Free Republic

Speaker Newt Gingrich was fond of saying “The Democrats are our adversaries. The Senate is our enemy.” The Senate has long been a frustration to the impatient warriors for change. Its rules and culture are intentionally designed to be slow and deliberative, in contrast to the quick-moving partisan House. Today, Republicans have control over all the levers of power. The White House, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the state legislatures, and the governors -- they are all dominated by Republicans. The conservative grassroots is rightfully expecting big things after years of promises. And big things are happening. The...

For the first time in at least two years, a major pollster has Democrats trailing in the midterms — at least for a day. When last we looked at the Reuters tracking poll, Democrats’ lead in the generic congressional ballot question had dwindled down to a single point. Yesterday, their five-day rolling average finally crossed the red Rubicon, as this graphic from polling editor Chris Kahn demonstrates, following up with another look at the same data today: Not just “as likely,” but slightly more likely, 38.1% to 36.7%. According to RealClearPolitics aggregation, it would be the first time that any...

Rogers words are profound.

A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure Mr. Cohen to work with the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Under the agreement, the partner, Evgeny A. Freidman, a Russian immigrant who is known as the Taxi King, will avoid jail time, and will assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations, according to a person briefed on the matter.

With the 2018 midterms months away and the 2020 presidential election cycle approaching rapidly, Democrats are considering how to improve their poor showings in 2014 and 2016. The party has been debating - sometimes heatedly - how to do this. Which voters should they target? How should Democrats target them? But here’s what’s clear: White voters have been fleeing the Democratic Party, and that’s a big reason Democrats are looking to rebound from back-to-back losses. Whites have slowly but consistently moved away from the Democratic Party. These recent losses are on top of Democrats’ losses among Southern whites during the...

“If we had a real attorney general,” Stone mused, as he discussed the explosive revelation that the FBI hired CIA-linked Cambridge professor Stefan Halper to surveil several members of the Trump campaign with Breitbart News Deputy Political Editor Amanda House. Stone then referred to Sessions as a “comatose Keebler Elf” and “a man who must be removed and sent back Alabama.” “He’s either compromised or doddering,” Stone told House. “I believe he’s compromised. I believe he discussed with Carter Page removing sanctions on the Russians and that is what is being held over his head.”

The Republicans have taken a six-point lead over Democrats on the generic ballot in a new tracking poll from Reuters newswire service. For the week ending May 20, Republicans are at 40.7 percent while Democrats have slipped down to 34.5 percent. The survey was of 1,139 respondents and is the first time in the 2018 cycle, dating back to the end of May last year, that Republicans have taken a lead ahead of Democrats in the Reuters tracking poll.

A Medieval Studies professor called the National Rifle Association a “terrorist organization” hours after the Santa Fe, Texas school shooting that killed 10 people Friday. “The NRA is a terrorist organization,” tweeted Matthew Gabriele, a tenured professor at Virginia Tech University. Tracy Vosburgh, a Virginia Tech spokesperson, told Fox News the anti-NRA tweet doesn’t represent the university. “Mr. Gabriele’s views are his and his alone,” Vosburgh said. “Any comment on his statement should come from him.” Gabriele declined to comment when reached, but he described himself in a tweetstorm as “a white dude with tenure who doesn’t give a s***”...

There’s a new wrinkle in the aftermath of the shooting at Santa Fe High School on Friday. The family of the shooter, the boy who killed 10 people, are speaking out. They’re claiming that their son, the one who shot his classmates and teachers, should be seen as a victim. They claim the boy was bullied and “mistreated” by his classmates. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, is being held on capital murder charges. Pagourtzis has admitted to killing 8 students and two teachers. The shotgun and .38 revolver he brought to campus both belonged to his father. That man, Antonios Pagourtzis, is...

WASHINGTON - The share of Americans who report they are doing “at least okay” financially rose in President Donald Trump’s first year in office, according to Federal Reserve data published on Tuesday. The data was in line with other readings detailing America’s long recovery from the 2007-09 recession, including years of mostly steady job growth and a more recent uptick in wages. The U.S. central bank said 74 percent of U.S. adults said their finances were at least okay in 2017, four percentage points higher than in 2016. Improvement was strongest in lower income households.

A sinkhole has developed on the White House’s North Lawn, reporters observed Tuesday. Voice of America’s Steve Herman and Breitbart’s Charlie Spiering shared photos on Twitter of the sinkhole, which is located just outside the entrance to the briefing room.

Stop waiting for the constitutional crisis that President Trump is sure to provoke. It’s here. On Sunday, via Twitter, Trump demanded that the Justice Department concoct a transparently political investigation, with the aim of smearing veteran professionals at Justice and the FBI and also throwing mud at the previous administration. Trump’s only rational goal is casting doubt on the probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which appears to be closing in. Trump’s power play is a gross misuse of his presidential authority and a dangerous departure from long-standing norms. Strongmen such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin use their justice...

America loses its greatest scholar of Russia and communism. The most respected academic authority on the Russian Revolution, 20thcentury communism, and the Cold War has died. He was Richard Pipes, longtime professor of Russian history at Harvard, and a remarkable man. Where to start with an adequate tribute to Professor Pipes? I’ll start with some biographical observations and then finish with personal reflections. Richard Pipes was born in Poland on July 11, 1923. As a 16-year-old Jew at the time of Hitler’s invasion, Pipes mercifully escaped, thanks to a clever and shrewd father. He credited not only his father but...

Rep. Al Green (D-TX) told C-SPAN that a Republican Member of Congress told him that “he was strongly considering,” impeaching President Trump during an interview on Tuesday. C-SPAN’s Pedro Echevarria asked Green what...

Before resigning to run for Congress, the mayor of America’s fifth-largest city gave a political open-borders ally millions of taxpayer dollars to complete a job in an area it suspiciously has zero experience in. Under the shady deal, the radical La Raza group Promise Arizona (PAZ) will receive $2.4 million from the city of Phoenix to conduct “Business Assistance” during construction of a light rail extension. Some Phoenix City Hall insiders believe it’s a payoff by the outgoing mayor, Greg Stanton, to support his upcoming congressional run. Stanton, who will resign on May 29 , and PAZ Director Petra Falcon...

Marvin Ellison's exit as CEO of J.C. Penney means the struggling department store chain can't be turned around, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday. Loading... J.C. Penney shares plunged Tuesday after Lowe's announced it is naming Ellison president and CEO, effective July 2. J.C. Penney, which has struggled to compete within the quickly changing retail landscape, told CNBC that it was informed by Ellison a couple days ago of the move. "If there was any chance [of a turnaround], I think you would stay," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." "Because it would obviously be such a kick in the...

Why on Earth would Yale invite Hillary Clinton, the whiniest woman on the planet to speak at its commencement? Did the administrators not have advance knowledge of her psychosis? Her address to Yale grads was all about her: her loss, her anger at those who did not vote for her. She is, without a doubt, the sorest of sore losers.

POLL DU JOUR • 48 percent of Americans say it is “very likely” they will vote in the 2018 midterm elections; 60 percent of Republicans, 43 percent of independents and 54 percent of Democrats agree. • 18 percent overall say it is “somewhat likely” they will vote; 19 percent of Republicans, 17 percent of independents and 20 percent of Democrats agree. • 15 percent overall say it is “not very likely” they will vote; 14 percent of Republicans, 17 percent of independents and 14 percent of Democrats agree. • 19 percent overall say it is “not at all likely” they...

Newly-examined emails among high-ranking U.S. intel officials at the time—including then-Director James Comey and his chief of staff James Rybicki—reference a “sensitive matter team.” Based on the context of the emails, the “sensitive matter” appears to be the Trump-Russia narrative, and political opposition research funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The research— known as the “Steele dossier”— was peddled to the press and secretly used, in part, to justify controversial FBI wiretaps against at least one Trump associate. The emails were first obtained by the Justice Department Inspector General and recently turned over to the...

s Trump won primary after primary in 2016, a rattled John Brennan started claiming to colleagues at the CIA that Estonia’s intelligence agency had alerted him to an intercepted phone call suggesting Putin was pouring money into the Trump campaign. The tip was bogus, but Brennan bit on it with opportunistic relish. Out of Brennan’s alarmist chatter about the bogus tip came an extraordinary leak to the BBC: that Brennan had used it, along with later half-baked tips from British intelligence, as the justification to form a multi-agency spy operation (given the Orwellian designation of an “inter-agency taskforce”) on the...