Free Republic

APOSTLE Reed Smoot was sworn into the United States Senate on 5 March 1903 amid a whirlwind of criticism focusing on the nature and status of his qualifications.2 Senate hearings were later convened to investigate the charges against the Senator. The controversy affected few more intimately than Smoot's 25-year-old personal secretary, Carl A. Badger... SNIP The force of his feelings is apparent in the following excerpts from his letters: ...I wish our people could come to the conclusion that this investigation had not been wholly creditable to us.° SNIP Badger could not sanction their devotion and obedience, especially when duplicitous....

Many parallels can be drawn from the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney and the seating of Sen. Reed Smoot in Congress at the beginning of the 20th century by looking at ways the media reported on the men and how they were perceived by the public at large. In a paper published in May issue of The Journal of Media and Religion, Sherry Baker, with the BYU Department of Communications, and the MMO examine the interplay between the LDS Church, the media, and other factors in society that influence public perceptions about Mormons and the church. Among other things, the...

Is it time to abandon "free trade" as a pillar of conservativism? What has "free trade" actually done that is positive for America? Certainly "free trade" has been very very good for Communist China. But wasn't the idea that trade would somehow magically make China a democracy? A really big Taiwan? That's been an epic fail. Not sure, when exactly advancing the interests of history's single largest communist state, was a conservative idea.

The White House has chosen Julianna Smoot, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser, to replace Desiree Rogers as social secretary, Fox News has confirmed. Rogers is stepping down next month in the wake of last year's White House gate-crashing scandal that she was blamed for. Smoot served as national finance director for Obama's presidential campaign, helping raise $32.5 million during one quarter in 2007. She has also served as finance director for then-Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and John Edwards' successful Senate bid in 1998.

Prominent Democratic Party fundraiser Julianna Smoot will replace Desiree Rogers as social secretary, the White House announced today in a statement. Rogers had taken heat after the White House’s first state dinner was marred by the appearance of several gate-crashers who managed to elude the Secret Service and sneak into the exclusive gathering. Reports Fox, with some background on Smoot: Smoot served as national finance director for Obama’s presidential campaign, helping raise $32.5 million during one quarter in 2007. She has also served as finance director for then-Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and John Edwards’ successful Senate bid in 1998....

An Obama administration official tells ABC News that the leading candidate to replace Desiree Rogers as White House Social Secretary is Julianna Smoot. Smoot, currently the chief of staff for U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, was the national finance director for the 2008 presidential campaign of then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., where she headed a record-setting fundraising operation. Before joining Kirk’s office, Smoot was a senior adviser to President Obama and co-chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. She is a veteran to Democratic fundraising, having previously served as the national finance director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. She was the...

Looking up from their particular circle of Hell, Senator Reed Smoot (R-Utah) and Representative Willis C. Hawley (R-Oregon) must be laughing. They must realize that President Obama and congressional Democrats are infinitely clever Alinsky students, saying one thing in front of the TV cameras and then doing the opposite behind the scenes. Together, the Obama administration and liberal lawmakers have in a sense revived by stealth the disastrous Smoot-Hawley tariff that exacerbated the Great Depression by encouraging other countries to erect trade barriers. During the election campaign, after some policy fine-tuning and unexpected drama that took the campaign off-message, Obama...

Members of the 110th Congress haven’t been shy about expressing their disdain for trade. No fewer than two dozen trade-related bills, almost all of which are antagonistic toward U.S. trade partners or outright protectionist, were introduced in the first seven months of this Congress. While some of those bills were crafted mostly for political effect, it is pretty clear that some hostile trade legislation will at least make it to the floors of both chambers this session or next. With Congress adjourned for August recess, here’s where things stand. For all intents and purposes, the completed bilateral trade agreements with...