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Marion Thorpe’s Bounced Checks and Unsavory Fundraising Stunts Now Online The Marion Thorpe fiasco is one of the saddest stories in American politics. It started when a midlevel appointee, Marion Thorpe, claimed that he had been the Chief Medical Officer of the State of Florida and announced a run, first for U.S. Congress and then for the United States Senate. In actuality, Thorpe had only been the Chief Medical Officer for Florida’s Agency for Healthcare, an advisory position that reports to a Deputy Secretary of that department. It ended with bounced campaign checks and some of the most vile fundraising...

The Obama administration, has taken away GM's ability to choose what cars to produce, Chrysler's choice of how to spend its marketing dollars, Chrysler's hedge funds ability to retain their contractual rights. They have the congress trying to take away your right to make your own medical decisions, threatened California for exercising its right to deal with unionized state works, and of course they are threatening our right to select which radio stations we can listen to. Do you detect a pattern? Congressman Steve Israel was set to throw his hat into the Democratic senate nomination ring against Kirsten Gillibrand...

WASHINGTON — South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham praised President Barack Obama's decision to maintain a system of military tribunals for some of the detainees reflects the standards he originally advocated before the Supreme Court forced a compromise with President George W. Bush. Graham, a military lawyer who's served on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he's had three conversations with Obama since December about detainee issues, along with more frequent contacts with senior administration and military officials. "We've got a chance to start over and do what I wanted to do seven years ago," Graham said. "That is,...

PHOENIX (AP) - Sixty thousand people are expected to attend the National Rifle Association's annual convention that starts Friday in Phoenix. Organizers say the 3-day event is a celebration of America's Second Amendment rights and a gathering point for opponents of efforts to limit those rights. Friday's speakers include Sen. John McCain, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's decision to run for the Senate is putting the Republican Party's anti-stimulus stand to the test, with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele backing away from a threat to punish candidates who supported President Obama's signature economic recovery program. For some Republicans heading into the 2010 elections, opposition to the giant $787 billion spending bill that Mr. Obama signed in February was seen as a litmus test for success, analogous to the opposition to President Clinton's 1993 tax increases that helped fuel a Republican congressional takeover a year later. The February stimulus vote "was a...

Democrat Joe Torsella is exiting the race for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat, stepping aside for newly Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) and clearing the primary field -- for the moment, at least. Torsella, a former deputy mayor of Philadelphia and head of the National Constitution Center, was the only major Democrat in the race until Specter switched parties last month. He raised a very respectable $600,000 in the first quarter and vowed to stay in the race after Specter switched. On Thursday, though, Torsella said in a video that he will no longer be a candidate. “Now that the dust has...

WASHINGTON (AP) - South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says he doesn't think Congress should pay to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay until there is a more detailed plan for what to do with detainees there. A Senate panel on Thursday considered a war spending bill that would provide $50 million to the Pentagon to begin the promised closure of the facility. Graham said he would like to see a new system in place before that money is spent, including a national security court to review each detainee's status. More certainty about the detainees will make moving the...

Charlie Crist is a popular candidate best positioned to keep a Senate seat in Republican hands. But he has also broken with party orthodoxy on environmental and voting rights issues. BY PETER WALLSTEN Washington. With the Republican Party diminished in power and embroiled in debate over whether to broaden its ideology or adhere to core ideals, top GOP officials today took the unusual step of inserting themselves into a party primary, picking a moderate U.S. Senate candidate over a conservative in Florida. In endorsing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas,...

The expected announcement Tuesday by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist that he’s running for the Senate would seem to be a rare bit of good news for beleaguered Republicans. But while Crist is a brand-name recruit with sky-high approval ratings and bipartisan appeal, his path to keeping the seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez in GOP hands has at least one significant roadblock: Sunshine State conservatives. Despite Crist’s widespread popularity, he faces a primary in which he will have to make his case to a restless GOP base dissatisfied with his high-profile advocacy for President Barack Obama’s stimulus and his handling...

The Republican Party is not an endangered species but can do a better job of outreach, recruiting candidates and getting the message out, Sen. John McCain said Sunday. In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” McCain responded to a question referring to a story in Time magazine, describing the party as “in distress.” “I probably would not go that length,” McCain said. “We all work in cycles for many years. We have seen parties down and parties up. That’s a great thing about American politics. “But having said that, do we have to do a better job of getting our...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate unanimously approved a bill Thursday to change the costly process of procuring weapons and equipment for the military, a budget reform pushed by President Obama. Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, who sponsored the bill with Arizona Republican John McCain, called it a matter of not only saving money but protecting troops. "Our troops have a right to the best equipment that we are able to provide them," Levin said after the bill was passed. "And when we use extra excessive funds for cost overruns on some weapon systems, that means we're denying other systems which we...

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) today said he was guaranteed seniority on committees by Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) in the final negotiations before his party switch last week, talks that, according to Specter, also included a pledge that he would become the next chairman of the Judiciary Committee in several years. Specter stood by his version of the one-on-one talks with Reid, despite the Senate leader's contradictory statements on the matter and the resolution that passed last night placing Specter in the most junior slot on most committees on which he serves. "When I talked to Senator Reid he...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken met privately with Vice President Joe Biden late Wednesday afternoon to update him on the still-contested Minnesota Senate race. Franken, who said he is eager to join the Senate,

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On this week's ABC News Shuffle Podcast, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, talks candidly about the party-switch of Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Penn., her worries about her party and why she shouldn't be attacked for helping to remove money to combat the flu from the stimulus package. . . . . . "I was really stunned by his decision and it took me completely by surprise," the Maine senator says of Specter's announcement. "I would not have been surprised had he announced that he was retiring and I would've been less surprised if he'd announced he was going to become an independent...

Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party means Democrats may need another moderate Republican to help them move a Supreme Court nominee out of the Judiciary Committee. At first glance, with Democrats a hair away from a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, one would expect President Obama to have no trouble hand-picking a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. But in an ironic twist, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party this week could give Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee the upper hand in rejecting a nominee they find unacceptable. That's because the Judiciary...

As counsel for the Warren Commission, Arlen Specter described a "magic bullet" that changed America. Four decades later as a U.S. senator, Specter is providing another history-altering magic bullet - one Democrats will either fire off in a starting gun, or use in their suicide. By leaving the Republican Party this week, the five-term Pennsylvania lawmaker eliminated the last Democratic rationale for inaction: the Senate filibuster. With Minnesota Democrat Al Franken expected to be seated soon, and now with Specter, Democrats will have the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome all parliamentary obstructions. This legislative magic bullet will force Democrats...

Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, has helped start an organization that he says will assist in developing policy to confront problems facing the U.S. In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Cantor said the National Council for a New America will solicit ideas across party boundaries from a wide spectrum of national leaders. The founding members are all Republicans, as are the 14 current House and Senate members. Cantor was joined on the call yesterday by Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, who is listed as one of the group's "national panel of experts." Cantor and McCain...

After losing Arlen Specter to the Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell moved quickly to gauge the level of discontent of one of his caucus’ few remaining moderates. McConnell sat down privately with Sen. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine on Wednesday and let her vent about what she thinks is going wrong with the Grand Old Party. It was a one-on-one follow-up to a New York Times essay in which Snowe contended the party didn’t need to lose Specter. After the meeting, Snowe had nothing but good things to say about McConnell, R-Ky., and focused her criticism on other wings...

Group of Florida Activists Ask Marion Thorpe to Withdraw from US Senate Race Amid Allegations of Check Bouncing and of Requesting Funds to Pay Child Support Local activists urge long shot Marion Thorpe to abandon US Senate race, claim that he’s disgraced the contest. Marion Thorpe had no major endorsers statewide to begin with but efforts were being made to obtain them. Then on Monday, American Daily Review broke a story of Marion Thorpe having bounced two checks on his printer for his congressional campaign. Each check was allegedly for about $5,000. Soon after, emails surfaced in Thorpe’s own words...

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Washington.IT is disheartening and disconcerting, at the very least, that here we are today — almost exactly eight years after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party — witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, for the Democratic Party. And the announcement of his switch was all the more painful because I believe it didn’t have to be this way. When Senator Jeffords became an independent in 2001, I said it was a sad day for the Republicans, but it would be even sadder if we failed to confront and learn...

Legislation would hike resources to DOJ, FBI, set up outside commission. BY RONALD D. OROL WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Senate voted Tuesday to give federal investigators more tools to combat mortgage fraud and other scams.The bipartisan legislation would authorize $490 million over two years to hire fraud prosecutors, increase enforcement actions and add funds to the Secret Service and Housing and Urban Development Inspector General. It also allocates funds to the Postal Inspection Service. It also sets up a commission of outside experts with subpoena power to examine the financial crisis and make recommendations.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Arlen Specter's abrupt move to switch allegiance to President Barack Obama's Democratic Party was a sharp blow to Republicans and will likely generate more soul-searching for the minority party. His decision to seek re-election as a Democrat next year was a nakedly political move to hang on to power.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In the wake of Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic caucus, Republicans are primed for yet another round of soul-searching and intra-party sniping about the GOP's future. That debate might be best illustrated in South Carolina, where the state's two Republican senators are sharply split on how the party should move forward. In one corner is Sen. Jim DeMint, perhaps the most conservative member of the upper chamber. In a speech to party activists last fall, DeMint became the first Republican to publicly blast John McCain after he lost the presidential election, accusing the Arizona senator of...

(CNN) — Conservative host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday he isn't sorry to see Arlen Specter leave the GOP — and that many Republicans wish the Pennsylvania senator would take a few others with him when he goes. "A lot of people say, 'Well, Specter, take [Sen. John] McCain with you. And his daughter [Meghan]. Take McCain and his daughter with you if you're gonna…" he told listeners, dissolving in laughter. "…..It's ultimately good. You're weeding out people who aren't really Republicans," he said.

A New York banker with roots in Ely is exploring a run against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. John Chachas, a managing director of Lazard Ltd., has been talking to Republican Party bigwigs in Nevada and Washington who are anxious to find a credible challenger to the Senate majority leader, sources said this week. Chachas declined to comment Thursday on the speculation about his potential candidacy. Chachas' interest in the race is said to be active but preliminary: He feels strongly that Reid could be felled by a strong opponent and would be willing to step into that role if no...

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White House says Holder will decide on prosecutions; Obama opposes special commission on Bush-era policies. BY WILL DUNHAM WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - Releasing classified memos showing whether harsh Bush-era interrogation methods yielded useful information from terrorism suspects is not necessary, Republican Senator John McCain said on Sunday in a public disagreement with former Vice President Dick Cheney. After President Barack Obama released four memos this month revealing the Bush administration's legal justification for methods such as waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning -- Cheney called for declassifying any memos showing that these techniques succeeded in producing valuable information....

WASHINGTON (AP) — A leading Democratic senator said Sunday independent investigators should determine whether Bush administration officials ought to face charges over the harsh interrogation techniques used against suspected terrorists. The White House had hoped to put the matter behind it by letting the attorney general make that call. Other liberal Democratic lawmakers appearing on the Sunday news shows joined Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in pressuring the Obama administration to pursue investigations into the interrogations policies. But they stopped short of demanding charges against the Bush-era lawyers and other officials who devised the policies that critics have denounced as torture....

Arizona Sen. John McCain suggested today that the push to investigate and possibly prosecute Bush administration officials who crafted the legal basis for the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques," such as waterboarding, may have grown from a desire to "settle old political scores." Appearing on CBS' Face The Nation Sunday, the former Republican presidential nominee, who was himself tortured as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, said, "Are you going to prosecute people for giving bad legal advice?" He suggested that Washington should ignore calls to investigate who was behind government lawyers writing memos which gave legal cover to the...

They try ‘use it or lose it’ approach to stalled project in Nevada. BY JAMES ROSEN WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, backed by 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, introduced legislation Thursday to provide “rebates” from a $30 billion fund to build the stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nevada. Because South Carolina has more nuclear reactors than most states do, its residents have contributed a disproportionately large share — more than $1.2 billion — to the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund for developing the Yucca repository. Graham criticized President Barack Obama for his decision to mothball the Yucca project,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican Main Street Partnership, the largest organization of elected centrists, recently spotlighted Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. "Snowe has long been a leader for centrist Republicans in Washington," said former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), President and CEO of Main Street. "Snowe's commitment to delivering results to her constituents, and her pragmatic approach to government, have made her one of the most effective members of the U.S. Senate, regardless of which party controls the Congress." "It is clear that Senator Snowe takes public service and the duty of governing seriously. Main Street is lucky to count Senator...

Prosecuting former Bush administration officials for signing off on harsh interrogation techniques would be a “legal nightmare,” for the nation that could do lasting damage to national security, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News Thursday. Moreover, members of Congress who were kept informed of the techniques at the time they were being used could, in theory, also be subject to prosecution, said Graham, R-S.C., who also is a JAG colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. “Any member of Congress who was read into this program are in the same boat as the (Bush) lawyers,’’ Graham said. “Then you’re...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., makes the dubious claim that Sept. 11 hijackers entered the United States through Canada -- just days after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came under fire for saying the same thing. What's up with Arizona politicians? Arizona Sen. John McCain made the dubious claim Friday that Sept. 11 hijackers entered the United States through Canada -- just days after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, said the same thing. Napolitano retracted her claim on Thursday after Canadian officials chided her for the remark, calling it an unfortunate misconception. Napolitano admitted Thursday that...

Former radio talk-show host Larry Elder (R) is considering running for Senate in 2010 against Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) but is holding his fire while top GOP officials wait for favored candidate Carly Fiorina (R) to make a final decision on whether she’ll run, Republican sources confirmed Monday.

. . . . . That's why the primary campaign for Republican John McCain's Arizona Senate seat comes as a welcomed popcorn-watching nail-biter that many conservatives including me are looking forward to. It's not that I want to see the incumbent, more senior McCain taken down a few pegs by another Republican. Despite his transparently moderate leanings that gave me great pause during the presidential election, he was still to the far-right of candidate-turned-President Barack Obama, and as result was the more palatable. Moderation aside, folks like McCain are one of the reasons the Republican Party is attractive to more...

Sen. John McCain warned that a pursuit for charges against Bush administration officials who helped design harsh interrogation tactics used on terrorist suspects would turn into a "witch hunt." Speaking on CBS' The Early Show, the former Vietnam POW and Republican opponent of President Barack Obama in the 2008 election, said there is no evidence that he knows of that shows the officials who approved the tactics weren't giving plausible legal advice. This will have a "chilling effect on legal counsel," McCain said. McCain, who was himself tortured as a U.S. soldier by his North Vietnamese captors, was a vocal...

Note: The following text is a quote: Spokesman Cites Pentagon Cooperation in Interrogation Probe By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 22, 2009 – The Defense Department provided full cooperation during a U.S. Senate committee investigation that examined detainee-interrogation operations, a senior official said here today. “We fully cooperated with that effort in responding to requests for interviews, as well as documents,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. The two-year Senate Armed Services Committee investigation centered on examining U.S. interrogation procedures for detainees captured during the war on terrorism. The committee’s report is critical of some interrogation...

Democrats in Congress are working hard to push President Obama’s cap-and-trade plan off the radar screen. A rift has formed over a government program for healthcare, with liberals angry that Obama is “open” to reforming the system without one. There are 13 legislative weeks left to reach their self-imposed August deadline. And we already know what the Republican response is to Obama’s energy and healthcare proposals: No. With hope for change dissolving into gridlock, it’s clearly time for a maverick, someone who has worked across the aisle and put Country First during his entire public service career. That would be...

Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are the easiest senators to work with, while Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) are the most partisan members....according to a survey conducted by The Hill. The Hill asked all 99 seated senators which member of the opposing party they most enjoyed partnering with on legislation. The senators were also quizzed (on a not-for-attribution basis) about their least favorite. The answers reveal a Senate with surprising alliances, close friendships and some personal resentments. After Kennedy, the most bipartisan Democrats are Sens. Tom Carper (Del.), Chris Dodd (Conn.), Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Tom...

John McCain (R-Ariz.) “I don’t find anybody difficult to work with, to be honest with you. If it’s on the issues, Feingold, obviously. Carl Levin on the Armed Services Committee. Byron Dorgan on Indian Affairs. A lot of times it has to do with your interests, but also it has to do with your committee assignments. Dorgan and I worked together on the Indian Affairs Committee, on Abramoff. Levin and I, because of Armed Services. … A willingness to seriously consider the other’s positions.” Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) “There are so many, I can’t choose just one.”

PHOENIX, April 20 (Reuters) - Arizona's governor and two U.S. senators urged the federal government on Monday to send hundreds of additional troops to secure the porous Mexican border, along which ruthless drug cartels are waging bloody turf wars. The violence has gained high-level attention in both the United States and Mexico in recent months, amid concerns that it is bleeding into U.S. border states. . . . . . Arizona Senator John McCain, a Republican defeated by the Democrat Obama in the November 2008 presidential election, also called on Washington to allocate additional resources including troops to the border....

Mexican drug cartels have displaced the mafia as the "number one organized crime threat" in the United States, Sen. Joe Lieberman said Monday as his Senate committee heard testimony in Phoenix on border violence. Lieberman, an independent Democrat from Connecticut, and Sen. John McCain, a Republican on Lieberman's panel, told FOX News that the United States needs to step up the fight against the drug cartels. The two senators were in Arizona, McCain's home state, to hear from local officials on their advice for dealing with the drug-fueled violence many fear is spilling across the border.

Michael V. O’Hare, the bookkeeper to Senator Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut whom the senator mainly held to blame — calling him “a liar and a forger and a thief” — in a case that ultimately led the Senate to censure Mr. Dodd in 1967, died March 15 in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 73. SNIP .... [T]he (Senate Select Committee on Standards and Conduct) looked into possible financial improprieties, with Mr. O’Hare using documents to support his accusation that Mr. Dodd had sent travel expense bills for speaking engagements to both the Senate and the group he was addressing,...

Joining Obama in Trinidad and Tobago: Sen. Max Baucus (D)and Reps. Xavier Becerra (D), Kevin Brady (R), Dan Burton (R), Yvette Clarke (D), Bill Delahunt (D), Eliot Engel (D), Sam Farr (D), Sander Levin (D), Connie Mack (R), Mary Bono Mack (R), Kendrick Meek (D), Gregory Meeks (D), Donald Payne (D), Charlie Rangel (D), Nydia Velazquez (D) and Delegates Pedro Pierluisi (D) and Donna M. Christensen (D).

Organized labor’s new unified front in support of comprehensive immigration reform could disrupt what’s left of the delicate bipartisan balance on one of the most politically charged issues in Congress. Earlier this week, labor celebrated the coming together behind a single set of immigration reform principles after years of being at odds with itself over various parts of a planned immigration overhaul. But that unity could have the unintended consequence of driving a wedge between Democrats and those few Republicans whose support will be critical to getting a major immigration reform bill through the Senate – and could even prevent...

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd appears to have looked everywhere but his home state to fuel what pundits anticipate will be one of the most hotly contested races in the nation in 2010. The five-term incumbent reported raising just $4,250 from five Connecticut residents during the first three months of the year while raking in $604,745 from nearly 400 individuals living outside the state. While incumbents often turn to special interests for early campaign fundraising, Dodd's out-of-state total seems unusually high and comes at a time when he has been plagued by poor approval ratings among state voters. SNIP Overall, Dodd's...