May 26, 2011 – Washington (CNN)-In a rare public display of political and personal acrimony, freshman Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky squared off Wednesday with the powerful Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Tempers flared on the Senate floor over how many amendments Paul could offer to a measure extending the main anti-terrorism surveillance...

May 26, 2011 – Washington GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers introduced legislation on Wednesday to oppose awarding any U.S. funds to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for European bailouts. Rodgers told Fox News’ Neal Cavuto the recent charges of sexual assault filed against former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn make her resolution timely....

May 26, 2011 – (Newser) – Moammar Gadhafi has a hefty chunk of Libya's money parked right here on Wall Street. The advocacy group Global Witness has released a document revealing that Libya's sovereign wealth fund has invested $53 billion with help from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, HSBC, and European bank Société Générale. The...

May 26, 2011 – (Newser) – Despite the five Senate Republicans who voted against Paul Ryan’s Medicare overhaul yesterday, the GOP remains wedded to the divisive, and increasingly unpopular, plan. Rather than back off, Republicans are responding by increasing attacks on the Democrats’ position, the Wall Street Journal reports. "We need to make it...

May 26, 2011 – Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) told CNSNews.com Wednesday that Congress should “exercise” its power to cut off funds for the U.S. military operation in Libya that President Barack Obama initiated without seeking congressional authorization. "I think that we've gotten to the point, almost, of no return because we’ve gone over the...

May 26, 2011 – Newt Gingrich is resurfacing in the battle over Medicare, but this time on Rep. Paul Ryan’s side. The former House speaker sent a letter to members of Congress Wednesday morning claiming that “Democrats and their allies in the elite media are determined to divide us and lie about of efforts...

May 26, 2011 – Texas Gov. Rick Perry says the Obama administration has been uncommunicative when it comes to border security and "you need boots on the ground" to protect the boundary with Mexico. Perry also told Fox News’ Greta van Susteren on Wednesday that a border fence and technology are not enough....

May 26, 2011 – Sarah Palin is fond of saying she’ll feel compelled to run for president “if nobody else were to step up.” It just might come to that. The recent departures of Mitch Daniels and Mike Huckabee from the 2012 GOP field, combined with a flurry of recent moves by Palin—staff changes,...

May 26, 2011 – (Newser) – Benjamin Netanyahu got plenty of standing ovations in Washington, but back home the “nearly unanimous assessment” is that he’s badly damaged the peace process and fueled Palestine’s push for a UN resolution recognizing its statehood, the New York Times reports. "Those who are scared of peace yesterday got...

May 26, 2011 – Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of D.C. Public Schools and self-described “card-carrying, life-long Democrat,” said she was instinctively opposed to school vouchers because she was “on the side of the workers.” In her former line of thinking, teachers’ unions oppose vouchers and teachers’ unions support Democrats, so Democrats should...

May 25, 2011 – conservative commentary) or that Loughner's actions are the responsibility of the tea party, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Townhall…

May 25, 2011 – South Carolina lawmakers, saying they were fed up with the inaction of the federal government to take up immigration reform, passed a bill to tighten immigration rules in the state. The state joins about 30 others that have considered anti-illegal immigration laws this year, the Charleston Post and Courier reported...

May 25, 2011 – Sarah Palin gets to tell her side of things in an "epic," two-hour-long, $1 million movie that portrays her as a "Joan of Arc-like figure" and premieres in Iowa next month, Real Clear Politics' Scott Conroy reports. The Undefeated is the work of conservative director Stephen K. Bannon, who screened...

May 25, 2011 – (Newser) – A federal judge declared today that Jared Lee Loughner is mentally incompetent to stand trial in the shooting of Gabby Giffords, reports the Arizona Daily Star. Doctors testified that he is schizophrenic and would not be able to understand the proceedings. The ruling came after Loughner was removed...

May 25, 2011 – (Newser) – Rahm Emanuel took the stand for the defense in Rod Blagojevich’s trial today, but he didn’t stay there long, offering some mono-syllabic answers to a few simple questions in an exchange that lasted just three minutes, the Chicago Tribune reports. Things kicked off with some pleasantries: Blagojevich’s lawyer...

May 25, 2011 – New York Magazine apparently believes that opposing foreign aid is literally xenophobic - rooted in irrational fear of foreigners - and is willing to engage in some pretty sketchy journalistic practices to make its case. Those are a pair of lessons Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., learned on Tuesday. Paul's opposition...

May 25, 2011 – Glenn Beck and his company, Mercury Radio Arts, are developing a web-based TV channel called “GBTV, according to TVNewser, which quoted sources familiar with the matter as well as trademark applications filed by the company. GBTV will be based at GBTV.com, which Mercury acquired in January. Read more on Newsmax.com:...

May 25, 2011 – As Tim Pawlenty finishes up his remarks at the CATO institute, an amused source passes on this video of senior CATO officials appearing rather ... lukewarm on his chances. It's clipped from this longer interview with David Boaz and John Samples, who also dismiss Mitt Romney whom Boaz describes...

May 25, 2011 – The runaway favorite of the western Iowa crowd at a Republican fundraising dinner Friday was Georgia Republican Herman Cain – the guy everyone was there to hear. But even in absentia, Alaska's Sarah Palin claimed a surprising second place in the Pottawattamie County GOP’s dollar poll, with 38 percent of...

May 25, 2011 – Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum will make an announcement about plans to throw his hat into the presidential ring in two weeks, an aide said Tuesday. Santorum, 53, a former two-term senator, will reveal his plans the week of June 5, but his staff said they're still working out the details...

May 25, 2011 – Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is furious with his fellow Senators' inaction. "We go week after week in the Senate and do nothing. I feel like sometimes I should return my check because I go up, they do no votes and no debate," Paul said Friday, during an interview on Anderson...

May 25, 2011 – Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty isn't bashful about touting the "A" grade on fiscal policy that the Cato Institute gave him last year. Listen to his stump speech, and you'll often hear him talk about being one of just four governors to score that high. He did get an "A"...

May 25, 2011 – House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan says President Barack Obama and the Democrats have got to stop demagoguing Medicare. Ryan also said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the plan did not come from the right — but rather, that President Bill Clinton proposed it in 1999. "The president and...

May 25, 2011 – Tim Pawlenty could end up as the last candidate standing in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but conservatives aren’t too enthused about any of the top-tier contenders for 2012, Richard Viguerie told NewsMax.TV. But all that could change if Sen. Jim DeMint threw his hat into the ring,...

May 25, 2011 – (Newser) – Syria “very likely” had a secret nuclear weapons program, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency report released yesterday, which concludes that the Dair Alzour site Israel bombed in 2007 was almost certainly an under-construction nuclear reactor. The allegations themselves are old news—US intelligence agencies presented evidence of...