Free Republic

Sen. Ted Cruz has "rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office" -- let alone president -- by insisting that humans aren't to blame for global warming, California Gov. Jerry Brown says. Brown, a Democrat, took aim at Cruz during a Sunday appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," the day before Cruz is expected to announce his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination during a speech at Liberty University in Virginia. He blasted Cruz's comment during a late-night television appearance that climate change "alarmists" have a problem. "The science doesn't back them up," Cruz had said on NBC's...

He’s going to skip the exploratory committee and go straight for the jugular. Ted Cruz plans to run for president. The Houston Chronicle broke the news just before midnight Saturday evening, citing senior advisers speaking on the condition of anonymity who said that Cruz, the Texas Tea Party Republican elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, would pursue the presidency. The announcement would make Cruz the first Republican to officially declare his candidacy. Cruz will announced his candidacy at a convocation ceremony at Liberty University in Virginia, the Chronicle reported. The senior advisers cited by the Chronicle said Cruz aims...

IF you’re keeping score during the endless 2016 preseason, this was a pretty good week for Jeb Bush. First, he watched Scott Walker, currently his main competitor for the Republican front-runner slot, stumble through another not-ready-for-prime-time moment, first hiring a well-liked young consultant named Liz Mair and then sacking her one day later because it turned out that she had tweeted intemperately about the sacred state of Iowa. Second, he survived Andrew Ferguson. Ferguson is a brilliant essayist and reporter for the Weekly Standard, and lately he has been an angel of death for Republican presidential hopefuls. During the last...

Sure, Republicans are playing to their base by calling for mass deportations. The years-long campaign to convince a segment of Americans that undocumented immigrants are the biggest threat to the country has had its intended effect. Witness the spectacular GOP victory in the midterms, where about one-third of the electorate voted and Republicans won a majority to sweep Congress and statehouses across the country. So no surprise that almost four months into the Republican takeover of Congress, more time has been spent on immigration -- specifically, trying to reverse President Obama's executive actions shielding 5 million immigrants from deportation --...

The country needs fresh faces, not exhausted familial dynasties like the Clintons and the Bushes. Unlike the Democrats, the GOP really does have a strong bench this electoral season, especially once you get past a hopeless Rinosaur like Jeb Bush, fringe candidates like Rand Paul and no-hoper retreads like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker has already made an impressive splash; now Texas conservative firebrand Ted Cruz may be ready to throw his hat into the ring: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is set to deliver a speech on Monday at Liberty University that is stirring speculation about a...

It is beginning to seem as though the rush beyond judgment is tilting against a Hillary Clinton presidential choice; “too much baggage” is usually the explanation. Part of what is still to be done is removing factoids from influential power, what Hillary Clinton once correctly called “a vast right-wing conspiracy.” That’s more than a mouthful. I once observed: “When she testified last week for seven hours before the congressional committee and was not swayed by the nipping of rubber teeth attempting to wound, I thought of seeing her in person at an unannounced appearance following Nelson Mandela 10 years or...

Greetings from Exeter, New Hampshire on this snowy March morning! In keeping with the New Hampshire way of letting everyone make up their own mind about things, I won’t be giving detailed opinions about the candidates for President in 2016 at this point. Instead I intend to give you a quick look at the most memorable points I’ve gleaned about each candidate thus far, then I will leave it to you the New Hampshire Primary voter to get out there and go to some house parties and town meetings, and find out for yourselves what these people are about. Just...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Palestinian-American activist Yousef Munayyer bitterly compared Israel to the “racist,” “nativist” and “xenophobic” Republican Party Friday on MSNBC, while criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for being “not really interested in peace.” Munayyer, an advocate against what he claims is Israeli occupation, called Netanyahu’s recent comments on the two-state solution a clear example of “a man who never misses an opportunity not to make peace,” while, per usual, not commenting on Hamas tactics of rocket fire against Israeli civilians and breaking cease-fires. Guest Andrea Mitchell Reports host Peter Alexander then asked him to discuss the state of domestic politics regarding Israel,...

For those of you who watch Bret Baier every night on Fox,lately he has been asking his panel of "All Stars" to place their evening bets on the GOP and sometimes the Democrat race. Instead of betting $100.00, lets up it to $200.00 and bet on the 5 to 7 candidates for President. Odds are Cruz,Walker and Rubio will get most of the money and Hillary in the lower tier.Feel free to throw in O'Malley,Warren,Biden,Christie etc.

Note to GOP dudes: This is how to blow an election against Hillary.On the evening of September 13, 2000, after his first debate with Hillary Clinton, Rick Lazio was feeling confident. Several polls had shown the Republican congressman ahead of the first lady in the race for New York's open Senate seat, and Lazio and his team felt the debate had bolstered his lead. He wasn't alone in this view. "The post-debate conventional wisdom was clear," Michael Tomasky wrote in Hillary's Turn, his account of the contest. "Lazio had won." Even Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton's chief of staff for the...

I like Camille Paglia. She’s ornery and interesting, not subservient to the orthodoxies so stultifying to other public intellectual academic types of her acclaim. Reason TV’s Nick Gillespie did an hour-long interview with the woman herself, and the whole thing is worth a watch (Or listen, as I did, while cleaning my house. How’s that for maximizing the intellectual potential of my gender conformity?). But here, for your viewing pleasure is Paglia on Hillary Clinton, coattail rider and enabler of a sexual criminal, as she puts it without compunction. It’s worth it just for the Rock-style eyebrow lift and Gillespie’s...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush made his case to state leaders at the Georgia statehouse Thursday and waded into several thorny policy debates facing legislators as he prepares a likely run for the White House. Bush said he approved of a state push to legalize medical marijuana and gave a tacit endorsement to the Republicans behind a controversial "religious liberty" measure. He also urged lawmakers to embrace school choice legislation and talked with Gov. Nathan Deal about the Georgian's plan to give the state broad new powers to intervene in struggling schools. The likely candidate was in town as part...

"Jeb couldn't be here today and you better be glad, 'cause it would have been $10,000 a plate. Cruz couldn't be here 'cause he's building a fence. ... Any Democrats here? You better be glad Scott Walker's not here, 'cause he would beat you up." The jokes are decent, as far as jokes about people running for president go. A little dad-ish, a little amateur, but not bad—they get at the essence of three Republican candidates, short and punchy, and not mean, per se, but also not not mean. If I was Senator Ted Cruz, and I heard myself described...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015/03/19/4195411/early-line-3-man-race-for-2016.html

Warlords don’t have use for peace because peace doesn’t have use for warlords. Only hours after the results revealing the Likud Party’s lead in obtaining the most seats – 30 to its closest competitors’ 24 of the Zionist Union (formerly the Labor Party)– in the next Israeli Knesset (Parliament), the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the U.S. sent an email message to millions of U.S. residents congratulating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what most likely will result in his re-election for a fourth term. The announcement includes a congratulatory petition for people to sign, and states in part: “The...

In honor of the the ill-informed Starbucks' #RaceTogether, we present now another idiot Republican who is further inflaming racial tensions. First, General, why are you still in the GOP? Second, yes, there is a "dark vein of intolerance" which is best shown by these pictures.

On March 18, gun control proponent Gabby Giffords met with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) to discuss new firearm confiscation laws for the state. In August, Breitbart News reported that Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS)—the gun control group founded by Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly—began pushing temporary confiscation as part of its bid to find something that would resonate with the American people and give the group some traction. At that time, the Arizona Republic reported that ARS was pushing for “Gun Violence Restraining Orders” which would “authorize law enforcement to remove access to guns, with court oversight...

In spite of its extremism, two factors will assure a more competitive GOP in the 2016 presidential election. First is the GOP’s unified effort to appear less radical in the public’s eye. Second is the belief of Democrats, especially the Hillary crowd, of their advantage due to presidential elections which sport more young and minority voters. Related to this, Hillary’s current strength among the base puts off progressive challengers like Elizabeth Warren. The first is evidenced by the popularity of Scott Walker in New Hampshire, not a known quantity nationwide, certainly not known for his Wisconsin anti-labor, pro-business stance. He...

From the Morning Jolt: Why the Rush to Pick a Favorite in the 2016 Field? Breitbart.com’s Matt Boyle goes in to overdrive, insisting that Scott Walker is ensnared in a massive, race-changing scandal because his newly-hired strategist, Liz Mair, has… er, dual citizenship.* (Hey, if that’s a big deal, what about Ted Cruz’s former dual-citizenship status? What, is the senator some sleeper agent for the poutine menace? “The Manitoban Candidate”?) This morning, Liz Mair departed Scott Walker’s campaign – presumably not because of her dual-citizenship status than from the vocal whining from Iowa Republican Party officials over her previous mockery...

It has become perfectly clear that coastal Republicans and the GOP’s Beltway-based class of political professionals – the people who are in the business of running campaigns – are suspicious of Iowa’s caucuses and the Hawkeye State’s heelers who determine their results. The feeling is mutual. Since the Iowa GOP has compelled Scott Walker’s campaign to jettison his digital strategist simply because she said some disparaging things about Iowa’s political culture, it’s clear that this state still commands an unparalleled level of influence over both party’s presidential nominating processes. This fit of pique from Iowa-based Republicans was understandable, but it...