Free Republic

Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, floated the idea of running again for the RNC chairman position on Sunday. Asked directly if he would run again on C-Span, Steele said, "It's not a bad idea. I can go shake up the house a little bit more, what do you think?" "Are you serious?" asked the host. "We'll see." Asked when he would announce a decision to run, Steele said, "Oh, I've got time for that."

(snip) Many Republicans figured that the economic malaise and the lack of any vision of a second term from Obama would doom him with voters, but we ended up getting stuck in our own blind spot where Obama is concerned. As I wrote after the election, we can’t allow ourselves to fall into the trap of being mainly an oppositional party — being defined by what we’re against rather than what we’re for. We have to have a clear, positive agenda aimed at communicating specific policies that will improve the lives of voters in demonstrable ways. Too often, we offer...

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, may be open to eliminating certain oil-industry tax breaks to prevent the necessity of tax increases. Republicans have started examining the tax code in their effort to raise revenues without actually raising rates, and breaks for many of the largest companies in the country could be on the chopping block, reported The Hill. “The details will have to be negotiated. Not going to speculate on what a final package may look like,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Boehner. Oil companies receive about $4.4 billion in tax breaks every year, according to USA Today. Democrats...

So retired Gen. David Petraeus has resigned as CIA director in the wake of revelations of an affair and crazy email behavior on his part and that of his lover. That Petraeus cashiered himself just as he was about to testify before Congress about the total botch job surrounding the September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya is disturbing for about a thousand reasons. Yesterday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that she and others in the Senate had no idea that the FBI was investigating Petraeus until he resigned. The White House has said they didn't know...

President Obama is considering asking Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to serve as his next defense secretary, part of an extensive rearrangement of his national security team that will include a permanent replacement for former CIA director David H. Petraeus. Although Kerry is thought to covet the job of secretary of state, senior administration officials familiar with the transition planning said that nomination will almost certainly go to Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. John O. Brennan, Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, is a leading contender for the CIA job if he wants it, officials said. If...

"The FBI probe into the sex scandal that prompted CIA Director David Petraeus to resign has expanded to ensnare Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced early Tuesday," the Washington Post reports.

The American people have spoken, renewing President Obama’s mandate for change for yet another four years. Following the announcement of Obama's reelection, Communist Party USA (CPUSA) chairman Sam Webb wrote an article in the CPUSA’s official newspaper, People’s World, expressing his contentment with the election results. “After a long and bitterly contested battle, the forces of inclusive democracy came out on top yesterday,” Webb said. “The better angels of the American people spread their wings, as they went to the polls.” Webb went on to reaffirm that the election results were in the CPUSA’s favor: The Communist Party said a...

SNIP She explained at a New York Comedy Festival reunion for “The Ben Stiller Show” that she married a writer on the series — Rob Cohen, who went on to produce “The Big Bang Theory” — in Las Vegas as a joke in the 1990s, and didn’t realize the nuptials had stuck. SNIP

State elections officials coming to St.Lucie Wednesday. Concerned that all 37000 votes not re-tabulated, + error percentage

As the thoroughly unbelievable saga spins its merry way across the MSM, IMHO the stage may be being set by the administration for a thoroughly implausible case for "plausible deniability" for Obama. I predict that Petraeus will be accused of running a rogue CIA operation in Libya about which the President, as carefully explained by dementia patient Joe Biden, knew nothing. Interesting clues: Broadwell's co-author on the bio is a WaPo reporter. Says "he had no clue..." What he probably does have is WH connections. The Tampa "socialite" Broadwell allegedly harrassed turns out to be absolutely dead broke and living...

A White House petition gathering force calls for citizenship to be stripped and exile for anyone who signs a petition in favor of a state's secession. "Mr. President, please sign an executive order such that each American citizen who signed a petition from any state to secede from the USA shall have their citizenship stripped and be peacefully deported," the full petition reads. The title of the petition is, "WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO: Strip the Citizenship from Everyone who Signed a Petition to Secede and Exile Them." As of this writing, 2,205 have signed the petition; 22,795 more...

BISBEE, Ariz. (AP) — A supporter of the Republican candidate in Arizona's undecided 2nd Congressional District race has asked a court to block tallying of results from 130 ballots in Cochise County. Republican challenger Martha McSally and Democratic incumbent Ron Barber are neck in neck in results so far. The suit filed Tuesday in Cochise County Superior Court in Bisbee contends that election officials mishandled three precincts' provisional ballots by not sealing them in envelopes.

This month yielded yet another published study — which received positive media attention — based on the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study. The NLLFS is about to enter its third decade of following the same 78 respondents, who were “planned” and born to lesbian mothers employing artificial reproductive technology; in nearly all the families studied, the children were being raised by their biological mother and her partner. While any sociologist worth his or her degree can appreciate the laborious task of keeping track of and reinterviewing the same group of people over many years, this particular data-collection effort probably...

A judge noted in the file that Khawam "has attached letters from Gen. David H. Petraeus averring to her ability to appropriately parent the child, and is prepared to present corroborating testimony at trial." And in court documents filed by Kelley's sister Natalie Khawam, she name-drops both Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island -- who both have ties to a Providence, RI, lawyer/lobbyist who loaned a whopping $300,000 to Khawam. Khawam claimed in a July 12 letter to her estranged husband that she took their son "on vacation last year to Martha Vineyard," where...

And I quote: But as IÂ’ve said before, we canÂ’t just cut our way to prosperity. If weÂ’re serious about reducing the deficit, we have to combine spending cuts with revenue. And that means asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes. ... ThatÂ’s how we can reduce the deficit while still making the investments we need to build a strong middle class and a strong economy. ...Now, already, IÂ’ve put forward a detailed plan that allows us to make these investments while reducing our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade. I want to be...

Last week’s election continued America’s great history of expanding opportunity and equality. Today, we must take the next step on that journey by affording the opportunity to marry to all Americans — and we can continue that march by quickly enacting marriage equality here in Illinois. Throughout my career in public service, I have seen our city and society make progressive strides towards providing greater respect and rights to the GLBT community. As mayor, I lobbied for civil unions in Illinois. In Congress and within the Obama administration I pushed for the end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and helped...

AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc., the world's largest bowling operator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure its mounting debt. The Hanover County-based company said this morning that it filed a pre-arranged petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond. AMF said it expects completing the restructuring process and exiting Chapter 11 within five months. AMF operates a location in Lynchburg near the intersection of U.S. 29 and Candlers Mountain Road, near James T. Davis Paint Center. The company said it will continue its normal business operations during the Chapter 11 process, and its bowling centers will maintain normal operating...

Palestinians are coordinating with Russia, as well as Swiss and French experts, on the exhumation of late president Yasser Arafat, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Sunday. Arafat died in a French military hospital near Paris on November 11, 2004 and French experts were unable to say what had killed him, with many Palestinians convinced he was poisoned by Israel. "We are currently in coordination with the French investigators, the Swiss experts, and also the Russian government to open the tomb," Abbas said in a speech marking the eighth anniversary of Arafat's death. His comments were the first time Palestinian officials...

It appears Florida will adopt part of the Affordable Healthcare Act, better known as "Obamacare," after all. Gov. Rick Scott had opposed implementing the plan but now, it looks like he is ready to accept at least part of it. For months now, Scott and some fellow Republicans in the legislature have been pledging to defeat Obamacare. At the same time, those lawmakers haven't started any processes to implement health care reform in Florida. Scott now says, "It's not enough to say no to Obamacare." On Tuesday, incoming House Speaker Rep. Will Weatherford (R) will hold a news conference about...

Washington, D.C.- Nevada Senator Harry Reid today announced that his office will hold a drawing on December 10, 2012 to select Nevadans who submit requests for tickets to the 57th quadrennial Presidential Inauguration. A limited number of tickets to the Inaugural swearing-in ceremony will be distributed to each United States Senate office. Nevadans who enter into this drawing sponsored by Senator Reid’s office will have a chance to attend the Inauguration free-of-charge. “Every four years from the steps of the Capitol, the beginning of an administration brings new opportunities for our country to join together to become stronger,” said Reid. “It...