Free Republic

Sen. Elizabeth Warren now says that last year’s government shutdown was about birth control. Warren did not make the remark in an off-the-cuff setting. She made it in a prepared speech. Warren said it on the floor of the Senate while supporting a bill that she knows has absolutely zero chance of becoming law. “Remember last year’s government shutdown that nearly tanked our economy?” Warren asked. “That fight started with a GOP effort to hold the whole operation of the federal government hostage in order to try to force Democrats and the president to let employers deny workers access to...

We have an immigration problem along our southern border, mostly with the Texas portion. The border is leaking like a sieve, with hundreds of children fleeing Central America and the drug induced bloodshed that has moved recently from Mexico down to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. A child has a higher chance of being killed in Central America than they do in Chicago’s South Side. Who are buying the drugs that are causing all the violence in Central America? Americans are. So if we want to stop the influx of children from Central America we need to do something about...

At least one House Republican thinks Mitt Romney will make another run for the White House in 2016 — and this time, he says the 2012 runner-up will emerge victorious. “I think he actually is gonna run for president. He probably doesn’t want me to say that,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Monday. Chaffetz also backed the former Massachusetts governor early in the GOP nomination process for 2012. “A hundred times he says he’s not, but Mitt Romney has always accomplished what he’s set out to do. I think he’s proven right on...

The New Republic magazine was, appropriately, the stimulant that last week gave the Democratic base a frisson of anticipation about a possible Elizabeth Warren presidential candidacy in 2016. Now in her 11th month as a Massachusetts senator, she is suited to carry the progressive torch that was fueled 99 years ago this month by The New Republic’s founding. Its first editor was Herbert Croly, whose 1909 book “The Promise of American Life” — Theodore Roosevelt read it, rapturously, during his post-presidential travels — is progressivism’s primer: “The average American individual is morally and intellectually inadequate to a serious and consistent...

Obama’s Mini-Me will protect all of Obama’s, ahem, accomplishments.Ed Klein reports that Obama is using Valerie Jarrett to urge Elizabeth Warren to challenge Hillary in the primary to protect Obama’s transformation of the nation into something of which he and Michelle can be proud. Warren will protect Obama’s, ahem, achievements, Hillary can’t be trusted to do that. It’s entirely believable. Whether it’s true remains to be seen. Here is part of the report, This means Warren: Obama backs challenger to Hillary: "President Obama has quietly promised Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren complete support if she runs for president — a stinging...

He's said over and over that he won't run for the White House a third time, but a new poll indicates that if Mitt Romney changed his mind and made another bid for president, he'd be the frontrunner among Republicans in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire. According to the Suffolk University/Boston Herald survey, which was released Thursday, 24% of Granite State Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say that Romney would be their first choice for their party's presidential nomination. Among the potential 2016 GOP contenders, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was a distant second, at...

She’s said many times that she has no intention of running, going so far as to co-sign a letter beseeching Her Majesty, Queen Hillary, to take her rightful place upon the throne in 2016. But would-be candidates say lots of things early in the cycle. Remember when Obama said, a few months after being elected to the Senate, that he wouldn’t run for president in 2008 because he was a big believer in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job? Two years later, he decided he knew what he was doing after all. And that’s how we...

Bill Maher said he would “love” to see Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) run as part of a 2016 presidential ticket with Hillary Clinton, calling the potential duo “a granny ticket.” Speaking on Ora.tv’s PoliticKING with Larry King, the liberal comic called Warren one of the “most gutsy” people in politics. When asked by King whom he thought would be able to lead the country to address climate change, Maher said: “I think someone like Elizabeth Warren, one of the most gutsy people I’ve seen in politics in a long time. She’s somebody, I think, who would really say what she...

Earlier this week, Speaker John Boehner announced the formation of a new select committee to investigate Benghazi led by Rep. Trey Gowdy. All three of my brothers served in the military, and I know firsthand how much Americans serving abroad -- and their families -- sacrifice. What happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012 was a tragedy. Four Americans died putting themselves in harm's way in service to peace, diplomacy, and their country. I look at what happened in Benghazi with sadness, with seriousness, and as yet another call to honor the men and women who keep us safe. So...

With Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) joining Elizabeth Warren and other in deciding not to run in 2016, it looks like Hillary Clinton will have no serious challenger for the Democratic nomination in 2016. According to the LA Times, California Gov. Jerry Brown has ruled out another run for the Democratic nomination in 2016, “No, that’s not in the cards. Unfortunately.” With his impressive record as governor, Brown would have presenting a serious and interesting challenge to Hillary Clinton. However, it is looking more and more like Democrats have decided to clear the field for Hillary in 2016. Last month, Sen....

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returned to the Sunday shows almost exactly one year since he lost the election to Barack Obama, only to attack the President and call his second term into question. The former Republican politician wasted no time attacking the President over his rocky Obamacare roll out during his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. "The president failed to learn the lessons that came from the experience in Massachusetts," Romney said, repeating that he thinks a state-by-state healthcare plan would work better. Romney then launched into a greater attack on the President's "you can keep your...

What’s that, Daily Beast? “How Ted Cruz Can Win in 2016″? Oh, you are still around, and still doing this sort of thing? That’s great. Let’s take the bait, I guess. Our dutiful “hot take” artist today is David Frum, the famous apostate Republican who has dedicated the last few years to building a new Republican Party that is more moderate, more rational and less dedicated to taking dead-ender stands on cultural issues. He is not, in other words, the sort of Republican Ted Cruz appeals to. Frum has devoted more words to Cruz’s savvy than to his worldview, but...

Mickey: Stay down, Stay down Rocky 1974 John Rambo: Live for nothing or Die for Something Rambo 2008 I was watching Morning Joe today and as usual the entire table was united in asserting that Ted Cruz and the Tea Party caucus was wrong to consider fighting to de-fund Obamacare highlighting a piece by Krauthammer This is about tactics. If I thought this would work, I would support it. But I don’t fancy suicide. It has a tendency to be fatal. They stressed the wisdom of Krauthammer’s assertion that the GOP should not fight. It seemed an odd assertion since...

A new Quinnipiac poll comparing potential Democratic candidates for 2016 comes to a familiar conclusion: Hillary Clinton, if she decides to run, would absolutely dominate the competition. The poll has 65 percent of potential Democratic voters picking Hillary Clinton as their presidential nominee in 2016. That's in line with multiple recent polls — including from Gallup, PPP, and PublicMind — showing Clinton as the overwhelming favorite in a Democratic primary. What's interesting about the Quinnipiac poll is that it conducted a separate survey in which Clinton was removed from the race. Which Democrats come out on top if Clinton decides...

Former Rep. Ron Paul said the law enforcement that swarmed around Boston in the days following the marathon bombings was scarier than the actual terrorist attack. “The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city,” he said on the Lew Rockwell website, Politico reported. “This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.” The terror attacks on April 15 in Boston killed three and injured 264. Mr. Paul, a former libertarian political candidate who served in Congress as...

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...

Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary and ex-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge believes the Obama White House can draw some useful lessons from Wednesday's defeat of a bill extending background checks on most firearms purchases. Ridge took a few minutes to chat Thursday about the lessons of Monday's Boston Marathon bombing, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey's rising national profile and where gun-control advocates go next after Wednesday's vote. Here's the transcript of the interview: Q: In the hours after the Boston Marathon attacks, there was a rush to judgment, both in the press and in social media, about the identity of the alleged...

Representative Steve King of Iowa, a prominent House conservative, says Congress should be cautious about rushing immigration reform, especially after Monday’s bombing in Boston, where three people were killed. “Some of the speculation that has come out is that yes, it was a foreign national and, speculating here, that it was potentially a person on a student visa,” King says. “If that’s the case, then we need to take a look at the big picture.” On immigration, King says national security should be the focus now, and any talk about a path to legalization should be put on hold. “We...

In the immediate aftermath of the multiple explosions that rocked the Copley Square area of Boston during this afternoon’s marathon, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof took to Twitter to say that the tragic events are a “reminder” of how Senate Republicans blocked the appointment of a new director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). “[E]xplosion is a reminder that ATF needs a director. Shame on Senate Republicans for blocking apptment,” he tweeted with a link to a Washington Post article on the Senate GOP’s threats to put a hold on President Obama‘s nomination for a...

Should the minimum wage be $22 an hour? That’s what Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts suggested at a recent hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Here’s her logic: If you took the minimum wage from 1960 and indexed it for workers’ gains in productivity, it would be $22 an hour today. And why shouldn’t employees reap the benefits of their own improved labor practices?, she asked at the hearing, rhetorically. Today, the actual minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. “What happened to the other $14.75? It sure didn’t go to the worker,” Senator Warren...