Free Republic

West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice stands well ahead of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in the race to represent the state in the U.S. Senate, according to a recent survey. The governor outpaced the incumbent senator 13% in the latest Emerson College survey, with 41% of voters backing Justice and 28% supporting Manchin. The Democratic senator has not announced his reelection plans. Justice, meanwhile, faces a primary challenger in the form of Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., whom Manchin beat 37% to 31% in a head to head matchup. Explaining Manchin's stronger performance against Mooney seem to be split attitudes among...

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday quietly met with Sen. John McCain (R) and his wife, Cindy, at the couple’s home outside Sedona, Ariz., GOP sources in the state told The Hill. The meeting, which was not on the governor's official schedule, comes amid speculation over whom the Republican governor would appoint to fill the Senate seat should the ailing 81-year-old senior lawmaker and Vietnam War hero unexpectedly leave office. McCain is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma and has remained in Arizona since mid-December. GOP sources with knowledge of the meeting Tuesday said they did...

Mark down this date: December 3, 2017. Why? Because of all the ridiculous stories ever published in Politico, the one written by Bill Scher on that date could well rate as the most absurd of all. Scher, a liberal pundit and contributing editor to Politico's magazine, proposes that if the U.S. Senate seat from Arkansas is open in 2018 due to Tom Cotton leaving the Senate that either Hillary, Bill, or Chelsea Clinton should run for that seat. Adding to the absurdity of that proposal is the fact that Scher details why none of the Clintons would have much of a chance...

That leaves us with one Clinton: Chelsea. She has the Clinton name but little of the Clinton baggage. She wouldn’t hurt for name recognition or campaign cash. She’s vice chair of the controversy magnet known as the Clinton Foundation, but emails released during the presidential campaign by WikiLeaks and the State Department show Chelsea getting caught doing good, seeking to root out corruption by foundation officials and warning of problems with Haiti earthquake relief. She is an Arkansas native, even though she hasn’t lived there since she was 12. Sure, she lives in Manhattan now and lacks a Southern accent....

Democratic party supporters are already looking towards the 2020 election, hoping for a Senate "showdown" between the two former First Daughters Chelsea Clinton and Caroline Kennedy. "And we're told that it's more than just fantasy football for liberals who have nothing else to look forward to," the New York Daily News reported on Friday. Should Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) run for president in 2020, it's rumored that both Clinton and Kennedy would vie for the vacant Senate seat.

Imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday gets what’s likely his last chance to win his freedom as a three-judge federal panel hears oral arguments in his appeal. A lawyer for the disgraced Illinois Democrat steps before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to ask that it toss Blagojevich’s corruption convictions. Short of that, Blagojevich’s defense team hopes the court will at least agree to reduce his 14-year prison term—one of the longest sentences ever imposed for political corruption in a state where four of the last seven governors ended up in prison.FBI agents arrested then-Gov....

Nothing criminal about The One’s behavior here — to this day, there hasn’t been a single accusation that he considered a quid pro quo with Blago to appoint his candidate of choice — but this does suggest that Team Barry’s report on all this in December 2008 was a sham. The claim that Obama had spoken to a middleman about the seat had been made previously, but not until now did the middleman himself step forward to confirm it. Meet Tom Balanoff of — ta da — SEIU: “Tom, I want to talk to you with regard to the Senate...

(I'm sorry I just think it is strange that there is almost no peep about this blockbuster story in the last 36 hours---no commentary, Drudge took down his link, a deafening silence after the flurry Thursday/Friday ) Judge Holds Emergency Hearing In Blagojevich Case Defense Motion To Subpoena President Barack Obama Contained Sealed Information That Was Visible In Some Electronic Formats CHICAGO (CBS) ― The judge presiding over the corruption case against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich summoned attorneys to his courtroom Thursday evening after information in the case that was supposed to remain under seal was released to the public....

Sign the petition for Scott Brown to be seated.

Open letter to Mitt Romney; Please do us all a favor and try to take Kennedy's seat. As a sitting Senator you can still run for President and keep the libs form another vote in the Senate.Mr. Romney expressed no desire to run, I would like more of an explanation than this. Click here.

JUNEAU, Alaska - Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday made a little known college administrator her second choice to fill a vacant Juneau Senate seat, again bucking Senate Democrats. The nomination of Joe Nelson, an Alaska Native, is the latest move in a jousting match between Palin, who has the authority to pick the replacement, and the Senate Democrats, who must confirm it. Democrats in a private meeting last Wednesday rejected Palin's first choice of legislative aide Tim Grussendorf. When Palin balked, citing legal concerns about their closed door procedure, seven of the nine Democrats signed a letter on Monday urging...

Federal prosecutors have only a week left to indict former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. When authorities arrested Blagojevich back in December, it was based on a criminal complaint. Prosecutors didn't have the case all tied up in a bow, but U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald rushed to bring charges because he said Blagojevich was in the middle of a crime spree. FITZGERALD: Sometimes when there's ongoing criminal conduct, and this is a very different case than what we often see, we will expose the criminal conduct and bring charges to let people know we're on to it, and to hopefully, to...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-49 Governor Palin Receives, Solicits Applications for Vacant Senate Seat March 9, 2009, Juneau, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin is encouraging registered Democrats who reside in Senate District B and would like to serve in the Alaska State Senate to submit a letter of interest to the Office of the Governor. The seat, which represents the Juneau area, is vacant following the resignation of Democrat Kim Elton last week. The Office of the Governor has already received more than two dozen unsolicited recommendations and applications for the seat. “We know there are many qualified Alaskans who...

I'm sure a lot of Republican politicians are asking themselves this question: "How on earth can these chumps have beaten us in November?" Look at the last couple of months since the election. The very worst, most hilarious, most ridiculous, most asinine behavior of Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges - combined - looks downright competent compared to the Democrats. First we had the pee-in-your-pants-funny meltdown over corrupt Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's appointment of pompous blowhard Rolland Burris to fill Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. Democrats - who initially called for a special election until it occurred to them...

Carolyn Kennedy is a major contendor for the vacant senate seat in NY, because as George Stephanopoulos says, she can pony up more money for the republican party than anyone else. There is absolutely no word of scandal about that. That's not much different than Rod trying to get the person who can pony up the most money....Ok the cause is different, but it's the same thing!!!

Governor Rod Blagojevich is under investigation by the Illinois legislature to be possibly impeached and removed from office for various forms of corruption, including the apparent offer to sell the now-vacant Senate seat of Barack Obama for upwards of $1 million in benefits for himself and or his wife. The Governor has also been indicted criminally in federal court on similar charges. Initially, the Governor announced that he would not exercise his power of appointment, which right now all Governors possess to fill vacant Senate seats whenever they occur. Under present law, the Governor’s appointment is good only until the...

In the midst of two wars and an intensifying economic meltdown, Barack Obama had to take time off last week to answer questions from federal prosecutors investigating charges that the governor of Illinois had put the president-elect's former Senate seat up for sale. With his own lawyer by his side, Obama sat down Thursday with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's staff to tell what, if anything, he knew about Gov. Rod Blagojevich's efforts to cash in on appointing Obama's Senate successor

Rahm Emanuel 'gave governor choices for Obama seat' Tim Reid in Washington Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff gave the Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich - who is accused of trying to sell the president-elect’s vacant Senate seat - a list of names preferred by Mr Obama to fill it, according to an internal review released tonight. The report stressed, however, that neither Rahm Emanuel nor anybody in Mr Obama’s White House transition team had any improper contact with Mr Blagojevich or his staff. The report found Mr Emanuel, whom Mr Obama has chosen to be his White House chief of...

Senate flap sinks O'Connor's hopes for nod ### Rahm Emanuel's role in attempting to influence Gov. Blagojevich's choice of a U.S. Senate replacement for President-elect Barack Obama could impact the heated race to fill another important vacancy: Emanuel's own seat in Congress. Ald. Pat O'Connor (40th), Mayor Daley's unofficial City Council floor leader, had hoped to emerge from the crowded field of candidates in the 5th Congressional District by winning Daley's support and by persuading Emanuel to use his formidable powers of persuasion to clear the field. But now that the Chicago Sun-Times has lifted the veil on Emanuel's efforts...

I'm looking for the first MSM wag who will have the gumption to suggest that Rod Blagojevich, the Dem Illinois governor accused of trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat, should have put it on Ebay. Suggested MSM defense of Blago: hey, even with the bailouts, car czars and other government intervention in the economy, we're still trying to encourage the free market system, aren't we? If it was good enough for Sarah Palin and the Alaksa governor's plane, why shouldn't Blago have been entitled to test the market to see what a Senate seat is worth? ;-)