Free Republic

I've not read the official obituaries because they are predictable. "Billionaire." "Reclusive." "GOP donor." "Swift Boat Vets." "Industrialist." "Controversial." "Dallas." And there you have it: the death of a sinister figure driven by greed, the puppeteer manipulating the political process, a 21st century J.R. Ewing. (Or is it Mr. Burns?) If this is what you've read, it's written by someone who didn't know Harold Clark Simmons. I never knew a man quite like him. I met him in 1981 while panhandling for some political cause or another. Back then, he kept a ledger of his political donations on 5-by-7 cards....

Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons died on Saturday after an illness, aged 82. The legendary empire builder and corporate raider was worth $10 billion at Forbes last reckoning, ranking 40 on the 2013 Forbes 400. He died at the Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, having been in failing health for several months. Simmons, who built his fortune from nothing, was known to wear $3,000 sport coats to reflect his wealth, but underwear from Wal-Mart out of respect for his frugal upbringing. .... In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he called Barack Obama “the most dangerous man in America”...

Billionaire Harold Simmons died Saturday night at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, says wife Annette. He was 82. Annette Simmons tells our Alan Peppard that the East Texas native, who currently sits at No. 40 on Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, has been “very sick for the last two weeks,” and in Baylor’s intensive care unit for the last eight days. She did not reveal the specific cause of death. “He’s had a hard time,” said Annette of her husband, namesake of the foundation that has dispensed hundreds of millions to local organizations.

AUSTIN — What do Donald Trump and former President George W. Bush have in common? They both want Greg Abbott to be the next governor of Texas. Both men are among the contributors listed in Abbott’s latest campaign finance report to the state, which covers fundraising over six weeks in June and July that the Legislature was in special session. Trump, the millionaire developer, gave the Republican candidate for governor $25,000 last month. Bush contributed $5,000 in July. Abbott, the state attorney general, raised $1 million, while Republican rival Tom Pauken, the former state GOP chairman, raised $44,395. During the...

The White House insists President Obama is "outraged" by the "inappropriate" targeting and harassment of conservative groups. If true, it's a remarkable turnaround for a man who helped pioneer those tactics. On Aug. 21, 2008, the conservative American Issues Project ran an ad highlighting ties between candidate Obama and Bill Ayers, formerly of the Weather Underground. The Obama campaign and supporters were furious, and they pressured TV stations to pull the ad—a common-enough tactic in such ad spats. What came next was not common. Bob Bauer, general counsel for the campaign (and later general counsel for the White House), on...

In 2004, the Republican master strategist Karl Rove led weekly sessions at his Washington residence where, over big plates of his butter-smothered “eggies” and bacon slabs, he planned the re-election of President George W. Bush — and what he hoped would be lasting Republican dominion over Democrats.

In 2004, the Republican master strategist Karl Rove led weekly sessions at his Washington residence where he planned the re-election of President George W. Bush. In April, Mr. Rove summoned several of the important players behind Mr. Bush’s ascendance to his home once again, this time to draw up plans to push a Republican resurgence. The landscape has changed, with Mr. Rove at times clashing with potent new Tea Party-style activists, some of whom view him as a face of the old party establishment they want to upend. Already a prominent presence as an analyst on Fox News Channel and...

Harold Simmons wasn't thrilled about leaving his home in Golden, Texas, after high school in the later 1940s. The shy, unassuming kid cherished the consistency of a modest small-town life. But with practically one step out of Golden, he traversed a path paved in gold. With an unlikely start as a banker examiner and bank trainee, Simmons developed a knack for locating opportunity, eventually buying a bank and then one drugstore after another, until an initial $33,000 investment mushroomed into a $1.3 billion trust fund. Golden Boy: The Harold Simmons Story is a gripping story of high corporate finance and...

Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, who helped pay for the devastating attacks on the military record of Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry in 2004, has paid for a television ad that assails Barack Obama over his ties to a founder of a violent radical group. Simmons, who is also a major fundraiser for John McCain, donated $2.87 million that a newly formed nonprofit group, the American Issues Project, has used for the ad, a report filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission shows. The 60-second ad opens with Obama giving a speech, then asks how much voters know about him.