Free Republic

Just this week, two seemingly unrelated events unfolded, but they actually reveal a new liberal tactic. The Hillary Clinton Front-Group, American Bridge, filed a bogus federal complaint against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and then a federal probe into New Jersey Governor Chris Christie found no evidence linking Christie to “Bridge-Gate.” Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry was indicted last month. Make no mistake, these events are related. Emerging is a new liberal tactic to gin up legal proceedings against conservatives and then use the media to amplify the investigations and make the officials look guilty. These attacks are part of a...

Gov. Chris Christie plans to visit Wisconsin next week to campaign with Gov. Scott Walker — one of his likely rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Mr. Walker is locked in a tough re-election battle with Democrat Mary Burke. On Monday, Mr. Christie, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, plans to tour a manufacturing firm and GOP field office in Hudson with Mr. Walker before traveling to Ohio to attend an early vote rally with Gov. John Kasich, another possible White House contender, in Independence. He also plans to appear at local GOP dinner in Akron. The latest Real...

Former Florida governor's likely candidacy reveals how desperate GOP establishment has become to avoid Rand Paul. A dozen years after he ran his last political campaign, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is gearing up for a 2016 presidential bid – a campaign that would open up a new front in the Republican Party’s ongoing civil war. Mike Allen reports in today’s Politico Playbook that according to Bush’s friends, he’s “leaning more yes than no” on launching a run. He’s campaigning for Republican candidates in Senate battlegrounds like North Carolina and Kansas, and Allen reports, “has headlined several fundraisers where the...

On Tuesday morning, The View’s “conservative” co-host Nicolle Wallace gave a ringing endorsement for Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.) should he decide to run for president in 2016. Unfortunately for the New Jersey governor, her reasons for supporting him probably won’t help him win over many Republican primary voters. During a discussion about Chris Christie’s 2016 prospects, Wallace eagerly threw her hat in for the New Jersey Republican and proclaimed that “his politics are an interesting and progressive and modern swath of the country and I’d like to see him in.” (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The segment began with a discussion of Governor Christie’s weight...

The View’s alleged Republican, Nicolle Wallace, probably thinks she did NJ Gov. Chris Christie a favor when she endorsed him today. Wallace, who has been a perennial Palin basher since she worked on the ill-fated McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, described Christie as “progressive.”

Influential Republicans in early presidential primary states believe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is poised to once again become a frontrunner for the party’s 2016 nomination, following a news report that federal scrutiny of a bridge-closing scandal has not implicated him. “If he had been found in the wrong, he would have been irreparably damaged,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “This is hugely helpful.”

Influential Republicans in early presidential primary states believe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is poised to once again become a frontrunner for the party’s 2016 nomination, following a news report that he is no longer a target of federal scrutiny for his role in a bridge-closing scandal. “If he had been found in the wrong, he would have been irreparably damaged,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “This is hugely helpful.” “To have that not hanging over his head puts him back where he started from,” said Chuck Laudner, an Iowa-based strategist for former Pennsylvania senator...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Pat Buchanan predicted Mitt Romney will run for president on this weekend's broadcast of The McLaughlin Group. "There is no doubt Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Mitt Romney are in the establishment category or bracket that are headed for the finals," Buchanan said. "I think Mitt would come out first but I really don't see Bush as really having the drive or inner drive. And I think, then you get Mitt Romney against someone like a Cruz, or someone like that, and I think that would be the finals. And I think that Mitt has got it in his heart...

Gov. Chris Christie, who has long avoided wading into the immigration debate, said Thursday in Mexico City that he won't lay out his position on immigration reform unless he decides to run for president. "Until that time I have no role in the immigration debate, except for how it may affect the individual citizens of New Jersey, which I'll deal with as governor," the New Jersey Republican told reporters. "But I won't have anything to say on immigration unless and until I become a candidate for president of the United States," he continued. "If that happens, then I will articulate...

President Barack Obama’s impotent approach to the international crises proliferating around the globe has resulted in a bipartisan barrage of criticisms directed at him and his administration, and it’s all getting to be just too much to handle for Obama’s remaining supporters. The latest to offend the sensibilities of those for whom the Islamic State is a threat only to our ability to craft convincing moral equivalencies for their abhorrent acts is New Jersey governor and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie. According to a report from New York Times journalist and Christie tracker Michael Barbaro, the governor had the...

The Koch Brothers think-tank, Americans for Prosperity, handed down a warning to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for not rejecting provisions in the ACA to submit health insurance exchange plans ahead of the health law’s full implementation. Republicans were already furious with Christie for praising President Obama’s rapid response to the super-storm Sandy that ravaged parts of the East Coast last week, and now the Koch Brothers are pressuring him to reject a New Jersey exchange bill to rebuff the ACA’s requirement before a November 16 cutoff date for states to set up health insurance exchanges. If states fail to...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

Second Amendment: An African-American single mom on her way to a birthday party for one of her kids faces 10 years in prison for straying into the Garden State carrying a firearm in her purse licensed in Pennsylvania. Shaneen Allen is less well-known than Michael Brown, the man shot by police in Ferguson, Mo., and it's doubtful Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton will pay her a visit anytime soon. They're busy elsewhere. A mother exercising her Second Amendment right not only to keep but to bear arms to protect her family is of little interest to them. Allen is a...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joined California Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari.... (snip) in town to raise money as chairman of the Republican Governors Association ,," "Kashkari riled the GOP when he admitted he had voted for Obama in 2008, ..(snip)

John and Scott have commented on the indictment of Gov. Rick Perry. As they note, it fits a pattern of politically motivated indictments of prominent Texas Republicans. The Perry indictment also fits a pattern of harassment via the legal process of prominent Republican governors: Sarah Palin, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, and now Perry. What do these four have in common? Why, they all are (or were) potentially viable candidates for the national office. Invocation of the legal process against Christie may well be warranted. (So too with Bob McDonnell, whom I didn’t include in my list because, although once vaguely...

Slip of the tongue? Yesterday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” Hillary Clinton spoke about what she would do about licensing illegal immigrants when she is president again. Watch:

Nicolle Wallace, former adviser to the McCain-Palin 2008 presidential campaign who worked with Steve Schmidt, appeared on The View on Thursday (3/10/2014) and gushed over Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and even Bill Clinton. Predictably, however, she trashed Sarah Palin.

Politicians often are very shrewd investors — with their own money. If Al Gore wanted to move his money around in cash, he’d need a fleet of forklifts. But they’re rotten investors with your money. President Barack Obama had his Solyndra, and New Jersey governor Chris Christie has his casino, Revel, the multibillion-dollar Atlantic City boondoggle that, having declared bankruptcy — twice — just announced that it will be closing its doors and putting its 3,100 employees out of work. Thanks to Governor Christie and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the taxpayers of New Jersey are quasi-partners in this...

TRENTON — For the second time in two years, Gov. Chris Christie has vetoed a bill that would have banned the dumping of fracking waste in New Jersey. Environmentalists and lawmakers from both parties had championed the measure, which would have prohibited companies from treating, discharging, disposing, and storing waste from hydraulic fracturing — the controversial practice of pumping water, sand, and chemicals deep underground to harvest natural gas. Though an increase in fracking in recent years has caused U.S. energy production to spike, critics worry that the practice could pollute drinking water supplies. And while fracking doesn't happen in...

Hot Air Presidential Survey After you click Submit the page may appear blank, but there should be a confirmation message at the top of the page. If you scroll up and see it, your votes have been received... ---snip--- ***** Polls to FReep on candidates for 2016 and issues. Please hurry, they usually close these pretty quickly,