Free Republic

Democrats were crossing their fingers that Chris McDaniel would be the Republican nominee in Mississippi. But since Sen. Thad Cochran has prevailed, they are trying to do the unthinkable — unseat a six-term GOP senator. McDaniel supporters are irate that Cochran won a GOP primary by reaching across the aisle. Now some of his backers are ambivalent about whether they’ll come out at all in November — and if they don’t, that could create a rare opening for a Democrat here.

During a closed-door gathering of major donors in Southern California on Monday, the political operation spearheaded by the Koch brothers unveiled a significant new weapon in its rapidly expanding arsenal — a super PAC called Freedom Partners Action Fund. The new group aims to spend more than $15 million in the 2014 midterm campaigns — part of a much larger spending effort expected to total $290 million, sources told POLITICO., The vast network of political nonprofit groups they helped build has mostly funneled its unprecedented political spending into issue-based campaigns that usually slam Democrats for supporting big government but seldom...

The primary election defeat of House majority leader Eric Cantor by the little-known Tea Party conservative David Brat has shocked business and financial elites as well as politicians and pundits. Conservative intellectuals such as Tim Carney have been arguing for a while that the right should adopt a new populism that targets “crony capitalism” and the collaboration of public and private elites at the expense of workers and small businesses. Brat is the first conservative candidate to have achieved a major electoral success by taking this line. He denounced Cantor for being too close to Wall Street and K Street,...

Former first child (now with child) Chelsea Clinton had a $600,000 annual contract at NBC News, Politico reports, where she served as a "special correspondent" and was deemed to be mostly useless, if not "one of the most boring people of her era." That deal is over now, but Clinton is still being paid by the network (which has also hired Luke Russert, Meghan McCain, and Jenna Bush ... ) on a month-to-month basis, with complicating factors including her pregnancy and the good odds her mother is running for president. -snip- That work included little of note, either journalistically or...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Hillary Clinton may not be much at administering the State Department, but she’s certainly a pro when it comes to expressing outrage at her own persecution. For the woman who is supposedly the world’s most powerful feminist, her sense of victimhood remains surprisingly strong. That’s never been more true than in her new book, Hard Choices, which points out that she – not the four men who died in Benghazi, Libya, on the night of September 11, 2012 – is the victim. The Clinton camp reportedly leaked the 34-page Benghazi chapter of Hillary’s latest tome to favored outlet Politico. The...

“It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video." This statement is part of Hillary's 36 page "fog of war" chapter on Benghazi in her forthcoming memoir, a chapter obtained at least in part by Politico's Maggie Haberman, and it appears to be indicative of how she filled those 36 pages without answering any of the crucial questions about the events of that night and the following day. This line refers to the killers. And this line is of course a straw man, easily recognized after the president's straw man Woodstock at...

Politico has come out with a new poll, and the results in many ways are encouraging for Republicans. The population sample was from competitive House districts and competitive Senate races, so these results are particularly important in terms of winning congressional races legitimately in play in both houses of Congress. Voters are more likely to vote for Republican candidates than Democrat candidates; those voters who strongly support one party over the other also favor Republicans; and voters who are enthusiastic about voting also favor Republicans. If this pattern in swing districts and states continues through to November, Republicans will not...

Nothing makes a diehard eeyore like me happier than a depressing poll, but even I’ve got to call BS on this one. C’mon, Politico.That 71 percent includes 90 percent of Latinos, 78 percent of Democrats, and 64 percent of Republicans — and frankly, I’m surprised the totals for each aren’t higher. Except to the small minority of the population that follows immigration news closely, the phrase “comprehensive immigration reform” is almost totally meaningless. News junkies recognize it as a term of art to describe a compromise on border security and legalization; to everyone else, which is pretty much everyone,...

Challengers see themselves in the Texas senator, even in races where their odds of an upset are considered steeper than Cruz’s surprise victory over a GOP establishment figure two years ago. He’s made endorsements in the Oklahoma and Nebraska Senate races, plus the Nebraska gubernatorial race, and sent almost $26,000 to federal candidates through his leadership PAC. “Ted Cruz would be extremely helpful as an endorser and a fundraiser,” said C. Edmund Wright, a consultant to longshot South Carolina Senate hopeful Lee Bright, in an email. “Rand Paul and Mike Lee would be great also.” But, he said, “the reason...

Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised President Barack Obama on Sunday, saying he was "excellent in crisis." “I had an amazingly good experience with this president in this White House, ...who was willing at that time to put policy ahead of politics in a way that was very important for the country," Geithner said on CBS's "Face the Nation." “He was excellent in crisis. Good at making decisions. Very tough on the rest of us, very tough on all of us to examine all the options. And I never felt I was in a position where they put a political...

New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson was abruptly fired from the paper on Wednesday, sources familiar with the news informed POLITICO. Managing editor Dean Baquet will take over as executive editor, effective immediately. The news of her departure was met with shock throughout the newsroom. Senior editors were unexpectedly summoned to a 2 p.m. leadership meeting at the Times headquarters in New York. The news was then announced in a staff-wide meeting by publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. In his announcement, Sulzberger said Abramson’s departure was related to “an issue with management in the newsroom,” and had nothing to do...

Sen. Jay Rockefeller unloaded on lawmakers Tuesday, accusing some of blocking efforts to solve urgent problems during Barack Obama’s presidency “because he’s the wrong color.” Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who will retire at the end of the year, made his comments during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on transportation funding, saying he’s confounded by the “lack of will to keep ourselves from dropping into rivers and rolling over bridges that are no longer there.” “It’s an American characteristic that you don’t do anything which displeases the voters, because you always have to get reelected here,” he added. “I understand part of it....

Capitol Hill police are investigating emailed threats to Rep. Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina congressman tabbed to head a special panel to probe the White House’s response to the Benghazi terrorist attacks. Politico reporters and journalists at other news outlets say they’ve received at least two emails that threaten harm to Mr. Gowdy due directly to his leading role on the panel. Capitol Police refused to comment on the actual threats, except to say that “an active, open investigation” has been launched, Politico reported.

Sen. Marco Rubio jumped into Iowa’s contested Senate primary on Monday, throwing his support behind conservative candidate Joni Ernst. After indicating in recent weeks that he would stay away from GOP primary season, the Florida senator decided to wade into one of the most consequential Senate races in the country by backing Ernst. Not only does Iowa hold the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus in 2016, but the state also will be central to the battle for the Senate this fall — unlike contested primaries in red states such as Oklahoma and Nebraska. Rubio made the announcement through his Reclaim America PAC...

The Nigerian ambassador to the United States on Thursday decried Sen. Ted Cruz’s joke earlier this week that “Nigerian email scammers” built the government’s health care exchange website, saying his comments are offensive and demanded an apology. Ambassador Ade Adefuye told POLITICO that Nigerians are “disappointed and shocked” by Cruz’s comments. “We deplore the statement, and we demand an apology, and we demand it be withdrawn,” Adefuye said. Cruz (R-Texas) made the remarks Monday night in Houston at a “Welcome Home” event with tea party supporters. The following day, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) criticized the comments and said they appeal...

The Democracy Alliance takes pains to ensure that its work disbursing millions of dollars to top left-wing organizations remains secretive and free from public scrutiny. But a document left on the floor of the group’s recent gathering reveals for the first time the names of a number of individuals involved in the effort. It lists new Democracy Alliance “partners,” individuals who every year must pay $30,000 in dues and contribute at least $200,000 to the groups that DA supports. It also reveals names of DA “advisers,” foundation participants, and individuals getting a “sneak peek” at the group’s activities. Among its...

It's no secret that POLITICO is a biased news organization. The online polictical blog is as progressive as they come. Very agenda driven. In our reporting we have already addressed the fact that Journolist members are solidly entrenched inside POLITICO's upper levels. Something Roger Simon, who calls the website home, tried to downplay. John Nolte over at Big Journalism isn't buying it, and has a simply marvelous retort: You say MSM, I say Politico. You say corrupt, I say Politico. Today, Politico’s Roger Simon was kind enough to almost scold JournoList for its lasting effect on his precious little profession...

A new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll offers what is, I think, a somewhat misleading way to look at Sarah Palin. The poll finds that 59% of Americans and 40% of Republicans don't think she'd make an "effective president" -- numbers that come very close to disqualifying her even in the primary, if she chooses to run. This trouble imagining President Palin is constant across the polling since soon after she was chosen as John McCain's running mate, and it reflects both her own lack of experience and the higher bar set for a woman -- Hillary Clinton did years of...

President Obama's response to a simple question from Chuck Todd just now -- how has he changed Washington? -- revived a central campaign tension. The tension was between hope and change, between his promises of a new tone and of new policies. It seemed hard to imagine he'd get both, and from the start there was little question that he'd take policy victories at the expense of harmony, as there seemed little room for compromise on his terms with a reduced, and more conservative, Republican congressional minority.

Before the MNSBC-Politico Debate, I wondered why in God’s name the Republican candidates would bother giving press and air time to a bunch of liberals asking snide questions down their noses to the GOP about issues not one person cares about.After that debate it convinced me the GOP candidates should be more discerning in their debates. And now, as Ben Domenech notes and I too can confirm, I think the candidates should boycott the Washington Post Bloomberg debate on October 11th. The debate is billed by the Washington Post as “exclusively” about the economy. I had relished them having this...