Free Republic

Former Bush administration adviser Karl Rove on Sunday cautioned Republicans against a 2016 presidential election strategy that focuses too much on the political history of potential Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Rove told “Fox News Sunday” he was uncertain whether revisiting Clinton and husband Bill Clinton’s years in the White House would help Republicans win the presidency. “It may,” said Rove, now a “Fox News” contributor. “But the trouble for Republicans is it’s easier to say what you’re against than what you are for.” Republicans have tried to knock down a Clinton candidacy essentially since she resigned from her post in...

We recommend incumbent John Cornyn for the GOP's U.S. Senate nomination, based on unmatched experience and decades of service to Texas. The theme among a bevy of challengers seems to be that Cornyn is a CINO, a conservative in name only. This is not just counter-intuitive but counter-factual. Various ratings — liberal and conservative — have agreed on one thing, Cornyn's conservative credentials are genuine. Not conservative? Cornyn is No. 2 in Senate leadership and diverged only slightly from the conservative playbook in a year in which he offered a measure that would further beef up security at the border...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., delivered a stark demographic warning to his party on Saturday, predicting that Texas – a sizable electoral prize that Republicans cannot afford to lose in national elections – may tilt Democratic within 10 years if the GOP doesn’t broaden its appeal. “What I do believe is Texas is going to be a Democrat state within 10 years if we don’t change,” Paul told the Harris County Republican Party on Saturday, according to Politico. “That means we evolve, it doesn’t mean we give up on what we believe in, but it means we have to be a...

GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) on Sunday urged House Republicans to take up immigration reform, despite a “trust deficit” with President Obama. “Here’s the deal: The status quo is totally unacceptable,” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer. “I think we should solve this. I think [Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)] can find a way forward. Certainly, the bill that came out of the Senate was not perfect, but it was a good solution to a hard problem,” Ayotte continued. “I think it’s an important issue to solve – not only for the country, but for the Republican...

George P. Bush said on Tuesday that “it’s never too late” for Mitt Romney to take a leadership role in the immigration debate, but he acknowledged Republicans were outflanked by President Obama’s election-year decision to allow hundreds of illegal immigrants to remain in the country without fear of deportation. “Governor Romney had an opportunity to get in front of the president on the issue,” said Mr. Bush, 36, the son of former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. “But the president clearly has taken the initiative on it.” Mr. Bush, who is urging younger voters to increase their participation in the...

George P. Bush, nephew of George W. Bush and grandson of George H. W. Bush, said he has “reservations” and “concerns” about the Republican Party’s rhetoric on immigration. In a sit-down with CNN reporters and producers Tuesday, Bush said that he and other Republicans wish the party would “return to George W. Bush on this issue,” referring to the former president’s bipartisan push to reform the nation’s immigration policy. But with Election Day fast approaching, Bush said it’s probably too late for Republicans to pivot away from the party’s conservative base and seize the political high ground on the immigration...

The leaders of a grassroots conservative group that is targeting GOP incumbents in 2014 congressional races say that House Republicans leaders are heading in the wrong direction with their “amnesty first approach” to immigration. Drew Ryun and Daniel Horowitz of the Madison Project said in a USA Today opinion piece that the House GOP are insisting that “we must grant amnesty before we implement enforcement.” “Washington already tried this approach in 1986, and it failed,” Mr. Ryun and Mr. Horowitz wrote, alluding to the immigration reforms passed under President Reagan. “If the politicians want to earn our trust on the...

An immigrant-rights group on Tuesday escalated pressure on President Barack Obama to use his executive power to halt deportations — just days after he seemed to crack the door open on that option. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network filed a 41-page petition on Tuesday arguing that the administration has “extremely broad and virtually unreviewable discretion” on how to proceed with deportations. It urges Obama to shield undocumented immigrants who would “likely benefit from near-term congressional action on immigration” from deportation and grant them the ability to work in the United States. “Suspending the deportation of these individuals promotes the...

New momentum in Congress for a broad overhaul of border-control laws has prompted White House allies to demand that President Obama halt deportations of millions of illegal immigrants, many of whom would be allowed to remain in the country under a legislative deal. The advocates, including the AFL-CIO and pro-immigration groups, argue that Obama should use his executive authority to expand a 2012 decision that halted deportations of young people brought to the United States illegally by their parents. The administration’s aggressive approach to enforcement — which has resulted in nearly 2 million deportations during Obama’s tenure — makes little...

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer has held private talks on immigration with Republican Reps. Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy. President Barack Obama’s emissaries have spoken with House GOP leadership about an overhaul. Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have also chatted on the House floor about immigration. It sometimes seems like House Republicans are in their own universe when it comes to rewriting the nation’s immigration laws. But since late last year, key House Republicans have been meeting with House and Senate Democrats as they try to reach a deal. The talks haven’t led to any agreement on hugely...

Christie, 51, leads the Republican Governors Association and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was one of the few members to stand in support with Christie, expressing her support after his press conference. Rudy Giuliani came out to support Christie on Friday and RNC Chair Reince Priebus praised Christie for his transparency.

Gov. Chris Christie’s load of bull: Fired aide Bridget Kelly merely a patsy in attempt to shelter Port Authority cronies, himself What did the governor know about the George Washington Bridge lane closures, and when did he know it? Ex-Port Authority executive David Wildstein pleaded the Fifth Wednesday, so we wait until an independent investigation can reveal the whole story. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s one-hour-and-forty-seven-minute self-serving, self-pitying display of contrition on Thursday was a climactic act in a brazen cover-up that threatens to further unravel his political career. Ever so thoroughly the governor scoured the thesaurus for words of...

In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself. Emails and text messages among his close aides made public Wednesday documented that in September they gleefully engineered George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for failing to endorse their boss’ reelection. Local officials say the gridlock they caused delayed ambulances in responding to four calls, including one involving an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died.

BREAKING: Moderate GOP PAC That Promised to Beat Back Tea Party Challengers Bankrolled by Labor Unions liberal Republicans can’t beat conservatives without labor union support?

A decade ago, Karl Rove was President George W. Bush's right-hand man and one of the most powerful political figures in America. And even after his fortunes briefly dipped at the end of the Bush era, Rove roared to life again, tapping into and fueling the Tea Party movement through his massive super PAC, American Crossroads. But today, with a GOP civil war raging between establishment types and upstart conservatives in the mold of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R), Rove's once-strong influence has begun to wane. An embodiment of the Bush-era Republicans who have fallen out of favor of late,...

Senate Democrats are on the cusp of securing enough GOP votes to break a filibuster next week on the bipartisan budget, temporarily ending the fiscal crises that have dominated Washington for the past several years. With 53 Democrats and two independents expected to back the measure, four Republicans — John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Richard Burr of North Carolina — said that they would vote to cut off debate on the budget, putting proponents just one vote shy of advancing the measure to final passage. Several additional GOP senators signaled Friday that...

The margin was simply stunning — 332 to 94 — for House passage of a two-year budget that restores some monies for defense, includes minor pension reform, eschews tax increases and maintains the basic structure of the sequester. The far-right groups (Heritage Action, Club for Growth) and their minions squawked, but they were ignored and even insulted by the speaker, who questioned how the folks that brought us the shutdown could question a bipartisan budget deal that takes away the threat of tax hikes and a shutdown for the remainder of the Obama presidency. The era of bullying by the...

-snip- “Heritage used to be the conservative organization helping Republicans,” Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, himself a longtime conservative leader in Washington, said Thursday in an interview on MSNBC. “There’s a real question on the minds of many Republicans now — and I’m not just thinking for myself, for a lot of people — is Heritage going to go so political that it really doesn’t amount to anything anymore? I hope not.” -snip- Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action, said Thursday that Mr. Hatch’s criticism is unfounded and in fact, he answered his own question about the...

After last evening's vote to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling, groups on the right were already criticizing Republicans who voted for the bipartisan compromise as traitors and threatening to work against their re-election. But longtime GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch said on MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" Thursday that those groups -- particularly a surging and newly controversial Heritage Action -- were risking their credibility by attacking Republicans and fueling primary challengers. -snip- Hatch, who himself survived a primary challenge from the right in 2012, had both empathy and praise for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in leading the deal, possibly...

Nicolle Wallace is the perfect MSNBC kind of Republican: the kind who isn't sure if she opposes Obamacare. On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough was seeking to make the point that while Republicans are divided over tactics, they are ideologically united in opposition to Obamacare. To demonstrate his thesis, Scarborough asked Wallace whether she supports Obamacare, taking it for granted that she would express her opposition. Amazingly, Wallace hesitated, said she "wasn't sure anymore," then quoted her husband who had asked "what do we hate about it?" She eventually did admit to not supporting Obamacare, on the grounds that the...