Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican National Committee wants to take more control over how the party picks a White House nominee. The RNC was to meet Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, to choose members who will effectively set the calendar for 2016's long list of potential presidential contenders. If the party's chairman, Reince Priebus gets his way, the GOP will pick its nominee more quickly than during past contests and have fewer debates in which candidates could criticize each other. The RNC also was expected to put penalties in place for candidates who don't follow the committee's plans.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that cities and towns across America can continue praying at public meetings. Monday's 5-4 decision centers on an action that dates back to the nation's founding in 1774, when the first Continental Congress opened with Christian prayers. Two-hundred and forty years later, however, America is much more religiously diverse. That is part of the reason an atheist and Jew challenged prayers at public meetings in the town of Greece, New York. They claimed the prayers were mostly Christian, made them uncomfortable, and amounted to coercion. But in the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy warned...

Will Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives rush through AMNESTY as soon as John Boehner gets past the danger of a Republican primary this Tuesday, May 6, 2014? John Boehner will face challenger JD Winteregg in the Ohio Republican Primary for re-election to Ohio’s 8th Congressional District (in Western Ohio). Challenger Winteregg discussed his campaign against Boehner on the Conservative Commandos Radio Show on Friday, May 2. He explained his “B.E.S.T.” immigration reform plan– without amnesty. Winteregg says in the interview that Boehnder talks conservative but never does anything to advance conservative policies, Boehner has changed over the...

Well, if snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory can be considered working their magic. In a PPP poll released April 29, establishment candidate Thom Tillis leads Tea Party favorite Greg Brannon by a whopping 26 points. Of course a grain of salt may be needed with this current poll. PPP is left leaning, and would love nothing more than for Senator Kay Hagan to hold on to the seat. Especially with the GOP bearing down on Senate control in November. You may be able to catch a sense of PPP's bias in some of the questioning that was...

The GOP needs to adopt one powerful reform: Stop taking “advice” from people who want Republicans to lose. Almost every problem, dynamic, and force within the Republican Party is currently driven (sometimes in obscure ways) by the naïve assumption that the “advice” freely offered by the GOP’s enemies is sound wisdom the GOP should depend upon. Republican insiders fight any nominee or action which the GOP’s enemies criticize. Insiders think that their enemies’ “advice” shows which candidate will have broad appeal. So if liberal organizations, the liberal news media, or Democrats say a candidate is a bad choice or a...

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on the constitutionality of prayer at public meetings. But a new survey finds U.S. voters clearly favor prayer – as long as the public prayer is generic and not specifically Christian. Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind survey asked about attitudes on high profile cases before the court, includingGreece v. Galloway. That case addresses whether elected officials can open public meetings with religiously specific prayers, such as praying in Jesus’ name. A Jew and an atheist brought suit in Greece, N.Y., saying the Christian prayers excluded many citizens and violated the Constitution, which bans government...

Rand Paul will do his best to charm a group Mitt Romney’s top donors next week at an event facilitated by Romney finance director Spencer Zwick. The Friday luncheon will take place in Boston at the offices of Zwick’s private-equity firm, Solamere Capital, according to a source familiar with the event. Romney’s eldest son Tagg is also a managing partner at the firm, and Romney is the executive chairman. The event is yet another signal that Paul is preparing a for a serious presidential bid in 2016. Two years before the GOP primary, Paul is attempting to branch out beyond...

Republican insiders don’t actually know how to run successful political campaigns. But conservatives don’t know how to run campaigns effectively, either. The two sides need to stop accusing each other, and start (re)learning how to win elections. As a result, Republican elites want to tell us which candidates are “electable.” But they have no idea. They don’t know. A greater proportion of establishment-backed candidates lose contested general elections than do conservatives, particularly if you subtract the factor of insiders sabotaging conservatives. Elites cannot make valid predictions because they have forgotten how political campaigns actually work. One cause is that decades...

In Louisville, Kentucky today, Freedomworks hosted #FreePAC, a gathering of right and center right grassroots activists. The keynote speaker was Glenn Beck, who had strong words for Mitch McConnell and other republican party leaders. [video at link] "I told you at the very beginning what this administration tries to do you and what the progressives on the right, let me tell you something, Mitch McConnell is as big of a danger to this country as Barack Obama is. The progressive disease is in both parties. Big government is a philosophy in both parties, period. It is antithetical to the American...

Big money GOP donors are reluctantly leaning toward former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president in 2016, said talk show host Joe Scarborough. "The whispers are out there. You hear it among top [Republican National Committee] donors. There is not an excitement. I'll be really honest with you. Nobody's going, 'Oh, we got to get Jeb,'" Scarborough said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Monday.  Donors are eyeing Bush because they see him as the only nominee who could beat presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Scarborough said, adding that contenders like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz aren't considered viable against the former...

I am not naïve enough to believe that having elected Mitt Romney president or consigning the Democrats to the minority in both houses of Congress would change all that. But unless you are ready to give up on electoral politics entirely — and I confess to wavering on that question with a bias toward despair — then it is a matter of deciding whether X is preferable to Y. And sometimes that is a pretty easy call. Contemplating the inevitable shortcomings of elected Republicans, conservatives may consider the situation and think: “The lesser of two evils is still evil.” And...

A new report from Politico’s Ken Vogel details how ten major GOP consultant firms who made a combined $1 billion off Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 White House bid are still large and in charge of GOP politics, raking in millions more for the 2014 cycle. According to Vogel’s analysis, the firms and the consultants who work for them have already made—through January 2014, nearly a full year before the midterm elections—more than $19.6 million. “They’ve also cemented relationships with some of the GOP’s rising stars, setting up the firms for even bigger paydays headed into the fall, when costly advertising...

Remember last fall when Sen. Ted Cruz single-handedly forced the biggest, most powerful government in human history to grind to a halt?That's the conventional wisdom of Washington Republicans, who also claim the GOP suffered a public relations catastrophe because Cruz demanded that their votes match their promises.No matter that President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were at least equally intransigent about having their way. The government shutdown was solely and only the fault of the insurgent Texas Republican senator, according to the conventional wisdom.Wait till the debt ceilingNow, remember how those same Washington Republicans also said Cruz picked...

A group of major GOP donors, led by New York billionaire Paul Singer, is quietly expanding its political footprint ahead of the midterm elections in an increasingly assertive effort to shape the direction of the Republican Party. The operation was launched discreetly last year, with the previously unreported formation of a club called the American Opportunity Alliance to bring together some of the richest pro-business GOP donors in the country, several of whom share Singer’s support for gay rights, immigration reform and the state of Israel. Around the same time, Singer and his allies also formed a federal fundraising committee...

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that advocates the separation of Church and State, has reportedly asked a North Carolina football coach to cease praying with his players. Hal Capps is the head coach at Mooresville High School in North Carolina, he is also an open and devout Christian. Capps has been recognized by students for his habit of praying with the football players before team events and encouraging students to attend church. While much of the community has rallied around Capps in support, the FRF has maintained its stance on the coaches activates. Their attorney, Patrick Elliot,...

In the U.S.A., Republican voters and grassroots are sharply divided in political culture from the Republican establishment and politicos. But one culture clash in particular is urgent and important: Does it really matter if Republicans win elections? Republican politicos furiously insist yes. Republican voters answer a lukewarm maybe. The Republican Party is driving the United States over the cliff at 70 miles per hour, while the Democrat Party is driving the U.S.A. over the cliff at 120 miles per hour. Yet Republican leaders passionately try to convince us that it matters that Republicans must be driving as the car careens...

The pundit class and the GOP establishment currently are engaged in massive "concern trolling" over the possibility that Republican voters will elect conservatives in party primaries. Karl Rove, the US Chamber of Commerce and other special interests have vowed to spend whatever it takes to prevent citizens from nominating the "wrong" candidates. Setting aside the conceit that these interests know better than voters who should represent them, are these concerns even valid? The establishment's argument is based on three things: 1) Rep. Todd Akin (MO), 2) Sharron Angle (NV), and 3) Christine O'Donnell (DE). Granted, these campaigns were train wrecks,...

Lou Dobbs, business anchor, offers a lot of truly excellent and a little really atrocious advice to the Republican Party in his new book Upheaval, released on January 7, which he discussed in his January 6 broadcast "Steps to creating a winning election strategy for the Republican Party." Dobbs' new book is a must-read; overall, the GOP should elect Lou Dobbs as its next party chairman. Though you may need to skip a few chapters. The problem is that Dobbs insists that the Republican Party must abandon social issues. He argues passionately that the Republican Party must not give up...

If you have not heard, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has attacked nationally syndicated conservative radio host and best selling author Mark Levin. They publicly attacked Mark Levin because the Jim DeMint created Senate Conservatives Fund (“SCF”) gives out copies of Mark Levin’s book. The NRSC alleges a quid pro quo relationship to help drive up the popularity of Levin’s book. The book was published in 2009 before SCF was a significant force and had already become a best seller before SCF gave out copies. This attack follows the National Republican Senatorial Committee (“NRSC”) attacking conservative businesses and threatening to...

Democrats are gleefully using House Speaker John Boehner's own words in an effort to garner donations for mid-term elections next year. 21st Century Democrats, which bills itself as "building a progressive majority from the grassroots up since 1985," uses Boehner's proverbial public spanking of tea party opponents of the Congressional budget proposal to take back control of the House. "Even Speaker Boehner can't hide his disdain for the outside conservative tea party groups," the email reads.