Free Republic

The disastrous 2012 election and embarrassing fiscal cliff standoff has brought forth one principal conclusion from establishment Republicans: They have a primary problem. The intra-party contests, or threat thereof, have become the original sin that explains many of the party’s woes in the minds of GOP leaders. It’s the primaries that push their presidential nominees far to the right (see “self-deportation” and “47 percent”); produce lackluster Senate candidates (Todd Akin has almost become a one-word shorthand); and, as seen most vividly in the last two weeks, dissuade scores of gerrymandered House members from face-saving compromise while politically emasculating their speaker....

By a vote of 89 to 8 to approve a fiscal deal, the Senate demonstrated that President Obama surely is the most incompetent if not counterproductive deal-maker in an era that requires a good one. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden found the middle ground, with McConnell sneaking in a few gems. -snip- This is what compromise looks like. -snip- The vote once again shows that right-wing bullies like the Heritage Action Fund that threatened to “score” the vote (i.e., give lawmakers a demerit and set them up for primary challenges) are powerless in the face of real-world...

The House of Representatives will reconvene on Sunday evening, just less than 30 hours before the United States reaches the fiscal cliff. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, notified lawmakers that the House would come to order at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday in hopes of averting the end-of-year combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that constitute the fiscal cliff.

Despite rumblings from some Republican backbenchers, Speaker John A. Boehner’s hold on the House’s top post appears secure after key conservative lawmakers said they don’t expect anyone to challenge him. Several congressman who were booted from their committees last week have refused to commit to voting for Mr. Boehner when the House elects its speaker next year. But the discontent has not spread widely among their GOP colleagues, who generally give the Ohio Republican good marks for playing a difficult hand in the current budget negotiations. -snip- The four lawmakers who were booted from their committees remain angry, and they...

Negotiations about how to avoid the fiscal cliff have resumed between the staffs of President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday warned his House Republican conference against dissent from GOP leadership – and threatened retaliation similar to that against the already-purged conservatives if anyone else breaks from his pack. The Hill reports that, according to Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp, Boehner used his weekly GOP conference meeting to “note that we [leadership] have punished four members, he claimed that it had nothing to do with their conservative ideology, but had to do with their voting patterns." Huelskamp also said Boehner threatened “there may be more folks that will be targeted” and that Boehner told the...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday blasted Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) proposed rule changes, saying they would do “irreparable damage” to the chamber. “Such a rules change won’t do them any good in the short term ... but it will do the institution irreparable damage in the long term,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “We should work together instead to resolve our differences.”

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) took a public shot at House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Tuesday night, in the wake of a shake-up that knocked a small group of conservatives off prominent committees. Justin Amash ✔ @repjustinamash Still waiting for call from GOP leadership. Are they too embarrassed to explain they booted me for working to reduce debt? 4 Dec 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite Amash, a libertarian-leaning conservative, was taken off the House Budget Committee. Tea party-backed Rep. Tim Huelskamp (Kan.) was taken off Budget and Agriculture. Reps. Walter Jones (N.C.), a rare moderate, and David Schweikert (Ariz.) lost their spots on the...

President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney talks in the Oval Office following their lunch. Bitter campaign foes just weeks ago, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney met for lunch at the White House on Thursday, sitting down with an eye on overlapping interests rather than the sharp differences that defined their presidential contest. In their first meeting since the election, Obama and the Republican nominee met in the White House's private dining room, fulfilling a promise Obama made in his victory speech the night of Nov. 6. Romney arrived at the White House early Thursday afternoon in...

In the fight to reform American schools, former Florida Gov. and outspoken education advocate Jeb Bush on Tuesday took direct aim at labor groups and joined a growing chorus who believe real change must start by loosening the grip of teachers unions. “We need to have a teacher evaluation system that is based on teachers being professionals, not part of some collective trade union bargaining process,” said Mr. Bush, chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education Reform, which kicked off its national summit in D.C. on Tuesday. “We have a system to reward teachers that’s based on an industrialized,...

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush met Monday with a group of his former staffers at the J. W. Marriott hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, just steps from the White House. Bush, a potential 2016 presidential contender, spent an hour in the hotel’s Cannon room, reminiscing and entertaining questions about his political future. In an interview with NRO, Bush did not rule out a presidential run. “I am here to catch up with folks and promote education reform,” he said, smiling. When asked again whether he will issue a Sherman-type statement about his future, Bush remained coy. “We have an alumni group...

On night two of the Republican National Convention, Fox News Channel was once again the network more people went to to get their political fix. That said, every network was down substantially from the same night in 2008, when Sarah Palin made her RNC debut.

There's quite a few people that serve at the pleasure of the president. There's no congressional oversight because they are members of the executive branch, in effect, and they are simply appointed. Others require the Advice and Consent of the Senate and become more contentious (judicial appointments are always a hot-button issue). Romney needs to walk into the Oval Office prepared to clean house. It's much better to take the political heat early than to have a viper working against you during your presidency. "W" learned this the hard way when he tried to play nice coming into office. Just...

This is something I have mulled over a long time. I touched on it in a comment on Country Thinker's post yesterday, but I would like to elaborate just a bit.I know Mitt Romney has many detractors. Many conservatives and libertarians question his conservative credentials, myself included. I questioned them in 2007 and I questioned them during the GOP primary. I still have reservations about how conservative he would be as President of the United States. I contend there are other things to consider, besides his fiscal conservatism. There are many people who are going to refuse to vote for...

An unrelenting President Barack Obama jabbed at Mitt Romney's record with a private equity firm in an ad Saturday that aimed to keep his rival on the defensive just as the Republican challenger's campaign hoped to take advantage of poor economic data to gain an edge on the incumbent. Obama met Romney's plea for an apology for the attacks with a mocking ad that charged that the firm shipped American jobs to China and Mexico, that Romney has personal wealth in investments in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and that as Massachusetts governor, he sent state jobs to India....

In a sign that Mitt Romney's campaign team plans to adjust following growing criticism from fellow Republicans, CBS News has learned that Romney campaign senior adviser Kevin Madden will soon be taking on a larger and more visible role within the campaign. Sources tell CBS News that Madden will be spending more time on the road with Romney and is likely to become a more public presence as a TV spokesperson for the candidate. He will hit the road with Romney next week, following Romney's New Hampshire vacation. This move to make Madden a more public face of the campaign...

Washington (CNN) – Sen. John McCain, who earlier this week leveled harsh criticism at President Barack Obama for what he said was the politicization of the killing of Osama bin Laden, said Tuesday he did not believe the president's trip to Afghanistan was a political move. "Well I think it's a good thing," McCain said when asked about the president's surprise trip to Afghanistan. "I think it's always good when the president goes to where our young men and women are in harm's way and I think that many of us who have been involved in Afghanistan are very involved...

Longtime Indiana Senator Dick Lugar is trailing state Treasurer Richard Mourdock by five points in the closely watched Republican primary, according to a new poll on behalf of Citizens United. The survey shows Mourdock leading with 44 percent and Lugar at 39 percent, with nearly 17 percent of voters still undecided. Lugar supporters point out that Citizens United is backing Mourdock in the May 8 primary, however. Both candidates have seen their favorable numbers plummet and the nastiness is expected to increase with less than two weeks left. From Politico: The Club for Growth has just reserved another $421,000 of...

This is the worst omen for Dick Lugar in a slew of bad omens this week. The SuperPAC which has dumped $600,000 of advertising into the Indianapolis market is pulling out of the race: The American Action Network is pulling out of the Indiana GOP Senate primary, dropping its efforts on behalf of embattled Sen. Dick Lugar less than two weeks before the May 8 election, sources told POLITICO. Dan Conston, a spokesman for AAN, explained: “We’ve decided we’re going to let this race play out.” The group has already begun to pull its TV dollars; no further ads will...

Especially MSNBC and the liberal baffoons on FOX. How many times did we hear, But Romney can never take in more than 25% of the vote? What an assinine thing to boast on live TV! There were 8 or 9 of them running at one time, did anyone expect any candidate to get 50% from the start? We had about 5 or 6 great candidates from the start. But most of us had a gut feeling it was going to be Romney in the end. Now those clowns on MSNBC can be more identified with the 7 dwarfs.