Free Republic

A few minutes after the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision upholding President Obama’s health care law last summer, a senior adviser to Mitch McConnell walked into the Senate Republican leader’s office to gauge his reaction. McConnell was clearly disappointed, and for good reason. For many conservatives, the decision was the death knell in a three-year fight to defeat reforms that epitomized everything they thought was wrong with Obama’s governing philosophy. But where some saw finality, McConnell saw opportunity — and still does. Sitting at his desk a stone’s throw from the Senate chamber, McConnell turned to the aide and,...

You hear a lot about the politicization of science, but the real problem is the moralization of science. The New York University psychologist Jonathan Haidt has made a compelling case that moral differences drive partisan debates over scientific issues. Dan Kahan and others at the Yale Cultural Cognition Project have identified cultural differences that bias how people assimilate information. Together, Haidt and Kahan’s research suggests that what you believe about a scientific debate signals to like-minded people that you are on their side and are therefore a good and trustworthy person. Unfortunately, this means that the factual accuracy of beliefs...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Karl Rove should not play the role of kingmaker in congressional races across the country. Mr. Gingrich said it would be “repugnant” for Mr. Rove to use his newest super PAC — Conservative Victory Project — to ward off candidates that he doesn’t deem fit for a general election race. “I am unalterably opposed to a bunch of billionaires financing a boss to pick candidates in 50 states,” the Republican wrote in an op-ed that appeared in Human Events, a weekly conservative newspaper. “This is the opposite of the Republican tradition of...

A tradition after each national election, presidential or midterm, is for the pundit class to pontificate on whether and how the results point to a realignment. This exercise dates back at least to the publication of The Emerging Republican Majority by Kevin Phillips in 1969, and it continues to this day. Now, of course, the hot topic is the so-called emerging Democratic majority, dominated by young people, nonwhites, and upscale social liberals. Pundits across the political spectrum are offering free advice to the Republican party on how to change its ways lest it face extinction at the hands of this...

Hopefully, he'll be able to knock some sense in. Tom Delay should give him a call too. Republicans who were leaders who were weren't afraid to take on the democrats and the liberals. Take a lesson, Eric Cantor!

NEWT GINGRICH: Let me ask you this. And I appreciate E.J.'s support here. But I want to make a point that probably he may not be as enthusiastic about. They have two vehicles. They have a continuing resolution, which is at the end of March, and they have the sequester bill. Now, these are legitimate government spending bills. The debt ceiling is different because it triggers all of these international financial problems and triggers the credit of the United States. They don't have to say, "We're going to be wimps." I've helped closed the government twice. It actually worked. Bill...

The beginning of a new year is often a time to look forward and look back. The way the future looks, I prefer to look back — and depend on my advanced age to spare me from having to deal with too much of the future. If there are any awards to be given to anyone for what they did in 2012, one of those rewards should be for prophecy, if only because prophecies that turn out to be right are so rare. With that in mind, my choice for the prediction of the year award goes to Bret Stephens...

When asked about the roots of political partisanship in Washington, retiring Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) traces the issue to Newt Gingrich. “I can see it very directly going back to 1994 and Newt Gingrich,” Conrad told C-Span in an interview. “He had a view, to take over the House of Representatives one had to bring down the institution and things have never been the same since.” …

To Chairman Reince Priebus, Thank you for inviting me to present an analysis for the Republican National Committee about the current challenges Republicans face at every level. Our working together goes all the way back to your early years in politics. I enjoyed doing events with you in Wisconsin and admired the work you did in helping Scott Walker become Governor. I was delighted when you became RNC Chairman and I know how much you accomplished in the last two years rebuilding RNC finances and developing a better ground game. Your creation of the Growth and Opportunity Project chaired by...

Newt Gingrich is working with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to develop a 6 to 9 month planning group to reinvigorate the GOP for 2014 and 2016 and beyond. Tough, major changes are required to match the Dems entrenched political machines and coalitions.

Former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich reportedly said Thursday that conservatives and the Republican Party need to “accommodate and deal with (the) reality” of a “big wave of change” sweeping America—and that “gay relationships will be legal, period” in a number of states by 2014. In an interview published Thursday by the liberal Web site, “The Huffington Post,” Gingrich reportedly said that both he and the Republican Party could accept a distinction between a “marriage in a church from a legal document issued by the state,” with the latter being acceptable, according to the Web site. The publication indicated that...

Republicans are in danger of losing their power and Democrats could become a near-permanent majority if the GOP doesn’t conduct a major overhaul on its party operations, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has warned. … Gingrich said there are 25 issues the party should address, including more work to include minority communities, a push for the party to compete in big cities and a refusal to ignore parts of the country that lean Democratic. …

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says President Barack Obama should nominate Colin Powell as secretary of state as a “bipartisan” gesture toward mending fences with Republican senators who rejected U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for the post. “I actually think it would not be a bad idea for President Obama to seriously consider seeing if Colin Powell would come back out of retirement because Colin did endorse him,” Gingrich told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday night. “That might be a bipartisan step that would move us in a direction of a different kind of dialogue,” he said, suggesting that Powell’s moderate...

Former House Speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said the current GOP would be “incapable of competing” against Hillary Clinton should she run in 2016. Gingrich on NBC’s “Meet the Press” called Clinton a “very formidable” person who is married to “the most popular Democrat in the country.” “If [the Republicans'] competitor in ’16 is going to be Hillary Clinton, supported by Bill Clinton and presumably, a still relatively popular President Barack Obama, trying to win that will be truly the Super Bowl. And the Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level,” Gingrich said.

President Barack Obama “guarantees a permanent war” with Republicans by forcing the party’s hand on the issue of income-tax hikes on top earners, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday. “The president won,” Gingrich said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “The president has a very clear, simple position. He wants to prove he can dominate, and he proves he can dominate by getting the rates up, and he has a veto pen.” …

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says it would be better for Republicans to take that dive off the so-called fiscal cliff on Dec. 31, rather than “cave in” to President Barack Obama on tax increases. The Georgia Republican also suggested that GOP leaders in Congress “should be prepared” if necessary to force a government shutdown to get the deep spending cuts they want. “I think it’s a huge mistake for House Republicans to cave in and try to find some kind of desperate solution that doesn't work,” Gingrich told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Wednesday night. …

On Wednesday, November 28, 2012, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spoke to a sold-out crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, calling the “so-called fiscal cliff” a “fantasy being used as an excuse to panic.” Speaker Gingrich went on to discuss House Republicans, telling them to not form a “Surrender Caucus” by stating, “They are the majority. They are not the minority.”

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that House Republicans should stop negotiating with President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats on the fiscal cliff, saying that by doing so, they give Obama all of the leverage in the talks. “One of the things I would say to House Republicans is to get a grip,” Gingrich said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. “They are the majority. They’re not the minority,” he said, enunciating the words as if explaining the concept to someone who did not understand it. “They don’t need to...

The key 'R' word is Republican, not Romney With all the efforts to understand the recent election defeat, a lot of the focus has been on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his campaign. That is exactly the wrong way to begin analyzing the outcome of the 2012 campaign. The focus on Romney as a candidate is profoundly misleading for those who want to prepare for future Republican victories. Any analysis of recent Republican presidential results will reveal a systemic failure which can’t be ascribed to Romney. The last clear Republican presidential victory was in 1988 when Vice President George...

Every person who talks and writes about politics gets stuff wrong. I’ve gotten my fair share wrong. But what I think I got most wrong in Campaign 2012 was the damage Mitt Romney’s “47%” remark would do to him. It may seem obvious, but bear with me. Mitt Romney was talking off the cuff to a supposedly off the record group of donors and muddled several data points together, ultimately telling the tale of the 47% who won’t vote for him for any reason. He was referencing the 47% who don’t pay taxes and interwove it with a 47% of...