Free Republic

Conservative primary voters "have to yield" to reality, Senate Republicans' campaign chairman said Wednesday. Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), suggested that conservatives need to have a more realistic sense of which races are winnable and with which candidates. "Folks on the right, and frankly I'm one of them in terms of voting record, have to yield to the world as it is and not necessarily how they wish it would be," Cornyn told Reuters for a story about centrist Rep. Mike Castle's (R) bid for Senate next year in Delaware. Belying Cornyn's...

Although Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to allow Democrats to move up the vote on the Senate version of ObamaCare so that Congress could go home for Christmas, Republicans are far from giving up the fight. Even before Congress has a chance to work out a successful compromise between the House and Senate versions of the bill after the holidays, Congressional Republicans and conservative organizations are preparing legal challenges to the bill should it reach Obama's desk.

I think that a lot of congressional Democrats are going to pay the price of Obamacare, but Andrew McCarthy highlights a key point: The best thing about Mark Steyn's guest-host stint on Hannity last night -- other than Jonah's joining him on the panel -- was that Mark asked some pointed questions of two brilliant political strategists, Dick Morris and Karl Rove, that seemed rooted in Mark's theory that, on health care and all it entails,"The Dems are thinking strategically; the Republicans are all tactics." For my money, I think the theory is being borne out: Democrats have their eyes...

Well, he has been promising us a Christmas present. Republican candidates now have an eight-point lead over Democrats, their biggest lead of the year, in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. The new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Support for GOP candidates held steady over the past week, but support for Democrats slipped by a point. The simple truth is this: the closer this federally intrusive, probably unconstitutional, health care reform nightmare gets to being a reality,...

Senate Republicans have agreed to end their filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) health care reform bill a few hours early on Christmas Eve, a move that will allow the GOP to technically stick to its promise to force Dec. 24 vote on the measure while still making it possible for Senators to return home for the holiday.

AMERICAN.COM A Magazine of Ideas A Keystone Election By Michael BaroneTuesday, December 22, 2009 Filed under: Government & Politics, Culture, Numbers, Public Square A lot of attention has been given to the results of the November 3 gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. But another recent election, in Pennsylvania, also deserves attention. A lot of attention has been given to the results of the November 3 gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. But another election worthy of some attention was held in Pennsylvania, which has been a target state in the last three presidential elections. Pennsylvania elects its...

- Big Government - http://biggovernment.com - Posted By Bob Parks Obama: A Republican Plant? Many of us had no idea the Republican Party had it in them, but to devise and implement such a plan was ingenious. Think about it; party leadership acting totally inept while a charismatic young Democrat presidential candidate captures the imagination of the normally lethargic youth vote, captures the senior vote, women, and even sends a thrill up the leg of the media.And within a few short months after attaining the presidency, he conducts himself in a manner (personally and in office) that had not only...

Thad McCotter (R) Michigan, Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee was interviewed this AM on Fox News. Everything he said about the Democrats, Obama, national debt, Obamacare, etc. was in agreement with my hardcore conservative views of our Constitution and our Republic. But I would like to know what the rest of you think about him and the principles that he stands for!! Here is the link to the Republican Policy Committee

Congressional Republicans raised new concerns this week about the Obama administration's firing of Gerald Walpin, who served as inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service. GOP lawmakers said White House visitors logs contradict statements made by the former chairman of CNCS, the agency that oversees AmeriCorps.

Drenched in crocodile tears, many in the pundit class now portray the GOP as hopelessly divided by fringe groups and internal dissensions. Democratic leaders like Virginia governor Tim Kaine eagerly fan these flames. According to Politico, he told the American Democracy Conference last week that the tea party movement and insurgent conservative candidates are "devouring" the GOP. Kaine said these divisions are "corrosive" and will prove "deadly" to the Republican party in years ahead. Similar narratives populate left-wing commentaries about Republicans such as Sarah Palin. Writing in the New York Times, Frank Rich notes that the former Alaska governor and...

After barely four weeks in office, President Barack Obama signs into law Tuesday a legislative achievement that eclipses entire terms of some contemporary presidents. The stimulus legislation has the real potential of creating more than 3 million jobs, most in the private sector and many rebuilding an aging public infrastructure. The new law assists those most in need of basic health care, job training, and in the near term, unemployment benefits and food. No one could blame Obama for being a bit chagrined at the GOP’s disengagement from all this, notwithstanding the president’s charm and offers of substantive compromise. Republican...

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell retorts: "Here's the most outrageous part: at the end of this rush (to get the bill passed), they (Dems) want us to vote on a bill that no one outside the Majority Leader's conference room has even seen."

Once again the nativity season brings attacks by those offended by ubiquitous displays of Christmas. This Christmas, I’m drawn to the similar ways some Christians and Republicans create opposition to their beliefs and, like the innkeepers of Bethlehem, provide no shelter for travelers. Every year brings new incidents of holiday political correctness, from removal of nativity scenes from public places to banning of Christmas references and displays in public schools. These events do not bother me, and I do not see them as infringements on my Christian beliefs. I do not need to see Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus...

The Founding Fathers created a Republic, but 60 Senators are poised to take it away. With the pending disaster of the passage in the Senate of a bill nationalizing one sixth of the U.S. economy and our entire healthcare system at a cost of over $2.5 trillion, we are faced with a crucial question: are the Republican senators using every means at their disposal to stop this looming, tyrannical abuse of power? Unfortunately, the answer appears to be “no.” The Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, has parliamentary rules and procedures that give the minority the ability to stall legislation....

Poll: Dissatisfaction Could Spell Trouble For Democrats In 2010 As President Obama's supporters grow listless and independents grow irritated, Republicans have a greater opportunity to dominate midterm elections, according to findings of the Battleground Poll. Mark Silva December 16, 2009 Reporting from Washington - Anger among independent voters about the economy and the direction the nation is taking offer Republicans a significant opportunity to reclaim power in the 2010 midterm congressional elections, according to the results of the bipartisan Battleground Poll released today. A lack of passion among President Obama's core supporters and an absence of confidence that the administration's...

Senate Republicans said Thursday that they would try to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move that several acknowledged was an effort to delay President Obama's health-care legislation. Late into the night, Democrats emerged from a huddle confident that they would muster the 60 votes needed to thwart the GOP effort at blocking the military spending bill. An antiwar liberal said he would set aside his reservations and support choking off the filibuster to keep the chamber on a timeline of holding a final health-care vote before Christmas. The vote on...

(912 on the mall) The left's anti-American coup d'etat on America, made possible by the first radical Marxist in the White House, calls for distinctly American counter measures. Dr. Jack Wheeler has "a strategy for any Republican wanting to get elected or re-elected to Congress in 2010, and for any Tea Partyer wanting to take individual action now against a government that ignores the Constitution -- Defund and Disobey." Here's an excerpt of "The Double -D Strategy for rescuing America": Let's talk about the Defund D first. The Founders in their usual brilliance place the power of the purse in...

It’s been said that when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. So it is with politics. The GOP’s 2008 election defeat planted and watered the seeds of what the party has been in need of for a long time – a real conservative revolution. The good news is that Barack Obama is making it all possible. He and the Democrat leadership are providing Americans with a vivid reminder of everything they don’t like about liberalism. As White House Chief of Staff Rham Emanuel was credited with saying after Obama took office, ”a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”....

I was recently asked by a friend if I thought the Republican Party was at risk of dying out to a third party. This friend of mine has been with the party for a long time, as I have.....

Iowa gubernatorial candidate Christopher Rants has spent a lot of time criticizing his GOP rivals in recent months. A new video posted on You Tube turns the tables on the former Iowa House Speaker. The clip combs through Rants' records in great detail, and accuses him of taking $1.1 million in special interest money. That includes including $450,700 from "vice lobbies" like gambling, tobacco, and alcohol.

Medical dictionaries tell us that testosterone is an anabolic steroid that is produced in the bodies of both males and females. And while females are, from a behavioral standpoint, more sensitive to the hormone than males, an adult human male produces, on average, about forty to sixty times more testosterone than an adult human female. In the human male, testosterone plays a key role in the development of uniquely male physical characteristics... male sex organs, facial and body hair, muscle mass, and vocal quality. It is also thought to be a major contributing factor in the level of competitiveness and...

California Republicans may be delusional about their chances in coming elections By thomas d. elias Posted: 12/08/2009 09:16:17 PM PST Updated: 12/09/2009 08:37:43 AM PST It's the holiday season, so optimism is in the air, not least among California Republicans. As they head into next year's election, they sound like they have before one major election after another since 1992. Trouble is, little of that earlier happy talk ever materialized.Candidates from George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush to John Seymour, John McCain, Matt Fong, Bill Simon, Bill Jones, Michael Huffington and Dan Lungren have predicted they would run strongly...

After writing Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader (2009), I’ve bumped into a few articles that come to the same unorthodox conclusions about individuals I profile in my “race reader.” One such “unorthodox” column appeared in the Wall Street Journal on 25 November 2009. In "Not-So-Silent Cal Wrote with Eloquence,” Ryan Cole lauds Coolidge’s Autobiography as an example of his eloquence. Cole concludes that “Barack Obama isn’t the first man of letters in the White House.” I have been told–but not verified–that Coolidge was the last president to write his own speeches. After reading Coolidge’s writings, published while...

It is certainly not breaking news that Sarah Palin is the darling of the most extreme fringe of the Republican Party, but here's yet another data point on it: she's by far the most popular potential 2012 candidate with voters who disapprove of Barack Obama and already want to impeach him. 86% of voters who fit that description have a favorable opinion of Palin to 62% for Mike Huckabee and 49% for Mitt Romney. That's a much wider popularity gap than exists among all Republicans, 73% of whom view Palin favorably to 57% for Huckabee and 51% for Romney. By...

I recently read a book on American politics during the Eisenhower years. A former governor of Illinois, Adlai Stevenson, was nominated by the Democratic Party to challenge Eisenhower in the 1952 and 1956 Presidential elections. Amazingly, I read that many grassroots Democrats refused to vote for Stevenson because he had divorced his wife in 1949, and they could not bring themselves to vote for a divorcee as President. Before 1960, ordinary Democrats were more socially conservative than Republicans. Republicans were the party of big corporations and country club members, while Democrats were the party of the people, and tended to...

It’s official folks, with the Democrats steamrolling over the GOP filibuster intended to stop another TRILLION in wasteful spending yesterday, Republicans in congress have been handed their hat once again. Do you republicans not know that you are completely irrelevant? Or do you just not have the spine to take a real stand? Democrats are making asses out of all of you! This is NOT a game! The future of freedom and liberty hang in the balance and most Americans know it! How did you miss it? Republican congressional votes have NO meaning today... Congressional Republicans MUST WALK OUT immediately!...

Watching the video of Sarah Palin’s appearance with William Shatner on the Conan O’Brien Show, the one word that came to mind was style. Yet, there was more to it than that. After all, she entered the arena of late night television, a stage that has excoriated her routinely - the “enemy camp” as Chris Matthews might say. She has been scoffed at before by O’Brien. The show has featured William Shatner mocking Palin’s tweets by reading them as dramatic recitations. Still, Palin ...

Whatta boss that Harry Reid is -- al ways looking out for the welfare of his members and staff. Seems the Senate majority leader asked Republicans to forego a scheduled debate so that everyone could stay home until Monday. "I see no reason to punish everybody this weekend," he said. A real standup guy, that Harry Reid -- notwithstanding the fact that, days earlier, he was quite emphatic on the need to work through the weekend. "Fourteen thousand people lose their health insurance every day in America," he said. "The American people don't get weekends off from this injustice." Why...

With the loss of the filibuster, Congressional Republicans have only ONE play left to stop the coming train wreck, when Obamunism runs head-on into millions of increasingly angry American patriots in the streets. Only Congressional Republicans can stop that clash! Congressional Republicans MUST WALK OUT immediately! You must pack your bags, close your offices, refuse to enter the congressional chambers for one more pretend vote in which the Democrats will hand you your hat once again.If Republicans want to harness the power of the Tea Party - 912 - and Town Hall patriots across this land, you can do it...

The Republican Party, the Party of Reagan has been nearly smothered and suffocated by the RINO-virus which has spread more rapidly than any swine flu pandemic, the GOP has been infected from the top down, and IF it is to avoid the fate of the Bull Moose Party, the principles of Reagan conservatism must be re-established, the fair weather collaborators and Quislings (that means YOU Juan McCain and your butt buddy Lindsey 'Goober' Graham!) MUST be driven out and banished and if they join up with the traitorous 'Rats, so be it. Force them to show their true colors. The...

The Democrats hold 258 U. S House seats, the Republicans 177. In the last two cycles (2006 and 2008) the Democrats gained a net 55 House seats. To win back control in 2010 the GOP will need to pick up a net 41 seats. Can they do it? It is likely the GOP will lose some seats it now holds in the 2010 races. Even in the GOP sweep in 1994, when the party picked up a net 54 seats, Democrats won 4 GOP-held seats. The single most vulnerable Republican-held seat (in reality, the single most vulnerable seat for either...

A conservative Republican National Committee member from Indiana, Jim Bopp, has drawn up a checklist of conservative principles for GOP candidates. He'll offer a resolution at the RNC's winter meeting proposing that candidates would have to agree to at least seven of the 10 points to qualify for party support and funding. Liberal pundits and Democratic activists have kindly offered unsolicited advice to Republicans that this is a bad idea. Coming from people who hope for nothing but Republican defeats at the polls, this advice is of questionable value. If liberals really thought this would be bad for the GOP,...

<p>A surprising thing is taking place as Sarah Palin starts speaking out on the issues in recent speeches, internet postings, and in the book tour she is now undertaking for her memoir “Going Rogue.” An outline is starting to appear in respect of the substance of her world view — call it “Palinism” — and it is far more substantive than her detractors suggest or than we gained a glimpse of during the campaign. She has been, in a straightforward way, stepping up on certain issues that her fellow Republicans would do well to emulate.</p>

Probably not, but their candidate recruitment so far has been stellar. Democrats began the year as masters of the political universe, winning the White House and increasing their majorities in Congress. But the year is ending badly for them. Their top initiative, health care, is deeply unpopular. Congress's approval rating is 26%, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's is 28%, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's is an anemic 14%. Political currents are running against the party of Barack Obama. Democrats now trail Republicans by four points in Gallup's generic ballot poll. In 1994, the year the GOP took control of Congress, it...

Republicans like to point to Ronald Reagan for inspiration. However, we have to resign ourselves to the fact that Ronald Reagan is dead. Worse, his legacy was killed off by his own party, the same Republicans who say he inspired them. The only lasting legacy to George W. Bush was the nomination of two constructionist judges and a fading response to terrorism. For eight years, we saw GW insist more on getting along than being right. Even the war in Iraq was fought on the cheap, probably out of fear of the cost of waging war, which defies the logic...

The other day, I wrote that President Obama has "run out of both charm and ideas." I was too kind. To judge from the string of whoppers in his dreary jobs speech yesterday, he's also run out of facts. And he's still whining about the problems he inherited and blaming Republicans. He might as well be barking at the moon. That's sort of what he is doing, because the American people are tuning him out at a stunning pace. The latest Gallup Poll gives him a record low 47 percent approval. Only 26 percent in another poll say he deserves...

With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue. "Climate-gate," as the e-mails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia have become known, exposes a highly politicized scientific circle -- the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies being pushed in Copenhagen won't...

Republican Jimmy Higdon has won today’s special election for the 14th state Senate District seat, the Lexington Herald-Leader is reporting. The newspaper says Democrat Jodie Haydon, who was backed by the thoroughbred horse industry, called to concede. (Here are the results by county.) The win deals Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear a major blow in his bid to pave the way for legislation to allow video lottery terminals at racetracks, which passed the Democrat-controlled House during June’s special legislative session but died in committee in the Republican controlled Senate. With tonight’s election, Republicans hold a two-seat majority in the Senate heading...

GOP senators on Tuesday highlighted “pure waste” in the billions of stimulus funds spent this year, including money for fossil research in Argentina, puppet shows and to protect cruise ships from terrorist attacks. The Obama administration has spent $217 billion in economic stimulus funds as of the end of November. A new report issued Tuesday by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.), the ranking Republican on the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, concluded that $7 billion was wasted or mismanaged. At the top of the GOP list of wasteful projects is a $5 million grant from the Department...

If class were cash, Harry Reid, the personification of the Peter Principle at work in the Senate, would be as deeply in debt as he and his ilk have put the United States government... …now points his finger at those of us who are smart enough to see what his ignorance misses (the unsustainable debt he’s imposing) and is accusing us as being the ones supporting slavery.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said Monday that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would have “some explaining” to do if she seeks the White House. “She's done a lot to draw attention to herself that's positive,” Santorum during an interview on ABC’s “Top Line,” adding that the former Republican vice presidential nominee has “done some things that, you know, certainly are going to cause her to have to do some explaining if she runs for president.” “But right now I think she's on a roll, she's having a good time, she's having an impact,” he continued. “If you're sitting here...

For Republicans, the picture is a political Rorschach test. The photo shows a cluster of Florida Democrats surrounding President Barack Obama this year at a Fort Myers town hall meeting to sell his economic stimulus package. Smack in the middle of the pack: Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist. Though Crist has since distanced himself from the stimulus program and has been tacking to the right in an attempt to shore up support for his bid for the 2010 Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, conservative activists are mobilizing in support of former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio's Senate candidacy. A year...

Franklin D. Roosevelt understood what it meant to be a core Democrat and maintaining his party’s ranks. He built winning coalitions around his policies by empowering previously suppressed groups, such as labor unions and urban ethnics. In the process, he created a 40-year dynasty for Democrats. Today’s bunch? Not so much. The problem for FDR’s party is that it hasn’t adapted swiftly enough to two realities – that jobs are the most important issue to the nation, and that the middle class (which Democrats claim to champion) is dissolving under its watch. It seemed that Democrats may be starting to...

At this point, at least, it appears that Nevadans are heartily sick of Harry Reid and want someone to replace the three term incumbent. Politico's Scorecard: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) continues to face weak support back home, and trails both of his leading Republican opponents, according to a new Mason-Dixon poll released today. Even as Reid has been airing a number of television ads highlighting his clout in the Senate and work saving jobs back home, the poll shows a near-majority of Nevada voters still view him unfavorably. Reid holds just a 38 percent approval rating - the...

Democrats have done a good job portraying Repub licans as health-care-reform obstructionists. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) gave the party line, for example, when he told Talk Radio News service, "There is no Republican health-care plan out there." In fact, the GOP has offered several health-reform bills. And on Nov. 3, the party's leaders in the House unveiled a comprehensive reform plan, introduced as a substitute amendment by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) -- which Democrats defeated 258 to 176 on Nov 7. The bill, says Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), represents Republicans uniting behind "eight or 10" core principles. One...

I think the political environment in Pennsylvania has dramatically changed since last year, and now the Republicans are looking increasingly competitive," said Terry Madonna, a political scientist and pollster at Franklin & Marshall College In Lancaster, Pa. Obama was the fifth consecutive Democratic presidential candidate to carry Pennsylvania, and winning the 21 electoral votes from the Keystone State helped him clinch the presidency. But just below the national political radar, Pennsylvania last month held statewide judicial races in which six of the seven contests on the ballot were won by Republicans. Sen. Arlen Specter, a Democrat who switched parties earlier...

When the Bush administration ran the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, career lawyers wanted to look into accusations that officials in one state had illegally intimidated blacks during a voter-fraud investigation. But division supervisors refused to “approve further contact with state authorities on this matter,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office auditing the activities of the division from 2001 to 2007. Congress is set to release that report, which did not identify the state in question, on Thursday as the House of Representatives takes up its first oversight hearing of the Civil Rights Division...

Recently Jim Robinson posted two threads declaring Free Republic’s determination to see Conservatives elected and ousting Rino's from government. Jim and a great many Freepers believe that we need to take back control. But the RNC is not hearing us. Activism is called for NOW. 2010 is nearing and we need Conservative candidates to run. The time is ripe and people are ready for another 1994 type election. But we need to make the RNC hear us loud and clear. This is the Rino Free America Project. Get involved. Make them listen. Write a letter and MAIL it. Republican...

MINEOLA, N.Y. — Thomas R. Suozzi conceded defeat on Tuesday in the race for the Nassau County executive, a harsh setback for Mr. Suozzi, the Democratic incumbent who was widely regarded as a potential candidate for higher office. He acknowledged his loss after a recount of the votes cast last month showed that his Republican challenger, Edward P. Mangano, a county legislator, had a 386-vote lead. Mr. Suozzi, speaking to reporters at a news conference, said he believed it was “mathematically impossible to win. I didn’t think it was fair to the public, my team or Mr. Mangano, and I...