Free Republic

Presumptive Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell welcomed new Senators-elect to his office Wednesday morning “We're here to make the place function again and begin to make progress for the American people,” McConnell told reporters while flanked by the incoming lawmakers. When asked if he expects to move to the middle as a means of working with Obama, McConnell explained that it is the president who appears to remain stuck on the opposite pole. “The problem is the president continues to send signals that he has no intention of moving toward the middle,” he said. McConnell referenced the White House’s new...

Conservatives in the House and Senate want to stay one step ahead of President Obama, as he readies executive action to allow more illegal immigrants to stay in the country. Conservatives are calling for a series of short-term bills or continuing resolutions to fund the government, a strategy that would give Republicans more leverage to halt Obama’s policies if and when he decides to go it alone on immigration. “If the president does something that we really don’t like or approve of, we’re thinking about, how do we defund it? What levers do we have available to us ... to...

Rand Paul is the latest Republican to tell his party to open up to a wider range of views within its ranks. "The party can be big enough to allow people who don't all agree on every issue," Senator Paul told an audience in California, a state that produced three Republican presidents in the 20th century but now votes reliably Democratic. "When the Republican Party looks like the rest of America, we'll win again," he said. "It's not going to change who I am or what I talk about but I think we can be a big enough party to...

Jeb Bush interview, Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, Florida. The scene: Lunchtime at Jeb Bush's modest office just outside Miami. Just Tucker and Jeb, no one else in sight. Sandwiches. Jeb, only fifty-six, the smarter Bush boy, a good governor, with a great many people expecting that he's not yet finished, but after passing on the chance to run for Mel Martinez's Senate seat earlier this year, there's not an obvious path back to power for him. And his party is a shambles. Obama strides the globe like a colossus, Specter is days away from jumping, and Congressman Eric Cantor's sad...

BEDFORD – The Republican party needs to rebuild itself from the bottom up, said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour last night before addressing a gathering at a New Hampshire State Republican Committee reception. "You're in the White House for eight or 12 years, you become a top-down party, I don't care if these are Republicans or Democrats. When you get out, you're liberated to rebuild your party from the bottom up," he told reporters before a reception at at C.R. Sparks, which was closed to the press. Barbour assumed chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association yesterday, following South Carolina Gov. Mark...

Contrary to popular reports by Democrats and members of the chattering class, the Republican Party is not dead — not yet. In the aftermath of the 2008 elections, however, the GOP is hemorrhaging badly. It is dazed and confused. It is moribund, but it is not dead yet. Whether the Party of Lincoln will recover remains to be seen. Its prognosis is, at best, guarded. Having had their heads handed to them in the last election, and finding it difficult to take on a popular president, Republicans are casting about trying to find a new direction. But news of their...

Some Republicans seeking to "rebrand" the party are looking to Meghan McCain -- daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- as a figure who can attract younger voters, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A prolific blogger and Twitter contributor, McCain in a recent blog post described herself as a "pro-sex, 'pro-life, pro-gay-marriage Republican,'" and some experts believe she could "be at the forefront of a new GOP breed: the 'Meghan McCain Republican,'" the Chronicle reports. However, some Republicans have criticized McCain's positions as departing too far from the party's core principals, while other critics have attacked her as a political...

Whoooooo! Now we go to school. The election of Michael Steele as the new chairman of the Republican National Committee is a stimulus package for the GOP—a stimulus that will actually work. For the first time since Newt Gingrich left Congress, the Republican Party has a real leader. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t think Steele could pull it off. I figured that he would be doomed by allegations that he wasn’t really conservative enough for the position, and that a candidate like Ken Blackwell or Saul Azunis would get the gig. Thank goodness I was wrong. Yesterday, Steele...

WASHINGTON -- Though the leadership of the Republican National Committee will meet in Washington this week to elect a chairman tasked with rebuilding the floundering party, even at this late date there is no clear frontrunner for the job, according to a recent phone and email survey of the RNC's 168 members conducted by National Journal's Hotline On Call. While incumbent chairman Mike Duncan has an advantage among the six candidates hoping to lead the GOP, more members said they were undecided than supporting Duncan. And even more declined or did not respond to requests for comment. Opinions varied widely...

Back at the RGA meeting [last fall], you talked about the party needed to get beyond Ronald Reagan. What do you mean by that? The RNC chairman candidates -- all they really talk about is Reagan. TP: Well, I think I said in my state of my state, but I can also say it about my own party: we can't be so in love with the past that we miss the future. And the world is changing very rapidly, and there's a lot of technological change, demographic change, cultural change, and it's all approaching us at a very rapid speed....

Can David Frum forge a new majority? The veteran conservative pundit and former Bush speechwriter has launched NewMajority.com, a group blog intended to heal the wounds afflicting the ailing Republican Party and conservative movement. Just as I wish President Obama the best of luck in leading this country, I wish Frum the best of luck in leading the American right out of the wilderness. Frum’s “Diary” blog at National Review Online has been a must-read for the past few years and, unfortunately, a target of much unfair criticism. Frum has been smeared by the talk-radio world for allegedly being a...

"Katie Couric, you are not the center of universe!" With that, the good Governor gives her most uncensored interview of all time, in this brand new 2009 exchange. She also says this: "I would do it again!" In other words: 2012. Video here

The Reagan Coalition has been key to Republican victories for a generation. And although the issue of judges and the Supreme Court has been thought of as an issue for social conservatives, recent developments should now make it a top priority for the other major GOP constituencies. If effectively communicated, this issue may help fuel a Republican resurgence. Ever since 1980, politicos speak of the three-legged stool of the Reagan Coalition: social conservatives, economic conservatives and national security conservatives. This coalition has been the key to Republican victories for more than a quarter-century. When the coalition is mobilized by an...

Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan has officially announced his bid for a second term and is willing to consider naming a general chairman to serve as the "face of the party," he told The Washington Times on Wednesday. Since the Bush White House backed his first election as chairman in January 2007, Mr. Duncan´s lack of dazzle as a public speaker and national spokesman has left him largely invisible as the face of the party. It is widely considered his only significant failing during his two-year term as national chairman. "I would consider having a general chairman...

Gov. Mark Sanford has become one of the most visible Republicans in the wake of November election losses, urging the GOP to remember its roots and speaking against further federal bailouts. In the past month, Sanford has been elected chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association and become a major voice countering President-elect Barack Obama and his proposal to assist states facing budget deficits. Sanford has written opinion pieces for The Wall Street Journal, CNN and Politico, and made the rounds on cable news shows. He has been designated a Republican to watch, prompting speculation that Sanford is preparing for a...

If there is one thing this year's Presidential election brought to light, it is that Republicans clearly need a new message. Democrats were able to control the salient issues of the campaign, largely because the actions of national Republicans allowed them to do so. The economy was the overwhelming issue on the minds of voters. Democrats were able to define the meaning of this issue based primarily on the extreme increases in federal spending under Republican control, combined with a severe downturn in the economy. Once it was clear that the economy was going to be the deciding factor in...

Politics: The election of a Republican as the first-ever Vietnamese-American congressman is not an "odd news" item. Joseph Cao represents the future of the GOP — if it wants success.The latest Republican standard-bearer was a Navy pilot who was tortured as a POW in North Vietnam. How ironic that in the wake of John McCain's loss, the most exciting victory for Republicans is that of one of the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese boat people who fled their country's communist regime. Anh "Joseph" Quang Cao over the weekend won Louisiana's gerrymandered 2nd Congressional District over Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who...

In a shocker, there will be a GOP Rep. in New Orleans. In a surprising twist, GOPers won a sweep in LA tonight in two general elections, picking up embattled Rep. Bill Jefferson's (D-LA 02) seat in New Orleans, and holding retiring Rep. Jim McCrery's (R) seat in the Shreveport-based Fourth District. But the surprise of the night, and possibly the cycle, was in the Big Easy. Atty Ahn “Joseph” Cao (R) defeated Jefferson 50-47%. Dems outnumber GOPers here 6-1, and African Americans make up 61% of the vote. But the NRCC must've had an inkling that something was up...

LA-2 , Orleans, Jefferson Parish: In a huge upset win, little known Republican attorney Anh "Joseph" Cao beat nine term and criminally indicted William Jefferson(D). Jefferson had been expected to easily win. Cao becomes the first Vietnamese member of U.S. Congress. LA-4, Shreveport-Bossier City, Sabine Parish, et. al., Western LA, TX/AR border: Republican Dr. John Fleming wins. Fleming was trailing by about 3% early in the election results but came on strong in the end to beat Carmouche(D) by 356 votes. Carmouche has not conceded election – recount probably pending. With these results, the 111th U.S. House of Representatives...

Fresh off a US presidential election defeat and further losses in Congress, the Republican Party launched a new website on Tuesday asking members for their ideas on its future. "We are a party of principles and must regain our voice," Republican National Committee chairman Robert Duncan said in a statement announcing the creation of the website, RepublicanForAReason.com. "We need to hear what our volunteers, activists, elected leaders, and party members think about the Republican Party as we rebuild, re-focus, and renew our bond with the American people," Duncan added. The statement said the new website provides a venue for party...