Free Republic

Just had a very nice meeting with @Reince Priebus and the @GOP. Looking forward to bringing the Party together --- and it will happen!

Not sufficiently humiliated by his collapse as the early Republican presidential front runner, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in an attempt to deny the nomination to Donald Trump. In doing so, Mr. Bush has further diminished his onetime stature as the darling of the dying Grand Old Party establishment once represented by his father, President George H.W. Bush, and his brother, President George W. Bush. Previously, Jeb Bush had preserved some stature among the old-timers by conspicuously offering himself as the initial Trump giant-killer. In his frontal assault on Mr. Trump as a fraudulent...

Rep. Todd Young has won the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in his Indiana Senate bid, representing the business lobby's first entry into a Republican Senate primary this cycle. The Chamber announced Monday that it had cut an ad for Young, a three-term congressman representing Indiana's 9th District in the southern part of the state. Young faces another member of Indiana's delegation, fellow three-term Rep. Marlin Stutzman, in the GOP primary. Stutzman has the backing of the Club for Growth, a group that favors fiscally conservative candidates in Republican primaries, as well as other conservative groups. The 30-second...

When President Obama first nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans were united in their wall of opposition — no meetings, no hearing, no vote. And while Garland’s path remains a very uphill battle, some Republicans are starting to shift their tone. Two weeks into the nomination fight, 16 Republican senators now say they will meet with Garland — over 25 percent of the GOP caucus — according to a running count by NBC News. That includes senators up for re-election in Blue States, such as New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte and Illinois’ Mark Kirk, who will be the...

Candidates for public office in Ohio can lie and get away with it under a recent federal court ruling that struck down a state law banning false statements in campaigns, an attorney says. Attorney Donald Brey, who has represented Republicans in cases before the Ohio Elections Commission, told The Columbus Dispatch his clients mostly tell the truth, but can legally lie as long as they don’t defame anyone.In past elections, the commission ruled on false-advertising complaints. That changed when the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals a few weeks ago upheld the 2014 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy...

Ten U.S. states still have not regained all the jobs they lost in the Great Recession, even after six and a half years of recovery, while many more have seen only modest gains. […] Wyoming had 3 percent fewer jobs last month than it did in December 2007, when the recession began, the Labor Department said Friday. That is the biggest percentage decline among the states. Alabama's job total trails its pre-recession level by 2.7 percent, followed by New Mexico, where job totals are 2.6 percent lower. Some larger states are also still behind. New Jersey has nearly 1 percent...

President Barack Obama says Republicans’ refusal to consider his Supreme Court nominee will threaten the integrity of the justice system and prove that the judicial nomination process is “beyond repair.” In an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, Obama says the fight is bigger than “a single election.” He argues that the election-year blockade could make it impossible for future presidents to install judges on the court. He says that would “betray the vision of our founding.” …

Politicians in Washington are coalescing around a financial plan to rescue Puerto Rico, just weeks before an expected major default on bond payments that would spread more turmoil through the island’s shaky economy. The plan, being drafted as legislation by House Republicans, would not grant Puerto Rico’s most fervent request: permission to restructure its entire $72 billion debt in bankruptcy. It would, however, give the island certain crucial tools that bankruptcy proceedings can offer — but only if it first comes under close federal oversight and meets other conditions. The oversight would be provided by a five-member voting board, selected...

...He was forced to apologize for publicly describing a policeman who had given him a traffic citation as "an idiot." State Republicans have not forgotten how, in 2013, he lectured the Ohio House speaker Bill Batchelder — a Republican legislator who had served over three decades in the House — about his moral duty to support Kasich's Medicaid expansion plan: "When you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he's probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor....

Party leaders plan to deny Trump the nomination even if he wins most of the delegates. The Republican Party establishment is prepared to manipulate the rules at the party's national convention this summer to deprive Donald Trump of the presidential nomination -- even if he wins an outright majority of delegates -- according to longtime political operative and Trump confidant Roger Stone. "The insiders have poured over the rules of the Republican Party ... and they have found a way to lie, cheat and steal Trump out of enough delegates to force a second ballot." This time the Republican establishment...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., appears to have conceded that the Republican Party has alienated Hispanic voters and will have to rely increasingly on white voters to win in November. . . McCain will face off against several Republican primary challengers in August. Polls show McCain currently tied with his general election opponent, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.).

In an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," establishment-type Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., admitted that he would prefer to lose the election to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton than to have Trump as president. "We can lose an election, but I don’t want us to lose our heart and soul," said Graham. "If we nominate Donald Trump, and he carries the banner of the Republican Party, given who he is and what he said about immigrants, about Muslims and young women, we will not just lose the election. We have lost the heart and soul of the conservative movement. That's what...

It would be amusing, were it not so pathetic—as the cliché goes—to watch the pundit class attempt to explain the rise of Donald Trump. No doubt, Trump is populist, but these analysts fail to recognize one very basic fact: Trump is a pissed-off rich guy financing his own populist campaign, and, as such, there has never been anyone like him in American history. Comparisons to Hitler, even acknowledging the dictator's initial (and very short-lived) populist approach, conveniently omit that it was the Nazis who violently broke up demonstrations—just as the anti-Trump forces are doing today. Full marks if you recognize...

New York State appears ready to throw as many as 200,000 people out of work by imposing a $15 an hour minimum wage statewide. The New York Post reports: Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan is close to a “Faustian pact’’ with Democratic Gov. Cuomo to raise the state’s minimum wage to a national high of $15 an hour — boosting union power and possibly costing New York hundreds of thousands of jobs. A source close to Flanagan said the deal would involve Cuomo agreeing to do “little if anything’’ to help Senate Democrats, now just one vote shy of...

President Barack Obama has signed into law legislation intended to improve the changeover from one president to another. The White House is now required — at least six months before Election Day — to create a team of officials from different agencies to help smooth the transition between administrations. The bill’s sponsor, Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, describes handing over control of the federal government as “a colossal undertaking.” …

A group of conservative activists huddled behind closed doors Thursday at a Washington hotel to plot strategy to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump , including calling for a unity ticket to oppose him and a floor fight at the GOP convention to deny him the nomination. The meeting was led by conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson, a longtime outspoken critic of Mr. Trump . “We believe that the issue of Donald Trump is greater than an issue of party. It is an issue of morals and character that all Americans, not just those of us in the conservative movement,...

The Trump-bashers are starting up a list of conservative supporters of Donald Trump — so that they can blackball these Trump supporters. The list was initiated by Cruz supporter Amanda Carpenter who is usually kind and intelligent but now suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

New York senator Chuck Schumer said some Senate Republicans have agreed to meet supreme court nominee despite leadership wanting to hold off on hearings . . . Chuck Schumer, senator for New York, said in response to a question from the Guardian: “We are seeing cracks on the Republican side. "About five or six members have agreed already to meet with the nominee and I think what happened is they saw how stellar the nominee was and they realised how bad it would be not to ... They're feeling the heat and we believe we’ll see many more cracks over...

Since Obuma was elected to POTUS, I have been coming to Free Republic to get news, opinions and a few laughs. Most of the serious posts were bemoaning the out of control government and what could be done about it. "Oh Whoa is Me!". Then along comes a constitutional conservative. For the first time since Ronald Reagan, we have a constitutional candidate running for the GOP nomination. This man was elected by conservatives to go to Washington and stand up to the elites that no longer listen to the American people. He didn't go to Washington and "fall in" with...

Sen. Lindsey Graham will soon raise money for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, as CNN's Dana Bash just reported. Which is an amazing turn of events, given the things Graham previously said about Cruz. He has said on multiple occasions that Cruz is would be the death of the Republican Party and is no better than Donald Trump. He has even joked about killing Cruz. To wit (in reverse chronological order): Feb. 26: “I was asked the hardest question in my political life: Do you agree with Donald Trump that Ted Cruz is the biggest liar in politics?” he said. “Too...