Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota is still recovering from a December brain hemorrhage, but his office appears to be beefing up his staff for a 2008 re-election campaign. Drey Samuelson, Johnson's chief of staff, said Wednesday that the office has hired Steve Jarding as deputy chief of staff. Jarding, who will work for the senator's congressional office in Rapid City, S.D., is a veteran political consultant who served as a top strategist for James Webb, the Virginia Democrat who upset Republican Sen. George Allen last November. Jarding is a native of South Dakota and worked for...

Is he qualified to run the Department of Homeland Security?When Bernard Kerik, President Bush's choice to be the new homeland security secretary, testifies at his Senate confirmation hearings next month, someone should ask him the following questions: What did you do to combat terrorism, either as New York City police commissioner or as a partner at Giuliani Associates (his former boss's consulting firm)? What did you accomplish as Iraq's interim interior minister in the summer of 2003, and why did you leave that job two and a half months earlier than you'd planned? What in your experience qualifies you...