Free Republic

... Here’s How He Turned the Tables on His Haters Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was forced to stop speaking multiple times while delivering a speech at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., Friday morning. Rather than cowering, he repeatedly shot back at his hecklers and accused them of being ”President Obama’s paid political operatives.” Cruz was first interrupted by a man in the audience who demanded to know why he wouldn’t “support a pathway to citizenship for immigrant families.” Later in the speech, the disruptions became more pointed, leading Cruz to more fervently address the outbursts. Based on muffled...

At the 2009 Value Voters Summit this past week, Mitt Romney directly addressed President Barack Obama’s incomprehensible and fatally flawed decision, unprecedented in the American political tradition, to tax future generations. In an administration quickly marked for its wistful look to the past, Obama’s decision brought to mind 15th-century Russia. Is that why they call them czars? "Putting such a spirit-crushing, back-breaking debt burden on our children is unworthy of our national character," Romney said. "That is why I believe that this spending and borrowing is not just economically irresponsible, it is morally wrong." It poisoned this most auspicious and...

This past weekend I had the pleasure of being one of the presenters at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, where we honored Phyllis Schlafly for her lifetime of achievement. She is the person whom even liberal academics look to when they want to explain grassroots conservatism. Phyllis was hailed—rightly so—for having stopped the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Many of the battles that are being fought out now–from the defense of marriage and the fight against abortion in healthcare to the effort to protect women from being ordered into combat—would have been lost if Phyllis had not sounded her trumpet...

WASHINGTON – Former Miss California Carrie Prejean told a crowd of social conservatives Friday that she was a varsity jock in high school who got into beauty pageants just knowing that she is a strong woman with values. Her strength has carried her through the “junk” that followed after she responded during the Miss USA pageant that she believes marriage is between a man and a woman, she said. “There was something wrong with turning on the TV and seeing people mock me for my faith. For seeing people make fun of me for the answer I gave. Making fun...

Author Joel Rosenberg spoke tonight at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. Rosenberg is the author of several best-selling fiction novels about intrigue in the Middle East (I’ve read all but the last one) and several non-fiction books about the Middle East. Rush Limbaugh highly recommends Rosenberg’s works, and his first fiction book (The Last Jihad) was somewhat prescient of the Iraq War. His father is Jewish and his mother is Gentile, by the way, and by his writings he seems to be a genuine Christian…with a LOT of knowledge of Jewish history. Rosenberg said these...

Here is a video report from the Values Voters Summit today, where Gov. Mike Huckabee was the winner in the 2012 Presidential Straw Poll. Mike Huckabee cruised to an easy victory in a presidential straw poll taken among attendees at a social conservative conference, beating a group of four other Republican contenders by an over two-to-one margin.Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and a 2008 presidential candidate, won with just over 28 percent of the 597 votes cast by attendees at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the runner-up, narrowly edging out Minnesota Gov....

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Saturday won a 2012 presidential preference straw poll of social and religious conservative activists from 49 states gathered in Washington, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said at an afternoon press briefing at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. It was sweet revenge for Mr. Huckabee, who narrowly lost a similar poll in 2007 to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Only in-person voting was permitted in this vote -- Mr. Romney had won with combined Internet and in-person voting. On Saturday Mr. Huckabee took 28.48 percent of the vote, while Mr. Romney was in a four-way...

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...

Here’s the text of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s (R-Minn.) speech from the Values Voter Summit, annotated to note when the audience applauded. Thanks to the VVS organizers for providing it. Well, thank you very much. And no, Brett Favre is not part of the cash for clunkers program so – (laughter) – it’s going to be a Super Bowl quarterback this year. I’m delighted to be with you tonight, and I’m honored to be the governor of the great state of Minnesota. And of course, one of the privileges and perks of being governor of a state is you get to...

Anyone who thought that "values voters" were still licking their wounds after the Republican Party received a drubbing at the polls might have found the atmosphere in Washington's plush Omni Shoreham Hotel rather surprising. An audience of 2,000 Christian conservatives gathered to listen to their political and media icons, condemn the Obama administation's alleged socialist agenda and plot the downfall of the Democrats at the 2010 mid-term elections. The mood was angry and defiant at the annual "Values Voters Summit", which kicked off with a rousing call to arms from Republican Congressman Mike Pence, from Indiana, a man some see...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is the preferred 2012 GOP presidential nominee among Christian conservatives, according to the results of a straw poll announced Saturday at an annual gathering of the religion (sic) right in Washington. Prominent Republican leaders, including House Minority Leader John Boehner, took to the stage at the Value Voters Summit to blast President Obama's spending policies and announce the top 2012 presidential pick among conservative voters. The summit's poll, which featured 9 presidential prospects, found that 28 percent of Christian conservatives said Huckabee would revive the Republican party and traditional conservative principles while 12.4 percent preferred...

Carrie Prejean to Values Voter Summit: 'God Chose Me' With the Gay-Marriage Question September 18, 2009 It’s easy to make fun of beauty queens -- their plastic smiles, their bottle-blond tresses, their dreams for world peace. But Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California whose declaration that marriage should be between a man and woman earned her the vilification of some in the gay rights community, provided an unanticipated emotional highlight at a conference of Christian conservatives in Washington today. In a heartfelt talk that moved some in the crowd to tears, Prejean recounted for the 1,700 activists gathered for the...

Here is video of Fox News' Bill O'Reilly speaking at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C. last night, where he was interrupted by a heckler using a megaphone. The heckler's words can't be understood, and he was escorted out of the room by security. The crowd booed the heckler, and then began to clap as he was escorted out. O'Reilly then quipped, "There goes another MSNBC host," as the crowd erupted! . . . (VIDEO)

Short video that brought tears of pride early this morning....