests that you would empathize and care for others," Ablow replied. "This is narcissistic. I feel like it so I'm going to do it -- no matter what the science might show. And we need the data."

He added: "But the bottom line is, how did we decide that kids are just fine to grow up absent their biological parents? Because why? Because we love each other. Well, three people can love each other so polygamy has to be close behind. How can you have same sex marriage and not believe that three people can fall in love, which they absolutely can?"

While Ablow obviously has a low opinion of LGBT people (he compared a transgender reality star to an anorexic and heroin addict last year), his problem with adoption is not limited to same sex couples.

In February, the psychiatrist suggested that Media Matters founder David Brock was "dangerous" because he "is an adopted boy."

"He’s a dangerous man, because having followers and waging war," Ablow explained to Fox News host Steve Doocy. "This is an adopted boy who needs to plumb the depths of his psyche. He was adopted. Many adopted children are tremendously well-adjusted, but for some reason, this man feels he’s unloved and unloveable, shunted to the side, and that’s the antidote he feels: unlimited power."

According to the American Psychological Association, "there is no evidence to suggest that lesbian women or gay men are unfit to be parents or that psychosocial development among children of lesbian women or gay men is compromised."

But Ablow has also accused American Psychological Association of being "infected" by "manipulations of the truth on a scale never before known."

(h/t: Media Matters)

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Fox News host Chris Wallace on Friday suggested that it would be "legitimate" for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to attack President Barack Obama for his association with Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

"As far as Rev. Wright is concerned, I think it had a lot of relevance and I think when you look back on it, [former Republican presidential nominee John] McCain was crazy not to bring it up," Wallace told Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. "Not in a matter of exploiting it, it's a legitimate issue."

"That is the church that Barack Obama prayed in, worshipped in for 20 years. And he's been president for four now so I don't know that it is as relevant as it used to be."

On Thursday, The New York Times revealed that a pro-Romney super PAC was considering an ad campaign linking Obama to Wright. Their proposal goes so far as to propose possible responses to charges of race-baiting if ads were to mention Wright's "black liberation theology."

"I want to make it very clear: I repudiate that effort," Romney told reporters after learning of the plan. "I think it's the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign. I hope that our campaigns can be respectively about the future and about issues and about vision for America."

But Romney did mention Wright while attacking Obama last year for being influenced by "those who would like to see America more secular."

"And I’m not sure which is worse, him listening to Reverend Wright or him saying that we ... must be a less Christian nation," the former Massachusetts governor told Fox News host Sean Hannity.

In the end, Wallace believes that allowing a super PAC to do the dirty work could be a win-win for Romney.

"In a sense, Romney had the best of both worlds," he explained. "The story gets out there, it reminds everybody about Rev. Wright and he can sit there and say, 'I took the high road.'"

(h/t: Mediaite)

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A Virginia lawmaker who recently led the fight to block an openly gay man from becoming a judge General District Court judge in Richmond insisted on Thursday that the move had nothing to do with nominee's sexual orientation, but he was concerned about "bias" in cases between "a homosexual and heterosexual."

During an interview on CNN with Republican Virginia state delegate Robert Marshall, host Brooke Baldwin compared the struggle for LGBT rights to discrimination against African Americans and asked the lawmaker why he voted to block Richmond prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland from becoming a judge in a misdemeanor court.

"Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks never took an oath of office that they broke," Marshall explained, claiming that Thorne-Begland lied about his sexuality to join that military in the late 1980s.

"Sodomy is not a civil right. It's not the same as a civil rights movement," Marshall insisted.

"You bring up sodomy," the shocked CNN host noted. "Is the reason why you voted against him because he's gay, pure and simple?"

"Sorry, you're mischaracterizing that," Marshall replied. "I said sodomy is not a civil right, and there's an effort by homosexual lobbyists to equate the two. That's wrong. It's a pattern of behavior."

"From what I understand, this would have been a misdemeanor court," Baldwin countered. "In fact, one of your own Republican colleagues there in the House sponsoring his nomination, sponsoring Thorne-Beglan's nomination said this -- quote -- 'It is without question that Thorne-Beglan is extremely qualified.' The type of issues, social issues that would touch upon someone's constitutional interpretation, these things do not even come up in district court. Still, you feel that he would be unqualified to sit on that bench?"

"We don't accept everybody who is nominated. Moreover, he would preside -- he could preside as a district judge for a marriage of two guys if he wanted to, in violation of the law," Marshall opined. "Moreover, if you have a bar-room fight between a homosexual and heterosexual, I'm concerned about possible bias."

"Why would a homosexual - why would a gay person be more likely to be biased in the bar room example than say, you would?" CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill wondered. "I mean, to be quite frank, I would be more concerned you would be biased against the gay or lesbian person in that case."

"I wouldn't apply to be a judge," Marshall explained. "I am an advocate."

"But you are writing law," Baldwin pointed out.

"That's my job," the lawmaker quipped. "When I was in public school, we all went through a ritual. I know you may find it strange, that said keep us from temptation. This was because we said the Lord's Prayer. Nobody - nobody should go where they'll be tempted. That includes me, that includes you, that includes a prospective judge."

In its 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States determined that so-called sodomy laws in Texas and 13 other states, including Virginia, were unconstitutional.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy argued that there was "no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual."

But Section § 18.2-361 of Virginia Code, which bans sodomy, has never been repealed.

"If any person carnally knows in any manner any brute animal, or carnally knows any male or female person by the anus or by or with the mouth, or voluntarily submits to such carnal knowledge, he or she shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony," the law states.

Last year, the Supreme Court was asked to hear the case of a North Carolina man, William S. MacDonald, who was convicted of sodomy in Virginia in 2005 for oral sex.

Marshall is currently battling former Sen. George Allen and tea party activist Jamie Radtke for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

"I've got strong beliefs, I can't change them like a coat," he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch last week.

(h/t: Politico)

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A Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado insisted he misspoke on Wednesday after telling supporters that he wasn't sure where President Barack Obama was born but the president was "not an American."

Speaking to donors at the Elbert County Fairgrounds on May 12, Rep. Mike Coffman noted his disappointment about the state of the economy before launching into an unprompted rant about the president's citizenship.

"I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America," the congressman said. "I don't know that. But I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American."

Elbert County Republican Chairman Scott Wills told Colorado's 9News that there was "deafening silence" before the crowd reacted with tentative applause.

Coffman supporter Brooks Imperial, who first posted audio of the speech, said he wished more Republicans would reveal they were birthers.

"I'm glad the congressman said it," Imperial remarked. "Not enough have. More should."

In a written statement on Wednesday, Coffman insisted that he had misspoke.

"I misspoke and I apologize," the statement said. "I have confidence in President Obama's citizenship and legitimacy as President of the United States."

"I don't believe the president shares my belief in American Exceptionalism. His policies reflect a philosophy that America is but one nation among many equals," the statement continued. "As a Marine, I believe America is unique and based on a core set of principles that make it superior to other nations."

A spokesman for Democratic state Rep. Joe Miklosi, who is hoping to defeat Coffman in November, said the statement proved the congressman was too extreme for Colorado voters.

"These outrageous comments once again make clear that Mike Coffman is Colorado's version of Rush Limbaugh," Miklosi spokesman Joe Hamill explained. "This kind of extremism is why Washington doesn't work."

"We need leaders who will work together for solutions, not join the far right birther fringe or attack the President of the United States as un-American," the spokesman added.

Audio of Coffman's entire speech is available here.

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

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Fox News contributor Monica Crowley on Wednesday called the president of the United States "bigoted" for his suggestion that a name like "Barack Hussein Obama" made winning elections more challenging.

In an interview that aired on Tuesday, The View co-host Sherri Shepherd asked Obama how close his re-election would be.

"When your name is Barack Obama, it's always tight," the president replied, adding that his middle name was "Hussein."

Conservative websites like Hot Air immediately accused the current White House resident of trying to "smear" presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's supporters as racist.

Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Wednesday said she felt the need to cover the story because "the blogs are going off on this" and asked Monica Crowley, a Fox News contributor and co-host, to respond.

"It's not fair!" Crowley said of the president's comments. "What he meant was, I'm going to have a tough time because I have this funny name -- this is the line he used in 2008 -- because of my race, because of my ethnicity, because of my name. This is a man who won in 2008 with 53 percent of the vote. It was not a tight election."

"And to suggest the American people are somehow opposing him because of his race or his name is insulting to the American people and, quite frankly, Megyn, I think, bigoted in its own right."

Liberal Fox News contributor Sally Kohn argued that it was "accurate" that some voters would judge Obama on his race.

"I don't think that pointing that out makes you bigoted, I think it makes you realistic," Kohn explained. "Over one in three Republican voters still believe he wasn't born in the United States of America. If Hillary Clinton were our president right now, I think it would be disingenuous -- bordering on naïve of us -- to suggest that one of the ways in which she's being judged would be her gender. Of course it would be."

"He was the same color back in 2008 as he is now and we still had the majority of Americans put him into office," Kelly squinted. "Has his race suddenly become a deal breaker?"

"It's not even a deal breaker, it's a factor," Kohn pointed out.

"It's one thing for you to be able to sit with us and you make that point," Crowley insisted. "It's another thing for the president of the United States to make this point on national television. He's supposed to be the president of all of the American people: black, white, any race, any gender. And he's spent so much of his time, Megyn, dividing us, whether it is on class or race or gender. So for him to inject this where it doesn't exist tells me that he is so desperate to change the subject from his record that he's made up a GOP war on women, he talking about student loans, he's doing gay marriage."

"We get it because we're women, he get's it because he's black, Elizabeth Warren gets it because she's a Native American," Kelly jabbed, referring to attacks on Warren, a Democratic Senate candidate in Massachusetts, over reports that she may have claimed to have Native American heritage.

(h/t: Media Matters)