Free Republic

Fred Thompson, the former U.S. senator, Republican presidential candidate and actor (Law and Order, etc.), will be in Richmond next week to support an effort to ensure the presidency goes to the winner of the most overall popular votes in all 50 states. Thompson, along with former Illinois governor Jim Edgar (R) and former Iowa governor Chet Culver (D) are part of a bipartisan coalition that has endorsed the National Popular Vote that would go into effect if states representing 270 electoral votes pass legislation. The National Popular Vote bill has been signed into law in seven states — Maryland,...

A few days after two senior aides in New England, the other shoe drops on Herman Cain in Iowa: Herman Cain’s Iowa Director, Tina Goff, told TheIowaRepublican.com that she has submitted her resignation and is no longer working for the campaign. In addition to Goff’s resignation, TheIowaRepublican.com can confirm that Kevin Hall has also left the campaign. Hall served as Cain’s Straw Poll coordinator. Goff and Hall both worked on Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign in 2008 and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s campaign in 2010. Goff stated that she resigned because the Cain campaign refused to make a serious effort in...

So, big news in the GOP broke earlier this evening when it was announced that several top campaign employees and consultants for Newt Gingrich's Presidential campaign resigned.The names of those who resigned are not too important as far as I'm concerned because the act of resigning en masse indicates a tragically flawed candidate. The absurdity of this is that former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue who was serving as campaign chair also quit and went on board with former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's competing bid for the nation's high office. We've never quite seen anything like this before.  This episode...

Popular-vote pact picks up steam A once-sleepy movement that would upend the Electoral College, reverse two centuries of constitutional practice and elect presidents by direct popular vote has quietly picked up momentum in recent days, with Republican Party leaders scrambling to stanch a steady stream of defections by GOP state lawmakers to the plan. *snip* Under the idea introduced in 2006 by Stanford University consulting professor John Koza, states that join the NPV compact pledge to give all of their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote - even if a majority of the state’s...

As Mark Steyn noted, President Obama is getting out in front on the NCAA Men’s National Basketball Tournament. Don’t get me wrong, I like putting together an NCAA basketball tournament bracket just as much as the next guy. And let’s acknowledge that NCAA hoops brackets and things like fantasy football pools can be productivity drains in many offices across the country. But the difference between President Obama and the rest of us is that we aren’t calling a meeting of the White House communications staff to rehearse our bracket unveils for a national TV audience while ducking national-security issues, budget negotiations, Social Security reform meetings … you get the idea. And certainly most of us...

It's so easy to sell shiny America crap to angry conservatives these days. Now the New York publishing world is formally cashing in, as HarperCollins is starting a new conservative imprint, "Broadside Books." Punchy? HarperCollins was the publisher of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue, which only sold about 432 trillion copies, every one of them just as good. Now it's time to scale up! HC's new "Broadside Books" will simply take every book genre and write alternate conservative versions: As [Broadside chief Adam] Bellow imagines it, Broadside Books ("it had a certain combative edge," he said of the title) will publish...

The response by the Republican political establishment to the Christine O'Donnell victory over liberal Republican Mike Castle in Delaware has been an embarrassment. A strong, vocal woman upturned the political tables in Delaware, a state where both political parties have been run like blue-blooded patriarchies for the better part of half a century, and all the boys that compose "the establishment" can muster is omniscient edicts about her absolute un-electability in a general election. Funny, I don't recall hearing similar talk from the likes of Mssrs. Rove and Cornyn after Scott Brown won in Massachusetts, Joe Miller won in Alaska,...

Has President Obama and his White House P.R. team created a monster in Minority Leader John Boehner? Just consider this: Boehner is now the fourth most likely GOP presidential candidate behind Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee to win the 2012 Republican nomination, according to Ireland's biggest betting site. Up until about a month ago, Boehner was not a household political name, but that was before the president started to single the Ohio congressman out as the White House struggled to put a face on the Republicans going into the fall elections. That effort has recently reached its height,...

Despite reverse mortgage volume being down 40% from 2009, American Advisors Group (AAG) is looking to recruit more than 40 new sales officers before the end of the year. “We believe there is no better time than right now to begin an aggressive recruiting campaign to increase our sales floors and take advantage of current market conditions,” said Reza Jahangiri, AAG’s CEO. “The success of AAG’s national marketing campaign featuring Former Senator Fred Thompson combined with our recent compliance, licensing and technological implementations, has paved the way for our expansion plans.” The company is conducting a job fair to grow...

This sleazy ad has been on cable news all day. Former presidential candidate and country bear Fred Thompson wants old people to get "Absolutely FREE," government-backed reverse mortgages. What do we know about this shady company Thompson is endorsing? ...Oh right, and they're government-backed! That's how investors get paid. (Fred Thompson, a true Fiscal Conservative, makes a big point of this "full government backup" in his terrible ad.) Reverse mortgages are available to homeowners who are 62 years old or older and own their homes outright or have a substantial amount of home equity, according to the HUD site. The...

Grand Old Partisan salutes Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN), born this day in 1942. Thompson has appeared in dozens of movie and television roles, including The Hunt for Red October and Law & Order. Thompson's entry to politics was managing the re-election campaign of Senator Howard Baker (R-TN) in 1972. Later, he served as minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. He then was special counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Fred Thompson, former GOP senator, presidential candidate, actor and prolific Tweeter, is usually one of the more entertaining pols out there in social media. Here are some of his recent bons mots: Hillary in Kiev, Ukraine: prosperity should be "equally spread". No - doesn't work. That's why you didn't speak in Kiev, USSR. #ftrs #tcot Jimmy Buffet: oil spill Bush's fault. Why trust his opinion? He can't even keep track of a shaker of salt. #ftrs #tcot Justice Kennedy: won't retire while Obama in office. So we're safe, barring accident, illness, or Rolling Stone interview. #ftrs #tcot Obama: US and...

Like most great women of mystery, Sarah Palin is at once everywhere and nowhere. On any given evening, you might see the former Alaska governor-turned-conservative-icon on Fox News, chatting up like-minded travelers about the political buzz du jour. Her byline pops up now and again in the opinion pages (supporting McCain, bashing enviros). She periodically hits the campaign trail with favored candidates. She is a prolific and passionate tweeter. Her Facebook page overflows with thoughts on global events both past (DDay, Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate speech) and present (Israel, border security, the need to drill, baby, drill); news of upcoming appearances...

In tracking the response to the launch of the site and petition to draft Sarah Palin for the Chairmanship of the RNC, we have seen varied reactions ranging from enthusiasm, to curiosity, to skepticism, to racist bigotry, to deafening silence. One common denominator in near uniformity, however, is the consensus that Michael Steele is, at best, ineffective as Chair of the RNC for one or more of the following reasons. Steele V. Limbaugh Praising ACORN’s Bertha Lewis Steele Doesn’t Know If GOP Ready To Lead RNC chairman doubts GOP will win back the House this November Republican National Committee spent...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin takes the stage Saturday at the Independence Events Center, along with other well-known political figures, for the event called Winning Back America. Beginning at 1 pm with remarks from radio DJ Darla Jaye, Winning America Back is hosted by Preserving American Liberty, a volunteer organization from the Kansas City area. Tickets range from around $50 to around $250. Political commentator Jeri Thompson will speak at 1:30, followed by 2008 presidential candidate Fred Thompson at 1:40. Palin is scheduled to take the stage at 6 pm, followed by a question and answer...

Here is video of former Sen. Fred Thompson on with Sean Hannity tonight where he said higher taxes are inevitable to go along with President Obama's European-style social welfare system. Thompson said "Democrats say the most stupid things to justify what they are doing." He was reacting to the way Democrats minimize the tax burden Americans are under. "We are changing the face of America," Thompson said, with the European-style tax system that is coming to pay for what Obama is doing. In particular, Thompson said the "Value Added Tax" is likely on the way. In Europe, the VAT tax...

Preserving American Liberty announced today Fred and Jeri Thompson and Liz Cheney will join Sarah Palin at the Independence Events Center, Saturday, May 1, 2010. Fred Thompson is a former Presidential Candidate, U.S. Senator and is a well-known Actor, Jeri Thompson is married to Fred Thompson and is a political commentator, and Liz Cheney is with Keep America Safe and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Tickets for "Winning America Back" are available at the Independence Events Center box office (open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., online at www.GetTix.net or by calling 1-866-443-8849.) There will...

TUCSON - J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman and conservative AM radio host, nearly lost his voice this week delivering fiery attacks on John McCain, the Republican 2008 presidential nominee whom Hayworth accuses of betraying his party and getting too cozy with East Coast liberals. The four-term senator, says Hayworth, "is not the John McCain we knew." Hayworth’s assault from the right in a GOP primary has forced McCain to launch an early, aggressive defense of his seat. And today, McCain will attempt to enhance his conservative bona fides by hosting the party’s new darling, US Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts,...

Sen. Jim Bunning cut a deal with Democrats to release the hold he had blocking a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits and subsidized COBRA health insurance. But the impact of his stand against more deficit spending will hang over Washington for some time. When he said on the floor Tuesday night that, "If we cannot pay for a bill that all 100 senators support, how can we tell the American people with a straight face that we will ever pay for anything? That is what senators say they want, and that is what the American people want." The Inside the...

Today was Jeri's last day on the radio show; apparently 22 hours a day with me is enough. Go figure. #tcot #ftrs 02:30 PM Mar 1