Free Republic

What began as a banner day for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in his quest to secure his party’s presidential nomination on Monday ended as a unique disaster. According to Nicholas Confessore’s reporting in the New York Times on Monday, the libertarian billionaire David Koch told a crowd at a Manhattan fundraiser that Walker had all but secured his endorsement and the support of his and his brother’s donor network. “When the primaries are over and Scott Walker gets the nomination,” Koch is reported to have told the crowd. “We will support whoever the candidate is,” Koch supposedly added in a...

First he had the Koch endorsement. Then he didn't. Why? A Glenn Beck interview where Walker moved wackier than Cruz. According to a number of well-respected journalists, the Koch brothers are putting their heft and muscle behind Scott Walker for president. Or maybe not. It depends on whom you ask. First, let’s acknowledge once again that the Great Whitebread Hope from Wisconsin seems to have everyone in the political establishment mesmerized by his alleged strategic and tactical brilliance. Sure, he makes epic gaffes over and over again, but that cannot take anything away from the fact that he barely won...

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby has written that “liberalism has superseded Judaism as the religion of most American Jews.” While President Barack Obama has consistently been hostile towards Israel, one wonders if this election cycle may finally see Jews swing to the Republican Party. Jacoby rightfully previously noted, “This liberalism isn’t rational. It isn’t sensible. It certainly isn’t good for the Jews.” While the Jewish community overwhelmingly votes Democrat, what Republicans need more than Jewish votes is the support of Jewish donors. The New York Times recently noted in a front-page feature story, “G.O.P.’s Israel Support Deepens as Political Contributions...

More than other 2016 presidential entrants Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) seems to have positively affected, even excited, Republicans. Ross Douthat writes, “Rubio more than most candidates fits the way most Republicans want to think about their party and ideology and cause.” There is much to that, and certainly Republicans want to get away from the dig that they are “grumpy,” “angry” or downright “mean.” So how does Rubio do it? Arthur Brooks, head of the American Enterprise Institute and arguably the godfather of reform conservatism, likes to say: “My movement shouldn’t be fighting against things. My movement should be fighting...

Picking another establishment GOP presidential nominee in the mold of Mitt Romney, John McCain or Bob Dole to run against Democrats in 2016 will guarantee that Hillary Clinton wins the White House, GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz told Newsmax TV on Wednesday. "It will in effect be a third term for Barack Obama," the Texas Republican said in an exclusive interview with "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner. (VIDEO-AT-LINK) As president, said Cruz, he would put an end to the domestic and foreign policies of President Barack Obama, both of which he said have been a "disaster." As a primary candidate,...

A Republican congressman ripped congressional leadership for their inaction on President Obama’s executive amnesty plan for illegals and pointed a finger at Sen. Marco Rubio for U.S. problems with open borders. Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks was a guest on Tim Constantine’s “Capitol Hill Show” on Tuesday and the conversation was dominated by the topic of illegal immigration and the effort by the Obama administration to circumvent existing law and grant amnesty to millions. “What I am very disappointed in is the House and Senate leadership,” Mr. Brooks explained....

In a comment about a report of what confusingly appears to be support for attacks on Hillary Clinton coming from Democrat Party mainstays like WaPo and NYT, I posted the following: Most don’t seem to have a clue about what is really going on here. The beliefs at the heart of the GOP are free market, individual liberty conservatism. Those at the heart of the Democrats are statist, collectivist Marxism. Both philosophies are currently making strong plays to permanently take over their respective parties and their political and financial apparats. Both are backed and, to some extent, controlled by massively...

On Monday, The New York Times — and, in turn, Mediaite — reported that billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch had settled on Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) as their preferred Republican candidate to back in the 2016 presidential election. “We will support whoever the candidate is,” David Koch reportedly said at a fundraising event. “But it should be Scott Walker.” Now, however, in an interview with USA Today, Charles Koch has said that their field of potential endorsees is larger than just one. He confirmed that they are actually looking at five candidates who they believe have “a good chance...

The Upshot’’s Nate Cohn is making the contrarian case for Mike Huckabee. I give him credit for seeing things that others might not, but—despite the optimistic headline: “Mike Huckabee Would Be a More Important Candidate Than You Might Think,” he actually underestimates Huck’s potential as a disruptive factor in this campaign. It’s unclear what’s in the water in Hope, Arkansas, but that Bill Clinton and Huck are both from the same hamlet is nothing short of miraculous. Put aside the snake oil salesman stuff, and the numerous ridiculous things Huckabee has said to get attention, and you’re left with a...

Republicans often rail about undocumented immigrants. But Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, an expected GOP presidential candidate, took it a step further Monday by sounding some critical notes about the number of those who immigrate to the U.S. legally. "In terms of legal immigration, how we need to approach that going forward is saying -- the next president and the next Congress need to make decisions about a legal immigration system that’s based on, first and foremost, on protecting American workers and American wages. Because the more I’ve talked to folks, I’ve talked to [Alabama Sen. Jeff] Sessions and others out...

In 2008, John McCain, straight-talking principled maverick that he was, got into a Republican primary and saw that a position in favor of comprehensive immigration reform was causing him problems, so he disavowed the reform bill he had co-authored not long before, going so far as to say that if it came up again in the Senate, he'd vote against it. And now Marco Rubio, who like McCain attempted to pass a bipartisan comprehensive reform bill, is doing something similar. When the "Gang of Eight" bill Rubio championed passed the Senate in 2013 but died in the House, Rubio was...

Call it the anti-Rand primary. There are at least three Republicans who seem likely to run for president in part so they can attack Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s libertarian-leaning foreign policy stances on the campaign trail. These anti-Rand candidates — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton and New York Rep. Peter King — are ramping up their criticism especially now that Paul has officially entered the race for the White House. All three are the longest of long shots when it comes to actually winning their party’s nomination. But each of them — national security hawks...

Ted Cruz may have been the first to announce a run for the presidency, but John Kasich connects with middle class voters, cares for the poor, and balances budgets. If not Bush, who? If I were a betting man, I would be that Jeb Bush would win the GOP nomination and that he would face off against Hillary Clinton. Sounds kind of boring, but after eight years of President Obama, boring sounds great. But what if it’s not Bush. Who would it be? Here is my Top 10 list, from worst to first: 10) Ted Cruz: I don’t think that...

Rand Paul has cast himself as a Diogenes for the modern era, a truth-seeker who can't seem to find an honest man — or woman — no matter where he shines his lamp in Washington. That's why his willingness to say almost anything about himself and other Republicans, regardless of whether it's true, poses an existential threat to his brand. It's only a matter of time before the offended start punching back publicly, and that will surely start with fellow Republicans. Many of them had a right to be aggrieved after Paul's speech this weekend at the First in the...

Ted Cruz is running for president as an outsider, and his relatively lean campaign staff reflects that approach. The Texas senator, who once played a pivotal role in shutting down the federal government, loves to rail against Washington, and his supporters have embraced the tagline “make D.C. listen.” Cruz was the first presidential contender out of the gates with an official announcement and did so with a core group of staffers that lacks bold-faced Beltway names. It’s largely a Texas-heavy group of strategists plus a handful of operatives with experience doing conservative combat. The Lone Star State Republican’s base begins...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) on Monday described an editorial in the Lexington Herald-Leader equating those opposed to climate protections to slaveholders as a “depressing new low.” In an editorial last week, the Lexington Herald-Leader wrote that McConnell and others opposed to stricter environmental rules “will be regarded one day in the same way we think of 19th-century apologists for human slavery.” “How could economic interests bind them to the immortality of their position?” the paper asked then. The editorial said McConnell should listen to public opinion and drop his opposition to President Obama's greenhouse gas reduction plans. “The...

Ted Cruz is personally against the legalization of marijuana but the Republican presidential candidate said this weekend that he believes states have the right to put decriminalization laws on the books if they want - even though they directly conflict with federal law. Cruz implied during a conversation with Daily Mail Online on Saturday that if he ascended to the highest elected office he wouldn't make his attorney general enforce federal laws pertaining to marijuana in states that have approved sales and consumption of the drug. The position stands in contrast to the views of at least three of his...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-20/can-ted-cruz-make-rand-paul-obsolete-

LITCHFIELD, N.H.—Appealing to New Hampshire’s powerful gun culture, Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday that he’s “pressing” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain to hold hearings on whether soldiers should be allowed to carry their own concealed firearms onto military bases. “I am very concerned about that policy,” the Texas senator told 120 gun owners at a hunting club here, before taking a trip to a firing range for some target practice. “I think it’s very important to have a public discussion about why we’re denying our soldiers the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights.” Defense Department leaders oppose...

Unlike in her last campaign, Hillaryland 2016 is a sunny, optimistic place where you can reinvent yourself, and she can, too.Hillary Clinton has represented many things to many people over the years, including feminism supposedly run amok. Between now and 575 days from now, though, she represents one big thing: the best chance to elect a woman to the highest political office in the world. As such, Clinton has galvanized not only the people who voted and worked for her in 2008 but also – and importantly – more than a few who broke for Barack Obama way back then....