Free Republic

So Karl Rove was involved in a cover-up. Well, leave it to Karl -- the “boy genius” and the “architect” -- to orchestrate a cover-up that actually hides information exculpatory to his President and his party. He did just that on the issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. This is not an outlier either -- this is just Rove being Rove. And ‘Rove being Rove’ has sewn the seeds of destruction that gave us Barack Obama in 2008, and again in 2012, and has scattered political germs that still haunt Republicans to this day. This goes back...

The campaign to draft Dr. Ben Carson into a presidential run is clearly bigger than some flash in the pan and worthy of serious consideration, particularly given his showings in multiple polls. (Of course, I’ve been of the opinion for some time that he really doesn’t need that much coaxing and may well be enjoying the idea of needing to be teased into the fight.) One group which is most directly involved in the effort is Run Ben Run, which has already raised more than $12M toward the effort. But where is that money now? For the most part, it’s...

For most of the past year, Mitt Romney supporters have publicly said he should consider running again. And for most of the past year, Romney has seemed uninterested. Until recently. While some people close to Romney insist he hasn’t moved from saying he has no plans to run, the 2012 Republican nominee has sounded at least open to the idea in recent conversations, according to more than a dozen people who’ve spoken with him in the past month. In his private musings, Romney has sounded less than upbeat about most of the potential candidates in the 2016 Republican field, according...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush called on Congress to pass bipartisan comprehensive amnesty legislation after President Barack Obama unilaterally granted nearly five million illegal immigrants executive amnesty on Thursday.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Bob in Nashua, New Hampshire, as we head back to the phones. Great to have you with us, sir. Hello. CALLER: Yeah, thanks, Rush. Yeah, this theme of the GOP establishment that the Tea Party and conservatives are the main enemy not the Dems, it's nothing new. It goes back, really, to the 2008 presidential election when the Republican establishment -- or at least many in the establishment -- sabotaged McCain-Palin. Because, to them, Palin was the bigger threat, the bigger enemy than the Democrats winning. You know, the funny thing is now more than six...

"I think he is looking at it, and I am strongly encouraging him to take a look at it," said Arizona Senator and former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, of a possible presidential bid by his colleague and friend Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, (R). "I know of no one who is better versed and more important on national security policy and defense than Lindsey Graham, and I don't think these challenges to our security are going away," added McCain.

Appearing on Glenn Beck‘s radio show this past week, Dr. Benjamin Carson took a vastly different stance from most conservatives on the issue of gun control, claiming you shouldn’t be able to own semi-automatic weapons in large cities.Carson became a newfound conservative hero last month when he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast and laid out a series of criticisms of ObamaCare, political correctness, and tax policy right in front of the president himself. Many called the speech “inappropriate” given the apolitical nature of the event, but many conservatives lauded Carson for his “bold” and “sensible” suggestions for policy...

Reclusive billionaire David Koch, a powerful donor in American conservative politics, says he’s a “social liberal.” “I’m basically a libertarian, and I’m a conservative on economic matters, and I’m a social liberal,” Koch told ABC News’ Barbara Walters.... Koch, who supports abortion rights and gay marriage, said he isn’t concerned with candidates he supports who don’t share some of his views. He said his primary concern when choosing a candidate to support is their fiscal policies.

Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky is breaking with many members of his own party and other potential Republican candidates for president in 2016 in offering at least some support for the president’s opening to Cuba, highlighting yet another area where he seems likely to offer a contrast but which is also likely to become an area of attack against him in a primary race: Sen. Rand Paul broke with other likely Republican presidential contenders on Thursday by saying that opening up more trade with Cuba “is probably a good idea” and declaring that the US embargo on the country “just...

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is out as chair of the Senate Budget Committee. **"Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is giving up his bid to become the next Budget Committee chairman — deferring to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and eliminating the only competitive chairmanship battle in the incoming GOP Senate majority. "Sessions has been the panel’s top Republican for the past four years but Enzi technically retains seniority over the Alabaman on the committee and said several weeks ago that he would challenge Sessions for the chairmanship."** This is going to portrayed as a simple matter of seniority. It isn’t. That story...

Trent Lott wasn’t always this way. He was once a conservative champion, who came to Washington to change the ruling-class narrative. But now he’s a profile in what Washington does to you if you stay too long — unless you have Winston Churchill-like courage of conviction, and few mere mortals do. Mr. Lott was originally part of a group that included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Vin Webber, who were dubbed the “Young Turks.” They were among the chief lieutenants of the Reagan Revolution back in the day. Best known for fighting the Fraternal Order of Establishment Republicans....

Former Massachusetts Governor and failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney is not yet ready to relinquish his title as the head of the pale-pastels establishment wing of the Republican Party to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. "A senior Republican who has met with Mitt Romney" tells Politico that Romney is telling donors on Wall Street "not to commit to a candidate that is not their first choice and that they aren’t excited about. He does not think much of the current field and does not think it is jelling. He still views himself as the leader of the establishment wing of...

Good question, but the question Jeb should be considering is how do you survive two tons of ROMNEYMANIA dropping square on your head. ‘Cause it’s comin’, son. No, seriously, with each passing day this sounds more like Huntsman II. But with lots, lots, lots more money involved. “I just said to him, ‘I think if you look back, despite the far right’s complaints, it is the centrist that wins the nomination,’” Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, said he told Mr. Bush. In the past few weeks, Mr. Bush has moved toward a run for the White House. His family’s resistance...

Well. What a coincidence. As Americans depart for the Christmas holiday, the horrifying news of what the New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton correctly calls the “assassination” of two New York police officers, the Scrooges in the GOP Establishment have busied themselves attacking Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. Not once. Not twice. But three times in three different places. Up there in the Boston Globe, former New Hampshire Republican Senator John Sununu (not to be confused with his ex-governor father) has launched an attack on Texas Senator Cruz. Out in Utah, former Utah Republican Senator Robert Bennett is in print...

Cokie and Steven Roberts: Jeb, Hillary mirror each other Posted on December 21, 2014 COKIE and STEVEN ROBERTS Syndicated columnists Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton badly need each other. They cancel out each others’ greatest weaknesses and deprive their foes of some of their strongest arguments. Both have similar flaws and are vulnerable to the same charges: that they are too old (Jeb would be 63 on election day 2016; Hillary, 69), too out of practice (Jeb was last elected governor of Florida in 2002; Hillary was last elected senator from New York in 2006), too tied to previous presidents...

President Barack Obama’s pick to be the next attorney general is winning over Republicans. Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has met privately with several Republican senators in recent weeks, earning some of their early support ahead of what is expected to be a contentious set of nomination hearings early next year.

It is extremely notable that Manu Raju of the Politico has written that the establishment intends to destroy Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). Raju serves as the court stenographer for the Senate GOP leadership. His pieces are routinely littered with the conventional wisdom and talking points of the Senate GOP leadership. He has more than once anticipated Senate GOP leadership strategy based on their conversations with him. So when Manu Raju says the establishment intends to go on offense against the tea party by beating Sen. Mike Lee in the Utah Republican Primary, we can be sure Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY),...

Gov. Chris Christie has called on President Barack Obama to demand that Cuba return a woman convicted of killing a New Jersey State Police officer in 1973 before the United States moves forward with a plan to restore diplomatic relations with the communist nation. The Republican governor wrote in a letter to Obama that he profoundly disagrees with the decision announced last week to re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba, saying he does not share the view that taking that step "without a clear commitment from the Cuban government of the steps they will take to reverse decades of human rights...

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Haslam became the latest red-state governor to approve a twist on Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion Monday.Haslam is supporting a private-option version of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which was pioneered by Arkansas in 2014. The proposal will have to be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Republican-controlled legislature; if it goes through, Tennessee will be just the 28th state to move forward with the expansion of the welfare program through Obamacare.“We made the decision in Tennessee nearly two years ago not to expand traditional Medicaid,” Haslam said Monday. “This is an alternative approach that...

One day after saying Elizabeth Warren and Ted Cruz had no idea “what they were trying to accomplish,” syndicated columnist George Will said Monday on “Special Report” the pair have two “exceedingly strange careers underway.” Will told Fox News’ Doug McKelway that Cruz is “indifferent” to politics being a “team sport,” adding further that there hasn’t been “a more peculiar career” in the Senate than the one Cruz is currently enjoying. The conservative columnist also said while Democrats are “bemused” by his antics, he is “loathed” within the GOP caucus, while also telling McKelway if Cruz doesn’t get the GOP...