Free Republic

Teamsters President James Hoffa isn’t backing down from his Labor Day remarks, and there are very few on his side calling on him to do so. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer says there is something to be learned from the episode. On Tuesday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, Krauthammer said the lack of a backlash was the latest evidence of hypocrisy from President Barack Obama’s party. “The real story is [the] cosmic hypocrisy of the Democrats,” Krauthammer said. “We had the shooting in Tucson all of a sudden that was obviously the act of a psychotic mad man…...

Obama will speak shortly at GM in Detroit about labor. Jimmy Hoffa Jr. in his introductions said about Republicans and/Tea Party; Let's take those sons-a-bitches out" That's all for now......

While warming up a Detroit crowd for President Barack Obama’s Labor Day speech, Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. said unions need to fight a “war” against tea partiers and congressional Republicans. “President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa said. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and take America back to where America we belong.”

Just reported on Fox News...at a Detroit rally for Obama to preview his joke of a jobs bill, Jimmy Hoffa Jr. warming up the crowd said of the GOP and the Tea Party "Let's take these sons of b-tches out!" This is a clear incitement to violence which Obama must condemn at once. If he does not, then he is a rank hypocrite accusing conservatives of incivility and incitment as part of his attempt to politicize the Gabby Giffords shooting. This is a MUCH MORE CLEAR CALL FOR VIOLENCE than anything they can pin on anyone in the Tea Party,...

Arnold Schwarzenegger's dream of becoming the first "post-partisan" governor has finally come true - he's equally disliked by Republicans and Democrats. "He's reached his goal. Both sides view him the same way," said Mark DiCamillo of the Field Poll. "Negatively."Overall, the action-star-turned-budget-bedraggled-compromiser scored a 38 percent approval rating in a statewide Field Poll of 761 voters taken after the recent budget deal was reached.Schwarzenegger's abandonment of the Republican mantra of no new taxes cost him dearly among his own party. The number of Republicans who approve of his job performance is down to 39 percent, versus 56 percent who disapprove,...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) – Republican nominee John McCain said in an interview aired on Sunday he would bring Democrats into his Cabinet and administration as part of his attempt to change the political atmosphere in Washington. "I don't know how many, but I can tell you, with all due respect to previous administrations, it is not going to be a single, 'Well, we have a Democrat now,"' McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's going to be the best people in America, the smartest people in America," he said in an interview taped on Saturday. Both McCain and...

WASHINGTON (AP) – John McCain pledges that if elected president, he'd appoint Democrats to his Cabinet. He says there's nothing partisan about tackling the nation's toughest problems. In an interview taped today for airing tomorrow, McCain tells CBS's "Face the Nation" he intends to have the best people in America in Cabinet. It's believed that McCain closely considered Senator Joe Lieberman as a running mate. The Connecticut independent is a former Democrat.

Republican John McCain pledged if elected president to appoint Democrats to his Cabinet, saying there's nothing partisan about tackling the nation's toughest problems. "I don't know how many, but I can tell you, with all due respect to previous administrations, it is not going to be a single ... 'Well we have a Democrat now.' It's going to be the best people in America," the GOP presidential nominee told CBS' "Face the Nation," in an interview taped Saturday that will be broadcast in full Sunday. "So many of these problems we face _ for example, energy independence, what's partisan about...

<p>IF JOHN MCCAIN becomes president, he will be confronted by a Congress with significantly larger Democratic majorities than today's — majorities furious about high hopes dashed by an eighth Republican victory in 11 presidential elections. And if the normal pattern of off-year elections obtains in 2010, those majorities will expand. So McCain would have to deal with a hostile legislature for four years, as Arnold Schwarzenegger has done for almost five years. For that reason, and because these two self-styled post-partisan, reach-across-the-aisle mavericks admire one another — ...</p>

<p>IF JOHN MCCAIN becomes president, he will be confronted by a Congress with significantly larger Democratic majorities than today's — majorities furious about high hopes dashed by an eighth Republican victory in 11 presidential elections. And if the normal pattern of off-year elections obtains in 2010, those majorities will expand. So McCain would have to deal with a hostile legislature for four years, as Arnold Schwarzenegger has done for almost five years. For that reason, and because these two self-styled post-partisan, reach-across-the-aisle mavericks admire one another — McCain has given Schwarzenegger a starring role Monday at the Republican convention — it is pertinent to survey Schwarzenegger's governorship of one-eighth of America's population.</p>

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said today that Democrats have negotiated key points of a compromise state budget with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and that he considers negotiations over. "I think we've, frankly, gone about as far as we can go," the Oakland Democrat said. Perata said the compromise plan includes a major concession by Democrats - a spending cap to limit annual state expenditures. Republicans have been insisting on a spending cap as part of any budget pact. "The question continues to be, are there Republican votes for it?" Perata said of the compromise plan. The ball is in...

Republican Sen. John McCain, engaged in increasingly sharp attacks on rival Barack Obama, pledged that if elected president, he would work closely with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, praising her as an effective leader and an "inspiration to millions of Americans." "I respect Speaker Pelosi. I think she's one of the great American success stories," McCain said during an interview with The Chronicle prior to a fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. "We talk about (New York Sen.) Hillary Clinton and her inspiration to millions of Americans. Speaker Pelosi has been an inspiration as well" in a role...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - John McCain, looking through a crystal ball to 2013 and the end of a prospective first term, sees "spasmodic" but reduced violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden dead or captured and government spending curbed by his ready veto pen. The Republican presidential contender also envisions April's annual angst replaced by a simpler flat tax, illegal immigrants living humanely under a temporary worker program, and political partisanship stemmed by weekly news conferences and British-style question periods with joint meetings of Congress. In a speech being delivered Thursday, McCain concedes he cannot make the changes alone, but...

For as long as I have been watching and writing about California politics and public policy, well-meaning people have been coming to me with the promise to fix what ails government in the Golden State. Name the problem and someone has tried to solve it: campaign finance abuses, rigged political districts, foolish budget policies – all of which contribute to a widening disconnect between what regular folks seem to want and what their dysfunctional government delivers. Most if not all of these efforts have failed. Some died in infancy, never to make it past the idea stage. Some led to...

LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Constitution prevents California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from becoming President of the United States. But it doesn't stop him from being an ex-President -- or, rather, acting like one. Schwarzenegger has already graced the covers of America's major news magazines -- more the domain of heads of state than heads of states. Speculation is that, because Schwarzenegger can't run for another term as Governor in 2010, he'll move to take on the Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator, Barbara Boxer, instead. I'm not so sure. First of all, there's the reality that Arnold might not win. After all,...

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Sunday she can appeal to Republicans as well as Democrats on the presidential trail. Clinton appeared on "Fox News Sunday." Host Chris Wallace, citing his acerbic interview with former President Clinton last year as well as the former first lady's comments this year, asked, "Why do you and the president have such a hyper-partisan view of politics? … Why do we want another president who thinks so much in terms of right versus left and red state versus blue state?" After attempting to turn the questioning to declining family income and the loss of healthcare,...

SACRAMENTO -- In the heat of Central Valley, with midday temperatures over 100 degrees, Democratic legislators are preparing to test their working partnership with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the ultimate crucible by asking voters to relax the limits on their time in office. They hope that by joining forces with the governor on a wide range of big issues, they will gain enough credit that their constituents will let them stay in office beyond the strict time imposed by a 1990 term-limits initiative. But before they take the new limits to the polls in an initiative planned for next...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has plenty of plans for California and whether Democrats like it or not, the Republican governor is doing his best to tie those plans to his new-found friends in the other party. In a Tuesday afternoon speech to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the governor praised the Democratic leadership in the Legislature early and often for their willingness to work with him on things like workers' compensation reform, last November's infrastructure bond package and the recent agreement of prison construction. These "great, great accomplishments" wouldn't have been possible without the help of both Democrats and Republicans,...

Things are goofy in California. I mean, goofier than usual. Republicans are afraid they've lost influence with the governor, which wouldn't be so strange if the governor wasn't also a Republican. What's even stranger is that -- in a true blue state such as California, where Democrats control the Legislature and most of the top offices in the executive branch -- Republicans haven't figured out most Californians no longer care what they think, and this includes the chief executive from their own party. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in for a second term on Jan. 5 after coasting to re-election....

California continues its tumble into the economic sea. In his Inaugural Address, the Governator promised a "post-partisan" world, but we see evidence of some post-partisan depression. His first big initiative is a proposal for universal health coverage. As part of this sweeping and enormously expensive proposal, he will require all businesses with 10 or more employees to offer insurance to their workers or pay 4 percent of their payroll into a state fund.