Free Republic

Beyond the January 6 committee hearings, Stalinism advances on other fronts. As Thaddeus McCotter contends, the reproduction of a “Stalinist show trial” is now live in Washington. That invites a look at the original production of 1936-1937, from one of the keenest observers at the time. “The Moscow trials, and the purges that followed them, were a turning point in the history of American liberalism, for it was irrevocably polarized by the controversies to which the trials gave rise,” explains the late philosopher Sidney Hook in Out of Step: An Unquiet Life in the Twentieth Century, published in 1987. As...

That was fast. Top Michigan Republicans decided to support former state Sen. Nancy Cassis (R) as their consensus write-in candidate for the 11th district GOP ballot. A cadre of top local GOP leaders met again this morning to discuss potential candidates and settled on Cassis out of a handful of write-in hopefuls who expressed interest. The decision follows a hectic couple of days for the local GOP since Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) dropped his own write-in bid Saturday after failing to make the Aug. 7 primary ballot. There’s one Republican on the primary ballot, reindeer rancher Kerry Bentivolio, but GOP...

It always seemed that the oddness of Thaddeus McCotter’s political career had already maxed out. From referring to himself in the third person as a state senator to quoting Led Zeppelin on the House floor to running for president, he always managed to outdo himself. His career kept growing weirder until it reached its climax in one of the strangest political collapses in recent memory. McCotter went from briefly being one of the highest-ranked Republicans in the House of Representatives to its most surreal flameout, serving as a cautionary tale for no one in particular, since one would be hard-pressed...

Michigan's attorney general has charged four of former U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter's campaign staffers in an investigation into fake and duplicate signatures on nominating petitions. Attorney General Bill Schuette announced charges Thursday ranging from forgery and conspiracy to falsely signing election documents.

(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo) Michigan Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, who ran a quixotic presidential bid and then failed to get enough signatures to appear on the GOP ballot for his 6th term, announced late today he had resigned from office. “Today I have resigned from the office of United States Representative for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District,” he said in a statement sent out by his campaign. “After nearly 26 years in elected office, this past nightmarish month and a half have, for the first time, severed the necessary harmony between the needs of my constituency and of my...

GOP Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.) resigned on Friday, citing the effects a “nightmarish” month and half has had on his family. “After nearly 26 years in elected office, this past nightmarish month and a half have, for the first time, severed the necessary harmony between the needs of my constituency and of my family,” McCotter wrote in a statement. “As this harmony is required to serve, its absence requires I leave.”

LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan announced Saturday that he would not seek a sixth term through a write-in campaign after he failed to get enough signatures to get on the ballot. McCotter ran a little-noticed Republican presidential campaign last year before asking voters to re-elect him to his Detroit-area congressional seat. He surprised everyone late last month when he announced the Michigan secretary of state's office had determined he didn't have the 1,000 valid signatures needed to get on the Aug. 7 primary ballot, even though 2,000 signatures were turned in. A spokesman for the...

A former state senator from Canton Township wants the 11th Congressional District seat currently belonging to Republican Thaddeus McCotter. Republican Loren Bennett tells the Detroit Free Press Friday that he is planning to run as a write-in candidate. He was in the Michigan Senate from 1995 to 2002.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter will run a write-in campaign for the GOP nomination after botching the signature requirement to make the Congressional ballot in Michigan.

The Great DeflationWe must address the clear and present threat to our economy. Our prosperity stands on the precipice. Concerned Americans demand an explanation of how this happened and leadership that will walk us back from the cliff. But in the White House and along the campaign trail, the purported leaders fail to recognize or refuse to acknowledge the clear and present threat to our economy: the Great Deflation. The failure to differentiate between an economic recession and this Great Deflation will cause an economically doomed generation. But this need not happen. The strength of our economy — its capacity...

The Republican presidential hopeful who came in last at the Iowa “Straw Poll” here said to consider his appearance at Ames “a debut” and to keep an eye on his longest-shot candidacy for 2012. “We got invites to speak to party organizations in four different counties,” five-term Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich) told HUMAN EVENTS, shortly after he drew 35 votes in the straw poll won by Michele Bachmann, “So look at it as an introduction, a debut. We’ll build a campaign as we go on.” McCotter spoke to us after he had addressed what he called “the biggest audience I...

ACU Announces Ann Coulter Will Join CPAC FL For Immediate Release: August 3, 2011Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, KCampbell@conservative.org   ACU Announces Ann Coulter Will Join CPAC FLAll-star Panels to Feature Bill Kristol, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed and Jim Talent ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Conservative Union (ACU) today announced eight-time New York Times’ bestselling author Ann Coulter will be a headliner at CPAC FL – the organization’s first in an inaugural series of regional events expanding on the legacy of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Additionally, ACU announced several national conservative leaders will serve on CPAC FL panels, including the founder...

If you tuned into the 24 hour news channels this weekend, you saw more of the wall-to-wall coverage, in-depth speculation and general sensationalizing of the Casey Anthony trial. But you probably missed the announcement by Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-Michigan) that he is officially running for president. Granted the GOP field is rather crowded and one more candidate seeking the party's nomination may not be big news. But on a holiday weekend when the only other story is the courtroom saga in Florida, it would seem reasonable that the media would give a sitting member of Congress some attention; at least...

Due to copyright "stuff" I can't post an article on here from the Detroit Free Press, but it seems that Michigan GOP Congressman Thaddeus McCotter is entering the GOP race for Prez. The guy is very, very Conservative and smart. He has a very sharp wit and would devastate President Clueless in a Debate. He will have a little trouble explaining his vote for money for the Michigan Auto Industry, but, he does represent auto workers after all. He's been on FOX a lot (Red Eye [where they absolutely love him] and Huckabee.) Dude also plays a mean guitar. Just...

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter will make a "major announcement" Saturday about whether he will run for president in next year's election, a person familiar with the plans said Thursday. McCotter's office said Thursday that the 45-year-old will be the keynote speaker Saturday at a festival in Whitmore Lake. "He's going to make a major announcement at that event," the person, who is in contact with the Livonia congressman, told The Associated Press.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., a five-term congressman who isn't well known on the national stage, is mulling a possible presidential run. "A decision hasn't been made, but it will be made soon.... I’m not going to put a timeline on it," he told the Daily Caller. McCotter has been working his way into the inner circle of the Republican leadership since his early support of John Boehner, R-Ohio, for majority leader in 2006. As Cook Political Report's David Wasserman writes, McCotter has few options if he wants to continue to climb: "Republicans haven't broken through at the Senate level in...

At today’s Iowa Straw Poll land auction, participating campaigns were surprised by a mystery participant who would not state which campaign she was representing. Kellie Paschke, a lobbyist whose clients include Iowans for Tax Relief, arrived at the scheduled Straw Poll auction intending to bid on a parcel of the Iowa State Center for an undisclosed candidate. Before the meeting started, representatives of Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum were seen outside the building discussing the situation of the mystery bidder. The representatives went inside and began the meeting, but a short time later, campaign representatives and party staff...

U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan says he's giving serious consideration to making a run for the Republican nomination for president. The fifth-term congressman from Livonia said Wednesday during an interview on WJR-AM in Detroit the job is attractive because it would allow him to shape the debate in Washington. But he says the ultimate decision will be made in consultation with his wife, Rita, a registered nurse, and their three kids. Politico reported a day earlier that McCotter would make his decision within the next two weeks. McCotter also has been linked with a possible run for the U.S....

Sources around Capitol Hill are chatting up a dark horse candidate for the 2012 Republican nominee for president, I'm told. Conservative Republican donors and grassroots activists, who have raised concerns that there is not yet a true Reagan conservative in the GOP presidential primary are privately encouraging Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Michigan Republican, to look at a potential entry.

The sign outside the ballroom was matter-of-fact: "Unsigned $20. Signed $15. No Haggling." That matter-of-fact sign was next to a matter-of-fact pile of books, which sat on a matter-of-fact folding table. And sitting behind it was a matter-of-fact man, whom you might walk right past without so much as a glance. That's too bad, because he could become the next President of the United States. The man was Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, and he was signing copies of his new book, "Seize Freedom! American Truths and Renewal in a Chaotic Age," outside the Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines late...