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PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — Newt Gingrich is back in the state he represented for over two decades in Congress. On Friday, the former House speaker kicked off a two-day tour in Georgia, where he represented a suburban Atlanta district for 10 terms and first became a household name. He will campaign in his old district Saturday with former presidential rival and Atlanta businessman Herman Cain, who has endorsed him. Gingrich will be back in Georgia the end of the month, with a bus tour through the state on Feb. 28 and 29, one week before the Super Tuesday primary on...

A central strength most pundits (including this one) have cited when describing Mitt Romney as the Republican front-runner is money: He has it, his opponents do not. The 20 days leading up to Super Tuesday will show whether we were right. Romney and a super PAC that backs his campaign are about to embark on an all-out television blitz aimed at tearing down Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, an assault that already adds up to more than $5 million in key primary states -- and there are few signs either of Romney's rivals have the financial ability to respond. Ad...

A political aide to Maryland's former Republican governor has been sentenced to 30 days of home detention for an Election Day robocall conspiracy that prosecutors cast as an effort to keep black voters away from the polls. Prosecutors had said the automated calls went out to 110,000 people in areas with high percentages of black voters, who tend to vote reliably Democratic. The calls implied that voters did not need to head to the polls because Democrat Martin O'Malley had already defeated Republican Robert Ehrlich. …

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. (AP) -- Newt Gingrich slammed his Republican rivals Friday for refusing to appear in a nationally televised debate from his home state of Georgia, a state the former House speaker has made central to his strategy of getting his struggling presidential bid back on track. Gingrich made his remarks at a rally in the congressional district he represented for 20 years, speaking to a few hundred supporters. He planned several campaign stops across Georgia on Saturday with Herman Cain, a fellow Georgian and former contender for the GOP nomination who has since endorsed Gingrich. CNN was forced...

When you bake a bad ingredient into a cake, no matter how nicely you decorate it, the cake will still be bad. That's the lesson to take from the controversy over Obamacare, Catholicism, and contraception. To recap, under Obamacare all employers will be required to arrange for "health insurance" for their employees. Coverage must include various disease-preventive health services and women's contraception at no charge. No premium-sharing, no copays, no deductibles — nothing.The Department of Health and Human Services, which has ominous rule-making power under Obamacare, exempted Catholic churches (as employers) from this rule because Catholicism teaches that contraception is sinful....

Virgil Goode Jr. may have served six terms as a Republican congressman from Virginia, but he now feels he can best effect change as the Constitution Party’s candidate for president. In a brief interview with The Daily Caller, Goode said his platform consists of four planks: limited government, border security, rapidly adopting a balanced budget and enacting term limits. “If I’m fortunate enough to get the nomination of the Constitution Party, I will take as many votes from Obama as I would from the Republican nominee,” he said.

“If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate,” said the senator, who has not endorsed anyone and requested anonymity. The senator believes Romney will ultimately win in Michigan but says he will publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not. “We’d get killed,” the senator said if Romney manages to win the nomination after he failed to win the state in which he grew up.

ARLINGTON, Texas - A two-time “Teacher of the Year” in Arlington is now fighting to keep her job after allegedly telling a Hispanic student to “Go back to Mexico.” Barnett Junior High School math teacher Shirley Bunn has 24 years of teaching experience. But her career could end with what she called a moment of frustration. Bunn admitted she lost her temper on Sept. 30 while distributing Title 1 forms to her eighth grade students. According to public documents, a student who had a history of being disruptive repeatedly asked his teacher for a form printed in Spanish by saying,...

Obama, Santorum argued, “sees America as groups of folks; interest groups; to pit one against the other.” He contended that Obama has weakened America’s relationships with its major allies, including the United Kingdom, which is “a little honked off at us.” He seized on comments made by Obama last year that France is America’s “best ally in the world.” And he argued that Obama is trying to “unilaterally disarm America.” “Look at what he’s doing with the nuclear Iran threat — nothing,” Santorum said. Santorum then skewered Obama’s handling of the economy, arguing that the White House’s newly-unveiled fiscal year...

LAKE JACKSON, Tex. — Once there was a challenge of a softball game from the Ron Paul clan to the Mitt Romney clan. “They didn’t show up,” Mr. Paul says. “We didn’t schedule it. We really razz them about that, ‘You guys chickened out!’ ” When Mr. Paul’s campaign jet broke down last year in Wolfeboro, N.H., Mr. Romney’s wife, Ann, offered to let Mr. Paul, an aide and one of his granddaughters stay the night at their summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee. When Mr. Romney arrived later, he offered his jet to take them home to Texas. Mr....

“We have to look at the root cause of why the economy is struggling as much as it is,” Santorum said. “Government intervention. Government regulation. Government taxation. Government is crushing and destroying the American spirit and the American free enterprise system.” Santorum said that government spending was impinging on personal freedoms and ultimately chipping away at what made the country great. “When the government gets as big as it’s gotten and starts to take over more of your life, then you get smaller as the individual, you get weaker, you lose control over your lives. You lose the rights that...

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga.-- Newt Gingrich had a message for rivals Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney at a campaign event in his native Georgia Friday: bawk bawk bawwwk. After two people dressed in chicken suits entertained the crowd, holding a sign reading "I'm Chicken to Debate Newt," Gingrich hit his rivals for backing out of a CNN-sponsored debate that had been scheduled for March 1 but was canceled after Santorum, Romney and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said they would not attend. "I'm going to ask them to reconsider and come to Georgia. It'll be just fine," Gingrich told an audience...

First-ever Endorsement for Group in GOP Presidential Primary Washington, DC ─ Today the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), a national pro-life organization, announced its endorsement of Rick Santorum in the Republican presidential primary. “Among the field of strong pro-life candidates in the GOP primary, one stands out as a proven leader in this great human and civil rights cause of our time. Rick Santorum communicates the vision and has exhibited the strategic and tactical prowess the pro-life movement must have in order to succeed. Women and children deserve his leadership, grounded as it is in affirming the dignity of...

Newt Gingrich returned Friday to the one place polls say he's still the front-runner and vowed to fight to win his former state. Gingrich rallied more than 300 supporters in Peachtree City to kick off a two-day swing through Georgia, the state he represented for 20 years in Congress as a backbencher, firebrand and speaker of the House. "The primary in Georgia is very important, and I need your help and no one should take it for granted," Gingrich said from the stage in a hangar at Falcon Field. "This is a wide-open race." He urged his supporters to spread...

If you're a Republican in New York or another big city, you may be anxious or even terrified at the prospect that Rick Santorum, the supposedly unelectable social conservative, may win the GOP presidential nomination. Jeffrey Bell would like to set your mind at ease. Social conservatism, Mr. Bell argues in his forthcoming book, "The Case for Polarized Politics," has a winning track record for the GOP. "Social issues were nonexistent in the period 1932 to 1964," he observes. "The Republican Party won two presidential elections out of nine, and they had the Congress for all of four years in...

A retired female fighter pilot running for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' open seat in Congress said Friday that Rick Santorum's recent remarks on women in combat make her want to "go kick him in the jimmy." Martha McSally, a retired US Air Force colonel and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, is running in Arizona's congressional special election as a Republican. According to her Facebook page, she was the first American woman to fly in combat since the 1991 lifting of a ban on women in that role. Appearing Friday morning on FOX News Channel's "FOX & Friends," she...

NewsChannel 9 has learned that Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum will visit the Scenic City later this month. He will headline the Chattanooga Tea Party's Liberty Forum on Saturday, February 25th, from 1 until 4 p.m. at Abba's House on Hixson Pike. The Tea Party's president says the event will be free and open to the public. The following is the news release from the Chattanooga Tea Party announcing the event: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will headline the Chattanooga Tea Party’s Liberty Forum on Saturday, February 25. The forum, which celebrates the tea party movement’s third anniversary, will offer...

HILLSDALE, MI (WTOL) – Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum will visit Hillsdale College Monday. The visit is part of the school's first presidential candidate symposium. Students have also invited the three other leading republican candidates, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, to participate in the forum. So far, Santorum is the only candidate to accept the invitation. All four candidates are campaigning heavily in Michigan ahead of the state's Feb. 28 primary. Mitt Romney held an economic roundtable discussion in Monroe Thursday. Recent polls in Michigan show Santorum ahead of the former Massachusetts Governor, who grew up in the...

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) described Rick Santorum, when he represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, as a senator who had "very little interest" in people who disagreed with him. "Rick is somebody that has no doubts about his position. And very little interest in the views of those who disagree with him," Conrad said in an interview scheduled to air Friday evening on Bloomberg TV. "I think that would be my take on how Sen. Santorum conducted himself with his colleagues when he was in the Senate." Conrad described Santorum, now contending for the Republican presidential nomination, as "unyielding and...

MASON, Ohio - In a speech at a Lincoln Day Dinner in Ohio, one of the nation's most important battleground states, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum compared the stakes in the 2012 election to conditions leading to the Second World War and said Americans today should model themselves after the Great Generation that fought Germany and Japan in the 1940s. "Sometimes generations have to step forward, sometimes freedom is actually at stake," Santorum told the crowd of about 200 people at the dinner. "No one's asking you to put a uniform on ... What I'm asking you to do (is)...

Rick Santorum is making a play for some of the biggest upcoming Republican presidential primary contests, as he rises in the polls and pockets key endorsements following his victories earlier this month. The former Pennsylvania senator on Friday snatched away an endorsement from top rival Mitt Romney, winning the support of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. DeWine called Santorum the "better candidate" and expressed concern that Romney's campaign had gone too negative. He said he once felt Santorum could not overcome Romney's financial advantage but has decided he was wrong.

This column has tended to agree with the conventional wisdom that among the Republicans running for president, Mitt Romney is the safest choice, the most "electable." See, for example, our rebuttal of Richard Miniter's contrarian column from late last month. We still think Romney, on balance, would be a stronger general-election candidate than Newt Gingrich for reasons of the latter's personal and political character. But Rick Santorum's surge has us thinking second thoughts about the electability question. That is despite the obviousness of the case against Santorum in the abstract, which is that moderate voters are more likely to abandon...

President Obama was greeted with wild applause and shouts of “We love you!” from thousands of adoring supporters as he took the stage at the Nob Hill Masonic Center on Thursday night. But then, there were those two very vocal women in the pink slips lead away by the cops. Chalk up another appearance by Nancy Mancias of CodePink – the women’s group opposed to the United States’ involvement in wars. She stood as Obama was speaking about killing Osama bin Laden and began protesting the administration’s use of drone attacks. With her was another veteran CodePinker, Janine Boneparth, another...

The 58th Speaker of the House and 2012 GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich makes the case for his candidacy, explains why he's not a Washington insider, and describes his vision for his first term: gaining energy independence, ending the war on religion, balancing the budget, and repealing and replacing ObamaCare and why he is temperamentally suited for the highest office.

Obama Campaign Turns Attention To Santorum By Sandhya Somashekhar, February 17 Rick Santorum’s surprising momentum at a critical stage in the presidential race has forced the Obama campaign to reassess its re-election strategy, which for months has revolved around the likelihood that Mitt Romney would end up as the president’s Republican rival. With several victories and some strong poll numbers under his belt, Santorum has garnered more attention at the Obama campaign’s Chicago headquarters in recent weeks. The campaign has begun digging into Santorum’s background, diverting opposition researchers who had been scrutinizing Romney. They also blasted an e-mail to supporters...

OPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ Eight Kansas legislators have endorsed former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Gingrich's campaign announced the endorsements Thursday. The Republican lawmakers include two state senators _ Ray Merrick, of Stilwell, and Rob Olson, of Olathe. Six Kansas House members have endorsed Gingrich as well. They are Anthony Brown, of Eudora; Mario Goico, of Wichita;

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — In an extraordinary development, six of the House Ethics Committee's 10 members Friday dropped out of the investigation of longtime Democratic lawmaker Maxine Waters of California, saying they wanted to ensure there was no bias in the case.</p>

The home of laissez-faire is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation AMERICANS love to laugh at ridiculous regulations. A Florida law requires vending-machine labels to urge the public to file a report if the label is not there. The Federal Railroad Administration insists that all trains must be painted with an “F” at the front, so you can tell which end is which. Bureaucratic busybodies in Bethesda, Maryland, have shut down children’s lemonade stands because the enterprising young moppets did not have trading licences. The list goes hilariously on. But red tape in America is no laughing matter....

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is losing old friends and can't win new ones in the new Egypt. Trying to secure a way home for seven American democracy experts trapped in the country, the Obama administration is facing a wrathful campaign of retribution from Hosni Mubarak's old allies of the dictatorship, which the U.S. long supported but then turned away from last year. It is getting no help from the most legitimate force now in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, and a sympathetic ear but little concrete support from an unpopular military leadership that has long benefited from U.S. largesse. One year...

White House Predicts 2 Million More Jobs in 2012 By Annalyn Censky February 17, 2012: NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The United States economy is on the road to recovery, the White House said Friday, with stronger job growth expected this year. But income inequality and Europe's debt crisis could still pose challenges, according to a report released by President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Before Obama even took office, America had lost 4.4 million jobs. Track his progress since then. "While actions taken to prevent a deeper recession and to strengthen the recovery have made a difference, the nation is...

Mitt Romney has raised the issue of the social safety net. Washington could learn from the lesson of his church. Ever since Mitt Romney said he was "not concerned about the very poor" but would fix America's social safety net "if it needs repair," conservatives and liberals have been frantically making suggestions. Gov. Romney says he would consider options like restructuring Medicaid. But if he wants to see a welfare system that lets almost no one fall through the cracks while at the same time ensuring that its beneficiaries don't become lifelong dependents, he could look to his own church....

A man's voice, urgent: "America is in crisis. It feels like we're coming apart." Shots from a hand-held camera—blurry, indistinct. Angry citizens, protests. Close-up on a bearded young man, his face distorted by rage. "We face unprecedented challenges." Cuts of lonely farms, small houses with for-sale signs. A little girl with pleading eyes. "Is this any time for inexperience?" A tattered flag blows in the wind. "One candidate has silky words, but what do they mean? What do we really know of him?" Video shot from behind a candidate who stands at a podium. We see his back, the jerky...

Obama Holds Nob Hill Fundraiser… Massive Tea Party Breaks Out – Complete With “NoBama” Finger Wags

A prominent Republican senator just told me that if Romney can’t win in Michigan, the Republican Party needs to go back to the drawing board and convince somebody new to get into the race. “If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate,” said the senator, who has not endorsed anyone and requested anonymity. The senator believes Romney will ultimately win in Michigan but says he will publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not. “We’d get killed,” the senator said if Romney manages to win the nomination after he failed to win...

The Supreme Court on Friday blocked a Montana court ruling upholding limits on corporate campaign spending. The state court ruling appears to be at odds with the high court's 2010 decision striking down a federal ban on those campaign expenditures. The justices put the Montana ruling on hold while they consider an appeal from corporations seeking to be free of spending limits. The state argues, and the Montana Supreme Court agreed, that political corruption gave rise to the century-old ban on corporate campaign spending. In the 2010 Citizens United case, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled that independent spending by...

Chelsea Clinton did her second report for NBC's "Rock Center with Brian Williams" Wednesday night, and it was just as flawed as the first. The learning curve does not appear to have bent one degree in the direction of growth. This one-dimensional, under-reported, naive celebration of a charter school in Rhode Island was just as much of an empty-headed puff job as Clinton's first report on an after-school program in Little Rock. And before you take to your computer to send an email telling me how mean it is for me to criticize this 31-year-old woman who has been given...

With the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last week that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, the debate on the constitutionality of marriage rights is hurtling toward the Supreme Court with increasing velocity. If and when the case reaches the Supreme Court, the decision will depend greatly on Justice Anthony Kennedy. Following the Appeals Court ruling last week, the next step for the case is for the backers of Proposition 8 to file an appeal. They can appeal the ruling to one of two places: a larger panel of judges from the Ninth Circuit or directly to the Supreme Court...

A prominent Republican senator just told me that if Romney can’t win in Michigan, the Republican Party needs to go back to the drawing board and convince somebody new to get into the race. “If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate,” said the senator, who has not endorsed anyone and requested anonymity. The senator believes Romney will ultimately win in Michigan but says he will publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not. “We’d get killed,” the senator said if Romney manages to win the nomination after he failed to win...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry will appear with Newt Gingrich for the first time at the CNN debate in Mesa, Ariz., on Feb. 22, a spokesperson for Perry confirmed to ABC News. Perry will appear in the spin room with Gingrich after the debate. There are no other events planned, at this time. Perry endorsed Gingrich when he dropped out of the race on Jan. 19 but has yet to appear publicly with him.

p>The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

President Obama rallied with union workers at a Boeing plant in Washington, but he praised the manufacturing conducted by Boeing in South Carolina, even though his National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) tried to close the South Carolina plant at the behest of the Washington union workers. "So this company is a great example of what American manufacturing can do in a way that nobody else in the world can do it," Obama told the assembled workers this afternoon at the Everett, Wash., Boeing plant. "And the impact of your success, as I said, goes beyond the walls of this plant....

So much for conservative consolidation: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s faltering campaign is about to get another shot in the arm, CBS News has learned.Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson plans to give another $10 million to the outside group backing the former Georgia lawmaker who is running behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, a source close to Adelson told CBS News.Adleson and his family have already given $11 million to “Winning our Future,” the super PAC backing Gingrich. The group, which bombarded the airwaves in South...

Spotted this past week while we were passing through New Smyrna Beach...we didn't knock on the door, but our friends tell us this person is not kidding!

Back in 2008 - at the height of the financial crisis - Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed for the New York Times opposing the Obama administration's plan to bail out the American auto industry. The headline put on the column: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." In the op-ed, Romney argued that a "managed bankruptcy" could benefit General Motors, Ford and Chrysler because it would "permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs." Romney did not suggest the Detroit auto industry be liquidated, and he called the industry "vital to our national interest." But the striking headline -...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Most Americans don't share Rick Santorum's absolutist take on abortion. He's out of step on women in combat. He questions the values of the two-thirds of mothers who work. He's even troubled by something as commonplace as birth control - for married couples. Even among a Republican presidential field eager to please religious conservatives, Santorum's ideas stand out. A Catholic father of seven whose kids are home-schooled, Santorum may seem to wear his conservatism as comfortably as his sweater vests. But he's walked a careful path, keeping the more provocative opinions that helped sink his re-election to...

Rick Santorum will be the third presidential candidate to enjoy the endorsement of Ohio Attorney General and former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine. The AG, who was the force behind Ohio’s participation in the states’ lawsuit to block Obamacare, initially supported former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. When Pawlenty exited the race, DeWine transferred his support to Mitt Romney, whom Pawlenty also backed. Today, though, DeWine will reassign his endorsement yet again — this time to his former colleague in the Senate, Rick Santorum, according to Associated Press sources.

Without any fanfare whatsoever from the White House, February 17 marks the three-year anniversary of the day President Obama signed the much ballyhooed stimulus into law. At the time, Obama claimed that it would "create or save" up to 3.5 million jobs, and that "a new wave of innovation, activity and construction will be unleashed across America." The stimulus, would, he promised "ignite spending by businesses and consumers" and bring "real and lasting change for generations to come." So three years later, how do the stimulus results stack up?

The Obama campaign is offering supporters a chance to buy a special 'O'Bama' T-shirt — just in time for St. Patrick's Day "St. Patrick's Day is around the corner. This year, show your support for a presidential candidate with Irish roots: Barack Obama," the campaign wrote in an email to supporters. "You might recall that back in 2007, as he was on the campaign trail, the President found out about his Irish ancestry. Last year, he traveled with the First Lady to pay a visit to Moneygal