Free Republic

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) thinks he knows something that you don't about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Bloomberg News' Dave Weigel reported Friday that Paul gave a speech to a pro-life group the day before in which Paul predicted the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation will soon be hit by a major scandal. "There's going to be stuff coming out about the Clinton foundation and their donations from different companies that get special approval by the secretary of state. It's coming out in the next couple weeks," Paul said. As Weigel noted, Paul has made similar...

Earlier this week we took a look at the GOP efforts to repeal the death tax, including some of the political pitfalls involved as well as reasons why it’s still a hill worth fighting on. In a rare moment of taking a position on a policy issue, Hillary Clinton has chimed in on the so called estate tax several times over the years. She has referred to it as a “wealth tax”, which works out quite well for her this year if she’s trying to angle her way into a more Elizabeth Warren style position on the subject. So...

Is another shoe about to drop on the Clinton Foundation, and on Hillary Clinton’s problematic rollout? Newsweek’s Rory Ross reported this morning that the largest individual donor to the Clinton family business has conducted trade with Iran, perhaps in breach of US sanctions. Ukrainian energy mogul Victor Pinchuk has connections to the Clintons that go back almost a decade, and financial connections to the regime in Tehran that go much farther: The fourth richest man in Ukraine, Pinchuk owns Interpipe Group, a Cyprus-incorporated manufacturer of seamless pipes used in oil and gas sectors.Newsweek has seen declarations and documents from...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may have forgotten a thing or two about the Al Gore presidential campaign he helped lead in 1988. In an interview with an Iowa radio station on Monday, the Republican presidential contender explained his role as the Gore campaign’s Texas chairman by saying that “this was Al Gore before he invented the Internet and got to be Mr. Global Warming.”

In an interview with an Iowa radio station on Monday, the Republican presidential contender explained his role as the Gore campaign’s Texas chairman by saying that “this was Al Gore before he invented the Internet and got to be Mr. Global Warming.” But in fact, global warming was already a significant theme for Gore in 1987 and 1988 — long before his activism led to several books, a Nobel Prize and a part in an Academy Award-winning film. It was also well before the right gave him the "Mr. Ozone" nickname and talk radio heaped endless mockery on the future...

I would like to think this headline from Newsweek is simply being sarcastic, but I doubt this is the case: Who Reported on Hillary Clinton's Historic Chipotle Visit, and How? This headline was written by people who have no conception of what is and isn't historical. SNIP Hillary going to a Chipotle counter and saying, "I'll have a chicken bowl with a side of guacamole," is not historic. SNIP

Editor's note: WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT They thought the Iowa Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth was about anti-bullying. Instead, about 1,000 teenagers from more than 100 Iowa communities were treated to a profanity-laced performance by a drag queen along with graphic conversations on oral sex and a transgender tutorial on how to make fake testicles. The April 3rd conference was sponsored by Iowa Safe Schools, a non-profit group that creates “safe and supportive schools” for LGBTQ young people. Some parents were furious about some of the sexually explicit comments from paid speakers – including a comedian who told the high school...

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/17/democrat-jim-webb-hires-aide-rania-batrice/24890241/Gannet publication. Link only.

Hillary Clinton tweeted out a new video this morning featuring a one Mike Yowell, a much quoted gay rights activist in Iowa who was on hand at an Iowa diner yesterday and thanked Clinton for coming out in favor of the Supreme Court ruling in favor gay marriage. Check it out:

Howard Dean can't handle the truth. Rather than discussing the implications of Hillary Clinton kicking off her campaign by handpicking the "everyday Americans" she spoke with at her first event in Iowa, Dean dissed the Daily Mail, the source of the story. On today's Morning Joe, the volatile former Vermont governor scoffed "it's the Daily Mail. Why would you believe this?" Why, Howard? Well, for starters, the Mail quotes one of the participants by name and at length about the vetting process he underwent prior to being ushered into Hillary's presence. And if the story were inaccurate, don't you think...

...as she huddles with Democratic leaders in high-stakes meeting Hillary Clinton’s now-famous Scooby Doo van made an appearance in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Thursday for a closed-door meeting with state Democratic Party officials – and it idled in a handicapped parking space from beginning to end. Footage broadcast by KETV-7 in the nearby city of Omaha, Nebraska, showed the presidential nominee emerging from a cafe, greeting onlookers and walking past the blue handicapped-parking sign to climb into the vehicle. Secret Service agents are technically federal law enforcement officers, so there was no chance of a parking ticket, even if Scooby...

Krystal Ball doesn't seem to be sold on Hillary Clinton's "listening tour" campaign shtick. In a segment discussing the former secretary of state's carefully-staged campaign swings in Iowa, The Cycle co-host and former Virginia congressional candidate confessed Hillary's campaign rollout isn't doing much for her, and, she suspects, that's probably true of how it's being received by most voters. Ball made the remarks in a discussion with Brian Beutler of The New Republic. Here's the relevant transcript: MSNBC The Cycle April 15, 2015 3:08 p.m. Eastern KRYSTAL BALL, co-host: But, Brian, I wanted to get your take. Is this listening...

Presidential candidates who can authentically can talk about their relationship to the American Immigrant Experience can sometimes experience a boost in public opinion, which is why Hillary Clinton recently spoke about how her grandparents — all of them — always talked to her about emigrating to America. A recent report indicates, however, that most of them weren’t exactly immigrants. According to Andrew Kaczynski, three of Clinton’s grandparents were not immigrants: Census data and draft cards from the 1920′s and 1930′s revealed that her paternal grandmother was born in Pennsylvania, and both of her maternal grandparents were born in Illinois. (That’s...

Hillary Clinton is making campaign appearances in Iowa under extremely controlled conditions, and during one event she spoke of commerce:

DES MOINES, Iowa — This week you may notice extra emergency vehicles and public safety officers running around in tactical gear, Hazmat suits, and bomb suits. It’s a part of a statewide drill Des Moines is hosting Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare emergency personnel for dealing with weapons of mass destruction. Brian O’Keefe with the Des Moines Fire Department said emergency officials in Iowa need to be prepared for anything.

There's not much to add to this ridiculous video. On MSNBC today, Ed Schultz was speaking with newly minted daytime host Thomas Roberts about Hillary's campaign stop in Iowa, when he said ... well, exactly what you would expect Ed Schultz to say. Your questions are beneath Hillary. "I don't think Hillary Clinton wants press. I think she wants people. And I think she doesn't have to answer any questions right now. And I think what she's going to do in Iowa is not focus on press but focus on what people have to say. And I think that Hillary...

Hi. My name is Erika Smalley. I grew up in Iowa and am currently a student at Kirkwood Community College. That’s the same place that Hillary Clinton visited on her first campaign stop to my state. I went there to see if I could meet Hillary:

Students at Iowa’s Kirkwood Community College were apparently on ‘lockdown’ if their classes were along Hillary Clinton’s walking path when she visited their campus Tuesday. Jennifer Jacobs        ✔ @JenniferJJacobs Organizers told us that the hallway where Clinton enters would be locked down. It apparently affecting the classrooms along her path. 2:36 PM - 14 Apr 2015

There is no question that Donna Lou Rayhons had severe Alzheimer’s. In the days before being placed in a nursing home in Garner, Iowa, last year, Mrs. Rayhons, 78, could not recall her daughters’ names or how to eat a hamburger. One day, she tried to wash her hands in the toilet of a restaurant bathroom. But another question has become the crux of an extraordinary criminal case unfolding this week in an Iowa courtroom: Was Mrs. Rayhons able to consent to sex with her husband? Henry Rayhons, 78, has been charged with third-degree felony sexual abuse, accused of having...

Hillary Rodham Clinton is chatting with voters this morning at a coffee house in the Mississippi River town of LeClaire, joking that she's going to "drink my way across Iowa." Clinton popped into the Jones Street Java House on Tuesday and ordered a chai, a latte and a glass of water with lemon. She's headed later to a round-table discussion with students and teachers at a community college in Monticello.