Free Republic

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Monday he’s not convinced the GOP cares about poor people as much as Democrats do. “People ask me, ‘Do Republicans care as much about the poor as Democrats do?’” Santorum said at a New York meeting of conservatives. “I’m not sure we do. I’m not sure we do. And the reason I’m not sure we do, is because I don’t hear us talking about them very often.” The remarks came during the Q-and-A portion of the event, where Santorum was promoting his new book, “Blue Collar Conservatives.” He was asked whether he supports the...

Charles Krauthammer argued on Special Report tonight that the new Benghazi e-mails from the White House are a “smoking document,” but that the media will plead that the scandal is too complicated, so the issue is dead. Alas, the scandal is complicated enough that Krauthammer is either mistaken about the facts of what he calls “a classic cover-up of a cover-up,” or he’s eliding the details for his audience. An e-mail revealed today shows a White House official recommending that U.N. ambassador Susan Rice play up the importance in the Benghazi attacks of an anti-Islam YouTube video that was mentioned...

It’s never been worse for President Obama in the Washington Post/ABC News poll, which finds him at a 41 percent job approval rating, about 13 points below his standing in the poll at this time in 2010, the year when his party got creamed in midterm elections. We’ve talked about the tsunami alert for Democrats this fall, but the sirens are getting too loud even for partisans and wishful thinkers on the left to ignore. There is no common measure so predictive of a party’s performance in congressional races than the job approval rating of a president of the same...

One can be a supporter of the rule of law and still recoil in anger and disgust from the militarized display of force by the federal government toward Clive Bundy. The disproportionate nature of the government’s reaction to Bundy suggests this has less to do with delinquent grazing fees than it does with the selective assertion of raw governmental power — sending a message not just to Bundy or a disfavored group, but to America as a whole. The same federal government that deploys Bureau of Land Management shooters tricked out like SEAL Team 6 directs Border Patrol agents to...

Glenn Beck has a message for anyone who is “crying for revolution, insurrection … and a call to arms”: He wants nothing to do with you. “This morning I got up and I saw some more news reports, and more people in America that are standing up now and crying for revolution, insurrection, arming yourself, and a call to arms,” Beck said on his radio program Tuesday. “I will tell you I believe in the Second Amendment, and I will defend myself. I believe in the rights that we have. But I will tell you more than I believe in...

Democratic senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is in a tough reelection battle because of her support for Obamacare. So its not surprising her latest TV ad focuses on the one high-profile fight she's had with the Obama administration, over oil and gas exploration. The 60-second spot features people watching Landrieu arguing for expanding energy exploration in Louisiana and criticizing Barack Obama for its restrictionist policies. Watch the video below: Most of the clips the ad features are from her appearances on local and cable TV news. But watch the clips of Landrieu around the video's halfway point. They feature the...

AUSTIN, TEXAS--A grand jury is expected to be called to investigate allegations that Texas Gov. Rick Perry abused his power when he vetoed funding for the Travis County District Attorney’s office as part of the state budget. The veto came after Perry urged the DA to resign following an April 2013 drunk-driving incident for which she pled guilty and served time in jail, according to the Dallas Morning News. KVUE-TV reported that Perry has hired a criminal defense lawyer.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has judged the GOP—and found it racist. Speaking at her weekly press briefing Thursday, she said cuttingly that the reason the GOP has not followed through on a comprehensive immigration reform bill was simple; the GOP would be comfortable with good ol’ white Irishmen immigrating to the United States but not people of another color.

Offering a first glimpse of the health care needs of Americans who bought coverage through federal and state marketplaces, an analysis of the first two months of claims data shows the new enrollees are more likely to use expensive specialty drugs to treat conditions like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C than those with job-based insurance. The sample of claims data—considered a preliminary look at whether new enrollees are sicker-than-average—also found that prescriptions for treating pain, seizures, and depression are also proportionally higher in exchange plans, according to Express Scripts, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit management companies.

Republican Scott Brown leads incumbent Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire by five points in a recent poll obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The poll, commissioned by the Republican Governor's Association, was conducted on March 19 and 20 and asked 600 likely voters in New Hampshire who they would vote for in the U.S. Senate election. Respondents were given both Brown and Shaheen's names and their respective parties.

“Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon had some tough words for ObamaCare following the deadline for people to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Speaking on Tuesday April 1, Fallon joked that regarding the 7 million Americans that have signed up for health insurance, “It's amazing what you can achieve when you make somethingmandatory and fine people if they don't do it and then keep extending the deadline for months.” [See video below.]

The White House may be celebrating its ObamaCare sign-up figures, but they appear to have misjudged the mood of the electorate. Few are celebrating the law or its impact, according to the latest poll from Quinnipiac, and that’s not the only issue on which they are dissatisfied, either. While Barack Obama declared the debate “over” on ObamaCare, 55% of people declared it very much open (via Jeff Dunetz): American voters oppose the Affordable Care Act 55 – 41 percent and 40 percent are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports Obamacare, while 27 percent are more likely and...

Carol Newby's search for bags of wood pellets to fuel the family pellet stove took her on a tour of Southern New Hampshire last week, with little success. "We usually get them at the local Agway," she said, "but they were in short supply and what they had was committed to customers who'd made pre-buys." She was able to get a few bags at the Lowe's in Epping, but when she went back, they were out. After coming up empty at tractor supply stores in Epping and Hooksett, she tried a nearby Home Depot, which also had no pellets to...

The Democrats’ 2014 campaign strategy should surprise no one: They don’t want voters dwelling on Obamacare’s broken promises or our unabating economic doldrums, so they are doubling down on the War on Women campaign tactic that worked so well in 2012 and in the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial contest. The substance of the Democrats’ women agenda is an afterthought, and for good reason. There will be the expected hand wringing about the wage gap and calls for yet another round of “equal pay” legislation. Never mind that honest liberals admit the wage gap is a product of women and men’s different...

Now that Karen Willmus can get health insurance through Obamacare, she plans to quit teaching 9th grade English at the end of the school year. The 51-year-old found policies on the Colorado state exchange for about $300 a month. That's less than what she's paying now for employer-sponsored coverage and less than half what she paid on the individual market in 2007.

“An irony of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is that one of its key provisions, the individual insurance mandate, has conservative origins. In Congress, the requirement that individuals to purchase health insurance first emerged in Republican health care reform bills introduced in 1993 as alternatives to the Clinton plan. The mandate was also a prominent feature of the Massachusetts plan passed under Governor Mitt Romney in 2006. According to Romney, ‘we got the idea of an individual mandate from [Newt Gingrich], and [Newt] got it from the Heritage Foundation.’”

OK, Hugh Freeze. Time to lead. Lead your football players at Mississippi out of ignorance and into understanding. Lead your young men toward accountability. Show that the remarkably, distressingly resilient track record for intolerance at Ole Miss can be changed for the better. Because if ever a situation cries out for a coach to set the tone of team behavior, and to firmly establish what is acceptable and unacceptable, it's the situation at Ole Miss today. This is no time for soft-peddling it. There is a reputation at stake for a team, a university and a state. [SNIP] Many Christians...

“Elections matter.” That’s probably the most common refrain of the health care battle. Democrats consistently point back to President Barack Obama’s convincing 2012 re-election win as evidence that the American people back his agenda, including his signature piece of legislation. But I was surprised when I looked back at the national exit poll to see what “the people” said about Obamacare while they gave the president a second term. “Should the 2010 Healthcare law be repealed?” Nearly a majority, 49 percent, said yes, while 44 percent said no.

WASHINGTON — Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker called out fellow Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah Thursday, accusing them of delaying a vote on the bill to fund the government and prevent a government shutdown to suit their own desires for publicity. Cruz, earlier this week, held the floor for over 21 hours, speaking in defense of defunding Obamacare with that government funding bill. He asked other Republican senators to join him in voting against moving forward on a bill passed by the House, which would fund the government while defunding Obamacare

Now that everyone is paying attention to the scandal stories Republicans have been pushing for months against President Obama, they have a bit of stage fright. They're trying really, really hard to be cool and not let the trio of scandals slip away like they did during Bill Clinton's second term, when a congressman shot a melon to prove the death of a White House lawyer was murder, not suicide.