Free Republic

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have issued a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission asking for an investigation of anticompetitive practices by oil companies that limit consumer access to renewable fuels, specifically higher ethanol blends.

Prostitution. Bribery. Blackmail. Thuggery. Hypocrisy. Those were just some of the incendiary words thrown around the U.S. Senate last week, and that doesn’t count what people said in private. The Senate may still have a reputation as a genteel club, but lawmakers seemed to abandon rules of decorum completely last week in arguments about whether Congress should be treated like the rest of the country when it comes to Obamacare. Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has demanded a floor vote on his bill to end an exemption that members of Congress and their staffs are slated to get that...

The Treasury Department has admitted for the first time that confidential tax records of several political candidates and campaign donors were improperly scrutinized by government officials, but the Justice Department has declined to prosecute any of the cases. Its investigators also are probing two allegations that the Internal Revenue Service “targeted for audit candidates for public office,” the Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, J. Russell George, has privately told Sen. Chuck Grassley. In a written response to a request by Mr. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Mr. George said a review turned up four cases since...

Full title.......Anthony Weiner and wife Huma move into luxury $3.3M condo owned by top Clinton donor... are they there for free or just getting a sweet deal? dailymail.co.uk story | 8/13/12 / FR Posted by ColdOne Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner and his faithful wife Huma Abedin have moved into a $3.3million New York City apartment owned by a top donor to Ms Abedin's boss, Hillary Clinton. The well-appointed luxury pad includes four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms in the 12th floor of an exclusive building on Park Avenue. It costs an estimated $14,000 a month. The price...

When Michele Bachmann picked on Huma Abedin a year ago — claiming she had some convoluted connection to the Muslim Brotherhood — there was a rush to defend the longtime Hillary Clinton aide. The Minnesota congresswoman quickly got a scolding from House Speaker John Boehner, Sen. John McCain, House Intelligence Committee chair Mile Rogers. But now that her husband, Anthony Weiner, is running for New York City mayor, the attacks on Abedin aren't so ridiculous, and Abedin herself is not quite so untouchable.

Huma Abedin, the wife of New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, AKA Carlos Danger, is facing an ongoing Senate investigation into the consulting fees she earned while also working as a State Department employee for then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has been investigating Abedin’s activities as a paid consultant while she was still working for Clinton toward the end of her tenure. In June, 2012, Abedin changed her employment status at the State Department from being a full time employee with the title of deputy chief of staff to being a “special government employee,” a...

Ex-IRS Employee: IRS targeting of Christine O’Donnell “not an aberration.” It wasn’t an accident. And the IRS has used hush money. A former IRS employee — that would be IRS employee-turned-whistle blower Stanley Welli — tells The American Spectator that the IRS targeting of Delaware Republican U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, a Tea Party favorite, was neither “isolated” nor “an aberration.” O’Donnell was recently notified by the IRS that the agency had “received information that your personal federal tax info may have been compromised and may have been misused by an individual…” --snip-- The episode launched Welli on an endless...

The rumors of the demise of Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential prospects in Iowa as a result of his role in crafting immigration reform are somewhat exaggerated, said Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on Thursday. Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, a fierce opponent of immigration reform, has said that Rubio is toast in the Iowa caucuses, should he run for president in 2016. A number of Iowa conservatives expressed similar opinions to the Washington Examiner’s Byron York last month. But Grassley said that in 2013, it was too early to make such predictions. “It’s pretty hard for me to...

On first appraisal, the amnesty/immigration bill before the Senate looks pretty bad. On a more careful comb-through, clause by clause, it looks much worse - like a complete disaster. It also looks like a massive venture in deception. Consider the oft-repeated claim that, under the bill, 11 million plus illegal immigrants now in the U.S. won't get legal status unless and until the border with Mexico is secure. This claim has been incessantly made by backers of the measure who call it "tough, conservative" legislation. Thus, a former official in the second Bush administration flatly tells us, "The bill's path...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made a move to formally kill an amendment Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) offered to the immigration bill. It would require border security before America’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants are granted amnesty.Reid filed a motion to “table” the amendment, a move that he used to quickly push for an up-or-down vote. A vote in favor of tabling the amendment would kill it. A vote against tabling the amendment would allow it to move through for debate. Essentially, a vote for Reid’s motion is a vote against securing the...

Grassley's amendment was dead on arrival in the Judiciary Committee and it was dead on arrival on the floor of the Senate today. Why? Because it did the one thing Republican border hawks Must Not Do as part of this grand, glorious compromise on immigration: It demanded that the border be effectively secured before any form of legalization, including first-stage probationary legalization, is granted to illegals. That would be a true enforcement “trigger” for amnesty, something that would warrant a second look at the bill. But of course, Democrats will never, ever agree to it; they have no more faith...

(CNN) - An amendment to the Senate's immigration reform plan that would have required strict border controls be in place before undocumented immigrants are able to begin the process that could lead to citizenship was tabled Thursday. Democrats and a few Republicans voted 57-43 to table the measure, proposed by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Democrats, who oppose the Grassley amendment because they think it sets security metrics that are not attainable

Senator Charles Grassley, who launched the first Capitol Hill investigation of Operation Fast and Furious more than two years ago, today blasted the treatment of a chief whistleblower in the investigation by the former U.S. attorney in Arizona, and subsequent attempts to discredit him by the Justice Department. Grassley released a statement after the Office of Inspector General released a report Monday morning that shows former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke leaked “a sensitive document” to a Fox News reporter in an attempt to discredit John Dodson, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The IG’s...

Vid at link. Testy exchange

Dear Friends, President Obama wanted three things on gun control -- to ban assault weapons, limit magazine sizes, and expand background checks. Fortunately, he lost on all three. I’ve always been confident if the Senate debated the Second Amendment, the Second Amendment would win. Yesterday, the Senate took up, debated, and voted on gun violence legislation. I am very pleased we had this debate, and was always ready and willing to vote in support of what I believe. Here’s how I voted yesterday: Voted Against the Manchin-Toomey Background Check Amendment (Failed 54-46, required 60 votes) No matter how well-intentioned, the...

If there were any doubts that the oft-used term ‘comprehensive immigration reform' is a stalking-horse for amnesty, a new Senate proposal should dispel them. The measure, touted as a way to fix our ‘broken' immigration system, will do the opposite. Not only will it demean U.S. citizenship and rule of law, it also likely will produce adverse economic effects. The main feature of the 844-page bill is that it would allow millions of illegal immigrants to apply for legal residency and eventual citizenship. Significantly, the bill bears a strong union influence. And labor officials aren't bashful about it. Ana Avendano,...

As President Barack Obama pulls out all the stops to push his gun control agenda, even using Air Force One to fly parents of Sandy Hook victims to lobby on Capitol Hill, the man who launched the first inquiry about Operation Fast and Furious more than two years ago may be poised to derail the president’s runaway train. Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley is still working out the details of an alternative bill that, according to spokesperson Beth Levine, will emphasize mental health, protecting veterans from losing their gun rights, and improving school security. It will not erode Second Amendment rights...

The Republican members of the bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” have passed the deadline for Senate Judiciary Committee ranking GOP member Sen. Chuck Grassley’s request for a briefing on their coming immigration reform bill. Last week, Grassley (R-IA) and his conservative committee colleagues Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Mike Lee (R-UT) wrote to “Gang of Eight” senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), John McCain (R-AZ), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), asking them to champion a transparent immigration reform process complete with thorough hearings examining each facet of any legislation those “Gang” Republicans and their Democratic counterparts develop....

The details of a gun control bill being written by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are now coming to light. As first reported by Politico, Grassley is crafting a Republican alternative to Democrats’ proposals, which are centered on expanding background checks, including information-sharing and record-keeping. In a follow-up piece this morning, Politico suggests that Grassley’s effort could draw moderates of both parties away from the Democrats’ main proposal. Previously Grassley’s office has declined to comment on the bill being authored, but in an interview today Press Secretary Beth Levine laid out the Iowa Republican’s legislative priorities. She said Grassley is considering...

While lawmakers in Olympia wrestle with a state universal background check measure, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today adopted on a 10-8 party line vote a similar measure that faces an uncertain future before the entire Senate. But Sen. Charles Grassley (R- Iowa) warned that this measure could ultimately lead to registration and even confiscation when anti-gunners realize background checks do not prevent violent crimes. In California, guns are already being confiscated from people who may live with someone who has been disqualified under a state law, according to a published report. His warning fell on the deaf ears of...