Free Republic

It's not hard to understand why. Even without a replay of the Bachmann-Cain-Gingrich-Perry-Paul GOP primary freak show of 2012, the party is heading into its confrontation with Hillary Clinton at a serious general election disadvantage. Some of the weakness has demographic roots that no single candidate can change in a single race. But the rest is a product of the party's rightward lurch over the past six years — and a restive base that demands absolute ideological purity on the part of candidates. The result, as in 2012, is likely to be a primary contest devoted to winning the Real...

With eyes increasingly on him, Jeb Bush signaled on Sunday the kind of campaign he would mount if he ran for president: one arguing against ideological purity tests while challenging party orthodoxy on issues like immigration and education. Even as he sharply criticized President Obama for his handling of foreign affairs and health care, Mr. Bush made clear that he would run against the style of politics that has characterized recent Republican nominating contests. He said he would decide by the end of the year, in part on whether he thought that with a “hopeful” message, he could avoid “the...

It is a sad and unfortunate fact that the vast majority of Americans haven’t read our Constitution. Including the amendments, the Constitution is not a long read being only about 7,400 words long. However, the Republican Party, “the party of the Constitution”, has a 2012 platform that is over FOUR times longer than the Constitution at 30,693 words. This fact begs the question, if Americans haven’t read the Constitution, how many have actually read the GOP platform and know what Republicans believe? From the creation of the party in 1856 through 1952, the GOP platform only exceeded the Constitution’s length...

The first opponent is the left. They still call us the “Tea Party,” though we rarely use that term anymore. It’s fun to hear the liberals say it – it’s like listening to grandparents trying to sound cool. Yeah, those hepcats are sure hip with their cool jive, daddy-o. Every day, the lefty punditry opines about the Tea Party’s death spiral. And every day, the Tea Party refuses to crash and burn. We conservative insurgents have another opponent, but this opponent recognizes us for exactly what we are – a dangerous, existential threat. This opponent is the GOP Establishment, and...

<p>Planned changes to the Republican Party's presidential selection process are part of a rebuilding process that will strengthen the GOP brand and hopefully make its presidential nominee more competitive in 2016, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told California Republicans on Friday, calling the GOP's current primary process "a complete disaster."</p>

Republican National Committee data operatives will build a list of the millions of Americans who have lost insurance policies due to Obamacare in order to help their candidates win over these voters at the ballot box in 2014 and 2016. "Getting that information [on plan cancellations] and having good data as to who votes, who doesn't vote, voter registration, party affiliation, consumer characteristics, cross-referenced with that kind of information, I think, is important for us to have," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told the Washington Examiner after his CPAC panel presentation Saturday morning. It's early in the process, though,...

If 2016 brings another Bush-Clinton matchup, not all famous last names are equal at the start. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll makes clear why it’s better to be associated with the 42nd president than the 43rd and 41st, at least for now. The poll has plenty of good news for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Two-thirds of Americans say they’d consider voting for Clinton in 2016, and a full 25 percent say they will definitely support her. Again, among all Americans – not just Democrats, or Democrats and independents – one in four say they are fully on board for Hillary...

Here’s a cool trick I learned at Ft. Benning’s Infantry School a few hundred years ago. Attack your enemies, not your allies. That helpful hint totally increases your odds of victory. Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Dave Camp (Republicanish - MI) never learned that lesson. He just had to release his own tax reform plan, no doubt in response to a groundswell of enthusiasm among his K Street sycophants. His plan cuts the home mortgage and charitable deductions while slapping a surtax on the earnings of successful people. Good thinking. Shaft the folks who saved up to buy homes, give...

On Friday, every political campaign had to file its 2013 year end report with the FEC. The reports delivered two big surprises. The Democrats are dominating the Republicans in fundraising. More surprising, perhaps, though, is that Tea Party and conservative SuperPACs raised around three times as much as GOP establishment SuperPACs. The DC GOP may have started the war against the Tea Party, but it won't finish it. Not long after their stunning losses in 2012, Karl Rove and other establishment Republicans announced a new effort to engage in primaries to ensure the "right" candidates got the party's nomination. Rove...

Meanwhile, insurgent conservative groups like the Tea Party Patriots — emboldened by activists’ fury over compromises that Republican leaders have struck with Democrats on federal spending — now have formidable amounts of cash to augment their grass-roots muscle.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men will never put Chris Christie together again if New Jersey’s governor fails to refute the accusation that he knew of the George Washington Bridge lane closures as they were taking place. In that event, Christie’s governorship is over and he should prepare to face a federal criminal probe as a private citizen. Resignation would be a must. Otherwise, impeachment would be a snap. Christie stands on the brink of ruin thanks to David Wildstein, the high school pal who, as his Port Authority enforcer, ordered the closures that plunged Fort Lee...

​Mike Huckabee isn’t getting flak from just the Left and the media for last week’s “libido” comments — Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said Huckabee needs to be more careful with his choice of words and what he wants to portray. “You have to accept the political world we live in in the sense that you cannot offer up words like ‘libido’ — wherever that came from,” Priebus told MSNBC on Monday. “You don’t offer up lobs, set-ups, passes, and serves that allows Democrats to spike the ball.” Had he chosen a different way to get his point across,...

In typical establishment fashion, Reince Priebus and the wizards at the RNC have looked at the last presidential nomination cycle and learned the wrong lessons. They have concluded that not allowing Mitt Romney a smooth coronation was the problem, and they are out to make sure their anointed one never has to face that again. As such, the prescriptions for change recently announced by Priebus will only make things worse. This is what happens when a national party is isolated from -- and igorant of -- its nation. Yes, the debates did become a series of shameless food fights as...

House Republicans are preparing to unveil their own broad template for overhauling the nation’s immigration system this week, potentially offering a small opening for President Obama and congressional Democrats to pass bipartisan legislation before the end of the year. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and other Republican leaders are expected to release a one-page statement of immigration principles this week at their annual retreat in Cambridge, Md., according to aides with knowledge of the plan. The document is expected to call for border security and enforcement measures, as well as providing a path to legal status — but not...

Republicans may be choosing between gambling or pot when they pick their 2016 convention site. Las Vegas has emerged as the clear early front-runner to host the party’s next presidential nomination convention despite its “Sin City” reputation. Denver is seen as another serious contender, though the city’s “Mile High City” moniker had taken on a different connotation since Colorado legalized marijuana last election. The choice between the two cities — both in crucial swing states the GOP needs to win — had a few RNC members nervous about potential scandals during this past week’s winter meeting, but most were chortling...

Pro-life Republican candidates can neutralize their Democratic opponents’ “war on women” attacks by fighting back, says Ellen Barrosse, author of a resolution unanimously adopted by the party's Resolutions Committee Wednesday. The resolution was submitted by Barrosse, a committeewoman from Delaware, the same day the Republican National Committee (RNC) officially joined the annual March for Life in Washington for the first time. Barrosse’s resolution states: “Candidates who stay silent on pro-life issues do not identify with key voters, fail to alert voters to Democrats’ extreme pro-abortion stances, and have lost their elections.” …

ANSING, MI -- Michigan Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema has cancelled plans to attend this week's GOP meeting in Washington amidst growing calls for his resignation. "My liberal critics within the Republican Party have chosen to elevate this discussion to the RNC Meeting and make it a drawn out fight between liberals and conservatives within the party," Agema said in a statement provided to MLive. "For this reason, I have decided it is best for the party that I not attend the meeting this week and instead have sent a proxy who will vote how I want on the Rules."...

Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York will be in Washington on Friday to pressure Republican lawmakers to take up an overhaul of immigration laws. The meeting, his first major public policy event since his term ended, is pegged to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 28. The meeting will include prominent Republicans and U.S. Chamber of Commerce representatives.

What if conservative FReepers/bloggers/online activists were to instigate a boycott of major donors to Karl Rove's 'American Crossroads' and 'Crossroads GPS' SuperPACs- so that underwriting Rove's war on the Gee-Oh-Pee's own base comes at as heavy a price as possible? Then perhaps they'll realize what they're doing is wrong.   Crossroads GPS is a 'dark money' PAC -thus not required to release donor info- but we've got enough on the original American Crossroads group to make our presence felt (via pain inflicted) while we try and sniff-out the rest. Karl Rove and his congressional allies need to be taken-out-at-the-knees...

Chris Christie is one of the GOP's brightest stars and one of its best hopes for 2016. But during his toughest hour, he simply hasn't been able to count on a chorus of national GOP support rallying full-bore to his side. -snip- Christie's rise in GOP circles is in no small part due to an invisible but immensely powerful donor and power broker class that loves him. This wing of the party tried to woo him to run for president in 2012, even after Mitt Romney was in the race. And they are expected to be there for him in...