Free Republic

Sad and disappointing but not a surprise. Sen. Mitch McConnell has showed himself to be the gutless wimp that we’ve all known he is. He has given the Democrats exactly what they have been demanding. In other words, Sen. Mitch McConnell, as majority leader, has shown the same feckless, flaccidity that he showed while minority leader. What he’s done is pass the buck back to the House: This is a shame. The issue is not only important but it is an easy win. It is the Democrats and the White House that need DHS funded. The GOP doesn’t. Something like...

Republican leadership in the Senate is fully caving to the demands of Democratic lawmakers calling for a so-called “clean” Department of Homeland Security funding bill that leaves President Obama’s executive amnesty intact, but Democrats are still balking at the plan. “I’ve indicated to the Democratic leader that I’d be happy to have his cooperation to advance consideration of a clean DHS bill, which would carry us through September 30,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters Tuesday. “With Democratic cooperation on a position they have been advocating for the last two months, we could have that vote very quickly.”...

In an extraordinary sequence of events, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered Democrats exactly what they have been asking for Tuesday — “clean” full-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security. And Minority Leader Harry Reid said no — or at least, not yet. McConnell’s offer of passing a clean full-year Homeland Security bill through the Senate shorn of immigration provisions — which he said could happen quickly with Democratic cooperation — was put on hold by Reid, who told reporters he was waiting to hear Speaker John A. Boehner agree to pass it through the House first. “We have...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he is willing to have a vote on a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security free of controversial provisions unraveling President Barack Obama’s actions on immigration — bending to Democratic demands for a so-called “clean” funding measure. But Democrats aren’t agreeing to that plan just yet. McConnell (R-Ky.) outlined a strategy that would entail one vote on funding DHS — whose money runs out after Friday — through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and a separate vote on Friday that would block the sweeping moves on...

The cave has begun. Last night, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) started the process of bringing up a standalone bill that would only overturn Obama’s executive amnesty issued last fall. It would leave in place the previous executive amnesty from 2012, DACA. What Senate Leadership won’t tell you is that the standalone bill is designed to fail. Democrats will block the bill and then Senate Republicans will move either a long-term bill to fully fund Obama’s executive amnesty and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or only a short-term bill to fund Obama’s executive amnesty and DHS. Both are unacceptable options to...

The battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security before a Friday deadline is rapidly shifting, as Senate Republicans begin to lay out their plan to end the impasse. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, stood against conservatives in his ranks Tuesday and announced he plans to bring forward a clean, longer-term funding bill to the floor this week in an effort to stop a potential DHS shutdown. "I've indicated to the Democratic leader that I'd be happy to have his cooperation to advance the consideration of a clean DHS bill which would carry us through till September 30th," McConnell said to...

Republicans supportive of broad changes to immigration law are trying to build a political fence between their party’s presidential candidates and the anti-amnesty position popular with many in the conservative grassroots. Mitt Romney’s abysmal 27 percent performance with Hispanic voters in 2012, which many attribute to his hardline opposition to so-called immigration reform during the GOP primary, still lingers with Republican establishment insiders two and a half years later. They’re working to prevent a repeat of that performance, which they believe contributed to Romney's loss to President Obama. Republicans who advocate changes to immigration policy that would include a pathway...

Like it or not, the 2016 presidential race is now well under way. Republican candidates are flocking to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, while Hillary Clinton, in-between $200,000 speeches at universities, is reported to be in seclusion developing her economic policies. It's easy to get overwhelmed by minutiae, but sometimes a twist of events turns out to be important, even 12 months away from the first caucuses and primaries. And of course, always keep in mind that most minutiae turn out to be trivial. Amid all this, it's important to keep in mind changes in the broader political environment...

2016 campaign hinges on legalizationGOP conservatives believed they had won the illegal immigration fight last year when congressional leaders embraced a deportation crackdown, but big-money donors are mounting a counterattack, saying the Republican Party must nominate a pro-legalization candidate if it is to win the White House in 2016.

hat does it take for Senate Republicans to decide not to confirm Loretta Lynch, who is President Obama’s nominee to be attorney general? At what point is the lawlessness simply too much? It is entirely within the power of the newly elected Republican majority in the Senate not to confirm Ms. Lynch. The only question is whether the GOP majority will exercise its constitutional authority to do so. Personally, I wanted to support Ms. Lynch’s nomination. Six years of Eric Holder has done enormous damage, and Ms. Lynch’s service as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest twice cited Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) support for funding President Obama's executive amnesty program during Monday's White House press briefing. "I am willing and ready to pass a DHS funding bill and let this play out in court," Graham told ABC News Sunday, referring to U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen's decision last week to issue an injunction blocking Obama's Deferred Action for Parental Accountability program. House Republicans already passed a bill to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, but Senate Democrats are filibustering that bill since it would defund the Department of...

Days from a Homeland Security Department shutdown, Senate Republicans sought a way out Monday by splitting President Barack Obama’s contested immigration measures from the agency’s funding bill. It was not clear whether the gambit by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would succeed ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the department or see it shut down. It was far from certain whether it would win any Democratic support, and House conservatives remain firmly opposed to any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department that does not also overturn Obama’s executive actions on immigration. But with Senate Democrats united against a...

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin says he’s prepared to vote with Republicans against President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, but first there needs to be a clean vote on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security beyond the end of the month. Manchin said he backs Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan for a standalone bill that would separate DHS funding from the president’s action on immigration. Story Continued Below . . “I’ve always said we should not fool with Homeland Security,” the West Virginia senator said in an interview with “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday morning. “We...

The Conservative Political Action Conference is the biggest annual gathering of Republican leaders and conservative activists, but neither Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell nor House Speaker John A. Boehner is scheduled to make the 10-mile drive from Capitol Hill to speak to CPAC this year, underscoring the lingering tensions between Republican Washington leadership and the party’s grass roots. It marks the first time in years that Mr. McConnell will skip the CPAC gathering, a year after the Kentucky Republican made headlines by holding aloft a gun during his speech. Mr. Boehner last spoke at CPAC in 2010, months before the...

Tough questions about President Obama’s religion and background are proving to be an early litmus test for likely GOP White House hopefuls. The dilemma many Republicans are stumbling over: Do they play to the base by questioning the president’s motives, or do they dismiss the questions as ludicrous while taking a shot instead at his policies and politics? ADVERTISEMENT Gov. Scott Walker (R) chose the former this weekend, refusing to say whether he believes the president is a Christian after fumbling earlier questions about Obama’s patriotism. Now, he’s learning the hard way that the glare of the national press isn’t kind, causing...

Behold the beast the Democrats never intended to create: a thrice-elected Republican governor in a swing state with a cult following, appreciated by both the establishment of his party and the conservative base. He’s a governor with an enviable base approval rating who received an even larger share of his own party’s vote in 2014 than 2010. This despite another year of John Doe drama, an unemployment picture that improved but fell short of his promises, a presidential appearance for his opposing Democrat (which had been missing in 2012), and the apparent flare-up between him and the Republican Governors Association...

A core group of House Republicans are currently signing on to a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise urging them to hold the line against funding for President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) is leading the effort to thank leadership, and urging it to remain stalwart. “We write you today to thank you for standing firm and forcing the Senate to act on a Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that stops President Obama’s unlawful executive actions on immigration,” the Republican House members who have thus far signed...

This is a damn embarrassment. Sorry, but there is no other way to put it. Elected Democrats are not capable of feeling shame over switching their stated positions. One need only look to the filibuster fight – which McConnell also lost, in recent memory – to know this to be an undisputed fact. So the executive amnesty bill gets brought the floor and Democrats will filibuster it. Even if they don’t, Obama will veto it. Life will go on and the press will not care, nor will they hold Democrats’ feet to the fire. The only way this action stood...

The Department of Homeland Security is catapulting toward a shutdown this weekend as Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over whether funding for the agency should be tied to a broader debate about the president's executive actions that allow young immigrants and their families to stay in the U.S. without threat of deportation. With just four days left to find consensus, the Senate voted for a fourth time Monday night on a House-passed bill that fully funded DHS, but rolled back President Obama's orders on immigration. The bill was again blocked. But there may now be early signs of a...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday took steps to prevent a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security by splitting off legislation attacking President Obama’s immigration actions from the funding fight. McConnell’s actions would bring to the floor a bill blocking Obama’s actions late last year to shield millions from deportation. The new bill would not be connected to legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security, however, and it would not attack Obama’s earlier executive actions in 2012 to shield certain young people from deportation. Those actions are more popular than the steps Obama took last year. McConnell...