Free Republic

Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio said Monday he is “nudging” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to run for the Republican nomination to be president. Though he stopped short of endorsing anyone early in the process, Boehner named Bush, son of President George H. W. Bush and brother of President George W. Bush, as a favorite. “We’ve got a lot of good candidates out there. If you look historically, our best candidates have come from the ranks of governors, of former governors, and yes, Jeb Bush is my friend, I think he’d make a great president, and I’ve been nudging...

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has a pretty good idea of what immigration reform in the House is going to look like. He just doesn’t know when it’s going to happen. Addressing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Monday in San Antonio, Boehner said he wanted to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws “in chunks” over a period of a week or two to a month. The process would likely begin with border security measures, and it would address the crucial question of citizenship for illegal immigrants in a way that he said would “pass the straight-face test” for people who have...

Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the GOP shouldn’t even field a presidential candidate in 2016 unless Congress passes immigration reform this year. “If the Republicans don’t do it, they shouldn’t bother to run a candidate in 2016,” Donohue joked at an event on infrastructure investment in D.C. “Think about that. Think about who the voters are. I just did that to get everybody’s attention.” Republicans have focused on immigration reform as a way to woo Hispanic voters, who have increasingly drifted to Democrats over the past two election cycles. Growing Hispanic populations in Nevada, Texas...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican National Committee wants to take more control over how the party picks a White House nominee. The RNC was to meet Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, to choose members who will effectively set the calendar for 2016's long list of potential presidential contenders. If the party's chairman, Reince Priebus gets his way, the GOP will pick its nominee more quickly than during past contests and have fewer debates in which candidates could criticize each other. The RNC also was expected to put penalties in place for candidates who don't follow the committee's plans. RNC officials described...

For the most part, Congress is the place where ideas go to die this year. But here’s one that ain’t dead yet: immigration reform. Are the chances good that something will happen in this midterm election year on the quest to overhaul the nation’s immigration system? No. But they aren’t zero, and conversations with officials from both the executive and legislative branches in recent days suggest the chances may have ticked up a bit. -snip- It’s also true that the approach Mr. Boehner and his House colleagues want to take—considering immigration issues such as border security, guest workers and the...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching ads this week in North Carolina and Georgia in a crunch-time effort to help establishment-backed Republicans in crowded Senate primaries. It is also pumping money into commercials praising GOP hopefuls in Michigan, Montana and Alaska. The powerful business organization’s ad buy is a clear attempt to tip the balance in Republican contests and help the GOP nominate viable general election candidates. In 2010 and 2012, tea party and far-right conservatives cost the GOP seats in Nevada, Delaware, Colorado, Indiana and Missouri and shots at Senate control, a fate Republicans are determined to avoid...

SANFORD For months, Republican Thom Tillis’ Senate campaign touted his accomplishments and focused his attacks on Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan, acting like a frontrunner with his eye on November. Now, in the final days before the May 6 primary, Tillis is changing his strategy. Last week, he mailed a flier to voters that attacked his top GOP rival for not paying his property taxes on time. He also debuted a TV ad that trumpets his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Tillis hit the social conservative issues Saturday in his speech at the 2nd Congressional District GOP convention in Sanford....

The House could come up with a bill to overhaul the country’s immigration system by August, according to the House’s No. 4 Republican. “I believe there is a path that we get a bill on the floor by August,” Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.) the Republican conference chairwoman, told The Spokesman-Review last week. An August deadline would resolve the troubled issue months before November’s midterm elections, where the GOP is looking to grow its advantage in the House and pick up enough seats to take over the Senate. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has pushed for a bill and even mocked members...

As it sought to recruit well-heeled investors, an untested and unprofitable Miami company named InnoVida brought aboard a trusted Florida figure in 2007: Jeb Bush, the former governor and the brother of a sitting president. For potential stockholders, the imprimatur of Mr. Bush, who joined InnoVida as a paid consultant and a member of the board of directors, conferred credibility on the young start-up. That credibility did not last long. It turned out that the leaders of InnoVida, a manufacturer of inexpensive building materials, had faked documents, lied about the health of the business and misappropriated $40 million in company...

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce today announced its endorsement of Dave Trott for U.S. House. Trott is seeking election to represent Michigan's 11th Congressional District, which includes portions of Oakland and Wayne counties. "We are pleased to announce the Michigan Chamber endorses Dave Trott for Congress," said Michigan Chamber President & CEO Rich Studley. "Dave possesses the business experience, leadership skills and vision needed to build Michigan and America's economic competitiveness, create jobs and move our country forward."

With a single phrase of compassion for immigrants in the U.S. illegally, Jeb Bush has prompted questions about his viability as a potential presidential contender and underscored how divisive the immigration issue remains for the Republican Party. The former Florida governor sparked a conservative furor this week when he described illegal immigration in an interview as an “act of love” by people trying to provide for their families. Backing Bush are some of the GOP’s most powerful insiders and financiers, who are hoping the party can woo Hispanic voters and rebound from Mitt Romney’s damaging “self-deportation” rhetoric in 2012. “The...

Republican members of Congress are criticizing Jeb Bush’s comments on immigration, highlighting the challenge he’d face in winning over the GOP’s conservative base in a 2016 presidential primary. The former Florida governor made headlines this weekend, when he said people coming to the U.S. illegally were doing so out of an “act of Bush’s comments at an event marking the 25th anniversary of his father’s presidency come as he is weighing his own bid for the White House, but they weren’t warmly received, even among Republican members who want to see the system changed. Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), a conservative...

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour defended Jeb Bush’s recent comments that some illegal immigration is an “act of love,” saying it’s very similar to what former President Ronald Reagan thought. “What people want you to do: Tell the truth,” Barbour said Tuesday at the LBJ Presidential Library’s Civil Rights Summit. “And if Jeb feels that way about it — it sort of reminds me of my boss, Ronald Reagan.” Barbour, who was an aide in Reagan’s administration described what the president used to call the “gates test” during a panel Tuesday with Democratic San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. “Ronald Reagan...

Former Sen. Jim DeMint, the president of the Heritage Foundation, writes in his new book—“Falling in Love With America Again”—about the cozy relationship between big business and big government. “Almost all big corporations benefit from, advocate for, and downright like big government,” DeMint writes. […] “These big companies like to write regulations that make it harder for the smaller companies to compete with them,” DeMint said. “The large companies can deal with a regulatory maze much better than the small companies can. Like the big tobacco companies wanted the FDA to regulate cigarettes because they knew the smaller companies could...

Aimed at attracting the world's best and brightest, the US will soon come out with a series of policy initiatives and changes in the existing rules including allowing the spouses of H-1B visas to work in America. In a statement, the White House said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon publish several proposed rules that will make the US more attractive to talented foreign entrepreneurs and other high-skill immigrants who will contribute substantially to the US economy, create jobs, and enhance American innovative competitiveness. "These proposed regulations include rules authorizing employment for spouses of certain high-skill workers...

More than five years after U.S. governors began a bipartisan effort to set new standards in American schools, the Common Core initiative has morphed into a political tempest fueling division among Republicans. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce leads establishment voices—such as possible presidential contender Jeb Bush—who hail the standards as a way to improve student performance and, over the long term, competitiveness of American workers. Many archconservatives—tea party heroes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz among them—decry the system as a top-down takeover of local schools. The standards were developed and are being implemented by states, though Common Core opponents argue...

Last week’s GOP primary showed the continued strength of the Tea Party in Texas. But it also showed a weakening of another stalwart Republican demographic: the businessperson.First, a disclaimer: The results don't prove anything definitive. One election does not a trend make. And it's not hard to find people who say the state's business leaders still have a large role in Republican Party politics."I think the business community hasn't lost its voice," Rice University Political Science department chair Mark Jones says. "But its influence is much less then it was say 10 years ago." Last week’s GOP primary showed the...

Georgia's Republican Governor, Nathan Deal, seems poised to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by strong-arming the legislature away from pushing a bill to withdraw completely from imposing Common Core education standards on the state's schools and toward implementing most of the Common Core policies this year. State Senator William Ligon (R-Brunswick) was the voice against Common Core's being forced on Georgia schools. In 2013 he led a coalition of citizens to try to pass a law that put a halt to the policies. Opposition to Common Core became so stiff that Governor Deal was forced to issue a...

It’s over. The 50th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference has ended, and it was everything I’d hoped and feared it would be. Once again, it wasn’t far from being great. I just wish it were. I look forward to it every year, and hate it while it’s happening. I’ve never thought much about why before, but this year, it hit me. It’s an opportunity that far too often is wasted. I’m a cynical person, always have been. So while that may be a part of this, it only clouds my attitude, not my thoughts. CPAC brings together thousands of conservatives...

If 2016 brings another Bush-Clinton matchup, not all famous last names are equal at the start. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll makes clear why it’s better to be associated with the 42nd president than the 43rd and 41st, at least for now. The poll has plenty of good news for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Two-thirds of Americans say they’d consider voting for Clinton in 2016, and a full 25 percent say they will definitely support her. Again, among all Americans – not just Democrats, or Democrats and independents – one in four say they are fully on board for Hillary...