Free Republic

Some church leaders in Kentucky say guns can be an effective way to beef up the flock. Organizers of a Baptist church convention said it will use guns giveaways across the state to attract nonbelievers who are more prone to go duck hunting than sit in a church pew, The Courier-Journal reported. The goal of the Kentucky Baptist Convention's "Second Amendment Celebrations" is to "point people to Christ," the report said.

On Saturday, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference by a landslide for the second consecutive year. Conservative firebrand Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came in second, but he actually gained the most ground of any candidate year-over-year. On Sunday, Cruz began making a play to draw foreign policy distinctions between himself and Paul, both of whom are considered two of the GOP's top presidential prospects. "I'm a big fan of Rand Paul. He and I are good friends," Cruz said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday. "I don't agree with him on foreign...

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell walked onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week holding a flintlock musket over his head has seemed to give ammunition to Democrats and McConnell’s Republican primary foe. Both U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, Kentucky’s lone Democratic Congressman, and GOP U.S. Senate challenger Matt Bevin have sought to declare the moment a gaffe. Calling McConnell’s entrance “pathetic,” Yarmuth tried to add a political and historical interpretation of the moment. “If you had a caption that you would run under that picture it would just say desperation,” Yarmuth said of McConnell. “He understandably feels like...

Can conservatives win the battle of ideas and transform America? According to Ted Cruz, the outspoken Texas senator who won with support of the Tea Party in 2012, it’s possible.At a breakfast hosted by Politico’s chief White House correspondent Mike Allen last week, Cruz laid out four ways he thinks conservatives can win.1. Continue to fight against Obamacare.“The reason the Obamacare issue has such potency is because it’s real. Millions of people are hurt by this, and there is not a trip that I take back to Texas where I don’t run into at least one person, if not several,...

(NEW YORK) -- It may be the opening salvo of the 2016 Republican primary. During an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl for This Week, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a friend, but drew a distinction between himself and the Kentucky senator on foreign policy, saying the U.S. “has a responsibility to defend our values.� “I’m a big fan of Rand Paul. He and I are good friends. But I don’t agree with him on foreign policy,� Cruz said. “I think U.S. leadership is critical in the world. And I agree with him that...

Just a link to a poll currently running on the front page, center, of the Drudgereport.

Sen. Rand Paul demolished his competition in the 2014 Washington Times/CPAC presidential preference straw poll on Saturday, winning 31 percent of the vote -- nearly three times the total of second-place Sen. Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz's 11 percent was still a big improvement for the freshman senator, who won just 4 percent in last year's straw poll. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson was third with 9 percent and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was fourth with 8 percent in results that signal growing discontent with the GOP establishment in Washington. Indeed, CPAC voters now have an unfavorable view of Republicans in Congress,...

<p>FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- A contentious Kentucky bill that would enact a statewide ban on smoking in shared public spaces and places of employment is dead, the sponsor says.</p>

Pro-life leaders have noticed that not a single panel or specific speaker on life issues has been scheduled for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which is supposed to be the preeminent annual gathering of conservatives in America. Pro-lifers note there are important panels on the IRS scandal, immigration, Common Core, privacy, gun control, and criminal justice reform--issues in which pro-lifers would be keenly interested. Pro-lifers generally pride themselves on being “full spectrum conservatives”; that is, supporters of the three-legged stool: economics, national security, and moral issues. So they would not complain about panels covering these issues. But they note...

There are things you expect to see at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and there are things you don't. One of the things you probably don't is an audience cheering and applauding arguments for legalizing pot and bemoaning the war on drugs. A panel titled "Rocky Mountain High" held Thursday afternoon started out as a debate between Mary Katherine Ham of Fox and Hot Air and Christopher Beach a staffer for former Drug Czar William Bennett's radio show. But as the debate wore on it became clear the real disagreement was between Beach and the overwhelming majority of the...

The Republican Party needs to broaden its appeal by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war," U.S. Sen. Rand Paul told hundreds of Greater Cincinnati Republicans Saturday. "We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue," the Kentucky Republican said at the Northeast Hamilton County Republican Club's annual pancake breakfast at the Sharonville Convention Center. To help the party rebound from two successive losses in presidential races, Republicans must find...

Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul told community leaders in West Louisville on Monday that he will be stepping his call for federal reforms to criminal sentencing and pledging to support a state effort to restore felon voting rights. Paul has been talking about the concept of reforms to mandatory minimums for several months, saying someone should not have to lose their rights for life for a youthful mistake. But while appearing at a town-hall-like event at the Plymouth Community Renewal Center in West Louisville, Paul added a new layer to his argument saying that felon voting rights should be restored....

Republican Sen. Rand Paul says President Barack Obama’s health care law probably can't be defeated or gotten rid of. And he’s suggesting there is little he and other congressional Republicans can do to stop the law from taking effect. …

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (AP) — Republican Sen. Rand Paul says President Barack Obama's health care law probably can't be defeated or gotten rid of. And he's suggesting there are few ways and little time for him and other congressional Republicans to stop it. Speaking to reporters Saturday at a gathering of Michigan Republicans, the presidential prospect said Republicans in Congress could use votes on measures in the House and in the Senate to come up with compromise legislation that could make the law more palatable. Some provisions, Paul said, include removing caps on health savings account contributions or deductibles for...

Spoiler alert: He’ll let us down. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell promised a ballroom full of activists Thursday that he would fight “tooth and nail” for a conservative agenda if he takes the helm of a Republican majority next year…“If I’m given the opportunity to lead the United States Senate next year, I won’t let you down,” McConnell said. “I will lead with integrity, we will fight tooth and nail for conservative reforms that put this country back on track, we will debate our ideas openly, we will vote without fear, and we will govern with the understanding that the...

Opening a door to hedge his political bets, Sen. Rand Paul has asked the leader of the Kentucky Senate for legislation to ensure that Mr. Paul can run both for the White House and for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2016, The Washington Times has learned. “Yes, I am working on clarifying an ambiguous state law that Rand Paul believes is unconstitutional if it is interpreted to bar running for re-election to the Senate and for president at the same time,” Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer told The Times on Monday. “The purpose of the bill will be...

As he looks ahead to the possibility of leading the Senate, Mr. McConnell is promising a more open floor, with senators from both parties able to offer amendments. He says committees would be given more independence and authority to advance legislation. While he would not commit to reversing the limit Democrats put on filibustering White House nominees last November, he said the idea would be on the table if Republicans took charge. “If the American people give us the opportunity to put the Senate under new management, it is an appropriate discussion at that time for the new team that...

The familiar Washington narrative on the scrum for the U.S. Senate has been rinsed, recycled and delivered once again: Republicans are primed to pick up the six seats necessary to capture control of the upper chamber. The midterm atmosphere sure looks ripe, the polling appears favorable but, as it did in 2010 and 2012, the most competitive batch of races will likely come down to candidate quality. It’s the key component that stifled GOP chances before, and could very well again. .... .... A closer look at the most competitive contests demonstrates why a Senate majority in 2014 is again...

And now, for your Louisville moment of the day: Sharieff Rhaheed-Muhammed, a 2014 linebacker who signed with Louisville, was arrested yesterday for impregnating his 14-year-old cousin.Fort Pierce, Florida police discovered the two had sex after the teenage girl gave her mom a positive pregnancy test and admitted what happened. She told police that Rhaheed-Muhammed didn’t force himself on her and that the sex “just happened,� and that he later tried again, but she refused. She had an abortion in November, and tests confirm that Rhaheed-Muhammaed is the father.Rhaheed-Muhammaed was arrested on a felony charge of lewd lascivious behavior yesterday, and...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky judge has finalized the adoption of a 28-year-old man by a woman who was legally married to his mother in Massachusetts, the first step-parent adoption by a member of a same-sex couple in Fayette County and possibly the state following a federal court ruling.

Who’s likely to do well in New Hampshire’s 2016 first-in-the-nation presidential primary? It’s a preposterous question, here in 2014, but what the heck? We asked six experts to weigh in on some of the biggest political players. Our analysts are Wayne Lesperance, political science professor at New England College; Phil Boynton, president of the University of New Hampshire College Republicans; Peter Burling, Democratic national committeeman; Dante Scala, professor of political science at UNH; Jess Steever, vice president of the Plymouth State University Democrats; and Brandon Lemay, public relations officer for the PSU Democrats. Today, our panelists consider the Republicans. Tomorrow,...

We dealt with Harry Reid's contemptible Obamacare comments yesterday, then followed-up by cataloguing the many ways in which his casual "all of them are untrue" smear was offensively false. On Twitter, I vented exasperation at the mainstream media -- which predictably overlooked the remarks -- and at the Republican Party, which seemed incapable of turning Reid's callous attack into a major political headache for Democrats: How is it possible that the RNC/NRSC/NRCC/RGA haven't yet produced an instant attack ad re: @SenatorReid's flaming #Obamacare lie? — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 26, 2014 Some Senate Republicans did emerge to challenge Reid,...

I just came back from the a trip to the Mail Box. One of the items was a single page letter With words FRAUD ALERT in BIG bold letters across it. It turned out to be a piece of directed political crap from the McConnell campaign aimed at Bevin. It had five points on it with a link to the website www.bailoutbevin.com. For those of you who lurk and are with the McConnell campaign; bad form gentlemen, bad form. In fact I will be sending in a donation to Mr. Bevin's campaign based solely on this letter/screed. On the other...

A federal judge on Thursday signed an order directing officials in Kentucky to immediately recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and countries. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II issued a final order throwing out part of the state’s ban on gay marriages. It makes official his Feb. 12 ruling that Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriages treated “gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them.” Same-sex couples may change their names on official identifications and documents and obtain any other benefits of a married couple in Kentucky. The order doesn’t affect a related lawsuit seeking to...

Alison Lundergan Grimes won't be showing Southern hospitality to President Obama. The Kentucky Democrat says she doesn't need the President to help out in her bid for the U.S. Senate, as she tries to distance herself from his unpopular health care reform. “I speak for myself. I don't need any other surrogate to do that,” she announced Monday in a MSNBC interview with Kasie Hunt, when asked if the President would be joining her on the campaign trail.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- With lots of room for growth, the Jefferson County Republican Party is aiming to widen its appeal to people of different ethnic and economic backgrounds. The GOP's "Party for the Party" event on Friday, Feb. 21, not only brings together five-term incumbent Mitch McConnell with Tea Party favorite Rand Paul, but as WHAS11’s Political Editor Joe Arnold reports highlights Paul's outreach to black voters.

There’s a good chance you’re somewhere between dismayed and disgusted by the guileless, spineless cravens at the helm of our Grand Old Party. And for good reason. They’ve aided and abetted America’s bankruptcy. They’ve spent the tax revenue yet to be collected from your grandchildren. They complained publicly about the Affordable Care Act, but, procedurally, they’ve helped implement Obamacare. Most recently, our Republican leadership abandoned their duty to mind the federal purse strings. Now, President Obama can raise the debt ceiling at will. But as reckless, deficient and madcap as Republican leadership has been up to this point, all of...

EMINENCE — At the same time U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell toured Eastern Kentucky lauding his work on the passage of the Farm Bill, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee told a crowd in Henry County that she forgot McConnell was even on the committee. “Now, the reason that I had forgotten that is because he has never attended a meeting in the three years I have chaired the committee,” U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan. Stabenow stumped for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky farm country Monday afternoon and later at a town-hall style meeting in...

full headline (too long for the title): Bevin offers different explanations of his signature on 2008 report; Responds to Paul's credibility comment FRANKFORT — Dogged for a week about a 2008 report he signed that praised the bank bailout, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Matt Bevin offered reporters at the state capitol Tuesday different explanations about how his signature got on the report. Since the news broke last week Bevin has struggled explaining why he signed off on the company report — and those explanations continued on Tuesday. Bevin told CNHI reporter Ronnie Ellis that his signature was digitally placed on...

Bojangles Blanchard, an ordained Baptist minister in Louisville, Ky., says denying same-sex couples the benefits of marriage treats them as second-class citizens. A Kentucky Baptist minister and gay-rights activist filed a lawsuit Feb. 14 claiming the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Maurice “Bojangles” Blanchard — who with his partner, Dominique James, was fined 1 cent for trespassing in November for refusing to leave a county clerk’s office after being told they could not apply for a marriage license — asked U.S. District Judge John Heyburn to build on his finding two days earlier that Kentucky must recognize same-sex...

The snake-handling pastor starring on the reality show "Snake Salvation," has died from a snake bite, according to Middlesboro Police. Police believe Jamie Coots died after a rattlesnake bit his right hand during a church service Saturday night. Coots was found dead in his home about 10 p.m. after refusing medical help, according to police. "The snake that bit him, we've been carrying it for four months. It's been carried hundreds of times and handled at all kinds of times," said Cody Coots, Coots' son. "When it's your time to go. It's just your time to go. " Coots was...

The United Kentucky Tea Party on Monday said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell should drop out of the Republican primary in their state so conservatives can rally around Matt Bevin, the GOP candidate who is challenging Mr. McConnell from the political right. The tea party group cited Mr. McConnell’s dramatic vote last week to extend the nation’s debt limit and polling that suggests he could lose to the eventual Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, in the general election. “Senator McConnell’s recent vote with [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid to hand President Obama a blank check for the next year has...

WASHINGTON -- Long-shot Republican Senatorial candidate Rob Maness says he would not vote to re-elect Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican leader if he wins and McConnell survives a tough re-election challenge. "Sen. McConnell is a failed leader and it's time for a new perspective and for new leadership," Maness said Monday. "The time has come to stop routinely returning senators to leadership positions. We need a leader in the Senate who will stand up to President (Barack) Obama and Sen. (Mary) Landrieu and their harmful policies." If Democrats continue as the majority party in the Senate after the 2014 elections,...

LEBURN[Ky.] — Agriculture Commissioner James Comer on Monday announced the first five pilot programs to grow hemp in Kentucky as part of the foundation of his economic development plan for Eastern Kentucky. “Hemp will go into the ground for the first time in Kentucky since World War II,” Comer told several hundred people at the Knott County Sportsplex along Highway 80. That includes a project to research cannabinoids for medicinal purposes at an Eastern Kentucky site overseen by the University of Kentucky. Comer made the announcement with both Republican U.S. senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, as well as Democratic...

Andy Beshear, the first Democratic candidate to announce for attorney general in 2015, will raise money in Louisville on Feb. 25 — hours after Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes’ event with former President Bill Clinton. Grimes and Clinton will be appearing at the Louisville’s Galt House for a fundraiser at 11 a.m. The campaign manager for Beshear, a Louisville lawyer and the son of [Ky.]Gov. Steve Beshear, said in response to questions from Pure Politics that the Beshear fundraiser was “scheduled several months ago” and will start five hours after the Grimes event ends. Jared Smith, Beshear’s campaign...

In 2010, one out of every two registered Republicans in the heart of southern Kentucky’s “Old 5th” congressional district came out to vote. A contiguous bloc of 14 counties in southern Kentucky boasted the most fertile and efficient ground for gathering Republican votes in that year’s primary. Those counties (see chart below) had slightly fewer registered Republicans than the 157,000 in Jefferson County, the state’s largest county. The 14-county region has less than half the population of Jefferson County. Yet, it turned out 78,200 Republicans in that spring’s primary compared to 50,449 in Jefferson County. A big reason: scores of...

Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn say they put the country first. The debt ceiling needed to be raised. Ted Cruz opposed raising it. So McConnell and Cornyn voted to shut down Ted Cruz. They voted to cut off debate on raising the debt ceiling so that it could be raised. McConnell and Cornyn have both been very clear about this. John Cornyn told the Austin American-Statesman “I think it would have been bad for the economy, bad for the American people, and I don’t think it would have been good politics either.” Mitch McConnell declared it his job to...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/02/15/president-election-2016-hillary-clinton-column/5340999/

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he voted to advance a clean debt-ceiling bill this week because his job is “to protect the country” when he can. The Republican leader said at a Friday campaign event in Louisville, Ky., that he has long preferred making structural changes to fiscal policy as a condition to raising the debt ceiling. But given that the House could pass only a clean debt ceiling — every policy rider Speaker John Boehner tried to attach failed to garner sufficient support — McConnell said he was left with one option: Avoid economic catastrophe. McConnell and most...

Some within the Tea Party are furious over the decision by Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to help shepherd the passage of the debt ceiling increase earlier this week. Both McConnell and Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tx.) have come under fire -- with national conservative groups slamming McConnell and one of Cornyn's primary challengers, Rep. Steve Stockman, sending a colorful tweet criticizing the incumbent Thursday night. But, just when you thought you had seen it all comes this ad via Dwayne Stovall, who is also challenging Cornyn in the Texas primary.

Similar to last week’s lackluster result from Survey USA. Unless Bevin catches fire, looks like the best-case scenario for the GOP is an exhausting dogfight to the bitter end between McConnell and Grimes that sucks in untold millions of establishment dollars aimed at protecting the Senate minority leader. Again — that’s the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario, that that dogfight ends in decisive defeat, comes from Sean Davis: To put Wenzel's data in perspective, it had Thompson in WI (lost by 5), Mandel in OH, (lost by 5), Romney in OH (lost by 2).— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 14, 2014...

LOUISVILLE, KY, February 12, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A judicial ruling that Kentucky must recognize same-sex "marriages" conducted in other nations or U.S. states may spell more trouble for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II offered a strongly worded rebuke to tradition and religion on Wednesday, saying the state amendment -- which was approved by three-quarters of state voters -- "demeans" homosexuals. The Madison Project, a national grassroots organization that favors traditional marriage, noted that President George H.W. Bush appointed Heyburn to the bench in the early 1990s following a recommendation “from Senator Mitch McConnell...

We received a call at 5:44am from our security company alerting us of our motion detectors going off in our Skydome area of the Museum. Upon arrival it was discovered that a sinkhole had collapsed within the Museum. No one was in or around the Museum at the time. The Bowling Green Fire Department arrived on the scene and secured the area. The Fire Department has estimated the size of the hole is 40 feet across and 25-30 feet deep. It is with heavy hearts that we report that eight Corvettes were affected by this incident. Those cars include: -1993...

The following Republicans voted Tuesday to raise the government's borrowing limit: John Boehner, R-Ohio. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy,R-Calif. Chief Deputy Whip Pete Roskam, R-Ill. Ken Calvert, R-Calif. Dave Camp, R-Mich. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Hal Rogers, R-Ky. Dave Reichert, R-Wash. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. Howard Coble, R-N.C. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. Pete King, R-N.Y. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J. Buck McKeon, R-Calif. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa. Gary Miller, R-Calif. Ed Royce, R-Calif. John Runyan, R-N.J. John Shimkus, R-Ill. Chris Smith, R-N.J. David Valadao, R-Calif. Frank Wolf,...

<p>"Rand made this decision before I was in the race. That's his opinion. Rand is one vote. Rand will vote one time," Bevin told reporters at a gathering in Washington at the headquarters of Freedomworks, a tea party group backing his candidacy.</p>

As Ramesh points out below, Kentucky Senate candidate Matt Bevin's campaign is claiming that he has consistently opposed the Troubled Asset Relief Program, drawing a contrast with Mitch McConnell, who has defended his role in passing the emergency bailout legislation. This is despite the fact that, as president of an investment firm in 2008, he signed a letter along with the firm's chief investment officer that says the following: Most of the positive developments have been government led, such as the effective nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the passage of the $700 billion TARP (don't call it a...

On Saturday, Glenn Beck conducted an interview with Rand Paul for the Blaze. When Beck asked the Kentucky senator why he endorsed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who's facing a tough reelection fight this year, Paul couldn't come up with much of an answer. "Can we start with the hardest question that I have for you," Beck says in the video first published by Talking Points Memo. "Why are you endorsing Mitch McConnell?" After a few moments of silence, Paul answered, "Um, I'm here in Texas today to endorse Don Huffines!" Huffines is a conservative running for the Texas Senate...

Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican Party in the U.S. Senate, has low ratings among voters in his native Kentucky, according to a survey released Wednesday by Public Policy Polling. According to PPP, 37 percent approve of McConnell's performance as a senator, and 51 disapprove. He has a one point lead, 45-44, over possible Democratic contender Alison Lundergan Grimes. Since the estimated margin of error for the survey is plus or minus about four percentage points, the senate race is essentially even.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., delivered a stark demographic warning to his party on Saturday, predicting that Texas – a sizable electoral prize that Republicans cannot afford to lose in national elections – may tilt Democratic within 10 years if the GOP doesn’t broaden its appeal. “What I do believe is Texas is going to be a Democrat state within 10 years if we don’t change,” Paul told the Harris County Republican Party on Saturday, according to Politico. “That means we evolve, it doesn’t mean we give up on what we believe in, but it means we have to be a...

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul asked for some advice from Texas GOP rising star George P. Bush on how to reach out to Hispanic voters — and got a simple recommendation: Show up, Politico reported. “Really I wanted to get advice from him, as much as anything, about how the party grows in Texas and states with large Hispanic populations,” Paul, who's considered a possible GOP candidate for president in 2016, said after stumping for a state senate candidate in Dallas. Bush, whose mother is from Mexico, has pushed for expanding the GOP reach to Hispanics. Paul said Bush recommended...