Free Republic

Sen. Al Franken has announced he will resign his seat in the coming weeks. But this isn't the first time Minnesotans have witnessed a shift in that particular seat.  Some political experts even call it cursed. "This is a troubled seat," said David Schultz, a political expert at Hamline University. Schultz said to better understand why, you have to go back more than 40 years.   "It all started in 1976 when then-Senator Walter Mondale resigns to become Vice President of the United States," he said. "It creates a vacancy. Gov. Wendy Anderson wants to become Senator, (so) he resigns as...

In the summer of 2009, the state of Minnesota conducted a recount that had the nation holding its breath. Would Al Franken unseat incumbent Norm Coleman, and allow Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the US Senate? After seven months, that’s exactly what happened. Townhall Magazine commissioned me to write an investigative cover piece on how Democrats flipped an Election Night deficit into a recount victory. (At the time, Townhall and Salem had not yet bought Hot Air.)Rather than skullduggery, I found that Republicans had been outfought after ignoring lessons from a 2004 defeat in Washington. The painful loss provides...

This contains a analysis of John Podesta https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/87 It was obviously important enough to send it to him I will just number some highlights, but this is a good article worth reading in full. Secondary verification by google.com DKIM key Fwd: CLIP | Yahoo: Hillary moneyman highlights new Saudi connection From:slatham@hillaryclinton.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2015-10-16 20:49 Subject: Fwd: CLIP | Yahoo: Hillary moneyman highlights new Saudi connection Hillary Clinton and Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud prior to a State Department meeting in 2012. 2.The Saudi contract with the Podesta Group, owned by veteran Washington lobbyist...

Former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman took a new side Monday in the GOP presidential race, endorsing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as the first nominating votes near. Coleman, who had been supporting Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., before he dropped out, said he trusts Bush to call the shots on foreign affairs at a time of global instability.

Conservatives say outside group is an arm of House Speaker Boehner http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/07/01/conservatives-say-outside-group-is-arm-of-house-speaker/29572077/

Hillary Clinton will attend a $2,700-a-plate luncheon on Friday at the Beverly Hills home of a man who was investigated by the Senate for hiding $68 million in assets in an offshore tax haven. Peter Lowy, who was born in Australia but is a U.S. citizen, is chief executive officer of the Westfield Group, one of the world’s largest owners of shopping malls. The company was founded by his father, Frank Lowy, and is controlled by the Lowy family. The family came under fire in 2008 when a report from then-Sens. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) and Norm Coleman (R., Minn.)...

LANSING, MI — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder "is running" for president, according to a former U.S. Senator, whose comments at a Republican confab were quickly contradicted by a spokesman for the governor, who said he has not made any decisions of that kind. "I met with Rick Snyder yesterday," former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman told reporters on Saturday morning at the Republican Jewish Coalition's spring meeting, according to the Guardian and other publications. "He's running. He's running." Snyder was in Las Vegas this weekend to attend the RJC meeting as part of what his advisors are calling an economic tour....

Hope Baker is one determined young lady. She won't take no for an answer, even though it looks like her Don Quixote-type quest has run smack into a legislative windmill up at the state Capitol. Along with Jayne Jones, her Concordia University political science professor, and six like-minded classmates, the 22-year-old Alexandria native and law school aspirant wants to add impaired driving as a specified exclusion to a state law that grants lawmakers immunity from arrest in certain cases while the session is underway. But the push to clarify a centuries-old state Constitution provision has not gone over well with...

So who did cast the critical 60th vote for the Affordable Care Act, a k a “Obamacare”? Facing a new election year, the GOP has an answer ready to go: U.S. Sen. Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat whose 2008 recount victory over Republican Norm Coleman helped alter the balance of power in national politics. With the rocky rollout of healthcare.gov, Minnesotans can expect to hear a lot about the symbolic 60th vote; for example, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann recently penned an opinion piece calling Franken “a leading cheerleader and the 60th vote for Obamacare.” But in a body of 100 senators, Franken...

Almost no elected Republicans support giving gays the right to marry. The party’s influential social-conservative wing sees “traditional marriage” as a defining issue. And while most major Democrats are rushing to embrace same-sex marriage, none of the most prominent potential Republican presidential candidates have taken that step.But a powerful group of Republican donors, who see the GOP’s staunch opposition to gay rights as a major problem, is trying to push the party toward a more welcoming middle ground — where candidates who oppose marriage rights can do so without seeming hateful.The behind-the-scenes effort is being led largely by GOP mega-donor...

Former Sen. Norm Coleman is advising Mitt Romney. He has also advised us not to get our hopes up about Obamacare repeal. "You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president," Coleman told BioCentury This Week television in an interview that aired on Sunday. "You can't whole-cloth throw it out. But you can substantially change what's been done."

A collection of former high-ranking Republicans will launch a group that will raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in a bid to retain the party’s majority in the House, they announced Thursday. The formation of the Congressional Leadership Fund solidifies the movement of the new type of loosely regulated committee from outside operators to establishment tools. A former director of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Brian O. Walsh, will head the group, which will be chaired by former Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota. It will be organized as an independent expenditure committee, or “super-PAC,” meaning it may run...

While former Sen. Norm Coleman has said publicly that he may return to public service, today he ruled out challenging Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2012.“I’m not going to run against Amy Klobuchar,� Coleman, R-Minn., said on ABC’s “Top Line� today. “I’ve said in other forums that I haven’t ruled out public service -- my heart’s in public service. At some point, but not in 2012. I love what I do now, and that is developing center-right policy.�More at ABC's The Note While I'm never one to discourage challenging any Democrat, I have to say I can't blame Norm...

A Republican group that includes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday will kick off its efforts to improve the party's outreach to Hispanic voters, many of whom have been critical of some GOP candidates' harsh rhetoric on illegal immigration. The new Hispanic Action Network is part of a growing number of Republican organizations reaching out to Hispanics in advance of next year's presidential election — and it has powerful support. The group is backed by former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, whose American Action Network funneled more than $30 million in campaign funds to Republicans in about 30 congressional races...

At 9am Tuesday November 30, 2010, New Zeal will post documentary evidence linking Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, to the Communist Party USA. Why is this important? A key part of Mark Ritchie's job is to oversee electoral recounts in Minnesota. In early 2009 Mark Ritchie judged that his Wellstone Action Advisory Committee and Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party colleague Al Franken had won a Minnesota U.S. Senate seat, even though Republican opponent Norm Coleman was ahead on election night. The recount was dogged with controversy, with allegations that felon's votes were illegally counted. Currently, Mark Ritchie is overseeing another election recount....

Iran's Oil Mafia April 16, 2007 Frontpagemagazine.com Hassan Daioleslam Robert William (Bob) Ney is a current federal prisoner and a former Ohio Congressman from 1995 until November 3, 2006. Ney pled guilty to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in relation to the Jack Abramoff lobbying and bribery scandal. Ney reportedly received bribes from Abramoff, other lobbyists, and two foreign businessmen - a felon and an arms dealer - in exchange for using his position to advance their interests. Conspicuously missing from this dossier of disservice to the country was Ney’s assistance in the creation of a Washington-based lobbying...

WASHINGTON — Let’s clear two things up at the start of this article that will be helpful going through the rest of it. One: Former Sen. Norm Coleman finds himself once again in the conversation for a run as the next chair of the Republican National Committee. POLITICO reported late Thursday that he was considering it, and has told aides it would be an “intriguing” opportunity. Two: I have no idea how much of that is coming from Coleman, and how much is coming from people who flatly don’t like current Chairman Michael Steele and want to see him forced...

Felons Voting Illegally May Have Put Franken Over the Top in Minnesota, Study Finds July 12, 2010 FoxNews.com The six-month election recount that turned former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities. That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. The final recount vote...

Felons Voting Illegally May Have Put Franken Over the Top in Minnesota, Study Finds By Ed Barnes July 12, 2010 The six-month election recount that turned former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities. That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. The final...

Former Senator Norm Coleman told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Chief Political Reporter Tom Hauser Sunday he will not be running for governor in 2010. He made the official announcement on his Facebook page late Sunday night. He released the following statement to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS ahead of the announcement. "I love Minnesota and I love public service, but this is not the right time for me and my family to conduct a campaign for Governor. Timing is everything. The timing on this race is both a bit too soon and a bit too late. It is too soon after my last...