Free Republic

Sen. Chuck Schumer loves the sound of his own voice, but it carried a bit farther than he might have liked on the US Airways shuttle from New York to Washington on Sunday. According to a House Republican aide who happened to be seated nearby, the notoriously chatty New York Democrat referred to a flight attendant as a “bitch” after she ordered him to turn off his phone before takeoff. Schumer and his seatmate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), were chatting on their phones before takeoff when an announcement indicated that it was time to turn off the phones. Both senators...

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) on Wednesday sought to put distance between former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) and himself. Huckabee, in an interview with Christianity Today, stressed that the two potential 2012 presidential candidates have different "political direction[s]" and questioned both of their statuses as presidential contenders. "We're both Republican, we're both pro-life—there are a lot of similarities that way—but she has a very different political direction than I do," he said. " I'm not sure of her future politically, and I'm really not sure of mine either." Questions about Huckabee's political future have sprouted up after it was reported...

“I think that she’s not anywhere near the person that sometimes she’s been portrayed to be –- as completely lacking of any intellectual capacity.” –Mike Huckabee, subtly putting the stress on the word “completely.” Is this emerging as the new party line on Palin among other top Republican politicians? Last week, Haley Barbour told Chris Matthews that Palin is “a lot brighter than she gets credit for,” and on yesterday’s @katiecouric, Fox News Channel host and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee trotted out a similar-sounding soundbite. Huckabee did go with the ‘Palin has more executive experience than Obama’ line, which...

Mike Huckabee, like Sarah Palin, is pitching his books and persona to potential voters. Romney and Pawlenty take a more traditional tack, focusing on strengthening ties with the GOP establishment. Reporting from Grand Rapids, Mich. - Team Huck rolls into the bookstore like a NASCAR pit crew, red shirts adorned with the corporate logos of Mike Huckabee's website, his speaker's bureau and his publisher. "Huck" is emblazoned on their epaulets. They strip the protective wrapping off the large lectern that they install at all such appearances. Huckabee doesn't sit at tables. He stands, as a president would, even to sign...

A two-day book-signing blitz at a local book store by two key players in last year's presidential race began Sunday. First, a crowd estimated at one point to be about 1,800 by Homewood police, lined up at Books-A-Million in Colonial Brookwood Village. They were there to get 1,000 wristbands that assign places in line for this afternoon's book signing by Sarah Palin. The former governor of Alaska, who was last year's Republican vice presidential nominee, will sign copies of her just released book, "Going Rogue." Many left after they realized they could not get a wristband. On Sunday afternoon, about...

The Huckster took a swipe at Sarah Palin and he did it with a smile. He does everything with a smile, being far from the first snake I've seen that has himself one of those. At least she isn't a Mormon. He might cut her a little bit of slack. Why am I thinking Huck has now read every Palin column Andy Sullivan has ever written? The Hucky puck doesn't like it that he's being overshadowed by both Palin and Romney, who comes up in the interview, as well. Is Huck's real problem that Sarah may have blown him off...

In 2008, a charismatic right-wing populist Republican governor won the heart of the party's base despite being forced to take a backseat to a more respectable "moderate" Republican. He was Mike Huckabee, and he is sad, and mad. Ben Smith followed Mike Huckabee around for a while as he sold his new Christmas book. Huckabee was the governor of Arkansas. He used to be fat, and then he got skinny, and now he is getting fat again. He's also basically as crazy Christian as they come, but he masks this with a genuinely likable sense of humor, which is why...

A governor for 10 years and the winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2008, Huckabee should by all rights have a claim to be the early favorite for the Republican nomination. But former Gov. Mitt Romney, the candidate he bested in Iowa 2008 and for whom he does not attempt to contain his contempt, is riding high, credited by many Republicans as the best person to run against President Barack Obama in a down economy. And as Huckabee works his way through a 22-state tour for his new book, “A Simple Christmas,” he knows that he and the book will...

According to a "tweet" from Jonathan Martin of Politico.com , Huck has endorsed Doug Hoffman: Huck now behind Hoffman, praises Scozza for her "very unselfish announcement." about 5 hours ago from web jmartpolitico

Here is video of Gov. Mike Huckabee last night saying Rush Limbaugh has been wronged by the baseless attacks against him to prevent him from being part of an ownership group to buy the St. Louis Rams. Huckabee defended Limbaugh, and at the same time took a shot at him by asserting that during his own Presidential campaign, Limbaugh and others accused Huckabee of being a "big-Government Liberal," an attack Huckabee likened to what Rush has just been through. From the tenor of his commentary, it is unclear whether his main point was to defend Rush, or to defend himself....

If the choice for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 comes down to a choice between Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, Huckabee has a slight edge. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Republican voters finds that 44% prefer Huckabee, 39% favor Romney, and 17% are not sure. Data released yesterday showed that Huckabee and Romney lead all hopefuls in an early look at the 2012 race. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich also attract double-digit support. Both Huckabee and Romney are viewed favorably by 78% of Republican voters. However, intensity leans a bit in Huckabee’s favor. Forty-six percent (46%)...

(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...

Author Dan Brown is a friendly, normal guy--not the type you'd expect to have created the dark world of The Da Vinci Code. The book, published in 2003, has sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, and the 2006 movie starring Tom Hanks grossed over $758 million. It also generated enormous controversy: Catholic Church leaders denounced its heretical slant and negative portrayal of Opus Dei, a conservative Roman Catholic group. Now, after six-and-a-half years, Brown's newest novel, The Lost Symbol, comes out on Tuesday. Brown, 45, still seems surprised that his book started such a frenzy. He grew up on...

There he goes again. Newsmax has published an interview with Mitt Romney in which he once again touts his big government Massachusetts health care plan as a monumental success: "What we were able to accomplish was to get almost all of our citizens insured without breaking the bank and without having a so-called public option," Romney says. "I think the program is a real success and that it can teach lessons to other states, and to the nation." To start with, Romney is wrong on the merits. Michael Cannon has done an excellent job documenting what a colossal failure Romneycare...

A day after former Baptist minister and likely presidential rival Mike Huckabee offered a withering critique of Mitt Romney's record, the former Massachusetts governor made his pitch to the same group of religious conservatives. Romney appealed to attendees at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Saturday, using a speech that drew heavily from his address to social conservatives at the same hotel earlier this year. "Putting such a spirit-crushing, back-breaking debt burden on our children is unworthy of our national character," he said. "That is why I believe that this spending and borrowing is not just economically irresponsible, it...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – An old rivalry flared up again at the annual Values Voter Summit on Friday, when Mike Huckabee took aim at the health care system in Massachusetts that was implemented in 2006 by then-Gov. Mitt Romney. Huckabee — who did serious damage to Romney's presidential hopes last January by winning the Iowa caucuses and has made clear his disdain for the former Massachusetts governor — told the crowd at the conservative conference that the Bay State health care system is a model for the kind of government-run health care President Obama wants to implement. "It's going to bankrupt...

Dan Brown has done it again. In 2003, "The Da Vinci" code author released the must-read novel of the year. Six years later, his sequel "The Lost Symbol" sold more than one million copies in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. on its first day, shattering sales records in adult fiction books and forcing the publisher to rush-print an additional 600,000 copies to meet the demand.

So much for conservatives’ insistence on not injecting Teddy’s death into the health-care debate, I guess. Although Stephanopoulos is right: This is less about The One and ObamaCare than it is about Huck’s growing rivalry with a certain darling of the base who was way ahead of him on this subject. Which Democrat will toss it back first? Will any Republicans jump on it by challenging Huckabee head-on? One thing’s for sure: by joining the debate in this time in this way, Huckabee is showing how determined he is not to be outmaneuvered by Sarah Palin in the early 2012...

Muck-it-up-a-bee was spouting nonsense about Rifqa Bary. Mike Huckabee weighed in on Rifqa Bary yesterday and displayed an almost breathless stupidity and deliberate delusion that speaks to the deeper inadequacy of this man. Atlas reader Palin opined, I just watched Huckabee on Fox. He, like everyone else, is completely clueless about this. He started by emphasizing that most Moslems are peaceful, trivialized her conversion to Christianity, raised concerns about sexual predators on the Internet luring kids with religion, stated the family has no history of violence, and stressed that this is "a very complex case." Huck - this is not...

The man backing part of the Global Climate scare can't even calculate how to place his windmills correctly, never mind his hot air about the much more complex subject, the climate. Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, Pickens said today. He's now looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines that he has already ordered. The windmills stand 400 feet tall—taller than most 30-story buildings. "When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the oligarch said. "They've got to go someplace."...

As a result of his failing economic policies, the majority of Americans currently disapprove of Obamanomics and the GOP now leads Democrats by six points on the economy. Conservatives have continuously pointed out that Keynesian economic theory never works, but liberals believed from the bottom of their capricious little hearts that "this time" would be different. As Albert Einstein noted, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Unfortunately for America, we bought "Mr. O's Special Blend of Snake Oil Hope & Changery," and now we're broke and worse off than we were before....

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens on Monday reiterated his prediction that crude oil prices would hit $75 a barrel this year as producers scale back production. Pickens said about OPEC producers: "They told you they want $75 by the end of the year, I would count on that, I believe them."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned supporters Tuesday that the $828 billion stimulus package is “anti-religious.” In an e-mail that was also posted on his blog ahead of the Senate’s passage, Huckabee wrote: “The dust is settling on the ‘bipartisan’ stimulus bill and one thing is clear: It is anti-religious.” The former Republican presidential candidate pointed to a provision in both the House and Senate versions banning higher education funds in the bill from being used on a “school or department of divinity.” “You would think the ACLU drafted this bill,” Huckabee said. “For all of the talk about bipartisanship,...

T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday that he's seeking as much as $28 billion from the economic stimulus plan to convert heavy-duty trucks from diesel to natural gas engines. [...] Pickens' latest lobbying effort comes as congressional Democrats negotiate details of the $800 billion package of tax cuts and government spending. Pickens said he discussed his request Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller. A Pelosi spokesman refused to provide details of the "private conversation." "They, of course, didn't jump up and give me a standing ovation,"...

Yet another profile of wind crusader T. Boone Pickens aired Sunday night — this time on 60 Minutes — and it had the usual details about the 80-year-old former oil baron’s plan to get the U.S. off its addiction to foreign oil. But 60 Minutes did score an interesting tidbit about how much Pickens and his investment firm BP Capital have lost since oil and natural gas prices started dropping in July: $2 billion! The steep drop in oil and gas prices since July has cut the value of Pickens’ hedge fund in half. . . Overall, Pickens and BP...

TOKYO (AFP) - Former US presidential contender Mike Huckabee urged his fellow Republicans on Wednesday not to denigrate Democrat Barack Obama, saying they should celebrate the historic moment of a black candidate. "Republicans will make a fundamental if not fatal mistake if they seek to win the election by demonising Barack Obama," Huckabee told a news conference on a visit to Tokyo. The former Arkansas governor said that, having grown up in the segregated South, he never thought he would see an African-American win the nomination of a major party for the US presidency. "I do not want to have...

A T-R-I reader says a “former Republican candidate for the presidency in 2008 is shopping a radio commentary/talk show to all the networks, and it’s not his first job in radio.” Sounds like the Tennessee talker himself, Fred Thompson, doesn’t it? But no – it’s former Arkansas Governor, minister and onetime teenage radio host Mike Huckabee. His witty and self-deprecating persona was a hit with a lot of media types during the campaign and you’d think he could be exploring all kinds of options (including the VP slot with McCain, without seeming to want it). But he’s shaking hands and...

When we founded Huck PAC we did so with the idea that we would support Republican candidates who are passionate advocates for tax reform, a strong national defense, real border security, life, the family, less government and individual liberty. This week I am headed to Montana to campaign for Roy Brown and Steve Daines, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor respectively. House Majority Leader Brown is an able legislator who is known for his strong advocacy of tax reform, education, energy development and the strong importance of government supporting and empowering the Family. I met Steve Daines when he agreed...

Huckabee & The Club friends at last? TRIBUNE-REVIEW By: Salena Zito When former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was running for the Republcian nomination for president, no one attacked him more often and with more conservative muscle than the uber-economic conservatives from The Club for Growth. Pat Tommey, chairman of The Club, wrote last October in The National Review that a flirtation with Huckabee even as a vice presidential candidate did a "great disservice to the conservative movement if it overlooks Huckabee’s stunning record of big-government liberalism.” So, it came as a bit of surprise to receive a blast e-mail from...

Mike Huckabee, still one of many names being floated as John McCain’s vice presidential nominee, has started up his own political action committee, Huck PAC. In his kick-off blog on his Web site, the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate writes that he’s launching the PAC to promote candidates who “hold firm” to the principles of “tax reform, a strong national defense, real border security, life, the family, less government and individual liberty.” Aside from that, Huckabee has high goals for upending the power balance in Washington. “Huck PAC is committed to helping Republicans regain control of the House...

Gore Admits Financial Reasons for Advancing Global Warming Hysteria Photo of Noel Sheppard. By Noel Sheppard | April 11, 2008 - 09:38 ET For years, NewsBusters has reported on Al Gore's financial interests in advancing global warming hysteria around the world. On March 1, while speaking at the TED Conference in Monterey, California, the Nobel Laureate admitted to having "a stake" in a number of green "investments" that he recommend attendees put their money in instead of "sub-prime carbon assets" like "tar sands" and "shale oil." This occurred as pictures of such products appeared on the screen with names of...

Mike Huckabee can't definitively explain why he couldn't win the Republican presidential nomination, but he thinks the desire of Christian leaders to be "kingmakers," media coverage and Mother Nature all had something to do with it. "Rank-and-file evangelicals supported me strongly, but a lot of the leadership did not," the former Arkansas governor says. "Let's face it, if you're not going to be king, the next best thing is to be the kingmaker. And if the person gets there without you, you become less relevant." Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson backed Rudolph W. Giuliani; American Value President and former presidential hopeful...

Former Arkansas Governor and 2008 Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee will be a guest on CNN’s “Larry King Live” at 9:00 p.m. ET tonight to discuss his recent presidential campaign and other topics.

Former Arkansas Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee will be a guest on the following television programs on Monday, March 3, 2008: CNN’s “American Morning” at 7:30 a.m. ET Fox News Network’s “Fox and Friends” at 7:45 a.m. ET MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” at 7:55 a.m. ET

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said Monday he accepted campaign contributions from Antoin "Tony'' Rezko without knowing that Rezko was a slumlord with problem buildings in the state Senate district Obama represented at the time. "Should I have known these buildings were in a state of disrepair? My answer would be that it wasn't brought to my attention,'' Obama, who's seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said at a South Side campaign stop. His comments came in response to a Chicago Sun-Times report that he had done previously undisclosed legal work between 1995 and 1998 on a series of troubled low-income-housing deals...

Hotline Hears Rudy Giuliani has picked up the edorsement of Rep. Charlie Dent (PA). According to Giuliani's team, Dent plans "to enlist other" PA GOPers to follow suit. Dent, explaining his support: "Giuliani successfully led New York City and became known as 'America’s Mayor' because of his dynamic approach to tackling the challenges facing America’s largest city... It takes a determined fiscal leader to make the kind of transformation he achieved as Mayor of New York – and his record speaks for itself." (Hotline reporting)

In a move to increase its relevance in the presidential selection process, the Golden State is set to jump up its primary from June of 2008 to February 5th, less than a year away. This may benefit New York's presidential aspirants, and especially its Republican one. Last week I noted Giuliani's electric support at the California Republican Party convention. A recent poll has resoundingly brought forth the same message. This morning, the Wall Street Journal's John Fund notes the following numbers: With California moving its presidential primary to Feb. 5 of next year, what Golden State voters think about White...

For the second straight week, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) holds a fourteen percentage point lead in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination. Giuliani attracts support from 33% of Likely Primary Voters while Arizona Senator John McCain is supported by 19%. A week ago, it was Giuliani 32% McCain 18%. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) picked up a few points this week and now is favored by 13%. Trailing Gingrich is former Massachusetts Mitt Romney (R) at 9%. Senators Sam Brownback (R) and Chuck Hagel (R) each earn 3% support. It is not clear that...

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm. But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God. "The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says. De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God....

"What we pay people in Washington for is to make decisions," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the audience at the California GOP convention in Sacramento Saturday. Meanwhile, back in Washington, members of Congress have been acting as if they were sent to Washington to make non-decisions. Witness the nonbinding House resolution being debated this week in which members profess to support U.S. troops in Iraq, but, "Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional U.S. combat troops to Iraq." The Senate couldn't even manage to...

. . . and, without mentioning President Bush by name, offered pointed criticism on how the Iraq war has been handled . . . He said that the United States went to war with far too few forces and was wrong to dismantle Saddam Hussein’s military and government, and he conceded that if more information had been available about Iraq’s weapons, Congress never would have approved the war.

Now that Rudy Giuliani has overtaken -- for the moment -- Sen. John McCain as the Republican front-runner, the big question is "why?". The answer is not that either party is lacking contenders with presidential material, but that Giuliani just might be the right man at the right time. There's a controversial theory historians have named the "great men" theory of history. As opposed to Marxist historians, who believe that class struggle is the great mover of history, or their lefty cousins who believe that "groups" -- women, gays, minorities -- and their struggles dominate human affairs, some historians hold...

Moves Closer To Full-Fledged Presidential Run (CBS/AP) WASHINGTON -- Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday defended the Iraq war and criticized Al Gore's global-warming movie. As for his presidential ambitions, Giuliani coyly inched closer to a formal announcement. "I am 100 percent committed," he said. "That official part, I still have to do a formal announcement. But we'll figure out how to do that. My idea is that I'm going to try to announce this in 100 different places." Giuliani, a Republican, said he supports efforts to move California's 2008 presidential primary from June to February, a...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - New Hampshire residents likely to vote in the Republican presidential primary a year from now think more highly of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani than any of his rivals, a poll released Tuesday shows. ADVERTISEMENT Giuliani's net favorability rating — the proportion of people viewing him favorably minus the proportion viewing him unfavorably — was 56 percent, well ahead of Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), 32 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 26 percent, in the University of New Hampshire poll for WMUR-TV in Manchester."He's the lesser-known candidate, but he has that rock...

Giuliani Strikes a Note With California GOP Testing the Waters, Former N.Y. Mayor Garners 4 Ovations SACRAMENTO, Feb. 10 -- Rudolph W. Giuliani came west to learn whether his brand of Republican politics has a chance among party members significantly more conservative than himself. By the time he had received a fourth standing ovation Saturday at the California Republican Party convention, the answer seemed clear. Equating the U.S. fight against terrorism with the Civil War and the Cold War, Giuliani told about 750 of his party's faithful that failure in Iraq would turn that country into a "massive headquarters for...

Sacramento -- Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, arguing that America is in desperate need of a Ronald Reagan-style optimistic vision, told California Republicans on Saturday that he wants to be a president who will "win the world for a set of ideas ... that I believe come from God." "We're for freedom, we're for the future, and in order to do that, we need leadership that uplifts us and moves us toward the future," Giuliani told the lunchtime crowd at the state GOP convention, all but formally declaring his candidacy for his party's presidential nomination. "You get...

Michael Savage, the nation's third-most listened to radio talk-show host, says he may leave his top rated show to make a bid for the GOP nomination for president.

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>