Free Republic

Despite the fact that Democrats are rushing to protect him from a potential brewing Republican coup attempt, House Speaker John Boehner—currently a Republican—has no intention of leaving the Republican Party to join his new friends in the Democratic Party, his spokesman Michael Steel tells Breitbart News. “Speaker Boehner is a proud, conservative Republican, and enjoys the strong support of an overwhelming majority of the House Republican Conference,” Steel said in an email on Friday morning when asked by Breitbart News if the Speaker plans to switch party affiliations, given that several Democrats now say they’ll protect him from a Republican...

Big business has come out in favor of same-sex marriage. Exactly 379 corporations and employer organizations urged the Supreme Court to strike down state bans on gay marriage, according to a friend-of-the-court brief obtained by The Huffington Post. The document was expected to be filed late Thursday morning. “Employers are better served by a uniform marriage rule that gives equal dignity to employee relationships,” reads the brief, filed by global law firm Morgan Lewis. “Allowing same-sex couples to marry improves employee morale and productivity, reduces uncertainty, and removes the wasteful administrative burdens imposed by the current disparity of state law...

Tea Party Republicans contemplating a bid to oust Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) shouldn't count on Democrats to help them unseat the Speaker. And without their support, there is no chance to topple Boehner in this Congress. A number of right-wing Republicans, long-wary of Boehner's commitment to GOP efforts attacking President Obama's policy priorities, have openly considered a coup in an attempt to transfer the gavel into more conservative hands. But Democrats from across an ideological spectrum say they'd rather see Boehner remain atop the House than replace him with a more conservative Speaker who would almost certainly be less willing...

Signers include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sens. Susan Collins and Mark Kirk and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie BakerMore than 300 veteran Republican lawmakers, operatives and consultants have filed a friend of the court brief at the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage late Thursday. The amicus brief, organized by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, was filed for the four same-sex marriage cases the Court will hear on April 28 that could legalize the unions nationwide. In 2013, Mehlman marshaled a similar effort for the case that overturned California’s Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage...

Tomorrow’s headlines today[orig posted back on December 29, 2014]Feb 2015 Around the time the Repub’s try to confront Obama on de-funding his illegal amnesty, the Democrats will suddenly do an about face and decide that terrorism and Ebola are a danger and that it’ll be the Repub’s fault for any attacks and/or outbreaks. Headlines from this time period will be in the following form: “Democrats warn that failure to fund DHS will leave the country vulnerable to terrorist attacks and Ebola outbreaks.” After all this bad press on the issue the Repub’s will relent and fully fund DHS – and...

Republicans, fresh from landslide victories in congressional, state, and local elections, were well-positioned to flex their newfound muscle by re-establishing constitutional checks and balances on an overzealous executive branch. Instead, Senate Majority Leader McConnell folded like a cheap suit, abandoning efforts to defund President Obama’s amnesty efforts. Tell me again why we need Republican majorities in Congress. Why can’t Senator McConnell trigger the same “nuclear option” now? What about Obamacare? It remains alive and well despite Republican promises to “repeal and replace.”The latest excuse from Republican leadership is that they need the White House before they can accomplish anything. Really?...

Ted Cruz says the Republican leadership in both the House and Senate had planned all along on losing this illegal immigration fight to Obama and the Democrats, suggesting this ‘fight’ was nothing more than kabuki theater and that Republicans were never serious about it: HUFFINGTON POST – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) charged Tuesday that Republican leaders in Congress had planned all along to capitulate in their battle to defund President Barack Obama’s immigration actions. Cruz’s remarks came soon after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided to bring up a “clean” bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, backing down...

It's over. After bringing us within hours of a shutdown on Friday, congressional leaders backed down and voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security through the rest of the year today. That didn't happen because they suddenly came to their senses and decided to stop playing political games. It happened because they knew they couldn't get away with it any longer. They heard the voices of hundreds of thousands of Americans who stood up to let them know we were ready to hold them accountable. They saw reasonable members of Congress standing united, and refusing to budge. And you...

The House on Tuesday admitted defeat after a month-long effort to defund President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, and passed a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that leaves Obama’s plan intact. The vote came after dozens of House Republicans fought to the bitter end to reject the “clean” DHS bill, in an effort to oppose what they see as an unconstitutional action from Obama. The House passed the bill 257-167, and sending it to the White House for Obama’s signature into law. In the end, 167 Republicans voted against the Senate’s version of the bill. But because the...

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the King v. Burwell case this week. Petitioners are asking that Obamacare be enforced as it was conceived and written by Democrats in 2010 rather than how it’s been conveniently re-imagined by Democrats in 2015. Whatever the outcome will be, watching the Left panic over the case tells us just how risky a ruling could be for the future of Obamacare. If the SCOTUS does find that the 75-percent subsidy the federal government has been dubiously giving health insurers in the 37 states that rejected Obamacare “marketplaces” are illegal, there is a...

GOP is 75 yea and 167 nay Cave complete.

An outside group aligned with House GOP leadership will spend $400,000 this week to urge dozens of conservative House Republicans to vote for Department of Homeland Security funding — a new and more aggressive phase in the legislative battle among Republicans that’s consuming Capitol Hill. The nonprofit American Action Network is airing an ad in three states — Kansas, Oklahoma and Ohio — urging Reps. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to back funding for the anti-terrorism agency. The 30-second spot will run at least 50 times in each district — on broadcast, in prime slots...

We all have bad days at work. John Boehner, too. For the House speaker, “Friday wasn’t all that fun,” he says, though “most days” he likes his job. The Ohio Republican and his leadership team in the GOP-controlled House had a stunning defeat when a three-week spending bill for the Homeland Security Department went down, thanks to a group of angry conservatives. …

It wasn't so long ago that Republicans were viewing the prospect that the Supreme Court might overturn a key provision of the Affordable Care Act with unalloyed glee. The court might "ultimately take it down," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) crowed in December. "You could have a mulligan here, a major do-over of the whole thing, that opportunity presented to us by the Supreme Court."

Scores of CPAC attendees began to file out as soon as Jeb Bush started speaking with talk show host Sean Hannity this afternoon,which did eventually garner plenty of applause. After exiting the main auditorium at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the protesting attendees began chanting “USA, USA” and “Stand with Rand.” Despite the sign of defiance, the main ballroom was as packed for Bush’s talk as it had been for any other 2016 contender, including Scott Walker and Rand Paul. Bush’s comments attracted cheers from some parts of the ballroom, which was more packed than it had been at any...

In the last two years there have been two major attempts by conservatives to defund catastrophic policies. One attempt was Obamacare in October of 2013 and the other attempt was executive amnesty this week. In both attempts, the Republican House-passed bills were amended in the Senate to reinstate funding for Obamacare and executive amnesty. In both attempts, the Republican House-passed bills were amended in the Senate to reinstate funding for Obamacare and executive amnesty. In both cases, there weren’t 60 votes in the Senate to reinstate funding for these policies. So the majority leaders at the time had to resort...

Laura Ingraham: ‘Let Jeb Bush And Hillary Run On The Same Ticket’ by RYAN LOVELACE February 27, 2015 With Jeb Bush set to take the stage later this afternoon at the Conservative Political Action Conference, conservative commentator Laura Ingraham came out swinging against the more moderate wing of the Republican party. “Why don’t we just call it quits and let Jeb Bush and Hillary [appear] on the same ticket?” Ingraham said. “I’m designing the bumper sticker: ’Clush: What difference does it make?’” She took a swipe at Bush’s wealth — and his wife’s spending habits — sarcastically remarking that he...

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch. Her full confirmation vote is now headed to the full Senate. During her confirmation hearing earlier this month, Lynch expressed support for President Obama's executive amnesty. She also said she believes illegal immigrants have a right to work in the United States. "Senator, I think the right and obligation to work is one that is shared by everyone in this country regardless of how they came here and certainly if someone is here, regardless of status, I would prefer that they be participating in the work place...

It’s started. As promised, President Obama is using executive actions to impose gun control on the nation, targeting the top-selling rifle in the country, the AR-15 style semi-automatic, with a ban on one of the most-used AR bullets by sportsmen and target shooters. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this month revealed that it is putting the ban on 5.56mm ammo on a fast track, immediately driving up the price of the bullets and prompting retailers, including the huge outdoors company Cabela’s, to urge sportsmen to urge Congress to stop the president.

Because the GOP has a majority in the Senate, it also has a majority on all Senate committees — 12 to 9 in the case of the Judiciary Committee. But since Lynch’s confirmation has become a referendum on executive amnesty and the GOP is riddled with amnesty shills, there was no doubt that a few would cross over and vote with Democrats today to send her through to a floor vote of the entire Senate.The three defectors: Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham, both members of the Senate’s Gang of Eight on immigration, and Orrin Hatch, who sold himself as...