Free Republic

It was one of the tea party’s few highlights in Tuesday’s congressional primaries. But laying claim to former GOP House speaker John Boehner’s old seat (in all likelihood) is a big one, both for the bragging rights and the momentum it gives House conservatives in their ongoing fight to purify their party ideologically. Warren Davidson, a businessman and former Army Ranger, won a 15-way Republican primary Tuesday in the special election for Ohio’s 8th Congressional District. The tea party candidate rather easily bested more moderate candidates, including two state lawmakers, in a campaign that quickly became ground zero for the...

Former House Speaker John Boehner Wednesday endorsed current House Speaker Paul Ryan to be the Republican presidential nominee. At the Republican convention, “anybody can be nominated,” Boehner said at a conference in Boca Raton, Fla. “If we don’t have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I’m for none of the above,” Boehner said. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I’m for none of the above. I’m for Paul Ryan to be our nominee.” Over the last few months, Boehner has privately said that he thought Ryan would be a good candidate...

Republicans controlling the House are pressing ahead with an annual fiscal measure despite hardening opposition from tea party conservatives over its endorsement of higher spending permitted by last year’s bipartisan budget and debt deal. Several GOP lawmakers exiting a Monday evening strategy session said House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price is expected to unveil a 10-year budget plan on Tuesday and hold a committee vote this week. The committee confirmed later Monday that it is moving ahead. […] Price, R-Ga., has worked hard to try to develop consensus but has so far been stymied by several dozen conservatives who continue...

Former House Speaker John Boehner, now enjoying his retirement and generally staying out of the election fray, has finally endorsed a candidate, and that candidate is … drum roll … Ohio Gov. John Kasich. We’re sure Kasich is thrilled by the news, but a lot of citizens in his shoes might be wondering if it’s possible to re-gift an endorsement.

Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee and now Rand Paul.  All were considered to be serious candidates for the Republican nomination for president and all have dropped out.Carly Fiorina began the campaign with far less name recognition, far less money, and yet her national profile has grown and when she speaks people hang on every word.  She has far outlasted the so-called heavyweights, do not count her out.While I have yet to endorse  in the GOP presidential race, what has so impressed me about Carly is the drive, persistence and consistency she has shown throughout the entire process.  She...

When you were a rowdy teen, your parents were the Establishment. Now that you're a parent, what are you? The anti-establishment, cool parent? Not likely. Rather, you're a grownup who tries to keep the peace in your discordant household; who tries to negotiate among self-interested, imperfect family members who have competing goods and goals; and who tries to instill a long-range vision for the future in your desire-ridden family who wants instant self-gratification. Welcome to the Establishment. You're a bona fide member now. Here's a defense of the amorphous, notional Establishment, as I see it, if it even exists in...

Despite those protestations, Ryan has spent his first couple months as Speaker aggressively courting some of the same Freedom Caucus conservatives who forced his predecessor, John Boehner, out of office last fall. The Wisconsin Republican ensured that conservative rebel Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas), ostracized for years by Boehner and his allies, won a subcommittee gavel and a coveted spot on the powerful Speaker-aligned panel that picks committee chairmen. He's invited Freedom members to weekly dinners he hosts in the Capitol. And Ryan has made Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a frequent thorn in Boehner's side, a key member of...

"....That $100,000 gift from Trump to the Boehner-allied super PAC was twice as big as his next-biggest contributions. [Trump's] given $50,000 .. to Karl Rove's American Crossroads (2010) [and $50,000 to] the pro-Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Kentuckians for Strong Leadership (2013)..."

In 2013, the tea party rallied to Matt Bevin against Donald Trump. RedState and tea party groups around the country swung into action in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to get Matt Bevin through the primary against Mitch McConnell. We were completely out-funded by establishment interests and Washington lobbyists. It turns out, one of those establishment interests was Donald J. Trump. In 2013, Donald Trump gave $220,000.00 to organizations, many of them dedicated to stamping out the Tea Party. From Karl Rove’s American Crossroads to Mitch McConnell’s Super PAC, Trump spread out money. Rove got $50,000.00 and McConnell got $60,000.00. Trump...

The administration issued a record amount of heft in the federal rule book in 2015 as President Obama's team, carrying out his orders to work around Congress, pushed his expansive government agenda on environmental, labor and Wall Street policy. With one day to go, the administration added 81,611 pages to the Federal Register, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's count of the official record-keeping digest of federal agencies' rule-making. It's the highest total on record and the third time Mr. Obama has crossed the 80,000-page level during his presidency, the institute's Clyde Wayne Crews calculated. "This is the pen and...

Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds' abrupt withdrawal last week from the 16-way contest to fill the vacancy created by Speaker John A. Boehner's retirement is another sign of how little conservatives think of the former speaker. Reynolds was seen as a favorite among the 14 Republicans in the race and was believed to have Boehner's backing. But that didn’t work in Reynolds' favor among some conservatives. "It is pretty clear that Boehner is behind Roger Reynolds," Lori Viars, a board member of the Conservative Republican Leadership Committee, told Cincinnati.com in October. And that, she hinted, might not be such a...

Under congressional rules, the former speaker is allowed to keep a Capitol Hill office at taxpayer expense for five years, complete with franking privileges, a budget for office furnishings and three staffers making six-figure salaries. "I guess they're going to pay for his toilet tissue too," said Rep. Walter Jones Jr. (R-N.C.), who is introducing a bill with Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to deauthorize the so-called post-speaker office. Jones and Massie held a sparsely attended press conference Wednesday morning -- The Huffington Post was the only outlet present -- to call for an end to the post-speakership perk.

The elephant in the room is getting larger by the day and Republican establishment figures – like Karl Rove, John Boehner, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, et. al. – who are ignoring it are only making things worse and blatantly more obvious by doing so. The ‘elephant’ is Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. Government. Those who are publicly ignoring it are figures who evidence suggests, are either ‘dirtied up’ themselves and are focused on self-preservation or are protecting those who are.

Ted Cruz has been branded a “wacko bird” by a Senate colleague and a “jackass” by the former speaker of the House. A GOP consultant labeled him a show horse, and a strategist for a rival presidential campaign called him the Mitt Romney of 2016 — the Republican no other Republican can stand. “I just don’t like the guy,” former president George W. Bush, Cruz’s old boss, told supporters at a fundraiser for his brother Jeb Bush last month. The list of GOP politicians and operatives willing to take open shots at Cruz has grown long: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.),...

John Boehner's House speaker seat is barely cold — but that's not stopping Sen. Ted Cruz's supporters from airing a radio ad ripping the former GOP presiding officer on Capitol Hill. In the ad, paid for by a super PAC backing the Texas Republican who is running for president, a female narrator refers to Boehner once taking a mildly profane swipe at Cruz, The Washington Post reports. The narrator, who identifies herself as a mother of two, complains Boehner "attacked Ted Cruz, referring to him as a pain in the you know what because of his bold actions fighting to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) says he used “Catholic guilt” to persuade Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to run for speaker.

Now-former House Speaker John Boehner says that he came to Washington to fight for a smaller, less costly and more accountable government, and now that he's leaving the House, that still hasn't happened. "I began to realize over the years there is no winning this fight," Boehner said in an interview with Fox News' Bill Hemmer on Thursday, just after his replacement, Paul Ryan, took the gavel. The fight has been going on for over 200 years in Washington, he told Hemmer in the interview, which aired on Friday on the network's "America's Newsroom" program, and "it will be a...

The moment when you realize how we've all been had...

On Thursday’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on the Fox Business Network, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) took aim at Speaker-Elect Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 58% for not signaling he will do more to overturn what he deemed to be a backroom budget deal. DeLay pointed out how two-thirds of the House GOP voted against it and that from here on out, Ryan needs to lay down a marker showing he’s willing to lead Republicans in the right direction. “He talks a good game but he’s already started in his action of maybe being another Boehner,” DeLay said. “I...

John Boehner, who’s leaving office and his speaker role at the end of this month, took a sideswipe at conservative media – and right-leaning talk-radio hosts in particular – and said it’s such influences that led to his political downfall. “Understand what’s going on here,” Boehner said, addressing questions about the pressure he’s faced from conservatives in recent years, Bloomberg reported. He then spoke of the hundreds of radio hosts “trying to out-right each other” who, when combined with active social media posters, cause unnecessary turmoil and confusion over political and cultural matters. “[Such has bolstered] the ability of a...