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Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) endorsed GOP special-election candidate Dede Scozzafava on Monday, saying a vote for her Conservative Party opponent is tantamount to a vote for the Democrats in the close 23rd Congressional District race in New York. . . . . . In a statement, King made the case that voting for Hoffman will only help Democrat Bill Owens win. "Dede is the only Republican candidate in this race, and the only candidate with a proven record that Republicans can trust in Washington," King said. "A vote for either of her opponents is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and...

I heard a Charlie Crist ad on Rush today where he claims to be a fiscal conservative. LOL! He even takes a swipe at Obama. I guess he must be worried about Rubio.

Fox News host, garage band cover guitarist, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will be making a long-planned speech before the New York Conservative Party in Syracuse, New York on October 28, but has thus far declined to say whether he will formally endorse or financially support Conservative Party House candidate Doug Hoffman, who is running to fill former Rep. John McHugh's 23rd Congressional District seat. Most Republican Party leaders have thus far taken a pass in endorsing Hoffman, who has the support of the conservative Club for Growth, as well as the American Conservative Union. House minority leader John...

FRANKFORT, Ky. – This isn’t the way Trey Grayson expected the U.S. Senate race to unfold. Bowling Green eye surgeon Rand Paul has upset Grayson’s apple cart. Paul reported raising over $1 million in the past three months, utilizing his father’s network of libertarian-leaning internet contributors to do it. Grayson hasn’t done a bad job himself, raising just over that amount in two quarters. And while Paul’s carefully tailored message – focused entirely on bailouts and deficit spending but carefully avoiding the implications of voting against any unbalanced budget, his isolationist views on foreign policy, or the minimalist role of...

An outburst at an angry South Carolina town hall meeting has exemplified the growing fissure in the Republican Party across the nation. “We're not going to be the party of angry white guys," liberal Republican Senator Lindsay Graham told a Greenville, South Carolina, audience at Furman University where some supporters of Congressman Ron Paul were heckling him. Ron Paul responded on CNN's Situation Room October 14 that Graham's attack was unfair. “For him to ... say that everybody who is upset with the government and upset with his type of voting record are angry white people or angry men, that...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) may have stepped into a political quagmire after endorsing a moderate New York Republican's special election bid. A host of GOP leaders have tried to distance themselves from the ongoing showdown between Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, a centrist Republican, and Doug Hoffman, the local Conservative Party's candidate. But Gingrich offered his perspective to the three-way contest for now-Army Secretary John McHugh's vacant seat on Friday when he became one of only a handful of conservative Republicans to openly back his party's struggling candidate. “The special election for the 23rd Congressional District is an important test...

Republican officials turned to a conservative icon and invoked an anti-tax pledge Thursday to salvage the slumping campaign of a New York congressional candidate competing with a more conservative third-party challenger, part of an ongoing battle between the fiscally hawkish "tea party" movement and the Republican establishment. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) secured an endorsement from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for the party's nominee, Dede Scozzafava, and got her to sign a "taxpayer protection" pledge to fortify her conservative credentials after polls showed her losing ground to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

The House GOP conference is bitterly divided over a centrist New York Republican’s run for the House seat vacated by Army Secretary John McHugh. Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who backs abortion rights and has voiced support for gay rights, has drawn a challenger from the right who is running on the Conservative Party line. And though House leaders have urged conference members to donate, many have pointedly refused to back Scozzafava. The Club for Growth, Concerned Women of America, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and evangelical leader Gary Bauer have all endorsed Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate. <snip> Just 17...

President Obama gave a nod yesterday to a budding bipartisan Senate effort on energy and climate legislation during a New Orleans town hall meeting where he also pledged to push for the bill's passage once Congress finishes its work on health care. "What I think we need to do is increase our domestic energy production," Obama said in response to a question about environmental policy from an audience member. "I'm in favor of finding environmentally sound ways to tap our oil and our natural gas." Obama also mentioned his support for nuclear energy, one of two key points of possible...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend and ally of Sen. John McCain, is now going a step further, Democrats say, and actually becoming the new McCain. Senior members of the majority party say the South Carolina Republican has displaced his Arizona mentor as the dealmaker on two big agenda items of the Obama administration: climate change and immigration. As McCain, on the heels of his presidential election defeat, has distanced himself from Democrats, Graham has moved in to fill the vacuum.

Although Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) vowed this week to introduce comprehensive immigration reform next month, his Senate counterparts expected to take the lead on the issue aren’t heeding a similar timeline. “That’s new to me,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Gutierrez’s announcement, made Tuesday at an immigration rally on Capitol Hill. “I’ve been talking to Sen. Schumer, and we hope to get something done that’s comprehensive,” Graham added. “We just don’t know when yet.”Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, has been meeting periodically with Graham to discuss ideas on immigration,...

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- The rise of conservative "tea party" activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power. But they're also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win. In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents. Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race...

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has held a series of meetings in Washington with leading Democrats and Republicans on the issue of US immigration reform. Senior Republican Senator John McCain said he was still committed to a comprehensive deal. He said he hoped Congress would address the issue early next year. Senator McCain also said he was particularly anxious to resolve the difficulties facing up to 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US.

Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe’s decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill. That’s about all they can do. “My job as whip is not to twist her arm but to bring all the information that we can bring to bear on the issue and hope that people vote the way we would like to see them vote,” said McConnell’s No. 2, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Kyl said a heavy-handed approach “doesn’t work.”

(Oct. 14) -- As Republicans search their ranks for a new leader, there's also a bit of competition developing for the title of party maverick. The AP is hailing Olympia Snowe as the GOP's new female maverick -- supplanting Sarah Palin -- because the senator from Maine is the only Republican who voted for the Finance Committee's health care reform bill Tuesday. But when it comes to going rogue, Snowe's Senate colleague from South Carolina appears to have the edge. Lindsey Graham teamed up with Democratic Sen. John Kerry for a New York Times op-ed pushing climate change legislation a...

It sometimes seems like many members of the Republican party have forgotten the history of the party and lost track of the principles on which the party was founded. The party was founded in opposition to involuntary servitude and in support of the rights of workers to keep the fruits of their labors. It was founded as a party based on liberty of the individual and liberty from oppressive government and no other beliefs of personal agendas should be more valued by Republicans than liberty. The popular right-wing website RedState, which has a long history of condemning political figures for...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law marking May 22 as Harvey Milk Day, in honor of the slain gay-rights activist. The law encourages schools and other educational institutions to commemorate the day each year with discussions and other exercises that help students better understand Milk's significance on California politics and the gay-rights movement.

The whole series of current RINO Zero Dollar bills. Make sure you use them, send them to these idiots and make sure they know THEY are the ones that will be forced out, NOT us CONSERVATIVES!!!! For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr Archive of Zero Bills"

This isn’t the best audio but more evidence of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s complete dismissal of Ron Paul’s adherence to rigid constitutional government. Notice in the first video that instead of addressing the woman’s criticism head on, Graham simply asks her who she voted for in the presidential election. When she replied “Chuck Baldwin” Graham then attempts to marginalize her based on her support for the Constitution Party, slamming Paul in the process. The following took place 10/12/09 at a town hall meeting in Greenville, SC:

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - Efforts by U.S. Senate Democrats to persuade Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to endorse their climate legislation may take a bit longer. Democrats have spent months reaching out to McCain through Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. The outreach appeared likely to step up after McCain's friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the weekend became the first Republican this year to sign on to a bipartisan climate-change plan.

(CNN) – South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has always enjoyed a little back-and-forth with belligerent audiences. He was at it again on Monday night as he faced down an angry town hall crowd in Greenville packed with libertarians and Tea Party activists who accused at the Republican senator of ditching conservative principles by working with Democrats on issues like climate change and voting to send Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. But Graham stressed a mantra he's repeated many times since his friend John McCain lost the presidential election last November — that the GOP must reach out to different...

That's the word from this Politico piece. We will be a headache for anyone who believes the Constitution of the United States … isn’t to be protected,” said Dick Armey, chairman of the anti-tax and limited government advocacy group FreedomWorks, which helped plan and promote the tea parties, town hall protests and the September ‘Taxpayer March’ in Washington. “If you can’t take it seriously, we will look for places of other employment for you.” “We’re not a partisan organization, and I think many Republicans are disappointed we are not,” added Armey, a former GOP congressman.

Millions of dollars in federal money is now headed to the organization known as the Teaching and Mentoring Communities. TMC, formerly known as the Texas Migrant Council, has received more than 10 million in federal funds for their Migrant Seasonal Head Start, and Early Head Start Programs. Additionally, the funding will be used to purchase modular buildings, repair existing facilities, and provide additional staff development training. All the money will benefit Webb, Zapata, and Starr counties.

I hate to say “I told you so.” But, well, I told you so. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham has signed on to the Democrats’ massive green redistribution scheme masquerading as a planet-saving, national security-enhancing “energy independence” scheme. Can John McCain and the rest of the Climate Change Republicans be far behind? Now, the announcement of Graham’s alliance with Big Government Democrats. In the NYTimes, natch. Kerry and Graham go on to argue that we must buy into their plan because the EPA regulatory power grab will be worse. It’s greenmail: Sign on or else the out-of-control bureaucrats (and the unaccountable...

President Obama on Saturday urged Congress to "rise above the politics of the moment" and adopt healthcare legislation, saying the effort has gathered momentum in recent days, with Republicans, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Senate Majority leader Bill Frist, endorsing reform. The Congressional Budge Office found the Senate Finance Committee's version of health care would make coverage affordable for millions now without it, "without adding a dime to our deficits," said Obama in his weekly radio address. Read more about bill's price tag. When Schwarzenegger and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier in the came out in...

(snip) "Every idea is on the table," said Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), the lead sponsor of Senate climate legislation. "We're going to work in a bona fide way with everybody to see how to bridge a gap here. We've got to get a 60-vote margin. That means you've got to legislate, which means you have to compromise." Several moderate Senate Republicans, including John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said they are in talks with Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on the nuclear language, as well as other key issues."A guy like Senator Kerry...

Michael Long, chairman of the Conservative Party of New York, is urging fellow conservatives not to contribute to the National Republican Congressional Committee. His complaint: The NRCC is supporting the Republican candidate in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, who he says is out of step with GOP values. The Republicans have nominated centrist State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava as their candidate in the special election to be held on Nov. 3. In response, the Conservative Party nominated its own candidate, local accountant Doug Hoffman. Hoffman has been getting some traction, winning endorsements from several conservative groups and garnering 16% support in...

Can Congress drill its way to legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions? Perhaps, says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who believes there is public support for both reducing reliance on energy imports and curbing carbon dioxide emissions. "If you married these two ideas up, I think you could get 60 votes, but that means give and take," Graham said yesterday."My hope is that if you marry these two ideas up you would get the votes for a reasonable climate change proposal, that's blocked now, and you would be able to become energy independent, that's blocked now," Graham added. "Both ideas run...

(snip) Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty — both potential 2012 presidential contenders — urged restraint. "There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama's nomination, made two weeks into his Presidency, is impossible to justify, but I think such an outcry will sound like right-wing whining," Huckabee said in a statement. "The better response is simply to allow those on the left to explain what he did in his first two weeks as President that merited such recognition." Pawlenty, speaking on NPR, said there "will be some people who are saying 'Was it based...

Mike Huckabee is advising his fellow Republicans to temper their criticism of President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award. In a posting on his blog, the former GOP presidential candidate writes that members of his party must be careful their comments don't sound like "right-wing whining."

(snip) JOHN KING: The president of the United States, who a year ago this weekend was your campaign rival heading into the final month of the campaign, is the Nobel Peace laureate for 2009. Deserved? SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: Oh, I’m sure that the president is very honored to receive this award. And Nobel Committee, I can’t divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations. And I’m sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to. But as Americans, we’re proud when our president receives an award of that prestigious category....

The nominee in a looming House special election is at the heart of an angry dispute between conservatives and Republican House leadership, a rift so serious that it threatens the party’s chances of keeping control of the upstate New York seat. At issue is the National Republican Congressional Committee’s support for Dede Scozzafava, a New York assemblywoman who conservatives assert is so liberal that they absolutely cannot support her candidacy. Instead, many conservative groups are rallying behind Doug Hoffman, a third-party candidate running on the Conservative Party line, even though their support for him might pave the way for a...

She's poised to become the best-selling author in the United States, has a devoted base of conservative supporters and is considered a front-runner to lead the Republicans into the next election in 2012 - and yet key party strategists are tormented by the popularity of Sarah Palin. The very notion of a Palin candidacy has been derided in recent days by some of the brightest minds in the Republican party even as the former governor of Alaska outlines her policies on Afghanistan, energy and other issues of national importance. "Were she to be the nominee, we could have a catastrophic...

Senator McCain's daughter Meghan was in Amherst on Wednesday night. She talked to the UMass-Amherst Republican Club about her life in the spot light. Meghan McCain is famous in her own right for blogging and writing a column while her father ran for office. She talked about health care reform, gay rights and creating a more civil discourse between Republicans and Democrats. She also Glen Beck and Sarah Palin.

President Obama will take to the court tomorrow in a basketball game with a handful of cabinet members and lawmakers. Scheduled to take place tomorrow evening at the White House basketball court, the game wil feature 9 Democratic lawmakers, 2 Republicans, and four cabinet secretaries. Here's the full list of participants: Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Shaun Donovan Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Representative Mike Arcuri (D-NY) Representative John Boccieri (D-OH) Representative Brad Ellsworth (D-IN) Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Representative Baron Hill (D-IN) Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA)...

Many FR threads have included the infamous picture of John McCain, teeth-gritted and looking at "somebody" with pure hatred and contempt. In fact, the picture has been seen by many as strong evidence of McCain's personality 'flaw', and certainly it's representative of that. But what's MISSING from the picture is at least as important as the picture itself. Here's a best-available full view -- but you still can't see the full context. Who's the object of McCain's nasty grimace? -- well, you can't see it in the picture. For those not aware, the "object" was none other than -- candidate...

McCain's push to remake the party is all about locking the conservative party out, ensuring that a Rino is chosen during the primary's long before a conservative state gets a chance to vote. Sarah's book is selling through the roof unlike anything they've ever seen, she is threat the liberal gravy train (and I'm talking about the Republicans here not democrats). They will do everything the keep her out. McCain and others are already laying plans and taking actions to derail her campaign. Sarah, if you are reading this you cannot save the Republican party, they are way too far...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, impressed with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s recent rollout onto the national political stage, is urging him to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. “Governor Pawlenty is a terrific talent, he’s a very attractive guy and he has a good reform record,” Gingrich told POLITICO over the weekend after his speech to the annual Americans for Prosperity conference in Washington. Pawlenty is “certainly going to be a player. There is every reason he should run, there is wide open field right now,” Gingrich said. “He’s an example that the future of the Republican Party...

The editors of two of the country's most powerful publications, conducting a gloat-fest over the corpse of Reaganism last week, described their idea of true conservatives: Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham asked a remarkable question of Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the New York Times Book Review, in New York's Greenwich Village Wednesday evening: "Isn't Barack Obama the most significant Burkean in American politics today?" "Burkean" refers to Edmund Burke, the 18th-century British parliamentarian who sympathized with the freedom-loving revolution in America while vehemently opposing the anarchistic revolution in France. Tanenhaus, author of an impressive biography...

Lightning-rod talker Glenn Beck is taking a hit from an unexpected source. The Fox News host isn't aligned with any political party, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday, Beck is "aligned with cynicism." And, the South Carolina Republican added, America isn't a nation of cynics. Graham, who spoke at The First Draft of History conference sponsored by The Atlantic, also took at shot at "birthers." He said those who question President Obama's citizenship or claim he's a secret Muslim are "crazy" -- and he urged them to "knock this crap off." Graham's remarks came a day after the White House took...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney had already sent out invitations for his Phoenix fund-raiser, offering supporters the chance to meet him in a Chase Field luxury box over a $300-per-person lunch or a $3,000 VIP reception. But when former rival John McCain called with an offer to be listed as host for the event in his hometown, Romney happily went back to the printer for a new invitation with McCain’s name emblazoned on it. Yesterday, McCain’s gesture helped Romney’s political action committee raise about $80,000. It also consummated an 18-month rapprochement between two competitors who battled for the 2008 GOP presidential...

I was listening to Hugh Hewitt tonight. He had on a group "Contract From America". The folks from the organization mentioned a split with a gent named Williams and what made my hair stand on end was their desire to make the movement "mainstream". I thought those of us with a Tea Party mentality are the mainstream of American Life, as we define it. My gut feel and I hope I am wrong, I smell a RINO cabal. Tell me I a wrong......

Some of the readers of FA might know of Larry Elder. Known as "The Sage of South Central" he hosted a radio show on our local LA station KABC for close to 15 years when he ended it last December in hopes of starting a political career. No man would have been better to challenge Boxer in my opinion. But something funny happened along the way. The state NRSC and Senator Cornyn told him not to because they really want to support someone sure to lose, Carly Fiorina. You know Larry Elder: the African-American, Californian, libertarian, popular radio host and...

Elaine McKearn is the kind of socially conservative Republican who used to dominate California Republican Party conventions such as the one that concluded Sunday. The Thousand Oaks resident opposes abortion rights and gay marriage and sees illegal immigration as one of California's main problems. In 2002, the now-66-year-old was so inspired by GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Simon that she jumped aboard as a campaign volunteer. At this convention, however, McKearn said she felt lost. All three of the party's gubernatorial candidates are pro-abortion rights social moderates who make only passing references to immigration, gay marriage, religion and other red-meat conservative...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis is paying the price for independent thinking. Inglis, a Travelers Rest Republican, might have been the only Republican lawmaker in the country booed lustily by his own constituents at town hall meetings last month.Inglis was shouted down when he asked listeners why they're afraid of President Barack Obama - and then suggested they stop watching conservative TV commentator Glenn Beck."He's trading on fear," Inglis advised one group, setting off loud catcalls. Despite a broadly conservative voting record, Inglis has angered many GOP activists with his contrarian stands on a handful of high-profile issues. In...

Mitt Romney, the early favorite of many for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, is making nice with his rivals from the last race. The former Massachusetts governor, who was the source of much consternation among his opponents during the GOP presidential primaries last year, has made strides to repair those relationships in recent days. The latest example came Saturday in Romney’s speech to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan, in which Romney will praise former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) effort to clean up New York and suggest Detroit could use a similar program.“Detroit needs to be...

Meg Whitman, the businesswoman-turned-politician who is perhaps the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for governor next year, has largely failed the most basic test of citizenship — voting. Sadly, the voting record of Carly Fiorina, the GOP's hope for unseating U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer next year, isn't much better. Speaking at a state Republican convention in Sacramento earlier this year, Whitman, evidently trying to defuse the issue in advance, said this: “Voting is a precious gift handed down by generations of Americans. I regret not having delivered my vote on several occasions.” Several occasions? Try almost never, at least...

For reasons best known to himself, David Frum has decided to suppress my side of the debate on his website. Thus my reply to his latest post (which follows below) doesn't appear on his website. I agree with you David that this dialogue is getting more focused, and I find it much more pleasurable (and hopefully informative) as a result. There are two issues here. One is a remarkable conservative outburst against the broadcaster Glenn Beck which includes you, Mark Levin and Pete Wehner among others, and which collectively wishes for his early self-destruction. The message from the three...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. John McCain is co-hosting a fundraiser for his former 2008 Republican primary rival Mitt Romney next Wednesday in Phoenix. . . . . . The fundraiser will benefit Romney's Free and Strong America PAC...