Free Republic

On Al Sharpton's MSNBC show today, former DNC Chairman Ed Rendell dared congressional Republicans to recall Hillary Clinton to testify about Benghazi. Calling her a "tough cookie," Rendell vowed that "Hillary will put them in short pants." Paging Camille Paglia . . . Rendell surely thought he was paying Hillary a compliment. But is this really the Hillary persona that Dems want to project: that of a woman who makes little boys out of grown men? View the video here.

The newly released documents buttress a report issued late last month detailing how an immigration director was swayed with respect to hundreds of millions of dollars in film and TV investments under the EB-5 visa program. The U.S. Department of Homeland SecurityÂ’s inspector general has released hundreds of pages of emails plus other documents in support of its investigation of improper influence on the EB-5 immigration program. Many of the documents discuss hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for film and television productions from Sony Pictures and Time Warner with prominent politicians including former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendall and...

"I think the Republicans will lose in court if they go to court. The president clearly has the discretion to tell the Justice Department who he wants to deport and who he wants to not deport, where he wants the emphasis to be, it's clearly within his rights. But more than that, if the Republican party can't control itself, if they, in fact, shut down the government because of this, they'll pay a heavy price. If, in fact, they say, we're not going to do anything about immigration, because the president took this action, they'll look like spoiled children. They'll...

Gas prices, on average, are about 50 cents less a gallon than a year ago, giving a de facto tax cut and providing relief to millions of consumers as the holiday season kicks into high gear. However, a growing number of politicians have suggested that, given cheaper fuel costs, conditions might be ripe to hike federal taxes on gas in order to help fund infrastructure projects. Rendell is one of those voices. He supports raising the federal gas tax—

Credit Joe Scarborough not just for devoting a significant Morning Joe segment to the Gosnell abortion-murder trial today--but for declaring that he will have a reporter covering the trial--Joe Slobodzian of the Philadelphia Inquirer--back again tomorrow and throughout the week. Ed Rendell—who was governor of Pennsylvania from 2003-10 while many of the horrors unfolded and the clinic went uninspected—was on today's Morning Joe panel. Scarborough questioned Rendell as to how this could have happened on his watch. Rendell claimed he knew nothing of the goings-on in the abortion clinic, that it was a question of bureaucratic bungling, and that he...

WASHINGTON - Could Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey be a Republican bridge who helps secure a deal on background checks on guns? His office confirmed Friday that Toomey, a strong Second Amendment advocate, was in discussions on pending gun bills that have struggled to gain traction with Republicans and many pro-gun Democrats in the Senate. "Sen. Toomey and his staff are talking to a lot of folks - both in Pennsylvania and in the Capitol - on the issue of guns in the hopes that we get to an approach that works," his spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail. There was no...

“The good thing about Newtown is, it was so horrific that I think it galvanized Americans to a point where the intensity on our side is going to match the intensity on their side,” said the former mayor, referring to the current debate between gun control advocates and supporters of the Second Amendment.

CONCORD, N.C. — Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell warned Democrats today that the Republican attack alleging that President Barack Obama gutted the welfare work requirement is taking hold. "It’s starting to resonate," he told the Maryland delegation at a breakfast. "It’s starting to affect blue-collar white voters.” Rendell predicted that pushing back on the widely criticized attack will be a central component of the last Democratic president's speech. "I think the man that will push back on it will be the man that pushed for it and signed it — President Bill Clinton," Rendell said, "but he can't do it...

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) said Sunday that he doesn’t believe recent polls showing President Obama with a wide lead in his home state. “There are two polls out that show it’s 11 points. But I don’t believe those polls,” Rendell said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “…That’s what he won by in ’08. I don’t believe that. I believe it’s going to be closer. We’ve got a very serious problem with a bad voter ID law, if the courts don’t throw it out, that could cost us 100,000 votes. So this isn’t over in Pennsylvania. And if you’re...

The Obama-Biden campaign bus tour rolling through Pennsylvania this week, about four months before Election Day, illustrates that the road to re-election runs through the Keystone State. Many political analysts believe that President Barack Obama cannot win without Pennsylvania, so it would seem self-evident that the state should get considerable attention from both campaigns in the upcoming election. Instead, Pennsylvania has been downgraded by some pundits and may have been dropped from the list of top-priority swing states by the Romney campaign. We believe that's a mistake, and that Pennsylvania instead is poised to become the Ohio or Florida of...

Celebrate good times, liberals -- President Obama has again vaulted ahead of Mitt Romney in a national poll:   After months of aggressive campaigning on jobs and the economy, President Obama and Mitt Romney, his likely Republican challenger, are locked in a dead heat over who could fix the problem foremost on voters’ minds, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The parity on economic issues foreshadows what probably will continue to be a tough and negative campaign. Overall, voters would be split 49 percent for Obama and 46 percent for Romney if the November election were held now. On handling...

Newark mayor Cory Booker may have been reduced to filming “hostage videos” in which he apologizes for throwing sharp spikes of reason and temperance beneath the madly spinning wheels of the Obama re-election bus, but the Booker Insurgency continues to grow. Harold Ford Jr., formerly a Democrat congressman from Tennessee, was welcomed to the ranks on Monday. Ford was no small-time back-bencher. He took a credible shot at wrestling House leadership away from Nancy Pelosi, and served as leader of the Democratic Leadership Council - a now-forgotten artifact of an earlier time, when there really were “moderates” in the Democrat...

Ed Rendell joins Harold Ford and Cory Booker as critics within Barack Obama’s own party of his electoral strategy of demonizing private equity. In a BuzzFeed article that focuses on the larger disconnect between Obama and Democratic Party institutions, Zeke Miller gets the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania — a state critical to Obama’s re-election hopes — on the record as decidedly uncomfortable with the tone of Team Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital: Rendell joined the chorus of criticism of Obama’s attacks on finance, whose leaders have written checks to many members of both parties. “I think they’re very disappointing,”...

The Treasury Department’s counterterrorism arm is investigating speaking fees paid to a long-time Democratic Party leader who is among the most vocal advocates of an Iranian opposition group designated as a terrorist group by the State Department. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell told The Washington Times that Treasury investigators last week subpoenaed records related to payments he has accepted in exchange for public speaking engagements. Mr. Rendell is among a bipartisan group of prominent former officials - including Cabinet-level Republicans - who have accepted payment in exchange for speeches calling for the removal of the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) from...

Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and his wife of 40 years are calling it quits. In an e-mail sent out to friends on Monday, Rendell and wife, Judge Marjorie "Midge" Rendell, said that they will be "living separately.” The couple recently moved out of the governor's mansion in Harrisburg. "Dear friends, we wanted to let you know that we have decided to embark upon the next phase of our lives by living separately," the e-mail said, according to philly.com. "This has been a difficult decision, but we both believe it is the right thing to do. Our parting is amicable,...

Rendells tell friends they are separating HARRISBURG -- Their marriage survived years of speculation about Ed Rendell's never-confirmed affairs, but today -- 20 days after the former governor left office -- he and U.S. Circuit Judge Marjorie O. Rendell told friends they are separating. The news came in a five-sentence email sent at 4:08 p.m. and signed "Ed and Midge." The Rendells told recipients that the split is amicable, that they will remain friends and that they "will not find it awkward or uncomfortable" to be invited to the same social events. The Rendells have been married for about 40...

HARRISBURG - For eight years, Gov. Rendell has lobbied hard in the halls of the Capitol for what he calls "commonsense" handgun laws. He wanted to limit sales to individuals to one handgun a month. He wanted owners to report lost or stolen weapons. He wanted to close a loophole in state law that he believes lets criminals use gun permits obtained in other states. At each turn, the legislature - including some of his allies in the Democratic-controlled House - knocked down the proposals like so many slow-moving clay birds on a skeet-shooting range. On Monday, Rendell defended his...

Three more bills met Gov. Ed Rendell's veto pen, including one that would have expanded a person's self-defense rights to use deadly force in certain circumstances outside their home or car. The self-defense bill would have expanded Pennsylvania's so-called "Castle Doctrine" and offered immunity against civil lawsuits in certain cases.

Rendell vetoes gun bill and two others By Joelle Farrell INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Gov. Rendell on Saturday vetoed three bills, including a controversial measure that would have expanded a person's right to use lethal force. Rendell said an expansion of the so-called "Castle Doctrine," would have "threatened – not enhanced – the public safety of Pennsylvania citizens." The law already protects residents' right to defend themselves in their homes, and the bill would have extended that right to virtually anywhere a person encountered a perceived threat. "The bill as passed encourages the use of deadly force, even when safe retreat...

"Remember, remember, vote like your life depends on it. Vote like your kids' future depends on it, because you know what, it just might," Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) said at a campaign rally headlined by President Obama in Philadelphia on Sunday.