Free Republic

The verdict on Governor Sam Brownback’s self-described “real live experiment” in conservative economics came back a long time ago, delivered through a budget gap that grew steadily into a chasm. On Tuesday, Kansas voters in the governor’s own party issued their sentence in a primary-day rout.

Republicans in Congress are criticizing President Barack Obama’s administration for its approval of a $400 million delivery of cash to Iran on the same day the country released four American prisoners and formally implemented the nuclear deal. Though the administration says the timing of the $400 million money transfer was coincidental, and part of a resolution of a failed arms deal between the two countries that dates to the Iranian revolution, critics say that a link between the payment and the prisoner exchange is undeniable. “The claim that the timing is coincidental is beyond unbelievable,” said Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y.,...

Turmoil in the Republican Party escalated Wednesday as party leaders, strategists and donors voiced increased alarm about the flailing state of Donald Trump's candidacy and fears that the presidential nominee was damaging the party with an extraordinary week of self-inflicted mistakes, gratuitous attacks and missed opportunities. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was described as "very frustrated" with and deeply disturbed by Trump's behavior over the past week, having run out of excuses to make on the nominee’s behalf to donors and other party leaders, according to multiple people familiar with the events. Meanwhile, Trump's top campaign advisers are struggling...

Georgia is one of 21 states that does not require its electors on the Electoral College to abide by the popular vote results in the states, and Georgia elector Baoky Vu is pledging not to give his vote to Republican nominee Donald Trump. Vu is a longtime GOP activist who released a statement Wednesday that said, “This is the Republican Party of Lincoln and Reagan and Romney and Ryan, not the Party of Donald Trump.”

Republican officials are exploring how to handle a scenario that would be unthinkable in a normal election year: What would happen if the party's presidential nominee dropped out? ABC News has learned that senior party officials are so frustrated — and confused — by Donald Trump's erratic behavior that they are exploring how to replace him on the ballot if he drops out. So how would it work? First, Trump would have to voluntarily exit the race. Officials say there is no mechanism for forcing him to withdraw his nomination. (Trump has not given any indications that he no longer...

Just nine months on the job as Speaker, Ryan and his campaign team are trying to avoid the mistakes made by Virginia Republican Eric Cantor, the House majority leader and fellow “Young Gun” who two years ago saw his political career abruptly ended by a little-known Tea Party challenger named Dave Brat.

#NeverTrump Republican Tim Huelskamp was defeated Tuesday night in the Kansas primary. Pro-Trump challenger Roger Marshall is up by 14% with 602 of 1338 precincts reporting. Ooops

Paul Ryan challenger Paul Nehlen said of Ryan in an interview Tuesday with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon that Ryan “says he’s a conservative from the conservative wing of the Republican Party. He is a soulless globalist from the Democrat wing of the Uni-Party. That’s what he is.”

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/politics/republican-national-committees-growth-and-opportunity-project-report/380/ (The "Autopsy" from the 2012 election, which led to the universal embrace of Amnesty by most GOP candidates other than Trump in 2016 - and was the reason establishment candidates were so resoundingly rejected by mainstream conservatives). I don't do many vanities (one in a decade, having posted under a different name previously), but this seems like a good question. It's not too early to ask, since we'll be distracted once the November results are in. Today is when we have the best view of how the establishment sees the beating they took in the primaries. What will the...

COLORADO SPRINGS (CNN) —The powerful political network helmed by Charles and David Koch is ruling out running advertisements intended to hurt Hillary Clinton, another sign of their insistence on avoiding the presidential race. The Koch network has previously said they will not back Republican candidate Donald Trump, but on Saturday officials told reporters that they would not run negative Clinton spots, a position taken by some Republican groups that are uneasy with the controversial GOP standard-bearer. The group is laser-focused on maintaining and expanding the Senate majority -- in the midst of a $42 million television advertising campaign focused on...

The most "inefficient" candidate? Why, Lindsey Graham, of course. I know, I know. Did ANYONE vote for Lindsey Graham? Well, 5,623 souls to be exact, or enough to fill up a Columbia 1-AA football stadium. Since Graham paid a total of $5,700,248 for all those votes, or $1,013.74 per vote, he wins the prize for electoral waste. . . In fairness to Graham and others who exited the race early, generally those who invested a ton of money in the early primaries only to fail and drop out were by far the least efficient candidates. For example, Jeb Bush spent...

Republican strategist, lobbyist, and Donald Trump confidante Roger Stone joined Breitbart‘s Milo Yiannopoulos on the latest episode of the Milo Yiannopoulos Show to discuss voter fraud and how Trump has the ability to beat it.

Speaker Paul Ryan, TV host Glenn Beck, and Lyin Ted Cruz will headline the August Redstate #NeverTrump conference in Denver. The headliners are staunch #NeverTrumpers. Paul Ryan’s primary is on August 9, 2016. The #NeverTrump conference is August 12-14. Other notables speaking at the conference include #NeverTrumpers Senator Ben Sasse, Governor Nikki Haley, Carly Fiorina, Ken Cuccinelli, Katie Pavlich, Guy Benson, Hugh Hewitt and Erick Erickson. are the featured speakers at the annual RedState gathering in Denver in August. Maybe Hillary Clinton will make a surprise appearance?

John McCain was a pilot in Viet Nam and there is no question that he and his fellow POWs suffered immeasurably in the Hanoi Hilton. For that we owe them all a debt of gratitude. Yet that does not give any one person the right to do harm to our country from a legislative position nor to put others in peril around the world by ill-conceived policy. Since I have been in Congress, Senator John McCain has pushed an agenda ranging from blanket amnesty for illegal aliens to support for President Barrack Obama’s and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s...

PHILADELPHIA -- Democrats put in plenty of good words for Hillary Clinton during their convention yesterday but they focused most of their energy on trying to assassinate the character of Donald Trump. The Left is now going after the Republican nominee with brass knuckles. The latest Democrat attack line accuses Trump of committing treason for asking Russia or any other governments that may have Clinton's mountain of missing emails in their possession to return them to the United States.

Noted #NeverTrumpers Glenn (Cheeto-face) Beck, Lyin Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse, Paul Ryan, Nikki Haley, Carly Fiorina, Ken Cuccinelli, Katie Pavlich, Guy Benson, Hugh Hewitt and Erick Erickson are the featured speakers at the annual RedState gathering in Denver in August.

With this platform, we the Republican Party reaffirm the principles that unite us in a common purpose. We believe in American exceptionalism. We believe the United States of America is unlike any other nation on earth. We believe America is exceptional because of our historic role — first as refuge, then as defender, and now as exemplar of liberty for the world to see. We affirm — as did the Declaration of Independence: that all are created equal, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We believe in the Constitution as our...

Jim Gilbreath and his fellow Colorado delegates came to the Republican National Convention “praying for a miracle,” hoping the rules might go their way and allow for a “white knight” candidate to take the place of Donald Trump. As he headed home to Colorado Springs on Saturday afternoon at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, he told WND that while his party has confirmed Trump as the nominee, he and many others in his delegation are not on board. “I can tell you that from the Colorado contingent, there will be quite a few people who will not be out helping Trump,”...

Complete Headline: Clinton calls out GOP for 'unfounded, inaccurate, mean-spirited attacks' at the RNC and says chants of 'Lock her up!' made her feel sad - in first televised interview with running mate Sen. Tim Kaine Clinton said the RNC convention only seemed to be about criticizing her Said there was no 'positive agenda' in the 'dark, divisive campaign' She also spoke of the 'Hillary Standard' and said she believed there was a concerted effort to ruin her reputation Clinton also said she refused to stoop to Trump's level and call him a nickname, but will discuss his 'inflammatory' comments...

Hillary remains a rich vein of commentary, so much so that I could (and might) spend from now to November writing about her peccadilloes. The one part of her march to the presidency that baffles me is that anyone who runs a business would support her campaign. The woman has no history in business, no understanding of how business operates, and the only laurel on which she relies is that during her husband’s terms business did fairly well. Yet many businesses have paid a pretty penny to hear her sage advice. Ms. Clinton has recently been supporting new restrictions on...