By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Tea party leaders say they refuse to be the scapegoats for the drubbing Republicans took on Election Day, claiming it was the party establishment — not their insurgent movement — that cost the party seats in the House and Senate and returned President Obama to the White House.
Rare is the tea party-tested Republican senator who hangs an image of the Kennedys' Hyannisport home over his desk and shows off the painter's personal inscription.
If Dan Liljenquist falls short in Tuesday's Utah Republican Senate primary, it won't be for a lack of trying. The former state senator has waged a no-holds-barred campaign against six-term incumbent Sen. Orrin G. Hatch.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah will face a contested Republican primary for the first time in 36 years, but that's not necessarily bad news for the six-term senator.
Amid withering criticism from media watchdogs, NBC News said Monday that it will conduct an internal probe into how and why an audiotape of George Zimmerman's 911 call was altered to make the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer sound racist.
While Mitt Romney squeaked out a narrow victory in Ohio's Republican primary, chief opponent Rick Santorum peeled away the scab and drew new blood over the former Massachusetts governor's history on health care, resurrecting the chief obstacle between Mr. Romney and the nomination.
For all the talk of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch's political vulnerability, the veteran Utah Republican had managed to deflect all serious challengers until Wednesday, when state Sen. Dan Liljenquist entered the primary race.
With polls showing the movement's popularity sagging, tea party members from across the country are warning that anyone who thinks they are sleeping in 2012 is in for a rude awakening come Election Day, when they plan to pick up where they left off in 2010 by bolstering their voices for limited government on Capitol Hill.
Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who for months flirted with the possibility of challenging fellow Republican Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, said Monday that he will seek a third term in the House instead.
Orrin Hatch has served Utah for many years — maybe too many. The political mood among Republican voters favors fresh faces with tea party connections, and while the 76-year-old Mr. Hatch may be a veritable political institution in his state, he's not exactly fresh.
The Senate voted Tuesday to limit debate on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), paving the way for final ratification of the arms-control pact as key Republicans defied their party leadership and announced support for the accord.
The anti-pork brigade in Congress is poised to receive massive reinforcements next year, with nearly every non-incumbent GOP Senate candidate and hordes of House hopefuls swearing off earmarks themselves or even ready to consider an outright ban for all lawmakers.
"The graveyards are full of indispensable men." -Former French President Charles de Gaulle
Eager to present a unified front before the midterm elections, the GOP's congressional campaign committees say they are rallying their financial and political muscle behind "tea party" candidates who knocked off some of their hand-picked Republicans in the primaries.
Joe Miller vowed to campaign for transferring power and control over resources from the federal government to Alaska and the other 49 states, and Democrats said the upset victory by the new Republican Senate nominee gives them new hope of competing for the seat.
In the USA Today column, he urged Mr. Obama to use Massachusetts as a model for a national plan.
"Of the four high-tech sectors highlighted in our report, only software services added jobs in 2010 - 22,800, a 1 percent gain," said TechAmerica Foundation Chairman Robert F. Bennett. "Of the jobs lost, 72,100 were in communications services, 53,600 were in tech manufacturing, and 12,900 were in engineering and tech services. Fortunately, the initial numbers for 2011 look more promising in terms of job growth."
