Free Republic

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — The Idaho GOP has released a statement regarding Representative Mike Simpson not voting with the Republican mainstream in electing Jim Jordan to Speaker of the House. 20 Republican holdouts voted for people other than Jim Jordan, splitting the vote and leaving Jordan 17 votes shy of the 217 needed to secure the speakership. The IDGOP says in a statement that they have been "inundated with emails and phone calls from registered Idaho voters expressing their profound disappointment with Congressman Mike Simpson's decision today." The IDGOP joined the growing number of frustrated Idaho voters expressing their disappointment...

Got milk? Twenty-five members of Congress say if it's from soybeans, almond or rice, it should not be labeled as milk. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), leading the bipartisan charge against “fake milk,” signed a letter along with other congressional members, asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to investigate and take action against manufacturers of “milk” that doesn't come from cows.

AMMAN, JORDAN – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and a delegation of senior lawmakers met with His Majesty King Abdullah II on Sunday during a visit to Jordan where talks focused on Iranian-backed violence in the region and the growing terrorist threat. King Abdullah hosted the delegation for a luncheon at Beit al-Urdun Palace. Lawmakers also met with U.S. Ambassador Alice Wells, Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, as well as senior embassy officials. Discussions focused on two major trends in the region: the violence caused by Iran’s allies and proxies, and the spreading of the terrorist threat. There was also...

House Speaker John Boehner’s top allies are racing out the door to retirement, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. Top Boehner allies that are retiring in 2014 include four committee chairmen: Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) of the Intelligence Committee, Buck McKeon (R-CA) of the Armed Services Committee, Doc Hastings (R-WA) of the Natural Resources Committee and Dave Camp (R-MI) of the Ways and Means Committee. One of Boehner closest friends, Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA), is retiring this year, and another—Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID)—may lose his seat in a primary in Idaho against conservative Bryan Smith. “In a Capitol where accomplishments are...

Idaho Republican Mike Simpson’s influence with fellow members of Congress is what makes him a key player in this year’s election, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Rob Engstrom said Thursday. Besides earning high marks on the chamber’s rating scale, Engstrom said, Simpson has the trust of dozens of men and women in Congress. That makes him valuable to the chamber, which can’t individually reach out to each member, Engstrom said. Simpson is being challenged in this year’s election by Idaho Falls Republican Bryan Smith, who has the endorsements of groups such as Club for Growth, The Madison Project...

Mitt Romney waded into the crowded Iowa Senate race Wednesday, throwing his support behind state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) in the contested GOP primary. "As a mother, soldier and proven conservative, Joni has the kind of experience, skillset and discipline it will take to not only win this important seat, but to also take Iowa values to help turn around the mess in Washington," Romney wrote in a fundraising e-mail sent Wednesday morning... This is not Romney's first endorsement of the 2014 cycle. He is also backing Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who faces tea party challenger Bryan Smith (R).

When he was still a member of the U.S. House, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., spent years forcing his colleagues to vote on dozens and dozens of amendments stripping earmarks -- that is, special funding provisions for individual projects -- out of appropriations bills. He nearly always failed. It was a long, lonely fight that infuriated many of his colleagues, but Flake eventually won. His crusade shamed the Republican leadership into banning earmarks in 2011, after they took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. That ban remains in place today. It all seems like a distant memory now. But the...

Former U.S. Rep. Richard Stallings will once again seek Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District seat. Stallings held the post for four terms as a Democrat from 1984 to 1992. Following that, he ran for U.S. Senate but lost against Republican Dirk Kempthorne, a two-term mayor from Boise. Stallings is the only Democrat to file for the second congressional race. He will face either GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson or first-time runner Bryan Smith in the November general election, depending on the outcome of May’s GOP primary. Stallings said his experience working on both sides of the aisle will be appeal...

After championing the Affordable Care Act defunding strategy that led to the government shutdown in October, Sen. Ted Cruz continues to do Speaker John A. Boehner no favors — and some of Boehner’s allies think the tea party Texan should mind his own business. Cruz in recent weeks has undermined Boehner’s approach on both immigration and the debt limit — the two biggest issues the Ohio Republican has been trying to navigate through his conference. As Boehner unveiled his leadership team’s immigration principles at the House GOP’s retreat two weeks ago, Cruz and his staff simultaneously torched the push for...

Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson was for chipping away at Obamacare during the continuing resolution fight before he was against it. On Tuesday, the GOP congressman told a Capitol Hill publication that he supports voting for a continuing resolution to stop the partial government shutdown — even without provisions defunding, delaying or stopping parts of President Barack Obama’s health care law. “I’d vote for a clean [continuing resolution] because I don’t think this is a strategy that works,” Simpson told Roll Call. “I think the strategy that works is on the debt ceiling.”

Enough with the terrorism references already. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) excoriated House Republicans Wednesday evening, including fellow Californian Rep. Tom McClintock, for waging a ‘jihad’ against American citizens for voting to defund Obamacare in the opening rounds of the fight to extend government spending. The outrageous remark was in the context of a House debate over a Republican-backed ‘piecemeal’ measure to fund the National Park Service, among other programs — McClintock had expressed concerns about the effects of a government shutdown on addressing an ongoing wildfire in Yosemite National Park. “The gentleman from California came and said the towns around...

Attorney Bryan Smith earned the Club for Growth’s first major endorsement of the 2014 cycle, but he said he made the decision to challenge one of Speaker John A. Boehner’s top allies in Congress independently of the cash-flush, conservative group. ....... Smith is challenging eight-term Republican Rep. Mike Simpson for Idaho’s 2nd District. He got the Club for Growth’s attention after the group launched a campaign against several Republican incumbents, including Simpson, called “Primary My Congressman.” ....... So if Smith makes it to Congress, would he back Boehner in a leadership race? “We’re talking about an event that would take...

Some of the GOP's most senior senators made it on the National Journal's list of "Top 10 lawmakers who could lose a primary next year." Minority leader Mitch McConnell, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi have been officially marked as "in danger" by the website, along with Idaho Republican Rep Mike Simpson and Democrat Brian Schatz from Hawaii. McConnell, the 71-year-old Senate stalwart who entered the chamber in 1985, faces tea partier Matt Bevin in the primary, with Alison Lundergan Grimes running as a Democrat. His campaign manager Jesse Benton has boasted "there is absolutely no risk...

In South Carolina, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has been attacked in television ads for his support of immigration reform. In Tennessee, GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander is ducking criticism from Tea Party groups that his overall voting record is too moderate. Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, faces angry conservatives in his state for not joining an effort by some in his party to block the federal budget unless it defunds Obamacare. For these Republicans, the only uniting factor is that the criticism is coming from their own party. The reasons they are under attack vary from one group to...

The Club for Growth’s political action committee announced Wednesday that it will support Rep. Mike Simpson’s (R-Idaho) 2014 primary opponent, attorney Bryan Smith. The conservative PAC is openly soliciting suggestions for which GOP lawmakers it should target in primaries. Smith represents its first crowd-sourced endorsement. Simpson has a lifetime 58 percent score on the Club for Growth’s scorecard — ranking among the most moderate Republicans in the House. But he comes from one of the most conservative districts in the country — one that went 64 percent for Mitt Romney last year.

Some veteran Republican House members are pushing back against conservative deficit hawks who are pushing for endlessly deep spending cuts, saying the right wing of the party is creating unnecessary divisions for the GOP majority. While the 54 Republicans who voted against the most recent stopgap spending bill didn’t derail the legislation, some GOP lawmakers are becoming increasingly wary of a faction that rejects substantial spending cuts because they want deeper ones or the inclusion of divisive social policy riders. Many of the critics are close to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who struggles more each day to keep his majority...

Some veteran Republican House members are pushing back against conservative deficit hawks who are pushing for endlessly deep spending cuts, saying the right wing of the party is creating unnecessary divisions for the GOP majority. While the 54 Republicans who voted against the most recent stopgap spending bill didn’t derail the legislation, some GOP lawmakers are becoming increasingly wary of a faction that rejects substantial spending cuts because they want deeper ones or the inclusion of divisive social policy riders. Many of the critics are close to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who struggles more each day to keep his majority...

"The outrage here is that we are having to do this because the majority, the former majority -- when they had the majority in the House and the majority in the Senate and the White House failed to pass an appropriation bill. They left the American people and this country with this pile of crap. They should not complain about how we try to clean this up," Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said on the House floor today.

Rep. Mike Simpson, sleeping with Pelosi on the first date e-mail I sent to Mike Simpson ~ Good job, sleeping with Nancy Pelosi on the first date. You guys will have more leverage for a better bill on the next go around. Maybe if you didn't quit so easy you could get a capitol gains cut and stop Mark to Market. Thank god there were some democrats to vote conservative or we wouldn’t have another shot at making this travesty easier to swallow. Maybe you ought to listen to Newt Gingrich or Steve Forbes or maybe your constituents before you...

Washington, D.C. - Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today voted to support the Economic Rescue Bill. This vote was cast not to protect the fat cats on Wall Street, but to help Main Street by stopping the decimation of saving and investments, and the inability for businesses to borrow money for improvements and to pay their employees. “I did not make this vote lightly. Rather, it was one of the toughest votes I have ever cast,” said Congressman Mike Simpson. “I voted yes on the bill because I sincerely believe the greater risk for taxpayers is in not acting. The bill...