Free Republic

Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe, who is leaving office after eleven terms, will not be supporting the Republican candidate to succeed him. Today, Kolbe, who supported state Representative Steve Huffman in the primary for the eighth Congressional district, issued a statement saying he congratulates conservative Republican Randy Graf on his victory. However, he says "there are such profound and fundamental differences" between Graf and him on several key issues that he can't endorse Graf for the general election. Graf, a former golf pro, campaigned foremost on the need to secure the border with Mexico and put a halt to illegal immigration.

Salmon Breaks the Silence-Party Self-destructs First the news from http://sonoranalliance.com/: " I just received an automated call from Arizona Republican Party chairman Matt Salmon urging me to ignore the negative attack ads against Steve Huffman being run be the Democrats. Matt weakly claimed that he was not endorsing any candidate. Sorry Matt your pathetic attempt to help Huffman and say you are not favoring him is too transparent. For the record Matt Salmon did not call when Huffman was lying about and attacking the reputation of Randy Graf. Salmon was also absent when the NRCC intervened in a primary and...

JOINT STATEMENT ISSUED BY FRANK ANTENORI, RANDY GRAF, MIKE HELLON, AND MIKE JENKINS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 5, 2006 "Today, we, four of the five Republican candidates for Congress in Arizona's Eighth District take a bold step to jointly declare our unified outrage at the highly unusual actions taken by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to openly support one candidate, Steve Huffman, in this Republican primary. On March 30, 2006, RNC Chairman Ken Mehiman visited Tucson to attend a local party fundraiser. During his visit, Mehlman held a private meeting with the five declared candidates for Congress or their...

Poland: Auschwitz martyr Kolbe remembered By ASSOCIATED PRESS WARSAW, Poland A leading Roman Catholic official led a Mass at Auschwitz on Monday to mark the 65th anniversary of the death of Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who gained martyrdom by volunteering to die in the place of another man at the Nazi death camp. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the archbishop of Krakow and the longtime secretary to the late Pope John Paul II, led the ceremony for the Polish friar whose action during World War II carries symbolic weight for the church and Catholic-Jewish relations. Kolbe was sent to Auschwitz in...

The Man Who Stepped Out of LineIn this post-feminist age where men are still learning remedial masculinity, we have a model of manhood lived heroically which we would do well to emulate. In the early twentieth century Poland gave us that manly priest, John Paul II, but also his hero, Maximilian Kolbe, priest, missionary, spiritual father and martyr of brotherly love. St. Maximilian’s feast day is August 14th, the vigil of his beloved Virgin Mary’s Assumption and the day which commemorates the conquest of virile love over the totalitarian creeds of his generation. As men, we could all learn a...

Tucson Region Hastert: 'Zero' entry by migrants Group of mostly GOP lawmakers tours border By Josh Brodesky ARIZONA DAILY STAR Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.22.2006 advertisement NOGALES, Ariz. — Saying there needed to be "zero penetration" into the United States by illegal entrants, House Speaker Dennis Hastert got a look Friday at the challenges faced by those trying to secure the southern border. The Illinois Republican and a handful of other lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe, from Southern Arizona, are visiting the border with Mexico. On Friday, the group took a daylong tour in Arizona, including an afternoon...

Kolbe says time not right to push gay immigration rightsGay GOP congressman is in bi-national relationship By JOSHUA LYNSEN | Jul 6, 12:38 AM Retiring gay Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), who is involved in a bi-national relationship, said in an interview this week that he isn't pushing gay issues in the ongoing immigration battle on Capitol Hill because it would only add "baggage" to the debate. "The immigration debate is so heavily laden and so fraught with so many issues that adding one like this into it is not terribly practical," said Kolbe, one of the leading congressional Republicans setting...

BISBEE — Congressman Jim Kolbe said he would be “closely watching” the Border Patrol’s management of traffic revision points in the area after the officer in charge of the agency’s Naco station said that a permanent checkpoint on Highway 90 would be reinstated. Kolbe has long opposed permanent Border Patrol revision points, which he says are predictable and ineffective. Instead, he advocates roving checkpoints and has inserted a provision into Border Patrol appropriations bills requiring the agency’s Tucson Sector to relocate checkpoints on a regular basis. “The law allows checkpoints, but they must be relocated at least once every seven...

Kolbe watching BP checkpoints in area By Jonathan Clark Herald/Review BISBEE — Congressman Jim Kolbe said he would be “closely watching” the Border Patrol’s management of traffic revision points in the area after the officer in charge of the agency’s Naco station said that a permanent checkpoint on Highway 90 would be reinstated. Kolbe has long opposed permanent Border Patrol revision points, which he says are predictable and ineffective. Instead, he advocates roving checkpoints and has inserted a provision into Border Patrol appropriations bills requiring the agency’s Tucson Sector to relocate checkpoints on a regular basis. “The law allows checkpoints,...

BISBEE — Motorists along three of Cochise County’s major north-south throughways may have noticed the recent disappearance of some familiar landmarks — the Border Patrol checkpoints that had long been fixtures on highways 80, 90 and 191. A Border Patrol spokesman at the agency’s Tucson Sector headquarters said Monday that because the management of checkpoints is an operational issue, he could not comment on why or precisely when the permanent revision points in Cochise County had been dismantled. A spokeswoman at Congressman Jim Kolbe’s office in Washington, however, said that any removal would be appropriate given a law prohibiting long-term...

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) recently announced that he would not seek re-election after serving 11 terms in Congress. His quiet announcement was barely covered in the national media, which is a real pity. His leadership, especially on issues of immigration and border security, will be sorely missed. Consider, for example, the immigration bill recently passed by Congress with much sound and fury. This bill has only one idea: to muscle up on more enforcement along our borders. The sad fact is that we have already tried this. During the past 15 years, we have more than quadrupled the number of...

By LEO W. BANKS Leo W. Banks The Morales family, from left: Alex, Susie and Heriberto. Leo W. Banks Before he approaches a pasture, Sonny Clarke scans the area with binoculars for signs of danger. Leo W. Banks A cup hangs from the Morales water tank, an invitation for passers-by to drink. Leo W. Banks Morales wrote her letter to Alejandro Mata's mom from her kitchen table. Leo W. Banks "When you have to wear a bulletproof vest because of gang snipers on public land in your own country, it's pretty bad," says Jake Brown. Susie Clarke Morales lives in...

Who Are You, Immaculate Conception?Mary, mother of GodFr. [now Saint Maximilian] Kolbe asked this question during a meditation on February 17 1941, the same day he was arrested, just before he left for the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he would die on August 15. Immaculate Conception : these very words crossed the lips of the Immaculate herself. So they must show just how important they were in describing who she is. Fr Kolbe remembered Mary’s declaration to Bernadette on March 25 1858. Fr Peyramale, the parish priest of Lourdes, had been astonished by the name Our Lady gave to...

The mood on Capitol Hill is not a pleasant one,” Rep. Jim Kolbe (R.-Ariz.) said, explaining to reporters his surprise decision to retire from Congress. “I worry about that.” But while the 63-year-old Kolbe cited what he called “divisiveness” in Washington as the chief reason for leaving the House seat he has held since 1984, more than a few pundits and home-state political opponents pointed to another reason for the moderate Republican’s exodus: his softness on the issue of illegal immigration, an increasingly volatile issue in Arizona’s 3rd District.

Go HERE. The poll is on the left side, scroll down. Vote early, vote often. U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, who represents Cochise County, announced last week that he was not going to seek a 12th term in office. How would you rate his work in Congress over the past 21 years? Effective. Somewhat effective. Not very effective. Ineffective. This poll needs to be FReeped. This is a newspaper in Kolbe's home district. Kolbe lost Cochise County to conservative Republican challenger Randy Graf in last year's primary election. Tucson easily nullified our votes. This newspaper is in the heart of Cochise...

Kolbe's retirement could change immigration debate By JENNIFER TALHELM Tuesday, November 29, 2005 10:10 PM MST Associated Press WASHINGTON — If he’s lucky, Rep. Jim Kolbe’s last big accomplishment before retiring from the House next year could be helping to overhaul the nation’s immigration policy. But a day after President Bush visited Arizona to promote his own immigration plans, experts predict lawmakers are still too divided over immigration to pass comprehensive legislation next year. That means Kolbe, a 22-year veteran of the House who announced his retirement last week, may leave before lawmakers decide the fate of a guest worker...

Let's face it, our elected officials don't have a clue about how to reduce illegal immigration. After President Bush proposed a guest worker program in January 2004, he repeatedly has said, illegal border crossing must stop. He now says he is looking for an overall strategy to curb illegal immigration. Congress can't agree on what to do about illegal immigration. McCain, Kolbe, Flake and Ted Kennedy, want a guest worker program and also want to allow some undocumented immigrants to become legal residents, but they insist that is not an amnesty. Senator Jon Kyl wants illegal immigrants to go home,...

Once you get there, you stay there. That could well be the one timeless truth about Congress. For the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, re-election is one of life's certainties. The possibility of a lifetime job - a job with no shortage of power, perks and prestige - also explains much about the mad dash that began Wednesday, with the unexpected announcement by Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe that he will not run for a 12th term in 2006. "These opportunities don't happen everyday," said Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat. Open congressional seats are indeed among the...

Regarding Congressman Jim Kolbe's decision not to run for reelection, in a word, "Hallelujah." When someone retires or passes away, we try to say something nice about that person, we downplay his negatives and point out his positives. I would like to do the same for Congressman Jim Kolbe, but I really don't have the time to do that much research, other then to say, I wholeheartedly approve of his decision to leave Congress. I'm sure Kolbe will be missed by Mexican President Vincente Fox, he is one of the best members of Congress Mexico has ever had in the...

Jim Kolbe to retire from Congress Associated Press Nov. 23, 2005 12:35 PM Veteran U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe has decided he won’t seek re-election in 2006, political associates said Wednesday. He will have served 22 years in the U.S. House by the time he steps down next year. The 63-year-old Arizona Republican has served in the House since 1985. He acknowledged in 1996 that is a homosexual. State Sen. Toni Hellon, R-Tucson, said Kolbe told her of his intentions during a telephone call Wednesday. “He wants to do other things,” she said. A second person who is a political associate...