Free Republic

Republican strategist Karl Rove said today that in running a slew of TV ads paid for by undisclosed donors, GOP groups are only doing what Democrats have done in the past. “This has been going on for a long while,” he said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Suddenly everybody’s gotten spun up about it this year… Once we copied what liberals did, liberals got upset.” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), who heads the committee working to elect House Democrats, replied, “Karl Rove just told you he did not want the voters to know who is spending tens of...

Andrew Cuomo points to his time as Housing and Urban Development secretary as a prime example of how he's made government more efficient and effective. But federal auditors say Mr. Cuomo oversaw a "poorly planned" overhaul of personnel that bulked up HUD's public outreach but undermined the agency's enforcement efforts. During the gubernatorial debate on Monday, Mr. Cuomo touted his four-year record at HUD, saying he "shrunk government" and promising to do the same in Albany if elected governor. "The question in this race is who can actually do it. Who can get it done," he said. While the number...

TRENTON, N.J.—He says she's a "greedy thug" who uses children as "drug mules." She says he's a "bully" and a "liar" who's "obsessed with a vendetta." Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, and Barbara Keshishian, president of the state's teachers union, say they want to improve public schools. That's where agreement ends. In speeches, mailings and multi-million dollar TV ads, they've battled over teacher salaries, property taxes and federal education grants. They have met once, an encounter that ended when Mr. Christie threw Ms. Keshishian out of his office. For Mr. Christie, 48 years old, the fight is...

A mysterious cyber attack apparently struck the computer servers at the pro-tea party group FreedomWorks this morning, just as it launched a major fund-raising drive. FreedomWorks officials are investigating, but they suspect they were attacked deliberately, perhaps by a political opponent seeking the thwart its fund-raising efforts. The attack crippled the site at about 9:45 a.m. just when the fund-raising drive was publicized on the radio by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck. The group estimates it lost about $80,000 in potential donations as it struggled to bring its site back online. An “autopsy” showed a highly sophisticated hacker struck...

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is now the biggest outside spender of the 2010 elections, thanks to an 11th-hour effort to boost Democrats that has vaulted the public-sector union ahead of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and a flock of new Republican groups in campaign spending. The 1.6 million-member AFSCME is spending a total of $87.5 million on the elections after tapping into a $16 million emergency account to help fortify the Democrats' hold on Congress. Last week, AFSCME dug deeper, taking out a $2 million loan to fund its push. The group is...

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden plan to finish their fall campaigning with yet another trip to Ohio as they work to rally voters behind Gov. Ted Strickland, who is battling for a second term, officials said today. It follows an Obama trip to the Buckeye state just last weekend, when the president led a rally in Columbus. The president, vice president and First Lady Michelle Obama have made several trips there this season as they try to stem a strong challenge from Republican John Kasich. Mr. Obama’s final campaign swing, next weekend, will include big rallies in...

if Democrats retain the majority, Nancy Pelosi will expect support from every member, and she will get support from almost every member.. It's become the new way of spotting which House Democrats are in deep political trouble. A dozen Democratic incumbents -- about one in 20 of those seeking reelection -- so far have publicly distanced themselves from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Significantly, half aren't from southern districts where the San Francisco Democrat has traditionally been a hard sell. The latest defector is Rep. Jason Altmire, who represents the Pittsburgh suburbs in Pennsylvania. While he won't rule out voting for...

Step right up and get your waiver. Well, well. In the clearest evidence so far that ObamaCare is harmful in practice and an election-year liability, the Obama Administration has decided not to enforce some of the law's "consumer protections." At least when the results are politically embarrassing. Over the last several weeks the Health and Human Services Department has granted dozens of temporary waivers to certain ObamaCare mandates so that insurers and businesses won't drop or cancel coverage. The most conspicuous went to McDonald's to protect the "mini-med" plans for some 30,000 hourly workers from a rule that prohibits annual...

Obama voters have no reason for enthusiasm.. The Wall Street Journal puts some numbers to the "enthusiasm gap" that's favoring Republicans in next month's election: "Just 56% of voters who supported [Barack] Obama in 2008 say they are very interested in the midterm elections, compared with 77% of those who voted for Republican presidential candidate John McCain." The numbers come from the latest WSJ/NBC poll, and the Journal notes that "Democratic leaders accept that the 'enthusiasm gap' between the parties is real," though they "are trying to counter it with tens of millions of dollars aimed at getting out the...

More than 400 pieces of personal property from Bernard Madoff and Ruth Madoff, including a diamond engagement ring and a Steinway grand piano, will be sold during a live and online auction in New York next month by the U.S. Marshals Service. The property was forfeited and seized in connection with the criminal prosecution of Bernard Madoff. The proceeds from the auction will be used to compensate the victims of his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen has one of the grimmest jobs in politics: putting a brave face on Democrats' chances in November. The Maryland lawmaker, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is charged with trying to keep the House in his party's control, a goal most political prognosticators say is nearly out of reach. The 51-year-old is soldiering on—encouraging candidates, telling reporters the die isn't cast and deciding which candidates should get more or less financial support from the party. "It's like Whac-A-Mole," said Mr. Van Hollen, after checking a daily report on Republican campaign ads popping up from coast...

RICHMOND, Va.—A federal judge said Monday that he would rule before year's end on whether the health overhaul violates the Constitution, and he seemed sympathetic to the plaintiff's core argument. In a two-hour hearing here, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson pressed both sides on a case that could reshape the sweeping health law President Barack Obama signed in March. The case, one of 20 filed so far challenging the law, is considered among the most crucial because it is the furthest along of the state-led lawsuits. Virginia, led by its Republican attorney general, wants the entire law struck down on...

A vigorous post-Labor Day Democratic offensive has failed to diminish the resurgent Republicans' lead among likely voters, leaving the GOP poised for major gains in congressional elections two weeks away, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Among likely voters, Republicans hold a 50% to 43% edge, up from a three-percentage-point lead a month ago. In the broader category of registered voters, 46% favor a Democratic-controlled Congress, compared with 44% who want Republican control. But in the 92 House districts considered most competitive, the GOP's lead among registered voters is 14 points, underscoring the Democrats' challenge in maintaining...

The money might be better spent on New Jersey's roads, which are rated among the worst in the nation. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has come under intense criticism for threatening to cancel the largest infrastructure project in the nation, a new rail tunnel connecting New York City with the Garden State. But Mr. Christie is right to be skeptical. Much of the censure is coming from an "infrastructure über alles" crowd that too readily ignores that the costs of these big projects are often grossly underestimated and their benefits significantly exaggerated. The rail tunnel, known as the Access to...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is grinding through the 2010 campaign state by state and district by district, adhering to a go-everywhere, never-say-no campaign schedule that will have recorded visits to 30 states before Election Day. * * * * * * Romney’s schedule is so all-inclusive that it barely looks like he’s picking his targets. In just the past few weeks, he’s campaigned for Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson and gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal. He made a Western campaign trip that included stops for Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Nevada House candidate Joe Heck and gubernatorial nominee...

The benefits of a competitive election. Political competition is a wonderful thing. To wit, it is even making a more honest politician out of Barney Frank—well, sort of. Mr. Frank is facing his first serious electoral challenge since 1980 from Marine officer and business executive Sean Bielat, and the liberal baron is making some remarkable concessions to the public mood. For example, he seems newly sympathetic to the plight of small business, saying that he now favors repealing ObamaCare's infamous new Form 1099 reporting requirements for detailing purchases with any contractor above $600. Mr. Bielat has been hammering away on...

Democrats are attempting to obfuscate their voting records. It's one of the most misleading types of campaign ads -- a challenger accuses the local Congressman of voting "with" unpopular Speaker Nancy Pelosi an overwhelming percentage of the time. In reality, most votes are mundane, uncontroversial matters of moving House business along. Then again, what really matters in such political ads is the symbolic rejection of the party leader being named. Ms. Pelosi is now coming in for exactly such treatment by fellow Democrats attempting to save their skins. Alabama Rep. Bobby Bright says he will refuse to vote for Ms....

Campaigning against the voters backfires. Go figure! Another poll brings more bad news for Democrats. Ho hum, bottom story of the day. But wait. This survey, from the Hill, may tell us something about what's driving all the other polls: "Likely voters in battleground districts see extremists as having a more dominant influence over the Democratic Party than they do over the GOP."This is not a nationwide poll, but that makes it even more troubling for the Dems. Of the 10 "toss-up" House districts polled, nine elected Democrats in 2008. (One subsequently switched to Republican in a special election.) On...

Republicans appear poised for major gains in the Midwest, a region dominated by the president in 2008. Two years ago this week, with a little more than two weeks left in the 2008 presidential contest, Barack Obama delivered a speech on the economy in Toledo, Ohio. His advisers touted the speech—on the most important issue of the race, in the state that decided the 2004 presidential contest—as the beginning of his closing argument. One month after the collapse of Lehman Brothers froze the global economy and seized the campaign, Mr. Obama laid out his "emergency rescue plan." "It's a plan...

Wonder Land Columnist Daniel Henninger and Americas Columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady analyze the Chilean rescue.