Free Republic

It’s generally agreed that Thad Cochran squeaked out a win in Mississippi last night in part by getting Democrats, especially African Americans, to turn out. Here’s a flier that was distributed in heavily black precincts suggesting how he accomplished this:

RALEIGH, NC (WECT) – Greg Brannon and Mark Harris showed improved numbers while Thom Tillis saw his support slip in the final Public Policy Polling survey of the North Carolina Republican Senate primary campaigns. In a PPP poll done April 26-28, Tillis had support from 46 percent of the responders, with Brannon at 20 percent and Harris at 11 percent. In the final poll done over the May 3-4 weekend, Tillis had the support of 40 percent, with Brannon up to 28 percent and Harris at 15 percent. The 40 percent mark would keep Tillis at the level he needs...

Anxious Senate Republicans are worried party leaders are focusing too much this election year on ObamaCare and not enough on jobs and the economy. The concern among GOP centrists comes as President Obama and congressional Democrats are crowing about a surge in late enrollments and claiming the political winds are shifting around the Affordable Care Act. A growing rift in the GOP was exposed when a group of Senate Republicans recently struck a bipartisan deal to extend unemployment benefits. Neither Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) nor Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) embraced the agreement. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who spearheaded...

Big money GOP donors are reluctantly leaning toward former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president in 2016, said talk show host Joe Scarborough. "The whispers are out there. You hear it among top [Republican National Committee] donors. There is not an excitement. I'll be really honest with you. Nobody's going, 'Oh, we got to get Jeb,'" Scarborough said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Monday.  Donors are eyeing Bush because they see him as the only nominee who could beat presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Scarborough said, adding that contenders like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz aren't considered viable against the former...

Mississippi news station WLOX-TV anchor Dave Elliott on Thursday said that there has been too much coverage of LGBT issues in the news recently, according to Romanesko."I'm all for the LGBT community's ongoing fight for equality. I support their fight in every way. But, it seems they've been in the news too much lately. Maybe they should take a short break. Go on gaycation,.. [sic] just for the weekend. Enjoy yourselves!" Elliott wrote on his Facebook page, according to a screenshot published by Romanesko. WLOX-TV condemned Elliott's comments on the station's Facebook page. "We are not happy at all with...

<p>WASHINGTON — Tuesday’s primaries will pit the tea party’s ardor for change against the staying power of two GOP leaders in Congress, Sen. John Cornyn and Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions.</p> <p>Both are deeply conservative. Both face challengers who complain that when it comes to fighting Democrats, the incumbents are more bluster than action.</p>

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a New York Times interview published Monday that state attorneys general aren’t required to defend laws they consider discriminatory, including bans on same-sex marriage. Holder said that state attorneys general should carefully analyze laws that raise major constitutional issues before deciding whether to defend them. “Engaging in that process and making that determination is something that’s appropriate for an attorney general to do,” Holder told the Times. To make his case, Holder said that if he were an attorney general “in Kansas in 1953,” he “would not have defended a Kansas statute that...

I agree with Glenn Reynolds who has more to say at link below. I’ve said the DC GOP and its apparatchiks would prefer a Democrat to a potentially rogue Conservative Republican. I believe that, especially when it comes to clowns like Brad Dayspring of the NRSC. By the time he and his buddies get to K-Street, they can profit from both parties. Genuine reformers, not so much. It’s a career path just like any business to most of the folks in DC, including many elected pols. I’m so concerned about whatever Wolf posted, I haven’t even bothered to look. As...

Fifty-nine percent of Americans have a favorable view of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton a year after she left public life, down from the high of 66 percent she earned while serving in President Obama’s cabinet. According to a new Gallup poll, 37 percent of Americans view her unfavorably. “Clinton, an enduring figure on the U.S. political stage, has seen her favorability ratings rise and fall since she was introduced to the American public during Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign,” explained Gallup’s Art Swift.

Half of the residents of Minnesota now disapprove of President Obama’s performance, according to a new poll. Results of The Star Tribune survey represent the first time that his approval rating has turned negative in the state since the president took office in 2009. Obama’s job approval rating in the poll has fallen to 43 percent. Men had an especially unfavorable opinion of the president. According to the poll, 60 percent of Minnesotan men disapproved of his job performance, compared to 40 percent of women in the state. People under 34 had the highest approval rating for Obama, with 59...

A key victory for the UAW is on the line. Friday is the last day of a union-organizing vote at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. At stake is whether the German automaker's sole plant in the U.S. will be represented by the United Auto Workers. But it's also much more than that: The battle being waged in Chattanooga is being billed as a seminal moment that will either pave the way for more labor unions in the South, or affirm the continuation of a "right to work" region that is UAW-free. Going into the three-day election, the vote was...

Texas firebrand spews out lukewarm senators in both parties The debt ceiling fight in Congress has revived internal GOP tensions still lingering in the wake of last year’s government shutdown.   After the House of Representatives passed a “clean” debt-limit increase without any spending cuts attached, Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), whose 21-hour Obamacare filibuster preceded the government shutdown, announced that he would block any effort to pass the measure by simple majority vote in the Senate. “If you ask anybody outside of Washington whether we should keep increasing the debt ceiling without fixing the underlying problem of out-of-control spending,...

RINO stumbling ? New polling data released today shows Lamar Alexander losing ground in Volunteer state wide polling. Ken Buck, director of the MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro) poll , said that Alexander’s approval  level has dropped from 54% approval down to 43% among all voters.  The trend was worse among independent voters, plunging 22 points to a 36% approval , down from 58%. Republicans were 29% favoring Alexander in his primary against (largely unknown) state representative Joe Carr. Fourteen percent of Republicans favor “SOMEONE ELSE” and 8% favor Carr , a tea party favorite. Forty five percent were...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), anti-amnesty hawk, said in a Thursday afternoon statement that even if President Barack Obama stopped governing lawlessly, amnesty would still be bad for the country. Sessions’ comments came in response to House Speaker John Boehner’s remarks that amnesty would need to go on hold because of a lack of trust in Obama’s law enforcement capabilities. “The Administration's aggressive defiance of congressionally enacted law is a profound obstacle in the way of any proposed immigration changes,” Sessions said.  Moreover, the Administration's actions undermine the constitutional system that provides all residents with a hopeful future. I warned about...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the set of immigration "principles" released Thursday by House GOP leaders suggest the door is open for reform. "While these standards are certainly not everything we would agree with, they leave a real possibility that Democrats and Republicans, in both the House and Senate, can in some way come together and pass immigration reform that both sides can accept. It is a long, hard road but the door is open," he said in a statement. Schumer is a leading author of the comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate last year, which House Republicans have...

WASHINGTON — For more than a year House Republican leaders have insisted the chamber would act on new immigration laws. And for more than a year, Republicans have done virtually nothing on the issue — despite intense pressure from activists, business groups, and the nation’s changing demographics. And although there are a variety of reasons for inaction, one Republican lawmaker recently offered a frank acknowledgement that for many House Republicans, there’s one issue at play that’s not often discussed: race. “Part of it, I think — and I hate to say this, because these are my people — but I...

In his response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address that focused heavily on "inequality," Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) slammed Obamacare as "an inequality Godzilla," symbolizing an administration that has favored Washington, D.C. while purporting to fight for America's middle class. In an address sponsored by the Tea Party Express on Tuesday, Lee spoke for "those individuals and families who work hard, play by the rules, balance their budgets, honor the Golden Rule, and don’t understand why their government in Washington can’t do the same." He said these Americans "may feel they have been forgotten by both political...

(CNN) - Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis admitted in an interview with the Dallas Morning News that she hasn't been totally accurate about her life's story, a compelling narrative she has used to appeal to voters in Texas and bolster her national profile. "My language should be tighter," the Democratic state senator said. "I'm learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail." After her marathon filibuster against proposed abortion laws in the Texas legislature last summer, Davis was propelled to the national stage. The attention gave her the support and encouragement to announce...

In a striking about face, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will no longer seek the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, working instead to correct what it sees as its flaws. It was three years ago this month, during his annual State of American Business address, that the Chamber’s president and CEO, Tom Donahue, labeled the ACA “unworkable” and called for its repeal. During last week’s address he softened his views, calling instead for business-friendly adjustments to the new law. “The administration is obviously committed to keeping the law in place, so the chamber has been working pragmatically to fix...

WASHINGTON — The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday, 359 to 67, to approve a $1.1 trillion spending bill for the current fiscal year, shrugging off the angry threats of Tea Party activists and conservative groups whose power has ebbed as Congress has moved toward fiscal cooperation. The legislation, 1,582 pages in length and unveiled only two nights ago, embodies precisely what many House Republicans have railed against since the Tea Party movement began, a huge bill dropped in the cover of darkness and voted on before lawmakers could possibly have read it. The conservative political action committee Club for Growth...