Free Republic

House Speaker John Boehner, hoping to spare fellow Republicans a second embarrassing defeat over payroll tax cuts, is prepared to navigate around rebellious Tea Party-aligned lawmakers to get a deal, according to congressional aides. Republicans in the House of Representatives got a public drubbing from critics within and outside the party in December for initially refusing to approve a Senate plan to extend the tax break for 160 million Americans through February.

On Friday's CBS Evening News, as correspondent Sharyl Attkisson filed a report to inform viewers that the House of Representatives had approved the Senate plan for a two-month payroll tax cut extension, Attkisson included a clip of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid directing a "lecture" at and blaming House Republican freshmen for the delay, as she recounted his hope that they had "learned a lesson." While the report included two soundbites from Democrats that allowed them to put forth some of their message - in the form of one clip each from Reid and President Obama - the CBS correspondent...

In session for a whopping 1 minute, 28 seconds, the Senate today passed by unanimous consent the updated, slightly tweaked version of the two-month payroll tax cut extension. Hailing this as a “new day,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., celebrated and then appointed, as the compromise called for, his designees for the conference committee to negotiate a year-long payroll tax deal. The appointees are: Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Jack Reed, D-R.I.; and Bob Casey, D-Pa. ,,,,, Reid left with departing messages to Republicans: His message to the Republican leader in the Senate should really be interpreted...

The State Department has released a statement that is favorable to the Keystone XL pipeline...