Free Republic

Conservatives don’t have enough votes to oust Ryan (R-Wis.). But they say their coup movement shows his hold on the speakership is far more tenuous than he realizes. Denying Ryan re-election on the first ballot would undermine his political future and cast him as a conservative pariah, they say, and may give conservatives leverage to enact rules changes that would help them push their agenda for years. “If he loses the speaker election, he’s not going to be president,” one conservative member told The Huffington Post on Monday. Conservatives hold no illusion of preventing Ryan from remaining speaker (or, you...

#NeverTrump Republican Tim Huelskamp was defeated Tuesday night in the Kansas primary. Pro-Trump challenger Roger Marshall is up by 14% with 602 of 1338 precincts reporting. Ooops

A Republican congressman who is considering both a bid for the White House and a campaign for governor in his home state of Indiana in 2012 made a trip to Iowa this past weekend. Indiana Congressman Mike Pence was the headliner at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s fall banquet in Des Moines.

Standing in former Speaker John Boehner’s empty and cavernous Longworth office, Ohio’s newest congressman seems out of place. Maybe that’s because Warren Davidson is more of a business and military man than a politician. Before being sworn in last week, Davidson made a career parachuting from airplanes as an Army Ranger, then filing patents as a manufacturing entrepreneur. Other than a short stint as a township trustee, he’s never held elected office until now. But what Davidson lacks in political acumen, he’s confident he can replace with leadership experience. His operating doctrine is simple, he tells The Daily Signal: “Fight...

Back when John Boehner was Speaker, he was the unpopular establishment figure fighting against a passionate Republican base that adhered strictly to conservative orthodoxy. Today, in a surprising turn of events, Boehner—who supports Donald Trump—finds himself in a more enviable position. Boehner has nothing to lose. He has no Speakership from which to be ousted. Meanwhile, many of his old adversaries—you know, the Ted Cruz  97% wing of the House GOP—suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of a passionate base that prizes Trumpian strength over ideological purity. The tables, it seems, have turned. Which brings us to this...

John Boehner is back. The former House speaker will spend late July and all of August on a cross-country bus trip raising money and campaigning for House Republicans, according to multiple sources familiar with his plans. The trip — on Boehner’s bus, dubbed “Freedom One” — will begin after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and end Labor Day weekend. Boehner has done these trips for years, but it is especially significant that the former speaker — who left Congress after being targeted by House conservatives — is spending his summer campaigning less than a year after leaving office.

Boehner's scenario: Clinton may drop out, clear way for Biden The Daily Briefing By John T. Bennett CQ-Roll Call • Sunday May 15, 2016 8:53 PM Vice President Joe Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner share a moment as they take the stage for the University of Notre Dame commencement ceremony. Both were on hand Sunday to receive the Laetare Medal. Out with Hillary Clinton. In with Vice President Joe Biden. At least that’s what former House Speaker John A. Boehner thinks could happen should federal prosecutors opt to slap criminal charges on the former secretary of state over...

Former House Speaker John Boehner is supporting Donald Trump, although he disagrees with Trump on issues like foreign policy, Trump's temporary Muslim entry ban proposal, and tearing up trade deals, among other things. In Las Vegas at a financial industry conference, Boehner said the billionaire businessman is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, "whether people like it or not." And he is confident that Trump can beat likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In the six months that have passed since then-retiring House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cut a budget deal with President Barack Obama that suspended the legal limit on the federal debt until March 15, 2017, the federal debt has increased by more than $1 trillion. The Senate passed “The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015” with a vote held in the early morning hours of Friday, Oct. 30. Obama signed it on Monday, Nov. 2. At the close business on Oct. 30, 2015, the total federal debt was $18,152,981,685,747.52. By the close of business on April...

Ted Cruz isn't going to have the last word in his feud with former House Speaker John Boehner, as the lawmaker who branded Cruz 'Lucifer in the flesh' is set to have some fun before all of political Washington at the White House Correspondents Dinner, MailOnline.com has learned. Boehner is still seething over Cruz – having branded him 'Lucifer in the Flesh' during a Stanford University speech this week. Boehner repeated his 'son of a bitch' characterization when the DailyMail spoke to him at a low-key DC waterfront watering hole just as most of DC was heading to glitzy lobbyist-subsidized...

The media is working hard to convince you that they caught Ted Cruz in a lie about working with John Boehner. But they are the ones lying, as usual. During an interview hosted by Stanford in Government (SIG) and the Stanford Speakers Bureau, former House Speaker John Boehner referred to presidential candidate Ted Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh.” He continued, “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.” But Boehner did not “work” with Ted Cruz. Boehner only...

Ted Cruz's claim on Thursday that he never knew or worked with John Boehner has been called into question following the revelation that the Texas senator once served as the former House speaker's lawyer.

Thursday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Judith Miller said Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is so disliked in the Senate,” because “he was not a man of his word,” and would “stab you in the back.” Miller said, “Cruz was so disliked in the Senate, and Boehner was a charter member of that club. So, you could just see the politicians hated Cruz for reasons, by the way, that still have yet to be fully reported.”

Cruz also told reporters gathered in Fort Wayne, Indiana that he’d only met Boehner “two or three times.” Which, in terms of actual numbers, may or may not be true, but the depth of these meetings was far greater than Cruz’s statements suggested. That’s because he worked as Boehner’s attorney during the Ohio representative’s federal lawsuit against Washington representative Jim McDermott in 1998.

We are re-upping this post from early 2014 in light of Boehner labeling Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh" and saying, "I've never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life." Here's where their work together began, two decades ago. For what it's worth, Cruz downplayed their relationship Thursday in his comments responding to Boehner. "I've met John Boehner two or three times in my life," he assured. As we show below, that's not entirely accurate.

EXCERPTS "When John Boehner calls me 'Lucifer,' he's not directing that at me," the GOP presidential candidate and Florida senator said in a Fort Wayne, Indiana press conference Thursday morning. "He's directing that at you. What Boehner is angry with me for is not something I've ever said to him. What Boehner is angry with me for is standing with the American people and energizing and encouraging House conservatives to stand with the American people and actually honor the commitments we've made." (snip) "If I said 50 words in my life to John Boehner, I'd be surprised," said Cruz, nothing...

When specifically asked his opinions on Ted Cruz, Boehner made a face, drawing laughter from the crowd. “Lucifer in the flesh,” the former speaker said. “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

John Boehner sounded off a litany of insults for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz Wednesday night, labelling the Texas senator "Lucifer in the flesh" and a "miserable son of a bitch." "I have Democrat friends and Republican friends," the former House speaker said during a frank on-stage discussion at Stanford University Wednesday. "I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life." Boehner, who retired from Congress at the end of October, also let loose on the two other GOP candidates in the race. Of his relationship with...

INDIANAPOLIS – Two Republican contenders for the state's open U.S. Senate seat are getting a new appreciation for all of Indiana's 36,418 square miles. Leading to next week's primary, airwaves are filling with messages to bolster the campaigns of Todd Young and Marlin Stutzman in their increasingly bitter fight to face Democratic contender Baron Hill in the fall. The candidates, themselves, are crisscrossing the long state and logging countless hours on two-lane highways, in between appearances in coffee shops in small cities and local Lincoln Day dinners in rural counties. Each man – both were elected to Congress in 2010...

Paul Ryan wants everyone to know he's no John Boehner. "I think I do it better," the House speaker told CNN during an interview this week, adding that his leadership style is different than his predecessor, whose resignation last year shocked Washington. "Not to knock John, but I spend more time with all of our members on a continual basis." Ryan, the GOP's vice presidential nominee in 2012, has won over conservatives by trying to showcase a more inclusive leadership style than Boehner. But he's still beset by the same internal divisions that led to Boehner's ouster -- as his...