Free Republic

After largely avoiding immigration as a wedge issue in competitive races, Republicans are suddenly hitting Democrats for supporting “amnesty.” President Obama’s decision earlier this month to delay any executive action on immigration until after the midterms has given national Republicans a new way to tie Democrats to the unpopular president. However, some GOP strategists worry the approach risks further alienating the party from Hispanic voters they need in 2016 to win the White House. “Short term it’s an entirely different electoral landscape,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who advised Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential bid. “What looks good...

JACKSON — Unsuccessful tea party-backed candidate Chris McDaniel is invoking a big Mississippi political name as he tries to revive his challenge in a U.S. Senate race: state House Speaker Philip Gunn. McDaniel lost to six-term Sen. Thad Cochran in the June 24 Republican primary. Now, the state senator from Jones County is asking the Mississippi Supreme Court for a second chance on a lawsuit that seeks to overturn Cochran’s victory. Winning the legal argument could be difficult in a place with no history of judges ordering a do-over of a statewide election. In a legal brief filed late Thursday,...

JACKSON, Mississippi -- It's been nearly three months since Chris McDaniel lost the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, and he still hasn't conceded. Now, it's worth considering whether McDaniel, a state senator tea party favorite from Jones County, is pursuing a long-term political strategy of winning by losing. Certified results show six-term Sen. Thad Cochran defeated McDaniel by 7,667 votes in the June 24 primary runoff. McDaniel is enmeshed in a legal battle trying to overturn Cochran's victory by claiming the runoff was tainted because Cochran reached out to voters who traditionally support Democrats. Mississippi doesn't register voters...

PADUCAH Ky (Reuters) - Mitch McConnell is hardly a lovable guy. The Republican leader in the U.S. Senate has a dour public persona and many of his constituents don't view him as a "real Kentuckian," according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that underscores what his election campaign already knows - McConnell has an image problem. While other politicians might be deterred by polls showing how unpopular they are in their home state, McConnell has risen to the challenge as he seeks a sixth term in what is perhaps his toughest re-election battle in a 30-year Senate career. Relying on broad financial...

One must borrow Her Majesty’s dead horse in response to the Fox News question: Will Tea Party, GOP establishment be ‘mending fences’ to win Senate in November? After a long, unapologetic effort to defeat Tea Party and other so-called “unelectable” candidates in GOP primaries, the Washington establishment will likely need Tea Party voters in November to help swing several tight Senate races and win control of the upper chamber. Here I go: What difference, at this point, does it make? One can understand that, yes, there are still two years of #OccupyResoluteDesk to endure. But ObamaCare is still a river...

Before this week, I figured that the race to the intellectual bottom for Republican consultants would have been a doggoned close contest. For years I’ve written many columns -- and a book -- that laid bare the cognitive dissonance and record of embarrassing losses of such wizards as Karl Rove, Haley (and Henry) Barbour, Rick Tyler, Andrea Saul, Charlie Black, Steve Schmidt, Matt Rhodes, Nicole Wallace and others. I’ve even established a pretty good record of demonstrating the fallacy of using the Frank Luntz type focus group as a means for testing campaign messaging. Somehow, though, the worst of them...

AUSTIN — Twenty years ago this November, Texas elected George P. Bush’s uncle as governor. That election cemented Republicans in power in the Lone Star State after a steady period of ascendance. Democrats haven’t won a statewide elective office since and their candidates for governor (state Sen. Wendy Davis) and lieutenant governor (state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte) are currently seen here in Texas as underdogs this fall. In the two decades since George W. Bush became governor, the Republican Party here has turned several shades redder. Texas might qualify now as the epicenter of the conservative movement across the...

RUSH: Look, let me tell you where we are with the Republicans. I had a guy was chatting back and forth, a friend last night. He said, "You seem remarkably calm." I said, "I am. It's all about expectations. I finally figured out, the Republican Party's what it is and isn't anything gonna change it, and every day being invested in the hope they're gonna change is a waste of time and energy. Let me give you an example..." And then my friend said, "Let me just tell you something. If one of these ISIS guys get in through the...

Penn State Young America’s Foundation Chapter were told to take down their table from a designated “free speech zone” on campus. They were handing out Constitutions – on Constitution Day.

September 17th was Constitution Day. United States Public Law requires that public educational institutions receiving federal funds teach about the Constitution on September 17 each year. Florida Law requires public school districts to commemorate the founding principles of our nation during the last full week of September. In public schools across America students were reading and discussing the U.S. Constitution, one of the most important and influential documents ever penned. However, in one Martin County Florida elementary school it was not the Constitution and Bill of Rights which were handed out, rather it was a book titled “Praise Song for...

Americans have a constitutional right to armed self-defense, but they have other choices as well. The University of Colorado, for example, last year offered the students it sought to disarm with statewide legislation other “crime prevention tactics.” Options for female students facing rapists included passive resistance,” biting, and self-degradation. According to one proponent of the bill to ban the lawful carrying of firearms on campuses, such threats are “why we have the whistles.” Along similar lines, NBC’s Today Show recently offered suggestions on how to deal with violent home invaders. Their basic advice: politely defer to the intruder, but if...

Recently the National Rifle Association has aimed to boost its appeal among women. Last year it launched its "new and improved" NRA Women's TV Network, and it has hired several accomplished female gun enthusiasts as official NRA News commentators. Women were a focus at its annual meeting in April, and next month the NRA will host a Women's Leadership Forum Executive Summit, which promises to "celebrate the role of women as powerful leaders." But for women who oppose the NRA, it's a different story.

Vile ad bounces off McSally, sticks to Gabby Giffords

Back in 2008, I debated some liberal friends and questioned Mr. Obama's thin resume. They responded by saying that I was missing the point. In other words, don't judge Mr. Obama's resume, but rather his unique ability to inspire and his exceptional judgment. I guess they were telling me that Mr. Obama was one of those exceptional human beings who rises to the occasion because he is smart and politically astute.

Detective Bryan Yant was the face of incompetence at the Metropolitan Police Department: a poster child for wrongful shooting deaths and million-dollar payouts, a driving force behind sweeping reforms to the agency’s deadly force policies. In other cities, an officer who kills an unarmed man under suspicious circumstances and is accused of lying to cover his tracks might be prosecuted. In Las Vegas, Yant kept his job. And he’s taken on a role that will make him more influential at Metro. The officer, in­famous for the 2010 killing of Trevon Cole, a small-time marijuana dealer, is doling out advice in...

For the purpose of felony offense, treason in America is famously defined in our constitution. No longer may political opponents be brought before the equivalent of King’s judges and face charges for real or imagined insults or crimes. No, constitutional treason consists of making war against the United States or assisting its enemies. Oh, and unless the traitor confesses, two witnesses must observe the treasonous act. Put aside for a moment the constitutional definition and hurdles to be surmounted in order to obtain a felony conviction. Consider the broad, historic and popular concept of treason, the betrayal of one’s country....

Ferguson is not just about systemic racism—it's about class warfare, and how America's poor are held back ill the recent rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, be a tipping point in the struggle against racial injustice, or will it be a minor footnote in some future grad student’s thesis on Civil Unrest in the Early Twenty-First Century? More Feds Will Perform Another Autopsy on Michael Brown NBC NewsHungry Heroes: 25 Percent of Military Families Seek Food Aid NBC News'We Have Had Enough': Ferguson Rally Remembers Michael Brown NBC NewsFerguson Protesters Guard Stores From Looters Huffington PostWestboro Baptist Church's Plan To Protest Robin...

There’s a great deal of truth to the conservative praise for Canada. Its fiscal choices have shown how a country can maintain a strong social safety net while taxing and spending efficiently and encouraging private investment. Openness to trade and skilled immigration have made Canada an attractive place to invest; perhaps too attractive for some, given the dizzying way Chinese investment has driven up housing prices in Vancouver. But there are two big caveats to the conservative case for Canada. First, the offsets. “The things conservatives love about Canada are closely linked to the things they hate most about Canada,”...

We often hear about the glory days of immigration when America threw open her arms to the huddled masses, but one thing you don’t hear about is how those people had to make it on their own without a government safety net. There was plenty of private charity, which was highly encouraged, but health care, a minimum-wage job, college entrance, housing, legal representation, and education certainly weren’t promised—not like today.

We recently wrote about the Brett Kimberlin saga -- which is long and involved, and which we'd avoided jumping into for a long time, given how complex and nutty it was. If you're not familiar with it, go back and read that post to catch up on it, but the super short version is that Kimberlin has been suing a lot of people, in large part because he doesn't like the way they're characterizing his past. And he's more or less indicated that he intends to tie people up in court for as long as possible, leading some to put...