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We often hear members of Congress bemoan the federal budget deficit and the rising national debt we are leaving future generations. Here's a little secret: The talk is all show, no substance. Our members of Congress routinely approve billions of dollars in pork barrel spending each year - all at the expense of taxpayers. In 2007, for example, the Democratic-led Congress approved $17 billion in legislative pet projects. According to Citizens Against Government Waste, $5.4 billion of that pork came from Democratic members. Misguided Republicans added $4.3 billion to the pot and, in a rare display of bipartisanship, the remaining...

Election: There's little doubt voters want more drilling if even congressional candidates are starting to trek to Alaska to urge more oil development. Seven are there now. That's a wake-up call to Congress. Congressional challenger Craig Williams of Pennsylvania spoke to us Wednesday by phone from Deadhorse, Alaska. He and six other Republican candidates think there's enough voter disapproval with Congress' failure to do anything about gas prices to win this election, even in a season when Democrats are believed to have the advantage. "We've got a Democratic Congress doing absolutely nothing. Even the Republicans (before them) didn't do anything....

Five Republican congressional candidates will travel to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to promote drilling there to reduce the U.S.’s dependence on foreign oil. “With gas prices at an all-time high, we need to take steps now to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said trip participant Craig Williams, who is challenging Joe Sestak (D-Pa.). “We have energy resources available to us domestically that can cut our dependence on foreign oil and provide a bridge to tomorrow when we can more heavily rely on renewable energy resources such as hydro-electric, solar and wind power.” Due to accompany Williams...

It was particularly memorable, Craig Williams said, the night he almost died.Williams, 44, is a Concord resident, and, among many other accomplishments, is a former federal prosecutor and the endorsed Republican candidate for the 7th Congressional seat, U.S. Congress, House of Representatives. The year of his near death was 1991, it was the dead of winter and he was flying across the icy North Atlantic with his squadron, the VMFA(AW)-121 Green Knights. He was a first lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, flying as a Weapons and Sensor Officer in the back seat of a two-seater F/A-18D Hornet, on...

Philadelphia Congressman Among 17 Veterans Co-Sponsoring Repeal Legislation WASHINGTON, May 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA), the highest ranking military veteran in Congress, on Saturday urged fellow lawmakers to join him in repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law banning lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel from serving openly in the military. Sestak, who had served as a three-star Admiral and who spent thirty-one years in the Navy is one of seventeen veterans in Congress who are co-sponsors of legislation to lift the ban on openly gay service. Sestak's remarks came before a panel discussion hosted by Equality Forum on...

Professional GOP operative Pete Peterson saw a lot of potential Tuesday. With a 60 percent Democratic voter turnout in the hotly contested Pennsylvania presidential primary election compared to just 26 percent for Republicans in Delaware County, Republican challenger W. Craig Williams was able to secure 39,707 votes in the race for the 7th Congressional District, a seat currently held by freshman Democrat Joseph Sestak, of Edgmont. Williams, 43, of Concord, secured 51,703 votes overall when lumping in the portion of Chester and Montgomery counties that fall into the 7th District. Sestak, 56, garnered 64,809 votes in the county and 89,041...

There are enough issues surrounding proposed legislation on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to choke a symbolic donkey, and that is just what Craig Williams, the Republican candidate for the 7th Congressional District seat of the U.S. House, is looking to do. Williams, who hopes to unseat Democratic incumbent state Rep. Joseph Sestak in the November general election, called the congressman and other House Democrats “irresponsible and ineffective” for passing a bill this month aimed at permanently updating the 30-year-old FISA, but holding back on retroactively protecting telecommunications companies. The Senate passed a similar bill in February that provides...

While U.S. Rep. Bob Brady has escaped any serious election threat since 2000, his blowout loss in the spring's Democratic mayoral primary led to rumblings that his Teflon may be eroding. Now comes a political newcomer, physician Keith Leaphart, to test that notion. Leaphart no doubt would face a formidable task in unseating the five-term congressman in April's primary. But the 32-year-old African American, who'd be challenging the only white House member representing a mostly black district, has some equally formidable financial backing. On Dec. 6, two major Philadelphia philanthropists - H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest and Peter L. Buttenwieser - are...

A day after the FBI raided the offices of a lobbying firm run by Rep. Curt Weldon's daughter and his close friend, the Republican's campaign blamed publicity about the Justice Department investigation on "the left-wing, liberal attack machine." The FBI is investigating whether Weldon used his influence to get Karen Weldon's firm nearly $1 million in lobbying contracts with foreign companies, two people familiar with the inquiry have told The Associated Press. Weldon pushed the agendas of three of the firm's clients in public and private, at times urging the U.S. to buy their weapons or issue them visas, according...

The first nonpartisan poll conducted in the 7th Congressional District shows U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon and Democrat Joseph Sestak locked in a statistical dead heat, with less than 40 percent of registered voters believing the Republican incumbent deserves re-election, according to political sources. Sestak is leading Weldon 44-43 in a Franklin & Marshall College Keystone Poll that will be released today, falling well within the 4.7-percent margin of error. The poll of 430 voters refutes a recent Republican poll that showed Weldon leading by 19 points. Democrats greeted the numbers as proof that Sestak has begun to have an impact...

Rep. Curt Weldon, a moderate Republican who represents the 7th district of Pennsylvania, is in the political fight of his life. For the first time since he was elected to Congress in 1986, Weldon is facing a well-funded opponent, Vice Admiral (ret) Joseph A. Sestak, who is being backed by the entire Democratic Party establishment, from Hillary and Bill Clinton, to moveon.org What is it that the Clintonistas and the organized Left find so threatening about Curt Weldon that they are prepared to invest significant national campaign funds in unseat a moderate Republican who was re-elected in 2004 with 59%...

U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon’s crusade to prove that a defunct military intelligence program had identified Sept. 11 hijackers prior to the attacks was dealt a serious blow Thursday by a Pentagon report that found no evidence to support any of the congressman’s allegations. The Defense Department inspector general’s report concluded that members of the Able Danger data-mining operation "did not identify Mohammed Atta or any of the 9/11 terrorists as possible threats at any time during its existence." Advertisement "In fact, Able Danger produced no actionable intelligence information," Acting Inspector General Thomas Gimble wrote in the 71-page report. Weldon, vice...

The Defense Department's inspector general on Thursday dismissed claims by military officers and others who had insisted that a secret Pentagon program identified Mohamed Atta and other terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks before the attacks occurred. The inspector general's office, which acts as the Defense Department's internal watchdog, said in a report that its investigators found no evidence to suggest that the intelligence program, known as Able Danger, had identified Mr. Atta, the Egyptian-born ringleader of the attacks, or any of the other terrorists before Sept. 11. "We concluded that prior to Sept. 11, 2001, Able Danger team...

The Clinton shadow government (CSG) is picking battles where it can as long as they are not on a real battlefield. This November it has set its figurative sights on Curt Weldon, a veteran Republican congressman from Pennsylvania's Democrat-leaning 7th District. Weldon is paying the price for exposing a project known as Able Danger. In June 2005 he revealed that Clinton administration attorneys had intervened to stop the "Able Danger" group in the Defense Intelligence Agency from initiating preventive actions against two of the 9-11 terrorists. He has also written the book "Countdown to Terror," an exposé of the CIA's...

Talk about a Motley group of misfits. Given Curt Weldon's work on Able Danger, anyone else find it suspicious that the Clinton national security team is bring dispatched to try to help unseat Curt Weldon? Weldon's opponent, Joe Sestak, was recruited by the DCCC. Would be entertaining to hear these four guys talk about how corrupt and evil the United States is... Monday, September 18 3 - 5 PM Swarthmore Symposium: "National Security and the Way Forward" Retired Vice Admiral Joe Sestak, candidate for Congress in the 7th Congressional District, invites you to a symposium on "National Security and the...

For one particular sophomore at Dearborn Fordson, the teasing began a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "Hey, bin Laden," fellow students would yell in his direction as he walked the hallways. Others would point and call him "the terror squad." Why would students single out someone to be teased about Osama bin Laden, good-natured or not? Well, it doesn't help that his first name is Osama. Osama Abulhassan is a sophomore on Fordson's varsity basketball team. Having Osama as a name today must be like having had the name Adolf...

Weldon vs. Sestak is being billed as one of the more hotly contested congressional races in America. Millions of dollars is being raised and Democrats see it as a chance to knock off a powerful 10-term Republican. The voters of Delaware County have gotten to know -- for better and for worse -- who Curt Weldon is over his 30-plus-year political career. But just who is Joe Sestak? He hasn’t lived in Delaware County in three decades. He has a terrific resume, but was sent packing from the Navy after a 31-year career in which he rose to the rank...

Despite his vocal campaign today, Sestak served in the Clinton White House as the "silent" watchdog over U.S. Defense policy. The reason why I can legitimately call Sestak the "silent" watchdog is because at no time during the various Clinton scandals did Sestak raise any alarm. For example, the admiral did nothing to stop Chinese espionage from obtaining a vast array of American military technology. Sestak prides himself as being a patriot and an expert in military space technology, yet the records show that he remained silent when encrypted satellite communications systems, missile nose cone designs, and radiation-hardened chip technology...

PA GOP: SESTAK'S GOT NO R-E-S-P-E-C-T FOR UNIFORM Violates Military Uniform Code by wearing uniform while campaigning, Wears officer's uniform that does not match rank at which he retired HARRISBURG - Republican State Committee Executive Director Scott Migli today questioned Joe Sestak, Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, for his repeated violations of federal law and U.S. Navy regulations as it relates to appropriate conduct for the wearing of military uniforms. Those violations include wearing his uniform while engaged in campaign activities and wearing a uniform that displays a rank above what the grade at which he retired from...

Tapping a network of Democrats sensing an upset in Delaware County's congressional race, challenger Joe Sestak was able to raise more money in the last three months than his opponent, U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon. The retired Navy admiral, a political novice, took in $700,000 in the quarter that ended June 30, his campaign staff said yesterday. By contrast, Weldon raised $400,000, said the Republican's campaign manager, Michael V. Puppio Jr. Sestak has now raised a total of $1.1 million since he entered the race. "For a first-time candidate, it is very unusual to raise that kind of money, particularly against...