Free Republic

Before the November election, Trump’s claim that the electoral process was rigged became a campaign rallying cry. Wisconsin Democrats are also saying the system is rigged — but they’re referring to the tax system and government official appointments. On two Sunday morning talk shows, Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Wisconsin state Rep. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, expressed their party’s determination to fight special interests, implement tax reform and, in Baldwin’s words, “(work) on behalf of Wisconsin’s working people.” On “Capital City Sunday,” Baldwin said the political system is rigged to benefit those at the economic top, and that Trump’s cabinet picks are...

The Census should be demanding more information about “gender identity,” leading liberal lawmakers said Wednesday, asking the agency to start including more probing questions to get at the increasingly complex family dynamics in America. “Many federal data collection instruments gather respondents’ race, ethnicity, sex, marital status and other personal demographic information. However, most of these instruments do not include direct measures of respondents’ sexual orientation or gender identity,” Rep. Raul Grijalva and Sen. Tammy Baldwin said in a letter they led, and which was co-signed by dozens of their Democratic colleagues.

"The Senate on Tuesday rejected Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) controversial proposal to audit the Federal Reserve, turning aside a bill that has drawn the ire of the business community and the White House. The Senate voted 53-44 on taking up the presidential hopeful’s Audit the Fed measure. Sixty votes were needed to move forward. Paul won some bipartisan support for the legislation, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), another presidential candidate, voting in favor. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) backed the bill as well. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is also running for president, supported moving forward with Paul's legislation, while...

In a feministic attempt to be hip, the Hillary Clinton campaign decided to do something “fun” and ask Democratic senators – all female of course – to hold up signs with their answers to questions about the Democratic presidential candidate front-runner.  It’s sort of like, remember how Michelle Obama held a sign with the #bringbackourgirls in an effort to “fight back” at the terrorist group Boko Haram that kidnapped hundreds of girls from a Nigerian school? As if that would make any difference at all.  This entire exercise is sort of like that, only much lamer. Besides, what better way...

MADISON, Wis. — Something was missing in U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s statement last week criticizing staff at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The Department Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General Office released a report finding psychiatrists at the facility failed to discuss the health hazards of synthetic opiates they prescribed to Marine Corps veteran Jason Simcakoski. The 35-year-old Simcakoski died in August 2014 after he was prescribed a fatal mixture of opiates and Valium, although the report did leave open the possibility Simcakoski could have taken additional doses. “This report confirms that the Tomah VA physicians entrusted with Jason’s...

The chilling redefinition of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin and the Senate’s only lesbian, is a looming threat to religious liberty. With the possible loss of tax exemptions for churches and institutions that don’t comply with the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision, an era of religious persecution may be upon us. Baldwin made her remarks on the June 27 broadcast of Up With Steve Kornacki on MSNBC. In a transcript of her remarks posted on Newsbusters, Baldwin ignored the fact that it was religious persecution in Europe that led to people...

A pro-abortion Democrat Senator is getting criticism for a comment suggesting that only churches enjoy First Amendment religious freedom protections, and that those freedoms do not extend to individual people. The comment is a huge concern for pro-life advocates who are worried about being forced to pay for abortions with their tax dollars or insurance premiums. The concerns also extend to pro-life medical professionals like doctors and nurses who do not want to be forced to perform or assist in or refer for abortions. Balwdin’s comments are instructive for the pro-life movement because they come at a time when abortion...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – The freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment applies only to churches, not to individuals, a U.S. senator said on national television recently.Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI – the nation's first openly lesbian elected to the U.S. Senate – addressed the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision on June 27 on MSNBC's Up with Steve Kornacki."Should the bakery have to bake the cake for the gay couple getting married?” the host asked. “Where do you come down on that?"Baldwin responded that the First Amendment gave Americans no right to exercise religion outside the...

Twenty-seven senators want President Obama to block federal agencies and contractors from asking job applicants about prior criminal convictions. The senators, including 26 Democrats and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), want Obama to take executive action to "ban the box," referring to a question on job applications that asks if an applicant has any convictions. "We ask you to require federal contractors and agencies to refrain from asking job applicants about prior convictions until later in the hiring process," they said in a letter to Obama on Monday. "This policy would eliminate unnecessary barriers to employment for all job...

Fired Tammy Baldwin staffer Marquette Baylor filed an ethics complaint Monday with the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics against her former boss alleging the Democratic Senator made “false statements and representations to cover up actions by her Chief of Staff and protect her political career.” Baylor’s complaint details what she calls a “misinformation campaign” meant to lay the blame for the failure of the office to properly react to whistleblower complaints about opioid abuse at the Tomah VA facility. Baylor’s complaint also details for the first time the rejected severance package and confidentiality agreement that would have paid Baylor...

The irony cannot be lost on U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Can it? The Madison Democrat, whose office dropped the ball on a report last year pointing to serious problems at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tomah, fired off a press release Tuesday night nodding and saying ‘Amen’ to the initial findings of a review that reiterated what Baldwin’s folks have known for some time. “These initial findings substantiate the troubling concerns my office has heard from current and former employees and patients at the Tomah VA,” the senator said in the statement. “As the investigation builds on this...

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the first openly gay member of the U.S. Senate, may have landed herself in some trouble after it was reported her office did little to address the rather high rate of opiate prescriptions coming out of the Veterans Affairs center in Tomah, Wisconsin. As a result, Baldwin's office fired a top aide, offered her a severance package, and a confidentiality agreement. The aide, Marquette Baylor, rejected the deal and is filing a sexual discrimination lawsuit against Baldwin. At the same time, Baldwin's office had the Tomah VA report since last summer. To make matters worse, three...

Half of all the Democratic women in the U.S. Senate are featured in a new video voicing their support for Kentucky Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes. The video, released Thursday after first being shown at Grimes’ event with Hillary Clinton Wednesday evening, shows six women in the U.S. Senate saying “Shatter the glass. Break the ceiling. It’s time for Alison!” Of the twelve women in the Senate Democratic caucus, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Patty Murray (D-WA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) are shown...

CAMPBELLSPORT – On Friday, 6th District Congressional candidate Glenn Grothman (R-Campbellsport) slammed Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) for accepting a maximum limit contribution from a progressive trade union. More: Stroebel, Leibham Trade Barbs Over Voter ID According to records from the Federal Elections Commission, Leibham accepted $5,000 from the Laborers Union International North America (LIUNA) PAC on July 15, 2014. The LIUNA was very evident during the 2011 protests against Governor Scott Walker over Act 10 which was upheld by the Wisconsin State Supreme Court and the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The LIUNA has 500,000 members that are represented in...

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) says it was women joining the workforce after World War II that helped the economy grow, producing a “strong and healthy middle class.” And that continues to be the case today, she told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday. “And now, in very, very significant numbers, women are…a part of the workforce and have contributed greatly to allowing families to get ahead in the economy. What permits that is women being able to control when or whether they have children and how many. And it is so basic to our economic prosperity that women have that control.”...

WASHINGTON — When Mark Takano ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice in the early 1990s, his opponents tried to smear him as a “homosexual liberal” and a “nutzoid.” One of them even had pink fliers printed that asked, “A Congressman for Riverside ... Or San Francisco?” When he ran again last year, he won by almost 20 points. “Flash forward 18 years,” Mr. Takano said recently, “and the very macho building tradesmen are behind me. I’m getting pictures with them in their hard hats.” For decades, the words “gay” and “Congress” were usually seen together only in stories of scandal and...

Joseph E. Baldwin Jr., 23, of 26 Lathrop St., was sentenced to the Illinois State Penal Farm for 11 months and placed on three years probation Friday after he pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless homicide. Baldwin, a novelty salesman, pleaded guilty to the charge in July after the car he was driving crashed into a semi-trailer near Danville, Ill., killing his passenger, Robert M. Clark, 19, of Champaign, Ill. The court granted 60 days reduction in the jail sentence to compensate for time has has already spent in the Vermillion County Jail.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — Wisconsin’s largest and most influential news organization — won’t be endorsing in the very tight presidential and Senate races this year. (Oct. 17 headline: “Marquette Law School Poll finds presidential and Senate races tied in Wisconsin.”) I asked editorial page editor David Haynes about this and he replied in an email: “I’m writing a column on our decision for the Sunday paper. We may post that early (Friday). As a point of history: The JS did not endorse in the 2000 presidential election, and I remember [editor] Marty Kaiser writing at the time that it...

State Senator Neal Kedzie says his son was attacked while trying to stop someone from stealing his Romney/Ryan yard sign. Whitewater Police tell NBC15 News this is an active investigation. Here is the statement released by Senator Neal Kedzie: Early on Friday morning, October 19th, my son Sean was awakened by noises outside his residence in Whitewater. As he went to see what the commotion was about, he noticed an individual removing a Romney/Ryan yard sign from his property. He yelled to the person that they were taking something not theirs and to return it immediately. The individual returned the...

Former Governor Tommy Thompson and Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin are in a near tie in Wisconsin’s down-to-the-wire U.S. Senate race.