Free Republic

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has the “overwhelming support” of fellow Democrats in her bid to become minority leader in the next Congress, and says she’s not to blame for the Democrats’ mid-term debacle. “We didn’t lose the election because of me,” Ms. Pelosi told National Public Radio in an interview that aired Friday morning. “Our members do not accept that.” Instead, the California Democrat attributes the loss of at least 60 seats to high unemployment and “$100 million of outside, unidentified funding.” “Any party that cannot turn (9.5% unemployment) into political gains should hang up the gloves,” she...

"Why don't they fight back?" That's the question I've been hearing from the Democratic Party's stunned and dispirited base. Everywhere I go, supporters of President Obama and his agenda ask me why so many Democrats in Washington don't stand up for what they say they believe. I confess that I don't have a good answer. What I can say with confidence, however, is that the White House and Democrats in Congress ignore these grumblings at their peril. Call it polarization, call it conviction, call it whatever you like: These are not wishy-washy times. If you don't stand for something, you...

Nancy Pelosi celebrates her dubious "achievements" with a party for the 111th Congress and a self-promoting opinion piece. Today, Pelosi will be holding a closed-to-the-media, private party for the Democrat bunch of losers in the 111th Congress who recently had their rear ends handed to them in one of the most record-breaking midterm elections in the last 70 years. If you can make it, you can head to the Cannon House Office Building for what’s sure to be an insane time. Today, also, a self-promoting opinion piece written by Pelosi will appear in USA Today, where she laughably praises Obama...

Turn on Rush Limbaugh's radio program IMMEDIATELY! He's hinting Obama is INSANE!

The 2010 election results should not be interpreted as an "affirmation" of Republicans, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday. McCain, the party's 2008 presidential nominee who's up for reelection today, said the losses Democrats are expected to suffer nationwide were more about frustration over President Obama and incumbent Democrats than anything else. "The moral of this story is that this election is a repudiation of Obama and the Democrats," McCain said on Fox News. "It is not an affirmation of Republicans. So Republicans have got to come through and satisfy this outcry — this anger and frustration — that's been...

Joy Behar calls Sharron Angle a bitch, and then predicts that she is also going to hell. On Tuesday’s "The View," (read: show primarily for stay-at-home moms) that crotchety, ill-tempered and relentlessly vitriolic Joy Behar lashed out at Sharron Angle, simply an average, regular American woman who happens to have a solid, conservative belief system. In other words, it was just another typical broadcast of "The View," a show that lately has become known for nothing but its uncontrollable, excessively emotional, liberal female hosts’ outbursts that are much of the time at odds with the opinions of most Americans. Apparently,...

Ever since Barry Soetero ascended to the office of President of the United States, people have wondered exactly what type of man he really is. Barack Obama broke on the national scene on July 27th 2004 when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Although only a state senator at the time; many of the movers and shakers of the DNC felt this person had real potential. The kinship they felt speaks volumes; not only regarding Barack Obama, but about progressives as well. He was both well spoken and correctly educated; having graduated from both...

... There have been many other instances -- too many to mention in this piece -- but I don't recall ever seeing the like of the disproportionate, unhinged attacks on Christine O'Donnell for her statements addressing the Establishment Clause in her Widener Law School debate with Chris Coons. The left couldn't possibly want that one Delaware Senate seat enough to match their vitriol. It's important to understand the context in which the Establishment Clause issue was addressed at the debate. Chris Coons said that only evolution must be taught in schools, and that intelligent design is prohibited from being discussed,...

RUSH: Take a look here at the unemployment news as reported today by Reuters. Headline: "Jobless Claims Drop, Monetary Stimulus Seen." Oh, and we have got to talk about this, this QE2, quantitative easing. This is the second phase of printing money. This is the Fed. The target date here is November 2 or 3. That's when they're going to have their next meeting. And all eyes are focused on this meeting, and some of them are focused with great fear. Quantitative easing is printing money, funneling a bunch of money into the economy in the hopes of igniting economic...

"It's not a question of enthusiasm, it's a question of who is going to vote?," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on "Charlie Rose." "This is not a national election; it is district by district," she said. Pelosi made the case that the midterm election is about local issues.

As time goes on, there are more and more utterly insane things that Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson has said. Last year he said that Republicans wanted people to "die quickly." In August he warned that people would eat each other if government spending was cut. In September he released his notorious fraudulent campaign ad that referred to his opponent as a terrorist. And earlier this month he compared his campaign to "ground zero in Hiroshima." Well, Grayson has done it again. Yesterday, Alan Grayson called Rush Limbaugh a criminal drug addict that is insane and then went on to assert...

Nancy Pelosi says that food stamps and unemployment insurance will grow the US economy and lift it from the recession that Barack Obama has helped to worsen. Pelosi, that genius and all-around brilliant analyst of the US economy and everything financial, spoke Wednesday in an overly defensive response to Newt Gingrich’s right-on-the-mark salvo against Pelosi and her Democrat Party. In recent comments, Gingrich correctly advised Republicans to make a contrast between Democrats who promote food stamps as their economic policy, and Republicans who actually promote the useful concept called paychecks to grow the prosperity of Americans. Confusingly, Pelosi reacted to...

On Wednesday, Arturo Lopez, 18, was convicted of abducting and raping his foster mother in Henrico County, last April. The 55-year-old victim told the jury of her pain, and how she can longer trust anyone, ending her long service as a foster mother...The jury recommended a 20-year sentence for the abduction and 10 years for the rape. Lopez will be sentenced in November. On April 9, the woman called police to report that her foster son had just raped her at knife point. The victim was able to leave the house and call 911, after telling Lopez that she had...

Has John McCain "sold his soul" to win re-election? It's a question that briefly flustered the self-ascribed maverick and 2008 presidential nominee when asked Sunday morning by Chris Wallace of Fox News - but it's also an accusation McCain, who defended having changed his position on several issues, is not alone in having to answer. (snip) McCain, along with South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, called Sunday for a new "Contract with America," Newt Gingrich's political blueprint that helped give Congress back to the GOP in 1994. But both senators - who once made their marks in Congress by seeking middle...

(Adds details) WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will ask the U.S. Congress on Wednesday to increase and permanently extend a tax credit for business research as a way of boosting job growth, an administration official said on Sunday. The proposal would cost $100 billion over 10 years, and Obama would pay for the plan by closing other corporate tax breaks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Obama will call on Congress to increase to 17 percent from 14 percent one of two credit options available to businesses, the official said.

Arizona Sen. John McCain said Sunday this fall's midterm elections could be "seismic," but that Republicans need to make a better direct appeal to the American people in order to sweep their votes. "We need to give voters a reason to be for us, not just against the Democrats," the 2008 Republican presidential nominee said on "Fox News Sunday." McCain said the GOP needs to create another "Contract with America" — the electoral and policy blueprint put forth by Republicans in 1994, the last time the GOP swept Congress. "We need to make a short list of promises to the...

Next week, President Obama is scheduled to propose new measures to boost the economy. I hope they’re bold and substantive, since the Republicans will oppose him regardless — if he came out for motherhood, the G.O.P. would declare motherhood un-American. So he should put them on the spot for standing in the way of real action. But let’s put politics aside and talk about what we’ve actually learned about economic policy over the past 20 months. When Mr. Obama first proposed $800 billion in fiscal stimulus, there were two groups of critics. Both argued that unemployment would stay high —...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, called for an investigation of those who are protesting the building of the Ground Zero Mosque on Tuesday. She told San Francisco's KCBS radio: Link to audio

A new State Department report designating terrorist organizations notably excludes one group: the Taliban. The U.S. has been fighting a war in Afghanistan for almost a decade aimed at “defeating the Taliban,” Taliban members repeatedly have threatened and killed American citizens and lawmakers have increased pressure on State to add the Taliban to the list. Earlier this summer, a group of congressional Democrats sent a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton urging her to begin the process of categorizing the Taliban as a terrorist group. In June, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand of New York and Frank Lautenberg...

What I learned about Hugo Chávez's mental health when I visited Venezuela with Sean Penn.Recent accounts of Hugo Chávez's politicized necrophilia may seem almost too lurid to believe, but I can testify from personal experience that they may well be an understatement. In the early hours of July 16—just at the midnight hour, to be precise—Venezuela's capo officiated at a grisly ceremony. This involved the exhumation of the mortal remains of Simón Bolívar, leader of Latin America's rebellion against Spain, who died in 1830. According to a vividly written article by Thor Halvorssen in the July 25 Washington Post, the...