Free Republic

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released the results of last year’s Census and shared the news that my home state of North Carolina will be getting a 14th seat in Congress. It’s a welcome bit of news that we’ll soon have another voice in Washington, D.C., but more importantly, it provides an opportunity to re-evaluate what exactly it is we want from our representatives in Washington and how they can finally take meaningful action to help the people they represent. It’s no surprise that Washington isn’t particularly productive; simply put, Americans are fed up with Congress. Approval ratings are consistently...

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...

I manage campaigns for candidates I agree with, (right to life, conservative party etc.). I am a political scientist by training and web designer when not engaged in a fight. I am quite familiar with the political game and I know what is going on. In my college years both undergraduate and graduate level I was for some time a committed Marxist of the Stalinist variant. I devoured everything from Marx to Kautsky, Lenin, Gramsci, Guevara, Mao et al. I have a good insight to what the left does and their tactics. Conservatives have unfortunately been checkmated by the left...

Republicans may be planning a crude surprise for Democrats this October. I mean crude in the sense that it will involve unrefined petroleum. Since the House recessed earlier this month, Republicans have been demanding that Speaker Nancy Pelosi call it back into special session to vote on whether to allow new offshore oil-drilling. The Republicans know Pelosi won't do that. So, what do they really want? Let's start with some sense of the oil resources America could develop if Congress would allow it. In 2006, the Interior Department estimated that about 85.9 billion barrels of "undiscovered technically recoverable" oil sits...

President George W. Bush's recent gains in approval ratings have improved Republican prospects in the November 7 fight for Congress, but analysts say Democrats still have the upper hand with a disaffected public in the mood for change. But Bush's slight rise in approval ratings in the last month, a big drop in gas prices and renewed voter attention to the fight against terrorism, usually a party strength, encouraged Republicans and improved their position in some tight races, analysts said. "For Republicans, the outlook remains bad but is no longer horrific," said political handicapper Charlie Cook, publisher of the nonpartisan...

President Bush is aggressively taking on his Iraq war critics as he prepares to travel to Northern California next week. On Friday he accused opponents of advancing an argument that "buys into the enemy's propaganda.'' The day before, the president accused Democrats of being the party of "cut and run.'' Earlier in the week, Bush said he considered it "naive'' to believe that going to war was a mistake. Bush arrives in Stockton in advance of a Tuesday morning fundraiser for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, the chairman of the House Resources Committee. The president then travels north to El Dorado...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats enter the fall campaign with a clear edge in the high-stakes fight for control of the U.S. Congress, riding a wave of momentum that has them positioned to retake the U.S. House of Representatives and make significant gains in the Senate. President George W. Bush's low approval ratings and public dissatisfaction with the Iraq war, gas prices and the country's direction threaten Republican leadership in Congress and put Democrats within reach of victory on November 7, analysts said. "I don't think the question any longer is can Democrats win control of Congress, it's can Republicans do...

In the history of any nation there are high and low points. There are events and people that make the nation proud or, frankly, cause it shame and embarrassment. I, for years, felt one of our proudest moments was Ronald Wilson Reagan telling Gorbachev, ''Tear down this wall.'' I always thought the shame of slavery would forever be our low point. That was right up until Jimmy Carter took office in 1977 and again last week when he spewed his hate-filled venom against his country and its president in Der Spiegel magazine. Jimmy, you are a disgrace to our nation....

Democratic congressional candidate Stephanie Studebaker is removing her name from the ballot after being charged with domestic violence, according to a statement posted Tuesday evening on her campaign Web site. Studebaker and her husband, Sam, were booked Sunday morning into the Montgomery County jail after police answered calls about a fight in their home. Each was charged with domestic violence and released on a $25,000 bond. This photo provided by the Montgomery County, Ohio, sheriff's office shows Stephanie Studebaker. Studebaker, a Democratic congressional candidate, and her husband Sam Studebaker, were each charged with domestic violence after sheriff's deputies responded to...

We are reading only about 24 arrests today. If we were already in the heralded antiwar world of Ned Lamont and the war-against-the-war crowd, it could be much different. We could just as easily be reading about ten jumbo jets exploded out of the sky. Or 3,000 murdered innocents — mostly American and British citizens. Reality has once again inconveniently burst the antiwar, anti-security, anti-American balloon, just as the November victory ballrooms were being booked. Just as central casting was whipping the articles of impeachment into shape. The high crimes and misdemeanors of George W. Bush include: hunting down terrorists,...

The narrow primary defeat of veteran senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary is more than a loss for one man. It is a loss for his party and for the country. It completes the capture of the Democratic Party by its Taliban wing. They used to be "San Francisco Democrats," a phrase coined by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick to describe the party's 1984 convention. But they have now morphed into Taliban Democrats because they are willing to "kill" one of their own, if he does not conform to the narrow and rigid agenda of...

Republican Governor Candidates Mount Strong Challenges by John ZogbyPosted Jun 23, 2006 Audio commentary by John Zogby available now.Reports earlier this year of the death of the Republican congressional majority in Washington may have been premature, but the GOP remains on its sickbed heading into the busy summer campaign season, new polling numbers from Zogby Interactive show.But while Democrats appear to have the upper hand in Senate races, the GOP has a chance to steal two key races for governor. Freshmen Democrats Rod Blagojevich of Illinois and Jennifer Granholm of Michigan are both in trouble, deadlocked against GOP challengers who...

With President Bush's popularity at an all-time low, hovering in the mid-30s in most national surveys, and the conservative base of the Republican Party increasingly dismayed with the President's performance on issues such as runaway government spending and immigration "reform," chances are increasing that the Democrats could eke out a majority in the House of Representatives in the elections this fall. Four months ago, I concluded that there were 20 Republican House seats that were vulnerable to Democratic takeover, now I believe that there are 30. To achieve a majority, the Democrats would need to win a net gain of...

Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore has seized a 12-point lead over Republican challenger Kris Kobach in the race for Kansas' 3rd Congressional District, a new poll shows. With a little more than a week left in the race, Moore is getting support from about 50 percent of the district's voters, a benchmark that some strategists think will be hard for Kobach to overcome. The poll of 600 registered voters likely to cast a ballot on Nov. 2 showed Kobach with 38 percent support, while 11 percent of voters were undecided. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points....