Free Republic

The biggest donors in the Republican Party are financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party’s efforts to win control of the Senate. The group, the Conservative Victory Project, is intended to counter other organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates over the last two election cycles. It is the most robust attempt yet by Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party, particularly in primary races. “There is a broad concern about having blown...

Recently on his radio show Rush Limbaugh discussed an article which stated that there is no respected voice in the national arena articulating Conservatism. Such an advocate for Conservatism is crucial to reversing the direction of America as Obama drives us toward socialism while low-info voters gleefully sing Kumbaya in the backseat. Well excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but we had an extraordinary advocate for Conservatism and look what happened to her. Judas on our side betrayed her – sold her reputation for 30 seconds of fame and favor with the media. Even now, folks on our side...

I’m sorry Fox cancelled all my scheduled interviews tonight because I sure wanted to take the opportunity on the air to highlight Senator John McCain’s positive contributions to America, to honor him, and to reflect on what a biased media unfairly put him through four years ago tonight. Granted, our honored and esteemed war hero has gone through much more than the liberal media can ever do to him in their efforts to harm this patriot. I look forward to hearing his words to his fellow Americans tonight more than any of the other convention speeches. God bless John McCain....

The GOP attacks on Palin.   After the Inauguration of Obama, the first time that the manhood of the GOP was called into question was the Stimulus package.  Rick Santelli was so upset with it that he issued his now famous diatribe calling for something like a national tea party.  A long simmering emotion within conservative ranks now had a name. Meanwhile, back in Alaska, Sarah Palin's return to work involved dealing with these stimulus package issues, and she did what she felt that she must.  She took those which were appropriate, but turned away those that weren't.  This was...

Newt Gingrich hinted he may withdraw from the presidential race if he has a poor showing in the Delaware primary Tuesday – "I think we need to take a deep look at what we are doing...We will be in North Carolina tomorrow night and we will look and see what the results are." "This has been a good opportunity for us, we have been here seeing a lot of people,” Gingrich said. “We have got really positive responses and I would hope we would do well here – either carry it or come very, very close." ..."Romney is clearly the...

The future of Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign seems to hinge on the Delaware primary early next week. "Tuesday is a big day," a source close to the Gingrich campaign told NBC News. "Newt is just waiting to see what happens on Tuesday." Up until now, Gingrich has promised to take his campaign all the way to the Republican convention in Tampa at the end of the summer, although the odds are not in his favor. The former House speaker has been spending the majority of his time the past three weeks in the First State. Gingrich has made at least...

Former Governor Mitt Romney is already offering top donors access to a special "Presidential Inaugural retreat," planned on the assumption that he will be elected president this November. The offer, in a fundraising email circulated by a top Georgia supporter to fellow Republicans and obtained by BuzzFeed, is one of several goodies offered to those who contribute more than $50,000 to the joint fundraising committee known as "Romney Victory," a program whose outlines were first reported by POLITICO. Those donors will be named "Founding Members" of Romney Victory and invited to a California retreat with Romney and offered "yet to...

The Newt Gingrich campaign found itself in a state of confusion Friday night when reports surfaced that Gingrich would cancel all of his stops in North Carolina next week, fueling suggestions that Gingrich would be suspending his campaign. But the campaign says nothing is happening. Two people close to the Gingrich campaign told ABC News they were contacted and told all of Gingrich’s North Carolina stops had been canceled, although R.C. Hammond, communications director for the campaign, said there was a “communication glitch.” “There was confusion, but we will maintain our North Carolina schedule next week,” Hammond said. One person...

Conservatives shouldn’t fret about the politics of their nearly-presumptive nominee. Mitt Romney will most certainly govern as one of them. He’s guaranteed to — for the exact reason they think he won’t. If Romney really is the political animal his detractors on the right suspect him to be, he’ll shape his presidency with a single goal: Winning a second term. To do that, he will need to make sure there is no running room on his right for someone to launch a primary challenge.

Romney-tied PAC has taste for secrecy [Millions in gifts tied to obscure or shell firms] "Among all the super PACs that have brought a deluge of big-money donations into the presidential nomination race, only the one allied with Mitt Romney has established a pattern of accepting big contributions from corporate entities that tend to obscure the actual source of the money or appear to have been created specifically as vehicles to mask the wealthy donors. Twice, the Restore Our Future super PAC has amended its reports to the Federal Election Commission after media reports indicated that contributions of $1 million...

This video is a remarkable demonstration of why I will NOT vote for this unmitigated Fraud. He is just as fabricated as Barack Obama. But even Obama doesn’t have to pay his drones. That is perhaps the key difference between Obama and Romney. I wouldn't be surprised if Romney's campaign is employing illegal aliens to hold his signs. If he is, I guess we will find out in the general election as another means of exposing his hypocrisy. Obama will have fun pointing out in the debates that he took Romney’s advice on the federal mandate and the media will...

I received this in my email just now. I've never donated to Mitt Romney so I don't know how he reached me. Republican voter rolls? Below is unredacted except for the name. "Yaelle," I wanted to take a moment to let you know about a chance to meet up for lunch. This won’t be just any lunch, though. I’ll be bringing the winner out to California to grab a bite with me at one of my favorite burger places. Donate $5 to be automatically entered for the chance to join me for lunch in California. I know there are a...

The GOP-e is starting to blame the GOP Primary and Newt Gingrich for what they see as a weakened Romney going into the General Election. BLAME Romney! BLAME the GOP Establishment! Newt Gingrich is the only conservative still running in the GOP primary! By employing a drumbeat of damaging headlines, using misleading delegate counts and by calling for him to leave, the GOP-e and their friends in the MSM have hurt Newt but they have not succeeded in knocking him out or silencing the base.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a key supporter of Mitt Romney, received $62,500 in campaign contributions since 2008 from state and federal political committees set up by supporters of Mitt Romney, records show. Funds came from so-called “leadership PACs” in five different states and the nation’s capital. By spreading the funds around, Romney’s supporters were able to give far more than the state limit of $3,500 per election. The contributions came from “Free & Strong America” leadership PACs, run by Romney supporters, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of campaign finance records found. Leadership PACs are separate from campaign committees...

Money may not be buying Mitt Romney much Republican love, but it’s going a long way toward helping him buy the next best thing: endorsements in the GOP primaries. Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC and its affiliates states have lavished close to $1.3 million in campaign donations to federal, state and local GOP politicians, almost all since 2010. His recipients include officials in the major upcoming primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in three southern Super Tuesday states where he was trounced four years ago. In New Hampshire, a U.S. senator, a congressman, 10 state senators...

Audio from Marks show this evening perfectly summing up who Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace are. They earn their living, since losing the McCain campaign, trashing Sarah Palin 24/7. Runs about 4 minutes.

Full tweet: "Think there is some chance Newt could win election day voters in TN...but he was so far back in early voting it may not be enough."

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — As he watched last week's Republican debate from his apartment in University of Michigan's married student housing, Derek Osborne could hardly contain his disgust every time Rick Santorum came on TV. "He represents a part of the Republican party that drives me absolutely crazy," he seethed. Osborne, a Ph.D candidate, is a Mitt Romney supporter. He's also a moderate Republican who is alarmed at what he sees as the anti-intellectual fervor—and undeniable political power—of the Tea Party movement. As the latest candidate to emerge as the main populist rival to Romney, Santorum has become the primary...

About 1,500 people were turned away from pooled Benton County caucuses in Kennewick by event organizers after rooms at the Three Rivers Convention Center reached capacity this morning. Some potential caucus voters said they arrived at 9 a.m. to find the large hallways at the convention center packed to the rafters and were told no more people could enter the caucus rooms. Ray Swenson, a Richland lawyer, criticized local GOP officials for poor organization and said the results today should be invalidated. "I think it's illegal," Swenson shouted to a gathered crowd, many of whom were filming him with cell...

The King County Republican Party says it has received multiple reports of robo calls to voters falsely claiming the Saturday caucuses have been delayed a week. Lisa Shin, executive director of the King County GOP, said the calls came in Friday evening bearing the caller-identification number of the county party headquarters in Bellevue.

The blunders and delays in declaring the winner and allocation of delegates are looking more than coincidental - the more frequently occur. They all benefit Mitt Romney. video)

This is a side comment about something Rush said the other day: Santorum won 57 out of 83 counties. That's an incredible percentage, and it reminds me of the map of the United States, red and blue by county, when you look at that after a presidential race. The whole country is red (signifying Republican) except LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago and Detroit. The Republicans win 80% of America's counties and lose the White House. Santorum won 57 out of 83 counties. And, as of now, Santorum, while losing the popular vote, has won seven...

...Washington— After locking up much of the Republican establishment's heavyweight fundraisers, Mitt Romney is going after the little guy. "Donate $3 today to be automatically entered to be Mitt's special guest for Election Night on Super Tuesday," reads an email appeal from the Romney campaign to supporters. A dramatic new Web video asks for $20 contributions to fight the "Obama Attack Machine." The GOP presidential candidate made a similar solicitation after clinching the Michigan primary Tuesday, with a rare personal plea for people to visit his website and "pledge your support — in every way possible." The pitch reflects a...

The Michigan Republican Party voted to break a delegate tie Wednesday night, awarding 16 delegates to Mitt Romney and 14 to Rick Santorum. The decision, which broke a 15-15 tie that would have resulted under the pre-primary interpretation of the rules, caused disbelief at Rick Santorum’s campaign. A spokesman rejected the decision. Even Romney supporters in the Michigan GOP said the decision was unfair to Santorum. “I have this crazy idea that you follow the rules,” said former Attorney General Mike Cox said after a 4-2 vote by a Michigan GOP credentialing committee, according to the AP. “I’d love to...

....When CNN returned to the Santorum speech, the candidate was gracious in defeat, humble and inspiring. He had a large crowd gathered along with his wife and members of his family. They were all clearly enthused and not overtly disappointed or discouraged. After thanking all who made his surprising showing possible, he returned to overriding theme of his campaign, Freedom. Next Tuesday is called "Super Tuesday" for a lot of reasons. Rick Santorum may just add one more reason by again surprising the political establishment. The political "left" knows that Rick Santorum is a formidable candidate from a working class...

Here's a great way to visualize former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's inability to inspire Republican primary voters: Imagine the candidate delivering a major speech at a pro football stadium. Now picture that instead of 65,000 cheering supporters, his actual audience is about 1,200 people seated quietly on the field directly in front of him. Unfortunately for Mr. Romney, no one needs to imagine that scenario. It's what actually happened today at Detroit's Ford Field. Instead of the major economic address promised by his campaign; the small audience was subjected to the same old policy ideas, quips and nervous laughter we've...

In Michigan, Santorum supporters planted hundreds of campaign signs in Shelby Township prior to Mitt Romney’s appearance today. Some of these signs were planted alongside sidewalks and roadways across from and surrounding the Romney campaign stop. Approximately two hours before the scheduled event, Romney campaign staffers, including Dennis Lennox of Topinabee, MI, began planting Romney signs in front of the location. Around the same time, several other people, who refused to identify themselves, began uprooting hundreds of Santorum signs along the roadway leading to the event. Signs placed at a commercial intersection were also removed. When asked to explain his...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is drawing a disproportionately high amount of campaign funds from people who have given him the legal maximum, weakening his ability to raise money from such proven donors as the GOP nomination fight drags on. Far more than his three rivals, Mr. Romney has tapped these large donors to build his campaign fund. To date, about two-thirds of his money has come from donors who have given him $2,500, the legal limit for a primary campaign, according to the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan research organization. By contrast, about 18% of Rick Santorum's money has...

What’s the prescription for a famously brilliant venture capitalist who has trouble connecting with blue-collar voters in his native state? How about bringing in a far more controversial venture capitalist who’s claim to recent fame is in firing people on national television? What could go wrong?With just over a week to go before Michigan voters head to the polls, Mitt Romney is enlisting the help of one of his highest-wattage surrogates: Donald Trump. The real estate mogul is preparing to spread his pro-Romney, anti-Rick Santorum message in a series of radio interviews this week on local stations from Traverse City...

[Big SNIP] ....If Romney can't win, he'll be certain that the person who beat him is so damaged, so beaten up by his negative campaign ads that they will have no chance against Obama. Unfortunately for Republicans, it creates a lose-lose situation. Mitt Romney cannot defeat Obama. His flipping and flopping is well documented and will be highlighted by the Obama campaign as the signature of one with a lack of character. He is such a poor speaker in interviews that he attempted to appeal to the middle class by trying to bet Rick Perry $10,000 and later saying that,...

A prominent Republican senator just told me that if Romney can’t win in Michigan, the Republican Party needs to go back to the drawing board and convince somebody new to get into the race. “If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate,” said the senator, who has not endorsed anyone and requested anonymity. The senator believes Romney will ultimately win in Michigan but says he will publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not. “We’d get killed,” the senator said if Romney manages to win the nomination after he failed to win...

Last Saturday, the Maine Republican Party declared Mitt Romney the winner of the Maine caucuses. The non-binding caucuses were a low turnout affair, but Romney's victory over Ron Paul - who he beat by less than 200 votes - was a chance for Romney to reclaim some momentum in the wake of Rick Santorum's three-state sweep four days earlier. Now, however, it looks like Romney could ultimately be stripped of that victory. If that happens, it will be the second time this cycle Romney has been stripped of a caucus victory. The first came in Iowa, where Santorum was declared...

The Democrat-leaning Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is trying to revive the so-called "scandal" that the Democrats trumpeted during their successful campaign to unseat Rick Santorum in 2006. Other news outlets are starting to pick up the Post-Gazette's claims. For example, in an article published on February 14 and linked to by the Drudge Report ("Santorum's Electability Pitch Undermined by 2006 Senate Reelection Loss"), Bloomberg reports: Santorum's 2006 loss came after he was accused by Democrats of being hypocritical for moving his family to suburban Virginia, yet still claiming a property tax deduction and tuition reimbursement in Pennsylvania. The school district where his...

Republican Mitt Romney is faltering with white working-class voters crucial to his party's drive to capture the White House, even as he tries to fend off a rising GOP challenger, Rick Santorum, who wields strong blue-collar appeal. The wealthy former Bain Capital chief has led his rivals by comfortable margins among white college graduates, according to combined polls of voters in the first five states that held presidential nominating contests. But the exit and entry surveys showed only a modest Romney advantage among whites who lack college degrees, the yardstick analysts typically use to define the working class.

As I’ve been noting here, one key metric to determine whether the prolonged GOP nomination process is damaging Mitt Romney’s general election prospects is his standing among independents, many of whom remain sour on Obama’s economic performance. Today’s new Pew poll offers another installment. The topline is striking enough — it finds that Rick Santorum is surging among Tea Partyers and conservatives, again suggesting that they just can’t come to terms with Romney as the nominee.

(CNN) - A trio of Missouri surrogates for Mitt Romney took aim at Rick Santorum on Tuesday, saying the former Pennsylvania senator has misled voters on his fiscal conservative record. "He certainly has been outspoken on social issues, and we honor his record in that regard. But when you get outside those issues…his record shows he's been in the liberal wing of the Republican Party," former Sen. Jim Talent said on a call with reporters. -snip- Also on the call was Rep. Billy Long of Missouri and State Auditor Tom Schweich, both of whom praised Romney's credentials in the private...

Via BuzzFeed. As expected, they’re going hard after his fiscal heresies. I’m giving you Santorum’s new ad here too, which is noteworthy first because he touts his tea-party cred (ironic) and second because he’s now making electability a core component of his pitch. No other Not Romney has been in that position before — but the numbers do back him up, for now: One thing that has remained constant in the ever changing GOP Presidential race is that Mitt Romney is the strongest candidate against Barack Obama…at least until now. PPP’s newest national poll finds Romney trailing Obama by 7...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney takes a hard line against congressional earmarks, but the Republican presidential candidate had a more favorable view of federal pork-barrel spending as governor of Massachusetts. Under Romney's leadership, Massachusetts sought tens of millions of dollars in earmarks for transportation projects through the state's congressional delegation. A prime example was the $30 million his administration requested to renovate the historic Longfellow Bridge over the Charles River between Cambridge and Boston.

We’ve all heard the axiom, “as goes Ohio, so goes the nation”. In fact, no Republican has ever won the Presidency without winning Ohio. And for this year’s GOP presidential primary, Ohio is the top prize in what is turning out to be a critical Super Tuesday on March 6th. In fact, just yesterday analyst Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics identified Ohio as the key state between a Romney runaway and the possibility of a brokered convention. So the viability of a three-way split probably comes down to Ohio, which has a fair number of evangelicals, though not to...

Palin Calls On Romney To Work Harder For The Conservative Vote Peter Hamby Washington (CNN) - Sarah Palin issued a warning to Mitt Romney Saturday, calling on the former Massachusetts governor to do a better job explaining his record to conservatives or risk dampening voter turnout in November if he wins the Republican presidential nomination. In an interview with CNN and The New York Times before her speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Palin said she was confused by Romney’s declaration here on Friday that he was a “severely conservative Republican.” “I wasn’t quite sure what the...

H.R. 796, which Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich voted for, was intended to preserve the right of pro-lifers to protest at abortion clinics. In 1993, President Clinton proposed a law, supposedly to protect abortion clinics from violence. In reality, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act has been used to prevent pro-lifers from coming anywhere near abortion clinics, stifling their first-amendment rights. Pro-life Republicans and moderate Democrats (they existed back then) attempted passage of H.R. 796 to head off this threat to constitutional liberties. The bill would still create a federal law to prevent the physical obstruction of clinic...

While billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson may have rescued Newt Gingrich’s campaign in its early days, today, he may have just buried it. Bloomberg News reports that Adelson, who has donated $11 million to Gingrich’s Super PAC, does not plan to send any more money Gingrich’s way. Bloomberg is citing an anonymous source “familiar with their deliberations,” though an Adelson spokesman declined to comment. The move seems to be weeks in the making. After poor showings by Gingrich in the last several races and the re-resurgence of Rick Santorum, the former House speaker has once again been pushed to the...

I thought it'd be fun to spy on this Mitt Romney live chat room to see what they're saying in the wake of his defeats. Below is your window into the mind of the Romneybots via some excerpts. They're somewhat depressed over the loss and going into attack mode on Santorum like good like Romneybots. Feel free to monitor the chat room and post any interesting tidbits here. Note all the insulting remarks towards evangelicals, "crackers," and right-wingers. Also, I was surprised to see a fair amount of them are semi-supporting Ron Paul or want him as V.P. They posted...

Mitt Romney, asked if there were any lessons learned in the wake of losing all three Republican voting contests Tuesday night, said that he simply “wasn’t there to respond” to former Sen. Rick Santorum’s attacks in the days leading up to voting. But today, speaking to reporters on a tarmac in Atlanta, where he flew from Colorado after losses in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado Tuesday night, he did not hesitate to go on offense, accusing two chief GOP rivals of behaving “like Democrats.”

Mitt Romney acknowledged on Wednesday that his path to the Republican presidential nomination is not going to be easy after three shock losses to newly ascendant rival Rick Santorum. A day after Santorum beat him in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Romney attempted to play down the results, saying his campaign did not devote a lot of time and money to the three state nominating contests and chose to compete strongly elsewhere.

So what did last night mean? Rick Santorum won the two non-binding caucuses where all candidates competed, and the Missouri non-binding primary where Newt was not on the ballot. Does it mean that the Republican electorate all of the sudden has fallen in love with Santorum? That remains to be seen. Santorum has done well in three caucus states so far (IA, MN, CO), and very poorly in one caucus state (NV) and the three binding primary states where everyone competed (NH, SC, FL). While Santorum deserves to bask in last night’s glow and the media will give him plenty...

First, he called Adelson to convince him to stop adding financial support of Gingrich via his SuperPAC. When that didn’t work, he piled on some more of his own money, and those who fund the SuperPacs advocating on his behalf or at least slamming his competitors. When that didn’t work, some shills in the press dropped the conspicuous rumor that Newt’s “…hold a press conference after the Nevada Caucus on Saturday, raising new speculation about his future in the race,” implying he would get out Saturday evening. This was solely to try to undermine the vote in Nevada in Romney’s...

At 10:45pm, MSNBC reported that 21% of the votes were in. Romney with 3642 votes (39%), and Gingrich with 2573 vote (27%). Here is the screen shot: And here is the screen shot with a time stamp: Six minutes later, at 10:51pm, MSNBC reported that only 19% of the votes were in -- Romney with 3569 votes (42%) and Gingrich with 2059 votes (25%). Here is the screen shot: And here is the screen shot with a time stamp:

On October 1, 2010, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney described the genius of the American idea and lauded its results. “No nation has done more to lift people out of poverty than this nation,” he said in remarks at Benedetto’s, an Italian restaurant in Tampa, Florida. “Our free enterprise system has lifted billions out of poverty.” Romney spoke at a “Reclaiming America Rally” for Marco Rubio, then a candidate for the Senate. It was one of three events Romney did that day with Rubio. The two men chatted in the kitchen before their remarks to a crowd that spilled into...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acpxp93P1M0&feature=g-all-u&context=G277ceb8FAAAAAAAACAA