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Naturally, then, politicians — Republicans in particular — are determined to scrap what works and promote what doesn’t. And that brings me to Mitt Romney’s latest really bad idea, unveiled on Veterans Day: to partially privatize the Veterans Health Administration (V.H.A.). What Mr. Romney and everyone else should know is that the V.H.A. is a huge policy success story, which offers important lessons for future health reform. Many people still have an image of veterans’ health care based on the terrible state of the system two decades ago. Under the Clinton administration, however, the V.H.A. was overhauled, and achieved a...

The cascade of same-sex marriage rulings is now a torrent, each more quotable and image-ready than the last. “Let us look less to the sky to see what might fall; rather, let us look to each other…and rise,” district Judge Michael McShane wrote Monday in Oregon. Not to be outdone, district Judge John E. Jones III—a George W. Bush appointee, personally recommended by Rick Santorum—wrote Tuesday in Pennsylvania: “We are a better people than what these [marriage] laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history." Indeed, after Judge Jones threw out his state’s...

The press has been in a reminiscent and celebratory mood this past week, as America reached the 10th anniversary of homosexual marriage. What is little discussed is that the first same-sex wedding license was issued only because Republican governor Mitt Romney broke the law. And he not only broke the law, he ordered every city and county clerk to break the law, too, or get fired. It is no exaggeration to say that America has same-sex marriage because of Mitt Romney. As the media has endlessly reminded us this past week, the first domino to fall in the crusade to...

Romney rips N.H. official’s ‘vile epithet’ (Calls on town officer to quit) [Mitt Defends Obama] May 17, 2014 - "Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has called on a New Hampshire town official to resign for calling President Obama a racial epithet. The Wolfeboro, N.H., police commissioner who has stood by his comment calling President Obama a racial slur is facing a growing cascade of calls to step down, including from the tiny lakeside town’s most famous summer resident — one-time Obama opponent Mitt Romney. “The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community ,”...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez snagged the endorsement of high-profile politicians this week, including winning the support of former GOP presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. “As a former governor, I can tell you that Bob Beauprez has exactly what Colorado needs to lead,” Romney wrote in an email sent to Beauprez supporters. “Bob’s unique combination of passion, drive, conservative values and experience will make him an outstanding governor.” Beauprez was the most prominent Romney surrogate in Colorado during the 2012 presidential campaign — the Republican lost the state by about 5 points to President Barack Obama —...

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the GOP has a problem, and they know it. "Areas where we should be winning, like in Ohio, and in Michigan, places where the economy is not strong, where the Obama administration policies have hurt there ... they're not voting for us," says Santorum, author of the new book "Blue Collar Conservatives: Recommitting to an America That Works." Establishment Republicans "realize we have a problem there. I don't think they have any clue how to fix it," says Santorum. "The tea party realizes, that's who they are, these are conservatives who don't think...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)With the midterm elections just six months away, President Obama and the Democrats are pining for the days of Mitt Romney. Obama wants the 2014 campaign to be about the economy, and is doing everything he can to portray the GOP as out-of-step with middle-class concerns on issues from the minimum wage to taxes. What’s missing is Romney, the former GOP presidential nominee whose background as a venture capitalist made him a rich target for populist attacks. The Obama campaign cast Romney as an elitist businessman and pounced on small biographical details, like the construction of a car elevator in...

Republican Neel Kashkari is dropping another $500,000 into his run for governor, his campaign said Friday, as Kashkari tries to overtake GOP rival Tim Donnelly in the final weeks of the campaign. The donation increases Kashkari's total personal contribution to the effort to $1 million. He announced the first $500,000 on Monday. Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury Department official, lags behind Donnelly, a Twin Peaks assemblyman and tea party favorite, in early polls.

In the past few days, three candidates who ran for the last Republican presidential nomination, including nominee Mitt Romney, have endorsed a higher minimum wage. Yahoo!Finance asks Mitt Romney Calls for Higher Minimum Wage. Does it Matter? Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential nominee in 2012, called on Republicans Friday to raise the minimum wage, going against the congressional leadership of his own party. Related Stories "I think we ought to raise it, because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay, and I think communicating that is important to us," Mr. Romney said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”...

Hours after former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for an increase in the minimum wage, Neel Kashkari, one of the party’s top candidates for governor of California, said such a move would be devastating to workers. The timing of the clash was awkward for Kashkari, a former investment banker from Laguna Beach. Romney is one of the Republican luminaries – including former Govs. Pete Wilson of California and Jeb Bush of Florida – whose support Kashkari has featured in campaign mail and TV advertising.

Alternate headline: Romney not running for President in 2016. Mike Barnicle braced Mitt Romney on the GOP’s demographic issues and its “conservative bent” on popular initiatives like immigration reform and a minimum-wage hike. Romney talks about the big tent of Republicanism, but notes that he supports a minimum-wage hike:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO “I think we ought to raise it, because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay, and I think communicating that is important to us,” Romney said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”In recent days, two of Romney’s former opponents, Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty,...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Thursday morning said he supports an increase in the minimum wage, breaking with many Republicans who have stood against it. “I, for instance, as you know, part company with many of the conservatives in my party on the issue of the minimum wage. I think we ought to raise it,” the 2012 Republican presidential nominee said. “Because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay.” Romney’s comments come after Senate Republicans rejected a vote on a Senate bill that would have increased the minimum wage to $10.10. Recently, though, former Minnesota...

In a break with many in the Republican Party, Mitt Romney says he backs a move to raise the minimum wage. "I, for instance, as you know, part company with many of the conservatives in my party on the issue of the minimum wage, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee said Friday morning. "I think we ought to raise it, because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay, and I think communicating that is important to us," Romney added in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

When conservative candidates lose their bid for elected office, they tend to fade away from public life and are never heard from again. But for Rockefeller Republicans, losing an election is evidently a resume enhancer for them to continue advising and interfering with Republican politics and policy. Mitt Romney ran as a “severely” conservative Republican in the primary. He pulverized his opponents with an expensive negative ad campaign and won the nomination. Then, as is the case with most moderate Republicans, his truculent attitude in the primary transformed into one of ineptitude and submissiveness in the face of an aggressive...

It is "appropriate" for Republicans to use investigations, such as those into Benghazi and the IRS, for election campaigns, two-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday. Romney stressed that the investigations would not be taking place if Republicans did not have a majority in the House. "There would not be an investigation into Benghazi, there would not be an investigation into the IRS, were there not a Republican House. And, so to say, 'Look, elect Republicans so that we can have these kinds of investigations' is appropriate," the former Massachusetts governor told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." The issue of using the...

Gone is the sunny, compassionate candidate of 2008. In the run-up to 2016, the former Arkansas governor is downright angry. He’s learned his lesson from his last campaign, ex-aides say. In 2007, Mike Huckabee stood impassively on a Republican presidential debate stage while Mitt Romney tried to embarrass him. A program that Huckabee had instituted in Arkansas gave undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children the right to in-state tuition at Arkansas’s public universities. Huckabee sounded, Romney said, like a Massachusetts liberal. “Are we going to give taxpayer-funded benefits to kids that are here illegally and put them...

RomneyCare’s pioneering health insurance exchange is headed for the scrap heap. Bay State officials are taking steps this week to junk central parts of their dysfunctional health insurance exchange—the model for President Barack Obama’s health care law—and merge with the federal enrollment site HealthCare.gov. The decision is part of an expensive plan that would occur alongside a parallel, last-ditch attempt to still build a working state system. The state on Monday announced the hiring of hCentive, a Virginia-based contractor that helped construct the Kentucky and Colorado exchanges. The company would rush to build a viable state exchange in time for...

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Wednesday he believes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush can win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, dismissing the notion that conservatives wouldn’t elect an “establishment” candidate by pointing to the party’s standard bearer the past two presidential cycles. “See John McCain; see Mitt Romney,” Mr. Pawlenty, who ended his 2012 presidential campaign in the summer of 2011, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “In McCain’s case, a very compelling personal story and a gritty performance; in Mitt Romney’s case, obviously a man of great talent but also someone with a tremendous amount of campaign resources...

Sen. Marco Rubio jumped into Iowa’s contested Senate primary on Monday, throwing his support behind conservative candidate Joni Ernst. After indicating in recent weeks that he would stay away from GOP primary season, the Florida senator decided to wade into one of the most consequential Senate races in the country by backing Ernst. Not only does Iowa hold the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus in 2016, but the state also will be central to the battle for the Senate this fall — unlike contested primaries in red states such as Oklahoma and Nebraska. Rubio made the announcement through his Reclaim America PAC...