Free Republic

Thad Cochran's camp batted down rumors last year of a romance between the senator and longtime aide Kay Webber, the New York Times reports, amid criticism that Webber had joined Cochran on 28 taxpayer-funded trips to 45 countries costing more than $150,000. Now, in a one-sentence statement, his office confirms that Cochran, 77, put a ring on it on Saturday during a private family ceremony in Gulfport, Miss., the Clarion-Ledger reports. Cochran's wife of 50 years—photographed by an anti-Cochran blogger in a nursing home last year—died in December at 73 after suffering from dementia, the Washington Post reports. A Cochran...

I met Andrew Breitbart almost a decade ago at a party. All I knew about him was that he worked for Matt Drudge, and Tucker Carlson told me I had to meet him. Tucker wasn’t at the party, but he knew Andrew would be and made me promise I’d introduce myself. I did, and I did. Even though I’d expected nothing, Andrew was nothing like I’d expected because you simply couldn’t anticipate the uniqueness of Andrew Breitbart. The party was in the big office of a publisher (I can’t remember what it was for; probably someone else’s book), and Andrew...

Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying an individual from his past to conceal sexual misconduct, two federal law enforcement officials said Friday. One of the officials, who would not speak publicly about the federal charges in Chicago, said “Individual A,” as the person is described in Thursday’s federal indictment, was a man and that the alleged misconduct was unrelated to Hastert’s tenure in Congress. The actions date to Hastert’s time as a Yorkville, Ill., high school wrestling coach and teacher, the official said.

Critics of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership are unlikely to be silenced by an analysis of the flood of money it took to push the pact over its latest hurdle A decade in the making, the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is reaching its climax and as Congress hotly debates the biggest trade deal in a generation, its backers have turned on the cash spigot in the hopes of getting it passed.“We’re very much in the endgame,” US trade representative Michael Froman told reporters over the weekend at a meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on the resort island of...

Back in 2009, when Congress was debating the Affordable Care Act, many liberal Democrats felt it did not go far enough — that it should be even more sweeping, even more expansive, even more costly. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, one of the Senate's most liberal Democrats and a veteran of many legislative battles, urged his colleagues on the Left to go ahead and pass the bill. "The key to this is that this modest home, we can put additions onto it in the future," Harkin told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in December 2009. "But if we don't have the starter home, we're...

Weather experts from around the world began convening in Geneva on Monday for a congress where Swiss Interior Minister Alain Berset emphasized the need to reduce the impact of natural disasters and climate change. Organizers of the congress, held by the World Meteorological Organization once every four years, say it will focus on how to strengthen weather and climate services to meet the needs of a growing global population and to cope with climate variability and change, extreme weather and related shocks on all socio-economic sectors. "To ensure sustainable development, the global community needs reliable information on the state of...

Congress is forgetting its duty: to improve jobs and wages for Americans We are living in a political world of the UniParty; it’s sort of like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a historic commodity and – in these modern times – financial derivative exchange based in Chicago. Naturally, the UniParty isn’t quite as obvious as the Chicago floor traders standing in a trading pit, calling out orders, prices, and quantities of particular commodities while dressed in color-coded jackets indicating their function on the trading floor; nor are those in the Senate usually observed gesticulating with complex hand signals to communicate the...

President Obama won a big victory for his trade agenda Friday with the Senate’s approval of fast-track legislation that could make it easier for him to complete a wide-ranging trade deal that would include 11 Pacific Rim nations. A coalition of nearly 50 Senate Republicans and more than 10 Democrats voted for Trade Promotion Authority late Friday, sending the legislation to the House for a difficult fight as Obama faces more entrenched opposition from Democrats. The Senate coalition fought off several attempts by opponents to undermine the legislation, defeating amendments that were politically popular but potentially poisonous to Obama’s bid...

GOP hacks like the loathsome Mitch McConnell and Weepy John Boehner seem to think the GOP needs to show it can “govern” — by which they mean push various pieces of crappy legislation through their respective chambers — before voters will trust them with the keys to the White House. Meanwhile, the public keep screaming: STOP OBAMA! The new Republican-led Congress is drawing harsh reviews from the public – including most Republicans. Just 23% of Americans say congressional Republicans are keeping the promises they made during last fall’s campaign, while 65% say they are not. Nearly four-in-ten (37%) say the...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign will announce the endorsements of four members of the Texas congressional delegation. Republican U.S. Reps. Michael Burgess of Lewisville, John Culberson of Houston, Louie Gohmert of Tyler and John Ratcliffe of Heath are all backing the state's junior senator on Thursday, according to a Cruz campaign news release obtained by The Texas Tribune. Gohmert had a specifically pointed statement in the batch of endorsements. "With a Ted Cruz Presidency, America will finally be respected around the world again as other nations will see a courageous and intellectual leader, NEVER wavering on principle, who stands...

No wonder Washington never changes – 79 members of Congress have been there since Bill Clinton’s first term in the White House. This list includes names such as Reid, Feinstein, McConnell, McCain, Pelosi, Boehner, Rangel and Boxer. In this article, I am going to share with you a complete list of the members of Congress that have been “serving” us for at least 20 years. They believe that they are “serving” us well, but without a doubt most Americans very much wish that true “change” would come to Washington. In fact, right now Congress has a 15 percent approval...

Poor little rich Rep. Florida Democrat Representative Alcee L Hastings Out in the real world, pay increases are usually tied to performance. Do a better job, grab a better position, and make more money. It makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, Congress is not part of the real world. When you live off the largesse of the American taxpayer, the sky is the limit. No matter how terrible a job you do, you can always demand more. Enter Florida Democrat Representative Alcee L Hastings. He’s terribly concerned that the paltry $174,000.00 we currently pay our average congressmen is so low...

Another day, another notch in the “Don’t Say You Weren’t Warned” belt that is squeezing the life out of conservatives: Mark Kirk has hocked another loogie in the spittle-splashed faces of conservatives who held their noses and helped elect him. He, along with U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), has introduced a resolution to remove the ratification deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment, which has long since passed. This comes on the heels of his shameless pandering to homosexual activists at a marriage-deconstruction rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court a few weeks ago...

The push to end so-called “conversion therapy” against homosexuality is expected to gear up Tuesday with the introduction of a House bill to ban the therapy nationally. The bill comes a few weeks before a consumer fraud lawsuit described as a “David and Goliath” battle over the therapy begins in New Jersey, and in the wake of a request for a federal probe into whether the therapy’s marketing and practices are “deceptive” and “dangerous.” Opponents of sexual orientation change efforts, such as Reps. Ted W. Lieu and Jackie Speier, both California Democrats, say being homosexual is not a disorder or...

The one thing most Americans can agree on is that members of Congress do not need a pay raise. But that didn’t stop one Democrat lawmaker from stating his case. At a hearing regarding the 2016 Legislative Branch appropriations bill yesterday, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) said that his salary of $174,000 a year simply isn’t enough to live on in Washington, D.C. […] Congress’ current approval rating is 19 percent. …

Most members of Congress make $174,000 a year. Two senior House Democrats say lawmakers deserve a raise. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters on Tuesday that he’s concerned that static congressional salaries — the pay level has remained the same since 2009 — will dissuade all but the uber-wealthy from serving in Congress. “This will be the seventh year in a row that we have not done a cost-of-living adjustment….I think it was appropriate at the time of the recession,” Hoyer said. “But to continue that on, we will dictate that the only people who can serve are the...

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is running for president. His candidacy should not be overlooked. Many are not familiar with him, which is not surprising because for most of Iowa it is still very early in the caucus process. But the senator has attributes that may distinguish him from an unusually crowded field of GOP contenders. First, he went to Harvard. No, I am not writing about Ted Kennedy, I am saying this fellow actually went to not just Harvard, but the Harvard Law School after doing his undergraduate work at Princeton University. He is well educated and very intelligent....

The Obama administration is warning state transportation departments that it will have to stop authorizing payments for construction projects on May 31 unless Congress reaches a deal to extend federal infrastructure funding. The current transportation funding measure is scheduled to expire on May 31, and lawmakers are struggling to come up with a way to pay for an extension. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has said previously that the agency has enough money to cover existing projects until the end of summer, but he said in letter to state departments of transportation on Monday that he will be unable to make...

When I return to Washington for my arraignment in federal court this week, it will be by car, not gyrocopter. My flying days are over, perhaps forever. Accepting responsibility for my actions means I accept their consequences, which I always took seriously. As my freedom rests in the court’s hands, my hope is that Americans will understand why I took the risk to deliver them a message: We the people must pay attention to democracy. Everyone is entitled to an opinion about my flight over the Mall last month, but I did not commit this peaceful protest thoughtlessly. The most...

Government is force. When it finds that soft force doesn’t work, it becomes more aggressive. Having found itself unable to scare and/or coerce all Americans into “voluntary” vaccination compliance, now Congress has before it a bill titled the “Vaccinate All Children Act of 2015.” Of course, this requirement is being done “in the public interest” and “for the greater good.” It would accomplish the task of vaccinating all children by withholding federal funds from public elementary and secondary schools that enroll students who are not vaccinated according to recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Of course, children are...