Free Republic

After winning the April 5 Wisconsin primary, Ted Cruz appeared to reach out to the GOP establishment – and ask for its trust. It's hard to imagine a more far-right presidential candidate than Cruz, who has shown little to no willingness to appeal to the broader electorate that Republicans arguably need to win the White House and maintain control of the Senate. Some political analysts even think Republicans' majority in the House could be in play with not just a Trump nomination, but also a Cruz nomination. Here are four reasons that should still worry Republicans -- plus one reason...

A well- known fable goes like this: “A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. “Are you mad?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown." "My dear turtle," laughed the scorpion, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you. Now where is the logic in that?" "You're right!" cried the turtle. "Hop on!" The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the...

The next time you hear Mark Levin on the radio, or watch Glenn Beck on TV, or read Erick Erickson, RedState.com on the Internet, you might just ask yourself who is paying for the message? And why is it so stridently anti-Trump? Don’t fool yourself. They’re doing it for the money. As the spearhead of the “Dump Trump” movement, the same GOP establishment big-dollar donors and PACS that are pushing House Speaker Paul Ryan as a dark-horse presidential candidate, despite the big-government omnibus-budget deals Ryan reached last year with President Obama, are funding Mark Levin, Erick Erickson, and Glenn Beck,...

Several top Republicans are planning to skip the party's national convention in July in fear a chaotic convention will damage the party, according to a CNN report. Apparently many House and Senate Republicans think it smarter to spend time with voters in their home-states than to be associated with the drama of the presidential nomination. An anonymous top GOP party leader even told CNN that he and others have advised rank-and-file members to avoid the convention and instead hold events in their home districts during that time.

Colorado GOP Lied About #NeverTrump Tweet – The Account Was Not Hacked, It Was Posted by Trump-Hating Insider On Saturday Ted Cruz supporters took all 13 of the delegates up for grabs at the Colorado GOP Convention to complete a clean sweep of the state. But it was not without controversy. There never was a vote – Party elites decided on who got the delegates. The Cruz camp and GOP establishment leaders strong-armed their way to a sweep by banning Trump delegates and omitting them from the ballots… and listing Cruz delegates TWICE! After Cruz swept the Colorado delegates the...

"I'm still waiting for a link to the rule saying State GOP can cancel election, pick own delegates OR hold election & pick own delegates." - @AnnCoulter

Everyone has already voiced their astonishment regarding the complete disenfranchisement of approximately 1,000,000 registered Republican voters in the State of Colorado. It is clear that the Colorado Republican Party has no interest in the voice of their constituents. The CO Republican Party rules for the delegation selection process and delegates are outlined at the source below. http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/CO-R As you have seen, the GOP is extremely proud of their achievement to privatize the selection of a presidential candidate for Colorado. They have published the list of Colorado delegates in The Denver Post and other sources. Many of you may have friends...

1. At the primary polling locations in each state, were the voters clearly informed that their vote for their candidate was for the FIRST VOTE AT THE CONVENTION only, and that if their candidate did not get 1237 delegates, their vote would be basically tossed and have no influence? 2. When we are told Cruz had the ground game, left people behind in the states after the primary, worked the rules, worked the system, worked the delegates in the way that everyone has always known it's done in the primaries... Cruz's people convinced Trump delegates to vote for Cruz when...

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has spent a lot of time denying any interest in the presidency. Last week, when his office put out a 43-second video, the Drudge Report tweeted an all-caps siren reading “Paul Ryan launches first campaign ad?” Despite the video so resembling a campaign ad that even NPR’s Steve Inskeep joked this morning that he got choked up by the swelling music, Mr. Ryan’s people have aggressively swatted down speculation that the Congressman and unsuccessful 2012 vice presidential candidate was indeed waiting in the wings to be drafted should a consensus not be reached on any...

House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that he would absolutely not be drafted as a presidential candidate. As businessman Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich vie to win the GOP's nomination, many pundits had speculated that Ryan could have entered the fray during a brokered Republican National Convention in July. "I do not want, nor will I accept the nomination," Ryan said. "Period. End of story."

House Speaker Paul Ryan will hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon to again definitively rule out a White House bid this year, according to an aide. Ryan will appear at the Republican National Committee's headquarters on Capitol Hill Tuesday at 3:15 p.m.

What's Paul Ryan up to? It’s a question many political insiders are asking amid a concerted public relations push by the new Speaker that has the markings of an unofficial presidential campaign. Against a backdrop of American flags, Ryan (R-Wis.) delivered a high-profile speech last month about the need for party unity that was interpreted as a head-on attack on GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. He followed up with a video that some, including the Drudge Report, viewed as a campaign ad. Ryan’s office pushed back quickly on that suggestion, but Drudge is far from alone in wondering if Ryan...

Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire will spend their summers under attack by underfinanced tea party opponents. In Nevada, the reemergence of Sharron Angle — who infamously blew a chance to defeat Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid in 2010 — means the GOP's hand-picked candidate for the open seat, Rep. Joe Heck, has a fight on his hands to get to the general election. And Republicans also are fretting over primaries in Colorado, Indiana and Florida, as well as the fate of a former leader of their campaign arm. It's a nuisance the party could...

Dems giddy over reported Laura Bush endorsement for Hillary Clinton April 11, 2016 | Carmine Sabia | Print Article Democrats giddy about Laura Bush‘s recent comments on the presidential election are getting a dose of reality. Last week, the former first lady was speaking at the Women In The World summit in New York when she made a statement that caused some to jump to the conclusion that Mrs. Bush is “ready for her.” “I want our next president — whoever he or she might be — to be somebody who is interested in women in Afghanistan and who will...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: All right, look. It really doesn't matter whether I think Cruz is cheating or not. Some of you do, and that's as far as it goes. You don't... But I'm gonna try to explain this to you because I think it is very important that everybody understand this. Now, I just said closing out the previous hour something, apparently, very provocative. My e-mail is blowing up. I'm thinking ahead down the road. I'm asking myself, what happens here if the establishment succeeds in beating Trump? For this discussion, it doesn't matter whether they do it legitimately or...

Former Colorado GOP Chair Ryan Call spoke with Laura Ingraham today to explain the delegation-selection process in the state. Call told Ingraham: “The very time we should be opening up our doors and being more open and transparent, and welcoming people into our Party, we’ve essentially made the decision to close it off and make it more cumbersome and more difficult. And, to prevent the ability of people to have their voice heard in this process. You’re reinforcing all of the very worst stereotypes about the Party and I, frankly, am very concerned about the way voters are going...

Former Colorado state Republican party chairman Ryan Call talked to Laura Ingraham today to explain the delegation-selection process works and how it "cuts out any semblance of democracy or the popular will." Call said the statewide convention that chooses the delegates reinforces all the worst stereotypes of the party. "The very time we should be opening up our doors and being more open and transparent, and welcoming people into our Party, we’ve essentially made the decision to close it off and make it more cumbersome and more difficult. And, to prevent the ability of people to have their voice heard...

Donald Trump’s effort to reset his campaign following defeat in Wisconsin showed no signs of paying off this weekend, as a series of technical failures by his campaign set his hopes back even further. From Thursday to Saturday, Trump suffered setbacks in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, South Carolina and Indiana that raise new doubts about his campaign’s preparedness for the long slog of delegate hunting as the GOP race approaches a possible contested convention. He lost the battle on two fronts. Cruz picked up 28 pledged delegates in Colorado. In the other states, rival campaigns were able to place dozens of...

As Donald Trump ratchets up his complaints about the Republican nominating process — one he enthusiastically joined last June — the uncertainty in the tightening battle between him and Ted Cruz is kicking up renewed speculation about the possibility of alternative candidates entering the fray. The latest name surfacing as a late-entry 2016 presidential bid is retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, former commander of Central Command. The Daily Beast published a lengthy report last week on an effort by a group of conservative billionaire donors to convince Mattis to consider an independent run.

For a long time we, George Will’s great unwashed have fought to save America from those who would sell us out to keep and increase power. They include the Democrats who hate our form of government and the Republicans who stand for nothing but self-aggrandizement. In addition to these, our enemies included the media and the courts. We have fought with no illusions about who supported us. But in 2010 and again in 2014 we won tremendous victories over these fierce enemies. We could do this because we had some important allies ourselves. We had a fairly conservative Fox News...