Free Republic

GRANDVILLE, MI -- Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema supports the “Duck Dynasty” family whose hit television show may be over now that one of the stars has been suspended for comments the A&E cable network deemed offensive to gays. In a Friday, Dec. 20, Facebook post visible to his social media friends, which include an MLive Media Group employee, Agema lauded this statement released by Phil Robertson’s family. “Good for them,” Agema wrote. “The LGBT Gestapo speech police will not succeed when families like them are Biblically solid. You are in our prayers. May A&E fall into the pit they...

Gov. Chris Christie today signed landmark legislation granting thousands of students who grew up in New Jersey but are in the country illegally the benefit of in-state tuition rates at all public colleges and universities. Christie's signature marks the end of a public tug-of-war over the measure, deemed the "Dream Act", which was pared down in its final days in order for Democrats to gain the governor's approval. Both sides hailed the compromise as a historic achievement. A spokesman for Christie, Colin Reed, said in a statement "the governor signed the legislation privately earlier today, and there will be a...

Vid at link

Under pressure from Democrats in the state, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie today accepted the resignation of his top staff appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after a controversy over whether several local lanes were shut down on the busy George Washington Bridge for political reasons. In the hastily arranged news conference this morning, Christie announced that Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority, will be replaced by Deborah Gramiccioni, whom Christie called one of his “most trusted friends and advisers over the last 10 years.”.. The flap is over the mysterious closure...

GOP senators have aggressively tried to keep their conservative base at bay to ensure there’s virtually no space on their right for a primary foe to emerge. That didn’t work so well. Republican primary challengers are lining up to take on sitting senators next year in eight of the 12 races involving sitting GOP senators, gunning for party leaders like Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, veterans like Thad Cochran in Mississippi and Pat Roberts in Kansas and deal-makers like Lindsey Graham in South Carolina. Texas Sen. John Cornyn became the latest target this week, when a fiercely conservative congressman, Steve Stockman,...

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said his opposition research shop is targeting Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 election. Priebus said the RNC is trying to focus on the midterm elections, but added there should be a greater emphasis on the potential presidential candidate. “Well, we have — so our research shop, along with America Rising, has been focusing in on Hillary Clinton,” Priebus said on The Hugh Hewitt Show on Thursday. “But I agree with you that there needs to be a more of a focus.” American Rising is a GOP research firm started by Mitt Romney's former...

Karl Rove is slamming Martin Bashir for his “disgusting and vile” comments against Sarah Palin that ultimately led to the MSNBC host’s resignation. “This was beyond the pale. Sure, we are going to have harsh comments about political figures from people who don’t share their views, but this was a disgusting and vile and highly personal and offensive comment,” Rove said Wednesday on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” Bashir resigned Wednesday for comments he made on his Nov. 15 broadcast during which he called Sarah Palin “a world class idiot” and referenced a diary of a former plantation manager who...

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says the RNC has begun “focusing in” on Hillary Clinton as a candidate for 2016 and will continue to do so. Priebus was asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday whether the RNC would work to attack Clinton as the presumed Democratic nominee for president in 2016, according to a show transcript. “We have. So our research shop, along with America Rising, has been focusing in on Hillary Clinton.

The head of the Republican National Committee waved off any suggestion he might not rally behind Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in his bid for reelection. "Of course I'm going to support the leader of the Republican Party," Reince Priebus told the panel on CNN's "Crossfire" on Tuesday.

The Growth and Opportunity Project, aka “the autopsy,” was heralded as the Republican Party’s clear-eyed assessment of its 2012 presidential defeat. Autopsies are done on dead things, and ever since its March 2013 release, the GOP has done everything possible to stay dead. The Republican Party is dead to African Americans. Not that there was much of pulse to begin with. Romney won 6 percent of the black vote to 93 percent for Obama, which isn’t surprising since Romney was looking to unseat the nation’s first black president. But it is also not surprising considering all of the voter suppression...

An aggressive timeline for passing comprehensive immigration reform may become a reality based on two significant developments on Capitol Hill. One of them is that House Speaker John Boehner has hired an Immigration Policy Director who has deep experience in overhaul efforts. The other is that in recent weeks, various Texas business interests have told Quorum Report that Boehner has been telling them that he will start holding immigration votes not long after the filing deadline has passed. This, of course, runs counter to conventional wisdom that says immigration votes in the House will have to wait until 2014.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday there still is a possibility of immigration reform this year. “I think that, in fact, the idea that either a comprehensive approach or a multi-tiered approach is not going to happen by the end of the year, I don’t think that that’s necessarily true,” Priebus told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt. “I think it can happen and I think people like Paul Ryan and others still want something like that to happen,” Priebus said. -snip- Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who helped craft the Senate’s immigration bill, said Thursday the window for passing immigration reform...

TAMPA, Fla. — What the heck happened to Chris Christie? Everyone eagerly anticipating his signature New Jersey-style smackdown on the first night of the Republican convention walked away scratching his head wondering who or what muted the famously uncontainable, confrontational, loud-mouthed governor. His speech was so tame and devoid of red meat, it could have been delivered by George H.W. Bush at a United Nations convention. Once it was clear how toothless a speech it would be, it became almost painful to watch him. It was like watching an episode of “Jersey Shore” with Snooki sober and fully dressed in...

Chris Christie criticized strategists for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign on Sunday, saying no one should “give a darn” about their political advice, but the New Jersey Republican governor isn’t nearly as dismissive of their input as he lets on. During his re-election campaign this year, Christie hired a political consultancy firm run by Romney’s former top strategists and paid more than $46,000 for their services. According to his campaign financial reports, Christie paid $46,007.29 (plus $251 for “transportation/parking”) to the Stevens & Schriefer Group, which is run by Romney’s former senior strategists Stuart Stevens and Russell Schriefer. While Stevens...

In an attorney general’s race that remains too close to call, Republican Mark D. Obenshain began today with a 17-vote edge over Democrat Mark R. Herring. But by afternoon, the pendulum had swung the other way when the numbers in four Richmond precincts were updated, putting Herring ahead by 115 votes out of more than 2 million cast statewide.

Don’t count Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus among those who believe comprehensive immigration reform is dead this Congress. Despite exasperation among reform advocates that the House has refused to vote on any major immigration bill — particularly the Senate-passed legislation — Priebus said that his “gut” feeling is that the House will indeed pass an immigration overhaul in the next 14 months. “Something significant is going to happen because obviously mass deportation is not an option. I don’t think doing nothing is an option. And I believe most people would agree that something significant needs to take place. Now...

Please help me jog my memory and find a link (or several). I seem to recall a Republican National Committee chairman several years ago saying that there is no place in the GOP for limited government people. I can't seem to find that, however, no matter how I do the search. Can anyone help me with this?

Democrats all over the country rejoice at the news that Terry McAuliffe defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the race for Virginia governor on Tuesday. To them, this victory is a resounding triumph over the conservative right, and a clear message to all Americans that the radical ideas of the Tea Party have no place at the national or state level. To them, this is a loud and clear message that the Tea Party and their radical agenda are on their way out. What is the real message of the Virginia gubernatorial race? -snip- Do you think it is possible, that...

“Bobby Jindal and his political team totally blew it,” harrumphed one advisor for Ken Cuccinelli the morning after a closer-than-expected loss. Cuccinelli, who narrowly lost last night’s gubernatorial election to Terry McAuliffe, was badly outspent in the days and weeks leading up to the election. The New York Times‘ Jonathan Martin described Cuccinelli’s plight as having been “close to abandoned at the end.” He was. As Politico’s James Hohmann reported, ”The Republican National Committee spent about $3 million on Virginia this year, compared to $9 million in the 2009.” And as the Roanoke Times noted, in 2009, the Chamber of...

Senate Republicans are spoiling for a fight this primary season as they try to take back control of the party from conservative activists. -snip- “If super PACs are going to get involved in primaries, there has to be some other people involved in primaries who are interested in actually winning the election in November — and not just purifying the party in the primary,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who ran the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the past two cycles and faces reelection next year. With the blessing of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the hardball plan is already...