Free Republic

Remember when a disagreement between Republicans on the budget was “cataclysmic” for GOP claims to governance? Democrats last passed a normal budget resolution six years ago, but Republicans went all of seven days before both chambers finally passed budget resolutions. Our long national nightmare, at least as envisioned by Politico, is over: The Senate passed a Republican-authored budget plan early on Friday that seeks $5.1 trillion in domestic spending cuts over 10 years while boosting military funding.The 52-46 vote on the non-binding budget resolution put Congress on a path to complete its first full budget in six years. It...

LAS VEGAS — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's decision to retire next year leaves no clear successor in his home state of Nevada, where a popular Republican governor appears reluctant to change jobs and the pending loss of Reid's clout in Washington is causing anxiety over who might replace him. As of Friday, the list of potential candidates came down to Gov. Brian Sandoval and everyone else. The political centrist who was easily re-elected last year is likely to face intense pressure from national Republicans and business interests to pick up where Reid leaves off on Capitol Hill. Sandoval didn't...

EXCLUSIVE–FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: DOJ SHOULD OPEN A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO HARRY REID PUSHING EB-5 VISA EXPANSION Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he intends to retire at the end of his term in 2017. But he may still face legal pressure before he leaves. Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova, a leading legal expert on the prosecution and defense of white collar criminals, tells Breitbart News there is enough public evidence to launch a criminal investigation of Reid. “Here’s the issue,” diGenova tells Breitbart News in an exclusive interview. “Because his son was involved representing the SLS Casino and Hotel...

WASHINGTON (CNN) —Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Friday he won't seek re-election in 2016, a surprise move that's certain to open a fierce battle for his seat as well as a fight to lead the Democratic party in the chamber. The fifth-term Nevada Democrat had denied retirement rumors for months, which grew louder after he suffered serious injuries in an exercising accident on New Year's Day. He said in a video posted on Twitter and Youtube that the bruises were "nothing," but added that "this accident has caused us for the first time to have a little bit...

Well, theyÂ’re not horrible. But Democrats canÂ’t be too happy about their present chances of replacing outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid with another Democrat in the U.S. Senate could certainly be better than they are right now. Reid was no lock to win reelection even if he decided to run again in 2016. He polls as poorly today as he did in 2010, when the Nevada electorate appeared ready to jettison the Silver StateÂ’s longtime senator, but a majority of voters just couldnÂ’t bring themselves to pull the lever for Sharron Angle. At the yearÂ’s open, veteran Nevada...

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid announced his retirement Friday after serving nearly three decades. But was Reid’s retirement precipitated by fears he was losing one of Nevada’s longest political battles: preventing the nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain?The use of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository has been hotly debated for the last 25 years or so, with Sen. Reid promising Nevada residents he would never allow waste to be stored at the site.For years, Reid has been able to successfully keep the federal government from storing nuclear waste at Yucca. Nuclear waste storage at Yucca was first approved...

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced Friday he will retire at the end of his term, closing a long and controversial career in Congress that spanned four decades. The five-term Nevada Democratic senator announced the decision in a YouTube video message.

Harry Reid is retiring. Whatever happens to his Senate seat in 2016, this is good news for Republicans and it is good news for America. Good riddance, Harry. Good bloody riddance. Today we will hear a lot about Reid’s “service” to the Senate and to the American people. Ha! “Service” indeed. The truth of the matter is that Harry Reid is a stone-cold killer who has damaged Washington considerably, who has elevated his own political preferences above the institution he was elected to protect, and who has made worse the partisan rancor that our self-described enlightened class claims to abhor....

Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who suffered a serious eye injury while exercising in his home in January, announced what a lot of conservatives have been waiting with bated breath to hear: He’s not seeking reelection. He’s served for about three decades in Congress and has been one of President Obama’s biggest defenders on several of the White House leader’s key agenda pushes. “I understand this place,” he said, the New York Times reported. “I have quite a bit of power as minority leader.”

WASHINGTON — Senator Harry Reid, the tough tactician who has led Senate Democrats since 2005, will not seek re-election next year, bringing an end to a three-decade congressional career that culminated with his push of President Obama’s ambitious agenda against fierce Republican resistance. Mr. Reid, 75, who suffered serious eye and facial injuries in a Jan. 1 exercise accident at his Las Vegas home, said he had been contemplating retiring from the Senate for months. He said his decision was not attributable either to the accident or to his demotion to minority leader after Democrats lost the majority in November’s...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Army Special Operations Command is pushing back against alarmist claims that an upcoming U.S. military exercise is a preparation for imposing martial law or subduing right-leaning groups and individuals. Conspiracy theories about the exercise, known as JADE HELM 15, appeared online this week. Some commentators railing against the event referred to an online slide show allegedly created by USASOC, which outlined a special operations exercise slated to take place across multiple states, outside the confines of U.S. military bases. In the slide show, a map of the southwest region of the United States labels Texas and other...

There came a time during the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s hearing Monday when Las Vegas Republican Michele Fiore wondered — out loud — why it was that county sheriffs weren’t arresting federal law enforcement officers (she called them “thugs”) for impersonating police officers. Oh, yes, that happened. Fiore recounted her experience at the Bunkerville ranch of Cliven Bundy in April 2014, when hordes of well-armed, self-styled militia types showed up to confront federal Bureau of Land Management officers who were there to serve a duly issued court order to seize cattle that Bundy had been illegally grazing on federal land for...

Many of the key figures cited in a scathing inspector general’s report this week are allies of Hillary Rodham Clinton, marking the latest in a series of stumbles for the former first lady and secretary of state that likely forced her to delay her planned presidential campaign announcement.A Democratic strategist familiar with her team’s thinking said they are scrambling to limit the damage and readjust the campaign rollout schedule after the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general revealed an apparent cronyism scandal that ensnared Mrs. Clinton’s brother, Anthony Rodham, and two of her political confidants, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and former...

The No. 2 official at the Homeland Security Department intervened several times in projects with connections to insiders, including Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and a brother of Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a report issued by the department's watchdog Tuesday. Alejandro Mayorkas, while head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, created an "appearance of favoritism" in a program that offers visas to wealthy foreigners willing to invest in American companies, the report says, though it stops short of saying Mayorkas was guilty of wrongdoing. More than 15 whistle-blowers came forward to complain that Mayorkas was giving special treatment to...

The No. 2 official at the Homeland Security Department improperly intervened on behalf of foreign investors in three cases involving the U.S. government soliciting investments in exchange for American visas, the agency's inspector general said Tuesday. Investigators said he helped secure the visas, and created the appearance of favoritism and special access. The investigation could not suggest a motive for the official's involvement.

The Nevada Senate on Monday passed legislation prohibiting domestic violence abusers from possessing guns and making it easier for gun owners in other states to carry a concealed weapon in Nevada. Senate Bill 175 also adds an occupied vehicle to Nevada law involving justifiable homicide. It passed on a vote of 14-5 with some Democratic support and now moves to the Assembly, where passage in the Republican-controlled chamber is likely. State Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, twice tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill on the floor. He wanted to ensure adequate training in other states before Nevada recognizes their concealed...

Senate Bill 240, introduced by Senate Majority leader Michael Roberson, would allow for free background checks for private party gun sales. Thus circumventing the push for “universal background checks,” by the Michael Bloomberg astroturf groups, such as “Everytown for Gun Safety.” Of course they’re not happy, and they’re calling the legislation, a “fake backgrounds check bill,” because its purpose is not registration.

What is it with this party? Senate Democrats have really personified the “you shall not pass” war cry for anything abortion-related as of late. First, they’re filibustering what was an extremely bipartisan bill to combat human trafficking until their staffs missed the non-controversial Hyde Amendment language, which was added as a rider (standard operating procedure for most spending bills) to the law. Democrats knew this language was going to be in the law because Republicans told them months in advance. Heck, Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) aide found the language, but failed to inform the senator before the bill went to the judiciary committee...

RENO, Nev. -- Hundreds of LGBT supporters marched through downtown Reno Saturday afternoon for northern Nevada's Pride Parade, where for one nine-year-old, it was a place to express who she really is. "I really like sleepovers and make up parties and tea parties," Cee Cee Ott, 9, said. It wasn't always like that for Ott. Cee Cee was born Conrad. "We didn't see the transgender come out until she was about three. It didn't really start hitting that she wanted to wear her sister's clothes, she wanted to wear wigs," said Shanna Ott, her parent. It became a struggle for...

predation, not human activity, has reduced bird’s numbers. A coalition of rural Western counties and business interests is contesting the science being used to decide whether to list the Greater sage-grouse as endangered or threatened, accusing the Obama administration of relying on “selective, false and biased” research. Denver attorney Kent Holsinger filed three Data Quality Act challenges Wednesday with the Department of the Interior on behalf of the coalition, which includes the Western Energy Alliance, ranchers, mining and drilling companies and 19 counties in Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Utah. “We’ve documented real issues with transparency and scientific integrity ... The...