Free Republic

And we're the ones, the old-fashioned conservatives, we want to deny people a good time, we want to deny people fun, we want to deny people all these things in life. So we have yet another example of life in America under the thumb of an ever-expanding state with central planning, otherwise known as "well-intentioned liberalism." From violating religious rights where there is no power permitted to do so, to mandating the purchase of products, to now mandating insurance companies sell certain products at a price that's also mandated, from czars, to denying the right to travel, it's all here....

Al Cardenas, head of the American Conservative Union, has said that Republican turmoil might lead to a brokered convention in which Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, would emerge as a “possible alternative” party nominee. Mr Cardenas, who is running this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a gathering in Washington of some 10,000 conservatives, told MailOnline that it was not certain that one of the four current Republican candidates would emerge victorious. His comments came as Republicans fretted publicly about the perceived weaknesses of Mitt Romney, the establishment choice and frontrunner, Rick Santorum, surprise winner in three states on Tuesday,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Pete, South Hold, New York, glad you waited, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello. CALLER: Hey, Rush how you doing? I love you. RUSH: Thank you, sir, very good. Thank you very much. CALLER: You're the only thing that keeps me sane, but after 25 years of watching politics, listening to you, I'm giving up. I've come to the realization that people aren't misinformed or ill-informed. They're just plain stupid. RUSH: Yeah. CALLER: Obama's got 48% approval rating. Who are these people? What planet do they live on? RUSH: That happens to correspond to the number...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell operates with a steely resolve, a political discipline that leaves nothing to chance. A childhood bout with polio instilled in him an enormous capacity for patience. And for 25 years in Congress, the Kentucky Republican has waited for the moment now before him: the chance to become Senate majority leader. With four seats needed to flip the chamber, or three if a Republican is elected president (because the vice president could break a tie), the GOP has its best opportunity in years to gain full control of Congress. But McConnell and his party must first...

Christie is leaving the door open. "If Gov. Romney comes to me and wants to have a talk about that, we'll have a full conversation about that and then Mary Pat and I will make that decision about what we want to do with our future," Christie said in a Fox News interview before Christmas. "But my view is, I think if you fast-forward the tape to a year from now, I think it's going to be President-elect Romney and some other VP-elect - and Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey." Christie repeatedly has said he would not be...

National conservative leaders are wondering who, if anyone, can stop Mitt Romney from walking off with the Republican nomination after his narrow win in Iowa and his expected comfortable victory in New Hampshire next week. The name that keeps surfacing is Rick Perry, which says a lot about the desperation that the anti-Romney forces are feeling now. [snip] Perry insiders say that the plausible course forward for the candidate is to make this a one-on-one race with Mr. Romney so that the conservative vote doesn't split in two, three or four ways. South Carolina has a history of deciding the...

If Rick Perry leaves the Republican race, there will not be a candidate in the field who authentically represents smaller government. While many conservatives don’t mind activist government so long as the ends are conservative, the willful use of activist government for conservative ends leaves in place a government perfectly capable of activist liberal government when conservatives lose. The only way to fully turn the tide of big government is therefore to support someone who is willing to scale back government. Unfortunately, the only candidate with both an agenda to significantly cut government and a record of actually doing so...

(CNN) -- Based on recent history and what's likely to happen to the nation's infrastructure, it's an inescapable conclusion: We will need new and different sources of funding if we are to have the type of transportation system that is needed to support economic prosperity. For the past 75 years, the U.S. road network has provided the foundation for much of the nation's economic development. This network has not come without a cost; estimates are that the replacement value of the nation's roads is $1.3 trillion.

[No to Gay Adoption] Three Illinois bishops have announced that they are ending their legal appeal against legislation requiring equal treatment for same-sex couples in adoption and foster-care services. “It is with deep regret that we have decided to relinquish our appeals in the litigation concerning the provision of foster care and adoption services by Catholic Charities of the Dioceses of Joliet and Springfield in Illinois and by Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois in the Diocese of Belleville,” the bishops of the three dioceses said in a joint statement. “This lawsuit had sought clarification as to whether the...

Cain-Palin 2012 - YouTube

Kind of funny look at Sarah's announcement, by Jon Stewart.

Thug. (TPM) — Teamsters union president James Hoffa would say it all again if he could, he told TPM Monday. Hoffa riled up Fox News and the right wing Monday with a Labor Day speech in Detroit in which he called Republican members of Congress “sons of bitches” and said union workers are ready to “go to war” with the tea party next year and “take out” Republicans at the ballot box. Hoffa said he’d say the exact same words all over again. “I would because I believe it,” he said. “They’ve declared war on us. We didn’t declare war...

CONCORD, N.H. -- More than 25 protesters turned out before a Tea Party Express rally this evening to protest not President Obama, but Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. “We do not need leadership that puts their finger up, sees which way the wind’s blowing and then all of a sudden changes their mind and goes back in that direction,” Tim Carter, a leader of the Lakes Region Tea Party in New Hampshire. “If you look at Mitt’s past voting record, I think that’s what you’re going to see.” “When you come to less government, which the Tea Party stands for,...

In the postnomination chaos of the 1960 Democratic Convention, John F. Kennedy, a Massachusetts liberal (and a Catholic to boot), realized that Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, his erstwhile rival for the nomination, had something that he needed: entree to a then-Democratic South that was inherently suspicious of liberals and Catholics. Thus was born the Austin-Boston connection. For JFK, that connection was a lifeline to the White House. These days, it is the GOP that may give serious consideration to a reconstituted Austin-Boston connection: A New England politician with a suspiciously moderate past (and a Mormon to boot) may...

Twelve hours removed from a controversy about his suggestion that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was engaging in “treasonous” behavior Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign didn’t try to walk back the remark. In fact, they doubled down on it. “I am passionate about the issue but I stand by what I said,” Perry told reporters in Iowa today. Although Perry’s campaign is only a few days old, the episode provides a telling insight into the Texas governor: he is brash, bold and unapologetic about being so. And that just might make him a perfect fit for the current Republican primary...

Americans who care about the solvency of this nation ought to be seriously annoyed at the contempt for them shown by the Gang of Six “plan,” which even by the standards of “bipartisan” deal-making is a total joke. Even if you take seriously their figure of $3.7 trillion in savings over ten years, that represents a clawback across a decade of about two years of current deficits. If you take Jeff Sessions’s figure of $1.2 trillion in savings over ten years as being closer to the mark, that takes a decade to reverse about three-quarters of the 2011 deficit. Neither...

The number of Internet users worldwide has now surpassed two billion and so many of us have integrated the web into our lives so much that it's hard to quantify how much it's worth to us. But why not give it a shot? Think about it.

The GOP needs Marco Rubio on the Ticket in 2012 as VP. If we do not carry Florida and if we do not take some of the Hispanic vote away from Obama nation-wide, he might very well be reelected. We need enough votes to prevent the Chicago Thug-style Politics from stealing the Election. Don't think it can't happen. Remember how the Kennedys stole the 1960 Election from Nixon. The Question then arises: IS MARCO RUBIO CONSTITUTIONALLY ELIGIBLE? The answer is emphatically YES! So is Bobby Jindal. There are many authorities I could cite but I'll use one to conserve space...

Republicans recently have watched multiple Romneys at war with each other over abortion, ethanol, global warming, and more. Alas, this is nothing new. Various Romneys have battled themselves on issues as old as the Vietnam War. “I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam,” Hawkish Romney said in the June 24, 2007, Boston Globe while running as a conservative for 2008’s GOP nomination. But Romney sang a softer...

It is a truism of political dynasties that there is a chosen heir - the one who should or would or could have been next. It is certainly apt of the Bush family. Jeb Bush is the son who was groomed for the presidency. He was the one most Republicans expected to succeed his father into the Oval Office. And today, looking at their, let's be frank, lacklustre field, many Republicans still wish he would do just that. "It's very flattering to be asked that regularly," Jeb tells me in his office at the Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel. "I don't...