Free Republic

It’s a taboo subject among Senate Republicans but one that’s on many senators’ minds: What if Mitch McConnell loses his reelection bid? There appears to be no clear answer to that question, at least not right now. In interviews and private conversations with more than half of the 45-member Senate Republican Conference, there is a split over a potential McConnell successor. His top deputy, John Cornyn of Texas, is favored to succeed him, several GOP senators said. But others ranging from John Thune of South Dakota to Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander — or a dark horse — are among those who...

EXCERPT Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas were quick to pounce on the decision as one that reveals the Obama administration’s ongoing attempts to implement the law in a way that exceeds the parameters set in the law that Democrats themselves devised and passed. Cruz called the ruling a “repudiation of Obamacare and all the lawlessness that has come with it.” “The Obama administration, through the Internal Revenue Service, has attempted to dispense revenues to the states without proper congressional authorization, robbing Congress of its constitutionally-provided power of the purse,” Cruz said. “This decision restores power to Congress and...

Pew Research poll also shows Israel as staunchly pro-U.S. and most supportive of drones and surveillance in the fight against terrorists. The fact that Isrealis are one of the most staunchly pro-American people in thw world is not new. But that their confidence in Barack Obama's ability to handle world affairs climbed dramatically to reach an all-time high? ...

A federal judge said Monday that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) cannot challenge the Obamacare policy that lawmakers and their staff obtain health insurance through the exchanges. The ruling could prove ominous for House Republicans as they prepare to file suit against the Obama administration, also against Obamacare. That suit would focus on a different issue, the president’s delay of the employer mandate. Judge William C. Griesbach, a George W. Bush appointee, said that Article III of the Constitution prevents Johnson’s lawsuit from moving forward and suggests that any remedy must come from Congress. He said that the Wisconsin Republican cannot...

At a press conference in Peoria for former congressman Bobby Schilling, new House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy stated that the House of Representatives will pass measures in the coming days and weeks that will help secure the southern border with Mexico and that the thousands of illegal immigrant families will be reunited. Estimates are that 57,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors have entered the US in the last few months, many coming believing that the Obama administration won't deport them and will instead grant them amnesty, and that doesn't even include the much larger number of adult illegal immigrants that have...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated today that if President Barack Obama takes actions that exceed his constitutional authority, the House of Representatives has no plans to use its own constitutional authority to withhold funding from those actions. At his weekly press briefing, CNSNews.com asked Boehner: “You’ve said you disagree with calls to impeach the president over abuse of power via executive actions. But under the Constitution the House actually has the power of the purse. So, if the President takes actions that exceed his Constitutional authority, will you withhold funding for those actions in the next must-pass appropriations bill?

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is calling for a wrongful death lawsuit against Russian assets on Friday after a commercial airline crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border. “I want to hear [during President Barack Obama’s speech today] that the Department of Justice will bring one hell of a wrongful death suit against Russian assets that are located in the United States to make sure there’s a significant cost paid by Russia for this action of shooting down an international airliner with a weapon system that is directly related to the Russian armed forces,” Kirk said on CNN.

President Barack Obama told a "really big whopper" when he blamed Republicans in Congress for blocking job-creating legislation, said Sen. John Thune. The problem in creating jobs legislation was not with Republicans, but with the refusal of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow bills and amendments to come to a vote, Thune told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." Story continues below video. In his weekly address on July 12, President Obama continued his recent attacks on the GOP, saying, "So far this year, Republicans in Congress have blocked every serious idea to strengthen the middle class." "The Washington Post fact...

Via the Daily Caller, an elegant opening statement from today’s House Rules Committee hearing on Boehner’s separation-of-powers lawsuit. You’ve heard him make this argument before but he’s getting more apocalyptic with each appearance before Congress — and who can blame him? The last time he testified, Obama wasn’t babbling to activists about amnestizing five million illegals with a stroke of his pen. Today Turley calls O’s rhetoric about unilateral action “extreme” and warns the committee that Congress will effectively self-destruct if the executive is allowed to do what he wants whenever there’s gridlock. After all, in a system of limited...

Breaking: Partisan gridlock blocks Hobby Lobby bill. Friend, This afternoon, Republicans in the Senate filibustered the bill that would undo the impacts of the recent Hobby Lobby decision. This bill would have ensured that employers can't stand between a woman and her doctor and protected the rights of all employees to have access to basic health care. This partisan gridlock is outrageous. We deserve to have a real debate on this bill, and it deserves to have a vote. Nearly 20,000 supporters like you have added their name demanding action. The momentum is with us to fix this. Today’s filibuster...

You know it’s bad when the liberal Washington Post takes top pro-abortion Democrats to task for their misstatements, exaggeration and overblown comments in reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision to protect Hobby Lobby.We at LifeNews.com have profiled the myriad of ways in which the Post, over the years, has been a leader in media bias by virtue of its one-sided reporting on pro-life issues. Amazingly, the liberal giant took Pelosi, Reid and other top pro-abortion Democrats to task.It was bad enough when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said “five white men” on the Supreme Court made the decision to protect...

Hello, this is Joni Ernst. I’m a mother and grandmother, a soldier, and proud to be Iowa’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. I get asked all the time what made me want to join the military. And the answer is simple. When I was attending college, I went on an agricultural exchange to the Soviet Union. And I saw with my own eyes what a nation without freedom looks like. I saw what happens to people when they lose their liberty. When I came home, I decided that it wasn’t enough for me to simply enjoy freedom and liberty. I...

We know this is a planned invasion... But Boehner (Boner) has beat the drum of 'Obama does not uphold or enforce the law." Hint hint: Obama really, truly doesn't... But... The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act Of 2008 will either be "upheld" and "enforced" by Obama - or it won't. Under it, certain children under this Act are placed under the care of the Dept of Health and Human Services, are given the least restrictive environment, are given an attorney and can plead their case before a judge to stay in the U.S. And GWB signed this into...

Longer question, as space here now permits: But before that... The SCOTUS ruling was not based upon a/any contraceptive(s) either killing a fertilized egg or stopping its fertilization, but rather was based upon a closely held company being able to deny some benefits under religious objections. Question: If the owners of a closely held company have a religious objection to infertility treatments (some or all), as they may say that unwanted embryos are destroyed in infertility treatments, and thus they will deny this benefit, would the denial of this benefit hold up under the Hobby Lobby ruling? What about vasectomies?...

The chaos unfolding at the border demonstrates the catastrophic, real-world consequences of the president’s lawless conduct. For the last five years, with average household incomes falling and Americans being pushed out of the workforce, the president has been engaged in a sustained campaign to strip away Americans’ immigration protections. He has accomplished his aims: Interior removals have been cut by more than 40 percent. President Obama’s own former ICE director reported to the Los Angeles Times that “if you are a run-of-the-mill immigrant here illegally, your odds of getting deported are close to zero.”

President Obama is embracing Republican criticism of his aggressive use of executive actions as he shifts his focus to the midterm elections. The president is openly daring the GOP to challenge him, hoping he can parlay their complaints into ammunition for congressional Democrats who argue Republicans should be blamed for Washington’s dysfunction. ADVERTISEMENT Democratic aides and strategists say the White House sees Speaker John Boehner’s promised lawsuit against his executive actions as a political gift because it dovetails with their preferred narrative, that the president has been acting where Congress has not.  “So sue me,” Obama said Tuesday of the lawsuit threat.While...

A top Republican who spent the past two days investigating the border surge of illegal immigrants from Central America said Thursday that most of them are trying to reunite with relatives who are already living illegally in the U.S., and the best way to stop the surge is to speed up the threat of deportations. Virginia Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that after speaking with immigration agents who are on the front lines intercepting and processing the families and unaccompanied children, it’s clear illegal immigrants don’t believe there are any consequences for jumping the...

In an unprecedented move Thursday night, the House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that prevents the Drug Enforcement Administration from raiding state-legal medical marijuana dispensaries. Just after midnight, the vote won with 219 ayes, including an unexpected 49 Republicans and 170 Democrats. It’s the first time Congress has approved a major marijuana law reform, which shows the changing tide of marijuana policy in the United States—and suggests a new day is rising in the war on drugs. A similar measure failed in Congress six previous times, receiving the most votes (165) in 2007. But with data showing three...

It’s clear the left will say anything to make people believe that the Tea Party is racist, no matter how ludicrous. Tonight on Hardball, Charlie Rangel claimed that the Dixiecrats who opposed the Civil Right’s Act are in fact today’s Tea Party, arguing that it’s hard to distinguish between the two. In fact, he goes on to say that the Dixiecrats that were from the South are the ‘grandparents’ of the Tea Party. (VIDEO-AT-LINK) HOST: Congressman, I will start with you. …The Civil Rights Act that passed in 1964 wouldn’t pass in 2014. Do you agree with that? RANGEL: First...

Coming soon: a lawsuit filed by House Speaker John Boehner challenging President Obama’s usurpation of legislative authority. According to the Speaker’s legal theory (summarized in a memo that closely follows a recent George Will column), the courts can resolve disputes between the legislative and executive branches when (a.) no private party has standing to sue; (b.) there is no legislative remedy; (c.) one branch of the Congress has voted to authorized such a lawsuit. Barack Obama Predictably, President Obama has called it a “stunt” and Nancy Pelosi “subterfuge.” But, as the distinguished former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy pointed out recently,...