Free Republic

Say what you will about Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), but they know a train wreck when they see it. They also know when to separate themselves from the cranks and the losers on the right. Although both supported the shutdown and were heartily supported by tea party groups in their own Senate races, neither one has endorsed Matt Bevin in Kentucky, Milton Wolf in Kansas or Chris McDaniel in Mississippi. In fact, Cruz’s office confirms he hasn’t endorsed anyone in the primaries. There are a few important lessons here. First, neither one of these guys wants...

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell now has an endorsement to go with his gun. The National Rifle Association's political action committee announced Friday it has endorsed McConnell in the May 20 Republican primary. McConnell made headlines last month when he appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference waving a rifle over his head. The rifle was a lifetime achievement award McConnell presented to U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. In a news release, NRA Political Victory Fund chairman Chris Cox called McConnell a true champion of the Second Amendment. Likely Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes mocked McConnell, saying he was holding...

So what does the Tea Party want this fall? A repeat of 2010, or a repeat of 2012? The Tea Party succeeded spectacularly in 2010. Its principled enthusiasm put Republicans back in charge of the House of Representatives and, if the Tea Party hadn't been so stupid in several races, it should have given the GOP control of the Senate. In 2010 Tea Party favorites Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Mike Lee won primaries and went on to win senate seats in Florida, Kentucky and Utah. But the Tea Party also won several other Republican primaries with candidates that turned...

Tuesday, April 08, 2014 Poll Watch: PPP (D) Kentucky 2014 Senatorial Survey PPP (D) Kentucky 2014 Senate Poll Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) 45% {44%} [42%] (45%) {45%} [45%] (41%) Mitch McConnell (R) 44% {45%} [43%] (43%) {44%} [45%] (45%) Among Men Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) 46% {41%} [42%] (39%) [44%] (38%) Mitch McConnell (R) 45% {49%} [47%] (49%) [49%] (49%) Among Women Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) 43% {46%} [41%] (51%) [46%] (44%)Mitch McConnell (R) 43% {41%} [40%] (38%) [41%] (41%) Survey of 663 Kentucky voters was conducted April 1-2, 2014.  Party ID: 54% {52%} [52%] (53%) [50%] (51%) Democrat;...

The Great One, Mark Levin, endorses Matt Bevin, primary candidate running against Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, for Kentucky U.S. Senate. Enough of the status quo and politicians who claim to be Tea Party leaders who continue selling us out. I’ve published clips and rants about Rand Paul ad nauseaum. I am not here to disparage him, but to show the implications of what his half-hearted, “soft” and veiled support of the Tea Party will mean for us nationally. If it was good for Rubio, it’s good for him. Why should he be exempt from criticism? He’s just as devious,...

Conservative television personality Glenn Beck on Saturday offered Tea Party supporters an unsavory comparison between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and President Obama. "Mitch McConnell is as big of a danger to our country as Barack Obama is," Beck said during FreePAC Kentucky, a conservative event that promoted two Tea Party challengers over their Republican incumbents in the Senate. McConnell, a five-term Senator, is facing a challenge in the November elections from Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin, who was also speaking at the event. Speaking to McConnell supporters, Beck offered a grave prediction: "You're guy's going out of business very...

April 2, 2014 After attending pro-cockfighting rally, Senate candidate Matt Bevin says it's a state issue BY SAM YOUNGMAN Matt Bevin, left, is challenging incumbent Mitch McConnell in therace to be the GOP's nominee in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Matt Bevin believes the legality of cockfighting should be decided by states and not the federal government, his spokeswoman said Wednesday following a news report that Bevin attended a pro-cockfighting rally over the weekend."Matt doesn't believe this is a federal issue, and the state government can handle it," said Rachel Semmel, Bevin's spokeswoman.The News Journal in Corbin...

QUOTE FROM HOST: "Tonight I had the honor of co-hosting a conference call with Matt Bevin, candidate for US Senate in Kentucky running against Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in their May 20th Primary. For more information about Matt Bevin, visit www.BevinBrigade.com, follow @MattBevin on Twitter and SHARE this conference call with your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. To learn more about the desperate tactics on which Mitch McConnell's campaign have spent millions, visit www.MudSlingingMitch.com."

March 30, 2014 Why is Mitch McConnell smiling? Jazz Shaw Jennifer Rubin awards the Distinguished Pol of the Week trophy to… Mitch McConnell. No one has been more vilified by the D.C.-based far-right machine than Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). If you didn’t know better, you’d think outfits like Heritage Action, FreedomWorks, Madison Project, Senate Conservatives Fund and these groups’ top cheerleader in the blogosphere, Red State, were working for the “Keep Harry Reid Majority Leader” fund. McConnell has been attacked for opposition to the shutdown, for agreement on a budget deal and for supporting items like the farm bill. Yet...

The conservative group Club for Growth has changed gears and is supporting establishment GOP candidates in primaries. Launched a decade before the tea party made life difficult for moderate Republicans, the club quickly rose to the political forefront while supporting challengers to incumbent Republicans who it felt were not conservative enough, according to the National Journal. In 2012, the fiscally conservative organization backed tea party candidate Richard Mourdock’s challenge to Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar and vilified veteran Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch for his voting record. The group also targeted 10 moderate House Republicans. But the political action committee has suddenly...

A duo of conservative candidates will descend on Kentucky to appear with Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) challenger, Matt Bevin, just two months out from his primary. Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel, Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-Miss.) primary challenger, and California Republican House candidate Igor Birman, running for Rep. Ami Bera’s (D) seat, will both appear at FreePAC Kentucky, a conservative event FreedomWorks is hosting in Louisville on April 5. The group has endorsed all three candidates. Glenn Beck and FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe will also appear at the event. According to a release, it will bring together grassroots activists from across...

Mississippi Senate candidate Chris McDaniel is heading to Kentucky to lend his support to fellow insurgent GOP primary challenger Matt Bevin -- or so it would appear. McDaniel, a state senator, is hoping to oust Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi's June 3 Republican primary. But on April 5, McDaniel plans to take a brief detour from the campaign trail in the Magnolia State and travel to Louisville, Ky., to speak at “FreePAC Kentucky.” The event, sponsored by FreedomWorks, is a political rally being staged to boost Bevin, the wealthy businessman running against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky's May...

A top campaign advisor to Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, scoffed at the notion McConnell is "invincible" in a new memo set to be released Friday.... after The New York Times published a lengthy analysis of the unprecedented nature of a potential McConnell loss. The memo delves into the details of why the Grimes campaign believes McConnell is more vulnerable than ever. First, McConnell is devoting precious time and energy to a challenge from the right in Republican Matt Bevin, with the primary on May 20. Hurst also argues Grimes has...

The challenger in the Republican primary for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is confident in his campaign and feels like he would win if the election was held now. Bevin, however, is calling on those voters who he believes will choose him in May, to demand a debate with McConnell. A cardboard cutout of McConnell stood with Bevin, as he said McConnell is dodging his own voting record, the people of Kentucky, the media and Bevin. Bevin said he has agreed to at least four debates or forums with McConnell, including one in April on public television. The McConnell campaign...

The Tea Party Patriots’ super PAC endorsed Matt Bevin Friday in his race against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky GOP primary. Jenny Beth Martin, president of Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, said that Mr. Bevin, a Louisville businessman, is a “job creator, family man, and community leader committed to fighting for personal freedom, economic freedom and a debt-free future.” “Unlike the incumbent, Matt Bevin has never voted to raise the debt ceiling, has never cut a deal with Joe Biden to raise taxes by $600 billion, and has never worked to ‘crush’ his political opponents,” Ms. Martin...

You know you’re running with the conservative pack when you choose to bash the TEA Party in the New York Times. And you’re prepared to do anything in your power — with all the party machinery at your disposal — to make sure you hold on to your seat at the trough. Because if you ever did, you’ve long since stopped worrying about the wishes of the electorate, trading that in for tricks on how to manage their expectations, fluff your own voting record through procedural gambits, and both personal and crony wealth gathering. So. Though I was out there...

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell walked onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week holding a flintlock musket over his head has seemed to give ammunition to Democrats and McConnell’s Republican primary foe. Both U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, Kentucky’s lone Democratic Congressman, and GOP U.S. Senate challenger Matt Bevin have sought to declare the moment a gaffe. Calling McConnell’s entrance “pathetic,” Yarmuth tried to add a political and historical interpretation of the moment. “If you had a caption that you would run under that picture it would just say desperation,” Yarmuth said of McConnell. “He understandably feels like...

The familiar Washington narrative on the scrum for the U.S. Senate has been rinsed, recycled and delivered once again: Republicans are primed to pick up the six seats necessary to capture control of the upper chamber. The midterm atmosphere sure looks ripe, the polling appears favorable but, as it did in 2010 and 2012, the most competitive batch of races will likely come down to candidate quality. It’s the key component that stifled GOP chances before, and could very well again. .... .... A closer look at the most competitive contests demonstrates why a Senate majority in 2014 is again...

Few political figures have more good will built up with the Tea Party than Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). He ascended to power by taking on the GOP establishment, has a conservative voting record, and has electrified the Senate with his drone filibuster and other stands. But activists working to elect Matt Bevin and watching Paul's strong support of Sen. Mitch McConnell in the primary campaign raging in Kentucky are sending a message that they're done standing by quietly while Paul works to elect their foe. "Conservatives still like Rand Paul, but they're disappointed that he's supporting Mitch McConnell. It goes...

There’s a good chance you’re somewhere between dismayed and disgusted by the guileless, spineless cravens at the helm of our Grand Old Party. And for good reason. They’ve aided and abetted America’s bankruptcy. They’ve spent the tax revenue yet to be collected from your grandchildren. They complained publicly about the Affordable Care Act, but, procedurally, they’ve helped implement Obamacare. Most recently, our Republican leadership abandoned their duty to mind the federal purse strings. Now, President Obama can raise the debt ceiling at will. But as reckless, deficient and madcap as Republican leadership has been up to this point, all of...