Free Republic

A new Rasmussen poll finds that the tea party movement's popularity is growing, so much so that it garners more support than the Republican party on a generic Congressional ballot. The poll hints that the burgeoning discontent among conservatives within the GOP threatens to splinter the party at a time when the popularity of President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress are waning as we head into an election year.

There seems to be some misconception by some, especially those on the left, that the big winners in Tuesday's elections in Virginia were moderate Republicans. Let's disabuse them of that notion. The charge is usually stated as a premise in a comment along the lines of "the right wing should not celebrate too much over these results, because had the Virginia guys been conservatives, they never would have won." Then, for the chaser, they throw out the Hoffman loss in NY-23 as the example of what happens to a conservative when he dares to run for office.

The race has now been called for Democrat Bill Owens. This is a huge win for conservatives. “Whaaaa. . . ?” you say. There are two big victories at work in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. First, the GOP now must recognize it will either lose without conservatives or will win with conservatives. In 2008, many conservatives sat home instead of voting for John McCain. Now, in NY-23, conservatives rallied and destroyed the Republican candidate the establishment chose. I have said all along that the goal of activists must be to defeat Scozzafava. Doug Hoffman winning would just be gravy....

'm writing about this for my USA Today column, but the Frank Rich hissy fit is a perfect example of the real story of the election. The story is not that the GOP is self-destructing, it is that the conventional wisdom is being shown to be ludicrous. For some time now Frank Rich, Sam Tanenhaus and countless others (including David Frum) have been arguing that the GOP is a rump party and the only way for it to survive is for it to embrace me-too Republicanism of one flavor or another. The story of all three major races (VA, NJ,...

Base sends GOP warning shot in NY-23 By: Jonathan Martin and Alex Isenstadt October 31, 2009 07:43 PM EST Republican Dede Scozzafava’s decision Saturday to drop out of the New York special congressional election gave conservatives a big win, but may present a challenge for Republicans heading into next year's mid-term elections. The long-term implications from Scozzafava’s Halloween surprise will depend on what lessons Republicans take from the race, where Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman now seems poised to consolidate center-right support and win the seat previously held by Republican John McHugh, who resigned to become President Obama’s Secretary of...

Although I am very happy with the events so far in New York and I support both Hoffman's run against a liberal GOP Candidate and the conservative statement to the GOP, I have some concerns. I think that Hoffman's campaign will encourage more independents to buck the GOP establishment. While I think that this is necessary in showing the GOP that the conservative grass roots don’t want the establishment’s compromising, weak spined, unprincipled moderates, when will conservative enough be conservative enough? There are few politicians that espouse the (small l) libertarian, small government philosophies that I believe in. I am...

With Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman running neck and neck with the Democrat in Tuesday’s special election in New York, some other disaffected Republicans are seeing the third-party route as more viable. And it could hurt the Republicans in those races. In Virginia’s 5th district, state Sen. Robert Hurt’s entry into the GOP primary has spurred little-known candidate Bradley Rees to switch to the Virginia Conservative Party. And in Ohio, another GOP primary contender said this week that he’ll run as a Constitution Party candidate. Both will go at the GOP nominees from their right flanks and try to expose...

This fall's only congressional election, featuring a third-party conservative challenging the Republican nominee, tests the future of the GOP. Will the Tea Party insurgency prevail? Atlanta Pitting conservative purists against party pragmatists, a growing number of national Republican figures are bucking the party standard and backing a third-party candidate in the sole congressional election scheduled this year, upstate New York’s 23rd congressional district. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, former Senator Rick Santorum, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, current Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann, former Tennessee Senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson, and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes have all...

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund, is packing her bags in preparation for a trip tomorrow from Virginia to NY-23, where she will join members of her staff working to help Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman. Dannenfelser, who described the fund, a national pro-life PAC, as "basically the mirror image of EMILY's List, said the race for the seat vacated by former Rep. John McHugh has galvanized the GOP grassroots in a way she hasn't seen before. "There's basically a split between a few party leaders and the entire Republican base," Dannenfelser said. "Only a handful...

Poltico's Jonathan Martin reports: "The surging campaign of third-party candidate Chris Daggett has turned the New Jersey governor's race into a dead-heat and left Republicans divided over the seriousness of the threat he poses to GOP nominee Chris Christie." The Hill's Reid Wilson reports: The House GOP conference is bitterly divided over a centrist New York Republican’s run for the House seat vacated by Army Secretary John McHugh. "Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who backs abortion rights and has voiced support for gay rights, has drawn a challenger from the right who is running on the Conservative Party line. And though House...

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- The rise of conservative "tea party" activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power. But they're also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win. In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents. Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race...

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) exhorted Republicans Friday to rally against fiscal excess, promising a conservative crowd that the country is “on the verge of a great American awakening.” Pence, the House GOP conference chairman, said the simmering unrest that led to Tea Parties since the spring and the march in Washington last month reflected a country angry about the expansion of government. “It’s authentic and it’s real and it’s powerful and it’s American,” Pence told about 2,000 conservatives at the annual conference of Americans for Prosperity, a free-market group. The five-term Hoosier said of the movement: “The politicians aren’t leading...

<p>Sarah Palin needs to stop whining about unfair media coverage and get over the fact that some people don’t like her, Dave Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, tells Newsmax.</p> <p>Palin doesn’t seem to get that politics is a tough game, says Keene, one of the country’s most astute political observers.</p>

In GOP base, a 'rebellion brewing' By: Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin April 26, 2009 07:03 AM EST 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...

In the ongoing debate over the economic stimulus package, South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford has made all the right enemies. The White House has brushed aside Sanford’s threat to turn down $700 million allotted for his state. Republicans in Sanford’s own state have hinted that they’ll override any attempt to veto the cash. Moderate California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gently mocked Sanford’s position. “I’ll take it,” Schwarzenegger told George Stephanopolous last month. “I’m more than happy to take his money or any other governor in this country that doesn’t want to take this money.” Sanford’s public battle with...

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has won the backing of some of America's best-known conservatives in his bid to become Republican National Committee chairman, just days before he and the other hopefuls are scheduled to begin a week of joint appearances to Republican Party audiences. The soft-spoken politician has received public endorsements from across the spectrum of conservatives - social, movement and economic, but some in the party, people who back him and people who don't, fear he may lack the charisma needed to represent the party on television. Blackwell supporters include limited-government champions such as American Conservative...

Where did the super-majority of votes gathered by Ronald Reagan in his presidential campaigns go in 2008? Can they be reclaimed by future Republican candidates? Reagan's 1980 and 1984 victories were based on a coalition of three different groups. He attracted the fiscal-integrity/limited-government conservatives who had not given up since Barry Goldwater's campaign, the social conservatives who newly came into the political process to be active against the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion, and the Reagan Democrats (mostly blue-collar, Catholic and/or Irish) who sought a change from the stagflation of the Jimmy Carter years. In 2008, the first two groups...

Under the myopic mantra of "not conservative enough," the nation just rejected its best known American hero and real Washington watch-dog and elected the most inexperienced far left freshman member of the U.S. Senate, aka the elitist good ole boy network, as Commander-in-Chief. Despite the fact that John McCain has a history of being "conservative" on 16 of 20 national issues (80%), according to too many "conservatives," he was not conservative enough to gain their support in the 2008 general election, even after bringing conservative Washington outsider Sarah Palin aboard. So, "conservatives" put Barack Hussein Obama and leftist Democrats in...

<p>WASHINGTON - Conservatism's current intellectual chaos reverberated in the Republican ticket's end-of-campaign crescendo of surreal warnings that big government - verily, "socialism" - would impend were Democrats elected. John McCain and Sarah Palin experienced this epiphany when Barack Obama told a Toledo plumber that he would "spread the wealth around."</p>

With that headline you may think I am employing hyperbole. If so, you would be wrong. I am absolutely and positively blaming the conservative movement for the rise to the presidency of a man that adheres to a socialist ideology. In fact, in this day and age, I might even blame conservatives for the continued existence of this man's ideas altogether, though that might be a stretch. No, more directly, conservatives are at fault for the singular fact that many millions of Americans saw no reason not to vote for a socialist. They mistakenly imagined his ideas were still just...

Democrat Barack Obama garnered a surprising 20 percent of the vote from conservatives who cast ballots on Election Day, top-ranked radio-talker Rush Limbaugh told listeners. Citing exit polls, Limbaugh also said on Wednesday that Republican John McCain lost independents and moderates by a margin of 60 percent to 39 percent. “McCain only got 89 percent of the Republican vote,” Limbaugh said. “He only got 80 percent of the conservative vote. “And therein lies the tale, the recipe offered up by the wizards of smart in the Republican Party and on our side — for whatever reason we have to abandon...

Four minutes from the impromptu presser outside his home this morning. It’s like “Meet John Doe” but without the newspaper columnist pulling the strings! If there was any doubt about his political affiliation before, listen to him on social security and Iraq and watch those doubts melt away. Can a cameo at a ‘Cuda rally be far off? The highlight: One of the reporters trying to kookify him by pressing him on some sort of old association with the Natural Law Party. He’s middle class and conservative; there simply must be some extremism in there somewhere. Update: Let the ritual...

To the degree that they are engaged in this election, conservatives are motivated entirely by fear of Obama and what he will do as president when backed by a solidly liberal Democratic House and Senate. They are not driven by love of the Republican candidate, and it shows in the anger present at McCain campaign rallies. Most conservatives will probably vote for McCain, but they also realize they are far less likely to persuade others, and they feel a disaster coming. The enthusiasm the Right felt during the 2004 election, which had been framed as a true ideological clash between...

McCain faces conservative backlash over mortgage plan By Alexander Mooney CNN (CNN) -- John McCain is facing a fresh round of anger from members of his own party deeply opposed to the Arizona senator's proposal for the federal government to purchase troubled mortgage loans. John McCain first mentioned his mortgage relief plan during Tuesday's town-hall debate with Barack Obama. John McCain first mentioned his mortgage relief plan during Tuesday's town-hall debate with Barack Obama. The pointed backlash from several economic conservatives -- many of whom already distrust McCain's commitment to free-market principles -- couldn't come at a worse time for...

I think I'm fairly representative of those conservatives who just could not stand to vote for John McCain.  But I now plan to vote for him this November.  Let me tell you why. My published criticisms of McCain can be read here, here, here and here.  I even contemplated that a President Obama might not be so bad.  I think my bona fides as a "McCain hater" are fairly well established.  (Although I don't care for the word "hate" here.  I didn't hate him, just voting for him.) To some conservatives, voting is a simple matter: only one of two...

ST. PAUL, MINN. - Republican John McCain's primary campaign almost collapsed last year under the weight of opponents' attacks that he backed "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. As McCain prepares to accept his party's nomination for president tonight, past critics of the Arizona senator's position have rallied behind his candidacy. McCain, meanwhile, has backed away from signature immigration legislation and signed off on a party platform that makes a fence along the Mexican border a priority. The party's Twin Cities unity on immigration bridges, for now, an increasingly charged ideological rift for Republican candidates and campaigns. "We don't go around talking...

The choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin last week by Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been explained in the media as a "game-changer," "bold," "daring," and in keeping with the Arizona senator's "maverick" image. But here's what the decision means for across-the-board conservatives: vital. Before McCain's decision many on the Right (including myself) were alternately ambivalent, disaffected, or outright opposed to the idea of voting for him. After years of nose-thumbing acts by the GOP candidate towards many of his party's colleagues and its base, the temptation for conservatives to register a protest vote (most likely Libertarian Bob Barr)...

Many conservatives are nervous as the Republican National Convention kicks off. They know they won’t be hearing anything close to the no-compromise declarations of Helms and Goldwater. John McCain is working hard to convince conservatives he is one of us even as he surrounds himself with prominent moderates, including Rudy Giuliani, Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Yes, conservatives will have their say at the convention: Vice President Dick Cheney, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oka.), and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) are scheduled to speak. But...

When Sarah Palin stepped into the spotlight as John McCain’s running mate in Dayton, Ohio, and promised that women could “shatter that glass ceiling once and for all”, it was an electrifying moment in a presidential election that had already produced its share of upsets and surprises. History was on the march again the morning after Barack Obama became the first African-American to accept his party’s White House nomination. After the fireworks, the 80,000-strong crowd who had cheered Obama to the skies at the Mile High stadium in Denver woke up with a hangover. “We may be seeing the first...

The selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has electrified conservative activists, providing a boost of energy to the GOP nominee-in-waiting from a key constituency that had been previously had been lukewarm – at best – about him. By tapping the anti-abortion and pro-gun Alaska governor just ahead of his convention, which is set to start here Monday, McCain hasn’t just won approval from a skeptical Republican base – he’s ignited a wave of elation and emotion that has led some grassroots activists to weep with joy. Serious questions remain about McCain’s pick – exactly how much he...

FAIRBANKS -- Among social conservatives, and Alaska has plenty, U.S. Sen. John McCain’s popularity grew Friday after he named Gov. Sarah Palin his running mate. Palin is solidly pro-gun, pro-death penalty, anti-abortion, against gay marriage and she has advocated for creationism to be taught in public schools. McCain has a reputation, deserved or not, for being moderate on some social issues, although his votes in the Senate and the positions described on his campaign Web site would suggest otherwise. The Arizona senator was the last choice among Alaska Republicans who voted in February’s presidential preference poll. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt...

There has been plenty of whining from conservatives concerning whether John McCain would select a pro-choice vice president. I just hope whining is all it is. As my colleague Dan Calabrese pointed out on August 21, the political leanings of the VP concerning abortion are largely irrelevant. The only way to meaningfully decrease the number of abortions is to convince people that abortion is a bad idea, not to legislate. But this conservative whining must be starting to concern McCain and his political strategists at least a little. Maybe these people who keep complaining that McCain isn´t conservative enough are...

Richard A. Viguerie ConservativeHQ.com 9625 Surveyor Court, Suite 400 Manassas, Virginia 20110 Contact: Bob Sturm (703) 396-6974 After 6 PM Eastern time and on weekends & holidays, contact Bob Sturm (703) 307-8176 FOR RELEASE August 20, 2008 An Open Letter from Richard Viguerie to John McCain: Conservatives Can Also Play the Maverick Game (Manassas, Virginia) The following is an open letter from Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, to Senator John McCain in regard to news reports that the Republican presidential candidate may select a vice presidential running mate who supports abortions rights: Dear Senator McCain: The buzz in recent...

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 19, 2008 09:11 AM Scroll down for updates… Wouldn’t put it past him. Would you? Which is why, despite all the encomiums he’s received from his Saddleback appearance, I haven’t joined the ga-ga bandwagon (and won’t).Rich Lowry reports: NR has learned that the McCain campaign has been calling key state GOP officials around the country the last couple of days and sounding them out about the consequences of a pro-choice VP pick. The campaign is asking about the reaction of conservative grass-roots activists to such a pick and whether a pro-choicer can be sold to them....

On the day Mitt Romney bowed out of the presidential race last February, his supporters latched onto something of a consolation prize that appeared to bode well for his political future: the warm embrace of hundreds of conservatives whose seal of approval he had long sought. -SNIP- Yet as Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is said to have emerged as a top contender to be Senator John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate, a vocal segment of conservative leaders and grass-roots activists have mobilized against him, with some going out of their way to block his path to the Republican...

Top conservative activist and leader of the Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafly — a legendary militant pro-lifer — reacted to John McCain's remark that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge's pro-choice position would not rule him out as a vice presidential running mate by telling Newsmax, "I think [McCain] would be making a mistake." Schlafly was not alone in warning McCain against picking Ridge or any other pro-choice advocate as his running mate. Other top conservative leaders chimed in, showing that McCain, already getting only grudging support from the GOP’s right wing, might drive conservatives to desert his cause and torpedo his...

"SpeechWars.com" is a website that enables a user to count the number of times Obama and McCain have used specific words in more than 125 major published speeches since 2004. John McCain used the word "Conservative" seven times between 2004 and 2008. He used the word 16 times in two months after Mitt Romney challenged him from the right in the 2008 GOP primaries. After McCain clinched the nomination in March 2008, he has NEVER used the word "Conservative" in a major speech.

It was said of the restored Bourbon monarchs of France after the French Revolution, “They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” The same can be said of today’s Republican congressional leadership. Many Republicans hoped that after losing their majority in the 2006 debacle, the congressional leadership would put together a reform agenda that would emphasize core conservative principles to recapture its majority. Yet those hopes have been dashed as lately it has been more of the same and voters have continued to punish Republicans with devastating defeats. It would appear that things will have to get worse before they get...

Richard Viguerie: Conservatives Deeply Depressed Over McCain Campaign (Las Vegas, Nevada) Conservatives are so depressed over the state of the McCain campaign--particularly its failure to include and enthuse the Republican base--that they are preparing themselves for a monumental GOP defeat in November, Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said in a speech to FreedomFest. “You even have some conservatives who are considering voting for Barack Obama, because they fear McCain as president would destroy what’s left of the Republican brand and would finish off the conservative movement,” said Viguerie. “Their mood is that of the fatally ill patient who...

Conservatives have rarely been comfortable with Sen. John McCain and they're worried that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee will try to mess with the basic GOP platform that "currently reflects the policies and principles of President Bush," Michael D. Shear tells us this morning. Conservatives seem to have particular concerns about McCain's views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance.We don't ask our Readers Who Comment to identify their political leanings, but many of those who have filed on this article seem to be Democrats, because they're enjoying the fight. Some who seem to come from the...

A number of friends of mine have commented on an odd phenomenon that they have observed — conservative Republicans they know who are saying that they are going to vote for Barack Obama. It seemed at first to be an isolated fluke, perhaps signifying only that my friends know some strange conservatives. But apparently columnist Robert Novak has encountered the same phenomenon and has coined the term "Obamacons" to describe the conservatives for Senator Obama. Now the San Francisco Chronicle has run a feature article, titled "Some Influential Conservatives Spurn GOP and Endorse Obama." In it they quote various conservatives...

You see, the problem is McCain really doesn’t like us. To a large degree he’s bought into the moonbat caricature of conservatives, thinking we’re bigots and yahoos who lack hearts. But he’s figured out a way to deal with us. He’s going to throw us some red meat during the campaign; he’ll give us some lip service when he has to and once he placates us enough that we vote him into office, he’s stubbornly going to go right back to what he wants to do. You can do that sort of thing and keep a clear conscience when you’re...

A factor that weighs heavily in McCain’s favor is his Senate record. Judicial issues haven’t been his trademark, but he has consistently supported conservative Supreme Court nominees. In 1987 he spoke on behalf of embattled Reagan Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, saying he supported him “without any hesitation.” In recent years McCain has voted for every one of Bush’s judicial nominees. “He voted for Alito and Roberts despite the fact that he had to know they would vote to strike down McCain-Feingold,” said Levey. “That addresses the concern that he might not appoint strict constructionist judges who are more likely...

McCain fights for conservative supportFrom Dana Bash CNN Correspondent (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain took his "Straight Talk" straight to conservatives Thursday night as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee looked to shore up support from the party's base. At a Cincinnati, Ohio, town hall meeting, McCain talked in depth about a bevy of issues, from Iraq to taxes. He reiterated his proposal for a gas tax holiday to help Americans deal with soaring prices at the pump. He spoke for more than an hour but never mentioned issues that social conservatives skeptical of McCain want to hear about: his opposition...

When Losing Isn’t Affordable November and The War on IslamofascismBy Rene Guerra Unambiguous success in Iraq and unequivocal victory in the rest of the global war on Islamofascism is not a choice; we don’t have any other alternative, for it is a matter of our very survival. It is not a matter of “prestige� or any other hubristic notion; it is about our own hide, particularly when America faces the grim prospect of Barack Hussein Obama becoming the next president of the United States of America. The term “Unambiguous Success in Iraq�, cited in the above opening paragraph, is deemed...

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., has reluctantly come to the conclusion that he will have to vote for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., whose immigration reform bill Tancredo blasted as amnesty. "Sometimes I say to myself, 'Can I really do this?'" Tancredo said of voting for McCain, according to the Rocky Mountain News. "And then you listen to Obama or Hillary and say, 'Yeah, I have to.'" At a debate last October Tancredo sounded less sure of such an idea. "You know, I've said I don't know how many times, that I am absolutely tired and sick and tired of being forced...

McCain's campaign says it's ramped up efforts to rally Christian conservatives behind the presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee. The campaign to get conservatives to the polls in 18 battleground states is low-key -- e-mailed messages and briefings of conservative leaders before McCain, R-Ariz., delivers key speeches, The New York Times reported Monday. McCain's wooing of the conservative vote must be balanced against his appeal moderates and independents, political analysts said. "Because the Republican brand name is less popular and the conservative base is restive, McCain has special needs to reach out to independent and moderate voters, but, of course, he...

The first boss I ever had, in 1968, was a Nixon-hater. A Democrat from upstate New York, he kept a coffee mug emblazoned with a Nixon $3 bill, and he could recite the litany of Nixon's red-baiting campaigns. First there was Jerry Voorhees in 1946, then there was Alger Hiss and the pumpkin papers. Then there was Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950. You can imagine that I was surprised when Nixon won the presidency that November. We learned later that Richard Nixon's victory over Hubert Humphrey in 1968 was the first victory of Nixon's "southern strategy," a deliberate attempt to...

Halloween has come early this year: Republicans have forgotten how to run without scare tactics. This year it’s Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s turn as the Democratic goblin, with House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as the witch on a broomstick. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is the vampire slayer and ghostbuster who will save us from the creatures of the night. These fear tactics didn’t work in the three special House elections this year, and they’re not going to work in November. Are we supposed to be scared of Democrats as big spenders? The Bush administration and congressional Republicans topped Democratic...

Perhaps because I'm a neocon, and not a dyed-in-the-wool, native-born conservative, I look at John McCain, with all his flaws, and still think that he's a pretty darn good candidate for our time. More importantly, I think that Obama is a very dangerous candidate precisely because of the time in which we live. I therefore find disturbing the number of conservative purists who insist that they're going to teach John McCain -- and everyone else, dammit! -- a lesson, either by sitting out the election or by throwing their vote away on a third party candidate. This is a kind...