Free Republic

To watch the recent happenings on Capitol Hill, you would think this was just another typical presidential election year—a few bumps here and there, but no sign of a major shake-up, no indication voters were in revolt, nothing to suggest business as usual in Washington was perhaps falling out of fashion among the American public. What else explains the lackluster, uninspiring, and I would suggest, “sell-out your base” agenda of GOP congressional leadership? For example, the Senate GOP sold out its base on the issue of Common Core this week...... That’s right, despite the fact Congress passed a Budget Control...

Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois on Friday became the first Republican senator to call for an up-or-down vote on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, saying on a Chicago radio show that his colleagues ought to “just man up and cast a vote.” That Kirk would be first to break with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other GOP colleagues, who believe the next president should pick the replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, is not particularly surprising: Kirk was already one of two Republican senators, with Susan Collins of Maine, to call for hearings.

With the selection of Merrick Garland, President Obama has exercised his constitutional power to nominate a justice to the Supreme Court. The Senate should now exercise its constitutional power not to act on that nominee. Garland’s record as a Clinton-appointed member of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1997, and as its chief judge since 2013, offers no reason to believe that his addition to the Court would provide anything other than a reliable fifth vote to the Court’s liberal bloc. In 2002, dissenting from a ruling striking down the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Haze Rule,” he sought to expand...

Several of the Republican senators expressing a willingness to meet with Judge Garland were like Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, incumbents facing difficult re-election fights. Ms. Ayotte said she still opposed holding a confirmation vote. The willingness of Republican senators to meet with Judge Garland highlights how the degree of difficulty in blocking a nomination rises once there is a face and a résumé to go along with it. Judge Garland was confirmed in 1997 by a vote of 76 to 23 for his current seat on the United States Court of Appeals for...

How often does someone get pre-emptive Pinocchios? Barack Obama got three of them today in his speech regarding the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Obama offered a pre-emptive argument of his own, accusing Republicans of “an abdication of their constitutional duty” if they refused to give Garland’s nomination a hearing and a floor vote: resident Obama: The Senate must fulfill constitutional duty At a time when our politics are so polarized, at a time when norms and customs of political rhetoric and courtesy and comity are so often treated like they’re disposable — this is precisely the...

How often does someone get pre-emptive Pinocchios? Barack Obama got three of them today in his speech regarding the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Obama offered a pre-emptive argument of his own, accusing Republicans of “an abdication of their constitutional duty” if they refused to give Garland’s nomination a hearing and a floor vote:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO At a time when our politics are so polarized, at a time when norms and customs of political rhetoric and courtesy and comity are so often treated like they’re disposable — this is precisely the time when...

Despite President Obama citing the bipartisan congressional support his Supreme Court pick received in the past, Senate Republicans vowed to remain firm on not moving nominee Merrick Garland forward. Garland, a Harvard Law grad and the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1997, stood by Obama's side in the Rose Garden today as the president detailed the judge's list of accomplishments. During the confirmation process to the D.C. Circuit, Obama noted, "he earned overwhelming bipartisan praise from senators and legal experts alike." "Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who was then chairman...

On Tuesday morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on late-term abortions and born-alive infants. This is the same Committee which has courageously refused to hold votes on a Supreme Court nominee from President Obama. While members of the Republican majority presented witnesses in favor of a 20-week ban on abortions due to the child’s ability to feel pain, members of the Democratic minority presented witnesses that were opposed to this idea and, even, opposed to caring for children born alive after failed abortion attempts. Dr. Colleen Malloy, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Neonatology at Northwestern University testified that...

Americans broadly favor Senate hearings on a U.S. Supreme Court nomination by President Obama, with nearly half of Republicans – as well as large majorities of Democrats and independents alike – pushing back against the GOP leadership on whether to consider a nominee. Sixty-three percent overall in a new ABC News-Washington Post poll favor hearings and a vote on whether to accept Obama’s nomination of a replacement for Antonin Scalia, the high court justice who died Feb. 13. Half as many, 32 percent, say hearings should be set aside and the nomination left for Obama’s successor, the position taken by...

There are 34 U.S. Senate seats up for election in 2016. Of those seats, 24 are currently held by Republicans and only 10 are held by Democrats. Use our interactive map and the links below to learn more about each of these races.

Democrats accused Republicans on Tuesday of taking their cues from Donald Trump after the Senate’s No. 2 Republican said President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court should expect to be treated like a “piñata.” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Republicans were “acting like big, tough people threatening to destroy the reputation of a Supreme Court nominee they haven’t even met yet.” Reid and other Democrats denounced a comment by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, who told reporters late Monday that anyone nominated by Obama to the high court “will bear some resemblance to a piñata.” Reid...

The Obama administration has reached out to all 100 Senate offices in its effort to convince the Senate to hold a debate and confirmation vote on President Obama's upcoming nominee to the Supreme Court, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Friday. However, Earnest would not reveal how soon Obama will put forward a candidate or discuss how many people the president is considering, and also wouldn't confirm reports about individual potential justices supposedly being vetted. "I just have to manage expectations here," Earnest said. "I do not at any point expect to be in a position to confirm any...

The Chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees sounded a tone of outrage this week at an Obama administration policy that has allowed for the release of at least three criminal aliens charged with drunk driving and implicated in the murder and severe injury of Americans this year. “This careless policy is a clear and unmistakable message to the American people that this Administration has decided that their safety and security are far less important than ensuring that illegally present aliens with no regard for the law will remain in this country without any legal consequences whatsoever,” House Judiciary...

Even though the Republican establishment fundraising group privately calls leading GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump a “misguided missile” who is “subject to farcical fits” and advises candidates to emulate but not tie themselves too closely to Trump, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is still soliciting donations using Trump’s name as a motivator to contribute. A holiday-themed email from the NRSC went out this week offering an “I’m with Trump!” car magnet for a minimum donation of $10 The email was forwarded to The Gateway Pundit, from a recipient who wishes to remain anonymous, with the message, “These (expletives) are raising...

Previously we told you how Ted Cruz is profiting from stolen Trump campaign contributions by way of the NRSC. Some of that follows: FUND raisers for Cruz https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/partytime.php?cid=N00033085 The NRSC (which Cruz helped operate) is who is stealing campaign contributions from Trump supporters...and Ted is profiting from it. Debt Retirement Reception@ National Republican Senatorial Committee (Gotta help pay off Goldman Sachs loans!) Beneficiaries: Ted Cruz Contribution: $2,000; $1,000 (suggested contributions at event) I understand how people might not want to put any confidence in a blog and the emails that back up this series of articles about the NRSC &...

The Times piece also describes the intense pressure on Gov. John Kasich of Ohio to leave the race, and Kasich’s equally intense refusal to do so. But perhaps the best gauge of the panic setting in comes from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: “While still hopeful that Mr. Rubio might prevail, Mr. McConnell has begun preparing senators for the prospect of a Trump nomination, assuring them that, if it threatened to harm them in the general election, they could run negative ads about Mr. Trump to create space between him and Republican senators seeking re-election. Mr. McConnell has raised the...

In light of the discussion of whether or not President Obama should nominate someone for the Supreme Court in 2016, I share with you these words of wisdom from a former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “[snip] Once the political season is under way, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over. That’s what’s fair for the nominee and essential to the process. Otherwise, we will be in deep trouble as an institution.” – Senator Joe Biden, 1992 [snip] The last thing the American people need right now is a...

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham thinks his party has gone "bats---" crazy, and joked Thursday that it's possible to get away with murdering Ted Cruz if it happened in the Senate. "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you," the former presidential candidate said at the Washington Press Club Foundation's 72nd Congressional Dinner, referencing the Texas senator's unpopular reputation on Capitol Hill. CNN has reached out to Cruz's presidential campaign for comment. While Graham teased Democrats and other politicians in the room -- at one...

While the Republican presidential candidates who are left standing battled it out in Houston, Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose quest for the Oval Office never quite caught fire, addressed the Washington Press Club Foundation Dinner and said some pretty alarming things. He demonstrated how much he detested his fellow senator Ted Cruz by joking about him being murdered. "If you kill Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody could convict you.” One wonders if that is a breach of Senate etiquette. Cruz has said some pretty raw things about his fellow senators,...

"..The comments came during the Washington Press Club Congressional Dinner. "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, no one would convict you." -- Lindsey Graham (R-SC)