GOP watching White House hopefuls

Don’t read this, Democrats, because GOP opposition research PAC America Rising doesn’t “want to give away our playbook,” but here is what it has planned for Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and any other of the donkey crowd thinking of running for president, such as Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown: America Rising will be: • Tracking. We’ll be keeping a close eye on Elizabeth Warren as she travels around the country for her campaign. America Rising boasts the only national, full-time network of trackers on the Right.

• Monitoring. Our War Room is reading, watching, and listening to everything Elizabeth Warren does 24/7/365.

• Research. Our research file on Elizabeth Warren’s background, policy positions, and key statements is now being updated daily with new information and data.

• Communications. Our communications team is working to ensure Elizabeth Warren is held accountable.

“Nothing is going to get by us,” promised the PAC in a fundraising plea last week.

Doesn’t he ever get sick?

We receive a lot of selfcongratulatory press releases destined for the round file, but here’s one that seems worthwhile:

“State Senator Jay Hottinger, R-newark, completed the 132nd General Assembly without missing a single floor vote, making this his 26th year of perfect attendance during his service in the Ohio Senate, Ohio House and Newark City Council.”

Faith on the Hill

The Pew Research Center notes a 3 percentage point decline in the share of members of Congress who identify as Christian: from 91 percent to 88. The 116th Congress has four additional Jewish members (34 total), one more Muslim (3) and another Unitarian Universalist (2). Eight won’t give their religious affiliation.

The Christians are 55 percent Protestant and 30 percent Catholic. The biggest denominations: Baptists, 14 percent; Methodists, 8 percent; Anglican/episcopal and Presbyterian, 5 percent each.

Of Republicans, 99 percent say they are Christian, compared to 78 percent of Democrats, Pew found. One interesting fact: the House went from 74 Catholic Democrats and 70 Catholic Republicans in the previous session, to 87 Catholic Dems and 54 Catholic Republicans currently.

Chabot’s crystal ball

For years, Cincinnati GOP Congressman Steve Chabot has been making fearless predictions. Here’s a sampling of his list for 2019:

“If (Gov. John) Kasich runs (for president), I think he’ll do so as an Independent. Kind of like Ross Perot, but with an entirely different constituency. He’d appeal to some Republicans who never warmed to (President Donald) Trump, to a lot of Independents, and to some Democrats (Kasich’s been called the Democrats’ favorite Republican.) And like Perot, he probably wouldn’t win, but he could be a spoiler for Trump, and make it much more likely a Democrat is elected president next time around.

“Whatever the Mueller Report ultimately determines, Democrats in the House will be about three things — investigate, investigate, and oh yeah, investigate. The Trump Administration isn’t gonna know what hit them. A whole lot of lawyers are going to make a whole lot of money.”

We’ll spare you Chabot’s forecast for his hometown Reds and Bengals.

drowland@dispatch.com @darreldrowland