Free Republic

Surprised? Don’t be, as the confirmation vote for Loretta Lynch was never going to be stalled forever. Under pressure themselves, Democrats finally cut a deal on the human-trafficking bill to get the Lynch nomination completed: “I’m glad we can say there is a bipartisan proposal that will allow us to complete action on this legislation so we can provide help to the victims who desperately need it,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on the Senate floor.“As soon as we finish the trafficking bill, as I’ve indicated for some time now, we’ll move to the president’s nominee for...

The Minnesota Senate will keep its rule forbidding members from looking at one another during floor debate and will continue to ban everyone from having drinks on the Senate floor. The issues arose Monday during the passage of the rules to govern the Senate. On a 15-44 vote, the Senate decided to keep its current requirement that all speakers must gaze at the Senate president. "I find this particular rule of the Senate, dare I say, antiquated," said Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove. But Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, disagreed. When you can look at the senator speaking, he...

As the Framers knew, we are unlikely to outgrow human nature. So what happens when we decide we’ve outgrown a Constitution designed to protect us from human nature’s foibles? The question arises, yet again, thanks to Senator Bob Corker. The Tennessee Republican, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is author — along with Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) — of a ballyhooed bipartisan bill that is being touted as the derailment of President Obama’s plan to trample congressional prerogatives en route to a calamitous “deal” that will facilitate jihadist Iran’s nuclear-weapons ambitions. (I use scare-quotes because...

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved, 19 to 0, legislation granting Congress a voice in negotiations on the Iran nuclear accord, The New York Times reported. The legislation will now go to the full Senate, after President Barack Obama earlier withdrew his opposition rather than face a bipartisan rebuke. Republican opponents of the nuclear agreement on the committee sided with Obama’s strongest Democratic supporters in demanding a congressional role as international negotiators work to turn this month’s nuclear framework into a final deal by June 30. The bill would mandate that the administration send the text of...

Mark Levin exposes the treachery in the US Senate today, who he says just capitulated completely to Obama by gutting their own constitutional duty to approve treaties, giving it solely to Obama. So in short, Obama can make a treaty with the Islamo-Nazis in Iran without submitting it to the Senate and the Senate can only stop it if they can get enough nays to vote against it.

Traitor is strong language, but in the aftermath of Tuesday’s vote on a bill that was supposed to reaffirm the Senate’s constitutional power to consent to President Obama’s as yet still undefined and undisclosed nuclear treaty with Iran there is no other way to describe the actions of Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations The bill Corker rammed through the Foreign Relations Committee is worse than no bill at all. What Corker’s bill does is, in its post-markup form, require the president to submit for congressional review the final nuclear agreement reached between Iran, the...

Bowing to pressure from Republicans and his own party, President Barack Obama on Tuesday relented to a compromise empowering Congress to reject the emerging nuclear pact with Iran. The rare and reluctant agreement between the president and the Republican-led Congress came after the White House maintained for weeks that congressional interference could jeopardize sensitive negotiations with Tehran. But lawmakers refused to back down from their insistence that Congress have a formal role in what could be a historic nuclear weapons deal. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved the compromise bill shortly after White House spokesman Josh Earnest conveyed the...

The US Congress will have a say on a nuclear deal with Iran, under a new agreement reached with the White House. President Barack Obama withdrew his opposition to a bipartisan bill that was unanimously passed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill means the administration must immediately send text of a final deal to Congress. An outline agreement on the future shape of Iran's nuclear programme was reached after marathon talks in April. The US, Iran, and four other nations have set a deadline of 30 June to finalise a deal which would ease western sanctions in exchange...

National conservative groups may get one of their first-choice recruits this year in Florida's open Senate race, if Rep. Ron DeSantis follows through on his initial interest in replacing 2016 presidential candidate Marco Rubio. DeSantis, a 36-year-old Iraq War veteran and founding member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said in a statement Tuesday that he will consider running to replace Rubio next year. "As it became clear that Senator Rubio was likely to run for president, I received encouragement to consider running for the Senate," DeSantis said, adding that he and his wife "will use the next several weeks...

Today, the Obama Administration announced that it had finalized its nuclear agreement with Iran and had agreed to sell the Iranian government a wide range of nuclear weapons and specific delivery systems with a range of less than eight hundred miles. The administration hailed the agreement as the best possible result available and challenged Republicans to develop a better alternative. In turn, the Ayatollah delivered a speech in Tehran explaining that the American Administration's announcement misstated the agreement and that the delivery systems promised had a range of seven thousand miles. Both parties have indicated that Iran's word is its...

It may be as soon as today when the Iran Bill finishes its journey through the Senate and comes to a vote. If enacted, the bill will give Congress the right to review any agreement with Iran made by John Kerry and the White House and either approve or deny the lifting of any sanctions imposed on that country by Congress. (How it was ever a question as to how sanctions imposed by Congress wouldn’t be lifted by Congress is a question for another day.) From the sound of things, Bob Corker is hopeful that things may be wrapped...

[ .... " Bayh, though, suggested the friction now could give way to better times soon for Democrats. “I do think with a new president, potentially new leaders, certainly for Democrats in the Senate --who knows about the House -- there may be a season for governing where people might actually find more common ground,starting all over with a blank sheet of paper,” Bayh said. “That would be a good thing for the country.”

WASHINGTON – Sen. Marco Rubio has filed legislation to repeal gun control laws he considers too restrictive — not in his native Florida but specifically in Washington, D.C., despite overwhelming support for the statutes by residents of the nation’s capital. “In order to achieve the American dream, people need to be able to live in safe communities and be able to protect themselves, their families and their properties from danger,” Rubio said. “The lawful exercise of the Second Amendment is part of what makes this possible. For years, the District of Columbia has infringed on its residents’ Second Amendment rights...

BALTIMORE - Democratic primary voters should find little difference in political ideology between the two candidates running to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski, according to outside analysts. Both U.S. Reps. Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen are ranked “hardcore liberals” by On The Issues, a political website that analyzes policy issues supported by federal, state and local politicians. Both Edwards and Van Hollen are considered reliable Democrats, who vote with their party 100% of the time, according to The Sunlight Foundation, a national, non-partisan organization that focuses on transparency and accountability in government and politics. Rep. Elijah Cummings, 7th, ranking...

Republican operatives were wringing their hands with concern re the 2016 Senate races  before 2014's congressional victory was even secured- Senate Republicans will have to work hard to retain their recently won majority as they face a tough 2016 electoral map. They have 24 seats up compared to Democrats' 10, including seven in states President Obama carried twice. Democrats won't have any red-state senators facing reelection and could be buoyed by a favorable presidential-year electorate. Republicans do have some margin for error after their sweeping 2014 win netted them nine seats for a 54-seat Senate majority. Democrats won't have it easy...

Did anyone think one of the Senate’s most reliable RINOs, who’s up for reelection next year not just in a very blue state but in Barack Obama’s home state, and who supported the Schumer/Rubio Gang of Eight amnesty bill, was going to go to the mat to block Obama’s pick for AG to protest executive amnesty?Conservative Republicans won’t stick up for religious liberty even in red states for fear of being called bigots. The odds of a moderate Republican opposing the first black woman Attorney General of the United States in a Democratic stronghold were precisely zero. “I am...

Suppose you are in a general partnership with Smith. Smith handles day-to-day management, subject to your approval. But recently, he’s been acting somewhat high-handedly. Without consulting you, Smith is busy negotiating a contract with Macropus International Corp., a company notorious for unscrupulous practices. Smith has made it clear he plans to bind your firm whether you like it or not. You know that under the law of general partnerships, unless you speak up Smith will be able to lock you and your firm into a very bad deal. This is because, as a rule, any partner in a general partnership...

BOSTON — President Barack Obama summoned today's quarrelsome political leaders to emulate the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in the pursuit of compromise on Monday, and said a new institute that bears the longtime Massachusetts senator's name can be as much an antidote to political cynicism as the man once was. "What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if we were to follow his example a little bit harder?" the president asked a crowd of family, former aides and political dignitaries of both parties under a tent in raw weather just outside the doors of the Edward...

It’s pretty obvious from the photographs that somebody beat the bejesus out of the soon-to-be-former senator from Nevada. And yet the national media has uncritically swallowed the cover story that “exercise equipment” was to blame for the loss of sight in the former majority leader’s right eye. Baloney. As far as I can tell, the piece of equipment allegedly behind the beatdown of Sen. Pat Geary has not been identified, but I can tell you from experience if the senator was using, say, a Soloflex machine this would be impossible: the weight straps simply come apart without any snapping...

The younger brother of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid was arrested Monday afternoon after allegedly driving under the influence and punching a Nevada state trooper during a traffic stop. Larry Reid, 73, was found sitting inside a Lexus SUV that had been driving in the median of Highway 95 near Searchlight, Nev. shortly after noon. According to KVVU, the arrest report for Reid said that the trooper asked him why he was driving in the median. Reid responded with what was described as "incoherent, slurred speech."