Free Republic

Democratic senator Mary Landrieu says she's embarrassed to go to places in Europe like France and Spain because some Americans do not have health insurance. Landrieu, who is up for reelection in 2014, represents the state of Louisiana. “People are scared when they’re sick, and they’re much stronger when they’re well,” Landrieu said at a Friday lunch, according to the American Press. “It’s embarrassing to me to go to places like France and Spain ... and their workers all manage to have health insurance that can’t be taken away.” The report adds: Landrieu said Louisiana has “more working people that...

In 2005, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist threatened to end the filibuster for judicial appointments by forcing a mid-session rule change on a majority vote, an act that would have ended two centuries of precedent. Before he could act, though, the Gang of 14 arose, led by Republican John McCain, to preserve the senatorial tradition, brokering a deal that left conservatives fuming by depriving Frist of his partisan majority. Eight years later, with Harry Reid threatening to take the same action on executive-branch appointments, where is that Old Gang of Ours? According to NBC, at least McCain might be riding...

Senate votes on climate change and the Keystone XL oil pipeline laid bare divisions among Democrats — and underscored why the White House, not Congress, will be where the critical climate decisions reside in President Obama’s second term.Several votes during the freewheeling debate over a nonbinding budget plan provided a political barometer of where the chamber, including vulnerable Democrats, stand on the topics. Advocates of the proposed pipeline scored a symbolic victory Friday when 62 lawmakers voted for an amendment backing the project to bring oil from Canadian tar sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries. Seventeen Democrats supported Sen....

With the usual note that the source is not reliable, the Washington Post reports big money Democratic donors such as Buzzfeed’s Kenneth Lerer have given the Democrats an ultimatum.. Pass gun controls or you get no more money from us On the other hand, if the Dimmos do pass gun control they will almost certainly suffer the consequences in both Congress and at the State level. Which puts Andy Jackson’s Jackass Partei on the horns of the dilemma. Briefly quoting the item linked above: Lerer also said he would be intensifying his contributions to Democratic Senate candidates in the next...

Stopping veteran Dem retirements is top priority for Reid, SchumerBy Alexander Bolton - 11/25/12 06:00 AM ET One of the highest immediate political priorities for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic political guru Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is to persuade veteran colleagues not to retire in 2014. Democratic sources identify four senators as most likely to retire: Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Another possible veteran retirement is Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who has yet to announce his decision. But Democratic aides expect him to run...

Will Senator Mary Landrieu vote to REPEAL ObamaCare? At first glance this sounds like a silly question because most of you will reply, "Of course she won't since she voted for it in the first place." However, now that the mandate has been relabeled as a tax by Roberts, Landrieu and the other Senators who voted for it, would now be reluctant to support the BIGGEST TAX INCREASE IN HISTORY. Their out might be that now that this is a tax increase, not a mandate, they no longer support it. Keep in mind that the senator whose vote was bought...

The New Louisiana Purchase: 'Obamacare's' $4.3 Billion BoondoggleBy Avik S. A. Roy, The Atlantic | National Journal – Tue, Mar 6, 2012 Do you remember the Louisiana Purchase? I don't mean Thomas Jefferson's acquisition of land from Napoleon, but rather Democrats' acquisition of support from Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Landrieu, critics believe, pledged her vote in exchange for gaining $200 million additional federal funds for Louisiana's Medicaid program. Except that, due to a drafting error, the law ended up giving Louisiana $4.3 billion in extra Medicaid funds -- more than twenty times...

Dem Keystone support creates tougher fight for Reid, ObamaBy Alexander Bolton - 12/16/11 04:08 PM ET Republicans want to jam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Keystone oil sands pipeline and the Democratic leader will have a tough time resisting, given support within his caucus for the project. GOP leaders have made clear to Reid that they will not approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday unless it includes language to speed up construction of the pipeline. Senate Republicans estimate as many as 14 Senate Democrats support the project. Labor unions have also voiced strong backing, complicating...

The Senate rejected a Republican measure Wednesday to expand offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. coastal waters, signaling a continued partisan stalemate over energy policy and, more specifically, how to respond to rising gas prices. The bill was defeated in a 42-57 vote. Sixty votes were required for passage. Five Republicans -- Alabama's Richard Shelby, Louisiana's David Vitter, Maine's Olympia Snowe, South Carolina's Jim DeMint, and Utah's Mike Lee -- voted against the bill.

TRENTON — Conservative activist James O'Keefe has released a video — titled "Teachers unions gone wild" — claiming to show undercover footage from a New Jersey Education Association leadership conference at the East Brunswick Hilton hotel. The video shows people identified as teachers playing arcade games on "their dime," chanting about kicking Gov. Chris Christie "in the toolbox," and talking about how hard it is to fire a tenured teacher. NJEA spokesman Steve Baker said O'Keefe is "completely and utterly discredited." "It’s James O’Keefe and that’s all you need to know," Baker said, citing O'Keefe's legal troubles in the past....

THE DEAD PELICAN obtained the following email this morning written by a man named Greg Hamer. He lives in Morgan City and this was the reply he got from Mary Landrieu from Louisiana....Mr. Hamer is the owner of over 50 fast food restaurants.

After 100 years of determined effort without result, Congress has finally delivered meaningful health care coverage to all Americans. The health care bill that passed the U.S. Senate with 60 votes on Christmas Eve was approved by a majority of the House of Representatives and signed into law last month by President Obama. For months, people throughout Louisiana have heard hysterical cries from some quarters that the bill is unconstitutional and that it should be repealed. These naysayers are using these scare tactics to distract attention from the many important provisions in the bill. Children will be covered, even when...

Politics: The GOP has been invited by the administration to a health care summit. Will it be an effort to pass real reform, or an attempt to lure Republicans into a bipartisan disaster? When Democrats thought their absolute majorities in the House and Senate guaranteed the passage of government-run health care, they had no use for either GOP input or transparency. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were quite content to fundamentally transform one-sixth of the American economy behind the closed doors of a Senate room. They dismissed the rising anger of the...

Poor Mary Landrieu, yesterday she emotionally critics of " Louisiana Purchase" a $3-400 Million costly Medicaid provision she got for her home state in exchange for her vote for cloture to allow the health-care bill to reach the senate floor. In a 30-minute Senate floor speech, Landrieu described how a faulty Medicaid formula for her state, related to a surge in federal aid following Hurricane Katrina, had created a Medicaid funding gap of up to $600 million. She provided letters and other documents to show support from Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and GOP members of the Louisiana congressional delegation, including...

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu took to the Senate floor Thursday delivering a blistering defense of her securing $300 million for Louisiana Medicaid in the health care bill and criticized Gov. Bobby Jindal for not supporting her in the move. Before taking a shot at Jindal, Landrieu noted that the governor made one statement defending her to CNN. "It takes more than intelligence to be a public official, it takes more than a fancy resume, it takes guts," Landrieu said. "Some people have more of those than others." Landrieu said she felt it necessary to speak out on the matter...

James O'Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was "framed" by the media and the U.S. attorney's office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday. The same day the man who first published James O'Keefe's explosive videos exposing wrongdoing at community organizer ACORN came to his defense Monday, claiming the conservative filmmaker "sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney" while the prosecutor made his case to the media, the U.S. attorney involved stepped down. O'Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary...

The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false. As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN. For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal...

Three of four men charged with illegally entering the New Orleans office of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu returned to court Wednesday for pretrial meetings with authorities. Suspects Defendants James O'Keefe, Joseph Basel and Stan Dai all carried suitcases and declined comment. The fourth suspect is Robert Flanagan. Federal authorities said two of the men posed as telephone workers wearing hard hats, tool belts and fluorescent vests when they walked into the senator's office inside a federal building in New Orleans on Monday. The other

For those in the mainstream media committed to report the false and libelous narrative of “Watergate Jr.,” “wiretapping” and “bugging,” I predict much egg on your J-school grad faces. In your rush to judgment to convict James O’Keefe and his companions, you vengeful political partisans of press forgot to ponder: “Was Mr. O’Keefe up to one of his patented and obvious clown nose-on hidden camera tricks, trying to make his subjects look foolish?” Blog commenters seem to be quicker on the uptake than six-figured Washington-based pundits these days. And I predict there will be tape to vindicate these four pranksters,...

The FBI, alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in downtown New Orleans, arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility. FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes alleges that O'Keefe aided and abetted two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who dressed up as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office's telephone system. A fourth person, Stan Dai, was accused of aiding and abetting Basel and Flanagan. All four were charged with entering fedral property under false pretenses...