Free Republic

A House investigative panel has found “substantial reason to believe” that Representative Charles B. Rangel violated a range of ethics rules, dealing a serious blow to Mr. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat, in the twilight of his political career. The finding means that he must face a public trial before the House ethics committee, the first member of Congress to be forced to do so since 2002, when Representative James A. Traficant Jr. was expelled from Congress after a corruption conviction. The investigative panel did not disclose any details about the nature of the violations. But two Democrats with knowledge of...

The ethics committee gavel is finally sounding with some authority for Representative Charles Rangel, the New York Democrat who has been under investigation for multiple allegations of misusing his office. After a closed investigation of nearly two years, a bipartisan subcommittee has properly concluded that there are grounds for charging the congressman with as yet unspecified violations. The decision triggers a rarely seen process leading to an expected trial of Mr. Rangel before a special eight-member panel of House members. The precise charges are to be disclosed on Thursday, but Mr. Rangel is firmly maintaining his innocence of any ethics...

The White House struggled mightily Wednesday to make things right with an aggrieved Shirley Sherrod — but it is working nearly as hard to distance President Barack Obama and his top aides from the racially tinged firing fiasco. Administration officials unanimously leveled the finger of blame at Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday for sacking Sherrod on “insufficient evidence” — even as West Wing officials admitted they did nothing to stop Sherrod from being let go on the basis of a single, shabbily edited video clip. “There was no pressure from the White House. This was my decision,” said Vilsack,...

The election of Barack Obama, America’s first black president, was supposed to be a sign of our national maturity, a chance to transform the charged, stilted “national conversation” about race into a smarter and more authentic dialogue, led by a president who was also one of the nation's subtlest thinkers and writers on the topic. Instead, the conversation just got dumber. The America of 2010 is dominated by racial images out of farce and parody, caricatures not seen since the glory days of Shaft. Fox News often stars a leather-clad New Black Panther, while MSNBC scours the tea party movement...

The comparison to Reagan may give Obama cheer, but it is not really apt. For even in Reagan's darkest days when, according to Gallup, six out of 10 Americans reported that they did not like the job he was doing, an astounding six in 10 nevertheless said they liked the man himself. He was, of course, phenomenally charming, authentic and schooled at countless soundstages in appearing that way. Just as important, the public had faith in the consistency of his principles, agree or not. This was the Reagan Paradox and it helped lift his presidency. No one is accusing Obama...

A 2008 voter-intimidation case has become a political controversy for the Obama administration as conservative lawyers, politicians and commentators raise concerns that the Department of Justice has failed to protect the civil rights of white voters. The discussion centers on whether the Justice Department's civil rights division mishandled a lawsuit against members of the New Black Panther Party, which was filed weeks before the Obama administration took office. The suit was focused on the party and two of its members, who stood out front of a polling place in Philadelphia on Election Day 2008 wearing military gear. They were captured...

A WEEK before LeBron James’s announcement on ESPN that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat, the New York Post and Rush Limbaugh saw it coming — and for reasons having nothing to do with sports. “If LeBron James goes to the Miami Heat instead of the Knicks,’’ the Post noted gloomily on July 1, “blame our dysfunctional lawmakers in Albany, who have saddled top-earning New Yorkers with the highest state and city income taxes in the nation, soon to be 12.85 percent on top of the IRS bite. There is no state income tax in...

Democratic candidates in key states are embracing gun owners’ rights, winning favor from the National Rifle Association, a lobby that has long been the target of disdain from the party faithful. In New Hampshire, Representative Paul Hodes, a Democratic Senate candidate, has an “A minus’’ NRA rating, potentially insulating him from progun rights attacks in a state that’s big on hunting and personal liberties. Senate majority leader Harry Reid, in a bruising campaign for reelection in Nevada, has conservative activists buzzing because the NRA is considering endorsing his reelection. Indiana’s Democratic Senate candidate Brad Ellsworth, who has an “A’’ rating...

The White House and congressional Democrats, with the backing of the AARP, will soon put forth a plan to automatically enroll new private-sector employees in investment retirement accounts (IRAs). The measure will apply to new workers at firms that don’t currently offer 401(k) retirement plans, according to AARP, the lobby group for seniors. Workers would have the choice of opting out of the accounts.

 The Obama administration sees the auto-enrollment system as a way to increase savings. “There’s this inertia that keeps people from taking advantage of saving opportunities,” said Cristina Martin Firvida, the director of economic security in AARP’s...

As home to pop legend Michael Jackson, Neverland Ranch housed a working locomotive, a Ferris wheel and other amusement park rides, a 10,000-volume library and a zoo. But could the opulent Santa Barbara County estate become home to California's newest state park? A resolution is in the works to order state parks officials to study converting the roughly 2,600-acre property into a state park. The state NAACP is backing the idea, and a lawmaker has signaled he is on board to carry the legislation. "I think Michael's history is world history and I think it would become the No. 1...

Fresh off a string of victories in the courts and Congress, the National Rifle Association is flexing political muscle outside its normal domain, with both Democrats and Republicans courting its favor and avoiding its wrath on issues that sometimes seem to have little to do with guns. The N.R.A., long a powerful lobby on gun rights issues, has in recent months also weighed in on such varied issues as health care, campaign finance, credit card regulations and Supreme Court nominees. * The N.R.A.’s expanding portfolio is an outgrowth of its success in the courts, Congressional officials and political analysts said....

The Obama administration's lawsuit over the stringent Arizona border law might have just made the incline a little steeper for many Western Democrats, providing instant fodder to Republicans who are already optimistic about regaining ground lost over the last two election cycles. The dust from the Department of Justice lawsuit filed Tuesday is just starting to settle, but the reflexive sense among strategists on both sides is that it will be a net negative for Democrats this fall. The suit could, of course, help boost turnout among Hispanic voters in key areas across the West. And stridently anti-immigrant rhetoric could...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For some in President Obama’s White House, Missouri remains the state that got away, nearly two years after his election. Mr. Obama was the first Democrat since 1964 to win Indiana and the first since 1976 to win North Carolina. But his loss in Missouri by the narrowest of slivers (fewer than 4,000 votes) was of special disappointment. After all, the state has sided with the winner of the presidential race in nearly every election in the past century. Who would wish to be remembered for breaking that sort of trend? Now, even as President Obama...

The gay soldiers arrested outside the White House protesting "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will annouce today that they're demanding that President Obama testify in their trial on minor civil disobedience charges. Their novel argument: Obama himself called on gay rights advocates to pressure him, so they were just following orders. "Don't Ask" has energized gay rights activists frustrated with the White House's deliberate pace, even as Democratic leaders are frustrated with continued protests, as repeal is on track for next year. The subpoena in the defense of Lieutenant Dan Choi and Captain James Pietrangelo’s As the advisory puts it, The...

Three people were shot Monday evening in the parking lot of a Rally's restaurant in the 2800 block of South Jefferson Avenue, near the intersection with Gravois. A brief gunfight erupted about 6:20 p.m. between two men armed with handguns and a 26-year-old man they were attempting to rob, St. Louis police Lt. John Green said. The two would-be robbers were shot by the intended victim. One of the men, 33, was shot in the head. His apparent accomplice, 32, was shot in the abdomen, police said. The man shot in the head was in critical condition Tuesday at a...

Shares of famed firearms maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC) climbed Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court said the right to bear arms is a fundamental right that states are bound to protect. The 5-4 ruling was written by Justice Samuel Alito who said "self-defense is a basic right," and that the framers of the Constitution believed the right to own guns is "necessary to our system of ordered liberty." The ruling elevated the right to bear arms to the status of rights that state laws can't impede upon, a headline that was certain to lift enthusiasm for gunmakers....

Sen. Robert Byrd may join Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy among historic figures who have lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda — an honor only bestowed upon 28 other Americans over the past 160 years. Senate leaders are likely to make a request for Byrd to lie in state, aides said Monday, but they are still awaiting approval from Byrd’s family to go ahead with a formal resolution that would allow Byrd’s casket to rest under the dome for a public viewing. With a career that spanned nearly 58 years and ranked him as the longest-serving member in congressional...

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Stephen M. Sweeney, the president of the State Senate here, glowered with disgust as he described how one New Jersey town paid out nearly $1 million to four retiring police officers for their unused sick days and vacation time. Mr. Sweeney, a Democrat, also scowled about the estimated $46 billion New Jersey owes in pension contributions and its $58 billion in liabilities to finance retiree health coverage for government employees. For years, Republican lawmakers have railed against public employees’ pay and benefits, but now another breed of elected official is demanding labor concessions, too: current and former labor leaders and...

Greg Royer ranks among the state's top-paid employees, with a salary of $304,000. But that's just part of his income. For nearly seven years, he's also collected an annual pension of $105,000. Royer, the vice president for business and finance at Washington State University, tops a long list of college administrative staff members who've been able to boost their incomes by up to 60 percent by exploiting a loophole in state retirement laws. A Seattle Times investigation has found that at least 40 university or community-college employees retired and were rehired within weeks, often returning to the same job without...