Free Republic

House Republicans Weigh Coup Against Boehner After Series Of Political Defeats Retreat in Homeland Security shutdown showdown latest embarrassment for GOP leaders Rank-and-file Republicans are openly contemplating a coup against House Speaker John A. Boehner and his top lieutenants after a series of self-inflicted legislative fumbles and political defeats in the first weeks of the congressional session. Rank-and-file Republicans are openly contemplating a coup against House Speaker John A. Boehner and his top lieutenants after a series of self-inflicted legislative fumbles and political defeats in the first weeks of the congressional session. This week’s retreat from the standoff over Homeland...

Ah! The nudge to remove Hillary Clinton from the stage. Some get it. Some don't. Among those who don't get it is Alex Wagner who lacks the subtlety to see that the exit of Hillary could very probably mean the entrance of the "progressive" heroine, Elizabeth Warren. Lawrence O'Donnell gets it which is probably why he was very critical of Hillary's email situation. The subtext in this video seems to be Lawrence O'Donnell trying to ease Hillary from the scene as Alex continues to guzzle the Clinton Kool-Aide without really thinking ahead. First we shall see Alex perform her Clinton...

Fox News’s Catherine Herridge reports (via Fox’s Greta Van Susteren) that, in an internal 2011 State Department cable, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton directed employees not to use personal email accounts for official business due to security concerns.

He’s one of the left’s biggest bogeymen. Now he’s teaming up with George Soros.It was something of a surreal moment. Charles de Ganahl Koch, the nerdy multibillionaire from Wichita who has become known as the Rasputin of the American Right, was trying to explain to me why he was getting into bed—politically speaking—with people like George Soros, his progressive archrival in the big-money-and-politics set, and Cory Booker, the liberal black senator and former mayor of beleaguered (and very Democratic) Newark, New Jersey. The vast apparatus of foundations, advocacy groups, corporations and think tanks that Koch oversees and supports—what his critics...

Though Congress this week just barely funded the Department of Homeland Security because of a continuing row over immigration reform, a big business group here hasn't given up the cause. In fact, it's scheduled an event next week with some very big-name politicians in hopes of rallying the troops. The March 9 rally, formally being called a roundtable discussion, is being put together by the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, headed by Exelon Chairman Emeritus John Rowe. Among those whose offices say they will attend are Gov. Bruce Rauner and Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. Among the others the organizers say have...

Sounds pretty interesting so far. Guests seem to think it's a big deal. John asks whether this a diversion for a bigger story. He must read FR, lol!Will post direct link to the podcast when available, usually within an hour or so after the broadcast.

VIENNA, March 5 (KUNA) --- Israel must be made to join the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT) and its nuclear facilities must be subjected to international inspection said the Arab Group in Vienna on Thursday. ...

Is the State Dept’s New Muslim Run Office Promoting Anti-Semitism?Posted By Daniel Greenfield On March 4, 2015 @ 11:02 am In The Point | 14 Comments The Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, best known for its Think Again Turn Away Twitter account, has a new boss,  Rashad Hussein. Hussain spoke at a conference sponsored by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, which was listed in an internal Muslim Brotherhood document as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends,” and the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding of Georgetown University, which receives Saudi funding and is directed by...

(Reuters) - A BNSF Railway [BNISF.UL] train loaded with crude oil derailed on Thursday afternoon in a rural area south of Galena, Illinois, with two of the tank cars catching fire, according to local officials and the company. The incident marks the latest in a series of derailments involving trains hauling crude oil, a trend that has put a heightened focus on rail safety.

Senate Democrats are pressuring Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring the attorney general nomination of Loretta Lynch to the floor, with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) telling reporters on a conference call that a “hard right Republican temper tantrum on immigration” was keeping her from assuming Eric Holder’s job. Lynch does have the support of some Republicans. Three GOPs including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) backed Lynch during last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote. “It’s time to turn the page on Eric Holder’s tenure as Attorney General. We need a fresh start in the position, and this is an opportunity for...

During a broadcast, a caller pretended to be a passenger on the NY plane that skidded off the runway. Listen as "journalist" Andrea Mitchell hears curse words in response to her question, and then follows up with another serious question - demonstrating that she isn't interested, of even aware of the responses. http://youtu.be/PBlPhXXEn5Q

Military pressure may be needed to oust Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. SNIP--- "Ultimately a combination of diplomacy and pressure will be needed to bring about a political transition. Military pressure particularly may be necessary given President Assad's reluctance to negotiate seriously."

U.S. Rep. Candice Miller (R-Harrison Township) announced Thursday that she will not seek re-election in 2016. "I freely pass the baton to whomever my community chooses to serve as their next voice in the US House of Representatives," Miller said in a statement. "I pledge to support their choice to the very best of my ability, as I pledge to finish my term with a commitment to fulfill my duties and responsibilities to the best of my ability, as I swore in my oath of office."

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group began bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq on Thursday, the government said, in the jihadists' latest attack on the country's historical heritage. ISIS "assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles," the tourism and antiquities ministry said on an official Facebook page. An Iraqi antiquities official confirmed the news, saying the destruction began after noon prayers on Thursday and that trucks that may have been used to haul away artefacts had also been spotted at the site. "Until now, we do not know to...

JONATHAN TURLEY, GWU LAW PROFESSOR: The idea that a cabinet member would create her own system is pretty extraordinary and it's also pretty dangerous. This is the type of thing that sends most security officers into orbit... this certainly runs against the grain of the federal law. It's much more difficult to comply with those laws when you're creating your own system and allowing your own people to manage it. (video at link)

Sen. Ted Cruz is now the leader of a reactionary faction that includes some of the dimmest bulbs in Congress. (AP Photo/) In advance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Tuesday, the New York Times reported on a small irritant exacerbating already tense U.S.-Israeli relations. It seems President Barack Obama’s former campaign operative, Jeremy Bird, is currently advising a group in Israel that seeks to defeat Netanyahu in national elections later this month.The story is mostly inconsequential. American political consultants have worked for one side or another in foreign countries for years. Political skills and strategies...

To someone who has watched many "scandals" surrounding Hillary Rodham Clinton evaporate into the Washington mist -- even when Pulitzer Prize-winning pundits predicted that she would end up in prison! -- the current furor over her emails hardly seems earthshaking. It isn't unreasonable to require public officials to conduct all public business on government email accounts, but there was no such ironclad rule when Clinton became secretary of state. In hindsight, it might have been better for her and the public if she had done so. Yet many prominent people, both in and out of government, have preferred private email,...

“Rubio is popular, but in his home state he is taking a back seat to Bush vs. Walker,” Kaplan said. “Even among Hispanics, Bush takes 24 percent, Walker 23 percent and Rubio, a Cuban-American, comes in third with 11 percent -- roughly his same level of support across the state’s Republicans in an open field.” A new poll shows Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is running in a dead heat with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the Sunshine State as the 2016 presidential race looms. Gravis Marketing released its poll of Florida Republicans this week, which finds Bush ahead with...

By Fox News. Potential 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson apologized Wednesday for saying homosexuality was a lifestyle choice.“I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation,” Carson said on his Facebook page late Wednesday afternoon. “I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize unreservedly to all that were offended.” Carson, a neurosurgeon, was attempting to clarify comments he made earlier in the day to Chris Cuomo on CNN’s “New Day” show. “A lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and...

Washington (CNN)Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson apologized for commenting Wednesday that prisoners' changes after they leave jail proves being gay is a choice, but said that the science is still murky on the issue. In a statement, Carson said he "realized that my choice of language does not reflect fully my heart on gay issues." "I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation. I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize unreservedly to all that were offended," he added. 

"......Bush, the son and brother of two former GOP presidents and a strong favorite of businesspeople and other establishment Republicans, was both cheered and booed during his speech at CPAC. He used that platform to defend his more controversial stands on immigration reform and on the Common Core educational standards. While Walker finished well ahead of Bush in CPAC’s presidential straw poll, 21 percent to 8 percent, Bush is scoring big where it counts a lot more – raising campaign funds in the early going. Although he has yet to formally announce a candidacy, Bush is on target to raise...

A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that about two-thirds of Americans believe men are generally paid more than women, a finding that suggests that Democrat Hillary Clinton's message on pay inequality could resonate broadly with Americans should she run for president in 2016. Fifty-one percent of respondents said the U.S. government should be doing more to encourage equal pay, the online poll of 2,348 adults from Feb. 27 to March 3 showed. Broken down by political party, 67 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans said the federal government should be playing a more active role, according to the poll. The...

During an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, head of the Environmental Protection Agency Gina McCarthy defended the EPA's request for an $8.6 billion discretionary budget (a 6 percent increase) for fiscal year 2016, arguing that climate change is a "real" threat and “a science fact,” “not a religion” or "belief system." “Climate change is real. It is happening. It is a threat," McCarthy said. "Climate change is not a religion. It is not a belief system. It’s a science fact.” When questioned by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) regarding the EPA’s predictions on global warming, however, McCarthy was unable to...

Washington (CNN)The Democratic Party's anybody-but-Hillary wing is fired up. A string of damaging stories about Hillary Clinton's activities as Secretary of State -- including the new controversy surrounding her email habits -- are giving fresh ammo to Clinton skeptics who have grown resigned lately to the idea of a Democratic coronation instead of a genuine, competitive primary. Now, those Democrats clamoring for a Clinton alternative are once again speaking up about the need for a primary that will, at the very least, serve as a vetting process and prepare Clinton for the general election..... [SNIP] ....While many Democrats are still...

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf recieves a grilling on Hillary Clinton's use of a private email account to communicate during her tenure at the State Department. Asked if the State Department has concluded there was no classified information included in her emails, Harf says "I don't think it's a really pertinent question." (video also at link)

Hillary Clinton reportedly will not be taking any questions at an event honoring excellence in journalism. Organizers of the March 23 Toner Prize Celebration, which is named after the late New York Times reporter Robin Toner, told the Center for Public Integrity the event would be open to reporters. However, the keynote speaker, Clinton, does not plan to take their inquiries. Business Insider reached out to Clinton's office to confirm the report. A Clinton spokesman referred the question back to the event's organizers. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for president in 2016, is embroiled in a controversy surrounding her exclusive use...

Sheryl McDonald, a retiree, voted for both Presidents Bush. “But I’m finding out they did some things we got stuck with,” she said. “I do not want to see Jeb Bush run,” she added. “He turns me off.” Scarcely anyone at a meeting of the Green County Republican Party here in central Iowa recently had anything kind to say about Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor. They objected to his moderate stances on immigration and education standards. But they also complained matter-of-factly about fatigue with his family — especially after the presidency of George W. Bush, whom they blamed for...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ho_pDH2fU To the tune of WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE, here is a Clinton history lesson. Much more has occurred since 2008 when this was written.

In 2013, The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza posed a question: "If not Hillary Clinton in 2016, then who?" That's a question that Democrats may have to begrudgingly ask themselves in the coming weeks, as a New York Times story about Clinton's email use during her time as secretary of state—compounded with earlier reporting on the Clinton Foundation—roil Clintonland. [Snip] But Democrats with wandering eyes may find themselves in a very tough spot: The window for other Democrats to jump into the race is quickly closing.

March 5, 2015 A cornered Clinton is a craven Clinton, which is why we should view Hillary Rodham Clinton's latest public relations trick with practiced skepticism. "I want the public to see my email," she tweeted Wednesday night. "I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible."

Hillary Clinton's secret email account was HDR22@clintonemail.com.  HDR stands for the initials of her maiden name, Hillary Diane Rodham.  22 is a clever by half reference to Title 22 of the US Code which covers diplomatic law.  The official title of section 22 is Foreign Relations and Intercourse. (see below for link to Title 22)  https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22 It's a lawyer joke/reference to the Code that covers foreign relations by a lawyer about to become Secretary of State.  Such an account is corrupt and illegal for a Secretary of State.  It is Nixonian.  It was meant to maintain control over information and...

Kathleen Matthews, Marriott International’s executive vice president and chief global communications and public affairs officer, and wife of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, is planning to run for the seat of Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). Van Hollen announced Wednesday that he’ll seek the seat being vacated by Sen. Barbara Mikulski. ... Matthews, who has long talked about running for office, advocated Marriott’s move toward more progressive policies, including sustainability and LGBT friendliness. ... She’s on the boards of Catholic Charities Foundation, Ford’s Theatre and

As soon as a conservative Republican emerges as a serious presidential contender, liberals in the media suddenly yank out the microscopes they’ve been keeping away from Barack Obama since 2007. They could care less what Obama did in college, how he got into college, who paid for his college, who wrote his letters of recommendation, what his grades were, and on and on—but we already know everything about Scott Walker and college. Obama’s media protectors could give a rip that the current president once had a mentor who was a literal card-carrying member of the Communist Party under Stalin. But...

Last April House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) released a report implicating Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in colluding with the IRS and Lois Lerner against the nonpartisan voters rights group “True the Vote.” Catherine Engelbrecht, the founder of “True the Vote,” testified before Congress in February. She was targeted by FBI, IRS, ATF, and OSHA after she filed for tax exempt status for her voters rights group. Engelbrecht said this during her testimony before Congress and Cummings, “Frankly, to sit before my accuser and be silent in the face of what he did was unconscionable.” ... This week the...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday offered the latest in a series of Republican ObamaCare alternatives ahead of a Supreme Court ruling that could gut the law. Cruz's bill, called the Health Care Choices Act, would allow people to buy health insurance across state lines, long a Republican health policy goal. It would also repeal Title I of ObamaCare, which would undo much of the law, including the mandate to buy insurance, the insurance marketplaces and subsidies to help people afford coverage.Republicans are looking to show that they have a plan ready if the court strikes down subsidies for around 7.5...

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican and a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, is out with a new book this summer titled “A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Miracle of America.�HarperCollins Publishers told The Associated Press a June 30 release date is set for the book; other potential GOP contenders in 2016 who have published books recently include Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.“Men and women are frustrated with career politicians in both parties who are not listening to them,� Mr. Cruz told the AP, saying the themes of a possible White House candidacy are “certainly...

Wayne LaPierre has an extremely important job, as head of the NRA. He is de facto the No. 1 spokesman for gun rights in the country. And gun rights are widely misunderstood. They have to be defended, or explained. The Second Amendment has to be explained. There are lots of people irreconcilably hostile to gun rights, that’s true. But plenty of people, believe me, are confused, or simply ignorant. They are reachable. Pro-gunners should not write them off. Here at CPAC, when LaPierre speaks of gun rights, he is on very solid ground. He knows the subject, definitely. (He’d better!)...

Pro-lifers are concerned about the commitment of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, to ending abortion. In a "Fox News Sunday" interview, Walker said he was pro-life but sounded dipassionate about ending abortion if he were elected president. During his reelection campaign, host Chris Wallace noted, Walker ran an ad calling abortion an "agonizing choice" and said he supported legislation that "leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor." "Do you believe," Wallace asked, "that a woman has a right to end a pregnancy at any point during those nine months?" Walker answered that he's...

Hillary Clinton probably will remain the inevitable Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, even if only because the Democratic Party is woefully short on viable alternative presidential candidates. A variety of Democratic opinion makers have begun to engage in the unthinkable process of envisioning what a post-Clinton 2016 field might look like if the former secretary of stateÂ’s campaign capsizes under the weight of her own carelessness and flagrant disregard for the law. The latest to join the chorus of speculators is National JournalÂ’s Emma Roller who perhaps advertently highlighted the fact that the sitting Vice President of the United States...

stu•pe•fy (v.) – to put into a state of little or no sensibility; benumb the faculties of; put into a stupor; also, to overwhelm with amazement; astound; astonish. In searching for one word to describe the state of affairs in America at the present time, I kept coming back to the word "stupefying." For my purposes here, this is an incredibly useful word for illustrating what Barack Obama, and the left-wing in general, have done to our country. One half of the country is stupefied in the sense of the first definition – they are in a state of little...

WASHINGTON - Whitewater prosecutors have obtained from the attic of the late Vincent Foster's house a second set of Hillary Rodham Clinton's law-firm billing records, lawyers said today. The new records have fewer handwritten notations and fewer pages, but generally contain the same information as the set belatedly found in the White House in 1996. Nonetheless, the documents have become a focal point of recent grand-jury questioning in Arkansas as prosecutors press to wrap up their investigation of the first lady's legal work for a failed savings and loan owned by her Whitewater business partner. "You're sitting in the grand...

WASHINGTON, June 4— Republicans on the special Senate Whitewater committee released a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation today showing that the fingerprints of the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were found on records discovered in the White House family quarters two years after they were first sought by investigators. The F.B.I. report also found that the documents, copies of billing records from Mrs. Clinton's work as a lawyer in Arkansas, revealed fingerprints of five others. They were Vincent W. Foster Jr., the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide in July 1993; a personal assistant to the Clintons...

It’s doubtful that many voters care as much about Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails as reporters do. They’re probably not too wound up over the foreign contributions flowing into her family foundation, either. Cumulatively, though, these latest headlines about Clinton, along with other stories sure to come, reinforce her vulnerabilities as a candidate. Democratic primary voters are about to be reminded on a semiweekly basis of what left a lot of them so ambivalent about Hillary in 2008 — namely, the perception that the Clintons are like an unregulated industry within the party, impervious to scrutiny and contemptuous of anyone...

The House Freedom Caucus doesn’t have a Web site. It’s not completely clear exactly who belongs to the group. But in the just-completed fight over Homeland Security funding, it was hard to miss the influence of the insurgent conservative bloc as it clashed with GOP leadership. The small group of far-right renegades has emerged as the latest embodiment of the internal GOP resistance to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio); as a general rule, they are unpredictable, opaque and completely unwilling to back down from any fight against President Obama and his agenda. As the unified Republican majority looks to...

Politics and Policy Senator Reid Scores Early Victory as Opposition Leader But minority leader warns fellow Democrats against taking victory laps after homeland security win By Siobhan Hughes and Michael R. Crittenden WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats think they have had a good couple of weeks, including a win in a battle over immigration and homeland security funding, but their leader is warning members of his caucus against taking any victory laps. “We cannot be gloating,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said he told his caucus at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday. “We have a lot of things we have to...

Sen. Ted Cruz's book, "A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Miracle of America," is coming out this summer. HarperCollins Publishers told The Associated Press on Thursday that it has set a June 30 release date for the book, for which Cruz reached a reported seven-figure deal last year. Cruz, a first-term Texas Republican considering a presidential run in 2016, said in a recent telephone interview that in a time of "extraordinary challenges" he wants to tell his story and share his message of free markets and constitutional liberties. "Men and women are frustrated with career politicians in both parties who...

The Prince George’s County branch of the NAACP is threatening to sue the local school district over a plan to start two schools for an influx of immigrants in recent years. “Segregation was eliminated back in 1954. When you have two schools that are designed to deal with one group based around basically language as the criteria for the schools, than that’s a form of discrimination,” Bob Ross, president of the local NAACP, told WAMU.org. “It’s not about force, it’s not about choice, it’s about the law,” he said. Ross is upset because a plan underway in Prince George’s County...

Chelsea Clinton also had an account on the homemade website domain that Hillary Clinton used exclusively for emails during her time as secretary of state, The New York Times reports. The domain name had a server linked to the family’s Chappaqua, New York, residence. But her real name is absent from the email address.

It was disconcerting to watch Congress cheer wildly as a foreign leader, the prime minister of one of America's closest allies, trashed an American president's foreign policy. It was equally strange that the speaker of our House of Representatives interjected the United States Congress into an Israeli political campaign. It fell to Isaac Herzog, Benjamin Netanyahu's leading opponent in Israel's March 17 election, to make the essential point: that Tuesday's speech was "a very harsh wound to Israel-U.S. relations" and "will only widen the rift with Israel's greatest ally and strategic partner." The rapturous greeting Congress bequeathed on Netanyahu for...

Presidential candidates delay officially entering the race so they can raise money for PACs, avoid the media frenzy associated with being a declared candidate and get organized. The goal is to run below the radar, raise money and get strategically organized. This approach has not worked for the Democratic heir apparent Hillary Clinton. Yes, she is raising money; yes, she is organizing; but her name is not staying out of the fray. Two weeks ago the focus was on the Clinton Foundation, and donations made by foreign nationals and foreign governments to the foundation. "Foreign governments gave millions to foundation...