Free Republic

[Note: This is a companion to an earlier thread about Jim DeMint's new book] Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative kingmaker who spent millions of dollars helping tea party favorites get elected to Congress, faced contempt from other Republican senators as he tried to curb appropriators' powers and limit senior members' clout. In his new book, "The Great American Awakening," DeMint describes himself as an upstart freshman lawmaker on a lonely mission among "sorry rascals" infuriated by his bucking of venerable Senate practices in his bid to cut federal spending and limit colleagues' ability to fund local projects. In one of...

Sen. Pat Toomey’s proposal to balance the budget in nine years was defeated in the Senate today, though his plan proved to be the most popular budget rendition to hit the floor. By design, all four votes failed as bipartisan budget talks continue. Mr. Toomey, who serves on the Budget Committee, drafted a plan that earned all but three Republican votes but not a single Democrat, falling 42-55.

Coburn, Toomey: Drop the Policy Riders April 8, 2011 1:03 P.M. By Daniel Foster Here’s Senator Toomey: “I’d like to defund Planned Parenthood, but I understand that Republicans don’t have complete control of the elected government,” Toomey said on MSNBC. “I think what we should do is cut spending as much as we can, get the policy changes that we can, but move on, because there are other, bigger battles that we are fighting.” And here’s Senator Coburn: COBURN: The one thing I’ve learned in my years here is there’s one reason to talk about something, if you want to...

Liberals were so caught up in the effort to derail the House Republican budget resolution authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) that they barely seemed to notice when freshman senator Pat Toomey unveiled his own ambitious proposal to balance the budget in ten years without raising taxes. Instead, it was conservatives who were all too eager to denigrate Toomey’s effort: Just as the Left slammed Ryan’s budget for daring to reform Medicare for future generations, some on the right criticized Toomey’s budget for failing to do so. Whereas the Ryan plan takes a more gradual approach, reaching balance in...

As I traveled across Pennsylvania last year, I promised Pennsylvanians that I would dedicate myself to two key priorities in the United States Senate: restoring economic growth and private-sector job creation, and putting our federal government on a sustainable fiscal path. These two goals are inextricably connected. We cannot maximize economic growth without getting our government’s finances in order. And we can’t get our finances in order if we don’t have the courage to make serious and tough choices right now. Today, we are barreling toward a fiscal crisis like a downhill freight train. A few weeks ago, Standard &...

Sen.-elect Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) believes Sarah Palin would have shot at carrying his home state. Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if the former Alaska governor - assuming she becomes the 2012 Republican nominee for president - could win Pennsylvania, Toomey allowed, "It is possible."

Toomey: "The Tea Party movement is a powerful source of energy and if the Republicans generally, and the Republican nominee in particular, is not acceptable to that wing of the electorate, I would be worried about a third- party movement that could undermine the center right coalition" ......Toomey also say Sarah Palin could carry Pennsylvania as the nominee....(Video)

Senator-Elect Pat Toomey has just issued a statement supporting repeal of “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell.” “As I’ve said previously, my highest priority is to have the policy that best enables our armed services to do their job,” Senator-Elect Toomey said. “Our civilian and professional military leadership have now spoken and said we should repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I would support a free-standing measure to do so.” If Majority Leader Reid keeps his word, the freestanding repeal measure passed by the House yesterday will be voted on in the Senate in the lame duck, before Sen.-Elect Toomey is seated. Still, the...

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) urged his GOP Senate colleagues Friday to reject a deal on the extension of Bush-era tax cuts and wait until the incoming crop of GOP senators are sworn in to move forward. In an e-mail to supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund, DeMint said waiting until the January arrival of many of the Senate Republicans, whom he helped elect this past cycle, would mean the GOP could "fight for a better deal." "I appreciate the efforts made by my party's leaders to negotiate this deal but I believe Americans deserve much better. This deal should be...

Centrist Senate Republicans are likely to get a new ally in Sen.-elect Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

PAUL E. KANJORSKI YOU ARE FIRED!!! DAMN IT FEELS GOOD TO SAY THAT!Tuesday I stood at a poll for a guy I considered to be the best guy in any Pennsylvania race. Throughout the day I had many conversations with the folks coming in to vote. My primary goal was promotion of a candidate, the bonus for me was the various reasons, attitudes and personalities encountered through out the day. To breakdown the Scranton voters in Lackawanna County goes a little like this, people who knew, people who didn’t know, people who would vote Democrat no matter what, people who...

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak defends signing letter pushed by J Street calling for easing Gaza blockade. LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP – One day, months before the race to represent Pennsylvania in the US Senate entered the homestretch, Democratic candidate Joe Sestak arrived at his campaign office to find it practically empty. “Where is everybody?” Sestak told The Jerusalem Post he had asked at the time, only to be told it was Pessah. That’s how he found out that nearly half his staff was Jewish. But on Monday, the day before Americans finally head to the polls, Sestak’s headquarters in...

New polling data indicates that Pennsylvania Republican Senate hopeful Pat Toomey has regained the lead he held for months, thanks largely to continued strength among independent voters. After Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak closed the gap recently to take a narrow lead in the competitive race, Toomey surged back ahead this week, according to the state’s two largest polling institutes. A Franklin & Marshall College survey released Wednesday morning showed Toomey leading by seven points among likely voters, 43 percent to 36 percent. That finding substantiated movement in the Muhlenberg College daily tracking poll, which swung 11 points in the span...

HARRISBURG - About 700,000 acres of state forest land in the Marcellus Shale region is being placed off-limits to any natural gas drilling under an executive order signed Tuesday by Gov. Ed Rendell. Rendell said a moratorium on new leasing of forest land to drillers is needed to protect Pennsylvania's ability to manage the forests in a sustainable manner and protect the state's forest products and tourism industries. He said an executive order is necessary because the Senate didn't act this session on a House-passed bill to place a three-year moratorium on additional leases while environmental impact issues are studied....

Pennsylvania’s competitive Senate race can be boiled down to a simple back-and-forth: You’re an extremist! No, you are! Those were the volleys traded once again by Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak and Republican nominee Pat Toomey Friday night, as the two used their second and final televised debate of the campaign to paint the other as out-of-step with mainstream Pennsylvanians. Sestak said Toomey is “on the fringe of his party.” Toomey said Sestak is “to the left” of Nancy Pelosi. In the end, each had landed some punches, but neither suffered anything like a knockout blow. “The only time Joe has...

The latest Rasmussen poll has Republican Pat Toomey up 48-44 percent over Congressman Joe Sestak in the race to replace Arlen Specter as senator from Pennsylvania. The poll taken Thursday night surveyed 750 likely voters and has a plus-minus of 4 percent. Seven percent of voters said they were undecided while 1 percent said they liked another candidate.

For those who are worried about Pat Toomey’s sudden slip in the polls in Pennsylvania — and I was among them — you’ll want to read this analysis from “Number Cruncher,” a finance/political junkie who spends even more time breaking down polls than I do. Your readers should calm down. This race isn’t that close, or even closing. The only thing closing is the pollsters’ prediction of who to consider a likely voter. Looking at the Quinnipiac results, I find them very encouraging for Toomey, specifically among Independents. Taking the Quinnipiac crosstabs and applying 2004, 2006, 2008, and my predicted...

Allentown – As expected, Congressman Sestak lobbed one dishonest attack after another in order to try to run away from his extreme record of voting for every single bailout, record-breaking debt, hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax increases, a cap-and-trade energy tax, and government-run health care. But the truth is catching up with him. FALSEHOOD: Pat Toomey voted for the largest deficits in history. TRUTH: Actually, Joe Sestak voted for the largest deficits in U.S. history. Over his four years in Congress, Joe Sestak voted for $3.3 trillion in new deficit spending. In contrast the cumulative budget deficit...

I am a huge Pat Toomey fan – how can one be conservative and not? A highlight of my two decades at NR has been getting to know Pat, Kris, and their kids – the Toomeys are a super family. Not only that, as far as we conservatives are concerned, Pat Toomey is the Real Deal. He is A-List material: a thoughtful and articulate man who has proved himself to be a vital force in our movement, a true believer who seeks to advance the core limited-government/free-enterprise economic principles that find themselves at the center of this election cycle. To...

Strange things seem to be underfoot here in Pennsylvania. After a week of optimistic rhetoric from Joe Sestak’s campaign about “closing the gap” — according to internal polling — and generating enthusiasm to squelch Pat Toomey’s senate bid, a new Public Policy Polling survey seems to confirm their optimism. The PPP poll, out today, shows Joe Sestak leading Pat Toomey by one point. Leading, 46-45 percent, after months of running as many as ten points behind according to Rasmussen and others. This troubling news comes on the heels of optimistic talk from the AFL-CIO about the power of union members...