Free Republic

The two were thrown together after the Democrat-controlled restricting process was finished. Their primary has turned into a funhouse-mirror image of many races between older establishment Republicans and younger Tea Party challengers. Kinzinger won his seat in 2010 with strong Tea Party support but has developed a more centrist voting record since he entered the House, making establishment Republicans happy but angering his Tea Party base. His decision to quit the conservative Republican Study Committee and join the centrist Tuesday Group after a fight between the RSC and House GOP leaders pleased Boehner but infuriated groups like Freedomworks, which cite...

Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich has set up a political committee to test the waters for a U.S. Senate campaign, finally publicly confirming his interest in a race he once pledged not to enter. The IRS has approved the creation of a “Schweich for US Senate” committee, following an application by Schweich’s campaign treasurer. The committee allows money to be raised and spent on behalf of Schweich while he considers whether to launch a formal challenge to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. The Senate race already includes three prominent Republicans — former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman of Rolla, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin...

Far be it for me to offer unsolicited advice to Sarah Palin. She's built a very successful career out of going rogue and certainly doesn't need any tips from me. And, as an occasional pundit, a political influencer and a private citizen, she's free to throw her weight behind anyone she wants. But I just have to say it: Newt Gingrich? Really? Now, I'm not in the camp of conservative elites who think she's seen her best days and should politely retire to obscurity. If anything, the premiere of "Game Change" on HBO on Saturday is proof that she's still...

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign would like to be focusing its attacks on Democratic President Barack Obama around now. But after failing to seize control of the Republican nomination race on "Super Tuesday," Romney cannot shake off rival Rick Santorum, whom he criticized on Thursday as a political insider. Opening up a new front against Santorum, the Romney campaign accused him of being a lobbyist in his home state of Pennsylvania even before he went to Washington in 1991. Romney's campaign also attacked Santorum for holding regular meetings with lobbyists as a Senate leader, part of the Republican "K Street Project"...

Bill Burton, the former Obama 2008 campaign press secretary who went on to found the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA, appeared on Andrea Mitchell’s MSNBC show Thursday, trying to distinguish between the rhetoric used by HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher and conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh. Maher recently donated $1 million to Priorities USA. Mitchell asked Burton how Maher has gotten away with what he said about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin while Limbaugh was condemned for his own ill-advised remarks. “Well, a couple of things,” Burton said. “First of all, obviously, some of those things were vulgar and...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7pv7sO5Gng

The race for the newly drawn 6th Assembly District is shaping up as a potential political – and personal – Republican slugfest. GOP Assemblywoman Beth Gaines could face two challengers from her side of the aisle in her re-election bid for the safe Republican district. The Rocklin Republican's potential rivals – Folsom attorney Andrew Pugno and Roseville school board member Linda Park – both have ties to Gaines' former rival, Roseville Councilman John Allard. Pugno, who has filed a statement of intention to run but has made no formal announcement, used the same campaign consultant in 2010 that Allard did...

President Obama's visit to Mt. Holly, North Carolina on Wednesday to discuss energy policy and the economy was technically not a campaign stop, but he didn't shy away from adding some politically-tinged remarks during his taxpayer-sponsored visit. "The next time you hear some politician trotting out some three-point plan for $2 gas, you let 'em know, we know better," Mr. Obama said, seemingly referencing Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's pitch to bring gas prices down to $2.50 if he becomes president. "Tell 'em we're tired of hearing phony, election year promises that never come about." Mr. Obama toured the Daimler...

Establishment Republicans will not stop supporting liberal RINO's until we Conservatives once and for all deliver a united blow against this GOP elitist in some sort of SOLIDARITY behind one particular conservative candidate soon or else we will lose. The Day After Super Tuesday » Judson Phillips - articulates it best in this (VIDEO): http://bit.ly/xgCt6T Wake up people! The people who said Sarah Palin was not electable are the same people who say Newt is not electable. This is just BS! Remember Reagan too, lost 6 primary contest before becoming the GOP nominee in 1976, for that matter in 2008...

His delegate lead growing, Mitt Romney gently nudged his Republican opponents toward the sidelines on Wednesday and said he was on track to wrap up the presidential nomination before the party convention next summer. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich paid him no mind, vowing to fight on in a campaign marked by persistent ideological divisions. If anything, the political maneuvering intensified as the marathon pointed toward contests in five states over the next week. Romney's campaign purchased television advertising time in Alabama according to campaign sources, as it pursued a breakthrough in the party's Southern base....

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — For weeks, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have been echoes of each other, both aiming their urgent verbal fire at Mitt Romney, the man they are desperate to stop from becoming the leader of the Republican Party. But the political and geographical imperatives of two important Southern primaries next week are forcing the two men to turn on each other as they seek to demonstrate an ability to unite the party’s fickle conservative base. It is a clash that has been building for weeks as both men circled each other warily, mindful that a shot at the...

NASHVILLE — State Sen. Stacey Campfield, who resigned as co-chairman of Newt Gingrich's Tennessee campaign last week, was nonetheless elected a Gingrich delegate in voting Tuesday. On the other hand, state Rep. Tony Shipley, R-Kingsport, who remained alone as head of the Gingrich Tennessee campaign after Campfield's resignation, failed to win a delegate seat in the voting based on unofficial returns. Twenty-eight "at large" delegates are allocated on the basis of Tuesday's vote statewide, and Adam Nickas, executive director of the state Republican Party, said the unofficial results will translate into 12 statewide delegates for Rick Santorum, nine for Mitt...

Suddenly June 5 doesn't seem so far away. With a muddled outcome from the 10 Super Tuesday states, there's no sign the GOP presidential primary process will be resolved before California Republicans hold a vote that pundits once said was too late to matter. In fact, June 5 -- when California and four other states will vote -- is now "one of the key dates between now and the convention" in late August in Tampa, Fla., said renowned election prognosticator Larry Sabato, who directs the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "As it turns out, every state is relevant, just...

A PAC controlled by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is back on the air in Nebraska with an ad supporting state Treasurer Don Stenberg (R). DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund will spend an initial $234,000 to air the ad for most of March on statewide cable and broadcast television. The bio spot follows another ad DeMint aired for Stenberg in January. All told, DeMint's PAC has spent almost one-half million dollars supporting Stenberg, with plans to sink much more into the race. "Don Stenberg's a conservative leader who's won battles for smaller government, spending cuts, the death penalty, term limits," says the...

PELL CITY, Ala. (AP) — Newt Gingrich says he isn't dropping out of the Republican presidential race. Gingrich said during an Alabama campaign swing Wednesday that he's staying in because it's impossible for a moderate Republican to be elected president in November. He was referring to front-runner Mitt Romney.

A clerk of courts running for Congress in Florida told a group of Clay County Republicans earlier today that Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) offered him incentives to drop out of the race. Clay County Clerk of Courts James Jett’s statements to the gathering, including that the FBI is already looking into the matter, were first reported by the political blog of Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union. According to those present at the South Clay Republicans meeting, which occurs the first Wednesday of each month at the Magnolia Point Golf & Country Club, Jett accused Stearns of using a middle man to offer...

The GOP field against vulnerable Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill might not be set yet. Show-Me State Auditor Tom Schweich is considering entering the race, according to a Missouri Republican familiar with his thinking. Schweich supporters have even filed paperwork with the IRS to begin the process of setting up an organization that could support his campaign. That news was first tweeted by Greg Giroux of Bloomberg News.Businessman John Brunner, former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and Rep. Todd Akin (Mo.) are the current contenders for the GOP nomination. Some Missouri Republicans have groused for months that their field could be stronger...

While Governor Mitt Romney garnered the most delegates coming out of Super Tuesday, the possibility of a brokered Republican convention is beginning to take a life of its own as Romney’s victories and defeats on Tuesday continue to send the signal that the former Governor of Massachusetts is still considered by many Republicans to be their “default” candidate. Romney will need to amass 729 more delegates from the remaining 1145 still up for grabs- about 50% of the remaining delegates. Rick Santorum needs to grab 968 of the remaining delegates, while Gingrich needs 1037 more. With Senator Rick Santorum’s strong...

"The Republican primary has become the hand crafted anointing of the political and financial establishment favorite, Mitt Romney. And the broadcast media is compliant in the carrying out of this strategy..." "Debates, which have the hope of being a refuge for actual substance, have become opportunities to successfully spin away unwanted portions of a candidates record through skilled political performance. In the primary game of momentum something like RomneyCare loses its weight as it grows stale later in the primary calendar and ultimately fails to disqualify Romney from the Republican primary."

Predictably, the folks whose political and financial livelihoods depend on successfully selling their global warming hoax to the world are coming out of the woodwork, emboldened by the tragic loss of life and destruction of property that has befallen our neighbors in the southeastern quadrant of the country in the last few days. Fraudulently profiteering from the extreme misfortune of their fellow citizens might seem disgraceful and contemptible to those of us whose value system would never permit such outrageous behavior. But, we’re talking about liberals, here. Not unexpectedly, the term “Global Warming” that had been temporarily mothballed when it...