Free Republic

Sen. Tom Harkin has come under fire for butting in line at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Harkin, D-Iowa, used his position as a U.S. senator to skip to the front of a long security line at the airport Friday, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The newspaper's "Reliable Source" column said other travelers were upset when Harkin went to the front of the line. Allison Dobson, Harkin's press secretary, said Harkin had to vote Friday on amendments to the Medicare prescription drug bill and was running late to catch a flight to Des Moines. He arrived at the airport...

Sen. Tom Harkin has come under fire for butting in line at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Harkin, D-Iowa, used his position as a U.S. senator to skip to the front of a long security line at the airport Friday, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The newspaper's "Reliable Source" column said other travelers were upset when Harkin went to the front of the line. Allison Dobson, Harkin's press secretary, said Harkin had to vote Friday on amendments to the Medicare prescription drug bill and was running late to catch a flight to Des Moines. He arrived at the airport...

By even the most liberal standards, Saddam Hussein is responsible for the deaths of more people than anyone except for Hitler, Stalin and Mao, and maybe Pol Pot. Other than those slime balls, Hussein’s regime had brought more suffering and more to the point more likely suffering to others in the future than anyone on the planet. Sanctions by the UN didn’t stop him, defeat in first Gulf War didn’t stop him, in fact, he used the sanctions to kill more of his own people (he kept the oil for food money himself) to gain sympathy from the French. When...

<p>Journalists usually relish a juicy surprise twist in the humdrum world of politics, but the news media weren't thrilled when the tone unexpectedly shifted during Tuesday night's Paul Wellstone memorial.</p> <p>Switchboards lit up when Rick Kahn, a Wellstone friend and campaign treasurer, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, gave speeches that sounded less like eulogies and more like barnstorming.</p>

A bugged meeting has turned a sedate Iowa Senate race into a bitter one, with incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin -- scandal-free for 28 years in Congress -- accused of scripting a dirty campaign trick and then lying about it. The three-term veteran with more Senate service than any Iowa Democrat in history still holds a substantial lead over Republican Rep. Greg Ganske in a race Democrats need to win to keep their one-vote Senate majority. Harkin is seen acting as a sign language interpreter during the last day of the Democratic National Convention, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles,...

Democrats face an uphill battle to recapture control of the House in November's midterm elections, while Republicans have marginally improved their position in what remains a tense and wide-open fight for control of the Senate, according to party strategists, independent analysts and current polls. September has seen Republican prospects brighten, particularly in New Jersey, where ethics problems have called into question what once seemed solid reelection prospects for Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, the most vulnerable Democrat in the nation. Republicans also have increased their chances of retaining the Senate seat in New Hampshire. And because of a controversy over a...

Winds of war stirring U.S. Senate races Candidates have difficulty gauging how Iraq will affect election 09/28/2002 By DAVID JACKSON / The Dallas Morning News INDIANOLA, Iowa As 2,000 of U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's best Democratic friends swayed to the beat of a country band and munched on Iowa beef, the prospect of war with Saddam Hussein seemed as far away as Iraq itself. Certainly Mr. Harkin hopes so. Hosting his annual steak fry at a farm country fairground, the Democrat seeking his fourth Senate term said voters know that both parties will do whatever they can to protect...

<p>Washington, D.C. - Faster than a reel of tape unwinding, political experts' view of the race for U.S. Senate in Iowa has taken a dramatic shift in recent days.</p> <p>Experts in Iowa and elsewhere say that Democrat Tom Harkin's campaign has suffered severe damage from revelations that a staff member distributed copies of a secretly taped meeting of rival Rep. Greg Ganske. Even worse are accusations from Republicans that Harkin's campaign engineered the taping, which the senator and his staff have denied.</p>

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Des Moines police will start a criminal investigation Thursday into the secret taping of a private U.S. Senate campaign meeting for Greg Ganske, meanwhile the person who made the tape is agreeing to cooperate with authorities. Officials with the Polk County Attorney's office said there was enough evidence to proceed with a formal investigation. Ganske is running against incumbent Sen. Tom Harkin.  SURVEY A Ganske campaign meeting was secretly taped..and Harkin campaign officials released the transcript to the media. Does this event affect who you will vote for? Yes..Changing My Vote No..Makes No Difference Not Sure...

<p>"AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney is having a high old time with business scandals, condemning 'corporate greed' and capitalist 'thieves.' Yet his acute moral antennae have somehow missed the shenanigans at Union Labor Life Insurance Co., or Ullico, a labor-owned insurance company that looks like Big Labor's Enron," the Wall Street Journal says.</p>