February 25 – Shutdown of DHS Now In Boehner’s Hands; Netanyahu “Destructive” to U.S.-Israeli Relations; The Religious Right’s Crusade to Deregulate Political Spending

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the possibility of a partial government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security that with two days to go, rests in the hands of House Speaker Boehner now that the Senate has agreed to a clean bill to fund DHS without any measures to block President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Michael Greenberger, the former director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who is now the Director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, joins us to discuss the political and security consequences of de-funding the Department of Homeland Security at a time of heightened terror alerts and arrests of alleged American jihadists on there way to join the so-called Islamic State.

Part 2

Then, with the National Security Advisor warning that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress next week will be destructive to U.S./Israeli relations and Secretary of State Kerry telling the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Netanyahu is wrong on the Iran negotiations and was wrong on invading Iraq, we speak with Daniel Drezner, a Professor of International Politics at Tufts University about his op-ed at The Washington Post “Benjamin Netanyahu’s blinkered view of American politics”. We also discuss Netanyahu’s spurning of an invitation to meet with Senate Democrats on the peculiar logic that it might be perceived as partisan when his address to Congress was arranged by the Republican leadership as a partisan event.

Part 3

Then finally we look into a new report from Common Cause “Unlimited and Unregulated: The Religious Right’s Crusade to Deregulate Political Spending” and speak with its author Arn Pearson, the Vice President for Policy and Litigation at Common Cause about the 70 lawsuits challenging campaign finance laws at state, local and federal levels brought by religious right front groups, and the millions in political spending these groups give to Republican candidates.