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California's Democratic congressional leaders said Wednesday they hope to address concerns raised by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about the cost of health insurance legislation moving through Congress. Schwarzenegger wrote members of the state's congressional delegation this week and asked them for more flexibility to deal with the state's financial woes instead of imposing new costs through an expansion of Medicaid. He estimated that the health care legislation being debated in Congress would cost the state an extra $3 billion to $4 billion annually. “This crushing new burden will be added to a safety net that is already shredding under billions of...

Republicans are stepping up their efforts to persuade more House Democrats to switch parties and are zeroing in on a second-term Pennsylvanian who is not ruling out such a move. Democratic Rep. Chris Carney received a phone call Wednesday from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asking him to consider becoming a Republican, a top GOP official told POLITICO. A spokesman for Carney declined to say if the congressman was considering such a switch. “No further comment at this time,” said Carney spokesman Josh Drobnyk, who would only confirm that the call took place. In a brief interview, McCain declined to offer...

A few weeks ago, at the end of a 40-minute Oval Office huddle on climate change between President Barack Obama and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham — one of many tête-è-têtes on various subjects between the two this year — Obama leaned forward. "Look Lindsey, I'm ready to play," he said. "I'm for nuclear power. I'm for responsible offshore drilling. I'm for clean coal. I just need a reasonable emissions standard." "Count me in," Graham replied. "Let's see if we can do it." Wait, you may ask, a conservative Republican is seriously negotiating with the President? And on global warming, of...

Conservative primary voters "have to yield" to reality, Senate Republicans' campaign chairman said Wednesday. Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), suggested that conservatives need to have a more realistic sense of which races are winnable and with which candidates. "Folks on the right, and frankly I'm one of them in terms of voting record, have to yield to the world as it is and not necessarily how they wish it would be," Cornyn told Reuters for a story about centrist Rep. Mike Castle's (R) bid for Senate next year in Delaware. Belying Cornyn's...

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the man in charge of getting Republicans elected to the Senate next year, said yesterday that right-wing members of his party eager to enforce conservative purity need to "yield to reality" if they want to win seats in 2010. In a Reuters story about the Delaware Senate race, where Cornyn and the NRSC are backing Rep. Mike Castle in his run for Vice President Biden's old Senate seat, Cornyn says that moderates like Castle are what the party needs to win in areas where the Democrats are strong. That flies in the face of the conservative-or-nothing...

(snip) SAMUELSON: If John McCain had won, would there be more bipartisanship?HOLTZ-EAKIN: I think so. One reason is mechanical: it would have been a Republican president and a Democratic Congress. You have to operate in a more bipartisan fashion. It's also about style. McCain is more willing to disappoint Republicans than Obama is to disappoint Democrats.(snip)

WASHINGTON The Maverick’s buck stops here. John McCain is no longer the media’s delight and his party’s burr, bucking convention with infectious relish. The man used to be such a constructive independent that some of his Republican Senate colleagues called him a traitor. Now he’s such a predictable obstructionist that he’s in the just-say-no vanguard with the same conservatives who used to despise him. On Tuesday afternoon on the floor, Senator Mitch McConnell, who contemptuously fought McCain’s campaign finance reform bill all the way to the Supreme Court, oozed admiration toward his Arizona colleague, as McCain did yet another grandstanding...

Five Republican representatives – Chris Smith, Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts, Trent Franks and Anh "Joseph" Cao – have written a letter to Ugandan President Yoweri Mouseveni pressing him to stop pending legislation that would severely criminalize homosexuality and sometimes impose the death penalty for homosexual acts. In the letter, which you can read in full here, the men say their religious faith requires them to oppose the legislation because it contradicts the "foundational Christian belief in the inherent dignity and worth of all men and women." The Ugandan law has become a hot topic in America because, as National Public...

With a Senate health care bill on track to be passed before Christmas without a single Republican vote, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham says his biggest concern about what he calls a "sleazy process" is the long-term damage it will do on Capitol Hill. "You are legitimizing partisan outcomes rather than looking at the best interest of the nation and that is to hold hands and do big things together," Graham said in an interview Monday from Washington. "It's the first time a major piece of legislation has passed along partisan lines," he said, "a departure from what has been a...

Graham told The Associated Press Monday he wants Attorney General Henry McMaster to review how Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson was able to spare his state higher Medicaid costs as the Democrat held out for perks for his state in the mammoth bill.

Guiliani will NOT run for Senate this year. Like him or not, he was best chance for a MORE CONSERVATIVE candidate. Don't waste time with the "not Conservative enough" mantra. He was better than anyone else with a chance to get elected.

Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has decided not to run for the Senate seat held by Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Republicans briefed on his decision said Monday evening. The decision by Mr. Giuliani, 65, leaves Senator Gillibrand — who was appointed to her seat less than a year ago, has never run in a statewide election, and is still unfamiliar to many voters — without a high-profile Republican opponent as she faces election to the seat. As recently as a week ago, a Quinnipiac University poll showed Mr. Giuliani leading Ms. Gillibrand in a hypothetical matchup, 50 percent to 40 percent....

From General McChrystal to Hillary Clinton to Chelsea Handler, Meghan McCain names the men and women who made a difference this year—the good, the bad, and the nutty. This year has been full of people who let us down—from politics to entertainment to sports. (Is it too late for Tiger Woods, Mark Sanford, and David Letterman to rent a ski condo for the holidays?) But not everyone has been a disappointment. There are plenty of folks who made the world a lot better, more interesting, and just plain fun in 2009 Here are people who made my year. (snip) Hillary...

You can follow Richard Nixon's prescription on how to win a Republican nomination for high office. You can even heap praise on Jimmy Carter. You cannot, however, do both. Nixon, the disgraced 37th president, reduced his formula for victory to this: Run to the right to get nominated, then dash to the middle to get elected. Many Republican candidates find it still works. Former Congressman Rob Simmons, the front-runner in the 2010 contest for the U.S. Senate seat held by beleaguered Democratic incumbent Christopher Dodd, won three terms in the House of Representatives as a moderate Republican. Ambitious Republicans, even...

Washington (CNN) – Not every Republican is a critic of President Obama. At least one thinks the president is doing a fine job – at least when it comes to the effort involved in being the country’s chief executive. Asked to give Obama a grade as the end of the president’s first year in office approaches, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Republican governor, gave Obama high marks. “When it comes to effort, [Obama] should get a straight A,” Schwarzenegger told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King in an interview that aired Sunday on State of the Union. “He’s out there with tremendous...

The next time you read an article of how Mccain has become the leading voice of opposition you remember this video and vote this traitor and RINOS like him out of office. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6YKOkfFsE&feature=fvw

The neediest among us have been writing letters to the editors of the local papers lamenting the absence of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who occasionally travels out of the state. I guess it makes the letter writers nervous or edgy if they don't have the state's chief executive at the ready to do — I don't know what exactly; maybe come out and shovel their walk. Personally, it doesn't bother me if an elected official is doing something other than governing. If they aren't governing, they aren't fouling anything up, and along those lines, we will be far better served if...

Candidates are already lining up donors and political action committees in hopes of securing the 2012 Republican nomination. At least six potential candidates already visited Iowa in the past six months. Next year, we will see many more GOP hopefuls putting the Hawkeye State on their travel itinerary. A victory in Iowa could boost the winner to the GOP nomination. So, as 2009 draws to a close, here is a look ahead at the top ten Republican hopefuls for 2012:

Today, December 20,Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) said ...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) gave his challenger in the 2008 presidential election a stiff review Sunday as President Barack Obama nears completion of his first year in office. "[Obama] said there would be a change in the climate in Washington," McCain said. "There's been a change. It's more partisan. It's more bitterly divided than it's been." (snip) "At least under 'Hillarycare' they tried seriously to negotiate with Republicans," McCain said."There's been -- there has been no effort that I know of that -- serious across-the-table negotiations, such as I have engaged in with Democrats and with other administrations. And that...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a leading congressional advocate for immigrants' rights, has introduced a bill that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens and would end a controversial program that enlists local police to enforce immigration laws. The bill is widely viewed as too liberal to pass. Obama administration officials have said they are looking instead to a more moderate, bipartisan immigration-reform bill to be introduced in the Senate early next year by Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).Still, the Chicago Democrat made it clear that he and his allies expect a seat at the...

Gov. Charlie Crist walked alone into Friday's meeting with The Miami Herald editorial board. His security detail stayed outside the glass door. There were no staff members juggling Blackberries and briefing books at his side. Just Crist, sitting at a conference table in shirt sleeves and a tie, at perhaps the lowest point of his political career. The interview came after another tough week. Polls showed the former presumptive Republican nominee tied or just a notch ahead of former House Speaker Marco Rubio of Miami in the U.S. Senate race. Calls for his state party chief, Jim Greer, to resign...

(snip) And as a result, the best thing they can do is to stand up and be counted. To shout down those things that are unacceptable. And then to put forward our own good ideas and we are a party of ideas, have been from the beginning. We are now. We have a health care plan. We have an energy plan. We have plans that relate to winning the war in Afghanistan. These kinds of things we got to put forward. But stopping President Obama's agenda is also a very important agenda item for us. (snip)

After barely four weeks in office, President Barack Obama signs into law Tuesday a legislative achievement that eclipses entire terms of some contemporary presidents. The stimulus legislation has the real potential of creating more than 3 million jobs, most in the private sector and many rebuilding an aging public infrastructure. The new law assists those most in need of basic health care, job training, and in the near term, unemployment benefits and food. No one could blame Obama for being a bit chagrined at the GOP’s disengagement from all this, notwithstanding the president’s charm and offers of substantive compromise. Republican...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Lindsey Graham makes an unlikely champion for action on climate change. The South Carolina Republican has joined forces with Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to drum up support for a bill that would put a price on heat-trapping pollution. Graham's position has irked just about everybody. (snip) Q: How did you get involved in this issue? A: It was a slow evolution. I started traveling with Sen. (John) McCain, who has been a climate change advocate for a long time, and I went to the Arctic region with him and...

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) will deliver the weekly Republican address Saturday, December 19, 2009. WHO: U.S. Senator John McCain WHAT: Weekly Republican Address WHEN: Saturday, December 19, 2009, 6:00 a.m. ET

Declaring that she “was honored and proud to run with him,” former Alaska governor Sarah Palin pushed back hard Wednesday against a report that she had disrespected Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by blacking out his name on a sun visor she wore on vacation. The website TMZ accused Palin of “a frontal attack on Sen. John McCain” during a Hawaii vacation this week: “Sarah chose to wear a visor from her campaign -- a visor that was emblazoned with the former presidential candidate's name ... that is, until Palin redacted McCain's name with a black marker.” But Palin said in...

With today's news of Saab's death and Volvo's impending sale to China, what brand is left to fill "English Dept. Faculty Only" parking spaces at liberal institutions of higher ed? More bluntly, what will latté-swilling liberal Northeasterners drive now? This question comes via Robert, appropriately of Boston, MA, who asks "I am another east coast, liberal, soy latte sipping Saab owner. On my second one now, bought the first one in 1995. What will I drive now? " Our answer? If can't get a used Saab or don't want to live through that experience and you're older and don't care...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and historian at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. FP: Victor Hanson, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Hanson: Glad to be here again. FP: Sarah Palin is, clearly, carving out a national presence right now. It’s not just the appeal of her book, but also her outspokenness on the Copenhagen conference and other issues. What do you think she might be up to? And what is she tapping into? What are her possibilities? Hanson: I think she taps into a current of populist unhappiness in the country with Washington insiders, Big Money, and...

RINOs Hutchison, Collins and Snowe voted with the Dems to cut off debate on the Military Defense Bill which was being filibustered by Repubs to slow down the health care bill. Hutchison is vying with Perry for Texas governor. I saw both their names on an older list of CFR members. Are they still members?

SALT LAKE CITY — Still looking for that perfect gift for the Mitt Romney fans on your Christmas list? How about a ticket to Romney's only Utah appearance on his upcoming tour to promote his just-finished book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness"? It's not until March 13, but tickets for a speech by the former presidential candidate at the Salt Palace go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday. The tickets, priced at $25 through Jan. 31 or $95 with a private reception with Romney, include a pre-signed copy of the book that's scheduled to be released March 2....

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is scheduled to meet privately Wednesday evening with top administration climate aide Carol Browner. Graham is working with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to craft a bipartisan cap and trade bill. He plans to discuss the ways Senate leaders can deal with manufacturing and coal state worries that the bill will spike electricity bills in the midst of a deep recession. “We’ve got to address people’s concerns about compliance costs and rate payer increases,” he told POLITICO. He’ll also use the meaning to address nuclear power, off-shore drilling and new coal technologies —...

(snip) MCCAIN: Let me say I have great admiration and respect for Senator Durbin... (snip) MCCAIN: Let me give you a couple of points of straight talk. I resent it enormously when Senator Reid comes to the floor and accuses Republicans or compares Republicans to those who fought against the abolition of slavery. He said that. That's -- that's unacceptable. As far as the president's commitments are concerned, he made that commitment to the American people, so he didn't tell the American people the truth when he was campaigning for president. How's that?(snip)

(snip) On Twitter, Politico's Ben Smith asks, "At this point, how is current proposal substantially different from Romneycare?" The answer is, it ain't. (snip) So now, if Obamacare passes, Romney will be left telling angry primary voters that the only real difference between the two plans is that he implemented his policies at the state level, while Obama did it through the federal government. Sure, it's clearly worse if the federal government is implementing bad policies, but it's hard to see how such an argument would pass muster with anybody but those who are already ardent Romney supporters. It's sort...

With the expected announcement of the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois, a Republican-driven hysteria is virtually guaranteed. That’s as empty as it is uninteresting. What’s interesting is whether the Republicans’ 2008 presidential nominee and national security elder statesman, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), joins in the action. McCain, recall, has long advocated shuttering the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Back on the 2008 campaign trail, he said bluntly, “I believe we should close Guantanamo,” as the United States’ “great power does not mean that we can do whatever we want, whenever we want.” Spoken like a...

Conservative dauphine Meghan McCain has ascended to the top rung of Republican pundits, but some of her fiercest detractors have come from the right. There are a few big reasons: She advocates gay marriage and bashes abstinence. She posted a racy photo of herself on her Twitter account. And she doesn't hesitate to whallop fellow travelers on the right, famously picking a fight with Ann Coulter in March. Coulter threw fuel onto their feud this past weekend, joking on a late-night Fox News show that McCain resembled one of Tiger Woods's self-declared mistresses named Jamie Jungers. Fox played a pre-recorded...

Soundly beaten for the presidency a year ago, an unbowed Sen. John McCain has re-emerged as the happy GOP warrior against President Obama and the Democrats' health care reform agenda. FOXNews.com AP Soundly beaten for the presidency a year ago, an unbowed Sen. John McCain has re-emerged as the happy GOP warrior against President Obama and the Democrats' health care reform agenda. The Arizona Republican was also front and center over the weekend against wasteful Democratic spending on Capitol Hill. "I urge, no I don't urge, I demand the president of the United States veto this bill," he said on...

Just before yesterday’s White House jobs summit, Mitt Romney minced no words in blasting President Obama’s economic policies. “Like other presidents before him, Barack Obama inherited a recession. But unlike them, he has made it worse, not better,’’ Romney wrote in an opinion piece published yesterday in USA Today. The former Massachusetts governor - who made his name and fortune at private equity firm Bain Capital, ran for the GOP presidential nomination last year, and could very well run again in 2012 - derides Obama’s economic know-how. “His failure to stem the unemployment tide should not have been a surprise....

An array of RINOS and CINOS (or CRINOS for short) are suddenly all agog about Barack Obama’s chimerical shift to the “center”. Obama tosses out a few entirely mendacious lines about America being a good country; or helping small businesses, and those who should know better are clapping like trained seals. Former Reagan speech writerand WSJ columnist, Peggy Noonan is not the only RINO giddy about Obama’s imaginary centrism; immediately after Obama’s Afghanistan speech in which we were told he was finally getting around to sending extra troops, though they would only be there for a few days, to the...

SALT LAKE CITY - Over the course of two weeks, Utah Republicans had the chance to see the two most talked-about potential presidential candidates in their party. Mitt Romney attended an event for ADX security systems and Sarah Palin visited to sign her bestselling book. The Utahpolicy.com, Fox 13 Insider Poll finds that Mitt Romney is taken far more seriously as a potential presidential candidate. 53.5 percent of Republicans say they expect Romney to be the Republican party candidate to face Barack Obama. 31.3 percent of Democrats think Romney will be the candidate. Only 4.7 percent of Republicans and 6.3...

Eric Cantor (R) dodges question on Palin's qualification (He's scared of Palin)

WASHINGTON — Senators negotiating a bipartisan climate change bill on Thursday unveiled the broad outlines of their plan to combine greenhouse gas limits with expanded offshore drilling, more nuclear power and protections for refiners in a bid to attract support from wary lawmakers. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., announced their proposal as international leaders at a summit in Copenhagen were trying to devise a plan to combat global warming. President Barack Obama is set to attend the Copenhagen meeting next week. Graham said the group “did this just for Copenhagen … to give the...

Activists are expressing disappointment with President Barack Obama’s plans for the Aids treatment programme in Africa, charging that he has fallen short of the achievements of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama pledged to increase Pepfar spending by $1b a year, but in his first budget, called for only $165m in new funds. Gregg Gonsalves, a leading US anti-Aids campaigner, warned an audience in New York last week, “I am about to say something shocking: I miss George W Bush.” “President Obama has all but failed to fulfil his commitments to wage an aggressive battle against global Aids,” a coalition...

After Lying Low in Wake of 2008 Presidential-Election Loss, Arizona Senator Mounts Opposition to Obama's Top Priority. BY NAFTALI BENDAVID & GREG HITT Sen. John McCain kept a relatively low profile for months after he lost the 2008 presidential election to Barack Obama. Those days are over. In the health-care battle, the Arizona Republican has suddenly emerged as the John McCain of old -- a vigorous political combatant. He has publicly hammered Democratic proposals, engaged in heated exchanges on the Senate floor and lent his voice to automated telephone calls pressuring Democratic senators in Arkansas, Colorado and Nebraska on their...

If you remember Frank from Queens and his rants on the Bob Grant Show and others and John from Staten Island and what great callers they are you will enjoy their show. Click the listen live button, it starts now and every Friday at 10 PM. They also have a free archive to listen to past shows.

George W. Bush's State of the Union address must have baffled anyone who voted for him based on his pledge to cut the size of government. That speech has been properly and efficiently pilloried by Joseph Stromberg, Alan Bock, and others. The speech was both Wilsonian and Clintonian, which is to say that it proposed a political solution for all human problems and backed this idea with a promise of massive increases in federal spending on just about everything. But should we really be so surprised? Contrary to popular myth, every Republican president since and including Herbert Hoover has increased...

There are very few brave politicians in the world. Most of them mince their words and tell you what they think you want to hear. Brave politicians are ones who speak their mind. They tell you exactly how they feel, consequences be damned. Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King is among that rare breed.

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Barack Obama began his presidency with an open hand toward the man he had just defeated in a race that was at times bitter. "There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain," said Obama at an inauguration-eve tribute dinner to his former foe. But in the year since that evening of comity and collegiality, McCain has emerged as one of the leading critics of the new president. On foreign policy, his traditional area of expertise, and domestic affairs, where McCain has shown new passion, the 72-year-old Arizonan is making it...