Free Republic

On Monday, militant Ron Paul supporters joined forces with Occupy Wall Street protesters to harass former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. Fox News reported that Gingrich was forced to cancel an appearance at his New Hampshire campaign headquarters when Ron Paul supporters and Occupy Wall Street protesters swarmed the entrance: About 40 protesters showed up Monday evening carrying placards reading "Ron Paul" and "Occupy." One played speeches by presidential candidate Ron Paul from a loud speaker. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the former House speaker's private security detail decided to cancel the event because of...

Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R) offered support for some of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have built up in lower Manhattan over the weekend in an interview Friday with Reason magazine, where he also denounced the “militarization of our police forces.” “If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed — I would say, good!” Paul said following a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire.Paul has long been an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve, which he says manipulates American currency and is excessively secretive. Paul was asked by Reason...

Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R) offered support for some of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have built up in lower Manhattan over the weekend in an interview Friday with Reason magazine, where he also denounced the "militarization of our police forces." "If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed — I would say, good!" Paul said following a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire. Paul has long been an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve, which he says manipulates American currency and is excessively secretive.

Rep. Ron Paul is definitely the only Republican candidate who has displayed a degree of sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, and last night he proved it on a national stage by addressing resident Republican crazy man (one of many), Herman Cain.

Ron Paul spoke tonight at Keene State College, and as is being reported nationally, was “mic checked” by Occupy Keeneat the end of his speech. The occupiers said: “We are the 99%! We will be heard! There are criminals on Wall Street who walk free, there are protesters in jail…There’s something wrong with this system. We are the 99%! We will be heard!” He handled it graciously by smiling throughout and then by asking them if they feel better. He was also sure to point out his agreement with the Occupy Wall St. movement, saying, “I’m very much involved with...

While campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, comparing it to the Tea Party movement. "In many ways, I identify with both groups," Paul said. Both groups are fed up with problems in Washington and "the two-party-system," Paul said while speaking at an insurance company in Des Moines. Praising the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement is an unusual move for a Republican presidential candidate, but Ron Paul is, of course, an unusual Republican presidential candidate. He jumped to first place in the Iowa caucus polls partly because of support from people...

In a development that may portend extended disruptions, veteran street organizer Lisa Fithian, previously dubbed “Professor Occupy,” recently trained Ferguson protesters how to “simulate chaos.” Fithian is a legendary organizer who once announced she seeks to “create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible.” She was one of the luminaries of the Occupy Wall Street movement and was a lead organizer in the infamous 1999 Seattle riots against the World Trade Organization that descended into violence. The 1999 WTO event in Seattle devolved into widespread rioting in which more than 40,000 protesters, some using violent tactics, descended...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Columnist Pat Buchanan predicted that either Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) would be in the "finals" for the GOP nomination in 2016 on Friday's "McLaughlin Group.""If you want to get the nomination, you don't worry about independents in a general election, you excite the base, the Tea Party, the conservatives, the activists, the libertarians, and this is exactly what Cruz is doing. And I think it's a correct strategy as a nomination strategy, it's risky in a general election" he stated....

With the 2014 election now in the history books, the reality is that the 2016 campaign is upon us. And you can expect Texas to get more time in the spotlight now that the 2016 GOP presidential primary is a main attraction. Four candidates with direct or indirect connections to the Lone Star State are on most early lists of top potential candidates: Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and two scions of families with strong Texas ties — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the son of former Texas Congressman (and frequent presidential aspirant) Ron Paul, and...

Sen. Rand Paul is blaming politicians for the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, arguing that the criminal justice system fuels racial tension by disproportionately targeting African-Americans. The so-called war on drugs has created a culture of violence and put police in a nearly impossible situation," Paul said in an op-ed published for TIME. He acknowledged that the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer wasn't related to drugs, but argued that outsized penalties for nonviolent drug crimes creates a "tension in some communities that too often results in tragedy." The comments are another attempt by Paul, a Kentucky...

Forget shutting down the government. Lock down the White House instead. This morning a news story alerted me to the fact that an Army base in Texas was on lockdown after a suspicious vehicle was found.“A lockdown was ordered at a U.S. Army base in San Antonio on Sunday night in what a military spokesman described as a ‘high-security incident,’” reported Reuters, “while adding there was no threat.”But since a vehicle was involved one can assume a bomb was suspected. Since an arrest was made, perhaps more than suspected. Similarly tensions are high in Ferguson Missouri, after a combination of...

Conservative talk show how Rush Limbaugh said Thursday on his radio show that conservatives have lost the gay marriage debate and that it is now “inevitable.” “This issue is lost,” he said. “I don’t care what the Supreme Court does. This is inevitable. And it’s inevitable because we lost the language on this.” Limbaugh added that conservatives lost the debate because they allowed the term “marriage” to be “bastardized.” “As far as I’m concerned, once we started talking about gay marriage, traditional marriage, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, hetero marriage, we lost,” Limbaugh said. “It was over.”

The Kentucky senator, seeking to define himself as a foreign-policy heavyweight ahead of 2016, will introduce a measure in the Senate next month declaring war on the terror group. “The most important” part of Rand Paul’s assessment of “questions of war,” the Kentucky senator told The Daily Beast this fall, is “how you go to war.” Now he’s putting that assessment into action with a plan to introduce a declaration of war against ISIS in the Senate next month. The move is part of Paul’s ongoing campaign to position himself as a foreign-policy heavyweight ahead of the Republican presidential primaries,...

I could easily vote for a Scott Walker/Rand Paul ticket in 2016. Two constitutionalists in the White House? Wow, we have not seen such a thing since. . . the Harding/Coolidge ticket during the 1920 Election. My current political hero is Scott Walker. He got elected on conservative principles, applied those conservative principles, turned the State of Wisconsin around economically, survived a recall election after taking on the unions, and then got elected again, all in a four year span, and all in a blue State. He did not back down, and he did what he said he would. A...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Three names are being thrown around as the top contenders in the Republican Party: Governor Chris Christie, Senator Rand Paul and Senator Ted Cruz. With the 2016 presidential election in mind, many feel like the gloves have officially come off and the battle is ensuing to see who will represent the Republican Party in the race to lead our country. Senator Cruz discussed how he feels the complete opposite regarding Christie's recent comments about how he said his goal is to win elections, not arguments. “A big part of the reason why Republicans have been losing elections is because we...

Some 63% Want Candidates Elected This Year to Broker Deals With Lawmakers From Across Aisle Americans are largely pleased with the outcome of this month's midterm elections but have little faith that Republican gains in the House and Senate will prompt the two parties to work more closely to solve the nation's problems, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds. Weeks after Republicans recaptured the Senate and tightened their grip on the House, roughly three-fourths of poll participants said this month's midterm results woul produce "just some" or "not that much" change in a country that most believe has...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday night that the House should pass a resolution opposing President Obama's immigration executive action, setting up a lawsuit against him. "What I would recommend to the House is they should immediately pass a resolution saying that what he is doing is contrary to the will of the House of Representatives," Paul said on Fox News. "That would set up, I think, a very clear-cut case in the court." Republicans have been searching for a way to stop Obama's immigration actions, set to be announced in a speech Thursday night. Paul, a likely presidential candidate,...

The main event is finally here. The race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is now underway. This is shaping up to be the strongest field of Republican challengers in recent memory. After the GOP’s strong showing in the 2014 midterms, the list of those who sense an opportunity, and want to seize it to run in 2016, is both long and distinguished. While the Democrat presidential primary is essentially Hillary Clinton (their 2008 also-ran) or bust, the Republicans have a deep bench of potential standard-bearers... Though it may seem early to some to already be posting odds on the...

Former Sen. Bob Bennett says even though Republicans are set to take over Congress come January, don't expect Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to set the agenda. Bennett, speaking at a conference in Washington, says Sen. Mitch McConnell, who will be majority leader in the next Congress, has done a masterful job of "isolating" Ted Cruz. "There is no cannier politician in Washington than Mitch McConnell," said Bennett. "Yes, Ted Cruz is an unsettling factor within the Republican conference. My sense of things is Mitch has very carefully, very methodically, very much under the radar isolated Ted Cruz. He's...

(CNN) -- Vincent Harris, Ted Cruz's top digital operative, is leaving the Texas senator's team to work for Sen. Rand Paul's political operation, as the jostling for staff ramps up ahead of the 2016 GOP presidential primary contest. Harris will join Rand Paul's political action committee and his 2016 team as a chief digital strategist, according to Doug Stafford, executive director of RAND PAC. Stafford said Harris will sit at the "top of the leadership team," as Paul and his inner circle carry out what's expected to be a dizzying political schedule. Paul will likely announce his Senate re-election bid...