Free Republic

A day after Tim Pawlenty took a few shots at Olympia Snowe, RNC Chairman Michael Steele came to her defense. Asked on Morning Joe whether there was room for the Maine centrist in the GOP, Steele responded "absolutely." Welcome! Welcome! Because--you know why that's important? Because every footprint of this party is different from region to region, from county to county. I can't win in the northeast with someone who'd be a better candidate suited in the south....So the reality of it is I'm looking to find my candidates where they are. And I want to lift them up because...

Following a Monday night look at Tuesday's special election to fill New York's 23rd congressional district seat in which Republican Dede Scozzafava dropped out after falling behind the Democrat and the Conservative Party nominee, ABC anchor Charles Gibson -- instead of wondering why the GOP establishment failed to pick a candidate who upholds basic Republican principles -- delivered the usual liberal media upset over the GOP's lack of a “big tent,” a phrase you never hear when Democrats pick left-wing candidates: A liberal Republican gets forced out of the race by a more conservative guy who was actually not a...

If the withdrawal of Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava in Upstate New York will make the race tougher for Democrats to win, they don't seem too upset about it. In fact, they're reveling in the news. "I have an announcement to make. Ronald Reagan’s big tent just collapsed in Upstate New York. It no longer exists," Democratic strategist James Carville said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." Carville said the message from the NY-23 race is "if you're not our definition--if you’re not a Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin directive of what constitutes a Republican, if you don’t check...

It's the Democrats who won't tolerate a diversity of views. BY JIM DEMINT Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party this week is no reason for Republicans to cheer. But his reason for leaving -- he faced an unwinnable primary election next year -- is no cause for soul searching. There is a question Republicans do need to ask: What is it that binds our party together? In the wake of two successive electoral defeats and the likelihood of a 60-vote Democrat majority in the Senate, what does it even mean to be a Republican today? Moderate Republicans are...

The feeble pulse of moderation in the Republican Party is in danger of flat-lining in the Nov. 3 Congressional election in upstate New York. Luminaries like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have taken opposing sides over whether the party dare tolerate the official Republican candidate in the 23rd district — Dede Scozzafava, a six-term assemblywoman whose record includes refreshing tinges of centrism. Ms. Scozzafava was nominated by local party leaders as eminently electable despite — or because of — her defense of women’s abortion rights and her tolerant views on same-sex marriage. She is already shunned by many more ideologically...

Just been getting real tired of the RINOs spouting off about the party and ripping conservatives as the problem. These people are cancer to the GOP and need to be excised. Follow the lead of your ass-face Arlen Specter and admit what you are and go to the Democrats. Look how happy Arlen is now that he's come to grips about who he really is. All you jackasses are more concerned if the libs like you and the media likes you and that you better listen to the media pundits when they tell you what you need to do to...

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has again cast doubt on his professed loyalty to the pro-life movement by saying he "absolutely" believes there is room for a pro-abortion candidate in the GOP. Steele gave the remarks during a brief interview with the Columbus Dispatch in a local restaurant Thursday after leading a Republican rally against President Obama's health care legislation. Steele told the newspaper that a Republican candidate's view on legal protection for unborn children should reflect the views of their local constituencies. The GOP chair was then asked if there is...

What's next, is Steele going to welcome gun control candidates into the party? Candidates advocating for higher taxes and spending? In a September 3rd interview, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele told a surprised Columbus Dispatch reporter that he would lead the charge of pro-abortion GOP candidates if abortion is a value in their community. Columbus Dispatch Senior Editor Joe Hallett asked Steele "if there is room in the party for a pro-abortion rights candidate…" Hallett quoted Steele's reply: "There absolutely is, there absolutely is… The key thing right now-and I think this is true for Republicans across the country-is...

BEDFORD – The Republican party needs to rebuild itself from the bottom up, said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour last night before addressing a gathering at a New Hampshire State Republican Committee reception. "You're in the White House for eight or 12 years, you become a top-down party, I don't care if these are Republicans or Democrats. When you get out, you're liberated to rebuild your party from the bottom up," he told reporters before a reception at at C.R. Sparks, which was closed to the press. Barbour assumed chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association yesterday, following South Carolina Gov. Mark...

When Republican Sen. Arlen Specter defected to the Democratic Party recently, politicians and pundits everywhere heralded the move as another sign that the GOP was "too conservative." Said liberal Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, "If the Republican Party fully intends to become a majority party in the future, it must move from the far right back toward the middle." Presumably "the middle," a pasture that so many Democrats, liberal Republicans, and others believe the GOP should now graze, is a place free of "reckless" government-slashing rhetoric. These critics believe Obama is president, the Democrats are in power, and Republicans who refuse...

I see "pragmatists" everywhere I look in the Republican Party -- those who say we must always be more concerned with not offending so-called moderates than with advancing our principles. The irony is that no one is less pragmatic, in the end, than these self-styled pragmatists because their prescriptions are a recipe for failure. Most recently, of course, the Republican branch of the political correctness sect insists that we must not oppose Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination for the Supreme Court because her confirmation is inevitable and by opposing it, we'll gratuitously alienate Hispanics and women -- as if they haven't...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Audio sound bites, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who Pravda says his political career is being destroyed by homosexuals in California, Pravda said that, Pravda, English language Pravda was on CNN last night, had a question. "What do you think the future of the Republican Party is? Who's in charge? Do you think Rush Limbaugh's the leader of the Republican Party these days, Governor Schwarzenegger?" SCHWARZENEGGER: They say that Rush Limbaugh is the 800 pound gorilla in the Republican Party. But I think that's mean-spirited to say that, because I think he's down to 650 pounds, so I think one...

The latest polling data released from Zogby and McLaughlin polls suggest Americans want Obama to keep his promise to raise taxes only on those earning more than $250,000 and govern under a system of checks and balances from the Congress. Zogby’s sample of almost 4000 people, who voted last November, was apportioned to reflect Obama’s 53/46 victory over McCain. When he asked for a reaction if Obama dropped his promise not to raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000, 20% said it would make them less likely to vote for him. Since Obama drew 69.5 million votes this is...

“I’m still a Republican” says guy who voted for a pro-infanticide, Marxist radical for President. http://www.mofopolitics.com/2009/05/24/video-colin-powell-im-still-a-republican-52409/

In reporting on the contretemps between former Vice President Dick Cheney and Colin Powell, The New York Times continues its longstanding agenda to get the Republican Party to move to the left. In yesterday’s paper, The Times reported on Powell’s Sunday appearance on “Face The Nation,” where the former Secretary of State boldly declared “I am still a Republican” (despite having endorsed Barack Obama) and called for an “after-action review” of GOP losses in the last election. “Mr. Powell’s appearance underlined an extraordinary public struggle among Republicans over the future of the party,” The Times informed us in the hushed...

RUSH: Now, I've checked my e-mail at home since the Sunday shows. They had General Powell on Face the Nation Sunday. Tom Ridge was on CNN on Sunday morning. Tom Ridge, just for your information, Tom Ridge called this program in 2003 to detail for... I mean, he wanted to be on this program in 2003, Tom Ridge out there saying I'm too shrill and I need to dial it back and all these other things. But I need to ask the question: Who's really changed? I've been who I am for 20 years. When it comes to the core...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich backed Dick Cheney’s critique of the Obama administration’s anti-terror policy Sunday, calling it one of several ‘big mistakes’ being made in national security by the Democrats. But he broke ranks with the former vice president over Colin Powell, saying that the former Secretary of State belonged in the party and that Republicans should be the party of the ‘big tent’ even if fights broke out in that tent from time to time. “I don't want to pick a fight with Dick Cheney, but I think, the fact is the Republican Party has to be a...

Colin L. Powell challenged Dick Cheney on the legacy of the Bush administration and the future of the Republican Party on Sunday, declaring that Republicans should not bow to “diktats that come from the right wing.” Skip to next paragraph Blog The Caucus The latest political news from around the nation. Join the discussion. More Politics NewsReaders' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (131) »The remarks by Mr. Powell, a former secretary of state, amounted to a public rebuttal of Mr. Cheney, the former vice president, and Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio commentator, who have...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party needs to broaden its base rather than move farther to the political right to make gains against President Barack Obama's Democrats, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday. "Let's debate the future of the party. And let's let all the segments of the party come in," Powell, a Republican who served in President George W. Bush's Cabinet but endorsed Obama last year, told CBS's "Face the Nation."

WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he's still a Republican, but the party needs to change and be more inclusive. Powell is a moderate Republican who says he endorsed Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain for president because he thought Obama was the better candidate. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and radio personality Rush Limbaugh have openly mocked Powell's political leanings – questioning whether he still is in the GOP.

WASHINGTON (May 24) -- The conservative vs. moderate split threatening to rupture the Republican Party played out across the airwaves Sunday, with Colin Powell and Tom Ridge denouncing shrill and judgmental voices they say are steering the GOP too far right. Karl Rove challenged Powell to lay out his vision and "back it up" by helping elect Republicans. At stake is the GOP's status as a major party, Powell and Ridge suggested "I believe we should build on the base because the nation needs two parties, two parties debating each other. But what we have to do is debate and...

Time for another round of increasingly tedious GOP big tent/small tent navel-gazing, this time with moderates on the offensive. Powell’s point about Limbaugh not being above criticism is fair enough but I don’t know what he expects from big shots like Steele who’ve been forced to grovel to him. As the GOP shrinks, it relies more heavily on the base for fundraising; the base adores Rush, so as a matter of simple politics, party leaders can’t afford to take him on. It’ll necessarily fall to moderates like Powell who are outside the process and have nothing to lose by antagonizing...

The conservative vs. moderate split threatening to rupture the Republican Party played out across the airwaves Sunday, with Colin Powell and Tom Ridge denouncing shrill and judgmental voices they say are steering the GOP too far right. Karl Rove challenged Powell to lay out his vision and "back it up" by helping elect Republicans. At stake is the GOP's status as a major party, Powell and Ridge suggested. "I believe we should build on the base because the nation needs two parties, two parties debating each other. But what we have to do is debate and define who we are...

Reporting from Washington -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Sunday that ideological conservatives, particularly radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, have gained a hold over the Republican Party that risks driving the GOP into an extended exile from power. Powell's warnings were cast in unusually personal terms as Powell answered recent charges from two champions of the Republican right -- Limbaugh and former Vice President Dick Cheney -- that Powell was no longer a Republican. "Rush will not get his wish and Mr. Cheney was misinformed," said Powell, whose resume includes military advisor to Ronald Reagan, chairman of the Joint...

Powell to Rush, Cheney: Room For Me Among 'Emerging' Republican Party Posted by David Beard, Boston.com Staff May 20, 2009 06:27 AM Colin Powell issued a sharp rebuke last night to Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney for trying to exclude him from the backbiting Republican Party. Before some 1,500 business leaders in Boston, as well as Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen, the retired general and former secretary of state spoke openly of the dispute roiling the Grand Old Party after election setbacks and polls putting its popularity at roughly one of five Americans. "Rush Limbaugh says, 'Get...

The chairman of the Republican Party says the GOP is open to supporting pro-abortion rights candidates. Appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," the head of the Republican National Committee responded to a question from moderator David Gregeory about the viability of a GOP politician who isn't strictly anti-abortion. "We've had wonderful pro, pro-choice candidates," Steele said. "[Former] Governor Christie Todd Whitman [of New Jersey], for example, was a very successful Republican governor. ... "I look forward to working to build a strong pro-life coalition within the Democratic Party since that's -- this is the direction the president wants to...

The interests of Floridians — not political parties — should be paramount as candidates jockey for position in the state’s 2010 elections. The dominos officially began tumbling this week when Gov. Charlie Crist announced, to no one’s surprise, that he’ll run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. Crist, who has vied for four statewide offices in the past 13 years, was immediately endorsed by state Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer. While anointing his friend (who installed Greer as chairman in 2007), the GOP boss said he would work to limit primary contests for governor and the...

The Republican Party certainly does require a "Big Tent" -- the kind of tent we sometimes see covering a house infested with termites. Unless conservatives can rid the GOP of Democrats hiding out in their midst, the Republican Party can never recover. Liberals are sapping the GOP's strength from within. It now seems that a looming divorce within the GOP has grown inevitable. Unless the Republican Party returns to its conservative principles, a number of conservatives will go on strike. They feel it is no longer acceptable for conservatives to do most of the hard work of winning elections, while...

Since the election of President Obama -- and now accelerated by the defection of Senator Arlen Specter, much ink and chattering has been devoted the future of the Republican Party. Like any organization either in politics, sports or business which is currently behind, the GOP is struggling with crafting a game changing strategy. Some advocate embracing a big tent strategy by incorporating a variety of disparate and potentially irreconcilable views. Others argue that the party should go back to set of core conservative principles despite the risk it might appeal to a smaller audience than desired to build a new...

"I've taken showers," Jack Kemp loved to say, "with the kind of people most Republicans have never met." By the time Kemp died last week at 73, he was no longer a force in the Republican Party, but the warning contained in his joke resonates more than ever.... He wanted the "big tent" of the Republican Party to cover the entire football field where he once starred as a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. The black linemen who blocked for him and the blue-collar workers who cheered for him should all have a place in the GOP. But as Sen....

If there were ever a senator a party would want to show the door, it's Arlen Specter. Personally disagreeable, philosophically unmoored and fundamentally self-interested, he represents the worst of the U.S. Senate. So the collective cry of good riddance on the right that greeted his departure from the GOP is understandable. Specter joined the Republican Party in the 1960s for opportunistic reasons, and he left it last week for opportunistic reasons – a primary challenge from the talented conservative Pat Toomey that he probably wouldn't have been able to overcome. A better politician wouldn't have so lost the affection and...

I thought Elizabeth Hasselback, the Republican Party's brain trust on the "View," was a little simple. But, intellectually, she towers above the succession of vacuous, narcissistic, pig-ignorant panelists paraded on Sean Hannity's "Great American Panel." Just as you thought American pop-politics could go no lower, a woman with real curb appeal appears on the political scene. Meghan McCain might just be the greatest ditz to date to emerge from that big tent Republicans keep touting. Meghan made her first major debut on the Rachel Maddow Show. There, in defiance of Ms. McCain's empty refrains and non sequiturs, the left-liberal TV...

The Republican Party is in big trouble and needs to find a way to move back to the middle of the country, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday. Powell said the GOP is "getting smaller and smaller" and "that's not good for the nation." He also said he hopes that emerging GOP leaders, such as House Minority Whip Cantor, will not keep repeating mantras of the far right. "The Republican Party is in deep trouble," Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Inc. The party must realize that the country has...

IF there were ever a senator a party would want to show the door, it's Arlen Specter. Personally disagreeable, philosophically unmoored and fundamentally self-interested, he represents the worst of the US Senate. So the collective cry of good riddance on the right that greeted his departure from the GOP is understandable. Specter joined the Republican Party in the '60s for opportunistic reasons, and he left it last week for opportunistic reasons -- a primary challenge from the talented conservative Pat Toomey he probably wouldn't have been able to overcome. A better politician wouldn't have so lost the affection and loyalty...

Two recent events have served to highlight some of the problems facing the Republican Party as it gropes its way forward toward an uncertain future. The defection of Arlen Specter and the death of Jack Kemp both highlight in their own way the biggest question that will face the GOP for the foreseeable future: whether to build a majority party based on an ever-narrowing definition of who can join and receive support from the Republican Party or accept that there are different kinds of Republicans in different areas of the country who should have a say in party affairs. Arlen...

With the recent defection of Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party, many Republicans are shaking their heads and wondering if the GOP is relegating itself to minority status because its views are too extremist. Olympia Snowe, in a recent op-ed in the New York Times wrote: "Regrettably, we failed to learn the lessons of Jim Jeffords’s defection in 2001. To the contrary, we overreached in interpreting the results of the presidential election of 2004 as a mandate for the party. This resulted in the disastrous elections of 2006 and 2008, which combined for a total loss of 51 Republicans in...

An Independent Thinker On and Off the Court Superme Court Justice David Souter may be little known outside his small circle of friends -- he shied away from the Washington scene and prefers to be in his New Hampshire cabin reading books -- but those who know him or work with him say Souter is a funny man who took serious interest in the law and his work. [Snip] "When you meet the guy you expect to meet some silent Cal Coolidge type of New Englander who talks very little and whatever else goes with that stereotype," said Meir Feder,...

Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party this week is no reason for Republicans to cheer. But his reason for leaving -- he faced an unwinnable primary election next year -- is no cause for soul searching. There is a question Republicans do need to ask: What is it that binds our party together? In the wake of two successive electoral defeats and the likelihood of a 60-vote Democrat majority in the Senate, what does it even mean to be a Republican today? Moderate Republicans are right to remind conservatives that they cannot build a center-right coalition without the...

It's the Democrats who won't tolerate a diversity of views. Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party this week is no reason for Republicans to cheer. But his reason for leaving -- he faced an unwinnable primary election next year -- is no cause for soul searching. There is a question Republicans do need to ask: What is it that binds our party together? In the wake of two successive electoral defeats and the likelihood of a 60-vote Democrat majority in the Senate, what does it even mean to be a Republican today? Moderate Republicans are right to remind...

Arlen Specter's party switch has reignited the debate over the GOP's mission: a conservative party vs. a big tent coalition including liberal Republicans ("moderates" in media-speak). Five AT writers have addressed the topic, taking rather different positions. Richard Baehr argues for the big tent approach: We need a party that can win legislative elections in the Northeast, the suburbs, and other areas where the social conservative vote comes nowhere near a majority. Putting GOP moderates in the House and Senate from those sates or districts where they are the only kind who can win, does help. There has been a...

Meghan McCain writes that she was disappointed in Arlen Specter’s decision to bolt the GOP. No matter what some Republicans say, he’s exactly what the party needs. The frenzy over Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to switch parties has only just begun. As usual whenever there is major political news, my email inbox exploded with reader reactions. One in particular stood out: “You are not a new face for the Republican Party. You are the problem with the Republican Party. If you'd like to be a feel-good liberal, there's a party for you. Do like Specter and stop wrecking the GOP....

A quick tour through the week’s headlines suggests the Republican Party is beginning to come to terms with the last election and that consensus is emerging among GOP elites that the party needs to move away from discordant social issues. There was Sen. John McCain's daughter and his campaign manager who last week demanded that their fellow Republicans embrace same-sex marriage. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman – the most devoted modernizer among the party's 2012 hopefuls – won approving words from New York Times columnist Frank Rich for his call to downplay divisive values issues. The party’s top elected leaders in...

LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS 2009 National Convention & Liberty Education Forum National Symposium Steve Schmidt, McCain Campaign Senior Adviser and Schwarzenegger Campaign Manager will share his thoughts on the 2008 election and analyze how the Republican Party can win again.

The Scene: A fictitious meeting in the new era of the GOP’s ever-expanding “big tent.” ------------------------------- I had the pleasure of sitting down to dinner with two members of my county Republican Party steering committee this week to discuss the GOP’s options as we move into the 2010 election cycle. I was joined by Dr. Eric von Dersgarten (of the Rhine Valley Dersgartens, of course) and Cecilia Montgomery. Ms. Montgomery chose the venue for our meeting and I have to say it was one of the most unusual ever, nicely setting the tone for what was to come. It was...

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) struck a positive tone for Republicans’ chances in 2010, while acknowledging that moderate candidates must be embraced in order to win regions that don’t run as red as his home state. “I think everybody agrees that one thing the Republican Party needs is a fresh face and new blood, and we’ve got, I think, some really promising candidates who’ve stepped up,” Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” broadcast Sunday. Cornyn argued that recent appointments had left openings for the GOP, including the controversy surrounding Roland Burris (D-Ill.), whom Democratic senators...

Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee wants the GOP to reach out to candidates who support gay marriage and are pro-choice. Steele told Fox's Chris Wallace that it was "important" to reach out to those voters. WALLACE: You are one of the co-founders of something called the Republican Leadership Council which supports candidates who favor abortion and gay rights. STEELE: Yes. (watch video) WALLACE: Does the GOP needs to do a better job of reaching out to people who hold those views? STEELE: I think -- I think that's an important opportunity for us, absolutely. Within...

Rudy Giuliani analyzes the reason the Republican party is losing in recent years and what it can do to enlarge it's base. Stressing the importance of big tent politics and under-emphasizing social issues. In any case, the economy is the main reason McCain lost, but other social issues have also created a bad stereotype of Republicans in general.

US President-elect Barack Obama has invited gay bishop Gene Robinson to lead prayers at the opening of celebrations next Sunday leading up to his inauguration next week. The invitation will go some way to placate liberal critics in the US who condemned his invitation to the anti-gay evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration itself. Bishop Robinson was himself among those who attacked Mr Obama over the choice of Rick Warren, describing it as a "slap in the face". Bishop Robinson, whose consecration in 2003 was met with worldwide protests from the conservative wing of the...

In an op-ed published after the election, former Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman wrote, "Unless the Republican Party ends its self-imposed captivity to social fundamentalists, it will spend a long time in the political wilderness." And who are these "social fundamentalists?" In Whitman's political lexicon, they are "the people who base their votes on such social issues as abortion, gay rights, and stem cell research." When I read Whitman's column I had three thoughts: 1. Why is she putting the label "fundamentalist" on fellow Republican voters? 2. Does she know she's also talking about Catholic voters who consider...

(CNN) – Two members of the Senate’s Democratic caucus have called for Joe Lieberman to lose his committee chairmanship. On Sunday, North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan didn’t go that far — but did say the Connecticut senator’s actions during the campaign were “not acceptable,” as Republican Sen. Jon Kyl said the GOP would “welcome [Lieberman] with open arms.”