Free Republic

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - As the Republican campaign to replace President Barack Obama heats up in early voting states like South Carolina, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint is releasing a book discussing the roots of the tea party crusade and his hopes for the movement in 2012. "I believe that the 2012 elections may be our last chance to stop this insanity of spending and borrowing and debt," DeMint told The Associated Press recently. "I'm trying to recruit more Americans with this book."

[Note: This is a companion to an earlier thread about Jim DeMint's new book] Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative kingmaker who spent millions of dollars helping tea party favorites get elected to Congress, faced contempt from other Republican senators as he tried to curb appropriators' powers and limit senior members' clout. In his new book, "The Great American Awakening," DeMint describes himself as an upstart freshman lawmaker on a lonely mission among "sorry rascals" infuriated by his bucking of venerable Senate practices in his bid to cut federal spending and limit colleagues' ability to fund local projects. In one of...

As Arlen Specter leaves the Senate after 30 years, the one-time corruption-busting Philadelphia prosecutor and architect of the "single-bullet theory" of the John F. Kennedy assassination says he wouldn't change a thing about his zig-zag-zig political path. Specter began and ended - for now - his political life as a Democrat and spent the intervening four decades as a Republican. But he sees himself as an independent who often bucked party leadership - ultimately ending his career. "I have always agreed with (John F.) Kennedy that sometimes party asks too much," Specter said in his last news media interview in...

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is investigating whether Guantanamo Bay detainees charged with roles in the Sept. 11 attacks were improperly given photos of CIA officers or contractors, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The investigation, headed by the Justice Department's counterespionage chief, John Dion, is trying to determine if military lawyers defending the detainees divulged classified information or compromised covert CIA officers, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity. It is a violation of federal law to identify CIA covert personnel, and it is a...

One of the most ignominious political careers of the modern era will at last sputter to a pitiful end when the 111th Congress finally relinquishes its strangle-hold on the American Republic. Arlen Specter, outgoing senator from Pennsylvania, personified the sort of elite, politically opportunistic, government careerism that the American people have grown to so justifiably loathe. He will not be missed. Educated at Yale Law School, Specter first sought public office when, though a registered Democrat, he ran for district attorney of Philadelphia on a Republican ticket in 1965 because, as TIME once noted, “ he failed to secure the...

Wayne you sorry bastard, I will never ever forgive you and Chris Cox for trying to save the Democrat's asses in this election. Actually I figured you out when you endorsed Brad Carson over Tom Coburn in Oklahoma's Senate election a few years ago. At the same time you endorsed Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey. I can't believe you now have the gall to try to sell me something. Just bugger off. Sincerely, OKSooner, "Northeastern Oklahoma"

Sen. Arlen Specter urged “mainstream Americans” to turn out in droves to prevent a total rejection of moderate challengers and incumbents. “Mainstream Americans must march to the polls this November to express themselves forcefully to stop extremists financed by undisclosed contributors from stifling our democracy,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said in a floor statement Tuesday morning. Specter, who left the GOP for the Democratic Party last year after determining he could not win the Republican primary in his state, noted this year’s primary process has been particularly devastating to moderates. Specter, a moderate, is one of three incumbent Senators to lose...

Jessica Brady witnesses Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) giving one of his final floor speeches on the subject of, well, how much he resents that he's giving one of his final floor speeches. “Mainstream Americans must march to the polls this November to express themselves forcefully to stop extremists financed by undisclosed contributors from stifling our democracy,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said in a floor statement Tuesday morning... “Within days of the start of the Obama administration, before the ink was dry on his oath of office, Republicans openly bragged about plans to ‘break him and engineer his Waterloo,” Specter said of...

We've been telling you about Lisa Murkowski's attacks against all of you who have supported the Tea Party Express.Today she stepped up her attacks on you, and showed utter contempt for the people of Alaska who rejected her candidacy in the Republican primary.  You've got to see her in her own words from this clip on CNN - watch it below: These liberal RINO politicians are shameful - they tell us about their "big tent" and then display complete hypocrisy when the voters reject them.Remember Arlen Specter?  He left the Republican Party when it was clear he would lose against his...

Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican who has broken ranks in the past with the GOP, gave Democrat Joe Sestak his second major endorsement from moderates in a week in his bid for a hotly contested Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Hagel told The Associated Press on Monday that Sestak has demonstrated during his two terms in Congress that he puts the interests of the nation and his constituents ahead of his party. "I think he's exactly what our country needs more of. I think he's what the Senate needs more of _ courageous, independent thinking," Hagel said. "That's what...

When confronted by a reporter who asked former President Bill Clinton why he campaigned for PA Senate candidate Joe Sestak (D) after he tried to get him out of the primary, Clinton claimed that “he never tried to get him out of the race.” The reporter is referring to an Obama Administration job offered to Sestak by Clinton. The White House wanted Sestak to drop out of the Democratic primary against Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter to clear the path for Specter. As known, Sestak ended up defeating Specter in the primary.

Sources tell ABC News that Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Penn., has informed the White House that he would like to consider remaining in public service after his senate term ends at the end of this session, and White House officials are keeping an open mind about possible job openings for him. Specter, who was defeated in his March primary by Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Penn., is a close friend of Vice President Joe Biden and someone praised for his leadership in pushing for greater funding for the National Institutes of Health. Sources said the job discussions are far from anything other than...

The uproar over the White House disclosure it had tapped former President Bill Clinton to see if Rep. Joe Sestak could be enticed to drop his Senate primary bid in Pennsylvania got a new round of attention on the Sunday talk shows. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, appearing on Fox News Sunday, got this question from host Chris Wallace: “If it isn’t illegal and it isn’t improper, do you think using the former president of the United States as a political fixer and then stonewalling about it for months was dumb?” Rendell, a strong supporter of Sen. Arlen Specter who was...

The U.S. Code specifically forbids anyone from seeking to tamper with an election by offering a bribe or anything else of value or substance to a candidate. This is known as 'quid-pro-quo.' And it is a serious offense for which a person who is convicted of the crime could spend up to 5 years in prison. Yet Sestak is stonewalling on who offered him such a deal at the White House and the specific job that was offered, with many speculating it was the job of Secretary of the Navy. The White House also continues with its stonewalling on the...

(Several videos are embedded in the article on the site. Drop by if you want to check them out.) The Obama Administration seems to all but beg for questions of conspiracy. As if there were not enough questions shrouding the White House already, scandal has now filled the air in Washington, which if true could be an impeachable offense. This story starts with Arlen Specter. Remember, he is a Pennsylvania Senator who jumped from the Republican Party to the Democrat Party last year. He was a RINO (Republican in name only) anyway, but the jump shifted power to the Democrats...

"One thing that people on both sides of the political debate can agree on is the need for sincerity in public service. The staunchest advocate of one philosophy respects the integrity and forthrightness of those who sincerely advocate for a contrasting point of view, if only they do so without a side agenda. "I pointed out that all that his Democrat challenger would have to do is to beat a drum that the so-called “People’s Governor” had campaigned on two promises: to cut property taxes and to slash homeowners insurance rates. Once elected, Crist passed an entirely insignificant cut on...

Sen. Arlen Specter wiping tears from his eyes after voting in todays primary for the Democratic Senate nomination in Pennsylvania. Plus his response to ABC News Jonathan Karl when asked if it was an emotional vote, since it could potentially be his last time on the ballot.

Obama Defeats Specter By Jeffrey Lord Wait a minute. Let's back up and stay focused on why, exactly, Arlen Specter lost this race -- and had his career ended. Two words: Barack Obama. Story time. Last April, in 2009, Senator Arlen Specter, then the Republican senior Senator from Pennsylvania, stopped in Harrisburg for a meeting with a group of Pennsylvania conservatives. This was a fairly routine thing for Specter to do. He had had a career's worth of disagreements with conservatives, but he had also had some serious agreements. While his famous opposition to Robert Bork is prominent among the...

A real conservative and a real liberal face off for the party-switcher’s seat. Philadelphia — Both men have taken on their parties. Both hold Harvard degrees. And they seem to like each other, at least personally. But that’s where the similarities end between the two candidates in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, a clash Karl Rove predicts will “be among the country’s hardest fought.” Republican Pat Toomey, 48, a former congressman from the Lehigh Valley, now faces Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), 58, a former Navy admiral. Sestak’s victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, where he toppled Sen. Arlen Specter, a 30-year incumbent,...

Talking to an NRCC guy who’s looked at last night’s numbers extensively, he concludes that the polls and expectations in Pennsylvania’s special election were thrown off not merely by the competitive Democratic Senate primary, but particularly by Joe Sestak’s surge in the final two weeks. Committee strategists worried about the effect of the Senate primary at first, but as they started getting polling numbers back, they suspected the special election would be the chief driver for turnout in this part of the state. Until the beginning of May or so, that seemed to be the case. But in the final...