Free Republic

Several Democratic insiders are now saying Sen. Joe Lieberman, D- Conn., will be kicked out of the party's caucus and lose his Senate chairmanship next year if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned. Lieberman, the four-term senator from Connecticut who was elected as an independent in 2006 after losing the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 because of his support for the Iraq war, is supporting Republican nominee John McCain for president. According to The New York Times, Lieberman's Democratic colleagues are upset over his openly campaigning and traveling with the senator from Arizona during...

Joe Lieberman is enemy number one in the Democratic Party, at least among the netroot base which now appears to pull the strings. The netroots rounded up more than 45,000 signatures on a petition to strip him of his position as chair of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees. As Robert Novak reported, Harry Reid is mulling over whether to kick Lieberman out of the Democratic caucus entirely if he speaks at the Republican convention on John McCain’s behalf. By championing the surge, advocating for a robust national security, warning of the dangers of Iran’s state sponsorship of terror and...

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has remained largely unhurt by the controversy over his “sweetheart” deal with mortgage lender Countrywide. But CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla finally bucked the media trend of ignoring the scandal and brought the loan up in an interview with the former Democratic presidential hopeful July 14. Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in the wake of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s July 13 announcement that the federal government would take actions to prevent the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) from failing. “Squawk Box” co-host Quintanilla asked Dodd...

Joseph Lieberman, the lapsed Democrat from Connecticut, strolled into the weekly lunch of the Senate Democrats, unaccompanied by a food taster. He greeted his colleagues, including some who felt he should not have been there last Tuesday. He ate his lunch (salad, eschewing the macaroni and cheese) and sat through a discussion about gasoline prices and Medicare. Then the conversation veered into the danger zone, the presidential election - specifically, Senator John McCain's recent votes, or nonvotes, on energy policy. At which point Lieberman walked out. "I just didn't feel it was appropriate for me to be there," Lieberman explained...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite assurances to the contrary from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic insiders are certain Sen. Joseph Lieberman next year will be kicked out of the party's caucus and lose his Senate chairmanship if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned. Lieberman's Democratic colleagues willing to accept his support of Sen. John McCain for president consider speaking to the GOP convention as the last straw. Lieberman was re-elected from Connecticut as an independent in 2006 after losing the Democratic nomination because of his support for the Iraq war.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite assurances to the contrary from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic insiders are certain Sen. Joseph Lieberman next year will be kicked out of the party's caucus and lose his Senate chairmanship if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned. Lieberman's Democratic colleagues willing to accept his support of Sen. John McCain for president consider speaking to the GOP convention as the last straw. Lieberman was re-elected from Connecticut as an independent in 2006 after losing the Democratic nomination because of his support for the Iraq war. After his 2006 election,...

If the government takes money from you and gives it to somebody else, that's known as a "tax." But is it still a tax when the government delegates a third party to take your money and then give it to whomever the government designates? A whole lot of people in Connecticut are trying to pretend that it isn't. Operation Fuel is proposing that seniors and low-income residents be given a mandatory discount on energy costs. Under the plan, those who qualify would pay a fixed percentage of their total income. Utilities, such as electricity providers, and suppliers, such as heating-oil...

Twenty years ago today (March 24, 2005), Army Major Arthur D. "Nick" Nicholson drove into East Germany to survey Soviet military activity. It was a bright Sunday morning, and he was about to become the last American to die in the Cold War. Relatively few people have heard of Nicholson, even though his killing dominated newspaper headlines around the world for several tense days two decades ago. A handful of people won't ever forget him: A small band of former comrades gathers at his Arlington National Cemetery each spring... I wrote about Nicholson's story in National Review last year. Since...

Chris Dodd is trying desperately to change the subject, but it isn't working. After a year on the presidential campaign trail, he returned to his Senate duties this year only to find his approval rating had fallen to 51 percent. So he did something uncharacteristic: He made several appearance in the state so the soiled masses might get close, but not too close, to him again. Confident he was back in their good graces, he returned to the Capitol to close the sale of his office to subprime lenders. After ignoring the mortgage meltdown for months, he filed legislation to...

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- State police said they had to use a stun gun on a New London man while arresting him for allegedly exposing himself to a 12-year-old girl inside Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Will there be a MORTGAGE-GATE controversy in the 2008 election? Judicial Watch has filed a complaint against the sweetheart deal that Senator Obama Barack has received in terms of a mortgage. So has Senator Christopher Dodd, D-CT, who is chair of the Senate Banking Committee. One must ask the question are these two Democrats: are they Dumb, Dishonest, or both -- to have accepted these sweetheart mortgage deals for their personal life? Should the US Justice Department start investigating these politicians and others for such deals to receive favorable treatment in legislation now that the mortgage industry is in serious...

New Haven (WTNH) _ It seems the controversy surrounding the New Haven ID cards is far from over. But after 30 hours of testimony, ID card holders information, for now, remains secret. Thanks to a three-to-one vote by state Freedom of Information Commissioners, thousands of names registered under New Haven's resident identification cards will be kept secret for now. Advocates of the program call this a major victory for illegal immigrants who worry about becoming targets. "The Freedom of Information Commission recognized what we've been saying all along," Kica Matos, the Community Service Administrator, said. "Releasing the records of the...

As the Senate prepares to vote on its mortgage bailout this week, one part of Banking Chairman Chris Dodd's bill deserves more scrutiny. It's a section called "affordable housing allocations," and while it sounds innocuous, in practice it amounts to a new tax to create a permanent subsidy for state governments and political activists. Like the bailout that has already passed the House, the Senate bill features a special new tax on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We have long urged reform of the two mortgage giants, which operate with an implicit government guarantee and therefore a license to endanger...

WINSTED — This is the only town in America this year where you could have found, on a recent Monday evening, a presidential candidate out for a walk with a lone reporter. Eschewing entourage or fanfare, dressed in a plaid shirt and gray slacks with sensible walking shoes, renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader, a Winsted native, briskly strode past milestones of hometown memory, stopping now and then to chat with passers-by. "Hey, Ralph," one woman hailed, extending her arm in a friendly wave. Several fans approached for handshakes and in one case, a hug to embrace Winsted's most famous son,...

A bomb-laden van found on a Brooklyn street by a car thief was wired to detonate by remote control, and had likely been sitting there for more than five months... Investigators believe the homemade explosives found Thursday night in the Ford Econoline belonged to Yung Tang, 39, a Chinese national. He has been behind bars since he was caught Jan. 29 in Wallingford, Conn., with nearly identical bombs in his Mazda MPV minivan. Also found in the MPV were two silencers, four hollow-point bullets and two radio-controlled detonators. Days after that arrest, the NYPD searched his Brooklyn house and found...

A fair summary of self-esteemists' arguments for sex-education classes: Children grow up faster these days and their bodies mature earlier; "10 is the new 15," so it's vital that their schools teach them everything about sex. There's no sense sheltering them because they're going to exposed to smut and depravity via the Internet, TV, movies and video games anyway. Absent from the discussion is the reality that tweens are intellectually and emotionally unprepared for the immorality self-esteemists demand they embrace. But while self-esteemists rush children into adulthood, and too often into single motherhood, and sometimes provide them with the tools...

Hartford (WTNH) _ A long forgotten flag was discovered at the Connecticut Historical Society and it dates back to the days of President Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Susan Schoelwer from the Connecticut Historical Society says a handwritten note accompanied the flag inside a simple black box. "You know we have a lot of stuff with a lot of little notes on them. Some of them are true and some of them are not," Susan said. In this case the note claims that the tattered American flag was present at a traumatic event in American history and the hand of a great...

WASHINGTON, Conn. -- Last week, on the third anniversary of his son's death in Afghanistan, Ray Reich expected a red rose to appear by a military grave marker at the corner of his back lawn. A friend had put one there twice before. This year, red and white roses decorated the marker, left by a pair of neighbors unwilling to let the day pass without a small gesture of respect and support. "An awful lot of nice things have happened since his death," Reich said. "And continue to happen." Army Maj. Stephen Reich died along with 15 other soldiers June...

Richard Blumenthal and Susan Bysiewicz marched to the VA, ready to break the door down to rescue veterans like Mike Onieal — but found out they may not have needed such a dramatic rescue. The event had all the makings of a perfect photo op: Two of Connecticut’s top Democrats defy President Bush, slam an unconstitutional policy statement and come to the aid of deprived veterans who sacrificed their limbs in the war only to be stripped of their basic rights. The VA, it turns out, does have a voting access problem, but not the one that the top Dems...

listen live to their interview here http://player.play.it/player/player.html?id=80&onestat=wtic

The Re-Envisioned, Slimmed-Down Courant Will Focus On Delivering A Smarter Package Of News With Passion And Purpose It's been a hellish week for employees of The Courant, especially those of us who camp in the news department. It's nothing new — shrinking revenue, shrinking staff, shrinking number of newspaper pages devoted to the journalism we hold dear. But man, when the company tells us we've got to cut our staff and newsprint by 25 percent just to stay in business, it's scary — and not only because we might lose our paychecks. What really scares us is that we might...

It surprised me, all right, but quite a few of the Connecticut Republicans I spoke to at the annual Prescott Bush Awards Dinner (June 27th) would not have a problem with "Independent Democrat" Joe Lieberman as Republican John McCain's vice presidential running mate. The only ones who dismissed the scenario of McCain being the first Republican Presidential nominee since Abraham Lincoln in 1864 to select a Democratic running mate (Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who had broken with fellow Southern Democrats over secession) were those who consider themselves committed conservatives.

'I would never take 'trust me' for an answer, not even in the best of times. Not even from a president on Mount Rushmore." So declared Sen. Christopher J. Dodd last week on the floor of the U.S. Senate during a debate on government surveillance. Dodd declared he will not trust our leaders unless he gets to see certain national security documents. Dodd insists, however, that we trust him when he says he didn't know he received special treatment when he borrowed nearly $800,000 from Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2003. Dodd continues to refuse to release the standard documents (commitment...

Add "Porker of the Month" to the trophies on Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's mantle. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Dodd its June porker for his "blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers," and for his "monstrous mortgage bailout bill that will dump ($300 billion) worth of risky mortgages onto the backs of taxpayers while lending a helping hand to his corporate benefactor." He saved $75,000 under VIP mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial in 2003. Now his bailout package seeks to reward the most unscrupulous subprime lenders and the most irresponsible borrowers at the expense of homeowners...

NEW YORK TIMES: "About that Mortgage, Senator . . ." It turns out that the chieftain of Countrywide -- which is smack in the middle of the mortgage mess -- extended privileged borrowing status to two Senators, Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota. Both Senators deny any ethical violations.   The disclosure of the V.I.P. arrangments by the political website Politico.com left constituents angry and suspicious -- particularly because the revelations came just as Congress was rousing itself to do something about the mortgage foreclosure crisis.   It would be nice to think that...

British Invasion Graduation by: Deborah Lambert, June 26, 2008 Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will start teaching at Yale this fall, addressed the school’s 2008 graduating class on May 25th, all of which apparently horrified his former Oxford tutor, who, according to Blair, said: “I only hope for their sake you are going there to learn rather than teach.” Blair discussed the Middle East, climate change and the global economy, urging grads to become involved in causes greater than themselves. He also said that while the grads benefited from superior intellect and luck, it was very important to...

A Yale Tale by: Malcolm A. Kline, June 25, 2008 Under the guise of scholarship, the professoriat would have us “leave them alone” but is the feeling mutual? You can get an insight into the answer to this question not by what they tell the public but what they communicate to each other. Take Yale sociologist Michael Yarbrough. His university web site tells us that he “works in the areas of law and society; family; the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality; and political subjectivity.” His page goes on to note that “He is particularly interested in the role of...

New Haven (AP) _ A family of Ecuadorean immigrants has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the owners of a New Haven bakery shop where they worked of sexually and verbally abusing them for years. They also allege the owners refused to pay the minimum wage or overtime and threatened to deport them if they complained. The unusual lawsuit by undocumented immigrants was filed earlier this month under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Olger Nestor Urena Flores and members of his family are making the allegations against Antonio DiBenedetto and his wife, Anna, who own Rocco's Bakery in New Haven and...

It was only eight years ago that Joe Lieberman was the toast of the Democratic Party. As Al Gore's running mate during the 2000 presidential election, nary a bad word could be said about the Connecticut senator. Few questioned his Democratic credentials. Few questioned his fidelity to the Democratic Party. Though open minded on some issues, he was a Democrat's Democrat. Oh, how times have changed. "There's hardly any sense in which [Joe] Lieberman is an independent figure," writes Jonathan Chait in a recent article in The New Republic magazine. "He's become a cog in the Republican message machine."

NOW YOU KNOWWhen cornered, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd maintains an ambiguous relationship with the truth. His clumsy and contradictory explanations of the favorable mortgage deals he received from Countrywide Financial continue to shred his credibility. Dodd would spew righteous venom over anyone who offered the Senate testimony as convoluted as what Dodd has served us in the past 10 days. "Outrageous," he thundered in a press release on Friday the 13th. How dare anyone suggest he would derive a personal benefit from his public trust? With that, he skedaddled out of Washington, officially traveling and unavailable in the communications age....

The Washington Examiner has obtained a “confidential and proprietary” document produced by Bank of America and titled “FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008.” The “Discussion Document” dated March 11, 2008, closely resembles the housing bailout bill drafted by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) that the Senate is set to vote on within days. Senate staffers have told the Examiner’s Tim Carney, “the bailout section is exactly what Bank of America and Countrywide wanted. Its obvious they got what they asked for.”

Sen. Barack Obama's shifting position on the FISA bill -- on Friday he released a statement saying that he supported the bill, and on Saturday announced that he would seek to strip out the section providing retroactive immunity to communications companies -- is being directed by aides to Sen. Chris Dodd, who also opposes the compromise legislation. Dodd and senior Obama campaign and Senate staff have been speaking for close to a week on strategy to kill the bill as it became increasingly apparent that negotiations on the bill were coming to a successful end. "Dodd is taking his marching...

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Comments from bloggers that say, "Hartford is a piece-of-scum city populated by animals," and, "It is the African/ Latino people that have ruined our country,” are the kind that Mayor Eddie Perez said he no longer wants to see on www.hartford.com. Perez and community leaders held a rally Friday afternoon in front of the Broad Street headquarters of the state's largest newspaper, the Hartford Courant. Perez said he's asked the Courant to better monitor comment from readers

GROTON, Conn., June 18, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----General Dynamics Electric Boat will christen New Hampshire (SSN-778), the U.S. Navy's newest and most advanced nuclear attack submarine, at a ceremony at its shipyard here on Saturday, June 21, at 11 a.m. Cheryl McGuinness of Portsmouth, N.H., is the ship's sponsor. Mrs. McGuinness lost her husband, Tom McGuinness, on September 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center attacks. He was the co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

The Countrywide sixBy John Bender web posted June 16, 2008The news that former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson was one of the sleaze bags who enriched themselves with sweat heart deals on mortgages from Countrywide Financial makes it a bipartisan scandal and eliminates the slim possibility that any of them will be brought to justice.  The ruling political class doesn't like to bring its members to justice. But if one political party can gain political advantage by going after a few members of the political class who happen to be in the other party, they will grab...

Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce. WASHINGTON, DC - Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government. FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it...

H.R.6257 Title: To reinstate the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act. Sponsor: Rep Kirk, Mark Steven [IL-10] (introduced 6/12/2008) Cosponsors (4) Rep Castle, Michael N. [DE] - 6/12/2008 Rep Ferguson, Mike [NJ-7] - 6/12/2008 Rep Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [FL-18] - 6/18/2008 Rep Shays, Christopher [CT-4] - 6/12/2008 Latest Major Action: 6/12/2008 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. TITLE(S): * SHORT TITLE(S) AS INTRODUCED: Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008 * OFFICIAL TITLE AS INTRODUCED: To reinstate the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Thursday said Congress should examine Countrywide Financial Corp's mortgage loans to Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad. "My view is that these allegations should be considered by the appropriate bodies, and I understand that the Senate Ethics Committee has already begun to look into the matter," Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.

Michael Serricchio had all he had ever hoped for in a career by the summer of 2001. At 29, he was working in the pressure cooker world of securities trading, managing millions of dollars for hundreds of investors and planning to support a family on the $200,000 he was collecting in commissions. He also was a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. (snip) But, he says, his welcome back was less than what he had hoped for. After a three-month delay, he said, Wachovia made a salary and employment offer that was so unsatisfactory it amounted to an effective...

New Haven (WTNH) _ Is it discrimination or simply a perk of picking up an ID card? That's the question many are asking following a report only seen on News Channel 8. The Elm City is considering offering gas at a huge discount to ID card holders. The idea is to offer gas at this Shell Station in New Haven, for just $1.99 a gallon for three hours on a Saturday in July. But this offer is only available if you have an Elm City ID card. When Geoff Jacobs heard about it, he immediately called city hall. "I just...

It didn't occur to Sen. Chris Dodd that VIP status at Countrywide mortgage for the Chairman of Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs might be preferential treatment... Sen. Chris Dodd on Tuesday denied any attempt to seek preferential treatment in the refinancing of two mortgages with Countrywide Financial Corp., while acknowledging that he was a VIP customer. But he said he didn’t think that meant he would get special treatment. When Chris Dodd's Presidential campaign ended, he was rumored as a potential VP candidate for Barack Obama.  But Dodd declined.  Why?   "Who would want to be vice president?"...

-- snip -- The growing scandal surrounding the "friends of Angelo" loans (so-called by company employees, referring to Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo) should serve as a political wake-up call. Yet the Senate appears intent on pushing forward legislation, co-authored by Sen. Dodd, that would bail out the worst actors in the subprime mortgage banking industry....

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said he and his wife knew Countrywide Inc. was treating them as “VIP” customers when they refinanced mortgages on two homes in 2003, but it didn’t cross his mind he was getting a financial perk from the sub-prime lender. Dodd, who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee oversees mortgage lenders, said he did not ask and Countrywide’s representatives did not say what the VIP treatment entailed. “We knew at the time that we were being dealt with within a special section of the company,” Dodd explained. “We really just assumed it was a courtesy, because...

Dodd knew of VIP treatment since 2003 By Jessica Holzer Posted: 06/17/08 04:40 PM [ET] Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said he and his wife knew Countrywide Inc. was treating them as “VIP” customers when they refinanced mortgages on two homes in 2003, but that it did not cross his mind he was getting a perk from the sub-prime lender. Dodd, who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee oversees mortgage lenders, said he did not ask and Countrywide’s representatives did not say what the VIP treatment entailed. “We knew at the time that we were being dealt with within a...

While liberal journalists have moved on from the Christopher Dodd-Countrywide Financial scandal, questions linger about the sweetheart loans he got in 2003 from Angelo Mozilo. At the time, Mr. Mozilo was chairman and CEO of Countrywide, which would become a leading player in the subprime-mortgage crisis and would benefit greatly if Congress passes Sen. Dodd's lending-industry bailout bill. Does anyone believe Sen. Dodd when he says he and his wife did not "anticipate any special treatment" from Countrywide and were unaware they got it? A senator get treated royally everywhere he goes. He gets his jollies from the rump kissing...

Not making many headlines because the perps are Democrats, the sweetheart loan deals that former Obama Vice Presidential vetter Jim Johnson accepted from Countrywide Chairman Angelo Mozilo have ensnared two Democratic senators; Ken Conrad of North Dakota and former presidential candidate Chris Dodd of Connecticut. Conrad's approach was outrageous. Here's how the Wall Street Journal describes Conrad's dealings with Countrywide and Mozilo: Take Senator Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat whose office issued a Friday statement saying that "I never met Angelo Mozilo." What he did not say then but admitted under later questioning by a Journal reporter is that,...

The loud "thud" you just heard over in the corner of the Senate hearing room was Senator Chris Dodd's vice presidential hopes hitting the wall. The Senator was the second major political figure caught up in and possibly brought down by various aspects of the mortgage mess in general and Countrywide Financial in particular. The Senator, a Democrat from Connecticut and Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee which regulates mortgage lending, was named in an article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the Associated Press and earlier by Conde Nast Portfolio magazine, as one of two senators – the other being...

When it comes to charging abuse in markets like the mortgage business, American politicians, right up the ladder, should zip their lips. They're not ones to talk. That's becoming ever more painfully clear with reports like the one Thursday from Condé Nast Portfolio suggesting that several key pols got favored treatment on their personal mortgages. The lucky winners included folks like Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), plus several former Cabinet secretaries: ex-Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson; ex-Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala (who is to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday) and ex-UN Ambassador and...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Countrywide Financial, the largest mortgage lender at the center of the US housing crisis, regularly gave loans on favorable terms to prominent lawmakers and former cabinet members, according to US media. The preferential treatment for senators including Democrat Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a recent presidential candidate, was approved by Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. CondeNast Portfolio magazine first broke the story on Wednesday, saying the recipients of the favorable terms were known as "Friends of Angelo" in internal company documents and e-mails. "Make an...

Dodd Defends His Own Mortgage DealsBy JESSE A. HAMILTON | Washington Bureau Chief June 14, 2008 WASHINGTON — - Sen. Christopher Dodd says there was nothing special about the 2003 mortgages on his two homes, and that he requested no preferential treatment from his lender. But it might take more than a short denial to get past this week's reports that he was one of several prominent politicians given deals by Countrywide Financial Corp. on their home loans. "As a United States senator, I would never ask or expect to be treated differently than anyone else refinancing their home," Dodd...