Free Republic

Reverend Al Sharpton ✔ @TheRevAl I am in Senate Dining Room having breakfast meeting with Sen. Rand Paul. We don't agree on much but he is an interesting guy.

Businessman Matt Bevin is the guy some see moving up in the Kentucky GOP governor's primary. Bevin also challenged now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a primary last year. These two things are not distinct from one another. Now that Bevin's chances appear to be on the rise in the May 19 primary (thanks to Agriculture Commissioner James Comer's problems), here comes Team McConnell to knock him down a peg or two. And boy do they. Here is top McConnell aide Josh Holmes on Bevin in a new Lousiville Courier-Journal story: Josh Holmes, McConnell's former chief of staff and...

When former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) announced his second presidential bid on Tuesday, he played up his blue-collar, working-class background in an attempt to distinguish himself from some of his rivals. "I don't have a global foundation or a taxpayer-funded paycheck to live off of. I don't come from a family dynasty, but a working family. I grew up blue collar, not blue blood," Huckabee said in his announcement, which he delivered in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. Huckabee's statement took aim at several of his potential competitors in the 2016 election. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her...

As many of you know, I'm a big fan of Ted Cruz, but when he does something wrong, it's important to call him on it. In this case he, along with Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, voted for a bill that will effectively allow the President to lift sanctions on Iran. Normally, here's how treaties work: the President negotiates a treaty with another country, like the deal he is negotiating with Iran over its nuclear weapons development. Once the treaty is negotiated, it's submitted to the Senate. Two thirds of the Senate has to vote to approve, or ratify, the...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, speaking at the Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War II at Latrun, said that Iran's nuclear weapon is the biggest challenge for his next government. Netanyahu made the remarks in a speech during a Victory in Europe Day ceremony commemorating the Allies' World War II victory over Nazi Germany. "The biggest challenge is Iran's attempt to arm itself with a nuclear weapon, and in parallel develop terror fronts for conquering areas of the Middle East, around our borders. We will meet this challenge. And we also know that not only are we...

A 2016 poll came out in New Hampshire this week that carried some very bad news for Chris Christie. The survey, conducted by WMUR-TV, showed the New Jersey governor at 3 percent in the New Hampshire primary, putting him in 11th place in the field -- and two points behind reality show "star"/political huckster Donald Trump. Worse for Christie is that when WMUR last polled the New Hampshire primary back in February, he took 9 percent of the vote. So, in the space of less than three months, Christie's support dropped by two-thirds in perhaps the one state where he...

The rumors began trickling in about a week before the scheduled vote on April 23: Republican leadership was quietly pushing senators to pull support for subpoenaing Congress’s fraudulent application to the District of Columbia’s health exchange — the document that facilitated Congress’s “exemption” from Obamacare by allowing lawmakers and staffers to keep their employer subsidies. Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418055/how-five-republicans-let-congress-keep-its-fraudulent-obamacare-subsidies-brendan

The rumors began trickling in about a week before the scheduled vote on April 23: Republican leadership was quietly pushing senators to pull support for subpoenaing Congress’s fraudulent application to the District of Columbia’s health exchange — the document that facilitated Congress’s “exemption” from Obamacare by allowing lawmakers and staffers to keep their employer subsidies. The application said Congress employed just 45 people. Names were faked; one employee was listed as “First Last,” another simply as “Congress.” To Small Business Committee chairman David Vitter, who has fought for years against the Obamacare exemption, it was clear that someone in Congress...

If you live in a state like South Dakota, you’ve become used to “Republicans” selling out the Constitution, the rule of law, and the American people on ObamaCare. We’ve seen our former governor and newly minted U.S. Senator RINO Mike Rounds, our current governor RINO Dennis Daugaard, and a host of other “Republican” leaders in state government sell us out on ObamaCare. And we’ve seen “Republicans” in Washington D.C. sell us out on ObamaCare, with one of the biggest surrenders a couple of years ago when they had a chance to defund this unconstitutional monstrosity before it ever got...

Mark Levin believes blackmail or something may be going behind the scenes in the Senate. Here’s why: NATIONAL REVIEW – The rumors began trickling in about a week before the scheduled vote on April 23: Republican leadership was quietly pushing senators to pull support for subpoenaing Congress’s fraudulent application to the District of Columbia’s health exchange — the document that facilitated Congress’s “exemption” from Obamacare by allowing lawmakers and staffers to keep their employer subsidies. The application said Congress employed just 45 people. Names were faked; one employee was listed as “First Last,” another simply as “Congress.” To Small Business...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) DURHAM, N.H. —In five of the last six presidential general elections, including the last three, the Democratic nominee has won New Hampshire’s four electoral votes. That’s not a sure thing for 2016, according to the results of a new WMUR Granite State Poll. Hillary Clinton trails or is in virtual ties with Republicans Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, the poll of 706 randomly selected adults shows. That’s a sharp change from just three months ago, when the former secretary of state held comfortable leads over all five of those announced or likely candidates....

The Man Once Called Inventor of the Republican Internet Wants Help.Political campaigns are notoriously opaque. They're also typically pretty top-down affairs despite staffers' insistence that "It's all about the grassroots." So it was a bit surprising to see Vincent Harris, the young entrepreneur heading digital for GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, asking supporters on Twitter for ideas. Specifically, he asked followers of his @VincentHarris account on Wednesday what the candidate might do better in digital media. In a related post he wrote, "I am around always to listen. Have had folks as young as 14 send in...

Health-care experts call it D.C. insiderism at its worst. The rumors began trickling in about a week before the scheduled vote on April 23: Republican leadership was quietly pushing senators to pull support for subpoenaing Congress’s fraudulent application to the District of Columbia’s health exchange — the document that facilitated Congress’s “exemption” from Obamacare by allowing lawmakers and staffers to keep their employer subsidies. The application said Congress employed just 45 people. Names were faked; one employee was listed as “First Last,” another simply as “Congress.” To Small Business Committee chairman David Vitter, who has fought for years against the...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)93% is most likely the Republican candidate that could beat Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Tuesday. “The GOP candidate who came closest to Mrs. Clinton was Sen. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)93% , who trailed by 47%-44%,” reports the Wall Street Journal. Paul leads Clinton among independent voters 45 percent to 37 percent. Last month Paul defeated Clinton in key swing states, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

* Arkansas evangelical politician played hardball with early jabs at primary competitors * Hit Cruz for signing up for Obamacare, Paul for trying to run for Senate and President at the same time, and Bush for being part of a political 'dynasty' * Tech glitches plagued Huckabee's rollout, including a campaign website that flickered and failed and C-SPAN audio that went haywire * Slogans include 'Hope to Higher Ground' and the Eisenhower-throwback line 'I Like Mike'Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee threw the first punches on Tuesday against other Republican presidential candidates, ending a brief spring of comity among conservatives who...

The field of announced Republican candidates has recently doubled to six, with the entry of Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Mike Huckabee. When you add the candidates who are almost certain to soon join the race--Jeb Bush, Gov. Scott Walker, Rick Perry, and Gov. Chris Christie--and the others who might, the field will be big enough to fill an airport shuttle van. The stage at the first Fox News debate in early August will have so many people on it, the organizers may need to put everyone on bleachers. The Republican presidential pageant is vastly more diverse than the Democratic...

The first announced GOP presidential candidate of the 2016 election cycle suddenly has plenty of company … which according to him is a good thing. U.S. senator Ted Cruz – whose March 22 announcement broke the 2016 seal – now has five fellow “Republicans” seeking the same nomination he’s after. In fact the GOP field doubled this week with the addition of retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to a slate already featuring Cruz and his senatorial colleagues Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida. According to Cruz,...

When the Tea Party began in 2009, even those of us at the heart of the movement couldn’t have predicted how it would permanently alter America’s political landscape. Just six years later, it’s undeniably at the heart of American politics in spite of countless attacks from the political establishment and from the national media. Because of the Tea Party’s strength and influence, candidates who call themselves conservative must prove their bona fides to successfully court any grassroots support at all. Sen. Ted Cruz is a great example. Clearly a Tea Party favorite, Cruz has stood strong in the Senate for...

Today's Ted Cruz news: "On a day of dueling presidential announcements, conservative neurosurgeon Ben Carson was the clear winner in Facebook engagement, driving nearly three times the traffic of former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina. ... In relation to other GOP contenders, both fall on the lower end of engagement. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio got about 1.3 million interactions from 695,000 people, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul got about 1.9 million interactions from 865,000 people, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came out on top with 5.5 million interactions generated by 2.1 million people." Read more from CBS News. Cruz has assembled his...

The Conservative Review hands out its first report card for 2016 Republicans Monday, and two candidates get schooled. According to the group, which was formed last year to score GOP lawmakers' adherence to conservative dogma, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky need improvement. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz earns top grades -- just as he used to at Princeton and Harvard Law. International Business Times got an early look at the ratings of the three Republicans who have officially launched presidential campaigns. The Review graded them on criteria including immigration, foreign policy and "moral issues" like abortion,...