Free Republic

Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Friday on CNN’s “New Central” that Republicans were in a “very bad place” after Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) bid for the speakership failed a third time. Reporter Manu Raju said, “This went in the wrong direction for Jim Jordan. He clearly does not have the votes. Is it time for him to withdraw?” McCarthy said, “That’s a question for him. I think we’ll go to conference here shortly and see which direction we go in.”

Leading Democrats and Republicans are unanimous in thinking that the United States should provide more military and financial assistance for Ukraine, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday after a closed-door briefing on the state of the Russia-Ukraine war. “The briefing made it so clear that we need to continue significant aid to Ukraine,” he told reporters.

It is extremely notable that Manu Raju of the Politico has written that the establishment intends to destroy Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). Raju serves as the court stenographer for the Senate GOP leadership. His pieces are routinely littered with the conventional wisdom and talking points of the Senate GOP leadership. He has more than once anticipated Senate GOP leadership strategy based on their conversations with him. So when Manu Raju says the establishment intends to go on offense against the tea party by beating Sen. Mike Lee in the Utah Republican Primary, we can be sure Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY),...

Some prominent moderate establishment Republicans in Utah are plotting to target conservative icon Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) with a primary challenge in 2016. Lee’s offense? He didn’t drink the Washington Kool-aid and see the D.C. cesspool as a jacuzzi after he ousted incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), who had supported the TARP bailouts, in 2010. When Lee prevailed over Bennett, he gave other conservatives across the country hope that they could also defeat entrenched incumbents who cared more about preserving the status quo above all else. Once Lee arrived in Washington, he didn’t turn his back on the base, which...

Providing all of my research were the "family values" Republicans. Last week, second-term Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina disappeared for six days, leaving the state without a chief executive who could make decisions in an emergency. His Republican lieutenant governor didn't know where he was, and had not been given any authority to make decisions in his absence. The state police said they had not been informed. His wife told the Associated Press she didn't know where he was, wasn't worried about him, and thought he was "writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids"...