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LOOSE LIPS CAN BUFFET BLIMPS. That was clear last week when some remarks by a senator raised fears about the health of big insurers -- including MetLife, owner of the famed dirigible. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.), in pressing for passage of the financial bailout bill, claimed that a well-known insurer was on the verge of bankruptcy. Insurance stocks plunged, with MetLife (ticker: MET) falling some 15%. The company said Reid's remarks didn't apply to it, and the senator's spokesman said he misspoke.

59% Would Vote to Replace Entire Congress Sunday, October 05, 2008 Congress was front and center in the national news last week and the American people were far from impressed. If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 17% would vote to keep the current legislators in office. Today, just 23% have even a little confidence in the ability of Congress to deal with the nation’s economic problems and only 24% believe most...

Let me see if I have this right. We the People express our overwhelming disdain for a government manufactured, taxpayer-funded bailout of semi-coerced greed merchants on Wall Street and the Senate’s answer is to leave the offending legislation intact and entice weak politicians into voting for the package by adding sweetheart tax legislation to it. Can this possibly – in the most incredible of circumstances – be correct? Just as I finished setting up my new television I found myself clearing away the debris and dust from a bazooka shot that destroyed it. You see, I felt the destruction needed...

Step 1:Democrats create an economic crisis Step 2:Democrats profit from the crisis Step 3:Democrats blame Republicans for the crisis Step 4:Democrats use voter anger to gain power Step 5:Democrats use power to erode capitalist system and implement quasi-socialist programs. Here is a diagram of the relationships and interconnectivity of this cabal. Here is a powerpoint presentation of how this happened and which politicians got the most money (hint: they're all Democrats, one is running for president, and at least one sits on the committee that is supposed to oversee the banking industry. You getting this? The Republicans tried 18...

A must see: Video at link

Shares Of The Hartford Plunge 32% Waning Confidence Also Affects MetLife, Prudential By DIANE LEVICK October 3, 2008 It was a blood bath Thursday for shares of The Hartford, while MetLife Inc. and Prudential also plummeted on fears that the tumult in financial markets could push some insurers over the edge. Some of the investor panic Thursday followed a comment Wednesday from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that a well-known but unnamed insurer was on the brink of bankruptcy. A spokesman for Reid, the Senate majority leader, issued a statement Thursday backtracking on the comment, and The Hartford, Prudential and MetLife...

Insurers knocked by senator's warning Reid retracts statement; MetLife, Hartford say it doesn't apply to them By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch Last update: 4:46 p.m. EDT Oct. 2, 2008SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Insurers' shares tumbled Thursday after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a well-known company in the sector was close to bankruptcy. Reid didn't identify the insurer and the senator retracted the statement through his spokesman Jim Manley. "Senator Reid is not personally aware of any particular company being on the verge of bankruptcy," Manley said in an email that was sent to MarketWatch. "He has no special knowledge about...

Debate started, vote to be 8:45 eastern time

enate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pressed for passage, with the alarming news that one of the country's premier insurance companies was about to go bankrupt if the crisis was not quickly resolved. "We don't have a lot of leeway on time," Reid told reporters in the Capitol. "One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company -- a major insurance company -- one with a name that everyone knows that's on the verge of going bankrupt. That's what this is all about." He did not identify the insurance company, and later in the day...

The package before the Senate will be similar to the House version, with these additions, the New York Times reported in its online edition: * The higher limit for insured bank deposits sought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which asked to raise the cap to $250,000 from $100,000, to quell opposition by individual and small-business depositors. * Tax breaks for businesses and alternative energy, part of a package that has been caught in a stalemate in the House of Representatives. The Senate version of the gridlocked tax legislation would cost more than $100 billion and extend and expand many...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate is set to vote Wednesday evening on its version of the emergency financial rescue package rejected Monday by the House of Representatives, which will include an increase in the cap to the level of deposits in bank accounts insured by the federal government up to $250,000, a senior senate Democratic aide said Tuesday. The vote will also include the Senate version of an extension to a series of renewable energy and other business tax credits. There had been speculation throughout Tuesday that the Senate might move to act on the bailout legislation after a surprise...

A group of House Republicans is cobbling together a proposal to stabilize financial markets that can serve as an alternative to the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, legislative sources have told CNBC. The failure of Monday's vote on the $700 billion bailout package—which these Republicans doubt is likely to cause an economic "doomsday" scenario—emboldened the group to press forward with its own plan, sources said. The group pressing the alternative plan is doing so for largely ideological reasons: They're opposed to the federal government taking a large role in financial markets, sources say. Components of the alternative plan...

WASHINGTON - In a surprise move to resurrect President Bush's $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan, Senate leaders slated a vote on the measure for Wednesday — but added a tax cut plan already rejected by the House.

Kudlow reporter says sources confirm Senate to vote on rescue plan tomorrow evening, details to follow.

September 29, 2008 Reid Statement On House Republicans' Defeat Of Economic Stabilization Legislation Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following statement today after House Republicans blocked the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008: “Democrats are doing our part to improve the Administration’s flawed plan, but we will need the support of more Republicans to get this done. We are disappointed that Republicans did not live up to their commitment and did not deliver more votes for the President’s proposal – especially after we worked so hard on a bipartisan basis to improve it and produced a bill that...

Nancy Pelosi, making one final pitch for GOP buy-in to the bailout, addressed the chamber, saying, "We have to have a bipartisan vote on this -- that is the only thing that will send a message of confidence to the markets." Pelosi's speech, however, was anything but bipartisan, laying the fiscal crisis on the door of the White House, blasting Bush for opposing a second stimulus package Pelosi aides think bailout will pass, but narrowly A nervous-looking Nancy Pelosi stayed on the floor after delivering her highly-partisan speech, leaving the floor for the Democratic cloakroom. Her aides say it is...

Nancy Pelosi has a draft financial rescue plan this Sunday morning, according to Fox News . It's scarier than anything else you'll see this Halloween season. Here is one statement from that plan: If the government loses money, the financial industry will pay back the taxpayers.Only one of two things can happen here. If the government loses money because the financial industry goes broke, then there is no financial industry to pay us back. If the financial industry does not go broke, it means those companies that ran their firms well will bail out the government who bailed out the...

NEWS RELEASE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms 12500 N.E. Tenth Place Bellevue, WA  98005 CCRKBA URGES SEN. REID TO ALLOW SENATE VOTE ON DISTRICT GUN LAW For Immediate Release: September 24, 2008 BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is today calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to allow a House-approved bill on the District of Columbia’s gun law to face an immediate Senate vote. “Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and 46 of her colleagues have asked Sen. Reid to do this before the end...

Readers will not be surprised, or disappointed, that I haven’t added my two cents to the apparently ongoing conversation about our financial crisis. As a former graduate student, I feel perfectly comfortable saying that’s not my field. But there is one political point I’d like to make, primarily because I haven’t seen anyone else make it. The defenders of the Paulson plan argue that the survival of our financial markets depend on its passage. This conviction is shared not only by both President Bush and his administration but also by the Democrats. For example, late yesterday afternoon, according to the...

The True Story: What Really Happened at the White HouseSeptember 26, 2008 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, folks, I want to tell you what happened at the White House meeting yesterday, and you are going to be stunned. You wouldn't believe it. Well, sadly, you will believe this. At the meeting, you had McCain and Obama, you had John Boehner, you had Dingy Harry Reid, you had Barney Frank. Chris Dodd was in there. Pelosi was in there. There were some others, but these are the principals. The meeting ostensibly was requested by McCain. Well, no, the meeting was originally requested...

Nevada Senator Harry Reid today spoke about the need to pass legislation quickly that addresses the financial crisis in a responsible way that strengthens our national economy while helping middle-class Nevadans who are struggling. Reid urged House Republicans to join in the bipartisan negotiations currently taking place in the Senate. "We will work with the President to modify his plan to make it better for tax payers and homeowners,” said Reid adding, “We will demand tough oversight to make sure tax dollars are not used to reward CEO’s who created this mess.” Reid urged House Republicans to join bipartisan deliberations...

Dems Rip McCain, McCain Rips Obama as Leaders Try to Revive $700B BailoutPointing Fingers After White House Meeting on Bailout After the White House meeting, Frank told Democratic colleagues that McCain's sudden heightened involvement in the negotiations -- he announced Wednesday he was suspending his campaign and might skip a scheduled presidential debate with the Illinois senator Friday -- has destroyed the chance of an agreement, sources told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. Frank compared McCain's involvement to "Richard Nixon blowing up the Vietnam peace talks in 1968." A senior McCain adviser told ABC News' David Chalian, "It is clear that there...

Statement By McCain Campaign On Negotiations John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign was made in the hopes that politics could be set aside to address our economic crisis. In response, Americans saw a familiar spectacle in Washington. At a moment of crisis that threatened the economic security of American families, Washington played the blame game rather than work together to find a solution that would avert a collapse of financial markets without squandering hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money to bailout bankers and brokers who bet their fortunes on unsafe lending practices. Both parties in both houses of Congress...

Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid seems to be doing all he can as the Senate’s most powerful member to cause trouble for GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Reid indicated Thursday that he will not hold any votes in the Senate on Friday so McCain has “no excuses” to skip the debate scheduled for that day. Reid’s move is curious since several news outlets reported earlier this week that Reid told the White House it was essential McCain take an active role in crafting the bailout—something that would certainly keep McCain off the campaign trail. “We need now the Republicans to...

Also, here's Carl Cameron on the issue: Fox News' Carl Cameron: "No. There wasn't a deal. You have to first accept a predicate that there was an arrangement agreed to by all the necessary lawmakers and authorities -- that was essentially a piece of paper and a proposal that had been discussed and agreed to by one senate committee -- that's not the same as a deal. A deal in budget parlance and bailout parlance requires the White House, the regulators, the House and Senate Republicans and Democrats. And because House Republicans were not given an adequate seat at the...

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH--o

Senate Majority leader Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) (L) and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) address the media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington September 25, 2008. REUTERS/Mitch Dumke (UNITED STATES)

On Fox: report that, two days after Reid demanded that McCain return to DC to work on bail-out bill, he's now saying that they did the bill without McCain and he can just go away and stop dodging tomorrow's debate. If anyone can site a more egregious, selfish, pro-Obama example of the poisonous Reid-Pelosi Congress, please post.

Reid tries to sneak oil shale ban back into legislation By Michelle Malkin  •  September 25, 2008 11:47 AM Sen. Jim DeMint’s office reports just now that Harry Reid is trying to sneak the oil shale ban — backed by House Democrats — back into legislation under cover of the bailout frenzy.Details: We’ve just been alerted that despite House Democrats relenting on extending bans on offshore drilling and oil shale in the continuing resolution (CR) appropriations bill, Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid has decided to sneak an extension of the oil shale ban through as Congress fights over the financial bailout. Oil...

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R.-Ohio) said, “Sen. Reid’s move to reinstate the ban on oil shale energy production is an insult to the American people and yet another example of Democrats acting to make energy more expensive for working families and small businesses," in a statement released Thursday afternoon. "At a time when our economy is struggling, it’s outrageous that Sen. Reid would attempt to block efforts to open up responsible oil shale development, which would create good-paying jobs and help lower energy costs."

Harry Reid (D-NV) thinking the public and Senate are both distracted by the Paulson plan to bailout Wall Street intends to sneak the drilling ban back in the continuing resolution. He is doing it right now.

Following up on an article we published yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the secretly written Stop-Gap bill yesterday. Not included in the bill were any provisions restricting offshore drilling which is a victory, but perhaps only a short-lived victory for drilling expansion advocates. However, included in the bill was a $25 billion 'no-strings-attached' auto industry bailout along 2,322 earmarks amounting to more than...

 Washington, DC—Nevada Senator Harry Reid delivered the following statement today at a hearing before the Commerce Committee regarding the safety and security dangers associated with the proposal to ship 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.  Both Reid and fellow Nevada Senator John Ensign spoke about the Department of Energy's unpreparedness to begin a massive nuclear waste shipping campaign.  Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery: "I want to thank Chairman Inouye, Senator Hutchison, and the members of the Committee for scheduling this important hearing.  It has been a long time since the Senate has looked closely at plans...

First, they promised not to give an inch on offshore drilling. Then they vowed to make a crazy-as-a-fox compromise: allowing some offshore drilling to call the Republicans' bluff, while insisting on funding for alternative energy sources. After a bill modeled on strategy B passed in the House—but before it cleared the Senate—Democrats simply gave up the ghost and okayed offshore drilling everywhere. The word is they feared Republicans would force a government shutdown over the issue, because a budget bill is pending. I say: bring it on. Why can the Dems not prevail on an issue with both facts and...

Reid to McCain: Don't Come Back to Capitol September 24, 2008 5:14 PM A Democrat tells ABC News that, in a phone call late this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that it would NOT be helpful for him to come back to Washington, D.C., to work on the Wall Street bailout bill. McCain this afternoon suspended his campaign and said he would skip the first presidential debate in order to return to Capitol Hill to work on the log-jammed Bush administration legislation, which, as of Wednesday afternoon, was in peril. McCain had phoned...

As Allahpundit already noted in an update to his excellent post on John McCain’s suspension of his campaign, Harry Reid went out of his way to tell him, “don’t bother”. However, as John McCormack notes at the Weekly Standard, that’s just a day after Reid’s insistence that McCain return to support the Bush administration’s bailout plan. How soon they forget: But yesterday, Reid demanded that the White House made sure the legislation had John McCain’s backing, and Reid floated this bogus piece of news clearly intended to force McCain’s hand: “I got some good news in the last hour or...

Congressional Republicans line up behind McCain call While congressional Democrats, including Harry Reid, urge McCain to not return to Washington, the GOP nominee's colleagues line up behind the move. In a coordinated move, the Republican congressional leadership has issued statements on McCain's decision. "I strongly support Sen. McCain’s proposal for a bipartisan leadership meeting of both Houses of Congress, including Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama," said House Minority Leader John Boehner. "Given that it is only a few months before a new president takes the oath of office, it is vital that the next president play an active role in...

Two Days Left to Demand a 5 Year E-Verify Reauthorization E-Verify is in true jeopardy right now and unless your Senators act now we are in jeopardy of losing the basic tool that helps companies determine worker's eligibility and weed out illegal aliens! Our sources on Capitol Hill tell us that instead of responsibly reauthorizing E-Verify for the necessary full five-year term, Senators are going to pander to special interests and the Senate will only extend E-Verify for six months in a continuing resolution (CR). A CR is a stop-gap spending measure meant to keep the government from shutting down...

Last week Speaker Pelosi and the Senate Majority Cadaver dodged two dangerous admissions: Pelosi denied that Democrats owned any responsibility for the nation’s banking crisis, and Harry Reid arose from his slab long enough to deny the Senate a resolution honoring American troops. Never in history has partisan petulance flapped so proudly on a flagpole. Even Obama has come forward — gritting his porcelain caps — and congratulated the troops, admitting that his predictions of military failure in Iraq might have been premature. When Nancy Pelosi was asked, “Do Democrats deserve a share of the blame for the current crisis...

WASHINGTON - House Democrats will allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week. Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey is telling reporters that language continuing the moratorium will be omitted this year from a spending bill to keep the government in operating funds after Congress recesses for the election.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a warning to the White House Monday, saying Congress will not “rubber stamp” a proposed $700 billion bailout proposal because of pressure from the administration. “We are prepared to do what is necessary to avoid [an economic crisis] — but we will not let haste abandon good judgment in the process,” Reid said in a statement. “The Bush administration has called on Congress to rubber stamp its bailout legislation without serious debate or efforts to improve it. That will not happen. “The legislation sent to Congress by the Treasury Department recognizes the scope of...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks next to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (R) after meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (2nd L), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (L) and other congressional leaders in the U.S. Capitol in Washington September 18, 2008. US President George W. Bush on Monday warned lawmakers wary of his 700-billion-dollar debt bailout scheme that "failure to act would have broad consequences" for the battered US economy. "We will not simply hand over a 700 billion dollar blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seen here in Denver,...

Here is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the credit crisis, "No one knows what to do. We are in new territory here." Moving forward, however, Washington might want to crack open some history books and examine just how bad policy from Washington turned an economic downturn into the Great Depression. Here are handy tips for what not to do: 1) Close the banks. This is the biggie--not letting the financial system disintegrate. 2) Raise taxes. Another classic. The Revenue Act of 1932 was at the time the largest peacetime tax increase in American history. The top rate, for instance,...

<p>Congress says it likely will adjourn this month having done nothing on the most important issue in America right now: the financial meltdown from the subprime lending crisis.</p> <p>Can Congress just walk away from a problem it helped create? Maybe, maybe not.</p>

The Bush administration asked Congress on Saturday for the power to buy $700 billion in toxic assets clogging the financial system and threatening the economy as negotiations began on the largest bailout since the Great Depression. The rescue plan would give Washington broad authority to purchase bad mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions for the next two years. It does not specify which institutions qualify or what, if anything, the government would get in return for the unprecedented infusion. Democrats are pressing to require that the plan help more strapped borrowers stay in their homes and to condition the bailout...

For his entire presidency, George W. Bush has tried to avoid the fate of his father, brought low by a feeble economy. Now, as the financial crisis radiates far beyond Wall Street, Mr. Bush faces an even grimmer prospect: being blamed, at least in part, for an economic breakdown. “There will be ample opportunity to debate the origins of this problem,” Mr. Bush said in the Rose Garden on Friday. “Now is the time to solve it.” But in Washington, on Wall Street and on the presidential campaign trail, the debate has already begun. Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential...

The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate said Friday that any program devised to combat the recent crisis in the financial markets must also take into account the needs of average Americans. The comments came in response to a press conference held by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson earlier in the day, where he confirmed that he would work with Congress to create a entity aimed at removing bad mortgage-based assets from financial institutions. "We must not forget Main Street as we work to address the crisis on Wall Street," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev., said in a statement.

Plunging stock prices on Wall Street found Democratic policymakers grasping for answers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) quickly assured the nation that it was not the Democrats’ fault. “We didn’t do anything,” she insisted. The facts back her up on this point. In 2003, President Bush proposed reform of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac government-backed mortgage lenders. Congress rejected the proposal. In 2005, Senator McCain introduced a bill along similar lines. Congress rejected this proposal, as well. A possible explanation for why congress “didn’t do anything” may lie in the substantial political donations made by key personnel at these...

Even Barack Obama, who opposed the Iraq troop surge, has finally acknowledged its success. But some of his fellow Democrats in Congress apparently remain unconvinced. Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin teamed up to block a vote on a bipartisan resolution "recognizing the strategic success of the troop surge in Iraq" and thanking our men and women in uniform for their efforts. (snip) Citing General Petraeus by name, the resolution, which is sponsored by Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman and Republican Lindsey Graham, "commends and expresses the gratitude to the men and women...

WASHINGTON — Gathered in the conference room just off House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s personal suite on the second floor of the Capitol, the Congressional leadership had just received the sobering news Thursday night that America’s economy remained in peril despite a series of sudden interventions by the Federal Reserve. Then the other shoe dropped. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. told top members of both parties — about to leave Washington to assail one another in a bitter election season — that they had no choice but to pull together and quickly pass legislation providing billions of public dollars to...