Conservative activists are planning to storm Capitol Hill on Wednesday for what they are predicting will be “the largest Tea Party protest since 2010.”

The protest — drawing tea partiers like TV host Glenn Beck and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — is in response to the Internal Revenue Service’s recent admission that it has been specifically targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

The gathering on the West Lawn of the Capitol is being called the “Audit the IRS” Rally.

“At noon tomorrow, we are going to tell the world about how the IRS tried to crush the Tea Party movement,” organizers with the Tea Party Patriots organization said in an email to supporters.

“Thousands of volunteers will rally in the largest demonstration of Tea Party support since 2010.”

The IRS scandal has galvanized Tea Party supporters in ways I haven’t seen since the birth of the movement in 2009. I have advocated that grassroots organizations capitalize on the attention and reignite the movement. We will see if that’s what’s happening.

Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, seeking to revive efforts to pass gun reform legislation in Congress, warned lawmakers opposed to reform that Americans aren’t on their side.

“The country has changed” since the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Biden said during remarks delivered Tuesday afternoon in the White House’s South Court auditorium. Lawmakers “will pay a price—a political price … for not getting engaged and dealing with gun safety.”

Two months after the Senate failed to support the expansion of background checks for gun purchasers despite intense pressure from the administration, victims rights groups and others, the White House announced Tuesday that the issue remains a top priority for the administration and their supporters in Congress and elsewhere.

“This fight isn’t over. Far from it,” Biden said.

Biden is a flaming liberal, and has been one since his Senate days, but I gave the guy credit for more political acumen than he’s showing on the gun control issue. There’s no “new majority” in favor of gun control, as he’d like to believe. The 2nd Amendment will stand the test of time, including in moments of politically trumped up crisis.

“I don’t see any way of bringing an immigration bill to the floor that doesn’t have a majority support of Republicans,” Boehner told reporters following a closed-door House GOP conference meeting…

According to a member who attended the meeting, Boehner argued against the Hastert Rule, but assured his colleagues that he would adhere to it on immigration.

On Monday, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher warned that Boehner should lose his gavel if he moved forward on immigration without majority support, saying it would be a “betrayal” of the party…

Asked by reporters if he agreed with Rohrabacher’s assessment, the Speaker considered the question and replied “maybe.”

I can guarantee you that if Boehner goes against the will of the Republican caucus on something as big as amnesty, he will lose his gavel. That’s why the Ohio Congressman is throwing in the towel on immigration reform, which will not achieve a Republican majority if it looks anything like the amnesty bill we’re seeing so far. Good for Boehner, even if it’s self-preservation.

I welcome Guillory to the Republican Party, and I hope his constituents respect his switch and continue to cast their votes for him. The GOP has always been the true party of civil rights, and we continue to be by advocating school choice, which is truly the civil rights issue of our time. Guillory sees that, and he’s doing his best to ensure others see it as well.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is threatening to veto the House version of a massive, five-year farm bill, saying food stamp cuts included in the legislation could leave some Americans hungry.

The House is preparing to consider the bill this week. The legislation would cut $2 billion annually, or around 3 percent, from food stamps and make it harder for some people to qualify for the program. Food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, cost almost $80 billion last year, twice the amount it cost five years ago.

The Senate passed its version of the farm bill last week with only a fifth of the amount of those cuts, or about $400 million a year, with the support of the administration.

The White House said in its statement Monday that food stamps are “a cornerstone of our nation’s food assistance safety net.” The administration argued that the House should make deeper cuts to farm subsidies like crop insurance instead.

I’m all in favor of deeper cuts to farms subsidies, but in addition to cuts in the SNAP program, not in place of them. I’ve seen the abuse of EBT cards from my time working in a grocery store, and while it doesn’t define the program, it certainly accounts for 10% or more of the dollars spent on the program. If the Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, can’t find even a third of these abuses and trim their spending, they shouldn’t be relied upon to administer food stamps to begin with.

Take, for instance, legislation from 2012 that would prohibit state agencies from requiring that their contractors hire union labor. It’s a commonsense provision that ensures that there is competitive bidding, whether the labor is union or not. Herring was one of only 11 State Senators to vote “no”. Here’s the rather commonsense language:

Public procurement; agreements with labor organizations.  Requires state agencies to ensure that neither the state agency nor any construction manager acting on behalf of the state agency shall, in its bid specifications, project agreements, or other controlling documents relating to the operation, erection, construction, alteration, improvement, maintenance, or repair of any public facility of public works, (i) require or prohibit bidders, offerors, contractors, or subcontractors to enter into or adhere to agreements with one or more labor organizations, on the same or related projects, or (ii) discriminate against bidders, offerors, contractors, subcontractors, or operators for becoming or refusing to become or remain signatories or otherwise to adhere to agreements with one or more labor organizations, on the same or other related public works projects.

Herring also voted “no” on an amendment to that law which would have included operators, something which his opponent Mark Obenshain not only supported, but sponsored.

It’s not surprising, however, that Herring would sell out the Virginia taxpayers (who benefit from competitive bidding) for his organized labor buddies. Herring has always received a ton of financial support from the labor community:

Virginia’s right-to-work past is what has kept the state competitive. Are we really ready to risk installing a bought and paid for union puppet in the Commonwealth?

Scott’s approval rating improved by seven points since March, which gives him the best approval rating since his election. This gives the Florida GOP some enthusiasm going into the 2014 gubernatorial election. Another increase was seen in the work he has done as governor. The survey found that 43% of Floridians approved of the job he has done, a big jump since March of seven points.

The poll also surveyed potential voters of the 2014 race. Former Gov. Charlie Crist, who switched party affiliation from Republican to Independent to Democrat, leads Scott 47%-37%. Scott is narrowing the gap, providing increasing hope for his re-election. Crist also ran against Marco Rubio during the Republican primary for the Senate seat in 2010. Crist’s changing of party identification is starting to hurt him with 47% saying it shows pragmatism, while 43% say that he lacks core beliefs.

The increase in popularity may be attributed to the economic growth in Florida and recent legislative victories involving education reform. Gov. Scott needs to continue showcasing his efforts in improving Florida’s economy in order to help his re-election campaign, as well as highlighting the flaws of Crist’s continual party shifts.

The Green Revolution, this guy is not. I followed it extremely closely four years ago, and this smacks of being more the guy Khamenei wanted to win than a true people’s choice.

In fact, after the debacle where they actually had to cheat to win in 2009, the Guardian Council and Khamenei wouldn’t possibly let someone in who would actually challenge the regime on anything important. That’s why Rafsanjani was not allowed to run in the first place this time around. The powers that be saw him as a continued threat to the power structure in Iran and someone who could upset the apple cart.

I want to believe the media reports that Rouhani is a moderate and someone we can work with, but I sincerely doubt it’s possible. After all, the guy still brags about how he personally conducted the negotiations with the West in the mid 2000s and continued to hold inspectors at bay while Iran got their nuclear programs up to speed.

Generally speaking, peaceful transitions to more democratic forms of government don’t happen in the Middle East. In Iran, we’re seeing the changing of the window dressing, not the changing of a regime, and as long as Khamenei is in power, we’re not going to see a stable and Western friendly Iran, period. We had one shot at that, President Obama blew it by standing with the regime in the spirit of negotiations (that went nowhere). It is the root and first branch of his Middle Eastern policies that led directly to the Arab Spring, led directly to Benghazi, and it was the biggest mistake of his first term in foreign policy.

And that’s saying something.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker polls near the bottom of would-be presidential contenders. Unlike potential rivals, you won’t find him on the cover of Time magazine or slow-jamming the news with comedian Jimmy Fallon.

But he’s a conservative Republican who won election in a blue state, survived a brutal recall campaign, and now posts approval ratings over 50 percent. A budget-slashing chief executive and son of a Baptist minister who straddles the fiscal and social conservative camps. A proven fundraiser who has put his thumb in the eye of President Obama and Big Labor.

He’s poised to be the sleeper Republican presidential candidate of 2016.

“The recall was a gift to him in that it put him in touch with the big funders in the Republican Party, and I’m sure he keeps that Rolodex pretty close,” said Brian Sikma, a spokesman for a conservative government watchdog group in Wisconsin. “I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t run, and if you look at the tea leaves, he’s taking all the traditional steps.”

“I’m sure in next few months you’ll find him somewhere in New Hampshire,” said Milwaukee-based Republican consultant Todd Robert Murphy.

I agree that Walker is the dark horse in 2016. His fight against organized labor earned him many allies and the liberal left hating him only helps his chances in a primary battle. He is far more dynamic than many know, and has the power to bring a crowd to their feet. We’ll see if Walker takes the plunge.