Free Republic

The Texas Republican's devotion to principle – or an unyielding insistence on getting his way – could propel him to the front ranks of Republican contenders for president or render him unelectable.Ted Cruz looked out over a sprawling audience of Iowa farmers and agri-business leaders, people who rely on federal subsidies of ethanol, and the man who would be president stuck it to them. “I know you’d like me to say I’m for the renewable fuel standard” – that’s the subsidy of their product – “that’d be the easy thing to do,” he said. “But I’m going to tell you...

Sen. Chuck Schumer says tea party members "hate immigrants," and blames congressional Republicans' fear of their hard-right members for preventing passage of a Senate immigration bill last year. (SNIP) "Why doesn't he? Because the tea party, these 80 to 100 folks from the hard right, none from New York, say they hate immigration, they hate immigrants.

Rep. Steve King says Rep. Steve Israel twisted his comments about Democratic support for Israel, and tells Newsmax TV that the New York Democrat should face him "man to man." "Sure he is [distorting]," King, an Iowa Republican, said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. ow "He demanded an apology in a tweet, and he also demanded that the Republican Party repudiate me. "I just tweeted back and said that's the kind of request that he should make eye-to-eye and man-to-man."

Think politics does not play a part in hiring decisions at universities? Think again. Teresa Wagner, a conservative lawyer, has been in the center of a years-long legal battle with the University of Iowa’s Law School over their decision not to hire her because of her conservative political views. Legal Insurrection, a legal blog, explains her case here. She recently spoke at the conservative family think tank Family Research Council, where she once worked before moving to Iowa. wagner v jones frc event Wagner said that the Iowa law school has “50 tenure track faculty members and there [was] only...

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, whose path to the Republican nomination requires a breakout performance in Iowa, has quickly recruited more than a dozen party leaders for his statewide campaign, who are to be announced in coming days, according to people told of the choices. Most significantly, Mr. Cruz has peeled away three leaders of the Libertarian faction in the state, known as the Liberty movement, who are the base of Senator Rand Paul’s support in Iowa. They included state Senator Jason Shultz, who endorsed Representative Ron Paul for president in 2012; and two former members of the state Republican...

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation has released a 12 second video captured from Burlington Police Officer Jesse Hill’s body mounted camera on January 6th–the day that Hill shot Autumn Steele when responding to a domestic dispute. In it, it shows the moment of the shooting. While Autumn Steele is grabbing and pulling at her husband Gabriel, Hill orders the couple to stop. “He’s got my kid!” Steele responds. Immediately afterwards, a dog can be heard. Hill orders the couple to “get their dog”. A shot is fired. The camera falls backwards as Hill slips on the snow. Another shot...

Teresa Wagner is a distinguished attorney, professor, and author. The mother of four, who in the 1990s served as a senior leader here at FRC, is also probably the first FRCer ever to obtain a favorable ruling in a case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Sadly, her victory before the nation’s highest legal bench is not one she ever wanted to obtain. It only came about because in 2009, Teresa was denied a position at the University of Iowa’s law school because she’s a self-identified conservative who believes in protecting the unborn and sustaining one-man, one-woman marriage. Again, this...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)[95%] will today announce he is running for President. At our very first RedState Gathering, Ted Cruz showed up. He was the Solicitor General of Texas. I did not know him, but he’d gone to law school with a friend and several other friends highly recommended him. He stood on stage to speak along with another guy named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)[82%]. Both of them dazzled the crowd in Atlanta. They both got repeated standing ovations. They both took questions from the crowd and never made a misstep. I hope they will both return to Atlanta this...

Conservatives are seething after an outside group aligned with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars targeting a trio of Republican lawmakers over threats to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. Tea Party Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) equated the attack ads to GOP “cannibalism,” while his conservative colleague Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) called them a “stupid” tactic that would backfire. American Action Network, a nonprofit whose board includes former Boehner chief of staff Barry Jackson, launched the $300,000 ad campaign earlier this month with TV spots depicting terrorists and accusing GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Tim...

An online communications strategist working for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) campaign-in-waiting resigned late Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, after controversy erupted over disparaging comments she had made disparaging comments about Iowa?

Sometimes the most inside-baseball political stories tell you something essential about a presidential candidate. That's what happened this week to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who apparently wants to win the Iowa caucuses so badly that he's willing to torch his staff and his reputation to do it. The Walker campaign recently announced that it had hired Liz Mair, a highly regarded Republican consultant. Mair has also played pundit at times, and is generally more pro-gay rights and pro-immigration than the average Republican. But that's typical of Republican consultants in general. It is assumed that policy is set by the candidates...

Senator Chuck Grassley has sent two letters to the State Department to ask about Huma Abedin's special government status when she was a government employee--and for information on Abedin's email use while working for the government. Abedin is a close aide to Hillary Clinton, and worked for the consulting firm Teneo (under a special government employee status) while working for Clinton. "I am writing to follow up on inquiries I have been making since June 13, 2013 and August 15, 2013 regarding the State Department’s use of Special Government Employee (SGE) designations, and in particular, what steps the Department took...

Last Friday, I wrote about how the Democrats were putting abortion before helping victims of human trafficking. The Democrats incredible defense was that they had not read the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act to find the language inserted by the GOP relating to abortion. Now, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a Democrat from Minnesota and the bill’s leading Democratic sponsor, admits that it was her staff, not the Republicans, who should be blamed for the scuttling of the bill. Per the Daily Caller; Klobuchar admitted Tuesday one of her staffers did see the language weeks ago. The staffer “had seen...

The Democratic Party is the Party of Slavery. They are the party that decided to secede from the Union. They are the party that started a Civil War over the right to treat people as property. They are the party that, once their side lost the war, set up structures to keep American citizens from exercising their civil rights. And now, 150 years after the Civil War, the Democratic Party is at it again. Republicans were leading a bipartisan effort to stop slavery around the world. Human trafficking is a terrible issue. It affects children in this country and women...

Militant feminazi Liz Mair was forced to resign from the Scott Walker campaign Tuesday after Mair’s radical pro-amnesty, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion views went viral… (SNIP) "She is very good at her job. She is also a friend of mine. I have known Liz for a number of years…I am very saddened to see an organized effort by conservatives to have Governor Walker fire Liz Mair…it is really appalling to see self-described Christians showing as little grace." (SNIP) Even after two autopsies, a toxicology report, surveillance footage, and additional witness testimony called into question his initial reading of events– Erickson refused...

Last week, Jeb Bush was in New Hampshire, pressing on with his sordid campaign to delude conservatives into swallowing Common Core and massive, unfettered immigration policies. He has fashioned himself a champion of the American worker, even as he pompously pushes Gang of Eight amnesty as the “adult” plan in the room. And he has fashioned himself a champion of “school choice,” even as he zealously crusades for failed Fed Ed rackets and data-mining schemes masquerading as “higher standards.” The condescending Bush attitude is familiar to grass-roots activists and parents in Florida and across the country who have fought Club...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made another massive misstep on Monday, hiring Liz Mair of Mair Strategies to handle communications and social media for his campaign-in-waiting. Mair’s support for amnesty for illegal aliens, wide-open-borders immigration policies, and public advocacy for the Senate “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill is sure to dog Walker in Iowa, South Carolina, and other early presidential states. During the Senate Gang of Eight bill fight, Mair very publicly and very aggressively promoted the amnesty bill—pushing it to media and making the case for the need for it over and over again. She claims her advocacy was done...

A so-called “war on the American worker” has intensified in the Golden State. Massive layoffs are being spearheaded by the multi-billion dollar Southern California Edison utilities company, which is terminating scores of American IT workers and replacing them with immigrant IT workers, from a slew of foreign counties, who are willing to work for far less compensation. These immigrants are in the U.S. on an H-1B visa program. “We don’t need foreign workers. We have plenty of Americans who are fully capable and equipped to carry out these jobs. It’s an absolute issue of corporate greed; nothing more nothing less,”...

MADISON (WKOW) -- Two executives who run a Texas-based sand mining company - which paid $52,500 in fines to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in 2014 - are major backers of Gov. Scott Walker's political action committee Our American Revival (OAR), according to CNN. In an article detailing several big money donors published on Monday, CNN lists Bob Rasmus and James Whipkey - who run Hi-Crush Partners - as two of OAR's major supporters in Texas. In August of 2014, 27 News reported the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered Hi-Crush Partners to pay $52,500 in July for...

DES MOINES, Iowa—Bill Clinton had a strategy when he faced the kind of difficult moment his wife is enduring now. He would throw himself into campaigning or his work. Let the press and his partisan pursuers bleat, he was going to return to important issues. By engaging in a flurry of activity, he showed voters that no matter what the odds, he would work for them. “I’ll never forget who gave me a second chance,” he famously said during the 1992 New Hampshire primary, when he came back from what seemed like an impossible deficit, “and I’ll be there for...