Free Republic

If the GOP is unwilling to stand up to radicals, it might as well just rename itself the Committee to Elect Hillary Clinton. Eric Cantor tried to appease Republican radicals. They turned on him anyway. John Boehner has tried to resist them. They just overwhelmed him. Mitt Romney tried to join them—and in doing so fastened onto his party the platform that lost the presidential election of 2012. At some point, Republican leaders must recognize that they have a fight on their hands whether they like it or not. If they refuse to join that fight, they will be devoured...

Friend, Hopefully this isn’t the first time you’re learning about this contest. The NRSC is sending one of their supporters to Boston to sit down with me – airfare, transportation, and hotel are all covered. I’d love the opportunity to meet you. Right now, everyone who donates $5 or more is automatically entered into the contest. Did you want a chance to win? Be sure to enter – there’s not much time left! Yours, Mitt Romney

Since Iraq is descending into chaos, it's worth looking at the discussion of the SOF agreement that never was: Romney: So, you didn't want a status of forces agreement?

Once fearing he would be viewed as “a loser for life” if he failed to win the presidency, Mitt Romney is trying to re-emerge as a force in Republican politics. Romney has quietly sought kingmaker status in the GOP’s fight for the Senate majority this fall and its quest to retake the White House in 2016. The effort at revival is fueling whispers about a third presidential run. But those closest to Romney suggest he’s more interested in shaping party politics by lending his name and record-breaking fundraising machine to what he considers the next generation of electable conservatives. …

Transcript of Mark Levin, 6/10/2014 You know what I've heard? On good authority, that Mitt Romney and Orrin Hatch want one of Mitt Romney's sons to go after Mike Lee in the Republican fight -- should there be one -- because they want to get rid of Mike Lee. Who are the purists, exactly? Who are the "Big Tent" guys, exactly? Now let me tell you what I'm gonna do if these fools pull that. Listen to me, Orrin, I'm talkin' to you. I'm going to go into your state and expose you. For your lies on this show. I'm...

ERICA YOON | The Roanoke Times Delegates cheer candidate Ed Gillespie during his introduction at the state Republican convention Saturday in Roanoke. Less than 90 minutes after voting began at the convention, Gillespie’s nearest rival, Shak Hill, conceded the nomination to Gillespie. The low attendance — 4,200 delegates had registered but about 2,700 came to Roanoke — may have expedited the balloting. Ed Gillespie, a fixture in national Republican politics, easily won his party’s nomination Saturday to take on Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., setting up a marquee fight with control of the Senate at stake. At 2:50 p.m., less than...

Joni Ernst parlayed her unusual support from establishment Republicans and conservatives to win Iowa's GOP Senate nomination outright on Tuesday, surpassing the 35% threshold needed to avoid a June 14 nominating convention, where nothing would have been guaranteed. The Associated Press called the race after Ernst had 53.7% of the vote with just under 20% of the precincts reporting. She will face Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), who won the Democratic nomination uncontested, to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). Ernst will try to become the first female to be elected to federal office in Iowa. Perhaps giving 2016 GOP presidential...

This cycle, no candidate has navigated the GOP “civil war” better than Joni Ernst. Ernst received the endorsement of Sarah Palin and hit the campaign trail with Mitt Romney. Senate Conservatives Fund backed her, and so did the Chamber of Commerce. Ahead of Tuesday's Iowa GOP Senate primary, Ernst has a commanding 18-point lead in the Des Moines Register poll, but securing the nomination isn't certain. With 36% of the vote to liberal Republican businessman Mark Jacobs' 18%, Ernst is barely above the 35% threshold she must surpass in order to avoid a nominating convention on June 14. Though Ernst...

Friend, We wanted you to be the first to hear the news: as an NRSC supporter, you can now enter for your chance to meet with Governor Mitt Romney! And you could meet him as part of our latest contest. We’re going to fly one lucky supporter to Boston to meet Governor Romney. Travel expenses – lodging, airfare, and transportation – will be covered by us. We’re confident that Republicans across the country will be eager to take the chance to meet him. Best of all? You can add your entry with a donation of just $5 or more to...

Imagine winning a U.S. Senate debate when you did the following: Admitted you didn’t know what the current immigration law was. Flip-flopped on the marriage issue from a previous debate. Flip-flopped on subsidies during this debate. Said the first thing that differentiated yourself from your opponent was you were female. Gave probably the single most wretchedly-awful example of pandering in modern Iowa political history. No one would expect to win a debate, and likely the Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate, committing these kinds of gaffes. But “no one” isn’t Joni Ernst, who is living the semi-charmed kind of life....

When the history of this presidency is written, it will record that bold, progressive reforms dramatically reshaped the face of government, thanks to the vision, creativity, and political will of one man. And that man is Mitt Romney. President Obama already has Gina McCarthy, who designed Romney’s cap-and-trade program in Massachusetts, running the Environmental Protection Agency for him. Coral Davenport reports today that the administration’s new regulations of power plants, due for release Monday, will be designed to expand the structure Romney built: As governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney was a key architect of a cap-and-trade program in nine northeastern...

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.”...