Free Republic

(snip) The bill to watch will come from Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee. Schumer, who has been working with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), has already set out principles for reform that include rigorous workplace and border enforcement, a realistic assessment of the nation's need for skilled and unskilled labor, a commitment to controlling the future flow of illegal immigration and bringing millions of people away from the edges of society. The Schumer-Graham proposals have promise; we hope 2010 will see the immigration reform the nation so badly needs. (snip)

(snip) SAMUELSON: If John McCain had won, would there be more bipartisanship?HOLTZ-EAKIN: I think so. One reason is mechanical: it would have been a Republican president and a Democratic Congress. You have to operate in a more bipartisan fashion. It's also about style. McCain is more willing to disappoint Republicans than Obama is to disappoint Democrats.(snip)

This week the Senate grinches stole Christmas. The Obama Nation is getting Obamacare. It’s easy to blame the sixty Democrats, as the Wall Street Journal does, for "the worse bill ever." It solemnly declares: "These 60 Democrats are creating a future of epic increases in spending, taxes and command--and control regulation." True enough. But what's the root cause of this permanent disaster? Sorry, friends, but it’s not the Democrats, nor the American people who elected them. The real culprits are two Republicans who ran the show the previous eight years: George W. Bush and his "master political strategist" Karl Rove....

The next time you read an article of how Mccain has become the leading voice of opposition you remember this video and vote this traitor and RINOS like him out of office. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6YKOkfFsE&feature=fvw

Barack Obama began his presidency with an open hand toward the man he had just defeated in a race that was at times bitter. "There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain," said Obama at an inauguration-eve tribute dinner to his former foe. But in the year since that evening of comity and collegiality, McCain has emerged as one of the leading critics of the new president. On foreign policy, his traditional area of expertise, and domestic affairs, where McCain has shown new passion, the 72-year-old Arizonan is making it...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has his facts wrong in criticizing the health care plan Romney instituted in his state. Pawlenty has repeatedly pointed to the Massachusetts plan of his potential rival for the 2012 Republican nomination as the perfect example of how not to do health care reform. The Minnesota governor has made that case in numerous interviews, speeches and op-eds that, while not focused on the Massachusetts program, make his criticism of it clear. Presented with a clip of Pawlenty arguing that the Massachusetts plan did not come close to meeting...

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power would be part of the mix, that clean coal would be part of the mix, that he’s for offshore drilling in a responsible way,” Graham said today in describing his Oval Office meeting with Obama. “But we have to have a price on carbon,...

(snip) “Why did I do this? I want my time to count. I want to be seen as someone who can solve a hard problem by working with my colleagues across the aisle. I want to do something that matters. I can’t think of a better use of my time than to work with Democrats and Republicans to break our dependency on foreign oil, to create jobs for our next generation of Americans that will never go to China. And yes, leave behind a cleaner planet.” (snip)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senators on Tuesday gave a boost to next week's global environmental summit in Copenhagen, with a senior Democrat advocating more U.S. funding of climate change efforts by poor nations and a key Republican calling for quick action on a U.S. climate bill. Democratic Senator John Kerry, a leading advocate of climate control legislation in Congress, recommended that the Obama administration include $3 billion in next year's budget to help fund efforts to address global warming. This year's funding is about one third that amount. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the few Republicans willing to negotiate with...

(CNN) -- Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Christian leaders last week issued a bold political statement. They intended to target the Obama administration. Inadvertently, they may have also hit probable Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney ought to rank atop the Republican candidates for president in 2012. He finished second in votes cast in the primaries of 2008. He is a candidate with immense private-sector economic expertise in a time of urgent economic debate. But Romney has a political problem: his Mormon religious faith. A Gallup survey in December 2007 found that 18 percent of Republicans would not vote for...

Apparently there are still some posters on FR who are fast asleep. Wake up! Dammit! We are in the middle of a conservative rebellion! While you were sleeping we, along with millions of other freedom loving grassroots Americans have participated in hundreds of tea parties all across this great land and fully intend to keep it up until all of America is awake. We are fed up and mad as hell! We grassroots Americans are delivering a message to the ruling class: NO MORE!! No more big government! No more high taxes! No more government bailouts! No more government takeovers!...

(snip) Trey Grayson, a Republican candidate for US Senate, was the keynote speaker on the issue of global warming last year at Eastern Kentucky University as part of the National Focus the Nation event. Now, why is that such a big deal? Well, the Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for Focus the Nation is none other than Van Jones. Yes, that's right, the self-proclaimed communist Obama hired to be the Green Jobs Czar that had to tuck tail and resign at midnight. WHOA Now, let's back up a bit. Here's a bit of history on Focus the...

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is unlikely to run in a GOP primary against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), let alone win, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday. Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said he expects the former congressman, who's been mulling a primary challenge to McCain's right next year, to carry on his activities as host of a radio show, and not as a candidate.

(snip) The Republican senator did say that Obama is charismatic, adding that “he is able to inspire, and I admire that talent.” “Obama gave the world the message that the United States wants to cooperate,” he said. (snip)

Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...

<p>In her new book, according to the Associated Press, Sarah Palin alleges that the McCain campaign gave her a $500,000 bill to pay for the campaign vetting her for the VP nod. She also makes the charge that the McCain camp said they would have paid all the bills had they won, but since they lost, the bills were her responsibility.</p>

(snip) Although some in the party believe that it should be tilting right in whom to support in future elections, he said, "I will be by and large supporting conservative Republicans" but would not rule out backing some moderates, referencing former President Reagan. "He was the one who coined the term 'the big tent.' He also said that you don't build something by subtraction. So we welcome people who agree with us on most issues. Some will be very conservative on some issues. Some will be less so on others. We welcome you into the party." (snip) "We have a...

Even as a Senate global-warming bill remained in limbo with Democrats refusing to delay a committee vote until an economic analysis was completed, hopes rose for a potential bipartisan compromise. The Senate, meanwhile, appears to be moving away from the bill, authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., which would require a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 and would have the government sell the right to emit carbon dioxide. Even as Boxer conducted an unusual one-sided hearing on her bill in the Environment and Public Works Committee, Kerry, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and...

Even before a Senate committee could begin marking up the "Kerry-Boxer" climate bill, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) himself announced a new "track" of negotiations over climate policy that makes his original bill look somewhat irrelevant. Kerry, appearing at the U.S. Capitol with Sens. Lindsay O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), said the three legislators would work with business groups and the White House to forge a compromise climate measure that could get 60 votes in the Senate. These negotiations would be separate from the work that six different Senate committees are doing on climate legislation, including the...

Senator Lieberman’s threat to filibuster the health-care bill isn’t a betrayal of the Democratic Party, says Meghan McCain—it’s a sign of courage. And we need more of it. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN A few weeks ago, I gave a speech at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and one of the questions I was asked was: Aside from your father, who are your favorite senators and politicians? Without hesitation, I said that I admire South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman. Now before my fellow Republicans start panicking at my fondness for two independent, moderate, and dare I say maverick...

Republican Dede Scozzafava endorsed her former Democratic opponent Sunday in the race for an upstate New York congressional seat, one day after Scozzafava dropped out of the contest. Scozzafava dropped out after Conservative Party candidate Dough Hoffman experienced a late-in-the-game surge. But on Sunday, Scozzafava backed Democrat Bill Owens -- the announcement was made in a statement send out by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same," she said. "In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is once again making headlines by publicly pondering a 2012 presidential bid. Yesterday, as Politics Daily and Politico report, Gingrich talked about a possible bid on CSPAN's Washington Journal. In the interview, Gingrich said he would make the decision in February of 2011 and that probably would run if he and his wife, Callista, decided that they feel "a requirement as citizens that we run," which would be based on how they asses the other candidates running for the Republican nomination. "We are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country,"...

Senator John McCain made clear that he and the Republican Party should send the message that they support whatever President Obama's strategy in Afghanistan ends up being, rather than send messages that the U.S. is "waffling" or "dithering." In response to former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent remarks, in which he said, "signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," McCain said, "I wouldn't use that language." Speaking Wednesday evening while accepting an award from the conservative Center for Security Policy, Cheney said, "The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in...

Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R-N.Y.) brought two female GOP lawmakers with her on the campaign trail today after a week in which several national Republicans endorsed Conservative Party challenger Doug Hoffman. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) joined Scozzafava today at a campaign event. Ex-Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), arguably the Republican Party's most visible woman, endorsed Hoffman this week. Most conservatives have shied away from Scozzafava or endorsed Hoffman, arguing that she holds too many liberal positions.

Democrats once flirted with running Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava for the seat Rep. John McHugh will soon vacate in NY-23, but now that she's a leading contender for the GOP nod, they are rushing to bolster conservative concerns about her alleged tax troubles. Soon-to-be-former state Democratic Chairwoman June O'Neill today confirmed reports that Scozzafava's husband, an upstate labor leader, talked with key local Democrats and union heads about the possibility of his wife running on Row A if the party's presumed first choice, state Sen. Darrel Aubertine, takes a pass. "Her husband spoke with several Democratic officials and, you know,...

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) endorsed GOP special-election candidate Dede Scozzafava on Monday, saying a vote for her Conservative Party opponent is tantamount to a vote for the Democrats in the close 23rd Congressional District race in New York. . . . . . In a statement, King made the case that voting for Hoffman will only help Democrat Bill Owens win. "Dede is the only Republican candidate in this race, and the only candidate with a proven record that Republicans can trust in Washington," King said. "A vote for either of her opponents is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and...

WEST VALLEY CITY — The head of the Republican National Committee said Friday he believes voters may have moved beyond the bias against Mormonism that hurt Mitt Romney in last year's presidential election. Speaking to reporters after a town hall meeting at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, Michael Steele said comments he made earlier this year about Romney being rejected by the GOP base because of his faith were "old news." "I was speaking to an attitude or a mindset at the time that I thought was unfortunate and I said that I think (Romney) proved just how unfortunate it...

Fox News host, garage band cover guitarist, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will be making a long-planned speech before the New York Conservative Party in Syracuse, New York on October 28, but has thus far declined to say whether he will formally endorse or financially support Conservative Party House candidate Doug Hoffman, who is running to fill former Rep. John McHugh's 23rd Congressional District seat. Most Republican Party leaders have thus far taken a pass in endorsing Hoffman, who has the support of the conservative Club for Growth, as well as the American Conservative Union. House minority leader John...

An off year special election in upstate New York has received a lot of attention and created a bit of a spilt among Republicans. The vacancy was created when Rep. John McHugh was appointed as Secretary of the Army in September of this year. Controversy has since been brewing since the New York Republican Party choose to forgo a typical primary election and instead have the eleven county chairman within the district nominate moderate Republican State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava. Scozzafava policy positions, particularly her pro-abortion and pro-gay rights positions, quickly troubled conservatives within the district leading many to instead support...

The Republican National Committee is making its first large financial commitment to the party's candidate in a New York special election, fighting back criticism that the party has allowed Democrats to jump to an early lead. The RNC will give $85,000 to the coordinated campaign efforts, the maximum allowed by federal law. And the RNC will give the New York state Republican Party what a source described as a six-figure transfer in order to run more advertising on behalf of Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R). Meanwhile, the RNC has sent two paid staffers to help Scozzafava's campaign, and it has committed...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend and ally of Sen. John McCain, is now going a step further, Democrats say, and actually becoming the new McCain. Senior members of the majority party say the South Carolina Republican has displaced his Arizona mentor as the dealmaker on two big agenda items of the Obama administration: climate change and immigration. As McCain, on the heels of his presidential election defeat, has distanced himself from Democrats, Graham has moved in to fill the vacuum.

Although Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) vowed this week to introduce comprehensive immigration reform next month, his Senate counterparts expected to take the lead on the issue aren’t heeding a similar timeline. “That’s new to me,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Gutierrez’s announcement, made Tuesday at an immigration rally on Capitol Hill. “I’ve been talking to Sen. Schumer, and we hope to get something done that’s comprehensive,” Graham added. “We just don’t know when yet.”Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, has been meeting periodically with Graham to discuss ideas on immigration,...

Video at link.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has held a series of meetings in Washington with leading Democrats and Republicans on the issue of US immigration reform. Senior Republican Senator John McCain said he was still committed to a comprehensive deal. He said he hoped Congress would address the issue early next year. Senator McCain also said he was particularly anxious to resolve the difficulties facing up to 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US.

Those angry town hall meetings are back. Last night, at a forum at Furman University, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was pilloried by protesters for his decision to back Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and for his support for climate change legislation. During the 75-minute event, one man told Graham he had “betrayed” conservatism and made a “pact with the devil” by working with Democrats, and asked when the senator planned to change parties. . . . . . Maybe what really ticked off the conservatives was when Graham argued that the problem should be addressed as soon as...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - Efforts by U.S. Senate Democrats to persuade Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to endorse their climate legislation may take a bit longer. Democrats have spent months reaching out to McCain through Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. The outreach appeared likely to step up after McCain's friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the weekend became the first Republican this year to sign on to a bipartisan climate-change plan.

See link. I can not excerpt one line.

... [W]e have come together to put forward proposals that address legitimate concerns among Democrats and Republicans and the other constituencies with stakes in this legislation. We’re looking for a new beginning, informed by the work of our colleagues and legislation that is already before Congress. First, we agree that climate change is real and threatens our economy and national security. That is why we are advocating aggressive reductions in our emissions of the carbon gases that cause climate change. We will minimize the impact on major emitters through a market-based system that will provide both flexibility and time for...

A top Senate Republican on Sunday announced his support for sweeping climate change legislation, disputing the "conventional wisdom" that says Congress simply cannot tackle the issue this year. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., co-authored an op-ed with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in The New York Times calling for action on legislation. Kerry rolled out a Senate climate change bill alongside Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., late last month. A Graham aide said Sunday that the South Carolina Republican was not explicitly endorsing that bill, but stands ready to work with Kerry toward some version of legislation to combat global warming. Though even...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe says she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, breaking with her party on President Barack Obama's top legislative priority. The Maine senator kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote until she announced it late in the Senate Finance Committee debate Tuesday. Until then, she told reporters, she had not even let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in on her secret. She told her colleagues: "When history calls, history calls," even though she had some criticism of the bill.

Gov. Charlie Crist and his ``stimulus czar'' said Friday that a recent federal report supports Florida's go-slow approach to spending federal recovery money earmarked for highway projects and schools. Even so, Florida's overall stimulus spending is a bit ahead of schedule, said czar Don Winstead, whose official title is special advisor to the governor on economic stimulus. Federal officials in February said they expected the state to spend about 20 percent of its estimated $15 billion in stimulus money by the end of September. ``I think we will be ahead of that schedule,'' Winstead said. ``We are seeing rapid deployment...

Huckabee warns Republicans on Nobel reaction Posted: October 9th, 2009 12:20 PM ET From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney (CNN) – Mike Huckabee is advising his fellow Republicans to temper their criticism of President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award. In a posting on his blog, the former GOP presidential candidate writes that members of his party must be careful their comments don't sound like "right-wing whining." "There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama's nomination, made two weeks into his presidency, is impossible to justify, but I think such an outcry will...

(snip) Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty — both potential 2012 presidential contenders — urged restraint. "There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama's nomination, made two weeks into his Presidency, is impossible to justify, but I think such an outcry will sound like right-wing whining," Huckabee said in a statement. "The better response is simply to allow those on the left to explain what he did in his first two weeks as President that merited such recognition." Pawlenty, speaking on NPR, said there "will be some people who are saying 'Was it based...

The nominee in a looming House special election is at the heart of an angry dispute between conservatives and Republican House leadership, a rift so serious that it threatens the party’s chances of keeping control of the upstate New York seat. At issue is the National Republican Congressional Committee’s support for Dede Scozzafava, a New York assemblywoman who conservatives assert is so liberal that they absolutely cannot support her candidacy. Instead, many conservative groups are rallying behind Doug Hoffman, a third-party candidate running on the Conservative Party line, even though their support for him might pave the way for a...

(CNN) — Arizona Sen. John McCain said Friday the Nobel Committee's decision to award President Obama the Peace Prize was likely based on expectations, not accomplishments. "I can't divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations," McCain told CNN's John King. "And I'm sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to." But Obama's former rival for the White House said he was happy with the decision.

Senator McCain's daughter Meghan was in Amherst on Wednesday night. She talked to the UMass-Amherst Republican Club about her life in the spot light. Meghan McCain is famous in her own right for blogging and writing a column while her father ran for office. She talked about health care reform, gay rights and creating a more civil discourse between Republicans and Democrats. She also Glen Beck and Sarah Palin.

With every month's release of bad unemployment numbers, Americans must feel like Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day. The 263,000 lost jobs in September and the rise in the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent was far worse than forecast. What's clear is that the stimulus bill as crafted has not worked. President Obama sold the stimulus as an immediate boost to the economy that would keep unemployment below eight percent. Rather than put the economy on sound footing, it has ushered in a new era of big government. Now the liberal voices in Congress will grow for yet another stimulus...

Many FR threads have included the infamous picture of John McCain, teeth-gritted and looking at "somebody" with pure hatred and contempt. In fact, the picture has been seen by many as strong evidence of McCain's personality 'flaw', and certainly it's representative of that. But what's MISSING from the picture is at least as important as the picture itself. Here's a best-available full view -- but you still can't see the full context. Who's the object of McCain's nasty grimace? -- well, you can't see it in the picture. For those not aware, the "object" was none other than -- candidate...

There hasn't been a more controversial piece of Congressional and Senate legislation than the proposed health care program in my memory. In spite of polls revealing a majority of Americans oppose the current health care proposals, the Democrats are pushing hard to pass their legislation as quickly as possible. The American people are seeking to have their voices heard through their elected officials including conservatives, but the US Senate appears to be oblivious to that fact — including Republican senators such as Iowa's Chuck Grassley. Rather than fighting this attempt at an oppressive government takeover of the private sector, Senator...

Lightning-rod talker Glenn Beck is taking a hit from an unexpected source. The Fox News host isn't aligned with any political party, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday, Beck is "aligned with cynicism." And, the South Carolina Republican added, America isn't a nation of cynics. Graham, who spoke at The First Draft of History conference sponsored by The Atlantic, also took at shot at "birthers." He said those who question President Obama's citizenship or claim he's a secret Muslim are "crazy" -- and he urged them to "knock this crap off." Graham's remarks came a day after the White House took...