By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
While President Obama keeps pounding away to get votes to pass gun restrictions in the Senate, pro-Second Amendment supporters are pushing the upper chamber in the opposite direction. Sen. Tom Coburn introduced two amendments to strengthen the rights of gun owners and keep the federal government in check.
Big Apple Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his band of rabid gun snatchers have targeted their victims, taken them hostage and will start bumping them off one by one. Time for negotiation has passed.
Gun owners who cheered when the Senate failed to pass numerous anti-gun bills last week should temper their enthusiasm. The liberal wing of the Democratic party, led by President Obama and funded by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, has already started to use the votes to oust pro-Second Amendment senators in 2014.
As he weighs whether to allow fracking in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is under intense pressure from the oil and gas industry, Republican lawmakers and long-struggling communities eager to see the drilling technique jump-start the state's economy.
President Obama has often used executive authority to get around Congress — and he has promised to continue that approach in his second term.
![** FILE ** Work has begun on the Keystone XL Pipeline near Winona, Texas, but whether it will ever carry oil sands from central Canada to Gulf Coast refineries awaits a decision by President Obama. (Tyler [Texas] Morning Telegraph via Associated Press)](http://media.washtimes.com/media/image/2013/03/15/20130117-195944-pic-543473233_5_mugshot_four_by_three_s101x76.jpg?38f271e3d49cdfd5d0ef8cac5cad23b117d14f23)
President Obama has often used executive authority to get around Congress. Now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to turn the tables.
Senate Democrats on Wednesday defeated the latest Republican effort to repeal President Obama's health-care law, signaling that the 2012 elections did little to change the bitter political divisions over the 3-year-old policy.
Sen. Rand Paul's successful filibuster will only inspire others to try the same — and that's a good thing, senators from both political parties said.
Guest lineups for the Sunday TV news shows:
Guest lineups for the Sunday TV news shows:
With a record-breaking 20 female senators elected to serve in the next Congress, ABC News' Diane Sawyer gathered 19 of them for an interview that will air early next year.
When longtime Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad announced last year he wouldn't seek re-election in 2012 as North Dakota's senior senator, Republicans smelled blood.
Off a dirt road a mile and a half from the nearest town, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp is standing in the loft of a barn, giving a campaign pitch heavy on personal appeal: She talks about her independent voice and a work ethic that she took to the state attorney general's office, all gleaned from a life firmly rooted in North Dakota.
Farm-state members of Congress have campaigned for decades on the back of farm bills delivering election-season subsidies and other goodies to rural voters.
President Obama leads polls in Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts but that has not yet translated into strong support for Democrats in those states' crucial Senate races.
Prospects for the amendment, though, faded significantly Wednesday as Sen. Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire Republican, and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota Democrat, both said they would not support it.
Background check setback: 'We will not get the votes today,' Manchin reveals →
