Free Republic

Governor Mitt Romney has signed into law a permanent assault weapons ban that he says will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on these guns. 'Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts," Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony on July 1 with legislators, sportsmen's groups and gun safety advocates. "These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people." Like the federal assault weapons ban, the state ban, put in place in 1998, was scheduled to expire in September. The new...

Did you ever think that perhaps “conservat­ive enough” by Sarah Palin’s standards might be too far right for the rest of us Republican­s and independen­ts? Most of us are not wealthy and are neither racist nor homophobic. We are not all evangelica­l Christians. We are merely commonsense people, most of whom have faith in God, but respect people who do not share our faith (we pray for them rather than judge them); we believe strongly in fiscal restraint, less government intrusion in our lives, a fair taxation system and an agenda that is not only without discrimination but also includes...

ATLANTA - Mitt Romney says he's a better tea party candidate than his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.The former Massachusetts governor lashed out at Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum on Wednesday, the day after losing contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.Romney says his opponents are members of a Republican Party that had lost its way. He says spending on lawmakers' pet projects doubled under Gingrich, a former House speaker. He says Santorum, a former senator, was a major proponent of that type of spending.Romney says the tea party movement was created to fight Washington insiders who spend too much...

Conservatives are incessantly browbeaten into "softening their message", "moderating their stances", or "moving to the middle" (i.e., to the left) in order to win over the so-called moderates and independents of the electorate. President Ronald Reagan, the greatest conservative of our generation, didn't believe in soft-pedaling conservative principles and values.

In October, Sarah Palin announced that she would not run for president in 2012, ending the media frenzy around her potential candidacy even as she vowed to remain politically active and influential. “I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets,” she wrote in an e-mail to her supporters. Just over three months later, her attempts to wield influence in the presidential campaign the way she did during the 2010 midterm elections have largely fizzled. And the Tea Party movement that she helped to turn into a powerful political force in 2010 has so far displayed little impact...

Joe Straus, a Republican with poor conservative credentials, connived with 65 Democrats and 11 “moderate” Republicans to take over the speaker of the house for the 81st session in 2009, a betrayal of the other Republican members and the voters who elected them. It is a well known story in political circles how Democrats were allegedly rewarded for their votes with prominent committee positions. As a result, the Democrats were able to substantially block the conservative Republican agenda in the 81st legislature in Texas. Texas Tea Party activism in the 2010 elections helped elect a conservative Republican super majority to...

Poor Ann Coulter, one can only imagine how she must have struggled to come up with this bit of drivel: RomneyCare is teh Bomb! After all, Mitt Romney signed it into law, how could it possibly be bad? I wonder if Team Mitt made it mandatory for her to write, that being one of RomneyCare's prime malefactions Coulter simply dances over as if it's no big deal. There really is nothing new in her item, nothing at all; it's sophistry wrapped around old information, or argument, all of it dealt with previously and broadly. From a conservative perspective, the only...

At some country-club golf course recently, Speaker Boehner, Haley Barbour and the Bain Capital and banking wings of the GOP probably devised the plan that is now under way: Ron Paul, get on the program behind Mitt and stop talking down wars. Sarah Palin, stop referring to the GOP establishment as Stalinesque. Tea Party members: shut up and get behind the former liberal governor of Massachusetts. Conservative movement, cool it. So what if our nominee was the godfather of ObamaCare? The French say, apres moi, le deluge. The white-shoe, country-club, establishment Republican leaders will be pressuring in unison after Florida,...

Former President Gerald R. Ford says Ronald Reagan can never be elected president, but Reagan says if Ford thinks he can do better, he should "pack his long johns" and join the fray. Meanwhile, fellow Republican George Bush, who already is trying to head off a Reagan nomination, says he can foresee a Ford challenge if...

This isn't exactly the kind of endorsement the Romney campaign is looking for. It's probably even less welcome than the purported nod for Newt Gingrich from crooked GOP congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham sent from his jail cell. Speaking in Davos, gathering place for the global elites and upscale chattering classes, billionaire investor George Soros - loathed by conservative activists for his "zillion-dollar left-wing radical agenda machine" - seemed to be pretty much OK with the notion of a Romney presidency. "Well, look, either you’ll have an extremist conservative, be it Gingrich or Santorum, in which case I think it will...

The circling of wagons against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been quite a spectacle. Establishment dinosaurs like former Sen. Bob Dole, the Reaganite grande dame Peggy Noonan, the moderate agoniste David Frum, the reclusive Web guerrilla Matt Drudge, even the flame-throwing Ann Coulter—rarely do you see such a diverse array of establishment and movement conservatives in such united opposition to someone who's at least nominally conservative. Myself, I'd rather see former Gov. Mitt Romney crushed under those wagon wheels. And so, apparently, does former Gov. Sarah Palin. In an interview with Fox News Business Network, Palin opined: "Look at...

Rick Santorum supported the idea of "requir[ing] individuals to buy health insurance" when he ran for U.S. Senate in 1994, according to a local feature article comparing the candidates during that election cycle. "Santorum and [his opponent] would require individuals to buy health insurance rather than forcing employers to pay for employee benefits," The Morning Call (Pa.) reported in 1994. The Morning Call noted that Santorum had also called for a MediSave account and had opposed so-called "sin" taxes. If true, the distinction between requiring people to buy health insurance and an individual mandate might be lost on the voters...

Former Senate Majority Leader — and 1996 GOP Presidential nominee – Bob Dole just tore into Newt Gingrich with an open letter that violates Reagan’s 11th Commandment so many times, Bob Dole will be in the confessional until Easter. ... .. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway. ... Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. He loved picking a fight with Bill Clinton because he knew...

I’d like you to take a look at DrudgeReport. There is an all-out war on Newt Gingrich, not merely by the left-wing media, but particularly on the right side of the political divide. Drudge has run as many as nine negative articles about Gingrich simultaneously, but he is running few negative articles about Romney, and those he does run are only half-negative, so it’s becoming clear that Drudge is trying to manipulate the outcome in the direction of a result he prefers. I surely hope conservatives realize that nobody in media is pure, because everybody has biases. In the case...

RE-ELECT OBAMA: VOTE NEWT! January 25, 2012To talk with Gingrich supporters is to enter a world where words have no meaning. They denounce Mitt Romney as a candidate being pushed on them by "the Establishment" -- with "the Establishment" defined as anyone who supports Romney or doesn't support Newt. Gingrich may have spent his entire life in Washington and be so much of an insider that, as Jon Stewart says, "when Washington gets its prostate checked, it tickles [Newt]," but he is deemed the rebellious outsider challenging "the Establishment" -- because, again, "the Establishment" is anyone who opposes Newt....

Newt Gingrich's decision today to bash Mitt Romney for hiring former Charlie Crist loyalists and employees doesn't seem to be sitting well with Sen. Marco Rubio, who drove Crist out of the Republican Party before beating him at the polls in 2010. Said Rubio: "Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist. Romney is a conservative. and he was one of the first national Republican leaders to endorse me. He came to Florida, campaigned hard for me, and made a real difference in my race."

Popular former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is predicting that the makeup of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s inner circle of advisers, which includes several strategists who ran former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s ill-fated Senate campaign against conservative standard-bearer Marco Rubio, will hurt Romney’s image with Florida voters. In an exclusive Newsmax interview Monday evening, McCollum said Sunshine State voters “will not be favorably inclined to that, because most Republican primary voters in Florida know that Charlie Crist flopped on them. He went over to the Democrats’ side … it just wasn’t the same Charlie Crist they thought they’d elected.”...

...who will be/should be PANICED and why. Be verbose if need be.

Schmidt: "Not only are we not moving toward a coalescing of support with the establishment of Newt Gingrich, we're probably moving toward a declaration of war on Newt Gingrich by the Republican establishment. And if Newt Gingrich is able to win the Florida primary, you will see a panic and a meltdown of the Republican establishment that is beyond my ability to articulate in the English language. People will go crazy," And you will have this five week period until the Super Tuesday states that will be just as unpredictable, tumultuous as any period in modern American politics. It will...

The only arguments that Romney supporters have made, is that he is "electable", and can beat Obama. But I have not seen any supporter of Romney actually praise any accomplishments that he made as the Massachussetts Governor, that will appeal to voters. Mittens reminds me of John Kerry, and he seems to have "loser" written on his forehead. He also reminds us of Al Gore - a man who seems like he is made of wood, and cannot connect emotionally with voters.

Why did the Iowa Republican Party decide to announce a Santorum victory, only a day before the South Carolina Primary? http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-21/santorum-declared-iowa-caucuses-winner-by-state-party-leaders.html# It requires no more than 4 days after the announcement of the initial results, to conduct a fully certified recount, because relatively few people vote in the Iowa Caucuses. The reason why they announced Santorum as the winner of Iowa at this time, is to get some supporters of Gingrich to vote for Santorum, in order to split the conservative vote and assure a victory for Romney. American elections have become as corrupt as the elections in Mexico, Colombia,...

Time has come for me to leave the chaos of FreeRepublic. Over the past 13 years I always felt that FR was the home of Conservatives with core values that could not be compromised. This election cycle has shown me that I have been wrong in my assessment. The lack of moral or intellectual commitment by many of the FR members has resulted in the end of my involvement. I'm sure JR and many others are pleased but know that the early years were great experiences. God Bless to all and enjoy the next 4 years of Obama.

A blonde finds lipstick on her husband's collar. Suspicious that he's cheating on her, she heads to a local gun shop and buys herself a pistol. That night, she hides in her bedroom closet. Sure enough, the husband comes home with his redheaded secretary on his arm and leads her to the bed. As they began to caress, the wife jumps out of the closet and holds the gun to her head. "Sweetheart," the husband pleads, "don't do it! Don't shoot yourself!" "Shut up, Johnny!" she cries. "You're next!" That blonde now runs the Republican Party. Hence, the GOPs dedication...

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer sat down with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and opined that Newt Gingrich won last night’s debate — in fact, he “won big.” Krauthammer criticized Mitt Romney‘s mediocre debate performance and was incredulous at how the former Massachusetts Governor wasn’t prepared for a question on his tax returns. “How could he not have prepared a nice short succinct humane answer about what he did at Bain?” Krauthammer perplexedly exclaimed. “He didn’t really have that — he kind of stumbled around.” RELATED: Rick Perry Challenges Romney: ‘Mitt, We Need For You To Release Your Income Tax’ O’Reilly wondered...

I am trying to work and listen at the same time, but is anybody else hearing this?? Obama is asking Congress to reinstate his Executive authority to streamline six agencies into one, so he could "help businesses grow, save businesses time, save businesses money." He's making it sound like the best thing since sliced bread. News media is eating it up. "Reform and remake our government so that it works. This should not be a partisan issue."

Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has called for Gov. Mitt Romney to release his tax returns, as well as the data that could substantiate his claim of having created 100,000 jobs as CEO of Bain Capital. Romney has resisted releasing his tax returns, and his campaign has thus far refused to provide the hard proof to back up his claims about Bain. “Governor Romney has claimed to have created 100,000 jobs at Bain, and people are wanting to know: is there proof?” Palin told Sean Hannity on Fox News. Rick Tyler, former Gingrich aide and head of Newt Gingrich’s...

After Ron Paul finished a distant second in the New Hampshire primaries last night, his campaign released a statement that calls for all the other candidates except Mitt Romney to drop out of the race. From the campaign: The race is becoming more clearly a two-man race between establishment candidate Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, the candidate of authentic change. That means there is only one true conservative choice. …We urge Ron Paul’s opponents who have been unsuccessfully trying to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney to unite by getting out of the race and uniting behind Paul’s candidacy.Ron...

On Mark Levin's radio show this evening, conservative Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina predicted that Republican frontrunner Romney would win the state in the upcoming Presidential primary. "I think Romney's going to win here," said DeMint, "I think that some of the other that might have had an advantage here have really crossed ways with some Republicans as they've criticized free enterprise concepts." DeMint said, clearly referencing Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich's recent attacks on Romney's record at Bain capital. Demint added that he liked Romney's acceptance speech tonight, noting that, "He’s hitting a lot of the...

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire—Rep. Ron Paul's campaign called on the rest of the Republican field to drop out of the race and unite behind him in order to defeat Mitt Romney. “We urge Ron Paul’s opponents who have been unsuccessfully trying to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney to unite by getting out of the race and uniting behind Paul’s candidacy,” campaign chair Jesse Benton said in a statement. Read the full statement below: LAKE JACKSON, Texas – Ron Paul tonight scored an historic second-place victory in the 2012 New Hampshire Primary. Below please find comments from National Campaign Chairman...

Mitt Romney sought on Friday to dispel any notion he is undesirably close to Wall Street, but said his business experience prepares him better than his rivals to be president. "I'm independent of Wall Street," the former Massachusetts governor told Bloomberg Television's Peter Cook in an interview. "By the way, I haven't ever worked on Wall Street. They were service providers to the business I was in, I was not in a Wall Street firm, although I was in financial services broadly."

CHARLESTON, S.C. (CNN/) - A funny moment happened on the campaign trail Thursday when former Republican presidential candidate John McCain mistakenly endorsed his former White House rival(s). (both of them) Here is an exchange between Senator McCain, S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, and GOP presidential candidate and former Gov. Mitt Romney: SEN. MCCAIN: “I am confident with the leadership and the backing of the American people, President Obama will turn this country around. We believe in America. We believe that our best days are ahead of us...� GOV. HALEY: “President Romney.� SEN. MCCAIN: “President Romney. Excuse me! President Romney. President Romney....

For years I have asked myself: how is it that the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) -- the "elite," big-government statists -- control the Republican Party? In the 1992 election, George H.W. Bush, Reagan's successor , blew away any prayer of his re-election by reneging on his now-infamous promise, "read my lips: no new taxes." But he was a kinder, gentler conservative -- in other words, a RINO. And the country got Bill Clinton. In 1996, the Republican RINO elite anointed the colorless Robert Dole to be the party standard-bearer. Dole was a dull speaker who had the awkward rhetorical...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — If this is Mitt Romney’s idea of a victory rally, one shudders to think what would have happened if he had lost the Iowa caucuses. The day after his impossibly thin eight-vote victory, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination flew here for a town hall meeting at Manchester Central High School, where he was to bask in the endorsement of his 2008 arch rival, John McCain. But the senator grimaced when he was introduced, and as Romney delivered his own stump speech, an increasingly impatient McCain pulled up his sleeve and checked his watch. McCain gave...

OTTUMWA, Iowa – The Republican Party is the party of the white working class. This group – whites with high school degrees and maybe some college – is still the largest bloc in the electorate. They overwhelmingly favor Republicans. It's a diverse group, obviously, but its members generally share certain beliefs and experiences. The economy has been moving away from them. The ethnic makeup of the country is shifting away from them. They sense that the nation has gone astray: Marriage is in crisis; the work ethic is eroding; living standards are in danger; the elites have failed; the news...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is spreading seeds in Iowa that could sweeten his political future. Stumping in the Hawkeye State for Mitt Romney is a win-win for the pugnacious Christie — no matter what happens — political insiders and Iowa Republicans said.

Mitt Romney Announces Virginia Leadership Team December 29, 2011 Location Boston, MA United States Mitt Romney today announced additional members of his Virginia leadership team. The additional members join Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, Delegate Chris Peace and Delegate Barbara Comstock as members of Mitt Romney’s leadership team. “Virginia is on the most business friendly states in America and these Virginia leaders understand we have to make jobs our number one domestic policy priority,” said Mitt Romney. “The Virginia Founding Fathers understood the principles of free enterprise, hard work, and innovation and I am pleased these Virginia leaders are standing with...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a conservative. At least, that is the point the former Massachusetts governor is trying to make with a new TV ad airing in Iowa. The new ad, titled “Conservative Agenda,” shows Romney speaking on the stump and meeting with voters, as he makes a series of commitments. “I am going to do something to government. I’m going to make it ‘Simpler, and Smaller, and Smarter,’” Romney says. “Getting rid of programs, turning programs back to states, and finally making government itself more efficient.” Romney pledges to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul and balance...

There are currently many news stories and blog discussions about the Virginia presidential primary ballot access law. Some large blogs, such as Red State, have over 300 comments about the story. Some defend the current Virginia ballot access laws on the grounds that in past presidential elections, a fairly large number of Republican presidential primary candidates managed to qualify. But what has not been reported is that in the only other presidential primaries in which Virginia required 10,000 signatures (2000, 2004, and 2008) the signatures were not checked. Any candidate who submitted at least 10,000 raw signatures was put on...

I’ve always been of the opinion that the idea there is such a thing as a Republican “establishment” is something of a myth. The GOP hasn’t really had anything approximating a ruling elite since conservatives nominated Barry Goldwater​ and booed Nelson Rockefeller off the stage at the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. The idea that Wall Street honchos or intellectuals running national magazines have any power over Republican voters and the party apparatus is based on a misunderstanding of how contemporary American politics works. The only thing that approximates an establishment is the family who produced two U.S....

Last Thursday — which happened to be the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights — the Senate passed a defense bill that demonstrates just how cavalier Congress can be with our fundamental liberties. Given the opportunity to clarify existing law and confirm that American citizens are not subject to indefinite military detention at the order of the president — Congress punted. After a debate in which key members seriously contemplated empowering the president to "Gitmo-ize" Americans suspected of terrorist activity, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 leaves the question open. Maybe he can, maybe he...

Freshman Tea Party Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is incensed that Republicans caved in the payroll-tax debate, and is putting the blame squarely on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “I don’t think there’s a revolt with respect to Speaker Boehner,” Gowdy said Thursday night on Fox’s "Your World With Neil Cavuto." "I think the license tag of the truck that just ran over us has Kentucky license tags. For the life of me, I cannot understand when the Senate is going to find something they care enough about to stand on policy and principle.”Last week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a...

Former president George H. W. Bush offered an informal endorsement of Mitt Romney in remarks published Thursday, saying that Mr. Romney “is the best choice for us.” The former president told reporters for The Houston Chronicle that he supported Mr. Romney because of his “stability, experience, principles. He’s a fine person,” Mr. Bush, 87, said. “I just think he’s mature and reasonable – not a bomb-thrower.” The paper reported the comments, made this week, on its Web site Thursday afternoon. A spokesman for Mr. Bush confirmed the accuracy of the comments and said they fully reflect the views of the...

It’s the old tried and true dirty dealings of our fine feathered friends in Congress. Their back room tactics of using “unanimous consent” in the dead of night to screw Americans will most likely be used to compromise with Obama and the Democrats. Crawford writes to Boehner "We are now in a position that requires all options to be on the table, that requires Republicans to not only demand a willingness to compromise”. That wonderful word “compromise”. For decades we have compromised with the evil ideas Democrats have cast upon Americans. These compromises have marched us right into quicksand. Compromising...

A bevy of prominent New York Republicans endorsed Mitt Romney’s candidacy for the presidency Tuesday, saying the former Massachusetts governor represents the GOP’s best chance to beat President Obama. And in saying so, some of them said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would likely fare far worse against Obama — and might just pull other Republicans on the ballot down to defeat, as well. “I think Mitt Romney represents the best chance for Republicans to win the White House,” said former Erie County Republican Chairman Robert E. Davis. “I just don’t see Newt Gingrich beating Barack Obama. He’s controversial.” What’s...

The Republican Party has gone insane. For the better part of the last three years the Republican Party has exercised itself into a frenzy over the need to repeal Obamacare. For the two years leading up to November of 2010, mostly middle aged working white people took to the streets in sizes rivaling a NASCAR race to protest the socialization of the American health care system. The individual mandate and TARP draw the ire of scores of primary voters. And our two front runners for President? They both support an individual mandate and they both supported TARP. Not only that,...

Mark Levin accuses Ann Coulter (and BillO) of using what is a perfect opportunity to discuss Newt’s comments last night on changing the judiciary to instead trash him in favor of her candidate, calling him bombastic and minimizing him by saying that he never achieves anything anyway:

<p>Yesterday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin outlined a four-part solution to end congressional insider trading and vowed not to “give up until we get the sudden and relentless reform we deserve.”</p> <p>First they denied it, then they dismissed the problem as much ado about nothing. Some said there was no need for new laws or action because the Securities and Exchange Commission could prosecute members of Congress under existing laws against insider trading.</p>

Our politics are all about the now. People are only talking about the present: the unemployment rate today is 8.4%, troops’ withdrawal from Iraq in late December, Newt Gingrich’s lead in the Republican field etc. But why do they not care about the past? The 2012 election reflects this sentiment. Both President Obama and even some candidates in the Republican field have skeletons in their closets that people are all too excited to forget about.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called a truce Monday and vowed to run a positive campaign, saying his and his opponents’ shared goal of defeating President Barack Obama in 2012 was more important than winning the nomination. Speaking at an event hosted by the Southern New Hampshire 9/12 Project, Gingrich said he planned to communicate this resolution to his staffers, consultants, and even the Super PACs supporting him, in a letter to be sent on Tuesday. (RELATED: Full coverage of Newt Gingrich)

The Republican Party hacks, the old line lost leaders who appear to cooperate with the Democrats to help conservative candidates lose Primaries and General Elections, got exposed for what they really are this week. In some staffer’s mistake (or was it), a Yahoo News Reporter allegedly heard the old has-beens warn against “Making personal attacks against President Barack Obama.” Yahoo’s Rachel Rose Hartman says they warned on their private conference call that to attack Obama personally would be “too hazardous for the GOP.” Read this to say to the Tea Party crowd and other conservatives who ask if Obama is...