Free Republic

I have a piece going up later today over at CNN.com on the NRA convention, but there's something I raise there that I want to elaborate on. If you look at the list of Republican politicians who spoke to the assembled firearm enthusiasts, it wasn't exactly the A-team. Last year Mitt Romney showed up, but this year they had failed presidential candidate Rick Santorum, failed presidential candidate Rick Perry, universally disliked freshman senator Ted Cruz, currently unpopular Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, and former half-term governor and current punch line Sarah Palin. Every one of them would like to be president...

The 142nd National Rifle Association Annual Meeting is roaring into Houston for four days of seminars, rallies, prayer breakfasts and country music jam sessions, starting Thursday. The speaker lineup would make any Fox News junkie's heart skip a beat with appearances by conservative politicos and pundits ranging from to Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum to Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Hell, even Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame will be on hand to sign copies of his new novel. And yes, don't worry . . . The Nuge will be there in all his Cat Scratch Fever glory for a scheduled...

Langston Bowens is a high school senior at Grosse Pointe South in Michigan, and helped arrange for Sen. Rick Santorum to speak at his school. But a funny thing happened after the speech was announced: School district officials changed their minds and cancelled the event. The story may have ended there, but Langston Bowens refused to be bullied by officials he felt objected to the speech based on their own, personal beliefs, so he took a stand. Col. Allen West sat down with Langston at the Reagan Center library in Santa Barbara to find out how he was able to...

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is pleased to announce this year's Annual Meetings and Exhibits, to be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas from May 3-5, 2013. For further updates and announcements, be sure to follow NRA on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalRifleAssociation and on Twitter @NRA. Seventy-thousand attendees are expected at this year’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits, sponsored by Midway USA, making this one of the largest in NRA’s 142-year history. Leading firearm manufacturers will display the firearm industry’s latest and greatest products. Guides and outfitters, various hunting and shooting accessories, and an extensive private collection...

Ever since Rick Santorum ended his presidential campaign a year ago this week, he has acted as if that defeat was just a brief setback in his running quest for the Republican nomination. Almost three years out from the 2016 Iowa caucuses, the former Pennsylvania senator is set to return Monday to the nation’s first voting state, where he won a come-from-behind battle against Mitt Romney by 34 votes in January 2012. Having witnessed the perils of underestimating him, Santorum’s potential rivals next time around aren’t likely to discount another strong challenge on his part, particularly in the Hawkeye State.

Since Monday, school district officials in Grosse Pointe, Michigan have canceled a decision to allow Rick Santorum to speak at Grosse Pointe South High School, then reversed that cancellation. There is a catch, though: students who want to see the former U.S. senator and presidential hopeful must first obtain permission from their parents. A local chapter of the group Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) had originally invited Santorum to speak at the high school on April 24, explains the Detroit Free Press. The group raised $18,000 for the speech — presumably to cover costs and pay any fees to Santorum....

Michigan high school cancels, then un-cancels controversial speech Listening to Rick Santorum is the kind of activity that requires parental permission. That's the conclusion a Michigan high school has come to, after a planned speech by the former presidential candidate inspired massive backlash. On Monday, Grosse Pointe High School decided to just cancel the event, but that generated outcry from the other side. So now the speech is back on, but students will need a signed permission slip to watch, the Detroit Free Press reports. Langston Bowens, the socially conservative senior who invited Santorum, has accused the school of...

As conservatives continue to grapple with how they — and the Republican Party at large — should handle the issue of gay marriage, some prominent voices are coming out to either endorse or condemn pushes for the movement to embrace same-sex nuptials. Among those personalities is former presidential candidate Rick Santorum. In an interview with the Des Moines Register, the politician said that embracing gay marriage would be “suicidal” for the party. The former senator also noted that some Republicans, like Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, and Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who have openly endorsed gay marriage are no...

Rick Santorum appears to be eyeing the White House again, with the former Pennsylvania senator telling Newsmax TV’s Steve Malzberg that he may run for president in 2016. “I’m certainly leaving the door open for that,” Santorum revealed on “The Steve Malzberg Show” Wednesday afternoon. … “The same advisors who botched these last two campaigns are now saying, ‘Well, you know, since we can’t win with moderate Republicans, we have to now try to be liberal Republicans to win instead of standing up for the values that made our country great,’” he said. …

Joshua Green shares an amazing story about the secret negotiations between Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich for a “unity ticket” during the Republican Presidential primary. In the end, Green reports, neither of the two Republican leaders could agree which of the two would be president. (T)he two candidates spoke face-to-face at an energy forum just before the primary. Gingrich made an elaborate historical argument that when the party hasn’t been able to agree on a nominee, it always settles on the senior figure. Santorum wasn’t persuaded, and urged Gingrich to do what was best for the conservative movement.

An unsparing piece keying off the same Rick Perry soundbite at CPAC that inspired this post. Perry said that it’s unfair to blame conservatism for the GOP’s losses in 2008 and 2012 because, after all, our nominees weren’t conservative. Emery’s response: Then why did Republican primary voters vote for them instead of for a solid conservative like, say, Rick Perry? Her answer? Between Reagan’s generation and the current crop of Rubio, Scott Walker, etc, there simply haven’t been many good conservative candidates. Instead, against establishment types who were national figures, the conservative movement flung preachers and pundits (Pat Robertson, Alan...

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. That's how the saying goes. And oh, how it rings true for my family. It is Lent, of course, a time for the faithful to pray, sacrifice and fast. And it is in our prayerful reflections and daily acts that we prepare ourselves for Easter and new life. March is also Trisomy Awareness Month. For my family, this has become a time to celebrate the life of our daughter Bella. Bella was born almost five years ago with trisomy 18, a severe genetic condition that I believe makes every...

Republicans don't care. Or at least that's the perception of us. President Barack Obama's convincing re-election in November despite a climate of high unemployment, stagnant economic growth and waning American influence around the globe has caused a great deal of soul-searching for the Republican Party. One of the conclusions some of us have come to is that our problem is not the message or the messengers but our own detachment from the needs of struggling working families and our lack of vision and policies that address them. I was struck reading a recent article in which our presidential nominee, after...

President Obama’s announcement last week on his plans to make sweeping changes to our nation’s gun laws by presidential executive order is yet another example of his continual disregard for the United States Constitution and the separation of powers it set forth to protect the American people from government by fiat. Putting aside for a moment the misdirected emphasis on gun ownership, as opposed to mental illness and cultural glorification of violence to curb gun crime, President Obama’s actions represent another attempt to circumvent Congress – a Congress elected by the people but controlled by Republicans – to establish public...

SNIP Hagel, however, has friends in Democratic lobbying circles. The powerful Washington D.C. organization known as the Podesta Group is reportedly asking defense contractors for financial support to run ads defending the Hagel nomination. Fox News White House Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry reported on Friday: (2:15 in) "Sources confirm to Fox [that] Democratic super lobbyist Tony Podesta has been hired by a firm known as the Bipartisan Group to help mobilize support for Hagel. And defense contractors received calls this week urging them to be ready for a Hagel pick as soon as Monday, and asking them for...

. . . America's constitutional tradition of federalism may serve as the anaconda to choke a growing leviathan. As Justice Kennedy wrote in Bond v. United States, "[b]y denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power." "Alabama has become one of those States that is on the first line of defense," said Palmer, particularly in regards to Obama's signature health care legislation, which 14 states including Alabama have passed constitutional amendments against. Furthermore, at least 25 states have refused to establish state exchanges, and a...

Lately, you’ve probably been asking: “What ever happened to Rick Santorum? The guy who ran for president in the sweater vest? The one who compared homosexuality to bestiality and did 50 push-ups every morning?” It’s certainly been on my mind. Santorum is still in there swinging. Lately, he’s been on a crusade against a dangerous attempt by the United Nations to help disabled people around the world. This week, he won! The Senate refused to ratify a U.N. treaty on the subject. The vote, which fell five short of the necessary two-thirds majority, came right after 89-year-old Bob Dole, the...

When the facts and law are not in one’s favor, there is a natural temptation to appeal to the emotions of your target audience in order to win an argument. This is referred to as argumentum ad passiones—an attempt to manipulate an audience’s emotions by pulling on their heartstrings in order to bring them to your side. Such is the case with Senator John Kerry’s (D–MA) appeal in today’s Huffington Post in support of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international human rights treaty that is scheduled for an up-or-down vote tomorrow at noon. …...

(CNN) - Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum hinted Monday he may see another presidential run in his future. "I'm open to that possibility," the Republican said when asked on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" about a 2016 White House bid. – Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker "But we're a long way..." he added, pausing, then continuing, "I'm focused right now on trying to stay involved in the fray and make sure that we do the right thing up on Capitol Hill right now." Santorum proved a tough opponent to Mitt Romney during the Republican presidential primary, ultimately forcing the contest...

... will back him, say that it it is his turn, and not Chris Christie's turn, etc. /Sarc. I mean, George Bush defeated McCain, and so McCain was the presumptive "next in line," (that's how it works, right? /sarc) although he still had to fight for it and had at one point sunk pretty low --- even captioned carrying his own baggage. And McCain defeated Romney, so it was then Romney's turn --- and he was next in line --- right? But does this rule only apply to RINOs? Speaking of Chris Christie... Given what Limbaugh said about Christie, and...

Ever since Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, evangelicals have been a powerful political force. Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority organization were credited in part with Reagan's election, having registered millions of evangelicals to vote. Their influence would only grow over the next 25 years: Evangelicals were instrumental in Reagan's reelection, the Republican Revolution of 1994, and both of George W. Bush's victories. But on November 6, 2012, their reign came to an end. "I think this [election] was an evangelical disaster," Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told NPR. He's right, but it wasn't for...

Inside sources close to Rick Santorum are saying the former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 GOP contender is already organizing for a run in 2016. On the other side of the aisle, investor Warren Buffett is already touting his choice to succeed President Obama in the White House. A leading evangelical leader who is close to Santorum and asked not to be identified, told The Christian Post on Wednesday that Santorum is "organizing and making all the necessary preparations" for another run in the 2016 Republican primary. "Rick's getting ready organized and is not going to be behind the eight-ball when...

GO AWAY already It's over dude... As you've most likely already heard, the TEA Party right has declared all-out war on Karl 'Boss Hogg' Rove in the wake of numerous recent (expen$ive) GOP disasters in which 'The Architect' played an inglorious starring role. The final straw was likely his lack of willingness to take responsibility for an almost complete lack of success in the 2012 election cycle, instead pointing fingers and making excuses like an Italian cruise ship captain. Rove's flat-out whiffing in almost every race he backed -on top of improbable Romney defeat- would be enough for any sensible...

What's the explanation for Mitt Romney's unparalleled breakout? A few weeks ago, the Romney campaign was regarded as dead in the water. The polls (with the exception of Rasmussen) had the campaign uniformly down, giving Obama up to half a dozen points. Voter interest was phlegmatic at best. A combined Chicago-media offensive appeared to have put Romney on the ropes. The consensus was that Obama would cruise to another victory, one paralleling and perhaps even exceeding his triumph over John McCain four years ago. Today, little more than an electoral-cycle heartbeat later, the situation is utterly reversed. The big mo...

Former Republican Presidential Candidate and Chairman of Patriot Voices Rick Santorum announced today that Patriot Voices PAC has made endorsements in several U.S. Senate races. The endorsements are: George Allen in Virginia, Wendy Long in New York, Josh Mandel in Ohio and Tom Smith in Pennsylvania. Rick Santorum said, "These individuals are incredibly committed conservatives who will be tremendous assets in the United States Senate. Each of them shares a commitment to lowering taxes, protecting life at every stage, promoting the traditional family and a belief that the individual should have the power -- not the government. Patriot Voices PAC...

Verona, PA -- U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and former U.S. Senator and Chairman of Patriot Voices Rick Santorum issued the following joint statement regarding their support of Todd Akin for the U.S. Senate in Missouri:

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, in Holland campaigning for Pete Hoekstra’s Senate bid Tuesday afternoon, said Michigan is key for Mitt Romney's chances. [Snip] Santorum called Michigan a “potential decider.” “If Mitt Romney wins Michigan, he’s going to be president of the United States,” Santorum said. The two talked about national security, the Senate race and Hoekstra’s opponent, Sen. Debbie Stabenow. “Debbie Stabenow’s taking up space,” Santorum said, later pointing to the lack of a budget proposal from the Senate Finance Committee, on which she sits. [Snip] Top of the list was national security. The U.S. has fewer allies...

"Smart people" in America will never back conservative Republicans, or so says Rick Santorum – a conservative Republican whose verbal missteps are becoming as well-known as his hardline posturing on social issues. Santorum, who ended up being Mitt Romney's closest rival for the 2012 Republican nomination, made the comment at the conservative Value Voters Summit in Washington. "We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side," Santorum said in a speech to the gathering of conservative activists at a Washington hotel. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania...

He’s in a money crunch:Todd Akin’s TV ads are, reportedly, being yanked from stations across the state because his campaign isn’t paying the bills. KOMU-TV in Columbia says it received half of the payment for an ad buy, and when it didn’t get the other half, it cancelled the rest of the ads. The station says its confirmed that other stations from St. Louis to Kansas City have been put in the same position. McCaskill, meanwhile, is running positive ads about how moderate she is. I imagine the tone of the race will change markedly if Akin stays in past...

Just a day after Mitt Romney made the most important speech of his life, the edges of it are slipping away. You can remember some of the themes and Romney's wonderful chin and his big soft eyes. The rest is fading out. But Clint Eastwood, standing before a blank teleprompter, muttering at a chair - that is an image no one is going to forget soon. By 10pm on Thursday night, the 50,000 odd delegates, party members and reporters who had travelled to Florida for the Republican National Convention were tired. There had been 18 hours of speeches over three...

Mitt Romney, hoping to draw a sharp contrast on welfare, is citing a disputed charge that President Barack Obama is giving recipients a free ride, and he can point to his own record of pushing for tighter rules. Romney, Massachusetts governor from 2003 to 2007, fought to require single parents with children as young as a year old to work to get welfare benefits if they could obtain state-subsidized child care. He opposed efforts to allow time spent in job training or education programs to count toward the state's 20-hour weekly work requirement for welfare recipients, and pushed for a...

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bless you. Thank you. Thank you Pennsylvania. It is a great honor for me to be here tonight with the love of my wife, life, Karen, over here, and my 93-year-old mother, from Florida, and some of our children. My oldest son, John, wanted to be here tonight, but he’s a first year cadet at the Citadel, and… so I just want to say to you John, I’m proud of you son. Thank you. I am a first-generation American. At age...

Tampa (CNSNews.com) – In the lead up to Mitt Romney’s nomination at the Republican National Convention, GOP runner up Rick Santorum – who consistently accused Romney of being insufficiently conservative – said Republicans can be proud of their nominee. In the same speech, Santorum said that Obama and the American left talk about inclusion while advocating the destruction of more than a million lives each year through the abortion of unborn children. “We can walk out of Tampa proudly with a platform and with a nominee who stands for life, who stands for love and a welcoming society that is...

Rick Santorum evoked the homespun values of hard work, education and family in his speech to the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, but his math needs improvement. The former Pennsylvania senator and runner-up in this year's GOP race criticized President Barack Obama during his convention speech for what he called a belief "in government handouts and dependency." In addition to repeating a debunked claim that Obama rolled back work requirements for welfare recipients, Santorum said that under the Obama administration, "the dream of freedom and opportunity has become a nightmare of dependence, with almost half of America receiving some...

For the first time, the country ended a major entitlement, saving money for taxpayers while helping those in need. I observed this success firsthand when I hired nine women formerly on welfare to work in my office. President Obama seems determined to reverse this success. His administration recently issued a new directive giving the secretary of Health and Human Services the power to waive federal welfare-work requirements. The president has no authority to do so, because we were very clear in the legislation that work rules were not a requirement that could be waived. Prior to the 1996 reform, work...

August 24, 2012 Rep. Todd Akin will hold news conference Friday afternoon ST. LOUIS, MO (KCTV) - U.S. Rep. Todd Akin will hold a news conference at 4:15 p.m. Friday. The event will be in St. Louis County. KCTV5.com will livestream the news conference and KCTV5 News at 4 p.m. will carry it...

There was a time, this year, when I was rooting for Rick Santorum during the GOP Primary season. Then, he began to make statements that made me nervous. (Most of them, I worked hard at forgetting.) Since this "Todd Aikin thing", I've begun to wonder if we didn't doge a bullet by not nominating Santorum, who for all practical purposes, came in Second Place. I feared that if he got the nomination he would have a "Macaca/Legitimate rape" moment. To me, he and Aikin seem to be of the same ilk. Dunno.....just thinking out loud. Wonder if we didn't dodge...

Todd Akin hasn't had many high-profile supporters with him in the trenches this week, but Mike Huckabee became an important and emphatic exception Thursday afternoon, sending a message to his own supporters accusing Republican elites of trying to drum a good man out of a winnable Senate race. Here's what Huckabee said in an email to his list this afternoon: Party’s leaders have for reasons that aren't rational, left [Akin] behind on the political battlefield, wounded and bleeding, a casualty of his self-inflicted, but not intentional wound.

Rick Santorum has released more information about the event he is holding at the GOP convention for Mitt Romney, and it will feature a plethora of pro-life leaders and activists. As LifeNews has reported, Santorum, the pro-life former Republican presidential candidate, is organizing an event at the GOP convention later this month to rally pro-life, social conservative voters behind Romney. As LifeNews has reported, Santorum, the pro-life former Republican presidential candidate, is organizing an event at the GOP convention later this month to rally pro-life, social conservative voters behind Romney.Santorum is now the head of a conservative activist group he...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum gave Mitt Romney a run for his money during the Republican primaries. In return, Santorum will get a major speaking role at the Republican National Convention, organizers will announce Tuesday. Convention organizers will also announce they are giving major speaking roles to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Sen. Rand Paul, the son of Rep. Ron Paul, another of Romney's more dogged rivals. Handing Santorum a prime speaking slot is a hat tip to his underdog presidential campaign. The under-funded, little-known former senator notched a surprising upset in Iowa, where his brand...

Rick Santorum is organizing an event at this month’s Republican National Convention to rally conservatives in support of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, a key Santorum aide has told The Hill. But Santorum has not yet received any promise from the Romney team, even in private, that he will be asked to deliver an address from the podium in Tampa. The former Pennsylvania senator’s long-time senior strategist, John Brabender, warned that conservatives would be “quite disturbed” if they felt that Santorum was not accorded the prominence they believe he deserves at the quadrennial gathering.  One of Santorum’s key strengths is...

Taking a page from Terry Rakolta's book on how to use righteous indignation to suppress the freedoms of others, some gay activists and their supporters decided to teach the Chick-fil-A people a lesson. Chick-fil-A became a target for a boycott organized by somebody — it's not exactly clear who — because the fast-food chain's president, Dan Cathy, had the audacity to express his personal views about marriage, which did not comport with those of certain gay activists. Cathy had divulged that he supports "the biblical definition of the family unit." That outraged some politicians, including Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who...

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has endorsed businessman Wil Cardon in his hard-fought primary for the GOP Senate nomination in Arizona, a high-profile endorsement that could counteract some of the establishment support rallying around rival Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz). "I am pleased to announce our endorsement of Wil Cardon for the U.S. Senate in Arizona," Santorum said in a statement. "As a business owner for more than two decades, Wil has seen firsthand the crippling effects of Obamanomics and why we must solve our economic challenges with market-based solutions rather than more government intrusion. Wil is exactly what Washington,...

Last time Rick Santorum tweeted about eating at Chick-fil-A, vile progressives suggested he had a gay, incestuous relationship with his own children. Today Santorum thumbed his nose at the hateful Left by stopping at Chick-fil-A on his way to a Ted Cruz rally. Predictably, the oh-so-tolerant Left couldn’t wait to insinuate that Rick Santorum is a vocal supporter of Chick-fil-A because he’s secretly gay. How original. As always, leave it to Left to use “gay” as a slur...

Rick Santorum. . . decided to jump on Mike Huckabee‘s Chick-Fil-A bandwagon and take his sons to the Christian fast food giant — and tweet about it. Needless to say, Twitter responded, in interesting ways…

Rick Santorum has a new book deal. The former Pennsylvania Senator and presidential candidate will publish his second book, American Patriots: Answering the Call, on October 2--one month before the election in November. According to an early release provided to Yahoo News, Santorum's new book will focus on stories from American history, and will be promoted as "this generation's Profiles in Courage," John F. Kennedy's acclaimed book published in 1955. Published by Tyndale House Publishers, the book will highlight 25 "unsung" figures from the Revolutionary War, including Peter Francisco, Nancy Morgan Hart, and Elias Boudinot.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum was back on the stump in his home territory of western Pennsylvania over the weekend, but this time in a new role: Mitt Romney's attack dog. "The republic is at stake," Santorum told a crowd gathered in the hot and cramped Victory Center, many of them wiping their brows. "One man is who we have to put our trust in to go out and fight that battle, and win that battle. And we must rally behind and do everything we possibly can to support Gov. Mitt Romney so he's the next president of the United States."...

Rick Santorum will appear Saturday at an event for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, according to a Romney campaign official. The event, a campaign office opening outside of Pittsburgh, marks the first time Santorum will officially campaign for his former Republican primary foe...

EXCERPT: Just because Christians believe something does not mean that the government needs to make a law to enforce that belief. To put it bluntly, in America it is legal to believe things that could compromise your own eternal salvation. The state will not stand in the way of incorrect theology. And it would be wrong for the state to assume such power, because, in Protestant thought, spiritual actions and even knowledge without an internal change of heart are worthless. Conservatives who often express great concern about an emerging "nanny state" ought to take specific note of religious rules coming...

Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum gave a signal to social conservatives on Saturday: Mitt Romney's "message is sound. It's solid." On Saturday, Santorum's praise was warm. "The concern I had - I did, I was very frank about it - was that Governor Romney would track to the middle as so many Republican candidates have done, but I'm not seeing that," Santorum said. "I'm seeing him stand by those convictions that he articulated in the primaries and I'm hopeful."