Free Republic

Just wondering.

I don't seem to ever recall Democrats turning on their own like several "Republicans" have recently. I wonder how things would have turned out in the fight to defund, delay, alter ObamaCare if so-called Republicans would have listened to Reagan, when he underwent so many personal attacks during his 1966 campaign for governor, which led to the Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shatlt not speak ill of any Republican. Reagan said "It's a rule that I followed in that campaign and have ever since." McCain and others seem to like to evoke Reagan, but don't appear to follow what he said. In...

Sens. Cruz, Lee say they won't block deal By Mike Lillis - 10/16/13 12:38 PM ET Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee said Wednesday that they won't try to block the bipartisan deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. "The timing of the vote will make no difference to the outcome," Cruz (R-Texas) said. "I have no intention of delaying the vote." Cruz and Lee (R-Utah) had spearheaded the campaign to attach ObamaCare language to any new budget bills, and had pushed their colleagues to take a hard-line stance. But the pair emerged from a meeting of...

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Wednesday urged her GOP colleague Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) to allow a Senate budget deal to hit the floor without delay. Ayotte said delaying a Senate bill with procedural tactics would have little point. “It is up to him,” she said on CNN’s “New Day.” “I would hope that he wouldn’t [delay a vote]. I mean in the Senate, obviously, in terms of certain timeframes, senators can cause you to run out the clock. But what is he trying to gain at this point.” Before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, Cruz gave a long...

The government shutdown has made it abundantly obvious that the anti-conservative news media and the anti-conservative Republican establishment have joined together to the point where it's almost impossible to see where one ends and the other begins. Some might say they merge every day on the set of "Morning Joe." The media have designated as Public Enemy No. 1 a recalcitrant bloc of tea party stalwarts who have declared their intention to stop Barack Obama's statist juggernaut from imposing the Obamacare monstrosity, running up trillion-dollar deficits year after year and in so doing destroying the private sector. Amazingly, liberal Republicans...

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., is no fan of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. The New York congressman made it clear on Monday’s "Morning Joe" that he will work to stop Cruz and his allies in their tracks. “I’ve been speaking out against Ted Cruz and this whole crazy movement since it started,” King told MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. King also said he thought that “there’s no doubt that the Democrats are winning,” and that President Obama needed to play “a more aggressive role” in the negotiations to reopen the government and lift the debt ceiling. King also warned that Cruz and...

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday cautioned against “spiking the football” on a budget deal, predicting a long slog ahead to convince the GOP conference to go along with any plan. He expressed embarrassment at members of his own party who waged a fight to delay or defund ObamaCare — saying it was doomed to failure from the beginning. “To be candid, it is an embarrassment that we have spent all this time on a rabbit trail leading us to where we are,” he said. “Look, I may not be the best person to be interviewed this morning. We have...

During an appearance at a Tarrant County Tea Party candidate forum, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called for President Obama to be impeached, a spokesman for his campaign confirmed Monday night. Dewhurst's comments were first reported on Twitter by a reporter who was attending the event on behalf of The Texas Observer. Dewhurst said the president should be impeached for his overreach on issues like immigration and health care, as well as his behavior in the aftermath of a 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The Tribune has reached out to the three candidates vying to replace Dewhurst...

President Obama phoned Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday as senators worked to finalize a deal that could reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. Neither White House nor congressional aides would provide details of the discussion, which came despite the president cancelation of a planned afternoon meeting with McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

....... But while both Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, praised the progress that was made in the Senate, it was already clear that the most conservative members of the House were not going to go along quietly with a plan that does not accomplish their goal from the outset of this two-week-old crisis: dismantling the president’s health care law. “We’ve got a name for it in the House: it’s called the Senate surrender caucus,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas. “Anybody who would vote for that in...

This weekend, new state law enforcement officers to completed training in Islam that they were compelled to attend by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The new recruits were in training from October 8 through the 11th; experienced recruits are expected to have similar training at their regularly scheduled in-service. This sensitivity training is aimed at helping “bridge the understanding” of Islamic culture to law enforcement. However, some think this is more of “be a good dhimmy” on the part of Governor Christie. New Jersey.com reports that the training is a min-version of a 10 week course on Cultural Understand taught...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has called President Obama a “pathetic leader” for his lack of involvement in negotiations to end the government shutdown. He slammed the president’s unwillingness to compromise with Republicans as “immature.” Today on America’s News HQ, Graham told anchor Doug McKelway, “For [Republicans] to suggest to the American people that we could defund ObamaCare or delay it for a year by shutting down the government, I think was unrealistic.” With the debt limit just four days away, Sen. Graham said, “I’m not going to vote for any deal coming out of the Senate that doesn’t have a...

On Friday, it seemed that a proposal being spearheaded by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) could potentially be the key that would relieve the fiscal crisis stymieing the Capitol. By Saturday, the plan fell flat on its face. Senate Democratic leaders rejected the approach that had been drafted by the moderate from Maine — although Collins’s plan had attracted interest from several Democratic senators eager to strike a bipartisan deal. That left Collins — who had been trying to play deal maker in recent days to save Congress from itself — perplexed by the swift Democratic rebuff. “I have bent over...

I was very disappointed to see Robert Costa of National Review use of the dollar sign in this tweet: Praised recently by a lot of liberals in the press, invited to the White House to sit with Barack Obama, and now subtly suggesting the McConnell – Boehner – K Street GOP attack on Heritage Action for America, Senate Conservatives Fund, Club for Growth, and Madison Project is legit, i.e. they’re in it for the money. That’s disappointing, but unsurprising. In fact, the groups mentioned above, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Mark Meadows, Tom Graves, etc. are under withering fire from the...

Immigrant-rights activists say New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reversed himself Saturday and endorsed giving illegal immigrants in-state college tuition rates, and said he will try to get the issue through his legislature in a lame-duck session. Mr. Christie, who is up for re-election in November, is also seen as eyeing a bid for the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination, but his support for in-state tuition could complicate that. “We need tuition equality for everyone in New Jersey,” the activists said the governor said in a speech to the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey. Afterward, the activists said, Mr. Christie told...

The Republican Party is at war with itself. It's divided over how best to shrink the federal budget and how to undo President Obama's healthcare law. Behind the GOP crackup over the government shutdown lies a much bigger battle for control of the party. And the most important actors aren't Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the tea party members of the House who brought us the government shutdown. The party rift's chief driver is a constellation of hard-line conservative fundraising groups, led in part by a former senator most Americans couldn't pick out of a lineup, Jim DeMint of South...

Governor John Kasich’s administration today requested the Ohio Controlling Board appropriate Obamacare funds for Medicaid expansion, an attempt to circumvent the General Assembly for billions in new entitlement funding from DC. Despite the partial shutdown of the federal government, a plan amendment submitted to DC by Ohio Department of Medicaid Director John McCarthy to expand eligibility was approved on October 10. As Statehouse insiders have speculated for weeks, the Kasich Administration will go to the Controlling Board on October 21 to make its case — although without an executive order from the governor, as was widely predicted. Unfortunately for Gov....

enate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) are taking the lead on talks to raise the debt limit and reopen the government, according to senators. Reid and McConnell are working off a six-point proposal sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would fund the government for six months and raise the debt ceiling until Jan. 31, 2014. Senators view discussions between the two leaders as a promising sign of potential bipartisan compromise. “Reid and McConnell are talking now and those discussions continue so I see that as progress,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas)....

While I'm loathe to fold-up Reagan's Republican 'big tent' for good, the Rove-Boehner-RNC-Fox-WSJ axis has taken the choice out of our hands, as they are clearly out to exterminate -or at least neuter- the TEA Party, particularly it's emerging new leadership i.e. Cruz, Lee, et. al... so it's kill or be killed (and I know which I'd prefer). But these losers can't win elections: Rove famously tanked in 2012 with those he and his Big Bux donors chose to back. Many of these GOP candidates were squirelly tools willing to do as he and the ole Bush gang tell them...

Rep. Peter King (N.Y.) would support a discharge petition on a "clean" spending bill if GOP leaders don't bring it to the floor soon, the centrist Republican vowed this week. King has long-pushed Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to take up the Senate-passed continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government. But he has refused to buck leadership further by endorsing the Democrats' discharge petition, which would force a floor vote on the bill. Until Friday. "If we have to do a discharge petition, ultimately, we will, but this is going to come [to the floor]," King said in an interview with...

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) channeled his inner-maverick Friday during an appearance on Fox News Channel, repeatedly reminding the conservative network that the government shutdown was brought about by the quixotic effort to halt the Affordable Care Act. When anchor Martha MacCallum asked him about the White House's handling of the suspension of death benefits to military families, McCain said that while the administration deserves blame it was a GOP-induced shutdown that caused the problem in the first place.

Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that there was never a chance of defunding Obamacare, blaming politicians who said it was possible for the current government shutdown. “We started this on a fool’s errand, convincing so many millions of Americans and our supporters that we could defund Obamacare,” McCain (R-Ariz.) told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “[That] obviously wouldn’t happen until we had 67 Republican senators to override a presidential veto.”[snip] “[It was] the people that convinced so many millions of Americans, tea partiers specifically we’re talking about, that there was some way to defund Obamacare. We can’t,” McCain said.

-snip- � 11:15 a.m., Senate Republicans head to the White House. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has jumped into bipartisan talks on the Senate side, leads the 46-senator GOP caucus to a meeting with Obama. McConnell has become the congressional “closer,” having helped seal three critical fiscal compromises in the past three years. Senate Republicans are pushing for a different deal from the one the House GOP initially offered. McConnell wants to cinch a deal that would both reopen the government and provide for a debt-ceiling increase, allowing then for a broader set of negotiations over tax and entitlement...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will press conservatives at the Value Voters Summit to support a short-term hike to the debt ceiling — but not in person. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman and 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate, will speak in a pre-recorded message to be aired at the conservative voters meeting.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn condemned President Barack Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen as the head of the Federal Reserve. The Senator feels the reason why America finds its self in a fiscal predicament is due to stimulus “obsession”, and that the last thing the nation needs is someone who intends more “quantitative easing” because that will further harm the economy. “Ms. Yellen subscribes to the liberal school of thought that the best way to handle to our nation’s fiscal challenges is to throw more money at them,” Cornyn wrote in a press release. Not supporting Cornyn’s opposition of Yellen, is...

House Republicans say they'll go for a temporary extension of the debt ceiling in exchange for a "real commitment" from President Obama and Democrats to talk about the nation's pressing problems. At a news conference Thursday morning, House Speaker John Boehner said Republicans are ready to "move half way -- half way to what (Obama's) demanded." [snip] - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/boehner-will-lift-debt-limit-now-if-obama-will-talk-later#sthash.vzfaeZe4.dpuf

Gov. Jan Brewer said Wednesday that she does not want U.S. House Republicans to succeed in their bid to shut down the Affordable Care Act, saying it would “devastate” the state budget. Brewer said she has never been a fan of “Obamacare.’’ And she pointed out she was among several governors who sued — unsuccessfully — to have it declared unconstitutional. But the governor said once it was clear the law would take effect, she sought ways to have Arizona take advantage of a key provision rewarding states that expand their Medicaid programs. In this state, that is the Arizona...

Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick had been expected to face a tough re-election fight. Then he sided with GOP leadership and a tea party insisting that a federal spending plan to keep the government open must delay or defund President Barack Obama’s health care law. Now, with the partial government shutdown stretching into its second week, Fitzpatrick’s bid for a second term may be growing even more challenging. Voters in his suburban Philadelphia district talk of a widening sense of disappointment with their two-term congressman, while Democrats across Pennsylvania and other states claim new momentum in their quest to take back...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday said he would like to see a clean funding resolution pass the House to end the government shutdown. McCain expressed hesitancy at criticizing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) or Republicans in the House but said he is trying to convince them to sit down and negotiate. “I would like to see that myself,” McCain said on CNN when asked if he would like to see the House take up the measure. “But also again I really am hesitant to pile on members of the House of Representatives.” “I try to keep in mind that many...

On Monday, former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting that Republicans drop all Obamacare demands in their push for a deal on the debt ceiling and a continuing resolution to fund the government. Instead, he suggested that Republicans look for a bargain on entitlement reform, a pet project of his, as well as tax reform. “This isn't a grand bargain. For that, we need a complete rethinking of government's approach to helping the most vulnerable, and a complete rethinking of government's approach to health care. But right now, we need...

House conservatives are discussing a two-step plan outlined by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to lift the debt ceiling and reopen the government long enough for Congress to pass long-term entitlement reforms. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, presented the idea on Wednesday afternoon at a meeting of the conservative Republican Study Committee. Lawmakers leaving the confab said the influential group had not reached a consensus position on the debt ceiling, or an end to the government shutdown. The plan appeared to be a more detailed version of a proposal that Ryan made Wednesday in an op/ed he penned in The...

Starts at 7:09, ends 27:58 Cornyn claims that FreedomWorks does a disservice by encouraging "republican violence" i.e. by supporting and funding conservative challengers to moderate republicans. Yet Cornyn endorsed Arlen Specter and Charlie Crist and funded Lisa Murkowski over the republican nominee. He says "we need to win elections" Yet he supported or endorsed every moderate over every conservative when he was head of the NRSC.

In a clear attempt to woo largely establishment conservative commentators who have loudly opposed the GOP’s current government shutdown strategy, President Obama held an off-the-record meeting with the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer, the Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot, National Review’s Washington editor Robert Costa, syndicated columnist and former CNN co-host Kathleen Parker, and Byron York of the Washington Examiner.

Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) released the first television ad of his reelection campaign Monday in an attempt to shore up his image among conservative voters. "National Journal named him the second most conservative senator in America," says the narrator of the 30-second spot. The commercial mentions Cornyn's votes against Obamacare and support for "smaller government" and a balanced budget amendment, among other things. Cornyn has not attracted any major primary challengers yet, but he is taking the potential threat of one very seriously. The fact that he is releasing a TV ad at this early stage of the...

Who says Senators don't listen to constituents....oh wait they don't!

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent is among 14 House Republicans who have publicly said they would vote for a “clean” continuing resolution—not tied to defunding Obamacare—and he says there are plenty more. Dent, appearing Monday on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” said that members have told him privately they would vote for a “clean CR” if it comes up for a vote. A total of 217 representatives are needed to pass the resolution. Other reports show 20 or more Republicans promising to vote for a clean continuing resolution. …

GOP Rep Blames Cruz For Shutdown - YouTube Republican Rep. Dent: "Ted Cruz put us in a ditch without a plan to get out"

If Peter King’s brand of Republicanism seems to be on the wane these days, the Long Island congressman isn’t letting it go quietly. Kng, 69, has long been one of the Hill’s most quotable and irascible troublemakers, a frequent presence on cable television with an apparently boundless capacity for outrage. He has fumed over topics as serious as Hurricane Sandy relief and aid for 9/11 responders, and as comparatively trivial as the White House party crashers and the death of Michael Jackson (whom he called a “lowlife” and a “pervert.”) King broke with Newt Gingrich over the government shutdowns of...

Republicans want to end the government shutdown, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said in Saturday's GOP address, but President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats refuse to debate an issue that is no long about anything more than “politics, plain and simple.” “The Democrats have calculated that by prolonging the shutdown, and maximizing the pain, they can bully Republicans into doing whatever President Obama and Majority Leader [Harry] Reid want them to do,” said Cornyn. “It’s a very cynical game, but Democrats have decided to play it.” …

U.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican, said he would support a broad spending deal that didn’t include changes to the health-care law, becoming the first Tea Party-backed House lawmaker to publicly back off the fight that has shut down the government for five days. Ross, ranked among the House’s most conservative members by both the Club for Growth and the American Conservative Union, said he shifted his position because the shutdown hasn’t resulted in changes to the Affordable Care Act, which started Oct. 1, the same day government funding ran out. The shutdown also could hurt the party, he...

A North Carolina congresswoman who said she needed her paycheck during the government shutdown now says she won’t cash the check until the shutdown ends. Rep. Renee Ellmers said Friday she’s asked the Office of Chief Administrative Officer to have her paycheck withheld as long as the government is shut down. … In a statement on Friday, Ellmers said, “I will stand with all federal workers and have my paycheck withheld.” …

Arizona Sen. John McCain and other like-minded Republican senators could end up reprising roles as key deal-makers as the party seeks a final negotiated solution to the government shutdown. With a core group of House Republicans sticking together in their chamber, and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell taking a low public profile in the fight, that leaves McCain and similar-thinking GOP senators to look for a deal. McCain has argued over and over again that this is one battle that the Republicans simply cannot win. And most Republican senators seem to agree with him, but there is little evidence that...

There's an empty space in the Republican Party where compassionate conservatism used to be, and an opportunity for a presidential prospect to step into the breach. The disappearance of that trademark George W. Bush brand from Washington has never been more apparent. The Republican House has gone from stalling immigration reform and cutting food stamps to precipitating a government shutdown by demanding the repeal of the health law that is the cornerstone of President Obama's legacy. The shutdown is threatening nutrition programs, cancer treatment, salaries, jobs, and much more. It's one bad hand among several the GOP has dealt itself....

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tells Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview that Democrats are feverishly raising money to defeat his re-election bid because "I'm a thorn in the side of the president," especially when it comes to trying to defund Obamacare. "I'm sure they'd like to defeat me," the Kentucky Republican tells Newsmax. "I'm frankly proud of my enemies." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is among several prominent Democrats and their supporters who are raising millions to stop the five-term McConnell in his election next year against Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes.

An eastern Pennsylvania member of Congress is the only one from the state’s delegation to break party ranks in a dispute that's plunging the nation into a partial government shutdown. U.S. Rep. Charles Dent voted late Monday night against Republican attempts to scale back President Barack Obama’s signature health care law as the price to keep the federal government open and running. …

RINO Scott Riggell has surrendered. Calls for clean CR.

According to Special Report, a cadre of Quislings in the House are planning a revolt against not only the conservative majority, but the leadership as well. No doubt led by Peter King who recently insinuated he was not going to continue playing 'Cruz' game', this group will vote with the rats to block our next volley to the senate, the hardest one yet for them to reject. We cannot allow this. If you are a Freeper and think your rep might be involved in this treachery, melt the phone lines and fill the inboxes. No insurrection can be afforded at...

Arizona voters are angry. They are not alone in their anger, for it seems betrayal on the vote to defund ObamaCare is not isolated to Arizona. However, Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit and John Hawkins at Right Wing News are on board with the recall, and I certainly feel their pain! I live in Alaska, not Arizona, but I certainly know what it is like to feel betrayal from a Senator! The difference is that I know mine are not Republican; yet McCain and Flake seem to think they are!

A new political action committee is hoping to convince former Speaker of the House and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich to run for the U.S. Senate in Virginia next year. Draft Newt PAC insists Gingrich, now a host of CNN’s Crossfire, is Republicans’ best hope for retaking the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), who is vying for his second term. “We want a credible challenger to Mark Warner, and no one could do what Newt could do to fight—and win,” said Andrew Hemingway, a former staffer on Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign who is leading the Draft...

Calling for an end to the status quo in Washington, an Amarillo businesswoman officially kicked off her bid Tuesday to unseat U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry. Elaine Hays, 55, made the announcement Tuesday that she’s seeking the Republican nomination for Thornberry’s seat before a group of about 100 enthusiastic supporters — including District 15 State Board of Education Representative Marty Rowley — at the Ambassador Hotel. “It’s time to remind Washington that they work for us,” she told the cheering crowd. The mother of four, author and certified financial planner said trust in the nation’s government has plummeted amid continued Washington...