Free Republic

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that he would consider a 2024 presidential run during an interview from NBC’s “Meet the Press” that will air Sunday. Anchor Kristen Welker said, “Let’s talk about your future, because obviously you are facing a big decision. Can you take us inside your thinking right now? Are you seriously contemplating a run for the White House?” Manchin said, “Here’s is what i’m seriously contemplating. I’ve said this clearly, people say, are you going to run? I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure, and immobilize the...

Remember after the 2000 election? Democrats were baffled that the voters hadn’t given Al Gore a third Clinton term in the midst of a good economy. Never mind that President Bill Clinton never won a majority of the vote and had been impeached for covering up his defiling of a young intern in the Oval Office. To the credit of those old Democrats, at least they were slightly capable of self-awareness. This crowd today would march right down the throat of a flaming volcano if somebody told them that doing so would hurt President Trump. Perhaps that should have been...

Republicans are now the hip, cool, purveyors of truth, justice, free speech, patriotism, compassion, and racial equality. Imagine that The moderate to conservative Democrats, the so-called “Blue Dog” Democrats (“Trumpocrats”), are leaving the Democrat Party in droves. They are fed-up with being ignored and ridiculed by the elites in DC and the MSM—and more recently, appalled and angered by the despicable way that a good man, Brett Kavanaugh, has been unjustly, vociferously, and viciously lied about and trashed by the Left. The Trumpocrats, the Blue Dog Republicans, are incensed and they are here to stay.

That's what some defeated House candidates from 2012 are hoping, at least. Several failed candidates who ran strong campaigns, but fell just short last year, are back for a rematch this election cycle. Whether they can use lessons learned in their losing campaign to change next year's results will go a long way in determining which party gains seats in the House.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., announced his retirement from Congress this afternoon -- and he issued a scathing parting shot at President Obama's track record on his way out. In a statement explaining his decision, Cardoza, a leader of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, said he was "dismayed" by the administration's "failure to understand and effectively address the current housing foreclosure crisis.""Home foreclosures are destroying communities and crushing our economy, and the Administration's inaction is infuriating," Cardoza said. A former chairman of the moderate Blue Dog Caucus, Cardoza also bemoaned the increasing partisanship in Washington, and blamed the media for fueling...

U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye announced Saturday that he will vote no on the House health care reform bill. He cited costs to small businesses and cuts to hospitals as primary reasons the bill will not get his support. Though he says the latest version of the bill does achieve many health care reform goals, he believes it will not reduce the cost of health care for families, taxpayers and small businesses. A provision in the bill that Nye believes could lead to nearly $20 million in cuts for the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters (CHKD) was also grounds for...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) says Tuesday’s Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey should be a “wake-up call” for Democrats in Congress. Here are 10 likely to be hearing alarm bells. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) No one noticed the election results more than Reid’s advisers, who know he faces a situation similar to that which befell New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. Like Corzine, Reid is an unpopular incumbent running in a state whose economy is in the tank. And like Corzine, he’ll have to use his massive war chest to create a negative impression of his opponent...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

Mr. and Mrs. Bill Cornish are on Cavuto. They are Dems who are angry at how Dingell and others are ramming ObamaCare down our throats. According to them, only SEIU/ACORN people were ushered into Dingell's town meeting. They had the first four rows reserved for Obama supporters. Non-supporters were crowded into the back of the room or blocked from entering. No anti-Obamacare signs were allowed. The four rows of union thugs made sure the cameras could not see anyone else or record what they were saying. Finally, when frustrated opponents in the back of the room tried to ask questions,...

Chet Edwards decided to use a phone conference instead of townhall meetings.

House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were “lied” to by their Democratic leaders. The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill. “I’ve been lied to,” Blue Dog Coalition Co-Chairman Charlie Melancon (D-La.) said on Friday. “We have not had legitimate negotiations. “Mr. Waxman has decided to sever discussions with the Blue Dogs who are...

Here is video of GOP Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana talking about what he calls "an interesting development" in the Health Care battle. He says "Blue Dog" Democrats - more conservative Dems - are beginning to talk with House Republicans about working together to come up with a Health Reform Plan not as radical as what Obama is proposing. This could signal that Obama is really losing steam on his health care bill in the House. If "Blue Dog" Democrats abandon him, it will mean they don't think they can win reelection in 2010 on his agenda. . . ....

HARRISBURG — As powerful politicians clash over Pennsylvania’s lengthening state budget impasse, members of a small band of largely backbench conservative Democrats are exercising a little muscle of their own. The so-called “Blue Dog” Democrats in the House have openly defied a call by Gov. Ed Rendell and leaders of the House Democratic majority to support an increase in the personal income tax. And they did so in a building in which rank-and-file legislators generally fear the punishment that might result from thumbing their noses at their caucus leaders. Many of the 25 or so Blue Dogs are from western...

The handful of the House's Blue Dog Democrats who switched their votes from "no" to "yes" on the huge economic stimulus are working overtime this week in their conservative-leaning districts to explain the change of heart. None more so than freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr., whose reversal on President Obama's $787 billion bill secured him a top spot on the Republican Party's list of vulnerable Democrats targeted for defeat in 2010. Fending off criticism that the Democrat-led Congress loaded the bill with unnecessary spending, Mr. Kratovil will be out every day of this week's holiday break touring his sprawling Maryland...

Rahm Emanuel may have moved his office down Pennsylvania Avenue, but to stand in the hallways of the Capitol lately, it seems he never left. And if anyone’s fingerprints are on the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package being sorted out in Congress this week, they belong to Emanuel, the former Illinois House member who is now the White House chief of staff. There he was on the morning before the House stimulus vote, bringing Blue Dogs back into the fold as he huddled with their leaders in House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) hideaway off the House floor. That...

The Blue-Dog Democrats in the House have been somewhat disenchanted with the Democrat leadership, and have been wanting to flex their muscles. They realize that they are in districts that could go Republican in 2010, and may be the key to defeating the stimulus package. Today, a letter signed by 49 Blue Dog Democrats was sent to Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, requesting that more spending be cut from the bill. The letter stated that many of the members of the Blue-Dog Coalition voted for the original bill because they were assured of cuts in the Senate and in the...

Blue Dog Democrats take popular, moderate-to-conservative positions in their districts, but back in Washington they play games and often side with the liberal Democratic leadership. Once in a while, some of them vote with the Republicans. But somehow enough of them stick with their party and the Democrats win. The domestic drilling issue is a good example. Lots of them say they support the concept, but because their leadership blocks legislative action, the Blue Dogs bark, but don't vote. There is a way under the House rules, however, to force a vote. It's called a "discharge petition" and requires 218...

Who the H3LL sold their votes for $$$ regarding the de-funding vote in the House last week? Apparently some congresmen had "values" until Pelosi came calling with a bucket of pork money to sway their vote. They are the ones who are most despicable. Grrrr.Thank you.

The conservative Democrats, or new Democrats as they are sometimes called, were disproportionately represented in the most highly contested races against Republicans, and are likely to form a substantial bloc within the new members. Heath Shuler, a former American football celebrity who now holds a House of Representatives' seat for North Carolina, is representative of the group. He has an evangelical Christian background and is on the right of the argument on many social issues such as abortion. Democratic party leaders deny that they had an official strategy to plant right-wing candidates in vulnerable Republican seats as a way of...