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c E-Mail This Article by Thomas Dennison Staff Writer Apr. 29, 2005 ANNAPOLIS -- Six weeks into Kweisi Mfume's campaign for the U.S. Senate, Democrats here and nationally believe the former congressman from Baltimore is being shoved aside or written off by powerful forces within the state party. Many Maryland Democrats -- black and white -- are shying away from Mfume's candidacy and privately criticizing his campaign for not being well-organized. Critics say his troubled childhood as a street hustler in Baltimore, followed by controversial new allegations about his tenure as the president of the national NAACP, will make him...

Maria Bartiromo cuffed Senator Ben Cardin (D., MD) about the ears when he turned up on her show to peddle the party line on the fiscal cliff negotiations. Having unsuccessfully explored alternatives to raising tax rates with him, she commented: “That’s all you want to do. That’s it. It’s your way or the highway. Raise the rates on the rich. No other way. Your way or the highway. That’s it. That’s where we are. Thank you, Senator.”Bartiromo was not amused. She heatedly observed: “You’re talking about $1.2 trillion in revenue, but you’re not prepared to put anything on the...

Libertarian icon Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) embarrassed himself on Friday when he took to Twitter to respond to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) who recently insisted that the junior senator from Kentucky “has no idea what he’s talking about” with regards to his support for lifting restrictions on bilateral relations with the Cuban government. By attempting to defend himself, Paul ably proved the Florida senator correct. Paul began… Hey @marcorubio if the embargo doesn't hurt Cuba, why do you want to keep it?— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 19, 2014 And this one got the libertarian supporters cheering in the...

The war of words between two likely 2016 contenders over President Obama’s sweeping changes to Cuba policy heated up further on Saturday, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) repeatedly blasting remarks from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as “rude.” “I never start a fight but I'm happy to finish a fight,” Paul told Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File on Friday.” “You know, I think the remarks were a little bit rude and intemperate.” In an interview on the same show one night prior, Rubio said that Paul — who supports President Obama’s move to roll back trade and travel restrictions and...

Sen. Rand Paul prefers exhausting diplomatic efforts in dealing with overseas conflicts, and on Sunday he highlighted the difference between his softer approach to foreign policy and that of two other senators who are likely 2016 presidential candidates -- Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The Kentucky Republican joined fellow first-term senators Cruz of Texas and Rubio of Florida on stage Sunday evening in California for a summit organized by Freedom Partners. That group is the central hub of the powerful network of organizations backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch....

Noah already wrote a policy rebuttal to Paul’s position, which Paul elaborated on this afternoon in a new op-ed at Time. (The op-ed, unlike his tweets, doesn’t mention Rubio by name. Although it does approvingly cite … George W. Bush?) Anyone want to make the case that the politics of attacking Rubio on this issue were smart, at least? I can’t figure out why Rand would do it. When I tweeted out my surprise a few hours ago, a dozen people tweeted back, “Maybe Paul’s just saying what he really believes.” No doubt. But the thing that distinguishes Rand from...

Rand Paul Breaks With Rubio and Bush Over Cuba Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is the latest potential presidential candidate to weigh in on policy changes to Cuba and the libertarian leaning Republican's position splits from other Republicans who are also considering a presidential run. Paul told Tom Roten of News Talk 800 in West Virginia that the 50-year embargo "just hasn't worked" and normalizing relations with the island nation is "probably a good idea." "If the goal is regime change, it sure doesn't seem to be working and probably it punishes the people more than the regime because the regime...

Sen. Rand Paul broke with the field of Republicans considering a 2016 presidential run on Thursday, calling President Barack Obama's decision to normalize relations with Cuba a "good idea" since the American embargo against Cuba "just hasn't worked." Paul, a likely presidential candidate, made the remarks in an interview with News Talk 800 WVHU's Tom Roten, just a day after his potential competitors for the Republican nomination -- former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz -- slammed the decision to normalize relations as a dangerous move. Rubio and Cruz are sons of Cuban immigrants. Paul...

Now where have we previously heard Senator Rand Paul’s cliché-fest that constitutes his rebuttal to Senator Marco Rubio on Cuba sanctions? Well, from The Council on Foreign Relations to the New York Times and from Hillary Clinton to The Congressional Black Caucus—and that’s for starters. And oh, we also heard it repeatedly from every single one of the KGB-trained Cuban spies convicted by U.S. juries recently. “The embargo is Castro’s best friend,” Clinton chanted to an extremely friendly audience at the Council on Foreign Relations back in June while citing and promoting her book Hard Choices. The sanctions give “Castro...

Marco Rubio was on with Mark Levin tonight to talk Cuba and gave the best interview I’ve heard yet on Cuba from anyone. One of my favorite parts was where he listed four of five reasons why Obama’s new policy toward Cuba won’t help the Cuban people, one being based on how Cuba’s economy is set up so that 90% of all money in Cuba gets taken by the military because nothing is privately owned. Rubio is really quite impressive in his knowledge of Cuba.

Beginning on Thursday night, a fight erupted on line between Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul over the new diplomatic opening to Cuba. Rubio slammed Paul for his ignorance, while Paul bizarrely accused Rubio of “isolationism” for opposing Barack Obama’s policies. Before that battle began in earnest, I spoke with incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a wide-ranging interview about his plans for the 114th Session of Congress. We discussed Cuba, and McConnell made it clear that he was relying on Rubio’s leadership on the issue — which might make for an awkward moment or two between McConnell...

WASHINGTON — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that starting to trade with Cuba "is probably a good idea" and that the lengthy economic embargo against the communist island "just hasn't worked." Paul became the first potential Republican presidential candidate to offer some support for President Barack Obama's decision to try to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba. The president's surprise announcement on Wednesday was slammed by several potential GOP candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who said it amounted to appeasing the Castro regime. Paul said in a radio interview with Tom Roten of...

If a Republican wins the White House, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay will almost surely be kept open for the foreseeable future. That is, unless Rand Paul nabs the GOP nomination. Yet again, the senator from Kentucky has scouted out a position on a national-security issue that makes him an outlier, at least among senators running for president. That was clear Monday after Marco Rubio introduced two amendments that would extend the use of the prison: one to prohibit funding to programs that would help close the facility, and another that sets a series of tough ground rules before...

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., took a shot at Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., when asked about the possibility of running simultaneously for re-election to the Senate and for the presidency in 2016. "If someone decides to run for president of the United States, you run for president of the United States," Rubio said at the National Press Club. "I don't believe you can run effectively for an office of that magnitude while having some exit strategy in mind."

Been looking at some of the coverage today regarding the Obama Regime's efforts to enrich the communist dictators of Cuba. Among other elements happening is the new importation of cigars....and the press certainly seems quite enamored with Obamugabe for this action. Of course we have been subject for DECADES about the EEEVILS of tobacco... If the media were going to be consistent, we would see them ripping Obama for increasing Americans' exposure to such a DEADLY product. I guess ATTACKING AMERICAN TOBACCO companies is okay, while ENRICHING CUBAN DICTATORS who control Cuban tobacco is even better. American tobacco=bad. CUBAN tobacco=good.

".............Paul has signaled that if he runs for president in 2016, he won’t do it the way his father did, by mostly shunning the GOP establishment. Instead, he is expected to cultivate relationships with Republicans like McConnell, whose help making inroads with establishment donors could be very, very useful. Rubio clearly isn’t shunning the establishment, either. He worked on crafting an immigration reform bill earlier this year, something the establishment wing of the party has been clamoring for in the wake of a disappointing election in which Republicans performed poorly among Hispanics. And he didn’t hesitate to back McConnell, even...

The United States may be about to remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, but some Cuban-Americans see that as a grave mistake. Carlos Eire, the T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History & Religious Studies at Yale University and author of a memoir about growing up during the Cuban Revolution, Waiting for Snow in Havana, pointed out that Cuba has had two illegal arms shipments seized in the past year and a half, one to North Korea, the other to China. In addition, he said: • It has deals with Iran (including sending nuclear experts to Iran); It...

The Rawlings-Blake administration plans to pay Freddie Gray's family $6.4 million as a settlement for civil claims in his arrest and death — an extraordinary payment in a lawsuit against city police. The settlement — which is expected to be approved at Wednesday's meeting of the city's spending panel — will be paid out over two years, according to the mayor's office. The five-member board is controlled by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. The payment is larger than the total of more than 120 other lawsuits brought against the police department for alleged brutality and misconduct since 2011. Gray, 25, died in...

A disturbing trend in recent weeks has convinced Americans that an all-out assault is being waged on our men and women in uniform. From a gas station murder in Houston, to a shooting ambush in New York City and a slaying in Illinois, police officers across the country are afraid to do their jobs because it is apparent that the people they pledged to protect are turning on them. The majority of Americans are not blind to the new dangers police face. A Rasmussen Reports survey reveals that 58 percent would agree a war on police is being waged in the...

A little-noticed lawsuit brought by a Maryland man challenging the state's contorted congressional districts will be heard this fall by the Supreme Court — where it has the potential to open a new line of constitutional attack for opponents of gerrymandering. Stephen M. Shapiro, a former federal worker from Bethesda, argues that the political map drawn by state Democrats after the 2010 census violated the First Amendment rights of Republicans by placing them in districts in which they were in the minority, marginalizing them based solely on their political views. The issue before the Supreme Court is whether a lower...