Free Republic

The US Supreme Court Monday decided to hear the case of an American born in Jerusalem, once again taking up the sensitive issue of the status of the contested city, according to AFP. The justices will hear arguments in the case in the fall before deciding on the constitutionality of a 2002 law that directs the State Department to give Israel as the country of birth in passports of Americans born in Jerusalem. At the center of the struggle between the Congress and the presidency is Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in Jerusalem in 2002 to two American parents. …

Hillary Clinton may end up deciding that she wants to spend the 935 days until Election 2016 making corporate speeches and spoiling her grandchild. Recent events have exposed weaknesses in Clinton’s supposedly impregnable armor, gaps through which a Democratic or Republican challenger could damage, perhaps even defeat her. The bad headlines to which she has been subjected are enough to make anyone — anyone who isn’t a Clinton — think twice about running for president. Look at the polls. This week’s Fox News poll has Clinton’s favorable rating at its lowest point in six years. She is at 49 percent...

After the 1848 revolution in France, the slogan of the non-socialist revolutionaries, lifted from a speech by Lamartine, became “the tricolor [flag] has gone around the world; the red flag [of socialism] has only gone around the Champs-de-Mars [a large park on the Left Bank of Paris].” ...................................................... John Kasich and Mike Pence, both governors of substantial Midwestern states, have been around the track many times. Both served with distinction in Congress. Kasich was a congressman from 1981 until 2001. He was a key player during the heady Gingrich days during which he became Chairman of the House Budget Committee.

If you’re wondering why this otherwise prosaic Bloomberg piece about Pence’s national future begins with a mention of the Koch brothers, it’s probably because the guy who wrote it worked for Paul Sarbanes and, briefly, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz before resuming his career as an impartial reporter.But never mind that. Is Pence the dark horse? “I have no doubt that he would make a great president,” said Steven Chancellor, the chief executive officer of Evansville, Indiana-based American Patriot Group, the parent of a company that makes ready-to-eat rations for the Pentagon. “He certainly distinguished himself in the House” and is “off...

O ver the weekend, Jeb Bush cracked open the door to a possible 2016 run, which has already sparked a round of moaning that American democracy is being bigfooted by political dynasties. A contest against Hillary Clinton would mean that either a Bush or a Clinton has been on nearly every presidential ticket since 1980, and even Barbara Bush has lamented that we can't seem to find anyone from any other family to run for president. In Politico, Larry Sabato argued that eight more years under a Clinton or Bush would make America "monarchial," and undercut our ability to promote...

A fiendishly clever theory from Peter Beinart. Remember “Operation Chaos”? That was Rush Limbaugh’s plan to have GOP voters wreak havoc on the Democratic nominating process in 2008. With McCain’s nomination already all but assured and Obama clinging to an apparently insurmountable lead over Hillary, Rush encouraged Republicans in states with open primaries (i.e. states where you don’t have to be registered as a party member to vote in that party’s primary) to cross over and vote for Hillary in the Democratic primary instead. The idea was to drag the primary process out for Democrats as long as possible, forcing...

The White House asked major TV networks for a prime-time slot for President Barack Obama’s Tuesday speech proclaiming Obamacare had reached its 7.1 million enrollment milestone, but network officials rebuffed the request. Citing three sources familiar with the request, Buzzfeed reports that the broadcasters refused to make any accommodation, leaving Obama to host his address in the Rose Garden during the day while daytime talk shows were airing.

HOWIE CARR, HOST: Who are you for, for president right now, Ann? ANN COULTER: Well, don't tell him but I'm planning on giving Mitt Romney a little more time to rest -- flying out, kidnapping him and depriving him of sleep, food and water until he agrees to run again. CARR: You're kidding? COULTER: No. CARR: You really want him to run again? COULTER: Yeah, I think he was a fantastic candidate. As I've told you before, he would have won by a larger landslide than Ronald Reagan did in 1980 without Teddy Kennedy's immigration bill. And it's basically impossible...

If the 2016 presidential race were a game of “hot or not,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren would be winning with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton close behind, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would be losing ground, according to a new poll. When Americans were asked to give prominent politicians a score, zero to 100, of how “warm,” or favorable, they feel toward that person, the Massachusetts Democratic senator was the highest-rated of the bunch with a “temperature” of 48.6, according to a Quinnipiac poll out Thursday. Clinton was in second place at 47.8, Republican Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan followed...

Let’s start off with the caveat that 2016 polls at this point share something in common with John Nance Garner’s view of the Vice Presidency — “not worth a bucket of warm piss,” although it’s often used with “spit” as a euphemism. Had we taken polls seriously in early 2006, the nominees in 2008 would have been Hillary Clinton and, er … John McCain. Still, we haven’t even seen a partial roster of people actually aiming for the nod, and yet Mike Huckabee — who came in second or third in 2008, depending how one counts — seems to be...

On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., presented his 2015 budget proposal. The Senate Democrats did not provide any such proposal; President Barack Obama's proposal posited an unending federal deficit and massive tax increases. Ryan's proposal, by contrast, lowered the rate of increase of spending moderately (by $5.1 trillion over the next decade), struck Obamacare from the rolls, and suggested revamps to Social Security and Medicare. This was possibly the dumbest thing Ryan could have done. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., immediately jumped on the budget proposal, suggesting that Ryan's budget came from "Kochtopia," and that it...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced a plan to repeal and replace President Obama’s health-care law, an effort by the Republican to insert himself into the increasingly competitive early maneuvering for his party’s presidential nomination. Jindal, a former state and federal health official, said his plan is one of many policy proposals he will release in coming months, making clear that he wants to be seen as a policy-driven problem solver. In his 26-page plan, Jindal lays out a lengthy critique of the health law — which he refers to throughout as “Obamacare” — and reiterates his belief that it needs...

The first FLOTUS ticket? Oh, hell no. Reminder: It’s totally not a cult. We’re not sure we feel safe with these drivers on the road. And frighteningly, they’ve been tooling around with these “Hillary Clinton/Michelle Obama 2016″ stickers for a while. Shudder.

The chore of determining who is the inevitable candidate for Republicans – at least in the minds of beltway insiders and the media – is clearly becoming more difficult. But the Washington Post takes a swing at the problem this weekend as they delve into the number of big donors who are now courting Jeb Bush to get off the bench and toss his hat in the ring. Many of the Republican Party’s most powerful insiders and financiers have begun a behind-the-scenes campaign to draft former Florida governor Jeb Bush into the 2016 presidential race, courting him and his intimates...

Today’s quiz: What do Vladimir Putin’s aggression and ObamaCare’s troubles have in common? OK, that was too easy.

Kennedys honor George H.W. Bush's ‘read my lips’ flip-flop with Profile of Courage award The Kennedy foundation is praising George H.W. Bush for risking “his reputation and ultimately his political career by forging an important compromise on the budget in 1990.” Jack Schlossberg, President Kennedy’s grandson and a Yale University student, will present the award to Bush at a ceremony in May. George H.W. Bush’s epic “read my lips: no new taxes” promise cost him a second White House term, but it’s earning him a 2014 Profile in Courage award from the Kennedy clan. Despite his fervent pledge against a...

On Monday, Governor Heineman released his newest column warning Nebraskan's of current efforts in Nebraska's Legislature to silence the voice of Nebraskans on future Presidential races. The Bill, LB1058 (sponsored by Republican State Senator Tyson Larson who made it his priority bill is also now cosponsored by liberal Democrat Sen. Ken Haar ). The bill is being pushed by highly paid lobbyists (noted below). The bill proposes that Nebraska join the National Popular Vote Compact, in essence promising all five of Nebraska's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote (even if that candidate didn't win...

Sen. Rand Paul has become the first Republican to assemble a network in all 50 states as a precursor to a 2016 presidential run, the latest sign that he is looking to build a more mainstream coalition than the largely ad hoc one that backed his father’s unsuccessful campaigns. Paul’s move, which comes nearly two years before the 2016 primaries, also signals an effort to win the confidence of skeptical members of the Republican establishment, many of whom doubt that his appeal will translate beyond the libertarian base that was attracted to Ron Paul, the former Texas congressman. Rand Paul’s...

Come on guys, let’s start focusing on the important stuff like ObamaCare, Ukraine and winning the Senate. All this outrage in the conservative media about how much money it’s costing for Barack Obama’s trip to Belgium and for Michelle Obama’s travels to China is just a waste of time. Yes, the cost of their trips, whether they’re measured in millions of dollars or thousands of hotel-room nights, is outrageous. But what POTUS (the president of the United States) and FLOTUS (the first lady of the United States) are doing on their travels is nothing new or abnormal. Obama’s official overseas...

In a speech Friday, Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised illegal immigrants as "risk takers" who embody the entrepreneurial spirit of America and doubled down on his defense of Common Core. According to the Miami-Herald, Bush made his remarks in front of business leaders in Florida. “People who come here legally and illegally are the risk takers,” Bush reportedly said. “If you’re living in a rural area of Guatemala and you come, you’re a bigger risk taker than those who stay,” he added. Of course, the first action of those who come to the country illegally is breaking the law....