Free Republic

"If Katherine Harris, Jeb Bush, Jim Baker, and the US Supreme Court hadn't tampered with the results,” raved Terry McAuliffe shortly after his election to Chairman of the Democratic National Committee in February 2001, “Al Gore would be president, George Bush would be back in Austin, and John Ashcroft would be home reading Southern Partisan magazine." No pussyfooter this Terry McAuliffe, now running for governor in Virginia. This “Lee Atwater of the Democrats” came out swinging. Republicans lie and cheat. Can’t trust ‘em. Years earlier McAuliffe claimed that the Reagan electoral team conspired with the Iranian Mullahs to release the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate Republican leader, who last year accused the Obama administration of Nixon-style dirty tricks, says the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups is part of a broader government assault on free speech.

I Have Seen Shameful Things By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | April 22nd, 2013 at 04:30 AM | 30 I am an immigration squish. There are jobs Americans won’t do at the existing price point. We have a real need in this country for unskilled workers who will pick domestic crops and do jobs Americans will not do for a low wage. I know a number of people who came here illegally who are harder workers than me, who love this country, and who just want a job. More specifically, I know a number of illegal immigrants — a few of...

Pressure is growing Thursday afternoon on a liberal super PAC in Kentucky accused of surreptitiously recording a strategy session held by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Jacob Conway, the Jefferson County Democratic Party’s executive committee member who originally accused Progress Kentucky of making the recording, told NBC News he was on his way to talk to the FBI about the allegations. And the group’s treasurer confirmed he had quit his position after the audio was published. “At this time based on advice of both friends and counsel, I will be not be making a public statement available until everything has...

Progress Kentucky, the liberal super PAC that came under fire for making racial slurs about the wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is also responsible for a recently-leaked recording of the senator in a strategy meeting, according to Louisville radio station WFPL and Fox News. Both outlets are quoting Jacob Conway, a committee member of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, as naming Sean Reilly and Curtis Morrison, respectively the founder and a former employee of Progress Kentucky, as the culprits. "They happen to be friends of mine. Or were friends of mine," Conway told Fox News in a phone interview...

McConnell campaign asks for FBI investigation over leaked Ashley Judd tapes By Caitlin Dewey, Updated: April 9, 2013 Mitch McConnell’s campaign has accused opponents of bugging McConnell’s headquarters and has asked for an FBI investigation after a recording from an internal campaign meeting surfaced on Mother Jones this morning.The 12-minute tape reveals McConnell and his campaign staff lampooning then-potential candidate Ashley Judd, whom they call “a haystack of needles” or political liabilities, at a Feb. 2 meeting. Judd has since decided not to run.“We’ve always said the Left will stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Nixonian tactics to...

The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters...

My first thought was 'that has gotta be 'shopped' but apparently not, if Getty Images can be believed. Even though the uncorroborated claim the guy photographed in Lancaster, Ohio was genuine was immediately pumped by Obama allies in the lap-dog media/Lefty blogs, does anybody have something more than this dubiously convenient pic? Of course not... Alas, as has become a favored tactic with unprincipled liberal zealots over the last few years, this fictional character was almost certainly a 'progressive' plant, since some things in the widely-circulated (and in the case of lib blogs, celebrated) photograph just don't square-up for any thinking...

The Democrat-media complex was hyperventilating after a photo was posted from a Romney-Ryan event in Lancaster, Ohio on Friday of a supposed Romney “supporter” wearing a racist T-shirt. The photo was posted at Getty Images. LANCASTER, OH – OCTOBER 12: A supporter of Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Republican vice presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) waits for a campaign event to begin on October 12, 2012 in Lancaster, Ohio. Ryan debated U.S. Vice President Joe Biden the evening before and Romney is scheduled to debate U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time on...

Catholics are a key demographic in the upcoming election. In fact, they may be the key demographic. In most every presidential contest since the end of World War II, the candidate who carried the Catholic vote won the election. Over time they have, as a bloc, become more conservative and more Republican in their voting patterns (they were once a major component of the Democrats' presidential coalition) as concerns over settled issues like the morality of abortion overtook in importance concerns about unsettled issues like the best way to secure social justice for the poor and the downtrodden.Much has...

An anonymous individual or group claims to have obtained "all available" tax returns associated with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The alleged hackers claim to have accessed them via computers in the Franklin, Tenn., office of professional services firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers. An anonymous posting on a file sharing website claims PwC was hacked; the same site has been used to boast of other high-profile corporate hacks. How'd they pull it off, allegedly? The posting states: "[Romney's tax returns] were taken from the PWC office 8/25/2012 by gaining access to the third floor via a gentleman working on the 3rd floor of...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – There is increased speculation Friday evening about the political future of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. Sources told NewsChannel 36 Gingrich has canceled all of his appearances in North Carolina next week. Gingrich was scheduled to make multiple appearances throughout the state, including a visit to Lincoln Charter School in Denver next Wednesday. Fourth graders planned to present him with an American history project. “We are disappointed that the Gingrich camp has decided to cancel the entire NC tour,” said Lincoln Charter School Chief Administrator Dave Machado. “We were looking forward to the opportunity to showcase the...

It's one thing to send out fundraising letters trying to score cash off the John Doe investigation into various activities during Gov. Scott Walker's tenure as county executive. That's business as usual for political types. It's another thing altogether to suggest that individuals can help underwrite the long-running probe of the Republican governor by giving money to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. But that's what is happening at the party's slick website devoted to publicizing the John Doe investigation. "Help fund the investigation," says a virtual walkerinvestigation.com Post-it Note at the top of the site, walkerinvestigation.com. "Donate today." Click on...

While billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson may have rescued Newt Gingrich’s campaign in its early days, today, he may have just buried it. Bloomberg News reports that Adelson, who has donated $11 million to Gingrich’s Super PAC, does not plan to send any more money Gingrich’s way. Bloomberg is citing an anonymous source “familiar with their deliberations,” though an Adelson spokesman declined to comment. The move seems to be weeks in the making. After poor showings by Gingrich in the last several races and the re-resurgence of Rick Santorum, the former House speaker has once again been pushed to the...

Sure, Mitt Romney just had a huge win in Florida—but his favorability ratings have been sinking miserably since the New Year. Andrew Romano on why the GOP’s long primary race in 2012 won’t mirror the Dems’ in 2008. Plus read more Daily Beast contributors on what Romney’s Florida victory means. On stage last night in Ballroom C of the Tampa Convention Center, Mitt Romney, the winner of the 2012 Florida Republican primary, tried his darndest to simulate the emotional state that Homo sapiens refer to as “happiness.” “Our opponents in the other party ... like to comfort themselves with the...

For Romney and Paul, a strategic alliance between establishment and outsider ...........................But Mitt Romney and Ron Paul haven’t laid a hand on each other. They never do.-SNIP-Romney’s aides are “quietly in touch with Ron Paul,” according to a Republican adviser who is in contact with the Romney campaign and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its internal thinking. Infiltrating the party Yet the insurgents are executing a concerted strategy to infiltrate the Republican Party. Five Paul supporters, for instance, sit on the state GOP’s central committee in Iowa, where their candidate finished a strong third in the Jan....

The Morning Jolt, yesterday: ““I believe in America”? That’s what you’re going with this cycle, governor? I’m sorry, you don’t get to quote “The Godfather” unless you’ve killed a bunch of your enemies while attending a baptism. “Laura Ingraham, today: “The response to Newt’s second coming in South Carolina was flawlessly orchestrated. Mitt hit hard at Monday’s debate, and did a mop-up operation on Thursday night. He marshaled the help of boosters and aggressive defenders in media and politics. When Tom DeLay emerged from forced retirement and Bob Dole from convalescence to lay waste to Gingrich, you know it was...

Forget the indirect attacks and distant exchanges between the Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich campaigns through the media. The Romney campaign pledged this week to run a “a full racketing operation,” right in Gingrich territory. A source close to the campaign told ABC News there will be a Romney surrogate at every public Gingrich event in Florida standing by to rebut Gingrich’s speeches to the media. “The campaign is entering a phase now where we are defining the terms of the Florida race,” a Romney staffer said. The staffer said it wasn’t a sign of fear on the Romney campaign’s...

One of the things fellow Republicans and political observers have never liked about Mitt Romney is the wholesome piety he exhibits on the stump, while his hacks and PACs engage in some of the ugliest politics around. He can flash that plastic smile and pretend all he wants, but people know the cold fish doesn't shy away from the politics of personal destruction. If anything, his campaigns embrace it more than most, while feigning ignorance and pretending otherwise himself.This is why so many people in the GOP have come to dislike Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney backer and New Jersey Gov....

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Des Moines man has been arrested after police say he used, or tried to use, the identity of Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz in a scheme to falsely implicate Schultz in perceived unethical behavior in office. Zachary Edwards was arrested Friday and charged with identity theft. The Iowa Department of Public Safety issued a news release saying Schultz's office discovered the scheme on June 24, 2011 and notified authorities.