Free Republic

From Tom Cotton to Ted Cruz, many of the biggest new names in the GOP are graduates of Harvard -- the school the right loves to hate. Mocking the arrogance of “liberals from Harvard” is a foolproof applause line for any Republican looking to rev up a conservative audience. But when the 114th Congress gavels into session in January, GOP speechwriters are going to need some new material. That’s because many of fastest rising stars in the Republican Party, including Senators-elect Tom Cotton (Ark.), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Dan Sullivan (Ak.) and Rep.-elect Elise Stefanik, all graduated from Harvard. Along with...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is on a roll. First, his team insists Republicans can win the presidency without independent voters (we really must be failing to teach math in this country), and now he says he is an innovative start-up: On Fox News’s Special Report on Tuesday, host Bret Baier asked the senator how he’s handling the criticism. “You know, in some level, I’ll agree with what they said,” Cruz said. “I am not trying to play the rules of Washington. Because I think Washington’s broken — I think it’s profoundly broken — and I think the only answer is...

Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she's proud to have been part of an administration that "banned illegal renditions and brutal interrogations" and said the U.S. should never be involved in torture anywhere in the world. [Snip] She declared, "yes, black lives matter," a mantra of demonstrators around the country who have been protesting recent grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers involved in the deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York. She wondered what Kennedy would say about "the thousands of Americans marching in our streets demanding justice for all," and "the mothers...

In his first interview since he announced Tuesday that he was actively exploring the possibility of running for president, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said he thought he could persuade the Republican base to support his position on immigration. Bush has advocated for Republicans to soften their tone on immigration, and has repeatedly called on Congress to address the issue with comprehensive legislation. “A candidate gets to persuade,” Bush said to Miami’s NBC 6. “I think there’s a compelling case that if we want to be young and dynamic again, we have to make legal immigration easier than illegal immigration,...

Martha McSally (R) has been officially declared the winner in Arizona's second congressional district by a razor-thin 167-vote margin over incumbent Rep. Ron Barber (D). This was the final race of the 2014 election that was yet to be decided, as Arizona law mandates a recount if an election is decided by fewer than 200 votes.Member-elect McSally released the following statement thanking everyone who worked on her campaign and the people of southern Arizona: "We're grateful to everyone who devoted their time and resources, especially during the extended vote and recount processes, to get us over the finish line," said...

Better him than somebody who still has a meaningful political career. Since John F Kennedy, Presidential foreign policy towards Cuba can be summed up in one sentence: Let my successor be the one who has to be the guy that let Fidel Castro win. Well, guess what: Barack Obama volunteered to be the poor, stupid sad sack that has to eat the pavement on that. CNBC reports: “The U.S. is starting talks with Cuba to normalize full diplomatic relations and open an embassy, according to U.S. officials. The expanded relationship would also open imports of Cuban cigars somewhat, according to...

It is already setting in as received wisdom among liberals both within the Republican party and without that Ted Cruz will be made to shoulder the blame for the nominations the Democrats rammed through the Senate this week. A good example of that comes from the arbiter of objective fairness to conservative Republicans, the New York Times: snip Nevertheless, it’s at least possible to believe that not withstanding Reid’s promises, the Republicans might have been able to run out the clock on the year. Fine, I was willing to suspend judgment on that point, until now. It turns out, the...

“This will be the last vote of this Congress,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced shortly before 9:30 p.m. The Senate’s end-of-session mechanics kicked into high gear Tuesday, with the chamber confirming a slew of President Barack Obama’s judicial and executive nominations and clearing a one-year retroactive extension of lapsed tax breaks that will resolve the issue for just weeks. Reid, who will become the minority leader in the 114th Congress, told reporters he thinks the Democrats could have seen more accomplished in the lame-duck session. “There’s a lot more we could and should have done,” Reid said, adding,...

We have some bad news for American conservatives: The leaders of our party, the once Grand Old Party, are trying to figure out a way to win elections without us, and if or when they do, they will abandon us like yesterday’s trash. If you have any question about this, you need not look any further than this National Journal story from yesterday, reporting that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has “announced” on his Facebook page that he is “actively exploring” a presidential bid in 2016. Spoiler alert: Jeb Bush is not your dad’s conservative. We’re not sure if “actively...

For a member of Congress to accuse his party leaders of lying to him, and for their aides to return the favor, is about as rare as the drama that surrounded last week’s procedural vote — a vote that led to the passage of the $1.1 trillion spending bill. That’s the situation Representative Marlin Stutzman (R., Ind.) found himself in last week after he lent his support to the spending package at a moment when it seemed unlikely to ever receive a final vote. Stutzman initially voted no on what is known as “the rule” — the procedural step that...

Having learned nothing from its in-the-tank-for-Democrats Hillary Clinton cover debacle, People Magazine is helping out President and Mrs. Obama in their efforts to play the racial victimization card with an interview bemoaning racial profiling, accompanied by a photo that shows a lot of work on making them look like an appealing couple.

Entrepreneur and television personality Donald Trump said he is “very strongly” considering a run for president, arguing the country is in “serious trouble.”Trump also criticized the Senate Select Intelligence Committee for spending $40 million on the interrogation report [2] released last week.“I am considering it very strongly. A lot of people think that I have fun with it, that I’m playing games, that I enjoy the process – and I do enjoy the process to a certain extent – but the country is in serious, serious trouble. We just, as you know, we just broke $18 trillion in debt, largely...

Six months after President Obama's 2008 landslide victory swept Democrats into power across the country, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, and Eric Cantor sat down at a suburban Washington pizzeria to talk policy. They spent that May weekend arguing that the GOP's best path back into power was to improve the party's battered image by advocating reforms for education, immigration, and the economy. Cantor saw the session as a rebranding exercise, offering mostly platitudes about having a conversation with the American people. Romney used the event as early preparation for his second presidential campaign, mostly sticking to talking points. But Jeb...

This is more than just another of those moments that warily conservatives point to when President Barack Obama or his defenders insist that no administration has operated stricter border controls or pursued more deportations of illegal immigrants. This is criminal. According to a damning report in The New York Times, the White House recently overturned a ban on allowing a wealthy Ecuadorean woman from entering the United States after her family donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats.“The woman, Estefanía Isaías, had been barred from coming to the United States after being caught fraudulently obtaining visas for her...

Back in 2005, Peggy Noonan wrote about the increasingly public friendship between George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton: What bothers me about the fervid friendship of the Bushes and Mr. Clinton — and the media celebration of it — is the faint whiff of superiority, a sense they radiate that all those slightly icky little people running around wailing about issues — tax reform, the relation of the individual to the state, the necessary character of a president — and working the precincts are somehow . . . a little below them. There is an air of condescension...

On Tuesday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he will “actively explore” a bid for the White House. While Bush has not yet formed a presidential exploratory committee, he’s “running” for president by any practical definition of the term. If he proves to perform poorly in the “invisible primary,” failing to gather support among donors and influential Republicans, he could withdraw later on, before the first votes are cast in Iowa. What might those influential Republicans think of Bush? He has sometimes been critical of his fellow Republicans, having questioned the GOP’s partisanship and lack of tolerance for dissenting...

RUSH: I just got a note. "Hey, you know, this is a good thing that you're talking about here, the loss of honest media, targeting anything conservative. Do you do you take any hope in people seeing what you're talking about more and more?" Yeah, I do. Look at the last two midterm elections. I think the American people see clearly what's happening here and they don't like it. I think the American people are totally -- those voting, anyway -- are very aware of all of this. And they're voting to stop all of this stuff. All of this...

The new Republican-controlled Senate's first act in January will be approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday. McConnell told reporters that the bill would be based on a measure that failed in the Senate last month that was co-sponsored by North Dakota Republican John Hoeven and Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu. "It'll be open for amendment," McConnell said. "I will hope that senators on both sides will offer energy-related amendments but there'll be no effort to try to micromanage the amendment process." Landrieu pushed for a Keystone vote in November in a last-ditch effort to...

Well that didn’t take long. The election is over and the House Republicans have deposed John Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker. Meet Speaker Barack Obama. "The Republicans responded to Speaker Obama’s requests. Violating quickly, briskly and exactly every last word of their campaign promises to defund Obamacare and to fight amnesty. The fix was in.” Speaker Obama and his loyal number two, Joe Biden, spent last week rounding up the votes to get their Republican colleagues in the House to fund Obamacare and amnesty plus all manner of spending programs. The Republicans responded to Speaker Obama’s requests. Violating quickly, briskly and...

Retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness has launched Gator PAC, a political action committee which the group says “will work to inspire and recruit conservative activists and citizen leaders who are committed to accountability in government, constitutional principles, certainty and prosperity.” "Running for office was never about me, and it never will be - it's about us, our country and becoming an active voice for conservative solutions," Maness said in the release about the launch of the PAC, provided to Breitbart News ahead of its public release. "The reality is Washington D.C. is a swamp, career politicians are the Gators...