Free Republic

Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu is in the middle of a storm. She is beset by well-funded forces on the right who sense the Gulf Coast Democrat's vulnerability in trying to defend a Senate seat in a red state. On the left, she is trying to avoid being pulled down by the undertow of a president whose decline in approval ratings and controversial health care reform law might not play well with her state's conservative sensibilities. She's been buffeted by rough re-election fights before, and in previous successful bids for the state legislature, state treasurer's office and eventually two runoffs...

Eleven hours after opening an Instagram account, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden wrote "Found a friend to join me." He really couldn’t have featured a more prominent guest star. Want to see more scenes from the Veep’s life? Then follow "vp" on Instagram....

VIDEO AT LINK Montana congressional candidate Matt Rosendale swears he doesn’t have a problem with drones. “I actually consider myself to be very supportive of technology,” Rosendale told Yahoo News in an interview on Tuesday. Still, the question had to be asked after Rosendale on Monday released a new campaign ad in which he used a hunting rifle to shoot down a drone. The ad opens with an overhead camera angle, with the drone menacingly hovering over the state senator. “I’m Matt Rosendale and this is how I'd look from a government drone,” the candidate says as he’s framed dead...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: From Katie Pavlich at Town Hall.com: "According to new IRS emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from Judicial Watch, former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner was in contact with the Department of Justice in May 2013 about whether tax exempt groups could be criminally prosecuted for 'lying' about political activity." So Eric Holder and Lois Lerner not only are liars, they're in cahoots. Lois Lerner was asking the Department of Justice to criminally prosecute people like Catherine Engelbrecht. This woman, this Lerner, this is a witch. This is a...

The Arizona House of Representatives has approved a Senate bill allowing ranchers to kill endangered wolves in self-defense. Senate Bill 1211 would allow livestock owners to kill a Mexican gray wolf if one was caught attacking livestock or a person. Wildlife activists say the bill violates the federal Endangered Species Act. But a staff attorney says the bill has been watered down and now meets constitutional requirements.

The Arizona Senate has approved a bill that would allow cities and towns to enter restricted federal land without permission in emergencies. ... Republican bill sponsor Rep. Kelly Townsend of Mesa says she was inspired by the battle between the city of Tombstone and the federal government over access to repair its water supply system in the Coronado National Forest. She says local authorities should have the right to go in where needed without being granted approval first in cases of emergency.

No, Putin isn't re-building the third Reich: Chamberlain isn't a historic villain because he did nothing after Hitler seized neighboring German-speaking territories. He's a historic villain because he did nothing after Hitler blamed Christianity for poisoning Europe with weakness, swore to destroy the Jews, build a master race, set fire to the Reichstag, seized all police powers, built concentration camps and THEN invaded German-speaking lands. No, Putin isn't re-building the Soviet Union: He has implemented a flat, low tax rate, struck the authority of local commissars to impose taxes, decriminalized tax disputes, decentralized agriculture and industry, seen the numbers of...

Donald Trump is showing his cards in the early 2016 sweepstakes – and he's betting on Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. The New York real estate mogul donated $5,000 to the Texas senator's leadership PAC during the first quarter, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. Cruz's PAC, called the Jobs, Growth & Freedom Fund, took in far fewer receipts than the PACs of his potential White House rivals, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rand Paul, R-Ky. It took in only about $23,000 in contributions and then added approximately another $120,000 in transfers from other committees and rebates. Comparatively,...

by John Urban | Top Right News Advocates for illegal aliens were stunned this week as the Florida Supreme Court barred an illegal alien from joining the Florida bar to practice law. The La Raza lobby was especially stunned after the California Supreme Court, just months ago, did the exact opposite, as we noted at the time, admitting all qualified applicants as attorneys, including “an applicant who is not lawfully present in the United States” — illegal aliens. And they were convinced this was a wave that would sweep other states, as in-state tuition has done. Not so fast, said Florida's top...

The outlook for the president’s health care overhaul suddenly appears brighter, and some Democrats are saying it’s time for the party to openly embrace the law that Republicans consider their best campaign weapon. Activists in one Senate race are doing just that. Other Democratic candidates, however, remain wary, unsure that a modest dose of good news will be enough to offset countless TV ads denouncing “Obamacare.” Those worries are well founded, say Republicans who shrug off the developments Democrats tout. […] Republicans already were pushing their luck by vowing to “repeal and replace” the health care law without having a...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks he’s going straight to heaven after working to eliminate smoking, obesity, and his efforts to promote gun control.

The offices of the Atlanta Braves have been flooded with racist letters, emails, and phone calls attacking Hall of Famer Hank Aaron after his interview comparing the way Republicans treat President Barack Obama to the Ku Klux Klan. USA Today writer Bob Nightengale said the "sheer racism" of the attack against Aaron was similar to the racist onslaught that the African-American star faced in 1974 when he broke Babe Ruth's home-run record. Nightengale noted that the new hate mail messages came as baseball was celebrating Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, on Tuesday. One bigoted writer named Edward wrote an email...

April 16, 2014 The IRS Scandal's Smoking Gun? A suspicious email could confirm Lois Lerner's culpability in recent IRS abuses. Peter Roff The so-called “smoking gun” proving the Internal Revenue Service played politics with conservative groups seeking official non-profit, social welfare status over the last several years may finally have been found. In a rash of documents provided under the Freedom of Information Act to Judicial Watch, a non-partisan public interest law group, is an April 2013 email written by David Fish, acting manager of IRS Exempt Organizations Technical Guidance and Quality Assurance and sent to, among others, former IRS...

On April 16th – the same day Michael Bloomberg told NBC's Today show that his gun control push "isn't gun control" – he released a new ad targeting parents who have kids in the home yet own guns. The ad is an emotional appeal aimed at building support for new gun control restrictions on gun owners with kids in the home, specifically focused on having guns in the home locked up. In the ad, a young girl and her brother play hide and seek. The girl hides in her parents' closet and finds a pistol that the parents kept in...

Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "Your World" with Neil Cavuto former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) discussed the IRS targeting his organization when Cavuto asked, "Well, i don't want to be cynical Congressman, do you think any of this might have a thing or two to do with your son possibly running for president? "

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon is touting the endorsement of Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in Shannon's race for the Republican nomination for Oklahoma's open U.S. Senate seat.Shannon campaign consultant Trebor Worthen told The Associated Press Wednesday that Cruz has endorsed Shannon and is set to appear at a rally in Tulsa along with former Alaska Gov. and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.Palin and Lee endorsed Shannon previously.

Ted Cruz waded into a contested open-seat primary in Oklahoma on Wednesday, endorsing former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon over Rep. James Lankford. Though Cruz has shied away from endorsing Republican Senate incumbents locked in contested primaries, the Texas Republican had no qualms backing Shannon, who is increasingly drawing support from the Republican Party’s right flank in his bid to take the seat of retiring Sen. Tom Coburn.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell announced Monday that the state will sue the Obama administration to allow construction of a 10-mile road to give residents of a remote fishing village access to emergency medical flights at an all-weather airport. Residents of King Cove, Alaska, were outraged in December when Interior Secretary Sally Jewell nixed a plan for a land swap that would have allowed the building of an unpaved road between the small town and the airport at Cold Bay. ... Since Ms. Jewell rejected the land swap, which would have given the refuge 43,093 acres of state land and 13,300...

You've seen him on Fox News or read his seasoned opinions in The Wall Street Journal. He's one of the most prominent GOP strategists and a powerful voice for conservatives across the country.

As those of you who follow my hate mail know, I am opposed to running untested candidates against perfectly good incumbent Republican senators this election cycle. It will be a long time before Republicans have as good a year as this to win a Senate majority. Unfortunately, we have idiots doing the idiot thing, pretending to be “tea partiers,” while challenging sitting Republican senators over fairly minor ideological differences.