Free Republic

After more than 24 years in the Illinois legislature, House Republican Minority Leader Jim Durkin is resigning his seat. In November, the day after the election, Durkin announced that he was resigning as House Minority Leader. During the midterm election, Durkin suffered embarrassing losses, giving House Democrats once again, supermajority control in the Illinois House. In media interviews after announcing his resignation as House GOP leader, State Rep. Jim Durkin attempted to place all of the blame on the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump. “As long as we continue to say that we are the party of...

Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) said Thursday on CNN’s “The Lead” that his Republican colleagues refusing to support Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for Speaker of the House were like terrorists.When anchor Jake Tapper asked about former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA) saying ‘That he worked in counter-terrorism and you can’t negotiate with terrorists,’ Bacon “I feel that way.”He continued, “We were talking about that today. Hostage takers at least have a goal, and they have demands. We met those demands, and still, they can’t get to yes. They refuse to get to yes. They’ve been offered everything but one demand that...

DERRY, N.H. – It was the last question at Gov. John R. Kasich’s town-hall-style meeting here on Wednesday, and it also was perhaps the bluntest. “Governor Kasich, how do you feel about amnesty for the illegals?” asked a voter near the back of a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall here. Mr. Kasich, an Ohio Republican, started off sounding like a border hawk, saying he wanted to “finish the wall” along the border with Mexico. But when he answered the question at hand, he sounded a far more pragmatic note. “If they’ve been law-abiding, then I think they should stay,” he...

Despite a rousing speech by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who indicated that he would soon open an office in the state in pursuit of his presidential ambitions, California's Republican Party convention in Los Angeles, "Reclaim California," sounded a note of division, with three prominent Republicans declining to support the party's candidate for governor, amidst growing concern about the party's future as a statewide political institution. Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks), who lost to former U.S. Treasury official Neel Kashkari in the primary election after being outspent in the closing weeks, declined to endorse Kashkari when asked by the Sacramento Bee,...

Should Republicans pursue immigration reform to broaden their appeal to Latinos and Asians? Yes No

NOTICE: FR DOES NOT AND WILL NOT SUPPORT ABORTIONIST, GAY RIGHTS PUSHING BIG GOVERNMENT STATISTS FOR PRESIDENT!! This message is intended for those posters on FR who seem to have missed my prior statements in this regard and insist on advocating for these bastards. I'd rather shut the place down than be involved in any effort to install abortionist/gay rights pushing RINOS like Romney or Giuliani into the White House!! Do NOT push this crap on FR. Take your business elsewhere!! And I don't care how long you've been here!!

George W. Bush's State of the Union address must have baffled anyone who voted for him based on his pledge to cut the size of government. That speech has been properly and efficiently pilloried by Joseph Stromberg, Alan Bock, and others. The speech was both Wilsonian and Clintonian, which is to say that it proposed a political solution for all human problems and backed this idea with a promise of massive increases in federal spending on just about everything. But should we really be so surprised? Contrary to popular myth, every Republican president since and including Herbert Hoover has increased...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney delivered a scathing criticism of President Obama's Afghanistan strategy Friday night, accusing the president of delivering rhetoric and not action in the war-torn country. Quoting from a speech Obama delivered in March, Romney agreed with the president "that 'we are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the United States, our friends and allies."' Romney continued on seconding the president: "I believe 'that to succeed, we and our friends and allies must reverse the Taliban's gains, and promote a more capable and accountable Afghan government.'"

Republicans will enact the health reform proposal they unveiled this week if they take back the House, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) pledged Thursday. Appearing on the Republican National Committee's (RNC) online town hall, Boehner and other House and Senate leaders said they sensed momentum behind GOP efforts to halt Democratic health reform legislation, which is set for a vote on Saturday. "If we get in the majority after the election, I plan to enact our healthcare plan," Boehner said during the town hall.

As the Republican Party continues its pilgrimage through the desert, its leaders may be missing the oasis for the vale of tears. The answer to the party's woes isn't a revamped Web site (GOP.com) offering -- wowser! -- really cool social networking platforms. The answer won't be found in the sudden realization that 83 percent of young people 18 to 24 have an online profile -- or other late-breaking revelations that merely reinforce the perception of the GOP as woefully behind the curve. The answer is . . . drum roll, please . . . women. If the GOP is...

On May 20, 2009, U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) and U.S. Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) introduced health care reform legislation that delivers on the shared principles of promoting universal access to quality, affordable health care, and does so without adding billions of dollars in new debt or taxes. “The Patients’ Choice Act of 2009,” transforms health care in America by strengthening the relationship between the patient and the doctor; using choice and competition rather than rationing and restrictions to contain costs; and ensuring universal, affordable health care for all Americans. “The...

Former governors Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush joined Congressman Eric Cantor to talk health care, the economy and national security at the first town hall meeting for the National Council for a New America on Saturday. But the group steered clear of abortion and same-sex marriage -- wedge issues that have led to the defection of moderates and independents. "Listening to people can make a difference. We've got ideas on how we can help people get health insurance, how we can improve our schools, how we can make our economy strong today as well as down the road, how we...

   Dear Fellow Republican, When running to become your new Republican National Committee Chairman, I campaigned on a need for responsible change for our Party.Not a change of our core values, but real change of how we go about listening to our supporters, how we communicate our message to all Americans and how we organize and win elections.While I'm excited about the challenges and opportunities we face, I have no illusions. I am fully aware of the hard work ahead and obstacles we must overcome to start winning elections again.But this isn't about me -- I can't do this...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Meghan McCain warned a group of gay Republicans Saturday that there was "a war brewing in the Republican Party" – a war between the past and the future. "Most of the old school Republicans are scared s***less of that future," she told a gathering of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay and lesbian party members. The 24-year-old daughter of former GOP presidential candidate John McCain pushed back against critics upset over her comments to CNN that she wanted President Obama to succeed, and played down her recent headline-grabbing feuds with conservative commentators Ann Coulter and...

After wrestling with this decision for two years now, I have resigned from the Republican party. The party no longer represents my values and I see no hope for real change in the foreseeable future. The following letter is being sent to the Republican National Committee along with the California Republican Party by U.S. Mail. If you feel the same way, you are welcome to use this letter, or portions of it, for your own letter of resignation if you wish. Then contact your state Secretary of State's office to change your voter registration.

Phoenix Office: 5353 North 16th Street Suite 105 Phoenix, AZ 85016 Main: 602-952-2410 Fax: 602-952-8702 Tempe Office: 4703 South Lakeshore Drive Suite 1 Tempe, AZ 85282 Main: 480-897-6289 Fax: 480-897-8389 Tucson Office: 407 West Congress Street Suite 103 Tucson, AZ 85701 Main: 520-670-6334 Fax: 520-670-6637 Washington Office: 241 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Main: 202-224-2235 Fax: 202-228-2862 I call on Captain John S. McCain, USN (ret.), Republican, Senior Senator from Arizona, to put a stop to the public smearing of your erstwhile running mate, Governor Sarah L. Palin, Republican from Alaska. Governor Palin committed herself and her...

SPECIAL TV BONUS! 13 Quotes ABOUT John McCainJohn McCain doesn't even to pretend to like conservatives--unless there's an election going on. This all may be confusing to some readers: is he or isn't he? So here are 36 John McCain Quotes, plus 13 bonus quotes about McCain--to enable the reader to make up his own mind. - - - "The first thing that I would do is call in John Kerry, Bob Kerrey, Joe Biden, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Dick Lugar, Chuck Hagel, and several others and say, ‘We’ve got to get foreign policy, national security issues back on...

A decisive chunk of the Republican primary electorate didn't find this goofily endearing. When Mitt stood up and warbled, they didn't like his tune. They wanted something meaner and rawer and tougher, and there was John McCain. At the risk of overextending my musical analogy way beyond its natural 32 bars, it should be noted that the defining McCain moment came back in the fall when he responded to Hillary Clinton's support for public funding for a Woodstock museum. If you're under 70 and have no idea what "Woodstock" is or why it would require its own museum, ask your...

--SNIP--As NYC mayor, Giuliani was an ardent supporter of gun control - supporting a ban on assault weapons over the objections of many Republicans in Congress, as well as the NRA. In 1995 Giuliani blasted the NRA's opposition as "way overboard".........

Los Angeles (AP) -- In a year when Republicans are slouching toward a post-Bush era, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has a winning strategy for his party — be like me. California's popular governor is known for his kaleidoscopic political stripes, and that's his point. He said Republicans could face a future of Election Day misery unless the party makes a decisive shift to the political center and claims issues usually associated with the Democratic agenda, like global warming and health-care reform. "We are dying at the box office," the actor-politician told party activists, lamenting a decline in Republican registration...