Free Republic

Advise, Don't ConsentSenators cannot renegotiate a treaty, only reject it. President Obama is writing to the wrong people, and those wrong people are hopelessly confused about his power and their own. This is how bad agreements are born. Senate Republicans could easily kill the wayward New START treaty, and tell the administration to go back to Moscow and cut a deal that promotes American national security. The Constitution disfavors treaties that are not patently in U.S. interests, requiring a two-thirds Senate majority for approval — seven more than the 60-vote threshold generally required to move any contentious legislation through the...

Colin Powell is holding off on endorsing President Obama in the 2012 election, but said that he still views the president as a “transformational figure.” Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of State under the Bush administration, backed Obama for president in 2008. But on Sunday he said that he would wait closer to 2012 to make his endorsements. "I will look at the needs of the country, the situation as I see it, and I will evaluate both candidates and see which one I think is best able to lead the country," Powell...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee refused to fund the Tea Party darling in Delaware Christine O’Donnell, who kicked out of office the establishment Republican Castle in the state primary yesterday. This was the ugliest decision the Republican elite could have made. When folks donate to the NRSC they expect them to fight for every senatorial candidate. They should not discriminate between the glamorous former CEO lady and the woman who struggled through home foreclosure. People expect the NRSC to support all senatorial candidates that folks moved forward in legitimate Republican primaries. It is not the Republican’s elite who decides...

Gov. Crist to make announcement on political future ThursdayGov. Charlie Crist's fall from Republican Party grace will finally hit rock bottom on Thursday when he is expected to announce that he will run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, according to several news sources citing anonymous sources. Crist had ducked the question for the past few weeks, but previously was on the record as saying he would never leave his beloved GOP. And by never, he meant as long as he thought he could beat Miami Republican candidate Marco Rubio, which seems like a long shot now. Cruist has...

Republicans are being out-fundraised on the national level as the November mid-terms approach. But they’ve got a significant “enthusiasm advantage” that could prove to be more important. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raised a combined $43 million as of the last March reporting cycle. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) raised $25 million. That’s an $18 million difference – not chump change in an election season that everyone is watching. But there is a 20-point “enthusiasm gap” between Republicans and Democrats, according to the latest Gallup...

Well, that didn't take long. After Democratic supermajorities rammed through their health care bill, Republicans were full of sound and fury about how this injustice will not stand. Even John McCain was on board, telling a television interviewer, "Outside the Beltway the American people are very angry and they don't like it and we are going to try to repeal this." But in the GOP, cooler heads always prevail. What these Republican heads want to cool down is the campaign to repeal the health care takeover. Reports the Associated Press: "Top Republicans are increasingly worried that GOP candidates this fall...

Is the tea party movement being hoodwinked by the establishment?Brian Shoemake The one thing I take away from today's rally in Searchlight Nevada, is that the tea party is without question coalescing, and fiercely I might add, around a single Presidential candidate for 2012. . .Already. It's early in the game yet, and the whole idea behind the Tea Party movement was to objectively review all of our potential choices, so we would never be led down the path again. At least that's what I thought. After today, I'll never again look at the Tea Party movement as one made...