Free Republic

(AgapePress) - It was in the late 1940s that alleged communists in Hollywood were called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Now, almost 60 years later, a similar tactic apparently is being considered to undermine the nomination of John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to conservative activist Gary Bauer of American Values, the "radical Left" in the nation's capital is pulling out all the stops in their quest to find something worthy of attack during the confirmation hearings for Roberts, which are scheduled to begin right after the Labor Day weekend. One of those tactics, he says...

Even Democrats are beginning to sense that the American people have had about enough of their mindless obstructionist tactics. Most of us know what the Constitution says. The President has the sole right to appoint Supreme Court nominees and the Senate has the obligation to offer advice, then their consent or dissent as the case may be. We understand that the Democrats power is limited to underhanded character assassination leading up to another abuse of the filibuster. Who do you think removed them from all other forms of power in Washington? But despite the recent “damn the torpedoes elitists” mindset...

There’s an old tale which says that if you take a frog and throw him in a pot of hot, boiling water the frog will jump out. But if you take the frog and put him in a pot of cold water, and gradually turn up the heat, little by little over a long period of time, the frog’s body will adjust to the incremental increases of heat and eventually boil to death. The U.S. economy is like a frog in a pot of boiling water and he can’t jump out to save himself. One of his legs is the...

In basketball, the head-fake move is used to temporarily distract your opponent. The head-faker, the player with the ball, first gets his opponent to commit to one direction on the court. When his opponent falls for the fake, the head-faker can dribble right around him to score. Congressional Democrats have attempted more head-fakes in recent weeks than Michael Jordan ever did in an entire season. Their Republican counterparts would be wise not to fall for these calculated issue deceptions. The head-fakes began with Democratic Party Committee Chairman Howard Dean calling Republicans the “white Christian Party” and stating that they have...

What has happened to the Democrats over the past few decades is best captured by the phrase (coined by Kevin Phillips) "reactionary liberalism." Spent of new ideas, they have but one remaining idea: to hang on to the status quo at all costs. This is true across the board. On Social Security, which is facing an impending demographic and fiscal crisis, they have put absolutely nothing on the table. On presidential appointments -- first, judges and now ambassador to the United Nations -- they resort to the classic weapon of southern obstructionism: the filibuster. And on foreign policy, they have...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 20, 2005 Contact: John Reid Director of Communications (202) 224-4746 ALLEN DISAPPOINTED WITH DEMOCRATS CONTINUED FILIBUSTER OF JOHN BOLTON WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator George Allen (R-VA), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today made the following statement on the filibustered nomination of John Bolton to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: "Republicans and, indeed, America need to wake up to the fact that Senate Democrats have no intention of moving forward with votes on President Bush's key nominees. If they don't like John Bolton, that is their right, but they ought to...

Ever wonder what makes Democrats so relentless in their quest to demean Republicans? Could it be that they learned their incessant doggedness from their heroes of the Watergate era, Woodward, Bernstein, and Deep Throat, now self-revealed as Mark Felt, a former illicit FBI informant? After all, this triumphant Rat Pack was credited with championing the downfall of a Republican administration. And, by so doing, it was the genesis of the Democratic Party’s political playbook and game plan that still exists today. Watergate represented a consummate dismantling of a Republican administration where the Democrats’ deftness of investigational and inquisitorial skills were...

To: Bill Frist, US Senate. From: Mitch Berg, Schmuck Citizen and pissed-off former GOP contributor Re: Your Infinite Cretinism Senator Frist, Mitch Berg here. You probably don't know who I am; I'm a typical schmuck. I write a blog, and I try to pitch in on GOP activities around Minnesota. And on behalf of the entire GOP, I'm having a hard time walking right now - because you just boned your party up the a**. No, not just the party; not just the assembly of suits and climbers and hangers-on that no doubt surrounds you at work every day. No,...

The Senate's Republican majority today began a countdown to a vote that has been dubbed the "nuclear option," a decision on whether to end the ability of the chamber's minority to use filibusters to block the appointment of federal judges. After a third day of debate on one of President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) filed a cloture motion to end the debate and put the nomination to a vote. The cloture vote, scheduled for Tuesday, would trigger a series of steps leading to the "nuclear option" -- unless a bipartisan group of moderate senators succeeds...

Sometimes things are not as they appear peering through the legislative looking glass. Congress increasingly has an "Alice in Wonderland" feel to it, where statements by lawmakers and activists create a strange dissonance and legislative reality that is out of sync with political rhetoric. Yet because their press releases represent the authorized voice of the opposition, Democratic Party leaders' idiom has an aura of validity — however phony. There is a method to the madness. Democrats are laying political sod, preparing the ground for the 2006 congressional elections. Call it "project overreach"; like many aspects of the Democratic Party these...

In the Senate this week, what promises to be a contentious culmination to what Republican Senator Trent Lott originally coined the "nuclear option" will almost certainly take place. Majority Leader Bill Frist will call for a vote on Texas Nominee Priscilla Owens, first nominated by President Bush to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in May 2001. At that point, the Senate chamber will have gone to what might be described as DefCon 1. The term "DefCon," short for Defense Condition, is the chief operating procedure of NORAD, or North American Air Defense, located in the Cheyenne Mountains of Colorado....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Danny Diaz 202-863-8614 [Little Rock] Arkansas Democrat-Gazettes’ Bradley Gitz: “[The Filibuster] Has Never Been Used To Prevent An Up-Or-Down Vote On Appellate Court Nominees Who Have Been Approved By The Senate Judiciary Committee ... What The Democrats Are Doing In The Senate Is, Therefore, A Departure From The Senate ‘Tradition’ They Claim Republicans Are Recklessly Jeopardizing.” (Bradley Gitz, “Protecting Judicial Activism,” [Little Rock] Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 5/5/05) “For Democrats, The Word ‘Extremist’ Applies Only To Judges Who Feel Bound By The Constitution And The Intentions Of Those Who Crafted It, Never To Those Who Treat It As...

Democratic Leader Harry Reid declared an end Monday to compromise talks with Republican leaders over President Bush's controversial judicial nominees, saying their fate along with the future of long-standing filibuster rules will be settled in a showdown on the Senate floor. "I've tried to compromise and they want all or nothing, and I can't do that," Reid told reporters after a private meeting with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "The leader's door remains open to Senator Reid," Frist's spokeswoman, Amy Call, said in reply. With Democrats threatening to block confirmation votes on several of Bush's appeals court nominees, Frist...

The White House and Republicans expressed confidence Sunday that John R. Bolton would win Senate approval as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after a bruising confirmation battle in committee. "The president continues to have confidence in John. He believes he's the right person for the job," national security adviser Stephen Hadley said on "Fox News Sunday." "And we're confident, we're pleased he's going to get a vote and we're confident that the Senate at the end of the day will agree with the president and John Bolton will be confirmed." The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-8 on Thursday...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614WASHINGTON – RNC Communications Director Brian Jones today issued the following statement on Sen. Ted Kennedy’s obstructionist comments today on Face the Nation: “Sen. Ted Kennedy’s hypocritical and obstructionist comments this morning are more evidence Democrats would rather launch partisan political attacks than confront the issues facing our nation. Sen. Kennedy's statements contradict his previous support for abolishing the filibuster altogether and solidified his status as a leader of the ‘Party of No.’ False attacks and hypocritical statements will do nothing to ensure highly qualified judicial nominees receive the up or down vote they...

The Senate on Wednesday kept up an investigation of John R. Bolton on the eve of a showdown vote on the troubled nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Democrats who claim Bolton is too hotheaded or unbending say they could try to hold up a final vote in the full Senate. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held private interviews with two State Department officials who worked with Bolton in his current job as the department's arms control chief. The Democrat who is leading the opposition to Bolton said he is asking the nominee directly for additional information....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614 WASHINGTON – The Republican National Committee today unveiled a new web video highlighting the Democrat obstruction in the U.S. House and Senate.  The video will be emailed out tomorrow to 7.5 million Republican grassroots supporters.  To Watch The Video Visit:www.gop.comTranscript: "Party of No" [Voice Over and Text on screen] Wanna "no" something? Just ask a Democrat and see how well they "no" the presidents agenda. [Cuts of Democrats saying "No"] "Sad to say, the Democrats are becoming the party of no." (Gloria Borger, Op-Ed, U.S. News & World Report, 2/28/05) "So far this year the...

WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the Senate committee considering the nomination of John R. Bolton as United Nations ambassador scolded Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (search) on Saturday for ignoring Democratic requests for additional information about the embattled nominee. In a curt letter to Rice, Sen. Joseph Biden (search), D-Del., reiterated his requests for State Department documents related to charges that Bolton tried to bend or ignore government intelligence findings that did not suit his hard-right ideology. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee (search) is scheduled to vote on Bolton's nomination on Thursday. Biden repeated a warning to Rice that...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-Tenn.) chief of staff has told conservative activist leaders and business-community representatives that Frist will soon trigger the so-called “nuclear option” to end threatened Democratic filibusters of President Bush’s judicial nominees this month. The chief of staff, Eric Ueland, said the event will take place in “less than a month,” according to several people who attended a closed-door meeting late last week. But social conservatives are anticipating from conversations with Frist’s staff that the controversial move will take place next week and are predicting a conservative backlash if Senate Republicans delay any longer. A conservative...

A sure way to inspire correspondence from one of my dedicated readers -- we'll call her Jane -- is to intimate by phrase or nuance that anything is amiss with the Democratic Party. Pending word of her abduction by space aliens, I anticipate an explosion from the general direction of Jane's domicile. Washington, D.C., Democrats are demonstrating what Jane might call heroic indomitability. I suggest a likelier phrase: mulish intractability. We are at one of those phases in our national affairs where, if George W. Bush sauntered outside and commented on the blueness of the sky, Nancy Pelosi and Harry...