Free Republic

Ever since President Trump commuted the sentence of disgraced former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, I’ve been asking myself why he would do such a thing. I have a theory about what might have contributed to the decision, and if I’m right, Barack Obama should be concerned. When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, it was then-Governor Blagojevich’s responsibility to appoint someone to fill the seat. But, Blagojevich didn’t just want to give it away, he wanted something for it. “A Senate seat is a f---ing valuable thing. You don’t just give it away for nothing,” Blagojevich said at...

Perhaps better than any living American politician, former Sen. Roland Burris can sympathize with Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, who is being considered for a Senate appointment expected soon from a scandal-plagued governor. The Illinois Democrat, formerly a state attorney general himself, re-entered public office with a 2008 appointment to President Barack Obama's empty Senate seat. Then-Illinois governor and current prison inmate Rod Blagojevich had been arrested for trying to sell Obama's seat and, in saying yes, Burris lacquered himself with the scandal's taint. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley is not accused of trying to sell the Senate seat being vacated...

An already bizarre trial involving allegations an African despot hired a pair of obscure South Side businessmen to overturn U.S. sanctions against his regime — with the help of Illinois politicians — took an even stranger detour Friday. In the process, former U.S. Sen. Roland Burris got sideswiped, if not outright run over, with completely unrelated — and to this point unsubstantiated — accusations he once tried to shake down a contractor while in office. Burris might be asking what he did to find himself in the middle of this mess, or just maybe he knows. I’ve always been as...

It seems like a story written by a bad Hollywood script writer, but Illinois Senator Roland Burris is today challenging a federal judge's decision to block any more candidates from being added to the ballot of the special election that has been ordered to fill the last few weeks of this Congressional session. Burris wants to be on that ballot but the judge said that only party nominees from the primary are allowed to be on the special election ballot. First of all the whole thing is confusing. When Barack Obama vacated his Senate seat to take the White House,...

Politics: The Democratic Senate candidate from South Carolina is not a GOP dirty trick but an appropriate representative of a party detached from reality. An incoherent and off-the-wall empty suit, he is a perfect fit. Late Thursday night, the South Carolina Democratic Party's Executive Committee rejected a protest of the June 8 primary for U.S. Senate, in which Alvin Greene, who has a felony arrest for showing porn to college girls, defeated Vic Rawl, a former state representative and judge. Greene has been declared the party's legitimate nominee, much to the chagrin of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, whose leg no longer...

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes: 1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT): This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 "Ten Most Corrupt" list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him. In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat. In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against...

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — famously caught on tape calling a U.S. Senate seat appointment (bleepin’) golden — said today he wants to make sure that the jury that will hear the corruption case against him gets to hear that recording. And Blagojevich, rather than back away from the tapes that attracted national attention, said he is “laying down the gauntlet” and also wants his future jury to hear everything else he was caught saying on secret FBI wiretaps. “I’ve instructed my lawyers to petition the court, petition so that every second, every minute, every hour that the government...

Election 2010: The back-to-back Senate retirements of Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd may be just the beginning. The people have seen the future of health care reform and found it doesn't work. Apres moi, le deluge. We don't know what the Mayan calendar says about 2010, but it's starting to look like the end of the world for Democratic electoral prospects. Americans who watched in shock as government tried to step between them and their doctors, may have the last laugh. The tea party isn't over until the angry mob votes. As rage grew over the attempt to nationalize one-sixth...

Washington, DCJudicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.”  The list, in alphabetical order, includes: 1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT):  This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 “Ten Most Corrupt” list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him.  In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat.  In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against...

ABC News Z. Byron Wolf reports: The Senate has been in session every day in December and a final health reform vote is set for Christmas Eve. But with the Republicans filibuster of the health reform bill broken and both parties winding down the clock the debate on the Senate floor is getting loopy. Case in point -- Sen. Roland Burris, the Illinois Democrat who was controversially appointed to Barack Obama's Senate seat, set the debate as he sees it to rhyme -- specifically 'The Night Before Christmas' and read it on the Senate floor. It should be noted that...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- On a day when Democrats emerged triumphantly from a meeting with President Barack Obama appearing to have won the vote of Joe Lieberman for their pro-abortion health care bill, they may not be ready to celebrate yet. The Lieberman vote appeared to allow Democrats and Obama to secure 59 votes. The only holdout left appeared to be pro-life Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska who says he won't vote for the bill because it funds abortions. Political observers need to hang on to their hats because pro-abortion Sen. Rolland Burris of Illinois, ironically the lawmakers appointed to...

Here is a YouTube video of what Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Robert Casey (D, MoveOn.org, PA) just voted to continue funding with taxpayer dollars. Here are the U.S. Senators who voted to continue to fund Barack Obama's friends in ACORN (a "nay" vote is a vote against defunding ACORN). See also this video. Note in the video that, per ACORN's employees, the fake pimp doesn't have to file W-2 reports for his (imaginary) prostitutes because they are under sixteen.U.S. Senators who voted to continue to spend taxpayer money to fund ACORNBurris (D-IL) Casey (D-PA), also accepted the endorsement of an...

The House of Representatives voted today, 345-75, to cut off all funding to ACORN. All Republicans voted for the measure. That doesn't mean it will happen, of course; the measure, which is attached to a student aid bill, goes beyond the scope of the Senate's action earlier this week. Don't assume that ACORN can't ride out the storm and have its funding quietly restored by the Democrats, now that those in swing districts have had an opportunity to tell their constituents they voted to stop funding the voter fraud/tax fraud/prostitution organization. For now, at least, supporting ACORN is hard to...

OP-ED by ANDY MARTIN * SENATORS DICK DURBIN AND ROLAND BURRIS VOTE TO CONTINUE FINANCIAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITY BY ACORN Barack Obama has received incalculable help from ACORN over the years. In fact Obama’s political career, from his earliest days in Chicago, was linked to ACORN. Obama “flirted” with socialists and radicals as a student at Occidental College, at Columbia University and after his arrival in Chicago. In 2008 the media pretended not to see Obama’s radical history and avoided asking probing questions about his radical associations. Sean Hannity was alone in exposing Obama. This week two Illinois U. S. Senators...

Oversight: As the Senate votes to de-fund Acorn, add pimping, tax evasion and human trafficking to voter fraud paid for with taxpayer dollars and you have an organized criminal enterprise. It's time to investigate.After Acorn workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent-mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip the group of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The amendment, offered by Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, passed by an 83-to-7 margin and marked the third time this year that Republicans have tried to block...

Politics: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich may have played the race card in a cynical attempt to save his political skin, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others are no less cynical or offensive in their actions.The controversy over Blago's appointment of renowned empty suit and former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat could have been avoided had Illinois Democrats obeyed their initial impulse and passed legislation calling for a special election. Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin, among others, was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the idea, but now is among those...

Politics: Should the election law in Massachusetts be changed to keep Ted Kennedy's seat filled and get ObamaCare passed? As in Minnesota and Illinois, the voters might lose again.Recognizing his own mortality and waging a valiant battle against brain cancer, Kennedy has written a letter to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, state Senate President Theresa Murray and state House Speaker Robert DeLeo asking them to change the law so his seat might be filled immediately until a special election could be held. His letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Boston Globe, does not specially mention his illness or...

The waiting game is finally over. On July 9, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced that she would run for re-election as Attorney General, and would not run for the Senate seat previously held by Barack Obama and being vacated by his placeholder successor, Roland Burris. Businessman and RFK son Chris Kennedy has chosen not to run for Senate, though he may seek the Governor’s mansion.

Climate Change: A switch of four Republican votes would have defeated Waxman-Markey, the Democrats' global warming legislation. But like the Clinton Btu tax, the bill could die in the Senate and turn the House over to the GOP. What were these RINOs thinking? The GOP is supposed to be the party of low taxes and free markets. Rep. Mike Castle, one of the eight offered an explanation right off of President Obama's teleprompter...Illinois Republican Mark Kirk, who has senatorial ambitions to replace the choice of impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Sen. Roland Burris, demonstrates why GOP fortunes in the Land...

At last, Roland Burris has made a decision as senator that we can endorse wholeheartedly.He will not run next year for his Senate seat.Thank goodness.At least one chapter in the sad show that is Illinois politics can soon come to an end.You'll remember, of course, that Burris began shredding his own credibility and the legacy of his decades of state service when he accepted the Senate appointment from our radioactive governor, Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich anointed Burris, just as the governor was getting tossed from office for allegedly trying to sell that very Senate appointment. Recall, too, that we have state...