Free Republic

Brenda Tracy (left), talks with Sen. Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden and PSU President... Oregon’s colleges and universities must resist any Trump administration plans to walk back federal rules directing how schools respond to sexual assaults on campus. That was the takeaway from a Monday morning roundtable discussion at Portland State University. Oregon Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and sexual assault survivor Brenda Tracy held an informal discussion with PSU Title IX leaders and sexual assault prevention staffers. The meeting came less than a month after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded Obama-era guidelines on how schools should handle...

In the ongoing dispute between the state's two U.S. senators and the Trump administration, the White House counsel accuses the lawmakers of failing to consider the administration's pick for a judicial vacancy on a federal appellate court. The White House last week nominated Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Bounds, a young, politically conservative federal prosecutor, for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, want U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez, a Republican, for the vacancy. Wyden and Merkley have vowed to block Bounds' nomination, saying that he wasn't vetted through their bipartisan judicial...

Oregon Sens.Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have announced plans to block President Trump’s nominee for the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a letter to the White House on Thursday, the two Democratic senators said they do not intend to return blue slips for Ryan Bounds “or any other nominee that has not been selected through our judicial process.” “As you are aware, in May we wrote you to explain Oregon’s long bipartisan tradition of working together to identify the most qualified candidates for judicial vacancies,” they wrote. “As senators charged with the task for advice and consent...

Sen. Jeff Merkely says a decision to use the 'Nuclear Option' to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court would "destroy the integrity of the Senate" and "highly politicize the [Supreme] court." "If this process goes through, every 5-4 decision will be one we will look at and say that it is not really legitimate, because that Supreme Court Justice wasn't really legitimate," he said. "If we change it to a simple majority, that means the next president will have an easier time approving appointments, and might decide to go further to the left or right outside of the mainstream....

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley is running neck-and-neck with Republican challenger Monica Wehby, according to a new Daily Caller/Vox Populi Polling survey of registered voters in the state. Wehby, a Portland-based pediatric neurosurgeon, received the support of 40 percent of respondents, while an additional five percent say they are leaning towards supporting the first-time candidate. Merkley, who was elected to the Senate in 2008, garners the support of just 39 percent of respondents, with two percent saying they lean towards supporting him. Fourteen percent of voters said they do not know whom they would support. According to Vox Populi’s Brent...

Key members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressed outrage at revelations made in newly released emails showing ex-IRS official Lois Lerner coordinating with the Department of Justice on prosecuting nonprofit groups. One committee member said the emails prove why the IRS is “scared to give up the rest of Lois Lerner’s emails.” IRS commissioner John Koskinen was recently threatened with contempt for stonewalling the committee’s investigation. Koskinen claimed in a hearing that it could take years to provide the documents requested by Oversight. “The release of new documents underscores the political nature of IRS Tea Party...

It’s not just red-state Democrats who are panicking. Then again, Merkley’s not a typical blue-state Democrat. He won his Senate race in Oregon by fewer than four points in 2008, a year in which Hopenchange fever boosted Dems nationally. Not only won’t he have that working for him next year, he’ll have the albatross of Obama’s biggest “achievement” hanging around his neck. Time for him to do what little he can to shed it by joining Landrieu’s bill.Last night a source told Greg Sargent that House Democrats were being whipped by the leadership to oppose Fred Upton’s bill, replete with...

Nine senators, congressman follow pattern of S&L scandal: contributions and intervention. So here’s the formula. An independent agency of the U.S. government. United States Senators. A powerful campaign contributor to said United States Senators. A powerful campaign contributor who wants something from said independent agency. Add it all together and what you get is — The Keating Five. And the IRS Ten. Let’s start, by way of illustrating how the game worked, with The Keating Five.

How can Obama blame Congress if the April FISA ruling concerned Verizon, and if it was a secret ruling until the Snowden leak (that is if Edward Snowden did leak it)? I mean, if it WAS until recently a secret, how could Congress have known and thus possibly be to blame for any part of this?

Privacy stalwarts peel away from White House on the left while on the right Rand Paul sees his signature issue ascend. As this week drew to a close, the scandal trifecta of Benghazi, IRS targeting and snooping on journalists seemed so five days ago. The late-week revelation that the National Security Agency accessed the Verizon phone records of millions of Americans snowballed within a day as more phone companies were included and operation PRISM, which involved agreements with nine Internet companies to monitor email and web activity, put the Obama administration on the defense. The main White House defense is...

With Washington gripped by a trio of exploding scandals – from Benghazi to government spying on news outlets, to thug tactics by the IRS – Senate Democrats seem to be hoping that if they just yell loud enough, voters will overlook a key role they played in at least one of them. The pols quickly sensed the political toxicity associated with Friday's admission by the IRS that they selectively targeted conservative organizations for special government scrutiny, and so Democrats didn't waste any time springing into action. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, for example, vowed congressional hearings and...

<p>U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., apparently persuaded Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to add a provision to force construction businesses of five or more employees to provide insurance coverage or face hefty fines.</p>

WASHINGTON -- A last-minute addition to the Senate health-care bill that requires small construction companies to offer health coverage or pay a fine touched off a battle Tuesday with some industry groups demanding its removal. The change, offered by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.), says construction companies should offer coverage if they have five or more employees and a payroll of $250,000 or more, or face fines of up to $750 per employee per year if the employees receive tax credits. The threshold for other types of companies is 50. Construction-related industries say it is unfair to single them out,...

On Tuesday, Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant who was a teenager in Queens during the Sept. 11 attacks, pleaded not guilty to federal terrorism conspiracy charges in New York. This is a scary story. Police stopped and searched Zazi's rented car on the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 10, as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks loomed and President Obama was about to join world leaders at a U.N. confab. According to the U.S. attorney's office, Zazi flew to Pakistan in August 2008 to receive bombmaking instructions, returned to use the Internet and nine pages of handwritten bombmaking...

A sizable chunk of the vote in the Oregon Senate race between Republican incumbent Gordon Smith and Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley has not yet been counted, but The Oregonian is calling the race for Merkley. Though Merkley only holds a lead of 2,000 votes, most of the uncounted votes are from heavily-Democratic counties. If this projection holds up, that would give the Democrats 57 seats to the Republicans' 40. In the three other races still up in the air, GOP incumbents are poised to hold on to their seats by razor-thin margins, and thus help sustain the Republicans' ability to...

A new SurveyUSA poll suggests Oregon's Senate race may be shifting in the direction of Democrat Jeff Merkley. The poll, broadcast on KATU's noon news, showed Merkley with 46 percent to 41 percent for Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. Constitution Party candidate David Brownlow had 7 percent and the remaining 6 percent were undecided. The margin of error is 4.1 percentage points, plus or minus.

Oregon Senator Gordon Smith is in dangerous territory again, virtually tied with Jeff Merkley, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state. The incumbent Republican holds a statistically insignificant 46% to 45% lead over Merkley. The race is now the closest it’s been since regular tracking began in February. Just one month ago, Smith had an eight-point lead but still received under 50% support from voters. Any incumbent senator who polls under 50% is considered vulnerable. In July, Merkley was ahead 43% to 41%.

[Two days after the invasion of Georgia by Russia] Questioner: With your national security background, what do think about what's going on in Georgia. Merkley: [munch... munch... munch] Questioner: I know you've been on the road, so you probably haven't exactly kept up... Merkley: I haven' heard about what's going on in Georgia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B6furdKP1k

Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley is excited by a new poll that for the first time shows him ahead of Republican Sen. Gordon Smith - even if the two-point lead is well within the survey's margin of error. Jeff Merkley "The fact that we're in the lead is tremendous," said Merkley spokesman Matt Canter, saying he thinks that's probably the first time Smith has found himself in such a position in his nearly 12 years in the Senate. However, Smith's own pollster, Bob Moore, said he didn't trust the methodology of the poll by Rasmussen Reports. It uses an automated...