Free Republic

Mitch McConnell is in a bind. The Senate majority leader opposes changes to the National Security Agency, but his proposal to reauthorize surveillance powers under the Patriot Act “cleanly” is unlikely to pass the upper chamber. After the House increased the pressure Wednesday with an overwhelming vote in favor of an NSA reform bill, McConnell (R-Ky.) began to look for an escape hatch, filing legislation Thursday evening that would push the June 1 deadline back by two months. But it's unclear whether a short-term extension could pass the Senate, let alone the House, where reform supporters are vowing to oppose...

BARRINGTON, N.H. — Donald Trump ripped Jeb Bush on Common Core, immigration, his ever-changing Iraq War comments — and even whether the former Florida governor’s heart is really in the race. “His statements are a disaster,” Trump said. “That answer that he gave that he would do the Iraq War all over again, I think it’s a disaster. Now, he retracted it a day later, but that’s only because his people said retract it.” Trump also slammed Bush for supporting the federal Common Core education standards and labeled him “weak” on immigration. But he also questioned whether Bush even wants...

Last week, as a result of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, a circuit court ruled that bulk data collection on the part of the NSA is illegal. With only a few days left before key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire, and at a time when heightened awareness and skepticism of bulk data collection continue to concern Americans, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has positioned himself, and since he is the leader of the Senate, his party as well, against the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. The problem that McConnell creates is that power-hungry Democrats...

Amidst revelations that ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos was an undisclosed contributor to the Clinton Foundation slush fund at the same time he was defending it on the air, some GOPers are finally putting their foot down. Conn Carroll, formally the White House correspondent for Townhall and currently communications director for Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) had this to say on Twitter: "I'm not letting my boss go on ABC until GStephanopoulos recuses himself from all 2016 coverage." And Rand Paul is the First Republican presidential candidate to say George Stephanopoulos shouldn’t moderate the 2016 debates. “It’s impossible to divorce yourself from...

Reading the Left’s fevered desires over at Slate isn’t anything new. Not even articles breathlessly titled and subtitled: Go for the Throat! Why if he wants to transform American politics, Obama must declare war on the Republican Party. Not even articles that read: The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat. … Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his...

It was announced over the weekend that on June 7 John Dickerson will replace Bob Schieffer as the host of CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” CBS News president David Rhodes — whose brother Ben is a top Obama official most famous for editing the truth out of the infamous Benghazi talking points — said of Dickerson, “John is first and foremost a reporter — and that’s what he’ll be as anchor of ‘Face the Nation.’ “His work in the studio will always be informed by what he’s learned in Iowa, in New Hampshire, on Capitol Hill — anywhere there’s news.”...

On Monday, President Obama will preside over the grand reopening of his administration. It would be altogether fitting if he stepped to the microphone, looked down the mall, and let out a sigh: so many people expecting so much from a government that appears capable of so little. A second inaugural suggests new beginnings, but this one is being bookended by dead-end debates. Gridlock over the fiscal cliff preceded it and gridlock over the debt limit, sequester, and budget will follow. After the election, the same people are in power in all the branches of government and they don't get...

As NewsBusters reported Saturday, CBS News political director John Dickerson advised the current White House resident to destroy the Republican Party. On Tuesday, Dickerson doubled down in a Slate piece titled "They Hate Me, They Really Hate Me: Conservatives despise my analysis of Obama’s second-term options. But it was analysis—not advice." "I was using a very specific definition of transformational presidencies based on my reading of a theory of political science and the president's own words about transformational presidencies from the 2008 campaign," Dickerson wrote. "It was also based on these givens: The president is ambitious, has picked politically controversial...

A bipartisan coalition came close Thursday to protecting immigration-related language in the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act — but not close enough. A 221-202 vote on an amendment, offered by Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., stripped a provision in the underlying bill encouraging the Pentagon to study options for enlisting undocumented immigrants into the military in exchange for a pathway to legal status. All 182 Democrats voted “no,” joined by 20 Republicans. Passage of the Brooks amendment will prompt a sigh of relief from GOP leaders, who feared its failure would put the entire NDAA bill in jeopardy — at...

In frantic damage control mode, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos ran to the safe zone of the left-wing Politico to announce the he will recuse himself from ABC’s February GOP debate in New Hampshire. He also admitted that the total amount he contributed to the Clinton Foundation was a whopping $75,000, not the $50,000, as originally reported. The chief anchor and political correspondent at ABC News now admits he should never have donated money to the Clinton Foundation, and that he should have disclosed his donations to ABC News viewers. As of now, probably as they gauge the fallout, ABC News stands...

The British General Election, on May 7th, was an epic in two respects. First, in spite of polls forecasting a hung parliament, David Cameron's Conservative Party was given unexpectedly large support, winning 331 seats, or 51 % for an overall majority of four, and showing once again the failure of left wing parties to make traction in Europe. Second, Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish Nationalists Party (SNP) swept the Labour Party aside in Scotland to achieve an unexpected landslide and rekindle Scottish pressure for independence and, with it, a threat to the continued cohesion of the United Kingdom. Likely there will be...

Marco Rubio proved he can hang with the big hawks in his first foreign policy speech since he declared his run for president. The student has now become the teacher. Sen. Marco Rubio, once viewed as a protege of presidential competitor Jeb Bush, schooled the former Florida governor Wednesday evening in the first national security address of his national campaign. As compared to Jeb Bush, who fumbled and stumbled through his first major national security address, Marco Rubio delivered a master class on foreign policy that spoke to the soul of the right’s hawkish neoconservatives. In New York City, before...

Conservatives in America are sick and tired of letting the elitist political establishment in both parties, as well as the leftstream media, select Republican presidential nominees (RINOs who lost like: Ford, Dole, McCain, Romney), leaving the country with the false choice of two liberal candidates. One organization and one man are doing something to turn around this treacherous strategy that results in loss after loss, and has given us the worst president in history, Barack Obama. Election after presidential election, we are informed by the Karl Rove-types on who the “most electable” candidate is, and conservative icon Brent Bozell and...

There's been a slew of stories about Bill Clinton taking a back seat in Hillary's campaign.... the ex-president told Town & Country's April 7 edition that his role "should primarily be as a backstage adviser to her until we get much, much closer to the election." And yet, Bill is everywhere. With Hillary's refusal to give a media interview, to have an open campaign event with voters, Bill is the backseat driver of his wife's presidential campaign. Last week, Clinton gave the campaign's first interview of the presidential race to NBC.......(under fire for becoming rich through the Clinton Foundation's shady...

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement of the invitation for Mexico to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations: “Especially over the past decade, many Latin American nations have emerged as examples of the prosperity, security and opportunities that take root when free enterprise is embraced. By strengthening trade relationships with our partners in the Americas, we have helped strengthen democracies and created new consumers for U.S. products and services. “Mexico’s inclusion in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations is a welcome step that...

KWQC anchor David Nelson fell for a fake story that first appeared on the website National Report saying presidential candidate Ted Cruz thought the office of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon should be like the Girl Scouts and sell cookies for funding.He deleted the tweet, but not before Amanda Carpenter, communications director for Cruz saw it and called him out.

You don’t have to like Sen. Ted Cruz, or even agree with him, to find offense in a recent line of questioning he endured. More than awkwardness, Mark Halperin offered a stunning small-mindedness as he attempted to tease out Cruz’s Hispanic bona fides: What Cuban food did he like growing up? Which Cuban music does he favor today? Would he welcome fellow Sen. Bernie Sanders to the presidential race, “and I’d like you to do it, if you would, en español”? Halperin, famed for co-authoring the book Game Change on the 2012 presidential campaign and prominent today for his analysis...

Earlier this year, election watchers claimed that McCain was the most vulnerable senator facing reelection in 2016 and the polls show that is true.  Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows that McCain only has a 41% approval rating among republicans and a 36% approval rating among all voters.  Anything below 50% is considered dangerous for incumbents.  41% is considered catastrophic.  51% of republican  voters want someone more conservative than McCain.  Unfortunately, both Obama and Clinton are more conservative than McCain.McCain who often bills himself as a “maverick” is more like a hobby horse that liberals ride to victory.  As he gets...

MIAMI – Union leader Dolores Huerta prefers a woman in the White House in 2016, saying that “there’s a lot at stake for Latinos” if one of the current Republican hopefuls wins the election, even if he has “a Latino name or speaks Spanish.” The tireless 85-year-old activist said in an interview with Efe that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) “took two steps back” when he could have used his “influence to pass immigration reform” in 2013. “Some of those candidates who are Latinos in reality don’t represent the values of the Latino community, who for the most part are working...

Despite the narrative that many have tried to develop over the past two decades, the voting data is clear: moderates, independents, and even Democrats prefer to vote for more conservative Republican presidential candidates. The Roper Center at the University of Connecticut contains a useful database of how various groups voted in presidential elections since 1976. For moderates and independents, it is clear that Ronald Reagan was the only GOP candidate they really liked. The results are stunning. Reagan -- easily the most conservative anti-establishment GOP candidate over this period -- took nearly twice as much of the independent vote as...