Free Republic

Former Congressman Jim Kolbe was named by Gov. Janet Napoltano to head a task force working to get a NAFTA superhighway built from Mexico through the Southwest and Mountain West to Canada. Kolbe, who retired at the end of last year, will chair the state’s Canamex Task Force. The Canamex highway is proposed to run from Guadalajara, Jalisco, to Edmonton, Alberta. Through Arizona it would use a combination of upgraded existing highways and new highways from Nogales to the Nevada state line, south of Las Vegas

Former Senator Jeff Flake and former Congressman Jim Kolbe are among many Republican members of Congress who have announced their support for Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris. Flake and Kolbe are among other Republican leaders supporting Biden and Harris in the upcoming presidential election, according to Biden's campaign Monday morning. Flake delivered remarks on his support later on Monday morning, which is the first day of the Republican National Convention.

For the first time in 25 years, the International Republican Institute will have a new leader. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is battling brain cancer, has decided to step down from his role as chairman of the board of the organization, which for decades he has helped to fight for democracy, freedom, civil society, the rule of law and human rights around the world. McCain’s handoff to IRI’s next chairman, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), is not a signal that McCain’s health is declining. In fact, several McCain associates say his condition hasn’t changed in recent months and he remains actively...

Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, is taking on a new and formidable immigration policy director, a sign that he could be more serious about passing immigration legislation than his critics suggest. Rebecca Tallent, who currently serves as director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, will join Boehner’s staff on Wednesday. Before joining the BPC, Tallent held several senior staff positions with Sen. John McCain, including chief of staff. During her time with McCain, she helped the Arizona Republican draft a handful of immigration overhaul measures, including the last big push McCain made with the late Sen. Edward M....

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has hired Rebecca Tallent to work on immigration reform. She is currently the immigration policy director at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "The Speaker remains hopeful that we can enact step-by-step, common-sense immigration reforms -- the kind of reforms the American people understand and support," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. "Becky Tallent, a well-known expert in this field of public policy, is a great addition to our team and that effort." According to her BPC bio, Tallent has worked as a policy aide on immigration and energy issues to Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and...

WASHINGTON -- A quiet transformation is taking place in the Republican Party, which has begun to embrace openly gay candidates - and among gay Republicans, who now feel more comfortable speaking out in a party that may have accepted them but didn't always show it. While differences still exist, the party is on the cusp of a generational shift in which the longtime foes of gay rights are replaced by younger party leaders who are more accepting. "It's an exponential change from a few years ago," said former Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe. "It's happening, and it's going to continue to...

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took 10 years ago that included two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC News. NBC News first reported on the camping and rafting trip on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington said that the U.S. attorney in Arizona has started a "preliminary assessment" of the trip, after an unidentified source made allegations about the congressman's behavior on the expedition.

Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe, who is leaving office after eleven terms, will not be supporting the Republican candidate to succeed him. Today, Kolbe, who supported state Representative Steve Huffman in the primary for the eighth Congressional district, issued a statement saying he congratulates conservative Republican Randy Graf on his victory. However, he says "there are such profound and fundamental differences" between Graf and him on several key issues that he can't endorse Graf for the general election. Graf, a former golf pro, campaigned foremost on the need to secure the border with Mexico and put a halt to illegal immigration.

This past Wednesday, when I attended Students for Saving Social Security’s event on Social Security reform with roughly 300 other young people, I was overcome by an unusual Washington, D.C. emotion—hope. Having only lived in our nation’s capital for about a year, I have not yet succumbed to the total disillusionment and cynicism of many people, but it has certainly affected my optimistic tendencies. But in contradiction to my sometimes-attitude that nothing in this city ever gets done, let alone gets done right, I found myself believing something could be changed. Social Security was considered for decades to be the...

The Arizona Republic's Editorial Board selected Jim Kolbe as Arizonian of the Year for 2005. Jim Kolbe did do Arizona a great service in 2005, he decided not to run in 2006. However, Kolbe's selection by the Republic does bring up another issue for debate. Should there be drug testing for the Republic's Editorial Board before selecting the Arizonian for the Year, next year? Bob Haran, Phoenix, AZ

Regarding Congressman Jim Kolbe's decision not to run for reelection, in a word, "Hallelujah." When someone retires or passes away, we try to say something nice about that person, we downplay his negatives and point out his positives. I would like to do the same for Congressman Jim Kolbe, but I really don't have the time to do that much research, other then to say, I wholeheartedly approve of his decision to leave Congress. I'm sure Kolbe will be missed by Mexican President Vincente Fox, he is one of the best members of Congress Mexico has ever had in the...

Any Arizonians(sp.?) care to jump in and explain to me how these liberal "Republicans" keep getting elected? I mean, c'mon, Kolbe and Flake are not Republicans. What is the outlook for 2006? Randy Graf seems like a good choice, butcan he win in District 8? Plus, people are saying that Russell Pearce may run for Governor against Napolitano, or against Flake. I like Pearce, think he would be greate in either position. Can anyone with any insight tell me if Kolbe, Flake, or Napolitano can actually be defeated? I'm really pulling for Graf against Kolbe!

A group of 11 representatives in the House want Congress to add "sexual orientation" to the list of protected characteristics used in regulating workplace discrimination in federal employment. Government employment discrimination and whistleblower-protection issues are handed by the Office of Special Counsel, which is empowered to prosecute managers believed to have violated the law. During the Clinton administration, Special Counsel Elaine Kaplan – an avowed lesbian, according to Concerned Women for America – incorporated "sexual orientation" under the "conduct unrelated to the job" portion of the regulation, thus elevating homosexuality to a protected status. Last year, Scott Bloch, who now...

Along with the rest of the Arizona Republican Congressional Delegation, Jim Kolbe may serve as a Co-Chairman of the Bush-Cheney '04 Arizona Leadership Team. However, he was not anywhere to be found at the jam-packed Dick Cheney rally held in Tucson on July 31st. He wasn't on the stage and he certainly did not speak despite the fact that the rally was held in Tucson which includes most of Jim Kolbe's constituents. J.D. Hayworth spoke despite the fact that Hayworth's district is all the way up in Maricopa County. When Vice President Cheney spoke he did mention the Arizona delegation....

TUCSON - The Republican who hopes to be the party's candidate to replace a 10-term fellow Republican outlined what he called "a layered plan" to protect the border. Randy Graf, who faces U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe in the Sept. 7 GOP primary for Congressional District 8, said he wants more military on the border, increased training for non-federal civilian law enforcement, going after employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and locking the international boundary down before establishing a new guest worker program. He outlined his plan at a Tucson press conference and later explained it to the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee...

Cornyn's focus set on the border By Tricia Cortez Times staff writer In his first year as a U.S. Senator, John Cornyn has taken a key interest in the border, a fast-growing and often misunderstood region that is vital to the state of Texas and the rest of the country. Cornyn, the former Texas attorney general, has focused much of his time and energy on identifying the problems and interests of the Tex-Mex border. While he brings a new perspective and understanding of these pressing but long-neglected issues to Congress, Cornyn said it is a constant struggle educating his colleagues...

<p>WASHINGTON - Three Arizona lawmakers brought several local community organizers to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to show that widespread grass-roots support exists for their bill to create a nationwide guest-worker program that would include legalizing scores of undocumented immigrants.</p> <p>The groups, mostly representing Hispanic immigrants, hailed from as far away as California and as nearby as the District of Columbia. They included organizations such as the Bangladeshi American Federation here; the Society of Honduran Residents in Oakland.; and the Dallas-based Mexican Professionals Abroad. In Arizona, the Tucson Chamber of Commerce and others have endorsed the bill.</p>

Kolbe's office 'trashed': Protesters leave pungent reminder of immigration issue for congressman BY BILL HESS Sierra Vista Herald/Review SIERRA VISTA, AZ -- Protesters who say Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe is doing nothing to stop illegal immigrants from dumping trash in Cochise County left a message at the congressman's office front door in Sierra Vista -- 22 bags of trash. This morning, Bernadette Polley, Kolbe's Sierra Vista office manager, saw the trash for the first time, although she knew about the incident Sunday night. It was a political message because of Kolbe's desire to find new ways to address the...

<p>THAT we were doubly wrong calling Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) "the only openly gay member of Congress." Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) is gay, as is Rep. Tammi Baldwin (D-Wisc.) . . . THAT during a recent showing of "Live from Shiva's Dance Floor" (about tour guide Speed Levitch), a couple actually had sex in their seats at the East Village Pioneer Theater . . . THAT James Earl Jones, who hawks cell phones for Verizon Wireless, doesn't seem to have one himself. He's been known to borrow a mobile phone from a friend . . . THAT Hermes has a new line of beach towels and scarves designed by students at the Savannah College of Art & Design.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Members of Arizona's congressional delegation introduced a proposal to dramatically reform immigration law, shifting the focus from enforcing borders to creating a regulated, market-driven flow of immigrant workers. The sponsors -- Sen. John McCain, Rep. Jim Kolbe and Rep. Jeff Flake, all Republicans -- admitted passing the legislation in this Congress will be difficult, but McCain suggested those unwilling to budge on reform should see the human consequences of inaction. "They're so far from the desert of Arizona that they don't see the concern or urgency that we do, where today some innocent person is dying in the...