Free Republic

NASHVILLE -- Nearly half of Tennessee's House Republican Caucus met "in a state of shock" Tuesday to discuss whether to hold a special legislative session in response to last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. They discussed topics such as what, if anything, state lawmakers can or should do in areas like protecting clergy who refuse to perform same-sex ceremonies because it would violate their religious beliefs. At least 33 of the most conservative members of the 73-member GOP Caucus packed into a conference room in Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell's office for more than an hour. They...

Cruz accuses McConnell and GOP leadership of maneuvering to dry up his fundraising and plant hit pieces in the press aimed at hurting him politically. He says GOP leaders cowered from joining him in big fights over the debt ceiling, Obamacare and gun control, accusing his colleagues of “mendacity” and capitulating to Democrats to avoid bad headlines.He contends that McConnell misled him in vowing to stay out of primaries when Cruz accepted a senior-level position at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And he accuses a GOP rival, Rand Paul of Kentucky, of parroting McConnell’s talking points by seeking to “undermine”...

resident Obama signed hard-fought trade legislation Monday, thanking Republican leaders who helped get it done and saying the package will “reinforce America’s leadership role in the world.” “I think it’s fair to say that getting these bills through Congress has not been easy,” Mr. Obama said as he signed the trade bills into law in the East Room. “They’ve been declared dead more than once.” The two major pieces of legislation grant Mr. Obama “fast track” trade-promotion authority

Sen. Ted Cruz is suggesting current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell misled him about the objectives of the National Republican Senatorial Committee last cycle. The Texas Republican’s vice chairmanship of the party campaign committee was always a bit mysterious, and in his new book to be released Tuesday, Cruz contends that McConnell, the longtime Kentucky senator who faced perhaps the most vociferous tea party primary challenger of the year, said the NRSC would not be defending its own incumbents. “When I mentioned to Mitch that if the NRSC had its way, every one of those four conservatives would have lost, he...

As administration officials mull a response to the turmoil in Egypt, conservative foreign policy experts and commentators remain divided over the question of U.S. aid and how to deal with the military following its takeover and the recent bloodshed. Those who favor continuing aid cite the need to protect key U.S. regional interests, topped by a secure Suez Canal and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty—interests more likely to be safeguarded by the Egyptian military than the Muslim Brotherhood administration it overthrew on July 3. …

Is this bolder than what Haley did or not as bold? Davis may not hold the same cultural currency as a symbol of southern pride that the flag does, but Haley had less to lose in making her move than Bevin does. She’s the term-limited governor of South Carolina; he’s the GOP nominee for governor in Kentucky. If there’s a broader southern backlash coming to all of the criticism of Confederate iconography this past week, he’ll pay for it more than she will. NEW: @MattBevin, in a statement to me, calls for removing the Jefferson Davis statue in the...

The Senate majority leader told reporters Tuesday that the memorial belongs in a museum, not the statehouse.

PPP's first poll of the general election for Governor in Kentucky finds a toss up race. Republican Matt Bevin gets 38% to 35% for Democrat Jack Conway, with independent Drew Curtis getting 6%. In a two person race with Curtis taken out of the mix, Bevin's lead over Conway is 40/38. More than 20% of voters are undecided and that's a function of neither candidate being particularly well known. Even after a pair of terms as Attorney General, a 35% plurality of voters in Kentucky have no opinion about Conway with those who do have one pretty evenly divided on...

Is this bolder than what Haley did or not as bold? Davis may not hold the same cultural currency as a symbol of southern pride that the flag does, but Haley had less to lose in making her move than Bevin does. She’s the term-limited governor of South Carolina; he’s the GOP nominee for governor in Kentucky. If there’s a broader southern backlash coming to all of the criticism of Confederate iconography this past week, he’ll pay for it more than she will.

Washington (CNN)—The first black Republican woman elected to Congress is returning $1,000 in donations from Earl Holt, the alleged white supremacist whose writings have reportedly inspired Charleston shooter Dylann Roof. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mia Love said Monday that she would be returning the three donations Holt made to her campaign immediately, after being contacted by CNN. Love made history last November when Utah residents selected her as the first black Republican woman to serve in Congress. Holt, who is president Council of Conservative Citizens, donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)93% is calling on Republicans in the House—and the grassroots nationwide—to oppose efforts by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)58% to revive Obamatrade via a tax increase hidden inside the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) portion of the deal. Paul said when asked to react to an article from Breitbart News from late Sunday evening exposing the tax increase in the deal: "You know typically to pass these kinds of things, the establishment will try to buy off Democrats by sprinkling money so they have some money in there. To get the money, under...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer denounced a controversial letter from the head of the local police officers' union that attacks "sensationalists" who are "blind to reason" after a deadly police confrontation in Old Louisville. Dave Mutchler, president of the River City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 614, promised that officers would "no longer stand on the sidelines while anyone continues to assault and demonize us." "To the sensationalists, liars and race-baiters - we are done with you," Mutchler wrote in a two-page letter released to reporters Thursday afternoon. Mutchler, who is a Louisville Metro Police sergeant, did...

...Conway, who filed jointly with his wife Elizabeth, paid $837,700 in capital gains taxes in the sale — $644,385 to the Feds and $193,315 to the state — according to campaign spokesman Daniel Kemp. That’s 76.8 percent of his family’s $1.3 million in state and federal income taxes paid, according to the tax summary. He also reported $18,875 in charitable contributions last year. Conway, who earns $118,217 annually as attorney general, and his wife earned $233,421 in gross income in 2013 and $213,055 in 2012, and the couple paid $47,916 and $40,615 in federal and state income taxes in those...

The first “debate” between Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway and Republican gubernatorial nominee Matt Bevin Friday wasn’t an exchange of ideas, but rather a pair of broad speeches limited to 15 minutes with only Bevin, by virtue of speaking last, given an opportunity at rebuttal. The two shared the stage for the first time as their parties’ nominees at the Kentucky County Judge-Executive Association/Kentucky Magistrates and Commissioners Association Joint Summer Conference at the Galt House in Louisville. Their pre-lunch remarks drew about 300. Both Conway and Bevin did their best to present their visions for the state in the allotted...

The president of the Louisville police union caused a backlash when he issued an open letter calling unspecified activists “sensationalists, liars and race-baiters.” Dave Mutchler is the president of the River City Fraternal Order of Police and a sergeant in the Louisville Metro Police Department. He distributed the two-page letter six days after a police officer shot and killed 35-year-old Deng Manyuon, a Sudanese refugee who attacked him with a flagpole. …

As Jeb Bush announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Monday, a conservative political action committee released an open letter urging Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano to run as a third-party candidate if Bush and Hillary Clinton are their parties’ nominees. “The Democrat and Republican brands have become ‘two wings of the same bird of prey,’ as you yourself have pointed out, which is why the American People deserve an alternative choice in the coming presidential election,” reads the letter from Constitutional Rights Political Action Committee Chairman Larry Ward. The letter concludes, “Above all, we need a President...

For the second time in less than two weeks, Jeb Bush is shuffling the top tier of his 2016 campaign staff. The job of political director – expected to go to Kentucky-based consultant Scott Jennings – will instead be filled by David James, who served as a senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. He has also worked at the Republican National Committee and helped lead the Pennsylvania Republican Party.

The White House shut down the rumor that President Obama had extended an invitation to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the finalization of the Iran Deal. "No invitation has been extended, though certainly we’d expect that there will be occasion for the two leaders to meet in Washington at some point going forward," an unnamed White House official told the Free Beacon in response to an inquiry. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/white-house-denies-obama-asked-to-meet-with-netanyahu/ WFB provides some context for its request for clarification: Reports surfaced earlier this week that Obama had invited Netanyahu to the White House for a mid-July meeting about Iran and the...

Full title: Louisville Kentucky Police Respond To Attacks Against Policing – Flag Pole Attack – Open Letter To Public… Earlier this week the professionally aggrieved began a campaign against the Louisville Kentucky police department after a deranged man attacked a police officer with a flag pole,and was shot and killed. Video shows man fatally shot swinging flag pole at officer. Police Shooting In Louisville The professional agitators began using the same antagonistic activist messaging, “F**k the Police”, as previously used in Ferguson, Saint Louis, Baltimore, Madison, New York, Charlottesville and McKinney, Texas. The Louisville Kentucky police have had enough.  They pen an open letter...

Scott Walker continues to lead the field of Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, according to a poll of likely Republican Iowa caucus participants released on Thursday. The poll, commissioned by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, also found a 5-point drop in support for Sen. Rand Paul compared to a similar survey by the Des Moines Register late last month. Walker received 19 percent in the poll, followed by Ben Carson at 13 percent and Jeb Bush at 11 percent. Marco Rubio received 9 percent, followed by Rick Perry at 7 percent, Ted Cruz at 6 percent and Rand Paul at...