Free Republic

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), running against Republican J.D. Vance for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat, reportedly has an “ongoing problem” with law enforcement, according to the head of the Buckeye States’ top police union. The Daily Mail reported that the head of Columbus Fraternal Order of Police said the congressman’s “trend of confrontational police encounters” has been an “ongoing problem,” citing the various situations Ryan has gotten into over the years.

Facing fierce blowback, House Democratic leadership announced Tuesday the House will not resume session next week as planned because of risks associated with the coronavirus pandemi c. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer declared the sudden about-face a day after a lawmakers revolted. He said after discussions with the Capitol physician, the risk was too great. The physician has privately warned senior lawmakers it will be at least a year before Congress can return to business as usual. “We will not come back next week,” Hoyer told reporters on a conference call. “But we hope to come back very soon.” Hoyer, D-Md.,...

As President Trump’s misconduct grows more appalling and the case for his impeachment grows stronger every day, Democrats have given him one piece of good news: the escalating and harmful feud between presidential contender Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Hillary Clinton. The feud is also good news for Gabbard, D-Hawaii, whose presidential candidacy is on life-support. She is supported by only 1.3 percent of Democrats in the latest RealClear Politics average of presidential primary polls. But thanks to her feud with Clinton, Gabbard is attracting heavy media coverage – something she desperately needs to give her dark horse presidential candidacy any...

Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democrat leading the House impeachment effort, said Wednesday that any efforts by President Donald Trump and his administration to interfere with their investigation "will be considered as evidence of obstruction of justice." "We're not fooling around here," Schiff said, at a joint news conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We don't want this to drag on for months and months, which appears to be the administration's strategy." "We take this as a very sad time for our country," Pelosi, D-Calif., said. Schiff said he was "deeply concerned" about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's effort to block...

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was fed up Friday morning over the Democratic presidential candidates spending too much time at Thursday night’s debate “quibbling” over minor health care policy differences. The “Morning Joe” host said he was “astounded” to see the candidates, for a large portion of the first hour, “pounding each other on technocratic niceties” related to their health care plans, while ignoring the big picture. […] Scarborough concluded by saying that pitching “Medicare-for-All’ to the American people is a “waste of time” because it will never pass in Congress after the election. “Barack Obama basically had to use every...

House Democrats voted Friday to defend localities that allow illegal immigrants to vote in their elections, turning back a GOP attempt to discourage the practice. The vote marks a stunning reversal from just six months ago, when the chamber — then under GOP control — voted to decry illegal immigrant voting. “We are prepared to open up the political process and let all of the people come in,” Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and hero of the civil rights movement, told colleagues as he led opposition to the GOP measure. The 228-197 vote came as part of a broader...

Former Vice President Joe Biden ripped President Donald Trump and the Republican Party in a speech endorsing New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) for his third term in Albany. At the New York State Democratic Party convention in Hempstead, Biden told the crowd that the party Trump leads is "not your father's Republican Party." "They are not who we are. They are not who America is," Biden said, claiming that the GOP is sending a "distorted" vision of America "around the world." "That is hurting us," he said. "[With] this phony populism [and] fake nationalism [it's] time to say...

Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that people in Washington don’t think it’s a good thing to be labeled as middle class. Speaking at the American Association of Port Authorities convention in Houston, Biden reminded attendees of his nickname, “Middle-Class Joe.” “In Washington, that’s not meant as a compliment–it means you’re not sophisticated,” Biden said.

Michigan Teachers and Allies for Change (M-TAC), which MLive described as “a grassroots organization started by Ann Arbor Public Schools teachers and parents,” was in the news last week for a rally in Ann Arbor seeking more money for public schools. According to MLive, the group is "non-partisan and is not affiliated with a union." The featured politicians on the stage at the rally were all Democrats: Lisa Brown, who is running for Lt. Governor, State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, State Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, State Rep. Gretchen Driskell, D-Saline; and State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor. MLive...

(CNN) -- Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York in the wake of a prostitution scandal, is looking at a return -- this time as comptroller of New York City. He said he hoped that voters would be able to see beyond his past. "I accepted responsibly for what I did," Spitzer told CNN late Sunday night. "I spent five years of working, doing useful things, and I hope the public will offer me an opportunity." Spitzer, a Democrat, resigned in 2008 after revelations about his relationship with a prostitute. Since stepping down, he has worked as a...

Many conservatives and Republicans are greeting the looming sequestration spending cuts with a collective yawn. "The much-ballyhooed 'sequester' is a cut of $85 billion in a nearly $4 trillion federal budget. Good, let’s do it," writes one contributor to National Review Online's symposium on sequestration. It's true that sequestration is a tiny cut to total federal spending. But it is also true that sequestration is a major cut to defense spending. According to the House Armed Services Committee, the 2011 Budget Control Act (the law that imposed both spending caps and sequestration) will force the Marine Corps to shrink by...

The race for retiring Sen. Kent Conrad’s (D-N.D.) seat has set up a test case for whether Democrats can count on voters splitting the ticket in states where people have soured on President Obama. In North Dakota, Democrat Heidi Heitkamp has managed to make competitive a Senate race that many expected early on would be a slam-dunk for Republicans.

I delivered the faculty graduation address last weekend at the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. It’s one of the nation’s best and the reason is its emphasis on rigorous data analysis. Any public policy wonk worth her salt must be focused on data in order to replicate policy successes.

President Obama announced that his thinking has evolved to the point where he now supports the idea that persons of the same sex are entitled to marry one another. “Look, Jesus spent his career in the company of men,” Obama pointed out. “He never married. I think we have a pretty good indication that it was only the prejudice of the religious and secular authorities that prevented him hooking up with one of the Apostles—perhaps the mysterious ‘beloved apostle.’ I say it’s time that prejudice and repression of gays come to an end.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) said...

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords didn't retract her opposition to SB 1070 Thursday, but said it has already served its purpose by grabbing the federal government's attention. If the federal government had been enforcing its own immigration laws, there would be no need for the state's divisive new immigration-enforcement law, she told about 200 people from the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Greater Tucson Leadership. Giffords also said it's ironic U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder filed a suit against the state, saying Arizona shouldn't intrude on the federal government's responsibility. If federal officials had the border under control, "we wouldn't...

Army Lieutenant Dan Choi, who made national news when he was served with discharge papers after coming out on the Rachel Maddow Show, has rejoined his unit, according to Jeff Sheng at The Bilerico Project. Mr. Sheng, who spoke with the lieutenant, explained the situation thusly: Apparently, Lt. Choi's commander has always been in full support of him, and even after Lt. Choi came out on The Rachel Maddow Show, his commander did not press for his discharge. The military did eventually serve Lt. Choi a discharge notification - essentially firing him from his job, but he was allowed to...

With the confirmation of Associate Justice Samuel Alito, the Bush administration has managed to win both the battle and the war over the future of the Supreme Court. Under the leadership of new Chief Justice John Roberts, the court almost certainly will take a sharp turn to the right on issues such as women's rights, environmental protection, gun control, separation of church and state, presidential power and the relationship between the federal government and the states. It is no exaggeration to say that 10 years from now Americans may be living in a society with less privacy, less autonomy, less...