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In the first papal address ever given to the United States Congress by a Pope, the Vicar of Christ never mentioned Christ, but rather only Moses as the one who “leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being.” Given an historic opportunity to preach Catholic truth to secular power, Francis held up as models for imitation not Christ, nor any of the saints of the Catholic Church, but rather Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, the controversial convert Dorothy Day (a socialist and early women’s rights activist) and Thomas Merton, the Modernist monk whose...

President Obama's plan to "internationalize" the Internet may be unconstitutional, key members of Congress are claiming. The group of lawmakers sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office last week, saying the plan to relinquish oversight of Internet domain name functions to a global, multi-stakeholder body raised questions about the administration's "authority to transfer possession and control of critical components of the Internet's infrastructure to a third party."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared on one Sunday show — CBS’ “Face the Nation” — after his Friday surprise announcement that he’d be resigning from Congress in about a month.And Boehner used the opportunity to make another firm announcement: There will be no government shutdown this week, despite the efforts of some conservatives to block Planned Parenthood funding. “The Senate is expected to pass a continuing resolution [this] week. The House will take up the Senate bill. We will also take up a select committee to investigate these horrific videos that we have seen from abortion clinics in several...

Last week, House Speaker John Boehner decided to retire rather than chance being ousted by his own colleagues. Despite this lucky break, the congressional GOP has little chance of winning back disenchanted Republican voters unless it also shows Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the door. Continued Republican control of the Senate is on the line. A brand-new poll reveals that 72 percent of Republican primary voters are dissatisfied with McConnell and Boehner. Only 2 percent of those polled were “very satisfied” with the party’s two congressional leaders, who the majority believe have accomplished essentially nothing. The situation is actually...

(Washington, DC) Republicans in the House of Representatives have banded together to ensure a cooperative debate on strategy and party disagreements before House GOP conference chairwoman Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) can try to help House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) take Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)’s ’s soon-to-be-vacated job as House Speaker, and instead force a special extended conference meeting that can now happen without McMorris Rodgers’ approval. The debate is enabled by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), who was circulating a letter to his colleagues calling for debate on the Speakership process. At least 50 fellow GOP members have...

(CNSNews.com) – In a White House Rose Garden news conference alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Barack Obama praised outgoing House Speaker John Boehner as “a good man” and “patriot,” who “cares deeply about the House” and America. I just heard the news as I was coming out of the meeting here, so it took me by surprise, and I took the time prior to this press conference to call John directly and talk to him. John Boehner’s a good man. He is a patriot. He cares deeply about the House, an institution in which he’s served for a long...

The date was Oct. 14, 2013, two weeks into a government shutdown engineered by Republicans in the House of Representatives who were trying once again to kill Obamacare. Scheduled for the next day was a vote backed by House Speaker John Boehner and his lieutenants that would have reopened the government and avoided the likely disaster of the U.S. government defaulting on its debt. The setting was a low-budget eatery on Capitol Hill called the “Tortilla Coast,” not known for its ambiance, as The Post’s Amy Argetsinger described it, but for its “utter lack of ambiance, its “windows bedecked with...

It's well understood that neither Mitch McConnell nor John Boehner really wanted to stop Obama from doing anything. There are several theories for this. Rush Limbaugh and many conservatives think that the GOPe's polling data has told them that a shutdown---or any perceived opposition to Obama---would harm them in elections. Another theory is that, well, they really don't disagree with the guy, and really only prefer to "manage" the decline better than him. Both could be true. What is NOT true is that there were never any other means of stopping Zero and his cronies except for either a government...

Outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner lashed out at the House’s “most conservative members” during a Sunday interview on ABC’s “Face the Nation.”CBS host John Dickerson began the interview by asking Boehner about the threatened government shutdown: “Four days, the government runs out of money. Is there going to be a shutdown?” Boehner responded, “no,” that he expected the Senate to pass a continuing resolution and that with the help of Democrats in the House, he expected the House to vote to keep the government open. Moving to the issue of Boehner’s upcoming retirement, Dickerson asked Boehner about conversations...

* Boehner calls some conservatives "unrealistic" * Plans to pass government funding bill with Democratic support * Says he could have survived a vote to oust himHouse Speaker John Boehner isn’t going out quietly. The outgoing and embattled speaker had choice words Sunday for his foes inside and outside of Congress and signaled that he intends to be very much in charge until he relinquishes the speaker’s gavel under pressure at the end of October. Boehner took aim at Republican rebels in the House of Representatives and unnamed conservative and tea party groups that agitated for his departure. He blasted...

House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) announcement that he is resigning from Congress effective October 30th was followed by a torrent of tears in Washington. Leading the sob fest, of course, was Boehner himself who lamented that “the blood, sweat, and tears I’ve shed for this country have gone unappreciated for too long.” As if to contradict Boehner’s lament, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) praised “Boehner’s cooperative approach to getting things done,” and expressed the hope that “a similarly motivated and compliant successor can be found.” A glum Presidential Press Secretary Josh Earnest called the resignation “a serious setback for...

The abrupt resignation of House Speaker John Boehner shows that “the crazies have taken over the party,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Friday. “I think it signals the crazies have taken over the party, taken over to the party that you can remove a speaker of the House who’s second in line to be president, a constitutional officer in the middle of his term with no allegations of impropriety, a person who’s honest and doing his job. This has never happened before in our country,” King said in an interview on CNN. “He could have stayed on.” King praised Boehner,...

"Today was the right day for Speaker Boehner to announce his retirement. He is a new grandfather and nothing would surpass the Pope's address" -Newt Gingrich "Given how it ended, I am guessing Boehner wishes he had just jammed immigration through, would have fundamentally changed his legacy" -Dan Pfeiffer "If Boehner wasn't conservative enough for the Republican Party, they are handing the Dems a win in 2016." -Sarah Wood "I wasn't always happy with what Speaker Boehner told me, but he never, ever misled me. He never told me something that wasn't true." -Harry Reid "John Boehner talking about the...

"Boehner is despised by the younger, more conservative members of the House Republican Conference. They are repelled by his personal behavior. He is louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to any principle. Boehner has already tried to buy the members with campaign contributions and committee assignments, which he has already promised to potentially difficult members. His hold is insecure. He is not [Newt] Gingrich, the natural leader of a 'revolution,' riding the crest into power. He is careworn and threadbare, banal and hollow, holding nobody's enduring loyalty." – Sidney Blumenthal in a private email to Hillary Clinton "We’ve never...

Non-House members have received votes for speaker, and that’s a trend that seems to be growing.Who can replace Speaker of the House John Boehner, who announced Friday he’s quitting? Almost anyone. Maybe even you. This isn’t a comment on the job Representative Boehner has or has not done in his role as leader of his legislative chamber. It’s meant to illustrate a little-known fact: Under the Constitution, the speaker does not have to be a member of the House. He or she doesn’t have to be an elected lawmaker or government official. The speaker can be an ordinary, private citizen....

House Speaker John Boehner told lawmakers Friday that he plans to resign at the end of October, in a stunning development that comes amid mounting friction with the conservative wing of the party. He plans to step down as speaker, and resign from Congress. The 13-term Ohio Republican shocked his GOP caucus early Friday morning when he informed them of his decision in a closed-door session. One lawmaker told Fox News he was "stunned," and that there was "some anger" in the room "against the people who caused this to happen." The announcement came one day after the high point...

If you're the donut man, sell donuts. And if you're the pope, preach Christ. In life, you have to know your role and remember your purpose. You have to keep your eye on the prize. Yesterday, in front of a Congress and a nation, Pope Francis forgot who he was. He came to the plate, and he didn't swing. He failed to deliver the one message his life is supposedly dedicated to delivering. With the eyes of a government and a people upon him, he squandered the opportunity of a lifetime. America needed to hear something, and he didn't say...

Not once was the name or Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed aloud. Not even a subtle illusion. Not even a blessing. Even at St. Patrick's Church later, not even a formal blessing to Catholics. Is the Pope embarrassed to be Catholic? Is he even? Not once was the word "abortion" used. There were references to protecting "human life at every state of development." Yes, the Pope opposes abortion. But that weak statement could mean anything to anyone. To me it could mean from conception to natural death; to someone else it can mean birth until life has no dignity. It...

EDITORIAL WASHINGTON, D.C., September 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- In his historic address at the US Congress today Pope Francis focused on immigration, human dignity, poverty and the environment. Speaking before all senators hours before they vote on defunding Planned Parenthood, at no point did he mention abortion by name. He spoke to Congress of “money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood,” but was referring only to the sale of weapons. “In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade,” he said. Prompting palpable joy...

I don’t want to spend a great deal of time on the text of the speech. You can read it for yourself. But there are a few of points I want to highlight and ask questions about. First, I said in my post yesterday morning that the White House address was a missed opportunity to talk about abortion in a week when Congress was duking it out over defunding Planned Parenthood. People got angry with me. I said at the end of the post, “Here’s hoping that in the Congressional address tomorrow, our modern holocaust gets more than a passing...