Free Republic

Financially supported by Emily's List snip Voted NO on restricting UN funding for population control policies. Congressional Summary:To require that amounts appropriated for the United Nations Population Fund are not used by organizations which support coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. Proponent's argument to vote Yes: Sen. WICKER (R-MS): This amendment with one issue and one issue only--whether US taxpayer dollars will be provided to help fund coercive population control policies, such as China's one-child policy--a policy that relies on coerced abortion and forced sterilization. snip As it has always done, Kemp-Kasten allows the President to certify that funds are not...

The Constitution provides that each state shall have two senators, not one senator with two votes -- reason enough for New Yorkers to support ex-Rep. Joe DioGuardi over very-junior US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Nov. 2. There is scarcely enough room to slide a slip of paper between Gillibrand and senior Sen. Chuck Schumer -- which speaks poorly enough of them both... --snip-- He's not a household name. But he's running for a two-year term, and would have to face the voters again in 2012. At the very least, DioGuardi deserves a chance to prove he's up to the job. Kirsten...

Desperately trying to think of something both positive and credible to say about New York State's accidental U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out that Gillibrand is the Senate's "hottest" member. Reid's remark, made on September 20 at a ritzy private Democratic Party fundraiser in Manhattan, was sufficiently unimportant to qualify for massive media coverage.     Unfortunately for Senator Gillibrand, part of the fallout from this particular instance of media pursuit of the trivia has been to make New York State residents more aware of her and curious about her record. What they are now beginning...

Drew Angerer/AP Photo Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Back in happier days for Democrats, say early 2009 when New York Gov. David Paterson chose Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate, it was thought her pro-gun and fiscal hawk stands and her ties to a conservative part of the state would give her a general-election edge. And it still may. But a recent Quinniapiac University poll showed Gillibrand with just a six-point lead over Tea Party-backed Republican Joseph DioGuardi in a survey of likely voters, with the senator at 48 percent and her GOP challenger at 42 percent. What's...

Would you ever call Senator Kirsten Gillibrand hot? I would not for two reasons: 1. I have respect for the United States Senate, and would never use such a term to describe a member of the honorable institution. 2. Ms.Gillibrand, with all due respect, is not within 10,000 miles of "hot". Once a woman (or a man) hits 40 years of age - "hot" leaves the room.

Will someone please throw Harry Reid into the nearest cold shower? The Nevada Democrat set eyeballs rolling the other night at Mayor Bloomberg's townhouse when he said of New York's unelected junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand: "We in the Senate refer to Sen. Gillibrand as the hottest member." Whereupon Gillibrand reportedly turned a bright red -- suggesting that the Senate's most accomplished flip-flopper is capable of embarrassment after all. Which is more than can be said for Reid. The Senate majority leader's list of gaffes and goofs is legendary. Remember when he referred to Barack Obama as having "no Negro dialect,...

In what seems to be a Democratic stronghold, New York may yet have a race in it. Incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand, who analysts have said had an insurmountable lead, is now only ahead of Republican Joseph DioGuardi by 10%, according to the nation's most accurate polling service, Rasmussen. Previously, DioGuardi was much further behind Gillibrand in the polls. In early September alone, he was down by 20%. He has cut the lead in half. Considering the amazing upsets that have already happened this year, most notably Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, it is not inconceivable that DioGuardi could bridge the gap...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had an unusual form of praise for New York's junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, this morning at the fundraiser Mayor Bloomberg hosted for him at his townhouse - referring to her as "the hottest member" as she sat just a few feet away, according to three sources. The comment prompted Gillibrand to turn red, according to the sources, and created a bit of stir among the small crowd there. "It was pretty shocking when he said it," said one source familiar with the remark and the reaction. A Reid spokesman confirmed it happened, but also noted...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) tweeted Monday afternoon that she had just spoken with Lady Gaga, who has been lobbying the Senate ahead of Tuesday’s vote on a defense authorization bill that includes a repeal provision for “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). “[I] thanked her for her advocacy,” said Gillibrand. “I asked her to keep pushing for DADT repeal.” Gaga had left a message with Gillibrand last week, prompting the senator to reach out on Twitter for another time to talk. The Grammy Award-winning pop icon attended a rally in Portland, Maine, on Monday with veterans discharged by the DADT policy,...

Former Rep. Joseph DioGuardi of New York won the Republican nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in November’s election. With 85 percent of the precincts counted in yesterday’s primary, DioGuardi had 42 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press. David Malpass, a former Bear Stearns Cos. chief economist, had 38 percent and Bruce Blakeman, a lawyer, had 20 percent. DioGuardi, 69, represented the northern New York City suburbs in the House from 1985 to 1989. He and Gillibrand, 43, are running to serve the two years remaining in the term won in 2006 by Hillary Clinton,...

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has been endorsed for election by a leading gun control group, two years after earning a top rating from the National Rifle Association. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence notes that Gillibrand had been an NRA favorite when she was an upstate congresswoman in a Republican district. But the group says that in less than two years as an appointed U.S. senator, she has become a leader in what the Brady group calls sensible gun laws. Gillibrand accepted the endorsement on Aug. 12, saying it reflects her opposition to illegal guns...

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Ran into Gail Goode — who is challenging Kirsten Gillibrand for her Senate seat in the Democratic primary — in Congress Park Friday afternoon. She is in town for the weekend and will be shaking hands at the Tom Petty concert Friday and at the Travers Saturday. "I think it's very important that people know that 45,000 people put me on the ballot," she said, contrasting that with the "one person" — Gov. David Paterson — who put Gillibrand in her seat to replace Hillary Clinton. "I think it's very important for New Yorkers to know that...

Just one day after learning that he will face a House Ethics Committee trial on multiple ethics allegations, it looks like Rep. Charlie Rangel is starting to turn toxic for fellow Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer -- who've been among Rangel's staunchest defenders during the committee's two-year probe -- issued terse statements conspicuously lacking in political support. "The independent, bipartisan Ethics Committee is moving forward," said Pelosi through a spokesman. Added Hoyer -- as he dodged questions about the scandal's impact on congressional elections: "The ethics process is working." And two of New York's leading...

Republican decision-makers in New York missed the boat – big time. The U.S. Senate junior position currently held by a one-time “conservative” Democrat turned mouth-piece for Sen. Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, is probably the weakest seat in the state. According to a June 14 Sienna College poll, Gillibrand’s favorability rating is down six points from last month to a dismal 36%. Here is the perfect opportunity to show the rest of the country that even liberal New York is ripe for upheaval. New York State Conservative Party got it right when they chose former Congressman Joe DioGuardi as their designated...

- New York Republicans have given Bruce Blakeman the party's official designation to take on Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. The three-day GOP convention came to a fractious end with the Republican delegates split on their choice of Senate candidate. Bruce Blakeman is the former presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature. He won the endorsement over David Malpass, who earned enough support at Thursday's convention to run in a September 14th GOP primary. Malpass is a former Bear Stearns chief economist. A third candidate, former congressman Joe DioGuardi, didn't get enough votes for a primary line. But he is vowing...

D’Amato has supposedly endorsed Bruce Blakeman for Senate, and has lately been selling his soul to get Conservative and Republican endorsements. Even the most amateur of political observers conclude that good old Al has been desperately seeking the Republican nomination for Blakeman, in order to ensure Gillibrand’s retention of her ill-gotten seat. Two pictures are worth a thousand words; and, remember, they are taken less than 18 months apart. On the left we have Blakeman’s formal announcement of his candidacy for U.S. Senate. And on the right, we have the Gillibrand announcement. Anyone who has already endorsed Bruce Blakeman may...

At the state level, governors like New York’s George Pataki and California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger pandered to government-employee unions and opened the spending spigots, to taxpayers’ ongoing horror. Other culprits include the state-level influence peddlers who seem more interested in cash than in free-market and conservative principles.New York ’s former U.S. senator Alfonse D’Amato is a perfect example of this breed. “Senator Pothole” personally discovered an obscure state senator, George Pataki, from Peekskill, N.Y. After being muscled through the state GOP convention, Pataki scored the party’s nomination and won the governorship in 1994. After some limited first-term tax cutting, Pataki’s spend-o-rama...

The appointment by New York Governor David Paterson of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to the vacant senate seat of Hillary Clinton raises serious questions surrounding the illegal dirty tricks employed to elect Gillibrand to Congress in the first place. In 2006 Governor George Pataki's Chief of Staff Zenia Mucha illegally obtained New York State Police records regarding a domestic dispute between then Congressman John Sweeney and his wife. The records were obtained by former State Police captain Daniel Wiese, who functioned as a dirty tricks operative for Pataki and later Governor Eliot Spitzer. Wiese was also the operative who pressured State...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is taking political swipes from the right AND the left today. The DN's Glenn Blain reports from the State Capitol that GOP Senate candidate David Malpass held the Albany launch of his campaign this morning and continued to attack Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s ties to the Global Strategy Group - one of the firms that reached a settlement yesterday with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo over its role in the pension fund scandal. Malpass, in an obvious move to woo New York’s Jewish voters, also broadened the attack to include Gillibrand’s “silence” regarding the Obama administration’s Israel policy, Blain...

Over the past twenty years, Chuck Schumer has received $7.7 million in campaign contributions from the securities and investment sector, more than any other non-presidential politician. So it's no wonder his supportive stance for the Senate's financial regulation bill has many on Wall Street outraged and accusing him of turning against them. But rather than try to appease his big donors, Schumer is taking a publicly defiant position, holding a Washington press conference yesterday to re-affirm his principles, and contributing a firm opinion column to the New York Post — a paper whose own editorial board had criticized his position....