Free Republic

As Republicans challenge the legality of President Obama's unilateral action on immigration, Democrats are firing back with a challenge of their own. "It is clear that they can complain, they can threaten, they can talk about lawsuits, cutting off funding, shutting down the government, in the extreme, even impeachment. But the real question is: Can they govern? Can they govern?" asked Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. The GOP is weighing their options to undo the president's moves - "a bit of a threat to our democracy," as House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas,...

Rep. Keith Ellison, Minnesota Democrat, said Tuesday that Republicans don’t have a mandate after a midterm election cycle in which they took back control of the Senate and picked up about a dozen seats in the House — pointing to low voter turnout and successful ballot initiatives on raising the minimum wage as evidence of a nuanced electorate. Appearing on CNN’s “New Day,” Mr. Ellison was responding to comments from Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, that the American people have spoken and President Obama can listen to them on issues like immigration. “Well, you know, we had a 72-year low...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Looky here. Looky here, ladies and gentlemen. Jeffrey Toobin on CNN has just finished explaining that it is prosecutorial discretion that Obama will use to justify what he's doing tonight. Ashleigh Banfield said, "If the president's actions effectively nullify federal law, then they're unconstitutional. But if they're merely channel enforcement resources to other areas, then it's within his discretion to do so, right? Is the layperson's version of that, if you're going 70 in a 55 zone, the policeman might pull you over. But if you're going 60 he might use that discretion and say, 'I'm gonna...

Tommy Chong, star of such films as Up in Smoke and until this week a contestant on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, was the #OneLuckyGuy on Fox News’ Outnumbered (for some reason) Wednesday, and while he was there he weighed in on issues like marijuana legalization (naturally), health care, and immigration. But when the issue of Obamacare “architect” Jonathan Gruber’s controversial comments came up, Chong surprised the show’s co-hosts by comparing it to another hot topic on Fox: Benghazi. Andrea Tantaros and Harris Faulkner were expressing outrage over Gruber’s comments and the Obama administration’s reaction to it when Chong decided...

--SNIP-- The finances of the Rev. Al Sharpton have a somewhat troubled history. He was indicted on charges of income tax fraud and stealing from charitable donors in 1989, but was eventually acquitted at a trial. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to file a tax return for 1986. His eponymous promotional company has no official documents on record with the state. As recently as two years ago, he drew no salary, but he still manages to send his daughters to an expensive and respected private school. Mr. Sharpton has always been studiously circumspect when...

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who came to prominence as an imposing figure in a track suit, shouting indignantly at the powerful, stood quietly on a stage last month at the Four Seasons restaurant, his now slender frame wrapped in a finely tailored suit, as men in power lined up to exclaim their admiration for him. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hailed him as a civil rights icon. President Obama sent an aide to read a message commending Mr. Sharpton’s “dedication to the righteous cause of perfecting our union.” Major corporations sponsored the lavish affair. It was...

On Tuesday, The New York Times took its readers inside the city’s exclusive Four Seasons Restaurant where Al Sharpton celebrated his 60th birthday party at what was dubbed his “party for a cause.”“Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hailed him as a civil rights icon,” the profile of New York City-based activist and MSNBC began. “President [Barack] Obama sent an aide to read a message commending Mr. Sharpton’s ‘dedication to the righteous cause of perfecting our union.’ Major corporations sponsored the lavish affair.”It is a spectacular raise for an agitator who began his career inciting race...

After U.S. Central Command called on us to help transport, from Iraq, enough yellowcake uranium to make several atomic bombs stored at Saddam’s nuclear weapons complex, I realized why neither the Pentagon nor the White House advertised the presence of this WMD precursor: safety and security. Before the U.S. military moved in to secure the facility after the 2003 invasion, looters had been there first. Even though the universally recognized yellow-and-black radioactivity warnings were posted on the bunkers, locals had ripped open the storage areas and stolen casks of yellowcake with many sickened as a result. More importantly, we did...

The Overlooked Irony of Jonathan Gruber's Candid Statements MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber has been captured on a number of video recordings stating that the Democrats relied upon and exploited the “stupidity of the American voter” to pass Obamacare. But American voters are not really stupid – not most of them anyway. Even the average Democrat voter is not stupid. Rather, Democrat voters are badly misinformed because they rely on the leftist media for information and opinion. So what Gruber and the Democrats really exploited was not the stupidity of the American voter, but corrupt and dishonest reporting by leftist journalists....

The reaction of the MSM to the Gruber tapes is revealing. Today’s article by Chris Cillizza tries to misdirect the issue into a personality conflict between Gruber and Conservatives who he thinks are the object of Gruber’s charge that the American people are stupid. His article, about Gruber as catnip for conservatives tries to make the story about Conservative pique, not the fact that Gruber did something that you are never supposed to do when you pull a sting: expose the sting. A good sting never ends, but Gruber ended the ObamaCare sting. So the press, after hoping it would...

After the election drubbing his party suffered in November, President Obama now seems to be losing media support for his nakedly defiant stance on at least a couple issues.

After U.S. Central Command called on us to help transport from Iraq enough yellowcake uranium to make several atomic bombs stored at Saddam’s nuclear weapons complex, I realized why neither the Pentagon nor the White House advertised the presence of this WMD precursor: safety and security. Before the U.S. military moved in to secure the facility after the 2003 invasion, looters had been there first. Even though the universally recognized yellow-and-black radioactivity warnings were posted on the bunkers, locals had ripped open the storage areas and stolen casks of yellowcake with many sickened as a result. More importantly, we did...

Has the network news been neglecting the recent comments by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber? NBC, CBS and ABC haven’t covered the story a dozen times, leading to questions of media bias, but “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd offers an understanding of why this is the case. [Snip] “It’s a political story,” said Todd on Gruber’s comments. “Network news, in general, hasn’t be covering the political back and forth of Washington a lot lately."

Are you a Democrat who can provide legal justification for President Obama issuing work documents to illegal aliens in his proposed executive order? If so then you need to contact Lawrence O'Donnell, host of MSNBC's The Last Word. O'Donnell has claimed that he spent days trying to track down such a Democrat but was unable to find any who could provide such justification. Among those Democrats unable to provide a constitutional basis for that part of the executive order was Representative Peter Welch of Vermont who presented the face of befuddlement when asked that question by O'Donnell.

BRISBANE, Australia — President Obama dismissed renewed criticism of his signature health care law Sunday and disputed an assertion from a former architect of the policy who claimed the administration had deceived lawmakers. Jonathan Gruber, an economist, suggested last year that the administration’s signature health-care legislation passed in part because of the “stupidity of the American voter” and a “lack of transparency” over its funding mechanisms. “I just heard about this,” Obama said at a new conference, after wrapping up two days of meetings with world leaders here at the G-20 Summit. “The fact that some adviser who never worked...

There is an idiom that parents and employers likely put in practice when an important task has to be completed correctly; “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” President Obama certainly understands that sentiment with a slight variation; if the nation wants anything done at all, the President has to do it himself due to Republicans who have done nothing since January 2009. Sometime next week, after waiting patiently for Ted Cruz to order House Republicans to take up, and pass, the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform, the President will take action on immigration reform. The...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher laid out the dystopia he believes would have occurred if President Obama had lost the 2008 and 2012 elections to encourage his audience to vote on Friday. Maher addressed those who refused to vote because Obama didn’t keep his promises by stating, “the choice was never between the perfect Obama in your head and the real one who came to Washington, it’s between the real one and the two guys who desperately wanted to beat him so they could stamp America in their image.” Maher then laid out his alternative scenario where McCain and...

Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis said she was “silenced” by CNBC when management told her she was “disrespecting the office of the president” by reporting about Obamacare.

Howeird Dean-- once chair of the DNC, once Governor of Vermont, who grew up at the Maidstone Golf Club in the Hamptons, attended prep school both in the US and in the UK, went to Yale, dodged the draft-- is having a meltdown again.Once famous for melting down on the air after coming in third in the Iowa caucuses, thereby ensuring he won nothing else, Dean is complaining that Obamacare was written by a bunch of elitists who don’t understand Americans.Well, duh: They’re Democrats. “The core problem under this damn law is that it was put together by a bunch...

FBN’s Melissa Francis says she was silenced by CNBC when challenging the ObamaCare math.