Free Republic

Senate Republicans vow they will retaliate for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) decision to unilaterally change the Senate’s rules Thursday without prior warning or negotiation. Republican aides say their bosses will now be even more reluctant to allow the Senate to conduct routine business by unanimous consent, forcing Reid to gather 60 votes for even the most mundane matters. “Reid fired a major salvo and it’s hard to imagine a return shot won’t be fired. Maybe over the weekend they’ll come up with something and try to make it less worse than it already is,” said a Senate...

Democrats are looking at the possibility of raising taxes on families below the $250,000-a-year threshold promised by President Barack Obama during the election. The majority party on Capitol Hill does not feel bound by that pledge, saying the threshold for tax hikes will depend on several factors, such as the revenue differences between setting the threshold at $200,000 and setting it at $250,000. “You could go lower, too — why not $200,000?” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “With the debt and deficit we have, you can’t make promises to people. This is a very serious situation.” Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.),...

Last week, Sen. Byron Dorgan spoke to a room full of Internet regulation supporters at the Free Press Summit and said that the free-market community's argument that Net Neutrality is a government takeover is a lie. He also felt compelled to say that ATR and others were spreading falsehoods by calling it such. I shot back today with a piece in the Daily Caller explaining why I believe Net Neutrality is certainly a government takeover. From the op-ed: Sen. Dorgan dismissed the argument by the free-market community that this is a government takeover, claiming “nothing could be further from the...

There are two parts to this story, both equally devastating to the Democrats and spectacular for the Republicans. And is has to do with North Dakota. The first part came last Tuesday, when Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) stunned the political world by announcing he would not seek a fourth term. Today part two is expected at 7 pm Eastern time today, when Gov. John Hoeven (R), who is in his third term and yet remains extraordinarily popular, is likely to announce he is a candidate to succeed Dorgan. The news has been confirmed by several sources, including the Bismarck Tribune,...

The Tribune has learned that North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven will announce today he is running for the U.S.Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan.

Election 2010: The back-to-back Senate retirements of Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd may be just the beginning. The people have seen the future of health care reform and found it doesn't work. Apres moi, le deluge. We don't know what the Mayan calendar says about 2010, but it's starting to look like the end of the world for Democratic electoral prospects. Americans who watched in shock as government tried to step between them and their doctors, may have the last laugh. The tea party isn't over until the angry mob votes. As rage grew over the attempt to nationalize one-sixth...

Republicans look like they’ve landed their top recruit in the North Dakota Senate race: Popular Gov. John Hoeven is letting his political allies know that he’s preparing to run for the seat of retiring Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)

WASHINGTON - With the 2010 election year barely under way, two senators and one governor — all Democrats — ditched plans to run for re-election in the latest signs of trouble for President Barack Obama's party. Taken together, the decisions by Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota as well as Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter caused another bout of heartburn for Democrats as they struggle to defend themselves in a sour political environment for incumbents, particularly the party in charge.

Republic National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says Sen. Byron Dorgan's decision not to seek re-election "highlights just how vulnerable both Senate and House Democrats have become" since President Obama took office. Here is Steele's statement, released Tuesday: “Today’s announcement by Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota that he will not seek reelection in 2010 highlights just how vulnerable both Senate and House Democrats have become since deciding to walk in lockstep with President Obama’s government-run policies. "For nearly a year Congressional Democrats have been turning a deaf ear to the concerns of the American people and as the elections of...

Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, announced on Tuesday he will not run for another six-year term, a move that could threaten his party's 60-vote majority in the Senate.

<p>Dorgan won't seek re-election. By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writer Ken Thomas, Associated Press Writer – 16 mins ago WASHINGTON – North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan says he will not seek re-election to the Senate in 2010, a surprise announcement that could give Republicans an opportunity to pick up a seat from the Republican-leaning state.</p>

Bret Baier just reporting Byron Dorgan will not run for the Senate this year. I'm not seeing it yet on Fox News, yet.

Dems minus 1 more...Statement from Byron Dorgan, who will not seek re-election...

“Although I still have a passion for public service and enjoy my work in the Senate, I have other interests and I have other things I would like to pursue outside of public life. I have written two books and have an invitation from a publisher to write two more books. I would like to do some teaching and would also like to work on energy policy in the private sector. “So, over this holiday season, I have come to the conclusion, with the support of my family, that I will not be seeking another term in the U.S. Senate...

Just announced by Brett Bair on Fox News: Sen Byron Dorgan (D-SD) will not seek re-election this year.

Call it the Wages of ObamaCare. When only 30% of a state’s likely voters support the one piece of legislation on which the incumbent has worked for most of the year, they tend to get a little chippy about the idea of sending him back to Washington. When paired up with Republican Governor John Hoeven in a 2010 midterm election, Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan trails by 22 points, 58%-36%: Incumbent Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan may have a serious problem on his hands if Republicans recruit Governor John Hoeven to run for the U.S. Senate in North Dakota next year. The...

North Dakota Republican state legislators and officials have had no better luck than anyone else in prodding Gov. John Hoeven for hints about whether he'll run against Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan next year. Four GOP lawmakers who raised the subject in a meeting with Hoeven in his Capitol office last week said the governor gave them no hints about his plans, although one participant said he believes Hoeven will make the race. "I think he feels a responsibility to do it," said Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier. "Maybe I'm a little optimistic in my thinking, but I do believe he's giving...

Dorgan, who chairs the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, announced a $457,000 federal Energy Department grant to study the feasibility of a new oil refinery in North Dakota. What I’ve never understood is why the Rural Electric Co-Op is getting an earmark to study an oil refinery. And on top of that, why are we spending almost a half a million of our grandchildren’s as-yet-unearned tax dollars on studying the feasibility of an oil refinery in the state ? Plus, we already have one refinery in the state and there’s another one in the works... Other than the fact...

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...

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.

Minneapolis: Dropping any pretense of objectivity and non-partisanship, the “National Conference for Media Reform” on Saturday night turned into a Barack Obama-for-President rally, as left-wing media figure Arianna Huffington denounced Senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain as a “Trojan horse for the right” who had “sold his soul” to become president. Several speakers, including Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps, used the Obama campaign slogan, “Yes, we can,” as they urged the thousands of “progressives” in the audience to bring “change” to Washington, D.C. --------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, a Canadian, Naomi Klein, who writes for the British Guardian and The Nation...

RUSH: Here's what happened last night on the immigration bill, as written up by the AP and then I will give you the correct analysis of this. "A fragile compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants risks coming unraveled after the Senate voted early Thursday to place a five-year limit on a program meant to provide American employers with 200,000 temporary foreign workers annually. The 49-48 vote came two weeks after the Senate, also by a one-vote margin, rejected the same amendment by Senator Dorgan. The North Dakota Democrat says immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill." Now, why...

In what may have been one of the US Senate's greatest speeches, Senator Byron Dorgan just trashed the Immigration Bill and poked fun at its framers. Senator Dorgan said about the bill: "It's about profits for big economic interests". He hammered repeatedly at the fact that there had been no consideraion given to American workers in the crafting of the legislation. The Senator commented about recent news stories that illustrated how employers are keeping relentless downward pressure on worker's wages and using cheap legal and illegal labor to do it, while management is getting huge salaries and retirement packages. Senator...

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress now has the opportunity to decide whether hunters should be allowed to hunt elk in North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced legislation Monday that would allow the National Park Service to use volunteer hunters to thin the overpopulated elk herd in the park. "If we need to thin the herd, I don't see any sense in spending millions of dollars to bring in federal sharpshooters and helicopters when we have qualified hunters in North Dakota that would do it free of charge," Dorgan said. The National Park Service has...

by Mark Finkelstein July 28, 2006 - 08:27 MRC's Brent Baker has noted ABC News' hyper-ventilation over Exxon's 'breathtaking' profits. This morning it was NBC's turn. As everyone knows, the way to decrease the price of a product is . . . to raise taxes on it? As contradictory as the notion might sound, it appears to be the Today show's preferred solution to $3/gallon gas. It was the news of Exxon's $10.3 billion second-quarter profit that gaveToday the opening to air its n-th iteration of the 'soaring gas prices' story. In an innovative bit of demagoguery, Today even displayed...

While Democrats and the “progressive” left were quick in trying to brand the Abramoff scandal as a “Republican scandal,” the facts indicate that this declaration is just another attempt by political opportunists at misdirection. In fact, Democrats do a great job at feeding off the special interest trough. According to Internal Revenue Service records, and substantiated by the Campaign Finance Analysis Project, forty of the forty-five members of the Democrat Senate Caucus took money from Jack Abramoff, his associates, and their Indian tribe clients. These recipients include: Charles Schumer ($29,550), Harry Reid ($68,941), Patty Murray ($78,991), Mary Landrieu($28,000), John Kerry...

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close associate of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, to plead guilty to corruption, other charges, source tells CNN. That is the teaser on CNN. CNN reported that Abramoff has agreed to a prison sentence of a maximum of 10 years, pending his full co-operation with the justice department. Updates will follow.

ON WARRANTLESS SEARCHES AND WIRETAPS:THE ABYSMAL CONSTITUTIONAL RECORD OF BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON(and this report covers only term #1) I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. LEARNED HAND Since there are occasions when every vessel will break from her moorings, and since,...

WASHINGTON - Lawyers for Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff are in discussions with the Justice Department about his possible cooperation in a congressional corruption probe, a person involved in the investigation said Tuesday night. The probe involves a number of members of Congress as well as staff. A former aide to ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, has already pleaded guilty. Abramoff would plead guilty under an arrangement that would settle a criminal case against him in Florida as well as potential corruption charges in Washington, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the...

WASHINGTON -- All's well, Senator Byron Dorgan of the great state of North Dakota has done come clean. Senator Dorgan is the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. In that capacity he accepted $67,000 in contributions from Indian tribes represented by the recently indicted Jack Abramoff, a fabulous fixer here in the capital of the Free World. Abramoff, a Republican, has obviously been an equal-opportunity fixer, and apparently Dorgan was not above accepting his help, though Dorgan claims he never met the rogue and never backed any of his programs knowingly. Now there is an adverb to contemplate, "knowingly."...

Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Sen. Byron Dorgan is returning $67,000 in donations to dispel any notion that tribal money was directed to him by Jack Abramoff, who has been indicted for wire fraud and conspiracy http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7001460632

Who Is Byron Dorgan? By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. Published 12/15/2005 12:07:04 AM WASHINGTON -- All's well, Senator Byron Dorgan of the great state of North Dakota has done come clean. Senator Dorgan is the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. In that capacity he accepted $67,000 in contributions from Indian tribes represented by the recently indicted Jack Abramoff, a fabulous fixer here in the capital of the Free World. Abramoff, a Republican, has obviously been an equal-opportunity fixer, and apparently Dorgan was not above accepting his help, though Dorgan claims he never met the rogue and never backed...

WASHINGTON -- The top Democrat on the Senate committee investigating Jack Abramoff's Indian lobbying is returning $67,000 in donations in response to Associated Press reports that he collected tribal money around the time he took actions favorable to those Abramoff clients. While Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., never met Abramoff and didn't take any actions at the lobbyist's behest, he nonetheless wants to return the money to avoid any appearances that tribal money was directed to him by the controversial lobbyist, his office said Tuesday. Dorgan is the senior Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that has spent more than...

Democrats have their own scandal brewing at the moment, but they are doing much better in covering it up than their Republican counterparts. At issue is the report by David Barrett, the last remaining U.S. independent counsel. Over ten years, Barrett has spent $21 million on the investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, who lied to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress. The reason the report and the investigation have taken so long is that allies to Cisneros and the legal team of former President Bill Clinton at the powerhouse Washington law firm of Williams and...

WASHINGTON - New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients. A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record)'s political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use.The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed...

More than a dozen members of Congress intervened to help Indian tribes win federal school construction money while accepting political donations from the tribes, their lobbyist Jack Abramoff or his firm. The lawmakers hailed from both parties, including House Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Charles Taylor, R-N.C., and Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Abramoff. Most wrote letters that pressed a reluctant Bush administration to renew a program that provided tribes federal money for building schools. Others worked the congressional budget process to ensure it happened, according to documents obtained by The Associated...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate decided Thursday that it was time to close to a decade-old, $20 million investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros - years after Cisneros received a presidential pardon. The amendment to a spending bill, approved by voice vote, would require that the report of Independent Counsel David Barrett be made public within 60 days, and that the independent counsel close his office within 90 days after the report is published. ``The American taxpayers have spent a lot of money on this report and they deserve the right to see it,'' said Senate Finance Committee...

WASHINGTON, June 30 - A researcher secretly retained by the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to monitor liberal bias in public radio and television set his sights on several media personalities, including Bill Moyers, Tucker Carlson, Tavis Smiley, David Brancaccio and Diane Rehm, according to documents made public Thursday. Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, released 50 pages of what he called the "work product" of Fred Mann, a researcher who has been connected to conservative journalism centers and who was hired by the corporation's chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson. Mr. Dorgan pronounced the work "a little nutty"...

The Oral Minority A reader called our attention to a pair of strangely similar quotes from Democratic senators. On March 5, North Dakota's Byron Dorgan said of President Bush's Social Security ideas, ''This is a big wet kiss to Wall Street." Then, last Thursday, Nevada's Harry Reid, the minority leader, said of Majority Leader Bill Frist's filibuster compromise, "It's a big wet kiss to the far right." We found several other examples of liberals referring to their opponents' actions as "wet kisses": h Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias,' by an C. Andersonthe conservative think tank the Manhattan...

"SILLY SOCIAL SECURITY THING"? Democrats Too Busy To Work With President To Strengthen Social Security ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Democrats Have Other Priorities Than Social Security:   Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) Said She's Got "More Important Things To Ask About Than This Silly Social Security Thing." "Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) managed to stir up some trouble last week at the Joint Economic Committee hearing chaired by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.). Testifying before the committee was Harvey Rosen, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Sanchez was evidently fed up with the contents of the hearing. 'I've more important things to ask about...

Parties Should Court All Voters -- Not Just Those in Battleground StatesIf you saw a real live presidential candidate this year, you must live in one of those "battleground states." You're lucky. Most of us never laid eyes on a candidate except on television. In fact, most Americans are as likely to see a presidential candidate in the flesh as they are to see Elvis walk out of a Johnny Rockets hamburger stand. Despite being called a national campaign for the presidency, it really isn't national anymore. These elections have become a series of mini-campaigns in specific states calibrated to...

BISMARCK -- First, a series of heterosexual couples kiss. Then, two men are shown about to lock lips. All are dressed for a wedding. That is followed by three people, depicting a wedding of two men and a woman. The campaign commercial's message: Sen. Byron Dorgan supports gay marriage and unless North Dakotans vote for Republican Mike Liffrig for the U.S. Senate, they can "kiss their morals goodbye." Democrats demanded Tuesday that Liffrig pull the plug on that ad and another commercial that claims Dorgan supports human cloning, saying the allegations are lies. The ads began running statewide Monday and...

U. S. Senate Republican candidate Mike Liffrig again criticized incumbent Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., for his part in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," bringing in two veterans from the Iraq war to share their opinions. Liffrig and the veterans said Dorgan should apologize for taking part in a movie that demoralizes U.S. troops. Dorgan appears in the film asking questions about how 142 Saudi citizens got clearance to leave the country shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, before being "properly interrogated." Dorgan shouldn't apologize for the questions he asked, Liffrig said Friday morning, but for appearing in a film that attacks the...

(Washington, DC): Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has introduced “The Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2004” (S. 2328). “The legislation should be referred to as the ‘Get Your Drugs from Who Knows Where Act,’ because no one — not the FDA, not the pharmacists, not the doctors, not Sen. Dorgan and certainly not the patients — will know where the imported drugs REALLY come from,” says Dr. Merrill Matthews, resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI). Before the Senate takes up this legislation, the media should ask the senator some tough questions — and expect some...

WASHINGTON - Zell Miller, Georgia's maverick Democratic senator, says the nation ought to return to having senators appointed by legislatures rather than elected by voters. Miller, who is retiring in January, was first appointed to his post in 2000 after the death of Paul Coverdell. He said Wednesday that rescinding the 17th Amendment, which declared that senators should be elected, would increase the power of state governments and reduce the influence of Washington special interests. "The individuals are not so much at fault as the rotten and decaying foundation of what is no longer a republic," Miller said on the...

In a state which went for George Bush in 2000 with 61%, can two young and attractive Republican candidates raise the funds to upset a couple of Democrat incumbents? Duane Sand, doing well in fund raising, a 1990 Naval Academy graduate with a creditable Senate race behind him is opposing Democratic At-Large Cong. Earl Pomeroy...who in 2002 made it through with just 52%, and was held to 53% in the 2000 election. Sand has a real chance, for information see: http://www.duanesand.com/index.html Perhaps a bit more under the radar screen is Mike Liffrig, 45 year old Republican candidate for Senate against...

Republican leaders told rank-and-file Senators last week that the chamber will be a “battleground” in this presidential election year and unveiled a plan intended to promote the GOP’s positions on six specific issue areas in the coming months. The Republican leadership is urging their colleagues to invoke their Senatorial privilege of using the floor to speak in favor of President Bush’s legislative agenda and question the policy proposals of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. “They have put out the signal, Senator Kerry’s campaign says the battle for the presidency is going to be waged on the...

Former college basketball coach Dale Brown said Tuesday he will not seek the Republican endorsement to challenge Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., next year. Brown had said in February he would not run, declaring that "my political career, for me, has ended." However, GOP activists asked him to reconsider, amid signs that their preferred candidate, former Gov. Ed Schafer, will refuse to run against the incumbent Democrat. Brown said Tuesday he has mailed letters to supporters declaring that he will not run because of family considerations. His daughter recently moved back to Louisiana with her husband and three children, and both...

Former basketball coach Dale Brown says he is reconsidering whether to run for office in North Dakota next year. The Minot native and former longtime LSU men's basketball coach earlier this year decided against running for Congress against Democrat Byron Dorgan in 2004. Brown said Monday that because former Gov. Ed Schafer, a Republican, is not interested in making a U.S Senate run, Republicans from across the country are urging him to run against Dorgan. Brown said he expects to make a decision within a few weeks. "I owe them not to prolong this," he said of fellow Republicans. Vern...

POLITICS: Dale Brown reconsiders running for U.S. Senate N.D. native, former basketball coach says he will decide within a few weeks Associated Press Former basketball coach Dale Brown says he is reconsidering whether to run for office in North Dakota next year. The Minot native and former longtime Louisiana State men's basketball coach earlier this year decided against running for Congress against Democrat Byron Dorgan in 2004. Brown said Monday that because former Republican Gov. Ed Schafer is not interested in making a U.S. Senate run, Republicans from across the country are urging him to run against Dorgan. Brown said...