Free Republic

Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi has won a closely watched special election for a vacant House seat once held by former Republican Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from the chamber in December. The Associated Press projected that Suozzi would defeat Republican county lawmaker Mazi Pilip, to win back his old job. With the GOP hanging on to a razor-thin majority in the House, national Republicans and Democrats poured big bucks into a race in suburban New York City where immigration and border security, crime, and abortion were the top issues, and where the election was seen as a bellwether...

The U.S. government now holds political prisoners in jail in the nation’s capital, and the party that purports to stand for freedom, liberty, and rule of law refuses to defend them.federal judge this week blasted a top Justice Department official for publicly bragging about the agency’s sprawling investigation into the January 6 Capitol melee. In an emergency hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta warned government prosecutors to keep quiet or face a gag order. Mehta fumed over comments made in a television interview by former acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin—he led the first two months of the nationwide manhunt...

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Monday afternoon added his voice to a swiftly growing list of Republicans calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of South Carolina’s state house. “Now is the time to do what is right, and I support the call by Governor [Nikki] Haley and South Carolina leaders to remove the Confederate battle flag from state house grounds,” Priebus said in the statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain expects many U.S. Republicans to seek the party's presidential nomination in 2012. "I think there's going to be 1,000 flowers bloom," he said Monday at the annual Washington Reuters Summit. McCain, who won the nomination in 2008 and went on to lose to Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election, did not predict who he thought might run. "I think it's too early," he said. (snip) McCain's advice to Republicans: Keep your eye on New Hampshire. (snip) "For Republicans it seems to me that New Hampshire is still the very key place," McCain...

Republicans are telling themselves that a political wave is building that could carry them to big election gains next year. Judging by their performance so far in a special election in New York, however, they deserve to wander in the minority for another generation or two. The November 2 contest will replace nine-term Republican John McHugh, who resigned to become Secretary of the Army. President Obama carried the district along the Canadian border with 52%, but George W. Bush carried it twice and Republicans outnumber Democrats by 45,000 or so. With voters alarmed about the economy and runaway spending, this...

New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg “would never allow his seat to go to a Democrat,” says a Republican close to President Obama’s presumptive pick for Commerce Secretary. “The only way he would allow it is if he died.” Buzz today is that if Gregg took the gig, his replacement would share parties with New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat. (If Al Franken is deemed the winner here in Minnesota, the Dems would then secure a veto filibuster-proof majority.) But The Hill now reports that Republicans are saying Gregg will only take the job if he’s guaranteed that the seat...