Free Republic

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush appeared on the first episode of Late Show With Stephen Colbert to go face-to-face with a man who spent a decade turning faux-Conservatism into an art form. Over the course of their discussion, Bush and Stephen Colbert talked about the "game of Bloodsport" known as politics, gun control, Donald Trump and Barack Obama. "I'm going to say something that's heretic, I guess: I don't think Barack Obama has bad motives. I just think he's wrong on a lot of issues," Bush said, paying the president the thinnest of compliments. "If you start with the premise...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will have a challenger from the right in Matt Bevin, a local businessman and Tea Party candidate who plans to announce his run for Senate this week. Bevin, who has been exploring the race since February, is reportedly already buying airtime and has met with multiple conservative groups about his run. He'll launch a 3-day, 8-stop tour of the state after he formally announces his intentions on Wednesday. Bevin is a partner at a Kentucky investment firm and the owner of Bevin Brothers Manufacturing, a Connecticut bell-making company founded 160 years ago. He previously...

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is still nursing presidential aspirations, despite Republican unease about the “comprehensive immigration reform” he whole-heartedly supports, after losing an argument with himself and immediately backpedaling from a book he had only just published. Bush chose to deal with this unease by attacking the uneasy, referring to them as “chirpers” in a CBN interview following his appearance before the Faith and Freedom Coalition. ”I will be able to, I think, manage my way through all the ‘chirpers’ out there,” he said, apparently playing off Senator John McCain’s reference to his conservative colleagues Ted Cruz, Rand Paul,...

In an exclusive sit-down interview with The Brody File, Jeb Bush began to sketch out his case for President of the United States if he decides to run next year. “It will be based on my record. And that record was one of solving problems from completely from a conservative perspective. I cut taxes every year, I shrunk the size of government,” Jeb Bush tells The Brody File. And as for his critics who say he’s too mainstream establishment he offers this: “I will be able to, I think, manage my way through all the chirpers out there.” We sat...

Rush Limbaugh snapped at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for calling Republicans too reactionary, saying the party lost in 2012 because it “is considered wishy-washy.” “Jeb Bush said that too many Republicans are reactionary,” the conservative radio host said on his program Friday, according to a show transcript. “It’s a code word used by people who aren’t conservative to taint us as extremists.” -snip- “So Jeb Bush, who we really like here, said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition today that he wasn’t gonna be critical of the Obama administration. That really worked out for Romney, didn’t it?” Limbaugh responded.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is “the smartest guy, the biggest thinker” in the Republican Party as it looks toward winning the White House in 2016, GOP strategist Karl Rove tells Newsmax TV. “Six months ago, I would have said, ‘No, he's not going to run,’” Rove tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview. “But maybe he is. I certainly hope he keeps a very strong voice.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Avery and Susan Burns don’t like the immigration-reform bill in the U.S. Senate one bit. “People come here illegally, and now we’re giving them the red carpet,” grumbled Avery, a 71-year-old doctor, climbing the steps of the public library on a recent morning. His disgust is making him reconsider his support for home-state Sen. Lindsey Graham, the only Republican sponsor of the bill who is up for reelection in 2014. Yet Susan said she’d still vote for Graham because he’s a “strong Republican,” recalling his leadership during former President Clinton’s impeachment. The retired couple’s reaction shows why...

After two weeks in the national spotlight, Sen. Pat Toomey was ready to move on. Toomey, seeming refreshed Thursday after the deflating defeat of his background-check plan the day before, greeted reporters with a smile as he rode an escalator up from the Capitol's subway platform. But the Pennsylvania Republican did not want to talk much about the fight that had put him at the center of the political and cultural maelstrom on gun laws. "The Senate has spoken on this," Toomey said. "It's not obvious to me what alternative path forward there is. I gave this my best shot."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to filibuster new gun control legislation, putting up a significant roadblock to Democratic efforts to move forward on the measure this week. ... McConnell is now the 15th Senator to sign on to the Republican gun control filibuster, an effort that has been spearheaded by conservative Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Mike Lee (R-Utah). As the top Senate Republican, McConnell's support gives the filibuster a much higher chance of success, imperiling the already-delicate bipartisan negotiations on new gun control measures. McConnell's promise to filibuster also deflates criticism from the more...

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham surprised many this morning on Meet The Press when he said he liked some of the provisions in President Obama’s expected budget. President Obama is expected to release have dinner with several Republican legislators next when he releases his new budget. Graham, who has shown openness to raising billions in new revenues in exchange for some austerity measures, is expected to be among the Senators that join the president for the dinner. One must remember, though, that the president’s budget is has no real teeth and is a blueprint on where to spend in a...

EDITORIAL: Governor Disappointment The failed leadership of Virginia’s Bob McDonnell The surest and quickest way for a Republican officeholder to kill his future is to dream up a tax increase. Once a rising star in the Grand Old Party, a shortlist contender as Mitt Romney’s running mate and a twinkle in the eye of the Great Mentioner for 2016, Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia has disappeared from the speakers’ lists at key conservative events, such as the Conservative Political Action Conference, which begins Thursday in Washington. There’s good reason for the snub. As a candidate in 2009, Mr. McDonnell promised...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said Tuesday that he would endorse a pathway to citizenship that does not incentivize illegal immigration. It's a stance that differs from the immigration reform plan that he laid out in his new book. Bush, a well-known pro-immigration reform Republican, raised eyebrows on Monday when he said on the "Today" show and in his book that he opposes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, arguing that it would violate the rule of law and encourage future illegal immigration. In his new book, "Immigration Wars," Bush offers up a plan that would provide a...

<p>FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is gearing up for a tough re-election fight next year in Kentucky.</p> <p>He wants to prevent one, too.</p> <p>McConnell is trying to head off a GOP primary challenge by cozying up to the tea party. He's also trying to scare off potential Democratic contenders — actress Ashley Judd is one — by providing a glimpse of his no-holds-barred political tactics.</p>

Mitt Romney says it "kills" him that he's not president. But he doesn't blame Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or anything else on his loss to President Barack Obama--except his campaign's failure to connect with minority voters. “I lost my election because of my campaign," Romney said on "Fox News Sunday" in his first television interview since his November defeat, "not because of what anyone else did." The former Massachusetts governor refused place blame on Christie, who some Republicans say elevated Obama in his embrace of the president in the wake of the storm. Romney said his inability...

Add Bob Dole—former senator, former presidential candidate, grievously wounded in World War II—to the list of Republican heavy-hitters urging the Senate to confirm the embattled Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. “Hagel’s wisdom and courage make him uniquely qualified to be Secretary of Defense and lead the men and women of our armed forces,” Dole said in a statement released by the White House. “Chuck Hagel will be an exceptional leader at an important time.”

Karl Rove versus Steve King. Rove was one of President Bush's top advisors, but now Iowa's open Senate seat has one of America's top Republican operatives gearing up to fight one of his own, vetting candidates who have a history of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And, that apparently includes Congressman Steve King. Steven Law, the CEO of American Crossroads, told the New York Times: "We're concerned about Steve King's Todd Akin problem....All of the things he's said are going to be hung around his neck," says Law. Law is apparently referring to comments King made to...

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) is starting his own super-PAC to counter a group conservatives fear will protect establishment candidates from primary challenges. The tweet by Walsh, the outspoken former congressman, is in response to the creation of the Conservative Victory Project, a super-PAC being launched by Karl Rove, formerly a top adviser to President George W. Bush. The founders of the Rove super-PAC intend to engage in GOP primary races and back the most electable candidate. The group argues that a number of untested conservative candidates made it through 2012 primaries, only to lose in the general election. The...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will speak for the first time at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a clear sign that he is mulling a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. The American Conservative Union, which sponsors the conference, announced Tuesday that Bush will address the group, set for March 14-16 in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington. Bush has been invited by the group to speak at CPAC several times, but this will be his first appearance. “We are pleased to announce that my friend Gov. Jeb Bush will be a featured speaker at CPAC 2013,”...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor apparently wants his Republican colleagues to pursue a “government can be good” approach to their politics rather than focusing so much on the size and voracious spending appetite of Washington. … Citing an unidentified congressional aide as its source, the (Wall Street) Journal said Cantor plans to touch on a host of existing policies and initiatives, from school choice to tax reform, to show how families nationwide would benefit more from Republican ideas rather than those offered by Democrats. …

The battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party has begun. On one side is the Tea Party. On the other side stand Karl Rove and his establishment team, posing as tacticians while quietly undermining conservatism. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the “biggest donors in the Republican Party” have joined forces with Karl Rove and Steven J. Law, president of American Crossroads, to create the Conservative Victory Project. The Times reports that this new group will dedicate itself to “recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who...