Free Republic

On Friday evening, the Senate's leaders, Mitch McConnell and and Harry Reid thought they had an agreement from their members to let the clock run over the weekend without actually being in session, and vote Monday on the $1.1 trillion spending bill needed to keep the government up and running. But Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah objected to the spending bill. This meant their colleagues in the Senate would have to hold a rare Saturday session to keep the spending bill moving. It also had the unintended benefit of helping the Democrats move forward with...

Other than the Koch brothers, there is arguably no one outgoing-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid disdains more than the Tea Party. And no one represents the Tea Party in the Senate more than Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Yet, after hours of tedious wrangling, Reid on Friday agreed to allow a vote on a measure from Cruz questioning the constitutionality of President Obama’s executive order on Deferred Action, which does, in effect, grant de facto amnesty to upwards of 5 million illegal aliens. Cruz told Breitbart News that a Senate vote on Obama’s executive action was important for two reasons: “First,...

Jeb Bush does. The Democrats’ Castro brothers do not. Ted Cruz knows ‘Spanglish.’ But fluency and being able to talk to Hispanics are two entirely different matters.The ability to speak Spanish is a prized commodity on the campaign trail, a way to prove your bona fides with Hispanics—the fastest-growing bloc of voters—and to show your inclusiveness in a rapidly changing country. Lots of Anglos are proficient in Spanish. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential presidential candidate, speaks nothing but Spanish at home, and has for years. His wife, Columba, is from Mexico. A more recent phenomenon in the political...

If you're looking for a good laugh this week, you probably can't do better than Tuesday's White House press conference. Reporters asked spokesman Josh Earnest about the confirmation of two Obama-appointed ambassadors whose confirmation was only possible because Democrats manipulated Senate rules earlier this year to make it easier to approve executive-branch nominees. By the narrowest of margins, two people completely unqualified to represent U.S. interests abroad were confirmed to serve in relatively important countries they know nothing about. Colleen Bell, the new U.S. ambassador to Hungary, is a former soap opera producer who couldn't name a single strategic interest...

Their power ebbing, Senate Democrats launched a last-minute drive Saturday to confirm roughly 20 of President Barack Obama's nominees, and several Republicans blamed tea party-backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for creating an opening for the outgoing majority party to exploit. Lawmakers took a break in their intrigue long enough to send Obama legislation that provides funds for the government to remain open until Wednesday at midnight, easing concerns of a shutdown. A separate, $1.1 trillion long-term funding bill remained in limbo. Republicans tried to slow the nomination proceedings, but several voiced unhappiness with Cruz, a potential presidential candidate in 2016....

After hours of debate on the massive government spending package, the Senate adjourned until Saturday, pushing a fight that dominated Congress for days into the weekend. The Senate is expected to vote Monday on the $1.1 trillion package, which has already passed the House, Sens. Mitch McConnell and Barbara Mikulski said late Friday. Members from both parties in the Senate are trying to make last-minute changes to the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a procedural move Friday that would set up a vote on final passage in the Senate no later than Monday. In a surprise development, the...

enate Majority Leader Harry Reid is keeping senators in Washington for a rare Saturday session—and risking a government shutdown—after he went to extraordinary lengths to block Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) from forcing a vote to block President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty.

Senate Republicans huddled over lunch Friday afternoon in the Capitol to discuss strategy on the House-passed spending bill and other pending legislation, exiting the meeting with a resounding message: Let's get this done and get the heck out of here. But that feeling of optimism was quickly squashed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been negotiating with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Friday afternoon to bring up a vote on the omnibus bill later in the evening, keeping the government's doors open and allowing senators to take the weekend off. Many members on both sides of the aisle were hopeful that...

WASHINGTON – Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Jeff Sessions are pushing for a vote to defund President Obama’s executive amnesty in the “Cromnibus” spending bill Friday night, The Daily Caller has learned. The trio of conservative senators is hoping to get the defund vote onto the Senate floor as a “point of order,” which would force a procedural vote on the issue without Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid having to introduce it. The senators are pushing hard on Capitol Hill for the measure as of early Friday afternoon. If successful, the vote would take place late Friday...

Things are pretty volatile in the Chaos Caucus. Every since Republicans took over the Assembly, things have been anything but smooth. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise. After all, even the GOP itself didn’t expect to be in charge of the lower house, and the last time the party was in charge, Ronald Reagan was in the White House and the pinnacle of technology was the Apple IIe desktop computer. You already know about the disastrous election of Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, as speaker. He was undone by ugly sentiments penned in a Sparks newspaper over a long career as...

Nevada Secretary of State Democrat Ross Miller, has certified a Nevada gun control initiative put forward by organizations funded by Michael Bloomberg.  The timely turn in of signatures and some signatures themselves have been challenged by a group of Nevada second amendment supporters.   Democrat Ross Miller lost the 2014 election for Attorney General.  Because of term limits, he was ineligible for a third term as Secretary of State, and is in lame duck status.  He also certified the Marijuana initiative.  From the AP article: Nevada's top election official is giving the go-ahead to two initiatives for the 2016 ballot:...

GOP members have released their draft amendment to defund President Barack Obama’s national amnesty. “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available, including any funds or fees collected or otherwise made available for expenditure, by this division or any other Act, or otherwise available to the Secretary of Homeland Security, for any fiscal year may be used to implement, administer, carry out, or enforce the [amnesty] policies,” says the short amendment. The new anti-amnesty language is being pushed by Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon, South Carolina’s Rep. Mick Mulvaney and Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, who unseated the GOP’s pro-amnesty majority...

Nuclear Waste: While Keystone XL remains a focus, the long-stalled repository for spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain, Nev., deemed safe in a recent report, is also good for the environment and for our energy future. The ghosts of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima continue to haunt and hinder the nuclear energy industry. Yet a report released Oct. 16 may revive both the spent fuel repository and the nuclear energy industry with it. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report, mostly finished in 2010 but delayed by Yucca Mountain foes such as the Obama administration and soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader...

Transfer of Public Lands Act’ demands Washington relinquish 31.2 million acres by Dec. 31. In three weeks, Utah intends to seize control of 31.2 million acres of its own land now under the control of the federal government. At least, that’s the plan. In an unprecedented challenge to federal dominance of Western state lands, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert in 2012 signed the “Transfer of Public Lands Act,” which demands that Washington relinquish its hold on the land, which represents more than half of the state’s 54.3 million acres, by Dec. 31. ... With the 2012 law, Utah placed itself on...

A Nevada law on the books for 30 years requires girls younger than 18 to tell at least one of their parents before getting an abortion, but it’s never been enforced because of a successful legal challenge. Now, with the Republican takeover of both houses of the Nevada Legislature, fueled by an influx of fresh-faced conservatives, anti-abortion advocates say they’re going to take another run at reviving the statute. “One of our highest priorities has been the parental notification law,” Melissa Clement, president of Nevada Right to Life, said. “We’ve always played defense because there hasn’t been enough (anti-abortion) lawmakers...

A gun rights group wants Nevada's elections chief to throw out a proposed 2016 ballot measure that would tighten background checks for anyone buying firearms from private sellers or gun show exhibitors. In a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press, Nevadans for State Gun Rights tells Secretary of State Ross Miller that initiative proponents missed a deadline to deliver signatures to one clerk. The group also says some pages lack a proper signature-gatherer's affidavit, and some signatures are dated after the affidavit was notarized.

Among Democrats, fighting is breaking out all over. The Senate’s third-ranking Democrat, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), is hurling criticisms toward the White House over Barack Obama’s handling of the recession and his myopic and politically ruinous obsession with reforming the nation’s health care system amid that economic downturn.In response, the White House took what Reuters called the “unusual step” of publicly pledging to veto an overdue plan to reform the nation’s tax code which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has been in the process of negotiating with House Republicans. When Obama announced his intention to extend legal status to...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Mormon, says he's an unabashed fan of Roman Catholic Pope Francis. "We sure do like this new pope," Reid gushed to the The New York Times. The veteran Democrat acknowledges that he can profess his admiration even though he's "had dealings" with Cardinal Raymond Burke, a powerful Roman Catholic leader who's been demoted twice from key positions by the pope.

Democrats hope to take back control of the Senate in 2016, but their plans could be complicated by potential retirements. The two Democratic senators most likely to retire are Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who represent both sides of the party’s ideological spectrum. Boxer, whose fourth term expires at the end of 2016, has a paltry $149,000 in her campaign account, less than almost every other senator facing election next year. As the nation’s most populous state, California is expensive to cover with advertising. If Boxer decides to run for reelection, she would face a major fundraising...

Treasury Department investigators completed but never released a 2011 law enforcement probe of White House economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, The Washington Examiner has learned. The investigation by the Treasury Department Inspector-General for Tax Administration was sparked by Goolsbee's remarks during an Aug. 27, 2010, White House news briefing in which he appeared to possess confidential tax information on Koch Industries, the private conglomerate controlled by the Koch brothers, Charles and David. "So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of...