Free Republic

Pennsylvania’s Cuban rum run got its start in a chance meeting last fall in the parking lot in front of the state Capitol. “‘You know, we have rum,’” a visiting Cuban government liaison told state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, who was walking to his car when he was introduced to her as the senator whose committee oversees how alcohol is sold in Pennsylvania. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, we should buy some.’” A few months later, the agency that controls Pennsylvania’s 600-plus state-owned wine and liquor stores is working to lift the United States’ 55-year-old embargo on Cuban rum, one of the...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) says he won't completely rule out launching a presidential bid in 2020. Asked Monday during a CNN town hall whether he would run for the White House in 2020, Kasich responded: "Very unlikely that I will run for public office."

The front-runner for the Republican nomination in Virginia’s closely watched governor’s race is expressing discomfort with series of vulgar and predatory comments about women President Donald Trump made in a recording 12 years ago. Ed Gillespie said at a Republican debate Saturday in Goochland that he was offended by comments from a 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which Trump boasted about groping women.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has joined Sen. Frank Artiles’ chorus of critics, suggesting her fellow Republican leave office for directing slurs, including a version of the N-word, at colleagues. “There is simply no room for racial, hurtful language spoken to your colleagues or anyone else,” Bondi

It seems that one of the arguments put forward by the #NeverTrump movement was that then candidate Trump stiffed vendors. Pot, meet kettle:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is the most unpopular governor in the United States, a new poll finds. Seventy-one percent of New Jersey votes disapprove of Christie while just 25 percent approve, according to the Morning Consult poll released Tuesday. Christie edged out Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) as the nation’s least popular. Brownback had a 66 percent disapproval to 27 percent approval, the poll found. […] On the flip side, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) was rated the most popular governor, with 75 percent approval to 17 percent disapproval. Following Baker on the list were Maryland Gov. Larry...

Morning Joe has a mission: Take down the President. Watch the show—if you must—and you will get the idea rather quickly. Every story and every guest are carefully crafted to create a sense of chaos and inevitable failure around the Trump White House. And they have allies. Scarborough and company are actively aided and abetted by the coterie of D.C. media stalwarts who regularly appear on the show. We shouldn’t be surprised. The destruction of Republican presidents has been the white whale of almost every Washington journalist since 1974. Scarborough warned President Trump in February, “And as I always say,...

Just think of how many weak Republican congressmen we have, that not one of them will stand up and say, “I want to be a member of the House Freedom Caucus.” .. Cocky members of the Tuesday Group claim they won’t even answer the phone if a Freedom Caucus member calls. .. The Republican Party has been trying to squander the gains in the House from the tea party since 2010. It’s like high school for the Tuesday Group, a group of liberal Republicans who seem to believe that voters picked them to agree with the Democrats more often than...

So much has been said recently about the rivalry between the House Freedom Caucus and the so-called “Tuesday Group,” a collection of largely unnamed “moderates” in the House. While the leadership of the Tuesday Group is named, and some members willingly speak to reporters about their agenda, only a few have outed themselves as part of the secretive backroom group. So who exactly belongs to this group of 40 to 50 members, and what are they trying to accomplish in Congress? .. In addition to supporting liberal Republicans during election cycles, the Tuesday Group has been playing with its branding....

The Los Angeles Times reported early Sunday morning that Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic leaders in the state legislature made $1 billion in side deals to ensure the passage of a 12-cent hike in the state gasoline tax last week. ... One of the more prominent deals was the one that secured the vote of State Sen. Anthony Canella (R-Ceres), who was the only Republican in either chamber to support the measure, which includes raised fees at the Department of Motor Vehicles. That side deal turns out to have been the costliest of all, amounting to $400 million in pork...

Perpetual GOP malcontent Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called lawmakers “stupid” who believed invoking the so-called “nuclear option” to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court would ultimately improve the Senate, during a gaggle with reporters Tuesday. The Arizona senator was prompted Tuesday by an unidentified reporter to react to individuals who say “the Senate will be a better place” after the nuclear option is invoked. “I would like to meet that idiot,” McCain fired back, “I would like to meet that numbskull that would say that, that after 200 years — at least 100 years — of this tradition...

The government will run out of money on April 28 unless Congress passes a bill to keep the funds flowing through the end of the fiscal year. Senate Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he’s “very confident” there will be no government shutdown on April 29, but that means Republicans will not press for some of their own — and President Trump’s — priorities, including money for a border wall. “The two appropriations committees are working on the bills on a bipartisan basis,” McConnell told “Fox News Sunday.” “I’m confident Senate Democrats are not going to want to shut down the government....

Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman is warning that President Donald Trump's "unprecedented" proposed budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, which she used to run, pose a "great danger to Americans' lives." Whitman, a Republican who served as governor from 1994 to 2001, made the declarations in an op-ed she wrote that was published by The Atlantic magazine on Friday. "Practically speaking, funding for climate-change research would be axed, public-health programs would be effectively defunded, state environmental programs would be closed, and regional projects would end," Whitman writes. "Make no mistake: Human health would be endangered." Among her many...

Downplaying the idea that the criticism of Rep. Devin Nunes is a partisan witch-hunt, Democrats are pointing out that Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have also raised questions about the behavior of the House Intelligence Committee chairman. Mr. Nunes has refused to bow to the demands of Democrats, who are calling on the California Republican to recuse himself from the House panel’s investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election and allegations of collusion with the Trump campaign. “This isn’t a partisan criticism, you know you’ve got Lindsey Graham and John McCain and others saying, ‘I’ve never seen...

“You cannot have major changes in major programs affecting things like health care without including Democrats from the very beginning and asking them to be constructive,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former Republican presidential contender, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “So, they have got to reach out across the aisle. And Democrats have to say, we will work with you to improve and fix this plan for people.” Kasich said it would be “pathetic” if Democrats put partisanship above the good of the country. […] Kasich said the “extremes” in both parties should be “marginalized” so “reasonable”...

Former Florida Gov. and onetime GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Sunday that President Donald Trump is making life a little more difficult for himself. In an interview with Jim DeFede for "Facing South Florida" that aired Sunday, Bush said Trump "should stop saying things that aren't true, that are distractions from the task at hand." "He's a distraction in and of himself," he said. "He's got a lot of work to do, and some of these things — the wiretapping and all of this stuff — is a complete distraction that makes it harder to accomplish the things I...

Texas Republican Congressman Ted Poe has announced he is giving up membership in Hillary’s Favorite Caucus over their unwillingness to support President Trump: “I have resigned from the House Freedom Caucus,” Poe said in a statement. “In order to deliver on the conservative agenda we have promised the American people for eight years, we must come together to find solutions to move this country forward. Saying no is easy, leading is hard, but that is what we were elected to do. Leaving this caucus will allow me to be a more effective Member of Congress and advocate for the people...

It was a bumper day for John McCain when on Friday Donald Trump's Republican nemesis gloated as Trump's "art of the deal" collapsed in the last minute, after the President and Ryan-led effort to repeal Obamacare suffered what appears to be a terminal setback. In the wake of Trump's misfortune, McCain renewed his calls on Friday for a return to a legacy neocon status quo, when speaking at the Brussels forum, said that the world "cries out for American and European leadership" through the EU and Nato, and said that the EU and the US needed to develop "more cooperation,...

After withdrawing his health care bill from the House floor in an embarrassing defeat, Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that “Obamacare is the law of the land” and will remain so “for the foreseeable future.” “I don't know what else to say other than Obamacare is the law of the land,” Ryan told reporters shortly after House Republicans canceled a planned afternoon vote on their alternative to Barack Obama’s 2010 health care reform law. “It's gonna remain the law of the land until it's replaced,” Ryan continued. “We did not have quite the votes to replace this law. And, so,...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday shot down prospects for major parts of President Donald Trump’s budget, rejecting proposed cuts to foreign aid and medical research. “Every president sends up a budget, and with all due respect to the current president, I can’t recall any time in which we have been sort of dictated to by either a Republican or a Democratic president,” McConnell said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’ll put our own imprint on it, particularly with regard to overseas.” […] “America being a force is a lot more than building up the Defense Department,”...