Free Republic

Failed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney lamented that the demise of traditional media is empowering Republican “insurgents” and preventing establishment Republicans from compromising more with Democrats. As the Republican establishment is trying convince Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 58% to run for House Speaker, Romney told David Axelrod on a recent “The Axe Files” podcast that the “extremes within our respective parties are having a louder and louder voice and demanding more attention” and “immediate action” as opposed to more “collaborative action.”

The GOPe/Karl Rove strategy to take down Donald Trump has been given the name “Operation Hummingbird.” It places Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina on either side of the front runner and employs the media tactics of “Isolate-Ridicule-Marginalize” to do away with the formidable front-runner. Pay attention to the results of weekly and daily polls by watching who is doing the polling. Operation Hummingbird was the name of a neo-folk album released in 1999 by an artist who called himself “Death in June.” Remembering how Romney had been beaten up by the time the last Republican Convention rolled around, a decision...

Editor’s Note: A group of more than 60 legal scholars released a statement last week calling on all federal and state officeholders not to accept the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision--declaring a national right to same-same sex marriage--as binding precedent.One of the signers and authors of the statement was Robert. P. George, the founder of the American Principles Project and McCormack Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton. "We stand with James Madison and Abraham Lincoln in recognizing that the Constitution is not whatever a majority of Supreme Court justices say it is," said George. "We remind all officeholders in the...

I recently argued in The Federalist that same-sex marriage is merely a vehicle to abolish all civil marriage, and with it, all family autonomy. I predicted that “singles’ activists” would try to finish the job by using those same “marriage equality” arguments to claim that all civil discriminates against singles and therefore should be abolished. Lo and behold, a singles’ activist, [] Bella DePaulo, confirmed exactly that []: “Morabito says that what I really want is ‘to abolish marriage without saying so.’ That’s not quite right. I’m happy to say so.” As for me connecting “singles’ rights” with the same-sex...

I understand the gay issue is important but to have to go through 9 pages of FR to get to current event OTHER than the gay issue is something I have never seen before. Granted; I have not been active the entire 16 years of my membership here but this is something beyond activism. It's almost, no, it is obsession. I don't like that gay marriage is the law of the land right now and that SCOTUS could not see how they have lessened the sanctity of marriage. I get that. But really people! Nine pages! Ya think that might...

"Mitt wants to run. He never stopped wanting to run," an anonymous senior adviser of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign recently told New York magazine. Other members of Romneyworld have denied the former governor is interested in another campaign. But at this stage in the 2016 race, Mitt Romney should start preparing to get back in the arena.Romney should be ready to enter the field to save his party from an awful reckoning between its leadership and its base, a reckoning that has been brought on by Donald Trump's campaign. Trump has proven that the "strongest GOP primary field in...

Thirty North Carolina magistrates in North Carolina are all refusing to conduct homosexual “marriages.” According to the report: More than 30 magistrates in North Carolina have refused to perform weddings. But thanks to a new state law, they were able to do so legally.Right after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in June, the state passed a law allowing officials to opt out of performing all marriages.The law exempts court officials with a “sincerely held religious objection” and is designed for those opposing gay marriage.The law’s original sponsor, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, said it’s probably preventing situations like...

A federal judge ordered a defiant county clerk to jail for contempt Thursday after she insisted that it would violate her conscience to follow court orders to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Rowan County clerk Kim Davis and her deputy clerks were summoned to appear before U.S. District Judge David Bunning after she repeatedly denied them marriage licenses, cited her religious beliefs and "God's authority." "You can't be separated from something that's in your heart and in your soul," Davis told the judge as she explained how the Supreme Court's ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide conflicts with the vows...

Kim Davis could become the first Christian in America jailed as a result of the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. “I’ve weighed the cost and I’m prepared to go to jail, I sure am,” Mrs. Davis told me in an exclusive interview. “This has never been a gay or lesbian issue for me. This is about upholding the word of God.” “This is a heaven or hell issue for me and for every other Christian that believes,” she said. “This is a fight worth fighting.” Davis is the clerk of Rowan County, Ky. – a small patch of earth...

I think we all knew there would be more than a few of these cases reverberating around the country following the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage, and this time it’s popping up in Ohio. Some municipal judges are either refusing to perform the ceremonies for gay couples or stopping performing marriages entirely, citing religious freedom objections. This prompted an inquiry at the state supreme court and their advisory Board of Professional Conduct has come back with an answer. Now if only somebody can figure out exactly what they meant. Amid scattered instances of balking, Ohio judges who perform...

Just hours after the Supreme Court declared a constitutional right to same-sex marriage on June 26, Politico published an op-ed explaining why “group marriage is the next horizon of social liberalism.” If your first reaction was to dismiss this out of hand, you haven’t been paying attention. As the 21st century progresses, it is going to become increasingly difficult to answer the question “what is marriage for?” or even “what is marriage?” And, no, don’t blame it on the gays.If the Internet is to be believed, “open marriages” are, quite possibly, the next social frontier that, sooner or later, could...

A top establishment Republican donor reportedly wants Donald Trump banned from the first presidential debate... And that is not sitting well with some of the party’s top donors, many of whom favor pro-amnesty legislation and do want to see their establishment darlings like Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 80% challenged on the issue. According to an Associated Press report, “Republican donor John Jordan said Monday that GOP leaders should take steps to block Trump’s access to the first presidential debate in early August.” “Someone in the party ought to start some sort of petition saying, ‘If Trump’s going...

Rupert Murdoch apparently won't be supporting Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The Australian-born media mogul, who became a U.S. citizen in 1985, on Sunday became the latest to decry the Republican candidate's comments about Mexican immigrants in a message posted to Twitter.

Mitt Romney's backing helped several candidates emerge from a crowded primary field and be successful in the 2014 midterm elections. He's aiming to do the same for presidential candidates in 2016. Many observers expected Mitt Romney to slink away from politics after his defeat in the 2012 presidential election, but the former Massachusetts governor has instead embraced a new role as an elder statesman and kingmaker within the Republican Party. While he has shied away from open campaigning, Mr. Romney has taken to tacitly supporting the more moderate, establishment-friendly candidates in a packed and ideologically tangled field. “Romney, who flirted...

A top establishment Republican donor reportedly wants Donald Trump banned from the first presidential debate. Fox News will host the first GOP presidential debate on August 6 in Cleveland, and the debate will be limited to the top ten candidates “in an average of the five most recent national polls in the run-up” to the debate. Trump, who placed second in Fox News’s most recent national poll after his presidential announcement speech in which he took firm stances against illegal immigration and trade deals that harm American workers, is in line to be one of the 10 candidates on stage....

Worried about "Republican-on-Republican violence," top party donors are taking action, with one firing off a letter calling for more civility and another seeking to block businessman Donald Trump from the debate stage altogether. Foster Friess, a Wyoming-based investor and one of the party's top 20 donors in the last presidential contest, issued a letter to 16 White House prospects and the Republican National Committee late last week calling for candidates to stay on the "civility reservation." "Our candidates will benefit if they all submit to Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment, 'Thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican,'" Friess wrote...

The Supreme Court's landmark decision that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right brought out an avalanche of commentary about the possibility of polygamy. Indeed, a Montana threesome is already suing for the right to marry. This shouldn't be surprising. But what is surprising is just how weak the arguments against legal polygamy are. They rely on class and religious prejudices, as well as on rationales that were deemed illegitimate when launched at same-sex couples. Jonathan Rauch, who did more than almost anyone else to mainstream the cause of same-sex marriage, finds the argument for polygamy an unfortunate distraction. Rauch's main...

WOLFEBORO, New Hampshire (CNN) —Mitt Romney said Saturday that Donald Trump's comments on Mexico and undocumented immigrants have hurt the Republican Party, making the 2012 presidential nominee the latest Republican to slam the billionaire over his controversial remarks.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie broke with many in his party’s social conservative wing Wednesday, telling reporters that government employees who have objections to issuing same-sex marriage licenses should not be allowed to opt out. While many conservatives have called for steps to protect government employees who have objections to Friday’s same-sex marriage ruling from the Supreme Court, Christie said those who work for the government should abide by their oaths.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell concedes that there’s little congressional Republicans can do to fight the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide, though he predicted a flurry of litigation aimed at protecting “religious liberty” in light of the decision. The Kentucky Republican has been a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage: He was one of just six Senate Republicans to sign an amicus brief urging the high court to reject federal protection of same-sex marriage. And though he reiterated to Kentucky TV station WDRB on Tuesday evening that his position has not changed, he also said there is...