Free Republic

**SNIP** "What makes this man different than anyone else?" he asked. "The president is elected to negotiate." "We treat the tea party like they are some kind of disease, and the very same thing on the other side the press don't even cover it," continued Zell, chairman of Equity Group Investments. "Can you imagine the press vilifying the ACLU?" Zell said he's "not a big tea party fan at all," but added that they are "significant percent of the voting population" with a "right to have a view."

An old friend who has been active in politics for more than 30 years tells me he’s giving up. “I can’t stomach what’s going on in Washington anymore,” he says. “The hell with all of them. I have better things to do with my life.” My friend is falling into exactly the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into — such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics. Then they’re free to take over everything.Republicans blame the shutdown of Washington and possible default on the nation’s debt on the president’s “unwillingness to...

WASHINGTON — One is a former Texas talk-radio host who had never held public office until he won a seat in Congress in the 2010 tea party wave. Another is an MIT-educated inventor who has all but shelved his scientific pursuits to reinvent government. Others are back-bench, right-wing lawmakers who have served in Congress for years but suddenly find their once far-afield views have more currency within their party. These are the House Republicans who have convinced Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to use the federal shutdown and a possible debt default as leverage to reduce the reach of government....

Leftist geography professor at taxpayer-funded university rails at students over shutdown 9:35 AM 10/07/2013 Eric Owens Education Editor Last week, a geography professor at the public, taxpayer-funded University of Wisconsin-La Crosse used a required assignment in one of her courses to wage a campaign against Republicans, blaming them entirely for the government shutdown over federal spending. Rachel Slocum, an assistant professor in the UW–La Crosse geography and earth sciences department, sent the vitriolic email entitled “government websites” on Oct. 1, reports Media Trackers Wisconsin. Here it is, unexpurgated: hi everyone Some of the data gathering assignment will be impossible to...

Our sense of the force currently paralyzing the government is full of misconceptions -- including what to call it. To judge from the commentary inspired by the shutdown, most progressives and centrists, and even many non-Tea Party conservatives, do not understand the radical force that has captured the Republican Party and paralyzed the federal government. Having grown up in what is rapidly becoming a Tea Party heartland–Texas–I think I do understand it. Allow me to clear away a few misconceptions about what really should be called, not the Tea Party Right, but the Newest Right. The first misconception that is...

"We apologize for the inconvenience. The marketplace is currently undergoing regularly scheduled maintenance andf will be back up Monday, 10/7/3013." That's the message New Yorkers received this weekened when they attempted to sign up for health insurance via the new online health exchange or marketplace, a key componenet of ObamaCare. ...

If the nation is lucky, this October will mark the beginning of the end of the tea party. The movement is suffering from extreme miscalculation and a foolish misreading of its opponents’ intentions. This, in turn, has created a moment of enlightenment, an opening to see things that were once missed. Many Republicans, of course, saw the disaster coming in advance of the shutdown. But they were terrified to take on a movement that is fortified by money, energy and the backing of a bloviating brigade of talk-show hosts. The assumption was that the tea party had become invincible inside...

The fabric of our entire nation is being torn to bits by what I call the "fringers," the small groups that have taken over as the mouthpieces of their organizations. They march to their own drums and drown out any dissenting voices. The most notable one is the Republican Party which is being held captive by the tea partiers, one of the most destructive entities that has ever bollixed up our democracy that has endured for so many years since its exciting creation. There have been roadblocks in the past, most notably the Civil War, but at no time has...

That was awkward. In the clearest sign yet of the potent effect of the government shutdown on the Virginia governor’s race, Republican Ken Cuccinelli avoided being photographed with Ted Cruz at a gala they headlined here Saturday night—even leaving before the Texas senator rose to speak. Backstage, a source said, Cuccinelli urged Cruz to work with Democrats to end the federal shutdown. But he did not make that point, or even acknowledge Cruz, in short public comments to some 1,100 social conservatives. Cruz has become the face of GOP intransigence, and the conservative attorney general’s effort to distance himself from...

Harry Reid: Furlough back pay is ‘paid vacation’ By: Burgess Everett October 5, 2013 12:44 PM EDT By passing a bill providing federal workers back pay while the government is closed, House Republicans are giving them a “paid vacation,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Saturday afternoon. Just a few minutes after the House passed its retroactive pay legislation for federal workers, Reid said the legislation is “uncontroversial” but said it is “cruel” to tell those employees they will get paid when the government reopens while at the same time refusing to open government.

How did the Republican Party become so splintered and so infused with hard-line conservatives? Don't blame redistricting. Don't chalk it up to anti-Obama fervor.Republicans have become an unruly bunch of scorched-earth conservatives because the Tea Party smashed the business lobby's monopoly on GOP fundraising.Here's a story of where the GOP used to be:Back in 2006, I asked a couple of conservative Republican congressmen to give blurbs for my book on corporate welfare. “My boss loves the book,” one of their top aides said, “but we’re not going to put his name on it." Why not, I asked. "Who do you...

Update: ‘T-Hadists R Cancer’; Update: Total Twitter meltdown! In her latest anti-Tea Party rant, elderly pop star Cher tell her fans about a cartoon portrayal of “t-hadists,” which is Cher-speak for “Tea Party jihadists.” Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and logic have never been Cher’s strong points, but the message is clear enough: Cher believes American citizens who advocate for limited government are morally equivalent to the Islamic terrorists who blew up the World Trade Center buildings. * * * In related news, Twitchy reached out to Cher’s record label, Warner Brothers Music, and The X Factor, alerting them to Cher’s recent...

".....A relatively small cadre of Tea Party conservatives has somehow managed to tie Congress in knots, essentially forcing House Republicans to shut down the federal government until Obama and his allies acquiesce..” They are : Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Tom Graves (R-Ga.),Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.),Steve King (R-Iowa), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.),Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Walter Jones (R-N.C.), John Fleming (R-La.), Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Diane Black (R-Tenn.), Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), John Culberson (R-Texas), Steve Stockman (R-Texas), Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.),Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Steve Scalise (R-La.),...

Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan. Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare,” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups. It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could...

IF the government shutdown has shown us anything, it’s that the 80 or so House Republicans driving the crisis have emerged as the most unified force in politics: tightly organized, highly disciplined and ideologically firm.But wasn’t their plan to make the budget a vehicle for defunding President Obama’s health care legislation doomed from the start? And even if this small band has the backing of voters in their safely drawn “red” districts, as well as Tea Party support, haven’t their unyielding tactics antagonized a majority of the public?In fact, this minority faction — the “suicide caucus,”as the conservative columnist Charles...

Dems say NO to an exemption from ObamaCare (for one-year) for average, hard-working Americans... Dems say NO to ending taxpayer-funded health care subsidies for fat-cats in the U.S. Senate and House of Reps... Dems say NO to ending the ObamaCare exemption for Big Business. Dems say NO to opening up national historic sites that are open 365 days a year - with no federal supervision to boot.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Florida) lambasted the Republican Party on Friday night during an appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” accusing the GOP of being divided into three fringe sectors. “There are really 3 Republican parties: there are the corporate shills, there are the religious fanatics and then there are the freedom fiends, the ones who want to make sure you have the right to sleep under a bridge,” Grayson told HBO’s Bill Maher. Maher, an outspoken liberal comedian, appeared to agree and summed up Grayson’s analysis in his own words. “So Jesus freaks, gun nuts, generic obese suburbanites, and...

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin blasted the Republican establishment's contempt for and destructive behavior toward the Tea Party during the current budget showdown with the Obama administration. Palin told Breitbart News that these establishment financiers cannot relate to the average American worker and are throwing a "fit" because Wall Street knows they are in a whole new ballgame where their influence is diminishing. Palin was responding to an article by David Freilander in Thursday's Daily Beast in which prominent Republican establishment financiers showed disdain for the conservative grassroots while being unable to identify...

The tea party senator and his allies campaigned on the promise to revolutionize Washington — so why is everyone so surprised they’re trying to do it? And on the third day, Ted Cruz looked upon his creation, and he saw that it was good. Yes, Congressional negotiations had devolved into a manic game of finger-pointing that centered on cancer-patient gaffes and pitched battles over war memorials; hundreds of thousands of federal workers had been sent home without paychecks; and Republicans were continuing to cling stubbornly to a list of extraordinary demands that Democrats flatly refuse to entertain. With the country...

"The reason that we are not going to do this in piecemeal approach is that in 15 minutes we have vote on the House floor. The Republicans could call up the clean CR and we could - we have the votes. We know 20 or so of their members are willing to vote for a clean CR. We could reopen the government for all cancer patients and we could stop - they should stop allowing their Tea Party extremist members to hold the economy hostage and to hold cancer patients hostage. And this is all over - if they really...

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick had some harsh words the federal government as he made stops in the western part of the state today. “It’s embarrassing," said Patrick. “The Tea Party Republicans are playing a big game with the lives of some little people frankly,” he said. “I think that’s got to end.” The democrat says this is not a new issue, but it has reached a new level. “We have had perennial arguments over more than 200 years about what we want government to do or not do,” he said. “But rarely, until today, have we had a question about...

Binghamton, NY (WBNG Binghamton) The standstill in Washington is making Americans restless. As the government shutdown entered day four, tensions spilled onto the streets of downtown Binghamton. The Norwich Tea Party Patriots and Citizen Action of New York crowded the Metro Center causing tensions to flare. While members from both of the organizations are against the shutdown, the paths they want Congress to take toward a solution run in opposite directions. "We are tired of being blamed for the shutdown of the federal government," Gilda Ward, Coordinator of Norwich Tea Party Patriots, said. "Every time the House Republicans have presented...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe slammed the government shutdown during a campaign stop in downtown Roanoke today, and touted diversified economic development as a way to soften the blow of any future gridlock. McAuliffe, who received a tour of Sumdat Farm Market on Market Street, was in town to talk about his plan to build Virginia’s agriculture and forestry industries. After looking through the store’s selection of local jams, beers and wines, he stepped outside to see the squash and vegetable selections and quickly moved to attack the federal government shutdown. In comments to reporters, he linked the shutdown, which...

TRENTON - For months, Republican Steve Lonegan has attacked Democrat Cory Booker on a whole host of issues: his stewardship as mayor of Newark's economy, his record on crime, and his business ventures. All the while, Booker mostly stayed above the fray. On Friday, Booker played ball. In the first debate in the special U.S. Senate election in New Jersey, Booker and Lonegan raced to paint the other as an extremist who would only exacerbate Washington's problems. Booker wasted no time to tie Lonegan to the tea party wing of the GOP which he credited with causing a partial government...

Democrats’ seething hatred of the Tea Party movement has clouded Democrats’ thinking and ability to govern **snip**We have seen similar irrational conduct by every senior Democrat, from Obama on down to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and so on. **snip**Since the start of the Tea Party movement in the late winter and early spring of 2009, Democrats have been demonizing the movement in the most crude terms. Every time there is a public act of violence, the immediate response is to look for a Tea Party connection, which never is found. It’s not surprising that in the past couple...

Earlier this week, Cher pounded out her all-caps belief that some members of Congress need a “good whipping.” But hey, why stop at drawing blood? The perpetually mouth-frothing diva is just about ready to finish this. She concluded her latest Twitter diatribe from Europe with an oh-so-civil proposal for getting “TBAG” lawmakers out of the way: “MAYBE WE SHOULD DEEP 6 THEIR WEAK ASS’S.”

CHINCOTEAGUE, Va.- The federal government has shut down the Assateague National Seashore and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. But that is not stopping residents from trying to get inside. "if they send me a summons, I'll send it to the White House," Anna Stubbs said. She and dozens of other protestors are rallying for the parks to reopen, so the Chincoteague economy can get back on track. "I have a motel and I had 10 cancellations last night, we have the biggest festival we have this year, the oyster festival and they are starting to cancel for that," Stubbs said....

“We’d like to move them both together,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking Democratic leader. “I think having them together is a good thing because who wants to go through this again. “The hopes is maybe once the Tea Party has realized it’s not getting its way on shutting down the government that they won’t try the same stunt on debt ceiling,” he said. Democratic leaders dismissed House Republican efforts to pass piecemeal funding bills to reopen the government.

Republican strategist Karl Rove, writing in The Wall Street Journal's opinion pages Wednesday, warned that "the public is increasingly impatient, even enraged, with Washington's dysfunction." He implied that senate Republican tactics are politically hard to defend, and urged GOP congressional leaders to be ready to hit the ground running for the bigger fight ahead: the debt-ceiling vote. In advance of that October 17 deadline, Rove advocated having "a serious debt-ceiling plan ready quickly." Otherwise, he warned Democrats led by President Obama and, alluding to Tea Party stalwarts, "a faction within the GOP's own ranks – can whipsaw the party." Rove...

Recently, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, had this to say about the government shutdown in between bowls of chicken poodle soup and attempting to start World War III: *** "And in keeping with the broad ramifications of a shutdown, I think it's important that everybody understands the federal government is America's largest employer." http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-president-obamas-sept-30-remarks-on-looming-government-shutdown/2013/09/30/87437ea6-2a10-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_story.html *** And there, ladies and gentlemen, is the root of of all of our economic ills, our social ills, and our political ills. The Federal Leviathan has grown so massive and Chris Christie-like it can't support its own weight anymore. Now, keep in mind, this...

On Tuesday, the liberal New Republic published an article that was a not-so-subtle suggestion that Barack Obama use military force against the Tea Party in the same manner Boris Yeltsin used it against hardliners in his government nearly 20 years ago. "What is a president in a presidential constitutional republic to do when faced with an intransigent, bull-headed faction among his people's representatives?" Julia Ioffe wrote. She then gave a brief synopsis of the events that took place, saying Yeltsin faced a situation similar to what Obama now faces. "Almost exactly 20 years ago, he dissolved parliament. The vice president...

Ted Cruz's townhall meeting by telephone last night drew over 104,000 participants. The previous record was 67,000 people. The event was sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots and Cruz was joined by Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK). The meeting was on the continuing resolution. TPP Co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said no special efforts were taken and the only announcements were the standard Facebook post for two hours and a robocall earlier in the day. The meeting was to bring people up to date on the defunding of Obamacare through the CR. Just as 2010, the Tea Party patriots are leading the...

Cruz and Mark Levin discuss the situation and that Republicans need to Hold, Hold, Hold, as in the movie, Braveheart. 4 Videos on the page Here is the speech of William Wallace from “Braveheart”: “I am William Wallace. And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny! You have come to fight as free men. And free man you are! What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?” “Two thousand against ten?” – the veteran shouted. “No! We will run – and live!” “Yes!” Wallace shouted back. “Fight and you may die. Run and...

Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson was for chipping away at Obamacare during the continuing resolution fight before he was against it. On Tuesday, the GOP congressman told a Capitol Hill publication that he supports voting for a continuing resolution to stop the partial government shutdown — even without provisions defunding, delaying or stopping parts of President Barack Obama’s health care law. “I’d vote for a clean [continuing resolution] because I don’t think this is a strategy that works,” Simpson told Roll Call. “I think the strategy that works is on the debt ceiling.”

The Associated Press says the Tea Party's growing power and influence has unmoored Republican politicians from their traditional alliance with Wall Street in favor of grassroots conservative activists. AP reporters Charles Babington and Jim Kuhnhenn cited the "corporate community's waning clout" and "the remarkable drop in the business community's influence among House Republicans, who increasingly respond more to Tea Party conservatives than to the Chamber of Commerce." The shift comes as grassroots activists have re-framed the GOP's old "pro-business" stance into a "pro-free markets" positioning that eschews the kinds of corporate welfare and taxpayer-funded crony capitalism found in big government...

(Tea party activists attend a rally on the grounds of the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 19, 2013.) (article image) The GOP's 14,000 mile "Fire Pelosi" bus tour in 2010 was the Republican National Committee's successful attempt to harness the tea party's angst and energy for their benefit. During the six-week tour, the red bus rolled through 48 states, firing up the base and mobilizing Republicans to turn out for a midterm election to snatch the speaker's gavel from Nancy Pelosi. The result? Eighty seven freshman Republicans in Congress, a GOP takeover of the House of Representatives, roughly 40 votes...

Former presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs offered some words of advice for President Obama on how best to handle the blooming government shutdown: Take it easy, sit back and wait it out. Specifically, Mr. Gibbs said during a Tuesday MSNBC appearance that the White House’s best move is to “sit back and watch.” He also put all the fault for the government shutdown on Republicans, declining to cast fault at the Democrats in the Senate who refused to discuss the House funding bill that passed and was sent their way. He continued, advising the White House: “I don’t think there’s...

Never heard of this guy, but I hope a primary challenge is in the works.

In case there were any doubts, Bill de Blasio has no interest in letting his Republican rival, Joe Lhota, distance himself from the right-wing of his party. In a blistering broadside at an unrelated Brooklyn press conference today, Mr. de Blasio told Politicker that Mr. Lhota has to embrace everyone from Mitt Romney to Barry Goldwater, whom Mr. Lhota professed an affinity for in college. “First of all, it’s 2013 and the Republican Party has evolved, thanks to Mr. Lhota’s friend Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan and others over the last two decades, it’s evolved into a very right-wing party...

Germany and Britain became the first countries to issue a "travel warning" for the United States as the government shutdown in America entered the second day on Wednesday with no sign of resolution. Feisty Democrats and hardline Republicans stuck to their guns, the former rejecting proposals from conservatives to fund re-opening of just parts of the government with an "all-or-nothing" response. President Obama meantime curtailed a four-nation Asia trip that is to begin Saturday to just two nations (Indonesia and Brunei), scrapping tail-end visits to Malaysia and Philippines because the disruption prevented the White House from sending an advance party...

One of the groups at the center of the IRS scandal has finally received its tax-exempt status after a three-year delay prompted by a politically driven move to block Tea Party and other conservative groups, many that slammed the president during his re-election, from winning the special status.

Wall Street is clear about who’s to blame for the government shutdown and a looming debt default: tea party Republicans. What’s less clear is what Wall Street can do about it. The reality is that deep-pocketed financial services executives and their lobbyists have little leverage against tea party lawmakers who don’t much care for financiers or big banks and don’t rely heavily on the industry for campaign cash. “Those are the ones who are most problematic for Boehner,” one D.C.-based lobbyist who represents financial services clients said of tea party lawmakers. “I don’t think there’s any way for Wall Street...

On Tuesday, Julia Ioffe, senior editor for the liberal New Republic publication, all but suggested that President Obama needed to use military force against Tea Party conservatives in Congress. Ioffe likened the current federal government shutdown to the 1993 constitutional crisis in Russia, where then-President Boris Yeltsin ultimately ended the impasse by dissolving the parliament, and had tanks shell the legislative body's "White House". The writer asserted that both the "old Soviet conservatives" in Russia 20 years ago and the Tea Party representatives in the House were "intransigent, bull-headed faction[s]".

Allen West, beloved Tea Party candidate, is telling D.C. bloggers he’ll take a run at Marco “Speaks With Forked Tongue” Rubio’s Senate seat in 2016. “If I see people are not taking our country down the right path, God will set my feet on the right path,” said the Colonel. (1) Rubio’s fatal mistake was to coax the Tea Party into backing him–and back him they did, right into the Senate’s front door–and then promptly putting in with old guard, Senate liberals who were playing him for a fool. This mistake just may doom his re-election bid. It’s something you...

Tea Party members come from some of the most conservative districts in the country, and represent 18 percent of the American population. NBC News spoke with Rep. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Tim Huelskamp about the shutdown and why they say they won’t budge until Democrats budge on the Affordable Care Act.

Texas Senator John Cornyn is in trouble with the tea party. At the Texas Tribune policy conference last weekend six tea party leaders were asked if want a strong candidate to challenge Cornyn in the Republican primary. Five of them said yes. Listen 0:003:09Story airing on KERA 90.1 Included in that group were former gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, who now heads We Texans a limited government group; Northeast Tarrant County Tea Party President Julie McCarty; and Republican state representatives Matt Krause from Fort Worth and Jonathan Stickland from Bedford. The fifth and most vocal critic was JoAnn Fleming. Her email...

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-CA, was highly critical of Republicans Tuesday and called the shutting down of government a “terrible tragedy.” She denied that Democrats share the blame because they refused House Speaker John Boehner’s early morning offer to work things out in a conference committee, which the Senate Democrats rejected. Instead, she said, Republicans are acting as “legislative terrorists.” “You know how our policy is we don’t negotiate with terrorists? Why don’t we negotiate with terrorists? Because if we negotiate with them then they know they could kill, kidnap, do whatever it is and eventually they would get what they...

A House minority from white districts want to destroy the first black president, and the GOP majority abets them. On the day the Affordable Care Act takes effect, the U.S. government is shut down, and it may be permanently broken. You’ll read lots of explanations for the dysfunction, but the simple truth is this: It’s the culmination of 50 years of evolving yet consistent Republican strategy to depict government as the enemy, an oppressor that works primarily as the protector of and provider for African-Americans, to the detriment of everyone else. The fact that everything came apart under our first...

Washington, DC – Today, on the first day of the Republican shutdown of the federal government, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) issued the following statement: “Today’s shutdown of the federal government is a manufactured political crisis. It has been inspired and executed by a Tea Party Republican faction that controls House leadership and refuses to fulfill the most basic function of Congress – to appropriate funds to ensure government operations continue.” “All along Democrats have worked for an honest and responsible solution to prevent a shutdown, including compromising to meet Republican sequestration funding levels in the continuing resolution. But that wasn’t...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shot down the House proposal to pass three small funding measures, calling it a “wacky idea” from the House Republicans. “It’s just another wacky idea from the Tea Party-driven Republicans,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “You can tell the Tea Party Republicans still want to keep the government shutdown.” “This is not serious. The government is shut down and if they think they’re going to nitpick us on this, it won’t work. It won’t work,” Reid said. Reid did not say how he would handle the narrow funding measures when they reach the Senate,...