Free Republic

Leftists are ruled by their emotions and cannot control them. The hatred, vitriol and apoplectic rage they will display in the coming weeks and months will shock even us hardened, long-time conservatives. Gird your loins, folks. The mutants will seek to strike back.

Another underreported fact from Tuesday's election is the extraordinary night Republicans had in winning state legislative seats. The GOP now controls two thirds of state legislative houses – 66 of 99 (Nebraska's legislature is unicameral).  They upped the number of states where they control both house and senate to 24 – one more than they had before the election.  And according to this article in Vox, they cut the number of Democratic-held legislatures from 14 to 7. Republicans made historic gains in state legislatures in 2010. They held on in many states in 2012, or made up for losses...

Republicans picked up another Senate seat Wednesday.Dan Sullivan led Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, by more than 8,000 votes with 100 percent reporting, according to Associated Press data.The outcome obliterated any last hope among Democrats for a silver lining to Tuesday's Republican wave, and capped a banner Election Day for the GOP.

Alaska voters approved a ballot measure aimed at adding a hurdle to the potential development of a major copper and gold mine. The measure requires the state’s legislature to approve any proposed mining project in the Bristol Bay watershed. It targets the Pebble Mine, a planned copper and gold mine that would be the largest of its kind in the world. Environmentalists, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and some Alaska native tribes want to stop the mine due to its potential impact on wildlife in Bristol Bay and the watershed, including a massive salmon population. Sixty-five percent of voters approved...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — While the rest the nation examines how and why the Republicans took control of the Senate, the races in Alaska remain undeclared. At the time of writing, Republican Dan Sullivan was four points ahead of incumbent Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) — a lead that appears insurmountable given that nearly all the precincts have reported back. Assuming there are no surprises in whatever votes were still in play -- including absentee ballots -- Sullivan may be on track to be the last big win for the Republican Party. According to Alaska's Division of Elections, the independent gubernatorial candidate...

Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich wasn't conceding anything Wednesday in his race against Republican challenger Dan Sullivan. Sullivan held a 3.6 percentage point lead over Begich with all precincts reporting. Thousands of absentee ballots won't be counted until Nov. 11. In a statement Wednesday, Begich campaign manager Susanne Fleek-Green said the campaign wants a final vote count. Republicans said they believe the margin is insurmountable.

Power Players He once worked for Sarah Palin and has been dubbed a “protégé” of Condoleezza Rice. Now Dan Sullivan is fighting to become a high-profile conservative brand name of his own, trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska in one of the most closely watched political races of the year. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appointed Sullivan attorney general in 2009. Before that he worked within President George W. Bush’s inner circle as a senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Now, Sullivan has the task of convincing GOP primary voters that he is Alaskan enough,...

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is telling her Alaska colleague, Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, that when it comes to using her likeness in his ads, “no means no.” Begich, who is up for reelection in a closely watched race against Republican Dan Sullivan, has used Murkowski’s picture in campaign ads to highlight his bipartisan bona fides and the fact both he and Murkowski are on the Appropriations Committee. Over the summer, representatives for the Republican sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Begich campaign, but he used a photo of the two of them at a joint press event as recently as...

A mouthpiece of the Chinese Government has described President Obama as 'insipid' and claims U.S. voters are sick of his 'banality'. The state-run Global Times has published an editorial deriding the leader a few days ahead of his visit to the growing economic and military powerhouse. It stated: 'Obama always utters "Yes, we can," which led to the high expectations people had for him. But he has done an insipid job, offering nearly nothing to his supporters. 'U.S. society has grown tired of his banality.' The criticism comes in the wake of a crushing defeat in the Midterm elections worse...

Much has been written, and more will be, about what the 2014 elections mean, and most of it will focus on the small stuff—whether it was a “wave” or not, whether it was an anti-incumbency or anti-Obama phenomenon, what the president does now, what happens to gridlock and so on. Place all that to the side for the moment, and let’s get to the big picture on what this election demonstrates. It demonstrates that nobody can govern America from the left, because the country doesn’t want to go there, and because whenever it has been tried in recent decades, it...

Senate Democrats lost their majority on Harry Reid’s watch. But they’re closing ranks around him anyway. In interviews with more than a half-dozen surviving Democratic senators and several top aides on Wednesday, many agreed that Americans booted some of their colleagues at least in part because of the perception that Reid’s Senate was getting little done. There were few pieces of landmark legislation to boast about, a dearth of votes on amendments and at times the chamber seemed little more than a clearinghouse for President Barack Obama’s nominees. But most Democrats have Reid’s back, prepared to stand by him as...

The first female combat veteran. A daughter of Haitian immigrants. A 37-year old Harvard wunderkind. The youngest woman ever. It’s an array that in past years might have sounded like the stuff of a Democrat’s dream press release, but it’s actually a sampling of just a few of the much-talked-about Republicans who won contested races Tuesday night. As the dust settles after their rout of Democrats, the GOP can boast of an influx of dynamic congressional talent that looks younger and more heterogeneous than ever. That new GOP freshman class includes Joni Ernst, the first woman to represent Iowa in...

Liberals probably don't know it yet, but last night should be the last nail in that coffin...

The full magnitude of the Republican Party’s success in reshaping the national political landscape at President Obama’s expense became clearer Wednesday morning as the party seemed headed toward an even longer list of electoral victories in Senate and governor races that had been too close to call before dawn. The results are an immediate blow to the administration’s hopes to further broaden the president’s health care law by expanding Medicaid in additional states. White House aides are bracing for calls from both parties for Mr. Obama to cancel or postpone plans to announce executive actions that would reshape the nation’s...

Now that they have lost BIG in the midterms, the DUmmies discuss why they are losers. What is interesting in this post mortem is that the ground rules as set by DUmmie lumberjack_jeff is that they are NOT allowed to fall back on the usual excuses such as Diebold. Their loser awareness can be seen in this THREAD, "Post mortem thread. Why did we lose?" So let us now watch the DUmmies discuss their Inner Loser in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, noting that the Ebola Nurse threw the election to the Maine Republican governor,...

As more states begin providing illegal immigrants and their children with driver's licenses and ID cards, officials are concerned some also are registering to vote -- some by mistake, and others on purpose... ...While only U.S. citizens {and not even legal immigrants} can vote, only four states require proof before registering: Kansas, Arizona, Georgia and Alabama. States can also compare voter rolls to a federal immigration database known as SAVE, or the Systemic Alien Verification System for Entitlements. Four states tried, but the ACLU and others sued, stopping Virginia, Iowa and Florida from purging voter rolls of non-citizens. The problem...

You almost never see this in politics. David Krone, the chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), launches a major attack on the White House in this blockbuster story by my colleagues Philip Rucker and Robert Costa: At a March 4 Oval Office meeting, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and other Senate leaders pleaded with Obama to transfer millions in party funds and to also help raise money for an outside group. “We were never going to get on the same page,” said David Krone, Reid’s chief of staff. “We were beating our heads against...

She is barely up by less than 1,000 votes, very tight race but after Owens being up all night, she is finally up 954 votes with just a handful of precinct

Four days before Tuesday’s election, with a number of races balanced on a razor-thin margin, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul was in a banquet hall in south-central Pennsylvania at the behest of a congressman coasting to re-election. Mr. Paul and Rep. Bill Shuster had struck up a friendship earlier this year in the outfield at a congressional baseball game. On Friday, Mr. Paul headlined the Franklin County Republican Committee Eisenhower Luncheon in Mr. Shuster’s district. The appearance reflected Mr. Paul’s status as the go-to Republican for 2014 candidates trying to rally a crowd, raise money and court the tea-party activists...

President Obama was hunkered down at the White House today as election returns rolled in for what is forecast to be a punishing night for his party. But in Florida, North Carolina, Connecticut and Wisconsin, he made some stealthy last-minute virtual cameos, lending his voice to Democratic candidates in tough races. “This is it, Florida,” Mr. Obama says in a spot on WEDR, a Miami radio station with a predominantly African-American audience, recorded for Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate for governor. “Don’t let anyone or anything keep you from voting.” In an ad in North Carolina, Mr. Obama asks voters...