Free Republic

Last Monday, in a single six-hour period, NATO launched 10 air intercepts to shadow six separate groups of Russian bombers and fighters over the Arctic, North Atlantic, North Sea, Black Sea and Baltic Sea. Last week also brought reports that Moscow is increasing its troop presence in Crimea and along its borders with Ukraine. Joe Biden responded. In his first conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden assured him of our "unwavering support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia's ongoing aggression in the Donbass and Crimea." Though Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and...

Public congressional approval ratings currently stand at 18%. This is a result of the manifest inability of the Senate to enact significant legislation by reason of the three-fifths cloture rule and the restriction on Senate amendments to legislation by the majority leader’s device of ‘filling the tree’ with trivial amendments, only slightly relaxed by Senator Mc Connell, and the practice of House Speakers of both parties of refusing to call up bills unless they can be passed without the aid of the opposing party. In 1946, the then Senate Majority leader, Robert Taft, declared “I have always said that I...

In January, President Barack Obama outlined his strategy for 2014. "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone," he said. The president planned on using his pen to sign executive and administrative orders and his phone to call outside groups -- not Congress -- to rally behind his pet programs. Obama forgot to mention his third favorite instrument -- the teleprompter. Rather than working with Congress, Obama's second term is all about blaming Congress for whatever goes wrong. In that can't-do spirit, Obama mocked House Speaker John Boehner's threat to take legal action against the White House's imperial ways....

resident Barack Obama treats the press like a spoiled child treats his parents. Despite the pampering, he just keeps complaining about them until he gets his way. As America tires of his inflated sense of self-importance while the economy limps and his foreign policy crumbles, Obama travels around the country complaining that the mean old media aren't complimentary enough. At an event with big donors in May in Chicago, Obama lamented that he -- the very essence of reason and nonpartisanship -- is lumped in with a fanatical Congress in a tale of gridlocked Washington. "You'll hear if you watch...

According to a USA Today/Bipartisan Policy Center poll, "Americans by more than 2-1 say the best way to make positive changes in society is through volunteer organizations and charities, not by being active in government." Even better news: People under 30 are especially put off by politics and are "significantly less likely than their parents to say participating in politics is an important value in their lives." Why is this good news? There are at least two reasons. One is that the less faith people have in government, the more they are likely to have in themselves. The second is...

Fifteen percent (15%) of voters believe that Congress is doing an excellent (2%) or a good (13%) job. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% say the nation’s legislature is doing a poor job. In between are 34% who say that Congress is doing a fair job. These figures are down a couple of points from last month and virtually identical to the perceptions of Congress on Election Day 2006.

Public approval for Congress is at its highest level in a year as Democrats mark 100 days in power and step up their confrontation with President Bush over his handling of the Iraq War, the issue that overshadows all others. Overall approval for Congress is 40 percent. The survey shows Bush's approval ratings remain in the mid-30 percent range, that a striking 39 percent strongly disapproves his handling of foreign policy and the war on terror, and that the public has scant hopes that the president and Congress can work together to solve the country's problems.

<p>Eyebrows were raised over reports the White House Counsel's office had advised President Bush the Constitution did not require him to obtain approval from Congress before using force to bring about a regime change in Iraq.</p> <p>But the president's lawyers were right. Perhaps more importantly, the president was also right when he decided to seek a formal resolution of approval.</p>

<p>Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the Bush administration to use caution before any military action against Iraq.</p> <p>Describing her visit to U.S. soldiers injured in Afghanistan and recovering at Washington's Walter Reed Medical Center, the Democratic New York senator asked President Bush to seek congressional approval before any attack on Iraq.</p>