Free Republic

In a dramatic display of the new Republican order, Minnesota’s state GOP banished 18 prominent party members — including two former governors and a retired U.S. senator — as punishment for supporting a third-party candidate for governor. The stunning purge, narrowly passed by the state Republican central committee last weekend, suggests more than just a fit of pique: by banning some of the state’s leading moderates, the Minnesota GOP moved toward extinguishing a dying species of Republican in one of its last habitats. Those exiled warned that the measure, which bans the 18 former members from participating in party activities...

PHOENIX (AP) - Since losing the presidency, John McCain has focused on his work in the Senate. His voting record has improved greatly this legislative session missing only nine votes, or 2.5 percent of the 353 Senate roll-call votes through Saturday. While running for the White House during the 2007 and 2008 sessions of the 110th Congress, McCain missed 420 votes, or 63.9 percent, of 657 opportunities.

Sure, the New Hampshire primary for 2012 is still nearly thirty months away, but it makes no difference, since we’re ready to make this prediction: The GOP nominee for president in 2012 will be one of these five would-be candidates: Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush or Michael Huckabee. Consider Gingrich vs. Huckabee the ultimate flip of a coin in this sense: if one jumps into the primary race, the other will remain on the sidelines. Both are trying their best to charm the same interest groups and both sound similar on the talk show circuit. Still, Huckabee...

WASHINGTON -- Saying California voters delivered a message to "go all out" in cutting government spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today promised to make severe state budget reductions in education, health care and law enforcement. "We tried to not make those kind of cuts, but now we have to," the Republican governor told reporters in Washington. "There's no other choice. I think the message was clear from the people: Go all out and make those cuts and live within your means." Schwarzenegger thanked Californians for voting in Tuesday's special election. They rejected ballot measures endorsed by the governor that would have...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has signed on to the latest high-profile effort to re-brand the Republican Party — but don't expect to see him take a major leadership role for the National Council for a New America, or make a starring appearance at any of the events on the group's national tour. Organizers of the effort, spearheaded by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, originally told reporters that Gingrich had not been included in the newly-launched group because his 527, American Solutions, was a partisan entity. (The organization describes itself as a "tri-partisan" network.) Gingrich supporters dismissed...

The Republican strategist who helped Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman prepare for a possible presidential run says the Republican party is in for a devastating defeat if its guiding lights are Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. "If it's 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we're headed for a blowout," says strategist John Weaver, who advised Huntsman and was for years a close adviser to Sen. John McCain. "That's just the truth." Huntsman, a favorite of GOP moderates, left the Republican presidential race last week after accepting President Obama's offer to become U.S....

The expected announcement Tuesday by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist that he’s running for the Senate would seem to be a rare bit of good news for beleaguered Republicans. But while Crist is a brand-name recruit with sky-high approval ratings and bipartisan appeal, his path to keeping the seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez in GOP hands has at least one significant roadblock: Sunshine State conservatives. Despite Crist’s widespread popularity, he faces a primary in which he will have to make his case to a restless GOP base dissatisfied with his high-profile advocacy for President Barack Obama’s stimulus and his handling...

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Rush Limbaugh fired back at Colin Powell for his critical comments earlier this week, saying Wednesday that the former secretary of state should join the Democratic Party. "What Colin Powell needs to do is close the loop and become a Democrat instead of claiming to be a Republican interested in reforming the Republican Party," Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday.

<p>So, you say you want to win elections? No problem. Just be more like the Democrats.</p> <p>1) Quit talking about abortion. Go along with the flow. A woman's body is hers to control. If a growing baby is in the way, who cares? Kill him!</p>

I'm going to try one more time to explain what FR is all about. Free Republic is a conservative site. That does not necessarily mean it is a Republican site. In fact there may be many Republicans we don't support and some Republican issues we cannot agree with. I'll throw in Arlen Specter as a prime example of a Republican we cannot support. Should be obvious to all why not. Should also be just as obvious to all that we cannot support Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, John McCain and his lap dog Lindsay Graham, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, et al....

The party needs a healthy debate, but not because he's left. BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL Arlen Specter's decision to go Democrat has sent the GOP into a new round of infighting over what the party is, and where it goes now. Mr. Specter is a very unhealthy basis on which to be having what might otherwise be a healthy debate. Not that anything could stop the bitter winds now blowing through the Republican fields. Within hours of Mr. Specter's bombshell, the sides were formed up. Team Good Riddance featured the Club for Growth's Andy Roth: "Arlen Specter is the epitome...

I am as sick to death of RINO apologists as I am the RINOs themselves. Too many real conservatives took a lot of flack here on FR during the last mid term and presidential election cycles for expecting Republicans to actually legislate like Republicans rather voting for every Obama-lite candidate with an “R” after their names who just might be electable. To too many, elections are about partisan score keeping and not about the direction and future of the country. Many conservatives received a lot of undeserved criticism because they refused to vote straight party line or choose the lesser...

The Six Reasons Are: George "Macaca" Allen Linc "libidiot" Chafee Conrad "Loose Mouth Abramoff" Burns Mike "Useless" Dewine What's His Name "What'd he do" Talent Rick "Maybe he's in a liberal State" Santorum