Free Republic

Hunter Biden will sit for a closed-door interview on February 28, along with five Biden family associates at various dates, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced Thursday. The announcement came as a surprise to some Republicans. Last week, the chairmen went through procedural hurdles to prepare for a House vote to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress for failing to sit for the deposition.

Who could have guessed that the words of Soviet secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria to Joseph Stalin, "Show me the man, and I will show you the crime," would be strangely embodied in American politics and jurisprudence in the 21st century? Moreover, according to Dr. Strangesсhiff — congressman, chairman, and commissar — these wonderful words have recently found their way into the U.S. Constitution. Secret impeachment would seem to be a new idea, but the curious Dr. Strangesсhiff borrowed it from the closed Soviet trials of dissidents, "enemies of the people," and other "undesirable elements." Bravo, comrade Strangesсhiff! Please, continue...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hope Hicks, once a close aide and communications director for President Donald Trump, becomes on Wednesday the first member of his inner circle to testify to the congressional panel leading a probe into possible obstruction of justice by Trump.Democrats who control the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee believe Hicks can provide important insights into troubling chapters of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and Trump’s efforts to interfere with the investigation. “She’s our first fact witness,” said Jamie Raskin, a Democratic lawmaker on the committee. “Having somebody talking about...

Obama administration officials met with a nationwide task force of state and local leaders in Los Angeles Thursday to hear what the federal government can do to help communities confront climate change. Gov. Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti were among the governors, mayors and tribal leaders from across the country who joined federal officials for a closed-door meeting at Los Angeles City Hall.

Let’s briefly review the Obama administration’s unprecedented transparency record: *Loophole-ridden, special interest-pandering DISCLOSE Act *Backdoor kickbacks *Secret Big Labor deals *C-SPAN camera evasion *Disclosure-ducking coffeehouse meetings *Sunlight-shirking holiday and midnight floor votes *Behind-the-scenes recess appointments That’s for starters. And now, the White House is set to hold a new round of backdoor meetings with recess appointee Donald Berwick, the Medicare/Medicaid czar, on the besieged Obamacare mandate. The Hill reports: The White House has invited stakeholders to discuss the healthcare law with the administration’s controversial appointee to head Medicare.

Compare this thread from earlier this year http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1994684/postsWith this article & recent history... http://www.cnbc.com/id/27641538

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state GOP collected an estimated $2.5 million Monday at a fundraiser headlined by Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), as scores of union members protested outside the event calling for the governor's ouster in November. For Schwarzenegger, the closed-door dinner begins to replenish a political fund drained last year by his costly and losing campaign to enact ballot proposals to slow state spending and curb public union power in Sacramento. Top donors kicked in as much as $100,000 to attend the dinner and reception. But the event was reminiscent of...

Yesteday the Democrats took the unusual move of calling for a private session of the senate to discuss the intelligence presented in the weeks before the war in Iraq. Bill Frist threw some mud, "The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," but didn't address the issue-that to the best of our ability, we knew Saddam was working on WMD's but we didn't have absolute specifics. A committee of Dems and Republicans has been working on a follow up to the 2004 report which chronicled our intelligence efforts going back years. The second part of that report...

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Still locked in a stalemate with legislators over a state budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was scheduled to deliver a private speech Wednesday at the Hoover Institution, the Stanford University think tank he turned to as a candidate to help shape his economic vision and budget plans. Schwarzenegger was to be the keynote speaker at an annual meeting of Hoover's board of overseers, as well as about 1,000 Stanford community members and their guests. But despite being embroiled in a high-stakes showdown with legislators over the state budget - specifically, how to fund state and local governments...

<p>Public debate on substantive budget issues came to a halt Tuesday as Democrats leaders scrambled to explain why a handful of their members were caught speaking frankly about using the budget crisis to their political advantage.</p> <p>Members of a liberal Democratic group met behind closed doors Monday unaware that a microphone was broadcasting their words throughout the Capitol on about 500 "squawk boxes" that serve legislative offices, lobbyists and reporters.</p>