Free Republic

New York Times best-selling author and long-time journalist Ed Klein said that Valerie Jarrett has been engaging in secret meetings with Sen. Elizabeth Warren in recent months, giving rise to speculations that the Massachusetts political newcomer is actually the administration’s choice to head the White House in 2016. “President Obama has authorized Valerie Jarrett, his most important political adviser, to hold secret meetings with Elizabeth Warren to encourage her to challenge Hillary Clinton because the Obamas do not want to see the Clintons succeed them in the White House,” Mr. Klein said during a broadcast interview on “America’s Forum” on...

Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis on Thursday questioned the deployment of 1,000 National Guard troops on the border with Mexico to curtail illegal immigration and she promised, if elected, that she will study withdrawing them. The troop contingent was promised a month ago by current Republican Gov. Rick Perry, and it is expected that in the coming days they will begin to be deployed along the Texas-Mexico border, which stretches some 2,000 kilometers (about 1,240 miles). "The action I am ordering today will tackle this crisis head-on by multiplying our efforts to combat the cartel activity, human traffickers and...

Getting the president’s backing isn’t what it used to be—he looks set to go 0-2 on Saturday, with the two candidates he endorsed in his home state apparently headed for defeat.When Barack Obama vaulted onto the national stage a decade ago, part of his appeal was that he seemed to be from so many places at once. All corners of the country could lay claim to him: He was Hawaiian by birth, Illinoisan by choice, and Kansan by heritage, and he spent his formative years in New York City. He marched through the 2008 primaries by winning in both the...

Robert Draper’s New York Times magazine piece, “Has the ‘Libertarian Moment’ Finally Arrived?” dutifully if rotely runs through the greatest hits: Kennedy was on MTV, Nick Gillespie wears black and quotes Jack Kerouac, people bring guns to PorcFest, David Koch exists, libertarians disagree about abortion, and Rand Paul is not the ideologue his father is. There are some notable false notes, too: Draper describes Glenn Beck as a “partisan gunslinger” when he is if anything the opposite, a man who believes that “the Republicans have betrayed their own values” and who pronounces himself “done with them.” Glenn Beck no longer...

When Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, claimed earlier this week that Democrats were waging a “war on whites,” he lifted the lid on a simmering resentment that is very real and very resilient and feeds on anxiety — and fear — about a changing America, and the possibility of those changes upending historical architectures of privilege. On Monday, Brooks was on Laura Ingraham’s radio show to talk about Republicans’ deportation policies. She played a clip of Ron Fournier of National Journal on Fox News saying: “The fastest-growing voting block in this country thinks the Republican Party hates them. This...

In the August issue of Townhall Magazine, where this column originally appeared, RedState director Bryan Pruitt makes the case for why it's far past time for Arizona Republicans to find a real conservative to represent their state. It seems that you can’t go a day lately without Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appearing on television advocating the United States invade another country. On a recent particularly snarky appearance, when asked to name one country we absolutely shouldn’t invade no matter what the circumstance, an answer eluded him. Not even Canada, really? Now of course, the context for the conversation was the...

Thursday at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health hearing titled, “Combating the Ebola Threat,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said he will be requesting funding for a "pandemic." Smith said, "This is unprecedented. Many people are not cooperating with efforts to contain the disease. There is an information gap. Despite the efforts through cell phone and radio to get the message out, there is a learning curve. as we consider what to do to meet this health challenge, I suggest we get funding levels for pandemic preparedness. This is for congress and the executive branch, in a restricted...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Wednesday’s political coverage was about as predictable as the drive by media fawning over the Obama regime. The narrative had already been set. Now the media, flush with Potomac fever, a disease far worse than Ebola, announced the tea party is dead. For liberals, the tea party probably is like a monster from a bad horror movie. Unfortunately, liberals never seem to learn. The monster in the bad horror movie never dies. Neither does the tea party. The left picked a curious race to call as the end of the tea party. In Kansas, Dr. Milton Wolf, Barack Obama’s second...

Three events occurred in the tight confines of Capitol Hill last week that underscore the Republican Party’s extraordinary institutional decline and its responsibility for the Congress’ fully deserving its “do-nothing” label. First, early in the week, all but seven Republicans in the GOP – controlled House of Representatives voted to give Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio the go-ahead to sue President Obama because they claim his executive orders are in violation of the constitution. The purpose of that “political stunt” – the president’s words for the lawsuit, which he and the Democrats have come to relish for...

On Tuesday conservative activist and commentator Steve Baldwin penned an article for the right-leaning website Barbwire calling for the emergence of a third political party in the US, one made up of religious and fiscal conservatives that could supplant the Republican Party. Baldwin even proposed a leader for this new political coalition – Sarah Palin, erstwhile governor of Alaska and, memorably, the vice-presidential Republican nominee in 2008. According to the activist, the thrust of this new political force would be to eliminate “all federal abortion funding, reversing Roe vs. Wade [the Supreme Court decision to legalise abortion], and prohibiting the...

PHOENIX -- Sarah Palin has endorsed Arizona Treasurer Doug Ducey for state governor. "Doug Ducey is the private sector job creator and proven conservative leader that Arizona needs as its next governor," the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate said on her Facebook page. Ducey's endorsement came hours after the announcement of an event hosted by former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and Gov. Jan Brewer, where she is expected to officially endorse Smith. Palin joins Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and many other conservatives who also endorse Ducey for governor. "Through his efforts as CEO, Doug grew Cold Stone Creamery...

It appears Hillary Clinton has launched her 2016 presidential campaign. HollywoodLife.com can exclusively report that Hillary has leased office space on a high-level floor of a corporate New York City office building, overlooking Times Square, for what sources are saying, is her campaign headquarters. It looks like Hillary Clinton has officially begun her campaign to be the next President of the United States. Three sources tell HollywoodLife.com that the former Secretary of State has rented sunny, spacious digs for two years in a midtown office tower, as the headquarters for her 2016 presidential bid. Hillary Clinton Sets Up Campaign Headquarters...

It is highly amusing, after six years of racist attacks on our first black president, to listen to Rep. Mo “war on whites” Brooks (R-AL), as Jason Easley wrote here yesterday, blame “Democrats for Republican racism by claiming that Democrats are using racism to divide the country and drive up minority voting turnout.” The “logic” here being that if we support the rights of minorities to be treated like people, we are anti-white, which differs not at all from the idea that if we support the equal rights of other religions we are anti-Christian. While all minorities are being attacked...

Via RCP, I want to believe it, I almost believe it — but I don’t really believe it. All the makings of a Democratic clusterfark are there. If O legalizes five million workers, plenty of blue-collar Democrats are bound to put two and two together and wonder what that means for their wages. And plenty of Democratic Senate incumbents in red states, like, oh, let’s say Mark Pryor, are going to panic, knowing what could happen if the backlash among conservatives is as ferocious as everyone expects. In fact, as Newt alludes to, both Pryor and North Carolina’s Kay Hagan...

Could Sarah Palin revive her political career through an ultra-conservative third party? If one former California State assemblyman has his way, yes. In an op-ed published on conservative Christian site Barbwire, activist Steve Baldwin says the GOP establishment just isn't cutting it. And he thinks Sarah Palin is his woman to change that. "We don’t want the GOP to pursue a 'socialism-lite' agenda. We want them to go on the warpath and do whatever it takes to stop the destruction of our constitutional Republic," Baldwin wrote. "It has become increasingly clear that the GOP leadership will do everything in its...

Lately, I had been thinking about writing a piece asking the question of whether Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is more like the late Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) or if he is more like President Ronald Reagan. For those of you who don’t remember — or who weren’t born yet — the irascible Helms served in the Senate from 1973-2003. He was well known for his independent streak, and he was certainly not shy about ignoring the will of Senate leaders when he did not see things their way. Some of his stubborn pursuits and lonely battles in the Senate are...

As many others have noted, the high point here is Rand Paul bailing out mid-bite as soon as he hears the word “DREAM.” He’ll get in your face on foreign policy and he’ll push bold, controversial ideas like restoring voting rights to felons, but put him on camera in the middle of a squabble between Steve “Cantaloupe Calves” King and a pair of illegals when he’s gearing up for 2016 and all that’s left is one of those little dust clouds like in a Roadrunner cartoon. If not for that, my favorite moment would be Erika Andiola reassuring King that...

This is really not the biggest deal in the world, but every year on August 4, I’m reminded of something kind of creepy in the Cult of Obama. That, my friends, is the obsession with his birthday. I totally get that if you run a monarchy or are a dictator or if you’re a good president, your birthday might be cause for celebration. Oh, it’s the Queen’s birthday? Let’s celebrate. Oh, we’re going to be killed if we don’t pay honor to you, Kim Jong Un (not to be confused with his father who held the titles of “Dear Leader,...

The Republican Party’s “nativist elements” have successfully undermined Congress’ many attempts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, President Obama griped in an interview published over the weekend by the Economist. Obama’s remarks were made during a broader discussion that covered the health of the U.S. economy, job growth and the responsibilities of business leaders. “There’s a huge gap between the professed values and visions of corporate CEOs and how their lobbyists operate in Washington,” he said, claiming that businesses must be genuine when it comes to being socially engaged and giving back to the community. “And I’ve said this to various...

Chris McDaniel on Monday officially contested results showing he lost a Republican primary to Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, revealing what his camp alleges is evidence of voter fraud and other irregularities. "They asked us to put up or shut up. Here we are. Here we are with the evidence," McDaniel said at a news conference in Jackson. McDaniel, a state senator, has refused to concede the June 24 runoff result and filed a formal challenge with the Mississippi Republican Party's executive committee. The case could eventually wind up in court. The challenge outlined claims of more than 15,000 cases of...