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Return to the Article February 01, 2010The most important story you didn't see last week (and probably won't ever see)By William Tate A Senate hearing last week confirmed the public's worst concern about Barack Obama: That when it comes to national security Obama hasn't just been asleep at the switch, he hasn't even bothered to find the switch.  "I do not think he (Obama) has a firm grasp yet on the intelligence community," 9/11 Commission Vice-Chairman and former Democrat congressman Lee Hamilton told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. This, even though Obama has been in office for over a...

With unemployment hovering in the double digits and House Democrats eager to move on to the politically crucial task of job creation, President Obama pledged Thursday to publicly champion the health-care legislation that in the past year has consumed much of their attention and often made them targets. Speaking at the House Democrats' annual retreat, Obama sought to reassure the lawmakers as they enter a political climate that has already inspired some Democrats to retire rather than seek reelection in November. "I'll be out there waging a great campaign from one end of the country to the other, telling Americans...

Control: The House and Senate climate bills contain a provision giving the president extraordinary powers in the event of a "climate emergency." As chief of staff Rahm Emanuel says, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. If you thought the House health care bill that nobody read has hidden passages that threaten our freedoms and liberty, take a peak at the "trigger" placed in the byzantine innards of both the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill and the Kerry-Boxer bill just passed by Democrats out of Sen. Barbara Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee. As Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation points...

The White House has told Congress it will reject calls for many of President Obama's policy czars to testify before Congress - a decision senators said goes against the president's promises of transparency and openness and treads on Congress' constitutional mandate to investigate the administration's actions. Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, said White House counsel Greg Craig told her in a meeting Wednesday that they will not make available any of the czars who work in the White House and don't have to go through Senate confirmation. -SNIP-The debate goes to the heart of weighty constitutional issues about separation...