Free Republic

WASHINGTON - John McCain's campaign, trailing top Republican rivals in money and polls, is undergoing a significant reorganization with staff cuts in every department, officials with knowledge of the shake-up said Monday. Some 50 staffers or more are being let go, and senior aides will be subject to pay cuts as the Arizona senator's campaign bows to the reality of six months of subpar fundraising, these officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been made public. An afternoon conference call was scheduled to announce the results of second-quarter fundraising.

I asked one of the few conservative Republican senators who stuck with President Bush on immigration to assess how Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell handled the issue. Asking not to be quoted by name, he replied: "If this were a war, Sen. McConnell should be relieved of command for dereliction of duty." Not only did the minority leader end up voting against an immigration bill that he said was better than the 2006 version that he supported, but he also abandoned his post, keeping off the floor during final stages of Senate debate.

PRESIDENT BUSH: I thank the members of the Senate and members of my administration who worked so hard on the border security and immigration reform bill. I'm sorry the Senate was unable to reach agreement on the bill this morning. Legal immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people, and Congress's failure to act on it is a disappointment. The American people understand the status quo is unacceptable when it comes to our immigration laws. A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn't find common ground. It -- it didn't work. ...

Following the collapse of the Senate’s immigration reform bill late last week, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said he’s prepared to move onto other issues. “We’ve got the defense authorization bill coming up the week after the recess,” he said Friday. “And we have a lot of work to do on it. So that’s what we’re working on.” No wonder Kyl is preparing to move onto something else when the Senate resumes its schedule after the weeklong Fourth of July recess. The last issue exposed him to new levels of disrespect. Kyl previously enjoyed something akin to protected status in the...

Why is the public confidence in the United States Congress currently at or near an all time low? Politicians are held in lower esteem than car salesman...

John J. Cina, a Summerville businessman, has never sought public office before but is starting his political career by setting his sights high. He said Friday he will oppose U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in next year's Republican primary. "I'm not a politician. I'm an every- day citizen, an hourly wage earner," Cina said. "We need to consider what's best for the American people, what's best for the South Carolina people. We've sent people up to Washington, D.C., for a purpose, and they don't do anything we want them to." A self-described "grass-roots right-wing conservative with unwavering principles," Cina most recently...

“Several months ago, I met with President Bush at the White House to discuss our out-of-control problems with illegal immigration. He asked me if I would help him push immigration reform through Congress and I gave him my word I would. I support President Bush and admire his leadership. I will be forever grateful for his work to try and solve this difficult problem. “President Bush and I made it clear we would not compromise on our guiding principle that securing our nation’s borders must be our first priority. Our plan made unprecedented efforts and provided over $4.4 billion in...

WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback says he harbored a "hatred" of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton until he experienced a religious awakening in the mid-1990s. "I was considering what I should say when I confronted all the anger that I held for the Clintons," the Kansas senator writes in the book, "From Power to Purpose: A Remarkable Journey of Faith and Compassion." "I thought, I hate them for what they are doing to the country and I feel justified in hating them for it," he writes. But Brownback says he realized there is never justification for hating someone regardless...

The buzz around Washington today is that the proactive phase of the Bush presidency is over. This analysis was prompted by the 46-to-53 Senate vote Thursday that ended the debate over immigration, most likely for the remainder of George W. Bush's term in office. "You could make the case that the Bush presidency ended this week," a former White House adviser to Ronald Reagan told U.S. News. He points out that not only did Bush lose his main domestic priority for his second term, but he also faces a revolt within his party over his Iraq policy. That was driven...

Democrats won both houses of Congress in the 2006 elections in part by arguing that Republicans were incompetent to govern. On immigration, they enjoyed a comparatively united party and cooperation from a Republican White House. More than any other factor, heat from the right killed the bill. But voters elect congressional majorities to solve problems, and Democratic incumbents can expect to pay some price every time they fail. But that fallout almost certainly will pale alongside the damage to future Republican presidential candidates. Hispanics represent the fastest-growing chunk of the U.S. electorate. Their choices help drive the rising swing states...

WASHINGTON, June 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. bishops decried failure of immigration reform and its implicit exploitation of millions of people. The position was voiced by Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, California, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration. "As a nation, we cannot continue to employ an immigration system that leads to the exploitation of millions of our fellow human beings," bishop Barnes said. "We cannot accept the toil of a large underclass which does not have full rights in our society. This strikes at the very character of our nation and...

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- The Chairman of the Republican Party on Friday lambasted Democrats and Republicans who helped kill an immigration bill in the Senate and challenged them to come up with a solution beyond ``just build a fence along the border.'' ``The voices of negativity now have a responsibility to come up with an answer,'' RNC Chairman and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, R-Fla. said. ``How will you fix the situation to make peoples' lives better? How will you continue to grow the economy? How will we bring people out of the shadows for our national security and for the...

We have a Rogue Senate, running away from the clear and expressed desires of the American people across party lines. Americans do not trust the US Government to enforce our borders. Yet a majority of US Senators are determined to defy common sense and simple honesty, as understood by two-thirds of their voters. They have done so for forty years, and our current immigration mess is the result. Voters have a weapon to make their voices heard, and it's the vote. Perhaps the choicest target for GOP primary voters is Senator Lindsay Graham, who is up for reelection next year....

Brownback Writes of 'Hatred' of Clintons Jun 29 05:08 PM US/Eastern By SAM HANANEL Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Sam Brownback says he harbored a "hatred" of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton until he experienced a religious awakening in the mid-1990s. Brownback, a Republican presidential hopeful, details in a new book how the change in outlook led him to make a stunning apology to Hillary Clinton a few years later during a Senate prayer breakfast. "I was considering what I should say when I confronted all the anger that I held for the Clintons," the Kansas senator writes in...

For the past few months, Sen. Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, has flirted with the idea of running for president as an antiwar Republican. Now, however, that platform is threatening Hagel’s standing within his own state and party. In a race that has received scant national attention, Jon Bruning, Nebraska’s 38-year-old Republican attorney general, is challenging Hagel’s bid for re-election to the Senate--by attacking him from the right. Bruning charges that Hagel’s stance on Iraq, as well as his criticism of the president and members of his cabinet (see: Alberto Gonzales), put the incumbent out of touch with the majority...

If you are an avid reader of this web log, you'll know that I sometimes put some of the upcoming political events in a header of "Path of the Cyclone: Calendar". Well, let me tell you, after driving the 3 plus hours to Ames on Thursday afternoon, I pulled into my favorite convenient store to get some Diet Pepsi and the sirens started going crazy. What was approaching? A Cyclone (tornado/twister). I headed over to Main Street to the old depot area and checked out the Brownback office that was being opened that night. It is a nice location with...

About 200 Wall Street Journal journalists did not show up for work Thursday morning to demonstrate their opposition to a potential takeover of the newspaper by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the IAPE union said. The number of journalists who participated in the action represented about one-third of the prestigious business daily's US staff. The Journal employs some 700 journalists worldwide, 600 of whom are based in the United States. The paper is owned by Dow Jones Co., which Murdoch is vying to takeover for five billion dollars, and the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees (IAPE) union said the protest had...

Immigration reform is dead. But before conservatives who killed this bill start popping champagne corks, they ought to consider the following. Our borders will be less secure, not more. Employers who want to do the right thing and only hire legal workers won't have the tools to do so. The 12 million illegal aliens who are here now will continue to live in the shadows, making them less likely to cooperate with law enforcement to report crimes and less likely to pay their full share of taxes. In other words, the mess we created by an outdated and ill-conceived immigration...

The Senate's three Democratic presidential hopefuls — Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and Barack Obama — voted to advance the bill. Among Republicans, John McCain voted to keep the measure alive and Sam Brownback did likewise before changing his vote after defeat was obvious. "Immigration is going to have to wait until we get a new president and a new Congress," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said after a 46-53 procedural vote Thursday derailed efforts to move the bill toward final passage. The House also is almost certain to dodge the issue, with leaders of both parties hoping...

Washington — When voting began Thursday on whether to advance President Bush’s immigration bill, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback was among the first lawmakers to vote “yes.” About 10 minutes later, Brownback switched his vote to “no.” But don’t bother accusing the Republican presidential hopeful of flip-flopping — he says he did it on purpose. “I wanted to signal that I support comprehensive immigration reform, but now is not the time, this is not the bill,” Brownback said. Brownback explained that his “yes” vote initially was to “showcase” that reform is needed. The switch to “no” was because he didn’t think...

RUSH: 46 to 53, and it is over. We have some audio sound bites from the debate that happened on the floor of the Senate this morning. It's truly astounding, and I want to you hear these sound bites. Here's what's going to happen next. Just a little prediction here, and I told you, we went out on a limb yesterday and predicted to you this thing would go down in flames. There were 18, as I counted, 18 switch votes, and, by the way, I want to tell you one thing, everybody is going to try to portray this...

CHAMBLISS: GEORGIANS HAVE SPOKEN, DEMAND BORDER SECURITY FIRST June 28, 2007 WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., today made the following statement regarding defeat of the immigration reform bill being considered by the U.S. Senate. Chambliss voted “no” on a procedural motion requiring 60 votes to cut off debate on the bill. The motion failed by a vote of 46-53. A lot of people have asked me why I became involved in this process initially, and there is a very simple answer: folks in Georgia sent me to Washington to engage in the issues that are important to America,...

Meet Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas. He wants to be President of the United States. But on the most critical homeland security issues of our time, he can’t make up his mind and stick to it. On the morning of June 28, 2007, he was for the illegal alien amnesty bill…before he was against it… For it…then against it… That’s right. He changed his mind and changed his vote in the span of 11 minutes! Sam Brownback. Leadership only John Kerry could love.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH) today released the following statement after voting against cloture on the Senate immigration bill. The voted failed 46 to 53: “I want an immigration bill that secures our borders, revises and updates our current laws to respond to our economic needs and brings the 12 million illegal aliens in our country out of the shadows. I am not convinced that this legislation meets those criteria. As ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia, I have concerns regarding how...

Brownback Votes Against Senate Immigration Bill - U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today voted against the Senate immigration bill. "I voted against the Senate immigration bill because I am not convinced it would fix our broken immigration system and it would most likely repeat the mistakes of the 1986 reform," said Brownback. The immigration bill failed earlier today on a 46-53 procedural vote that required 60 votes for the bill to advance to a final vote.

 Share This Page Media Center > Press Releases > 2007 > June CONTACTS: John Reid/Rebecca Wilder(202) 463-5682 / 888-249-NEWS   Thursday, June 28, 2007    Chamber Laments Failure of Immigration Reform   WASHINGTON, DC—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today expressed its disappointment over the failure of S. 1348, the “Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007” to move forward for debate.   “This issue is not going away.  The current system is clearly broken, and states are naturally reacting to the lack of action at the federal level with a patchwork of immigration laws and enforcement—exposing employers who...

So as the dust begins to settle back on the battlefield and the smoke of the heavies begins to lift in the gentle breeze, conservatives who fought hard for victory over an ill-conceived plan of amnesty and deceit wrap today's battle up with much deserved pats upon shoulders and pass around high-fives. But there's some daunting things unsettled; we're left with a couple of perplexing questions, at least, I am: 1) Will Trent Lott finally quit the Senate and go home? 2) Does Lindsey Graham now speak with a spasmodic hesitation as he tries to tell "bigots" to shut up?

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is not wavering on immigration. This week, he continued to stand firm with President Bush in seeking a Senate compromise on the issue in the face of intense opposition from core activists in the Republican Party. His advisers refer to such a stance as one of the signatures of his political career: principled stands on tough issues. And even they concede that, this time, it's costing him dearly. "From a political perspective, having a candidate that takes on all the tough issues is not always the most politically expedient thing to do," said David Roederer, the...

Say, how come there are 47 yes votes when the roll says there were only 46? Ah, my friends, that’s because Sam Brownback turned out to be the weaseliest “no” vote of all. He voted yes right at the very beginning, during the alphabetical vote, probably thinking that cloture was going to pass. Then, when it died, he switched to a no. I almost wish he was pulling more than 1% in the presidential polls so we could hammer him into oblivion with that. As it is, I’ve captured his moment of shame for posterity on video. I think that’s...

The bill has died. Trust me, no one will be sitting shiva for it at HH.com, and not just because I’m the only one who knows what “sitting shiva” means. Actually, Medved also knows what “sitting shiva” means, and maybe he’ll be doing it on behalf of everyone else at Townhall who is instead celebrating like it’s VJ Day. (Reports that Matt Lewis surprised Mary Katherine Ham with a kiss like the one seen in the picture of above are unconfirmed.) So where do we go from here? Let’s take ‘em one by one, starting with the biggest winners and...

The Senate fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed. Warner and Webb both voted NO on cloture..... Thank them at: senator@warner.senate.gov http://webb.senate.gov/contact/

As the Senate Democratic leader pushed his immigration bill through the chamber yesterday, Republican leader Mitch McConnell took a pass on the debate and left his rank-and-file members to fend for themselves. Mr. McConnell finds himself in the crossfire between a majority of his own senators, who oppose the bill, and President Bush, who desperately wants it to pass. The Kentucky Republican's solution has been to go underground, leaving his party's senators to fight among themselves and with Democrats. During all of yesterday's back-and-forth and procedural maneuvers, he did not utter a word, even eschewing the usual duty of helping...

The cloture vote on the 2007 Immigration Reform Bill looks like it will kick off at approximately 1100 hours. It will come down to four votes or less. Like I predicted several weeks ago, this one is going down like The Edmund Fitzgerald, the October 1929 DJIA and Senator Lindsey Graham’s favorability ratings. Most of the GOP gets this and understands well. The voters will remember and will punish those who betray us. Careers will end abruptly, if incumbent GOP Senators think they can ram this down our throats. While the proponents of the bill call the opponents a vocal...

THE GOP has a guy problem. Even after Veep Dick Cheney shot a friend in a hunting accident, he still hunts. In California, GOP biggies injure their comrades in a less ballistic manner. State party chairman Ron Nehring is under fire for handpicking an Australian immigrant -- who was ordered deported in 2001, was jailed on visa violations in 2004 and has filed a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security -- to be the party's chief operations officer. Under Nehring, the party also sought an H-1B visa so that a Canadian citizen could serve...

Watch/Listen Live Senate debate before cloture vote.

The Senate immigration bill lost supporters yesterday and hangs on by a thread heading into this morning's showdown vote, after lawmakers voted down amendments making illegal aliens show roots to get legal status and cutting off their path to citizenship... "The way this has been handled, I'm not going to take a leap of faith," said Sen. Richard M. Burr, North Carolina Republican... Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat, said he has voted to keep the bill moving a half-dozen times already on "cloture" votes, but yesterday's debate showed him the bill is probably unsalvageable... "I've given them six or seven...

“Absolutely devastating to Middle America” is Cable News Network commentator’s Lou Dobbs’s reaction to the U.S. Senate’s 64-35 vote on Tuesday for cloture and the resurrection of an expensive and massive illegal alien amnesty/guest worker program. Dobbs and other pundits note President George W. Bush pulled out all the stops to get 24 Republicans to join 39 Democrats and Independent Sen. Joe Leiberman, to vote for the largest amnesty -- involving over 15 million illegal aliens -- in U.S. history. Sen. Jim DeMint, (R-S.C.), lamented that “many arms were twisted” in spite of massive opposition from the GOP’s center-right base....

Elected Republicans are now openly complaining that they are receiving "threats" because of their support for the illegal alien amnesty bill. I guess they now know what it's like to walk around a Los Angeles park after dark. Immigration Bill Prompts Some Menacing ResponsesWASHINGTON, June 27 — The threat came in the weekend mail.The recipient was Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida, who has been a leading advocate of the proposed legislation for changing the immigration system. His offices in Washington and across Florida have received thousands of angry messages in recent weeks, but nothing as alarming as that letter...

Here we are again my friends, hopefully for the last debate thread on this particular monstrous legislation. Proceedings are supposed to begin at 9:30 a.m. EST, with the cloture vote being taken at 10:30 a.m. On a personal note, you've all been wonderful in your passion, vigilance, and commitment to the principles on which our country was founded. If I have to be in a foxhole, I want to be in it with you guys.

Yesterday, a GOP aide, who is one of my sources in the Senate, gave me the rundown on what's happening with the Senate immigration bill (This is the same person whom I talked to before, here (1), here (2), and here (3). First of all, on Tuesday, after the first cloture vote, the bill was supposed to come out around 2:30 P.M. on Tuesday. However, it didn't actually get handed out until around 5:15 P.M. This was a problem, in and of itself, because we're talking 373 pages and the 2nd cloture vote is on Thursday. That was a lot...

As an everyday citizen of the United States, what are your realistic options when you believe your country to be in a death spiral from which it almost assuredly won’t recover? If you are an American who still deeply believes in the promise of our republic, how can you fight back against those from within, intent on destroying everything you hold sacred by subverting traditional family values, western civilization, national security, and just plain commonsense? Shockingly, maybe you can’t. I’m told it’s basically too late to save the nation that represents the last best hope for mankind. Six months ago,...

Leaning Against Republicans Richard Burr of North Carolina and Christopher Bond of Missouri and Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska said they oppose permitting a vote on final passage. Virginia Democrat Jim Webb and Republicans John Ensign of Nevada and Pete Domenici of New Mexico said they were leaning that way.

A travesty. He’s the personification of the bill’s ills: ignorant of and incurious about its weaknesses, confused as to what’s in it and what isn’t (per his comments about Kay Bailey Hutchison’s amendment), and worst of all brimming with arrogance at the sheer nerve of conservative proles to be angry and emotional about this issue. This clip ought to push those confidence-in-Congress poll numbers into single digits, assuming they’re not there already. He also appears to have only the vaguest sense of what the Fairness Doctrine is. Rest easy tonight knowing that in these capable hands may rest the fate...

Backers of a complex and contentious immigration overhaul resorted to a rare parliamentary procedure today to speed disposition of amendments that threaten to derail the bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced a 373-page “clay pigeon” amendment that encompassed 27 separate amendments as a means of moving the chamber toward a final vote on the bill (S 1639) before the Fourth of July recess begins this weekend. Reid is breaking the omnibus amendment into 27 individual parts, with votes on each either before or after tomorrow’s scheduled cloture vote to limit debate on the bill itself. That showdown will require...

The Senate's revived legislation to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants faces a critical test Thursday after surviving potentially fatal challenges. Attempts from the right and left to alter key elements of the delicate bipartisan compromise failed Wednesday, including a Republican proposal to deny illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and Democratic bids to reunite legal immigrants with family members. The Senate killed, by a 56-41 vote, an amendment by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to provide more green cards for parents of U.S. citizens. By a 55-40 margin, it tabled a proposal by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to give family members...

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is drawing criticism back in a television ad being run by a national group. McConnell helped revive an immigration bill this week. NumbersUSA favors restricting immigration. The group accuses McConnell of joining liberal icon Ted Kennedy in strong-arming senators to support amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The group's ad says illegal immigrants have taken jobs from American workers, and says the legislation won't stop future illegal immigration. The ad started airing Tuesday in Kentucky. The commercial asks people to contact McConnell to urge him to oppose the measure

As is its right, the White House is certainly putting up a spirited defense of the Senate's immigration/amnesty bill. The Bush administration is making it quite clear that it has drawn a line in the sand on this issue and opponents cross it at their own peril. I am a longtime admirer of George W. Bush. He is a good man, the head of my party and someone I had the honor to work with many years ago. Unfortunately, as I'm a Republican who thinks the president's "guest worker program" is really amnesty in immigrant clothing, my president has suggested...

MIDLAND — Late last spring, Republicans in this West Texas oil town called for a boycott of Doña Anita's Mexican restaurant, a retaliatory step against its owner, Luz Reyes, for closing shop and showing up at a rally against proposed new penalties for illegal immigrants. But President Bush's three best friends in Midland defied the boycott and went to the restaurant, Bush's favorite when he lived there. One of them, the president's close confidant and former commerce secretary Donald Evans, told Reyes, "Luz, you didn't do anything wrong. We love you." As a congressional candidate in Midland in 1978, George...

Despite a valiant effort, the power of conservative talk radio was no match for the White House, the Republican and Democratic Parties, and the major media. The Senate on Tuesday voted to revive the illegal alien amnesty bill by a vote of 64 to 35. Senate leaders are pushing for a final vote of approval by Friday. One reason for the outcome was the propagandistic ability of supporters of the bill, such as Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, to frame the debate in terms of a “solution” to the immigration problem?the Senate bill?versus rounding up illegals and deporting them...