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Dear Friends, The Senate Democrats are the only line of defense against George Bush's effort to pack our federal courts with reactionary right-wing judges who will roll back the fundamental constitutional rights that Americans in states across the country value the most in our free society. Now, our very ability to block the confirmation of these ideological judges is in jeopardy. Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has arrogantly threatened repeatedly to rewrite the long-standing Senate rules and eliminate the filibuster rule, the basic procedure to prevent a narrow Senate majority from running roughshod over the rights of the Senate...

If President Bush taps Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to replace William Rehnquist as chief justice, he won't be able to count on support from Delaware Democratic Senator Joe Biden - even though Biden voted to confirm Scalia when he was first nominated to the high court in 1986. "I would spend a lot of time making the case he shouldn't be chief justice," Biden told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Biden insisted that his about-face on Scalia had nothing to do with the justice's conservative views. "I would oppose him because of his methodology, the way he interprets...

Much has been written recently about the fact that Democrats, arguably with malicious intent, mercilessly attack Republican positions, programs, and political appointees without offering any positive alternatives of their own. This has been ascribed variously to their hatred of George W. Bush (which is certainly a factor), to the fact that a significant percentage of the Democrat base and their elected representatives are unrepentant '60s-style liberals (this, too, plays into the current scenario), even, as Michael Medved has put it, to "an internal contradiction deep within the liberal soul." The bottom line is that, no matter how we might characterize...

A common tactic in political debate is to set up "straw men" and then knock them down. It is easy to win a debate this way — assuming people believe your assertions.     "Straw men" are phony assertions about what your opponent stands for or about the policies he/she advocates. In other words — falsely assert your opponent proposes something awful — and then remind folks you stand for motherhood and apple pie.     Opponents of Social Security reform are using this tactic in an attempt to convince Americans that Social Security is in perfect shape just as it is. Or, at...

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, intensely ambitious and partisan, was uncharacteristically caught off balance. He had worked so amiably on federal judgeships in his state with Alberto Gonzales as White House counsel that the senator effusively endorsed his nomination as attorney general. Now, weeks later, Schumer was not only criticizing Gonzales but opposing his confirmation. How did a four-year relationship suddenly sour? There was no revelation about Gonzales causing scales to fall from Schumer's eyes. Instead, the inner circle of Senate Democrats determined that the previously non-controversial Mexican American from Texas would be the prime target of President Bush's...

I don't care what they have to say It makes no difference anyway Whatever it is I'm against it! - Groucho Marx in "Horse Feathers" "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It!" is one of Groucho Marx's all-time great comic tunes. In the 1932 cinema classic Horse Feathers, the inimitable Groucho Marx plays Huxley College's newly installed president, Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, whose opening song, "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It!", introduces Marx's character as the quintessential contrarian exuding negativity. And I can't think of a better set of lyrics, cited above, that epitomizes the Loony Left faction that now dominates...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Jones 202-863-8614 “Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid’s obstructionist remarks today were full of pessimism and personal attacks but lacked any vision for winning the War on Terror or preserving Social Security for future generations. While President Bush is looking to work with Democrats in confronting the challenges facing our nation, the Democrat leaders’ attacks on a speech that has not even been delivered are a sad reminder of their determination to score partisan political points even at the cost of accomplishing the business of the American people.”  -Brian Jones, RNC Communications Director   Pelosi’s Record: Obstruction,...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Jones 202-863-8614“Sen. Boxer’s actions today provide an interesting prism for viewing the Democrat Party at the start of the new Congress. While President Bush and Republicans in Congress are working to implement the agenda on which they campaigned by strengthening Social Security, lowering healthcare costs and winning the War on Terror, the Democrats led by Sen. Boxer are sending out self-aggrandizing fundraising letters proudly bragging about their obstructionism. Sen. Harry Reid’s refusal to condemn these tactics shows that Sen. Boxer and her message of obstructionism have become the new face of the Democratic Party.” -Brian...

"She's a pathetic embarassment." RADIO PERSONALITY RICK ROBERTS is proposing a recall campaign against US Senator Barbara Boxer, citing her obstruction of the certification of the Electoral College vote, and her disrespect of Secretary of State nominee Condoleeza Rice.

Senator Schumer kicked off his membership on the Senate Finance Committee yesterday by accusing President Bush of a scheme to "get back at the 'blue states'" through the tax-simplification initiative the White House is preparing. In a speech delivered to the Association for a Better New York, Mr. Schumer invoked Senator Moynihan, saying he had told Mr. Schumer to "do everything I could to get a seat on the Finance Committee." As a member of that committee, Mr. Schumer said, blocking proposals to eliminate the deductibility on federal returns of state and local income tax would be his "no. 1...

The Congress of Racial Equality blasted Sen. Robert Byrd on Thursday for holding up full Senate confirmation for Secretary of State-nominee Condoleezza Rice, denouncing the former Ku Klux Klansman as an unreconstructed "racist." "It's not surprising," CORE spokesman Niger Innis told NewsMax. "Byrd was a racist 50 years ago under the guise of leading the Dixiecrats and he's a non-reformed Dixiecrat today." Innis said the only difference between the Robert Byrd of the 1950s and now is, "He's got black colleagues in the House and the Senate who apologize for him." The Senate had been poised to confirm Dr. Rice...

As Senator Kerry rightly noted in his concession speech, now is a time for Americans to come together, accept the results of a hard-fought election and work to heal the wounds of personal bitterness and partisan division. President Bush now has a clearer mandate, having won both the popular vote as well as an Electoral College victory free of litigation. On a practical level, we have a real chance for Congress to move past the relative gridlock of the past few years and govern more effectively. Beyond providing Republicans with a larger majority of 55 votes in the Senate, yesterday’s...

Edwards sure doesnt like being seen in the reaverview mirror.. 'What took Kerry so long,' all the pundits have been asking.Well, we hear for all of his Lurch like slugishness, the real stick in the mud was John Edwards, who didn't want to concede. Presumably, he sees his politcal future now shrinking into the blinding glare of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's pantsuits..

...Mr. Daschle's bid for a fourth Senate term is the second most important race in the country this year, after the one for the White House, and whether Mr. Daschle prevails may well determine how much President Bush could accomplish if he wins a second term. A Daschle defeat would show that there is a price to be paid for blocking conservative reform. The South Dakotan has been doing a political two-step his entire career. At home, he presents himself as a cultural conservative, a uniting force in Congress, and a prairie populist who only does what is "good for...

Still short of the votes needed to change Senate rules, Republicans said they are likely to hold off on a unilateral attempt to end the Democratic blockade of judicial nominations until next spring at the earliest.

Most expect that with Congress back in Washington, partisan rancor in the U.S. Senate is about to reach a new apex. With a looming October 1 deadline to complete 12 of the 13 remaining appropriations bills, and a host of other unfinished business — ranging from welfare reform to extending expiring tax cuts to acting on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations — backlogged on the calendar (not to mention the escalating campaign-driven tensions), the institution the Founders designed to cool the passions of the moment may need a blowtorch to thaw frigid relations between the two parties. True, Democrats already...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite the objections of Democratic senators, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday for Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Susan Bieke Neilson, the last of four Michigan judges President Bush has nominated to a federal appeals court. Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Neilson is an "outstanding candidate" with the highest rating from the American Bar Association. But her chances of getting approval from the full Senate are uncertain unless Hatch reaches an agreement with Michigan's Democratic Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. "I think it's a shame we're in this mess because Michigan suffers,"...

Today's Action Today, the President met with his North Carolina and Michigan judicial nominees whose votes have been unfairly delayed in the Senate by Democrats who have been blocking their confirmations.  o Six of these nominees have not even had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary       Committee - which is the first step in the judicial confirmation process. o The President's North Carolina appeals court nominee has waited more than three years for a hearing. o All four of the President's Michigan appeals court nominees have waited more than two years for a vote, and three have yet to be...

While no one issued a press release, welfare reform is probably dead this Congress — another legislative pelt nailed to the thick wooden door of Democratic obstructionism. And while probing the dynamics of legislative gridlock in the U.S Senate is certainly not a new subject, the stymieing of welfare reform — and the reasons why it's been derailed — deserve closer examination. Despite growing and substantial evidence that the 1996 welfare-reform legislation is the most successful social-policy change in generations, liberals in Congress appear stuck in a time warp, bludgeoning efforts to build on its successes with the same...

MEET "THE PROGRESSIVES"Out-Of-Touch Activists Match Kerry's Agenda______________________________________________________________________"This week, thousands of activists will gather at the Campaign for America's Future Take Back America conference to discuss forging a new majority for progressive reform." (Campaign For America's Future, "Statement By Campaign For America's Future On Important Moment In Progressive Movement," Press Release, 6/2/04)"THE PROGRESSIVES" WOULD NOT HAVE SENT TROOPS TO AFGHANISTAN MoveOn Peace Website: "A Non-Military Response [To 9/11] Is The Best Strategy For A Permanent End To Terror."  (MoveOn Peace Website Archive, http://web.archive.org/web/20021003154227/peace.moveon.org/peace.php3, Accessed 4/27/04)After 9/11, MoveOn.org Collected Signatures For Statement Calling For "Justice, Not Escalating Violence That Would Only...