Free Republic

With the Trump impeachment drama in full swing, it is useful to look back into history to see how past impeachment activity can impact the future. "We all know that the Republicans acted against their own interests when they impeached President Clinton in 1998, because this caused an electoral backlash against them in 1998. But what few realize is that the Democrats, too, at this time, acted against their own self-interests by their refusal to convict Clinton in the Senate, thereby preventing the accession of V.P. Al Gore and causing the election of the second President Bush in 2000." More...

The political scientist who applies the ‘rational choice’ theory of economics to voters says there was a method to the GOP’s primary madness. Go to the source:

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party's most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump's candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt over the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

It would appear Trump fever has broken. It would seem the down, dirty, and ugly attacks by Rubio particularly, but also Romney, Cruz and others have kicked in. I sense that Trump has become a figure of ridicule, and no politician survives that. Plus his latest flip flops, like on torture, have weakened him as a serious person, although that may not have been obvious at the time. I think the teflon has worn off. If true, Chris Christy gets the bad timing of the year award

Based on the latest polling data, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump appears certain to win the upcoming March 8 Michigan primary and is likely to also take the corresponding race today in Kansas. A FOX 2 Detroit/Mitchell poll released on Friday shows Trump increasing his already massive lead in the Michigan primary. In the survey of likely GOP voters, Trump was picked by 42%, putting him 23% ahead of – and more than double – his nearest competitor, Ted Cruz, who sits at just 19%. Marco Rubio placed third at 15%, in a statistical tie with John Kasich....

The New York Times greets people at newsstands today with huge headlines, usual reserved for wars and other historic events. "Romney ... Trump ... Nation in peril." And, yet, before the ink is even dry, the Romney-led #NeverTrump movement is visibly a flop. And the Romney speech is a non-story. A. RNC Chairman Priebus: The rules of the nominating process are “no different today than 100 years ago. Which is you have a process. And whatever candidate gets a majority of the delegates is going to get the support of the party. That’s how it works,” Reince Priebus said on...

Senator Ted Cruz scored a hard-fought and decisive win in the Kansas caucuses on Saturday, demonstrating his enduring appeal among conservatives as he tries to reel in Donald J. Trump’s significant lead in the Republican presidential race. Mr. Cruz’s victory illustrated the doubts about Mr. Trump that still linger among the sort of traditional Republicans who attend time-intensive party caucuses. With results still being tallied, Mr. Trump appeared to finish well behind Mr. Cruz, with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida taking third.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) on Friday praised Donald Trump for his last-minute decision to skip the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). CPAC organizers announced Friday that the GOP presidential front-runner had dropped out of his commitment to speak at the conference on Saturday morning. The real estate mogul's campaign issued a statement shortly after saying he would instead be campaigning in Kansas and Florida. “Because of this, he will not be able to speak at CPAC as he has done for many consecutive years,” the statement read. “Mr. Trump would like to thank Matt Schlapp and all of...

While Ann Romney wouldn’t necessarily name her favorite candidates running for president, she did praise Donald Trump while talking to Sean Hannity last night.

In any primary, there are a thousand questions to ask, but the first one – yes, the primary one – must be this: What year is it? No, not just “is this a presidential year or a midterm election,” though that’s important too... But what year is it, historically? That is, is it most analogous to a year we’ve seen before, or is it unlike any prior election, so we shouldn’t bother to see if we can learn from parallels? It is often said that there is nothing new under the sun, that we’re always fighting the same war, that...

Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, has never been fond of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. But in an interview Wednesday, Mr. Dole said that the party would suffer "cataclysmic" and "wholesale losses" if Mr. Cruz were the nominee, and that Donald J. Trump would fare better. "I question his allegiance to the party," Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. "I don't know how often you've heard him say the word 'Republican' - not very often." Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the word "conservative," Mr. Dole said, before offering up a different word for Mr. Cruz:...

Illegal aliens should not receive public benefits other than emergency aid, and those who become parents while illegally in the United States should not be qualified to claim benefits for their offspring. Legal immigrants should depend for assistance on their sponsors, who are legally responsible for their financial well-being, not the American taxpayers. Just as we require "deadbeat dads" to provide for the children they bring into the world, we should require "deadbeat sponsors" to provide for the immigrants they bring into the country. We support a constitutional amendment or constitutionally-valid legislation declaring that children born in the United States...

I was there for the “peasants with pitchforks” speech. Pat Buchanan was holding forth in a crowded room at the Sheraton Hotel in Nashua, N.H., a couple of days before the 1996 GOP primary. The Republican Establishment’s favorite for the nomination was Bob Dole, but Dole, for all his solid credentials and admirable history as a war hero and congressional leader, was never someone to incite a political fever, never one to tap the more visceral emotions of the rowdy electorate. So here came Buchanan, the TV pundit and unapologetic nativist, and in the icy environs of the New Hampshire...

When Bill Clinton was president, he allowed Hillary to assume authority over a health care reform. Even after threats and intimidation, she couldn’t get a vote in a Democrat controlled congress. This fiasco cost the American taxpayers about $13 million in cost for studies, promotion and other efforts. Hillary 1 Then President Clinton gave Hillary authority over selecting a female attorney general. Her first two selections were Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood – both were forced to withdraw their names from consideration. Next she chose Janet Reno – husband Bill described her selection as “my worst mistake.” Some may not...

Ben Wattenberg died this week at the age of 81. He gave me my first job in Washington, as his research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. (I returned to AEI as a fellow a few years ago, my office just a few doors down from where Ben used to work.) Ben was one of the last star pundits of what might be called the Old Order, before cable news and the Internet transformed the landscape. When everyone was rushing to CNN to shout at each other on "Crossfire," he launched a PBS show called "Think...

Video of BHO a few scrolls down. He definitely did not look presidential in this 1995 video http://universalfreepress.com/breaking-shocking-1995-video-surfaces-of-barack-obama-revealing-who-he-really-is/#

Most Americans haven’t forgotten the bald-faced lies the Clintons told about Bill’s affairs and molestations along with the sheer savagery of the attacks their surrogates launched against these women. For example, we all remember Bill Clinton perjuring himself by saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” Of course, Bill was lying which helped lead to the House voting to impeach him. The Senate attempted to follow suit and although 50 Senators voted for impeachment, they didn’t reach the 67 vote threshold needed to send Clinton home in disgrace. What you may not remember was the...