Free Republic

To the Leaders of the Republican National Committee and the Members of the State Legislature in the state of_________________: We, the undersigned registered members of the Republican Party in the state of ____________________, hereby protest and reject the current and ongoing results of the 2008 Republican presidential primary selection process on the grounds that the incongruous methods, rules, and provisions set forth by the individual and various state Republican National Committee Leaders, and the members of the various State Legislatures, have failed to provide the members of the Republican Party across the nation with an effective primary election process, thwarted...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A Democratic-leaning group financed by a major labor union and wealthy liberal activists is running ads against Sen. John McCain in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the beginning of a media campaign against the GOP nominee-in-waiting. Called "McSame," the ad portrays McCain and President Bush as interchangeable on key issues such as Iraq, tax cuts and health care. The ad is the work of the Campaign to Defend America, a nonprofit organization that is among anti-war and left-of-center groups that have pledged a multimillion-dollar effort to target McCain and congressional Republicans on the consequences of the Iraq war on...

President George Bush today signed an executive order granting ‘amnesty’ to foreign-born Sen. John McCain, allowing the presumptive Republican nominee to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a president be a “natural born citizen.” John Sidney McCain III was born in the Panama Canal zone when his Naval officer father was stationed there in 1936. The Supreme Court has never definitively interpreted the phrase “natural born”, but no person known to be born outside U.S. borders has ever been elected president. Under President Bush’s order, Sen. McCain would be granted an immediate ‘P visa’ allowing him to remain in the U.S.,...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former President George H.W. Bush urged disgruntled conservatives on Monday to rally around John McCain, calling their criticism of the Republican presidential front-runner "grossly unfair." The father of President George W. Bush said he was annoyed by attacks within the conservative wing of the Republican Party against the Arizona senator, the all-but-certain Republican nominee to face Democrats in November election. Many conservatives distrust McCain because of his moderate views on illegal immigration and campaign finance reform and for having originally voted against President Bush's tax cuts. Persuading them all to vote for McCain in November will be...

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez will endorse John McCain on Friday, The Associated Press has learned, a move likely to give the Republican presidential candidate a crucial boost with the state's Cuban-Americans just days before the primary. The decision is a blow to Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor in a close fight with McCain for support of voters in the Cuban-American community _ and to keep his candidacy alive. Two Republican officials disclosed the upcoming endorsement on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the announcement. As recently as Thursday night, Martinez indicated he would remain neutral in the...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush pledged Sunday to assist Sen. John McCain's campaign for the presidency assuming he wins the Republican Party nomination -- but acknowledged that the Arizona senator has "got some convincing to do" among the party's conservatives. In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" at his retreat at Camp David, Md., Bush was careful to note that two Republicans are still competing for the nomination, and he did not express a preference. But Bush made clear that he was willing to set aside the tensions he has had with McCain in the past, and he praised the front-runner...

McCain a 'True Conservative,' Bush Says Feb 10 09:36 AM US/Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain is a "true conservative," President Bush says, although the presumptive Republican presidential nominee may have to work harder to convince other conservatives that he is one of their own. McCain "is very strong on national defense," Bush said in an interview taped for airing on "Fox News Sunday." "He is tough fiscally. He believes the tax cuts ought to be permanent. He is pro-life. His principles are sound and solid as far as I'm concerned." But when asked about criticism of McCain by conservative...

Bush Signals Support for McCain By Peter Baker President Bush plans to give an implicit endorsement of onetime rival John McCain's conservative bona fides tomorrow as the Arizona senator seeks to consolidate the party behind his candidacy. In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in the morning, Bush plans to say that the nominee of the party will be a strong conservative, according to excerpts released by the White House tonight.

By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 8, 2008; 12:58 PM With the race to succeed him reaching a critical juncture, President Bush this morning began rallying the Republican base around its presumptive nominee, John McCain, and in the process tried to define his own legacy for the general election campaign to come. In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Bush offered an implicit endorsement of McCain's bona fides as a true conservative in the face of deep skepticism on the right. Although he did not mention McCain by name, the president said whoever...

Two years ago, Republicans fought over immigration and hemorrhaged Hispanic voters. Now they are poised to nominate the one man who can rebuild the Hispanic voter coalition that pushed President Bush twice to victory, the architects of that coalition say. "I think the only candidate that Republicans have running for president who could retain those votes is in fact Senator McCain," said the Rev. Luis Cortes Jr., president of Esperanza USA, founder of the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and a key player in helping Mr. Bush connect with Hispanic voters during his two runs for office. Democrats have traditionally enjoyed...

WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain faces a dilemma on immigration as he works to persuade conservatives he's tough enough on the issue without erasing his historic appeal to Hispanic voters. Once a crusader for offering the nation's roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants a way to get legal status, McCain now says his first priority is fortifying U.S. borders. The metamorphosis reflects McCain's intensifying effort to consolidate his support among conservatives, who deride the Arizona senator's past proposals on immigration as offering amnesty to lawbreakers, and bitterly resent his work with Democrats, including Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, on the issue....