Free Republic

TAMPA -- There's good news and bad for Republican U.S. Senate hopes. Now that it's near certain that Florida's rookie Republican governor, Charlie Crist, will run for the Senate in 2010 rather than for re-election as governor, the GOP stands a good chance of retaining the seat current Republican Senator Mel Martinez has said he will not seek re-election to, and would not have won had he done so. That's the good news. For reasons that teach more about widespread gullibility than anything else, Governor Crist's job approval numbers remain in the high-sixties. In an election today, Crist would defeat...

Link only, per FR copyright and posting policy

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., met with President Barack Obama and key budget advisers Friday to discuss financial reforms and energy issues under review in Congress. Dorgan was one of four Democratic senators invited by the White House to meet with Obama and his top advisers to discuss the federal budget and other issues. Dorgan said they had "a pretty wide-ranging discussion about a good number of issues." The North Dakota senator said he raised the potential for new financial reforms and regulations to help rebuild the economy. Dorgan has sought more accountability into the expenditure of economic recovery funds and...

WASHINGTON, Mar 10, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says he's ready to work with President Barack Obama, the man who dashed his hopes for the White House last year. From issues involving Afghanistan and Iraq to military procurement reform, McCain says he is ready to work with the White House, Politico reported. Last week, he had a breakfast meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, appeared with the president at a White House media event and discussed how to squelch budget earmarks with Vice President Joe Biden. "These are terrible, perilous times, so I will seek...

More than $9 trillion -- in taxpayer dollars -- has been pledged, committed, lent or spent by the federal government in response to the economic crisis. Some say that if the economy continues to deteriorate, trillions more might be necessary to prevent another Great Depression. Yet no one has investigated how this crisis happened. That is irresponsible. A comprehensive investigation is essential to prevent this from happening again.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham defended earmarks he inserted in the federal budget, including one U.S. Sen. John McCain, Graham's close friend and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, listed as one of the "10 Porkiest" projects in the budget. Graham has also urged President Obama to veto the budget Graham says has too much pork. Earmarks are one-time spending items members of Congress insert in the budget that are typically sent to projects and programs in their own states. Graham earmarked $950,000 for the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. He has by one count 37 earmarks in the federal budget. "I voted...

Since 2004, alliance has transcended political differences.BY CHRIS CASTEELWASHINGTON — Some Oklahomans who saw Sen. Tom Coburn hug President Barack Obama after the president’s recent speech to Congress were probably perplexed. Some weren’t too happy about it. "We had about 50 letters that were highly critical of him hugging me and me hugging him,” Coburn, R-Muskogee, said in an interview last week. "But you need to separate the difference in political philosophy versus friendship. How better to influence somebody than love them? "I’m not aligned with him politically. I don’t know what people back home in Oklahoma would be worried...

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain is rewriting the part of presidential loser. Unwilling to vanish into retirement like Bob Dole, or retreat into academia like Al Gore, or even quietly convalesce like John Kerry, Mr. McCain has quickly reclaimed a place on center stage in Washington, some days skewering President Obama and the Democratic Party, and on other days standing by their side. “I’m the, as I said, loyal opposition,” Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, proclaimed this week. “And both words, I think, are operative.” If anyone wondered which John McCain would return to the Senate — the coalition-building dealmaker...

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced critical drug importation legislation today that will reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The Senators said their legislation, the “Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act,” will bring consumers immediate relief and will ultimately force the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices in the United States. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would save American consumers $50 billion over the next decade, including more than $10 billion in federal government savings. The bill allows U.S.-licensed pharmacies...

A bill to end cost overruns in major weapons systems would create a powerful new Pentagon position -- director of independent cost assessments -- to review cost analyses and estimates, separately from the military branch requesting the program. Those reviews, unlike in the current process, would take place at key points in the acquisition process before a weapons program can proceed, according to legislation sponsored by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Last year, the Government Accountability Office reported that cost overruns on the Pentagon's 95 largest weapons acquisitions system totaled about $300 billion, even though...

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 11:32 am Priorities -- Not lining the pockets of contractors Last week the President laid out the foundation of a new vision for our budget and the way government does business. It is a vision based not on ideology, but on the idea that we can and must invest boldly in our future while also making the hard choices and being vigilant to bring in a new era of fiscal responsibility.Last week began with the fiscal responsibility summit, where the President and members of Congress came together to generate ideas to get the country on a sustainable long-term track. One of...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – With former presidential rival Sen. John McCain and other congressional critics of government waste by his side, President Barack Obama changed another Bush-era policy Wednesday, announcing a plan to change how the government awards private sector contracts. “It’s time for a government that only invests in what works,” Obama said when calling for new spending guidelines. “And what’s encouraging is that there is broad, bipartisan consensus on behalf of reform.” Obama reserved special criticism for defense contractors, saying that the majority of the waste “comes from influence peddling and indefensible no-bid contracts that have cost American taxpayers...

CAVUTO: Let me ask you. This comes at a time when there are all sorts of rumors in Washington that you and the president, though you started hitting it off — he had this dinner for you, I think, the night before inauguration, and then he was talking about how crucial your support was on the troop drawdown in Iraq — and then it seemed like the wheels kind of came off the goodwill wagon. What has happened here? MCCAIN: Neil, I am the loyal opposition.I work with the president, as I did on the Iraq issue. I will work...

Link only, per FR copyright and posting policy

Two Wisconsin lawmakers from opposing parties are joining former GOP presidential nominee John McCain in pushing to give President Barack Obama line-item veto power. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Middleton, and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, are teaming up with the Arizona senator for what they say is a strategy to hold the line on federal spending and prevent wasteful earmarks. They plan to introduce the bill tomorrow.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan plan to introduce legislation to create a Senate panel to investigate the causes of the financial crisis, McCain’s office said in a statement Monday. If approved, the committee would also make recommendations about how to avoid a similar crisis in the future.

Republican Sen. John McCain rates President Barack Obama's first speech to Congress as "excellent." "There were areas that obviously I have questions about and disagreements with, but I think the theme of his speech and his delivery were excellent," the president's rival in last year's election said, following Tuesday night's speech. "I think he carefully balanced the enormity of the size of the challenges and difficulties that America faces and, at the same time, I think he gave Americans assurance and confidence that we can get through this," McCain said. The Arizona Republican said, however, that he has concerns. "I...

Despite the fact that he might have wished he had been the man who just finished his first address to a joint session of Congress as president, Sen. John McCain had kind words for President Obama's address this evening. "The president gave a very effective speech," McCain told Katie Couric on CBSNews.com's presidential webcast following Mr. Obama’s address. "His delivery and the theme of the speech was excellent."Still, McCain said, "now I would like to know how we are going to implement it." "I don't know where Social Security was,” McCain said. “I don't know how you increase all of...

The pool report by Amy Goldstein of The Washington Post on the Fiscal Responsibility Summit's breakout session on Social Security follows:The session was held in room 350 of EEOB, a large conference room in which participants sat around a rectangular table. At the head of the table, with an American flag on each side of them, were the two administration officials who led this breakout: Lawrence Summers, director of the WH's National Economic Council, and Gene Sperling, counselor for domestic policy at Treasury. An ideological eclectic mix of 24 guests participated (a partial list follows), including senators and House members,...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has taken steps to mend his relationship with Sen. John McCain after a bruising election year, but an upcoming vote on legislation loaded with earmarks could test their fragile détente. The Senate this week may debate a $410 billion package of spending bills that includes thousands of member projects. Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) staunchly opposes them, while Reid (D-Nev.) insists the furor over earmarks is overblown. All this might be another healthy debate for the world’s most deliberative body if it were not for another recent disagreement — McCain thought he was the best candidate to...