Free Republic

Former Republican National Committee chairman — and the man who reportedly advised President Bush in early 2001 not to regulate carbon dioxide — has switched sides and is now being paid to lobby for greenhouse gas regulation on behalf of the eco-activist group Environmental Defense. According to Greenwire’s John Fialka (Feb. 21), ED board member and hedge fund tycoon Julian Robertson is putting up the cash to hire DC lobbying powerhouse Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Ken Mehlman and former Democratic congressman Vic Fazio will lead Akin Gump’s efforts. "Their first mission is to find the right political formula...

Miami, FL – RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman addressed the Republican Governors Association this morning in Miami, Florida. The following is a transcript of his remarks as prepared for delivery. ************ Thank you, Governor Romney, for that kind introduction. And thank you all for inviting me here today to talk with you about the last month … and more importantly, about the next two years. Let me start by talking a little bit about November 7, and what it means for our party. Obviously, no one in this room is pleased with the election results. We knew going into 2006 that...

DORAL, Fla. -- The sting of Republican electoral defeats still fresh, the GOP chairman suggested Thursday the party has strayed and challenged it to refocus on core principles and reform. "We work for the people," Ken Mehlman, the outgoing chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a speech to a meeting of GOP governors. He reminded the crowd that "good policy makes good politics -- and, for Republicans, this must be a time for self-examination when it comes to our policy." [Snip] "Our nation is stronger and better when Republicans are the party running the government. But, ladies and...

The sting of Republican electoral defeats still fresh, the GOP chairman suggested Thursday the party has strayed and challenged it to refocus on core principles and reform. "We work for the people," Ken Mehlman, the outgoing chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a speech to a meeting of GOP governors. He reminded the crowd that "good policy makes good politics — and, for Republicans, this must be a time for self-examination when it comes to our policy." In a disastrous midterm election year for the GOP, Republican candidates lost races across the country and at all levels of...

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose party just lost both chambers of Congress, will leave his position in January, and the post as party chief has been offered to Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele. "It is true," Mr. Mehlman told The Washington Times when asked about reports last night that he would resign. "It's something I decided over the summer. No one told me I needed to. In fact, folks wanted me to stay." Mr. Mehlman said he "told the White House over the summer it was my decision" to leave the RNC post, "win, lose or draw."...

“Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose party just lost both chambers of Congress, will leave his position in January, and the post as party chief has been offered to Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele."

WASHINGTON (AP) GOP officials say Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman will step down from his post in January.

As a Conservative, I want to know why the hell hasn't the ineffective Republican National Comittee Chair Ken Mehlman not resigned from his position following the loses in the House and Senate. It was Mehlman job to find and craft the message of the party and find good quality Conservative candidate, but Mehlman used his time trying to get along and apply to liberals and their fringe groups and not the base of our party, So it is time to throw Mehlman under the bus and move on. I believe that our party needs a younger Chairman 30-50 years old...

I was just watching Fox News. Carl Cameron mentioned that Ken Mehlman will most likely step down as RNC Chair this January. Among potential replacements, he mentioned Bill Owen (Governor of Colorado) and Michael Steele (Lt. Governor and 2006 Senate nominee from Maryland). At first glance, I really like the idea of Steele leading the party. He has both elected and party experience. Your thoughts?

  To: Republican Activists and Interested Parties From: Ken Mehlman, RNC Chairman Date: October 20, 2006 Re: Republican Motivation New Ad: The Stakes Watch the RNC's new ad , which underscores the high stakes America faces in the global War on Terror by using the words of the terrorists themselves as they describe their intention towards the United States. In recent days and weeks, the mainstream media have repeatedly claimed that the Republican base is suffering from "low voter enthusiasm."  It is easy to believe a story that is repeated so frequently, but in fact there is ample evidence...

With just 20 days left until the election, more big names are getting behind candidates hoping to replace disgraced congressman Mark Foley. On Wednesday, it was Republican National Committee Chariman Ken Mehlman visiting Punta Gorda to campaign for Joe Negron. Republicans claim Foley's scandal is not the reason the party's heavy hitters are in the area. RNC chairman, Ken Mehlman, says he only makes visits to political races where he feels the candidate has a strong chance to win. The Republican party is using all the money, resources, and powerful faces it can to secure Negron a seat in congress,...

Stay the course. Don't change horses in midstream. Let them finish the job they've started. It's always darkest just before dawn. Or maybe, less pithily but more positively, this: On second thought, look around your hometown, because life may be going better than you realized. Republicans trying desperately to hold their congressional majorities still lack a simple message that resonates with voters who usually or at least often lean right, but who this year are disaffected. They need something like (but better than) one of the examples above, something that gets voters to say, "Okay, dammit, I may not be...

On new polls suggesting that the Republicans could be, in the words of some analysts, in free fallLet me first say I do think that we are in a very challenging environment. I think that the situation with [Rep. Mark] Foley has made it even more challenging, but ... I have not seen a significant impact in most of the races around the country and I certainly haven't seen a free fall. The three issues that I think we're dealing with [in the polls]: first of all is the partisanship of the electorate. In the last 25 years, the electorate...

Whew and Google paid $1.6 billion for this? Link. And also notice the YouTube hypocrisy. This video has not been censored as the pro-Republican one has. YouTube censors anti-dem Scary Movie commercial

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman earned his spurs as a campaign general under the tutelage of Karl Rove, the longtime political adviser to President Bush. He has never lacked for assertiveness or confidence. So despite daunting problems that threaten the Republicans’ continued majority of the House and the Senate — including numerous polls showing that most voters have soured on Bush and Congress — Mehlman told a press breakfast Friday that a GOP victory on Nov. 7 was well in hand. Mehlman, at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, said the Republican Party began strategizing and raising...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans on Tuesday distanced themselves from campaign activities that encourage college students to "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" and shoot cardboard cutouts of leading Democrats with a BB gun or paintball gun. Democratic Chairman Howard Dean said in a letter to his Republican counterpart, Ken Mehlman, on Tuesday that such activities, reportedly put together by a GOP college organizer, "can only be described as divisive, potentially dangerous and discriminatory." The Republican National Committee said it had no connection with Morgan Wilkins, the woman accused of organizing the offbeat campaign activities at the University of Michigan. RNC spokesman Brian...

DNC: Dean Sends Mehlman Letter on RNC Funded Discriminatory and Un-American Campaign Activities1 hour, 16 minutes ago To: National Desk Contact: Stacie Paxton or Luis Miranda, 202-863-8148, both of the DNC Press Office WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean sent a letter to Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman today calling on him to stop RNC-funded campaign activities that promote discrimination and endorse violence against political opponents. The letter was sent after a Michigan newspaper revealed that an RNC-funded organizer in Michigan is coordinating "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" and "Fun With Guns" events at...

WASHINGTON -- If congressional elections were held today, Republicans would hold their majority in the House and Senate, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said in an interview. Mehlman bases that conclusion on a recent meeting with his regional political directors, on private polling, and on analyses of individual races. Mehlman conceded that the House is in a "competitive situation." In the House, 35 to 40 seats are in play, he said. In the Senate, 12 or 13 seats could change hands. To tilt the balance, Democrats would have to pick up six seats in the Senate and 15 seats...

Weekend Talk Show Preview - Analysis for August 12th and 13th, 2006On the shows this weekend I'm most interested by Vali Nasr, on CNN, and Ken Mehlman, on Meet The Press.  I think we'll learn more about the events in the Middle East from Nasr and more about the coming campaign from Mehlman than all of the other guests, combined.  Nasr is an expert, from Iran, on the issues of conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.  I actually view this as our best hope of winning the coming world war.  Just as Communists and Nazis joined forces to start World...

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- The head of the Republican Party accused Democrats of being willing to surrender the tools necessary to combat terrorism as the GOP tries to capitalize on its national security advantage in a tough election year. Faced with President Bush's low approval ratings and diminishing support for the Iraq war, the Republican strategy is to make the war on terrorism a central campaign issue and argue that Democrats hold a pre-Sept. 11 view of the world. Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, stressed that argument in a speech Friday at the organization's two-day summer meeting,...

The head of the Republican Party accused Democrats of being willing to surrender the tools necessary to combat terrorism as the GOP tries to capitalize on its national security advantage in a tough election year. Faced with President Bush's low approval ratings and diminishing support for the Iraq war, the Republican strategy is to make the war on terrorism a central campaign issue and argue that Democrats hold a pre-Sept. 11 view of the world. Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, stressed that argument in a speech Friday at the organization's two-day summer meeting, similar to points...

With a bitter US mid-term election just five months away, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman decided this week to visit a place where his party's main attraction - US President George W. Bush - is very popular: Israel. While Bush may be facing disapproval ratings of historic proportions at home, it's safe to say that were popularity polls conducted in Israel, Bush would do marvelously well. Israelis are fond of Bush. Just ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose public comments in Washington last week were punctuated with high praise for the US president, his Mideast policies and his war...

Republican National Chairman Kenneth Mehlman went to Capitol Hill last Tuesday to warn the party's House and Senate campaign staffers of dire consequences unless Republicans break the current legislative deadlock. Mehlman stressed the necessity to pass a budget resolution and an immigration reform bill, dealing with two issues that seriously concern the Republican base. Word circulated around Capitol Hill that Mehlman warned 45 seats could be lost in the House on Nov. 7. He told me that he did not mention that figure and, in fact, believes Republicans would retain control of the House if elections were held today. High-level...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Trying to bridge a growing chasm in his party over immigration reform, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said Thursday the nation needs both a temporary worker program and consequences for illegal aliens. Opening the party's annual meeting of state chairmen in this conservative bastion, Mehlman borrowed a page from President Reagan, saying the party must practice "the politics of 'and,'" meaning people on both sides of the debate have to come together to accomplish reform. "There has been a lot of rhetoric about this issue over the last few months, but in my opinion, not...

Inside The RNC's Union Outreach RNC chair Ken Mehlman and other top GOP officials used recent meetings with organized labor to urge them to give to GOPers in key '06 races, bolster or begin contributions to the nat'l party cmtes and cease donations to 527s, according to multiple union sources.

The head of the Democratic Party said Wednesday that unchecked U.S. reliance on foreign oil helps fund terrorists and the nation must address its energy needs in a way that creates jobs. Howard Dean, in a speech to the American Jewish Committee, said new industries should emerge to develop alternative fuel sources. The other option, he said, is continued support of Islamic schools that teach hatred of the United States and Israel. "We are committed to ending our standing while our oil money (provides) indirect funding of fundamentalist Islamic schools all over the world," he said. Dean took a swipe...

Howard Dean, in a speech to the American Jewish Committee... took a swipe at the Republican Party, saying the Democratic Party is one of inclusion and religious freedom. "I was recently asked about the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties," Dean said. "When it comes right down to it, the essential difference is that the Democrats fundamentally believe it is important to make sure that American Jews feel comfortable being American Jews." Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who is Jewish, addressed the group on Tuesday. The head of the Democratic Party said Wednesday that unchecked U.S. reliance on...

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman met with Republican members of Congress this week to impress upon them just how bad the opinion polls are looking for them, and warning that they face a possible catastrophe in November. This warning contributed to GOP determination to pass a tax reconciliation bill that will extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts beyond their current expiration dates at the end of the decade. On Tuesday, Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) were supposed to meet with President Bush in the Oval office to discuss the tax...

The head of the US Republican Party said Tuesday that Iran's nuclear program threatens Israel, the Jewish people and the United States, and "we must confront an evil ideology head on." Ken Mehlman, in a speech to the American Jewish Committee's annual meeting, invoked the anti-Semitism of recent history in focusing on Iran, lauded the progress in Iraq and addressed pre-emptive military action. "Just as we did during the 20th century, we must confront an evil ideology head on," Mehlman said. "And just as we did, we will prevail." In Tehran, a Revolutionary Guards commander said Israel would be Iran's...

Thank you, Senator, for that kind introduction. [Senator Lamar Alexander] And thank you for hosting us here in Tennessee. This is a great place to hold this conference … and not least because of the leadership that you and Senator Frist have shown over the years. With Senator Frist retiring this year, there are some big shoes to fill. And I look forward to working together to make sure those shoes are filled by another strong, principled Republican. Since the beginning of political parties in this country, party chairmen have had a simple job at events like this: Come and...

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman yesterday told an election-year gathering of party faithful that Democrats want to retreat from the war on terror, raise taxes and appoint judges to legislate liberally from the bench.

THE most effective at tacks in politics are those that stop your opponent from campaigning in his or her usual style. When Democrats called Richard Nixon "negative" in the runup to the 1960 presidential, it made it much more difficult for him to wage the type of slash-and-burn campaign that had animated his past races. When Republicans called Bill Clinton a "flip-flopper" during his first term, it made it harder for him to reach out to all constituencies and reach across ideological barriers as he instinctually always wanted to do. Now, Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee,...

RNC chief slams Democrats By Bill Sammon THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published February 11, 2006 Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman yesterday ridiculed Democrats and the "mainstream media," but said Republicans must embrace reform in order to win the 2006 elections.     "One of the oldest lessons in history is that power corrupts," Mr. Mehlman warned in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.     "And if we are to learn from that particular lesson of history, then we must take a stand, right here, right now, against corruption," he added. "We must remember that public service is a sacred...

WASHINGTON - Republican national chairman Ken Mehlman on Friday outlined a political strategy for 2006 to portray Democrats as too weak to protect the country and to bypass the mainstream media to spread the GOP message. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mehlman roused the crowd at a Washington hotel to cheers as he told them President Bush had finally responded to decades of terrorist attacks. "For a generation, terrorists learned they could make war on free nations without fear of war in return," Mehlman said, adding that Bush understood how to respond. "On Sept. 12, the terrorists got...

Under Howard Dean's leadership last year, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) raised about $50 million less than the Republican National Committee (RNC). And the DNC spent every dime (and then some) that it did raise last year. Mr. Dean and the DNC entered the 2006 election year with less than $6 million in cash on hand. Indeed, the DNC had less money in the bank at the beginning of 2006 than it had on Jan. 1, 2005, just several weeks before Mr. Dean arrived. Meanwhile, with $34 million in cash on hand at the beginning of 2006, the RNC had...

NEW YORK - The Republican national chairman created a furor this week when he suggested Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is too "angry" to win the White House in 2008. And to hear Republicans tell it, Clinton is just one of many Democrats with an anger management problem. snip In recent months, GOP operatives and officeholders have cast the Democrats as the anger party, long on emotion and short on ideas. Analysts say the strategy has been effective, trivializing Democrats' differences with the GOP as temperamental rather than substantive. "Angry people are not nice people. They are people to stay away...

What do women really want? I thought feminists wanted to be treated as equals. No kid gloves, door holding, placement on a pedestal for them! But when RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman took a rather timid poke at Hillary Clinton, a leading feminist scolded him for being "ungentlemanly"! Feminist Naomi Wolf, she of the $15,000/month contract with Al Gore to advise him on which Birkenstocks to wear, just completed an interview on Fox News. The topic were these comments made by Mehlman yesterday on ABC's 'This Week.' "I don't think the American people, if you look historically, elect angry candidates. Whether...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 — The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman, offered a broad attack on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York on Sunday, describing her as a Democrat brimming with anger and a representative of the far left wing of her party. Mr. Mehlman disputed the suggestion that Mrs. Clinton, a former first lady, had moved to the center of her party. And while he declined to say, in response to a question, if he thought Mrs. Clinton would be the Republicans' "dream candidate or the Democrat you most dread," he left little doubt that Republicans...

Republican Party Chairman Lashes Out At Clinton Says Democratic Senator Not A Good Fit For White House (AP) WASHINGTON Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a potential presidential contender in 2008, "seems to have a lot of anger" and voters usually do not send angry candidates to the White House, the Republican Party chairman said Sunday. "When you think of the level of anger, I'm not sure it's what Americans want," said Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican National Committee. Mehlman cited the New York senator's remarks on Martin Luther King Day in which she called the Bush administration "one of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a potential presidential contender in 2008, "seems to have a lot of anger" and voters usually do not send angry candidates to the White House, the Republican Party chairman said Sunday. "When you think of the level of anger, I'm not sure it's what Americans want," said Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican National Committee. Mehlman cited the New York senator's remarks on Martin Luther King Day in which she called the Bush administration "one of the worst" in history and compared the Republican-controlled House to a plantation where opposing voices are...

The Talk Shows Sunday, February 5th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Gen. Michael Hayden, the principal deputy director of national intelligence; House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Boehner; Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. THIS WEEK (ABC): Gen. Michael Hayden; Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.; Afghan President Hamid Karzai; former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi; Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi ambassador to...

Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614Washington, DC - RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman issued the following statement on the election of Congressman John Boehner of Ohio as Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.“Congratulations to Congressman Boehner on his election as Majority Leader. This is a good decision for the future of the House and the Republican agenda in Congress. Congressman Boehner is a proven leader with a steadfast commitment to the Republican Party, and President Bush’s conservative agenda. I look forward to working with him to enact a positive agenda and protect our majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.“This process...

Join us for live coverage of speeches from the GOP winter meeting..by Chairman Ken Mehlman &, he's BAAAACK..Karl Rove.....and comment away

WASHINGTON - The head of the Republican Party says GOP lawmakers who are guilty of wrongdoing in Washington scandals should expect to be punished whatever their political affiliation. “The public trust is more important than party,” said Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman. “Which is why the first solution to the problem is rooting out those who have done wrong, without regard to party or ideology.” Mehlman’s comments were in a speech that he planned to deliver Friday to the annual winter meeting of the Republican National Committee. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the speech. “As Republican...

This weekend, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) announced that he would not seek to regain his post as Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. DeLay was forced to step down temporarily from his leadership position because he is currently under indictment by Texas Democrat District Attorney Ronnie Earle. DeLay has not been convicted of anything, but the rules for the Republican Caucus in the House are different from those of the Democrats, and the mere indictment is sufficient for a Republican member to step aside from a leadership role. Unfortunately for DeLay, the Republican Party has once again shown...

John Kerry has provided a lifetime of evidence that he believes American soldiers are enemy and that they commit unspeakable horrors on a regular basis. KERRY on Face the Nation Sunday: I don't agree with that. But I think what we need to do is recognize what we all agree on, which is, you've got to begin to set benchmarks for accomplishment; you've got to begin to transfer authority to the Iraqis, and there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children,...

WASHINGTON – Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, never known to mince words, today told a San Antonio radio station the U.S. cannot win the war in Iraq. The "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Dean predicted on WOIA.

Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614Chairman Responds To Yesterday’s Iraq Comments By Howard Dean Washington, DC – The following are excerpts from a radio interview by RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman on WOAI-AM, San Antonio.  Chairman Mehlman responded to yesterday’s comments on the same station by DNC Chairman Howard Dean. Host:  “Now I’m sure that you’re aware by now because it’s been everywhere, that we had an interview yesterday with Howard Dean, the, your counterpart over there at the Democratic National Committee, and he said some things that are lightning rod stuff.  Some would call them even more than that.  Without getting too graphic...

Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614 “In predicting that America will lose the war in Iraq, Howard Dean is the latest national Democrat leader to embrace retreat and defeat in the central front in the War on Terror.  His outrageous prediction sends the wrong message to our troops, the enemy, and the Iraqi people just 10 days before historic elections.  Democrats across the nation should stand up and reject the pessimism of their chairman and strategy of defeat by their Congressional leaders.” -Ken Mehlman, RNC Chairman DNC Chair Howard Dean Said We Can’t Win In Iraq:Dean: “[The] Idea That We’re Going To Win...

Contact: Press Office 202-863-8614 WASHINGTON –RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman issued the following statement on Senator Schumer’s political attacks on Supreme Court nominee, Judge Samuel Alito. “Chuck Schumer may sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee but he is first and foremost the Democrats' campaigner in chief as evidenced by his latest string of absurd attacks on Judge Alito. What's truly stunning is Schumer's transparent attempt to rally the flagging far-left and raise campaign cash by grossly misstating Judge Alito's record and lamely predicting how the judge will rule on cases in the future. The Supreme Court nomination process should be above...