Free Republic

History's most notorious Georgian-turned-Russian, the politically astute Joseph Stalin once remarked, "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." The lesson has not been lost on the increasingly notorious Hungarian-cum-American George Soros. A group backed by Soros is gearing up to steal the 2012 election for President Obama and congressional Democrats by installing left-wing Democrats as secretaries of state across the nation. From such posts, secretaries of state can help tilt the electoral playing field. This is, of course, the same Soros, the same hyperpolitical left-wing philanthropist who makes no secret of...

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ office confirmed late Friday night that the Montana Democrat was carrying on an extramarital affair with his state office director, Melodee Hanes, when he nominated her to be U.S. attorney in Montana. According to a source familiar with their relationship, Hanes and Baucus began their relationship in the summer of 2008 – nearly a year before Baucus and his wife, Wanda, formally separated in April. The Senator has since divorced his wife. Hanes ended her employment with Baucus in the spring of this year. Hanes, who is divorced and now lives with Baucus in the...

Concerns that the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee may have used a credit card bill to woo donations from credit card companies has prompted the chamber's ethics panel to open an investigation. The Washington Post first reported on Friday that staffers to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) suspected foul play as early as this summer, after the committee unexpectedly took up a tough bill that would have implemented new fees to protect against credit card identity theft. According to the Post, Thompson collected about $15,000 in donations from the industry shortly after those hearings began, but no bill was...

Jurors in the theft trial of Sheila Dixon convicted the Baltimore mayor Tuesday on a single charge of taking gift cards intended for the city's poor. Although Dixon was acquitted of a felony theft charge, her conviction could force her from office. The jury found Dixon not guilty of the most serious crime, felony theft. The jury decided that Dixon did not knowingly steal about $530 in Target and Best Buy gift cards purchased in December 2005 by developer Patrick Turner, who testified they were intended for "the children of Baltimore." Dixon was City Council president at the time. The...

Thankfully, Obama's inauguration illustrated (once again) that Americans are among the least racist and prejudiced persons on earth. Despite having to combat the presence of a radical ideologue in the White House, conservatives hoped our opponents would desist in their longtime passion for pretending that America is racially unchanged since 1959. Our fine country is no longer marred by the practice of slavery or segregation (no thanks to the Democratic Party), and the elevation of my former senator was yet another indication of how far society has evolved. However, for those who care more for fantasies of power and control...

Since the first undercover ACORN video was released two months ago, ACORN’s few remaining defenders have fallen back on the talking point that, whatever the misdeeds of some of its employees, the organization provides important services to poor and low-income families. Without ACORN, we are told, many underprivileged families would lose an important voice for their needs. Really? Below is one family’s application for food stamp benefits that ACORN threw out with its trash, in advance of a visit from officers of the Attorney’s General office. Link to document.

Senator Inhofe: Well, on this thing, it is pretty serious. And since, you know, Barabara Boxer is the Chairman and I’m the Ranking Member on Environment and Public Works, if nothing happens in the next seven days when we go back into session a week from today that would change this situation, I will call for an investigation. ‘Cause this thing is serious, you think about the literally millions of dollars that have been thrown away on some of this stuff that they came out with. Melanie Morgan: So what will you be calling for an investigation of? Senator Inhofe:...

Andrew Stern is a close friend of President Barack Obama. That's hardly a revelation. His organization, the Service Employees International Union, spent more than $60 million to get him elected. And President Obama has made clear that he is fully committed to promoting the political goals of organized labor. But Stern may have gone outside federal law in his nearly two dozen documented White House visits through this mid-September. The SEIU president is a former registered lobbyist, but has been acting as though he is still one. A prominent Washington, D.C. nonprofit group and one of its affiliates recently sent...

"Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher had a news story yesterday about President Barack H. Obama’s latest nominee with tax problems, Lael Brainard. We think he left out two pretty important details. First, Ohlemacher’s report says Brainard “is the fifth presidential nominee to reveal tax issues during the congressional vetting process.” The key to the partial truth in that sentence is “during the congressional” vetting process. While Ohlemacher likely is factually correct, the sentence certainly is misleading. One reads it and thinks, “Oh, that’s the 5th appointment he made with tax issues.” That is not true. In fact, it doesn’t count...

<p>West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd became the longest-serving lawmaker in congressional history Wednesday, a milestone to be marked with a morning of Senate tributes and a special resolution.</p> <p>It was unclear whether Byrd would be able to attend Wednesday's session.</p>

Chicago politics, where voting is such a revered civic duty that people do it even after they're dead, cold, stiff, stuffed, boxed and buried beneath the permafrost for years, has now come to D.C. with the Obama administration. This afternoon comes the most encouraging economic news, courtesy of our keen-eyed buddy Rick Klein over at ABC, that the Obama administration's $787-billion economic stimulus has, for example, thankfully created 30 new jobs in a little-known rural corner of Arizona at a cost to American taxpayers of only $761,420. That works out to only $25,380.67 spent to create each individual job. Seems...

A first-term congressman drew a salary from his campaign for office last fall, his office said. Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) pocketed about $15,000 in campaign funds, the Buffalo News reported Sunday, while his wife was paid $18,000 for her work as campaign treasurer. "Eric did draw a meager salary at the end of the 2008 campaign to cover expenses after campaigning full-time for four years," Massa's spokesman told the News. "There aren't many people who have spent more time or effort working for the privilege of serving the families of their congressional district's than Rep. Massa."

Detroit (WWJ) -- A Detroit federal judge has sentenced a Detroit businesman and corruption figure to the maximum five years in jail for conspiracy to commit bribery. Rayford Jackson arranged the bribes for now-former city councilwoman Monica Conyers

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The former Louisiana congressman who famously hid $90,000 cash in his freezer and was later convicted of federal bribery charges on Friday was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

It’s very fair to send people who disregard the federal mandate to buy health insurance to prison, Nancy Pelosi says, because otherwise they’ll assault citizens … with a bill for medical services … or something. Apparently, the occasionally unhealthy have become such a security risk that we need to imprison them for opting to pay their own way. Infidels Are Cool has the key exchange::

Prosecutors want a sentence of at least 27 years for a Democrat convicted of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes while in office. A federal court found 18-year Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) guilty this past August on 11 counts of bribery, racketeering and money-laundering. Federal guidelines specify he could face more than 20 years of prison time for his misdeeds, but prosecutors on Monday made clear they will make the case for at least 27 years — and a maximum of 33 years — when sentencing begins this Friday. The defense has yet to file its sentencing arguments, according to...

Should the media turn at least one glazed eye toward the checkered trail of Obama's highly suspicious connection to multiple social security numbers? I dunno, maybe ask a question or two?

NEW ORLEANS – State investigators raided ACORN offices on Friday, taking away computer hard drives and documents as part of a probe into alleged embezzlement and tax fraud when the organization's national headquarters was based in New Orleans."This is an investigation of everything — ACORN, the national organization, the local organization and all of its affiliated entities, specifically as it relates to any potential violations of Louisiana law," Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said.ACORN staff on the scene declined to comment, but an attorney for the group said in a statement the raid was prompted by allegations that former ACORN...

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon is about to put her political future in the hands of a jury. Dixon goes on trial Monday on theft charges. She's accused of hitting up her wealthy developer pals to donate thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards to needy families. Prosecutors say she used those gift cards for her personal shopping instead.

Democrats' Ethics Targeted by GOP By BRODY MULLINS Republicans are seizing on newly revealed ethics probes of congressional Democrats ahead of next year's midterm elections, accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues of failing to make good on their pledge to clean up Washington when they regained control of Congress. None of the Democratic lawmakers under investigation by the House Ethics Committee is expected to lose in 2010. And ethics concerns are usually less important to voters than pocketbook issues. But Republican campaign strategists say ethics issues rumbling under the surface could help the GOP pick up a few...

If you suspect problems at the polls e-mail: Voterfraud@Foxnews.com ------- It is "very easy" to steal an election using absentee ballots, claims Jan Tyler, a former Denver Elections Commissioner who now runs the website National Election Reform Examiner. She said some people shoveling her driveway, for example, told her they knew that "six or seven absentee ballots were sent to dead people," and she fears the numbers across the country could be much larger than experts believe and that prosecutors do not take infractions seriously enough. Fox News has found ongoing allegations of absentee ballot fraud in at least a...

Before taking control of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history." However, with dozens of mostly Democratic lawmakers and various staff under investigation by the House's twin ethics bodies, the majority clearly values political power over clean government. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles B. Rangel, 20-term New York Democrat, and Defense Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Rep. John P. Murtha, 19-term Pennsylvania Democrat, are the poster children for how failed ethics cops protect old-guard lawmakers. While under investigation by the ethics committee, they continue to...

Republican Dede Scozzafava endorsed her former Democratic opponent Sunday in the race for an upstate New York congressional seat, one day after Scozzafava dropped out of the contest. Scozzafava dropped out after Conservative Party candidate Dough Hoffman experienced a late-in-the-game surge. But on Sunday, Scozzafava backed Democrat Bill Owens -- the announcement was made in a statement send out by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same," she said. "In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He...

Is there one, (one?!) honest Democrat? C'mon, New Jersey! NJ-GOV: Jon Corzine’s Absentee Ballot Slush Fund NRO via Redstate National Review’s Jim Geraghty has a tremendously important story. Jon Corzine is trying to build an absentee ballot slush fund to win a recount in the New Jersey Governor’s race. Basically, the Democratic Party has asked the Secretary of State to send provisional absentee ballots out to people whose signatures on their absentee ballot requests don’t match: In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters....

SACRAMENTO — The press secretary for California Attorney General Jerry Brown has been secretly recording telephone conversations with reporters, an apparent violation of state law. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that spokesman Scott Gerber acknowledged taping a phone interview with one of its reporters. It said Gerber later acknowledged recording other conversations with reporters without asking their permission.

A document from the House ethics committee lists an examination into whether the chamber's rules were violated when Rep. Linda T. Sanchez put three legislative aides to her fellow-congresswoman sister on her payroll after an embezzlement scheme had left Rep. Loretta Sanchez's office short of funds. The document, a July tracking report obtained by The Washington Post, says that the sisters, both California Democrats, "shared transferred staff from one office to another after embezzlement," and that a meeting between lawyers for the ethics committee and the congresswomen had taken place June 1. The document also says that lawyers for the...

WASHINGTON -- Internal investigations into the conduct of several House members have been exposed in an extraordinary, Internet-era breach of security involving the secretive process by which Congress polices lawmaker ethics. Revelations of the mostly preliminary inquiries by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- also known as the Ethics committee -- shook the chamber as lawmakers were immersed in a series of scheduled votes Thursday. The panel announced that it was probing two California Democrats -- Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson -- even as its embarrassed leaders took pains to explain that several other lawmakers also...

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA--Larry Langford, Birmingham's mayor and a former Jefferson County commissioner, has been found guilty in his federal bribery trial. Langford was found guilty of taking about $236,000 in cash and gifts from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both pleaded guilty in the case and testified they made cash payments to Langford while he was the president of the Jefferson County Commission to ensure business for Blount's investment bank, Blount Parrish & Co.

(snip) U.S. leadership is crucial. That is why I am encouraged by the spirit of compromise shown in the bipartisan initiative announced last week by John Kerry and Lindsey Graham. Here was a pair of U.S. senators — one Republican, the other Democratic — coming together to bridge their parties’ differences to address climate change in a spirit of genuine give-and-take. We cannot afford another period where the United States stands on the sidelines. An engaged United States can lead the world to seal a deal to combat climate change in Copenhagen. An indecisive or insufficiently engaged United States will...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) just took to the House floor to announce his new website, "Names of the Dead". According to the website: Every year, more than 44,000 Americans die simply because have no health insurance. I have created this project in their memory. I hope that honoring them will help us end this senseless loss of American lives. If you have lost a loved one, please share the story of that loved one with us. Help us ensure that their legacy is a more just America, where every life that can be saved will be saved. I'm told this...

House Democrats Lock GOP Out of Committee Room A bitter divide over Countrywide mortgage scandal. By JAMES FREEMAN Democratic staff for the House oversight committee informed their GOP counterparts today that the majority has changed the locks on the committee's hearing room. While Republicans previously enjoyed their own key to the room, they will now have to request access from Democrats. This followed a bitter partisan argument in which Republicans refused to take down a video from their website that contradicted Dem explanations about a closed-door meeting on the Countrywide VIP loan scandal. As we reported last week, the committee...

Democrats once flirted with running Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava for the seat Rep. John McHugh will soon vacate in NY-23, but now that she's a leading contender for the GOP nod, they are rushing to bolster conservative concerns about her alleged tax troubles. Soon-to-be-former state Democratic Chairwoman June O'Neill today confirmed reports that Scozzafava's husband, an upstate labor leader, talked with key local Democrats and union heads about the possibility of his wife running on Row A if the party's presumed first choice, state Sen. Darrel Aubertine, takes a pass. "Her husband spoke with several Democratic officials and, you know,...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Mayor Larry Langford, who could be tossed out of office and go to prison if convicted of federal bribery charges, recently offered some advice to a new Birmingham City Council member. "The illusion of power is the most dangerous drug on the planet," Langford said. "A little bit of power — nothing intoxicates like it." Last week's comment may sound a lot like the government's opening argument against Langford, 61, the most recent in a long line of prominent names in the state Democratic Party to face corruption charges. Jury selection begins Monday. Prosecutors claim a...

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., understands something that continues to escape House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is radioactive, owing to multiple investigations of his serial failures to disclose millions of dollars worth of income and investments. Rangel had contributed more than $19,000 to Welch, but the Vermonter recently sent it back. That was a good decision because Welch is a member of the House Ethics Committee, which is conducting one of the investigations of Rangel. But it shouldn’t be necessary to be on the ethics panel in order to understand that Rangel’s actions disgrace...

In an amusing case of the pot calling the kettle, Anna Burger, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told Representative Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that the SEIU had dumped ACORN during a Sept. 30 hearing conducted by the House Financial Services Committee. Apparently Mrs. Burger felt that ACORN was too toxic for the SEIU to associate with. Certainly it is quite amazing that the SEIU has taken the step to dump ACORN as a vendor. Groups such as SEIU rarely reassess associations preferring to stubbornly stick to their guns in most cases. During the hearing, Rep. McHenry...

Ala. Mayor Accused Of Taking Rolex, Bribes Jury selection to begin in corruption trial against Mayor Larry Langford BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Mayor Larry Langford, who could be tossed out of office and go to prison if convicted of federal bribery charges, recently offered some advice to a new Birmingham City Council member. "The illusion of power is the most dangerous drug on the planet," Langford said. "A little bit of power — nothing intoxicates like it." Last week's comment may sound a lot like the government's opening argument against Langford, 61, the most recent in a long line of prominent...

OCTOBER 17, 2009 Rajaratnam Surfaced in U.S. Terrorism Probe By EVAN PEREZ and MATTHEW ROSENBERG WASHINGTON—The hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into U.S. fundraising by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, people familiar with the probe said. As part of that investigation, federal agents said they uncovered documents showing that Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to people familiar with the probe. Raj...

Ethics fight hits Rep. Charles Rangel's campaign funds; could hurt him in 2010 electionBY Michael Saul DAILY NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Saturday, October 17th 2009, 4:00 AM Rep. Charles Rangel's campaign coffers are being drained by his battle to survive an ethics probe, leaving him vulnerable to a well-funded challenger next year. The Harlem Democrat spent more than $250,000 in campaign cash on legal fees from July 1 to Sept. 30, newly released records show - 56% of his total expenses for the period. His overall lawyer bills now total $1.1 million since a House Ethics Committee probe into his...

Since ACORN’s crass corruption came into sharp focus a few weeks ago, Andrew Breitbart has not only been part and parcel of cracking ACORN’s nuts, but he has also been pointing out the ludicrous lack of reporting on ACORN’s asininities by what used to be the mainstream media. Breitbart, via the ACORN controversy, has shown the “mainstream” to be everything but conventional and more akin to an irrelevant, unwatched drip of ideological flotsam that’s entirely in the septic tank for the lunatic left. The Daily Show’s John Stewart—hardly a right-winger—also pointed out this willful ACORN media blindness this past month,...

The president of a national labor union was arrested Tuesday for allegedly taking $20,000 in bribes from a St. Louis lawyer, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Congressman Charles Rangel has let New York down with his financial sacandals. New York waited for decades to gain the kind of congressional clout that Rep. Charlie Rangel has wielded as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and now he has let the home team down. Big time. To say that Rangel has become damaged goods is to engage in understatement. His Republican adversaries are taking full advantage of Rangel's many transgressions to make him a walking, talking symbol of Washington hubris for all of America to scorn. Unfortunately for him and for his Democratic colleagues - and,...

The gay community should stop rewarding President Obama's pretty speeches—like his address this weekend to the Human Rights Campaign—and demand action on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN This weekend, thousands gathered for a march at the White House where the gay community demanded equal rights. On Saturday night, President Obama addressed the largest gay-rights group and promised to end the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the military, emphasizing that his commitment to achieving equal rights was “unwavering.” The support he received from the crowd was overwhelming. But my response to this speech and my message to the...

It is time for Democrats in Congress — who once justifiably complained about the corruption of the Republican majority — to demonstrate to Americans that someone in that august body has ethical standards. Instead, House Democrats have again shielded Representative Charles Rangel from his serial ethical messes and ducked their responsibility to force him from the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, maintaining her tunnel vision on behalf of a powerful colleague, led the majority to defeat the Republicans’ latest call to depose the New York lawmaker. She does the nation no favor. Two of her...

Republicans won't relent in pushing Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) to step down from his powerful chairmanship, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) vowed Thursday. A day after most Democrats (and some Republicans) voted to shuffle off a resolution that would have forced Rangel to step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Boehner said Republicans would continue to pursue the issue, while holding themselves to a high ethical standard. "The move by House Democrats to simply refer the resolution to the Ethics Committee was an effort to sidestep the issue and make it easier for them to...

The House panel investigating alleged ethics violations by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, said Thursday it voted unanimously to expand the probe. A statement by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said its investigative subcommittee already has issued nearly "150 subpoenas, interviewed approximately 34 witnesses resulting in over 2,100 pages of transcripts." The subcommittee also has analyzed more than 12,000 pages of documents and held more than 30 investigative meetings, according to the statement issued by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California Democrat, who is the committee chairman, and ranking minority member Rep. Jo Bonner, Alabama Republican. However,...

This from the online edition of Fox's Special Report, Krauthammer hits Charles Rangel on not paying his taxes, then Juan Williams brings up Rangel's African American race or something? What is Juan talking about?

A former Jersey City mayoral candidate and his brother have been indicted on corruption charges. Tuesday's indictment comes on the same day the president of Jersey City's municipal council temporarily stepped aside and another council member pleaded guilty to corruption. Louis Manzo a former candidate for mayor, and his brother, Ronald, who acted as his political adviser, are charged with taking $27,500 in corrupt political contributions. Louis Manzo had previously served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 2004 to 2008.

Rangel dodges the bullet again with a little help from his corruption-enabling friends. Final vote tabling Carter’s resolution to remove Rangel from W&M chairmanship: 243-156. 19 voted present. 3 REPUBLICANS joined the Democrats. Will post roll call vote as soon as it is up.

The Acorn chief executive, Bertha Lewis, met with reporters at the National Press Club in Washington this morning. It was one of several appearances she has made in the weeks since conservative videographers, posing as a pimp and a prostitute successfully elicited advice from the group’s counselors on tax evasion and securing housing for a brothel. But if critics and even some supporters are looking for an “apology tour,” they are not getting one. Ms. Lewis, rather, provided a defiant answer to her critics, even while acknowledging that the behavior of the Acorn workers who were caught on tape was...

The investigation into Rep. Charlie Rangel's alleged financial shenanigans is probably the most touchy question to pose to senior House Democrats and their aides these days. As the New York Times's Carl Hulse implied over the weekend, if Rangel were not the chairman of the Ways of Means Committee, if he were not a beloved figure among his colleagues, if fears of internal racial politics weren't in the mix, Rangel would be as good as stripped from his position. (Rangel says he's innocent and chides journalists who ask him about the investigation.) Rangel is one of several congressional Democrats who...