Free Republic

Mostly known for her role as 'The Nanny,' actress Fran Drescher argues that her activism and diplomatic work qualify her to fill the vacant seat. Check out who else has thrown a hat in the ring, and who have withdrawn themselves from consideration.

How about Sean Hannity as editor of the New York Times op-ed page? Maybe O'Reilly and Cavuto in place of Dowd and Krugman as Times columnists? It might not be as far-fetched as it sounds. At least, not if Michael Wolff is right. The Vanity Fair media maven, appearing on CNBC this afternoon, not only said that Rupert Murdoch wants the Gray Lady, but predicted he would get her. [H/t Gat.] View video here [via CNBC]. MICHAEL WOLFF: I think that everybody is looking at [the NYT] and waiting for it to kind of go over a brink, to run...

The regular New York State big game firearm season ended last Sunday (Dec. 7) and the next day, the short nine-day late archery and regular muzzleloader seasons started so there is still time for hunters to take a whitetail. Every deer is a trophy, regardless of size. There is nothing quite like the incredible challenge and joy of hunting deer in the woods to develop new savvy and skills. Sportsmen readily express moments of treasure during the Western New York deer hunting adventure of the last three short weeks. Hunting time is priceless and hard to come by for many...

How'd you like Sean Hannity as editor of the New York Times op-ed page? Maybe O'Reilly and Cavuto in place of Dowd and Krugman as Times columnists? It might not be as far-fetched as it sounds. At least, not if Michael Wolff is right. The Vanity Fair media maven, appearing on CNBC this afternoon, said that Rupert Murdoch not only wants the Gray Lady, but would get her. [H/t Gat.] View video here [via CNBC]. MICHAEL WOLFF: I think that everybody is looking at [the NYT] and waiting for it to kind of go over a brink, to run out...

What a turkey! Hours before shooting himself, Giants receiver Plaxico Burress and two Big Blue buddies hit a high-class West Side strip club - where they hooked up with three ladies, guzzled two bottles of top-shelf tequila, and gobbled the staff's post-Thanksgiving dinner, The Post has learned. A surly, slobbish Burress ate "like an animal," using his bare hands to snatch pieces of workers' turkey and stuff his face at the Head Quarters club on Nov. 28, a source said. His jiggle-joint jaunt with fellow Giants Antonio Pierce and Ahmad Bradshaw is of interest to police, who are investigating his...

House Republicans were heading toward a down-in-the-dumps holiday. Then the House ethics committee handed them a gift. The committee's investigation of Rep. Charles Rangel's tax problems is expanding, turning what has been a minor headache for Democratic leaders into a New Year's migraine. The last thing Democrats need is an ethics cloud hovering over 20-term House veteran who, as House Ways and Means Committee chairman, will play a critical role in advancing President-elect Barack Obama's goals of an economic recovery plan, middle-class tax relief and expanded health insurance. It was only last month that the top House Democrat, Speaker Nancy...

A local Congressman raises the question as he challenges Caroline Kennedy's qualifications Jennifer Lopez or Caroline Kennedy? Who is more qualified to be Hillary Clinton's replacement as New York's junior Senator? Rep. Gary Ackerman, a veteran Queens Democrat wants to know. "I don't know what Caroline Kennedy's qualifications are," the 25-year Congressman said on Steve Malzberg's WOR conservative chat-fest, becoming New York's first prominent Democrat to openly challenge the credentials of JFK's daughter as a potential replacement for Sen. Hillary Clinton. ""Except that she has name recognition, but so does J.Lo," Ackerman said, according to the New York Post. "I...

Ann Coulter Visits NYU to Deliver Predictable Stand-Up Routineby Ned Resnikoff on Thursday, December 11, 2008 2:00 - 5 Comments One of the first things I noticed about the eagerly anticipated Ann Coulter speaking engagement at NYU was that people were dressed up for it. It was almost like this was some kind of surreal College Republican prom night as much as it was a speaking event, but I guess I could understand why they might be excited. They had scored Ann Coulter, the modern conservative icon who had, by her own admission, only ever spoken once in New...

The charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich shocked people across America. But his arrest was less surprising in Illinois. After all, they're used to it. If convicted, Blagojevich will be the state's third governor jailed since 1971. (Or the fourth, if you count the 18 months served by Dan Walker, convicted of bank fraud and perjury in the late 1980s, long after he left office.) Since that time, 1,000 political officials and businesspeople in the state have been convicted of corruption. "We are the capital of corruption in the United States. The only place that comes close to our level...

A federal grand jury indicted a state assemblyman on Wednesday, charging that he effectively put his legislative office up for sale by demanding cash payments for delivering state business. A criminal complaint filed in September alleged a bold fraud scheme in which the assemblyman, Anthony S. Seminerio, incorporated his own consulting firm to conceal the illegal payments. On Wednesday, a grand jury found enough evidence to indict Mr. Seminerio on one count of mail fraud “to solicit and receive a stream of corrupt payments.

An arrest warrant has been issued for former New York Giants star Mark Ingram after he failed to report to federal prison to begin serving nearly eight years for bank fraud and money laundering.

NEW YORK (AP) - "Milk," Gus Van Sant's movie about gay rights leader Harvey Milk starring Sean Penn, has been named best film by the New York Film Critics Circle. Penn was also chosen as best actor by the critics, who announced their picks Wednesday.

THE emergence of teachers union boss Randi Weingarten as a self-proclaimed contender for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat ratchets up the battle between the Clinton and Kennedy clans over the post. Longtime Clinton ally Weingarten's chances of being chosen for the job by Gov. Paterson are remote at best - but if it happened, she'd be expected to "keep the seat warm for Hillary" in case her secretary of state role sours and she tries to reclaim the Senate seat. Bill Clinton had pondered going for the seat himself, but was said to be reluctant to relinquish the multimillion paydays he...

The loopy left is ecstatic about the prospects of Caroline Kennedy replacing Hillary Rodham Clinton as New York's junior senator, and not just because they fawn over everything Kennedy or because Uncle Teddy is throwing his weight around trying to get her the job. As a lawyer, editor and writer, daughter of President Kennedy, a supporter of education, theater and the arts, a vetter of Democratic vice-presidential candidates, an adviser to President-elect Obama, president of Kennedy Library Foundation and a director of the presidential debates board, her credentials are impeccable, the left says. Little is known about the famously private...

An Ecuadorean immigrant who was brutally beaten in Brooklyn last weekend in what the police have described as a possible bias attack was declared brain-dead on Tuesday, a law enforcement official said. But the man was being kept on life support while his family decides whether to donate his organs, the official said. There have been no arrests in the attack, which came four weeks after the fatal stabbing of an Ecuadorean immigrant on Long Island by a group of teenagers who had been looking for a Latino to attack. The attacks have jolted nerves in the city’s Latino communities...

Rep. Brian J. Moran of Alexandria is the only one of three leading Democratic hopefuls who beats Republican Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell in a straight match-up, 41% to 37%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey of Virginia voters. Five percent (5%) favor some other unspecified candidate, and 16% are undecided. McDonnell, who is expected to be his party’s unchallenged gubernatorial nominee, runs dead even with Rep. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County at 39% apiece. Four percent (4%) prefer a third candidate, and 18% aren’t sure. This is a repeat match-up for the two since McDonnell defeated Deeds...

ACTRESS Fran Drescher, star of The Nanny, has thrown her hat in the ring to contest the US senate seat being left vacant by Hillary Clinton. "Fran Drescher, actress, women's health advocate and public diplomacy envoy for the US State Department, announced that she is throwing her hat into the ring of contenders for the senate seat being vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton," Drescher spokesman Jordan Brown said. Drescher, 51, is best known for her starring role in the 1990s TV comedy The Nanny, but since her diagnosis with uterine cancer, she has become a women's health...

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) is preparing a run at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D) seat in 2010, his office confirmed Tuesday. Clinton has been designated as President-elect Obama’s secretary of state and will be replaced by a Democrat appointed by New York Gov. David Paterson (D). But the last two years of Clinton’s second term will be up in 2010, with a full term available in 2012. King is one of just three GOPers in the New York congressional delegation to survive November’s elections and has a good fundraising start on the race, having banked $1.2 million as of late...

Actress Fran Drescher has expressed interest in being appointed to the U.S. Senate seat that New York's Hillary Clinton is giving up to become secretary of state, a spokesman for the actress said. No, seriously.

Promise, or threat? John Harwood declares "the New York Times isn't going anywhere." The Times correspondent, who also toils for CNBC, made his unconditional avowal on today's Morning Joe in response to Joe Scarborough's imagining of a future in which major news organizations, including the Times, might disappear. Scarborough was concerned that the public would be deprived of the media's investigative function. JOE SCARBOROUGH: The problem is, though, that these people are all being fired. So what are we going to do without a New York Times or a Washington Post or an NBC News? The investigators that hold government...