Free Republic

Former president George H. W. Bush offered an informal endorsement of Mitt Romney in remarks published Thursday, saying that Mr. Romney “is the best choice for us.” The former president told reporters for The Houston Chronicle that he supported Mr. Romney because of his “stability, experience, principles. He’s a fine person,” Mr. Bush, 87, said. “I just think he’s mature and reasonable – not a bomb-thrower.” The paper reported the comments, made this week, on its Web site Thursday afternoon. A spokesman for Mr. Bush confirmed the accuracy of the comments and said they fully reflect the views of the...

House speaker John Boehner is set to sign an offer from Obama to accelerate negotiations. Republicans in the House of Representatives have capitulated in the showdown over the payroll tax, handing Barack Obama an important victory going into election year. Under pressure from other senior Republicans for blocking a bill that would extend tax cuts to millions of Americans, the House speaker, John Boehner, is backing away from his insistence that any deal must cover a full year. A deal agreed by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on Saturday covers two months, to allow further negotiations in January. It...

These days, virtually all Republicans call themselves “conservatives” and claim to be dedicated to cutting spending, balancing budgets, reducing debts and limiting government. Most of them are liars. The failure of the super committee this week was but the latest reminder. The super committee was supposed to figure out how to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If it failed, the result was supposed to be $1.2 trillion in “automatic cuts” over the next decade, with about $600 billion of that coming from the defense budget. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said any such cuts would be “devastating”...

Republican leaders have started laying the groundwork to persuade GOP lawmakers to support a compromise on a tax increase, an issue that has deadlocked a congressional "super committee" pressed to come up with a deficit-reduction plan by next week. GOP leaders on Tuesday presented to their rank-and-file members a scenario under which Republicans would agree to $250 billion in new tax revenue over the next 10 years, largely by limiting itemized deductions for upper-income households.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) indicated on Tuesday that he has come around to Mitt Romney on the issue of healthcare. “Romney’s been very clear that he’s against ObamaCare and he’s going to repeal it. So I for a second don’t worry about whether he’s going to shy away from repealing the president’s health care law,” Ryan said in an interview with The Weekly Standard. (snip) Ryan went on to compliment Romney on a variety of issues. He described Romney as proving himself “pretty capable and strong and resilient” when it comes to the slew of GOP debates over the past...

One of New York's best-known Republicans is calling on pres idential hopeful Rick Perry to choose Rudy Giuliani as his running mate for next year's election. Former state GOP Chairman William Powers, a longtime Giuliani friend and a key player in his first mayoral election in 1993, told The Post that such a move by Perry could deliver key swing states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio to the Republicans. "He'd be the best No. 2 anybody in the world could pick," said Powers, who has a longstanding relationship with leading Texas Republicans like Karl Rove, former President George W....

New York businessman James Lieto was an innocent bystander in a fraud investigation last year. Federal agents seized $392,000 of his cash anyway. An armored-car firm hired by Mr. Lieto to carry money for his check-cashing company got ensnared in the FBI probe. Agents seized about $19 million—including Mr. Lieto's money—from vaults belonging to the armored-car firm's parent company. He is one among thousands of Americans in recent decades who have had a jarring introduction to the federal system of asset seizure. Some 400 federal statutes—a near-doubling, by one count, since the 1990s—empower the government to take assets from convicted...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Racing the clock to avoid a government default, President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders reached historic agreement Sunday night on a compromise to permit vital U.S. borrowing by the Treasury in exchange for more than $2 trillion in long-term spending cuts.

WASHINGTON — Heading into a crucial negotiating session on a budget deal on Thursday, President Obama has raised his sights and wants to strike a far-reaching agreement on cutting the federal deficit as Speaker John A. Boehner has signaled new willingness to bargain on revenues. (snip) The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend, to consider as much as $1 trillion in unspecified new revenues as part of an overhaul of tax laws in exchange for an agreement that made substantial spending cuts, including in...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) said that Republicans are open to between $150 billion to $200 billion in increased federal revenues as part of an agreement to cut federal deficits in a bid to smooth the passage of a debt ceiling increase. But Kyl said these figures didn't include closing any of the business tax deductions that Democrats have been pushing for, saying instead the total was reached by increasing fees charged to entities regulated by the federal government or sales of federal-owned property. "I have characterized those as things like fee increases, revenue from...

(Washington, DC) -- Republican congressional leaders are reportedly agreeing to billions of dollars in revenue increases as federal deficit discussions continue. Republican Senator Jon Kyl announced the move today saying revenue increases don't necessarily mean tax hikes. On the Senate floor Kyl said, quote, "If the government sells something and gets revenue from it, that's revenue." He also suggested user fees for government services could provide additional revenue. He says all the revenue increases Republicans have agreed to amount to between 150 billion and 200 billion dollars.

Despite the past two and a half years America has been run by a president who is in every respect a socialist with communist tendencies, the pathetic GOP cannot effectively mount a first-tier candidate to seriously challenge this diminutive Marxist professor. Why? Because for 40 years the GOP has used the rhetoric of conservative Ronald Reagan, but the tactics, strategies and policies of RINO Richard Nixon. Indeed, Reagan is lionized by today's GOP and has been for 30 years since his two successful presidential terms (1981-89), yet it reminds me of the words of Christ rebuking the hypocritical and power-hungry...

Here we go again, Rudy Giuliani edition. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll shows the former New York City mayor atop the slow-forming Republican primary field. The survey shows Giuliani getting 16 percent of independents and Republicans, with nominal frontrunner Mitt Romney a point behind at 15 percent. Sarah Palin gets 13 percent.

As Joe Lieberman winds down his two-decade career in the Senate, the onetime Democratic vice presidential nominee is reaching out to an unlikely group to help seal his political legacy: freshman Republicans. Behind the scenes and in front of the cameras, the retiring foreign policy hawk is grooming, mentoring and partnering with a handful of GOP freshmen to ensure that, long after he’s left the Senate, his vision for America’s role abroad survives. Reaching across the aisle is nothing new for Lieberman, who stood on the stage at the 2008 Republican National Convention and endorsed John McCain, making his choice...

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele is in negotiations with MSNBC to be a political analyst, according to sources. Steele would be a prominent Republican voice on a network known for its liberal television hosts. If the deal goes through, he would join the cable network in time to offer commentary on the 2012 elections.

Top congressional leaders agreed Thursday to a four-year extension of the anti-terrorist Patriot Act, the controversial law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks that governs the search for terrorists on American soil. The deal between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner calls for a vote before May 27, when parts of the current act expire. The idea is to pass the extension with as little debate as possible to avoid a protracted and familiar argument over the expanded power the law gives to the government. SNIP "I still have some concerns, and at this point I'm...

The tea partiers take legitimate credit for much of the upheaval in the 2008 congressional election, when Nancy Pelosi was tossed from her position as House Speaker and the Republicans were handed a new majority there – with enough party members to control the vote results without any help from Democrats. But things have deteriorated a little bit since then, and activists joined today in a news conference to issue a warning to the GOP members they describe as "RINOs," for Republicans in Name Only, to start responding to what voters want, or else. "We're deeply disappointed. Instead of a...

Several activist organizations called for immigration reform in front of U.S. Senator John Cornyn's office in Harlingen on Monday. La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) and several organizations told Action 4 News that they wanted to show their dissaproval to what they're calling the Republican Texas seantor's unsupportive behavior for Latino issues. Although Senator Cornyn's office was closed, the picketers called him by cell phone and chanted in unison for better representation for the Hispanic community. Marta Sanchez with LUPE said they are seeking a legislation for comprehensive immigration reform and support on several other acts in Congress up for...

Senate Democrats have found a Republican in Sen. Lindsey Graham to help them push for passage of a comprehensive immigration overhaul this year. Democrats and Republicans say Mr. Graham of South Carolina is working behind the scenes with Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) to gain support from other GOP members. The bill is still taking shape, but it is expected to include key features of unsuccessful 2006 and 2007 immigration proposals, including a path to legal status for many of the illegal immigrants already inside the U.S. and measures to strengthen border security. A new Gallup poll this week showed...

Olympia Snowe said today that her Republican colleagues' pending "no" votes on Sonia Sotomayor raise "a serious concern" about alienating their Hispanic constituencies. The Maine moderate was among the first GOP lawmakers to say she would vote yes, joining Mel Martinez of Florida and Richard Lugar of Indiana on July 17. Snowe told reporters that voting for Sotomayor "would have certainly been an avenue for appealing to the Hispanic community, where we did poorly in the last election. I think we can ill afford to lose their support in the future when we're attempting to rebuild the Republican Party nationally,"...