Free Republic

As many others have noted, the high point here is Rand Paul bailing out mid-bite as soon as he hears the word “DREAM.” He’ll get in your face on foreign policy and he’ll push bold, controversial ideas like restoring voting rights to felons, but put him on camera in the middle of a squabble between Steve “Cantaloupe Calves” King and a pair of illegals when he’s gearing up for 2016 and all that’s left is one of those little dust clouds like in a Roadrunner cartoon. If not for that, my favorite moment would be Erika Andiola reassuring King that...

This is really not the biggest deal in the world, but every year on August 4, I’m reminded of something kind of creepy in the Cult of Obama. That, my friends, is the obsession with his birthday. I totally get that if you run a monarchy or are a dictator or if you’re a good president, your birthday might be cause for celebration. Oh, it’s the Queen’s birthday? Let’s celebrate. Oh, we’re going to be killed if we don’t pay honor to you, Kim Jong Un (not to be confused with his father who held the titles of “Dear Leader,...

The Republican Party’s “nativist elements” have successfully undermined Congress’ many attempts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, President Obama griped in an interview published over the weekend by the Economist. Obama’s remarks were made during a broader discussion that covered the health of the U.S. economy, job growth and the responsibilities of business leaders. “There’s a huge gap between the professed values and visions of corporate CEOs and how their lobbyists operate in Washington,” he said, claiming that businesses must be genuine when it comes to being socially engaged and giving back to the community. “And I’ve said this to various...

Chris McDaniel on Monday officially contested results showing he lost a Republican primary to Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, revealing what his camp alleges is evidence of voter fraud and other irregularities. "They asked us to put up or shut up. Here we are. Here we are with the evidence," McDaniel said at a news conference in Jackson. McDaniel, a state senator, has refused to concede the June 24 runoff result and filed a formal challenge with the Mississippi Republican Party's executive committee. The case could eventually wind up in court. The challenge outlined claims of more than 15,000 cases of...

Editors Note: The MSM continues to react to the turning point in the immigration debate that occurred last week in DC. We reprint here.Don’t be confused about what happened in the House of Representatives on Friday: It was a huge win for the far right, a major victory for Ted Cruz, an embarrassment for John Boehner, and, potentially, a pivotal moment that will make future dealings between the White House and congressional Republicans, if you can possibly believe it, far worse than they’ve been already. What happened, as you probably know, is that Boehner had a bill ready to go...

Michael Steele thinks House Speaker John Boehner needs to keep closer tabs on Sen. Ted Cruz. The former Republican National Committee chairman on Monday poked fun at reports that some House Republicans changed their minds on crucial border legislation last week after meeting with Cruz, the Texas Republican and tea party icon. “For John Boehner, whenever any of his members says, ‘Hey, I’m about to have pizza and beer with Ted Cruz,’ he should be concerned,” Steele joked. “Really look at the calendar and see if there’s a vote coming up,” he said, adding that Cruz “undermined” GOP leaders. Steele...

As expected, such a pithy observation has elicited howls of outrage from the left. The comment was made by Alabama Republican Congressman Mo Brooks, who used the phrase in a purely political context — that the GOP’s immigration stance wouldn’t hurt the party, while the Democrats’ push for immigration reform was politically stupid. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) doesn’t think that the hardline stance Republicans have taken on immigration could hurt the party’s standing with Hispanic voters. Instead, he thinks Democrats are hurting their prospects with white voters. “This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by...

Mitt Romney loyalists are trying to gin up the narrative that Republicans just can't get enough of Romney.“Democrats don’t want to be associated with Barack Obama right now, but Republicans are dying to be associated with Mitt Romney,” Spencer Zwick, "a longtime Romney confidant who chaired his national finance council," claimed to the Washington Post. The Chamber of Commerce, which has vowed to wage war on the Tea Party and push through amnesty legislation, glowingly praised Romney, alleging he would be in a "commanding position" if he entered the 2016 race. Romney is reportedly set to make trips to West...

Blending a muscular foreign policy with a combative domestic agenda, Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday told young conservatives the end of the Obama era will mean a “return of freedom to this country.” Speaking to the Young America’s Foundation in Washington, the Texas Republican reiterated his opposition to Obamacare, the Democrats’ disastrous health care reform law, and tried to channel President Ronald Reagan in urging a tougher American response to Russian machinations in Eastern Europe. “Mr. Putin, give back Crimea,” Cruz said, echoing Reagan’s famous “tear down this wall” to the Soviets in Berlin in 1987, according to Business Insider....

Other countries may turn away desperate children. But the United States should aim higher. If a child showed up at your doorstep, begging for help, what would you do? Most Americans, I suspect, would offer help, even if that meant simply calling the police, who would, hopefully, ascertain whether the child was really in danger. But a lot of Americans who would respond to such a scenario with compassion also believe that America should simply shut its door to desperate refugees. I would suggest that a moral nation has an obligation to come to the aid of children who are...

History tells us the “six-year itch” is a very real thing, and there’s little Obama’s Democrats can do to stave off a big loss this November.Time has been cruel to many once-revered political assertions. No, all politics is not local. No, the road to the White House does not lead through New Hampshire. The “solid South” hasn’t been a solid Democratic redoubt since 1944; “rock ribbed Republican” New England has yielded a grand total of four electoral votes for the GOP in the last six Presidential elections. If you’re looking for a truism that remains true, then reach out and...

Nance Pelosi takes crossing the aisle to the extreme …Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) certainly did hit a nerve to say the least when he addressed the House regarding the debate on the border funding bill Friday night. Marino called out former Speaker of the House Nanncy Pelosi why when Democrats had control of the House, Senate and White House they did nothing about the border issue, but now with to make it a political issue. Needless to say, San Fran Nan then did something she never does, she came across the aisle. However, it was to confront Marino. After Pelosi...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the weekÂ’s top news, including the struggle on Capitol Hill to find a resolution to the political division on the border crisis before Congress leaves for August recess, as well as how these events will affect the November election, plus the outlook for ending the war between Israel and Hamas. (AUDIO-AT-LINK)TRANSCRIPT JUDY WOODRUFF: In Washington, House Republicans were racing to pass something on the border crisis after a day of confusion and chaos on Capitol Hill Thursday. For a taste of what went on...

House Republicans looked set to pass a bill on Thursday aimed at addressing the crisis on the southern border. After being revised repeatedly in order to appease conservative members who thought the bill did not go far enough, the leadership appeared to have settled on a final version which enjoyed broad support. The package even had the backing of moderate Democrats like Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). “GOP leaders went to great lengths to secure passage by allowing a separate vote on a measure that would block Obama from any further executive action to stop the deportation of undocumented immigrants brought...

In the short term, the House GOP’s failure to pass an emergency immigration bill on Thursday over tea party opposition was another embarrassing moment for Speaker Boehner in a growing list. But the political damage may be limited: Americans tend to pay little attention to process stories in Congress, and the 2014 elections haven’t been particularly focused on immigration. Something Americans do pay attention to, however, are presidential elections. Here’s where this week’s border skirmish starts to look more significant. The key player in this drama is Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who has been working to corner the market...

First-term senator wielding such influence in House is sign of ongoing tumult in Republican Party.The beginning of the collapse of House Speaker John A. Boehner’s border bill came Wednesday evening, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz gathered more than a dozen House Republicans at his office in the Dirksen building on Capitol Hill. It was there, as Boehner (R-Ohio) held his own meetings on the other side of Constitution Avenue, that Cruz heard that the speaker didn’t have enough votes — and realized that if his House allies held firm, he could rupture the fragile coalition supporting the measure. Around the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Polling data compiled by Tea Party Patriots and provided exclusively to Breitbart News shows that a majority of Republican voters think Republicans standing strong on immigration is more important than repealing Obamacare, getting to the bottom of the Benghazi or IRS scandals—or anything else for that matter. When asked by TPP’s pollster which issue they think is the important for Republicans in Congress to deal with, 34.6 percent of GOP voters said stopping the flow of illegal immigrants across our southern border. Stopping Obama’s “illegal overreach” with executive power came in a distant second with 24 percent of GOP voters...

Instead of tossing out a lot of comments about how dumb Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is, I’ll just link to this. Sheila Jackson-Lee might be the dumbest person in congress. She might even be the dumbest person outside congress. If there were ever a global championship for idiots, the country could send her there. And leave her there; because unlike Lassie, she wouldn’t be able find her way back on her own. In February, Congress was debating federal spending. And Sheila Jackson-Lee got up to make her contribution denouncing a Pepsi commercial as racist. Other things that Jackson-Lee has denounced...

At a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said President Barack Obama's lawless executive actions are not high crimes and misdemeanors worthy of impeachment. "I see this as sort of a ridiculous gambit by the president and his political team to try and change the narrative, raise money, and turn out their base for an upcoming election that they feel is not going to go their way," Ryan said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "[Obama's executive actions do] not rise to the high crime and misdemeanor level." However, as Andrew McCarthy, the former federal prosecutor and...

Cruz control, indeed. Taking 41% of the vote, Ted Cruz is your new primary leader, taking over from Scott Walker who finished in second at 15%. Rick Perry, Rand Paul and Mitt Romney round out the top 5.Cruz also won the second choice vote, although by a much smaller margin, edging Walker and Perry. Bobby Jindal and Ben Carson round things out.Cruz, Walker, Perry, Jindal and Carson are the most “acceptable” among the candidates posed.As to the most important issue, readers believe general election voters will be most interested in the economy, followed by immigration, health care and foreign policy....