Free Republic

Jihad Watch Grover Norquist aiding Iranian regime through group linked to NIAC Grover Norquist's numerous unsavory ties to jihadists and Islamic supremacists are abundantly documented in Pamela Geller's expose here. And on the House floor in October, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) said of Norquist, "Documentation shows that he has deep ties to supporters of Hamas and other terrorist organizations that are sworn enemies of the United States and our ally Israel.”  He pointed out that “around the years 2000 and 2001, Mr. Norquist’s firm represented Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was convicted two years later for his role in a terrorist...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will win the Republican presidential nomination, Dave Keene, former chairman of the American Conservative Union, tells Newsmax. “Romney has the discipline,” Keene says. “”He has the money. He has the organization.”

Some have given voice to a growing fear among conservatives that the American left is more committed to achieving its policy goals than to working within the confines of the U.S. democratic system. This fear has always been dismissed...because in a free, democratic society the ends never justify the means. Since the founding, this political consensus has underpinned the stability and political success of the American experiment. Democrats and Republicans may disagree, but, with one tragic exception, neither has been willing to suspend the Constitution, take up arms or call for a revolution because the other prevailed at the ballot...

National Rifle Association President David Keene is predicting a Mitt Romney victory in the 2012 Republican presidential nominating process , and working to burnish the credentials of the liberal former Governor of Massachusetts. Here's the problem: As Governor, Mitt Romney banned guns. From July, 2004: Governor Mitt Romney has signed into law a permanent assault weapons ban that he says will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on these guns. "Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts," Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony on July 1 with legislators, sportsmen's groups and gun safety advocates. "These guns...

You might expect that the man who is incoming president of the National Rifle Association and was chairman of the American Conservative Union would be a double-barrel ideologue. Not quite. David Keene’s friends include liberal-leaning types like Al Hunt of Bloomberg News, former ABC correspondent Sam Donaldson, former New York Times reporter Adam Clymer, and former Democratic presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy. Keene never hesitates to mention that his mother and father were labor union organizers in Wisconsin or that, as a teenager, he passed out literature for John F. Kennedy during the presidential primary. Moreover, Keene has stood firm against...

Group divided over participation by homosexuals, Muslims, even political party The Conservative Political Action Conference, a once-unified bastion of thousands of young conservatives who gather once a year in Washington to hold what amounts to a three-day conservative pep rally, shows signs of major discord. While of one mind in working to prevent Barack Obama from winning a second term as president on the surface, CPAC factions remains opposed to each other over whether the organization should be open to conservative-positioning activists from the homosexual community as well as similarly positioned Muslims. Even before this year's CPAC conference began today,...

Many conservative organizations have chosen to boycott this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), but Veterans in Defense of Liberty will be there in force. Our group is going to CPAC to fulfill our sworn and solemn oath to “defend and protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.” Unfortunately, the nation’s pre-eminent grass-roots conservative gathering has become a showcase for the enemies of the American tradition. The American Conservative Union‘s (ACU) board of directors, led by Grover Norquist, Suhail Khan and until he stepped down yesterday, David Keene, seems to have forgotten the constitutional grounding of American society....

Democrats are in for ugly blowback once they realize how soundly they are defeated in November, Dave Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, tells Newsmax. Already, because of a belief they will lose, the Democratic leadership has gone into “triage mode” by deciding to cut off support for 30 members of Congress seeking re-election, Keene says. “Once that happens to those members, it’s no longer the Republicans’ fault, it's no longer the tsunami that is approaching, it’s their leaders who have sold them out, and you can see the results already,” Keene says. “On the Hill, they are fighting...

Washington, DC – David Keene, Chairman of the largest and oldest conservative organization in America, the American Conservative Union, today commented on the decision by Washington liberals in the House to pass the Obama / Pelosi / Reid health bill. “With this vote, the U.S. House has chosen big government over freedom and bureaucracy over people,” said David Keene, “The American Conservative Union has opposed this bill from the start because of its massive cost and red tape. The more we learn and Americans learn about the devil in the details of this bill the more disgust among Americans will...

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has criticized the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), whose recent conference he refused to attend, alleging it has departed from its conservative principles. Speaking on Fox News last weekend, Huckabee said that CPAC has become "more libertarian and less Republican over the last few years, one of the reasons why I [did not attend the event] this year." The former GOP presidential candidate also suggested that the popularity of the Tea Party nation movement and its events all over the country have caused the influence of the CPAC to rapidly decline, and the organization is...

I suspect his remark about CPAC and its sponsorship practices is in reference to the criticism social conservative groups have leveled for the inclusion of GOProud as a sponsor. GOProud is a homosexual conservative group that added its name to the sponsor list. You have to wonder if, in fact, Huckabee did not attend in order to comply with the call for a boycott of CPAC by Liberty Counsel and other Christian extremists. Huckabee strongly disagrees with GOProud’s views on homosexuality, which was made obvious in his confrontation with John Stewart....

<p>But what many people don’t realize is that Sorba’s “outburst” was provoked by a speaker who preceded him, Alexander McCobin of Students For Liberty (SFL). McCobin went out of his way to use valuable time from the podium to thank the American Conservative Union, the main CPAC organizer, for making the controversial decision to approve GOProud’s participation.</p>

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is over and almost everyone is describing it as one of the best in years. People left feeling invigorated and enthusiastic. Most people had quite a bit of fun as well. Those who attended are now recovering and reflecting on four great days for the conservative movement. It has been described as a conservative Mardi Gras, and even the left called it a “Woodstock for the right.” Read more: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/huckabees-snark-cant-rain-on-cpacs-parade/

Feb. 24, 2010 Have Gays Found Their Place in the GOP? Dramatic Moment at Conservative Confab Could Be a Sign of Change Within Republican Party When It Comes to Gay Rights A memorable moment at last week's Conservative Political Action Conference could mark a turning point in the long-fraught relationship between gays and the Republican Party. CPAC is perhaps the nation's premiere conservative gathering, a convivial opportunity for impassioned right-wing activists to network, plan for upcoming elections and listen to the biggest names in the conservative movement. It's the sort of atmosphere in which the casual observer might expect someone...

With attendance bursting at the seams, this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference clearly benefited from the new recruits and fresh energy stirred up by the nascent tea party movement. But the secret ingredient to the enormous success of this year’s largest-ever CPAC was the steady hand of experienced leadership behind the scenes that ensured everything went smoothly. It is precisely that kind of skillful guidance that will be needed for the tea party movement to coalesce and realize its enormous potential. Spontaneous, grassroots uprisings are exhilarating and the tea parties and health care townhalls last year helped flatten the Democratic...

With CPAC 2010 finished, media reports are swirling discussing Governor Palin’s absence from this event, which they billed as “mandatory” for conservative candidates for anything. Was it? SRLC the Real Proving Ground for Gauging A POTUS Run...

Ron Paul out-polled Sarah Palin almost 5 to 1 and keynoter Glenn Beck got huge ovations as he disavowed any conservative ascendency within the Republican Party. So someone please tell me - just what the heck happened to a convention that was off to such a wonderful conservative start? Where is the momentum from the Marco Rubio speech and the Dick Cheney "Obama is a one term President" moment? Perhaps David Keene of the American Conservative Union will be a bit more careful when picking keynote speakers from now on. What happened was predictable, given that the man he picked...

Today is the opening of the Conservative Political Action conference (CPAC) — the storied annual gathering of the Right. As I noted the other day, it’s also the season for a bumper crop of conservative manifestos, action plans, and ideological contracts. The Mount Vernon Statement, which lays out broad principles for “constitutional conservatism,” has garnered the most buzz. An elegant tribute to limited government and the Founding Fathers, the document carries the signatures of movement leaders, Beltway heavyweights, and veteran activists. Two of the most prominent backers: the American Conservative Union’s David Keene and Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist....

The Tea Partiers have spooked the political establishment. Many Washington insiders who cling to their faith in democracy while deathly afraid that people unlike themselves might actually get involved in politics are busy assuring each other at cocktail parties and on Sunday talk shows that the newly involved will lose interest before the next election. Or, better yet, they might turn on the Republicans who have thus far been the beneficiaries of their numbers and energy. The phenomenon began with last year’s town hall meetings. Hundreds and then thousands of people showed up at congressional town halls traditionally attended by...

Sarah Palin turned down an invitation to speak at CPAC this year. The governor does not want to be associated with scandal-plagued organizer David Keene. The Politico reported: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Pain is turning down an invitation to speak at one high-profile conservative gathering while accepting another. Palin is declining an invitation to address the Conservative Political Action Conference next month because, a source said, she does not want to be affiliated with the longtime organizer of the traditional movement confab. At issue is the role of David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union which organizes CPAC. In...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Pain is turning down an invitation to speak at one high-profile conservative gathering while accepting another. Palin is declining an invitation to address the Conservative Political Action Conference next month because, a source said, she does not want to be affiliated with the longtime organizer of the traditional movement confab. At issue is the role of David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union which organizes CPAC. In September, POLITICO reported that Keene asked FedEx for between $2 million and $3 million to get the group's support in a bitter legislative battle with rival UPS. A...

The founder of the website "Free Republic", Jim Robinson, has joined a growing boycott of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) due to a homosexual activist group sponsoring the event. GOProud, a group that advocates same-sex "marriage," a repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and "expanding access to domestic partner benefits" for homosexuals, is listed as a sponsor of the event at CPAC's website. Mr. Robinson has joined a number of conservative activists including Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver, and Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of...

A spokesman for the American Family Association says a Republican homosexual activist group doesn't belong at a popular conservative political conference in February. The homosexual activist group GOProud, an offshoot of the Log Cabin Republicans, boasts on its website that it will be a co-sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington on February 18-20. Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of GOProud, says taking part in CPAC "is one of the most important things [GOProud] will do all year," and affords the homosexual activist group "an incredible opportunity to deliver [its] message." GOProud advocates same-sex "marriage," a repeal of...

Decision Brief No. 05-D 44 2005-08-31 On eve of U.N. push for global government, advocates urge Senate to approve a building block: The Law of the Sea Treaty (Washington, D.C.): As concern grows that the United Nations is intent on replacing what the National Security Guidance calls "an orderly arrangement of sovereign states" with a proto-world government - complete with the ability to impose international taxes, a new push is being made for a treaty that would advance that purpose: the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). This sovereignty-sapping agenda is at the heart of a dispute now playing...

The real Woodrow Wilson, it turns out, was a far less admirable character than the cardboard hero we learned about in school. In fact, in some ways the boring Midwesterner who succeeded him looks better than him when one compares what the two actually accomplished. Harding famously said he wanted to restore “normalcy” to a nation on the verge of a breakdown at the end of the Great War and set about working to heal the wounds that divided the nation. During the war, Wilson attacked those he called “hyphenated Americans” as disloyal and set about systematically using his power...

Amidst all the exciting news coming out of NY-23 yesterday, there was an article in the Washington Examiner by Mark Tapscott. At the very end of Tapscott’s article, David Keene is interviewed about the Upstate New York campaign: This race will have more impact on the Republican politics than any other this year. I believe Hoffman will win on Tuesday, but regardless of the outcome, he and the conservative base of the Republican party have already won by proving that conservatives can no longer be ignored by an establishment that has all too often ignored those it is supposed to...

Lots of people want credit for Dede Scozzafava dropping out today. I feel like I have had a view from the inside. Lots of people are trying to give me credit for rallying the base since last July for Hoffman, but from my vantage point, there are four that are being overshadowed by Pataki, Pawlenty, and Palin, but who genuinely and truly deserve a hell of a lot more credit than most. Please though, remember these four: 1. Susan B. Anthony List. First in and last out, they have been under the radar for months. Before the tea party activists....

WASHINGTON, DC -- The American Conservative Union's political action committee, ACU PAC, today formally endorsed New York Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the upcoming Special Election in New York's 23rd Congressional District. ACU PAC Chairman David Keene said in announcing the endorsement that the New York State Conservative Party has given the people of the 23rd District the choice Republican leaders would deny them. "Doug Hoffman is an intelligent, sincere leader who can and will win this election and at the same time send a message to NY State GOP leaders that they won't be able to ignore," Keene...

After lunch the local police were called and escorted John Ziegler out of the parking lot. But first there was a major confrontation in the banquet tent at the Radisson Hotel. (Ziegler confronted Keene on his comments about Sarah Palin. Video of Ziegler talking about his encounter at link.)

As the homemade balloon took to the air, Richard Heene blasts wife about tethering. • While world worried, 'balloon boy' was safe in attic http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7e7_1255709203

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s support in a bitter legislative dispute, then the group’s chairman flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay. For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)” The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as...

David Keene, the Chairman of the American Conservative Union trashed Sarah Palin publicly today on NewsMax. However, a quick search of Mr. Keene's recent political contribution history reveals the following: David Keene, Managing Associate of the Carmen Group Lobbying Firm, and Head of ACU, Alexandria, VA. Political contributions in 2008 election cycle: KEENE, DAVID, ALEXANDRIA,VA 22314 THE CARMEN GROUP/EXEC 5/1/07 $1,000 Specter, Arlen (R) KEENE, DAVID, ALEXANDRIA,VA 22314 THE CARMEN GROUP/EXEC 12/19/07 $800 Specter, Arlen (R) KEENE, DAVID, ALEXANDRIA,VA 22314 THE CARMEN GROUP/EXEC 12/19/07 $200 Specter, Arlen (R) What I want to know is, how does a guy like this...

<p>Sarah Palin needs to stop whining about unfair media coverage and get over the fact that some people don’t like her, Dave Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, tells Newsmax.</p> <p>Palin doesn’t seem to get that politics is a tough game, says Keene, one of the country’s most astute political observers.</p>

Good lord. It’s grassroots Woodstock. "The annual CPAC convention of conservatives is expected to be a sellout because two huge names are coming to deliver red-meat speeches: Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. We’ve got the whole list for you below. Limbaugh will play clean-up, speaking last on Saturday February, and organizers expect him to expand on fight with Obamacans over his recent comment: “I want him to fail.” The schedule at the link says only that they’ve been invited, not that they’ve confirmed, but the fact that each has been given a specific time slot — Palin speaks in the...

Obama Makeover by David Keene Issue 112 - July 23, 2008 The makeover has begun, and by the time it’s complete, Barack Obama will be barely recognizable to many of those who signed on with him a year ago. The man who began his campaign as a quasi-spokesman for the folks at MoveOn.Org now claims he gets his foreign policy advice from a consortium of Democratic insiders that includes former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher. Obama may not think much of Bill and Hillary, but he wants general-election voters to know that he’s really not as different...

On the campaign trail last week, Sen. John McCain declared at least three times that the Republican Party is "united." But is it? Some prominent conservatives say they remain disenchanted with the party's likely nominee. Sen. McCain isn't doing enough to persuade them of his conservative credentials, they say, or win them over to his side. Although the sentiment among conservative leaders is that they will vote for Sen. McCain come November, they aren't thrilled about the prospect. "I hear a good deal of rumbling from conservatives," said Alfred Regnery, publisher of the conservative American Spectator magazine. Mr. Regnery said...

Arizona Sen. John McCain’s (R) charge that former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney favors setting a date for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq tells one a lot more about the “straight-talking” McCain than about Romney. The Arizona senator had been desperately trying to change the subject in Florida, where voter concern about the economy is seen as giving Romney a leg up in Tuesday’s primary. When Romney called him to account, McCain not only refused to apologize, he suggested instead that “the apology is owed to the young men and women serving this nation in uniform.” The McCain ploy worked...

Mitt Romney's endorsement by David Keene of the American Conservative Union may be the most significant declaration of support by any individual or group on the right to date. That's because the ACU enjoys widespread respect among most conservative activists - those most likely to vote in primaries. In addition to its annual rankings of Congress, the ACU puts on the number one conservative conference every year. The Conservative Political Action Conference draws around 4,000 attendees every year and features every conservative commentator, lawmaker, and author of note as speakers and panelists. An endorsement from Keene, therefore, carries more than a...

Thursday, Nov 29, 2007 David Keene "The Laura Ingraham Show" 11/29/07 David Keene On His Endorsement Of Governor Mitt Romney: Laura Ingraham: "David, I know you made an announcement. I didn't reveal it to the listeners because I wanted you to tell us when you came on the show about who you were endorsing for the Republican nomination." David Keene: "Well, I decided earlier this week and announced this morning that I'm supporting Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor. I came to that decision after a lot of thought. Early on in this process, I thought I'd stay neutral for...

Less than 24 hours after former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) jousted with his rivals over his conservative credentials at the CNN/YouTube debate in Florida, he is set to receive the endorsement from American Conservative Union President David Keene. Keene said he became "convinced that Mitt Romney represents our best hope for 2008" and added that in the weeks remaining before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, 2008 he would work to persuade "my fellow conservatives that if we are serious about electing a conservative president in 2008, it's time to unite behind his candidacy." Long courted by Romney, Keene agreed...

M. Stanton Evans, one of the fathers of the modern conservative movement, once promulgated what he dubbed “Evans’s Law,” which held, quite simply, that “once our conservative friends get themselves elected or appointed to a position of influence we discover that they’re no longer our friends.” Stan’s point was that elected officials in particular tend to forget what got them into politics in the first place and abandon promises and principles in favor of whatever they think might be needed to win reelection. Evans’s Law was demon­strated by the conservatives who got themselves elected to Congress in 1994 and, finding...

Mitt Romney is in the best position to win the Republican nomination, Dave Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, tells Newsmax. While Rudy Giuliani leads in the polls, Keene says most people have not begun to focus on the election. Once they do, they will recognize how liberal Giuliani is on some social issues like abortion and gay rights, and Republicans overall will tilt against him. Then Romney’s strategy of focusing on key states like Iowa and New Hampshire could propel him to the nomination, Keene says. “Romney’s doing it the right way, in my view,” Keene says over...

Islamisation of David Keene, American Conservative Union June 27, 2007 David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU), has been moving, along with several other paleo-conservatives like Dinesh D’Souza, towards a partnership with Saudi-funded, pro-Hamas institutions. A forewarning was the appointment of Grover Norquist to the ACU board. A second forewarning was the appointment of Suhail Khan to the ACU board. Then Tuesday, David Keene joined United for Peace and Justice, the ACLU, the Communist Party-USA, as a speaker in the “Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice” to “…call on Congress to restore habeas corpus, fix the...

I got a call a couple of weeks ago from a friend who also happens to be a local GOP party leader. He is upset with the negative tone of ads being run by the national party on behalf of his state’s beleaguered incumbent Republican senator. He wanted me to help him convince whoever gave the orders for the attack ads against the senator’s Democratic challenger that “instead of attacking the Democrat, we should be talking up our senator and all he’s done for the state.” I sympathized with him, of course, because it would be nice if campaigns could...

WESTWOOD ONE LAUNCHES THE MONICA CROWLEY SHOW --New Program to Air Saturdays, Noon - 3 p.m. ET-- Beginning Saturday, April 1, 2006 New York, NY Monday, Mar 20, 2006 - Westwood One (NYSE: WON) is proud to announce the national launch of The Monica Crowley Show, the three-hour talk program hosted by author and news personality Monica Crowley. The show begins Saturday, April 1, 2006, and will air from noon to 3 p.m. ET. The Monica Crowley Show will debut on major market stations across the country including: WABC-AM New York, WTKK-FM Boston and WTNT-AM Washington DC. The show will...

Congressman DeLay, according to a recent article in the Washington Times, “said … that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.” Would that this were true. In reality, the Republicans during President Bush’s administration have taken government spending to unprecedented new heights, far beyond the most extravagant fancies of Bill Clinton and his big-spending Democratic cronies.

This last Fourth of July my wife, myself and our Jack Russell Terrier ‘Mac’ traveled to New Hampshire from our home in Westchester County, NY. Full Article follows in Comment Section. Published: Op-Ed Page, The Berlin Reporter (7/14/04) (Berlin, New Hampshire) © W. N. Kilarjian 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) - The reasons behind the pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures just kept growing. Yet after two days of hearings examining flaws and searching for solutions, members of the Sept. 11 commission said they have yet to reach firm conclusions on what reforms are necessary. The bipartisan panel is scheduled to issue its final report in July.``Everybody speaks of reform,'' said the panel's Democratic vice chairman, Lee Hamilton, a former congressman from Indiana. ``It's very easy to come out for reform. The task of the commission is going to be to put specificity to that, and that's going to be...

FORT WORTH - His quilt is covered with pictures of ponies. On his bedroom floor is a miniature ranch with a plywood barn and a corral full of toy horses. "That's Cowboy," he said, pointing to one. "That's Poncho. That's Patches." The boy knows each horse by name. Austin Menzmer's imagination is so active that one animal in his herd, Buster the Wonder Horse, is the quick-thinking hero in a series of adventure stories that the 10-year-old and his grandpa write together. Austin types the short stories into a computer with one hand. But sometimes reality is even better than...

Although Assemblyman Rick Keene identifies more with the conservative politics of his Republican Party colleague state Sen. Tom McClintock, the Chico-based politician announced Thursday that he is backing gubernatorial hopeful Arnold Schwarzenegger. Keene, who represents Nevada County, said in a press release Thursday that he identifies closely with McClintock's "conservative philosophy." But political pragmatism is what appears to be driving his endorsement. "I believe that at this critical time, we must unite behind the strongest candidate who can actually seize this unique opportunity to restore real management to California state government," Keene said. "The Davis/Bustamante regime cannot be allowed to...