Free Republic

It is depressing being a member of a vanishing breed but that is what I am. Hopefully they're not dead but hibernating like polar bears especially now that midterm elections are coming up. I refer to moderate Republicans, remember them? They've dropped out, disappeared, like senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Christine Todd Whitman, Colin Powell, John McCain (in his earlier days and probably still secretly) and others who once brought their sane wisdom to the table. But where is the next generation? Now and then there seems to be a voice in the wilderness like Neel Kashkari in California...

Ken Cuccinelli, the newly elected president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, says the GOP is blowing “enormous sums” of money to prop up “dead-weight” Republicans who don’t stand for anything. “The Republican Party is spending it on carrying dead weight like [six-term Mississippi Sen.] Thad Cochran and [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell,” Cuccinelli told Joe Concha, guest host of “The Steve Malzberg Show,” on Wednesday on NewsmaxTV. “Matt Bevin — who Mitch McConnell slaughtered in their primary, beat him soundly — holds better against [Kentucky Secretary of State] Alison Grimes. [Retired Air Force Co.] Rob Maness in Louisiana polls better...

Why does anyone listen to Karl Rove anymore? After his epic meltdown on Election Night 2012, when he insisted in the face of the counting of real votes that his little white board projections still gave Mitt Romney “a path to victory” and after the expenditure of something like $325 million found Rove winning only 9 of the 31 races his American Crossroads Super-PAC played in during the 2012 election cycle. Yet, at the end of last week there was Karl Rove on the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal claiming that Republican Senate campaigns that should be winning...

When one talks Republican policy and politics, from the size and cost of government to the role of some notoriously out-sized GOP enemies such as public sector unions, including in education, there may not be a more critical battle space nationally-speaking, than Wisconsin this year. Democrats have been gunning for incumbent Gov. Scott Walker since he and the Republican-controlled state legislature passed Act 10 — a measure curbing the collective bargaining powers of some public workers — forcing them to contribute more for their health care and pensions, and ending the automatic collection of union dues. It's hard to remember...

When one talks Republican policy and politics, from the size and cost of government to the role of some notoriously out-sized GOP enemies such as public sector unions, including in education, there may not be a more critical battle space nationally-speaking, than Wisconsin this year. Democrats have been gunning for incumbent Gov. Scott Walker since he and the Republican-controlled state legislature passed Act 10 — a measure curbing the collective bargaining powers of some public workers — forcing them to contribute more for their health care and pensions, and ending the automatic collection of union dues. It's hard to remember...

The Florida governor’s race — on pace to be 2014’s most expensive, grueling campaign — is a dead heat with six weeks until Election Day, according to a new poll out Wednesday. Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott and Democrat Charlie Crist are neck-and-neck in the new Quinnipiac University poll. Scott is at 44 percent among likely voters, the survey shows, compared with 42 percent for Crist and 8 percent for Libertarian Adrian Wyllie. Scott has a slight edge over Crist among independents, 44 percent to 37 percent. And the gender gap tilts in his favor: He leads Crist by 8...

It's hard to keep track of all the comings and goings in all the different congressional races happening this fall. For an overview of what the pollsters and forecasters think is most likely to happen, check out Vox's constantly updated forecast tracker. But to understand the dynamics shaping the races this fall, all you really need are these two maps — one for the Senate and one for the House both of which show that the contest is being played out on a field that tilts in the GOP's direction. 1) The Senate map is awful for Democrats One third...

Cochran Attempt to Strike Hosemann's Opinion on 20 Day Deadline Fails Thad Cochran's attorneys failed in their effort to keep the Secretary of State’s statements on Republican Chris McDaniel’s appeal out of the record yesterday. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann has at least twice previously stated to the Clarion-Ledger that there was no deadline for filing a challenge for a statewide primary election. Attorneys for Cochran filed a motion to strike Hosemann's statements from the record in the McDaniel appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court. Judge Hollis McGehee heard arguments on the Motion in Mendenhall on Monday.

With six weeks to go, the fight for control of the Senate is down to five states, four of them currently held by Democrats. Republicans must win only two of those contests to guarantee the 51 seats they need to control the Senate for the last two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. And they need to win only one of the Democratic states if they hold the only GOP seat at serious risk. While things could still change — and national polls continue to show an environment that may produce a substantial GOP wave in the House and Senate —...

House Republicans running scared from voters who oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants will have to deal with immigration reform sooner than later, and might need a new House speaker to lead the way, says a GOP political strategist who ran for Congress this year. Both parties in Congress have mishandled the immigration issue and used it for political purposes, Weston Wamp, a former congressman's son who lost his own bid this summer for a U.S. House seat in Tennessee, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on Newsmax TV Tuesday. But Wamp conceded that immigration is causing more trouble for Republicans than...

For months, several clusters of conservative lawmakers have been secretly huddling inside and outside the Capitol, plotting to oust John Boehner from the Speaker’s office when House Republicans regroup after the November elections. The strategy — for now — seems disorganized and fluid: Find a way to push the Speaker’s race to a second ballot, create turmoil in the conference, portray Boehner as highly vulnerable and offer up an alternative. ADVERTISEMENT The behind-the-scenes effort is taking place as Team Boehner is projecting confidence he will coast to a third term as Speaker, pointing to his unrivaled fundraising prowess and ability...

The politics of fear. Until recently, that seemed so 10 years ago, right after September 11, 2001. That is, until ISIS started beheading Americans. Now, just six weeks before Election Day, security concerns could be a September surprise that shakes up the midterms. Across the country GOP candidates on the ballot in November are using the threat posed by ISIS to dust off an old playbook -- attack Democratic opponents as weak on national security. The sun had barely come up Tuesday after a night of new United States and coalition airstrikes in Syria, when New Hampshire Republican Senate challenger...

The Republican establishment is getting its excuses ready in case its candidates don’t win enough elections this November to regain control of the Senate. At the top of the list is that conservatives didn’t give it enough money to spend. That’s right. Forget the all-out war the Republican establishment has been waging against its most conservative members. Forget everything it’s done to smear Tea Party types who dared to challenge it. Forget all the dirty tricks, such as getting Democrats to tip the balance in the Republican primary in Mississippi. Yep, we’re supposed to forget all of those past abuses...

TOPEKA, Kansas – On Tuesday morning, the Traditional Republicans for Common Sense announced their endorsement of Jean Schodorf for the position of Kansas Secretary of State. The announcement took place in Topeka on the south steps of the Kansas Capitol Building. Traditional Republicans for Common Sense isled by over 70 former Republican elected officials with more than 700 years of combined experience representing Kansas at the state and national level. Their endorsement is the latest in the line of groups who have made public their commitment to Schodorf’s run for Kansas Secretary of State this fall. Others include: · Kansas...

A truism in American politics is that Republicans never win elections unless they are nationalized. Nationalizing an election doesn’t guarantee a GOP victory, Goldwater lost in 1964 in an election defined largely by national issues, but never in modern times have Republicans won a national campaign fought on local issues. Democrats like elections that are fought state-by-state and deal with local issues because they are deliverers of services. If you want a pothole fixed, food stamps increased or federal grants for your local parks and museum, Democrats are only too happy to oblige. The political brain driving the Democratic Party’s...

Allies of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush say his chances of running for president in 2016 are becoming a more likely possibility now than ever before. According to Politico, Bush is laying the groundwork for a bid with private prep work on key international issues and visits to top Senate races across the country to campaign.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has granted a conservative, political action committee's request to file an amicus curiae brief in the case of Chris McDaniel v. Thad Cochran. The Conservative Action Fund says it supports true conservative candidates, in this case, Chris McDaniel. An amicus brief by definition says it adds information to the case that neither party solicited. In the brief, the CAF offers what it calls insights into the 20 day election challenge deadline. The CAF also suggests if the High Court concludes there should be a new runoff for the primary election, but there's not enough time to...

On "FOX News Sunday." WALLACE: First, Louisiana, Bill Cassidy leads Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu by more than five points, and Arkansas, Tom Cotton leads Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor by 2.5. Karl, how solid are those for the GOP? 2.5 points that doesn't sound very solid. ROVE: Well, out of the last ten polls Mark Pryor has led in one; Tom Cotton has led in nine. WALLACE: Iowa. This is an open seat in Iowa. And Democratic congressman Bruce Braley is up against GOP State Sen. Joni Ernst; it's flat tied. TRIPPI: No, it's a dead heat. Both parties are going...

There's no blaming the Tea Party if the party falls short in November Are the pollsters just trolling us pundits now? Just as a consensus emerged this summer that Republicans were probably going to capture the Senate, a new round of polling was released showing a Democratic rebound in several key races. But the new received wisdom that Democrats were probably going to hold the Senate barely had time to harden before polls emerged that were more favorable to Republicans. Now the prognosticators give the GOP a better-than-even shot of seizing the Senate. Despite the pendulum-like conventional wisdom on which...

On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden promised that President Barack Obama would "do an awful lot" for illegal immigrants with executive actions toward amnesty. He said if Republicans don't "see the lord" on immigration after the midterm elections, then they will feel some "lightning." According to pool reports, Biden spoke at a Hispanic Heritage Month reception at his residence and reportedly called up a student who had received temporary amnesty due to Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Biden then said that Obama is going to enact executive amnesty before the end of the year if Congress does...