Free Republic

Anthony Weiner was lying low this morning after releasing a video announcing his last-minute entry into the race for mayor. A crush of reporters was camped outside his Park Avenue South apartment for so long that campaign aides treated them to three boxes of pizza and made plans for individual interviews later in the day. Some of Weiner's rivals, meanwhile, wasted no time poking fun at the sexually-charged Twitter messages that led their newly-minted opponent to resign from Congress in 2011. "If he can penetrate the field, I'll be ready for him in November," Independence Party candidate Adolfo Carrion declared...

In a startling exchange Wednesday during the IRS hearings before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, America learned that the IRS knew in May of 2012 that its employees were targeting conservative organization with paralyzing harassment and Kafka-esque audits. Although the IRS knew this, they did not report this information to Congress. "While a tremendous amount of attention is centered about the Inspector General's report, or investigation, the committee has learned from Ms. Paz that she in fact participated in an IRS internal investigation that concluded in May of 2012 - May 3 of 2012 - and found essentially the...

Any ID requirements to prove citizenship for registering and/or voting is labelled as racism, profiling, or violating 'civil rights' of those within our borders.

The US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ronald C. Machen - the man responsible for the aggressive surveillance and phone record scrutiny at Fox News - is also a big donor to the Obama Campaigns. At the time of his appointment, the Washington Post wrote a profile on Machen including this tidbit: Over the years, he has donated $4,350 to Obama's campaigns. He gave $250 to Obama's U.S. Senate campaign in 2003, a year before Obama, then an Illinois state senator, emerged on the nation's political radar, according to campaign finance records.

Here's the link.

Minnesota U.S. Sen. Al Franken leads all potential GOP opponents by comfortable double-digit margins, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday. Among those tested by the Democratic polling firm was U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who he leads 55-38, a 17 point margin. Franken leads conservative talk show host Jason Lewis by the same 17 point margin (54-37), as well as state Sen. Julianne Ortman (52-35). Narrowing the gap slightly against the first-term senator were businessman Mike McFadden and Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, who came within 15 points apiece (both at 51-36). Sen. Julie Rosen trailed by 16...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 20, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Would the woman most closely associated with the TSA airport stripsearches make a good presidential candidate? The abortion lobbying group EMILY's List and The Washington Post think so. This month, EMILY's List launched an initiative entitled "Madam President" dedicated to electing the first female president. The group's president, Stephanie Schriock, said she was not placing all her bets on a Hilary Clinton candidacy. "If she chooses not to, our options are far from exhausted," she said. "We have a deep bench of women leaders committed to fighting for progressive change who are up...

The foreign-headquartered company that recently purchased the leading U.S. electronic voting firm is boasting that it was highlighted in a report on how technology is making the election process more efficient, secure, transparent, accessible and reliable. The report, WND has learned, was authored by a firm with links to billionaire activist George Soros. The information comes after WND reported two weeks ago that SCYTL recently acquired the software division of a non-profit election organization tied to Soros’ Open Society Institute. Yesterday, WND reported SCYTL announced its technology will be deployed at more U.S. jurisdictions ahead of the 2014 midterm elections....

Maxwell, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs from August 2011 until his removal last December, following tours in Iraq and Syria, spoke publicly for the first time in an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast. “The overall goal is to restore my honor,” said Maxwell, who has now filed grievances regarding his treatment with the State Department’s human resources bureau and the American Foreign Service Association, which represents the interests of foreign-service officers. The other three officials placed on leave were in the diplomatic security bureau, leaving Maxwell as the only official in the...

A top liberal SuperPAC in the 2012 election had undisclosed financial ties to the private equity firm Bain Capital — something that some people close to the group say interfered with its core mission of attacking Bain veteran Mitt Romney’s business record. American Bridge 21st Century PAC was launched in 2012 as part of a multi-pronged Democratic effort to define and defeat the Republican nominee, a project of David Brock, a former conservative reporter best known as the founder of the liberal media monitoring group Media Matters. By last January, it had amassed a vast store of opposition research, most...

The UK Independence Party — the anti-European Union, tough-on-immigration party that has bedeviled Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative party in recent years — is riding high following its best-ever showing in nationwide elections. As sure as night follows day, when UKIP does well it means the issue of Britain’s relationship with the EU is pushed to the top of the political agenda.UKIP secured 23% of the national popular vote in local government elections earlier this month, just two points behind the Conservatives. The left-wing Labour party came in narrowly ahead with 29% — a pitiful showing...

Fewer groups sught recognition as 501 (c)(4) social welfare organizations that year than in 2009, according to the Treasury Department. ...

Remember all the headlines during the election, wondering what happened to the Tea Party, the liberal crowing that it had gone silent? NPR, February 2012: "Strong in 2010, Where Is the Tea Party Now?" - "what's most striking about the movement this election has been its notable absence." Mother Jones, "The Tea Party is Dead." ." ABC: "What Happened to the Tea Party?" New York Times, June 2012: "The Movement Has Fizzled Out." Remember how odd it was hear conservative pundits saying, 'our voters would crawl over broken glass to vote against Obama', while pollsters correctly predicted that Republican turnout...

The scandals appearing in the news are merely symptoms of THE most important problem at hand, which has yet to explode on the scene. The Democrats stole the last presidential election (they first tried with Gore) and have probably stolen many legislative elections. Evidence seems to be mounting as one reads about the many precincts in Philadelphia having not a single Romney vote (statistical impossibility) and then the latest news were "True the Vote" was harassed by not only the IRS, but the FBI, OSHA AND the ATF. Since no charges were filed, WHO sicced four Federal agencies on an...

RICHMOND — After Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II formally accepted his party’s nomination for governor and Virginia GOP scion Mark Obenshain secured the same for attorney general, it was a political neophyte who stole the show Saturday with multiple helpings of 11th-hour drama. Chesapeake Bishop E.W. Jackson, who mounted an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate last year, emerged the wire-to-wire winner in the race for the GOP nomination for Virginia’s lieutenant governor at the state GOP’s nominating convention Saturday. It took four ballots and about 10 hours of voting for Mr. Jackson to emerge from a field of...

As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association with an “A+” rating for her voting record in the Tennessee House of Representatives, Debra Maggart never imagined that her political career would end this way. Maggart, who chaired the Republican caucus, killed an NRA-backed bill that would have permitted Tennesseans to keep firearms in their parked vehicles wherever they went — work, school or the neighborhood bar. Months later, Maggart was stunned to see NRA-sponsored ads on billboards in her district. Her face was next to a picture of President Obama. The ads proclaimed: “Sure, Rep. Debra Maggart Says She...

This must be part of that new civility Democrats promised us. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) has a gun firing off at the head of GOP opponent Gabriel Gomez in his latest campaign ad. Coincidence?

Former White House Counsel during the Clinton Administration, Lanny Davis, is calling for the resignation of Obama White House Counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler. ... the White House counsel's office reportedly knew about the Inspector General's investigation into harassment ofdconservative groups, since April. Davis contends that if this is true and Ms. Ruemmler chose not to inform President Obama of the investigation and the possible legal and political ramifications, she should step down. ...

The woman who ran the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt organizations division has been promoted, and now heads the agency's health-care office, ABC News reported. Sarah Hall Ingram was commissioner of the embattled IRS office from 2009 to 2012, roughly the period that the agency is accused of singling out Tea Party and conservative groups for extra scrutiny, based on nothing but their political bent. As a firestorm grows around the IRS, Ms. Ingram quietly left the tax-exempt office and was made director of IRS Affordable Care Act Division...

NBC's Lisa Myers reported this morning that the IRS deliberately chose not to reveal that it had wrongly targeted conservative groups until after the 2012 presidential election:

Last November Barack Obama squeaked through with arguably the weakest reelection in American history. He won the race even though he got fewer popular and electoral votes than in 2008. But would he have been given a second term if voters knew what his administration had been up to? Let’s review...

Recently, Politico ran an article piquantly entitled “Calvin Coolidge, civil rights pioneer?” One might surmise such an opinion piece might be penned by Amity Shlaes, author of the recent best-selling biography of Silent Cal—but even more remarkably it had been authored not by the ubiquitous Ms. Shlaes but by Kurt L. Schmoke, the black former Democratic mayor of Baltimore. Schmoke, taking note of Senator Rand Paul’s April visit to Howard University, reminded readers of Coolidge’s June 6, 1924 commencement address there. “Coolidge gave the commencement . . .,” noted Schmoke, now vice president and general counsel at the school, “and...

DENVER - Four Colorado lawmakers are facing a possible recall after supporting new gun control legislation in Colorado. Three senators and one representative are targets by different groups across the state, but those organizing the recalls have an uphill battle. Under Colorado law, each recall petition needs to have 25 percent of all the votes cast in the previous election for the targeted lawmaker. Senate President John Morse, who is term limited, is being challenged by two different groups, "I am surprised," he said by phone Sunday. "It's not really an affective, appropriate way to deal with political issues." His...

Allies of Colorado Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs), who faces a potential recall election because of his unpopular support of strict gun control measures, recently launched a misleading website along with a series of robocalls and radio ads labeling recall petitioners as frauds and criminals. In what seems a desperate attempt to stop the possibility of Sen. Morse’s ouster in a special election, the political action committee (PAC) “A Whole Lot Of People For John Morse” has created a website called “Colorado Recall Watch.” The site is vaguely eerie, with a black and red color scheme and typesetting apparently...

It looks like one of the things that will be inflicted on New Yorkers as a result of the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service is a whole new round of tirades from the New York Times calling for state-funded electioneering.

Prior to the 2012 Election and after the first Romney/Obama Presidential Debate I started creating prediction models for each of the contested "Battleggrounds". OH was the first and most detailed state I reviewed because it seemed like it could go either way. The original model spreadsheet I posted on FR contained county by county results for the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections, the 2010 OH Governor Race, and the 2010 Referendum Union Question. I used this data to develop the probable voter turnouts for each county and determined the number of votes and vote margin the GOP candidate would need...

Donald Trump said Monday that if the details surrounding the IRS targeting tea party groups and last week’s Benghazi hearing had come out last fall, President Barack Obama might not have won reelection. “This is a big, big story that is probably going to get a lot bigger,” Trump said of the IRS scandal on Fox News. “This is a terrible thing. It’s just not supposed to happen. They have laws against it. If this were somebody else, this would be the biggest story.” Trump continued: “I’ve been watching it for the last four days getting bigger and bigger and...

Imagine you’re a red-state Democrat contemplating a run for Senate. Here’s what you’ve seen during the opening months of President Obama’s second term: A still-tepid economic recovery, a culturally polarizing agenda on immigration and guns, and fears of Obamacare’s possibly haphazard implementation. The White House’s uneven second-term start shows little sign of improving. Questions about what administration and State Department officials knew about the origins of last year’s deadly attack on a consulate in Benghazi have hounded them since last week’s congressional hearing. The explosive revelation Friday that the IRS targeted conservative non-profit outside groups seems certain to put Obama...

Bill and Hillary Clinton will not support Anthony Weiner in his dream of becoming mayor even though they love his wife, Huma Abedin, sources say. “The Clintons wish Weiner would just disappear. Every time he pops up, it’s a reminder of Bill’s scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and it isn’t helpful to Hillary’s hopes for 2016,” one Democrat told Page Six.

THE capital is in the throes of déjà vu and preview as it plunges back into Clinton Rules, defined by a presidential aide on the hit ABC show “Scandal” as damage control that goes like this: “It’s not true, it’s not true, it’s not true, it’s old news.” The conservatives appearing on Benghazi-obsessed Fox News are a damage patrol with an approach that goes like this: “Lies, paranoia, subpoena, impeach, Watergate, Iran-contra.” (Though now that the I.R.S. has confessed to targeting Tea Party groups, maybe some of the paranoia is justified.) Welcome to a glorious spring weekend of accusation and...

If Republican leaders were to fully embrace a conservative reform agenda, it would address pressing national needs. It would position the GOP as forward looking, contemporary, and have appeal to swing voters. It would demonstrate a commitment to a brand of conservatism that is practical rather than narrowly ideological. And it contrasts well with today’s reactionary liberalism, by which I mean liberalism that opposes virtually every effort to reform institutions and programs that are sclerotic, outdated, and ineffective. .... There are five obvious areas for Republicans to focus on, beginning with entitlement reform ... A second area Republicans should focus...

Responding to a flurry of complaints from conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, the Internal Revenue Service admitted Friday it made "mistakes" in the last few years while trying to process those requests. Multiple tea party groups reported significant delays and excessive questioning from IRS officials while trying to obtain 501(c)(4) status. ,,,, Asked when the IRS began looking into complaints, Lerner said she could not give a time frame. Pressed further on when senior IRS officials became aware of the situation, Lerner said she "did not feel comfortable answering."

In the short time as a Republican, Emmanuel "Manny" Roman has made more than a few enemies at the Miami-Dade Republican Party. And now that Roman is running for vice-president of the county party, he's feeling the backlash....

Live Stream Full Committee Hearing: "Benghazi: Exposing Failure and Recognizing Courage"

A new NBC/Marist poll on Virginia’s gubernatorial race — a.k.a., the only competitive governor’s race in the country in 2013 — released this morning has some slightly different findings than the WaPo poll from last weekend, which had Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli edging Democrat Terry McAuliffe with a five-point lead among Virginia voters; the NBC poll has McAuliffe beating Cuccinelli by a within-the-margin-of-error 43 to 41 percent among registered voters. Cuccinelli, however, has some very distinct advantages going for him — Virginia voters are more familiar with the state attorney general than they are the former DNC chairman, as well...

Access to all ballots and registration information has been granted to True the Vote for citizen-led audit of the 2012 contest for Florida's 18th Congressional District HOUSTON, TX. May 7, 2013 - True the Vote (TTV), the nation's leading voters' rights organization, today announced its settlement with the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections regarding records inspection rights under federal law and the Florida Constitution. The agreement provides True the Vote access to all ballots, registrations, and other election related data necessary to conduct an audit of a federal election in Florida's 18th congressional district. The audit is unprecedented in that it will be led...

Update: The “A Whole Lot of People for John Morse” committee gets slightly bigger than six people. Update at the bottom. As Colorado lawmakers entered the last frenzied 72 hours of the legislative session — 90 bills were still on the docket when the legislature was called to order Monday morning — four state politicians are facing efforts to recall them from office. Recall drives are in full swing against Senate Democrats John Morse, Evie Hudak and Angela Giron as well as Democratic Rep. Mike McLachlan.

Is there a pattern here with Hillary? Remember the supposed sniper-fire? How could she mistake no sniper fire for sniper fire? Thus, how could she have misspoken? And now Benghazi? Has she told the truth? Did she tell the truth on Bosnia? Just curious...

Today’s the day that voters in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District march to the polling stations and decide whether to elect the disgraced former governor or the comedian’s sister to represent them in the House of Representatives. As if that wasn’t bad enough, now visitors will be coming to town to watch them make this embarrassing choice, and I don’t mean the media: The Justice Department will monitor voting in Charleston County, South Carolina, in Tuesday’s special election to fill a House of Representatives seat, the department said on Monday.Former South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford is facing Democratic newcomer...

After yesterday’s opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, many in the media are taking a look back at the presidency of George W. Bush after a little time to put it in perspective, and the results do a Catholic heart good: Former fierce critics are acknowledging the kindness and accomplishments of the man. When millions of Catholics see Bush standing in between Presidents Clinton and Obama in those pictures, surely we remember him more fondly than ever. Because of the abortion extremism of Bill Clinton, pro-life Catholics were rooting for Bush to win. When he did,...

(Reuters) - The Justice Department will monitor voting in Charleston County, South Carolina, in Tuesday's special election to fill a House of Representatives seat, the department said on Monday. Former South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford is facing Democratic newcomer Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of television political satirist Stephen Colbert, in the First District House race. The Justice Department said in a statement it was monitoring the election under provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law bars election discrimination on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group. The department did not give...

<p>Would you support Sarah Palin should she decide to run for the presidency in 2016?</p>

Ahead of Pakistan's election next week, there is little cause for celebration. [snip] In a country where almost no-one pays income tax, including more than two thirds of MPs, it only took seven months for Ali Arshad Hakeem to become a hated man. As Pakistan's newly minted chief taxman, he built a database designed to monitor the spending habits of millions of people, and work out how much tax they owed. [snip] This [snip] came to a juddering halt last month, when Mr Hakeem was suspended by judges over allegations that his appointment breached government rules that demand each job...

Outrage After Democrats Insult Nikki Haley's Indian Heritage Saying They'll Send The Republican Gov. 'Back To Wherever The Hell She Came From' 3 May 2013 Conservatives are outraged after a Democrat in South Carolina allegedly insulted Republican Gov. Nikki Haley's Indian heritage at a party gathering in Columbia on Friday. The state's Democratic Party Chairman, Dick Harpootlian, is believed to have said the party will take on the Conservative in the next gubernatorial race and send 'Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from.' Gov. Haley was born in the U.S. but her parents are from India. Read...

Iowa Congressman Steve King sent an email to supporters Friday night announcing he would not seek the state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2014. The announcement is not unexpected. King said in February that he was leaning toward running. However, as he struggled with the decision for three months, it became less likely that he would enter the fray. King would have been an overwhelming favorite in a Republican primary. His decision not to run opens the field for other candidates to enter. Former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker has stated he would run for the seat if King opted not...

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she "prays" Hillary Rodham Clinton will run for president. [snip] Emily’s List, a national group that focuses on electing pro-choice women, launched a campaign Thursday aiming to put the first woman in the White House that coincided with a poll showing Mrs. Clinton as the overwhelming favorite to win the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. In making the announcement, Stephanie Schriock, president of the group, said the nation is ready for a female president and is “hopeful” Mrs. Clinton will take another stab at the Oval Office.

"But what if Romney had been able to reach a mind-blowing 70 percent of the Hispanic vote? Surely that would have meant victory, right? No, it wouldn't. Romney still would have lost, although by the narrowest of electoral margins, 270 to 268. (Under that scenario, Romney would have won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College; he could have racked up huge numbers of Hispanic votes in California, New York and Texas, for example, and not changed the results in those states."

Something is happening in Colorado, and you better pay attention. Colorado Democrats, with the active help of some Republican county election clerks interested in shirking work, have devised a revolutionary plan to remake future Colorado elections. The plan is simple: ballots are automatically mailed out to every single person on the voter rolls. Ballots are even mailed to people listed as “inactive” voters at their last known address. Ballots are then voted and returned by mail. No more polling places. No more voters actually demonstrating an interest in participating in an election. The government will decide that for them, and...

Something is happening in Colorado, and you better pay attention. Colorado Democrats, with the active help of some Republican county election clerks interested in shirking work, have devised a revolutionary plan to remake future Colorado elections.This bill is about power, not good government. If it passes, Colorado will likely remain blue for years. Those who doubt that don’t understand how important process is to election outcomes. ...The Left cares about process so much they are pouring $100,000,000 into the “Democracy Initiative,” a plot to permanently reshape American politics by altering election process laws. The conservative and GOP response? Next to...

Medicare Already Means-Tested, Retirement Expert Says 01 May 2013 The Obama administration's controversial proposal to "means-test" Medicare recipients is ostensibly aimed at generating more cash for the government from those who can afford it - or squeezing more money out of upper-income seniors, depending upon one's point of view. But according to a University of Illinois expert on retirement benefits, the Medicare program is already means-tested. Law professor Richard L. Kaplan says whenever the issue of cutting Medicare emerges, one of the first ideas to "fix" the program is to make its upper-income beneficiaries pay more. "Indeed, the claim is...