Free Republic

For some reason that I should probably determine one day, I've always found internal disputes with the conservative movement/Republican party somewhat more interesting than internal disputes within the liberal movement/Democratic party. Perhaps it's because, as a liberal, I get a little Nelson Muntzian charge out of watching the folks on the other side tear themselves apart. Or perhaps it's because, immersed as I am in the liberal world, the disputes on the left make more sense to me and therefore plumbing their mysteries isn't so compelling. Regardless, it has often been the case that one side is unified as the...

Republicans have lost the last two presidential elections, but not much else over the past six years. They’ve captured the House and Senate. They now hold 31 governorships and 69 of the 99 state legislative chambers. What this means is pretty simple: There’s an emerging Republican majority. The GOP still has significant emerging to do before reaching majority status. It may never get there. The rise this year may be Republicans’ peak for now. They may have achieved nothing more than what University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato calls “the emerging outline of possible GOP victory in 2016.” At the...

In the days since Election Day, and during the coming weeks and months, the message from the White House has been and will be put forth endlessly as accepted wisdom, the lie repeated often enough until it becomes truth: that Americans voted for Congress and the White House to “work together.” That what they want is government action to solve their problems. This assertion, which is not just wrong but disprovable, serves the White House purpose of quieting conservatives who are willing to muck up business as usual in order to scuttle or at least make a vigorous point about...

"We want a fair, impartial, and color-blind criminal justice system. But if we're honest with ourselves, that doesn't exist for all Americans today."Late Monday night, after the House took its final votes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus took the floor to speak for about one hour about race in the wake of a grand jury's decision last week not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. "Hands up, don't shoot," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York began. Charles Rangel, the longtime New York Democrat, followed Jeffries and CBC Chairwoman...

Dear Taxpayers, Regardless of where one falls on the political spectrum, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tends to generate strongly held opinions. The agency, funded at roughly $8 billion annually in recent years, is charged with protecting human health and the environment. For the most part, this is achieved by carrying out relevant statutes through the creation, implementation, and enforcement of environmental regulations. I wanted to take this opportunity to drop you a note on my latest project to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the federal budget. Yesterday, I released the (link) a report highlighting more than...

Ted Cruz and House conservatives are once again trying to derail John Boehner's plans. Who could've guessed? When the House GOP leadership floated its government funding strategy early this week — the (please kill me immediately for typing this) “cromnibus” plus a separate protest vote denouncing President Obama’s immigration executive action — the first thought I had was “Oh my God, Ted Cruz.” Then I thought “Oh my God, Steve King.” As in: Ted Cruz and Steve King will not at all be happy with this, and they’ll probably try to nuke it. Just look at the way the maneuver...

Following up on an earlier item, House Republicans are still weighing their options when it comes to a possible government shutdown next week, but as the process unfolds, there will be quite a few meetings behind closed doors. Take this one, for example, scheduled for this morning. A cadre of the House’s most conservative members will meet Wednesday morning at the Capitol Hill Club for Rep. Steve King’s regular breakfast to discuss lame duck legislation. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who often serves as a de facto spokesperson for congressional hardliners, is expected to attend. It’s worth pausing to appreciate...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., -- In an exclusive interview with FTMDaily's (http://ftmdaily.com/) Jerry Robinson, former Congressman Ron Paul discusses some of his core values as an American and as a human being. "On Faith and Family: A Conversation With Dr. Ron Paul" provides compelling insight on the problems facing the nation today, as well as reflections on Paul's three presidential campaigns. Paul explained that war and strong-arm diplomacy, both part of America's compulsion to police the world, are fundamentally unsound policies. Most disturbingly, he said, is that a vocal minority of the Christian Evangelical community is strongly in favor of such foreign...

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, predicted Tuesday that neither Gov. Rick Perry nor Sen. Ted Cruz can win the presidency in 2016, calling them both too divisive to garner broad support. “When you get to the general election, people don’t generally want either an angry person or a very harsh, shrill, partisan person,” Castro said about Perry’s prospects. “They want somebody … whose aim at least is to bring people together.” Castro — in a rare joint appearance with twin brother Julián Castro, the Housing and Urban Development Secretary, at a Politico event titled “Lessons from Leaders” — said Cruz...

No, red state women didn't save the party. But Ebola was a phony GOP-made crisis and Dems shouldn't have cowered. Thanksgiving is a great time for writers to reckon with whatever we got wrong over the year – and to be grateful that in this day and age we get to write every day, and put mistakes behind us quickly. So with the 2014 midterm election rapidly disappearing in the rearview mirror, I thought I’d reckon with my one big political mistake this past election cycle, as well as one big thing I got, sadly, right. In July 2013, long...

Now that President Barack Obama has granted legal relief to as many as 5 million unauthorized immigrants, Republicans are thrashing about for an effective response. Only a few hard-liners are talking about impeachment now, but more could join them out of frustration with their other options. Many people in both parties have tried to quell such talk by saying the president is within his powers to issue the order. The problem is the pro-impeachment Republicans are right: There is a plausible case for taking that step. By constitutional design, impeachment for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” is...

Michele Bachmann is one of those Republican extremists who will keep Hispanics voting in the Democratic column for a long time. The Minnesota Republican said President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration will “flood” the country with “millions of unskilled” foreigners “who can’t speak English” but will become “illiterate” voters. Bachmann’s response was not unusual. The once and future presidential hopeful, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), said the president’s policy would take jobs away from good American workers and give them to illegal aliens. These over-the-top Republican responses — and talk of impeachment, censure and lawsuits targeting Obama — can...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Rep. Peter King has a suggestion for the White House in dealing with the latest developments in Ferguson — invite Officer Darren Wilson over. “I think it would be very helpful if President Obama went and met with the police officer, or invited him to the White House and said, ‘You’ve gone through four months of smear and slander, and the least we can do is tell you that it’s unfortunate that it happened and thank you for doing your job,’” the New York Republican told Fox Business on Tuesday. ---snip--- “I thought it was terrible how, over the last...

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday called the grand jury decision not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson a “slap in the face” for those seeking justice for the death of Michael Brown “The Ferguson grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown is a miscarriage of justice,” CBC Chair Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) said in a statement released after the decision was announced late Monday evening in Missouri. “It is a slap in the face to Americans nationwide who continue to hope and believe that justice will prevail.” “This decision...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) needs to stop defending the disastrous 2013 shutdown. The stunt he inspired was, for all but the Kool-Aid drinkers, a low point in recent Republican history. It plunged the party into a slump and allowed the president to divert attention from the looming Obamacare debacle. It was only after the shutdown ended by complete surrender that Republicans and the media could focus on the horrible Obamacare rollout. The shutdown was so harmful that virtually no conservative — not even Cruz — recommends a repeat over the president’s executive order on immigration. So why is Cruz still...

Even after a historic midterm win, Republican confusion over how to respond to Obama on immigration is evidence of a changing party.It was a quiet meeting on the eve of a political explosion. At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, 30 or so members of the 2012 GOP freshman class of the House of Representatives gathered in a conference room in the Capitol Visitor Center for what’s become a monthly conclave. For the junior representatives, this was a chance to get some face time with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Everyone knew that the next evening, President Barack Obama planned to deliver an...

On Friday, President Barack Obama flew Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) on Air Force One with other Democrats to a speech at a Las Vegas high school (Del Sol) where he delivered a speech to celebrate and promote his executive amnesty. Others aboard Air Force One, according to the White House, were Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Rep. Dina Titus (D-NB), Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers, Marc Morial, the president of the National...

GOP's Sessions: Obama's amnesty 'worse than you think'WASHINGTON – Phone lines are melting on Capitol Hill with outraged citizens calling their elected representatives to complain about the president’s order effectively granting amnesty to illegal immigrants. A number of Capitol Hill offices closed today for the Thanksgiving recess, but aides report hearing from upset voters even at the offices in lawmakers’ home states. The offices of Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, confirmed a flood of complaints, and an aide to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told WND, “We are getting tons of phone calls to block executive amnesty.” “I...

The Obama Non-Enforcement Doctrine holds that a president is not required to implement or enforce laws passed by Congress with which he disagrees. Obama’s use of the doctrine sets an interesting precedent for the next chief executive, who likely will be a Republican. For example, a Republican could adopt the Obama Non-Enforcement Doctrine with regard to corporate income taxes by directing the IRS to cease all efforts to enforce those portions of the Internal Revenue Code relating to income taxes payable by corporations. This would be great public policy. My law school tax professor once remarked that there is no...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)President Obama’s controversial move to open the nation’s door to millions of illegal immigrants is a fulfillment of former President Reagan’s dream of building a “shining city on a hill,” according to a progressive group’s TV ad. The video from Americans United for Change shows Reagan talking about his move to relax immigration rules. In it the Gipper references his “shining city” that has doors open “to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.” It immediately flips to Obama who adds, “that’s the legacy we must leave for those who are yet to come.” The ad, previewed...