Free Republic

Party leaders who spoke at a weekend fundraising banquet urged Iowa Democrats to “stand up” against Republicans and “stick with” the president. Congressman Bruce Braley of Waterloo was among the first to speak at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner on Saturday night.“It’s not acceptable for Democrats to be walking around looking glum because now is not the time for doubt. Now is not the time for fear,” Braley began.  “And now is not the time for silence.” Braley brought the crowd of Iowa Democrats to its feet by the end of his six-minute speech.“I want, as she sits in her...

A new Des Moines Register poll is great news for Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, as well as GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Terry Branstad and Bob Vander Plaats. It is very bad news for Iowa's current Governor.

Harkin to Succeed Kennedy as Health Panel Chair Sen. Tom Harkin, the next most senior Democrat on the Senate panel focused on overhauling the nation's health care system, will fill the seat held on an interim basis by Sen. Chris Dodd. FOXNews.com September 08, 2009 WASHINGTON -- A fierce proponent of the public option and proud, self-identified firebrand liberal will chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, formerly held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, FOX News confirmed late Tuesday. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, the next most senior Democrat on the Senate panel focused on overhauling the nation's...

Harkin get hammered at Des Moines Town Hall!

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS. YOUTUBE VIDEO

Health-care outbursts foreshadow a hot August (with links to info on LIAR Tom Harkin, see below) DES MOINES, Iowa -- Loud outbursts, hot tempers and pleas for civility at town hall meetings around the country Saturday foreshadowed a long, hot August as Democratic lawmakers returning home faced resistance to proposals to reform the nation's costly health care system. At a meeting in Des Moines, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, was interrupted several times by people in the audience shouting criticism and questions, even though he said he didn't expect Iowans to take part in what he called "scare tactics, misinformation...

A health care event sponsored U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin erupted into a shouting match Saturday afternoon, when opponents of health-care reform yelled pointed questions and criticisms to the Democratic senator. It echoed other health care events sponsored by members of Congress around the country in recent days that have been disrupted by protestors, although no one was arrested at Saturday’s event. Uniformed police officers were present as roughly 200 people turned out to see Harkin at an inner-city health care center to voice their opinions or ask questions about health care. “This is not health reform, this is control, control...

A group of senators are discussing dropping a key provision in the card-check bill in order to win centrist support in the upper chamber. But congressional aides and union officials said no agreement has been hammered out yet on an alternative to a bill that is organized labor’s top legislative priority. They stressed that that every piece of the legislation is up for discussion in order to earn 60 votes to beat back a certain Senate filibuster. A report in The New York Times Thursday said senators led by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) had decided to remove the card-check or...

Notes: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 15, 2009 Statement by the President on the Health Care Reform Legislation Passed Today by the Senate HELP Committee "Today, thanks to the unyielding passion and inspiration provided by Senator Edward Kennedy, the HELP committee he chairs has produced a proposal that will finally lower health care costs, provide better care for patients, and ensure fair treatment of consumers by the insurance industry. Like the legislation produced by the House of Representatives, this proposal would offer Americans...

Democrat Al Franken, right, with his wife Frannie Franken smile as they meet the media at their house in MInneapolis Tuesday June 30, 2009 after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Democrat in the Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman. (AP Photo/Andy King) Al Franken, the newest member of the U.S. Senate, will be the guest speaker at Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry Sept. 13. Franken, who is expected to be seated in the Senate next week after winning recounts and court challenges in his upset of Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, will headline Harkin's 32nd...

Ashby Jones: The Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday apologizing for slavery, making way for a joint congressional resolution. Click here for the WaPo story. “You wonder why we didn’t do it 100 years ago,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), lead sponsor of the resolution, said after the vote. “It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice.” Memo to Senator Harkin: We had a collective response. It was called the Army of the Potomac. Not to mention the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and decades of affirmative action. Jones continues: Randall...

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution yesterday apologizing for slavery, making way for a joint congressional resolution and the latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 1/2 centuries of slavery. "You wonder why we didn't do it 100 years ago," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), lead sponsor of the resolution, said after the unanimous-consent vote. "It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice." The Senate's apology follows a similar apology passed last year by the House. One key difference is that the Senate version explicitly deals with the long-simmering issue of whether slavery...

Names of the six senators who voted to fund the closing of GITMO: Durbin - Illinois Harkin - Iowa Leahy - Vermont Levin - Michigan Reed - Rhode Island Whitehorse - Rhode Island Source: michellemalkin.com

After many setbacks, the “card check” bill’s chief Senate sponsor is expressing new optimism that the legislation, which would ease union organizing, could be on the Senate floor this summer.In recent weeks, Tom Harkin , D-Iowa, has been meeting with a small number of senators, with occasional input from Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., to hash out alternatives to the legislation (S 560, HR 1409) that would still reflect its basic purpose: making it easier for workers to certify and join viable unions.Compromise has been on the agenda since the legislation was introduced in March, but strategies have...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--It appears Sen. Arlen Specter's planned party switch will restore his electoral safety but won't, at least according to a Senate colleague, come with the trappings of a chairmanship. Specter, R-Pa., who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee before Republicans lost control of Congress in 2007, will retain his seniority when he migrates from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. His nearly three decades in the Senate will catapult him above other Democrats on several committees. But although that means he now has the seniority to chair the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the departments of Labor, Health...

Becoming Illegal The Honorable Tom Harkin 731 Hart Senate Office Building Phone (202)-224-3254 Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Harkin, As a native Iowan and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you. My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of...

Dear Friends, This week, I was just as outraged as I am sure many of you were, when I learned that millions of dollars were paid out in bonuses to employees at companies that received bailout funding. I am dumbfounded to think that some of the very people at AIG whose recklessness caused such harm to the financial system and our economy are now being rewarded. What’s more is that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department knew about these bonuses before they went out and did not aggressively act to stop them. The Treasury needs to step up oversight...

WASHINGTON -- Key Senate Democrats are wavering in their support of legislation that would give more power to labor unions, dealing a setback to labor's top priority as businesses warn of the damage the bill would cause. A woman wears a model house on her head during a rally in Washington to support the "Employee Free Choice Act." The battle over the "Employee Free Choice Act" -- expected to be introduced Tuesday -- is seen as a power struggle among labor unions and businesses, as well as a test of whether moderate Democrats and Republicans will push back on Democratic...

Posted by: Jeremy Pelofsky Tags: Front Row Washington, Iowa, pigs, Tom Coburn, Tom Harkin Some might think it would be hard to defend spending $1.8 million on researching how to deal with the odor from pig manure, but Senator Tom Harkin found it pretty easy to do. Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, succeeded in getting the funds included in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill that is pending in the Senate, drawing protests from some like Senator John McCain that it is wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars. “I’m sure that David Letterman will probably be talking about it and Jay Leno...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two prominent supporters of stem cell research said on Thursday they had reintroduced a Senate bill that would allow federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, in anticipation of President Barack Obama's support for the work. Senators Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, and Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said their bipartisan measure would allow federal funding for research using stem cells taken from human embryos left over from fertility treatments. "It is the same bill that both houses of Congress approved in 2007, but was vetoed by President Bush," they said in a statement. Obama...

Barry, it's impossible to ignore the ongoing discussion and renewed calls from members of Congress to bring back the Fairness Doctrine or what many are saying will be legislation that will go by a different name.  As we've discussed before , the Fairness Doctrine is an antiquated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule dating back to the 1940s that was abandoned in 1987 during the Reagan administration.   In theory, the Fairness Doctrine was designed to enhance political discourse by requiring television and radio broadcast stations to "cover vitally important controversial issues of interest in their communities" and "provide a reasonable opportunity for...

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is pushing for return of the Fairness Doctrine even as some of his Democratic colleagues are quietly backing off the idea. Originally instituted in 1949 by the FCC, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters over the public airwaves to give equal time to opposing political views.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has become the second U.S. senator in a week to endorse a return to the ideas behind the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," a plan that was abandoned under President Reagan in 1987 as unnecessary and unconstitutional. The plan, originally introduced in 1949, demanded that radio and television stations give "equal" time to conservative and liberal opinions on political issues under the threat of penalties or license revocation.

Bill Press continues to press for the return of the Fairness Doctrine. I guess he probably figures it'll take a law to make anyone listen to his drivel. We have to keep a close eye on these bastards in the Senate - There is no question that they intend to curtail liberties in America, and the easiest way to get that done is to shut up all the conservatives first.

Harkin says he's shocked House Republicans didn't back stimulus bill Thursday, January 29, 2009, 3:28 PM By Darwin Danielson Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, says he's shocked the $800-billion economic stimulus bill passed the U.S. House without a single Republican vote. Harkin says it's surprising with all the people being laid off and conservative economists saying the government needs to do more, not less. "I 'spose someone can always say 'well I found something wrong with the bill', but I think there's a heck of a lot more good in it than bad," Harkin says. Harkin says he hopes...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Sen. Tom Harkin is proposing new legislation that he said would increase the demand for American cars. Along with Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, Harkin introduced a bill earlier this week that in turn would take older, less-fuel-efficient cars off the road, while also giving buyers a big bonus. The Sell Fuel Efficient Cars Act would provide a rebate of $10,000 to buyers who trade in a car more than 10 years old for a new American car. Officials said the reason for the act is to help create demand for American cars and preserve jobs...

Friday, November 7, 2008 12:00 PM CST Iowans played role in Obama victory The state of Iowa can take its share of credit for the history-making campaign of President-elect Barack Obama, and not just because of the 54 percent to 44 percent margin of victory for Obama Tuesday within the state. It started back in January, when Iowa stunned the nation by giving Obama a victory in the Iowa caucuses. In addition to Obama’s win in the caucuses, Hillary Clinton finished a disappointing third place, behind John Edwards. That showing went a long way in taking the “ability” out of...

Something’s missing on Iowa’s political landscape this year: Tom Harkin’s always red-hot race for reelection. Yet despite the low-to-invisible profile of Harkin’s Republican opponent, Christopher “Who?” Reed, Wednesday’s KCCI poll showed the businessman and first-time candidate with 39 percent of the vote. That might not sound like much, but with near-universal name ID, John McCain got the same 39 percent in that same poll. Christopher Reed in Postville, IA.A Research 2000 poll shows Reed at 40 percent, and the Des Moines Register poll had him at 34 percent two weeks ago, with Harkin in the low 50s in each. So...

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin’s lead over Republican challenger Jack Reed has dropped 10 points this month, but he is still poised to handily win his bid for re-election in November. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Hawkeye State finds Harkin ahead 54% to 40%. This is the incumbent’s smallest lead since tracking of the race began in June. Last month, Harkin led 58% to 34%. He is currently seeking his fifth term in the Senate. In his last re-election bid, Harkin beat his Republican opponent, Greg Ganske, 54% to 44%. Reed is a Navy veteran and businessman.

Harkin: Gas cheaper because of ethanol By Ian Swanson Posted: 07/24/08 11:39 AM [ET] Ethanol is keeping gas prices as much as 40 cents cheaper, according to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), one of the Senate’s top supporters of corn-based renewable fuels. As a result, the Bush administration should deny Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) request that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cut in half the federal mandate requiring the oil industry to blend 9 million gallons of ethanol into the nation’s gas supply, Harkin said. “Ethanol is keeping gas 24 to 40 cents cheaper than it otherwise would be,” Harkin...

Dear Rob: Thank you for contacting me. I am always glad to hear from you. At a time when Americans are working harder to make ends meet, I share your concern about the high cost of gasoline. Iowans are paying record prices and it's creating a ripple effect throughout our economy and the problem only seems to be getting worse. These prices make living our daily lives a real challenge. I am fully committed to changing the course of America's energy policy - to transition America away from our crippling dependence on foreign sources of oil. These debilitating prices are...

DES MOINES -- Republican Congressman Steve King carries a copy of the Constitution with him everywhere he goes. He said it reminds him of the oath he took when first elected in 2002 to Congress. King stressed at Saturday's GOP state convention that Constitution could come under fire if Sen. Barack Obama is elected in November. "If we don't exercise our rights, we will lose them," said King, noting he has defended the Constitution even when it wasn't popular, cheap or easy. "Even when we have a Constitution (we think) is a guarantee that doesn't mean it is a guarantee...

As you no doubt know, the Senate last week voted to confirm Gen. David Petraeus -- slandered less than a year ago by MoveOn.org as "Gen. Betray Us" -- by a 95 to 2 vote. Which two senators voted against Petraeus, despite his historic achievement: dramatically changing U.S. military strategy in Iraq and turning what looked to be America's defeat at the hands of al-Qaeda and Iran's proxies into a clear success? The answer (drum roll please): Senator Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) and Senator Robert Byrd (D., W.V.) voted against him. Interesting, don't you think, that both Harkin and Byrd...

In the Des Moines Register, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said that the worldview of Navy veteran Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is the son and grandson of Admirals, has been shaped too much by the military. "He has a hard time thinking beyond that," Harkin told reporters. "I think he's trapped in that. Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous.""It's one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that's just how you're...

According to an article in the Des Moines Register, a link to which is posted on Mark Levin's Web site, Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin recently argued that John McCain's upbringing by a military family, rather than being a plus, is actually a liability because McCain would have a "hard time thinking beyond" the "world view shaped by" his military family upbringing, and also said it "can be pretty dangerous." Harkin: "Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous."

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin is catching grief for suggesting John McCain’s family history of military service makes the presumptive Republican presidential nominee unfit to be commander-in-chief. Harkin, who has a history of embellishing his own military record, told Iowa reporters last week that McCain’s background as the son and grandson of Navy admirals creates a “dangerous” situation because he can only view the world through the prism of the military. “He has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Harkin said, according to The Des Moines Register. “I think he’s trapped in that. Everything is looked at from his life experiences,...

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin is catching grief for suggesting John McCain’s family history of military service makes the presumptive Republican presidential nominee unfit to be commander-in-chief. Harkin, who has a history of embellishing his own military record, told Iowa reporters last week that McCain’s background as the son and grandson of Navy admirals creates a “dangerous” situation because he can only view the world through the prism of the military. “He has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Harkin said, according to The Des Moines Register. “I think he’s trapped in that. Everything is looked at from his life experiences,...

According to Tom Harkin, a man who served his country for decades in the military and follows a family tradition of service must be feared rather than respected. Harkin told reporters that John McCain’s family history of service makes him too “militaristic” to be President, unlike those who got drafted against their will to serve the nation. Unfortunately, neither describes Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton: Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s family background as the son and grandson of admirals has given him a worldview shaped by the military, “and he has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Sen. Tom Harkin,...

This needs to be widely distributed.I can't post the video clip so you will have to go the the link. It's a clip of John McCain appearing on Des Moines' WHO radio last July, when on-air talent Jan Mickelson played him Tom Harkin's comments from earlier that month, recorded on the floor of the Senate: And if we leave, there will be a bloodbath in Vietnam. All of the people who supported us will be slaughtered in the streets. Well, it didn't happen.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said Friday no candidate should be forced from the presidential race as pressure has built inside the Democratic Party for Hillary Clinton to drop out. Harkin said he will not throw his endorsement behind either Clinton or Barack Obama before all of the Democratic primary contests are completed on June 3. Harkin is the highest profile Democrat in Iowa who has yet to back either candidate. He said voters should have a right to cast their votes before he and other superdelegates like him make their choice. "We set up rules, and I believe that as...

(CNN) – In a campaign season growing more heated by the day, one word keeps making an appearance: chill. This morning, Sen. Tom Harkin — an undeclared superdelegate — became the latest politician to call for a cooldown, telling reporters on a conference call reported by Radio Iowa that former President Bill Clinton needs to “chill out.” A local journalist asked about a report of an alleged Clinton “meltdown” during a private meeting with California superdelegates, and asked whether he was doing his wife Hillary Clinton's campaign more harm than good. "I'm not going to judge that," responded Harkin. "I...

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says a bill that provides federal money to states for health care coverage for uninsured children could come up for a vote in the Senate today or tomorrow . President Bush is threatening to veto the bill, and Harkin a Democrat says he can't understand why. Harkin says the bill is "overwhelmingly bipartisan, and credits fellow Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley with coming up with a compromise bill. "Unfortunately the president has rejected appeals from Senator Grassley and others to reconsider his veto," Harkin says, "Bush seems to be locked into a rigid ideological position on...

They tried it in 1996, in 2000 and again in 2004. Liberals who fear conservative talk radio -- and most of all its commander in chief, Rush Limbaugh -- tried to discredit and silence Rush. They failed, and now -- given the fragility of their all-but-certain nominee, Hillary Clinton -- they’re desperate to take another shot at getting Limbaugh out of the way. Last week, replying to a caller about soldiers who were not what they claimed to be, Limbaugh called them “phony.” Reasonably read, Rush wasn’t talking about all our troops: just those such as Scott Thomas Beuachamp who...

Byron York has a complete recap of the phoney "phoney soldiers" controversy. Senate Democrats are clearly clueless about how this appears to the national audience, so we can only hope they continue to push it as a scandal. I gave a talk last night on the presidential race to an audience of approximately 100 very successful business people and their spouses, and in the Q&A that followed, a soft spoken woman asked a question in very soft and almost grieved tones: What has happened to the Democrats and the media that they are so filled with hate? The backdrop was...

As our soldiers are engaged in an epic battle against sworn enemies of America, our elected officials take to the Senate floor, whining about a passing comment by a talk show host. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scored a “two-fer”. He burnished his “pro-troop” credentials while, at the same time, attacking Rush Limbaugh. This was a masterful gotcha moment. Sen. Reid implored his fellow senators to join him in condemning Limbaugh for a "hateful" and "unpatriotic" attack on U.S. troops. This, in response to a comment about phony vets made by Rush Limbaugh. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa threw...

Tom Harkin is a Democrat Senator from Iowa who is known as one of the most Liberal and vituperative creatures to inhabit that chamber. The Democrats, smarting from the backlash to the MoveOn.org ad “General Betray-Us,” are trying to hit back. They are attacking Rush Limbaugh for using the term “phony soldier” in referring to fakes like Jesse MacBeth who claimed to have been and Army Ranger who participated in massacres in Iraq. The Left is claiming that Rush referred to soldiers who disagree witht he way the war is being fought. This propelled him into instant hero status on...

As our troops are engaged in an epic battle against sworn enemies of America, our elected officials take to the Senate floor, whining about a passing comment by a talk show host. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scored a 'twofer'. He burnished his 'pro-troop' credentials while at the same time, attacking Rush Limbaugh. This was a masterful 'gotcha' moment. Senator Reid implored his fellow Senators to join him in condemning Limbaugh for a "hateful" and "unpatriotic" attack on U.S. troops. This, in response to a comment about 'phony vets' made by Rush Limbaugh. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa threw...

Michelle Malkin  Fake war hero Tom Harkin smears Rush Limbaugh By Michelle Malkin • October 1, 2007 04:46 PM Is there any doubt that Tom Harkin is a MoveOn.org Democrat?None. None at all.Harkin on the Senate floor: Well, I don’t know. Maybe he was just high on his drugs again. I don’t know whether he was or not. If so, he ought to let us know. But that shouldn’t be an excuse. Why is Harkin counter-attacking so viciously?Maybe this has something to do with it:Isntapundit flashback: TOM HARKIN, FAKE WAR HERO.

  Home | Previous Page | Source URL: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/sep/07092403.html LifeSiteNews.com Monday September 24, 2007 Priest Blasts 'Usual Suspects' For Votes Against Pro-Life Policy FRONT ROYAL, VA, September 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, (HLI) today blasted a gang of 16 Catholic senators for their votes on an amendment to HR 2764 to overturn the Mexico City Policy instituted by President Reagan to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding overseas abortions. "For the most part it's the usual suspects who claim to be Catholic while their consistent pro-abortion votes amount to...

David Yepsen's column this weekend suggests that Republicans do not have a credible challenger to Harkin for 2008. Yepsen points out: Yet so far, no big-name Republicans seem to be making the moves needed to challenge him. Only obscure names are heard. Could the ghosts of Bill Scherle (1974), Roger Jepsen (1984), Tom Tauke (1990), Jim Lightfoot (1996) and Greg Ganske (2002) be scaring off credible GOP challengers? Could 2008 be the year that Harkin, finally, gets the same sort of free ride from Republicans that Democrats have been giving Chuck Grassley for 20 years? Of course in Republican circles...