Free Republic

If you can’t win, you might as well go down swinging. At senior citizens. At an AARP-Univision mayoral forum this morning, mayoral contender Anthony Weiner pulled out the age card to taunt his most vocal challengers, 69-year-old Doe Fund founder George McDonald. Weiner is 48. Before the debate, Weiner put a hand on McDonald’s back and said hello, prompting McDonald to reply: “I would appreciate if you would never touch me again.” Weiner retorted: “What are you going to do about it, grandpa?” according to two sources. A mild overreaction by McDonald, but in his defense, who knows where that...

As the Democratic Party of Wisconsin continues to provide staff support to Madison millionaire Mary Burke and hold meetings behind closed doors to clear the field for her, Party leaders continue to cry foul over the out-of-touch candidate’s viability. Here’s what Democrats have said so far this week about the would-be candidate for Governor: “I was at an event with Mary Burke the other day…She’s got the charisma of a turnip.” [1] -Democrat Rep. Brett Hulsey, on Burke’s candidacy. “But I have been talking with people, listening to what they have to say, and I keep hearing over and over...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Greg in Nashua, New Hampshire. You're next on the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Hi, Rush. Based on what you're saying about the Republican Party abandoning a large chunk of the American population -- including conservatives -- or even being any real opposition to the Democrats on Obamacare and apparently everything else, I'm wondering whether Sarah Palin's recent gambit that if the GOP... I think she calls them the GOP brain trust on the Greta show. If the GOP is indeed abandoning her as well as a large swath of American voters, she's going independent. Palin is...

Fox News just released a nationwide poll in generall in keeping with many others, finding voters are unhappy with the economy and want Obamacare repealed. But what's truly eye-opening are the comparisons of partisan opinions of President Barack Obama and George Zimmerman, who was acquitted July 13 of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges for shooting unarmed Miami Gardens 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012. Republicans have a more-favorable opinion of Zimmerman, a figure of sympathy to a number of conservatives, than Obama. That's right: The Democratic occupant of the White House is held in less favorable regard by Republicans...

"Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis d’ Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835 The inspiration for this article occurred while reading "What about a third party candidate" by Rachel Lynn Robinson on Nolan Chart, www.nolanchart.com. Ms. Robinson, a Libertarian, asks: "Is it reasonable to elect a third party candidate simply based on their stance on a few key items?"...

Former state Rep. Pam Byrnes, a Democrat from Washtenaw County's Lyndon Township, announced Thursday she's running for Congress to help fix a "broken system" in Washington. Byrnes is seeking the 7th District seat held by Tim Walberg, a Republican from Tipton who unseated Democrat Mark Schauer in 2010 to regain the seat. Walberg held the seat in 2007 and 2008 before losing to Schauer in November 2008. Byrnes will take her shot at unseating Walberg in 2014. "Washington is broken and Tim Walberg is part of the problem. He puts special interests and corporations ahead of middle-class Michigan families," Byrnes...

Louisiana Senator Elbert Guillory (R-Opelousas) explains why he recently switched from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party. He discusses the history of the Republican Party, founded as an Abolitionist Movement in 1854. Guillory talks about how the welfare state is only a mechanism for politicians to control the black community.

Every year, thousands of Republicans from all over the country spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars to attend conservative conferences, where they hear from popular party leaders, members of Congress and even celebrities on their issues, the state of the party and where it is headed. These include the popular Conservative Political Action Conference in the spring and the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference, held this weekend at the J.W. Marriott in Washington. Among the many conference goers are retirees, local tea party leaders and dozens of young conservatives, skinny bespectacled young men and well-dressed, high-heeled women...

Michele Bachmann's taking a bow. Sarah Palin's star has faded. With the brassy, blow-dried bombasts of the GOP moving to the sidelines, there's no elected heir apparent to inherit the mantle and carry the conservative crusade forward on the national stage. What does that mean for a Republican Party struggling to woo the women voters it needs to win national elections? It may be for the best, say some of the GOP operatives who have been pushing the party to rebrand itself after its 2012 losses. "They and their style gives short shrift to other women in the GOP," said...

Gun control advocates are in hysterics, using frenzied, emotional attacks against Senators who opposed gun control last month in hopes of changing the momentum. This explains why Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has been targeted in New Hampshire, and it's why Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly have been targeting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in Kentucky. Staunch gun control supporters saw Sandy Hook Elementary as their opportunity to secure more gun laws, but now they see that opportunity fading away....

Sarah Palin reared her head in American airspace this weekend. As the country’s media, entertainment and political elite gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual roast that is the White House Correspondents Dinner, Palin could not resist lobbing darts from afar. “Yuk it up media and pols,” she tweeted. “While America is buried in taxes and a fight for our rights, the permanent political class in DC dresses up and has a prom to make fun of themselves. No need for that, we get the real joke.” She panned the event again in a second tweet: “That #WHCD was pathetic....

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would have won the presidency if the white and black turnout rates had stayed at their 2004 levels, according to a new analysis of 2012 election. “The battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida and Colorado would have tipped in favor of Romney, handing him the presidency if the outcome of other states remained the same,” according to The Associated Press’s summary of research by William Frey, an expert at the Brookings Institution. Overall turnout declined from 62 percent in 2008 to 58 percent in 2012, Frey reported. The drop-off reduced the overall turnout by...

Frank Luntz may smugly believe that Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and other right wing talk radio hosts are "responsible for the stark polarization within the nation's political discourse" and therefore "problematic" for the Republican Party. I submit the problem is that Luntz, and a misguided over-reliance on focus groups, has neutered and thus destroyed any semblance of courage in the GOP's message. Luntz is conflating, as many wonks and number crunchers do, cause and effect with regard to the bigger realities and polarization. The country is polarized because, well, we are polarized. Rush and "the great one" didn't make it...

I would like to start (IMMEDIATELY) the process to dispose of Rhino John McFrain McCain. I need to know the documents necessary to start that process (IMMEDIATELY - not tomorrow but TODAY). I need to know who to start the process with, Documents necessary and anyone who would be able to start a web site just to get signatures and get the ball rolling. JonGaltSr (Freeper since 1995 (or manybe it was 1996). Thanks

You knew it would happen eventually, but so soon? It took only one week for a partisan group — in this case the Democratic Party — to turn the terror bombings in Boston into a crass political ploy. Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was behind this tasteless tactic, sending out an email and tweet asking people to sign a supposed “thank you note” to the first responders. That would be nice except for the fact that in order to “sign” the note, you have to give the Democratic party your email account and ZIP code. “We’ll collect every...

Republicans spend a lot of energy explaining that they are not racists, and if you dare call them a racist based on their racist policies/comments, then they will gleefully accuse you “playing the race card” as if that exempts them from what they are doing. Here to exemplify this right wing cognitive dissonance in action is Georgia’s Republican Governor Nathan Deal, who yesterday made headlines by refusing to condemn “whites only” proms. Here’s a compilation of Nathan Deal quotes: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Ghetto grandmothers: Speaking before the Cherokee County GOP, then congressman and candidate for governor Nathan Deal was fear-mongering about the...

Gov. Jan Brewer and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin put their best feet forward Saturday afternoon in an effort tackle one of Arizona's biggest issues. "We're here highlighting the problem of child abuse and doing all that we can to strike it out," said Palin. However, Saturday's conversation wasn't just about protecting our children. It was also about protecting our border. This week immigrants living in this country illegally will likely find out what they need to do to become U.S. citizens. Lawmakers are days away from announcing details of the most sweeping immigration reform bill this country's seen...

Think Murdoch will take his “advice,” knowing what the reaction would be among Fox News’s many, many gun-rights-supporting viewers? Don’t mind Murphy. He’s a freshman from a very blue state where feelings are still understandably raw after Newtown, so apparently he’s decided that no anti-gun grandstanding opportunity is too cheap for him to use to try to raise his profile back home. Coming soon, presumably: Murphy calls on NASCAR to drop the N, R, and A’s from its name. The National Rifle Association-sponsored NASCAR race slated for this weekend is “inappropriate in the immediate wake of the Newtown massacre,” Sen....

CHICAGO — When she returns home here Wednesday to deliver a speech on gun violence, first lady Michelle Obama will be making a rare foray into the politics of the day that could presage a more activist role during her husband’s second term. Obama is taking what aides described as an intentional step outside her narrow focus on military families and childhood nutrition to confront the dark reality of young people being gunned down on the streets of America’s cities. The remarks come amid a contentious debate on Capitol Hill over stricter gun laws advocated by President Obama. White House...

PHOENIX - Governor Jan Brewer and Sarah Palin will join forces this weekend to fight child abuse. Both women will walk the streets of downtown Phoenix for the 4th annual Strike Out Child Abuse Walk....

On April 4, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed 139 pages of gun control legislation into law, effectively telling the $1.7 billion gun industry that has called his state home for more than a century they are no longer welcome. Speaking for Colt Manufacturing, which has been in Connecticut for 175 years, president and CEO Dennis Veilleux said, "At some point, if you can't sell your product then you can't run your business... You need customers to buy your products to stay in business." Other prominent Connecticut-based gun companies include Mossberg, Ruger, and Stag Arms, all of which are being...

President Barack Obama’s got a volunteer army — and all their marching orders come from carefully organized paid generals back at headquarters. Obama won two terms by harnessing a grassroots movement through a tightly controlled, top-down campaign organization. Now the group formed out of Organizing for America is now bringing that approach to Organizing for Action. It’s what differentiates OFA from other grassroots groups, and even the Democratic National Committee: they’re combining large-dollar donations and unpaid local leaders for a carefully built, lasting structure that they believe will be just as effective in supporting the president as it was in...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) doubled down Monday in his opposition to expanding Medicaid under President Obama's healthcare law, even though opposing it could cost his state $90 billion. At a press conference where he was flanked by other conservatives, Perry argued expanding the health insurance program for the poor would make Texas “hostage” to the federal government. “It would benefit no one in our state to see their taxes skyrocket and our economy crushed as our budget crumbled under the weight of oppressive Medicaid costs,” Perry said at the state capitol. States can choose whether or not to allow...

Just in case you missed the not-so-subtle message of Sarah Palin’s new video–”Loaded for Bear“–it appears onscreen fifteen seconds after the beginning and takes the form of a Politico headline proclaiming the one-time vice-presidential candidate a “kingmaker.” (Strangely, “kingmaker” is also one of the titles that pops up about fifteen seconds into the opening of the Colbert Report.) For such a persistent critic of the “lamestream media,” Palin has to rely on a wide variety of sources in the press to bolster her status as a power player in conservative politics. In addition to the headline in Politico, her video...

State Rep. Joe Mitchell, D-Mobile, had an outlandish exchange via email with a Jefferson County man who asked him and other lawmakers not to pass any laws that would restrict gun ownership. Eddie Maxwell sent a mass email to state legislators late on Jan. 27, warning them that even attempting to introduce a gun control bill was, in his opinion, a violation of state law. Mitchell responded from his public, ALHouse.gov email account an hour later, telling Maxwell: "Your folk never used all this sheit (sic) to protect my folk from your slave-holding, murdering, adulterous, baby-raping, incestuous, snaggle-toothed, backward-a**ed, inbreed...

A Chicago man has been charged with disorderly conduct for making a telephone threat to a state representative who called gay couples "disordered" on a Catholic radio show, authorities said. Wheaton Police Chief Mark Field said 49-year-old Stephen Bona was charged Friday, hours after Republican state Rep. Jeanne Ives reported getting a threatening voice mail at her district office. "Your Tea Party brethren Sarah Palin put up a map that included the names, locations and faces of Democratic candidates and put them in the cross hairs of a gun," a caller says on the voice mail, a recording of which...

GOP strategist and fundraiser Karl Rove on Sunday said Democrats needed to “stop scaring people” about gun control if they wanted to pass bipartisan measures to stem gun violence. Rove pointed to the debate over instituting background checks and said that Democrats were overreaching and pushing away gun owners eager for a bipartisan solution. “This was prompted by the Sandy Hook murders. Those guns were legally purchased with a background check. This would not have solved something like that,” said Rove in a panel discussion on ABC’s “This Week.” “Let's be very careful about quickly trampling on the rights of...

An unsparing piece keying off the same Rick Perry soundbite at CPAC that inspired this post. Perry said that it’s unfair to blame conservatism for the GOP’s losses in 2008 and 2012 because, after all, our nominees weren’t conservative. Emery’s response: Then why did Republican primary voters vote for them instead of for a solid conservative like, say, Rick Perry? Her answer? Between Reagan’s generation and the current crop of Rubio, Scott Walker, etc, there simply haven’t been many good conservative candidates. Instead, against establishment types who were national figures, the conservative movement flung preachers and pundits (Pat Robertson, Alan...

OXON HILL, Md. — Sarah Palin’s appearances no longer inspire speculation about her presidential aspirations, but her reception at a gathering of conservatives Saturday underscored her enduring popularity with the right. In a speech, she offered zingers for the Republican base but also a strenuous defense of her tea-party friends who are challenging the Republican establishment. In a pep talk at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Palin, a former governor of Alaska and Republican vice-presidential nominee, attacked President Obama and Beltway Republican groups that are promoting traditional candidates over insurgents in Republican primaries. “More background checks?” she asked, railing...

Matthew Dowd, former chief strategist for the 2004 George W. Bush campaign, apparently doesn’t have much of a soft spot for CPAC or for Sarah Palin. Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Dowd likened CPAC to no less than two prehistoric children’s cartoons, and not so subtly compared former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to Kim Kardashian. National Review captured the one-minute statement from Dowd: “Matt, you’re just shaking your head. The whole thing, it makes you nervous, what do you say?” ABC host Martha Raddatz asked. “To me, imagery and who’s there [at CPAC] and what you say is...

Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter helped close out this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Unlike the typical conservative speaker, Palin and Coulter rely on passion, humor, and style to evoke a response from the audience. There aren't too many things that will get a group of conservatives to display anything resembling emotion. Guns, Obamacare, or anything Obama-related are about the only things that will get them to get out of their seats and show some raw passion. That is why speakers like Palin and Coulter are two of the most highly paid and sought after public speakers on the...

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Sarah Palin may no longer hold public office, be a candidate for national office or have a paid contributor slot at a news network, but when put in front of a room full of conservatives, she still has no trouble riling up a crowd. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference here Saturday, Palin was interrupted more than half a dozen times by standing ovations throughout a short red-meat speech, where she dinged the Republican Party and called on the conservative movement to be more inclusive. Palin, who delivered the keynote address at the same event...

You’ll shoot your eye out kid! Or at least that’s what one Assemblywoman must believe of children that attend gun shows with their family. Linda Rosenthal (D) has introduced a new bill that would ban children under 12 from attending a gun show in New York state. Via the Times Union (the sarcasm is fantastic): The bill was put forward by Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who hails from that trackless wilderness and sportsmen’s paradise known as Manhattan. “Children should be learning to read and write, not to shoot a firearm,” Rosenthal says in a statement, as if the two skills were...

Doesn’t CPAC realize that 2012 already happened? Glance over the list of CPAC invitees and scheduled panels, and it makes you wonder if the organizers are aware that the 2012 election has already come and gone, not with the most glowing of possible results. Sometimes — as with the decision to exclude GOProud from the event altogether — one might be less charitably tempted to wonder whether the organizers knew that, say, 1998 had already come and gone. The event seems to have both feet firmly planted in the past. Here, from the schedule, is a summary of the events...

An Albany Councilwoman who attended and spoke at an event last year that featured a veritable who’s-who of former domestic terrorists (bomb makers, convicted cop-killers), is now requesting funding for a “community based anti-violence program” according to the Times Union. As an esteemed member of the Common Council, Barbara Smith is requesting state funding for the anti-violence program known as SNUG. According to the Times Union report: A local delegation — including state Sen. Neil Breslin, Harris Oberlander, head of the Trinity Alliance, the nonprofit that runs the SNUG program; Common Councilwoman Barbara Smith; and Assistant Police Chief Brendan Cox...

Apparently the heat from last week’s gun control rally got to state Assemblyman Al Stirpe, a Democrat representing the 121st district. Stirpe voted in favor of New York’s gun legislation, the SAFE Act. During a meeting on Thursday, several protesters asked the Assemblyman questions that they described as “legitimate and sincere”. But Stirpe felt he was being shouted down without being able to provide answers to the questions. And that’s when this happened… Via Syracuse.com: “I said ‘If you blanking guys would care more about education and the crumbling roads and bridges in our state, you’d be living in a...

For decades, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has been a barometer of the different political tendencies inside the right-wing. In the 1980s, Reagan administration officials and Reaganite New Rightists dominated the podium. Pres. Reagan spoke at CPAC in both 1984 and 1988. In the 1990s, culture warriors like Pat Buchanan and the Rev. Pat Robertson joined Republican regulars such as Sens. Bob Dole and Phil Gramm. At this years’ CPAC13, Tea Party leaders and Tea Party-supported politicians will dominate the proceedings. The result is an agenda filled with bigots, conspiracy mongers, and publicity hounds. Consider the inclusion of...

From PJ Media: ...State Sen. Evie Hudak, who, at a hearing on banning concealed carry on college campuses, told rape survivor Amanda Collins that having a gun would not have done her any good. Collins had just shared her story of survival. Democrat Hudak berated her in response. “I just want to say, statistics are not on your side, even if you had had a gun. You said that you were a martial arts student, I mean person, experience in taekwondo, and yet because this individual was so large and was able to overcome you even with your skills...

Former McCain aide Steve Schmidt told a apanel on Bill Maher which included California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom that the GOP lags in its tech and internet capability because it can't attract young, cutting edge workers. Why? They don't want to work for a bigoted party. Said Schmidt. "If you look at your first guest on talking about brilliant young people in computers who understand all this stuff [and] be at the cutting edge, it's difficult to make the case to work for a political party that wants to discriminate against their friend who happens to be gay. So we...

Hudson City Alderman David Marston says Second Amendment supporters are “gun-toting Tea Party psychotards.” A New York alderman is in hot water after lashing out at Second Amendment supporters as “gun-toting Tea Party psychotards” and threatening to “beat you barbarians back.” Hudson city Alderman, Dave Marston, sent this email tirade out to Johanna Johnson-Smith (JJ), a main organizer for the first NY SAFE Act protest rally in Albany last month. Johnson-Smith was concerned about the new gun control laws the city was proposing. Here is Marston’s response. Via Mental Recession: Dear Joanna Johnson-Smith, Its really neat that all you gun...

Hudson city Alderman, Dave Marston, has found himself in a bit of hot water after an e-mail exchange that saw him refer to Second Amendment supporters as “gun-toting Tea Party psychotards”, implying that all gun supporters are “unemployed”, threatened to “beat you barbarians back”, and tosses in a Nazi reference for good measure. Apparently Mr. Marston didn’t get his party’s memo concerning the “new tone” in politics.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: There's this ongoing battle about me being too conservative for the Republican Party and too powerful, and the Republican Party is scared of me, and nobody will stand up to me, and they're not gonna get anywhere until they have the guts to stand up to me because I'm too conservative and they need to be more moderate. They need to move to the center, but I won't let them. But really, how powerful am I? How good am I? And then people are out there saying, "Look at Limbaugh's track record in presidential races. He's 1-for-6."...

About five years ago, pollsters identified a crucial bloc of swing voters they called the “Walmart Moms.” These are women with children at home 18 or younger, and they shop at a Walmart at least once a month. They are also women who know what it is like to stretch a budget and juggle the demands of a family. For them, stress is a normal state these days. Walmart Moms don’t spend a lot of time thinking about politics, but when they do, it is on a very pragmatic level: Which candidate or party is going to make life better...

Inside the cozy enclaves of GOP bonhomie—hunkered at the tables of see-and-be-seen Washington restaurants—Republican leaders are sourly predicting a party-busting independent presidential bid by a tea-party challenger, like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in 2016. To them, the GOP apocalypse looms larger than most realize. Dueling State of the Union rebuttals and Karl Rove’s assault on right-wing candidates are mere symptoms of an existential crisis that is giving the sturdiest Republicans heartburn. And yet, the heart of the matter extends beyond the GOP. My conversations this week with two Republican officials, along with a Democratic strategist's timely memo, reflect a growing...

Missouri Democrat state Rep. Rory Ellinger has put forth H.B. 545, which would ban "assault weapons" and many semi-automatic pistols. It would give owners of said weapons 90 days to either turn them in or get them out of the state. After 90 days, those in possession of such weapons would face class "C" felony charges. The legislation defines an "assault weapon" as a rifle with a detachable magazine and any "one or more of the following: a pistol grip or thumbhole stock... protruding grip that can be held by nontrigger hand, a folding or telescoping stock, [or] a shroud...

Three years ago, midway through his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama took on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. “With all due deference to the separation of powers,” the president said, “last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests—including foreign corporations—to spend without limit in our elections. [Applause.] I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. [Applause.]” Justice Samuel Alito, by mouthing the words “not true” as Obama read these sentences off...

New York State Assemblyman William F. Boyland, Jr., already under federal indictment for bribery, now stands accused of falsifying more than $67,000 in travel expenses over a five year period. According to the Times Union, Boyland filed false claims on 609 out of the 975 days that he requested travel reimbursements during that time span. The State Comptroller’s Office has declined to make the report public, and Albany County District Attorney David Soares, a Democrat, has still failed to take action against Boyland, despite specific requests from colleagues in the Assembly. Via the New York Post: Embattled state Assemblyman William...

Why is it that The Right is described as “anti-choice” when The Left is talking about abortion? But The Left is not regarded as anti-choice when they talk about gun control? When The Left talks about “saving just one life” by doing things like banning guns, why doesn’t that logic apply to late term, partial birth, or any abortion? Have you ever seen an Intact Dialation and Extraction procedure? There no denying that what the doctor is doing is killing a viable human life. Let me be clear on this, I believe an abortion, in 99% of cases, is a...

"Sarah Palin has leveraged her brand well since exploding on the national scene in 2008, but since she recently lost her bully pulpit at Fox News, she may need to make another national run for office to keep the Sarah Palin brand viable," said political pundit William S. Bike. Bike is the author of the book Winning Political Campaigns: A Comprehensive Guide to Electoral Success. "Palin still will make money giving speeches to Republican and conservative organizations, but without the national stage that her Fox News job provided, she's going to start fading from public consciousness," Bike said. "To keep...

Is it last call for the tea party? Consider these recent developments: Late Thursday: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a possible presidential candidate in 2016, ridicules fellow Republicans as the "stupid party" and urges Washington Republicans to get over their obsession with cutting budgets. Friday afternoon: The office of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, another would-be Republican presidential candidate, declares that he will not go along with a plan, hatched by conservative legislators, to rewrite the state's election laws in a way that would stack Virginia's electoral votes against Democrats. Late Friday: Fox News says it has parted ways with Sarah Palin,...