Free Republic

Writing for Hot Air, Ed Morrissey reports that libertarian-oriented Republican Congressman Ron Paul is more than a bit perturbed by the primary challenge he’s facing from a tea party candidate. In an email sent to supporters, Paul says that both parties are ”doing everything they can to make sure I am defeated.” He adds: “These candidates include three Republicans in my own primary on March 2,” he wrote (emphasis added by me), “and they will stop at nothing to tear down and destroy all we have worked for.” Especially the last sentence is stunning in its arrogance. Your primary, Congressman?...

Despite the countless press releases, Twitter posts and television spots that have flooded the landscape for more than a year, five critical sound bites have defined this election and put Perry in strong position to retain his party's nomination: • "I will be looking at what is best for Texas," Hutchison told Texas Monthly in October 2007 when asked whether she would resign her Senate post to run for governor. Her indecision about resignation, still not resolved to many Republicans' satisfaction, hindered Hutchison's message and left many wishing she had stayed put.• "I could not give a blank check...

"I am delighted to endorse Governor Perry. We have created a strong bond of friendship and we are working together on the immigration issue." Jim Gilchrist - Founder/President of the Minuteman Project, Inc.

Lytle is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of town, one of hundreds that dot the vast flat ranchlands of southern Texas. A smear of houses by the main highway between San Antonio and Laredo. Population: 2,383. The first streets only got paved here in the years after the second world war. A sewage system took a little longer, not being built until the 1960s. In short, Lytle, Texas, has never been big enough to have much impact on the politics of the Lone Star state. And few Texas politicians have ever paid much attention to it.

Scott Brown likely won his special election to the US Senate through his retort to David Gergen in the final debate that he was running for “the people’s seat” in Massachusetts, not “Ted Kennedy’s seat,” when Gergen challenged his opposition to ObamaCare.  Conservatives cheered the populist message Brown sent to Democrats in one of the most liberal states in the country.  What will they make of Ron Paul’s statement about “attack dogs” coming after him in “my own primary”? Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-oriented Republican whose 2008 presidential run provided kindling for the Tea Party movement, suddenly finds himself dealing...

Paul burned by Tea Party blowback By: Alex Isenstadt February 27, 2010 06:29 PM EST Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-oriented Republican whose 2008 presidential run provided kindling for the Tea Party movement, suddenly finds himself dealing with the blowback: a handful of Tea Party-inspired candidates are seeking to dislodge him in Tuesday’s Texas Republican primary. It’s an unusual turn of events for a veteran congressman who has reached stardom in conservative populist circles and who just last week emerged as the victor of the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Yet despite his solid anti-establishment credentials and...

.."Over the years, Gov. Perry has established a record that is consistently pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-religious liberty,” said Dr. Dobson. “He has demonstrated his deep regard for the sanctity of life by signing more pro-life bills into law than any other governor in Texas history. He demonstrated his support for the God-given institution of marriage by strongly supporting the Texas Marriage Amendment. And he has helped lead the effort to establish the strongest protections for religious liberty in the state of Texas. No other candidate in this race measures up to the high standards established by Gov. Perry on these...

Today, the administration will put on another show for the American people. The nationalized healthcare naysayers have been summoned to the White House to give their ideas on healthcare reform. Yet, the President announced his newly packaged plan days ago. So what’s the point? Is this a meeting to exchange ideas and move forward in a bipartisan manner or a meeting to say this is my plan, get on board or get out of the way? The American people see this meeting for what it is. But, what I don’t understand is how this administration can continue to think that...

Regardless, Gov. Rick Perry has fared relatively well, perhaps because of his anti-Washington rhetoric and his careful immigration stance, a recent poll indicates. It shows more than half of Texas Hispanics call themselves conservative, and a surprising 23 percent say they might participate in Tuesday's GOP primary. Among those, Perry leads Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison by 2 to 1, according to the poll, commissioned by an Austin consultant for a national group of Hispanic legislative leaders... Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said the poll hints at a little-noticed facet of Perry's political persona: He doesn't frighten Hispanics...

WASHINGTON — In D.C. political circles, Texas Rep. Ron Paul is the quirky icon of libertarian conservatism, a cult figure on American college campuses with a national following large enough to help him capture the presidential poll at the nation's pre-eminent conservative action conference last weekend. But while Paul basks in the applause of conservatives at a Washington hotel, he can't afford to ignore the three self-described conservatives who are assailing his conservative credentials back at home. “He's as bad as the rest of them,” says Gerald Wall, one of three Republicans challenging the incumbent in the March 2 GOP...

The Texas congressman who rattled the GOP establishment with his libertarian-leaning outsider run for president has suddenly found himself the target of the anti-incumbent Tea Party movement some credit him with helping inspire.

States' Rights: A revolt against economic hardship imposed by unelected bureaucrats based on junk science is brewing. This Tea Party movement wants the faulty finding on carbon dioxide to be reviewed and dumped. They say you shouldn't mess with Texas, and on Tuesday the state filed suit to overturn the "endangerment" finding by the Environmental Protection Agency that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant that must be regulated. CO2, the basis for all plant and therefore all animal life, was targeted early by environmental activists as the root cause of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming (AGW). But the Earth has cooled...

Texas Gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina spoke to an enthusiastic Kingwood Tea Party crowd in far-northeast Houston Saturday interested in hearing her plans to reform the Lone Star State.Medina made no reference about her Glenn Beck interview. However, the 20 or so random people with whom this reporter spoke before and after her speech seemed to accept Medina’s follow-up response released by her campaign a couple of hours after the Thursday morning radio interview. As Char with Texans for Nullification Today said, “If you go back and look at the radio transcript, when Glenn asked if she believed the government...

Published on The Weekly Standard (http://www.weeklystandard.com) Texas Deathmatch Two GOP heavyweights in a fight to the finish. BY Fred Barnes February 22, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 22 Austin, TexasTexas governor Rick Perry and Sarah Palin are friends from her years as governor of Alaska. In April 2008, a very pregnant Palin joined Perry and other Republican governors in Dallas at a conference on energy. While addressing the group, Palin suddenly turned to Perry and asked him to take the microphone. She had gone into labor. Palin rushed to the airport and flew back to Alaska, where her son Trig...

HOUSTON — Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, reeling from her remarks that questioned whether the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, on Friday blamed the ensuing firestorm on a “coordinated attack” that she speculated came from the campaigns of her better-known GOP rivals.

Explosive information hit the radio airwaves today as it was revealed that Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina appeared to confirm in an interview that she is a so-called '9/11 truther.' The interview was conducted by Glenn Beck on the radio. Debra Medina, right, at a debate with Gov. Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison (AP Photo/Pool,LM Otero). Immediately the Internet was burning up with quick responses both from Medina supporters and from those who jumped to the conclusion that the candidate had 'outed' herself as part of a movement which believes that the U.S. government had a hand in bringing...

I asked Debra Medina point blank if she is a 9/11 Truther. Medina’s answer was a simple and to the point, “No.” Debra Medina entered the Governor’s race as a David standing before not just Goliath, but two Goliaths: Sitting Governor Rick Perry and longtime U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Medina didn’t have a chance. Yet here she is today still tilting at windmills and facing down Goliaths. Now a new and powerful foe has come along to oppose Medina in the form of nationally known conservative talk show host Glenn Beck.

A Republican gubernatorial candidate said Thursday she has questions about whether the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — a statement she swiftly backed away from and one that drew immediate criticism from her better-known rivals in the race. Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison dismissed the comments made by Debra Medina on the Glenn Beck Show that there were "some very good arguments" that the U.S. was involved in bringing down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. "I don't have all of the evidence there, Glenn," Medina said. "I think some...

In a startling statement today, Republican candidate for governor Debra Medina refused to disavow the allegation that the U.S. government was somehow involved in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Medina made the statement during an interview on the Glenn Beck radio program

Debra Medina (TX Gov. Candidate) On Glenn Beck Tomorrow * Posted by Jared Law on February 10, 2010 at 9:14am in 9.12 Project Candidates Glenn Beck just announced that Debra Medina (R-TX) is within a few points of Kay Bailey Hutchison, and what I took from the way he worded it was that he is suggesting that she MAY be the real deal, and that she MAY be the candidate that the Tea Party Movement (9.12 Project Included, one must assume) has been looking for. There has been so much discussion of Debra Medina here on The 9.12 Project Network,...