Free Republic

Iowa Congressman Steve King sent an email to supporters Friday night announcing he would not seek the state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2014. The announcement is not unexpected. King said in February that he was leaning toward running. However, as he struggled with the decision for three months, it became less likely that he would enter the fray. King would have been an overwhelming favorite in a Republican primary. His decision not to run opens the field for other candidates to enter. Former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker has stated he would run for the seat if King opted not...

My congressman, Steve King, announced to supporters tonight via email that he will not be seeking the Iowa U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tom Harkin in 2014.

2014 retirements: Dems heading for the hills By: Alexander Burns April 23, 2013 04:49 PM EDT Doesn’t anyone want to run for Senate in 2014? Midway through candidate recruitment season, the bad news for Democrats is this: They are watching a generation of talent leave the Senate and head for retirement. The less-bad news: So far, few marquee-name Republicans are interested in these seats either. When Montana Sen. Max Baucus called it quits on Tuesday, he became the latest in a long series of senior legislators to announce that they’ve had quite enough of life on the Hill. National Democrats...

It was revealed recently that President Obama told John Boehner he was tired of hearing about a supposed spending problem in America, that it didn't exist. Democrat Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi joined in the madness last Sunday, declaring it was a false argument to say our government has a spending problem. Now, we have another liberal Democrat in spending denial, with Senator Tom Harkin voicing his opinion on the subject. This gets crazier every week. Let me share Harkin's thoughts on the issue, using two different sources because it seems a lot of people are not catching the full context...

Credible sources are reporting this morning that Democrat U.S. Senator Tom Harkin will not seek reelection next year.

<p>CUMMING (AP) - Iowa Senator Tom Harkin said he will not seek re-election in 2014.</p> <p>The 73-year-old told The Associated Press in an interview, "It's just time to step aside."</p> <p>By the time Harkin would finish a sixth term, he would be 81 years old.</p>

Stopping veteran Dem retirements is top priority for Reid, SchumerBy Alexander Bolton - 11/25/12 06:00 AM ET One of the highest immediate political priorities for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic political guru Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is to persuade veteran colleagues not to retire in 2014. Democratic sources identify four senators as most likely to retire: Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Another possible veteran retirement is Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who has yet to announce his decision. But Democratic aides expect him to run...

America’s accumulated college-loan debt will surpass $1 trillion this year; what is our leadership doing about it? The Obama Administration took over the student loan market and expanded Pell Grants, but hasn’t accomplished anything to address the root cause of the crisis: exploding college fees and related costs. The only thing they’ve done is criticize innovators and entrepreneurs. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), chaired by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), issued a new report calling into question the costs and performance of For-Profit universities. There are actually hundreds of these schools, perhaps the most well-known being...

Clint Eastwood is the “perfect icon” for the GOP, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said Tuesday, describing the legendary actor as “an old angry white man spewing incoherent nonsense.” The Des Moines Register reported the 72-year-old Harkin made his comments on the Iowa delegation’s breakfast this morning in Charlotte, N.C. “We’ve got our work cut out for us this week, folks, following the Republican convention,” Harkin told the delegates. “I mean, how are we ever going to match Clint Eastwood? I got to thinking he is the perfect icon for today’s Republican tea party: an old angry white man spewing incoherent...

A group of prominent economists today urged President Obama and congressional leaders to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour for three years. In a letter to the president and lawmakers they wrote: A higher minimum wage at this juncture will not only provide raises for low-wage workers but would provide some help on the jobs front as well. The group, including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University; former Labor Secretary Robert Reich; and Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), advocate a three-step raise of 85 cents a...

The House Democrats pushing for a steep hike in the minimum wage could face an unlikely foe: their own leadership. Behind Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (Ill.), almost two dozen liberal Democrats endorsed legislation this week to raise the federal minimum wage immediately from $7.25 to $10 per hour, the first such increase in three years. The lawmakers think they’ve found a winning issue in an election cycle that’s featured the rise of the Occupy movement, criticism of Mitt Romney’s path to wealth and a class-centered fight over the Bush-era tax rates. But no Democratic leaders have endorsed the measure, and...

UNITED NATIONS — A former Nicaraguan foreign minister who once called President Ronald Reagan “the butcher of my people” has been appointed to represent Libya at the United Nations after its delegate was denied a visa, the Nicaraguan government said on Wednesday. Nicaragua said the former minister, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, 78, an outspoken critic of the United States and a Catholic priest, would replace the Libyan diplomat Ali Abdussalam Treki, who had been unable to obtain a visa to enter the United States. Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgam, defected in late February after denouncing Col. Muammar...

The last surviving founder of the Sandinista guerrilla movement that overthrew Nicaragua's U.S.-backed right-wing dictatorship in 1979 has died. Tomas Borge Martinez was 81. First Lady Rosario Murillo said in a simultaneous broadcast on Radio Ya and other stations that Borge Martinez died late Monday.

Gannett paper, link only: Obama’s new Iowa campaign HQ opens Sunday – in Romney’s old digs

Newly released FBI memos detail a sensitive investigation into fundraising in the Carter White House that started with a comparison to Watergate but fizzled after uncovering special access for donors but no criminal wrongdoing. The memos were released from the file of Charles Manatt, an Iowa native and former Democratic National Committee Chairman who was interviewed during the investigation. The records became public after Manatt died in July at age 75 in Richmond, Va. Manatt grew up on an Audobon farm and studied rural sociology at Iowa State University before ascending to the top of the fields of law, business...

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have introduced legislation that would permanently discontinue the $1 dollar note and replace it with a coin. Harkin and McCain penned The Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings (COINS) Act in response to reports from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) that indicate that abandoning the note could save around $5.5 billion over the next 30 years. Specifically the COINS Act would require that Federal Reserve Banks discontinue the $1 note four years after enactment or once circulation of $1 coins exceeds 600 million annually.

en. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said that Newt Gingrich would be a "heaven-sent" nominee for President Obama's reelection campaign and that there was "silent cheering" from the Obama campaign about his emergence in the GOP race. The senator went on to dismiss the former Speaker as a "bomb thrower" in a call with reporters Thursday. "I was in the House with Newt, as a matter of fact, years ago. I can remember him being a bomb thrower at that time," Harkin said. "One of those people always lobbing things around - I thought at that time, in his early career in...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) spoke to a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., outside of the Capitol and said, "We need some of you probably getting arrested for doing things you shouldn't be doing" to save Medicaid. Also, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), who is a self-avowed socialist, told MRCTV he was at the rally to 'save' Medicaid and that Republicans care more about representing the 'wealthiest people in the country', large campaign contributors and 'hedge fund people' than working and low-income families.

A top aide to Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin supplied an answer last year to a thorny question a friendly witness would face the next day at a pivotal hearing on for-profit colleges, raising questions of witness tampering, an email obtained by The Daily Caller shows. As Harkin prepares for another event on the same subject at 2:00 p.m. today, the email raises fresh concerns about the senator’s committee conduct after he recently faced accusations from Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators that he pressured them on an error-ridden report unveiled at the very same hearing. That Senate Health, Education, Labor...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) calls Republicans "dead-beat debtors" among other things during a Democratic press conference on Wednesday morning. "The debate and fight is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between some Republicans and their sort of cult fringe as I refer to them out there," Harkin said.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) calls Republicans "dead-beat debtors" among other things during a Democratic press conference on Wednesday morning. "The debate and fight is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between some Republicans and their sort of cult fringe as I refer to them out there," Harkin said. "Democrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to raise the debt ceiling, not for future borrowing but to pay the debts that we racked up in the past. Which, mostly was racked up by a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President in the last 8 years. Yet, they're...

A state senator is asking the president of the Board of Regents to delay a decision on a proposal to create a public policy institute named for Democratic U.S. Senator Tom Harkin at Iowa State University. State Senator Sandra Greiner, a Republican from Keota, says she has some serious questions about the proposal.“My basic concern is the impropriety of a seated senator…whose organization would be soliciting funds to run their institute from the same people who would possibly be seeking regulation from that senator,” Greiner says. Greiner says this is the same type of thing that was part of the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Susan Collins, along with her colleagues Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Tom Harkin (D-IA), have introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to finally prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Senator Collins has long been a strong supporter of this legislation. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2011 would prohibit employers, employment agencies, labor organizations and joint labor-management committees from firing, refusing to hire, or discriminating against those employed or seeking employment, on the basis of their perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity. Such protections are already in...

Democrats are looking at the possibility of raising taxes on families below the $250,000-a-year threshold promised by President Barack Obama during the election. The majority party on Capitol Hill does not feel bound by that pledge, saying the threshold for tax hikes will depend on several factors, such as the revenue differences between setting the threshold at $200,000 and setting it at $250,000. “You could go lower, too — why not $200,000?” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “With the debt and deficit we have, you can’t make promises to people. This is a very serious situation.” Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.),...

Democrats, including Rep. Betty McCollum, launched into an assault on incivility Tuesday, saying incendiary words from members of Congress were inflaming tensions that could provoke another incident of Oklahoma City-style domestic terrorism."When Members of Congress compare health-care legislation to ‘government tyranny,’ ‘socialism,’ or ‘totalitarianism’ — in the hopes of scoring political points — it's like pouring gas on the fire of extremism," McCollum said. McCollum's St. Paul office was one of a few that received an envelope containing gasoline-soaked tatters of an American flag and a letter that called her things not fit for print in this or any publication....

Obama's 'Health Care Summit' took place Thursday and shortly after the lunch break, Democratic Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa made a few remarks that were both illogical and inaccurate in regard to insurance premiums. Senator Harkin read a letter from an Iowa farmer whose Blue Cross insurance premiums are going up 14.6%. The farmer is already paying very high premiums for his family of four. The farmer also has unspecified health conditions that prevent him from simply switching companies because other insurance companies will turn him down based upon his pre-existing conditions... Although it may appear to be a bad...

Sen. Tom Harkin compares health care pools to segregation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top Democrat on the Senate health committee says insurance companies who refuse coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions are engaging in discrimination. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa told participants at the White House's health summit that such refusals are akin to racial discrimination that was legal during parts of the last century. Harkin says it's time to end discrimination based on health in this century. Democrats are pushing a health care overhaul that would make it illegal for insurance companies to refuse coverage to people who have conditions such as asthma or diabetes.

The Senate has the votes to pass a healthcare reform bill including a public option, a key Senate chairman said Tuesday. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said that the Senate "comfortably" has a majority of votes to pass the public plan, and that he believes Democrats can muster 60 votes to break a filibuster. "I have polled senators, and the vast majority of Democrats — maybe approaching 50 — support a public option," Harkin said told the liberal "Bill Press Radio Show." "So why shouldn't we have a public option?...

Midlands lawmakers are back home listening to constituents this August, with health care expected to dominate the discussion. Here's a listing of scheduled events at which the public can tell hear from their elected representatives on the issue. NEBRASKA Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. Saturday, Aug. 15, 8:30-10 a.m., Coffee with Lee, Homestyle Café, 8807 Maple Street Advertising Tuesday, Aug. 25, 6 p.m., Town Hall Meeting, Millard North High School Auditorium 144th and Pacific Streets Saturday, Aug. 29, 8-9:30 a.m., Coffee with Lee, Vidlacks Café, 156th and Bob Boozer Drive Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb. Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2:15 p.m. MDT, Meet...

these 2 guys in the first video get in each others face, they accuse the guy of being part of a group that sent him there, later Harkin talks about how much CEOs make, and a lady yells out about congress buying new corporate jets...Round One: Town hall protesters...

Did someone make this "Declare Your Devotion To a Dem Day" at MSNBC? You have to wonder. During the network's noon hour, Dr. Nancy Snyderman declared herself a "big fan" of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Not to be outdone, during the following hour Andrea Mitchell ended her interview with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Ia.) by thanking him profusely—and I mean at length—for having pushed through passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act 19 years ago today. View video here.

In its effort to overhaul health care, Congress is planning to give employers sweeping new authority to reward employees for healthy behavior, including better diet, more exercise, weight loss and smoking cessation. A web of federal rules limits what employers and insurers can do now. Congress is seriously considering proposals to provide tax credits or other subsidies to employers who offer wellness programs that meet federal criteria. In addition, lawmakers said they would make it easier for employers to use financial rewards or penalties to promote healthy behavior among employees. Two Democratic senators working on comprehensive health legislation, Max Baucus...

President Barack Obama plans to unveil today a fiscal 2010 budget full of details on his plans to save as much as $17 billion by cutting — and in some cases ending — 121 government programs. The goal, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, is "identifying and ending programs that are unneeded and don't work." About half the savings would come from nondefense programs, and the rest from de-fense. Major cuts would include ending the Even Start program, which promotes family literacy, as well as a mine cleanup effort and the Education Department's Paris attache. The full list will...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--It appears Sen. Arlen Specter's planned party switch will restore his electoral safety but won't, at least according to a Senate colleague, come with the trappings of a chairmanship. Specter, R-Pa., who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee before Republicans lost control of Congress in 2007, will retain his seniority when he migrates from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. His nearly three decades in the Senate will catapult him above other Democrats on several committees. But although that means he now has the seniority to chair the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the departments of Labor, Health...

Bill Press’ floundering radio show seems to be the place where Democrat senators go to say stupid things. Last week is was Senator Debbie Stabenow who wanted the Fairness Doctrine. This week it’s Senator Tom Harkin. “…They are just shutting down progressive talk from one city after another,” Press said. “All we want is, you know, some balance on the airwaves, that’s all. You know, we’re not going to take any of the conservative voices off the airwaves, but just make sure that there are a few progressives and liberals out there, right? “That’s why we need the Fairness Doctrine...

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has become the second U.S. senator in a week to endorse a return to the ideas behind the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," a plan that was abandoned under President Reagan in 1987 as unnecessary and unconstitutional. The plan, originally introduced in 1949, demanded that radio and television stations give "equal" time to conservative and liberal opinions on political issues under the threat of penalties or license revocation.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is pushing for return of the Fairness Doctrine even as some of his Democratic colleagues are quietly backing off the idea. Originally instituted in 1949 by the FCC, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters over the public airwaves to give equal time to opposing political views.

Dear Rob: Thank you for contacting me. I am always glad to hear from you. At a time when Americans are working harder to make ends meet, I share your concern about the high cost of gasoline. Iowans are paying record prices and it's creating a ripple effect throughout our economy and the problem only seems to be getting worse. These prices make living our daily lives a real challenge. I am fully committed to changing the course of America's energy policy - to transition America away from our crippling dependence on foreign sources of oil. These debilitating prices are...

Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is an embarrassment, both to the Senate and to the citizens of his home state of Iowa. It is Harkin that you can see cheering on Howard Dean has he makes his famous "I Have a Scream" speech in 2004, and Harkin is the guy shouting "DO IT FOR PAUL!" as he turned a memorial service into a crass political rally when he exhorted the thousands of mourners to elect Democrats because that's what the recently dead Senator Paul Wellstone supposed would have wanted. Harkin is also known for lies about his own military experience,...

According to Tom Harkin, a man who served his country for decades in the military and follows a family tradition of service must be feared rather than respected. Harkin told reporters that John McCain’s family history of service makes him too “militaristic” to be President, unlike those who got drafted against their will to serve the nation. Unfortunately, neither describes Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton: Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s family background as the son and grandson of admirals has given him a worldview shaped by the military, “and he has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Sen. Tom Harkin,...

Talker Rush Limbaugh is under fire for being falsely accused of saying that any U.S. soldier who comes out against the war is a “phony soldier.” He did not, of course, say such a thing. Rush was actually talking about a man named Jesse Macbeth who was touted by anti-war activists as a soldier who came out against the war, but it turned out later that Macbeth never served in the military at all. Still, despite that Rush is utterly innocent of these scurrilous charges, members of the Democrat Party and assorted extreme leftists like Media Matters, a far left...

Senator Tom Harkin has joined the Democratic left's attack on Rush Limbaugh for calling a phony soldier a phony soldier. Here is Harkin's charming contribution, which he saw fit to offer on the floor of the U.S. Senate: Well, I don’t know. Maybe [Limbaugh] was just high on his drugs again. I don’t know whether he was or not. If so, he ought to let us know. But that shouldn’t be an excuse. As (Michelle Malkin) points out, Harkin knows a thing or two about being a phony claims regarding military service. During his 1992 presidential campaign, Harkin claimed he...

As our soldiers are engaged in an epic battle against sworn enemies of America, our elected officials take to the Senate floor, whining about a passing comment by a talk show host. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scored a “two-fer”. He burnished his “pro-troop” credentials while, at the same time, attacking Rush Limbaugh. This was a masterful gotcha moment. Sen. Reid implored his fellow senators to join him in condemning Limbaugh for a "hateful" and "unpatriotic" attack on U.S. troops. This, in response to a comment about phony vets made by Rush Limbaugh. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa threw...

Ah, those diversity-loving liberals. You know, the kind who would stifle free speech with their Orwellian "Fairness Doctrine," who threaten legal action against mom-and-pop T-shirt makers who criticize MoveOn.org. Wesley Clark would now take things one step further, whacking Rush Limbaugh off the Armed Forces Network radio airwaves. "Today" co-anchor Meredith Vieira interviewed the retired general and former Dem presidential candidate on this morning's show. MEREDITH VIEIRA: He wants Congress to pull Rush Limbaugh off the Armed Forces Radio Network, which is funded by taxpayers . . . You started this email campaign to get Limbaugh off the Armed Forces...

Supporters of stem cell research refuse to give up on getting their legislation signed into law this year. As President Bush prepares to veto the measure Congress sent him last week, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is planning to attach the pro-research legislation to the spending bill being crafted by his Appropriations labor subcommittee. That raises the stakes on the so-called “Labor-H” spending bill. House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) has been trying to build a veto-proof majority for the bill, adding sweeteners to the bill such as an increase in abstinence-only education. Bush already has threatened to veto spending bills...

5 out of the top ten US House Recipients of contributions (1989- 2001) from Arthur Andersen are democRats. Their names and the amounts are listed below. And, according to dim logic, they are guilty by association and should have their names shining in the bright lights of Reuters, AP, Drudge, The Washington ComPost, and more. After all, this is a hit piece. Here you go, Klayman, chase this ambulance too! Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) $34,687 Martin Frost (D-Texas) $32,000 Peter Deutsch (D-Fla) $24,200 James P. Moran (D-Va) $21,250 Ken Bentsen (D-Texas) $19,225 Other Rats also receiving Andersen dirty money include: Rick...

Who lost Nicaragua?By Oliver NorthFriday, October 6, 2006WASHINGTON, D.C. -- During the 1980 presidential campaign, Republicans pointed out that Jimmy Carter had "lost Nicaragua" to communism. The 1979 Sandinista "Revolution Without Frontiers" led by Daniel Ortega was just one of many foreign policy disasters during the Carter administration -- and Ronald Reagan assured Americans that such things wouldn't happen on his "watch." Unfortunately, Reagan is gone, and today Nicaragua looks like a case of "back to the future." On Nov. 5 -- just two days before our own mid-term congressional elections -- the people of Nicaragua will cast ballots for...

Even most professional Democrats, with all the mistakes they constantly make, know enough not to leave the nutty remarks made by Hugo Chavez about President Bush to go unchallenged. Thus we have Charles Rangel and Nancy Pelosi criticizing Chavez for his United Nations rant. Of course, neither Rangel nor Pelosi really mean it when they criticize Chavez but they have to publicly chastise him as a bow to election realities since they realize that all the Venezuelan despot has done is draw sympathy for Bush in this country. Most Democrats, however, continue to despise Bush and some, like Senator...

While Democrats and the “progressive” left were quick in trying to brand the Abramoff scandal as a “Republican scandal,” the facts indicate that this declaration is just another attempt by political opportunists at misdirection. In fact, Democrats do a great job at feeding off the special interest trough. According to Internal Revenue Service records, and substantiated by the Campaign Finance Analysis Project, forty of the forty-five members of the Democrat Senate Caucus took money from Jack Abramoff, his associates, and their Indian tribe clients. These recipients include: Charles Schumer ($29,550), Harry Reid ($68,941), Patty Murray ($78,991), Mary Landrieu($28,000), John Kerry...