Free Republic

Herman Cain leaving the campaign trail: Why now? Herman Cain is surging in popularity in a number of polls. So why is Herman Cain putting his campaign on hold for the next month? The Hermantor Experience is, by almost any measure, the hottest thing going in the GOP presidential primary (not named Chris Christie). < snip> But Cain seems destined to squander it. And here’s why. As NBC’s thoughtful First Read points out this morning, Cain's promoting a book - and appears to be taking himself off the campaign trail for almost a month. Cain won’t be back in the...

Rep. Darrell Issa, the powerful chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has declared war on the New York Times after the newspaper published a front-page story last week linking the California Republican’s business activities to his congressional duties. The story, “A Businessman in Congress Helps His District and Himself,” claims that Issa has used his congressional power to further enrich himself. “As his private wealth and public power have grown, so too has the overlap between his private and business lives, with at least some of the congressman’s government actions helping to make a rich man even...

There is much speculation about whether or not Sarah Palin will enter the 2012 GOP presidential race. Those who admire and respect her believe she wields a tremendous amount of power with regard to the choice of the candidate who will eventually end up facing Barack Obama in what can only be the most important election of our lifetime. But that candidate should not be Palin. And the reason is blatantly obvious. She can't win. It has nothing to do with any lack of political gravitas. Despite how her critics and detractors have attempted to portray her, Palin is intelligent,...

As Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, begins to close in on Attorney General Eric Holder regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the MSM bringing out their knives for the combative congressman seemed a fait accompli.Sunday, the Times jumped in. And they didn’t just use knives, they sprayed it around with an elephant gun.Eric Lichtblau’s front-page article started by claiming Issa has made billions while investigating corruption with his committee: Here on the third floor of a gleaming office building overlooking a golf course in the rugged foothills north of San Diego,...

During Perry's Tenure in Texas, Spending in Texas grew from about 49 Billion a year, to over 90 Billion a year. Texas budgets every 2 years, to the following show the budgets for both Bi-annums. Divide by two for average yearly spending. Texas 2010-2011 Budget 182 Billion http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Texas_state_budget Texas 2000-2001 Budget was ~98 Billion and is available at http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/Bill_76/Bill-76-4_Conference_Summary_0599.pdf In other words CLOSE to 100% Growth in spending. (from 49 B to 91 B) During this time, the Census says Texas grew from 20 Million (2000 Census) to 25 Million (2010 Census). That’s a growth of 25 Percent. So much...

It’s common these days to hear media talking heads refer to Michele Bachmann as the “Tea Party favorite” in the upcoming 2012 GOP primary race. Unlike Governor Palin who has always stated that the Tea Party doesn’t need one specific leader, Bachmann has tried to cast herself into such a role. She created a “Tea Party Caucus” in congress and gave the “Tea Party response” following Obama’s State of the Union Address last January. The Tea Party is comprised mainly of independent-minded small government activists who are sick and tired of the way Washington is operating. These are people who...

Rick Perry and Sarah Palin aren't stupid, no matter what you might think of them. They are riding a comet, and they are in no hurry to get off. I'm talking about the possibility of running for president. Neither one will probably take the plunge. Given the realities of modern campaigning and fund-raising, they'd already be in this thing if they were serious about it. Both are content in their real jobs - Perry as governor of a huge state, Palin as a money-making-machine and voice of the hard Right. But why stop the fun? As long as they are...

Much has been written about Michele Bachmann's lack of any executive experience and the crippling disability it poses for her campaign for the GOP nomination and for the Presidency. But candidates with no executive experience have won the Presidency before. Both JFK and Obama come to mind. It is true that no GOP nominee in well over 100 years has lacked executive experience. (Even Senator Warren Harding had served as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and William Howard Taft had been the Governor of both the Philippines and Cuba). It is a major obstacle for her, especially in this cycle and...

"I thought NBC this morning, in a program that had nobody on camera, nobody quoted by name, that quoted reporters talking anonymously about cowardly people, who, frankly, lied about my wife..."

Simon and Schuster are advertising their latest hit piece on Sarah today on the Drudge report...I have been hitting it over and over to cost them some ad money. :-)

After many feints in this direction dating back to 1996, Newt Gingrich seems to be finally preparing a run for president. Generally, he is not being taken as seriously as potential candidates like Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee—or even D.C. insider heartthrobs such as Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, and Chris Christie. I agree with this assessment of Gingrich’s potential, to an extent; he’s the opposite of a fresh new face, and the guy’s baggage rivals Charlie Sheen’s. Yet having carefully watched Gingrich up close since he was a Rockefeller Republican in the 1970s, I also know that he...

Could it be that news producers who showcase attractive female anchors have goals beyond simply relating information? Let’s hope so, for their sake, because a new study finds that men remember less of the news when it’s read by an “anchorette”* wearing tight clothes and red lipstick than when its presented by the same woman in a shapeless jacket, without lip color. Three hundred ninety men and women watched a real-life, attractive 24-year old news anchor present items about such subjects as the United Way, interest rates, and bird watching. She was made up in either a purposely “sexualized” or...

Tow truck driver T. J Gilmartin hauled away destroyed FDNY vehicles from Ground Zero after 9/11, and now suffers diminished lung capacity and multiple breathing problems. He told the Daily News about his recent trip to Capitol Hill, where he hoped to sway Senators to vote in favor of the Zadroga 9/11 health bill, which will provide money and health care to sick first responders. While he noted many positive experiences with most of the Senators--he called Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby of Alabama "gentlemen"--he says his interaction with Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) did not go as well. "I...

Representative John A. Boehner, soon to be the Speaker of the House, has pledged to fly commercial airlines back to his home district in Ohio. But that does not mean that he will be subjected to the hassles of ordinary passengers, including the controversial security pat-downs. As he left Washington on Friday, Mr. Boehner headed across the Potomac River to Reagan National Airport, which was bustling with afternoon travelers. But there was no waiting in line for Mr. Boehner, who was escorted around the metal detectors and body scanners, and taken directly to the gate. (snip) And so on Friday,...

I barely knew Christine when she turned up at my door at around eight o'clock on the night of Halloween. We'd met for the first and only time three months earlier when my two roommates and I signed the lease on our apartment: Christine's aunt owned the place we were moving into, and she happened to be up from Delaware visiting at the time. But we'd only spent about five minutes together that day and we hadn't spoken much, and I hadn't thought of her since. Yet here she was standing outside my door with a friend. And both of...

One of the new stars of the Tea Party movement, an entertainer recently mistaken in Delaware for an actual politician, is Christine O'Donnell. Start here with O'Donnell, just because you have to: Even Karl Rove thinks she is too far off the grid. This from a guy who thought Dick Cheney was fine. Delaware is a state that has about one-third the population of Brooklyn. O'Donnell, running for the U.S. Senate, won her primary race with just over 30,000 votes. Even the Mets occasionally draw more people than that. No matter, she was suddenly a new drum majorette for the...

SEPTEMBER 8--The Florida pastor who is planning to burn a pile of Korans this weekend runs a church that has established a variety of cult-like rules for individuals studying to become ministers, according to the group’s “rulebook.” The Dove World Outreach Center (DWOC), headed by Islam-hating Rev. Terry Jones, has been widely denounced for its September 11 bonfire plans. The tiny Gainesville church is headed by Jones and his wife Sylvia, a co-pastor. The DWOC’s “Academy Rulebook,” a copy of which you’ll find here, was created in November 2007 by Sylvia Jones. The document, which details the standards to which...

It's not looking good for Vanity Fair when CNN's Peter Hamby has joined liberals such as Ben Smith, Dave Weigel, race-baiter Charles Blow, and Kirsten Powers in denouncing the Vanity Fair hit piece. Hamby tweets: @benpolitico is right re: VF article. I was w/ Palin for entire VP bid. never got a hint that she "lashed out at the slightest provocation" Meaning

I loved this line from page 3: Despite the absence of most tea party groups from the debate, allegations have swirled that the movement is somehow driving the increasing GOP opposition

One hundred and eighteen years after her great-grandmother arrived in America, Brewer stood in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, next in line for governor. And it must have meant nothing at all. For now that she is governor, Brewer has signed an immigration bill that spits in Lady Liberty's face. The new law seeks to slam shut that golden door. It goes so far as to make it a crime not to carry papers proving you are not just some tempest-tossed soul who arrived in this country unbidden. Or maybe Brewer does not know her family's history. Most...