Free Republic

(HOUSTON) -- Sen. Ted Cruz’ hometown newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, wishes it could take back its endorsement. The Chronicle’s editorial board, which endorsed Cruz, R-Texas, in his 2012 race, now says it misses his predecessor, former Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. “When we endorsed Ted Cruz in last November’s general election, we did so with many reservations and at least one specific recommendation -- that he follow Hutchison’s example in his conduct as a senator,” the Chronicle said. “Obviously, he has not done so." “Cruz has been part of the problem in specific situations where Hutchison would have been part...

Every time we have a congressional impasse over budgetary issues, we hear from liberals predicting Shutdown-mageddon. Why don't they ever join us in expressing concern over the inevitable financial collapse that will result from their policies? We always seem to hyperventilate over these mini-crises involving the temporary shutdown of small parts of the precious federal government, while we totally ignore the real financial catastrophe we're headed toward unless we begin to move in the direction Sen. Ted Cruz and other congressional Republicans are insisting on in these budgetary battles — defunding Obamacare, reining in spending, and reforming unsustainable entitlements. Indeed,...

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - One lawmaker in the eye of the storm that is the government shutdown offered his encouragement to residents in the Tennessee Valley Tuesday night. Texas Senator Ted Cruz spoke at a dinner held by the Huntsville Republican Women. He gave a speech and then took questions from the crowd, via a video link from Washington. Cruz had been scheduled to appear in person but the turmoil in Washington kept him there. During the event, Cruz took the opportunity to blast the Obama administration on a wide range of issues. "We're seeing the constitutional rights of law-abiding...

Apparently, it’s become fashionable to wonder whether fissures in the GOP might eventually grow into a schism, with tea party candidates mounting independent challenges to the GOP in the 2014 elections. Last night, David Frum went a step farther, writing that a tea party exodus might actually help Republicans by freeing them of Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, allowing the GOP to slide back to the political center. It's a centrist fantasy. If Republicans think they have a pathway to victory without the tea party, they’re sorely mistaken. The tea party is not some small, fringe element of the Republican...

HONG KONG - Perhaps the only people who have managed to find a silver lining in the ongoing US government shutdown are Chinese intellectuals. Of course, Americans view the impasse as a sign of political dysfunction. But to many Chinese commentators, it also reveals certain strengths. Since the shutdown began nine days ago, Chinese social media have been full of wistful, almost admiring remarks about how the shutdown could only happen in a democratic country with a resilient economy and responsive political representation. "The government's closed - is this bad?" wrote Chen Zhiwu, a user on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo....

“Go ahead big shot. You put the full faith and credit of the U.S. on your shoulders. Have fun with that. Good luck. Do it. Do it. I dare you. I’m daring you right now. Go and do it, hot shot, or are you just going to sit in the back, and when people are responsible and actually give a damn about this country and give a damn about the full faith and credit of the U.S. and actually care about the people who are working day in and day out hoping to keep their job, you’re going to keep...

The chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa, sent the following email Tuesday morning.

Barney Frank spent 32 years in the U.S. House before retiring in January. In recent years, he helmed the House Financial Services Committee during the 2008 financial crisis, became the first member of Congress to marry a same-sex partner while in office and helped lead the charge for a ban on anti-gay firings (so far stymied) and post-crash financial reform (that law now bears his name). He’s currently writing a book. In a Monday afternoon interview, Frank predicted the endgame of the debt-ceiling showdown and defended his push in Congress for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would have left out...

Question: If Ted Cruz and John Boehner were both on a sinking ship, who would be saved? Answer: America. Harsh? Look around you at what is happening to America and you will see harsh. I am not talking about closed parks and monuments. I am talking about the funds cut to nearly 9 million mothers and young children for food, breastfeeding support and infant formula. That is harsh. Making a war against babies is harsh. And for what? Because Cruz, Republican senator from Texas, has grown so drunk on the sound of his own voice and so besotted with illusions...

"It seems that President Obama's paid political operatives are out in force today. And you know why? Because the men and women in this room scare the living daylights out of them," said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after interruptions from activists calling for family unity through immigration reform. Jacqueline Garcia’s grandfather was the sole breadwinner for the family of four. Her parents were not in the picture. But her younger brother, her disabled grandmother, and Jackie were a tight-knit family and all depended on the grandfather. At 16, Jackie, a U.S. citizen, is an honor student in her Phoenix high...

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., is no fan of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. The New York congressman made it clear on Monday’s "Morning Joe" that he will work to stop Cruz and his allies in their tracks. “I’ve been speaking out against Ted Cruz and this whole crazy movement since it started,” King told MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. King also said he thought that “there’s no doubt that the Democrats are winning,” and that President Obama needed to play “a more aggressive role” in the negotiations to reopen the government and lift the debt ceiling. King also warned that Cruz and...

In May 1940 the world faced a menace unlike any it had ever seen. After a decade of economic body blows, much of the world was weary. With the carnage of WWI only 20 years past few people had the stomach to fight for much of anything. It was only with great reluctance that in September 1939 the British and the French declared war on Germany after they invaded Poland with the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, even after the declaration, after years of appeasement most British felt that there was little they could do to stop Adolph Hitler. Things were indeed...

The basic framework of the deal Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid have hammered out is coming to light. The provision the GOP is crowing over — that the Obama Administration will check the income levels of those who receive a subsidy — is already the law. Meanwhile, the GOP will let the rest of the year proceed above sequester level spending, give the unions another carve out of Obamacare, and extend the debt limit to February. I’m sure at the last minute they’ll also delay the medical device tax so it looks like Harry Reid caved on something. Really, it’ll...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Republicans have a chance to take back the majority in the Senate in 2014 only if the party boldly differentiates itself from Democrats. “I think 2014 can and should be a very good Republican year and I think if Republicans stand for principle, we’re going to win in 2014," Cruz said in an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network. Cruz argued that the 2006, 2008, and 2012 election cycles were "disastrous for Republicans," because in "all three of those cycles Republicans followed the philosophy of keep your head down, don’t rock the...

Nothing says “patriot” like waving around the Battle Flag of the Confederacy in front of the White House.I’m still trying to wrap my head around this scene: Yesterday, in Washington, a group of angry white people—it was billed as the “Million Vet March” but numbered in the hundreds, maybe the thousands, and who knows how many were actual veterans—led by Tea Party-aligned Texas senator Ted Cruz and former half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin, marched on the Lincoln and World War II memorials, tearing down the barricades and demanding that President Obama reopen these sites, which, of course, are closed because...

On his radio show Monday morning, Bill Press took on this weekend’s Million Vet March by denouncing the participants as “idiots” who’ve been used by “right-wing organizations” to protest against their own best interests. Ultimately, he said, they shouldn’t be following people like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), they should be expressing public odium towards him. “Absolutely drives me crazy,” Press said of Sunday’s protest activities. “Here’s what wrong with it,” he continued, “Those three idiots leading the protests, but they’re not the dumbest ones. The dumbest ones there are the idiots that are protesting. These are people, they call them...

I saw a recent poll suggesting that former first lady, United States senator and secretary of State Hillary Clinton would beat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a hypothetic presidential campaign, even in the reddest states. This made me think of a happy thought for Democrats: it is within the realm of possibility that Clinton would win all 50 states in an epic, historic and realigning mega-landslide against the party that threatens a Republican default, a Republican economic crash and a Republican government shutdown. Here's why: Republicans have been accused of waging a war against women, a war against workers and...

(CNSNews.com) - If Congress passes legislation deferring a decision on the debt ceiling and stopgap government funding, Republicans should anticipate another crisis in six to eight weeks, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said on Monday. "We have to anticipate Ted Cruz is going to try to do this again. Ted Cruz and 30 or 40 people in the House. And we have to start going after him by name. I've been doing it all along. I wish I had more company on it." King said "we just can't have" Republicans or Ted Cruz second-guessing the final outcome of the current stalemate....

And as John Boehner is up at the White House negotiating the unconditional surrender of House Republicans, I unexpectedly ran into Senator Ted Cruz outside of Washington’s Omni Shoreham Hotel. Cruz was smiling and said he was invigorated by the outpouring of support for his campaign against Obamacare. Of course, you may be wondering why Cruz is happy while the Republican leaders around him are groping for a

Greta interviewed Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee yesterday at the WWII Memorial:

The “I agree with his goals but not his tactics,” crowd has been out in force since Ted Cruz’s made his historic and courageous stand on the U.S. Senate floor against Obamacare’s destruction of the American health care system. What these Republican quislings fail to mention is what realistic tactics they would recommend. Washington, D.C. Is Crying Wolf Yet Again, But No One Is Listening Capital Flows Capital Flows Contributor So, What Do We Tell Our Kids About The Government Shutdown? Capital Flows Capital Flows Contributor Don't Like Obamacare? Here Are 3 Ways To Get Around Its Most Onerous Rules...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Boehner offered Obama a clean debt ceiling bill. I mean everything Obama has asked for and he turned it down and said, "Nope, now you've got to do away with the sequester." And Boehner, poor Boehner, Boehner is -- by the way, I'm sorry. This is purely habitual. The table out here is not nearly as solidly attached to the wall, or the ceiling actually, as it is in Florida. Well, it's a broadcast quality table. It's just not anchored broadcast quality. Not a complaint, look, I do this by habit. I'm going to try to rein...

NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and MSNBC host Chuck Todd reported on Monday that tea party figures like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin helped scuttle a potential deal to raise the debt ceiling over the weekend when they led World War II veterans to march on the White House. Todd reported that the tea party Republicans are “doing everything they can” to keep the shutdown and debt ceiling standoff “alive.” “While the non-tea party Republicans are desperately trying to end this standoff, the tea party Republicans are doing everything they can to keep it...

In an October 10, 2013 story, Politico noted that the columnist and television personality Charles Krauthammer continued to criticize Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas for pursuing a strategy to attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Krauthammer, among other establishment Republicans, has suggested the Cruz and his allies were being quixotic by pushing for the defund strategy, that there was no way that the Senate would accept such a move or that the president would sign it. He has also suggested that the government shutdown, which followed, has not redounded to the benefit to Republicans. Cruz has,...

On the pages of The Washington Post, columnist Kathleen Parker (who poses as a Republican) compared the Republican Party to a fictional mafia crime family and refers to Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz as "Ted bin Laden," an obvious reference to the Osama bin Laden, the Islamist terrorist responsible for the murder of thousands of Americans: In trying to understand the Republican Party’s internal battles, it helps to think of Michael and Sonny. Corleone, that is. … That would be Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who grabbed headlines by speaking for 21 hours against Obamacare. Cruz is neither Michael nor...

After Republicans drifted for years without a pilot, Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have taken the helm of the GOP, steering their party and its grassroots into a much-needed, head-on battle with the Democrats. On the campaign trail on the way to his win in November 2012, President Barack Obama promised to finish the work he’d gone to Washington to do: “fundamentally transforming the United States.” Things look tough for the right in Washington today, but the reality is these three conservative Republicans, aided by friends in the Senate

<p>A correspondent for the New Yorker unwittingly unleashed a wave of fury on Twitter after he posted a derogatory profiling of Sen. Ted Cruz, likening the Texas tea party favorite to a celebrity athlete who beat murder charges.</p>

Liberals have the Democrat Party, Establishment Republicans have the GOP and conservatives have no party that represents them in Washington. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of Republicans who say they’re conservative. There are even plenty of Republicans who will vote like conservatives when it doesn’t matter. But, how many conservatives are actually willing to fight for conservative principles the way Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi fight for liberal principles? In the House and Senate combined, there are a few dozen, tops and the establishment Republicans are incessantly bemoaning the fact that anyone stands up for conservatism. So when...

Republican Congressman Peter King said Monday it is time to take the gloves off and call out members of his own party by name, after a failed strategy to defund Obamacare appeared to diminish the GOP’ reputation in recent polls. Mr. King, of New York, said he’s not going to take it anymore and will freely criticize freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, who led the drive to scrap the health care law as a precondition for a spending deal ahead of Oct. 1. “Ted Cruz and 30 or 40 people in the House. We have to start going after...

After Republicans drifted for years without a pilot, Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have taken the helm of the GOP, steering their party and its grassroots into a much-needed, head-on battle with the Democrats. On the campaign trail on the way to his win in November 2012, President Barack Obama promised to finish the work he’d gone to Washington to do: “fundamentally transforming the United States.” Things look tough for the right in Washington today, but the reality is these three conservative Republicans, aided by friends in the Senate and the House, have dragged the president’s ambitious agenda to...

The news from Washington is all about President Obama’s impending triumph in the government shutdown/debt ceiling standoff. “Boehner Blinks,” declared a recent headline in The Washington Post. “Republicans,” explained ABC’s Jonathan Karl, “are working out the terms of their surrender.” If this is Republican surrender, I hope I never see Republican victory. To understand how upside down the current media analysis is, you need to go back a couple of years. In 2011, with Republicans threatening to provoke a debt default, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011, which cut government spending by $917 billion over 10 years....

(image courtesy of dailycaller.com) Veterans from all over the country gathered at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Sunday morning to protest the closure of the memorials during the partial government shutdown, throwing barricades placed in front of the memorials aside in heaps. Organized by Brats for Veterans Advocacy, the Million Vet March on the Memorials drew in a crowd of vocal veterans fed up with the federal government’s shutdown decisions waving enormous American and “Don’t Treat On Me” flags and signs. “I’m totally, thoroughly disgusted in our government’s decision to close these monuments,” said retired Army...

Bob Woodward said that sequestration was Obama's & Lew's idea. Why now is Obama againt it? Why was he for it before he was against it? Why does he flip-flop on his CORE beliefs (raising the debt ceiling, the individual mandate, sequestration, etc)? Not secondary or tertiary beliefs...core beliefs. And why is Lew fearmongering over the debt ceiling? What he has said about it recently has been debunked by Moody's.

President Obama, speaking in 2007 and 2008, explains why he was very much against an individual mandate... Time to give an opt-out for the individual mandate, and hold Congress to the same rules that they enact over others - as to ObamaCare.

The key bit comes at the very end, in response to a question about who’s responsible for the temporary suspension of death benefits to families of fallen troops. McCain’s answer: Everyone in Congress — but, implicitly, especially the “defund” caucus. You can tell how eager Maverick was to make that point by how quickly he turns a segment about the administration giving short shrift to the military — normally an easy lay-up for a Republican against a Democratic president — into a lament about Cruz et al. I’m not sure a guy who’s positioned himself as the lead Republican opponent...

Skeptics warned from the start that it was a suicide mission for Republicans to shut down the federal government in a long-shot attempt to defund Obamacare. Now that such dire predictions have come to pass, the lawmakers who engineered the shutdown are getting the conflagration — and the martyrdom — they sought. Call it the Cruzifiction of the GOP. At least so far, the standoff has been a political bloodbath for Republicans. And maybe that’s exactly what was needed to right the political system: The effort to gut Obamacare had to crash like this so that Republican leaders and lawmakers...

The Gallup poll that tracks the approval rating of Republicans in Congress looks like the bend of a hockey stick. Whether this is a permanent condition or a temporary one depends on getting Sen. Ted Cruz off the stage and Rep. Paul Ryan on--substituting a bristly champion of an unpopular strategy that divides the party with a congenial representative of the GOP's traditional views on taxing and spending. That's why House Republican leaders are trying to craft a deal with the White House to reopen government and start budget negotiations where House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan will be the key...

Our question for today is: What does next Wednesday’s Senate election in New Jersey mean to those of us who don’t live in New Jersey? Lonegan says that if he wins, President Obama will instantly “fold” on health care reform. Actually if Lonegan wins, President Obama will probably faint. Along with a lot of other people, including every Republican senator who has not been yearning for a new friend who’s even crazier than Ted Cruz. White men of New Jersey, we understand that you’re irked about the way the world is going and that it makes you feel better to...

Veterans from every branch of the military have a message for our government. The message will be delivered in person at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13, in Washington, D.C. and at war memorials all across the nation. The Million Vet March on the Memorials is a grassroots movement started by five military brats, a term used to describe children of military members, to honor the nation's veterans.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she will travel to Washington, D.C. on Sunday to support and honor the veterans who will be arriving for the "Million Vet March" on the memorials. Speaking at a rally for New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Steve Lonegan along with Mark Levin on Saturday, Palin denounced the Obama administration for dishonoring veterans by barricading the World War II Memorial during the federal government shutdown. She said it was "heart-wrenching," "atrocious," and "not right."

Heads up, Freepers. Phony news organizations are pushing a brand new narrative, hot off the press from OFA no doubt. They are pushing bogus push polls conducted in Utah and Texas to give the impression that Cruz and Lee are losing support in their home states, and that Texans and Utahns want their senators to 'compromise more'. This is evidently BS, and is an attempt to give a leg up to Karl Rove and his lackeys who want Obamacare forever, and want to discourage Republicans from standing with Ted and Mike. I would encourage everyone, regardless of which state they...

It’s three years away, but the ongoing government shutdown and debt ceiling debate makes it clear that Democrats need to be thinking now about a candidate able to effectively counter the Tea Party caucus in Congress — which thanks to gerrymandering, isn’t going anywhere until 2020. While the Republican field is already loaded with possible candidates — Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush III and Bobby Jindal – the Democratic field is apparently sealed: Hillary Clinton. RealClearPolitics finds Hillary getting 61 percent of the vote in a Democratic primary against Joe Biden (11), Elizabeth Warren (7),...

Recently, Peter King, the court jester of the House of Representatives, had this to say to PMSNBC's Andrea Mitchell about Tea Party heroes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz: *** "I'm really more concerned about why more Republicans around the country didn't join me in denouncing Ted Cruz. We now have people on the sidelines coming forward who we have to take a stand here. We cannot allow our party to be taken over by the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. I mean, these are people, isolationists, I consider them RINOs, because they don't represent traditional Republican principles. Ted...

Sen. Ted Cruz trounced the competition in the presidential straw poll at the 2013 Values Voters Summit, with Dr. Ben Carson and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum coming in a distant second and third places — highlighting how Mr. Cruz has become a rock star with grassroots conservatives. Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, which hosted the three—day event, announced that Mr. Cruz won 42 percent of the vote, while Mr. Carson and Mr. Santorum each captured 13 percent. “I just spoke with Senator Cruz and he wanted me to convey to you his deep appreciation for...

Via RCP. Wait, wait, wait — before you start shaking your first at him, isn’t his point here oddly simpatico with what tea partiers say every day about Beltway squishes like King himself? It all depends on what benchmark you use to define “Republican.” The Republican establishment of the past 10 years has been fiercely interventionist, willing to bend on civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism, and happy to back new entitlement programs like Medicare Part D so long as their guy’s in the White House. Rand Paul, by contrast, tilts towards isolationism, wants to sue the NSA...

Senator Ted Cruz easily beat the competition in the Value Voters Summit Presidential Straw Poll, winning a whopping 42 percent of votes cast by social conservatives at the summit. Both Doctor Ben Carson and former senator Rick Santorum won 13 percent of the vote. Rounding out the top five were Senator Rand Paul (six percent) and Senator Marco Rubio (five percent).

Sen. Ted Cruz may be under fire from colleagues at the Capitol, but he was a hero to the thousands at the annual Values Voters Summit who praised him for refusing to give up his push to defund Obamacare and helping ignite the government shutdown. While other potential 2016 presidential candidates also spoke at the summit, Mr. Cruz emerged from the first day of the event as the favorite of religious conservatives in attendance, saying they back his no—surrender approach to politics that he has brought to Washington. “He has some talents and facilities from God for just delivering a...

Glenn Beck played up the Thursday night “Crossfire” showdown between Sen. Ted Cruz and former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones to tout Cruz as a “brilliant� carrier of the conservative banner – and slam Jones as a “communist revolutionary” hiding behind a shield of respectability.“You’re a communist revolutionary, Van Jones,” Beck said on his show Friday after playing a clip of the Cruz-Jones confrontation. “This is one of the most dangerous men in America.”In the “Crossfire� segment, Jones demanded Cruz, R-Texas, apologize to the Republican Party for the government shutdown in Washington, but Cruz turned the tables with...

Sen. Ted Cruz seized the opportunity afforded by a White House invitation to confront President Barack Obama over his healthcare plan. Cruz said he appreciated the chance to go see the president — but then presented him with "substantial" changes for Obamacare. In the meeting, also attended by dozens of other Republican senators, Cruz refrained from using the word "defund," reports Politico. Instead he told Obama that all sides need to "provide substantial relief to the millions of people who are hurting because of Obamacare, who are losing their jobs, being forced into part-time work and losing their health insurance."...

Talks between House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama over the government shutdown and looming debt limit deadline have hit a brick wall. Boehner relayed the news to his Republican caucus during a Saturday morning meeting after a night of work where little progress was made. Republican Rep. Paul Labrador of Idaho emerged from the meeting, telling CNN that "the President rejected our deal." The standstill has decreased the possibility that the House would vote to reopen the government this weekend and while leadership would remain in Washington to work on a proposal, rank-and-file members might return to their...