Free Republic

Some years ago it became apparent to me that politics stinks, and that the stinkiest part of politics is the US Congress. Judging from the fact that voter participation in all our elections runs from 40 to 50%, apparently a great many voters agree, and simply don’t vote So I made myself a commitment to start a campaign to “Tro Da Bums Out!” (All of them) First, I looked at Term Limits. Since 75% of Americans want term limits for Congress, I thought it would be easy. But... we need to get a bill for term limits thru Congress FIRST,...

MY 'EXTREMIST' SUGGESTION TO CHANGE CONGRESS There was a time when I was generally and proudly optimistic about the prospects for our country. But the growth of an irresponsible, liberally biased media, the incompetent ever-growing leviathan of government, and the essentially permanent self-serving Congress, has turned me into a desperate ‘extremist’, calling for all voters to ‘Never Reelect’ anyone in Congress, lest we continue our descent into a ‘Dictatorship of the Congress’. It makes little difference who wins the Presidency. It is in Congress where the problems lie! I can think of no rational alternative to ‘Never Reelect’ any congressperson,...

Presidents are term limited, so they can only do so much damage to the country. What I am very concerned about is our crummy Congress, which gets worse every year, and needs to be term limited. But Congress has a LOCK on never letting us get term limits on them. So I suggest the only way to do it, is to NEVER REELECT any incumbent! In the meantime, we can try to use the presidential race to give us a boost. Such as the following: McCain is a maverick. He likes to make waves. And he specializes in townhall meetings....

Louisiana: Indicted Lawmaker to Run for Re-electionBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 18, 2008 Representative William J. Jefferson, a Democrat facing trial on corruption charges, has announced that he will seek re-election to a 10th term. Mr. Jefferson made his announcement in a news release that emphasized his experience and portrayed him as someone who still wielded power in Congress despite the case against him. The last time he ran for re-election was in 2006. The corruption accusations were a persistent problem for him then, but he overcame the odds and won in a landslide. He has since been indicted,...

Congress is not working, and that is chiefly due to the fact that its reelection rate is 98%. Why should they rock their boat when they always get reelected? Major national issues such as our need for energy remain unaddressed, while gasoline approaches $5/gal. Russia, Venezuela, China, et al, are all rushing to fill the demand at our expense. To solve this coming energy crisis, Congress could simply vote to remove its restrictions on domestic drilling in ANWR, off our coasts, our shale in the Rockies, on nuclear power, etc. And stop pushing foolish inefficient bio-fuels! But they won’t, because...

Examples of lawmakers who have sponsored earmarks for private companies and received campaign contributions from them and, in some cases, their lobbyists: _Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, a member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, obtained a $2.4 million earmark last year for the Greentree Group of Beavercreek, Ohio, for a digital information sharing system. Greentree Group executives, their families and consultants have donated $43,350 to Hobson since 2000, reports The Columbus Dispatch. _Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., a member of House defense appropriations subcommittee, sponsored a $2 million earmark to 21st Century Systems last year for a virtual fence demonstration project....

A REVOLUTION TO TAKE BACK THE US CONGRESS by Nelson Lee Walker of tenurecorrupts.com I am proposing that we create a popular, bloodless, political revolution in our country. I believe that it is very necessary, very possible, and very doable. The object of this revolution is the destruction of the professional political class which currently dominates and corrupts the US Congress. I am convinced, as are many, many voters, that the bulk of our country’s political problems arises out of this ‘permanent’ Congressional political class, and their devotion to party power and to the financial special interests keeping them in...

A REVOLUTION TO TAKE BACK THE US CONGRESS by tenurecorrupts.com I am proposing that we create a popular, bloodless, political revolution in our country. I believe that it is very necessary, very possible, and very doable. The object of this revolution is the destruction of the professional political class which currently dominates and corrupts the US Congress. I am convinced, as are many, many voters, that the bulk of our country's political problems arises out of this 'permanent' Congressional political class, and their devotion to party power and to the financial special interests keeping them in power. There is a...

Williamson County Republican reshaped Austin area's transportation system State Rep. Mike Krusee, a Williamson County Republican who reshaped the Austin area's transportation system and, with Gov. Rick Perry, turned Texas toward a toll-centric approach to highway building, will not seek re-election next year. Krusee, 48, is not leaving the public stage right away. He will serve out his term, which runs through January 2009; will continue serving on national panels on transportation and urban planning; and could return to a statewide post after he retires from the Legislature. Talk around the Capitol is that Krusee, who has served in the...

In an event as much group therapy as campaign rally, Mayor Gavin Newsom opened his re-election headquarters Sunday with an apology. "What I did was wrong. And for the rest of my life I'm going to have to deal with that," Newsom told a room packed with hundreds of supporters. "Any of you who've ever made a mistake in your life know exactly what I'm talking about," Newsom said. Newsom, 39, announced Monday he would enter counseling for alcohol use, just days after admitting to an affair with his former campaign manager's wife. The mayor said he especially wanted to...

Sacramento -- California will have to spend as much as $90 million to move its 2008 presidential primary to early February, and registrars across the state are hoping they won't get stuck with the bill. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislative leaders of both parties support a bill that would move the state's presidential primary to Feb. 5 and leave the rest of the state's legislative and congressional races on the traditional June ballot.

Governor Napolitano's State of the State speech yesterday made no pretense of hiding her plans to expand government, it was like listening to one long spendfest. There was no mention of lowering taxes (which was part of the platform she ran on and won on) or cutting spending. So it was unbelievable to hear her say at the end of a long laundry list of new government bureaucracies and spending programs, "Every initiative I have announced can be accomplished without raising taxes one thin dime." Smokescreen and mirrors. She'll blame the Republican-controlled legislature. It doesn't take a fortune teller...

LOS ANGELES In celebrity-studded events this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger conspicuously advertised his moderate Republican credentials, signing Democratic bills to combat global warming and withdraw state investments from companies in war-torn Sudan. "Democrats and Republicans can work together," the governor told an audience in Malibu, trumpeting a central plank of his re-election drive. But a less-visible promotion was taking place, almost simultaneously. In a Republican-sponsored advertisement being distributed by telephone, Schwarzenegger is portrayed as tough and resolute on illegal immigration an issue with potent appeal among Republican conservatives. His Democratic opponent, Phil Angelides, is depicted as a softy. "It is...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), enmeshed in a congressional corruption scandal, abruptly abandoned his race for re-election Monday after months of prodding from Republican leaders worried about losing his seat this fall. Ney said in a statement he is innocent of any wrongdoing, and had acted for the sake of his family. "I must think of them first, and I can no longer put them through this ordeal," he said. The six-term lawmaker has long been involved in the influence-peddling investigation spawned by Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and is the second congressman to announce his...

One of the most promising developments early on in the Schwarzenegger administration was the new governor's willingness to tackle the issue of prison reform – especially in the wake of Gov. Gray Davis' administration, which acted like a wholly owned subsidiary of the ham-fisted state prison guards union. The prison guards, which pumped enormous contributions into Gov. Davis' campaign, received oversized pay hikes and were given undue power over the correctional system, where a code of silence among guards made it impossible to root out abuse and corruption. Under Gov. Schwarzenegger, the state proposed wide-ranging and sensible reforms. But as...

LOS ANGELES – Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger backed a federal plan to build a stretch of border fence between San Diego and Tijuana. This week, he said walling off hundreds of miles of the California-Mexico border is a strategy from the Stone Age. It's not the only example of his complex – and sometimes shifting – views on illegal immigration, an issue that has given rise to a national movement during his time in office. California's governor certainly should have a role in the debate over leaky borders and the not-so-invisible illegal labor economy. The state has more illegal...

No sooner did Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger call for a state investigation of price gouging at the pump than his critics jumped in feet first -- noting that the "no special-interest money" governor has taken nearly $2 million in campaign contributions from the very oil companies he wants investigated. "Arnold's latest slick stunt, pretending to care about soaring costs of gas prices, rings hollower than a Krispy Kreme doughnut,'' said the anti-Arnold labor folks at the Alliance for a Better California. And indeed, records show that the governor -- who has raised $82.7 million since riding into Sacramento on the promise...

MANASSAS, Va. - U.S. Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) formally opened his Republican campaign for re-election Tuesday, but he wouldn't guarantee that he would stay in the Senate the full six years, leaving open the possibility of a 2008 presidential bid. "I'm running for re-election — just that," Allen, 54, told reporters outside a microbiology research center. He had avoided any mention of a presidential bid in his speech to about 100 supporters. Allen has been traveling the nation, building a foundation for a presidential race, and has made several visits to New Hampshire and other pivotal primary...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign has picked up a $44,600 donation from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The billionaire mayor contributed the money - the maximum contribution allowed under state law - on Friday, state records show. It's not the first time Bloomberg has done a good turn for his fellow Republican. In March 2005, the mayor was a featured speaker at a New York City fundraiser that raised $500,000 for the actor-turned-governor's political operation. Bloomberg's check suggests a shift in loyalties. In 2001, before he was mayor, records show he donated $1,000 to California state Treasurer Phil Angelides, one...

WASHINGTON - Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texan touched by a lobbying scandal that ensnared some of his former top aides and cost the congressman to his leadership post, won't seek re-election to Congress, a Republican official said Monday. DeLay was expected to disclose the plans Tuesday, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the DeLay had not publicly disclosed his plans.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's failure to put a multibillion dollar public works bond on the June ballot robs him of a fresh accomplishment just as he is poised to begin asking voters for a new term. The bond's failure, at least for now, is more than just an ordinary legislative setback. Schwarzenegger has staked his re-election on an ambitious plan to use the bonds to rebuild the state's aging roads, schools and water projects. The governor still has time to rescue his plan and put some sort of bond on the November ballot. But the difficulty he is having underscores the...

Republican Rep. Bill Thomas, chairman of the influential House Ways and Means Committee, was set to announce Monday whether he would retire from Congress or seek a 15th term. Thomas, 64, scheduled a morning news conference in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif., amid speculation that he would leave the House of Representatives. Because of House Republicans' self-imposed term limits for committee chairmen, the mercurial but brainy former college professor is serving his last year as head of the powerful committee that writes tax laws. GOP officials are working under the assumption that Thomas will retire, according to a Republican election...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces dismal poll ratings, an empty campaign treasury, a peeved Republican base and other troubles as his new political team plots his campaign for a second term. The governor has yet to recover from his November special-election debacle, which squandered more than $45 million of his campaign money and drew a withering ad assault from organized labor. Adding to his difficulties is the poor national political climate for Republicans. Public anger at President Bush and the GOP over the Iraq war, a lobbying scandal, a botched Medicare drug plan and other issues could hurt Schwarzenegger and other...

If the General Election was tomorrow, would you vote to re-elect Gov. Ernie Fletcher? Yes. No. I'm not sure Gov. Fletcher will survive the GOP primary. It depends on the Democratic candidate selected to run against him. Of course! In politics one bad Republican incumbent beats a pair of Democratic challengers hands down.

SACRAMENTO – As if to sweep away the last remnants of his 2005 special election shellacking, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is following the purge of his senior government staff with a housecleaning in his political operation to launch his re-election campaign this year. But unlike his eclectic – critics would say “schizophrenic” – Capitol staff, where the dominant figure is a longtime Democratic activist, senior members of the Republican governor's new campaign team have solid Republican pedigrees. Out is senior strategist Mike Murphy, who directed the campaign for Schwarzenegger's “reform agenda,” which was defeated in November. And Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger's chief...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger enters 2006 in a politically weakened position few could have imagined when he took office a little more than two years ago, the result of a disastrous shift to the right in a state dominated by Democrats and independents. Facing re-election, the Republican governor has begun a swift transformation since November, when California voters rejected all four of his "year of reform" measures. The proposals included a spending cap, redistricting changes and restrictions on fundraising by public employee unions that Democrats had railed against. "A move back to the center is essential," said Gary...

BOSTON - Republican Gov. Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he will not run for a second term next year, fueling speculation he will seek the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. "My decision comes down to this: In this four-year term, we can accomplish what I set out to do. In fact, we've already accomplished a great deal," he said. "Serving as your governor is one of the greatest honors of my life," he said. "A year from now, it will be time for me to pass that privilege to someone else. I will not be a candidate for re-election." Reporters questioned...

Hillary Clinton skips NH in New England fundraising By DAVID SHARP The Associated Press News - October 29, 2005 U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., greets supporters at a fundraising event for Maine Gov. John Baldacci, in Portland, Maine, Friday, Oct. 28, 2005. Baldacci is seeking re-election in 2006. (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach) PORTLAND, Maine — New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton came to New England yesterday to raise money for two governors and for herself at events in Maine and Massachusetts while avoiding setting foot in New Hampshire, the state with the first presidential primary. During a fundraising luncheon for Gov....

Is Laffey the Best Medicine? Meet the Pat Toomey of 2006. Steve Laffey wants to become the Pat Toomey of 2006, with one important difference. Whereas former congressman Toomey failed in his bid to unseat liberal Republican senator Arlen Specter in last year’s Pennsylvania GOP primary, Laffey hopes to upset liberal Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee in next September’s Rhode Island GOP primary. “Our nation is not in good financial shape,” says Laffey. “I want to give the smallest state the strongest voice in the Senate.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee is so concerned about Laffey that it’s already running a...

(HAVANA) -- More than a year after Venezuela's divisive reelection of Hugo Chavez, intelligence sources have confirmed that former President Jimmy Carter chartered a fishing boat from Caracas to Havana to pledge his support for Cuba’s longstanding dictator, Fidel Castro. Although Carter initially denied the trip, satellite photos proved that he did indeed travel across the Caribbean immediately after declaring Hugo Chavez’s August 15, 2004 election valid. The meeting between Carter and Fidel, broadcast widely on Cuban television and picked up by receivers at Guantanamo Bay, showed a cordial display of handshaking and backslapping followed by cigar smoking. Despite the...

SAN DIEGO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday announced his plans to seek re-election in 2006, saying he intends to "follow through" and seek a second term to finish the job he started. "Here's the bottom line: I said I am a follow-through guy; I have learned that from sports. In every sport you learn about following through: in golf about swinging through, in tennis we follow through, in skiing we finish the turn," he said. "I learned most of my lessons from sports. So, of course we are going to follow through with this here. I'm not in there...

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Arnold Schwarzenegger will run for re-election next year, a top aide said Friday, an early announcement the governor hopes will jolt his sagging political momentum with the vitality that swept him into office two years ago. Schwarzenegger "felt it was very important to let the people of California know this governor plans to be around for the long haul," campaign spokesman Todd Harris said. "It's not a 24-month job, it's a five-year job and he intends to see it through to the end." Schwarzenegger has hinted as much for weeks, saying as recently as Wednesday that...

CLOVIS, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger all but declared Wednesday that he would run for a second term next year, saying, "I am not in this for the short run," and promising an official announcement Friday in San Diego. Speaking at a special election campaign event in this Central Valley town near Fresno, Schwarzenegger was asked by an audience member if Californians would get "a chance to vote for you again." It was the last question during a carefully planned "town hall" meeting at a window factory. The governor paused, smiled briefly and then revealed what he had been hinting...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signaled on Wednesday that he would seek a second term as governor in what would already be his fifth major campaign since seeking the office in 2003. The former Hollywood actor kicked off a series of campaign events this week ahead of a special election he has called for November on teacher pay, redistricting and the state budget. In an appearance before an invited audience in Clovis, California, he said he would announce on Friday whether he will seek a second term for governor starting in 2006. "I'm not in this for the short term," he...

SACRAMENTO — Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to announce next week he is running for re-election, sources said Thursday, as Democratic lawmakers continued passing bills that the governor plans to veto. Ignoring legislators' scramble to wrap up their 2005 session today, Schwarzenegger traveled to GOP-friendly Fresno on Thursday as he continued campaigning for his Nov. 8 special election to revamp state government. In the Legislature, bills addressing key issues to the public — such as a multibillion-dollar transportation bond — remained shelved until next year at the earliest. The developments came in the wake of polls that show Californians...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is beginning to sound like Candidate Schwarzenegger, hinting in interviews that he plans to run for re-election in 2006. The Republican governor could announce his plans as soon as mid-September, around the state GOP convention and after the Legislature adjourns for the year. At the same time, he will be ramping up a campaign for three ballot initiatives set to go before voters in a Nov. 8 special election. "I think he needs to do it for two good reasons," said Bill Whalen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution who worked for former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson....

Churchgoers Are Most Interested in Supreme Court Openingsby Bill Wilson, Washington, D.C., correspondentPoll shows religious people express the highest concern about who is nominated.Weekly church attendees have the highest interest in openings on the Supreme Court according to the Gallup Poll.Frank Newport, Gallup's editor-in-chief, said it didn't matter how the numbers were broken down."Weekly churchgoers, white churchgoers, it didn't matter," he said. "Those who were very religious, based on that one measure, were more concerned about the choice of a new Supreme Court justice than almost any other group we could isolate in the American population."The poll also found 80...

a Pew Poll, conducted by the prestigious Princeton Univerisity, found bush's approval at 43% on May 11-15. That is a very bad approval rating. Why?

HILLARY CLINTON'S reelection campaign for the United States Senate in 2006 may be tougher than expected. On Monday, May 2, the New York Observer reported that Clinton might face a challenge from Richard Nixon's son-in-law Ed Cox. Cox, who has declined to make a statement on his intentions, has made steps toward running for Clinton's New York Senate seat, including launching an exploratory committee. Associates to Cox believe that he will win the endorsement of New York Governor George Pataki. By the time Hillary Rodham married future president Bill Clinton in 1975, Ed Cox had been married to the daughter...

April 30, 2005 Liberals play the unity card Just when you thought the upcoming federal election was all about Ontario ... Nope -- it's all about Quebec! The increasingly desperate Liberals are zeroing in on this campaign's doomsday script, and it sounds like this: "The country is breaking up! The separatists are winning! Only we can save Canada! Vote Liberal!" We expect this kind of smear campaign when they go after Stephen Harper's Conservatives, of course. But we know they've gone off the deep end when they accuse one of their own of being "dangerous for Canada" -- Ontario...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has $3.4 million cash on-hand for her re-election campaign next year, according to campaign finance documents released Monday, but she has yet to draw a Republican challenger. California's senior senator will be seeking her third full six-year term next year. She raised $513,000 over the first three months of 2005, bringing to $4.1 million her total raised for the election cycle, according to a Federal Election Commission report that Feinstein's office released Monday. Her campaign has spent $1.8 million on operating expenses and has no debt, the report showed. Consistently rated in polls...

From the NRSC: -- IF THE ELECTION FOR THE U.S. SENATE WERE HELD TODAY AND THE CANDIDATES WERE, DEMOCRAT ROBERT BYRD AND REPUBLICAN SHELLEY CAPITO, FOR WHOM WOULD YOU VOTE? Vote Byrd-52% Vote Capito-42% Undecided-8% -- Commentary: A few things- Byrd has not yet declared his candidacy for re-election but has shown signs that he will, such as engaging in fundraising. Shelley Moore Capito is a GOP congresswoman thought to be the best challenger- however, she has not decided yet whether to challenge Byrd. Having said that, should Capito run, this poll is remarkable news. Byrd is an institution and...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - In a city more accustomed to scandals in Hollywood than City Hall, claims of public corruption and fraud are dogging the re-election campaign of decidedly low-profile Mayor James Hahn. County prosecutors have been probing allegations that Hahn supporters shook down firms which wanted to do business with the city by tying public contracts to political contributions. Federal prosecutors have opened their own inquiry. Although Hahn has not been implicated and denies knowledge of any potential wrongdoing, the investigations touch whole segments of city government - from members of Hahn's inner circle to Los Angeles International Airport...

Reading Between Feinstein's Lines Showing Strain of Public Backlash Against Illegal Immigration Lou Dobbs Tonight - Jan. 28 Feinstein: Border security really is essential because if you have open, porous borders you can be absolutely sure that terrorists are going to take advantage of them and may have already. (Translated: Illegal Mexicans are no problem.) Feinstein: In California we passed Proposition 187, it was found to be unconstitutional (it was killed by Mexico)...there is a worry that someone will put something on the ballot and it would pass again. So we really have to be practical. (Translated: Citizens are getting...

The prospects of a Kennedy-Cuomo clash ended when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this week that he would not run against Andrew M. Cuomo for state attorney general. But now New Yorkers face the possibility of another clash of political families, this one pitting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton against Edward F. Cox, a son-in-law of President Richard M. Nixon. Mr. Cox, who married Tricia Nixon in the Rose Garden when her father was president, has told friends and Republican Party insiders that he is considering running against Mrs. Clinton in 2006, they said. Mr. Cox, 58, was busy making funeral...

I was asked many times throughout the campaign season, why I rarely criticized the Bush administration in my writings. Like everyone else in America, I had to take a side in the race, and unlike O’Reilly or Savage, who also voted for Bush, I saw no benefit in shooting at my own guy…My answer is just that simple and self-serving. Like everyone else, I had an agenda. Not so much the re-election of the Bush administration, as the defeat of socialist anti-America minded Democrats who in my opinion threaten America’s future more than any outside enemy today. The sad part...

Presidential Vote Certification Faces ObjectionWASHINGTON — When the joint session of Congress meets Thursday to certify the Electoral College votes that gave President Bush his second term, several Democratic House members are expected to contest the results.They may also find support from Sen. Barbara Boxer (search), D-Calif., whose participation under congressional rules would then require senators and representatives to recess to their respective chambers to debate certification.The action would be the first of its kind in 36 years, but most likely won't add up to more than a procedural delay of the inevitable.According to the choreography of the certification, after the...

Wednesday, January 05, 2005 President George W. Bush The White House Washington, D.C. Dear Mr. President; I am writing to express my support and admiration for your efforts and leadership during this turbulent period of our Nation’s history. You certainly have had a full plate. Despite this intense and persistent criticism still rages on stirred up by the Liberals, the liberal press and the Hollywood Left represented by people like Michael Moore, George Soros, Ted Turner, Barbara Streisand, Chevy Chase, Whoopee Goldberg and a host of other vehemently angry people. Angry that a Conservative Republican won re-election to the White...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, viewed as one of the few moderate Democrats in an increasingly polarized Senate, is running for re-election in two years, and even Republicans admit she's an overwhelming choice to keep the seat she first won in a 1992 special election. "You can probably call the result of this ... two years in advance,'' said Kevin Spillane, a GOP consultant. "There would have to be an event of 9/11 proportions to make her vulnerable.'' "She's going to be heavily favored,'' agreed Allen Hoffenblum, a Republican consultant whose California Target Book analyzes political races in the state. "I doubt...