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"We’ve had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of Republican senators standing and looking at Rand and Mike and me and yelling at us at the top of their lungs. I mean really upset. And they said, ‘Look, why did you do this? As a result of this I go home and constituents are yelling at me that I gotta stand on principal.” I’m really not making that up. I don’t even bother to argue with them… But, here was their argument. They said, ‘Before you did this the politics on this were all great. The Dems were...

Lax marijuana laws may soon become a reality in the United States. ... National support is rising for this cause.[5] Cohen’s proposal comes as a bipartisan coalition of House representatives have sponsored the Respect Marijuana Laws Act.[6] It would exempt businesses that comply with state marijuana laws from federal prosecution.[7] Moreover, Kentucky senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul recently supported the passage of a regulatory framework allowing industrial hemp in their state.[8][9] McConnell is a figurehead for the GOP establishment. Paul represents the rising libertarian caucus. Ergo, the Republican Party may soon change its position on pot.

LaGrange, IL— This weekend’s epic showdown between movement conservatives and more moderate elements of the Illinois Republican Party ended with a split result. Embattled Party Chairman Pat Brady remains at the helm of the State Central Committee but the committee is beginning the process of lining up a successor in the event Chairman Brady resigns or his detractors can garner enough votes to oust him while simultaneously navigating party rules to make it happen. Brady’s term runs through the 2014 primary season when a new, 18-member central committee, selected under the downsized 2011 congressional map, will organize itself and elect...

Sarah Palin took to her Facebook this morning to pen a short note regarding the latest gun-control legislation: Please see the link below for why the latest gun control bill should be filibustered and defeated. I can not and will not support politicians who support any more limits on our Second Amendment rights. linkMark Levin followed suit to do the same: I join Sarah Palin...

Righties might own the word Patriotism now, but if you haven’t noticed, the left has been trying to use it to condition you into thinking that giving them more tax revenue is the ultimate way to show your love of country. So what’s the difference? The means? Sure. The ends? Nope

Karl Rove sought to turn the tables Sunday on Sarah Palin, jabbing her for stepping down early as Alaska governor, a day after she blistered the GOP consultant in a speech at CPAC. Palin launched a broadside against the GOP establishment on Saturday at the gathering of conservatives, but directed her sharpest aim at Rove, reports Huffington Post. “If these experts who keep losing elections and keep getting rehired and getting millions — if they feel that strong about who gets to run in this party, then they should buck-up or stay in the truck,� Palin told CPAC Saturday, according...

"Pat Caddell, the Fox News Contributor and Democrat pollster who engineered Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Presidential victory, blew the lid off CPAC on Thursday with a blistering attack on "racketeering" Republican consultants who play wealthy donors like "marks.""

“The chatter is he's up to something,” says one Florida operative. If Jeb Bush decides to convert his media tour into a presidential bid in a couple years, he won't have to look far for a campaign staff: The well-funded education foundation he runs out his office in a Miami hotel is stacked with former political operatives, a large communications team, and a rapidly growing staff whose work stretches into 40 states. It is common practice for undeclared presidential candidates to build a campaign infrastructure under the guise of a political action committee, but Bush appears to be laying the...

Even though it changed the terms of the political debate, thus giving them a majority in the 2010 elections, many in the Republican establishment deeply resent the Tea Party. They don’t like being monitored by taxpayer-friendly groups that will expose them when they side with special interests (as they have in recent months on Export-Import Bank subsides and housing handouts). And they really hate the idea of being held accountable at the polls when they side with the corrupt big-spenders in Washington. Just ask Senator Bennett and Congressman Inglis.Pork…or principles? Now the Washington establishment is fighting back. Karl Rove, best...

NEW YORK — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is moving swiftly behind the scenes to lock down some of Wall Street’s biggest donors ahead of the 2016 presidential race. In recent weeks, the rising GOP star and possible 2016 hopeful has quietly met with some of the most powerful GOP backers in the world of high finance. The roster includes Blackstone Group Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. CEO Henry Kravis and senior executives at Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital among others. Rubio has gotten backing from big Wall Street titans before, notably hedge fund manager and...

Modern Republican leaders, with the exception of the Reagan Administration, have been partners in the expansion of government, indeed in the growth of a government-based “ruling class.” They have relished that role despite their voters. Thus these leaders gradually solidified their choice to no longer represent what had been their constituency, but to openly adopt the identity of junior partners in that ruling class. Republican leaders neither parry the insults nor vilify their Democratic counterparts in comparable terms because they do not want to beat the ruling class, but to join it in solving the nation’s problems.... (excerpt)

As Country Club Republicans Link Up With The Democratic Ruling Class, Millions Of Voters Are Orphaned On January 1, 2013 one third of Republican congressmen, following their leaders, joined with nearly all Democrats to legislate higher taxes and more subsidies for Democratic constituencies. Two thirds voted no, following the people who had elected them. For generations, the Republican Party had presented itself as the political vehicle for Americans whose opposition to ever-bigger government financed by ever-higher taxes makes them a “country class.” Yet modern Republican leaders, with the exception of the Reagan Administration, have been... --snip-- Similarly the entire country...

Blistering new book coming out about Rove and the establishment - been in teh works since day after election. Some pull quotes about Rove, Romney, the establishment, how liberals are undermining entrepreneures on purpose, etc. The image of a typical OWS encampment allows us a peak at the future, which is a powerful object lesson by itself. The fear of even having this discussion with the voters is why we are not happy with the establishment. They would rather change the subject to something trite like “jobs and Ohio” without realizing that a communist movement central to the Democrat universe...

Arizona Sen. John McCain partnered with liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy in 2005 to offer illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, then allied with border security hardliners during a tough 2010 Republican primary. "Complete the danged fence," McCain cracked in a widely publicized television spot. Less well known is the equally dramatic pivot by Marco Rubio, from 2010 candidate who dismissed McCain’s proposal as “amnesty,” to U.S. senator who on Monday championed reforms McCain said had “very little difference” from his previous plan, which became the blueprint for failed legislation in 2006 and 2007. During a March 28, 2010 Fox News...

It’s has been widely assumed this morning by some immigration advocates (and by yours truly, too) that the new immigration reform plan’s process of citizenship for the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants is contingent on a commission of Southwestern officials declaring the border secure. Not true. I’ve now got clarification from Senate staff working on the bill, and it turns out that the enforcement commission’s judgments will only be advisory, and are entirely nonbinding. Congress’ actions will not be dictated by what this commission concludes; neither will actions taken by the Department of Homeland Security. The citizenship process will be...

Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press this afternoon, former GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) praised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and lamented that she did not win the presidency in 2008, as he believes that would lead to a better chance for deficit reduction today than under President Obama. Host David Gregory showed Rep. Ryan video of Sec. Clinton speaking with him at the inaugural luncheon, which Ryan characterized as “chumming it up” over a variety of personal topics. The congressman then praised Clinton: “Look, if we had a [Hillary] Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles...

PALIN: 'WE HAVEN'T YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!'—EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BREITBART NEWS What's Next: Short term: I encourage others to step out in faith, jump out of the comfort zone, and broaden our reach as believers in American exceptionalism. That means broadening our audience. I’m taking my own advice here as I free up opportunities to share more broadly the message of the beauty of freedom and the imperative of defending our republic and restoring this most exceptional nation. We can't just preach to the choir; the message of liberty and true hope must be understood by a larger audience. Focus...

Marco Rubio, Florida's GOP senator, unveils his reform ideas to 'modernize' the system and put illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. Marco Rubio—41-year-old son of working-class Cuban exiles—has lived the upwardly mobile immigrant experience. In his fast rise, the Florida Republican has also experienced the politics of immigration [....] "Here's how I envision it," he says. "They would have to come forward. They would have to undergo a background check." Anyone who committed a serious crime would be deported. "They would be fingerprinted," he continues. "They would have to pay a fine, pay back taxes, maybe even do community...

The absence of a House conservative publicly campaigning to challenge House Speaker John Boehner in Thursday's leadership elections has even his harshest critics, still angered with the "fiscal cliff" deal, expecting the Ohio Republican to keep his post, according to multiple sources. "If there's a coup in the works, no one has seen fit to tell me about it," said a key conservative leadership aide. The split vote for the fiscal cliff deal, however, has drawn fire from outside critics and even led to a poll on the Drudge Report showing opposition to Boehner beating support, 85 percent to 15...

The 257-167 roll call Tuesday by which the House passed the agreement that avoided the so-called fiscal cliff of middle-class tax increases and spending cuts and sent the measure to President Barack Obama. Voting yes were 172 Democrats and 85 Republicans. Voting no were 16 Democrats and 151 Republicans. X denotes those not voting. There are 3 vacancies in the 435-member House.

The word among some Senate Republicans is that a fiscal cliff deal is likely to be struck by Sunday, or Monday at the latest... If such a deal is made, it would mean that many Republicans would be backing off their longstanding position against raising taxes on anyone, including top earners... So a deal will most likely be done. But the bottom line is that the fiscal cliff fight will not end happily for Republicans. They will have given in on what was an article of faith — that taxes should not be raised on anybody, poor or rich —...

We are watching a slow motion train wreck. The train wreck is Obama’s destruction of America. What makes this destruction worse, no wait, even possible is the fact that we do not have a real opposition party to stand against Obama and the Party of Treason. What should happen? What will happen? What must happen? What should happen is that the Republicans should just let the nation go over the fiscal cliff. Why? Because there is no deal that John Boehner can craft that does not involve his complete surrender to Obama. Boehner will surrender because he is singularly incapable...

Almost every challenge facing the Republican Party boils down to one issue: How is it possible for Republicans to win elections? The GOP establishment fights, undermines, lies to, and betrays conservative Americans because GOP insiders do not believe it is possible to win elections on a tea party agenda. We’re looking at everything all wrong. We want Republican leaders to champion our tea party issues. But they can’t. They don’t know how. Conservatives believe that a properly-run campaign based on conservative values will win. More than that, we know it is the only way that a Republican candidate can win....

FLORIDA’S GOP ESTABLISHMENT TRYING TO REDISTRICT ALLEN WEST OUT OF A SEAT? - January 31st, 2012Allen West: House GOP leadership ‘sold us down the road’ for ‘pathetic policy’ - January 06, 2012

High-level negotiations between the White House and Capitol Hill in times of divided government tend to follow a script. This year’s talks about how to avert the fiscal cliff, for the most part, appear to track a familiar line: The outside message from the top players is often different from what's happening on a parallel track inside the room where the final deal is being crafted. Publicly, both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner continue to argue their positions on taxes and entitlement reforms, hoping they can win the public relations battle that frames their respective party as...

House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday warned his House Republican conference against dissent from GOP leadership – and threatened retaliation similar to that against the already-purged conservatives if anyone else breaks from his pack. The Hill reports that, according to Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp, Boehner used his weekly GOP conference meeting to “note that we [leadership] have punished four members, he claimed that it had nothing to do with their conservative ideology, but had to do with their voting patterns." Huelskamp also said Boehner threatened “there may be more folks that will be targeted” and that Boehner told the...

Taxes on the wealthy are going up, House Speaker John Boehner conceded on Wednesday in challenging President Barack Obama to sit down with him to hammer out a deal for avoiding the fiscal cliff. The statement to reporters reflected how negotiations on reducing the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt have evolved since Obama's re-election last month. Republicans once opposed to any new revenue in their quest to shrink government now realize Obama's victory and public support for the president's campaign theme of higher taxes on the wealthy leave them with little negotiating leverage. Less than four weeks from the...

(CNSNews.com) - Conservative leaders don't like what they're hearing from House Speaker John Boehner, the man in the middle of fiscal cliff negotiations. One day after Boehner mentioned an $800-billion tax hike -- half the amount President Obama is seeking -- conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III said the Republican Party is no longer the party of limited government, limited spending and limited taxes: "It is now officially exactly right behind the Democrats -- on everything," Bozell said. "It is time for conservatives to start looking for a new home. There's precious little left for us here." Bozell said it's...

Please read and pass along this article. We send good conservatives to D.C. to fulfill the promises they made to the electorate, and yet when they stay true to their word the permanent political class in their own party punishes them. This won’t be forgotten come 2014. Right now the GOP establishment is more concerned about the opinion of the media and the Georgetown cocktail circuit than they are “we the people” who hired them. For all this new talk of how the GOP needs a “populist movement,” it would do them good to remember they already have one; it’s...

TEA PARTY VS. PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICANS — BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE GOP December 3, 2012 by Meredith Jessup Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles examining what went wrong for the Republican Party in the 2012 presidential election and where the GOP goes from here. Please visit our special section GOP: What Next? to follow the series stories and find related content. – Since Nov. 6, there has been no shortage of opinions as to why challenger Mitt Romney and the Republican Party failed to ouster President Barack Obama.  Pre-election divisions in the Republican Party...

House Speaker John Boehner and GOP leadership have removed several conservative House members from their respective powerful committee positions, Breitbart News has learned. Effective next Congress, leadership pulled Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp, Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash and Arizona Republican Rep. David Schweikert off committees from which they could exert conservative pressure on fiscal matters. Amash and Huelskamp were pulled from the Budget Committee and Schweikert from the Financial Services Committee. Huelskamp, a freshman elected during the 2010 tea party wave, thinks the leadership move to pull him from the powerful committee is revenge for him standing up for...

The talk has already started about a possible 2016 presidential bid by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, but before that happens friends say he’ll be busy rebuilding his personal wealth and restoring his family’s relationship with the Republican Party. If he decides to seek the GOP nomination, it could put a damper on any plans by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to run in four years, according to The New York Times. … After this year’s loss to President Barack Obama, Republicans are looking for a candidate who can appeal to a different voter demographic that’s no longer dominated by white...

Ghandi: 'First they ignore you... Then they mock you... Then they fight you... Then you WIN' ______________________________________________________  Say Anything   Breitbart   Christian Science Monitor   AMERICAblog   Zazzle   Quoteland   Mizteez  PatriotFlags

Alert! The entire GOP elite seems to be trying to sell out en masse on immigration. Not only Boehner, but Cantor. And Hannity  (who works for pro-amnesty world citizen Rupert Murdoch). Even Krauthammer. …Maybe these people are convinced the larger GOP project can be saved simply by caving on just this one issue...[Snip]. But by then there will be another wave of new, instinctively Democratic illegal immigrants (lured by the Boehner Amnesty) for Dems to appeal to. [Snip] The larger point is that “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”–which is supposed to be a simultaneous combination of an amnesty plus enforcement measures–is a terrible idea. It’s...

Mitt Romney's comments about 47 percent of Americans being dependent on government and locked in to vote for President Obama highlight a fundamental reality in American politics today: The gap between the American people and the political class is bigger than the gap between Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. Romney's remarks are the GOP equivalent of Obama's notorious comments about small-town Pennsylvania voters bitterly clinging to their guns and religion. Both Romney and Obama highlighted the condescending attitude that political elites hold of the people they want to rule over. A National Journal survey found that 59 percent of...

Watch Julie McCarty, President of the NE Tarrant [County TX] Tea Party and delegate to the Republican National Convention. Over strong grassroots opposition, Rule No. 12 was passed which gives the Republican National Committee the authority to change any rule between convention sessions. According to McCarty, “This rule was deliberately designed to suppress grassroots efforts.” "It is the Establishment Republicans saying to the grassroots, 'we do not want to hear from you, we want to do things our own way.'” They were able to defeat Rule 15. Under this rule, delegates to the National Convention would have no longer been...

The result of the RNC new rules will be to centralize power in the hands of the Republican Establishment in Washington at the expense of the grass roots. It will also have the effect of making a primary challenge to Romney from the right in 2016 (if he wins) more difficult, given that he will control the party apparatus to an unprecedented degree given his new rules. Mark Levin stated that John Boehner ignored the “nos” which were at least as loud, if not louder than the “ayes” so that he could give Romney surrogate John Sununu, standing right next to...

August 28, 2012 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: See, I understand it, but then on the other hand I don't understand. They had a unified convention. Everybody showing up in Tampa was unified, get rid of Obama, let's turn this country around, and now, whoever -- Romney, the party, the RNC -- whoever's doing it started this rules fight that's gonna tear everything apart. Like I say, on the one hand I understand it. On the other hand, it doesn't make any sense. Not that I agree. I know what they're trying to do, folks. And if you're just joining us, I...

Zeke Miller is reporting that a set of changes to the convention rules pushed through by Mitt Romney’s team is raising a few hackles among the delegates and could potentially lead to a squabble on the convention floor. The modifications in question deal – among other things – with the method used to select and approve the individual delegates from each state. Frustration over changes to the Republican Party’s rules pushed through by the Romney Campaign on Friday may lead to a fight on the floor of the Republican National Convention on Monday. The Convention Committee on Rules took a...

Senator Marco Rubio will stump for Republican candidates in Florida and elsewhere this fall but will not harshly criticize the state’s other senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported. Rubio told Florida reporters Wednesday that he will campaign for whoever the Republican Party selects to challenge Nelson in the general election, but said he will “never have anything bad to say” about the Democratic senator, the newspaper reported. The Sun Sentinel laid out Rubio’s balancing act: preserving good relations with Nelson should he win re-election on the one hand, and hoping that Republicans win a majority in...

The most difficult thing to explain to your average Republican voter is how people like David Dewhurst, Charlie Crist and all the establishment, ladder-climbing, butt-kissing, near permanent political staff flacks who grow up to be lobbyists they put around them literally hate you, me, and conservative fighters like Ted Cruz. And newsflash — it’s not just Washington, but in state capitols throughout America, just like Austin. I have many good friends in Austin and one of them overheard the following conversation yesterday a few blocks down from the Texas State Capitol Building. Trust me, folks, this is just a glimpse...

In a dramatic change, Republican governors — including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — are supporting sales taxes on online purchases in an attempt to send more revenue to state coffers.

ROMNEY NARROWS VP CHOICES; SURPRISE NAME EMERGES AS FRONTRUNNER

Received yet another FReepmail message regarding the underground campaign to get disgruntled freepers to move on over to the latest anti-freeper site. I'll save them the trouble of having their moles to do their underhanded dirty work underground. If you're totally fed up with me and my absolute refusal to support the GOP-e's outright plunge into supporting the progressive/statist agenda and no longer wish to resist tyranny, please by all means go join the RINO squishes over on TrueBlueRINOS.com ( actual address: http://www.trueblueliberty.com ). But when you join them, please do us all favor and don't come back. It'll save...

A conservative federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan said in an interview published Thursday that the Republican Party has gone “goofy” and that “these right-wingers who are blasting [Chief Justice John] Roberts are making a very serious mistake.” “I mean, what would you do if you were Roberts?” Judge Richard Posner, of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, told NPR. “All of a sudden you find out that the people that you thought were your friends have turned against you, they despise you, they mistreat you, they leak to the press, what do you do? Do you become more...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s search for a running mate is allegedly entering its final phase, and establishment Republican Ohio Senator Rob Portman is believed to be at the top of the list. Portman has campaigned repeatedly with Romney, and he is flying to New Hampshire this week — where the Romney family is vacationing — to appear at a Republican fund-raiser. Portman continues to garner plaudits from the establishment media, but most importantly, he is the clear favorite of many establishment Republican insiders. As The New York Times observed, “he [Portman] is among a select breed of politicians...

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign on Monday rejected a Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act, repudiating a contention made in last week’s Supreme Court decision that the law’s requirement that individuals carry medical coverage amounts to a tax. The Romney team’s refusal to invoke the word “tax” with regard to the individual mandate puts the candidate at odds with others in his party at a moment when Republicans are attempting to capi­tal­ize on the Supreme Court’s decision, which deemed President Obama’s health-care law constitutional. Some Republican-led states are trying to thwart the legislation’s effort to cover the poor. In an...

A sentiment widely shared today, no doubt. Over at Ace’s place, DrewM issues a warning: Dear GOP, This is your last chance. If you blow this, I’m out and you need to be destroyed. What is it? Repeal ObamaCare on Day 1. Don’t worry about replace, don’t worry about anything else… [A]s soon as Mitt takes the oath of office, before his speech no one will care or remember, walk the bill up to him at the podium to sign. If this does not happen, the GOP must be destroyed and a new party built to replace it. We’ve tried...

I still get republicans who scratch their heads and wonder what "GOP-E" means. Show this to them. The "E" means: (1)Establishment. It really is _us_ conservatives vs THEM in the establishment. And I don't mean "established". Just because someone gets elected, yes, they get 'established' in their various positions and offices. But "The Establishment" is a specific group, they are the (2)Elite of the republican party. But why do we conservatives have so much disdain for the establishment? It's because they are (3)Enablers Of people like Obama, or Reid, or anybody else. How often do you hear someone like Pelosi...

Folks, Link only...http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120612/METRO/206120375/1409/metro/Bentivolio-wows-Cassis-woos-tea-party-crowdRead the article. It was talked about as well yesterday on "Thayrone X's" program ( 1600 am WAAM ), and the flavor is Cassis seems to be an establishment plug-in as noted in the article.If so, and Bentivolio is the real deal, is this someone "Sarah" can get behind?