Free Republic

Former U.S. Rep Pete Hoekstra will trot out Herman Cain, who bowed out of a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, around Michigan next week to drum up support, his campaign said today. Cain will appear in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ypsilanti and Troy on a blitz across the state as they tout the Holland Republican’s Tea Party ties and taking incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow to task for her spending policies. Cain suspended his quest for the presidency in December amid rumors of marital infidelity. “The Tea Party conservatives have been increasingly supporting Pete Hoekstra over the years as a result...

New Mexico Lt. Gov. John Sanchez is dropping out of the open-seat Senate race, leaving former Rep. Heather Wilson with just one opponent in the Republican primary. Sanchez said Thursday that a nasty primary with Wilson and conservative challenger Greg Sowards would hurt the party’s chances of winning the seat in November. “A bitter and divisive Republican Primary would only diminish our party’s genuine opportunity to bring real change in Washington,” Sanchez said in a statement. “The reality is that the path forward to success in the campaign could cause a negative primary struggle that would leave the eventual nominee...

The announcements by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) that they would not run for reelection reflects what may be the last gasps of the Great Plains Democrats, much as California’s 2010 Democratic landslide assured that Republicans are soon to become endangered species in places like Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. The conventional explanation for these trends centers on culture or ideology, but the real cause may lie with an evolving conflict between two dueling political economies. On one side lies the information or “creative” economy, centered in coastal big cities and university towns. On the other lies...

Despite libertarians' and liberals' pathetic attempt to cast their weak-defense-plus-isolationism policies as "conservatism" by calling themselves "paleoconservatives" (take for example Murray Rothbard), the fact is that they didn't found the conservative movemenet and were never conservatives; they are and always have been libertarians, period. They were shunned by the fathers of the conservative movement, and, consequently, some of them, like Felix Morley, quit Human Events.

HARRISBURG — A Chester County entrepreneur won the endorsement Saturday from Pennsylvania’s Republican Party in what could be a bruising, four-way primary election for the nomination to contest Democrat Bob Casey’s re-election bid for U.S. Senate. The endorsement was won by Steve Welch after an extraordinary show of power by Gov. Tom Corbett, who began calling state party officials to tell them of his support for Welch less than two weeks ago. (snip) The endorsement of Welch will be viewed by grassroots party members “as a poke in the face,” Rohrer said. Welch has been criticized by his rivals for...

New Jersey Sen. Joseph Kyrillos announced Thursday he intends to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate to run against Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez in November. The 51-year-old Monmouth County legislator said he converted his federal exploratory committee to a campaign account and will formally announce his candidacy soon. "As the father of two young children, I believe we can and must restore the limitless opportunities and freedom that made America great and inspired people like my own father to immigrate to this country," Kyrillos said in a statement. Menendez campaign consultant Brad Lawrence responded late Thursday, saying, "New Jersey's...

A third party run by Ron Paul in 2012 would make the presidential campaign path much more difficult for Rand in 2016, a year when the field will be much stronger than this cycle. I think the 2016 cycle is likely to bring out the candidates that the Republican Party was swooning over just months ago, namely Palin, Paul Ryan and Chris Christie.

John Roco argues that a pattern of increasing power enabling access to a female 'of more desire to him' has defined Newt Gingrich for the election, debates, presidential race of 2012, as well as leaving a wife when she was 'baggage' of being ill, and seemingly not to serve his purposes. John Roco also argues of Newt Gingrich's attack ability at debates, whether South Carolina, Florida or future, actually becomes an extreme deficit of one who would want to be leader of our nation, needing to 'contain' outbursts and expressions of ego empowerment. Admiral Patrick Walsh is mentioned as one...

MEDIA RELEASE John Roco, a counselor on Oahu, is also a sometime church pianist and cantor for Sunday mass and founder of ‘Saint Damien Advocates’ – a nonprofit defending Catholic works from closure of adoptive and foster care services due to new gay non -discrimination laws (e.g., H.R.1681, ‘Every Child Deserves a Family Act’). Family values are not given ‘lip service;’ instead, Roco’s website is thoroughly ‘family.’ His son designed the site, took and arranged the photos at ‘homepage,’ and put together a video explaining H.R. 1681. His daughter, Eileen, is a 2010 Nene award winner and contributes with political...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint are two powerful conservative voices in Republican politics, but they seem to be coming at the race for the Republican presidential nomination from totally different angles. Jim DeMint took to the airwaves on The Laura Ingraham Show to warn former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- and all of the other presidential candidates -- to tone down their campaign rhetoric in the Palmetto State. “I would encourage all of the candidates, ‘let’s just be as positive as we can.’ I know they’re frustrated if people run negative ads,” DeMint said....

Arizona U.S. Senator and former Republican presidential candidate John McCain reflected on his 2008 campaign earlier this week, saying choosing former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has his running mate was “the best decision” he has ever made. Mr. McCain made the comment during an appearance on Fox News, where he also took time to promote his 2008 rival, Mitt Romney, whose Republican presidential candidacy he endorsed last week, after Mr. Romney won the Iowa caucus by eight votes. The Arizona Republican has previously said he stands by his decision to choose Ms. Palin as the Republican presidential candidate for vice...

It’s a common complaint—we’ve certainly made it over the years—that too much political campaign coverage focuses on the horse race. The packed debate schedule in the current GOP nomination battle has put a bit more focus than usual on the substance of what the candidates are saying, which is good. But even so, most of this coverage has wound up being about whether a given policy position might help or hurt a candidate’s chances of winning. What’s most important has been left largely unexamined: if one of these candidates actually becomes president and advances his or her policies, what would...

Former Utah state Sen. Dan Liljenquist announced today that he is challenging Sen. Orrin Hatch at the state Republican convention in April. “It’s time for a new generation of leaders to step up and take on the new challenges of today,” Liljenquist says in a 43-second announcement video posted to his campaign website. “It’s time for us to live within our means as a country and to balance our budget. It’s time to tackle the entitlement spending that threatens us all. And it’s time to return to the conservative principles that make this country great.” Liljenquist is the first major...

Richard Lugar has been in Washington since 1977 and has been among the most visible Senate Republicans for decades now. On foreign policy, he’s perhaps one of the most knowledgable members of the Senate at this point and, if he manages to get re-elected and Republicans gain control of the Senate, he would become the President Pro Tempore and third in line to the Presidency. That “manages to be re-elected” part is the problem for him, though. It’s not likely that he’d lose to a Democrat in a General Election, but right now he’s facing a Tea Party backed challenge...

With each vote cast in Congress, freedom either advances or recedes. Heritage Action’s new legislative scorecard allows Americans to see whether their Members of Congress are fighting for freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society. The scorecard is comprehensive, covering the full spectrum of conservatism, and includes legislative action on issues both large and small. Heritage Action's legislative scorecard isn't graded on a curve – it is tough and we don't apologize. After all, we are conservatives, not tenured university professors.

Being Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio are the top two choices (unless there is a third) for VP, and being Rubio still doesn't show serious interest just yet, Paul Ryan is either the second or third choice on the short list. In your opinion, Would a Gingrich/Ryan or Romney/Ryan ticket put a major dent into Obama's 43% fan base? And who else is in the top five? John Thune or SOS Rice?

From a speech given in Warren, OH in 1890, introducing another political candidate. IN 1 view of the known character of the speaker who is to address you to-day, and his long public career, and association with the leading statesmen of this country for the past twenty years, it would not be becoming in me to detain you with many remarks of my own. But it may be proper for me to account to you on the first occasion of my presiding at political meetings for the faith that is in me. 1 I am a Republican, as the two...

When Obama told CBS(was it on CBS?) that he wasn't concerned over who the GOP nominee would be,what did you think? One possibility was that he assumed he would win on "Like-A-Bility"? Oh Really,If Obama is so well liked,then how come no one wants to be seen with/or be associated with the President? Did any of you wonder if what Obama really meant was,"It doesn't matter who my opponent is,the DNC/Chicago Thug Machine is working on a voter fraud committee creating 25 Million Registered Voters in the 7 swing states I will need to win back in 2012. Now that...

A recent Gallup poll (November 2011) indicated only 13% of Americans approved the job our Congress was doing. Approve 13% Disapprove 82% No Opinion 5% There is little doubt, given the opportunity, those 82% of Americans that disapprove of the job Congress is doing would replace them all in a heartbeat. There have been a lot of books detailing the corruption, arrogance, and incompetence of our Congress. All those books suggest the 82% disapproval rate is well deserved. Read any of the following books and if you are in the 13% or 5% percent category you will quickly join the...

The Tea Party movement has become a major influence in Republican politics. So major in fact, that the party establishment is starting to fight back against it. We can truly say there is a war going on between the Tea Party and GOP old-guard for control of the Republican party. The primary tactic of the RINOs is to criticize the Tea Party for backing “unelectable” candidates (candidates that are too conservative to appeal to moderate voters). There is a constant refrain that every election loss is due to Tea Partiers refusal to compromise—their insistence on backing actual conservatives instead...

Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania Senator, is getting some love from conservative luminaries Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck as he struggles to win the hearts of voters in Iowa weeks before the presidential caucuses there. "If voters start shifting gears and deciding they want ideological consistency, then they're going to start paying attention to say, Rick Santorum," the former Alaska governor said as a guest on Fox News Thursday evening. Palin continued with praise for his "hard-line" positions on cutting taxes, dealing with Iran and abortion. Santorum, understanding the implications of her remarks, immediately tweeted his appreciation. "Thank you @SarahPalinUSA...

So the “Super Committee” has failed, but who thought it would succeed? Defective from its very conception, the Super Committee concept allowed Congress to ignore basic constitutional obligations and the principles of governance created by our founders. And so it failed both us and our Constitution. When Congress compromises on principle, as it usually does, the result is a bad idea that only serves the political expediency of the “Incumbent Party” inside the Beltway. In this case, the “bad idea” was the Super Committee itself, whose inevitable failure was designed to supply campaign fodder for both parties to use against...

The Republicans’ shaky president frontrunner, ex-Gov. Mitt Romney, has won the endorsement of a GOP senator who took on the Tea Party movement and won in her home state last year. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, became the most prominent West Coast politician to endorse Romney, who lives much of the time near San Diego at the other end of the coast. “Mitt Romney has had the lifelong experience needed to turn around our economy,” Murkowski said. The endorsement increases chances that Murkowski’s fiercest rival in Alaska Republican circles, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, will come out for ex-House...

He doesn't claim to know her post-presidential campaign plans, but fellow Minnesotan Norm Coleman, a Romney backer, believes Rep. Michele Bachmann has what it takes to be vice president. "She could serve well," he says of the Minnesota lawmaker who once led the polls for the Iowa caucus. "I think she's helped herself in this process." Bachmann isn't reconsidering her future other than believing she is positioned for a comeback against Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in the GOP primaries. But even her critics are giving Bachmann good grades for her campaign, debate performances and fund raising despite some early...

Hot Air comments yesterday that "the polls in every one of the early states have been pretty much of a roller coaster ride since summer. There’s probably time for at least one more rise and fall before the state’s [South Carolina's] residents actually go to the polls.” The Republican campaign degenerates now to a state like that in the mid-'70s when political contrast was phrased “hippies v. hard hats.” The hard hats, rednecks today, were characteristically pictured sitting by a construction site on lunch break with American flag decals on their safety helmets and on their metal lunch pails poignant...

With less than a year to go until the November 2012 election, a GOP challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has emerged. Elizabeth Emken, a longtime advocate for children with autism and 2010 congressional candidate, has decided to run against the incumbent Democrat next year, announcing her candidacy on her campaign website and the conservative blog Flashreport.org. "She's definitely in and we're putting together the campaign now," campaign consultant Tim Clark said in an interview Monday. Emken, 48, most recently served as vice president of governmental relations for Autism Speaks, a national nonprofit organization that bills itself as the...

If turn out to be right on this, remember you probably read it here first. I’m beginning to suspect that the GOP nominee for the 2012 general election may well be, “None of the above“. I.e., some dark horse candidate who’s either at the margins (like a Huntsman or a Roemer), or someone totally out of left field. It involves two words which we haven’t used in about 70 years: “Brokered Convention“. There are Republican candidates with support an inch wide and a mile deep, and candidates with support a mile wide and an inch deep. None of the current...

Here is a fun new campaign video in the 2012 GOP Republican U.S. Senate Primary for Hawaii. It was meant as a prelude to the annual 2012 Hawaiian Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner at Hilton Hawaiian Village (thus the quotes from Lincoln in body of the video). Abraham Lincoln, the founder of our party, and the President's Day's festivities were taken into account, but when I showed this to my scrutinizing kids, a 'new life' came about for the video. Enjoy!

Link only due to copyright issues: http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/11/25/tv-ad-asking-sarah-palin-to-reconsider-on-tap-in-sioux-city/

"How do politicians who arrive in Washington, D.C., as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires? How do they miraculously accumulate wealth at a rate faster than the rest of us?" - Sarah Palin, Wall Street Journal, November 18 Sarah Palin complaining about politics, modest means and millionaires? Hasn't she hauled in about $10 million - selling a couple of best sellers at upwards of $25 a piece interspersed with some speech-giving at $100,000 a pop - since John McCain plucked her from the rural obscurity of Wasilla? But let's be fair, she made her money the old-fashioned...

Closer to the actual event Bill Clinton blames the Democrats for blocking Republican efforts in reigning in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae problems. Recently Barney Frank tries to blame Republicans wholly for the mess. h/t to 116falconer: http://youtu.be/ti-1XaapR0s

Progressives are on the move once more. Wisconsin lit the spark, as workers, students, teachers and farmers occupied the state’s capitol in February and launched recall elections that sobered conservative Republican Gov. Scott Walker and his legislative allies. Occupy Wall Street turned that spark into a conflagration that swept the nation. Last week, in Ohio and Maine and even Mississippi, voters overwhelmingly rejected efforts to trample worker rights, constrict the right to vote and roll back women’s rights. These electoral victories have led pundits to wonder whether Occupy Wall Street will imitate the Tea Party and stand candidates for office....

http://youtu.be/XsDoDRKJhd0

Former Alaska governor and GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin blasted rampant corruption in the marbled halls of Congress Friday, calling it an “endemic problem” affecting both parties. “The only solution to entrenched corruption is sudden and relentless reform,” she wrote. Palin’s remarks came in an op-ed column in The Wall Street Journal, in response to revelations this week that Congress has exempted itself from the prohibitions against insider trading that all other Americans are subject to. Under current law, members of Congress are free to profit off of equity swings tied to pending legislative actions decisions they are privy to...

Republicans may be heading toward complete control of Washington—maintaining the House, taking the Senate, and likely capturing the White House—if Election Day 2012 unfolds as Charlie Cook, acclaimed vote counter, predicts. Sure that the former Gov. Mitt Romney will clinch the GOP nomination, Cook says President Obama faces an uphill battle to be re-elected, and the election will be a referendum on his presidency and the dire economic situation he now "owns." Even if Obama did manage to hold on to the presidency, he will face a Republican-controlled legislature that will likely shut down his agenda entirely. Cook sees House...

Sen. Jim DeMint today endorsed Nebraska Treasurer Don Stenberg’s bid for Senate, throwing his support behind the GOP primary’s underdog to challenge Sen. Ben Nelson (D) next year. “Don Stenberg is a lifelong conservative with the principles, integrity, and courage needed to stand up to the big spenders in both political parties in Washington,” the South Carolina Republican wrote in a email to his Senate Conservatives Fund members. Polling shows Nelson is one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this cycle if he decides to run for a third term. He’ll decide by the end of the year...

Relatively few prominent Republican women have spoken out, so far, about the sexual harassment charges facing Herman Cain. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski started to change that today, telling CNN that she's "concerned" about the growing list of complaints about Cain's behavior: Murkowski made clear she was moved by the public account of Sharon Bialek, a single mother from Chicago ... "It takes incredible courage for an individual to come forward as this latest, as this one woman has," the third-term Alaskan said. "So it does cause me to wonder exactly what is out there. I am concerned." ...

Yesterday I noted here that national Republicans have opened up a new front in the Massachusetts Senate race by attacking Elizabeth Warren for embracing Occupy Wall Street—the latest effort to turn blue collar whites and independents against the protests and their populist message. Republicans are seeking to tie Warren directly to protesters who clashed with cops in Massachusetts, an effort to exploit a cultural fault line between working class whites and liberal activists that has been key to our politics for decades. This is the sort of thing that has traditionally spooked Dems, but it appears Warren is standing by...

The river sound is from the childhood river in Chepachet R. I. that I played and grew up near. The pictures look likes the same river and ponds. The end of day mouse is dancing to the a-Cappella son, I love To Tell The Story. Sung by o7jimmy!

The Obama campaign, in an email to supporters today, goes there: The U.S. Senate is supposed to vote on the American Jobs Act as early as tonight. It’s a bill that will put people to work immediately, and it contains proposals that members of both parties have said in the past that they’d support. But Senate Republicans want to block it. Not because they have a plan that creates jobs right now — not one Republican, in Congress or in the presidential race, does. They only have a political plan. Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake...

My reserach from 2006 data shows that Republicans are not racist, in an analysis of several statewide candidate pairs of elections.

Ever since Bill and Hillary Clinton stepped onto the national stage, I have been struck by their lust for power. When Bill became embroiled in his first sex scandal during the race for the White House in 1992, one would have thought his presidential career was over before it had begun. Then, the country witnessed his wife on national television saying that people were telling lies about her husband. "I'm not some woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette," she said, trying to save the philanderer whom she viewed as her key to political prominence. If she had told...

The U.S, Senate race between George LeMieux and Adam Hasner continues to heat up, with LeMieux issuing a snarky release blasting Hasner for calling attention to LeMieux’s French heritage. Specifically, Hasner is distributing a bumper sticker that says “LeMieux: It’s French for Crist.� It’s part of Hasner’s effort to hang Crist, the moderate former governor who lost to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio last year, on LeMiuex, who at various times was the governor’s chief of staff, the “architect� of his campaign and Crist’s appointee to the U.S. Senate.Today, LeMieux issued a release calling attention — “In Case You missed It�...

Obama and his cronies flush 535 Billion down the toilet,yet we hear no public outrage from the NAACP? Wouldn't you think they would be enraged that the 1/2 Billion would of been better spent to create job for black teens? Where is Nancy Pelosi&Reid? How come no Democratic Leader is denouncing Obama on this issue? Yet Pelosi has a cow when a congressman yells "YOU LIE" to Obama. If this had had happened during the Bush years,what do you think would of happened? NAACP Screaming for Impeachment?

This is a recurring annoyance for me. The RNC seems to have no idea that education is hugely important to most Americans, and should be a major campaign issue. Frankly, big visions are NOT required. Details need NOT be mentioned. Just say that public schools are a mess, liberal ideas made them that way, and Republicans can turn things around. All true.Problem is, we need people at the top with practical common sense and a desire to win. These people need to be aggressive. The weird wizards now in charge of public education will not notice anything less than a...

Republican Michael Reagan has shot down speculation that he will challenge Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2012, saying he has no plans to jump in the race. "I am not crazy enough to run..No I am not considering a run for senate," Reagan wrote in an email to The Bee.

For anyone who has watched coverage of the 2008 or 2012 Presidential election, it becomes obvious after about 5 minutes that the media takes extra care to smear Republican women as unqualified bigots. Whether it be the media attacking Palin’s family values stance in regards to her daughter’s pregnancy or the insulting photograph that Newsweek Magazine chose to publish of Michele Bachmann; the media continues to run a vicious smear campaign against Republican female candidates. This had always been an issue that I sort of wrote off as further left wing media bias, until MSNBC journalist Chris Matthews attempted to...

In an earlier post on the debt ceiling, I asked if you could recall where you were when a “sentinel event” such as the bombing of Perl Harbor, assassination of JFK or the terrorist attacks of 9-11 occurred. These incidents had a profound effect on life in America, for both our national psyche and for each of us personally. On August 2, 2011, without any significant cuts in the level of federal spending, the Senate voted by a wide margin in favor of a bill already passed by the House to raise the debt ceiling. A modern day sentinel event...

Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock picked up an endorsement from a presidential candidate in his primary challenge to Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) this week. Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain announced he would support Mourdock’s primary bid to unseat Lugar during a Monday visit to Indianapolis, the Associated Press reported. Cain reportedly met with Mourdock after addressing Indiana Republicans on the invitation of the state party. Indiana Republican Party Chairman Eric Holcomb invited all the GOP presidential candidates to speak to the Republican faithful in the state, but Cain was the first to schedule a visit. Cain placed fifth in Iowa's...

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman today endorsed fellow Republican Josh Mandel, the current state treasurer, for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Sherrod Brown. Although Portman's backing of Mandel was not unexpected, he hadn't announced it until today when he met with The Dispatch's editorial board. "I'm helping Josh," Portman said. "I guess I haven't officially endorsed him yet, so I guess this is a news opportunity. But I'm helping Josh. I don't know if anybody else is going to get in. I think his fundraising in the second quarter has been pretty impressive. I think he's a good...