Free Republic

Finally the Republicans have someone in charge that is not afraid of his own shadow. Republicans are always cowering to the mainstream press while they mutter about the corrosiveness of it. If he keeps it up, the Republicans might actually win the U.S. Senate in 2014 and the Presidency in 2016. We are referring, of course, to Reince Priebus, Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). You probably have heard that two television operations announced they were doing projects about Hillary Clinton. NBC has plans to produce and air a four hour mini-series about Hillary Clinton and CNN has plans...

Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin slammed what she called Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) latest rationale for passing comprehensive immigration reform; that President Barack Obama will enact reforms unilaterally with or without the GOP’s support. She called Rubio’s latest plea to conservatives “craven” and said that he should “go down fighting” against immigration reform rather than conceding that those reforms were already fait accompli. -snip- “To argue to conservatives who believe in limited government that we should pass this massive amnesty monstrosity because Obama is going to do it anyway smacks of the worst kind of political expedience,” she continued. “I think...

Against all logic, some prominent conservatives continue to promote the absurd proposition that right-wing candidates who fail to win over GOP voters in Republican primaries would magically succeed on November ballots. This assumption enables them to retain a naive faith in the claim that "true conservatives" who can't mobilize their own base to win nominations will somehow triumph in general elections by drawing support from moderates and liberals. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has most recently voiced this idea. "You know, if you look at the last 40 years, a consistent pattern emerges," Mr. Cruz observed in a July interview with...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Friday that if House Republicans end up sending their collection of immigration bills to a conference with the Senate, Democrats would win. “If we go to conference, we would win,” Reid told a Nevada radio station.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said Wednesday that comprehensive immigration reform has the support of dozens of members of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Among GOP backers of comprehensive reform he cited Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican candidate for vice president. Gutierrez said 195 of the 201 Democrats in the House would vote for a reform bill similar to the one passed last month by the Senate, meaning that fewer than two dozen Republican votes would be needed to reach the magic number of 218 required to pass it.

Rep. Paul D. Ryan might have just given away the road map for House consideration of immigration reform. “Tentatively, in October, we’re going to vote on a border security bill, an interior enforcement bill, a bill for legal immigration,” the Wisconsin Republican and Budget Committee chairman told constituents at a district town hall event Friday, according to a report by the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Ryan also reportedly said negotiations were underway for the chamber to vote on legislation that would provide undocumented immigrants with “probationary” visas while they waited a minimum of 15 years to attain citizenship.

A House panel on immigration on Tuesday took up proposals that carve a pathway to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants who were brought here at a young age. The Republican-led panel pitched the issue as a key piece of their stepwise approach to immigration reform. “They had no input in their parents’ decision to bring the family to the U.S. illegally. And many of them know no other home that the United States, having grown up as Americans since they were toddlers,” Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, said at the hearing heavily attended by Hispanic youth. Subcommittee...

Fox News viewers in Florida will see a new commercial in the coming weeks urging them to call Senator Marco Rubio. “Thank him for keeping his promise, and fighting to secure the border,” a narrator says in the ad, which is paid for by the conservative American Action Network. Another group, Americans for a Conservative Direction, led by former Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and other top Republicans, has been running ads in Iowa lately that implore those watching to “stand with Marco Rubio to end de facto amnesty.”

House Speaker John Boehner is not going to bring a comprehensive immigration-reform plan to the floor if a majority of Republicans don't support it, sources familiar with his plans said. "No way in hell," is how several described the chances of the speaker acting on such a proposal without a majority of his majority behind him. Boehner, R-Ohio, does not view immigration in the same vein as the fiscal cliff last December, when he backed a bill that protected most Americans from a tax increase even though less than half of the GOP lawmakers were with him, said multiple sources,...

Making an argument for overhauling the nation's immigration system Friday to a crowd of conservative activists, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush claimed immigrants were "more fertile" and thus a great benefit to American society. His remark appeared to be an inarticulate reference to immigrants' fertility rates, which data show are higher than native-born Americans. "Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans over the last 20 years. Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity,"

After signaling earlier in the day that his leadership style could lend itself to passage of immigration overhaul without the votes of a majority of his own party, Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, took some heat from outside conservative groups. The Conservative Action Project on Tuesday afternoon circulated a letter to House Republican lawmakers co-signed by dozens of influential movement leaders, urging them to formally adopt the “Hastert Rule.” Named for Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who served as speaker from 1999 to 2007, the rule dictates that no bill come to the floor without assurance that a majority of...

-snip- He said he has allowed the House to work its will “more than any speaker in modern history, to the point where there are some bills that have passed — with a majority of Democrats — in favor, and a minority of Republicans.” He said he doesn’t believe that he’ll have to bring a bill with more support from Democrats than Republicans. Asked if he was “open to it,” Boehner said “we’re going to let the House work its will.” Boehner has gotten into hot water this year about violating the so-called Hastert Rule — that every bill has...

John Boehner said he expects an overhaul of immigration rules to become law by the end of the year, but that the Senate's version "doesn't go far enough" to secure the U.S. border with Mexico or enforce the proposed new system. "I've got real concerns about the Senate bill, especially in the area of border security and internal enforcement of the system. I'm concerned that it doesn't go far enough." Boehner added that reforming the nation's immigration system was his top legislative priority this year.

House Speaker John Boehner is aiming to have various chamber committees finish work on immigration legislation by the Fourth of July, and would like a House vote by August, reported Politico.com.

Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of the pro-family grassroots organization Eagle Forum blasted New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte, who campaigned on promises to oppose amnesty, for now supporting the fatally flawed Gang of Eight amnesty bill. "As a Senate candidate, Kelly Ayotte had it right when she said that we don't necessarily need to add new immigration laws, we need to start by enforcing the laws already on the books," said Schlafly. "Ayotte even ran ads against her Democrat opponent for supporting amnesty." "Ayotte betrayed every conservative who supported her when she announced her support for this shameful bill," Schlafly...

Crossroads GPS, an advocacy group backed by Karl Rove, former senior adviser to George W. Bush, is launching a $100,000 ad campaign urging conservatives to support an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. The full-page print ad is signed by 53 business leaders and Republicans, including former Republican National Committee Chairman Edward Gillespie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Rove. It's the first ad the group has run on immigration this year.

In a dramatic breakthrough on immigration reform, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) is offering up an amendment to break the log jam and address his and other GOP senators’ concerns about border security. Entitled the RESULTS amendment (Requiring Enforcement, Security and safety, & Upgrading Legitimate Trade and travel Simultaneously) the amendment would: • Requires DHS Secretary and GAO Comptroller General to jointly certify that these triggers are met before Registered Provisional Immigrants (RPI) can adjust to Lawful Permanent Resident (“green card”) status: 1. 100% Situational Awareness – monitoring capability at every segment of Southern border 2. Full Operational Control – defined...

President Barack Obama has an important new ally as emboldened Republicans work to derail his agenda: John McCain. The shift is striking: The 2008 rivals never got along throughout Obama’s first term in office. McCain has been Obama’s chief tormentor on issues ranging from the budget to Benghazi, tartly saying in late 2010 that the two men had “no relationship.” Yet during one of Obama’s toughest times as president, there was McCain, sitting down last week with him in the Oval Office for a private strategy session. At the urging of new White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, who...

House of Representatives Committees through June 9th - no hearings on Scandals

Thursday was another busy day for the Gang of 8 immigration reform effort, which has come to mean Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and his staff were everywhere on talk radio, on the Senate floor, at a press conference, manning their new Web site and sending batches of e-mails to the media to debunk attacks. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Rubio announced his delight that a third hearing, this one by the Joint House and Senate Economic Committee had been scheduled. (“We need more transparency and greater scrutiny of this bill as the process continues, and it’s important for...