Free Republic

Senate Democrats are considering a shift in strategy that could offer a resolution to a long Senate impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security — and put more pressure on House Speaker John Boehner. The Senate minority is now considering accepting Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s offer to vote on a bill funding DHS that is not tied to efforts to block President Barack Obama’s immigration strategy. That move would come after Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had said on Tuesday that he would not move forward with McConnell’s proposal to vote on a “clean” funding bill that keeps DHS...

Top Democrats said Feb. 23 they will hold the homeland security budget hostage until the GOP’s House caucus agrees to quit its popular anti-amnesty efforts. “If we are going to avoid a government shutdown on the Department of Homeland Security, we need a commitment from Speaker Boehner that we have a bipartisan, bicameral approval to end this deadlock,” Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin told reporters during a Tuesday press conference in the Senate. Durbin spoke shortly after the Senate’s GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to submit to the Democrats’ demands that the DHS 2015 budget not curb spending on the...

Immigration reform is touchy for Republicans specifically, and Americans in general. A Quinnipiac poll from November found that 48 percent of all voters think undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States with a path to citizenship—down from 57 percent in 2013—while 35 percent of voters say the immigrants should be required to leave. That statistic, combined with a perceived electoral need to reach out to more Latino voters, has put many Republicans vying for the presidency in a sticky spot. The only thing all Republicans seem to be able to agree on is the need to...

I'm still waiting for the ACU and Club for Growth to publish their ratings for 2014.

Four years ago, former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel breezed to victory in the Chicago mayor's race. He was the golden boy of Democratic politics, mentioned in some party circles as a possible presidential candidate in 2016. Yesterday, the incumbent mayor was humiliated by failing to receive a majority of the votes against 4 relative unknowns. The result forces an April 7 runoff where he is still expected to win handily, but is now considered damaged goods. His downfall? Persistent violence and a pension shortfall threatening to bankrupt the city. Bloomberg: “We have come a long way and...

A look at some closed-doors negotiations involving the Homeland Security Department funding bill shows things are heating up among Republicans trying to hammer out a deal. And at the center of it all is Alabama's Jeff Sessions. Politico detailed a recent Senate Republican meeting in a story yesterday. The negotiations center on a bill that would keep DHS funded through the end of the year. The measure has already passed the House but has stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition to the inclusion of repeal of President Obama's immigration orders. Some Senators are calling for a "clean" bill...

Throughout my time in Washington, it was my goal to constrain the scope and size of our federal government to that which our Founders intended. There were successes along the way, of course, but the federal behemoth continues to grow almost unabated year after year, election cycle after election cycle. The reason for this is surprisingly simple: It is human nature to attempt to collect as much power and control as possible, and in few places is that more evident than in Washington, D.C. Our national soul is being corrupted by Washington’s unhindered and unconstitutional overreach. Our Founders anticipated the...

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has offered a new legislative solution to the Department of Homeland Security budget standoff, but the proposal would put House Speaker John Boehner in a tight spot with conservative lawmakers who see it as a copout. The House's bill to strip funding for President Barack Obama's immigration orders has failed to pass the Senate four times amid Democratic calls for a clean bill, and despite the fact that the GOP now control the Senate. In a bid to prevent a shutdown before the current funding arrangement expires on Feb. 27, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell...

I told you guys the Senate GOP would screw us over on DHS funding, but even I had no idea Mitch McConnell would capitulate so easily. I assumed he’d do a major song and dance first, but instead he just went all Ned Beatty in Deliverance the moment Barack Obama looked at him funny. Good grief. Even CNN’s website declared that the Democrats were the ones blocking Department of Homeland Security Funding. McConnell behaved as if he needs testosterone injections. His minion in the press want everyone to know the steel in his spine, but it is more silly putty....

CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will take on Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia in a runoff election on April 7. With 92 percent of precincts reporting, Emanuel had 45 percent, shy of the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff. Garcia had 34 percent of the vote, separating him from the rest of Emanuel’s challengers and putting him in position for the runoff. Trailing Garcia is businessman Willie Wilson in third with 10 percent, Alderman Robert Fioretti in fourth with 7 percent and William “Dock” Walls was in last with 3 percent.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Tuesday suggested lawmakers should keep a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tied to a controversial fight over immigration. The Alabama Republican rejected a narrative by Democrats and some Republicans that the immigration provision should be separated from the DHS bill because the issue is currently before the courts. A Texas judge last week temporarily halted the immigration actions President Obama unveiled last November. The Justice Department on Monday asked for an emergency court ruling to allow Obama's immigration action to go forward. “There is a reasonable chance that some court will...

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.