Free Republic

I haven't posted this in a while. I've added "2016" to the senators that are up for reelection in the cycle following this one. Take a look at their horrible conservative ratings and you'll get a clue as to why the Establishment is working so hard to defeat any conservative primary challengers this year.

Karl Rove denied Tuesday that he said Hillary Clinton had brain damage. "I didn't say she had brain damage, she had a serious health episode," he told FOX News, suggesting that her hospitalization in January 2013 for a blood clot could thwart her presidential ambitions.

Just a few miles from his family home, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) felt the wrath of the tea party Saturday, when activists in his congressional district booed and heckled the second-most powerful House Republican. They also elected one of their own to lead Virginia’s 7th Congressional District Republican Committee, turning their back on Cantor’s choice for a post viewed as crucial by both tea party and establishment wings in determining control of the fractured state GOP.

Results of Tuesday's primaries, particularly the victory of state House Speaker Thom Tillis in North Carolina's Republican Senate primary, are being hailed -- or decried -- as a victory for the Republican establishment over the Tea Party movement. There's something to that. Tillis benefited from support from Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and endorsements by Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush. In contrast, Sen. Rand Paul flew in on the day before the election to campaign for second-place finisher and fellow physician Greg Bannon, who was also endorsed by Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks. Mike Huckabee...

Republican Congressman Darrell Issa on Thursday strongly condemned comments by GOP gubernatorial front-runner Tim Donnelly, in which the state lawmaker has tried to tie his Indian-American rival to fundamentalist Islamic law, calling his statements “hateful and ignorant garbage.” Donnelly, a state assemblyman who is popular with the tea party, has repeatedly said this week that Neel Kashkari supported Shariah banking code when he was a senior official at the U.S. Treasury Department in 2008. On Facebook, Donnelly posted a link to a banking seminar hosted by the department during which Kashkari, a Hindu, delivered opening remarks. “As far as I’m...

Jahan Wilcox is the rapid response director at the RNC. He’s charged with responding quickly to attack Democrats and rebut Democrat attacks on the GOP. Last night, Jahan Wilcox responded quickly to Thom Tillis’s victory in North Carolina by declaring that next would be to defeat Matt Bevin, the Republican candidate in Kentucky, who Wilcox called a “fraud.”

The Republican Party has a big financial advantage heading into the 2014 election, thanks in large part to the growing presence of conservative outside groups. But just looking at raw dollars spent by these groups misses a key point: A huge chunk of that money is being used to tear down fellow Republicans. According to a great new study from the Center for Public Integrity's Dave Levinthal, conservative super PACs and other outside groups this year have spent nearly three times as much money directly attacking fellow Republicans ($9.7 million) as directly attacking Democrats ($3.7 million).

About four in 10 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents classify themselves as supporters of the Tea Party, while 11% are opponents and 48% are neither. This continues to be a significant drop from the Tea Party's high-water mark in November 2010, when 61% of Republicans were supporters of the Tea Party.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican National Committee wants to take more control over how the party picks a White House nominee. The RNC was to meet Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, to choose members who will effectively set the calendar for 2016's long list of potential presidential contenders. If the party's chairman, Reince Priebus gets his way, the GOP will pick its nominee more quickly than during past contests and have fewer debates in which candidates could criticize each other. The RNC also was expected to put penalties in place for candidates who don't follow the committee's plans. RNC officials described...

North Carolina Republicans sorted through their choices to challenge Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan on Tuesday, and Speaker John Boehner sought re-nomination to Congress from Ohio, first in a springtime spate of primaries pitting the GOP establishment against tea party challengers. Indiana also picked candidates for the November elections, when control of Congress will be at stake for the final two years of the President Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House. Several Republican House incumbents drew strong primary challenges, including Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina, David Joyce of Ohio and Susan Brooks of Indiana. …

The state's highest court on Thursday struck Gov. Tom Corbett's only Republican challenger from the May 20 primary election ballot, leaving Corbett unchallenged for the GOP nomination he was favored to win anyway. In a 5-2 decision, the state Supreme Court reversed a Commonwealth Court ruling on grounds that conservative activist Bob Guzzardi's failure to file his statement of financial interests on time with the State Ethics Commission doomed his candidacy. "The untimely filing of the statement constitutes a fatal defect that precludes a candidate's appearance on the ballot," the majority wrote. Challengers backed by state Republican Party had raised...

German lawmakers fumed on Friday over “vicious” criticism by senior US senators of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s stance on Ukraine ahead of talks she will hold with US President Barack Obama. John McCain, a former Republican candidate for the White House, on Thursday accused Merkel of standing in the way of firmer measures against Russia over its actions in Ukraine due to Berlin’s lucrative business ties with Moscow. “I would tell her that I am not surprised but embarrassed at their failure of leadership. They’re the leaders, they’re being governed by the industrial complex from Germany,” McCain said. Republican Senator Jeff...

It's no secret that establishment Republicans are out to get Rand Paul, but the "darkest secret" on Wall Street, reports Politico, is that they'll happily vote Hillary in 2016 to do it. The Monday piece reveals that Wall Street Republicans won't think twice about voting for Hillary Clinton in a world where Jeb Bush and Chris Christie aren't running for president and Rand Paul holds the GOP nomination. "The bulk of the big money guys are either Big Boy [Christie] or Jeb," said a top GOP donor. "Rand Paul still is a grass-roots phenom and a boardroom horror show." The...

A retired U.S. general came under sharp criticism from a Republican committee chairman on Thursday after testifying that the Obama administration reacted weakly to the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Retired Brig. Gen. Robert Lovell, the star witness at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, testified that U.S. forces “should have tried” to get to the outpost in time to help save the lives of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. He blamed the State Department for not making stronger requests for action. A few hours later, the powerful chairman of...

Republicans like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee the most and consider him the best qualified potential GOP presidential candidate among the major contenders. But, as with the rest, they aren't psyched for him to run, according to a new Economist/YouGov.com survey. Some 72 percent of Republicans like Huckabee, a Fox host and conservative populist. That beats Sen. Rand Paul, at 66 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 62 percent, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 60 percent. And 51 percent of Republicans also view him as qualified to be president, more than the rest again. But as previous...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching ads this week in North Carolina and Georgia in a crunch-time effort to help establishment-backed Republicans in crowded Senate primaries. It is also pumping money into commercials praising GOP hopefuls in Michigan, Montana and Alaska. The powerful business organization’s ad buy is a clear attempt to tip the balance in Republican contests and help the GOP nominate viable general election candidates. In 2010 and 2012, tea party and far-right conservatives cost the GOP seats in Nevada, Delaware, Colorado, Indiana and Missouri and shots at Senate control, a fate Republicans are determined to avoid...

<p>LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The American Conservative Union's Political Action Committee has endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell for re-election.</p> <p>ACU Director of Government Affairs Larry Hart cited McConnell's lifetime ACU rating of 90 out of a possible 100 as demonstrating McConnell's consistent support for conservative principles.</p>

Newly-elected Rep. Vance McAllister, R-La., will not seek re-election in November, according to a local report. Earlier this month, surveillance footage leaked of McAllister kissing one of his congressional staffers. The incident led to multiple calls for his resignation, including from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. “I am committed to serving the 5th District to the best of my ability through this term, but I also have to take care of my family as we work together to repair and strengthen the relationship I damaged,” McAllister told the News-Star, which also reported that McAllister will complete the rest of his term.

While speaking in his home district, House Speaker John Boehner made fun of his GOP colleagues for their unwillingness to deal with immigration policy.

Fighting to move beyond his father’s shadow, Sen. Rand Paul is crafting new alliances with the Republican Party establishment during a Northeast tour that began Friday in Boston. The 51-year-old Kentucky Republican, son of libertarian hero and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, headlined an afternoon luncheon hosted by top lieutenants of former presidential nominee Mitt Romney—a private meeting that comes as Paul weighs a 2016 presidential bid of his own. To succeed in a national campaign, however, those close to Paul acknowledge that he must broaden his appeal beyond the tea party and libertarian-minded activists who rallied behind his father’s...