Free Republic

I don't seem to ever recall Democrats turning on their own like several "Republicans" have recently. I wonder how things would have turned out in the fight to defund, delay, alter ObamaCare if so-called Republicans would have listened to Reagan, when he underwent so many personal attacks during his 1966 campaign for governor, which led to the Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shatlt not speak ill of any Republican. Reagan said "It's a rule that I followed in that campaign and have ever since." McCain and others seem to like to evoke Reagan, but don't appear to follow what he said. In...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., offered an endorsement on Wednesday to a tea party activist running for the GOP Senate nomination in North Carolina — a top pickup opportunity for Republicans. Physician Greg Brannon, one of several Republicans vying to take on Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, touted the endorsement from the conservative senator and potential presidential contender as a momentum boost for the campaign. The campaign’s announcement referred to Brannon as “an anti-establishment candidate … who will oppose the Big Government, big spending status quo in both parties.” In a statement, Paul called Brannon “a true constitutional conservative who will join...

It’s hard for me to even calculate the amount of words that have been used to debate the merits of defund vs delay vs some other strategy. The amount of energy complaining about Ted Cruz or the amount of flyers calling for John Boehner’s head have reached apocalyptic proportions . Truly things are a mess. And no doubt, each faction believes some other faction is responsible for the chaos. In fact, many have moved on from even debating that issue and are presenting as fact the need to “learn our lesson” and know “who not to listen to next time.”...

Think back to Ted Cruz’s filibuster. One of my favorite moments was when he said there was no courage like the anonymous Congressional staffer. A hilarious yet true statement, but in recent days, I’ve started to question it. I think there is a far greater courage in Washington, and it belongs to Mitch McConnell. The Senate Minority leader doesn’t let things like voter expectations or approval ratings stop him from doing what he thinks is best for him. “”We’re not just choosing who’s going to represent Kentucky in the Senate; we’re going to decide who’s going to run the Senate,”...

Senators up for reelection next year on top.

On Tuesday of last week, tea partier Milton Wolf announced he was running for the U.S. Senate in Kansas against longtime incumbent Pat Roberts. On Friday, Roberts called on Health and Human Services Secretary and former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to resign for “gross incompetence” in connection with the rollout of Obamacare. If you think those two developments aren’t connected, then you probably think the Kansas Jayhawks are headed for the national championship this year – in football. And to think that Sebelius and Roberts used to be friends. Here’s a truism about Kansas politics these days: The state has...

Nashville, TN — According to multiple press reports, Senator Alexander is working with Senator Harry Reid and others to cut a deal that would sell out conservative Tennessee voters and give President Obama much of what he wanted all along. Before the deal is finalized and Senator Alexander casts his vote, the Joe Carr for Senate campaign wanted to remind Senator Alexander of his own ‘rules’ to live by when in public office. “Senator Alexander has spent forty years in politics advocating these so-called ‘rules.’ It is our hope that in this moment of crisis, he’ll stick to them, and...

U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) has had a long run in the Senate, but it looks like he will soon face a challenge from one of the state’s young, up-and-coming legislators. Two-term state Sen. Chris McDaniel said yesterday that he’s leaning toward challenging Cochran in the 2014 Republican primary. McDaniel told The Associated Press that he was still undecided as of yesterday evening. He said he will go to his Ellisville home today, sit in his arbor and pray about it. “Right now, we’re leaning toward running for U.S. Senate,” he said McDaniel spoke to AP hours after a consultant...

The most recent fundraising numbers for the Wyoming Senate race are a bit surprising: Sen. Mike Enzi's (R-WY) primary challenger, Republican Liz Cheney, out-fundraised the incumbent senator. Cheney announced Tuesday that her campaign raised $1 million in the most recent quarter while Enzi's campaign fell a little short, raising about $850,000 over the same period. "With contributions from nearly 2,000 individuals, including donors in every county in Wyoming and every state in the Union, our campaign is off to a powerful start," Cheney said in an email to supporters on Tuesday. "This outpouring of support sends a loud and clear...

When a liberal reporter asked Steve Lonegan if “Sarah Palin was too far-right for New Jersey,” Lonegan did what Republican candidates for Senate have not done in recent memory: He went on offense. “I don’t think it’s far right to support small business owners and to support taxpayers who are struggling,” he shot back. “Sarah Palin is a wonderful mother. She was also a wonderful governor and an excellent role model for women.” That’s not how Republicans coming out of the Northeast typically respond when they encounter a hostile reporter. And if you ask Amy Kremer, chair of the Tea...

This is it folks, the New Jersey special election for U.S. Senate, today, Wednesday, Oct. 16th. After months of campaigning, it all comes down to voter turnout. In response to Booker's plunging poll numbers 2 days before the election, President Obama came out with a video asking voters to turn out for Cory Obama., I meant to say Cory Booker. Although, with his eagerness to follow in his idol's footsteps, many are calling Booker, Obama's clone. In case you haven't noticed, there's a political perfect storm a brewin'; unforeseen events all working together, ushering in a resurgence of Conservatism, while...

As Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., mulls retirement, a local lawmaker is considering a mounting a primary challenge against him in the Magnolia State. State Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican aligned with the tea party, confirmed to CQ Roll Call this week that he’s considering challenging the six-term senator. “We are keeping all of our options open because we want to do the right thing for the conservative movement,” McDaniel said in a Wednesday phone interview. “No firm decision has been made one way or the other.” Many Mississippi Republican emphasized their support for Cochran to seek a seventh term, underscoring...

We’ve written extensively of late regarding the widening divide between fiscally conservative Republicans and the “neoconservative” fiscally liberal wing of the party – led by U.S. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn. For our latest on this subject, click here. This week, Republicans in Mississippi (well, Marshall County Mississippi) have taken action against one of their fiscally liberal lawmakers – U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. In fact according to the website Mississippi PEP, they’ve censured him. For those of you unfamiliar with this aging RINO, Cochran is one of several Southern “Republicans” who habitually caves to U.S. President Barack...

Liberal U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) is getting another challenger … but it’s not one of the big name fiscal conservatives being courted by national limited government groups. Orangeburg, S.C. attorney Bill Connor – who ran for lieutenant governor in 2010 and SCGOP chairman in 2011 (unsuccessfully on both occasions) – is reportedly jumping into the race in the next few days. We’ve written previously on the speculation surrounding Connor’s bid, but multiple grassroots sources tell FITS he is getting ready to pull the trigger. Connor’s prospective candidacy received a major kiss on the lips from The South Carolina Conservative,...

President Obama is reminding New Jersey voters to vote for Cory Booker in the state’s special Senate election Wednesday. Just one day before the election Obama appeared in a video for the Booker campaign encouraging New Jersey residents to support the popular Democratic Newark mayor. “Voters in New Jersey have the opportunity to vote for a leader with uncommon character, Cory Booker,” Obama said in the video.

He is invisible. He vanishes from the scene. He lurks in the shadows to sabotage conservatives at the most crucial points. Then he swoops down and picks up the carcasses he helped create. He is Mitch McConnell. Here are the latest tricks in the invisible manÂ’s grab bag: â– Pass a Continuing Resolution to fund all of government, including every aspect of Obamacare, until January 15. This date coincides with the activation of the 2014 sequester and is designed to set up a new fiscal cliff. â– The January budget bill will be worked out by an oligarchy in a conference committee...

Call it the “hijacking of America”. A century long progressive project to, as President Obama is fond of saying, “transform America.” But it can’t be done without help. From Republicans. Establishment Republicans to be more specific — and their Republican consultant class to be even more specific. Here’s the bulletin from the Associated Press. Establishment GOPers assail tea party on shutdown DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — From county chairmen to national party luminaries, veteran Republicans across the country are accusing tea party lawmakers of staining the GOP with their refusal to bend in the budget impasse in Washington. The Republican...

For the first time in his political career, Cory Booker is dealing with a hostile/skeptical national media. He's winning by 10 points in the Monmouth poll, when the pollster tells reporters Booker really should be up by 20. Conservative media have found people who can contradict Booker's most dramatic tales of derring-do, and schlepped to Newark to talk to activists who hate the guy and claim he doesn't live in the city. The MSM, belatedly, has caught up and asked if Booker's star has already faded. There's a rhythm to campaigns, and once a front-runner gets into the "problem-plagued" stage...

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham gave an interview this week in which he described himself as “dangerous.” (Cue laughter). “This is a very frustrated Lindsey Graham,” Graham told The Politico. “Which is a very dangerous thing.” Um, really? That’s tough talk coming from a guy who lied about being a military veteran. A guy who likes to host “Milk and Cookies” events instead of hard liquor happy hours. Anyway, Graham is upset because he loves cutting deals – and right now there’s no deal to be had on the so-called “shutdown” of the federal government and the ongoing debt ceiling debate...

Via BenSwann.com: http://benswann.com/breaking-the-republican-liberty-caucus-e... Nancy Mace and Richard Cash refused RLC's survey to go on record with certain issues.

Lindsey Graham went on Fox News yesterday to continue undercutting Ted Cruz and other conservatives on their strategy to defund and delay ObamaCare, and force the President’s hand on the budget. Graham stated that stopping ObamaCare was “unrealistic” and “a bridge too far”. Lee Bright, the upstate Senator challenging Graham in the 2014 Primary, quickly responded, saying, “Lindsey Graham’s time in Washington is a career too far. He is so astonishingly out of touch with American conservatives, and he obviously has no idea how the leadership of Ted Cruz is playing outside the beltway. He and John McCain are the...

Since 2008, the idea of third parties started to gain more popularity across America.  Principled conservatives and libertarians united against both the Democrat and Republican establishment started to explore methods of opposing Washington elites and the status quo. The Tea Party had some success – and has continued most successfully – with primary campaigns which put principled people like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul in races as the Republican candidate.  Once they won the GOP nomination, winning the general election was often pretty straightforward. Yet many liberty activists have become disenchanted by the two party system and are turning to other options....

New Jersey is one of those states that somehow manages to be a caricature of itself: Big money. Big attitudes. Big politicians. Big problems. As the special election for U.S. Senate looms Wednesday, local conservatives are trying to pull out an unexpected win — or at least learn some big lessons — that could signal even bigger changes to come in a state now known as much for Chris Christie as for its liberal ideology. The Senate race is between the uber-popular and nationally recognized Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, and the lesser-known, Tea Party favorite, Steve Lonegan, mayor of...

There is a real battle going on in New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie set an early date of October 16 for a special election to fill the Senate seat of recently deceased Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). The advantage rests with Democratic Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker. The Republican is Steve Lonegan, businessman and former mayor of Bogota, NJ. Christie endorsed Lonegan. Better than nothing, I guess. Booker, who has seen both unemployment and crime skyrocket during his administration, has the left fawning all over him nationwide because he is well-spoken, clean cut and black. Remind you of anyone? He is...

Newark Mayor Cory Booker still holds a double-digit lead over his Republican challenger in the New Jersey Senate race, a new poll shows, but his lead continues to shrink with the election two days away. Booker leads Steve Lonegan by 10 points, 52 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters in a poll out Monday from Monmouth University. Continue Reading A separate poll last week had Booker up by 12, two weeks ago Monmouth had him up by 13 and over the summer by 16. In August, polls had Booker’s lead topping 24 percent. The poll also found Booker’s favorability...

Columbus didn’t sail the Ocean Blue to discover a land where we wait around for Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid to decide the future of our lives. We decide. Not the power brokers in DC. We haven’t gone all this time and risked so much over two hundred years to turn the keys over now to others to run our lives. The Veterans on the Mall today don’t deserve a country the leaders of which play games with a memorial dedicated to them and their fallen brethren. Mitch McConnell is the single obstacle we have this week to taking our...

Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) is seeking the center as he runs for Iowa’s open Senate seat. Braley stressed the need for compromise and bipartisanship in an interview in his Capitol Hill office on Thursday, emphasizing his friendships with Republicans. “Our job is to work together, solve tough problems,” Braley said. “The vast majority of Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives I believe share that [view] but we get locked into these positions that make it very difficult to maintain a conversation about how we can solve our differences. “I try to do that one member at a time...

Yes, I never actually thought we’d win this ‘Defund Obamacare’ battle and my guess is many of you didn’t either. Look, I don’t think any of us are idiots. While it might be plausible to get something passed in the House and maybe even get a few Democrats to pass something in the Senate that would defund Obamacare, Obama would never sign it. I knew that coming out of the gate with this strategy. But despite that it was paramount that we have the fight. Why? Two reasons. One, we fight to change hearts and minds because we are not...

As Speaker John A. Boehner (R.-Ohio) struggles with the budget crisis, a Troy, Ohio schoolteacher and Tea Party activist announced Sept. 30 he will challenge Boehner in the 2014 GOP primary. Joseph D. “J.D.” Winteregg, who is a founder of the Ohio Accountability Project, a grassroots organization in Ohio-8, a congressional district bordering Indiana, said he is motivated by the gulf between the interests and values of the district and Boehner. It is a gulf exasperated by the Speaker’s concern for national issues, which has come to mean that although the district’s congressman is the Speaker of the House, the...

In a heated radio interview with Texas-based Matt Patrick of KTRH Wednesday, Senator John Cornyn awkwardly defended himself from charges that he did not support Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz in their efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, as nicely laid out by Matthew Boyle of Breitbart. According to Boyle, a "a senior congressional staffer" told Breitbart that "Instead of helping Cruz with their power as Senate GOP leaders, [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell and Cornyn are working against him." Indeed, the staffer did not mince words and said, ““To be clear, nobody is...

Sarah Palin and Mark Levin are hitting the Garden State this weekend in the hopes of buoying Republican Senate candidate Steve Lonegan's campaign against Cory Booker. In the process, their appearance in the "largest grassroots campaign event in New Jersey history" will serve to remind establishment Republicans why abandoning New Jersey to Democrats and media darlings was a mistake. Palin and Levin are the latest in a string of big-name Republicans (Sen. Rand Paul and Gov. Chris Christie among them) to lend their support to Lonegan, running on a Tea Party platform that has opponent Booker branding him a "flame-thrower."...

After taking a back-seat role in this fall’s fiscal battles, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Republican senators are quietly seeing whether they can break the political impasse between House Republicans and Senate Democrats. Behind the scenes, the Kentucky Republican is gauging support within the Senate GOP Conference to temporarily raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government in return for a handful of policy proposals. Among the ideas under serious consideration are a repeal of medical device tax in the health care law, a plan to verify that those seeking subsidies under Obamacare prove their income level and...

The Wyoming Senate race may just be the most unique contest of the 2014 cycle. It means nothing for control of the Senate. It means everything to the complex web of colliding Republican interests that have quickly turned it into one of the most spirited campaigns in the country. Liz Cheney, shown in 2010. (Cliff Owen/AP) On the surface, the GOP primary contest between Sen. Mike Enzi and challenger Liz Cheney looks like a familiar tale: A Republican incumbent draws a primary opponent and a heated race ensues. We’ve seen this story unfold in Utah, Indiana and Alaska the past...

Although John Cornyn’s 2014 Senate seat is up for re-election, no major primary challengers have yet been revealed. But I’m guessing he is taking the potential threat of one very seriously. Already, Cornyn campaign ads have been released on Radio and TV. Here is the transcript of one of those ads: Senator John Cornyn has voted time and time again against ObamaCare. He brings Texas Common Sense to an often senseless Washington. Balanced Budget Amendment, Repeal the Death Tax, Smaller Government, Lower Taxes, Propose No Budget, No Pay. The National Journal named him the 2nd Most Conservative Senator in America...

On Wednesday, Glenn Beck interviewed Matt Bevin, one of the individuals running against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the 2014 elections. Beck said he looked in to Bevin before the interview, consulting with groups like FreedomWorks and the Senate Conservatives Fund, and was shocked that some of the groups’ members described him as the best constitutional candidate they have seen, period. Bevin modestly commented: “To say I’m a constitutionalist like [Senators] Mike Lee or Ted Cruz would be an insult to them, although we’ve had interesting discussions and I think the world of them.” When asked to describe...

(CNSNews.com) - Although Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) disagreed with conservative Republicans' decision to take a stand against Obamacare, he said on Tuesday that the law itself -- not just the enrollment process -- is deeply flawed. "I haven't had one person call me to say, 'Senator Graham, you were wrong about Obamacare. Your criticism of the program was off base,'" Graham told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday. "As a matter of fact, all of us who opposed it from the very beginning predicted that the private sector would drop coverage because it will cost too much. They would...

In another edition of the polls the media won't cover, between September 29 and October 6, Democrats have lost a four point lead in Rasmussen's generic ballot that asks voters if they would vote for a Democrat or Republican in the upcoming midterm elections. That poll is now tied at 40% - 40%. At the end of last month, Democrats led 42% - 38%. The media continue to run headlines that read, "Poll Shows GOP Taking Share of Shutdown Blame," which is true. Most polls show Republicans are at a single-digit deficit when compared to Democrats (still, a vast improvement...

Starts at 7:09, ends 27:58 Cornyn claims that FreedomWorks does a disservice by encouraging "republican violence" i.e. by supporting and funding conservative challengers to moderate republicans. Yet Cornyn endorsed Arlen Specter and Charlie Crist and funded Lisa Murkowski over the republican nominee. He says "we need to win elections" Yet he supported or endorsed every moderate over every conservative when he was head of the NRSC.

The American Conservative Union (ACU) rated these seventeen Georgia State Senators as Conservative All-Stars: Don Balfour, Charlie Bethel, Dean Burke, Buddy Carter, Ronnie Chance, Tyler Harper, Hunter Hill, Jack Hill, Bill Jackson, Fran Millar, Jeff Mullis, David Shafer, Cecil Staton, Jesse Stone, Ross Tolleson, and Renee Unterman. ElectTheRightCandidate.us graded them as replaceable RINOs. This discrepancy occurred because the two systems use very different grading systems. Both used conservative legislations like SB 101 that prevented the government creating a database of gun owners. However, the real test is how politicians vote on non-conservative legislations. Only ElectTheRightCandidate.us used the following non-conservative legislations....

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) has reportedly been censured again by one of the state’s largest, most influential Republican party organizations. Note we said “Republican” Party … not Tea Party. By a vote of 56-24, the Greenville (S.C.) County Republican reportedly voted to censure Graham this week. News of the censure was first reported by Jeff Quinton of The Quinton Report. Obviously this wouldn’t be the first time the liberal lawmaker has faced a rebuke from his own party. In fact Graham has been censured by county parties in Chesterfield and Fairfield already this year – by overwhelming majorities. In...

Momentum appears to be building in South Carolina against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who faces three challengers in next year’s June primary. On Monday evening, the Greenville County, SC GOP executive committee, an official arm of the state's Republican Party, passed a 29-point censure of Graham’s activities in Washington. “Initially a voice vote was taken and newly elected County Chair Chad Groover ruled that the nays won, at which point there were several calls for ‘division,’” The South Carolina Conservative’s Javan Browder wrote on Tuesday morning. “Groover recognized the call for division and a standing vote was taken, and the...

House Republicans, meeting behind closed doors Tuesday, remained unified and in high spirits one week into the government shutdown caused by Congress' inability to approve a funding plan. They joked about reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had barred Vice President Joe Biden from budget negotiations, and continued to demand that Democrats meet them halfway and agree to weaken the Affordable Care Act to end the stalemate. But if Democrats had hoped House Republicans would cave under pressure from the public to end the government shutdown, it's not happening — in no small part because many House Republicans...

Infuriated over the delay of death benefits to fallen American soldiers due to the government shutdown, Sen. John McCain railed against the “false premise” that some Republicans have proliferated: that it is possible to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “To somehow think that we were going to repeal Obamacare, which would have required 67 Republican votes [in the Senate] was a false premise, and I think we did the American people a great disservice by convincing them somehow we could,” McCain said. "We started out with a false premise on this side of the aisle." In the Senate, 67 Republican...

Kelly Ayotte was furious. One media account after another (as here) has the Republican and theoretically conservative New Hampshire senator angrily attacking Senator Ted Cruz in a recent closed-door Senate GOP Caucus. Behaving as follows, this much cited and notably un-refuted coming from the New York Times, bold print supplied here for emphasis: And on Wednesday at a private luncheon, several Senate Republicans — Dan Coats of Indiana, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire — assailed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has led the movement to block funding for the health law. Ms. Ayotte was...

Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) released the first television ad of his reelection campaign Monday in an attempt to shore up his image among conservative voters. "National Journal named him the second most conservative senator in America," says the narrator of the 30-second spot. The commercial mentions Cornyn's votes against Obamacare and support for "smaller government" and a balanced budget amendment, among other things. Cornyn has not attracted any major primary challengers yet, but he is taking the potential threat of one very seriously. The fact that he is releasing a TV ad at this early stage of the...

The Bright for Senate campaign is proud to accept the first official Tea Party group endorsement for any candidate in the upcoming US Senate primary. The upstate Senator has been strongly endorsed by the Kershaw County Patriots, a group “born out of the need to return to the foundations of our great nation,” according to a statement the KCP issued to the Bright Campaign. A video of their endorsement can be found by clicking here. “This is why we at the Kershaw County Patriots are endorsing Lee Bright for Senate,” proclaimed the group, adding that “Lee (Bright) has a proven...

KABUL—The Afghan presidential race is shaping up as a messy battle with several credible candidates, fractured political alliances and only one near certainty—that the warlords who once plunged Afghanistan into civil war will play a major role in the country's future. As the registration of candidates closed Sunday night, at least seven serious presidential aspirants had filed nominations for the April 5 vote to pick a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who isn't allowed to run again. ... Almost all of the leading presidential hopefuls who registered by Sunday either were themselves or have as running mates men who were...

There is much blame to go around in this government shutdown, but if one person deserves more culpability than all others, that person is Matt Bevin. Bevin isn’t a member of Congress or an administration official. He lives in Louisville and runs a family business that makes bells. But he has played a pivotal role in the shutdown by sidelining Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader and the man best positioned to negotiate a solution to a political crisis that threatens to upend the U.S. economy. McConnell is as conservative as they come and a bitter foe of President Obama,...

What is your opinion of Pete King? Is he doing the attack conservatives first, then maybe one day he will get around to attacking Democrats? Is the House GOP on a kamikaze mission with the government shutdown? Is he blaming the GOP when he should be blaming the Democrats? Obama is the one acting like an autocrat who says that he gets to decide who is exempt and who isn't. Obama: 1.) Big Business is exempt 2.) Fat-cats in the Senate & House of Reps get taxpayer-funded subsidies for ObamaCare 3.) No defunding of ObamaCare. 4, 5, 6... Repubs, otoh:...

Isn't this about time to START RECALL ELECTIONS?In all elected offices, national, state, local, where Dems, and Rinos open their mouths, or have a national voice..