Free Republic

Your tax dollars -and international credibility- pissed-away on ISIS Then there's this one ISIS just posted on their website: The guy in the mustache/striped shirt posting with McCain isGeneral Salim Idris, who was the Free Syrian Army's Chief of Staff at the time.  An East German-trained electronics professor, he was a general in the Syrian Army under Assad when he defected to the rebels in July 2012. Idris was thought by McCain to represent the moderate elements of Syria's armed opposition, who subscribed to the pro-democracy Proclamation of Principles. But ISIS kicked him -and other 'moderates'- out and went on the savage offensive...

Not the near future, necessarily, just “the future,” so if you’re taking this as a hint that she’s ready to shock the field by jumping into the 2016 race, readjust your expectations. If Cruz weren’t in the race she could try to fill the tea-party niche; even if she ended up losing, she might pull enough votes to re-establish herself as an electoral force within the party, the way she was circa 2009 as the GOP’s unrivaled grassroots conservative superstar. But Cruz will be in the race, almost certainly, and Palin will just as certainly end up supporting him. Besides,...

The left-wing National Journal ran a piece on Sunday making the argument that the Evangelical choice for 2016 has already been narrowed down to a choice between Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The National Journal is right. Evangelical and pro-family leaders realize that if America is to be reclaimed, conservatives cannot wait to let the filed sort itself out as we did in 2008 and 2012. It is close to midnight in America, and we simply do not have time to think about waiting until 2020. there may be little left of our country to save...

There are several debates when it comes to Barack Obama. One has to do with whether he is more Marxist or more Muslim. The answer may involve his usage of one to promote the elevation of the other ... Though Brzezinski rightly expressed concerns that the ‘Arab Spring’ could turn into the ‘Arab Winter’, he essentially advocated a repeat of his 1979 Afghanistan strategy in Libya ... After Gadhafi was overthrown, four Americans were murdered in Benghazi and the U.S. abandoned its embassy in Tripoli. Those of us with much less worldly experience knew it was a bad idea. How...

Senator John McCain 241 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 Dear Senator McCain: This letter is being sent to you on behalf of the Qatar Awareness Campaign Coalition. The purpose is to inform you and the public of the activities of Qatar. In light of your unwavering support for the Arab Spring, it is important to weigh your concerns for "democracy" against empowering the nation’s enemies. The State of Qatar was a consistent advocate for the Arab Spring, precisely because they are the home of the terrorist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. Before even President Obama, reacting to events in...

Nicolle Wallace, former Communications Director for President George W. Bush and current co-host of the View, appeared on the syndicated show Wendy Wednesday afternoon to talk about her new gig as well as her career in Republican politics. During the interview, Wallace, who spends much of her time criticizing her fellow Republicans, endorsed the idea of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2016. The former Bush staffer declared that she was a “huge fan of the idea of a Hillary Clinton candidacy.”

Meghan McCain might change a few words around, but she's not too worried about how her criticisms of Sarah Palin have aged over the past few years. In an interview with Politico, the TV show host and daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) stood by her remarks against her father's onetime running mate. “You know Sarah Palin, some of the stuff I said, again I would maybe term differently,” McCain said. “But I think the criticism I have said of her is fair." In her 2010 memoir, "Dirty Sexy Politics," McCain wrote that Palin's selection as the vice presidential candidate...

Arizona Sen. John McCain is expecting a low voter turnout in next month's midterm elections because he says voters are skeptical of both the Obama administration and the Republican Party. “What I’m hearing from my pollster friends is that people don’t like Republicans and they don’t like Obama," McCain said in an interview on Pivot's "TakePart Live," a show co-hosted by his daughter, Meghan McCain. "And they're very, very turned off. And I’m afraid we are going to see a very low voter turnout in this election, and that’s not healthy for, obviously, any of us.” According to the latest...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Meghan McCain, always outspoken, says she’s got one big regret — calling Rep. Michele Bachmann a “poor man’s Sarah Palin.” “That’s the one if I could take it back I would, because I just think it’s so linear and so nasty,” McCain said in an interview with POLITICO. “And I’m not a big fan of attacking another woman anymore.” The two are now friends, and the congresswoman has even appeared on McCain’s show, “Take Part Live” on the Pivot Network. “It’s so crazy … she’s not the type of person you’d think I connect with,” McCain added. “It’s just with...

A still from an ad by Tom Cotton, a Republican challenging Senator Mark Pryor in Arkansas.One ad in the Kansas race for Senate depicts shadowy men climbing a barbed-wire fence as a narrator warns that “illegal immigration is threatening our communities and taking jobs away from Kansans who need them.” Scott Brown, the former Massachusetts senator running for Senate in New Hampshire, has run three border security ads, and cautioned that a “porous” border poses an Ebola threat. And in Texas, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor produced an ad showing a caravan of Middle Easterners waving flags and brandishing...

The daughter of former Republican presidential candidate John McCain has celebrated equal marriage arriving in the family’s home state of Arizona. A judge struck down the Arizona’s same-sex marriage ban yesterday, and the state’s attorney general declined to appeal – allowing marriages to begin immediately. Meghan McCain – the daughter of the 2008 Presidential candidate, who had anti-gay Sarah Palin as his running mate – was jubilant at the news. The rights activist – who sits on the board of rights charity GLAAD despite her father’s opposition to equal marriage – tweeted: “Marriage equality is now legal in my home...

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) said he was "disappointed" after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary and resigned because it was a loss for the state's congressional leadership. "As governor, I had the Majority Leader and, potentially, the Speaker of the United States of America as a member of my congressional delegation," McAuliffe told radio host John Catsimatidis in an interview to air Sunday on New York's 970 AM. "Personally, I was disappointed that Eric lost." SNIP When Catsimatidis told the governor that some people blamed him for Cantor's stunning defeat, McAuliffe said he's not at fault.

The owners of a suburban Phoenix dog-boarding kennel and two caretakers, one of them the son of U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, were indicted on animal cruelty charges on Wednesday after the deaths of 21 dogs at the facility in June, county prosecutors said. A state grand jury indicted kennel owners Jesse Todd Hughes and Maleisia Hughes each with 22 felony and seven misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and one count of fraud for the incident inside a cramped room at the Green Acre boarding facility, prosecutors said.

Well-known Wedding Crashers star John McCain seems excited that a sequel to comedy classic Dumb and Dumber is finally coming out this fall -- based on this hashtag and exclamation-point-dotted tweet he sent out Wednesday, at least. Fellow film star Mitt Romney has also seemed intent on getting everyone excited about Dumb and Dumber To. On his frequent media appearances -- sometimes it feels like Matthew McConaughey is the only person getting more attention than Romney! -- he is often prone to quoting Jim Carrey.

John McCain bursts out of the cloakroom and onto the Senate floor. His face red, he rips off his glasses and gets ready to pound a table. Senator Hothead is mad. Again. "He just comes out and blows up every once in a while," says a congressional correspondent, who didn't want to be named. "You can almost see the steam coming out of his ears." (SNIP) STROM THURMOND In January 1995, McCain was midway through an opening statement at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing when chairman Strom Thurmond asked, "Is the senator about through?" McCain glared at Thurmond, thanked...

Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) daughter said on Wednesday that her father and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) "hate each other." Meghan McCain appeared on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show to promote her “TakePart Live” talk show on Pivot TV. When Stern asked the 29-year-old what her father thinks of the Tea Party favorite, she quickly replied, “They hate each other.” She repeated the sentiment before wondering aloud if it had previously been publicly disclosed. “In a fistfight, I’m pretty sure your dad can kick [Paul’s] ass,” Stern quipped to McCain. “Yeah,” the Vietnam War veteran’s daughter said, “My father’s 76 years...

Sen. John McCain suggested Sunday that President Obama should nominate an Ebola czar to lead the nation’s response to the deadly virus. “From spending time here in Arizona, my constituents are not comforted. There has to be more reassurance given to them,” the Arizona Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The presidential election is two years distant, but that hasn’t stopped some in the GOP from already deciding who would make “acceptable” Republican candidates and who would not, based on their perceived degree of fidelity to conservative principles. The arbiters have all but hung a sign in the 2016 window of opportunity that reads, NO RINOS NEED APPLY. It seems almost unconscionable for this assessment to be ballyhooed even as we find ourselves in the midst of a crucial election to determine the leadership of the U.S. Senate, and the direction of America’s future. Certainly, this would seem to be...

Syrians are already asking why we’re bombing ISIS but not stopping Assad’s attacks on them. Good question. The airstrikes and other actions President Obama is taking against Islamic State deserve bipartisan support. They are beginning to degrade the terrorist group, also known as ISIS, but will not destroy it, for one reason above all: The administration still has no effective policy to remove Bashar Assad from power and end the conflict in Syria. Administration officials have called their approach “ISIS first.” As for Mr. Assad, in the words of Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the administration will...