Free Republic

Hate groups and militias across the country, known to thrive on feelings of economic desperation and political impotence, are eyeing 2009 as a year of awakening. "Every time the television shows an image of Obama it will be a reminder that our people have lost power in this country," said a recent posting on an Arkansas-based Ku Klux Klan Web site. "The betrayal will stare them in the face each time they watch the news and see little black children playing in the rose garden." For all the racial optimism that comes with Barack Obama's presidency, there is concern in...

Ted Kennedy was taken out of the Statuary Hall luncheon after suffering an apparent seizure -- a few minutes after Sen. Robert Byrd was removed in his wheelchair under the supervision of medical personnel. Byrd was conscious and had been having trouble eating, according to a witness. Kennedy, who underwent brain cancer surgery last year, was taken to the Rayburn room. A police radio picked up a call for paramedics to help someone stricken with a seizure, according to Politico's Patrick Kennedy.

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson will go before the U.S. Senate in coming weeks as Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of Commerce. Will Democrats in that chamber remember his performance in 1999 and 2000 as Energy secretary, when secrets disappeared from nuclear laboratories, and one Democratic senator promised to oppose Richardson for any future nomination? In the January of 1999, the U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence published ... the “Cox Report” -- which found that China had stolen and still was stealing nuclear weapons secrets from the U.S. The committee reported that “the primary focus of this long-term,...

Thursday November 20, 2008 It is time for Sen. Byrd to retire His 50 years are long enough HIS friends won't tell him this, so maybe the one guy in West Virginia who is not a fan of Robert C. Byrd should tell him: It is time to retire from the Senate. Fifty years is enough. His is a remarkable story. Byrd's rise from the hardscrabble of Sophia in Raleigh County to being a couple of heartbeats from the presidency is a story that should live on at least in West Virginia lore. After a nice run as Senate Democratic...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is quietly preparing to ease 90-year-old Sen. Robert C. Byrd from his perch as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Democratic insiders tell Politico. Reid has not yet discussed his plans with Byrd. But in a recent closed-door meeting with his advisers in Las Vegas and a private conversation with Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Reid has laid out a scenario that would have Inouye — the committee’s second-ranking Democrat — taking over Byrd’s chairmanship by the time the 111th Congress convenes in January. Byrd — the longest-serving senator in U.S. history — would become chairman...

(CNN) -- During the Democratic primaries, I wrote a column for CNN.com about how easy it is for any candidate to tar and feather another about their associations with less-than-acceptable figures. Sen. Hillary Clinton tried to blast Sen. Barack Obama for unsolicited comments made by Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, and folks like Fox News' Sean Hannity were happy to run with it, saying it was evidence that the junior senator from Illinois was unfit to be president. But critics like Hannity never bothered to raise the issue of former Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp praising Farrakhan for...

Those AP guys are soooo clever. They get to highlight ongoing organized racism in the United States, which, of course serves as a proxy for the rest of racist America, and they get to guilt whites into voting for Obama solely because he's black.

May 19, 2008 Categories: Barack Obama Sen. Robert Byrd endorses Obama The Charleston Gazette reports an endorsement deep with symbolism: West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is endorsing Barack Obama. "Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support," Byrd says. He said he has "no intention of involving myself in the Democratic campaign for President in the midst of West Virginia's primary election. But the stakes this November could not be higher." Byrd, 91, a master of Senate rules and Iraq war foe, has spent much of his political career repenting the...

"Senate President Pro Tem Sen. Robert Byrd., D-W.Va., talks with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 30, 2008, following Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's address to a joint meeting of Congress.""House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., hands Senate President Pro Tem Sen. Robert Byrd., D-W.Va., a gavel on Capitol Hill in Washington.""Senate President Pro Tem Sen. Robert Byrd., D-W.Va., talks with Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington."

Even though the topic on the agenda for Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing was Iraq war funding, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) grasped from the moment he arrived that he was the day’s most important subject — and he was ready to make his case. He arrived on time, wore a crisp suit and entered the room smiling. When he left, after two hours, “Shut up” were the only words he had for his critics. He seemed to pass the test, convincing three Senate Democratic leaders that he’s fit to continue as chairman. Byrd knows that he is the most closely...

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) will return to Capitol Hill next week after being hospitalized because of severe back pains, his office announced Thursday. Byrd, 90, has been hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center since Tuesday after sustaining a back injury from a fall at his Virginia home on Monday night. X-rays showed that Byrd suffered no broken bones from his fall, according to the senator’s spokesman, Jesse Jacobs. Byrd will undergo physical therapy “to ensure he is steady on his feet when he returns to his Senate duties next week,” Jacobs said. Byrd is the longest-serving senator in U.S....

Doctors checking for broken bones after 90-year-old falls at homeWASHINGTON - Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was hospitalized Tuesday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after complaining of back pain after a fall at his home, his spokesman said. Byrd, 90, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the nation’s longest-serving senator, was staying in the hospital overnight for observation, said spokesman Jesse Jacobs. It was not immediately clear whether he had suffered broken bones. Jacobs said Byrd fell at his Virginia home Monday night. He came to his office Tuesday and was on the Senate floor...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was hospitalized Tuesday after complaining of back pain following a fall at his home, his spokesman said. Byrd, 90, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the longest-serving senator in history, was staying overnight at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for observation, said spokesman Jesse Jacobs. It was not immediately clear whether he had suffered broken bones. Jacobs said Byrd fell at his Virginia home Monday night. He came to his office Tuesday and was on the Senate floor to vote for an Indian health bill. But after noticing he...

Democrat Senator Robert Byrd is President pro tempore of the U. S. Senate. As such he is 3d in line to be President of the United Sates in the event of the death, removal or incapacitation of the Prez, VP and Speaker of the House. He is 90 years old. This is incredible, rambling, off-topic video of him, a week ago, He seems drunk, stoned, crazy or senile, (or possibly a combination of all of the above) on the Senate floor, live on national (and international) TV! As a qualification for Democratic Senator from West Virginia, he is a fomer...

Have the Senate Democrats decided to dump their most egregious porker from his leadership position? The Politico reports this morning that Robert Byrd may get pressured to leave his position as chair of the Appropriations committee, a move that could call into question his ability to function at all in the Senate. Pork has nothing to do with this move: A group of Senate Democrats has begun quietly exploring ways to replace the venerable Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, believing he’s no longer physically up to the job, according to Democratic senators and...

Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate's oldest member and longest-serving member, is celebrating his 90th birthday today. The senator had a party last week and plans to spend time with family and friends today.U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd plans to spend his 90th birthday quietly by reading the hundreds of birthday wishes that have flooded his offices. The legendary senator turned 90 today. Byrd spokesman Jesse Jacobs said birthday greetings have poured into the senator's West Virginia offices and have been forwarded to him in Washington, D.C., where he plans to spend most of his Thanksgiving break. Also on tap for Byrd's...

Over the last two days, the question of patriotism has been debated over the blogosphere. It started with Barack Obama's tortured explanation of why he stopped wearing a lapel pin representing the American flag. He told reporters that he took it off because unnamed others had used it to cover unpatriotic behavior and that the flag had become a "substitute for true patriotism," an explanation that annoyed many more people than did the absence of the lapel pin itself. Today on Heading Right Radio, we debated another dimension of the same question. One of our callers, clearly frustrated with some...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told Congress on Wednesday that he envisioned keeping five combat brigades in Iraq as a 'long-term presence.' Mr. Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee, "When I speak of a long-term presence, I'm thinking of a very modest U.S. presence with no permanent bases, where we can continue to go after Al Qaeda in Iraq and help the Iraqi forces." He added that “in my head” he envisioned a force as a quarter of the current combat brigades. There are now 20 combat brigades in the country, a number that is scheduled to drop to 15...

Byrd's angry theatrics made for a performance reminiscent of Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman." And Byrd did Pacino one better: He invited the audience in the room to join him in heckling the witnesses, creating a responsive Greek chorus. Emboldened, two dozen hecklers in the audience from the antiwar group Code Pink continued to shout at the witnesses and wave signs for the better part of an hour. Finally, after Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) challenged Pace on his view that homosexuality is immoral, the hearing collapsed as the hecklers shouted down the nation's top military officer.

This week, FBI and IRS agents searched the home of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, 83. Stevens is under suspicion for his connection to Bill Allen, an oil state-services contractor convicted of bribing Alaska state lawmakers. Stevens has served in the Senate for almost three decades. The Stevens investigation comes hot on the heels of the Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., scandal, in which Cunningham pleaded guilty to taking bribes from defense contractors; the Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., scandal, in which federal agents found $90,000 in cash stuffed in Jefferson's freezer; and the Jack Abramoff scandal, in which Abramoff was connected with...