Free Republic

I knew an Old Timey, Clawhammer banjo player who was from so far south in New Jersey that culturally his home was south of the Mason Dixon line. He was in the Navy, at Norfolk, some Limey sailors came into a bar, Jersey-Dixie immediately commenced with The Battle of New Orleans, as you can hear here in Old Timey Clawhammer style, it may have originated in that milieu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeQMYrSUwlg Unfortunately, a banjar makes an excellent club for a barroom brawl. Old Andy Jackson brazenly stood up to the British, but his real forte was standing up to the banks; the...

HOUSTON (AP) — Lloyd Bentsen, a courtly Texan who represented the state in Congress for 28 years and served as President Clinton’s first treasury secretary, died Tuesday morning, his family said. He was 85. Bentsen, also the Democratic 1988 vice presidential nominee, died at his home in Houston. His distinguished political career took him from the humble beginnings of a county office in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1940s to six years in the U.S. House, 22 in the U.S. Senate and two in the Clinton Cabinet, where he was instrumental in directing the administration’s economic policy.

Just breaking on Fox News.

Sen. Barbara Boxer is a longtime opponent of judicial nomination filibusters. Or she was. Suddenly the light has dawned, and she realizes how wrong she was to oppose them: "I thought I knew everything. I didn't get it. . . . I am here to say I was totally wrong." Other Democratic senators have had similar changes in belief: Joe Biden and Robert Byrd, Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, Joe Lieberman, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer and their erstwhile colleagues Lloyd Bentsen, and Tom Daschle have all vigorously opposed the use of the filibuster against judicial nominations. Mr. Schumer was for voting...

First, the good news. The good news is that Ken Bentsen finished third, ending his hopes of winning Phil Gramm's Senate seat. I believe he was Cornyn's only real threat of competition in the Fall. Bentsen is the type of RAT that McAuliffe is promoting in the South --> liberal to the core but able to fool the yellow dogs into thinking he's conservative (aka. Warner, Edwards). Cornyn will wipe the floor with the winner of the Kirk/Morales runoff. Now the bad news: State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, the biggest RINO in Texas politics, narrowly won re-nomination over Shields, 51-49 %....