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Here is video of Missouri Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond reading his takeoff on "The Night Before Christmas" - "Twas the Congress before Christmas." . . . (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Senate Republicans on Friday pulled out of a bipartisan investigation into controversial "war on terror" detentions and interrogations, including tactics widely condemned as torture. The move by the opposition party dealt a sharp blow to the Senate Intelligence Committee's efforts to find out exactly what methods were used when and whether they paid off -- without prosecuting witnesses or agents thought to have committed abuses. Senator Kit Bond, the panel's top Republican, blamed Attorney General Eric Holder's investigation into alleged CIA abuse of detainees, which he said made it impossible for current or former CIA officials...

Here is a video report saying Missouri Sen. Kit Bond has sent a letter to the head of the "Senate Green Jobs Committee" calling for an investigation into the appointment of Van Jones. The report contains some video of Jones making his outrageous attacks on President Bush, and then talks to Jeff Birnbaum of the Washington Times. Birnbaum says his sources say Jones is "not gone yet," but he feels it may be close since White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs did not really "back Jones," but instead only pointed out Jones "still works in this administration." . . ....

This isn't going to quiet any time soon. Now Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), a top member of the subcommittee that oversees green jobs, wants a congressional hearing on Van Jones, the Obama environmental czar who's under fire for his past affiliation with the 9/11 conspiracy "truthers" and for calling Republicans "a**holes" in a video before he was appointed to the Obama administration. Bond just released a letter he wrote to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the chairman of the Green Jobs and New Economy Subcommittee, saying Jones "is becoming increasingly erratic and unstable as reflected by incendiary comments and repugnant associations...

KANSAS CITY, MO - Three Republican senators came to Children's Mercy Hospital Monday to meet with health care professionals. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said we should focus on only the problems that need fixing and not revamp the whole thing. Senator McConnell joined Senators John McCain and Kit Bond before an invited crowd of mostly health professionals on Monday. "We have committed an act of generational death by laying on our children, grandchildren these multi-trillions of dollars," Sen. McCain said. "All of it, it strikes me argues once again for a much more targeted, incremental approach to health care...

Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, ripped the Obama administration Monday over its proposal to create an enforcement team to question suspected terrorists. The program, known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), would operate out of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under direct White House oversight. It will be overseen by the National Security Council. President Barack Obama approved the elite unit last week, which will be made up of intelligence and law enforcement officials. Traditionally the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has taken the lead interrogating suspected terrorists, but its practices have...

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the likely 2010 GOP nominee for Senate in this perennial swing state, says he doesn't want to talk anymore about whether President Obama was born in the United States, the Springfield News-Leader reports. But Blunt still doesn't seem to be giving up on it as a legitimate issue, either. Blunt said last week that "I don't have any reason not to believe" that Obama is a natural-born citizen -- but at the same time he said the Birthers had a "legitimate question" about Obama's birth certificate. Well, the local media in Missouri is now asking him...

Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, a Republican who is retiring after four terms in the Senate, said on Wednesday that he would vote to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, despite some disagreements with some of her rulings and public statements. “I do agree that Judge Sotomayor has proven herself a well-qualified jurist,” Mr. Bond said on the Senate floor. “I do agree that she has proven herself as a talented and accomplished student, federal prosecutor, corporate litigator, federal trial judge, and federal appeals court judge.”

Demonstrations in the wake of Iran's presidential election are a sign that country's dissidents want the U.S. to get involved in the disputed contest, Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) asserted Monday. Bond, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pushed back against President Obama's claim that the election is not a U.S. issue, and urged the administration to speak out more forcefully in favor of Iranian dissidents."We didn't have anything to do with this uprising; we're not trying to tell them who they should select," Bond said on CNBC Monday morning. "But when they have such obvious election fraud and...

The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence panel on Sunday warned that the Pentagon’s plan to release hundreds of photos documenting the abuse of U.S. military detainees will endanger troops and the American public. "I don't think there's any question it would endanger all of us, because I think it will enhance recruitment for all kinds of terrorists willing to come after us,” Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said on Fox News Sunday. The release of those photos will come after incendiary photos showing U.S. military personnel abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq spurred an intense debate during...

Congressional Republicans, led by House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), came out swinging against President Barack Obama's apparent new-found willingness to entertain the possibility of prosecuting former Bush Administration officials for decisions made regarding enhanced interrogations. Hoekstra (R-MI), penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal declaring that if Democrats wanted to conduct an investigation, Republicans would make sure Congressional Democrats were the subjects of the probe right along with the Bush Administration. House Minority Leader John Boehner echoed Hokestra's sentiments, saying that there was little that could be learned from any investigation that Congressional leaders did not...

President Obama's choice to run the Justice Department has assured senior Republican senators that he won't prosecute intelligence officers or political appointees who were involved in the Bush administration's policy of "enhanced interrogations." Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, Missouri Republican and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview with The Washington Times that he will support Eric H. Holder Jr.'s nomination for attorney general because Mr. Holder assured him privately that Mr. Obama's Justice Department will not prosecute former Bush officials involved in the interrogations program. Mr. Holder's promise apparently was key to moving his...

Evolving conventional wisdom holds that the growing string of senior Republican senators packing it in for retirement or a governor's office means gloom for the party in next year's midterm congressional elections, which are usually a time for an incumbent president's party to suffer. But, counterintuitively, that may not be the case. Bill Clinton remembers the Republican revolution of 1994 only too well -- and so does one of his top aides then, Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's incoming White House chief of staff. Indeed, Emanuel, who took over the House seat of someone named Rod Blagojevich in 2002, was one...

With the upcoming retirement of Sen. Kit Bond, Republicans across the state are wondering who will run to replace the Godfather of the Missouri GOP. My sources confirm that Congressman Roy Blunt is seriously considering a run for Bond’s seat.  In a press release on his website, Blunt says, “There is no doubt that if Senator Bond’s name was on the ballot in November of 2010 he would have won handily.”The question is, can Roy Blunt win?  The likely opponent for Blunt would be current Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.  For those outside of Missouri, the Carnahan family has...

When the news that Missouri's Kit Bond will not seek re-election to the Senate reached RedState.com late this morning, several of my colleagues there and I all had the same thought at the same time: "Sarah." No, not Sarah Palin. She's not eligible to run in Missouri, but here in the Show Me State, we have a Sarah of our own in Sarah Steelman. And there are more than just a few similarities. Kimberly Strassel wrote a feature article about her last July in the Wall Street Journal: Ms. Steelman is clearly doing something right. Her sin is in fact...

Bond is the third Republican Senator to leave the chamber in 2010 -- following Sens. Sam Brownback (Kans.) and Mel Martinez (Fla.) down that path. Democrats are expected to heavily target all three seats. Bond's retirement ends a long -- and, at times, rocky -- career in Missouri politics that began more than four decades ago when he ran and lost a race for Congress. In 1970, Bond bounced back to be elected state auditor and two years after that was elected governor of the Show Me State. In 1976 he was defeated for re-election but in 1980 reclaimed the...

Kit Bond is sending signals that he will in fact support the Big Labor Union/Auto-maker/Detroit bailout. I urge all Missouri Freepers to contact Senator Bond's office and urge him to reconsider: Phone: DC Office: 202-224-5721 KC Office: 816-471-7141 St. Louis Office: 314-725-4484 Springfield Office: 417-864-8258 SE Missouri Office: 573-334-7044 Columbia Office: 573-442-8151 Here is the link to the contact form on his website: http://bond.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.ContactForm

Obama “would so weaken our security forces that I personally believe that we would be in much greater danger of terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad,” says Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo. “I’m very much concerned, because he’s shown weak judgment throughout his career. [snip] Obama voted twice in favor of requiring warrants to intercept communications of foreign terrorists situated overseas, including Osama bin Laden, Bond says. [snip] [Regarding the legal route Obama prefers in fighting terror ... ] “That’s really great,” Bond says. “Prosecuting somebody who’s blown themselves to pieces. You’re lucky to find enough of them to...

President Clinton ordered a warrantless physical search of Aldrich Ames's residence in 1993, but Congress bolstered FISA by updating it to further assist Clinton instead of accusing his administration of illegal searches. Video

The Talk Shows Sunday, December 16th, 2007 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, author of a report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball; Reps. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Jane Harman, D-Calif.; Ted Leonsis, owner of the National Hockey League's Washington Capitals. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and Edwards. THIS WEEK (ABC): Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.; former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Edwards; Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., Kit Bond, R-Mo., and...

Missouri Sen. Kit Bond was announced as a new national co-chair and liaison to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign today. "America is hungry for a President who will say what he means, and do what he says. The American people want and deserve a genuine leader,and that is Rudy Giuliani," Bond said in a statement. "Rudy has the leadership qualities and the experience to handle whatever challenges America faces in the next 10 years." "Kit Bond is a leader when it comes to making sure those on the front lines of the Terrorists' War on Us have...

"I wonder if Missourians -- or any Americans -- really appreciate how important Bond’s work really is. Before the FISA amendments he shepherded through in August became law, we had missed (according to one intelligence community source) roughly six months of intelligence data on communications by terrorists to people in the United States. Which meant we had been blind for about that amount of time."

Much has been said in the mainstream media about how the Bush presidency is essentially over, a lame duck mired in controversy. Thursday, however, George W. Bush demonstrated that when he does wish to use the bully pulpit, especially with powerful allies like Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, he very much can move legislation through in a very timely fashion. Throughout this week in both houses of Congress, there has been consideration and negotiation on a piece of legislation submitted by Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, the National Director of Intelligence, who very clearly spelled out in Congressional testimony...

Cloture Buy-Offs [Rich Lowry] One method supporters of the bill are apparently using to good effect is to promise senators votes on their amendments to get them to vote for cloture. This is working even when it is amendments that have no chance of passing. For instance, Sen. Bond's office tells me that he is going to vote for cloture on the motion to proceed. He will then offer an amendment that has made the approved list to strip out the path of citizenship in the bill (meaning no green cards). This will inevitably fail. In which case, Bond will...

NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY | An urban myth or reality? Super suspicious foes The government denies any such plans, but campaign against it continues. By MATT STEARNS McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON | If the government really has a secret plan for a 12-lane road-and-rail NAFTA Superhighway that will split the heartland from Mexico to Canada, it is playing with a great poker face. “There is absolutely no U.S. government plan for a NAFTA Superhighway of any sort,” said David Bohigian, an assistant secretary of commerce. Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican and a powerful member of committees that would authorize and pay for...

According to a Wonkette operative who heard this from two different sources, Republican Senator Kit Bond is going to bail on the Hill and become Chief Lord of the University of Missouri.

Missouri Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond will become the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Incoming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Wednesday evening that Bond, who has served on the intelligence committee since 2003, will be vice chairman. West Virginia Sen. John Rockefeller will become chairman when Democrats take over Congress in January. Elected in 1986, Bond made his reputation in the Senate as an ardent watchdog for Missouri's interests. But in the last few years he's gained an increasingly high profile on intelligence issues. (snip) As bipartisan comity on the intelligence committee deteriorated over the war in...

Over the past few years we have witnessed unauthorized disclosures of classified information at an alarming rate. Repeatedly, we have witnessed leaks that warned our enemies how we are watching and listening to them, with whom we are cooperating and various methods of intelligence we are using to track them down. Every one of these leaks gravely threatens our national security and makes it easier for our enemies to achieve their murderous and destructive plans. Each violation of trust invites more chaos and violence into our world.

Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond argued Friday after returning from Iraq that recent disclosures about American intelligence gathering had blown the cover of key sources and made them targets for assassination. Bond, R-Mo., is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said defense and intelligence officials also had told him that potential sources of information were refusing to cooperate because they fear for their lives. "Sources that they've approached to work with them have said, 'I'm not going to work with you because you all can't keep a secret, and if it's known I'm working with you, it's a death...

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - U.S. Sen. Kit Bond said his son Sam, a Marine, was leaving yesterday for Iraq. Bond, a Republican and former governor, was in Jefferson City to celebrate the anniversary of the Parents as Teachers program. While speaking at the Capitol, Bond noted that his family had gone through the program, and that his son had turned out well. "My son, a newly minted Marine and an intelligence officer, leaves today for Iraq, so I have a personal understanding of the commitment that is needed by our great voluntary military forces," Bond told the Missouri House. Sam...

Just got home from a Republican rally at the Jackson County Republican HQ. In attendance were Kit Bond, Matt Blunt, Chris Byrd, Catherine Hanaway, Pete Kinder, Jeanne Patterson, Jim Talent and Bucky Bush. They were here on a state wide tour and let me tell you, the room was packed, the crowd was pumped up beyond belief.....the Republicans in Jackson County Missouri are psyched beyond anything I've ever seen since Reagan ran for re-election in 1984. I've never felt this good about an election before...call it a gut feeling...call it whatever you want.....this election is gonna go Republican....and Missouri will...

The Majority Fund for America's Future was created to support the Republican Senate Majority. Its goal is to make sure President Bush has the votes he needs in the Senate to cut taxes, confirm his judicial nominees, strengthen our homeland and fight the war on terrorism. We have identified the following Senate candidates as having the best chances for victory. John Thune (SD): John Thune is running in South Dakota against Tom Daschle. Recent polling indicates John Thune is closing in on victory.   Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK): Senator Murkowski is in a tight race in Alaska against Tony Knowles....

Republicans have settled on Senate nominees in four states since our last roundup. Candidates in Georgia and Oklahoma avoided runoffs, a beer man in Colorado received his party's nod, and a carpetbagger descended on Illinois. The next important GOP decision comes in Florida, where a crowded field of senatorial wannabes is winnowing down to a two-man race. Herewith, a review of this year's hottest Senate races: ALASKA: Expect Republican senator Lisa Murkowski to blow by former state senator Mike Miller in the GOP primary on August 24. Then she'll move on to face former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the...

U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) today issued the following statement: “John Kerry says he wants Americans to judge him by his record, but doesn’t say that his record is one of hostility to the whole concept of intelligence. John Kerry’s record includes missing 38 out of 49 public Senate Intelligence Committee hearings and supporting billions of dollars in cuts to the intelligence budget. When the Clinton Administration was cutting intelligence funding, Kerry even proposed a further $1 billion cut to intelligence and seventy-five Senators, including his more conservative colleague Ted Kennedy, voted against him.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted on Sun, Jul. 25, 2004 Bond pilots campaign to discredit Bush critic By MATT STEARNS The Star's Washington Correspondent Bond Wilson WASHINGTON — Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri is on the hunt. Bond's prey is Bush administration nemesis Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who said that while on a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger before the Iraq war he had found evidence to debunk an intelligence report later cited by President Bush that Iraqi agents had attempted to buy uranium from Africa. Bush's assertion, made in his 2003 State of the Union address, was considered a key argument that...

Wilson finally shows on the News Hour: Senator Kit Bond directly calls him a liar, suggests Wilson should apologize to President Bush and Vice President Cheney And it was worth the wait. He did everything he could to avoid answering any of the direct charges and allegations, equivocating, changing the subject, and throwing up as many straw man distractions as his time allowed. The audio of the often outrageous, often hilarious and wholly pathetic performance may be found here. Wilson was interviewed by Margaret Warner, who at one point was almost trying to help him out by throwing him a...

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) and U.S. Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) issued the following statement regarding John Kerry's visit to Independence, Missouri: "Harry Truman loved to play poker, but John Kerry can't come to Independence and bluff his way through his record of indecisiveness and defense budget cuts. Harry Truman is known for the sign on his desk that read 'The Buck Stops Here.' When Truman made a decision, he stood by it. John Kerry sees major decisions as opportunities to advance his political career," said Bond. "I have the honor of serving in Missouri’s Senate seat...

John Kerry is fond of touting the number of people who attend his campaign events and likes to crack, "And that's not a Katherine Harris count." But Kerry and other Democrats never mention when they whine about the 2000 election that ballots from America's military -- 75 percent of whom vote Republican -- were disqualified in greater numbers than ever before in history. Unfortunately, things aren't looking any better for the disenfranchised military voters this year, Human Events reports. An Internet absentee voting system was cancelled due to security concerns. And it takes sometimes up to four months for our...

Bond files for re-election DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - U.S. Sen. Kit Bond made his re-election campaign official Monday, filing candidacy papers in front of agricultural leaders who said his experience was reason for voters to grant him a fourth Senate term. The 65-year-old Republican senator, who will appear on the ballot as "Christopher (Kit) Bond," is expected to face Democratic State Treasurer Nancy Farmer in the Nov. 2 general election, although both first must turn back challengers in the August party primaries. The filing period for Missouri's elections expires at the end of business Tuesday....

<p>Missouri Treasurer Nancy Farmer formally launched her U.S. Senate campaign Thursday by repeatedly lambasting the man she sees as her chief opponent - President George W. Bush.</p> <p>Only twice during her speech did Farmer mention the man she's hoping to oust, incumbent Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo. One of those times, it was to point out that Bond had voted Bush's way "98 percent of the time."</p>

                                    U.S. Senate                                 Committee on Armed Services,                                Washington, DC, October 9, 1998.       The President,       The White House, Washington, DC.           Dear Mr. President: We are writing to express our concern        over recent developments in Iraq.           Last February, the Senate was working on a resolution        supporting military action if diplomacy did not succeed in        convincing Saddam Hussein to comply with the United Nations        Security Council resolutions concerning the disclosure and        destruction of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. This        effort was discontinued when the Iraqi government reaffirmed        its...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for joking that Mahatma Gandhi used to run a gas station in St. Louis, saying it was "a lame attempt at humor." The New York Democrat made the remark at a fund-raiser Saturday. During an event here for Senate candidate Nancy Farmer, Clinton introduced a quote from Gandhi by saying, "He ran a gas station down in St. Louis." After laughter from many in the crowd of at least 200 subsided, the former first lady continued, "No, Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader of the 20th century." In a nod to...

Senator: We'll hold Army accountable By Mark Benjamin Investigations Editor Published 11/6/2003 4:14 PM WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A key senator is vowing to make sure the Army helps hundreds of sick and injured soldiers waiting weeks and sometimes months to see doctors at U.S. Army bases. Many of those soldiers served in Iraq. Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond told United Press International that Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee has given his word that the Army will help the soldiers, stuck in what the Army calls "medical hold" at places like Fort Stewart, Ga. "I am from...

<p>On Oct. 12, 2003 you carried a commentary by former Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton, "Slant, Slant and More Slant," referring to the positions of President George W. Bush.</p> <p>I must note that if one believes intelligence was slanted with respect to Iraq, it was slanted during the previous administration as well. Based on intelligence he received, President Bill Clinton on Feb. 17, 1998, said, "If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."</p>

<p>Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., fired his communications director, Ernie Blazar, Thursday after Bond viewed an anti-Democrat Web site that Blazar had constructed.</p> <p>The site was named "N8354N" after the number on the tail of the plane that crashed in 2000 killing Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, a Democrat, along with Carnahan's son, Randy, and aide Chris Sifford.</p>

Senate Democrats are all but conceding it'll be impossible for them to retake control given the way their recruitment for 2004 is going. Part of this private concession is due to Sen. Jon Corzine's failure as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to find any suitable candidates to challenge Sen. Kit Bond in Missouri and conservative stalwart Sen. Sam Brownback in Kansas. Bond was considered a potential target for Democrats given their successes in recent years in Missouri. But Bond's formidable fundraising ability and longtime service to his state has scared off just about every potential Democratic challenger. Brownback,...

Top Missouri Republicans are rallying around Secretary of State Matt Blunt as their likely nominee for governor. Blunt says he's pondering the governor's race but isn't ready to announce his candidacy for the 2004 general election. But fellow Republicans say he has already shared his gubernatorial ambitions with them. Saturday, Blunt didn't confirm he is running for governor. But he told an applauding Republican audience: "We need to re-take the chief executive office of the state of Missouri." Blunt appeared at Lincoln Days, the annual GOP gathering, in Kansas City. Governor Holden is expected to seek a second term. He...