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Karl Rove says that instead of nominating Donald Trump, Ted Cruz or John Kasich “a fresh face might be the thing that could give us a chance to turn this election and win in November against Hillary.” In an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Rove weighed in on the 2016 election and called on Trump to start “acting in a presidential manner” in order to turn his high unfavorable ratings around. Hewitt asked Rove, “If Donald Trump is the nominee, how do you recover from a 30 percent favorable/63 percent unfavorable, as you note in your column today?” Rove...

Weaver said that while both campaigns have reached out to each other to ensure that Trump is denied the requisite 1,237 delegates to win the nomination, only the Kasich campaign has held up its end of the bargain . . . Even Mitt has urged Cruz to work with us! To no avail," Weaver lamented. "As usual they want it both ways, appearance of attempt to work together/victim, but no action. To question [John Kasich's] motivation is underhanded, and opposite of what they say in private. Facts are JK best positioned in most states moving forward & in general election....

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker said Thursday that in the event of a contested convention, the Republican nominee will likely be someone who is “not currently running.” “I think if it’s an open convention, it’s very likely it would be someone who’s not currently running,” Walker said. “I mean, who knows. The one thing I qualify — it’s like the qualifications you see on those ads you see for car dealerships. I think any of us who comment on this election have to qualify that almost every prediction’s been off, so it’s hard to predict anything,” Walker added. Walker’s own run...

Planned Parenthood and White House Take Victory Lap Following Massive Spending Bill Negotiations Dec. 16, 2015 The $1.1 trillion omnibus bill leaves Planned Parenthood funding unscathed, despite some efforts by abortion opponents in Congress to curb — or at least do an audit of — the taxpayer dollars going to the organization. This has both the White House and the nation’s largest abortion provider to declaring victory. “There was a period of time earlier this fall when I was asked frequently if the administration would accept any riders related to Planned Parenthood funding,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said,...

On his Friday radio program, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh expressed disappointment in the House and Senate Republican leaderships for the passage of the end-of-the-year omnibus spending bill.

Joe Scarborough prefaced his remarks this morning by saying "this is the sort of thing that right-wing bloggers get very angry about." So let's oblige him . . . On Morning Joe, Scarborough said "I am shocked by how many Republicans, that have always voted Republican, that have said they're going to vote for Hillary if it's Cruz or Trump running against Hillary. I'm talking Deep South, Southern Baptist. I asked people who I expect to say yes, Cruz, go "hell no. No. I will never vote for Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. I will vote for Hillary Clinton." View...

Shortly after Ted Cruz told GOP power brokers that Trump lacked the "judgement" to be president, Kellyanne Conway who runs Cruz's Keep the Promise I super PAC justified RNC plans to strip Trump of the nomination at a brokered convention even if he wins the most votes and plurality of delegates KC: No, it's not cheating. Chris Matthews: The candidate who gets the plurality of votes - the most votes should be the nominee? KC: No, I'd have to look at the math.

Firestorm brewing over possible vote in 2016 lame duck With a vote on a controversial free trade deal looking increasingly unlikely before the 2016 presidential election, critics warn that congressional leaders may try to push it through after the election but before new leaders take office.A vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the so-called lame duck session would free lawmakers who have been defeated or are retiring from having to face angry voters."I am sure the president would like nothing more than to hold the vote on his 5,554-page plan during the lame duck," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala, said in...

With the Iowa caucuses getting closer and Donald Trump continuing to lead in the polls, the Republican Party power brokers are getting desperate. It certainly looks like the GOP establishment will stop at nothing to wrest the party's nomination away from Trump. On Monday night, a group of moderate insiders met with Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. They discussed the possibility of a brokered convention in Cleveland next July if Trump swept through the primaries with a delegate lead. The hope among the establishment is that the moderates will unite behind a candidate like...

Fox’s Eric Bolling tonight––guest-hosting The O’Reilly Factor––said that the Republicans criticizing Donald Trump are basically on the same side as Hillary Clinton and the liberal media.As far as Bolling’s concerned, Trump’s all-Muslim ban isn’t really that bad of an idea, partly because it’s not hurting him in the polls.He asked, “Is this a mistake for the other GOP contenders to line up on the same side as Hillary Clinton and the media?… You’re forcing the American public, the GOP to choose. A lot of them don’t like liberals or the media.”Simon Rosenberg still said it was a bad idea because...

Anti-establishment Republicans are up in arms over talk of a brokered Republican Party convention. Ben Carson warned a brokered convention would "destroy" the GOP, while supporters of Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) expressed dismay that party leaders would take part in meetings considering the possibility. "This is clearly their contingency to stop Trump and Cruz at all costs," Iowa radio host Steve Deace, who is supporting Cruz for president, told The Hill. "These people would rather lose elections than lose control of the party. And they'd rather have Hillary in the White House than someone the GOP base...

The desperation grows. Donald Trump has now reached his highest point in polls, garnering 35 percent in the latest CBS/New York Times poll. The second place contender, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) trails by a longshot at 16 percent; establishment favorite-nouveau Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) clocks in at just 9 percent, while former establishment favorite Jeb Bush is down at 3 percent. Establishment Republicans have now entered a state of open panic, with Karl Rove writing, "Donald Trump would be the dream opponent for the Democratic Party. We'll see in the next four months whether that matters to Republicans." The establishment...

"The decision will need to be made sooner rather than later because of the ballot deadlines," said Clay Mulford, who advised Ross Perot's third party run. "You'd really need to get started no later than probably the beginning of March." And in theory, Trump could also seek the nomination of an existing minor party that already has some ballot access such as the Libertarian Party. But it's not unclear that any third party is a natural match for the kind of campaign that Trump has been running this this cycle. Is it doable? Successfully launching a third-party bid is complicated...

In the immediate aftermath of the Paris terror attacks, a commenter on one of P J Media's posts asked what seemed like an honest question. The gist of which was: will somebody explain to me why the PJM columnists are so dismissive and hostile to the only presidential candidate who promises to really do something about the terrorists? While the commenter didn't name a candidate, it's clear that he or she was talking about Donald Trump. Other alarming reports were coming in, and I did not follow the comment thread on that particular post long enough to know if anybody...

The battle between Ohio Gov. John Kasich and GOP front-runner Donald Trump is heating up. A video released online Tuesday by the Kasich campaign attacks Trump for his rhetoric against various minority groups, invoking the theme of needing to stand up for people before it's too late. The video features retired Col. Tom Moe, a U.S. Air Force veteran and Vietnam POW, paraphrasing the famous words of late German pastor and concentration camp survivor Martin Niemoller: "You might not care if Donald Trump says Muslims must register with their government because you're not one. And you might not care if...

Jim Geraghty, no Trump fan, has already done a nifty job not just of picking apart the individual claims in this clip but of comparing Trump’s excesses to the left’s own fascist flirtations, from official White House policies on down to campus “safe spaces.” Did Trump say that all Muslims should register with the government? He insists he only meant Syrian refugees, not Muslim citizens. Did he ever call for deporting “Hispanic immigrants”? He called for deporting all illegal immigrants, not just the Hispanic ones — and then letting many of them back in eventually. Did he claim it was...

CINCINNATI -- Much like the 1960s comedy "Get Smart," GOP establishment operatives and candidates have formed their own version of "KAOS," the evil organization that continually tried to "get" Agent Maxwell Smart. Except in this case, it's many Republican traditionalists that are trying to "get" Donald Trump. These efforts will backfire on them, as did the best attempts at mischief by KAOS in the comedy classic. To fully comprehend how off-base the pundits and establishment consultants are about the 2016 race for the GOP presidential nomination, let's first examine a tale of two polls taken in Florida recently. The first...