Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced the members of the Senate Republican delegation to Thursday's White House health-care summit, and the list includes Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The Arizona Republican is not known as a health-care expert. But as the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, McCain offered a sweeping reform plan with some elements that overlap with the Obama proposal, and others that would have represented a radical departure from the current system.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is ready to be the 60th Senate vote to get the climate change and energy bill passed, he told a Midlands audience Tuesday at Harbison State Forest. “Since they’ve got no Republicans but me, business is open,” Graham said. Graham has been criticized by his own party for pursuing bipartisan resolutions on such issues as illegal immigration and possible filibusters of judicial nominees. And he believes that the cap-and-trade bills being debated this year are another occasion to do so, he told the audience at a forestry conference hosted by the S.C. Wildlife Federation. He said he...

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power would be part of the mix, that clean coal would be part of the mix, that he’s for offshore drilling in a responsible way,” Graham said today in describing his Oval Office meeting with Obama. “But we have to have a price on carbon,...

(snip) “Why did I do this? I want my time to count. I want to be seen as someone who can solve a hard problem by working with my colleagues across the aisle. I want to do something that matters. I can’t think of a better use of my time than to work with Democrats and Republicans to break our dependency on foreign oil, to create jobs for our next generation of Americans that will never go to China. And yes, leave behind a cleaner planet.” (snip)

Periodically, a Republican senator is seized with desire to be the front man for the Democrats' latest regulatory monstrosity in Washington. Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina is now in the throes of this pathological urge, which usually appears just when defeat seems imminent for a big-government scheme like the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade energy bill. Democrats and their liberal buddies in the mainstream media need only whisper the magic word "bipartisanship" and soon enough along comes a gullible GOPer to take the bait. Graham made clear in a Sunday New York Times op-ed written with Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, that he...

Those angry town hall meetings are back. Last night, at a forum at Furman University, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was pilloried by protesters for his decision to back Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and for his support for climate change legislation. During the 75-minute event, one man told Graham he had “betrayed” conservatism and made a “pact with the devil” by working with Democrats, and asked when the senator planned to change parties. . . . . . Maybe what really ticked off the conservatives was when Graham argued that the problem should be addressed as soon as...

Gov. Charlie Crist and his ``stimulus czar'' said Friday that a recent federal report supports Florida's go-slow approach to spending federal recovery money earmarked for highway projects and schools. Even so, Florida's overall stimulus spending is a bit ahead of schedule, said czar Don Winstead, whose official title is special advisor to the governor on economic stimulus. Federal officials in February said they expected the state to spend about 20 percent of its estimated $15 billion in stimulus money by the end of September. ``I think we will be ahead of that schedule,'' Winstead said. ``We are seeing rapid deployment...

There hasn't been a more controversial piece of Congressional and Senate legislation than the proposed health care program in my memory. In spite of polls revealing a majority of Americans oppose the current health care proposals, the Democrats are pushing hard to pass their legislation as quickly as possible. The American people are seeking to have their voices heard through their elected officials including conservatives, but the US Senate appears to be oblivious to that fact — including Republican senators such as Iowa's Chuck Grassley. Rather than fighting this attempt at an oppressive government takeover of the private sector, Senator...

"Hear our cry, Obama." "Deliver us, Obama." Video at link.

The Daily Beast's Meghan McCain on why the far-right pundit, who says McCain needs to shut up, won’t be getting her wish—and why telling moderates to get out of the party is bad for the GOP. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN Michelle Malkin, the conservative pundit and author of the recent book Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, was asked during a live chat on Politico’s The Arena on Friday which conservative political figure or commentator needs to shut up. Guess who her answer was? Yeah, that’s right—yours truly. So Michelle Malkin successfully rounds out...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is working behind the scenes to help Democrats craft a new version of former President Bush's immigration reform bill. Graham also supported the Bush/Kennedy/McCain bill back in 2007. As The Wall Street Journal reports: Wes Hickman, a spokesman for Mr. Graham, said in a statement that "Senator Graham is ready and willing to play a key role in immigration reform. He intends to work with many of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle." The new bill will most likely be introduced in September by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Graham has been working with...