Free Republic

Rand Paul will formally declare his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination with a five-state, five-day announcement tour next month, Republicans knowledgeable about the Kentucky senator’s plans told The Washington Times. Mr. Paul will make his announcement first in Louisville at noon on April 7, then head to New Hampshire on April 8, Charleston, S.C., on April 9, Iowa City on April 10 and Las Vegas on April 11. Traditionally, presidential candidates enter the race by declaring in their home state and then flying to at least two of the first four states that hold presidential preference contests the...

Republican 2016 hopeful Gov. Scott Walker (WI) is headlining a Leadership Series event for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry on March 25 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. The event will be hosted by radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt and will feature welcoming remarks by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R). According to the Chamber’s press release, the event is the first of the Leadership Series luncheons that feature “prominent political leaders from around the country who are considering a run for the White House.” Regarding Walker, the Chamber says, “Job growth has marked Walker’s tenure, with Wisconsin adding...

Glenn Beck says he is no longer a member of the Republican Party. “I’ve made my decision — I’m out," Beck said on his radio show Wednesday, according to Mediaite.com. "I’m out of the Republican Party. I am not a Republican; I will not give a dime to the Republican Party. I’m out.” The former Fox News host and founder of the Blaze supported the GOP during the last election cycle but has become disillusioned with the party in recent years over what he believes was its failure to stand up to the Obama administration — specifically, the Affordable Care...

UPDATE 1x: State Rep. Mike Unes released the following statement: “It easy to kick a person when they’re down, but I’ve always strived to help a person up. I have reached out and offered my support to my friend, Congressman Schock. Obviously, this is a sad and disappointing day for Central Illinois. It’s unfortunate to have to address this issue so quickly following the announcement, but I have heard from a number of community leaders urging me to seek this position in the coming special election. (SNIP) PEORIA, IL - Discussion and debate has already begun about who will run...

In honor of the the ill-informed Starbucks' #RaceTogether, we present now another idiot Republican who is further inflaming racial tensions. First, General, why are you still in the GOP? Second, yes, there is a "dark vein of intolerance" which is best shown by these pictures.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (March 19, 2015) — Jeb Bush is betting his political future these days on the hope that pragmatism will trump conservative hostility in 2016. Fresh off his first public tours of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the Republican White House prospect has settled on an early approach for dealing with skeptics on the right, casting himself as a practical but "principled conservative," particularly when explaining his immigration and education positions that put him at odds with the GOP's most conservative factions. Bush often wraps his philosophy in scathing criticism of President Barack Obama. But the former...

Former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in a political consulting scheme on Wednesday, exactly one decade after he was ordered behind bars in an earlier scandal that forced him from office. Rowland, once a rising star in the Republican Party, committed the latest crimes as he maneuvered to insert himself in two separate congressional political campaigns. He was convicted in September on charges that he conspired to conceal payment for the work, which he knew would bring unwelcome publicity to the candidates because of his criminal history. Prosecutors said Rowland was...

In 2009, Meghan McCain proclaimed “TMZ Republican” Aaron Schock the future of the GOP… The GOP’s House Hottie… (SNIP) Since her article, Schock supported amnesty, defended Obamacare, goose-stepped behind John Boehner, and accumulated binders full of ethics violations, including: (SNIP) Spending $10,053 in tax dollars to attend a free festival (SNIP) Incidentally, that sound you hear are the paper shredders at Schock ally Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s office working overdrive.

...Many of his priorities during his two terms as governor of Florida aligned with those of the Catholic Church — including his extraordinary, and unsuccessful, effort to force a hospital to keep Terri Schiavo on life support, as well as less well known, and also unsuccessful, efforts to appoint a guardian for the fetus of a developmentally disabled rape victim, and to prevent a 13-year-old girl from having an abortion. He even, during his first year in office, signed a law creating a “Choose Life” license plate. He differed from his church, significantly and openly, over capital punishment; 21 prisoners...

Let's get this out of the way now: As far as big deals coming out of Washington, this year is already junked. With the midterm elections in view for jittery lawmakers, chances for a breakthrough on an immigration overhaul, a rewrite of the tax code, or a major jobs package have all but vanished. (Take a bow, partisans.) But we could wake up Nov. 5 with a very different political order. President Obama, at that point, would still have two years in the Oval Office to seal his legacy. Certainly the President himself will help shape that future. Beyond that,...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made another massive misstep on Monday, hiring Liz Mair of Mair Strategies to handle communications and social media for his campaign-in-waiting. Mair’s support for amnesty for illegal aliens, wide-open-borders immigration policies, and public advocacy for the Senate “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill is sure to dog Walker in Iowa, South Carolina, and other early presidential states. During the Senate Gang of Eight bill fight, Mair very publicly and very aggressively promoted the amnesty bill—pushing it to media and making the case for the need for it over and over again. She claims her advocacy was done...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t have to bring U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve as the next Attorney General of the United States, up on the Senate floor for a vote next week—or ever—if he doesn’t want her confirmed. But he’s doing it anyway, even though just four Senate Republicans have said they’ll vote for her—and even their support for her is questionable at this point. McConnell’s office has struggled to defend the Majority Leader’s decision—which flies in the face of a pre-election promise to not allow any attorney general nominee who supports Obama’s executive...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told skeptical voters Friday that he would not soften his views on immigration or education to win their backing. On his opening foray into New Hampshire for his likely campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Bush challenged voters here to spend time learning about the issues and avoid shrill partisan sniping. He said “facts don’t matter” to some of his critics and told his first political audience in the state in 15 years that true leaders do not shrink from their beliefs for political expediency. Bush, the brother of one president and the son of...

A popular Illinois congressman once considered a rising star in the Republican party is in deep trouble for reportedly using taxpayer money to fund an extravagant lifestyle that includes stays at luxurious hotels, world travel, expensive cars and private jet rides to concerts and pro sporting events. The lawmaker’s name is Aaron Schock and he’s only 33, but he’s a seasoned politician who should have known better than to use public funds as a personal piggy bank. For six years he’s represented a working-class district in Peoria, Illinois in the U.S. House. One national media report says he had a...

GOP power broker Haley Barbour’s lobby shop, BGR Group, represents a Russian bank that has financed a company that helped build Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, according to corporate documents and lobbying disclosure records. The bank is owned by a secretive oligarch, Mikhail Fridman, who has met at least twice with White House officials in the last few years, according to visitor logs.

Don’t tell the donors: Why isn’t this a brutal poll for Jeb Bush? The WSJ says it shows GOP “resistance” to his candidacy, which it does — Jeb finishes in fourth place, below Rubio, Walker and Huckabee, when GOP voters nationwide (not just in Iowa) are asked whom they could see themselves supporting. Bush has said he wants to be Republican voters’ “second choice” – but the poll suggests that’s exactly what he’s not. Forty-two percent of Republicans say no, they could not see themselves supporting him. (For Rubio the figure is 26 percent, for Walker 17.) But it’s worse...

Republicans will raise the government’s borrowing limit without threatening a default, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell guaranteed Sunday, placating the markets but potentially surrendering the party’s leverage as Congress gears up for another debt showdown. The current debt-ceiling holiday, to which Congress agreed a year ago, expires Sunday, starting the clock on debate and sending the Treasury Department scrambling to tap into its “extraordinary measures” to keep from breaching the limit. Budget analysts say Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has about seven months of spare room, meaning a deal would have to be reached by October or November. Mr. McConnell, Kentucky...

Texas Rep. Will Hurd’s Urdu is better than his Spanish, even though the latter is the preferred language of many constituents in his sprawling, two-thirds Hispanic district. The 37-year-old worked for the CIA for almost a decade, much of it undercover in Pakistan, where he mastered the national tongue. “When I had a long beard and wore local clothes, my Urdu was good enough to get the local discount at the bazaar,” Hurd said. Yet, he’s comfortable being a political outlier: Texas’ first black Republican elected to Congress since Reconstruction and only one of two black GOP House members along...

Gregory T. Angelo, Meghan McCain and Fred Karger signing the St. Louis Resolution Tuesday night. In a move designed to head off anti-gay rhetoric during the 2016 Republican presidential campaign, three prominent GOP leaders signed a resolution Tuesday and will send it off to the 18 prospective Republican candidates for president. After speaking on a panel entitled “Marriage Equality and the Republican Party” in Graham Chapel at Washington University, political columnist and television host Meghan McCain, Log Cabin Republican Executive Director, Gregory T. Angelo and the first openly gay candidate to run for President, Fred Karger, all signed the Resolution,...