Free Republic

Long before today's acid relations between Republicans and Democrats, President Trump and "the squad," friendships mattered over daily politics. In a classic example, a letter going up for auction next week highlights that mood, now some 30 years ago. Columnist Paul Bedard on the expanded Washington Examiner magazine Watch Full Screen to Skip Ads It is from famous letter-writer President George H.W. Bush to his long-time pal, then Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and during a heated fight over tax cuts. A few weeks before the vote to give Bush his tax...

Per records, powerful congressman offered to quit, then fought allegations ### Mayor Richard M. Daley, right, and U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski attend a news conference together in 1993. Daley praised the longtime congressman after his death last August. ************* The theft of just $7,000 by a stamp clerk in the U.S. House Post Office mushroomed into a federal investigation that brought down one of the most powerful congressmen in the country, the late Daniel Rostenkowski of Chicago, according to records released Thursday by the FBI. The documents reveal that the FBI in 1992 was told by a "reliable source" that...

(CNN) -- Former Illinois Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, who rose through the ranks of Chicago's rough-and-tumble political scene to become one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill, has died, according to the office of Chicago Alderman Richard Mell. He was 82.

Former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the Chicago Democrat who became the leading architect of congressional tax policy in the Reagan era but later went to federal prison for corruption, died Wednesday, a family friend said. He was 82. Mr. Rostenkowski, who served 18 terms before losing in 1994, died surrounded by family at his home in Lake Benedict, Wis., friend Ellen Tully said. He had been treated for prostate cancer in the 1990s. As House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Mr. Rostenkowski was known as a consensus builder and a master of legislative tactics. He is credited with leading a 1983...

Repeal: Some say trying to repeal ObamaCare is a futile dream once people get used to its benefits, such as covering kids with pre-existing conditions. Once before, government was slapped down. It can be done. Entitlements can be addictive, and it's certainly the purpose of this administration to make as many Americans as possible as dependent on government as possible. That's partly why a health care bill put student loans under the Department of Education. The government needed the revenues, but it also needed the power over yet another class of citizens. Unlike Medicare and Social Security, this nationalization of...

Leadership: Scores of congressmen and women are trying to hide from their constituents this August recess as the revolt over ObamaCare continues. If you haven't seen him or her lately, you might try your refrigerator.IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For FailureIt's amazing how frightened of the community the party of the great community organizer has become now that the community has organized itself against his attempt to impose socialized medicine on the country. They cheered when he told them to get in the faces of their opponents. Now they won't show their faces, period. Senate Majority Whip Dick...

Next couple of days there will be a lot of gleeful liberals and Republicans claiming that this really does make it possible for Dems to take over the House and Senate in 2006. Here's how it will work. Comparisons, immediately, to the indictment of powerful Democrat Dan Rostenkowski in 1994 adding to the sense that Democrats were out of touch with ordinary Americans and helping bring about the GOP landslide in November 1994. Corrupt Dems in 1994 = corrupt Repubs in 2005. Add to the DeLay indictiment the talk about Bill Frist's stock sale and you have major-league talking points...