Free Republic

Text messaging is the new trend in well-run campaigns; collect a cell phone number and a campaign can get in touch with volunteers, donors and, eventually, voters. But some advice: Don’t buy your text messaging service on the cheap. If you do, you may share your service with ads for local bars, dating services or other establishments that may not square with your image. Hence the snickers when a political operative recently received a text message from the campaign of Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), he of Deborah Jeane Palfrey fame. Vitter’s camp went with a cheap service, and his message...

The Republican Party will file federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to overthrow the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance regulations, Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan revealed Wednesday night at a private dinner with the nation's Republican governors. The move is considered a slap in the face of the Republican Party's failed 2008 presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was dramatically outspent by Democrat Barack Obama, and of President Bush, who signed McCain-Feingold into law in 2002. "We will bring two federal suits tomorrow to strengthen the Republican Party," Mr. Duncan told The Washington Times. Mr. Duncan said one...

Brand new from the McCain campaign… And back by popular demand… The One is back to lead us to the Democratic convention in Denver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PetxaA42OuE

Follow the link below to see the RNC's new video hitting Hillary for her terrible press from the recent debate. Good video, bad candidate. http://www.youtube.com/RNC

Until he turned himself in Friday on a decade-old warrant, Hsu used his wallet and connections to make friends with Democrats everywhere. Including Wisconsin. While on the lam, Hsu gave $10,000 - the maximum allowed - to the Wisconsin Democratic Party's federal account in October 2004, records show. That's in addition to the already disclosed $2,000 that he gave to Gov. Jim Doyle in July 2005. In addition to Clinton, others who rushed to dump their tainted campaign cash were presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, comedian Al Franken, a U.S. Senate candidate...

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w36/MattLewis01/rnc.jpg

Mr. Richardson gave a speech and held a question-and-answer session with about 150 people at the United Steelworkers Local 105 hall in Bettendorf as part of his tour through Iowa this week. "If you want to be part of an insurgency, I'm it!" Mr. Richardson told the crowd, getting some laughs. Mr. Richardson said later that being an insurgent candidate meant being the underdog, he said in a phone interview with The Dispatch/The Rock Island Argus/The Leader. "I don't want to be an underdog much longer."

Unhappy with the current candidates, a small but aggressive group of House Republicans are agitating for current Chief Deputy Majority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) to get into the race for Minority Whip, according to interviews with multiple GOP lawmakers who requested anonymity. These Members are emboldened by what they say is a lack of support for incumbent Majority Whip Roy Blunt’s (Mo.) campaign, and frustration that the popular Cantor opted out of a leadership bid in deference to Blunt, who elevated the Virginian to Chief Deputy Whip when he was a freshman. Cantor has pledged to not challenge Blunt head-on...

Pelosi’s 100-Hour Tax & Spend Spree Courtesy of the House Budget Committee What would the first 100 hours of a Nancy Pelosi Speakership look like? Unfortunately for America’s taxpayers, she’s beginning to tell us. Here’s a sampling. · “Roll Back” the Bush Tax Cuts: What Democrats are really looking for is an excuse to “Roll Up” the date in which they can get more money from American families and businesses – a plan they’ve been dreaming up since Republicans lowered taxes in 2001. · This “Roll Up” would cost American taxpayers $164 billion in 2011, and $1.5 trillion through 2015,...

Democratic Glass Houses: Top Ten Things NY Dems Should Do to Show They Actually Condemn Sexual Predation 10. Demand explanation from Chuck Schumer as to why he did not support expulsion of his then House Caucus-mate Gerry Studds after the Democrat proudly admitted to having sex with a 17-year old male page. 9. Demand explanation from Shelly Silver as to why he didn't fire his Counsel Michael Boxley after the first charge surfaced of Boxley sexually violating a much younger woman, and demand that the Assembly Ethics Committee release a full report on the repeated sexual scandals involving Shelly Silver's...

So, everyone knows that Kirk Fordham claims "he told House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office about worrisome conduct by his former boss, Rep. Mark Foley, toward teenage pages more than three years ago, long before officials have acknowledged becoming aware of the issue." AP Story posted at 4:00pm EDT Strange because in an AP Story from 9:46am EDT this morning it quotes: “I was still pretty shell shocked myself,” Fordham said of the day he learned about the messages. “This was someone I had worked for 10 years. I had no inkling that this kind of blatantly reckless - just obscene...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The human resources director of The Washington Times has been arrested on charges of soliciting a teenager for sex on the Internet. D.C. police say 53-year-old Randall Casseday of Dobbs Ferry, New York, was arrested Tuesday night in Northeast Washington. He had allegedly arranged to meet what he believed was a 13-year-old girl he had been corresponding with in an online chat room. The person he was communicating with was a detective with the department's Internet Crimes Against Children branch. Casseday, who rents a room in the Washington area, was charged with attempted enticement of a minor...

For IMMEDIATE Release Hyde Comments on Democratic Attack on the President’s Foreign Policy (WASHINGTON) - U.S. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-IL), Chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, released the following statement after Democratic lawmakers and former Carter and Clinton administration officials criticized President Bush’s policies in the Middle East: It strains the limit of humor to hear the foreign policy elite of the Democratic Party attempt to blame George W. Bush for enabling Iran to become a global menace. For it was a Democratic President, Jimmy Carter, who presided over the seizure of power in Tehran by Ayatollah...

Mindful that social conservatives must come to the polls in force this November if Republicans hope to keep control of the House, the chamber’s GOP leadership has begun crafting a “pro-family agenda” that will be unveiled later this year. GOP leaders released a long-term agenda last week that listed dozens of legislative items, but very few that are usually associated with the social conservative movement. But the House is planning to vote this year on a gay marriage amendment, and there are more such issues in the pipeline. “We’re looking at a number of items including addressing the sanctity of...

House Happenings for This Week posted by Denny Hastert @ 11:33am (11/18/05) | Section: Hastert’s Comments I hope everyone is well. It’s been a busy week and a long night. We stayed up and passed a bill that’s going to go a long way towards restraining spending and reducing the deficit. I’m proud that we got it done. I had all these great prepared remarks for the debate but then I heard the Democratic Leader get up there and completely misrepresent the situation. Let me tell you, it was frustrating. I mean, the reason the economy is standing on its...

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The bill passed by a vote of 217-215. “The American people have entrusted the members of this Congress with a huge task. It is one House Republicans do not take lightly. We have a duty to maintain the American people’s trust and reject the urge to just write blank checks. “Unfortunately, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle disagree. In fact, this bill gives us a pretty clear picture of what they are for. They are for raising taxes writing blank checks creating bigger government and saddling our children with mountains of...

(Washington, D.C.) House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) released the following statement in response to comments by Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) regarding the War on Terror. “I am saddened by the comments made today by Rep. Murtha. It is clear that as Nancy Pelosi’s top lieutenant on armed services, Rep. Murtha and Democratic leaders have adopted a policy of cut and run. They would prefer that the United States surrender to the terrorists who would harm innocent Americans. To add insult to injury, this is done while the President is on foreign soil. “Four years ago, America as we knew it...

Posted By: Ron Bonjean @ 8:34pm EST Category: Hastert’s Comments Hastert Comments on the Online Freedom of Speech Act House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) issued the following statement after House Democrats rejected H.R. 1606, the Online Freedom of Speech Act. The bill failed 225-182. Under the House suspension rules, it needed a two-thirds majority to pass. “Today’s action marks a sad day for one of our nation’s most sacred rights: freedom of speech. The federal government seeks to control and regulate the Internet, but the last thing this Congress should be doing is trying to stifle public debate online. This...

House Happenings This Week posted by Denny Hastert @ 9:19am (11/2/05) | Section: Speaker’s Posts "Today we’re taking up the Online Freedom of Speech Act. It’s a good bill. Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate are supporting it. "This bill is about all the folks out in the blogosphere. It’s going to protect what you say. It keeps the hand of the Federal government out of Internet speech. "Listen, I know that some of you out there may not agree with me on everything. That’s okay. But if you want the freedom to keep blogging and saying whatever...