Free Republic

Despite their victory in the huge fight over amnesty for illegal immigrants in 2007, conservatives can’t rest easy: it’s all about to happen all over again. The Democrats’ (and RINO Republicans’) push for “comprehensive immigration reform” has returned and will be a major issue this year, and perhaps next year as well if the pro-amnesty groups don’t get their way. Whether Barack Obama wants to risk another public backlash over such a comprehensive effort early in his first term -- knowing that polls indicate the large majority of Americans oppose illegal immigration -- is a big question mark. But we...

As President-Elect Obama readies his ascent to the White House less than two weeks from now, it appears that his political acumen extends not only to those in all parts of the Democratic party, but in no small part to Senator John McCain as well. Just three short months ago we were inundated with McCain's talk of Bill Ayres and 'That One,' but an easy détente appears to have developed between the former rivals. To that end, President-Elect Obama has committed four distinct acts that telegraph his political savvy when it comes to Senator McCain.. . . . .With Napolitano...

MANASSAS, Va., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday afternoon, Senator and former presidential hopeful, John McCain, announced the creation of his new grassroots organization named "Country First." Commenting on the new organization, ConservativeHQ.com Chairman Richard Viguerie stated, "Senator John McCain is a General without an army. He's attempting to lead but he has no followers because his trumpet does not sound certain." In a message sent to presidential supporters, Senator McCain described the new organization as an effort to "better define our Republican ideals and message, recruit and back, strong, dedicated candidates and continue our efforts to bring real reform...

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The undocumented Irish in the United States were discussed at Shannon airport last night when the Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea TD met former US Republican presidential candidate senator John McCain. After the meeting, Mr O'Dea said: "We met for about 40 minutes and it was very productive and cordial. Senator McCain has committed to raising the issue of the undocumented Irish with president-elect Obama on his return to the US." Mr McCain's aircraft made a refuelling stop at Shannon on his way back to the US after spending the past week on a regional tour with two other members...

Chief Justice William Rehnquist liked to take small groups of Supreme Court law clerks to lunch at the Monocle, an old Capitol Hill watering hole near the Senate. He ordered the same meal every time, a hamburger and a beer. Just as predictably, one of the young clerks would ask the chief justice of the United States for career advice. "Go home," he would say. It was only the mischievous twinkle in Rehnquist's eye that persuaded the listeners not to immediately clean out their desks right after lunch. As the chief justice would explain, the states, not Washington, presented the...

Members of the cultural right have called Juan Hernandez a "border obliteration activist," an "American traitor," and an "agent of the Mexican government." John McCain's presidential campaign called him something different: director of Hispanic outreach. For 14 months leading up to the election, the Fort Worth, Texas, native was a high-level volunteer at McCain '08 headquarters, where he attended daily senior staff meetings and advised the Arizona senator and his top lieutenants about how to appeal to Hispanic voters. Part of that strategy was highlighting McCain's record of championing comprehensive immigration reform. Meanwhile, down the hall, another portion of the...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Democrats say they likely will have a working filibuster-proof majority on key issues that could give early wins for President-elect Barack Obama. Although the number of Democrats remains unknown -- two Senate races are undecided -- vote-counters indicate support from Republican moderates will free up bills such as healthcare reform or immigration reform halted by the current Congress by GOP maneuvering, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Monday. Democrats picked up seven Republican seats in last month's election to add to their majority when the next Congress convenes in January. In the current Congress,...

The late Samuel T. Francis once lamented that Americans don’t have two ideologically distinct parties. Rather we have an evil party (the “liberals”) and a stupid party (the “conservatives”). Occasionally there is a synthesis of evil and stupidity. This is otherwise known as “bipartisanship”. To see the confluence of evil and stupidity at work, check out these remarks by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in an interview with the Detroit Free Press: Q: With more Democrats in the Senate and the House and a Democrat in the White House, how do you see congressional efforts playing out on such issues...

Republican Sen. John McCain made three "big" mistakes while campaigning. Add those to the fact he had to follow in the footsteps of an unpopular president, and the Democrats were almost guaranteed a win Nov. 4, a political analyst said Friday. "It was a very unusual election, and almost all trend lines said it would be a Democratic victory," said Jerry Mayer, associate professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy and director of the master's of public policy program. "It was not your year, Republicans."

Gov. Janet Napolitano's spokeswoman confirmed Thursday that U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Phoenix) called to congratulate her on being the "top contender' for the job of Secretary of Homeland Security in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet. A release put out by McCain Thursday said: "Senator McCain called and congratulated Governor Janet Napolitano on her emergence as top contender for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Senator McCain said 'Governor Napolitano's experience as the former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, Arizona's Attorney General, and as Governor warrants her rapid confirmation by the Senate and I hope she is quickly confirmed.' Senator McCain looks...

MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (CNN) – South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint on Friday became one of the first high-profile Republicans to publicly criticize John McCain following his electoral defeat, blaming the Arizona senator for betraying conservative principles in his quest for the White House.

The Republican Party will file federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to overthrow the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance regulations, Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan revealed Wednesday night at a private dinner with the nation's Republican governors. The move is considered a slap in the face of the Republican Party's failed 2008 presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was dramatically outspent by Democrat Barack Obama, and of President Bush, who signed McCain-Feingold into law in 2002. "We will bring two federal suits tomorrow to strengthen the Republican Party," Mr. Duncan told The Washington Times. Mr. Duncan said one...

It's standard fare for a president to make a bipartisan gesture by including one member of the opposing party in his cabinet - just as it's always the case (lest we forget) that every president-elect vows to change the tone in Washington and reach out magnanimously to his vanquished opponents. But John Podesta, the former Bill Clinton former chief of staff who's spearheading the transition for the 44th president, said today that there would be independents and Republicans in Barack Obama's cabinet and "not just at a token level".

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) took a whack at the Bush administration on Wednesday for failing to disclose all of the financial institutions that are getting emergency loans under the $700 billion bailout. Boehner said the Treasury and Federal Reserve should comply with a Freedom of Information Act request into who is receiving taxpayer money, and “they must begin providing lawmakers and taxpayers all information about how they are using federal tax dollars.” Boehner said the bipartisan negotiations behind the financial bailout package stressed the need for meaningful oversight of how the money was being spent.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- For all Americans, this election represents another glass ceiling broken, and in the words of my 16-year-old, "That's very cool." The election of the first black president is an inspiring and transformational moment for our country. I am happy for President-elect Barack Obama, and for many who supported him. They and, in many cases, their ancestors fought for this day for centuries as they experienced first-hand the unthinkable wrong of segregation. As an American, I wish him every success. Beyond the presidential race, it goes without saying the Republican Party took a shellacking nationally. Some...

Tuesday’s massive Democratic landslide cannot be seen as anything but a repudiation of the Republican Party’s tenure in power. Combined with the equally large Democratic victory in 2006, Republicans have now lost the presidency, more than 50 House seats, and at least a dozen seats in the Senate in just two years. Pundits on both left and right are saying that this represents a final verdict on the Bush administration’s eight years in office. But, how far beyond the Bush presidency does the voters’ desire for change go? If voters have clearly rejected Republicans, have they also turned against the...

Now what? The Republican Party -- nationally and in Pennsylvania -- lies in tatters. Having lost the White House to Barack Obama, suffered historic losses in congressional elections, been almost shut out in statewide races and experienced further erosion in the state House, there is no doubt the GOP has hit rock bottom. It is, most significantly, a loss for so-called moderate Republicanism. Party moderates have opined time and again that a more middle-of-the-road presidential candidate could win Pennsylvania. McCain was touted as that candidate. It was a double-digit trouncing.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday the GOP lost the White House because the party was tainted by corruption, overspending and "sometimes came across as a bunch of grumpy old men." . . . . . "All we have to do is go back to the basics of fiscal conservatism, with a smile and come up with new ways to communicate with the younger voter," said Graham, who captured 58 percent of the vote in winning re-election against a little-known opponent.

Phoenix Office: 5353 North 16th Street Suite 105 Phoenix, AZ 85016 Main: 602-952-2410 Fax: 602-952-8702 Tempe Office: 4703 South Lakeshore Drive Suite 1 Tempe, AZ 85282 Main: 480-897-6289 Fax: 480-897-8389 Tucson Office: 407 West Congress Street Suite 103 Tucson, AZ 85701 Main: 520-670-6334 Fax: 520-670-6637 Washington Office: 241 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Main: 202-224-2235 Fax: 202-228-2862 I call on Captain John S. McCain, USN (ret.), Republican, Senior Senator from Arizona, to put a stop to the public smearing of your erstwhile running mate, Governor Sarah L. Palin, Republican from Alaska. Governor Palin committed herself and her...

Ned Lamont, the Greenwich Democrat who challenged U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman two years ago, believes his former opponent will soon join the Republican minority in Congress. Lamont declined to say Thursday whether the junior senator from Connecticut and self-described "independent Democrat" should be punished for backing U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential bid. "My sense is he's psychologically moving into the Republican column," Lamont said. "I think he'll probably jump."

Arizona Sen. John McCain was hammered by the Latino vote, hurting him in battleground states of Florida, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico as he lost his presidential bid to Barack Obama. Obama took two-thirds of the overall Hispanic vote and McCain got 32 percent, according to exit polls conducted by NBC News. George Bush got 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004. McCain also didn’t fare well among younger and working-class voters and did not do as well as Bush with whites, middle-class and older voters.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - He was accused of killing a Nashville mother and daughter after being in the country illegally, and Monday Jose Sosa will be in court facing a jury for the beginning of his trial. Jose Sosa was just 16-years old when he allegedly stabbed Lori and Adrian Roundtree to death in April 2006. Police matched fingerprints at the crime scene to Sosa's in the FBI's database. They were taken when he was arrested for illegally entering the country. He was sent back across the border, only to re-enter later.

McCain faces conservative backlash over mortgage plan By Alexander Mooney CNN (CNN) -- John McCain is facing a fresh round of anger from members of his own party deeply opposed to the Arizona senator's proposal for the federal government to purchase troubled mortgage loans. John McCain first mentioned his mortgage relief plan during Tuesday's town-hall debate with Barack Obama. John McCain first mentioned his mortgage relief plan during Tuesday's town-hall debate with Barack Obama. The pointed backlash from several economic conservatives -- many of whom already distrust McCain's commitment to free-market principles -- couldn't come at a worse time for...

One illegal alien was arrested this year in Tucson after allegedly using a stolen social security number to buy two homes and rack up over $780,000 in bad debt. Some five million fraudulent home mortgages are in the hands of illegal aliens, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's not known how many of those have contributed to the subprime housing mortgage meltdown, but it has affected every state, including Arizona. The problem began years ago when banks were forced to give mortgages without confirming social security numbers or borrower identification. As a result, illegal immigrants...

SAN DIEGO -- A Border Patrol agent was injured Tuesday after he was struck by a car driven by a suspected smuggler, 10News reported. The incident occurred before 5 p.m. at a vehicle checkpoint on westbound Interstate 8 at Buckman Springs Road.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain is zigzagging again. On comprehensive immigration legislation, McCain has not been a “straight-talker,” nor has he been a classic flip-flopper. You know the type: “He was for it before he was against it.” No, McCain has chosen a more twisted path.

After the November election, business advocates hope to rekindle their push for a guest worker program and legal status for some illegal immigrants already in the U.S. Their hope is that immigration reform will have a better chance under a new president, whether it be John McCain or Barack Obama, and a new Congress in which Democrats are expected to gain seats. Both McCain and Obama support a guest worker plan and some kind of legal path for illegals in the U.S. and congressional Democrats tend to be more supportive of immigration reforms than Republicans.

With help from a bribed official in Mexico's Belize consulate office, two men from Ghana ran a transcontinental smuggling operation that ferried dozens of unauthorized immigrants into Texas from countries the State Department regards as terrorist havens, federal court records and interviews show. Since at least 2005, the operation helped as many as 100 U.S.-bound immigrants, paying as little as $5,000 each, from such countries as Sudan and Somalia, travel by air and ground to Mexico and then over the U.S. border to Houston. Some of the money ended up in the pockets of at least one Mexican Consulate employee...

My syndicated column today tackles the bailout angle no one wants to talk about: Open borders and the home loan debacle. You’ve heard a lot about Fannie/Freddie and the minority lending shakedowns, but you haven’t heard most commentators/analysts on either the left or the right talk about the massive illegal alien mortgage racket — a topic I’ve reported on for the past five years. That’s because fault lies at the feet of the crime-enabling banking industry and the ethnic lobbyists and the illegal alien-enabling Bush administration. They screwed us. Now, they want us to fork over a trillion dollars. Screw...

A legislative panel took the first steps today toward launching a probe into how an illegal immigrant accused of causing a traffic accident that killed three people was allowed to remain in the country despite his criminal record. The Legislative Audit Committee voted to authorize State Auditor Sally Symanski to do preliminary research on conducting such an audit. Symanski expected that the inquiry would look at how state and local law-enforcement agencies and the judicial system interacted in the case of Francis Hernandez, 23, an illegal immigrant who had been arrested more than a dozen times in the previous five...

WASHINGTON – Congress approved a shift of $400 million from technology accounts to construction of the U.S. border fence despite a Customs and Border Protection admission that it cannot be completed by year's end, officials said Monday. The House Appropriations Subcommittee for Homeland Security agreed to a CBP proposal to transfer funds from other accounts to build the remainder of the 670 miles of border fence. Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, voiced disappointment over Congress' decision to continue to fund “the border wall.” “It won't work. It is lethal to people and wildlife and...

SCRANTON, Pa. -- During the Republican primaries, John McCain delicately balanced his record of pushing for immigration reform with satisfying his party's new appetite for harsher restrictions. Now in a general election against an opponent who broadly shares his views on the issue, McCain is showing greater ease asserting his distance from the anti-immigration right.

SCRANTON, Pa. -- An issue that has been largely missing from the English-language presidential debate recently -- immigration reform -- made a brief return here this morning when Republican John McCain addressed a largely Irish-American crowd. McCain said there were "50,000 Irish men and women in this country illegally who want to become citizens'' and that "we have to give them a path to citizenship."

Speaking to an Irish-American audience this morning, John McCain used his strongest language of the general election campaign to grab again the mantle of comprehensive immigration reform. In Scranton, Pa., he vowed to push through a plan that offers a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants who pay fines and fulfill other requirements. "This nation is stronger for the infusion of fresh blood and vitality," McCain said.

Yes, immigration is a complicated and combustible issue for political candidates — and the economic meltdown is everyone’s top priority. No, that is no excuse for ignoring immigration or lying about it to voters, as John McCain and Barack Obama have been doing.

MISSION - Hidalgo County Republican Party Chairman Hollis Rutledge says he is confident that John McCain and John Cornyn will patch up any differences they still have over immigration policy, should McCain be elected president. In May 2007, the two U.S. senators famously got into a shouting match over the finer points of a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. The Washington Post reported at the time that McCain swore at Cornyn, accusing the Texas Republican of trying to “blow up” a pact between Republicans and Democrats. Cornyn countered that the Arizona Republican was trying to “parachute” in on delicate Senate...

A SPECTACULAR malfunction in laws designed to clean up US politics has sent almost $250m (£135m) into the hands of ‘para-political’ groups dedicated to negative campaigning in the race for the White House.A cast of billionaires, including financier George Soros and film producer Stephen Bing, are bankrolling a new breed of pressure groups which can raise limitless cash as long as they agree not to support any one candidate. The majority focus on attacking President George W Bush - ensuring a flood of the venomous political attacks which have characterised the race for the White House in recent weeks. But...