Free Republic

A Republican state senator in Louisiana joined Democrats on a vote to kill a bill that would ban transgender surgeries on children in the state. Republican state Senator Fred Mills joined Democrats in a 5-4 vote on the Health and Welfare Committee to block the advancement of a bill that would have banned using cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgery “to alter a minor’s appearance in an attempt to validate a minor’s perception of his sex, if the minor’s perception is inconsistent with his sex.” The bill had previously passed the House in a vote of 71-24, before it was...

Biden said there was a chance for compromise on gun control with "rational Republicans" such as McConnell, R-Ky., and Cornyn, R-Texas, during remarks to reporters Monday, though he warned that there is not much he can do on his own through executive action. (snip) But Biden expressed optimism that some Republicans may be willing to take his side on the issue after McConnell directed Cornyn to attempt to work with the White House on a potential compromise, arguing that some members of the GOP believe that the current gun violence cannot go unchecked.

In a new Politico/Morning Consult poll, respondents who plan to vote in the GOP primary were asked “If the 2024 Republican primary were being held today, for whom would you vote?” Trump more than tripled his nearest competitor with 48 percent to former Vice President Mike Pence’s 13 percent, while Pence nearly doubled third-place finisher Donald Trump Jr.’s 7 percent. Senators Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz were tied with former Amb. Nikki Haley at 4 percent. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who delivered the GOP response to President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress last month, drummed...

Establishment Republicans and donors are seeking to coalesce around whichever candidate is not Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) , according to the New York Times. One influential Republican strategist says he wants to see former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to go after Cruz. "Whoever is not named Trump and not named Cruz that looks strong out of both Iowa and New Hampshire, we should consolidate around," said veteran Republican strategist Henry Barbour. Barbour, according to the New York Times, was so irritated by the internal battle between the establishment candidates that he wanted to raise money for Huckabee's...

Text of email from Bobby Vickery candidate for State Representative District 8: "From: Bobby Vickery Subject: Texas Ethics Report - Byron Cook Good Morning, I wanted to share with you the "battle" that real conservatives have in Texas.  Not only am I running against a Passive/Aggressive Incumbent who will not debate me and will not hold town hall meetings. I am fighting the Lobbyist who donate to Cook. He represents their special interests instead of the constituents. How does it make you feel, that your State Representative has $640,000.00 in his campaign funds, raising $115,000.00 this reporting cycle and not $1.00 came from...

When Herman Cain proposed his 9-9-9 plan, many conservatives became energized, despite their misgivings with the fine print of the plan.  It wasn’t so much the details of the proposal that excited the base, as most conservatives intuitively recoiled from a consumption tax; it was the boldness of the plan that resonated with them.  Cain’s 9-9-9 brought some excitement to a race that was defined by a frontrunner who offered 160 pages of banal fluff.  Nevertheless, his plan was too flawed to be utilized as a viable rallying cry in the general election.  Perry appears to have proposed both a...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry unveiled a sweeping economic agenda Monday highlighted by a plan to level a voluntary 20 percent “flat tax” on all taxpayers who will accept it in place of what they’re paying now.

Herman Cain pushed back hard at Karl Rove's recitation of his recent campaign fumbles and miscues - which he presented on a whiteboard on Fox News this morning - and accused the operative of trying to do him intentional damage in a Byron York interview: "It's a good thing the voters are not looking at Karl Rove's little whiteboard," Cain said in a phone conversation from a stop in Chicago Monday afternoon. "I believe it is a deliberate attempt to damage me because I am not, quote unquote, the establishment choice. But why not go with the choice that the...

Full Title: Cain clarifies again: Abortion shouldn’t be legal, but some families might decide to break the law anyway. A better answer than yesterday’s spin attempt but Mediaite is right that it still doesn’t jibe with what he said to Piers Morgan. Then: No, it comes down to is, it’s not the government’s role — or anybody else’s role — to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you’re not talking about that big a number. So what I’m saying is, it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to...

ATLANTA (AP) — Herman Cain is learning the hard way what it means to face the glare of the national spotlight. After captivating Republicans hungry for an alternative to 2012 GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, Cain has made a series of stumbles that have left some questioning whether he's ready for the White House.

Herman Cain's case against pundits who claim he's running a book tour rather than a presidential campaign just got a bit more complicated. Federal Election Commission records show that the former Godfather's Pizza executive paid more than $64,000 of his presidential campaign funds to his motivational speaking company, T.H.E. New Voice Inc., for copies of his own books, and for lodging, airfare, and resources, Bloomberg News reports. Previous rulings by the FEC have allowed candidates to use their campaign funds to buy their own books, as long as the purchase is at market value and the money goes to charity...

Herman Cain's former Iowa state director, Tina Goff, has signed on to Rick Santorum's presidential campaign. Goff is one of three Iowa staffers that resigned from the Cain campaign in June, citing Cain's unwillingness to make a serious effort in the first-caucus state ahead of the Ames Straw Poll. "Senator Santorum has shown a tremendous commitment to Iowa and the principles our nation was founded upon. I have worked for several presidential campaigns, but none have the organization, passion, and focus of the Santorum campaign," Goff said in a statement. "This is a refreshing reminder of what voters require of...

I Kings 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, hen follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Herman Cain can't make up his mind whether he is pro-life or pro-abortion.  He wants to ride the fence, so let's let him.  But I have two suggestions for what to call his position. First, Unprincipled Pro-Abortion. I don't mean unprincipled and pro-abortion. I mean unprincipled pro-abortion. He is pro-abortion for sure, but not on principle, but rather on purely pragmatic grounds. This will...

Steve Forbes was in Boston and spoke about the 2012 Presidential race and why he's leaning towards supporting Rick Perry. "I'm obviously leaning towards Governor Perry. I talked to his people about the flat tax and I think that's the way to go," says Steve Forbes. "I think with the formal unveiling next week he'll truly be a frontrunner again and will be dominating the debate." Forbes promoted a flat tax plan when he ran for president in 1996 and 2000. He favors a simplified tax plan and starting over again on healthcare.

Art Laffer Spouting Nonsense on 9-9-9 Josh Barro October 19, 2011 I guess somebody had to try to defend Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. Art Laffer does so in today’s Wall Street Journal, but his defense is really embarrassing.First, Laffer describes the business tax component of 9-9-9 as a 9 percent tax on “net business profits.” This is false. Cain’s business tax, as described by his campaign, applies to “Gross income less all purchases from other U.S. located businesses, all capital investment, and net exports.” Because wages and salaries are not deductible, this is a tax on much more than just...

Anyone up for paying $18,000 sales tax on the next $200,000 house you purchase? I didn’t think so. And for those of us who work our way up the ladder of success at the workplace that next promotion may require moving to another city or state another house and another $18,000 in sales tax. We are either going to become a nation of renters or go bust trying to move up the ladder of success. (Hell on the Middle Class) Cain’s 999 plan is really the 999 plus 10 plan. Maybe you forgot that you no longer have a Social...

One of the key economists who helped presidential candidate Herman Cain draft his 9-9-9 tax plan is backing away from the most controversial component of it, warning that the criticism Cain endured at Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate shows his proposed 9 percent national sales tax might have to go. "It was such a dart board," economist Stephen Moore said Wednesday of the proposal. Cain weathered a storm of complaints over his tax plan at the Republican debate in Las Vegas. Virtually every candidate took turns accusing the businessman of pushing a scheme that would introduce new streams of revenue...

LAS VEGAS – After months of diversions — sideshow candidates, Hamlet acts and straw polls — Tuesday night’s sizzling Republican presidential showdown boiled the nomination fight down to its essentials: a deeply personal, ideological and smashmouth contest between two rivals with almost nothing in common.

Ted Kennedy scrubbed an ad against Mitt Romney in 1994 detailing how many jobs were lost when Romney headed an arbitrage fund that bought ailing companies, fired a ton of employees to clean up the P&L statement, and flipped them. These kinds of ads are really effective because the people who lost their jobs are real people. More, that Romney's Bain Capital was some sort of anonymous group of money men, it was easier for Romney to fire real people. This type of ad is even more effective in this very down economy, when most every voter is worried about...

Mitt Romney is going negative on Rick Perry, and he's using one of the most tried-and-true methods: the Internet. Today, Romney for President Inc. launched (snip) an anti-Rick Perry website aimed at undermining the former Massachusetts governor's best-funded opponent. snip The Washington Post shows other anti-Perry Web domain names are being gobbled up snip While no one is claiming ownership of the anti-Perry domains, The Post's Philip Rucker and T.W. Farnam note that the same day the domain names were purchased, Romney's campaign bought $2,851 worth of domain names at GoDaddy.com, which was the same vendor that sold the anti-Perry...