Free Republic

Republican lobbyists are working to persuade GOP lawmakers to change their position on same-sex marriage and revise the party's official position that "traditional marriage" is between a man and a woman. Gay marriage advocates say their efforts are paying off as an increasing number of members of the congressional delegation are diverging from the party line, The Hill reported. "The issue is losing its toxicity, from a Republican perspective," Kathryn Lehman, a top GOP lobbyist and partner at Holland & Knight, who helped write the Defense of Marriage Act, told The Hill. She has been visiting dozens of Republican offices...

UNKNOWN QUESTIONER:“Um, you mentioned the Health Insurance Exchanges for the States. And it’s my understanding that if the States don’t provide them, that the Federal Government will provide them.”M.I.T. economics Prof. Jonathan Gruber:“Yeah, so these Health Insurance Exchanges —once you go on MA-HealthConnect.org and CRS [is] in Massachusetts—will be these new shopping places. And they’ll be the place that people go to get their subsidies for health insurance. “In the law it says [that] if States don’t provide them, the federal backstop will. The Federal Government has been sort-of slow in putting in this backstop, I think partially, because they...

Liberals are now in damage control mode on the heels of the discovery of not one but two videos of Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber claiming in January 2012 that the subsidies for that program were limited to exchanges set up by the states. Their contention is that while Gruber might have worked closely with Congress to create the Obamacare bill, he is still not Congress. The other claim is that there is no document that backs up what they consider to be merely a Gruber "Speak-O." Newsflash folks! Your humble correspondent has come upon a 2011 General Accounting Office report...

... It seems to us Gruber has an awfully broad definition of "typo." A typo is when you write "established by the Stake" when you mean to write "established by the State," not when you write "established by the State" when you mean "." Nonetheless, many ObamaCare supporters agree with Gruber that the passage in question was, as others have put it, a mere "drafting error"--that Congress could not possibly have meant to exclude the federal exchange from the subsidy program. Many, but not all. One who disagrees is Jonathan Gruber, who not only is a supporter of ObamaCare but...

Jonathan Gruber, a professor at MIT, is widely is regarded as the architect of both Romneycare and Obamacare. Following the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Halbig, he asserted that the provision of Obamacare limiting subsidies to the state exchanges was a “typo.” Indeed, he found it “criminal” to suggest that Obamacare was intended to work this way. But William Jacobson (via one of his readers) has unearthed video from 2012 in which Gruber explains why Obamacare limits subsidies to participants in state exchanges — the view of the statute he now finds “criminal.” Gruber stated: “I think what’s important to remember...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday said Utah is not required to recognize the marriages of roughly 1,000 same-sex couples there while state officials pursue appeals. The court’s order was two sentences long and said only that a lower court’s ruling “is stayed pending the final disposition of the appeal” by the federal appeals court in Denver. Friday’s order came in a different case, one concerning the status of what the state calls “interim marriages,” meaning those entered into during that period in December and January when same-sex marriage was briefly allowed. The case seeking recognition of the 1,000...

WICHITA, Kan. — Moderate Republicans have been kicked around by the tea party for years in Congress and the states. Here in Kansas, they’re fighting back. A moderate GOP uprising is in full swing against Gov. Sam Brownback, the fierce fiscal and social conservative whose policies led to a purge of middle-of-the-road Republicans from the legislature early in his tenure. In a rare and surprising act of political defiance on Tuesday, more than 100 Republicans, including current and former officeholders, endorsed Brownback’s opponent, statehouse Democratic leader Paul Davis. Polls show the challenger with a surprisingly strong shot at taking out...

Deep in the Bible Belt, new signs emerged this weekend of evolving views among Republican governors on gay marriage. While the Republican Party's religious conservatives continue to fight against same-sex marriage, its governors appear to be backing off their opposition – in their rhetoric, at least. For some, the shift may be more a matter of tone than substance as the GOP tries to attract new voters ahead of the midterm elections. Nonetheless, it is a dramatic turn for a party that has long been defined by social conservative values. "I don't think the Republican Party is fighting it," Wisconsin's...

The Jerusalem District Court has ordered Moshav Yad Hashmonah, a community of Messianic Jews and Evangelical Christians, to pay compensation to two lesbians after it refused to host a same-sex wedding reception. "We knew we were breaking the law. Somebody needed to do it." says Ayelet Ronen, general secretary for the village. Judge Moshe Yoad Cohen upheld a lower court ruling that the Moshav violated a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. During the trial, representatives of the Moshav quoted from both Old and New Testaments. "We do not hate homosexuals or lesbians. We love them. We simply told...

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has a 12-percentage-point lead over Republican challenger Scott Brown, according to a new poll. The WMUR Granite State/University of New Hampshire poll released Wednesday evening shows Shaheen tops Brown 52 percent to 40 percent. In April, she led Brown by 6 percentage points. Within minutes of the poll’s release, the Brown campaign sent out a memo downplaying the findings and outlining the Republican’s strategy: “Consolidate the Republican base and split the independent vote.” The campaign said polls won’t mean much until Republicans choose their nominee on Sept. 9. “In 2014, the Senate race in...

<p>A U.S. Supreme Court justice has rejected a county official's bid to suspend a ruling that overturned Pennsylvania's gay marriage ban.</p> <p>Justice Samuel Alito rejected an appeal by Schuylkill County Orphans' Court Clerk Theresa Santai-Gaffney's appeal without comment Wednesday. Santai-Gaffney can appeal to another justice.</p>

On Wednesday, the state of Utah appealed a June 25 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which invalidated that state’s ban on gay marriage to the United States Supreme Court. If the court accepts the case, some legal experts say, it could lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage across all 50 states.“Last month’s decision by the 10th Circuit was the first time a regional appeals court has made such a ruling in the year since the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to extend benefits to legally married same-sex couples,” a Reuters report read. “Legal experts say the Supreme...

MANCHESTER, NH – Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney has endorsed pro-abortion Republican Scott Brown over his pro-life rival in the primary to see who becomes the GOP's candidate for U.S. senator from New Hampshire.

A coalition of religious activists in Finland using MassResistance materials has blocked a “gay marriage” move in the Finnish Parliament, overcoming a well-funded and well-organized push by the homosexual lobby. On June 25 the Finnish Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee voted 10-6 to reject the "gay marriage" bill. The vote followed lobbying by coalition members and the distribution of MassResistance materials to all members of Parliament. In addition, the MassResistance video “What 'gay marriage' did to Massachusetts” was broadcast on national TV in May. This represents a serious setback for efforts to bring “gay marriage” to Finland any time soon. The...

Mitt Romney is looking to keep his sterling endorsement streak alive as the 2014 campaign transitions from primary to general election season. The former GOP presidential nominee has a perfect record after getting involved in a number of competitive Republican races this year. Now, with Senate control on the line and his party eager to add to their House majority, he’s turning his attention to helping many of those same candidates in tough fall battles. ADVERTISEMENT Free from the pressures of daily life in the spotlight, Romney has undergone a latter-day renaissance, rebuilding his public image after a brutal 2012...

A look at the frontrunners currently making waves.Mitt Romney hasn’t disappeared from the political scene the way many people thought he would after coming up on the losing end in the 2012 presidential race. But that doesn’t mean he’s running for president — or even thinking about running for president — in 2016. Talk of a possible third presidential bid for Romney has surfaced of late, with poll numbers showing that he is well regarded by Republican voters and a growing sense within the GOP smart set that no candidate has really emerged from the pack as yet. Romney has,...

A second source has confirmed that JP Morgan Chase has asked each of its employees whether they are “an ally of the LGBT community,” which employees have taken as a veiled threat.Each year JP Morgan Chase sends its employees a survey asking questions related to management and other non-controversial issues. A longtime Chase employee told Professor Robert George of Princeton that the survey this year included the following questions for the first time: Are you: 1) A person with disabilities; 2) A person with children with disabilities; 3) A person with a spouse/domestic partner with disabilities; 4) A member of...

A federal appeals court's gay marriage ruling contained two historic firsts: It was the first appellate decision for gay marriage since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act one year ago, and it also marked the first time since then a federal judge has argued for keeping a state ban on same-sex marriages... Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr. was in the minority in his opinion....[said] creating a national mandate for gay marriage, even in states where it is unpopular, "turns the notion of a limited national government on its head," he wrote, adding later: "We should...

Seeking to mobilize a global front against anti-gay violence and discrimination, Vice President Joe Biden declared Tuesday that protecting gay rights is a defining mark of a civilized nation and must trump national cultures and social traditions. Biden told a gathering of U.S. and international gay rights advocates that President Barack Obama has directed that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women around the world "I don't care what your culture is," Biden told about 100 guests at the Naval Observatory's vice presidential mansion. "Inhumanity is inhumanity is inhumanity. Prejudice...

Here is the dirty little secret of the GOP donor class, i.e. the rich establishment bundlers who funded the recent presidential campaigns of the Bushes, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.): They are actively trying to recruit Romney to run again in 2016 — and Mitt is indeed interested. Their first choice coming out of the 2012 election debacle was Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.), but his candidacy has virtually crashed and burned — despite his desperate self-denial. Other than his uber-patron, Ken Langone, the donors have moved on. Many of these professional donors have hopes that...