Free Republic

Howard Wolfson, the 2008 communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton, has said he will not return for a 2016 presidential campaign. Neither, for that matter, will Neera Tanden, the campaign’s policy director. Ditto for Mark Penn, the chief strategist, and Patti Solis Doyle, the embattled campaign manager. As core members of a dysfunctional “Team of Rivals,” these top advisers were seared, scattered and, to different degrees, forged by the 2008 experience. Haunted by the failures in management and messaging, they have worked hard to get over their shattered White House dreams and rejection by a Democratic base enamored with Barack...

Sometimes when people on the Left talk about dog whistles, it seems far too forced. However, there are occasional times when you can see a clear subliminal message underlying the overt one. Take the contested Massachusetts Senate race that pits 38 year veteran of Congress Ed Markey against former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez. Gomez rejects many of the gun control arguments, including the ban on high capacity magazines.

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was Jay Leno’s guest on the Tonight Show Friday, and he didn’t have kind things to say about the current White House resident or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At one point in their discussion, Romney said, “I’m not a fan of the president—in case you didn’t know that.” …

(Newser) – Probably a good sign that Republicans see the IRS controversy as very fertile ground politically: Bobby Jindal—who famously warned the GOP not to be the "stupid party" of unhinged attacks—is going after the scandal hard today, reports Politico. The potential 2016 challenger plans to tell Republicans in Virginia that those responsible for the "un-American" plan of singling out conservative groups for scrutiny should go to prison.   “You cannot take the freedom of law-abiding Americans, whether you disagree with them or not, and keep your own freedom," says the Louisiana governor's prepared remarks. "When you do that, you...

Leaving aside the seriousness of lawlessness, and the corruption of our civic culture by the professionally pious, this past week has been amusing. There was the spectacle of advocates of an ever-larger regulatory government expressing shock about such government’s large capacity for misbehavior. And, entertainingly, the answer to the question “Will Barack Obama’s scandals derail his second-term agenda?” was a question: What agenda? The scandals are interlocking and overlapping in ways that drain his authority. Everything he advocates requires Americans to lavish on government something his administration, and big government generally, undermines – trust. [emphasis added] Liberalism’s agenda has been...

(Read the whole article) Things will probably have to get a whole lot worse before a critical mass of voters choose the path of despair that the National Journal warns against: the point where they exit the game. The difficulty is that the restraint does not so far seem symmetric. What is perhaps most disturbing is the sheer effrontery of the administration. They seem unabashed and oblivious to the damage they are causing. They are telling lies that nobody can be expected to believe, almost as if the stranger hiding under the marital bed explains that he’s looking for change...

<p>CEOs of large organizations all face the same problem – driving their agendas in organizations too diverse and geographically dispersed to manage directly.</p> <p>They hire competent managers for their units, set goals and establish clear metrics for evaluating performance. As in politics, competition in business is tough, and CEOs must set ethical boundaries for their managers’ conduct.</p>

A Northwestern University student was rejected for a “diversity and inclusion post” in student government because he is a white, heterosexual male, resulting in a sharp rebuke from the university’s student newspaper. Northwestern University’s Associated Student Government rejected the nomination of Stephen Piotrkowski for associate vice president of diversity and inclusion last week. The student-run committee “oversees diversity initiatives that stem from the undergraduate student body.” …

The top advisor to last year’s Republican nominee predicted Wednesday that if Hillary Clinton runs for president in 2016, she will lose in a Democratic primary. Clinton is widely thought to be the strongest 2016 presidential contender in either party, with high approval ratings and early poll numbers that show her beating top Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio in their home states. But Stu Stevens, the senior advisor to Mitt Romney’s failed presidential bid, told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by National Review that Clinton wouldn’t survive a Democratic primary. “I would predict that if Hillary Clinton runs, she’ll lose...

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) is looking for a lieutenant governor, and he believes former Congressman Allen West fits the bill. According to Tampa Bay's 970 WFLA, Scott has not determined exactly when he will appoint a replacement for Carroll. He said he plans to wait until the current legislative session is over before taking the matter up. However, he has made clear that West would be a good choice. Said Scott: "[Allen West] is a great American and a great patriot... he'd be a great Lieutenant Governor."

Find out how a 200-pound man survived the trip in a coffin-like box.What is one of the most novel ways a slave devised to escape bondage? Here you see a man by the name of Henry Brown, Ran away from the South to the North, Which he would not have done but they stole all his rights, But they'll never do like again. Chorus: Brown laid down the shovel and the hoe, Down in the box he did go; No more slave work for Henry Box Brown, In the box by Express he did go. --"Song Composed by Henry Box...

Elizabeth SmartIn 2002, the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart captured the nation’s attention. Rescued nine months later, Smart had been held prisoner and raped by Brian David Mitchell, who is currently serving a richly-deserved life sentence. Today, Smart is a 25-year-old author, advocate for child-protection laws, and missing persons commentator for ABC News. Last Wednesday, Smart spoke at a Johns Hopkins University forum on human trafficking. She discussed her mindset while in captivity, the following excerpt of which has been picked up by numerous liberal commentators: I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about,...

One of the Democrats’ most veteran strategists warns that the party is “in decline” and “at considerable risk” when President Barack Obama is no longer on the scene. “Since Obama was elected President, the Democrats have lost nine governorships, 56 members of the House and two Senate seats,” Doug Sosnik, the political director in Bill Clinton’s White House, writes in a new memo. While Republican branding problems get the lion’s share of attention, the Democratic Party’s favorability rating has declined by 15 points since Obama took power. A Pew Research Center survey this January showed that the Democratic Party was...

On Friday, Bloomberg’s Francis Wilkinson predicted that “Benghazi will be Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Whitewater.” Considering her long history of scandals – and the litany of subsequent excuses and denials she sent spinning to absolve herself of any fault -- Examiner predicted Thursday that “Benghazi could prove to be a real "corkscrew landing" under "sniper fire" for Clinton in 2016.” “In case you have any lingering doubt about the true agenda of House Republicans” in Wednesday's Benghazi hearing, check out these numbers,” Jed Lewison fretted Thursday for the uber-liberal blog site, Daily Kos. 15: Number of times President Barack Obama was...

Archdiocese of Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley said today that he plans to boycott Boston College's commencement ceremony May 20 because it will feature Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as its commencement speaker. The College is scheduled to award Kenny an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Kenny supports loosening the country's legislation against abortion. “Since the university has not withdrawn the invitation and because the Taoiseach (prime minister) has not seen fit to decline, I shall not attend the graduation,’’ O’Malley said in a statement released this afternoon. “It is my ardent hope that Boston College will work to redress the...

Geraldo Rivera said Friday that his sources tell him the U.S. was involved in a secret mission in Libya to arm the Syrian rebels, which was the reason for the initial secrecy about the attack in Benghazi.

Barack Obama held a campaign stop at Manor Technical High School in Austin, Texas today. He used the high school kids as props for his speech. Obama also told the high schoolers that he will need their help to push his agenda. “Every once in a while I’m going to need your help to lean on your elected representatives…” (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Here’s the transcript via the White House website: Now, there are three things that we’ve got to focus on to create more jobs and opportunity for the middle class. First of all, we’ve got to make America a magnet for...

The revolutionary concept of 3-D printed firearms has been building momentum for months now. Online observers, innovators, investors and the generally curious celebrated as the first completely 3-D printed handgun became a reality. Since the blueprint for “The Liberator” hit the web, the file was downloaded thousands of times in just a few days. Today, the government shut it down. Cody Wilson, the 3-D gunsmith, law student, and founder of the non-profit innovation outlet, Defense Distributed, broke the bad news in a tweet to his followers.

President Obama continues to hold a substantial advantage over congressional Republicans in public regard. Obama’s job approval is back in positive territory at 51%, after slipping to 47% in March. By comparison, just 22% approve of the job Republican leaders in Congress are doing, among the lowest approval rating for congressional leaders from either party in 20 years. Furthermore, a record-high 80% say Obama and Republican leaders are not working together to address important issues facing the country, and by nearly two-to-one (42%-22%) more blame Republican leaders than Obama for the gridlock. Despite GOP leaders’ poor job ratings, the Republican...

Former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint argued on Sunday that implementing immigration reform as proposed by the “Gang of Eight” would “cost Americans trillions of dollars.” “The study you’ll see from Heritage this week presents a staggering cost of another amnesty in our country and the detrimental effects long term that that will have,” Mr. DeMint, president of the Heritage Foundation, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

<p>Would you support Sarah Palin should she decide to run for the presidency in 2016?</p>

The First Rule of Illegal Immigration is No One Talks About Illegal Immigration May 5, 2013 By Daniel Greenfield 2  Print This Post Liberals love euphemisms the way that goats love eating rotten apples. But the problem with euphemisms is that they eventually take on the derogatory meaning of the thing they were trying to slowly back away from. Retarded started out as a euphemism to replace slow which was a euphemism started to replace moron which was also… you get the idea. Liberals insisted that we use illegal immigrant to replace illegal alien which replaced more insulting terms. Now...

It was reported the other day on an inside page of the Pioneer Press, and without nearly enough fanfare, that more than six out of 10 women who give birth in their early 20s are unmarried. That is census data, from census demographers, from the very government that then becomes responsible for many, if not most, of those unmarried women and children. If that isn't an astonishing statistic, it should be. Why, to any logical person's way of thinking, it explains everything in terms of government at all levels bloating out of control. Supposing that even angels might fear to...

A new Quinnipiac poll comparing potential Democratic candidates for 2016 comes to a familiar conclusion: Hillary Clinton, if she decides to run, would absolutely dominate the competition. The poll has 65 percent of potential Democratic voters picking Hillary Clinton as their presidential nominee in 2016. That's in line with multiple recent polls — including from Gallup, PPP, and PublicMind — showing Clinton as the overwhelming favorite in a Democratic primary. What's interesting about the Quinnipiac poll is that it conducted a separate survey in which Clinton was removed from the race. Which Democrats come out on top if Clinton decides...

Barack Obama has promised to take back the United States House of Representatives in 2014 by using his Organizing for Action superhero/super PAC as his weapon. And if that happens the country faces the prospect of this old socialist, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Graft, Theft, Shakedown), becoming the chair of the House Financial Services committee.  Just imagine super-liberals Sens. Ron Wyden (D-DeathState), or Chuck Shumer (D-EastCoast) teaming up with Waters to re-write Dodd-Frank banking law to make it more liberal. But so far B.O.’s money superstorm disguised as a PAC has made a lot of noise but hasn’t even ruffled feathers...

At the kickoff of a six-figure campaign to elect America's first female president in 2016, Emily's List President Stephanie Schriock addressed the question on everybody's mind: Will Hillary Clinton run? "There is one name that seems to be getting mentioned more than others," Schriock told reporters at the National Press Club Thursday. "We do not know if Hillary is going to run. But we're hopeful that she may." Schriock, whose group (the name stands for "Early Money Is Like Yeast") works to get pro-choice Democratic women elected to office at the local, state and federal levels, noted there are other...

That’s the simple reality of Friday’s vote to ease the pain for the Federal Aviation Administration. By assenting to it, Democrats have agreed to sequestration for the foreseeable future. In effect, what Democrats said Friday was that in any case where the political pain caused by sequestration becomes unbearable, they will agree to cancel that particular piece of the bill while leaving the rest of the law untouched. The result is that sequestration is no longer particularly politically threatening, but it’s even more unbalanced: Cuts to programs used by the politically powerful will be addressed, but cuts to programs that...

Can't we just wait for heroes to save us? That's easy but won't work.A fascinating article titled The Good Guys are Not Coming to Save Us was posted on April 23rd at Free-Man's Perspective. The first paragraph observes, A lot of Americans know that the US government is out of control. Anyone who has cared enough to study the US Constitution even a little knows this. Still, very few of these people are taking any significant action, and largely because of one error: They are waiting for “the good guys” to show up and fix things. The article provides much food for thought....

t’s shaping up to be a dramatic day in the courtroom for those keeping a watchful eye on the Dr. Kermit Gosnell case. According to columnist J.D. Mullane, a writer for the Bucks County Courier Times, the abortion doctor was acquitted this morning on three counts of murder. In a series of tweets from inside the courtroom, Mullane described the dismissals, noting that Gosnell still has five murder charges remaining against him (in sequence from oldest to newest): #Gosnell defense atty Jack McMahon asks Judge Jeffrey Minehart for abort doc's acquittal. Judge listens, takes recess. #Gosnell Judge Minehart acquits abort...

Did the senators who voted against a proposal last week to expand background checks on gun buyers take an electoral risk? At first glance, it would seem that they did. Background checks are broadly popular with the public. Overwhelming majorities of 80 to 90 percent of the public say they favor background checks when guns are purchased at gun shows, at gun shops or online. Support for background checks drops when guns are bought through informal channels, or gifts from family members — but the amendment that the Senate voted upon last week, sponsored by the Joe Manchin III, Democrat...

Though currently retired, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is still more popular than President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and her successor John Kerry, a new poll has found. According to the Gallup poll, released Tuesday, a whopping 64 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Clinton, putting her nine percentage points ahead of President Obama (55 percent), 19 percentage points ahead of Biden and 20 percentage points ahead of the current Secretary of State John Kerry. Moreover while 13 percent of respondents said they never heard of John Kerry and nine percent of respondents said the...

On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that including a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants in any comprehensive immigration bill would jeopardize the likelihood of the legislation passing. “I think if instead the bill includes elements that are deeply divisive--and I would note that I don’t think there is any issue in this entire debate that is more divisive than a path to citizenship for those who are here illegally--in my view, any bill that insists upon that jeopardizes the likelihood of passing any immigration reform bill,” Cruz said at the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing, according to CNS News....

2014 retirements: Dems heading for the hills By: Alexander Burns April 23, 2013 04:49 PM EDT Doesn’t anyone want to run for Senate in 2014? Midway through candidate recruitment season, the bad news for Democrats is this: They are watching a generation of talent leave the Senate and head for retirement. The less-bad news: So far, few marquee-name Republicans are interested in these seats either. When Montana Sen. Max Baucus called it quits on Tuesday, he became the latest in a long series of senior legislators to announce that they’ve had quite enough of life on the Hill. National Democrats...

He doesn't get the attention of the Sunday talk shows, or Washington's political elite, but the Midwest's dragon slayer, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is emerging in some Republican circles as the surprising favorite to win the GOP nomination for president in 2016. Untainted by scandal, far from Washington's voter-frustrating gridlock, and reinvigorated by his victory over foes who staged a recall vote, the conservative Walker is also viewed as the best candidate to sop up the Midwest white vote which, had Mitt Romney done better there, would have catapulted him into the Oval Office. But the best part in the...

A growing number of House Democrats are concerned that President Obama's proposal to cut Social Security benefits will haunt the party at the polls in 2014. Although Democrats have long-championed the retirement program, they say Obama's plan to reduce payments for future beneficiaries through a chained consumer price index (CPI) has weakened their stance and opened the door for Republicans to vilify the president. The leader of the campaign arm for House Republicans, Rep. Greg Walden (Ore.), on Wednesday called Obama’s plan a "shocking attack on seniors." Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign...

Those of us who believe in Traditional American Values, The American Constitution and a Judeo/Christian God are under assault. We are being attacked both on a National and International level. While I know this is not news to many, it is time to acknowledge and reaffirm the seriousness of the battle. With the ascendence of the Radical Marxist Obama to the very Highest Authority in our Nation, the Left has abandoned all preteneses of moderation and compromise. They no longer feel the need to cloak their truse desires. They speak openly of Redistribution of Wealth, Government as the Ultimate Authority,...

SEE: Collins,King vote to continue gun debate WASHINGTON — Maine`s two U.S. senators voted with the majority Thursday to move forward with debate on a package of gun-control measures prompted by December's mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. I would love to hear Collins explain to her constituents in Maine, under what part of the federal Constitution have they delegated a power to the federal government to enter Main and regulate the ownership of firearms. I do know Maine’s Declaration of Rights stipulates in crystal clear language that: Section 16. To keep and bear arms. Every citizen has...

No, we're not talking about abortionisty/murderer Kermit Gosnell this time. We’re talking about the Democrats who are using parents of murdered children as props as they do nothing to prevent mad killers from killing again. The ultimate goal is to take guns away from American citizens, but they’ll take any baby steps they can. They really don’t care if their actions will not stop the next mass shooting of children by some crazed lunatic. And I’m using that term deliberately, because the people who commit the mass horrors that we have seen have been madmen, literally. Ann Coulter points out...

AMHERST, N.Y. - A state lawmaker is calling for an investigation into how an Amherst man's guns were taken away by mistake. State Assemblyman Ray Walter says when he saw the news coverage of David Lewis' case, he knew immediately something was "seriously wrong." Walter wants some answers, when he meets face-to-face with the State Police Superintendent in Albany next Tuesday. Lewis said, "It's been very embarrassing. I feel like I've been let down, and my privacy's been invaded." Lewis was forced to turn in his seven handguns and stripped of his pistol permit. After State Police in Albany identified...

There’s no money to run White House tours, but apparently there’s money to pull one of Al’s pet projects out of mothballs. Satellite shelved after 2000 election to now fly By SETH BORENSTEIN WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is proposing dusting off and finally launching an old environmental satellite championed by Al Gore but shelved a dozen years by his 2000 rival George W. Bush. Obama proposed Wednesday spending nearly $35 million in his 2014 budget to refurbish a satellite, nicknamed GoreSat by critics, that’s been sitting in storage after it was shelved in 2001, months after Bush took...

Politico reports that Marco Rubio is prepared “to go all in to support sweeping immigration legislation, offering himself up as the public face of the bill.” This isn’t much a surprise. In all likelihood, Rubio has been prepared to be the front-man in the push for amnesty and path for citizenship for illegal aliens from the get-go. His sponsorship of reprehensible efforts to demonize critics of amnesty have shown him to be every bit as much of a ruthless pro-amnesty ideologue as Chuck Schumer, for whom he is fronting.

Tweets on Elaine Chao: 'They will not get away with attacking my wife,' Mitch McConnell says WINCHESTER, Ky. -- Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell lambasted a liberal group on Saturday for criticizing the Asian heritage of his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, calling its Twitter messages "racial slurs" and "the ultimate outrage." "They will not get away with attacking my wife in this campaign," McConnell told about 100 home-state supporters at a Republican dinner in Winchester. "This woman has the ear of @McConnellPress — she's his #wife," the group Kentucky Progress tweeted on Feb. 14. "May explain why your...

Barack Obama's quest for a "balanced approach" is the lifeblood of his political success -- and also its biggest myth. Witness the coverage of the purportedly centrist president's 2014 budget proposal. "Obama sends Congress $3.77T spending plan, riles both sides," says one prominent headline; "President Obama's risky 'goodwill' gambit," begins another fairy tale. "Obama Budget Is Meant to Draw GOP to the Table," claims The New York Times. Nearly every story stresses that the budget has drawn critics from both the left and the right. Obama, you see, is so moderate he's willing to wrangle with the socialist Sen. Bernie...

In what was probably the most reported on tweet in political history since the Anthony Weiner scandal, actress Ashley Judd’s run against U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell was put on hold in 140 characters. The brief media frenzy that ensued before she ended speculation could all come back to the commonwealth. Jonathan Miller, the former two-term state treasurer and one-time gubernatorial and congressional candidate, told Pure Politics that Judd might move back to her old Kentucky home. “I do really think she’s thinking about moving back to Kentucky permanently,” Miller said in an in-studio interview with Pure Politics. Miller said Judd...

A professor at the University of Southern California (USC) appears to have used a fall semester 2012 political science class to deliver sustained and angered attacks on Republicans, who he characterized as old, white, racist, and “losers.” In a 15 min. video secretly captured by USC student Tyler Talgo, political science Professor Darry Sragow also appears to endorse the illegal suppression of Republican votes. “You lose their information on the election in the mail,” he suggested when a student asked him how to keep Republicans from voting. “I mean there is lots of ways to do it [SIC].” A teaching...

Rick Santorum says it would be “suicidal” for the Republican Party to support same-sex marriage. In an interview with The Des Moines Register on Monday, Santorum said that Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) backing same-sex marriage is similar to the Republicans in the 1960s and 1970s who broke with the GOP and supported abortion. “I’m sure you could go back and read stories, oh, you know, ‘The Republican Party’s going to change. This is the future.’ Obviously, that didn’t happen,” Santorum told the Register. “I think you’re going to see the same stories written now, and it’s...

That’s what Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., said in a press call today hosted by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee regarding the president’s new budget proposal.The call, which also featured Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was intended to be a warning to the administration to back away from the budget’s modest entitlement reforms. Grayson argued they could doom the party by undercutting its rhetoric on entitlements: Based upon the budget the Republicans submitted, the [Paul] Ryan budget, it was pretty clear up until this point that the Republicans were the party in favor of cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, and the...

DETROIT, MI - Dr. Benjamin Carson, a potential presidential candidate, has plans to return to his hometown of Detroit. Carson, a world renowned neurosurgeon, is scheduled to speak April 11 for Covenant Community Care's fundraiser, "Courage to Care: Inspiring Tomorrow's Heroes." The event will be held at Detroit's Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, 2080 W. Grand Blvd. Admission, according to a Detroit News event listing, is $50. For more information call (313) 228-0290. Carson recently gave a viral speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. that put him in the national spotlight. Several media outlets have speculation that he...

When Sean Hannity suddenly “evolved” his position on amnesty to accommodate his idol Marco Rubio, I can't say I was surprised. All of Fox News has been in the tank for so long that it was inevitable. I don't see how someone, at his age and given the enormous amount of evidence against illegal immigration, could morph all of that into a 180 degree position. He didn't even pretend to put up a fight for Americans. He folded like a deck of cards. It was painful to watch someone so wimpified by someone he admires. But when Glenn Beck this...

With the usual note that the source is not reliable, the Washington Post reports big money Democratic donors such as Buzzfeed’s Kenneth Lerer have given the Democrats an ultimatum.. Pass gun controls or you get no more money from us On the other hand, if the Dimmos do pass gun control they will almost certainly suffer the consequences in both Congress and at the State level. Which puts Andy Jackson’s Jackass Partei on the horns of the dilemma. Briefly quoting the item linked above: Lerer also said he would be intensifying his contributions to Democratic Senate candidates in the next...