Free Republic

The Lee Amendment to defund President Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation failed in the Senate yesterday because not enough Republicans backed it. The Amendment was tabled by a vote of 60-37. Jeremy Carl aptly describes this vote as a defeat for conservatism, community control, and common sense. It is a victory, as Carl says, for turning the federal government into a National Zoning board, forcing high density housing on unwilling cities and towns, and letting bureaucrats decide the racial, ethnic and income balance of local communities.

President Barack Obama said Monday he believes the Senate has a constitutional obligation to vote on a president’s nomination to the Supreme Court, staking out a position at odds with Republicans and some legal scholars. Obama made the claim in an online video interview about his stalled nomination of U.S. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland. Asked if he thought the Constitution’s language about “advice and consent” meant the Senate had an obligation to hold a vote, Obama told BuzzFeed News: “I do.” […]The GOP has pointed out that in 2005, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid argued that the Constitution doesn’t...

The CIA inspector general’s office — the spy agency’s internal watchdog — has acknowledged it “mistakenly” destroyed its only copy of a mammoth Senate torture report at the same time lawyers for the Justice Department were assuring a federal judge that copies of the document were being preserved, Yahoo News has learned. Although other copies of the report exist, the erasure of the controversial document by the CIA office charged with policing agency conduct has alarmed the U.S. senator who oversaw the torture investigation and reignited a behind-the-scenes battle over whether the full unabridged report should ever be released, according...

The U.S. Senate’s first spending bill of 2016 spends more than President Barack Obama requested and lacks significant conservative amendments, but it still sailed to passage in the Republican-led Senate Thursday. An overwhelming number of U.S. senators on both sides of the aisle approved the energy and water development appropriations bill by a vote of 90-8. Conservatives had objected to the higher spending levels and lack of policy riders in the weeks leading up to the vote.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff bowed out defiantly on Thursday, suspended from office after the Senate voted to put her on trial for breaking budget laws in a historic decision brought on by a deep recession and a corruption scandal. Rousseff, in office since 2011, will be replaced by Vice President Michel Temer, for the duration of a Senate trial that could take up to six months. Rousseff, speaking shortly before she left Brasilia's Planalto presidential palace, said was notified of her suspension on Thursday morning. "I may have made mistakes but I did not commit any crime," Rousseff said in...

Rep. Alan Grayson angrily confronted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday, disrupting a meeting of the Congressional Progressive Caucus in front of dozens of staffers and members of Congress.Grayson (D-Fla.), whose bid for the open Florida Senate seat Reid vehemently opposes, arrived at the meeting with Reid’s February statement in hand, according to two sources in the room. In that statement, Reid said Grayson has “no moral compass” and “used his status as a congressman to unethically promote his Cayman Islands hedge funds.” ...The Florida Senate candidate said in a statement afterward: “I have a low opinion of Reid’s...

MANILA - Boxing hero Manny Pacquiao is virtually assured of a seat in the upper house Senate, according to election results Tuesday which take him a step closer to his dream of the Philippines presidency. Pacquiao, 37, whose rise from desperate street kid to boxing superstar has made him one of the nation's biggest heroes, retired from boxing last month to become a full-time politician. With over 91 per cent of voting centres accounted for from Monday's polls, the winner of an unprecedented eight world championships had garnered 14.94 million votes, more than enough to enter the Senate. Pacquiao placed...

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid vows that a Democratic takeover of the Senate is fairly certain in the November elections. Discussing the race for president, Reid said he was confident that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton would win the party's nomination and then the general election. He stressed her intelligence and ability to grasp the issues on a wide variety of subjects. Reid harshly criticized Republican front-runner Donald Trump, saying that he "can't imagine how the establishment Republicans feel about somebody who’s about as far from anything that anyone believes in as Donald Trump. I can’t imagine this man being the...

But many senators left wiggle room to back away from Trump if necessary; Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio), who is in a tough reelection battle back home, said he intends to support the nominee "unless something crazy happens." And according to our March survey, at least 22 Republicans aren't sure or wouldn't say. Newly minted Indiana GOP nominee Todd Young hasn’t said anything we could find about whether he'd support Trump. Only one Republican senator — Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.) — has said clearly that he won't be on Team Trump.

It is both my pleasure and extreme displeasure to have the first post of this blog be about treason as perpetrated by the Senate; it is pleasurable because it is a deeply interesting subject, displeasure because it illustrates & proves just how little our Senators care about our country and, by extension, us. So, without further ado, I present to you a case of treason: It is fairly common knowledge that the Iran is an enemy of the states, as Iran has been officially recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism since the beginning of 1984 — Figure 1 shows...

In a complicated political season, nobody has more complications to worry about than the half-dozen Republican senators seeking re-election in tight, swing-state contests. Those senators–hailing from Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina—are being buffeted by big forces largely out of their control as they try to hang onto their seats. Their fate will determine whether Republicans keep control of the Senate, where they currently have a 54-46 advantage. The predicament of these GOP senators comes into clearer focus in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, completed just last week, which helps crystallize three big complications they...

Senator John McCain will not attend the GOP’s convention this summer. Instead he plans to use the time to campaign for reelection. Politico reports: “I have to campaign for reelection, and I have always done that when I’m up,” McCain said. “We have a late primary in Arizona.”Though the GOP convention is scheduled for July 18-21, the Arizona lawmaker also faces an Aug. 30 primary against state Sen. Kelli Ward and business owner Alex Meluskey. McCain’s real problem is his likely Democratic opponent Ann Kirkpatrick. Though polling is sparse, the RCP average suggests the head-to-head match-up is currently a...

Phoenix, Arizona, April 15, 2016. Incumbent U.S. Senator John McCain is locked in a dead heat with Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick as both receive 42 percent of a test vote taken statewide in April. This leaves only 16 percent undecided as of the time of this survey, compared to 25 percent in January. It also appears that at least one traditional voting pattern is changing in Arizona. For many years, rural voters have tended to lean Republican in most races, but in 2016 Kirkpatrick is outpolling McCain by 43 to 39 percent in the state’s rural counties in a modest but...

Calgary Ted Cruz was humiliated on the floor of the U.S. Senate twice on Monday night, according to a report in Politico. Months of Cruz’s criticisms of his Republican colleagues is now reaping some nasty rewards for the Junior Senator from Canada. During a discussion of continuing funding for the government, Cruz tried to interrupt the proceedings with a roll call vote. The usually polite decorum on the floor of the U.S. Senate quickly turned negative as even Cruz’s fellow Republicans refused to grant him what’s called a “sufficient second” that would have allowed him to briefly call for the...

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), a GOP Senate hopeful, has said he's not supporting Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as the leader of Senate Republicans. “I have declined to endorse McConnell for reelection, and let’s be honest — if he lets a liberal justice onto the Supreme Court, he’s not going to be the majority leader. We know that, that’s not going to fly,” DeSantis told attendees at an April 10 forum sponsored by the Republican Liberty Caucus of Central East Florida, according to footage obtained by The Hill.

<p>Ted Cruz said Thursday he will not apologize to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for accusing him of lying last year, despite suggestions from Senate colleagues it would help them unite behind his campaign.</p> <p>"That ain't gonna happen," Cruz told CNN's Dana Bash in an interview that aired on "Erin Burnett OutFront." "And if the Washington lobbyists want to see that happen, they can hold their breath a long, long time. My focus is on the American people and uniting Republicans behind shared values and a shared vision." Cruz has presented himself as the candidate best poised to unite the Republican Party against Hillary Clinton in November. But he has struggled with his own colleagues in the Senate, winning limited support from Republican senators.</p>

Stereotypes asserting Jews "control the banks and the media" do not constitute anti-Semitism, a member of the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Senate claimed this week. During a hearing on renewing a resolution banning anti-Semitism, Stanford senior Gabriel Knight insisted that a clause defining negative Jewish stereotypes is "irresponsibly foraying into another politically contentious conversation." "Questioning these potential power dynamics, I think, is not anti-semitism," he said. "I think it’s a very valid discussion." He also maintained that the bill should include “some language to acknowledge Palestinians’ rights to self-determination." Knight backtracked twenty minutes later, the Stanford Review reported...

Let's not be coy. There's a certain population in this country that expects unlimited government handouts despite its piggish unwillingness to work. Don't tell me this is about their child-care responsibilities, or lack of access to transportation or education. Nonsense. These people simply don't want to work. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new welfare queens: your democratically elected U.S. legislators, the laziest, most do-nothing generation of federal politicians in decades. Sure, they talk a big game about work ethic and personal responsibility. With the stated goal of promoting personal responsibility, the House Republicans' 2017 budget proposes newly attaching work requirements...

Ted Cruz will Bow to Wall-street and stab every working american family in the back. His idea of 'Improving Immigration' is to _ 1) Double Legal Immigration. 2) increase worker Visas 500% 3) Grant all Illegals here RPI Status, so they can stay and work Legally. Ted is against Citizenship, yes, but he is all for allowing those millions to stay and work...but under the Law they can get Citizenship in 13yrs - How is that a good idea? The simple truth is there is no STEM shortage or labor shortage in the USA. In fact we are flooded with...

When President Obama first nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans were united in their wall of opposition — no meetings, no hearing, no vote. And while Garland's path remains a very uphill battle, some Republicans are starting to shift their tone. Two weeks into the nomination fight, 16 Republican senators now say they will meet with Garland — over 25 percent of the GOP caucus — according to a running count by NBC News.