Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler and made fun of his name on Tuesday during a congressional hearing on the U.S. strategy to end Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. "Ahmadinejad -- I call him Ahmad-in-a-head -- I think he's a Hitler type of person," Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. "He has made it clear that he wants to destroy Israel. He has made it clear he doesn't believe in the Holocaust. He's a, he's a -- we all know what he is," the senator added....

WASHINGTON — Sen. George Voinovich greeted the news of John Bolton's recess appointment by urging the Bush administration not to send Bolton to upcoming European Union meetings on Iran's reported nuclear proliferation. "I'd be real careful about who they send to represent us in terms of that issue," he said. Voinovich, who at times has been the lone Republican voice opposing Bolton's nomination, instead urged the Bush administration to consider sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the meetings this month. The EU3 — the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France — will give proposals to Iran on its...

DAYTON | The most vocal Republican opponent to John Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations said there is a "55/45" chance the Bush administration will name Bolton to the job while Congress is in recess. But Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, also said, "I have a gut feeling that logic will prevail" against appointing Bolton. "It's like the children's story, the Emperor's Clothes: Everybody knows he's in his underwear and nobody will say it," Voinovich said Friday in an interview with the Dayton Daily News editorial board. Voinovich's outspoken opposition to Bolton's appointment has attracted national attention. He allowed...

ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett told Belmont County Republicans there are problems ahead for the state GOP in 2006 at a fund-raiser this week at Undo's West in St. Clairsville. His words came amid allegations of financial and ethical wrongdoing by some Republican officeholders in Ohio just as the 2006 race for governor begins - and as 2008 presidential campaigns start to take shape. "There are a few people in our party who have abused their trust," Bennett said, making reference to a scandal in which Republican office holders invested state money in rare coins. As...

Voinovich opposes Bush effort to make tax cuts permanent Ohioan threatens 'no' vote on budget By ANN McFEATTERS BLADE WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF WASHINGTON - President Bush's demand that Congress make his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent is meeting with stiff resistance among some Republicans, including Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio), who yesterday became the first Republican to announce he will vote against the President's budget if necessary. Mr. Bush made his strongest pitch yet for more tax cuts in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday. To a solid round of applause, he said, "The tax relief...