Free Republic

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is asking supporters for contributions to help prevent the "subpoenas and investigations" that would result from a GOP majority. In a fundraising letter for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Pelosi says if Republicans take back the House, they'll initiate "endless investigations against President Obama" and "bring back the days of Ken Starr and the politics of personal destruction." "Remember a Republican-controlled Congress that devoted more time to subpoenas and investigations than to solving our country's problems?" Pelosi asks. "There is far too much at stake for our country now to allow it to happen again." Rep....

Stung by a series of inquiries, nearly half the members of the Congressional Black Caucus want to scale back the aggressive ethics procedures that Democrats trumpeted after gaining control of Congress. Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and 19 fellow black lawmakers in the all-Democratic caucus quietly introduced a resolution last week that would restrict the powers of the new independent Office of Congressional Ethics. The office, formed by Congress in 2008, is run by a panel of private citizens. Black caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee, D-Calif., is among the sponsors, but the full 42-member caucus did not endorse the measure. Lee declined...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 03/03/2010 Pelosi Statement on Chairman Charles Rangel Washington, D.C - Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement this morning on Chairman Charles B. Rangel: "Chairman Charlie Rangel has informed me of his request for a leave of absence from his duties and responsibilities as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. I will honor his request. "I commend Chairman Rangel for his decades of leadership on jobs, health care, and the most significant economic issues of the day."

Labor leader Linda Chavez-Thompson won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor on Tuesday, capturing 53 percent of the primary vote against two opponents. She now faces incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the fall in a race that will be an uphill battle for the Democrat. Chavez-Thompson used her support from labor and Hispanic groups to establish a strong position in the race and also outspent her opponents - including former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle - by a substantial margin. Chavez-Thompson, 65, of San Antonio, is a former executive vice president of the AFL-CIO and a vice...

Much that is wrong with Congress was well illustrated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's inability to answer a straightforward question about the ethical lapses of one of her most powerful members. Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News asked Pelosi on Sunday whether House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel should have known it was a violation of ethics rules to accept Caribbean trips paid for by special interests.Here's the exchange:

(Washington, DC) -- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is rapidly losing popularity. A telephone poll taken late last week shows 48-percent of Americans don't approve of how Pelosi is doing her job. The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll comes as the California Democrat faces intense criticism over what she knew and when about government use of enhanced interrogation techniques. Last week, Pelosi said in a news conference that the CIA lied to Congress in 2002 and 2003 about its use of interrogation methods like waterboarding on terror suspects. Pelosi's new 39-percent approval rating makes her less popular than other congressional...

The most ethical Congress ever. Draining the swamp. Doing away with the culture of corruption. Insert whatever Pelosi talking point you want, Nancy appears to want to insulate federal lawmakers from being investigated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is working to buffer lawmakers from federal investigators. This is a bad idea. Special legal protections for politicians encourage unethical conduct.Irvin B. Nathan, general counsel of the House of Representatives, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday about establishing a protocol on how to handle “hopefully rare searches and electronic surveillance involving members of Congress.” Mr. Nathan...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard says in a new documentary that he still struggles with his sexuality yet is committed to his marriage for the sake of his children. Haggard, 52, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs in November 2006 after a former male prostitute went public with allegations that Haggard paid him for sex and used methamphetamine. A father of five, Haggard had said he bought the drugs but never used them. He confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and...

Patriotism: Joseph Lieberman will be called a Judas for speaking to the Republican Convention, but he was betrayed by his own party for refusing to support losing a war for political gain. It's only a matter of time before the long knives are unsheathed for Connecticut's "independent Democrat." Al Gore's 2000 running mate still caucuses with the Democrats, which lets the four-term senator maintain his seniority in committee assignments. Lieberman serves in the plum post of chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where earlier this year he published a powerful and fascinating report on how terrorist groups such as...

Have you seen this delicious little quote from Pennsylvania Democrat Congressman Paul Jankorski? Why it would seem that Mr. Jankorski is admitting that the Democrats lied about what was going on in Iraq during the 2006 mid-term elections? Here's his quote: "I'll tell you my impression. We really in this last election, when I say we ... the Democrats ... that if we won the Congressional elections we could stop the war. Now anybody who was a good student of government would know that wasn't true. "But you know ... the temptation to want to win back the Congress ......

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) has been a fairly undistinguished member of the House of Representatives for nearly a quarter of a century. He is a career member of the Financial Services Committee who has made little or no name for himself since his first electoral victory, and has maintained incumbency through the funneling of pork back to his district. Even his Wikipedia entry says that Kanjorski "usually plays behind-the-scenes roles in the advocacy or defeat of legislation and steers appropriations money toward improving the infrastructure and economic needs of his district." “But [in] the temptation to want to win back...

Data from the Defense Intelligence Agency indicates that enemy-initiated attacks on U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and Iraqi civilians peaked in October 2006, the month leading up to the U.S. midterm elections. At the time, Vice President Dick Cheney said the insurgents were "very sensitive to the fact that we've got an election scheduled" and were trying to "break the will of the American people." Democrats, who cast the 2006 midterm election as a referendum on Iraq, ended up taking control of both the House and the Senate. The DIA data shows that between November 2006 and May 2007, attacks...

On Election Day 2006, American voters did almost exactly what history would predict: giving a president in the sixth year of his administration a serious smackdown, as an electorate wary of politicians and parties hedged its bets and chose a divided government. Since World War II, the parties that controlled the White House for two terms have lost an average of 29 House seats and six Senate seats in their second midterm elections. This election fits tidily into that pattern. President Bush bucked another ubiquitous trap of modern presidents when he actually picked up Congressional seats for his party in...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is discovering the cold truth about governing with a slim majority: It's much easier to promise behavioral change for Congress than to deliver it. Pelosi vowed that five-day workweeks would be a hallmark of a harder-working Democratic majority. So far, the House has logged only one. Lawmakers plan to clock three days this week. The speaker has denied Republicans a vote on their proposals during congressional debates -- a tactic she previously declared oppressive and promised to end. Pelosi has opened the floor to a Republican alternative just once. Pelosi set a high standard for herself...

Former congressional candidate Vernon Robinson sounds resigned, and more than a little tired, when you ask him to explain his defeat. "The 2006 election was not a referendum on immigration," he says. "I would have liked it to be, but it didn't happen." That's an understatement. In the tumultuous political year of 2006, Robinson, a former city councilman from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, became one of the country's most notorious voices for a crackdown on illegal immigration. In March, as the Republican-led House of Representatives wrestled with a harsh reform bill that would build a wall on the border and classify...

Support for embryonic stem cell research played an important role for voters in the 2006 election. The Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative passed in Missouri, and candidates who used support for stem cell research as a central campaign issue were quite successful - 62 percent of races between an opponent and supporter of stem cell research went to the supporter. The key stem cell candidate victories occurred in Missouri and Wisconsin. Sen. Claire McCaskill's support of stem cell research and the embryonic stem cell ballot initiative helped her defeat incumbent Jim Talent in Missouri. And Gov. Jim Doyle won...

Thank you for publishing Paula Morris' guest column (The Star, Nov. 30). Make her a regular, please. Her articulate statement of the liberal position made this almost 72-year-old crone jump up and down and yell. (My dog thinks I'm demented but he has lots of company). Ms. Morris is correct about the backlash. It can be vicious. As I drive to my office each day I pass a building with a sign in flashing light bulbs which has the statement ever since the mid-term election, "al-Qaida celebrates!" Whoever is behind it has a right to his or her opinion but...

A runoff between Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla and his Democratic challenger will be held Dec. 12, Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday. Bonilla finished with 49 percent of the vote in the Nov. 7 special election. He will face former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, who got about 20 percent of the vote. Early voting will begin Dec. 4. Eight candidates participated in the special election that was called after the U.S. Supreme Court found a portion of the congressional district boundaries unconstitutional.

'Free to lose' isn't good philosophy for the right wing November 19, 2006 BY MARK STEYN Sun-Times Columnist If Milton Friedman had to die, then a week after the defeat of a Republican Congress that had apparently forgotten every lesson Friedman taught in Free To Choose is eerily apt timing. As it happens, had ill health not intervened, Professor Friedman would have been disembarking round about now from a National Review post-election cruise with yours truly and various other pundits and commentators. Instead, we were obliged to sail without him, and in the days that followed I found myself wondering...

11/18/06 Buchanan still ahead after second recount SARASOTA -- Republican Vernon Buchanan's lead stood at 400 votes as the race's second recount ended Friday at a secure warehouse just outside of town. Buchanan's battle with Democrat Christine Jennings for the 13th District Congressional seat next moved to the Supervisor of Elections office at 2001 Adams Lane for a count of overseas military ballots. The count was to be completed by 5 p.m. Saturday. Veterans Lee Kichen and Rich Swier were on hand to observe the count. Swier represented the Sarasota County Veterans Commission, which comprises "over 50 military, veterans and...