Free Republic

Given the rumors that are flying around about 'changing the rules' at the GOP convention so as to prevent Donald Trump from being the Republican nominee, I think some thought should be given to the potential collateral damage to the Republican Party's efforts in November. First, I'll state the obvious - if Trump is denied his position on the ballot in 2016, I simply will not vote for president - and I suspect that holds for many, probably a majority of Trump supporters. So Romney, Ryan, or whoever replaces him will simply have to find another pool of millions of...

Freshman Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) is trailing Democratic candidate and attorney Doug Owens by 6 points in a rematch for her targeted House seat, a new poll finds. Owens received support from 51 percent of likely voters compared to 45 percent for Love, according to the Salt Lake Tribune/Hinckley Institute poll conducted by SurveyUSA found. Four percent said they were undecided or supporting a third-party candidate. Love’s campaign questioned the poll’s unexpected results. "I don't believe the numbers to be honest with you," strategist Dave Hansen told The Salt Lake Tribune. "The numbers just do not make sense." Owens embraced...

Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Dave Brat of Virginia were among the conservatives who voted against a bill to address Puerto Rico's debt crisis. (Photo: Willis Bretz for The Daily Signal) A bill establishing a legal framework for Puerto Rico to restructure its $72 billion debt load passed the House Thursday by a 297-127 vote after months of haggling between the Obama administration, Democrats, bondholders, unions, Puerto Rico officials—and conservatives. About the only thing conservatives agree on about legislation the House passed Thursday night providing rescue to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis is that it’s not a bailout. “There are...

Will these social-conservative turncoats face real political consequences? I was up in the wee hours after midnight Thursday when Daniel Horowitz’s tweet crossed my radar: The GOP-controlled House had just voted in the dead of night to write into law Obama’s executive order banning federal contractors who “discriminate” against transgendered individuals. We all know now what that means: If you refuse to let anatomical males into your women’s dressing rooms, locker rooms, or bathrooms, you are just a bigoted hater, end of story. Just ask Representative Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.), who descended, Trumplike, to insults when challenged by a witness....

An LGBT measure derailed a $37.5 billion House energy and water spending bill and now threatens to bring the entire appropriations process to a grinding halt in the House. The amendment from Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., would codify a 2014 executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Opponents characterize the Maloney amendment as a violation of conscience rights. They fear that the failed amendment could require federal contractors to provide special status to members of the LGBT community or lose their business with the federal government. With the support of...

On Wednesday night, 43 Republican members of Congress joined the Democrats to vote for President Barack Obama’s transgender agenda. Whereas last week Congress voted to reject this proposal—known as the Maloney Amendment—last night they voted to ratify Obama’s 2014 executive order barring federal contractors from what it describes as “discrimination” on the basis of “sexual orientation and gender identity” in their private employment policies. And, of course, “discrimination” on the basis of “gender identity” can be something as simple as having a bathroom policy based on biological sex, not gender identity, as we learned last week from Obama’s transgender directives....

Back when John Boehner was Speaker, he was the unpopular establishment figure fighting against a passionate Republican base that adhered strictly to conservative orthodoxy. Today, in a surprising turn of events, Boehner—who supports Donald Trump—finds himself in a more enviable position. Boehner has nothing to lose. He has no Speakership from which to be ousted. Meanwhile, many of his old adversaries—you know, the Ted Cruz  97% wing of the House GOP—suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of a passionate base that prizes Trumpian strength over ideological purity. The tables, it seems, have turned. Which brings us to this...

When top White House officials want to know what Google executives are thinking, they don´t need to go near a computer – since company officials have been hovering at the White House about once a week through the course of the Obama administration, White House logs reveal. The tech giant´s top lobbyist, Johanna Shelton, has visited the White House a total of 128 times since President Obama got elected in 2009. (Snip) According the data, she visited more than the lobbyists for five other tech giants combined. In fact, she visited the White House 40 percent more often than her

John Boehner is back. The former House speaker will spend late July and all of August on a cross-country bus trip raising money and campaigning for House Republicans, according to multiple sources familiar with his plans. The trip — on Boehner’s bus, dubbed “Freedom One” — will begin after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and end Labor Day weekend. Boehner has done these trips for years, but it is especially significant that the former speaker — who left Congress after being targeted by House conservatives — is spending his summer campaigning less than a year after leaving office.

Nine GOP committee chairmen lined up behind presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump Friday, just a day after the billionaire businessmen met with key party leaders on Capitol Hill. In a statement released announcing the endorsement, the chairmen said that it was important for Republicans to unite around Trump since America cannot deal with another Democrat in the White House nor can Republicans to lose their hold on Congress. “Any other outcome is a danger to economic growth, puts our national security in peril, enshrines ObamaCare as the law of the land, entraps Americans in a cycle of poverty and dependence,...

The Republican-led House of Representatives sent a bill authored by a Democrat to President Obama’s desk that would limit the ability of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) to destroy cultural sites and profit from the selling of priceless antiques.

If you believe, as we do, that it is time to break the Washington Cartel’s grip on the national Republican Party, and to nominate and elect a conservative outsider as President, yesterday’s Republican presidential primary was good news. But if you want to break the Washington Cartel’s grip on power, and its outsized influence over the Republican Party, yesterday’s presidential primary wasn’t the most important election. Paul RyanWisconsin’s most important election is the coming August 9 Republican Primary in which conservative entrepreneur Paul Nehlen is taking on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s Fist Congressional District. Yes, it...

The sort of thing that makes you yearn for a simpler time. Take a moment to relax and admire this man's work. You're Welcome.

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (AP) — The fate of the last legislative chamber in the South still controlled by Democrats is in the hands of a few thousand Kentucky voters in four House districts scattered throughout the state. Those voters will choose four state representatives Tuesday in a series of special elections created by resignations and two strategic appointments by new Republican Gov. Matt Bevin. Democrats have 50 members and Republicans 46 in the Kentucky House of Representatives, where Democrats have held the majority for nearly a century. A Republican sweep would mean Democrats would not control the chamber for the first...

While one corner of Washington, DC was focused on the Supreme Court and its first major abortion case in years, not far down the road, the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives was hearing its own abortion-related arguments. The Panel was formed as a result of last summer’s Planned Parenthood exposé videos from the Center for Medical Progress. These videos revealed a market for the buying and selling of the parts of aborted babies. Chaired by Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), the Panel is currently investigating the practice of procuring fetal body parts and the bioethical implications. An initial press release...

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday the rise of Donald Trump can be explained by voters being fed-up that America is on the wrong track. Ryan blamed the progressive policies of President Barack Obama. "You have conservatives, like myself, ... who are very upset about the direction of the country," Ryan told "Squawk Box" on CNBC. "You have people in America panicked because they have economic anxiety." As House speaker, Ryan is not supporting any one candidate as the nomination contests continue. "There's nothing we can do about what's going on in the presidential election and what the outcome of...

SAN ANTONIO - Before an address to a Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday, State Rep. and House Speaker Joe Straus discussed his record that he said included cutting taxes and promoting job growth. When asked about challenger Jeff Judson's suggestions in his advertising that Straus represents special interests, Straus said, "A smear campaign isn't going to work in the district that I represent, and it's not going to work across the state." "People know that Texas Republican legislators have done very, very well in recent years," he added. Greeting voters at an early voting site in the district, Judson...

Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Tammy Duckworth said on Monday that politicians are contributing to the rise of Islamic terrorists in the United States by calling for stricter immigration laws. Duckworth singled out her Republican opponent, Sen. Mark Kirk, and presidential candidate Donald Trump, as two politicians who are allegedly “play[ing] right into ISIS’s hands” and aiding the radicalization of Muslims in the United States during an interview with the Chicago Tribune editorial board. Duckworth made the comments while discussing two Iraqi refugees in Texas and California who were recently arrested on terror related charges. “In the case of those...

U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) announced late Saturday he will not seek re-election. The former roofing contractor from Neenah issued a statement saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

The U.S. Supreme Court, which delivered major rulings in 2012 and 2015 preserving President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, on Tuesday declined to take up a new, long-shot challenge to Obamacare brought by an Iowa artist. The court turned away an appeal by Matt Sissel, who had asserted that the 2010 Affordable Care Act violated the U.S. Constitution's requirement that revenue-raising legislation must originate in the House of Representatives, not in the Senate, as the healthcare law did.