Furious Lindsey Graham Calls Kavanaugh Hearing ‘the Most Unethical Sham’

Senator Lindsey Graham, the blunt-speaking South Carolina Republican, vented to reporters on Thursday outside the hearing room where the Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing explosive testimony about sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump's embattled Supreme Court nominee. "What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020," Mr. Graham, red-faced and dropping all pretenses of legislative comity, yelled at his Democratic colleagues.

Trump ignored Puerto Rico death toll, hurricanes at FEMA meeting: report

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump spent a meeting at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters discussing a number of varying subjects - except the main subject he was there to discuss: hurricane season preparedness Details about what Trump discussed instead at the meeting were recorded in an audio obtained by The Washington Post , which included this paragraph that summarized the details: But President Trump had a lot else on his mind, turning the closed-door discussion into soliloquies on his prowess in negotiating airplane deals, his popularity, the effectiveness of his political endorsements, the Republican Party's fortunes, the vagaries of Defense Department purchasing guidelines, his dislike of magnetized launch equipment on aircraft carriers, his unending love of coal and his breezy optimism about his planned Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The latest political back and forth, on both sides of the aisle, as…

Politico has two fascinating new articles about on-going political debates and maneuvering surrounding the FIRST STEP Act. That proposal, as reported here, received a 25-5 vote in favor in the House Judiciary Committee ten days ago, and it seems to be the top federal criminal justice reform bill with a real chance to get to the desk of Prez Trump in the coming months.

House bill would revive mothballed Nevada nuclear waste dump

The House is moving to approve an election-year bill to revive the mothballed nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain despite opposition from home-state lawmakers. Supporters say a bill slated for a vote Thursday would help solve a nuclear-waste storage problem that has festered for more than three decades.

House takes up bill to revive Nevada nuclear waste dump

This April 9, 2015, file photo shows the south portal of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump near Mercury, Nev. The House is moving to approve an election-year bill to revive the mothballed nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain despite opposition from home-state lawmakers.

EDITORIAL: Militarization of RGV border will hurt, not help, our region

Hundreds of National Guard troops on Friday began deploying to the Rio Grande Valley to guard the Southwest border, after President Donald Trump last week urged their activation, saying our border is lawless and allows anyone to come through. We've played this song before, in 2014 when then Gov. Rick Perry activated 1,000 National Guard troops to our region as an uptick in illegal immigrants swelled through South Texas.

Perry says he’s not interested in becoming VA secretary

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said he had no interest in becoming the next head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, flatly rejecting speculation that he would soon take over the position amid rapidly eroding White House support for embattled VA Secretary David Shulkin. Two administration officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Shulkin's position is growing more precarious and that he could be out of a job within the week, but they cautioned that nothing was finalized.

Perry denies interest in VA job as support for Shulkin fades

From left, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry appear before a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation hearing on infrastructure on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 14, 2018.

FERC commissioners vow fuel-neutral decisions after rejecting Rick Perry’s coal lifeline

FERC, in rejecting Rick Perry's plan, directed regional transmission operators to provide more information about resilience to help the commission examine the matter "holistically." Members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday vowed to uphold their mission of making fuel-neutral decisions as independent arbiters in a hyper-politicized energy environment, after being pressured by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to help subsidized coal and nuclear plants.

In praise of the Trump-appointed regulators who saved us from Rick Perry’s disastrous coal plan

Energy Secretary Rick Perry's plan to bolster coal-fired and nuclear power plants was rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Jan. 8. Energy Secretary Rick Perry's plan to bolster coal-fired and nuclear power plants was rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Jan. 8. Perry, more famously known for his appearance on "Dancing With the Stars" and for saying, "Oops," during a GOP presidential candidate debate in 2011 when he couldn't name the third federal agency he would shut down, made an absurd pitch to revive coal usage despite the cost his plan would have imposed on utility ratepayers and the potential devastation to the environment.