Free Republic

Ah, the sweet and sour smell of a political race shaping up. Tom Coburn's announcement that he will be resigning his seat in the United States Senate has the GOP and conservatives (the two groups are not necessarily the same) scrambling to find the right candidate to take his place. James Lankford has already declared he will run. Jim Bridenstine and T.W. Shannon are both thinking about the race. I've already stated in a previous post that the timing may not be right for Shannon to make a run. But, that's for him to decide and I would consider supporting...

The head of the American Bankers Assn., who is a former GOP governor, made a strong pitch Monday to his fellow Republicans to support the bipartisan Senate immigration reform legislation by invoking party hero Ronald Reagan. Frank Keating, president of the group since 2011, said in a Times opinion article that Reagan would say "it's time to open the doors" to immigrants to boost the economy. Conservatives were wrong to oppose the Senate legislation, supported by President Obama, that would overhaul the system and provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people in the country without legal...

WASHINGTON — With immigration re-emerging as the topic of focus in Washington, an unusual coalition of business executives, Republican Party activists and evangelical leaders will descend on Capitol Hill early next week to pressure House Republicans to pass their own legislation. The debate threatens to create another schism in the Republican Party and to further alienate a major source of campaign contributions; several corporate executives interviewed this week said they were considering withholding donations from lawmakers who get in the way. The push by conservatives will begin Tuesday morning with a news conference featuring, among others, Al Cardenas, the chairman...

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is gaining ground in the national polls, but many area residents are concerned about the former Arkansas governor's environmental track record and how it could affect his decisions in the White House. In 2002, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating signed water pollution standards that Arkansas officials claimed would harm development in their state. In a letter to Huckabee, Keating said the rules were needed because voluntary restrictions had not worked. But Huckabee argued the rules would restrict economic growth in booming Northwest Arkansas, which had many poultry farms, and added that said Keating's decision was "driven...

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating (R) said today that "he's done flirting with the idea of running for president," the Oklahoman reports. Said Keating: "It's just not the right thing for me to do at this time." He also said "he would still like to go back to public life at some point. He said if Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) decides against running for re-election in 2008, he would consider running for the seat, but he said he expects Inhofe to run."

Fred Friendly Seminars Presents IN THE BALANCE, a Provocative Look at the Social, Political, Economic, Legal and Health and Safety Implications of Terrorist Threats - Wednesday August 3, 12:42 pm ET Programs To Air During National Preparedness Month In September Presented on PBS by Thirteen/WNET New York NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 3, 2005-- A videotape claiming that a terrorist attack will happen at a shopping mall in the next few days is sent to a major national news organization. How does the organization respond? On the one hand, this is an exclusive news event; on the other, it's a potential national...

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, considered for the 2000 vice presidential nomination but now the life insurance industry's lobbyist, has come out against repeal of the estate tax. Ending the "death tax" has been a longtime Republican objective. Keating has told an insurance trade publication (the National Underwriter) that he is a "populist" who wants to retain the estate tax because "we don't have a class system in this country." He added that keeping the estate tax "encourages responsible social behavior." As president of the American Council of Life Insurers, Keating enjoys the estate tax's incentive for purchase of life...

Filed at 6:11 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans yanked a radio ad Thursday that was aimed at black voters in Kansas and Missouri comparing Social Security benefits to slavery reparations -- except paid to whites by blacks. It was the latest skirmish in a multistate war over Social Security ads pegged to November's congressional elections. The commercial was paid for by a Republican interest group and aired in the Kansas City area on an urban contemporary station whose listeners are predominantly black. GOPAC, which is headed by Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, said the ad was a mistake and withdrew...

<p>OKLAHOMA CITY — The tough-talking former prosecutor who will oversee U.S. Catholic bishops' compliance with a new policy on sexual abuse says he will seek neither criminal prosecution nor Vatican action against bishops who cover up sexual abuse of minors by priests. Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, a Catholic, says the new national review board he heads will rely on public outrage to force change in the church. He won't seek help from prosecutors or Rome "because I don't think it will have to happen," Keating said in an interview with USA TODAY.</p>