Free Republic

If he wins the presidency, will Romney drag his party toward the center or become a doormat for the arch-conservative wing? Planning for a possible Romney presidency is well underway with a transition office open in Washington and the FBI doing background checks on likely appointees. House Republican leaders regularly convene “two scenarios meetings” to calibrate “the tone and tenor” of their response depending on the election outcome. “One thing we don’t know,” says a Republican leadership aide, “is whether a victorious Romney-elect transition would say ‘clear the decks, this is your problem’,” staying on the sidelines and letting the...

Washington Post: In the battle for control of the U.S. Senate, there are now at least eight critical contests in which polling shows essentially a dead heat, encouraging Republicans' hopes that they may yet snag the chamber, which very recently seemed beyond their reach.Some of the GOP boost is coming from the top of the ticket in the form of Mitt Romney, whose recent surge in the polls seems to be helping Republican candidates across the country.Democrats still have an edge in their effort to keep control of the Senate, and they may have been helped Tuesday when Republican...

Let’s see, the reasons that you’re supposed to vote for Democrat Tammy Duckworth and against Republican incumbent Joe Walsh in the northwest suburban 8th Congressional District are: He’s a radical, “anti-choice,” loudmouthed, wing-nut tea partyer. Do I have that about right? If so, Duckworth is something of a mirror image: extreme; anti-life; tool for Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and “Chicago Way” Democrats who want to reach their tentacles into the far suburbs. In 2006, Duckworth was Emanuel’s hand-picked Democratic candidate in the west suburban 6th Congressional District. Emanuel, then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, sent his Chicago minions...

Republican John Koster, a candidate for Congress in the 1st District, received a $5,000 contribution from SarahPAC, the political organization headed by Sarah Palin. Koster is in a tight race with Democrat Suzan DelBene to represent the 1st District, a newly drawn swing district that runs from Redmond to the Canadian border. Palin endorsed Koster in 2010, when he ran against Democrat Rick Larsen. Koster’s far-right tea party ties have been a major talking point for the DelBene campaign, which has branded Koster “too extreme” for the 1st District. Koster’s campaign says DelBene is too liberal...

Anticipating victory in November’s elections, both parties are working up their legislative plans for 2013. Republicans, looking forward to regaining a Senate majority along with the White House, will have repeal of ObamaCare high on their list.But how to do it? Attempts to repeal the law in the current Congress have fallen short. Flush with gains from the 2010 election that gave Republicans control of the House, the lower chamber made ObamaCare repeal Job #2. On January 19, 2011, H.R. 2, the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” passed the House on a 245-189 vote. In never got a...

American politicians are always on the lookout for "new sources of revenue," which sounds a lot nicer than "sinking their fangs into our necks." But however you describe it, they just can't stop sucking our blood with their unending tax increases on the national, state and local levels. They tax our gas, our houses, our sodas. They tax our smokes, they tax our roads, they tax our health care and our paychecks, and after we've paid, they even tax our deaths. Cutting government is painful for them. Their mantra? "Government can't afford a tax cut." So they tax us instead,...

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is leading Democratic challenger Jim Graves heading into the final weeks of the campaign, according to a new poll commissioned by the Star Tribune. Bachmann, who is waging one of the most expensive House campaigns in the nation against a political newcomer, is favored by 51 percent of likely voters in Minnesota's sprawling Sixth Congressional District, which stretches from west of St. Cloud into Woodbury. Another 45 percent would choose Graves, a St. Cloud native and owner of Graves Hospitality Corp., an expansive hotel chain. Four percent of voters are undecided. The Oct. 16 poll conducted...

The United States will face major challenges over the next four years. For the first time in history, its citizens confront the prospect of handing down to the next generation a nation that is less wealthy, less healthy, less secure and less in control of its destiny. President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have both laid out plans to avert such national misfortune. . . . We believe President Obama has demonstrated a better grasp of the essential issues and offers a better vision for the United States. Voters should give him a second term in the...

The domestic violence in Shepard’s past is both shocking and repulsive in detail. On February 15, 1998, police were called to then-Mrs. Shepard’s house (the couple had been separated since June of the previous year) by a girlfriend. According to the police report (.pdf file), Mrs. Shepard said of her husband: Read on. Joseph entered my home. I told him to leave. He came up to me looking angry. I put my hands up to protect my breasts as they are sore (cancer). He has hit me before in the breast. He grabbed my wrist and arm and pushed me...

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) on Thursday called his Republican opponent a "lowlife scumbag" and a "gutter dweller" during a radio debate that devolved into an invective-filled fight over each of their divorces. About 37 minutes into the debate on KFAI-FM radio, Republican candidate Chris Fields accused Ellison of paying a firm $240,000 to dig up information on Fields's divorce. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported it was recently discovered that Fields's ex-wife sought a restraining order against him in 2006. Ellison responded by saying he did not pay anyone to dig up dirt on Fields, and said Fields was "stupid" for...

Today a letter was sent to the President and members of Congress by 15 CEOs from some of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. The 15 CEOs who signed the letter represent the Financial Services Forum, a non-partisan organization that deals specifically with financial and economic policy. In the letter, they urge for the avoidance of the coming Taxmageddon and warn of the dire effects that inaction would have on the economy: “The consequences of inaction—for stability in global financial markets, for economic growth, for millions of Americans still without work, and for the financial circumstances of American businesses...

Mitt Romney certainly wasn’t the first choice to be the Republican presidential nominee for most limited government activists. Some have reluctantly warmed to Romney in recent months because they find him preferable to Obama. Other liberty lovers, particularly those within the Ron Paul-inspired Liberty Movement, refuse to throw their support behind Romney or Obama. Regardless of whether a liberty-minded president is an option on the big ticket, the outcomes of the congressional races are far more important, as Congress will truly determine the fiscal policies coming out of Washington. If we really want to put an end to reckless spending,...

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) is leading his Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy by nine points, according to a new FLDemocracy/WPTV/ TCPalm poll released Thursday. Among likely voters surveyed, 51 percent support West and 42 percent back Murphy. Eight percent are undecided. The same poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP), found Mitt Romney leading President Barack Obama in District 18 by a 50 percent to 45 percent margin. The battle for the 18 th congressional district, which includes Martin, St. Lucie and northern Palm Beach counties, is one of the closest watched races in the country. The race has been characterized...

<p>At one point, Ellison called Fields "a low-life scumbag" and a "gutter dweller."</p> <p>The debate Thursday on KFAI Radio meandered from a conversation about equal pay for women to a restraining order Fields' ex-wife filed against him in 2006.</p> <p>Fields accused Ellison and the Minnesota DFL of using campaign contributions to dig up and make public that order, which Fields says he never received.</p>

Jesse Jackson Jr. Says He’s ‘Not Well’ Rachel WeinerOctober 16, 2012 at 2:26 pmJackson told The Daily on Monday that he is “not well” and has doctor’s appointments twice a day at George Washington University Hospital. He was diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder at Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic. Jackson did not respond to questions about a criminal probe into allegations that he used campaign funds to redecorate his house. According to Gawker, Jackson Jr. was spotted drinking at the Bier Baron Tavern in Washington, D.C. two nights last week, with two different women. A server told The Daily that he had...

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz may be President Barack Obama's worst surrogate, at least according to the Obama campaign's internal polls. But Wasserman Schultz may be campaigning for herself to win an under-the-radar race for a leadership position in her party that may allow her to succeed Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who could retire from Congress next spring. The Democratic Caucus Vice Chair -- the no. 5 leadership post -- is opening up and the National Journal reports Wasserman Schultz may be actively campaigning for the spot. DWS has been soliciting votes from Democrats who could potentially unseat...

Fox Business Network reported on Thursday that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) plans to hold hearings on the September jobs numbers, which showed the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.8 percent from 8.1 percent.

WASHINGTON -- The former head of a 16-member U.S. military team in Libya said Wednesday the consulate in Benghazi, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed, never had the forces it needed to protect itself. Lt. Col. Andrew Wood told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that U.S. security was so weak that in April, only one U.S. diplomatic security agent was stationed in Benghazi. The committee hearing followed assertions Tuesday night by the State Department that it never concluded that the Sept. 11 attack stemmed from protests over an American-made video ridiculing Islam. Ambassador Chris...

The danger for Tammy Duckworth in the November election is that Congressman Joe Walsh is a better, more nimble, more natural retail politician than she is. Thanks to a new redistricting map, there are 6 percent more Democratic voters in the newly revised 8th District. Almost two-thirds of voters here went for Obama in 2008. So Duckworth arrived with a substantial advantage. A Public Policy Poll last month put her 14 points ahead of Walsh. But there is a growing sense that the race is tightening. Sean Trende, an election analyst for RealClearPolitics.com, said Tuesday that the website, which aggregates...

America’s first mega-church, defined as a congregation of 2,000 attendees or more, held services in the capitol building inside the House of Representatives. It remained there until 1868 as the congregation raised money for building a new sanctuary they could call their own. According to the diary of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, church services were also held in the Treasury building and the Supreme Court Building. He describes the Reverend James Laurie, pastor of a Presbyterian Church, that had settled into the Treasury Building, preaching to an overflow audience in the Supreme Court Chamber,...

Rep. Elijah Cummings needs someone in his office that knows election law to write his next letter attacking the Tea Party. This week, Cummings sent a nastygram letter to the Houston based Tea Party group True the Vote. The organization has been working to clean up the voter rolls of dead and ineligible voters. Apparently this sort of civic minded volunteerism rubbed Cummings the wrong way. The Baltimore Sun reported his threats to a group of law-abiding private citizens: In a letter to Texas-based True the Vote, the Baltimore Democrat argues that the group and its affiliates have been unsuccessful...

Never mind the big-tent debate talk from both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney about how their respective politics will benefit all Americans. There’s a broader, ugly truth that as the last traces of purple fade from the electoral map, whoever wins will have little reason to take care of much of the country that rejected them. At least since the dissolving of the “solid South” in the late ’50s and early ’60s, both parties have competed to extend their reach to virtually every region. As recently as 1996, Democrat Bill Clinton could compete in the South, winning several states in...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano lied to Congress about her department’s special centers where state and local police could share information with the federal government about terrorism and other crimes. This accusation against Napolitano appears, shockingly enough, in a bipartisan report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The so-called “fusion center” program, which Napolitano asserted to Congress was a smashing success, had “serious problems,” according to the report, which also stated, “The findings of both the 2010 and 2011 assessments contradict public statements by [Homeland Security] officials including congressional testimony from Ms. Napolitano.” Ms. Napolitano and other officials consistently...

MICHELLE OBAMA ON The TOM JOYNER MORNING SHOW: Well, we’re understanding that, you know, you can have a president you love, but if you don’t have a congress that’s willing to work, you know, you wind up stalled in so many ways. And I think that Barack has done a phenomenal job working around a congress that has never been willing to help move the country forward on so many different issues. But I think he’s done everything humanly possible to get things passed around the margins. But, you know, just imagine where this country will be when we have...

Via Breitbart, I would actually agree with the First Lady on this one — President Obama has demonstrated a rather disquieting level of comfort with circumventing a Congress that doesn’t agree on wholesaling his liberal agenda. But, as to why that’s supposed to be a positive thing… I’m not sure I’m getting it. (VIDEO AT LINK) MICHELLE OBAMA ON The TOM JOYNER MORNING SHOW: "Well, we’re understanding that, you know, you can have a president you love, but if you don’t have a congress that’s willing to work, you know, you wind up stalled in so many ways. And I...

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will crisscross the country during the next month offering different visions for how to fix the country’s fiscal mess. But in Washington, the senators in the Gang of Six — plus two newbies — will have a secret retreat next week hosted by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to start cobbling together a plan to avoid the looming fiscal cliff. For this round of talks, the bipartisan group has added Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former member of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) leadership team, and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who has grown close to...

A general dissolution of principals and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader. Samuel Adams The sanctioned backwards display of the U.S. flag is a perfect example of the backwards thinking of our federal and State governments, as well as our laughable policy-makers in general within the United States. The sad examples of what we call leaders, do much...

[audio] 4:25 Col. Martha McSally is running for Arizona's 8th district congressional seat House of Reps [Gabrielle Giffords is stepping down]

NEW YORK — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday announced $45 million in additional aid for Syrian opposition activists, the latest U.S. push for influence in a civil war that’s raged beyond the international community’s control.

Great video. It appears that Obama's best friend and roommate, Sohale Siddiqi was more than a friend. Perhaps this explains the wedding ring he wore for years before he married Michelle.

President Barack Obama has faced “the most obstruction of any American president,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson tells Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview. “Republicans said their first objective was not to build the economy, not to provide healthcare but to defeat him; make him a one-term president,” Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, tells Newsmax. “So you’ve got ideological attacks. “Congressmen have called him a liar from the well of the Congress. They’ve argued about his birth place, his birth certificate, his religion. “These obstructionist, ugly attacks have not been good for the country,” Jackson added. “They may...

Elizabeth Warren Defrauded Asbestos Victims While Practicing Law Without a LicensePosted by Daniel Greenfield Sep 24th, 2012 Laws? They’re for little people. Laws don’t apply to Harvard professors. They apply to Harvard janitors. Compassion? Liberals are great at that. Just ask Elizabeth Warren who was paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars to help Travelers Insurance deny asbestos compensation to asbestos victims… and she did it while practicing law without a license. And wearing a fake Cherokee headdress. After this latest story, I have a feeling that Elizabeth Warren wishes she had run for the Senate in Oklahoma, instead...

Democrats, labor and progressives are hoping to win back several Republican held seats in Illinois and the 8th Congressional District [CD] is one of them currently held by Republican Joe Walsh. His opponent is Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth. The race presents stark choices for voters. In a legitimate comparable tone – Ms. Duckworth can best be described as a controversial ultra-liberal, tax and spend, Progressive heavily funded by out-of-state special interests and the Chicago machine. Congressman Walsh has been described as a ‘controversial Tea Party-backed freshman’ who has been particularly vocal in urging Congress to reduce spending and cut taxes....

In his Saturday radio and Internet address, President Barack Obama excoriated House Republicans for commencing their scheduled recess at a time when there were numerous bills to be voted on that allegedly would have buttressed the economy. “Last week, without much fanfare, members of the House of Representatives banged a gavel, turned out the lights and rushed home, declaring their work finished for now,” Obama began. “If that frustrates you, it should, because their work isn’t finished. “When they skipped town, members of Congress left a whole bunch of proposals sitting on the table. These ideas have been around for...

Well, gee whiz — in a press conference earlier this week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi yet again brought out the over-the-top dramatics the blame all of President Obama’s ‘inherited’ economic problems on ‘the previous administration.’ This level of political pageantry is right up there with the ‘Republicans hate clean air and clean water’ she likes to trot out at every available opportunity: Four years ago on September 18 – read it, I won’t go into all the details, except to bottom-line it — we had a meeting in the Speaker’s office in the Capitol — bipartisan, bicameral — at...

In the off chance that Democrats take back the House in November, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has dreamed up quite a busy first day for her return to the Speaker's podium. After laying out the Democrats' path back to the House Thursday, Pelosi ticked off a bold list of the achievements she most wants to see on day one - including perhaps, a constitutional amendment. First and foremost was a jobs bill, based largely on President Obama's, she said. Second on the list was passing the DISCLOSE Act, a bill introduced in 2010 that would effectively overturn the Supreme Court's...

Abstract - Scholars have argued that the media can affect voter opinions and turnout, but it is unclear whether elected ocials are also be affected in policy consequential ways. In part, this is because it is extremely difficult to disentangle the infuence of media coverage on Congress from Congress's influence on media coverage. We use a unique opportunity to determine whether position taking behavior in Congress and the likelihood of incumbents being challenged is aected by the national news media. Using the fact that the Fox News Channel was launched in October 1996 and it gradually spread across congressional districts...

100 Days Until Taxmageddon Sunday will mark the start of the 100-day countdown to “Taxmageddon” – the date the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2013: First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for small business owners, families, and investors (later re-upped by President Obama and Democrat Congress in 2010). The following tax hikes will occur on January 1, 2013: Personal income tax rates will rise on January...

Reuters) - U.S. authorities are investigating possible collusion between militants who launched a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya and locally hired Libyan personnel guarding the facility, three U.S. officials said. So far there is no proof that the attackers, who killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. officials, were helped by Libyan security personnel hired by the consulate. One official said the Obama administration was playing down this possibility.However, all the officials said that the question of whether the attackers had inside help or advice was a serious issue in the U.S. investigation into...

A bumper sticker is making the rounds with Joe Biden's words: Osama is Dead; GM is Alive. Apparently, that resonates with democrat voters who want to believe Obama knows a thing or two about foreign relations. Not. Ambassador Stevens is Dead...Al Qaeda is Alive. Ambassador Stevens is Dead...The Muslim Brotherhood is Alive. The above are the real truth, and any chest thumping on the part of Obama is really misplaced self-congratulatory narcissism. We all know it was our special operations forces who took out Osama. We're pretty sure that Obama did not put on a black mask, take up a...

In a strongly worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, eight members of congress have demanded that a request to release Omar Abdel-Rahman from federal prison be rejected. Abdel-Rahman, known as the “blind sheikh,” inspired the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and is serving a life sentence for his role in a plot to conduct assassinations and destroy bridges, tunnels and other landmarks in New York City. It is believed that the unrest blanketing much of the Middle East last week was inspired at least in part by the demands that the Blind...

Washington: Just ahead of the arrival of Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar for talks with the Obama administration, a Republican lawmaker has moved a Bill in the House of Representatives to terminate Pakistan’s status as a “major non-NATO ally” of America. “It’s time to break with Pakistan,” Congressman Ted Poe said while introducing the bill, commenting: “At the very least, we should stop providing them the eligibility to obtain our own sophisticated weaponry in an expedited process. Too many of our own men and women have died because of Islamabad’s treachery.” Poe’s move comes close on the heels of...

Federal indebtedness recently surpassed $16 trillion. Moody’s quickly reiterated that America’s debt rating could be cut if Washington fails to navigate the approaching fiscal rapids. Can Congress keep the state ship afloat? They can’t even pass a budget. Meanwhile, with QE3, Ben Bernanke’s Fed cast credibility overboard by nakedly politicizing monetary policy. Unfortunately, deficits and rate manipulation have muddled recovery. With currency no longer anchored to the certainty of gold and the Constitution no longer America’s political compass, Washington has led the economy adrift. Whatever Moody’s ultimately scores Treasuries the central planners are lost at sea. Washington gets an F.

The House Committee on Ways and Means has compiled an estimate of the total amount of hours it will take to comply with the taxes contained in Obamacare. Based on IRS estimates, it will take nearly 80 million hours for families and businesses to comply with Obamacare taxes. To put this in perspective, according to Ways and Means, it is the equivalent of the Empire State Building being constructed 11 times, a building which took 7 million man-hours to build. To make matters worse, Ways and Means has concluded that over half of the burden of tax compliance for Obamacare...

TO CALL CONGRESS/SENATE CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD 202-224 -3121 Woodall 202-225-4272 Speaker 202-225-6205 Fax: (202) 225-5117 CHAMBLIS 202 -224-3521 SAXBY 202 224 3643

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- The lamestream media told you: USA TODAY -Susan Davis 8/16/12 — Congress is on pace to make history with the least productive legislative year in the post-World War II era. Just 61 bills have become law to date in 2012 out of 3,914 bills that have been introduced by lawmakers, or less than 2 percent of all proposed laws, according to a USA Today analysis of records since 1947 kept by the U.S. House Clerk’s office. These statistics make the 112th Congress, covering 2011-12, the least productive two-year gathering on Capitol Hill since the end of World...

Cutting across party lines, a group of over 80 lawmakers has introduced a key resolution in the US House of Representatives, lauding contributions of the Sikh-American community and seeking for the first time documentation of hate crimes against them. The resolution introduced by top Congressmen, including Joe Crowley and Howard Berman, yesterday condemned a slew of attacks against Sikhs and their religious institutions over the past year, including the August 5 gurdwara shooting at Oak Creek, Wisconsin, which killed six worshippers. It came hours after the House passed a resolution introduced by Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan condemning the...

WASHINGTON — California Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman said at a press conference on immigration outside the Capitol Friday afternoon that America needs immigration reform to help those here illegally while also allowing them unionize for better wages. “We need a regular process by which the 12 million people who are part of our society can be fully part of our society, and they need documents,” the congressman said. “It’s important for the labor market of this country because as long as there are 12 million people without documents, there are 12 million people who can’t stand up for their rights...

House Republicans on Friday passed a bill designed to block new loan guarantees for innovative energy projects like the failed Solyndra solar panel company that went bankrupt one year ago taking $535 million in taxpayers’ money with it. The measure passed mostly along party lines, 245 yeas to 161 nays, with 22 Democrats voting in favor of the bill and four Republicans voting against it. The legislation says no more applications submitted to the Energy Department after Dec. 31, 2011 can be considered for funding, effectively phasing out the program. However, the government stopped accepting all applications for the program...

Youtube user Bigone5555J found a photo of one of the Birth Certificates given to Obama's attorneys by the Hawaii Department of Health on April 25, 2011. You might recall that after Obama released his long form in a Pdf for the public to download on April 27, 2011, NBC's Savannah Guthrie boasted she was allowed to look at and feel the seal on Obama's Birth Certificate and reported that it said Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She also took a picture of it and posted that photo on site called Lockerz.com. The photo she took can be seen here:...