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WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats, under pressure from party colleagues in the House, agreed Thursday to an economic rescue package that would add checks for Social Security retirees and disabled veterans but leave out extended jobless benefits and additional business subsidies. The package would rush tax rebates of $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples to most taxpayers and grant business tax cuts to revive the economy. Leaders in both parties and in both chambers of Congress had agreed by Wednesday night on the idea that 20 million seniors whose sole or main income is Social Security and 250,000 veterans living...

WASHINGTON - Democrats intend to begin debate in the Senate next week on a nonbinding measure declaring President Bush's planned troop increase in Iraq is "not in the national interest," officials said Friday, with a quick test vote likely. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the measure Wednesday on a near party-line vote of 12-9, acting one day after Bush implored lawmakers in his State of the Union address to give his revised war strategy a chance to work.

The Democrats are in such disarray that their constant scandal-mongering to no effect is starting to inflict friendly fire on their own ranks. It looks like it’s every man for himself. Nick Danger at RedState.Org noticed that Joe Biden was not exactly out in front defending Senate Minority Leader Reid, who may be implicated in the Abramoff scandals. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) failed today to address rumors that Nevada Senator Harry Reid will step down next month as Senate Minority Leader. Reid has been stung by revelations that his political action committee (PAC) accepted more than $60,000 in contributions from...

A poll by SurveyUSA , as of January 26, 2006, should make the GOP very nervous. For example the top ten senators with the highest job approval consist of six Democrats, two RINOS and one maverick. Republicans in the top ten are Snowe (*RINO-ME) 75%, Collins (*RINO-ME) 72% -- and senate "president," John McCain71%. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Kay Hutchison (R-TX) share the tenth spot with a 63% approval. The bottom ten senators with the lowest ratings consist of eight Republicans and two Democrats. Two senators that deserve their low scores are Voinovich (R-OH) 49-40% and DeWine (R-OH) 47-41% The...

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday that Democrats who took money from Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff and who did something on behalf of those tribes have "a big problem." Dean made the statement apparently unaware that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has reportedly done exactly that. Under questioning by "Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace, Dean claimed that Democrats did no favors for Abramoff's Indian tribe clients: "Nobody got anything out of the Democrats from Jack Abramoff," the top Democrat insisted. "No Democrat delivered anything and there's no accusation and no investigation that any Democrat ever delivered...

    NEWS FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 23, 2006PDF Version       "Abramoff Assembled A Group Of Lobbyists That Some In The Media Have Dubbed 'Team Abramoff.' ... They Included Ayoob, A Former Aide To Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Who Is Now The Senate Minority Leader." (Paul Barton, "Lincoln Aide, Others Say $2,000 Isn't Abramoff-Linked," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/6/06)   "Of The Eight Tribes Ayoob Represented When He Was With Greenberg Traurig, Reid Acted In Behalf Of Or Moved Legislation Benefiting Six." (Rebecca Adams, "The Game's The Thing: Reid Has Been A Ready Ally To Abramoff-Linked Interests," Congressional Quarterly...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- "Howard Dean can engage in all the Clintonian word games he wants, but the bottom line is Democrats have been on the receiving end of Abramoff affiliated money," said Tracey Schmitt, Republican National Committee press secretary. "Efforts by Abramoff Democrats to indicate otherwise only reminds Americans that their minority party is overtly hypocritical and will stop at nothing to score cheap political points. Our country expects its leaders to speak the truth, rather than engage in a partisan blame game when it behooves them politically." The DNC's Jack Abramoff Affiliated Money: DNC Has Received...

The reason Democrats and liberals did not get more popular traction in their opposition to the appointment of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court is that their worldview of what constitutes a good nominee is sharply at variance with that of the American public at large. To the likes of Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) et al., the Supreme Court is a kind of super-Congress — nine special Senate seats — and the criterion for confirmation is agreement with the nominee on the key issues likely to come before the court. But to the...

Apparently, C-Span has been editing its coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Alito nomination. Here's the tape they don't want you to see. At this time the Chair recognizes the senator from Delaware - Senator Biden.     I'll be with you shortly.     Senator, this committe is in session, so if you're not prepared, we'll come back to you later.     Just hold on, I think I'm almost done.     I'd like to remind my good friend that we don't have time to wait for him while he...     And I'd like to remind my good friend that the American people want...

WASHINGTON — The lobbyist imbroglio consuming the nation’s capital has ensnared Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, a top Democrat, a Vermont Guardian review of campaign records has found. Two widely circulated lists place Leahy and fellow sen. Jim Jeffords on a list of senators who have received campaign contributions from clients or colleagues associated with super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Guardian has found that much of these donations came from clients or associates who were either not being represented by Abramoff at the time or working with him. However, several donations have been confirmed and implicate both senators, according to a Guardian...

President George Bush today promised Senate Democrats that the National Security Agency (NSA) would not secretly listen in to their floor speeches during debate over the Supreme Court confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito, even though Democrats have promised to make the legality of NSA wiretaps a major issue during the debates. “We don’t want to impinge upon the Democrat’s civil rights,” said President Bush, “So I’ve received assurances from the NSA and most other government agencies that no one will listen in on their speeches.” The president said that Democrat Senators could “speak their minds without fear that anyone will...

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Who Is Harry Kidding? In Speech Blasting Republicans For A Culture Of Corruption Harry Reid Demonstrates His Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds Reid Pointed Fingers At President Bush For "Stonewalling" About His Connections To Jack Abramoff Reid Today: “Finally, we must hear the President commit to honest leadership. In his 2000 campaign, George Bush promised to bring ‘dignity’ to the White House, but we’ve since found that he brought Jack Abramoff instead. President Bush needs to quit stonewalling about his White House’s connection to corruption, and finally tell us how he’s going to reform Washington. Honest leadership is not a partisan...

While national Democrats are calling the Jack Abramoff lobbying imbroglio a "Republican scandal," top Vermont Democrat, Sen. Pat Leahy, is being labeled an "Abramoff Democrat" by home state critics. The Vermont Guardian has uncovered thousands of dollars in contributions to Leahy by lawfirms linked to Abramoff - though the senator's spokesman says that any suggestion of a relationship to the disgraced Republican is ridiculous. "It’s preposterous to even think that Jack Abramoff would do anything to support a progressive Democratic leader like Patrick Leahy," Ed Pagano, Leahy’s chief of staff, told the paper. However, the Guardian says it has discovered...

Was the partisan vote justified, or is this "sour grapes on the part of the Democrats?

Democrats don't need hearings Jan 23, 2006 by Kay Daly Judging from the microseconds between President Bush’s announcement of Samuel Alito to be the next Supreme Court Justice and the hysterical howls from the multitude of leftist organizations in the quickly formed anti-Alito chorus, it is clear that no matter how Judge Alito performed in the hearings, the Left would not be remotely interested in a fair confirmation process. It has been this way since the beginning of the Bush administration. President Bush’s hand was barely off the Bible in his first term when liberal legal activists, such as Abner...

Springfield, IL had a great rally for life yesterday, Deb Schultz who had an abortion in 1986 later to have 5 children, the father is now a minister and she works at a crisis pregnancy center. Attendance was 750-800 people

"We shot our wad. We filibustered 10 guys, and at the end of the day the worst got on anyway," says a former Judiciary Committee counsel. "If we had not used the filibuster and pissed off the Republicans over the past four years, if it was seriously being entertained for the first time [against Alito], we might have succeeded.".......There are any number of ways to fault the performance of Senate Democrats in their campaign to keep Samuel Alito Jr. -- seemingly as rock-ribbed a conservative as you'll find -- off the high court. During Alito's weeklong confirmation hearings, Senate Judiciary...

WASHINGTON -- Pressure from liberal activists to oppose confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court has been so intense that Democratic senators may be trapped into a filibuster that they do not want to wage -snip- But Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid may not want to risk causing Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist to set a precedent by using the "nuclear" option: to end a filibuster by simple majority vote. Continues... ============================================================ Democrats suffer broken backs; Alito hearings blamed "The system's kind of broken," says Sen. Joe Biden. The "system" of "kind of" confirmation hearings. But Biden says...

The Washington Post shut one of its blogs yesterday, saying it had drawn too many personal attacks, profanity and hate mail directed at the paper's ombudsman. The closing was the second by a major newspaper in recent months. An experiment in allowing the public to edit editorials in The Los Angeles Times lasted just two days in June before it was shut because pornographic material was being posted on the site. The Post's blog, open to the public since Nov. 21, was shut indefinitely yesterday afternoon with a notice from Jim Brady, executive editor of www.washingtonpost.com. Mr. Brady wrote that...

A conservative group supporting Samuel Alito’s confirmation will launch TV ads in North and South Dakota this weekend that ask moderate Senate Democrats to “stand with mainstream America, not Ted Kennedy.� The Coalition for a Fair Judiciary is spending $100,000 on the TV ads. Two Democratic senators, Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Tim Johnson (S.D.), are targeted in the 30-second commercials. Both remain undecided about Alito's confirmation. Conrad has the most to lose if he chooses to cast a "no" vote. He is up for re-election in November and hails from a conservative state that President Bush easily carried in 2000...

NEW YORK Jim Brady, the executive editor at washingtonpost.com, notified users of the post.blog that the public comment feature had been suspended “indefinitely” after “a significant number of folks” posted personal attacks, profanity, and hate speech. Attempts by E&P to reach Brady have been unsuccessful so far. It seems likely the move is related to controversy in recent days over Sunday’s Post column by ombudsman Deobrah Howell. She has been heavily criticized by some political Web sites and bloggers for writing that indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to both political parties, when most research shows he only gave directly...

Dems Unveil Their Ethics Plan One Day After GOP:"The Honest Leadership And Open Government Act Would End Republican Culture Of Corruption By: Closing The Revolving Door Between Lawmakers And Lobbyists By Doubling The Amount Of Time Lawmakers And Staffers Must Wait Before Lobbying Congress; Prohibiting The Receipt Of Gifts, Including Meals, Entertainment And Travel, From Lobbyists;Clamping Down On 'Pay-To-Play' Systems Like The One Set Up By Lobbyists Like Jack Abramoff; AndEnding Efforts Like The 'K Street Project,' Which Republicans Created To Force Corporations And Lobbying Firms To Hire Republicans In Exchange For Political Access." (Democratic National Committee, "Dean Kicks Off...

HYPOCRISY n.: AN ACT OR INSTANCE OF SUCH FALSENESS Top Ten Things The Dems Don’t Want You To Know About Their Ties To Jack Abramoff 10. Larry Noble, Executive Director Of The Center For Responsive Politics, A Non-Partisan Government Watchdog Group, Says Democrats Are Just As Caught Up In The Abramoff Scandal. Noble: “I Would Say, Broadly Defined As A Question Of The Tribes’ Buying Influence In Washington, It Includes Democrats.” (Donald Lambro, “Dean Denies Party Ties To Abramoff,” The Washington Times, 1/11/06) 9. 39 Of 44 Senate Democrats, And 1 Of 1 Senate Independents, Have Accepted Contributions From Abramoff...

Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean is talking of retaking control of the Senate in the 2006 elections. With Republicans holding 55 seats, and having to defend only 15 of the 33 seats that are up this year, that would be a tall order for the Democrats. With Vice President Cheney able to cast a tie-breaker in a 50-50 Senate, the Democrats would have to pick up a net of six seats to wrest control of the chamber.At the moment, there are six Republican-held seats in some degree of jeopardy. Those are the seats held by Conrad Burns in Montana, Lincoln...

(CNSNews.com) - As announced last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to meet today -- Tuesday -- to vote on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. But it's not going to happen as planned. Despite protests from Republicans, Democrats on the committee have pushed back the Judiciary Committee vote by one week, to Tuesday, Jan. 24, invoking their right to do so under Senate rules

Old blowhards don’t fade away, we learned again last week, they just serve as Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was almost two decades ago that Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.) chaired the confirmation hearings that gave America a new verb: to Bork. When President Reagan nominated U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, it was Biden who led his Democratic committee colleagues Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Patrick Leahy of Vermont in what was then the unprecedented trashing of a nominee of unquestioned professional qualifications and unblemished character. In 1991, in a committee still chaired by...

Chuck Schumer reclines on the couch in his office on Capitol Hill, his stockinged feet propped up on the coffee table, a carton of takeout Chinese food perched precariously on his belly. It’s late one night a few days before the start of the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito, and Schumer is laying out the objectives of each side in the high-stakes game. For the Democrats, Schumer says, the goal of the hearings “is almost metaphysical, or epistemological: It’s to bring out the true Samuel Alito. And his job is to say as little as possible, but enough so...

Ted Kennedy told fellow Democrat Charles Schumer to "take the lead” in the grilling of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And the congressman from New York could parlay his prominent position on the committee into what Washington insiders say is his ultimate goal: The Senate Democratic leadership position. On the Thursday before the confirmation hearings began, Schumer gave a speech outlining the Democrats’ plan for questioning Alito. A few hours earlier, Kennedy had done the same. But Kennedy’s briefing "had not gone well,” a report in New York Magazine reveals. "Kennedy, looking tired and haggard,...

Whatever happens with Judge Alito, Schumer is likely the Democratic winner. It’s all part of his secret plan for senatorial domination. Chuck Schumer reclines on the couch in his office on Capitol Hill, his stockinged feet propped up on the coffee table, a carton of takeout Chinese food perched precariously on his belly. It’s late one night a few days before the start of the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito, and Schumer is laying out the objectives of each side in the high-stakes game. For the Democrats, Schumer says, the goal of the hearings “is almost metaphysical, or epistemological: It’s...

As if attacking Alito weren't enough, they also lied about Roe vs. Wade So, this is how far we have come. In 2006, a good man like Samuel Alito can be lectured on human behavior by the likes of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Mr. Kennedy and his colleagues can gang up on a man who seems to have made almost no enemies and paint him as some pernicious closet misogynist bigot. Meanwhile, their fellow Democrat senator who was an admitted member of the Ku Klux Klan is toasted as a pillar of virtue. Robert Byrd can hang with...

Alito Hearings: Democrats ExposedBy Vasko Kohlmayer January 13th, 2006 The interrogation portion of the Alito hearings treated America to a dismal spectacle of a group of liberal senators attempting to demonize an accomplished jurist and a decent man. Replete with ominous insinuations, the stratagem predictably featured dark hints of closeted bigotry and racism. Closeted is the key word here since nothing in Alito's extensive writings or personal life has indicated that this actually may be the case. Apart from being a disgust-provoking sight, the hearings had a tremendous educational value presenting a textbook illustration of the liberal modus operandi. By...

A group cleverly called People for the Alito Way says the Associated Press wrongly characterized its an episode at Samuel Alito's hearing today that left his wife in tears. The AP story, which followed an exclusive from the Drudge Report, placed the blame on a Republican senator rather than committee Democrats -- a fact the conservative group says is just plain wrong. After taking a steady beating from Senate Democrats today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) offered an apology to Alito. (Read the full transcript.) "Judge Alito, I am sorry that you've had to go through this," Graham said. "I am...

During the John Roberts confirmation hearing it became clear that the Senators from both parties were not interested in the nominees views on matters as much as they were in love with the sound of their own voice. So we did something that was highly popular. We did a statistical analysis of the percentage of words spoken by each Senator compared with the number of words spoken by the nominee. We found that in nearly every case the Senators spoke far more than the nominees. So, by popular demand we have done the same thing for the Alito hearings. And...

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito calmly turned aside Democratic attacks on his judicial record at confirmation hearings Wednesday, declaring his impartiality and saying, "If I'm confirmed I'll be myself." He joined Senate Democrats in denouncing the positions of a controversial Princeton alumni group he once highlighted. "I am who I am and I am my own person" said the 55-year-old appeals court judge, who would replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in what has been a swing seat on the Supreme Court. Under persistent questioning, Alito declined for a second straight day to say whether believes, as he did...

Ever since the plea bargain with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff was announced, the media and the Democrats have done their best to portray this as a Republican controversy. Abramoff bribed Republican lawmakers like Tom DeLay we're told. This is being used to paint the current House and Senate leadership as corrupt. That may be true, but what's getting swept under the rug is the two big fish in the Democratic party that Abramoff had on his payroll. Who are they? None other than Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan. What are they accused of doing?...

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito told reporters today that despite Sen. Charles Schumer’s hostile questioning in yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, the federal appeals court judge would “keep an open mind” about the New York lawmaker. The remark reflected the same approach that Judge Alito told the committee he would take toward any abortion cases that might come before him as a Supreme Court justice. “Despite the precedent of Sen. Schumer’s disparaging questions yesterday, and his implication that my testimony is dishonest,” Judge Alito said, “I will treat him as if the slate is clean and evaluate his performance today...

I guess we all know that the Democrats, and especially the Democrats from the Judiciary Committee are a bunch of %#&*@!, I mean really, the Democrats that sit there are the essence of crazy lunacy. But that's not the point of this post. Recently I was doing a little research on the history of judicial nominations and I found a little information about senator James O. Eastland from Mississippi (of course a Democrat). Of course you could easily suspect that a Southern Democratic senator in the 50s, 60s and 70s would be a racist, but HE was really something: (from...

Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.) was voted overwhelmingly the "biggest windbag" on the Judiciary Committee in yesterday's AlitoBlog.com poll. With 500 votes cast, Kennedy received 69.6% of the vote -- far outpacing his nearest rival, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.), who finished with 18%. Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.), a likely presidential candidate in 2008, had 6.4% to finish third. The committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), despite his prominent role during the hearings, placed fourth with 2.4%. Sen. Dianne Feinstein had 1.9% for a fifth-place finish. The other two Democrats, Senators Herb Kohl (Wis.) and Russ Feingold (Wis.), received no votes....

Senate Judiciary Committee members had their first crack at questioning Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito today. Now you can vote for the worst question posed by a liberal at Tuesday's session. Check back tomorrow at AlitoBlog.com for the results.

Macsmind is reporting that Sen. Rockefeller may be the target of investigators examining the leak of classified information on the NSA surveillance program. I’m trying to confirm this information, but several sources are telling me today that some investigators working on the NSA leak probe believe that Senator Jay Rockefeller may have been a little more than “concerned” about NSA. In fact, he may just be the leaker of the program to the NY Times, and is now being considered a “significant person of interest” in the probe.

Several Democrats Monday, including the reliable Sen. Edward Kennedy, seemed on the verge of making an even worse tactical error. They suggested that Alito's respect for executive branch prerogatives would make him too ready to approve wiretapping and other surveillance of terrorists. That shows a deep misreading of U.S. opinion. Not only do most polls show that a small plurality of Americans favors wiretapping as a tool against terrorism, but even those against do not consider it a wildly extreme position. When the Democrats campaign against Alito on those grounds, they reinforce the public view of themselves as weak on...

HELENA - Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said Monday his political enemies are behind newspaper reports linking him to confessed felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Burns, who is on a media tour of Montana this week, also said he has no intentions of dropping out of the 2006 U.S. Senate race, quashing a rumor that has floated around both Helena and Washington, D.C. “Write it down, real quick: I've never had more enthusiasm or higher energy for a campaign in my life than I got right now, OK? End of story,” Burns told the Lee Newspapers State Bureau reporters in...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) just paid a visit to Bloggers' Row to reaffirm his commitment to making sure Samuel Alito's confirmation vote will happen by Jan. 20 -- the date agreed upon by Republicans and Democrats, which has been threatened by Democratic delay tactics. "That is the day that had generally been agreed to in conversations among Senators Leahy, Specter, Reid and myself," Frist said. "And it has been colored a little bit differently the last few days by Senators Kennedy, Schumer and others, all of whom have it within their power to make feeble attempts at delay...

Republicans are looking for "their" John McCain. The popular Arizona maverick is already a Republican, of course. But the GOP needs a McCain in the "Keating Five" sense. Back in 1990, Senate Democrats roped McCain into the scandal over savings and loan kingpin Charles Keating on tenuous grounds, just so not all the senators involved would be Democrats. The GOP now craves such bipartisan cover in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Republicans trumpet every Democratic connection to Abramoff in the hope that something resonates. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), took more than $60,000 from Abramoff clients! North Dakota Democratic...

Time for capital cleanup By Sen. Harry Reid DenverPost.com For many Americans, the start of the New Year is a time to pause and reflect. We take stock of our blessings and make New Year's resolutions about how we can improve. I believe it is appropriate for us to pause and reflect on the state of our union. Americans are asking serious questions about what is happening in government, and they are right to be disappointed by what they see. Never before in our history have we seen such corruption. It's not only the scandals at the House, Senate and...

A filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito would be "unprecedented" and might prompt a public backlash, warned Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman who is shepherding Alito through his confirmation hearings. Gillespie, in an interview on Fox Friends on Monday, said he hopes Senate Democrats would not go to such an extreme. Alito's confirmation hearing begins at noon on Monday, and even before it started, Senate Democrats warned that they would not accept incomplete answers to their questions. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that Democrats won't stand for Alito refusing to answer questions on the...

[ Headline only at this point ... Stay Tuned for More Details ... the link takes you to an article already posted on Free Republic about politicians, other than Landrieu, who have benefitted from Abramoff's largesse] LANDRIEU AMONG DEMS WHO TOOK ABRAMOFF MONEY

Hoping to gain an early political edge in 2006, Congressional Democratic leaders next week will unveil the first piece of their election-year agenda by announcing a far-reaching legislative package that the party says will clean up government and stop influence peddling in Congress. HARRY REID MEMO LEAKED: JANUARY 6, 2006 TO: SENATE DEMOCRATS FROM: SENATOR REID SUBJECT: THE REPUBLICAN CULTURE OF CORRUPTION The New Year is beginning just as the last year ended - with Americans getting a direct look at how Republican-run Washington really works. The guilty pleas of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff have lifted the veil of Republican...

So the Democrat Party is running a TV ad claiming Democrats "Didn't know Jack". OH Really? Let's see what a Non Partisan Campaign Watchdog group says. Here is the WHOLE Open Secrets list for those who "Want to be fair". http://www.capitaleye.org/abramoff.asp List of Democrats who got Abramoff's money Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte $121,500 Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte $354,700 Democratic National Cmte $65,720 Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) $42,500 Patty Murray (D-Wash) $40,980 Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) $36,000 Harry Reid (D-Nev) $30,500 (By way of comparison here is that "EVIL Republican" Tom Delay-Tom DeLay (R-Texas) $30,500 Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) $28,000 Tom...