Free Republic

National Security: There seems to be only one thing White House arms negotiators want more than a reduction in U.S. nuclear weapons — a reduction in U.S. missile defenses to protect us from such weapons. The Washington Times' Bill Gertz reports that U.S. diplomats are secretly negotiating with Russia to link nuclear arms reduction to limits on our anti-missile defenses. As Gertz points out, "Pro-arms-control officials within the administration dislike missile defenses, viewing them as an impediment to offensive arms agreements." Ellen Tauscher, the undersecretary of state for international security and arms control, has been talking to Moscow's deputy foreign...

MANY COMMENTATORS HAVE WONDERED WHAT CONCESSIONS BARACK OBAMA WRUNG out of the Russian leadership in exchange for canceling a major missile defense initiative in Eastern Europe this week. Some have speculated he attained, or at least sought, cooperation in stifling Iran’s nuclear program. Unfortunately, it appears the president sold out two close allies, rewarded Moscow’s belligerence, and sidetracked technology that could safeguard the free world from Islamic nuclear blackmail in order to curtail, not Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but our own. Obama, a passionate believer in universal disarmament, may have made this concession to draw Russia into negotiations that will further...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release September 15, 2009 Statement by the Press Secretary on the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty The President has asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to lead the U.S. delegation and deliver the U.S. national statement at the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), to be held on September 24 and 25 in New York City. Since...

Bay Area Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher was confirmed by the Senate late Thursday as under secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. State Department. President Obama nominated Tauscher, D-Alamo, for the position in March. She will now advise the president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on global security, weapons proliferation and arms control. Tauscher told the House of Representatives this morning that she will resign her 10th Congressional District seat -- which includes parts of Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano and Sacramento counties -- at the end of the day. "I am deeply grateful for the trust that...

This week CNN's Political Ticker reported "Congresswoman takes post in State Department." The article begins: California congresswoman Ellen Tauscher is vacating her Bay Area seat to serve under Hillary Clinton at the State Department. Tauscher, a moderate Democrat and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a message to her constituents that Clinton had asked her to serve as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. Let's briefly examine the congressional voting record of the "moderate Democrat" Ellen Tauscher. According to interest group evaluations compiled by Project Vote Smart, for 2007 the congresswoman received a...

CALIFORNIA. Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher (D) was tapped this week to serve in the Obama Administration as US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security -- the Administration's top arms control negotiator. The centrist Tauscher -- who represents the CD-10 district which includes the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory nuclear weapons/WMD research and development facility --- has been recognized as an expert on nuclear weapons issues during her seven-terms in Congress. "Keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, making sure other countries do not obtain them and, one day, I hope, ridding the world of these terrible weapons,...

WASHINGTON — A California Democrat is pushing for Congressional hearings on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for the first time since it was put in place 14 years ago. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., one of the leading opponents of the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, said Wednesday that she has begun planning with other members of the House Armed Services Committee on holding public hearings in coming months. “I think the country and the rank-and-file military are way ahead of Congress on this issue,” Tauscher said. “I think not only are the American people ready,...

The Democratic majority was only three weeks old, but by Jan. 26, the grass-roots and Net-roots activists of the party's left wing had already settled on their new enemy: Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), the outspoken chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition. Progressive blogs -- including two new ones, Ellen Tauscher Weekly and Dump Ellen Tauscher -- were bashing her as a traitor to her party. A new liberal political action committee had just named her its "Worst Offender." And in Tauscher's East Bay district office that day in January, eight MoveOn.org activists were accusing her of helping President...

Top Capital Hill military money man visits 101stby Pfc. Thomas DayMOSUL, Iraq (Sept. 28, 2003) -- Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-CA, chairman of the House Military Appropriations sub-committee, led a nine-member congressional delegation Sunday to meet constituents fighting with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.The delegation included GOP Texans Henry Bonilla and Kay Granger, fellow Republicans John Shimkus (IL), George Nerthcutt (WA), and Don Sherwood (PA). Democrats Tim Holden (PA), Norm Dicks (WA), and Ellen Tauscher (CA) made the trip a bipartisan affair.Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, 101st Airborne Division commanding general, who has hosted a number...

<p>Washington -- As war apparently draws nearer, anti-war members of Congress led by Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland outlined their last-ditch bid on Wednesday to reopen debate on whether the United States should attack Iraq.</p> <p>Lee's vehicle, the latest in a host of anti-war resolutions that the leadership of both houses has refused to take up, is the introduction of a nonbinding resolution that would put the House on record as opposing so-called wars of pre-emption.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Petaluma) is a strong "no" vote on going to war with Iraq. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) is a solid "yes." Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher of Alamo, like many other Democrats on Capitol Hill, wishes the whole issue could be decided after November's elections. The state's Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have raised no qualms about President Bush's Iraq policy. California's congressional delegation is, in short, a microcosm of Congress as a whole as it grapples with Bush's request for a resolution authorizing use of force against Iraq. "The snapshot is: Republicans are supportive of...