Free Republic

A longtime congressional staffer was fired by her boss, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), after it was revealed she was allegedly working with the Chinese Embassy to set up meetings with other offices. An investigation conducted by the House sergeant at arms discovered the alleged impropriety by the staffer and informed Beyer’s office on Tuesday. The staffer was subsequently fired ... Beyer’s former aide, identified as Barbara Hamlett, has worked in congressional offices since the 1970s, ... She was a scheduler in Beyer’s office and has previously worked for lawmakers including the late Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), former Rep. Diane Watson...

Five-term Democratic Rep. Diane Watson will retire at the end of this term, Fox News has learned. The 76-year-old California congresswoman represents parts of Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles and is known as a loyal Democrat. In a 2006 evaluation of voting records, National Journal ranked her as the most liberal member in Congress. President Obama won her district by 32 points in the 2008 election. Watson becomes the 12th House Democrat to announce his or her retirement. Seventeen Republicans have decided against seeking re-election, including Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Mich., who announced his decision earlier Wednesday....

The Capitol is shut down for the third straight day, but two new retirements have been announced by members of the House of Representatives. AP reports that the threat of a primary from his right has led Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) to retire. He's serving his ninth term. "Each of us should recognize that the world doesn't depend just on us and I've been there 16 years now and that's more than enough time for most people and I've accomplished a great deal," Ehlers told AP. "I just felt this was a good time to go." State Rep. Justin Amash...

Congresswoman Diane Watson will hold a news conference about her future plans tomorrow in Los Angeles, according to her press secretary Lois Hill Hale. Hill Hale wouldn't say explicitly that Watson would not seek reelection this fall to what's thought to be a safe Democratic seat, but she called tomorrow's news conference a "major announcement." Watson, 76, represents the 33rd congressional district located in Los Angeles. She would become the 14th Democrat to announce they will not run for reelection this fall. Watson has been a target of the right because she blamed race, in part, for opposition to health...

It's time for those who look like me to speak out against the racism that has kept us out of the welfare system for far too long. With the racist administration trying to socialize so many of the needs of Americans, those who look like me must demand that the system become much more race neutral. Only then will true equality exist for people who look like me.

Editor’s note: Get the whole story of the Left’s love affair with Castro in Jamie Glazov’s new book, “United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror.” The Left’s romance with tyranny and terror continues. This time it is Democrat Rep. Diane Watson picking up the torch for the fellow travelers, lavishing praise on Fidel Castro. Watson, evidently, is still riding the wave of ecstasy she experienced upon prostrating herself before Castro on her political pilgrimage to the dictator’s slave camp in April, 2009. Now, in a recent town hall meeting on health care, she’s touching base with the...

Longtime readers of this blog will be quite familiar with race-baiting Democrat Rep. Diane Watson of California. She attacked Ward Connerly for marrying a white woman. She bragged about Washington, D.C. being a “chocolate city.” She polluted the Hurricane Katrina aftermath with race card-playing nonsense. Thanks to KABC, there’s audio of Watson heaping praise on Castro, Guevara, and the Cuban health system at her town hall meeting last night — as well as injecting her usual racial poison into the health care debate. (For a reminder of what Cuban health care is really like, click here.) (see link) I wrote...

Diane Watson: "You can think whatever you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders I have ever met."

Here is audio of California Democrat Rep.Diane Watson at a Health Care Town Hall Meeting last night where she openly praised the Cuban Communist Revolution of the 1950's, and also praised the leadership of longtime Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro. She praised the Health Care System Castro put in place, and said he is "one of the brighest leaders I have ever met." . . . (Listen to Audio)

Diane Watson: "They are spreading fear and they're trying to see that the first president who looks like me -- fails."

Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA): "They are spreading fear and they are trying to see that the first President who looks like me fails. Now, just understand what is at the bottom line."

A Thursday afternoon meeting between Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus grew tense and emotional for a moment -- perhaps illustrating that weeks after Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., suspended her presidential campaign, some nerves remain frayed. Sources at the meeting said that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a Clinton supporter, expressed the desire that Obama and his campaign would reach out the millions of women still aggrieved about what happened in the campaign and still disappointed that Clinton lost. Obama then said, "However, I need to make a decision in the next few months...

Just more than a week after Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary, Bill Clinton appeared before black parishioners Sunday as the latest poll showed his wife's once commanding lead in California has eroded. Clinton's back-to-back appearances at four churches in the Los Angeles area's historical black heartland appeared intended to smooth over perceptions that the former president injected race into last month's Democratic primary in South Carolina. Obama scored a 2-to-1 victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton in that election, and the two are tied among likely Democratic primary voters in California, according to...

Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-CA) responded to questions regarding impeachment at a Town Hall on Iraq hosted by California Assembly Majority Leader Karen Bass and the People’s Council Sunday, October 14th in Los Angeles, California. She spoke to an audience of approximately 150 comprised mainly of anti-war activists from local organizations. The audience responded angrily when Watson responded to a call for the impeachment of President Bush by saying, "We simply don't have the votes." After the audience reacted with groans and boos and at least one cry of "At least do something!" Watson went on to say, "Right now, Speaker...

Click here for video

Democratic candidates spend time in church The Democratic candidates for governor went to church on Sunday and prayed for victory, as well they might in a race that is neck and neck heading into Tuesday's primary. Steve Westly, who made his fortune at eBay, and Phil Angelides, a wealthy former developer, have been battering each other with nasty television ads for several weeks. Analysts say voters may respond to the negativity campaign by not voting. Westly, the state controller, appeared with Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, which he joined three...

<p>FReepers from the DC Chapter conducted a FReep of Senator Richard Durbin at a Democrat fundraiser on June 21. DNC Chair Howard Dean, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid  of Nevada were among those in attendance in addition to Senate Minority Assistant Leader Durbin of Illinois.</p>

California House Democrats say they've been awakened to the likelihood that Gov. Gray Davis will face a recall challenge. They call the upcoming vote a "serious concern" for their party's congressional delegation -- one that could send the state party into "pandemonium." While decrying what they see ahead of them as an anti-democratic and inappropriate use of the state's recall mechanism, California Democrats acknowledge that a combination of Davis's low approval rating and a recall petition bankrolled by multi-millionaire Rep. Darrell Issa (R) could unseat a Democratic governor who narrowly won his second term a mere seven moons ago. "With...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Petaluma) is a strong "no" vote on going to war with Iraq. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) is a solid "yes." Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher of Alamo, like many other Democrats on Capitol Hill, wishes the whole issue could be decided after November's elections. The state's Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have raised no qualms about President Bush's Iraq policy. California's congressional delegation is, in short, a microcosm of Congress as a whole as it grapples with Bush's request for a resolution authorizing use of force against Iraq. "The snapshot is: Republicans are supportive of...