Free Republic

Windermere, Fla. – Florida voters say they don't like all the negative advertising they've been subjected to over the last 10 days, but have different opinions about how much of an impact it has had. At a polling center in Windermere, Fla., a suburb of Orlando, Jeff Tepper says he would support a limit on how much candidates can spend."We want the people to decide the election, not money," says Tepper, a supporter of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich has been heavily outspent by his rival for the GOP presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney and independent...

The Republican establishment is pulling out all the stops to try to keep Newt Gingrich from becoming the party's nominee for President of the United States -- and some are not letting the facts get in their way. Among the claims going out through the mass media in Florida, on the eve of that state's primary election, is that Newt Gingrich "resigned in disgrace" as Speaker of the House of Representatives, as a result of unethical conduct involving the diversion of tax-exempt money. Mitt Romney is calling on Gingrich to release "all of the records" from the House of Representatives...

No, it’s not your imagination. Things are uglier than ever in the Sunshine State. A staggering 92 percent of the political ads run in Florida over the last week of the campaign have been negative. “For as long as I’ve been in politics, 14 years, journalists call me and ask if this is the most negative election ad atmosphere I've ever seen,” says Kenneth Goldstein, president of Kantar Media CMAG, which tracks content and targeting of political advertising. “And every year I say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’" “But this year it's true. This primary season is the most negative it's ever...

After Gingrich Newt scored a surprise blow-out victory in South Carolina last week, the former Massachusetts governor not only unleashed a political broadside of epic proportions. "It not about winning here anymore," one Romney staffer told BuzzFeed. "It's about destroying Gingrich — and it's working." After two standout debate performances that put him up 9 points in recent polls, Romney is keeping the pressure on Gingrich, looking to score a blow-out victory of his own here. To that end, Romney has rolled out a team of surrogates in the Sunshine State to take the fight to Gingrich in person: from...

Thursday, Bloody Thursday the Day the Drudge Report Sold Out It may be the Drudge Report sold out a long time ago and I was just too blind to see it. No one has ever accused me of being the smartest guy in the room. But if someone of the unwashed masses like myself has come to see that he has sold out, it must be quite clear to everyone. On this day he is maliciously and brutally battering a Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States by the name of Newton Leroy Gingrich. I have read the...

A congressman from Ohio had cops grab the cameras of constituents during a town hall meeting. Steve Chabot, a Republican, had cell phones and cameras confiscated in order to “prevent an embarrassing Youtube video from making the rounds,” according to Carlos Miller, who runs a blog documenting efforts by the state to stifle the First Amendment rights of photographers. Police said the cameras were taken “to protect the constituents.” A local television station, however, was allowed to videotape the meeting and the brazen move by Chabot and the cops.

The debt ceiling deal will pass the Senate early this afternoon. No suspense there. But the vote will be worth watching for another reason: Three Republican Senate sources tell TWS that senators who vote against the deal will be ineligible to serve on the so-called “supercommittee” for deficit reduction that the legislation creates. While there’s certain logic to such a policy, it could be self-defeating. Excluding those who vote against the debt deal will ensure that some of the most fiscally conservative members of the Senate Republican caucus, including most of its freshmen, will be reading about the committee’s activities...

John McCain's comments about the Tea Party, labeling them as "deceiving" and "bizzaro," betray his long-standing status as a RHINO. At a time when real reform is on the horizon, McCain stands on the bow of the ship yelling "turn this vessel around! Don't go there!" McCain has been drinking the salt water provided to him by his liberal buddies in the senate and the delusional-crazy has set in. When you're in a life-threatening situayion at sea, and there's someone on board who has become mentally unstable from drinking salt-water, they inherently risk the lives of all others on board....

On March 4 Senators John McCain (R-Ariz) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduced a bill entitled “The Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010.” If you thought some of the legislation introduced and passed by Congress under Bush II was scary, then in the immortal words of Bachman and Turner you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The stated purpose of the bill is to ban civilian trials for those designated by the federal government as “enemy belligerents.” The bill would bar such individuals from receiving the legal rights usually afforded those accused of crimes in the United States. “Enemy belligerents”...

WASHINGTON – A second Republican senator signaled Wednesday she's open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year, putting President Barack Obama closer to a historic achievement that has eluded generations of Democratic leaders. But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told The Associated Press that the bill approved Tuesday by the Finance Committee needs substantial improvements to make coverage more affordable, contain costs, and protect Medicare. Nevertheless, she joined her Maine GOP colleague Sen. Olympia Snowe in endorsing the goal of far-reaching changes.