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The nominee in a looming House special election is at the heart of an angry dispute between conservatives and Republican House leadership, a rift so serious that it threatens the party’s chances of keeping control of the upstate New York seat. At issue is the National Republican Congressional Committee’s support for Dede Scozzafava, a New York assemblywoman who conservatives assert is so liberal that they absolutely cannot support her candidacy. Instead, many conservative groups are rallying behind Doug Hoffman, a third-party candidate running on the Conservative Party line, even though their support for him might pave the way for a...

Senator McCain's daughter Meghan was in Amherst on Wednesday night. She talked to the UMass-Amherst Republican Club about her life in the spot light. Meghan McCain is famous in her own right for blogging and writing a column while her father ran for office. She talked about health care reform, gay rights and creating a more civil discourse between Republicans and Democrats. She also Glen Beck and Sarah Palin.

Many FR threads have included the infamous picture of John McCain, teeth-gritted and looking at "somebody" with pure hatred and contempt. In fact, the picture has been seen by many as strong evidence of McCain's personality 'flaw', and certainly it's representative of that. But what's MISSING from the picture is at least as important as the picture itself. Here's a best-available full view -- but you still can't see the full context. Who's the object of McCain's nasty grimace? -- well, you can't see it in the picture. For those not aware, the "object" was none other than -- candidate...

There hasn't been a more controversial piece of Congressional and Senate legislation than the proposed health care program in my memory. In spite of polls revealing a majority of Americans oppose the current health care proposals, the Democrats are pushing hard to pass their legislation as quickly as possible. The American people are seeking to have their voices heard through their elected officials including conservatives, but the US Senate appears to be oblivious to that fact — including Republican senators such as Iowa's Chuck Grassley. Rather than fighting this attempt at an oppressive government takeover of the private sector, Senator...

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham Thursday blamed the lack of civility in today's political discourse on voters' willingness to send confrontational representatives to Washington as well as the 24-hour news cycle, talk radio and organizations like MoveOn.org. "Can you imagine writing the Constitution today?" Graham said during a conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg at The First Draft of History, a conference in Washington, D.C. produced by The Atlantic, the Newseum and The Aspen Institute. He speculated that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly would complain that "Ben Franklin [is] giving in on something." Asked what he thinks of another Fox News personality, Glenn...

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist is a Republican. But in so many ways, you wouldn't know it -- from championing felon rights to backing the federal stimulus package, he's bucked his party's agenda until now. Crist welcomed President Barack Obama to the Sunshine State with open arms seven months ago. The president was here to campaign for the stimulus. That was then and this is now. "There are concerns that we have about the direction of this administration," Crist said on CNN. Crist said the country won't vote for Obama again. The governor even hit national news Tuesday morning to...

A health care town hall in Oro Valley today (Friday, Sept. 18) and hosted by Sen. John McCain was more of a love-in than shouting match. About 800 people, most of them demonstrative McCain supporters, attended the event at the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene.

The blogging, tweeting, one-woman sensation is cutting a wide swath across the media landscape. BY JAMES RAINEY (snip) More importantly, we should abide Meghan McCain, at least for now, because she has tried to do some good, and tell at least a few small truths, on her initial orbit through the media firmament. Giddy girl-gab notwithstanding, McCain is one of the few voices in the Republican Party to speak out against the extremists who lately have been spinning out dark conspiracy theories about the fate of the nation. She has called for a more civil public discourse. (snip)

Link only, per FR copyright and excerpt rules

Whatever your philosophy, there was something for almost everyone in Sen. Lindsey Graham’s performance Sunday at a town hall meeting at the University of South Carolina that drew more than 350. “I’m a free-market guy with a heart,” said Graham, a South Carolina Republican serving his second term in the Senate. Graham — using simple language and folksy stories about his upbringing, in which government handouts helped his struggling family — explained for almost two hours his complex political views on equally complex political issues.

Facing fire from his own party over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, President Obama is getting cover from an unlikely source: Republicans. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia are among a growing faction of congressional Republicans speaking up for the Democratic president as he faces questions of whether to escalate the U.S. troop presence in an increasingly bloody conflict. Mr. Cantor, who has helped lead the fight in the House GOP caucus against much of Mr. Obama's domestic agenda, voiced support Friday for Mr. Obama's willingness to carry the fight to the Taliban...

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and his close ally Sen. John McCain will appear in Charleston at 9 a.m. Monday for a Town Hall meeting at The Citadel. The meeting is open to the public, and both Republican senators will take questions about health care and other topics.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I have been asked if we got sound bites of McCain this morning on the Today Show. Let me quickly look here at it sound bite roster. I don't believe so. Let's see. We don't have any McCain. What did McCain say on the Today Show? What did he say? Hmm? Hmm? Hm-hm. Hm-hm. He threw Palin under the bus? Well, that's because Obama gave him a big compliment last night. McCain was out there giving a thumbs up. Marty in Virginia Beach, you're next on the EIB Network. Hi. CALLER: Hi. One of the things that...

Ambers ponders the import of the popular universal health insurance policy in Massachusetts. The weirdest thing about the Republicans right now is that their most viable candidate next time backed almost exactly the healthcare reform Obama is proposing. If Obama is a socialist, why isn't Romney?

(snip) SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, I thought the president is eloquent. I thought he had a lot of passion. (snip) MCCAIN: I hope he gets a bill. I hope we can sit down together and do the things that all of us agree on. And there are a number of things that are -- that we can agree on. And I think the American people, obviously, want that. I don't know what the administration and the Democrats will insist on. Facts are stubborn things. The bills so far have had no bipartisanship associated with it. They were drawn...

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Former first lady Laura Bush praised the performance of her husband's successor Monday, breaking with many Republicans in telling CNN that she thinks President Obama is doing a good job under tough circumstances.

(snip) McCain also spoke about the raft of national spending bills over the past year, including the $787 billion financial bailout of 2008, $700 billion for the stimulus plan and the $83 billion rescue of the auto industry. Taken with other measures, the spending would saddle the country with as much as $9 trillion of debt future generations would have to pay, the senator said. "What I'm wary about is that we're committing an act of generational theft," McCain said.(snip) He advocated for reforms of Medicare, saying the system likely would go broke within seven years if Congress and the...

(snip) Listening to Sen. McCain's elegy, however, I found myself increasingly bothered. "We disagreed on most issues," McCain said at one point, "but I admired his passion for his convictions ... ." Really? Kennedy was the farthest-left liberal during nearly five decades in the U.S. Senate. McCain, just one year ago, campaigned for president, proclaiming his conservative convictions. And without doubt, Kennedy's wholehearted support of Barack Obama helped to torpedo McCain's campaign. Perhaps one moment disturbed me most: "When we worked together on the immigration issue," McCain recalled, "we had a daily morning meeting with other interested senators. He and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appears poised to wipe away limits on campaign spending by corporations and labor unions in time for next year's congressional elections in a case that began as a dispute over a movie about Hillary Rodham Clinton. The justices return to the bench Wednesday — nearly a month early — to consider whether to overrule two earlier decisions that restrict how and when corporations and unions can take part in federal campaigns. Laws that impose similar limits in 24 states also are threatened. The court first heard arguments in March in the case of whether...