Free Republic

Rick Santorum’s campaign and super PAC have been outspent by a margin of 7 to 1 in the Illinois primary, with forces supporting Mitt Romney shelling out a total of about $3.7 million on the airwaves, according to a GOP media-buying source. Romney’s campaign has spent $1,117,704 million in Illinois while the super PAC Restore Our Future has put in $2.556,353 million. The Santorum campaign spent a comparatively modest $219,961 and the super PAC backing Santorum, the Red White and Blue Fund, put in $312,150. The gulf was even more enormous in the crucial, expensive Chicago media market. There, Romney’s...

In Puerto Rico, for the price of 20 delegates, Mitt Romney sold out his conservative principles. There is a long history of Congress requiring English to be the language of government and schools for territories seeking to be admitted to the Union — e.g., Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. For all of the territories that had large non-English speaking populations, Congress announced before the territories voted on the question of statehood that a change in language policy would be a prerequisite for statehood. In the case of Puerto Rico, where according to the latest Census only 15% of residents...

As if Rick Santorum's campaign trip to Puerto Rico couldn't get any more cringe-worthy. The Republican presidential candidate is red-faced after a tourist snapped a less-than-flattering photo of him sunbathing poolside on the island. "I know I probably should lose, 15, 20 pounds, but I'm working on it," Santorum said during a radio interview on the Steve Cochran Show on Friday, after the flabby photo made the rounds. The picture was first posted by Buzzfeed. The former Pennsylvania senator said he snuck some sun in during an hour he had to spare between campaign events ahead of Sunday's primary in...

You can’t say the message of Obama’s December 6 speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, should have been a surprise to anyone. After all, he’s been beating the class warfare drum for much of his administration, and the idea of higher taxes on the rich to promote income redistribution is something he telegraphed as far back as the 2008 campaign, with his impromptu reaction in the famous Joe the Plumber incident. During the 2008 presidential campaign Obama also stated an interest in using the capital gains tax primarily as an instrument of “fairness” — even if a rise in the rate would...

SHOCKER: Report: Fights erupt among Occupy Wall Street protesters. “Fights are erupting among Occupy Wall Street protesters, so much so that one corner of Zuccotti Park has emerged where protesters say they won’t go for fear of their safety, the New York Daily News is reporting.”

Obama gets in a round of golf on Saturday By Jamie Klatell - 06/04/11 04:21 PM ET President Obama headed to the golf course at Andrews Air Force Base on Saturday for an afternoon game. Energy Department official David Katz, White House trip director Marvin Nicholson and staffer Michael Brush rounded out the president's foursome. Obama has a big golf outing coming in the near future. He and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will play together, a spokesman for the Speaker confirmed on Friday. The two will hit the links on Saturday, June 18, in Washington D.C.

It’s clear that the White House team is thinking very big when it comes to President Obama’s Thursday visit to Ground Zero, his first since taking office. Obama invited former President George W. Bush and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to hear him speak at the former site of the World Trade Center. Bush declined, and Giuliani’s status is unclear, but those are the kinds of guests one would invite for a major political event. Bush has a strong defense for declining. He has kept a low profile since leaving office and largely limited his public events to...

During a visit to a Rio de Janeiro slum, President Barack Obama joined a group of children as they kicked around soccer balls. (March 20)

I watched in fascination last night as Sean Hannity interviewed Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann and Congressman Anthony Weiner in a segment of his show discussing the budget and the difficulty for Democrats to find areas in which to make cuts. Hannity began the segment with the following question to Congressman Weiner: (during the course of the interview, the Congressman attacked Michelle Bachmann by calling her "Bachmann" as if they were two guys sparring in a boxing ring -- the disrespect was obnoxious and she handled it with class): "All right, Congressman, here's why we are in this position. This is just...

After almost a week of escalating violent reprisals against protestors and soldiers who have joined the anti-regime forces, Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi and his sons have yet to quell the uprisings—and the White House has yet to take a public stand. Last night, Secretary Clinton released a statement, and pathetic as it was, it’s more than the president has offered—a president who has spent considerable energy burnishing his image for the Muslim and Arab public. It is rumored that there are differences within the administration, but it is still unclear who could be counseling silence, or for what purpose. To be...

Trump: "And then the President of China comes here, and we greet him, and Obama will drop to his knees, and kiss his hand and I DON'T GET IT!"

COUNCIL BLUFFS — At the moment, outgoing Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has no definitive plans for the future but would like to remain a voice for renewable energy, he said during a farewell stop Wednesday in Council Bluffs. Advertising “I think energy security is the most important issue we're dealing with in this country,” he said. The growth of Iowa's renewable energy industry was his biggest accomplishment during his four years as governor, Culver said. “Today, 20 percent of our power in this state is renewable power, and that's up from 5 percent when I started.”

Sources: Cornyn Jabs at DeMint’s Interference in Primaries By John Stanton Roll Call Staff 52 minutes ago Sen. John Cornyn said during a closed-door meeting Tuesday that he expects colleagues to bring their concerns to him about candidates he recruits as National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman — and not to help mount challenges against them, Republicans familiar with the meeting said Thursday. Although not mentioned by name, the Republicans said the Texas lawmaker’s speech was clearly intended for the ears of Sen. Jim DeMint. The South Carolina Republican backed a number of conservative “outsider” candidates this year who won tough...

The half-dozen contestants, 20-something aspiring artists all, enter the famous Phillips de Pury art auction house. Mr. de Pury himself ushers them into the special room where they are presented with a collection of paintings by Andres Serrano, the man who came to fame in 1989 with the ghastly painting, sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts, depicting a crucifix dunked in a jar of urine. They are hugely impressed. The final painting they are shown is just that -- the original "Piss Christ." They are in awe, quietly expressing their amazement at the talent. And then the door...

As he has before, Huckabee defends his decision to the New Yorker, saying Clemmons' prison sentence was unjust given what he knew at the time. In Arkansas, Huckabee commuted the sentence of Maurice Clemmons, who went on to shoot four police officers in Washington last year. Given the same information he had then, Huckabee says, he would make the same decision.

Mark Williams melts down as he speaks to a "Tea Partier"... this is absolutely pathetic and explains why MSNBC has a total of 5 viewers.

Obama greeting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko during a visit Republican with Senator Dick Lugar

Diddy Obama? Sean Combs may be all grown up, but he wouldn’t mind having President Barack Obama as a surrogate father. “I ain’t gonna lie – if God said I could pick one person to be my father, I’d want to be Sean Combs Obama,” the Artist Popularly Known As Diddy told Playboy for their January/February double issue, on newsstands this month. “That’s how dope he is. I hope he reads this interview and adopts me. I wouldn’t even have to be in the will. I got my own money!” The rap music mogul, 40, also told the mag that...

Ive been here for about 12 years on and off (drudge exposing Monica and BJ) It seems there is so much hate on these websites...makes me feel dirty. Good luck and buh by. Hope Sarah makes it...Im convinced she is the real deal.

I have to admit, it was one of the strangest speeches Obama has ever given. In Obama usual grand way, his rhetoric was high flying, and a mixture of pragmatism and nonsense. But it does provide a window into his mind, and it is a shocking view.Obama provided an empassioned defense of America’s wars as ‘just’ wars for humanitarian reasons…something George W. Bush campaigned on worldwide during his presidency. We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations – acting individually or in concert –...