Free Republic

For some time now, Elizabeth Foley and David Rivkin have had two questions about the 44th president: “How is he getting away with this? And why isn’t someone doing something about this?” Foley, a professor of constitutional law at Florida International University College of Law, and Rivkin, lead outside counsel of Florida et al. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of three Obamacare challenges that ended up before the Supreme Court in 2012, are doing something. They are the architects of the House of Representatives’ likely lawsuit against President Obama, which would challenge the president’s selective...

Democrats have an enthusiasm problem, and they know it. A June poll from the Democratic firm Democracy Corps revealed that, among those voters who make up the Obama coalition — young people, Latinos, African-Americans, and single women – only 68 percent describe themselves as “likely” to vote in 2014. 85 percent of other voters who are expected to favor Republican candidates say they are “likely” to cast a ballot in November. The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake observed that this is not the only troubling sign for Democrats ahead of the midterms. “An April AP-GfK poll showed, among those who are...

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...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Wednesday named Nick Muzin as senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for strategy, effective Monday, July 14. “Nick’s broad range of experience and networks make him the ideal person to help us craft a positive, forward-looking vision for America and take that message to every corner of the country,” Sen. Cruz said in a statement. “I am delighted to have him on our team, and look forward to working together.” Muzin, 38, an Orthodox Jew, is a physician and attorney, and is currently the director of coalitions for the House Republican Conference,...

Do you know why everyone loves the holidays? It’s because we all have that one wacky uncle that does enough stupid stuff during each family get together to give the rest of us funny inside jokes that last all year. If you don’t know who that is in your family, it’s probably you. In the GOP, it is the tea party. This fringe group has always clung to the edges of the Grand Old Party. Thanks to Barack Obama — ostensibly because of his policies and not his pigmentation — the group was able to cohere into a politically relevant...

Christopher Hitchens got a chance to analyze the Tea Party in 2011, the same year cancer took his life. In a Vanity Fair article titled "Tea'd Off," the great polemicist explains that populist movements like the Tea Party are a reaction to social and political change. Hitchens writes that before the Revolutionary War costumes, America had seen a somewhat similar phenomenon with the John Birch Society: The John Birch Society possessed such a mainstream message--the existence of a Communist world system with tentacles in the United States--that it had a potent influence over whole sections of the Republican Party. It...

It’s not too uncommon for Republican leaders from the House and Senate to occasionally meet, trade notes, and work out bicameral strategies, but as a rule, rank-and-file members tend to stick with colleagues from the same chamber. When they have ideas or grand plans, GOP lawmakers usually turn to their chamber’s leadership or committee chairs. Which is why it’s odd to see House Republicans huddle so frequently with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Last September, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) presented a plan to avoid a government shutdown. Cruz met directly with House Republicans, urged them to ignore their own leader’s...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin suggested that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) cares more about illegal immigrant children than the unborn in the United States after Pelosi went to the U.S.-Mexico border on Saturday and said America should view the border crisis as a "humanitarian opportunity." Palin said her sister sent her the Breitbart TV report about Pelosi's comments over the weekend. According to Palin, Pelosi was "either speaking such gibberish, considering her track record, or confessing one heck of a great conversion." "Yesterday, Ms. Pelosi spoke highly of illegal immigrants storming our U.S. border, including the children being...

Minority leader Nancy Pelosi visited the border on Saturday. The former Speaker made a statement to reporters, “I wish I could take all those children home with me… We’re all Americans in this hemisphere, North and South Amrerica.” KGBT reported:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Breitbart reported: Saturday at a press conference from the Rio Grande Valley, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) discussed her tour of a border holding facility and addressed the humanitarian crisis of thousands unaccompanied minors flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border, which she called a “humanitarian opportunity.” Pelosi explained, “We are all Americans — north and south in this hemisphere,” and urged America to...

Last week, a top GOP House candidate in Washington state compared gay marriage to polygamy. "Marriage is something more for religion to decide," Republican front-runner Pedro Celis said Thursday when asked about his stance on same-sex marriage at a GOP candidate forum, the Seattle Times reported. "Is this marriage or not? Polygamy—is it fine or not? It's a religion thing." The National Republican Congressional Committee has backed Celis, a former Microsoft engineer, to run against Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene in Washington's first congressional district. DelBene is expected to hold onto her seat in November, but national Republicans are trying extra...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)President Obama, tired of waiting for Congress to act on immigration reform, is currently exploring ways to address issues with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. During an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained that the Obama administration was getting impatient with Congress. “[W]e’re not just going to sit around and wait interminably for Congress,” he explained. “We’ve been waiting a year already. The president has tasked his Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson with reviewing what options are available to the president, what is at his disposal using his executive authority to...

In order to understand their surroundings, human beings depend on their brain’s ability to organize, identify, and interpret a barrage of sensory information that allows them to perceive, among other things, a potential threat. There has been a gross misperception among a large number of people who observe American politics that the greatest threat to this country, and more specifically its democracy, is the rise of extremists in the conservative movement. As a rule, the first extremist group that comes to most people’s mind is the Koch brothers’ tea party movement that they errantly bifurcate from establishment Republicans and it...

In a victory for the tea party movement, Republican Curt Clawson won a special election in southwest Florida on Tuesday to replace former U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, who resigned in January after pleading guilty to cocaine possession. The businessman and former Purdue basketball star cruised past Democrat April Freeman and Libertarian Ray Netherwood in a solidly Republican district on the state’s Gulf Coast. With all precincts reporting, uncertified results show Clawson captured 67 percent of the vote for District 19, which includes most of Lee County and about a third of Collier County....

REP. TREY GOWDY (R-SC): You have already said multiple times today that there was no evidence that you found of any criminal wrongdoing. I want you to tell me what criminal statutes you have evaluated. JOHN KOSKINEN, IRS COMMISSIONER: I have not looked at any. GOWDY: Well, how can you possibly tell our fellow citizens that there's not criminal wrongdoing if you don’t even know what statutes to look at? KOSKINEN: I have seen no evidence that anyone -- GOWDY: Well, how would you know what elements of the crime existed? You don’t even know what statutes are in play....

What exactly does the Tea Party movement want? Other than bringing three-cornered hats, powdered wigs, and knee breeches back in style, that is. If every Republican squish in Congress were booted out of office and replaced by a doughty defender of our constitutional freedoms, what kind of laws would this purer, more authentically conservative GOP pass, and which government programs would it dismantle? If FDR gave us the New Deal and LBJ gave us the Great Society, how would President Rand Paul or President Ted Cruz seek to transform American life? No one really knows. But it is a question...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rebuked House Speaker John Boehner on Friday for calling illegal immigrants ‘aliens’ in a tweet he sent out. Speaker John Boehner ✔ @SpeakerBoehner Obama admin should immediately deploy additional personnel to assist in the processing & removal of these aliens: http://j.mp/1lbtIxH 10:40 AM - 20 Jun 2014 38 Retweets 27 favorites “Mr. Speaker, these comments and labels are inexcusable and reprehensible — no one should be politicizing the ordeal of these children in such a manner,” Pelosi’s office said. Newsflash, NP: ‘alien’ is the correct legal term—even DHS uses it (Unaccompanied Alien Children).

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer chose an interesting path and offered puzzling critiques since he tossed his name in the hat for a potential presidential run in 2016. But comments the Democrat made about Rep. Eric Cantor and Sen. Dianne Feinstein in a lengthy profile published by National Journal have probably knocked him off that path. In the piece, Schweitzer shared his perceptions on Cantor's sexuality while discussing the Virginia Republican's shocking loss last week against an unknown primary candidate. “If you were just a regular person, you turned on the TV, and you saw Eric Cantor talking, I would...

Like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Dave Brat sends a shock through the New York/Washington axis. His victory shows a classic denial of political reality by the political establishment. It comes because the establishment holds fast to "the way we were" and won't let go. 'Twas ever thus, but all the money, all the influence, all the mainstream propaganda from Hollywood and the Eastern press cannot hold it back. The new century rises to new themes; the old falls away to ruins. I have been saying here that what we have been seeing...

They are Very Concerned about the extremists taking over or something. Here’s the NY Times Editorial Board The forces of political nihilism not only remain alive and well within the Republican Party, but they are on the rise. Witness the way they shook Washington on Tuesday by removing from power Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who had been one of the most implacable opponents to the reform of immigration, health care and taxation. His crime (in addition to complacent campaigning)? He was occasionally obliged, as a leader, to take a few minimalist steps toward governing, like raising the debt...

As the fallout from Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) stunning primary loss continues to settle, one of the many entrenched interests feeling suddenly insecure about their position in the American hierarchy is big business. For some, like the aviation giant Boeing, Cantor was a reliable friend. With his loss, that company’s prospects, along with its share price, have crumpled. “Mr. Cantor’s loss is much more than just symbolism,” the Times reported on Saturday. “He has been one of Wall Street’s most reliable benefactors in Congress. And Mr. Brat used that fact to deride the majority leader as someone who has rigged...