Free Republic

Rubio’s Staff Tells Us He’s No Movement ConservativeBy Richard A. Viguerie | 7/22/13 Since he became the face of the hated S. 744 – the Senate’s Gang of Eight amnesty for illegal immigrants bill – Florida’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio has experienced one of the most precipitous falls from grace we can recall in our over 50-years of involvement in conservative politics at the national level. A year ago Rubio was at the top, or running second, in pretty much every important measure of Republican preference for the Party’s 2016 presidential nomination. Today, he isn’t even in the top...

Leading Republicans appear to be nerving themselves up for another round of attempted fiscal blackmail. With the end of the fiscal year looming, they aren’t offering the kinds of compromises that might produce a deal and avoid a government shutdown; instead, they’re drafting extremist legislation — bills that would, for example, cut clean-water grants by 83 percent — that has no chance of becoming law. Furthermore, they’re threatening, once again, to block any rise in the debt ceiling, a move that would damage the U.S. economy and possibly provoke a world financial crisis. Yet even as Republican politicians seem ready...

The contenders looking to primary the controversial South Carolina senator in 2014 are starting to come forward. Watch out, Lindsey Graham: the Tea Party says that you are next. Tea Party members demonstrate outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 19. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty) According to sources in South Carolina and within the Tea Party, at least two serious challenges to Graham are expected to emerge in the next few weeks. Dustin Stockton, a leading conservative activist and head of Western PAC, told The Daily Beast that he is headed to South Carolina next month to help build a ground...

Des Moines, Iowa — The front line of the Republican civil war may be Grand Avenue, a hilly road that cuts through the heart of Iowa’s biggest city. On one side of the street is the gold-domed state capitol, home to Republican Terry Branstad, Iowa’s longest-serving governor. On the other side is a weathered brick building housing the Iowa GOP, which is chaired by A. J. Spiker and David Fischer. Both men are faithful allies of Ron Paul, the retired Texas congressman who twice ran for the Republican presidential nomination. These days, relations between the two camps are as messy...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) joined several of his colleagues in denouncing controversial comments from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on immigration, calling them “inappropriate” in an interview with Telemundo set to air Sunday. King last week suggested that children of undocumented immigrants were being used as drug mules. House Speaker John Boehner also condemned King’s comments Thursday. “It is not helpful,” Goodlatte said in the interview with José Díaz-Balart, according to a transcript. “It is inappropriate, it does not help the discussion, it’s not accurate, and there are ways to have a discussion about the legitimate policy issues...

Steve King insisted again Thursday that undocumented immigrant children are often drug mules who carry illegal substances across the border from Mexico, but this time he did it on the House floor. Despite a firestorm of criticism — including another rebuke from Speaker John A. Boehner Thursday morning — the Iowa Republican defended his comments last week that such children have “calves the size of cantaloupes” as a result of carrying drugs across the border. “I can tell you that in Mexico they are recruiting kids to be drug smugglers,” King said Thursday afternoon to an empty House chamber. “Every...

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King stood behind his “cantaloupe” comment and criticized those like Speaker of the House and Ohio Republican Rep. John Boehner who have attacked his comments, saying that they are totally within the bounds of reason as part of the immigration debate. King drew ire from Republicans and Democrats alike for comments made last week about the so-called DREAMers, undocumented immigrants, in which he suggested that many of them were drug mules. “For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling...

US officials are claiming that an internal Pakistani assessment of civilian deaths from US drone strikes - obtained and published in full by the Bureau - is 'far from authoratative.' The secret document was obtained by the Bureau from three independent sources... CIA Drone Strikes In Pakistan 2004-2013 Total US Strikes: 370 Obama strikes: 319 Total reported killed: 2,509-3,576 Civilians reported killed: 410-928 Children reported killed: 164-195 Total reported killed: 1,109-1,489 ...

Few things are more dangerous than Congress in heat, and so it is this week as a libertarian-left wing coalition in the House of Representatives is rushing to neuter one of the National Security Agency's antiterror surveillance programs. The chief instigator is Michigan Republican Justin Amash, the 33-year-old second-termer who has made opposition to the country's post-9/11 security programs a personal crusade. [Snip] Now he's back with an amendment to this year's defense spending bill that would bar the NSA from collecting metadata except when specific individuals are already being investigated and are subject to a court order. This would...

Latino Evangelical Leaders to GOP: Legal Status for Undocumented Kids, but Not Parents, Is Unacceptable..........WASHINGTON – Immigration reform legislation that gives legal status to the children of undocumented immigrants, but not to their parents, would be unacceptable, Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said Wednesday in a press conference that followed a meeting with Speaker of the House John Boehner and other Republican leaders. "Legal status for children, at the exclusion of the parents would be egregious," Rodriguez said. "We're pastors. We pastor families, not just children. We stand committed, without compromise, to family unification. So,...

In a veiled shot at influential neoconservatives within the Republican Party, Sen. Rand Paul tells The Brody File the following: “There are people who will do or say anything who are your enemies,” Paul said. “Those who believe in perpetual war are some of the most dangerous to our country, and I think they will do everything they can to try and vilify people who are trying to find a more reasoned approach where war is the last resort not the first resort.” While he didn’t mention any names, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Paul...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to continue the collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records in the fight against terrorism. The chamber rejected a measure to end the program's authority. The vote was 217-205 on Wednesday. Republican Rep. Justin Amash had challenged the program as an indiscriminate collection of phone records. His measure, if approved by the full House and Senate and signed by the president, would have ended the program's statutory authority. The White House, national security experts in Congress and the Republican establishment had lobbied hard against Amash's effort. Libertarian-leaning conservatives and...

Top House Republicans chastised Rep. Steve King, R-IA, for saying some children brought to the country illegally by their parents become drug-runners. Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday King's comments were "wrong" and could overwhelm House Republican efforts to overhaul immigration laws, Politico reported. "There can be honest disagreements about policy without using hateful language," Boehner said in a statement Tuesday. "Everyone needs to remember that." House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said he "strongly" disagreed with King's "characterization of the children of immigrants and finds the comments inexcusable." Cantor is working on a bill that would...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trayvon Martin’s father told a crowded Capitol Hill forum on Wednesday that “a statute or amendment” safeguarding young people against the type of circumstances that resulted in his son’s death would be a fitting legacy for his son. “The question is, what can we do as parents, what can we do as African-American men, to assure our kids that you don’t have to be afraid to walk outside your house?” Tracy Martin asked during a forum convened by the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys, one of several such caucuses comprised of House members who want...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte recently threw a curveball into the immigration debate by floating what has been anathema to House Republicans — a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The Virginia Republican’s idea: legalize the 11 million undocumented immigrants and allow them to apply for citizenship using ways that already exist — including marriage to a U.S. citizen or sponsorship by another relative or an employer. As chairman of the committee with primary control over immigration matters, Goodlatte is a key point man for House Republicans on immigration policy. It’s unclear whether his comments reflect the larger view...

President Obama did his best to shift his administration's focus to the economy today during a speech at Illinois' Knox College by blaming the anemic economy on Republicans and "phony scandals."  As predicted, Obama gave America the same speech he's been giving for five years, saying the country needs more infrastructure spending due to crumbling roads and bridges, that we must fight poverty, that CEOs are making too much money while the poor suffer etc. He even went so far as to tout "saving the auto industry" one week after Detroit filed for bankruptcy.  "Today, five years after the start...

House Speaker John Boehner took a preemptive swing at President Barack Obama’s economic speech on Wednesday, jabbing the address as “a hollow shell” and “an Easter Egg with no candy in it.” In a brief speech on the House floor Boehner – like many other fellow Hill Republicans – attempted to get out front of Obama’s highly anticipated remarks at Knox College in Illinois. “The president himself said [the speech] isn’t going to change any minds,” Boehner said. “All right, well. So exactly what will change? What’s the point? What’s it going to accomplish? You probably got the answer: Nothing.”

"Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee Filing Bill To Cut Funding To Any State That Doesn’t Change “Stand Your Ground” Laws To “Duty To Retreat”"… Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said Wednesday that she would soon introduce legislation that would cut federal funding to any state that doesn’t require neighborhood watch programs to register with police. Jackson Lee said her Justice Exists for All Act is a response to the trial of George Zimmerman, who was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter charges after shooting 17-year old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch coordinator in the Florida neighborhood where the...

House Republicans took a tentative step toward offering citizenship to some unauthorized immigrants Tuesday, but hit an immediate wall of resistance from the White House on down as Democrats said it wasn’t enough.The dismissive reaction to the GOP proposal to offer eventual citizenship to some immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children underscored the difficulties of finding any compromise in the Republican-led House on the politically explosive issue of immigration. That left prospects cloudy for one of President Barack Obama’s top second-term priorities. Congress is preparing to break for a month-long summer recess at the end of next week...

Congress has launched an investigation of the helicopter crash that killed 30 Americans in Afghanistan, including members of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6 unit, The Hill has learned. [WATCH VIDEO] The victims’ families say the Pentagon hasn’t provided answers to their many questions about the deadly attack, which took place on Aug. 6, 2011, three months after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by Team 6 forces. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on National Security, told The Hill, “We’re going to dive into this.” Chaffetz said he met with the...

Veteran Republican Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia said on the floor of the House today that Benghazi survivors and others were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements about the attacks last Sept. 11. He says he has “trusted sources” attesting to this. What’s more, it makes complete sense. Benghazi is the scandal that unquestionably touches the White House. There is still much we don’t know, and this may give us some indication why we don’t know it.Video:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Architects of the Senate's immigration bill on Monday canceled a meeting that had been planned with business groups and other supporters to try to rally momentum for the legislation, in a sign of how difficult it will be to enact the reforms. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, Republican Senator John McCain and other members of the "Gang of Eight" that shepherded a sweeping immigration bill through the Senate want to enlist business, labor and religious groups to help persuade members of the House of Representatives to back reform. All members of the bipartisan group of senators except Republican...

ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to shut the government down this fall. Republicans have tried this maneuver in Obama’s first term, only to back off later to the chagrin of Tea Party leaders. This time, GOP lawmakers are emboldened by problems plaguing the administration’s ObamaCare implementation.

House Democratic leaders warned Tuesday that Congress must enact immigration reform this year because the task becomes much more difficult in the 2014 election year. "We've seen how in an election year it's very difficult to get a lot done, and that's unfortunate," Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Capitol. "You hope that we can get things done next year, whether or not there's an election at hand. We should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. "But there's no doubt that the closer you get to elections, the...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte recently threw a curveball into the immigration debate by floating what has been anathema to House Republicans — a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The Virginia Republican’s idea: legalize the 11 million undocumented immigrants and allow them to apply for citizenship using ways that already exist — including marriage to a U.S. citizen or sponsorship by another relative or an employer. But the chairman’s July 11 comments have piqued interest among immigration advocates. Reformers want to hear more about what the powerful chairman is thinking. Many are encouraged that Goodlatte is seeking solutions...

A member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) said Monday night that the Trayvon Martin trial is the latest evidence that America does not value the lives of blacks and whites equally. "The tragic death of our young man, Trayvon Martin, followed by the acquittal of the man who pursued him and killed him, has reminded us that although it may seem as if African Americans and other minorities have achieved full equality in our civil society, we are still victims of racial profiling in violation of our laws and our morals," Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) said on the House...

Sen. John McCain tells Newsmax that the American people "overwhelmingly" want the Senate and House to come to an agreement on immigration reform. The Arizona Republican and 2008 presidential candidate also says he will do "everything in my power" to see that Obamacare is repealed but warns that shutting down the government is not the way to go about doing that. House Speaker John Boehner has reiterated that he would not allow a vote on the bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate, which McCain championed, because he says it is too massive and not strong enough on border...

Pelosi: Congress Must Uphold Oath to ‘Protect and Defend’ Constitution... by Passing Gun Control July 22, 2013 - 4:01 PM By Ryan Kierman Subscribe to Ryan Kierman RSS (CNSNews.com) – Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D – Calif.) cited her oath to “protect and defend” the U.S. Constitution as the reason Congress should enact harsher gun control measures. In a press release marking the one-year anniversary of the Aurora, Colorado shootings, the former Speaker of the House said: “In Congress, there can be no more fitting memorial to the lives lost in Aurora, in Newtown, and across the country than a concerted...

House Republicans Monday proposed slashing cuts to environmental programs and funding for the Smithsonian Institution and the arts as they unveiled the latest legislation to implement the second year of budget cuts required under so-called sequestration. The $24 billion spending measure would gut the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency with a one-third cut and cuts the National Endowments for the Arts by almost half. Overall, the measure funding the Interior Department, EPA, national parks and federal firefighting efforts is cut by 19 percent below funding approved in March. It takes a more modest approach to the national parks with...

Nancy Pelosi has been quiet about accusations against former House member and San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. But at least the House Minority Leader is being helpful enough to give reporters instructions about how to explain her past working relationship with Filner: Don’t: Democrats who accused Republicans of being anti-women during last year’s campaign are strangely silent now that one of their own — San Diego Mayor Bob Filner — is accused of groping and sexually assaulting women. “Don’t identify him as my former colleague,” an agitated House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi reportedly said Thursday night when asked about the...

Asked repeatedly if he favors a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal aliens, Boehner told CBS's "Face the Nation" that his job is not to take a stand, but to let the House "work its will."

Breaking away from many in the conservative movement, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that his state’s “Stand Your Ground” law needs to be reviewed.

Conservatives in the House are not rushing to embrace an immigration proposal from party leaders to offer a path to citizenship to children who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, are crafting a bill that would be the first GOP plan to deal with some of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has endorsed the idea as a matter of “fairness” to grant citizenship to children who crossed the border through no fault of their own. The...

... If the language is being used to criticize a black person then we must deem such language to be irreparably and irrevocably racist,” Fudge said. “Every word that is used to disguise the racist intentions of a racist political movement must be deemed a racist code word disguising the true racist intentions of the racists who make use of them.” Congressman Jim Clyburn went even further. “The entire English language was created by slaveowners as a means of oppression. You can’t just say that one word is a racist code word or another. The whole language, every single word,...

The immigration debate threatens to tear the Republican Party apart--not because of disagreements over the principle of immigration reform, but because of disagreements over strategy and tactics that may become insurmountable. The party leadership, believing that immigration reform will appeal to Hispanic voters, is attempting to impose its will on rank-and-file conservatives who object to current legislative proposals. The recently-passed Senate immigration bill includes provisions for border security as well as the legalization of illegal aliens. Conservatives believe, however, that legalization must be contingent on border security, since the Obama administration has a record of refusing to enforce laws it...

Rand Paul is formally endorsing Sen. Mike Enzi as he faces Liz Cheney in a Wyoming GOP primary next year, Paul told POLITICO in an interview Wednesday. “I’ve told him I’ll do anything I can to help him,” the Kentucky GOP senator said. “In fact, somebody asked me today if they could use my name, and I said I’d be happy to sign on and do a fundraiser for him.” Paul said he isn’t sure why Cheney decided to challenge Enzi, but said she might end up picking up some grudges for doing so. “I don’t think it probably will...

House Republicans plan to ratchet up scrutiny of the IRS during a hearing Thursday morning where agency workers are expected to discuss the involvement of high-level officials in slowing down applications from Tea Party groups. For the first time, the House oversight committee has invited two key agency officials to testify. Republican leaders of the committee claimed Wednesday that one of them recently revealed that the IRS chief counsel's office -- led by a political appointee -- played a role, along with embattled IRS official Lois Lerner, in scrutinizing conservative groups. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the committee, told...

Congressman Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, said today on the House floor that survivors of the Benghazi terror attack have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements: "On Tuesday I raised the question of why none of the Benghazi survivors, whether State Department, CIA, or private security contract employees have testified publicly before Congress," said Wolf. "According to trusted sources that have contacted my office, many if not all of the survivors of the Benghazi attacks along with others at the Department of Defense, the CIA have been asked or directed to sign additional non-disclosure agreements about their involvement in...

by John HillStand With ArizonaJudas had his price: 30 pieces of silver. Marco Rubio also had his price for betrayal, but it was considerably higher. In 2010 Marco Rubio portrayed himself as tough on borders and illegal aliens to gain massive Tea Party support to win himself a Senate seat. Here is basically all you need to know about that from a 2010 debate, trying to frame rival and former Republican Charlie Crist as soft on amnesty: RUBIO: "First of all, earned path to citizenship is basically code for amnesty. It's what they call it....America cannot be the only country in...

Granting citizenship to illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as minors is the “compassionate” thing to do, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said on Wednesday. “[T]he history of our country is one that moved away from holding kids liable for the deeds, misdeeds, commitment of crime by parents,” Cantor said, during a GOP press conference on Capitol Hill. “And these, in many instances, are kids without a country if we don’t allow them to become full citizens of our country.” “It is not only an issue of fairness, as the Speaker said, it’s an issue of decency,...

Over the past few years, the number of conservatives in the House has grown exponentially. Well, at least to the extent that you can’t count them on your fingers. Unfortunately, House conservatives are about to become a victim of their own successes if they fail to change course. In a sane world, Republicans would have more leverage than the Democrats over the legislative process. They have full control over the House and a filibuster-strength minority in the Senate. Consequently, they have the ability to block bad legislation from passing the Senate, while jamming the Democrats with good bills from the...

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was “dead wrong” when he suggested the United States should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics...House Speaker John Boehner said. ..“Listen, I love Sen. Graham. We’ve been close friends for 20 years..Boehner said.. “Why would we want to punish U.S. athletes who have been training for three years to compete in the Olympics... Graham said boycotting the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, would “send the Russians the most unequivocal signal” ..what they’re doing is outrageous,... if they grant this guy asylum it’s a breach of the rule of law as we know it and is...

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) has kept one of the lowest profiles of any U.S. senator, rarely seen on cable news shows or quoted in media coverage. That’s about to change, in a big way, after Liz Cheney’s announcement Tuesday that she’s challenging him next year in a GOP primary that promises to be one of the most talked about of the election cycle. Enzi, a three-term senator, expressed disappointment and feelings of betrayal over Cheney’s move. “I thought we were friends,” he said. Cheney, 46, has highlighted her youth as a potential advantage against Enzi. However, Enzi, 69, has maintained...

Todd Harris, the usually gregarious consultant to Sen. Marco Rubio, uncharacteristically resisted eight days of calls and emails seeking his thoughts for this column. When he finally did reply, the answer was: “to be honest, another story about Marco and immigration is not high on Christmas list!!” No wonder. The very issue Rubio (and Harris) thought would be a game-changing, legacy-builder looks like a big liability for the Florida senator, at least right now. In the process, the self-confident presidential hopeful suddenly looks wobbly, even a little weak, as he searches for what’s next. Rubio spent six months working over...

In a recent political development that could only be called unexpected, Newsmax has learned that Rep. Peter King (R-NY), past chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is being encouraged by friends in and outside the Empire State to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Several of those friends told us that the popular Republican—who turned 69 in April and is now in his 11th term as congressman from New York’s Third District—has returned the show of support in a presidential bid with a strong maybe. King, one of the House’s most vocal national security advocates, is said...

The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing next week on the issue of granting citizenship to illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children and Majority Leader Eric Cantor may introduce his bill on the topic this month. Cantor made his most impassioned public case for the legislation yet at a press conference this morning, saying that addressing the fate of the so-called DREAMers – a reference to the DREAM Act, another bill that would afford citizenship to illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children — is “an issue of decency, of compassion.” “Where else would these kids...

For months, Democrats have been saying they won’t agree to an immigration bill unless it has a “path to citizenship.” Reporters wrote it down. Many Republicans have also been saying the key sticking point is over the “path to citizenship”–they oppose it..... Meanwhile, Democratic bloggers have begun to urge the legalization-without-citizenship course on Republicans.... For Republicans, the non-citizenship path pushed by Labrador and others is arguably the worst of both worlds. They not only lose the immigration fight–alienating both their conservative base and the white non-college voters who abandoned them in the 2012 election. They also give Democrats an opportunity...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Liz Cheney, daughter of Dick Cheney, says she will challenge Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., next year.

“I’m a Ronald Reagan conservative,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters before speaking to a few hundred people at the Columbia Rotary Club on Monday. “You get 80 percent of what you want, that’s a good day.”It’s the other 20 percent that could get Graham in trouble with S.C. GOP primary voters next year, when the Seneca Republican’s Senate seat is expected to be the main event in a primary season that will see voters deciding 11 statewide races.In February, Graham’s approval rating among S.C. Republicans was 71 percent, according to a Winthrop University poll. By April – about the...

Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have joined an upstart effort to remove the chain of command from military sexual assault cases, POLITICO has learned. The tea party favorites give the bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, critical conservative cover as she battles the Pentagon and hawks in both parties on her proposal to create a new prosecution system for major military crimes. Paul is scheduled to attend a press conference Tuesday in the Capitol with Gillibrand and other bill backers, including Sens. Chuck Grassley and Barbara Boxer, to discuss his new position, which inches the New York Democrat closer...