Free Republic

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...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the failure of the House to approve the bipartisan Senate bill to extend the payroll-tax cut is “harming the Republican Party.” Speaking Tuesday on CNN’s “Situation Room,” McCain said that while it’s inevitable that the tax cut will ultimately be extended, the infighting reflects poorly on Republicans and Congress as a whole. (snip) McCain was one of 89 senators who overwhelmingly voted to extend the payroll-tax cut through February to give the sides more time to come to an agreement on how to pay for it. House Republicans say that debate should happen now. Some...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You know how you can tell that Newt Gingrich is at the top of the slate? You don't need polling data; you just need to look at the media coverage. You just need to look at the media coverage. You move on to the Republican primaries, Newt is rising so fast in the polls that the media is trying to tie him to Freddie Mac. They love Freddie Mac. They've bailed out Freddie Mac. They've done everything they can to keep Freddie Mac going. Executives at Freddie Mac are gonna be paid a hundred million dollars in...

Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk hasn't endorsed a GOP candidate for president, but it's looking more and more like he's on Mitt Romney's team. Kirk said Monday the field is getting down to "Romney and the anti-Romney," listing all of the GOP darlings -- Palin, Bachman, Trump et al -- that have fallen by the wayside. "The underlying story is the rise and rise of Mitt Romney," Kirk said. In regards to the Herman Cain sexual harassment controversy, Kirk said Cain "needs to respond and respond completely." "I do think his story is largely ending," Kirk said. "The critical thing is...

"I think there is room for revenues, but I think there clearly is a limit to the amount of revenues that are available," Boehner told reporters. "What I was attempting to do," he said, grinning, "was to suggest that Mr. Norquist, like millions of Americans, believes that raising taxes is not good for our economy." Boehner insisted that Republicans would only compromise on tax revenue if Democrats were willing to take significant and painful steps to shore up Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. "Without real reform on the entitlement side, I don't know how you put any revenue on the...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) indicated on Tuesday that he has come around to Mitt Romney on the issue of healthcare. “Romney’s been very clear that he’s against ObamaCare and he’s going to repeal it. So I for a second don’t worry about whether he’s going to shy away from repealing the president’s health care law,” Ryan said in an interview with The Weekly Standard. (snip) Ryan went on to compliment Romney on a variety of issues. He described Romney as proving himself “pretty capable and strong and resilient” when it comes to the slew of GOP debates over the past...

(snip) Graham said it is crucial for the U.S. to continue to support Israel, and said the president has "thrown Israel under the bus" by talking about settlements and pre-1967 borders. "It is our best friend in the Middle East," Graham said. He did praise the president for sending military advisers into Uganda.Graham said he is hoping to hear more on foreign policy from the Republican presidential candidates. "Rick Santorum is speaking like Ronald Reagan better than anybody else on peace and strength," Graham said. "Ronald Reagan confronted the challenges of his time. He did not isolate America." Graham declined...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who’s taken on tough tasks from immigration reform to climate change, faces another one as he calls for spending billions of dollars overseas on unpopular foreign aid programs that he insists are vital to U.S. national security. With Congress facing mandatory spending cuts and previously sacrosanct military programs on the chopping block, Graham is trying to protect funding for foreign aid even as most Americans oppose it – 71 percent in a recent poll – and other Republican leaders call for focusing U.S. resources at home. “It is a tough sell, but you can be...

The large Republican presidential field, along with the dramatic surges and collapses of several of its candidates, may ultimately be much ado about nothing. That, at least, is the conclusion of the Republican strategists surveyed in this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll, who almost unanimously identified Mitt Romney as the most likely candidate to win the nomination. In the five times the GOP Insiders have been asked that question in 2011, Romney has never surrendered the top spot.

LAS VEGAS — For most Republican politicians, there is no smear more loathed, more insulting or more politically perilous than to be called a RINO — a Republican in Name Only. Not for Linda Lingle. “I’ve been called a RINO before, which I don’t mind,” the former Hawaii governor told a crowd of diehard Republican activists huddled in a Las Vegas ballroom. “There are a lot of people who support these RINOs, whether it’s me or [former New York Mayor] Rudy Giuliani or [former New Jersey Gov.] Christine Todd Whitman.”(snip) And from Lingle’s point of view, moderate Republican candidates such...

(snip) Beyond South Carolina, Graham thinks the GOP should look to all corners of the country, “our pretty deep pool,” for its vice-presidential nominee. The Northeast, he predicts, could be the place to find a leader who balances the ticket. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, he says, would be excellent. Or, if Republicans were looking to Florida, freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, “a good guy, would obviously be very helpful.” Those two names, I say, are obvious. Graham smiles and floats another: Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor. “I know it would create problems on the social side,” he...

Health care remains one of President Barack Obama's greatest political weaknesses. The issue remains an equally serious problem for Republican Mitt Romney. President Obama's program to centralize medical decision-making in Washington remains as unpopular as ever. Insurers are raising premiums and canceling policies. The president's promise that Americans can keep their existing coverage has turned out to be void. Health care providers and insurers are cutting back operations and dropping jobs to comply with the new law. Washington has been forced to issue temporary waivers — over 1400, as of mid-June — to moderate the legislation's impact. Moreover, ObamaCare has...

A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable shows that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain promised to help Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi obtain U.S. military hardware in 2009. The cable, released by the open information group WikiLeaks, reveals the pledge came at meeting that was attended by other prominent members of Congress, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).In the meeting, Muatassim Qadhafi, the Libyan leader’s fifth son and national security adviser, requested U.S. assistance in obtaining military supplies, both lethal and non-lethal. The cable indicates that McCain was the dominant voice among the congressional delegation in a...

LORETTA FUDDY, DIRECTOR OF HEALTH, STATE OF HAWAII’S MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFF’S EMERGENCY EX-PARTE MOTION FOR EMERGENCY ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE AND TO COMPEL ATTENDANCE FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS AND FOR ATTORNEY’S FEES AND COSTS Complete Opposition posted...

Perry is Bush lite and Sarah Palin in a skirt Todd J. Gillman August 7, 2011 GOP consultant Alex Castellanos dumped all over Gov. Rick Perry this morning on NBC's Meet the Press, calling him "Sarah Palin with a skirt" and a lesser version of George W. Bush - and not in a good way. "He has some challenges. One of them is that people think he's a little bit of a coffee table book. He's kind of Sarah Palin with a skirt. Not a substantive candidate," Castellanos said when host Dick Gregory asked if Perry could give the current...

With one day to go before his Houston prayer rally, Texas Gov. Rick Perry dropped hints about his potential presidential bid, telling Christian Broadcast Network that God will have a hand in his presidential decision. "I have no idea what God's plans are for me but I'm gonna try to be as faithful to him as I can be. I know I will fail as I have often but the good news is we have a forgiving God and I try to follow His directions," Perry said in an interview. "God's got a great sense of humor, I know that...

Polls indicating that the Republican Party is moving further to the right are leaving a large faction of moderate Republicans feeling disenchanted with the party’s conservative drift, reports The Boston Globe. In 2010, some of the GOP’s most outspoken leaders helped propel Republican candidates into power in the House. The tea party movement was influential in securing this takeover. But Gallup poll findings to be released Friday indicate that the GOP’s conservative shift is isolating its moderate wing, the Globe reported. Self-described moderates made up almost one-third of the Republican Party just 10 years ago. Now, that fraction has dropped...

(snip) MCCAIN: ... just wants to spend money. Hello? He just wants to spend more money. You and I are -- remember when Ronald Reagan said the worst deal he ever made was when he sat down with the Democrats and said they would cut spending $3 and raise taxes for every $1. Guess what? They raised taxes and they didn’t cut spending. That’s why the Tea Partiers and others would – I’m not a Tea Partier -- but the fact is, we need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We couldn’t get it through the Senate as the...

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.), a Republican presidential candidate, called Saturday morning for Republicans and the Tea Party to stop fighting and work together to help save the country, presumably from Democratic policies, although he was not specific. "On the right, take note," McCotter said on the House floor. "It is as unwarranted and injurious for a Republican to call a Tea Partier a hobbit as it is for a Tea Partier to call a Republican a RINO."McCotter was referring to a comment earlier this month from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who compared Tea Partiers to hobbits. That sparked rebukes from...

So the debt limit debate has come to this: John McCain, who you may recall was the GOP’s 2008 standard bearer, is now openly accusing conservatives of actively misleading America with their completely unrealistic demands, which he labeled “deceiving” and “bizarro.” In a seminal moment in this debate, here’s some video of McCain on the Senate floor today, unleashing an angry tirade at conservatives who are still holding out for a balanced budget amendment as part of any compromise on the debt ceiling. McCain accused them of “deceiving” America into believing such a thing can pass the Senate:

Sen. John McCain ruffled America’s already disheveled political feathers today with a Senate floor rant mocking the Tea Party’s position on the debt ceiling debate comparing them to hobbits and disparaging them for turning Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into Republican nominees. Unsurprisingly, Sean Hannity had a bone to pick with the senator tonight on those comments, and on his opinion that the Republicans will get the blame for a debt default if they do not compromise. Hannity came out swinging at Sen. McCain, wondering why the senator had turned on the Tea Party– “why not attack the President?” Sen....

SALT LAKE CITY — Former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, a top supporter and adviser of Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney, strenuously backed the core piece of President Barack Obama’s health-care law and urged the states to move forward together in adopting health insurance exchanges. Speaking to a bipartisan group of governors at the National Governors Association, the former Republican governor who served as secretary of health and human services in the Bush administration, called the exchanges where individuals and small businesses can purchase health plans “a very practical solution to a problem that needs to be solved.”

There are “too many people” in the room to work out a deal to raise the debt ceiling, House Speaker John Boehner complained on Thursday night as negotiations between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans stay stuck in a stalemate. “Whatever gets suggested, it gets debated to no end,” the Ohio Republican said on Fox News’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “The room’s too big. You know, too many people are in there trying to negotiate what is a very difficult — could be and will be a very difficult agreement. And there’s just too many people in...

A plan by the Senate's two top leaders to allow President Obama to raise the debt limit without congressional approval is emerging as the most likely strategy to avoid a looming federal default. The plan being drafted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada would lock in roughly $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years — a figure considerably smaller than Republican leaders or President Obama had been seeking. Administration officials have said they still would prefer a more sweeping deal on the deficit, but they signaled the idea...

Sarah Palin and Rick Perry Ready to Challenge Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney? By Thomas Costello July 12, 2011 12:01 PM GMT Rick Perry could be close to announcing his candidacy for GOP presidential nomination just hours after it was revealed that Sarah Palin could also be ready to announce her nomination for the presidential nomination. The decision from Rick Perry comes off the back of a report that suggests Republican donors are not willing to back Michele Bachmann or Mitt Romney and they want both Sarah Palin and Rick Perry to stand to give the Republican party the greatest...

(Washington, DC) -- Republican congressional leaders are reportedly agreeing to billions of dollars in revenue increases as federal deficit discussions continue. Republican Senator Jon Kyl announced the move today saying revenue increases don't necessarily mean tax hikes. On the Senate floor Kyl said, quote, "If the government sells something and gets revenue from it, that's revenue." He also suggested user fees for government services could provide additional revenue. He says all the revenue increases Republicans have agreed to amount to between 150 billion and 200 billion dollars.

Republicans have agreed to $150 bln-$200 bln in increased tax revenues in budget talks: Senator Kyl

July 3, 2011 2 Republicans Open Door to Increases in Revenue By JOHN M. BRODER WASHINGTON — Two senior Republicans said Sunday that they might be open to raising new government revenue as part of a deal to resolve the dispute over the federal debt ceiling, but they warned that there was little time to enact a comprehensive deal. One of the senators, John Cornyn of Texas, said he would consider eliminating some tax breaks and corporate subsidies in the context of changes in the tax code, provided there was not an overall increase in taxes. “I think it’s clear...

For 25 years, war has fortified — and nearly destroyed — the ties binding John McCain and John F. Kerry. (snip) Concerned about what they see as an isolationist and fearful drift in both of their parties, Kerry (D-Mass.) and McCain (R-Ariz.) are advocating an even more forceful role for America in the world. (snip) Kerry and McCain are leading the fight in Congress to shore up support for U.S. action in Libya... (snip) The elder statesmen are also hoping to forge something resembling a Marshall Plan for the Middle East... (snip) But the Kerry-McCain partnership was derailed when Kerry...

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Thursday the survival of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime could spell the end of NATO. “Logically you can exact that if he [Gadhafi] outlasts NATO, the Arab spring is over,” said Graham. "…He will take it out on his people, I think it will affect the price of oil and would be the end of NATO because NATO taking on Gadhafi and losing -- its going to be very hard for that organization to go off to another war and be taken seriously.” Speaking on the Senate floor, Graham and...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that any Republican-backed plan to raise more government revenue would have to come from eliminating subsidies and tax deductions, not by raising taxes. "No one on the Republican side is going to vote to raise taxes, but I think many of us would look at flattening the tax code, doing away with deductions and exemptions and take that revenue and help pay off the debt," said Graham on NBC's "Meet the Press."

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The long-awaited golf showdown between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner is underway this morning: The pair, along with with Vice President Joe Biden and GOP Ohio Gov. John Kasich, hit the links around 10 a.m. Saturday at Joint Base Andrews.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that it’s time to consider international intervention in Syria to avoid the further “slaughter” of people there by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. “If it made sense to protect the Libyan people against Gadhafi, and it did because they were going to get slaughtered if we hadn’t sent NATO in when he was on the outskirts of Benghazi, the question for the world [is], have we gotten to that point in Syria,” Graham said on the CBS' "Face the Nation."

Gov. John Kasich has a special round of golf coming up. Kasich will join President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner as the fourth member in a golf foursome that will take to the links June 18. Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols confirmed Kasich's place in the foursome, and the Cincinnati-area Republican Boehner said as much on his Twitter account. Obama and Boehner, both avid golfers, scheduled the golf outing to smooth over some of their differences as they seek a compromise over raising the national debt limit and cutting spending.

As the deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling approaches, House Republicans are discussing a temporary extension of the cap so the country can avoid default and they can continue to negotiate large spending cuts with the White House, the FOX Business Network has learned. The discussions among key Republican staffers are by no means written in stone, according to people with knowledge of the matter. But they do reflect the tightrope Republicans must walk if they don’t reach an agreement with the Obama Administration. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said that if the ceiling isn’t raised by August...

'We cannot fight Obama when we have to fight those who are supposed to be allies.' BY BOB UNRUH The Tea Party Nation, one of the largest groups in the tea party movement that rocked the 2010 elections, ejecting California Rep. Nancy Pelosi from her seat of power and electing a Republican majority in the U.S. House, earlier said that new Republican House Speaker John Boehner should be replaced because of his unwillingness to crack the whip on federal spending. Now Tea Party Nation leaders say they can't wait that long to seek his exit. "Three months ago, TPN called...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said he met in recent weeks with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as Giuliani mulls a second run for president. Giuliani said on conservative talker Sean Hannity's radio show that he'd met recently with McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee, and come away with the conclusion that it'd be better to focus on primary states if he were to run again.Giuliani's campaign is widely seen to have stumbled because of his focus on the Republican primary in Florida, at the expense of earlier, traditional contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. By the...

Here we go again, Rudy Giuliani edition. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll shows the former New York City mayor atop the slow-forming Republican primary field. The survey shows Giuliani getting 16 percent of independents and Republicans, with nominal frontrunner Mitt Romney a point behind at 15 percent. Sarah Palin gets 13 percent.

(snip) Shortly after Obama’s speech, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters that he is prepared to go out on a limb for the president to support his plan for investing billions of dollars to spur democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. “I am willing to take the bruises and stand by Obama to engage countries like Egypt and Tunisia and stay involved in Libya and finish the job in Iraq,” Graham said. “I am willing to take American dollars at a time when we’re flat broke, go back home and suffer the consequences of sending aid to Egypt...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that he strongly supports a federal mandate requiring citizens to buy health insurance – a position that has been rejected by many Republicans, including several who likely will be running against him for the Republican presidential nomination. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gingrich told host David Gregory that he continues to advocate for a plan he first called for in the early 1990s as a Congressman, which requires every uninsured citizen to purchase or acquire health insurance. Read more on Newsmax.com: Gingrich Backs Obamacare's Individual Mandate Requiring Health Insurance Important: Do You...

The U.S. Senate today overcame a Republican filibuster and approved a former Planned Parenthood abortion business director, John McConnell, as a federal judge in Rhode Island. Senators voted 63-33 to surpass the 60-vote threshold necessary to stop the filibuster and approve the nomination of McConnell’s nomination to the District Court for the District of Rhode Island. his nomination previously cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee recently on a party-line 11-7 vote. Senate Republicans joining all Democrats to end debate included Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins of Maine, Lyndsey Graham of South Carolina, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Mark Kirk of Illinois,...

(snip) On the US political front, McCain said he was relieved that the “birther” issue -- a reference to doubts raised by the right wing about whether US President Barack Obama was born in the United States as required of US presidents under the Constitution -- had been buried with the release on Wednesday of the president's long-form birth certificate. “We have unemployment to deal with, and we have wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” McCain said, calling the birther issue “a silly distraction”.(snip)

(snip) "I reminded them that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reimbursed us after Operation Desert Storm," McCain says. "They said they'd be glad to discuss that.(snip) "They're very good people," he says. "Mainly well-educated, a number of women in the [Transitional National Council] -- very normal, dedicated people." (snip) McCain dismissed concerns that rebel forces include some veterans of al Qaeda. "I'm sure that there may be some element there, but I guarantee you that they didn't rise up because they wanted to be al Qaeda fighters," McCain says. "They rose up because they wanted to throw off the yoke of...

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) its April 2011 Porker of the Month for threatening to bring the Senate to a standstill over a $40,000 earmark for a federal study on deepening the port of Charleston. The study would investigate the effectiveness of deepening the port from 47 feet to 50 feet, an improvement that Sen. Graham claims will allow it to accommodate the types of ships that will “dominate shipping lanes” in the future. The earmark began as a $400,000 request that was rejected by the Senate Appropriations Committee in October, 2010. There...

Call him the little metrosexual that could. The fussy, fastidious, and pampered senator from South Carolina just keeps chugging along supremely impressed with the face looking out from the mirror in his posh Senate office and his status as the Beltway insiders' favorite Republican. "I'm [...] at the front of the line" for Barack Obama on Capitol Hill, he brags to the New York Times, which describes his "delight" in letting "people know" how important he is. After all, he is Lindsey Graham and he is Washington, nestled among the Beltway's palace courtiers like a flea on a Carolina Dog....

BENGHAZI, Libya, April 22 (UPI) -- Demonstrators waving American flags were on hand Friday morning when U.S. Sen. John McCain arrived in the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi. McCain's visit came one day after the Pentagon announced that Barack President Obama had authorized the use of armed U.S. Predator drones in Libya, CNN reported. "The American people support you very strongly and we know it's necessary to help as much as we can," McCain told a crowd of about 100 Libyans.

Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) applauded his state's governor, Jan Brewer (R), Monday for vetoing a controversial "birther" bill. The legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, would have required presidential candidates to prove their citizenship to be included on the state's ballot.  McCain, President Obama's GOP opponent in 2008, tweeted: Proud of @GovBrewer for her veto of the "birther bill" - it was the right decision. The bill stemmed from suspicions of some of Obama's opponents that he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is thus ineligible to be commander in chief. McCain's...

Sen. Susan Collins is part of a renewed bid to pass a bipartisan bill protecting against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Maine Republican is a lead co-sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, along with Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Harkin of Iowa and Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois.

Washington (CNN) – Though Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe hasn't drawn a Democratic challenger yet, she's plenty prepared for a re-election battle. According to fundraising numbers for the first quarter released Monday, Maine's third term senator has over $2 million in cash on hand. Snowe raised $877,019 in the first quarter of 2011 and spent $62,433 on her 2012 U.S. Senate campaign. She will report $2,050,053 in cash on hand 17 months before the Senate election, according to numbers released by her office. Snowe for Senate Treasurer Rick Bennett said, "It's a good start for her campaign fundraising effort. The total...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday evening that he and a group of negotiators have “nailed down” language on a Libya resolution and are waiting for instructions from leadership on how to proceed. The measure would serve as a symbolic gesture of support for President Barack Obama’s use of military force in the North African country. Under the War Powers Act, Congress must authorize continued military presence in Libya after a May deadline if American troops are still active there, but it’s unclear if the Senate needs to act. “We pretty well got the resolution nailed down and now we’re...