Free Republic

Sen. Kennedy Says Opponents of “Gay Marriage” Are Bigots Sen. Edward Kennedy has told A.P. that opponents of “gay marriage” are bigots. The news service reported last week: “Meanwhile, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy criticized supporters of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, saying that would be a civil rights setback. “Kennedy said bigotry should not be written into the federal constitution, and constitutional amendments should be about expanding rights and liberties.” Unitarians Confirm Our Forecast that Group Sex Will be Next The Unitarian Church is now welcoming those who believe in group relationships including the practice of “romantic love.”...

In an interview with the Yale college newspaper published on Friday, Weather Underground terrorist group co-founder Bill Ayers said he believes his association with Barack Obama got the politician elected president in 2008. “That whole narrative blew up because no one could figure out how to run against Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton started it all by saying we don’t know who this guy is and he has sketchy friends (myself),” Ayers told the weekend supplement of the Yale Daily News, referring to controversy over his relationship with Obama. “I like to think that his association with me got him...

Trent Lott wasn’t always this way. He was once a conservative champion, who came to Washington to change the ruling-class narrative. But now he’s a profile in what Washington does to you if you stay too long — unless you have Winston Churchill-like courage of conviction, and few mere mortals do. Mr. Lott was originally part of a group that included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Vin Webber, who were dubbed the “Young Turks.” They were among the chief lieutenants of the Reagan Revolution back in the day. Best known for fighting the Fraternal Order of Establishment Republicans....

First Democrats, now a former Senate GOP leader is attacking Sen. Ted Cruz for standing his ground instead of compromising on key issues. Trent Lott, a former Senate majority leader from Mississippi and now a lobbyist, dubbed Cruz one of the “problems” in the Senate and urged incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to quickly “co-opt” new Republican senators before Cruz and others in the “Far Right” deputize them. “There are problems,” said Lott, pushing bipartisanship at a media roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “Yes, we’ve got the Ted Cruzes in the Republican Party, and we’ve got Elizabeth...

Former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) says Mississippi Republicans may need a regime change after the damaging primary fight between Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel. “This has shown the fissures that are there and I do think the party leaders – it may cause the need for some change in the party leadership,” Lott, now the co-chairman of Squire Patton Boggs' public policy practice, told The Hill during a wide-ranging interview at the firm's Washington office. He warned that the Mississippi establishment is ignoring the Tea Party wing of the GOP at their own peril. “If they...

Audio/Video Ads Only: Sarah Palin has created a new radio ad for Chris McDaniel’s campaign: Likewise, Rick Santorum has a new TV ad for McDaniel via Political Victory Fund: So what big name is supporting Cochran? Trent Lott. I know. ZZZZzzzzzz:

Matt Bevin, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s primary challenger, told a group of Kentucky voters that American workers are less productive than immigrants. “For those who think that all these fifteen to twenty million [illegal immigrant] people are here just to take advantage of us and ride the system, you’re wrong,” he said at a diner in Jessamine, Kentucky, in March. “Most of them are not… but I’ll tell you what, there are more people like that even proportionally that were born here in this country,” he added.

Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino closed its doors early Tuesday, the fourth Atlantic City casino to go belly-up so far this year. When it opened on May 14, 1984, Donald Trump called it the finest building in Atlantic City, and possibly the nation. But since then, The Donald has left town and cut ties to its casinos. And the Plaza, like many Atlantic City casinos, has seen better days.

She once called Donald Trump "a maggot, a cockroach and a crumb." This week, he remembered her as "an impossible person." The woman who became a folk hero for resisting decades-long efforts by big-name developers like Trump to displace her Atlantic City boardinghouse is now 91 and, at last, ready to sell. But it remains to be seen if anybody still wants to buy. Vera Coking has moved to California to be near her family. And the 29-room property she and her husband bought for $20,000 in 1961 and fought to hold onto is on the auction block Thursday for...

(CBS) – Corey Brooks, the “Rooftop Pastor” from Chicago’s South Side who endorsed Republican Bruce Rauner for governor, now has a paid appointed position with the Rauner administration.Gov. Rauner’s office on Friday announced Brooks, senior pastor at New Beginnings Church, will be a director on the Illinois Tollway Board, the Downers Grove-based authority that controls toll roads.Brooks was among a group of African-American religious leaders in Chicago who backed Rauner, a wealthy businessman, over incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn, saying Democrats had taken black political support for granted.The tollway appointment would seem an odd fit for Brooks, a social crusader who...

After the Washington Post reported that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) spoke at a 2002 event hosted by a white nationalist group, RedState editor Erick Erickson knocked Scalise's supposed ignorance about the organization. According to the Post's Robert Costa, Scalise appeared at an event for the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, a group founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, but didn't know at the time that the organization was a hate group. Erickson was not willing to give Scalise the benefit of the doubt. "How do you not know? How do you not investigate?" Erickson wrote...

Americans have entrusted Republicans with control of both the House and Senate. We are humbled by this opportunity to help struggling middle-class Americans. Looking ahead to the next Congress, we will honor the voters’ trust by focusing, first, on jobs and the economy. Among other things, that means a renewed effort to debate and vote on the many bills that passed the Republican-led House in recent years. It also means renewing our commitment to repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans’ health care. Our priorities in the 114th Congress will be your priorities. That means addressing...

The night before the 2008 Nevada Republican convention, the Ron Paul delegates all met at a Reno high school. Although I’d called myself a libertarian for almost my entire adult life, it was my first exposure to the wider movement.

Businessman Matt Bevin is the guy some see moving up in the Kentucky GOP governor's primary. Bevin also challenged now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a primary last year. These two things are not distinct from one another. Now that Bevin's chances appear to be on the rise in the May 19 primary (thanks to Agriculture Commissioner James Comer's problems), here comes Team McConnell to knock him down a peg or two. And boy do they. Here is top McConnell aide Josh Holmes on Bevin in a new Lousiville Courier-Journal story: Josh Holmes, McConnell's former chief of staff and...

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...

Revising and extending my remarks: We're receiving lots of complaints lately from freshly banned liberals, trolls and malcontents. Well, Free Republic has not changed and will not change. We are NOT "fair and balanced." Never will be. We are biased toward God, country, Life and Liberty. Marriage, family and traditional values. Constitution, inalienable rights, private property and limited government. Small government, small spending, small taxes. National security, national sovereignty, strong defense and secure borders. Individual rights, individual responsibility and self-government. Privacy, individual and family security, self-defense and right to keep and bear arms. Rights to freely exercise our religion, freedom...

No decision has been made about Bowe Bergdahl's future, military officials said today, as an Army general continues to review the circumstances surrounding his 2009 disappearance that led to five years in Taliban captivity. The Army issued a statement today denying media reports that said Bergdahl would be charged with desertion, possibly as early as next week. Major General Ronald Lewis, the head of Army public affairs, labeled the reports as "patently false." "To be clear, there have been no actions or decisions on the Sergeant Bergdahl investigation," Lewis said. The investigation remains with Milley, "who will determine appropriate action...

During Wednesday night's presidential debate, Newt Gingrich could barely restrain his amusement as co-moderator Maria Bartiromo defended the liberal media's reporting of the economy. Bartiromo took umbrage after Gingrich's asserted, "What is amazing to me is the inability of much of our academic world and much of our news media and most of the people on Occupy Wall Street to have a clue about history." The CNBC journalist responded by huffing, "I'm sorry, but what is the media reporting inaccurately about the economy?" An incredulous Gingrich mocked, "I love humor disguised as a question. That's terrific." [ See video below....

My daughter asked me my opinion on an article she read in Vanity Fair attempting to debunk the presidential record of Ronald Reagan. I happily responded. The writer of the piece is veteran liberal commentator Michael Kinsley, who used to be a regular on William F. Buckley Jr.'s "Firing Line" and CNN's "Crossfire." It's not as though he appeared out of nowhere, studied the evidence anew and shared a novel theory. He's been dissing Reaganomics for decades along with other Democrats and liberals, whose only recourse is to distort the Gipper's phenomenal record. Why is this even relevant, you ask?...

Congress: With polls showing most GOP voters in opposition to the Speaker's budget deal and saying they would "probably" or "definitely" prefer a new leader, a Tea Party favorite fires a shot heard around the political world. In 2010, House Speaker John Boehner loved the Tea Party. The grass-roots movement, which arose in opposition to manifestations of big government such as ObamaCare and unlimited taxation and regulation, put the GOP back in control of the House of Representatives and made Boehner Speaker. But by December 2013, Boehner loved the Tea Party and other conservative groups not so much. They had...