Free Republic

They’ve had plenty of tangles over the years. Now, the two Republicans are rivals in the quest for GOP megabucks. Jeb Bush was running for reelection as Florida’s governor in 2002 and needed the help of his brother, the president. But there was one person standing in his way: Karl Rove. Rove, the storied strategist who helped steer George W. Bush into the White House two years earlier, had laid down a strict rule for candidates seeking presidential assistance: No one — not even Jeb — would have unfettered access to the commander in chief. -snip- Now, at the onset...

Scott Walker has snagged a key Romney ally, attorney and foreign-policy hand Robert C. O’Brien, for his not-yet-announced presidential campaign. A spokeswoman for Walker’s 527 group, Our American Revival, confirmed that O’Brien will serve as a foreign-policy adviser. O’Brien, sources say, decided to endorse Walker after being courted by several other Republican presidential contenders, including Texas senator Ted Cruz, former Texas governor Rick Perry, Florida senator Marco Rubio, and South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham. He is a personal friend of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a fellow Mormon who served as a key foreign-policy adviser on the governor’s 2012 presidential...

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey likes to point out how he has made big cuts to state spending. But when it comes to using his allowance money as governor, he appears happy to be a high roller. Records obtained by New Jersey Watchdog show that Mr. Christie spent more than $360,000 of his state allowance during his first five years in office, with 80 percent of that going toward food, drinks and desserts. He receives an annual allowance of $95,000, on top of his salary of $175,000, to be used for entertaining and hosting official receptions. ~snip~ Mr. Christie...

Michael Steel, one of Speaker John Boehner’s top aides, is moving to Miami to work in a “leadership role” for Jeb Bush’s political action committee. Steel has worked as the press secretary for Boehner since 2008, when the Ohio Republican was the minority leader of a battered Republican party in the House. He has guided Boehner’s communications operation for seven years, helping craft the strategy that made the Ohio Republican speaker, and subsequently playing a key role advising him in day-to-day governing, including high-stakes negotiations with President Barack Obama. Steel will be an adviser to Bush’s Right to Rise Policy...

Either, the GOP is too fearful. The GOP is ignorant. Or, the GOP is a part of the problem As a public speaker, I have the opportunity to spend a lot of time with various political clubs, groups and organizations. When it comes to the question and answer portion after my U.S. Constitution presentations, the most common question I get is, “Why don’t the Republicans fight harder?” I tell the audience there are three possible answers. Either, the GOP is too fearful. The GOP is ignorant. Or, the GOP is a part of the problem. It may be a little...

Colorado elected Cory Gardner as our GOP Senator, and what a disappointment he is turning out to be....

It is with great pleasure that I rise in praise of Karl Rove, who now largely agrees with me that Republicans should place into the dustbin their bogus proposal to repeal ObamaCare. In my recent column in The Hill, "The 'Clinton Cash' con," I suggested that the new book by Peter Schweizer proves absolutely nothing on the matter of whether Hillary Clinton committed any wrongdoing, and it is a con to suggest or imply otherwise. I add today a discussion of another con game by Republicans, the suggestion that they will repeal ObamaCare, which they know they will not do,...

Conservative presidential candidate Ben Carson says the $7.25 federal minimum wage should be raised.“I think, probably, it should be higher than now,” Carson told CNBC’s John Harwood in an interview Friday.Carson added that government assistance often provides more than the minimum wage in several states, allowing people to ignore the long-term benefits of a job."I don't necessarily blame people for saying, 'Look, I can stay home and make this money, or I can go and work this little chicken job that doesn't have many benefits,’ ” he said."However, recognize that if you go and take that chicken job, you gain...

After a week of unrest in Baltimore, chief prosecutor Marilyn Mosby calmed the waters Friday by indicting six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. “To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I have heard your call for ‘No justice, no peace,’” Mosby declared. When justice is not deaf, one wonders whether it can be blind. But I’ll leave others to ponder that. Because the Baltimore riots exposed something with much farther-reaching implications than the Freddie Gray tragedy: More than five decades into the War on Poverty, our inner cities remain wastelands of dysfunction and despair....

A staffer for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) admitted to distributing methamphetamine and another drug in exchange for sexual favors, according to a report in The Washington Post. Customs and Border Patrol officers in Cincinnati found a package of gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL) addressed to Fred Wesley Pagan, according to a court document. Homeland Security agents searched his house in the Brightwood neighborhood of Washington D.C., on Thursday and found a substance that tested positive for meth in plastic bags, the court document states. The Post reports Pagan is a long-time employee of Cochran and currently serves as his office manager. Pagan allegedly...

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Senate staffer is facing a federal charge after court documents say he bought drugs from China with the intent to exchange them for sexual favors. Senate staffer Fred W. Pagan is facing the federal charge of possession with intent to distribute after court documents say he shipped drugs in from China. Pagan is a staffer for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi.

WASHINGTON — The Senate's top five Republican leaders have cosponsored legislation to extend until 2017 the Obamacare insurance subsidies that may be struck down by the Supreme Court this summer. The legislation, offered by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), one of the most politically vulnerable Senate incumbents in 2016, would maintain the federal HealthCare.gov subsidies at stake in King v. Burwell through the end of August 2017. The bill was unveiled this week with 29 other cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his four top deputies, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), John Thune (R-SD), John Barrasso (R-WY) and Roy...

Potential GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush is calling on Congress to confirm attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch, whose confirmation hearings took place in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in January. In February, Lynch was voted out of the committee and approved 12-8. Due to the legislative schedule and fighting over bills already in motion, a full Senate vote on her confirmation has not yet taken place. More from POLITICO: “I think presidents have the right to pick their team,” Bush said, according to reports of his stop at the “Politics and Pie” forum in Concord, New Hampshire, on Thursday...

In 2012, Mitt Romney was the out-of-touch establishment Republican who sparked a right-wing primary backlash. A New Hampshire GOP event this weekend suggests the storyline could play out again with Jeb Bush. In New Hampshire this weekend, there was already the scent of it. Perhaps not overpowering yet, but unmistakable and very familiar. "I'm sick and tired of mushy, wishy-washy conservatives," one attendee of a Republican gathering for potential presidential candidates in New Hampshire told The Boston Herald. For good measure, she also made Saturday's headlines by suggesting that the still-awfully-far-away Republican presidential primary season would be a "coronation" because...

He's not officially a presidential candidate, but Jeb Bush seems to be raising money like one. The former Florida Governor will be in Seattle on Monday for a round table discussion. If you want to attend, you'll need to pay $12,500 or $25,000 per couple.

NASHUA, N.H. – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has attended a wedding reception for a gay couple, he said Sunday, though the potential 2016 contender still believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. “That’s certainly a personal issue. For a family member, Tonette and I and our family have already had a family member who’s had a reception. I haven’t been at a wedding,” Walker said when msnbc asked whether he would be willing to attend a gay wedding. “That’s true even though my position on marriage is still that it’s defined between a man and a woman,...

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio says he does not believe sexual orientation is a choice for the "enormous majority of people."The Florida senator's comments came Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation, where he said that it should be up to states rather than the Supreme Court to define marriage and that he considers marriage to be between a man and a woman. "I also don't believe that your sexual preferences are a choice for the vast and enormous majority of people. In fact, the bottom line is, I believe that sexual preference is something people are born with," Rubio said. He and...

Loretta Lynch has found an unlikely ally — Jeb Bush. The Brooklyn US attorney, whose attorney general nomination has been stalled for months in the Republican-controlled Senate, is getting a helping hand from the former Florida governor and probable GOP presidential candidate. “I think that presidents have the right to pick their team,” Bush said while campaigning in New Hampshire Thursday.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has joined Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in calling for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to abandon his pre-election promise to fight President Obama’s executive amnesty by holding a vote to confirm U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch as Attorney General. “I think that presidents have the right to pick their team,” Bush said in New Hampshire at an event with about 95 voters and “a horde of media,” according to Time Magazine’s Zeke Miller. “The longer it takes to confirm her, the longer Eric Holder stays as Attorney General,” Bush said, echoing a talking point that...

Conservative firebrand and staunch amnesty opponent Ann Coulter, author of ten New York Times bestsellers, has released the cover and title of new book: Adios, America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole. Ann Coulter is back, more fearless than ever. In Adios, America she touches the third rail in American politics, attacking the immigration issue head-on and flying in the face of La Raza, the Democrats, a media determined to cover up immigrants' crimes, churches that get paid by the government for their "charity," and greedy Republican businessmen and campaign consultants—all of whom are...