Free Republic

Gov. Bevin responds to question concerning his stance on school violence.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The U.S. Senate's top leader said Monday he wants to bring agricultural hemp production back into the national mainstream by removing it from the list of controlled substances. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a group of hemp advocates in his home state of Kentucky that he will introduce legislation to legalize the crop as an agricultural commodity. The versatile crop has been grown on an experimental basis in a number of states in recent years. "I believe hemp has a bright future in our state," McConnell said. "It's now time to take the final step and...

GOP Senator Rand Paul publicly announced his total opposition to President Trump’s nominees to head the State Department and the CIA on Wednesday; saying he’s “going to do everything” he can to block them from office. According to Politico, the outspoken Senator revealed his intentions while speaking with reporters at the US Capitol, saying people “complain sometimes about the filibuster” but added he plans to use the procedural maneuver to derail the nomination process. “People complain sometimes about the filibuster, they complain about trying to obstruct… “I’m going to do everything I can to block them,” said Paul. “I’m perplexed...

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he thinks President Trump’s picks to lead the State Department and CIA will make it through the Senate, despite Sen. Rand Paul’s pledge to try and block the nominees. Mr. Graham said CIA Director Mike Pompeo will make a suitable replacement for Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, since he shares Mr. Trump’s world view — including a tough line against North Korea. “He will get confirmed,” Mr. Graham told CNN’s State of the Union. Mr. Paul, a libertarian-minded Republican from Kentucky, said he fears. Mr. Pompeo is a throwback to Republicans who...

Nearly a week since U.S. President Donald Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul advised against appointing former U.N. Ambassador and White House Chief of Staff John Bolton. Trump’s first choice, retired Navy special forces officer Robert Harward, who served under Defense Secretary John Mattis, turned down the position last week and reports say the White House has ruled out former CIA Director David Petraeus, who was ousted as the nation’s top spy amid a scandal over his sharing confidential documents with his mistress. Flynn resigned last week amid questions on whether he discussed sanctions with...

ATLANTA — The South Regional was supposed to be the Kentucky Invitational, a warm up tournament for the vaunted Wildcats before the team took its rightful place in the Final Four next week in San Antonio. The regional semifinals, after all, were lacking star power and quality. Loyola-Chicago and Nevada were mere upstarts. And Kansas State? It might be a pretty good football school, but it was widely considered the weakest team of the 16 remaining in the N.C.A.A. tournament — so said various pundits and analysts who re-ranked the tournament’s survivors. They brought to Thursday’s matchup a 24-11 record,...

Kentucky’s never-ending saga of pension reform has reached the height of absurdity. Anyone trying to understand Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Owensboro Republican Sen. Joe Bowen, merely by listening to the rhetoric from Kentucky labor unions would walk away with zero understanding of the bill’s contents or the larger issues at hand. You certainly wouldn’t know that even if there was proper funding over the previous 20 years, there would still be a crisis. If you only listened to the rhetoric, you would know nothing of the disastrous structural issues that have left taxpayers footing the bill for a broken...

Governor Bevin didn’t hold anything back while speaking about teachers protesting Senate Bill 1. Bevin was on Campbellsville radio station WVLC Wednesday afternoon, where he said teachers protesting the controversial pension reform was “bizarre,” and compared their protests to protesting food rations during World War II. “It would be like people having mass demonstrations about, ‘no I want my butter, I want my sugar, I’m going to keep all my steel and my rubber and my copper, and to heck with the rest of you people, you better keep giving me mine.’ That’s what it is, it’s the most remarkable...

Democrat Conor Lamb is pounding his Republican opponent Rick Saccone in fundraising ahead of the March 13 special election for a vacant U.S. House seat in a conservative southwestern Pennsylvania district, a contest viewed as a gauge of Republican strength ahead of 2018's midterm elections. The district, covering Pittsburgh's southern suburbs and southwestern Pennsylvania's coal mines, steel plants and gas fields, has long been a Republican stronghold and strongly backed President Donald Trump in 2016. But polls show a tight race and it has emerged as the nation's political hotspot as Lamb tries for an upset. Lamb reported raising more...

The clearest way to get a picture of how well Democrats are doing in 2018 is to go down the list of recent special state legislative elections: * A Florida state legislative district that Donald Trump won by five points, according to data from liberal political blog Daily Kos, is now in the hands of Democrats, who won it by eight points this month. * In January, Democrats flipped a Wisconsin state legislative district that Trump won by 20 points. * A few weeks later, Democrats flipped a Missouri state legislative district that Trump won by nearly 30 points, for...

Turnout numbers from last night’s special election in KY #HD49, which swung 86%pt toward Democrats and flipped a district from red to blue: Total turnout: 25% of 2016 ballots cast Dem.: 74% of 2016 Rep.: 11% of 2016

Linda Belcher (D) wins her KY legislative seat back w/ almost 70%. In 2016, she lost with 49.6%, while Trump won #HD49 with 72% & Rand Paul won it with 64%.

Tonight on #ElectionTwitter, we have a special elex in Kentucky HD49. It's a district shaped like a heart in Bullitt County (south of Louisville). In 2016, Trump (72%) & Rand Paul (64%) easily carried every precinct there, but the incumbent Dem only narrowly lost. #kypol #hd49

A “Kill the NRA” billboard was visible Monday on I-65 in Louisville, Kentucky. The message was spelled out in large, white spray-painted letters on a black billboard bearing the tag, “Resist 45.” The Courier Journal reports that photos come in the wake of the Florida school shooting that has given rise to intense criticism of the NRA. The NRA was made aware of the billboard and responded with a Facebook post: The Courier Journal reports that other billboards tagged “Resist 45” have popped around Louisville in recent months, leveling some degree of criticism toward President Trump. One billboard urged viewers...

"Here’s an image from Kentucky, this morning. To all American gun owners, this is a wakeup call. They’re coming after us. Like and share to spread the word."

A new interview with Mitch McConnell this week showed the first cracks in the wall of his optimism about the midterms. While not going down a path of gloom and doom, he no longer sounds positive of breaking a long-standing trend of the party in power losing ground in such scenarios. He’s not coming out and saying the GOP’s majorities in both chambers are toast, but he seems to think they’ll be losing seats. (The Hill) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says in a new interview that he expects to see GOP majorities in the House and Senate shrink...

WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell said in an interview on Friday afternoon that President Trump should rally behind the Senate candidacy of Mitt Romney despite his blistering criticism in 2016, arguing that Mr. Romney’s potent bid was an illustration of the Republican Party’s improving fortunes entering a challenging midterm campaign. “I can’t imagine that he’s not,” Mr. McConnell said when asked whether Mr. Trump was comfortable with Mr. Romney, who on Friday made official his long-expected candidacy for a Senate seat from Utah. “We don’t want to lose the seat, and this looks like a pretty formidable candidate.” Mr. McConnell,...

House GOP leaders are forging ahead with their own hardline immigration bill, as the Senate threw in the towel Thursday on legislation to protect hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants from deportation. The main author of the House bill, Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), said Thursday that he’s building support for his measure, even as other GOP colleagues said an initial vote tally this week was well below the 218 votes needed to pass the bill. Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) “instructions to me are ‘get this bill done,’ and we’re working hard to accomplish that,” Goodlatte said in an...

The Schumer-Rounds-Collins immigration bill would be a total catastrophe. @DHSgov says it would be “the end of immigration enforcement in America.” It creates a giant amnesty (including for dangerous criminals), doesn’t build the wall, expands chain migration, keeps the visa... lottery, continues deadly catch-and-release, and bars enforcement even for FUTURE illegal immigrants. Voting for this amendment would be a vote AGAINST law enforcement, and a vote FOR open borders. If Dems are actually serious about DACA, they should support the Grassley bill!

The Senate shot down Sen. John McCain’s latest immigration legalization proposal Thursday as lawmakers finally began their long-awaited floor fight over the fate of “Dreamers.” Mr. McCain and Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, had proposed an amnesty for perhaps 3 million illegal immigrants in exchange for a study of border security and a promise of action by 2021. But the plan had been rejected by President Trump and garnered only 52 votes in support, which was well shy of the 60 senators had set as the needed threshold for action. Votes were expected in quick succession on a plan to...