Free Republic

Several prominent House Democrats are jostling to fend off Republican former baseball great Steve Garvey in the yearlong battle to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, with two slots on California’s November ballot at stake. In a state where a Republican hasn’t won a Senate race since 1988, Democrats are expected to easily hold the seat in November, a relief for the party as it seeks to defend a fragile Senate majority. But first-time candidate Garvey, a National League MVP and former star for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, reordered...

Today I offer a news story about a multi-billion dollar theft by government fiat of the Mesquite gold mine reserves that geologists then estimated to be worth between $40 to $100 billion in gold. I haven't investigated to see what the ultimate value was, but if anyone is interested let the rest of us know. This was originally posted by Jim Robinson on April 29, 1998. Free Republic was still in its infancy, and I was a newbie who joined the forum just two Months earlier. I would like to say I remember this, but I don't. It's another...

California Governor Gavin Newsom named a black woman to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Dianne Feinstein. And not just any black woman. Laphonza Butler is a black lesbian woman, and for that, according to Newsom, “She will make history.” *She’s been involved in California politics for nearly 15 years, and she used to head up the Golden State’s largest labor union, according to The New York Times.* Butler was also “an adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris,” The Times reports. “In 2021, she became the first Black woman to take the helm at Emily’s List,...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision. Newsom is moving swiftly to name the next senator, two days after Feinstein’s death and just as a perilously split Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown. Senate Democrats are in need of every vote in the closely divided chamber. The announcement was expected to come Monday, and an adviser to the governor, Anthony York,...

EMILY’s List, the left wing Super PAC which previously employed newly selected California Sen. Laphonza Butler, removed a section of her bio that stated she lived in Maryland. Internet Archives reveal a now-removed section of her biography that said, “She lives in Maryland with her partner Neneki Lee and their daughter Nylah.” Butler, who California Gov. Gavin Newsom selected to fill the seat vacated by Dianne Feinstein’s death, had listed her home address as Silver Springs, Maryland, as recently as August, according to FEC filings. She had also reportedly registered to vote in Maryland in 2022. ... Newsom tapped Butler...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has selected Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, to fill the U.S. Senate seat made vacant by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Butler currently lives in Maryland, according to her Emily’s List biography. Izzy Gardon, a spokesman for Newsom, said Butler owns a home in California. She is expected to reregister to vote in California before being sworn in. That could happen as early as Tuesday evening when the Senate returns to session.

Former Secretary of State and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) on Monday penned a tribute to her late colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), describing her as a champion of democracy who was “brave, honorable, honest and unafraid to do what was right for her constituents and her country.” In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Clinton recalled arriving in Washington as first lady in 1993, when Feinstein first arrived to the Senate. Clinton said when she heard Feinstein use her first floor speech to advocate for the Family and Medical Leave Act, “I knew I had found a...

Meghan Markle is reportedly "in the running to fill Dianne Feinstein's California Senator seat" as the Duchess considers a run for office. According to a major Democratic donor close to Californian Governor Gavin Newsom, who is set to choose Feinstein's replacement, the possibility of the Duchess of Sussex running is not impossible. Although a long-shot replacement for the 90-year-old pioneer, there is speculation Meghan could serve out the remaining 13 months of Feinstein's term. A source told the Mail on Sunday: "Meghan is definitely a long-shot but in the craziness that is US politics these days it's not an impossibility....

Dianne Feinstein's daughter and three stepdaughters are set to inherit the late senator's $102 million property portfolio, as well as her $62 million private jet. The California congresswoman, who died in DC Friday aged 90, leaves behind an Italianite mansion with stunning views of San Francisco Bay that's worth $21 million. Democrat Feinstein - whose vast wealth raised eyebrows - died in a Washington DC mansion she owned that's worth $7.4 million. She also owned a $5 million Hawaii duplex, $7.5 million beach house in Marin County, California and a $62 million Gulfstream G650 jet she used to shuttle between...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s death at 90 creates a vacancy on the powerful Judiciary Committee. Democrats could need 60 votes to replace her, leaving controversial judicial nominees in limbo until then. Senate Republicans are signaling they won't try and block Feinstein's committee seats from being filled. Back in April, Republicans blocked Democrats from appointing a temporary replacement for Feinstein as she was ailing with shingles and unable to return to Washington for months. "Under the circumstances, it's kind of follow whatever the precedent is," Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Friday. Typically when a seat is vacant there is no...

The death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday night has left California Gov. Gavin Newsom with the job of appointing a replacement to serve the remaining 15 months of her term — a choice he hoped never to have to make. Newsom initially promised in 2021 to pick a black woman to replace Feinstein if she was unable to remain in the Senate through January 2025. That was in response to the outcry from some quarters after he appointed then-California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to replace Sen. Kamala Harris after her election as vice president. After Feinstein announced earlier...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who passed away Friday at age 90, once assailed illegal immigration as a net drain on working and middle-class Americans. In 1993, while giving a press conference in the Senate building, Feinstein spoke about the prospects of the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was set to go into effect the following year. As part of NAFTA, Feinstein said Mexico ought to be required to enforce its side of the United States-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration in its tracks. “I think you’ve seen the figures [for] state and local governments of what the cost is....

Just hours before her death, 90-year-old Dianne Feinstein was helped onto the Senate floor for the final public act of her trailblazing career. The California Democrat, holding onto her aide's arm, slowly raised her hand to vote 'aye' on Thursday morning in a procedural vote for short-term government funding. Feinstein walked in without the wheelchair she used in the final months of her 30-year Senate career as her health deteriorated following a bout with shingles. After giving her colleagues a brief wave, she was escorted out again following her last fleeting appearance in the upper chamber. Feinstein subsequently missed two...

Do you personally believe Oprah Winfrey would make a good US Senator from California?

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of the candidates running to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2024, paid tribute to the groundbreaking California Democrat after her death was announced Friday morning. “Today, the nation has truly lost a giant of the U.S. Senate, California has lost its trail-blazing leader, and I lost a real friend and mentor,” Schiff’s statement said. “Senator Dianne Feinstein was one of the finest legislators we have ever seen, and her accomplishments made our country and world a better place.” Feinstein served three decades as a California senator before dying at the age of 90, making her...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein “[a] legend in the Senate” after news of her death broke Friday morning. “She’s a legend,” Schumer said in a statement to the Bay Area’s ABC7. “A legend in California as the first woman senator.” Feinstein, 90, served in the Senate for three decades prior to her death, first reported by Punchbowl. Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker and fellow California Democrat, noted her status as a trailblazer for women in her own statement to ABC7.

DiFi has died.

The state of California sued several of the world's biggest oil companies on Friday, claiming their actions have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage and that they deceived the public by downplaying the risks posed by fossil fuels..."These folks had this information and lied to us...," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "It's shameful. It sickens you to your core."

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing blowback after he said on Sunday that he might appoint an interim replacement for long-serving Sen. Dianne Feinstein if she is unable to complete her final term. Feinstein’s health has been ailing, and she has announced she will not seek six more years in the Senate. With questions mounting about whether she can make it another 16 months, Newsom told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday he would not appoint a permanent replacement. Probed about the issue, Newsom told Chuck Todd that a senator would be appointed on an interim basis while the...

Over the last few years, the idea of reparations — which would compensate the descendants of American slaves — has surfaced across the country. Though a state task force recently recommended making cash reparations a reality in California, voters in the Golden State oppose doing so by a roughly two-to-one margin, according to a new poll from the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.