Free Republic

Poker players often use the phrase "betting on the come" to describe a willingness, if instincts and odds indicate, to wager big on the hope that they will draw winning cards. That's a perfectly valid tactic when one is playing with one's own money and therefore bearing the risk. But is it appropriate for California politicians to bet on the come by approving many billions of dollars in spending on very shaky assumptions that the money will be there when it's needed to pay the bills? Risk was the underlying theme of two hearings in the Capitol on Tuesday. One...

Republican John McCain is calling Democratic rival Barack Obama a liar. The GOP presidential candidate told a campaign rally: "Sen. Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed."

A taxpayer watchdog group says Democrats in Congress are not living up to their promise of openness and transparency in the appropriations process. The group, Citizens Against Government Waste, says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow that her party would preside over "the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history" has already proven to be a phony promise. House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey (D-Wisconsin) has announced he will allow all earmarks into conference reports, which are negotiated behind closed doors and cannot be amended when they reach the House and Senate floors. Obey's plan ignores rules that...

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards acknowledged Thursday that amid his criticism of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a volunteer member of his staff asked the world's largest retailer for help obtaining a hot new Sony Playstation 3 for Edwards' family. Edwards, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, told The Associated Press that the volunteer "feels terrible" about seeking the game unit at Wal-Mart while his boss claims the retailer doesn't treat its employees fairly. "My wife, Elizabeth, wanted to get a Playstation3 for my young children. She mentioned it in front of one of my staff people. That staff person mentioned it...

Attack ads are one thing, but blatantly erroneous attack ads should be exposed for the political tricks they are. One such ad is Democrat James Webb's current "Steer" commercial alleging financial misdeeds by Sen. George Allen -- which Mr. Webb should promptly retract. The ad wrongly claims that Mr. Allen "tried to steer government contracts to a company that paid him in stock options," wrongly claims that Mr. Allen "hid those options for years" and wrongly claims that the options are worth $1.1 million. None of this is true. First, the alleged "steering" of contracts -- it never happened. ......

Democrats Go on Offense in Latest Terror Case Looking to the past for lessons, they respond fast and sharply, saying Bush 'mismanagement' fed the threat and the GOP is playing politics. By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer August 12, 2006 CRAWFORD, Texas — Two years after President Bush won reelection having painted his opponent as soft on terrorists and weak on national security, Democrats have seized on the latest alleged terrorism plot in hopes of turning the political tables on the White House. Their aggressive stance was evident hours after British authorities announced they had disrupted a plot to blow...

If an election can turn on a sentence, this could be the one: “You don't need papers for voting.” On Thursday night, Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate for the 50th Congressional District, was speaking before a largely Latino crowd in Escondido when she uttered those words. She said yesterday she simply misspoke. But someone taped it and a recording began circulating yesterday. After she made that statement at the meeting, Busby immediately said: “You don't need to be a registered voter to help (the campaign).” She said that subsequent statement was to clarify what she meant. The recording, which was...

by Mark Finkelstein January 27, 2006 - 08:22 On yesterday's Today show, Howard Dean did his best angry imitation of Bill Clinton's "I did not have sex" and/or Rafael Palmeiro's "I have never used steroids, period" performances. His voice rising, Dean insisted, over Katie Couric's attempts to claim otherwise, that: "Katie, not one dime of Jack Abramoff money ever went to any Democrat. Not one dime." Faced with such intransigence, Katie politely observed that "we'll have to look into that and clarify that for our viewers." That's apparently just what the Today researchers did overnight, and Matt Lauer, with Tim...

    Big Lie DemocratsBy Brandon Crocker Published 11/17/2005 12:07:13 AM When Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, he was convinced that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and active WMD research and production programs. George Tenet, the Clinton appointed head of the CIA, told George W. Bush prior to the war that the case that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was "a slam dunk." Almost all of the Democratic members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, seeing much of the same intelligence reports given to the White House, and with direct access to the intelligence communities...

This guy is quite the media darling in California... The only problem is that he's a complete fraud. Here's the information on his political contributions, from the FEC: Eddy, Jeb Palo Alto, CA 94301 self/Software Author KERRY, JOHN F (D) President JOHN KERRY FOR PRESIDENT INC. $250 05/23/04 Eddy, Jeb Mr. Palo Alto, CA 94301 Compton Fdn/Executive Director DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE (D) $250 02/25/04 Eddy, Jeb Mrs. Palo Alto, CA 94301 Compton Fdn/Executive Director DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE (D) $250 02/25/04 Eddy, Jeb Mr. Palo Alto, CA 94301 DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE (D) $500 08/11/03 Eddy,...

RAHWAY, N.J. (AP) -- A year after his life imploded in scandal, former New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey lives in self-imposed exile, avoiding the limelight he spent a lifetime chasing. Separated from the wife he betrayed, McGreevey lives modestly in a one-bedroom apartment. He takes his 3-year-old daughter out for bacon and eggs after Sunday church services, walks to a corner newsstand for coffee and newspapers and stops to chat when passers-by recognize him. It's a long way from the stately governor's mansion and the spotlight that shone on his soul-baring confession. With wife Dina Matos McGreevey at...

The Republicans' ideal Supreme Court nominee is someone who might overturn Roe v. Wade, but won't. That makes President Bush's choice of John G. Roberts pure genius. If defenders of abortion rights condemn the pick, so much the better. Social conservatives will think they won. And when a court ruling later proves they haven't, Republican leaders can comfort them. So far, all is according to plan. Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court decision enshrining a federal right to abortion. If Roe went down, two bad things would happen to Republicans. One is that it would arouse America's pro-choice...

An extraordinary story has emerged involving former Lyndon Johnson aide and now PBS commentator Bill Moyers. The story was told in The Wall Street Journal by retired federal appeals judge Laurence Silberman, who reports that when he was acting attorney general under President Ford a memo written by Moyers to the FBI came to light in the press. The memo, which dated from the 1964 campaign between President Johnson and Barry Goldwater, directed FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to investigate the Goldwater campaign for evidence of homosexual activity. It came after Johnson aide Walter Jenkins had been arrested in a...

(CNSNews.com) - President George W. Bush has invited a small bipartisan group of Senate leaders to the White House on Monday, July 11, Sen. Chuck Schumer is telling fellow Democrats. "During that meeting, he (Bush) will almost certainly discuss potential nominees to the Supreme Court. I think that's an important first step in the process of meaningful consultation, but we must make sure that this is more than just a courtesy call," Schumer said in a message to fellow Democrats. "Bush must engage in real, meaningful consultation before making any decisions," Schumer is telling "friends" of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign...

From Wesley Clark's securingamerica.com - July 8, 2005 Returning soon.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. -- A federal jury Wednesday convicted the head of this city's Democratic Party and four others of scheming to buy votes with cash, cigarettes and liquor last November to try to get key Democrats elected. Jurors in the monthlong trial deliberated more than five hours before convicting local Democratic Party chairman Charles Powell Jr., 61, and Kelvin Ellis, 55, the city's former director of regulatory affairs, of felony conspiracy to commit vote fraud. Also convicted were Democratic precinct committee members Sheila Thomas, 31, and Jesse Lewis, 56, and City Hall worker Yvette Johnson, 46. Ellis, Thomas,...

Many Lefties and Democrats - like Senators Boxer and Rockefeller and Dodd and Feingold and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Pelosi and DNC Chairman Howeird Dean - have critized Bush's speech last might because it - in their opinion - incorrectly conflated 9/11 & al Qaeda with Saddam and Iraq, AND incorrectly argued that the War in Iraq is-or-ever-was part of the GWOT. They further argued that Bush was cynically USING 9/11 to shore up public support for him and the war in Iraq. What is so mind boggling to me is that both 9/11 and...

TROUBLE SPEAK Ward Churchill backs fragging Controversial '9-11 prof' suggests rolling grenades under line officers Posted: June 26, 2005 10:39 p.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Prof. Ward Churchill University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill suggested to a forum on conscientious objection they might be more effective in opposing war if they supported the "fragging" or killing of line officers. In a Portland meeting on resistance to military recruiting, Churchill, famous for comparing Sept. 11, 2001, victims in the World Trade Center to "little Eichmanns," twice suggested anti-war activists should support those who kill their officers. "For those of you who...

Democrats are demanding that White House adviser Karl Rove immediately retract and apologize for comments that liberals responded to the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes by wanting to ``prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.'' ``The one thing New York has had since Sept. 11 is unity,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. ``To inject politics into this and to defame a large number of people'' is outrageous, he said. ``It's not what New York and America is all about.'' Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, said in a speech Wednesday that ``liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks...

University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill fabricated historical facts, published the work of others as his own and repeatedly made false claims about two federal Indian laws, a Rocky Mountain News investigation has found. The two-month News investigation, carried out at the same time Churchill and his work are being carefully examined by the university, also unearthed fresh genealogical information that casts new doubts on the professor's long-held assertion that he is of American Indian ancestry. The findings come as Churchill is, essentially, on trial — in the court of public opinion and in the halls of academia. Prickly debates...