Free Republic

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) may not have had a Rick Perry moment in last night's CNN-moderated Republican presidential debate, but he may nonetheless have landed himself in hot water. The Associated Press reports that Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has ordered staffers to examine whether Cruz improperly revealed classified information during the Las Vegas face-off. The probe centers on Cruz's statements about counterterrorism surveillance under the Cruz-backed USA Freedom Act. Responding to criticism from rival Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Cruz said that investigators can examine "nearly 100%" of phone numbers in terror investigations under...

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Can I ask a question about Marco Rubio. They're mad at him in New Hampshire because he doesn't go there enough. They're mad at him in Iowa because he doesn't go there enough. They're mad at him in Washington D.C. --in the Senate-- because he doesn't show up for votes, he's not there enough. I saw a headline: "Marco Rubio spotted in the Capitol." I read these stories that the guy sits around on weekends and watches football games. Even [when I was] running for a lowly Congressional seat, I didn't watch a football game for two years....

A pair of leading GOP operatives who have tried to oust Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are quietly helping Ted Cruz's presidential campaign behind the scenes, strengthening Cruz's ties to the most rebellious parts of Washington. Leaders behind the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Madison Project, two of the main rabble-rousing outside groups that have been a thorn in the side of Senate leadership, are also helping organize donors and turn out voters for Cruz, group officials tell CNN. Cruz, who himself has been a McConnell nemesis in the past, has controversially raised money for the two groups, which backs...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says his Senate colleague Ted Cruz is the Republican presidential hopeful with whom he has the sharpest disagreement and singled out the Texan’s vote against the National Defense Authorization Act as the chief reason. During a discussion of this year’s 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls, Newsmax asked McCain which three he felt had the best records on national security and which three had the worst. “I don’t like to duck a question,” he replied, with a laugh, and restated his support for South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham....

Received this just now. The fight to take down the Washington elites is on in the Senate and I need people like Ron DeSantis to come and help me win it. That is why I’m throwing my support behind Ron to be Florida’s next Senator. Will you chip in and join me? Our fight for conservative principles is not an easy one, and in order for us to prevail the American people need to send us conservative reinforcements. That is why I am giving my endorsement for the open Senate seat in Florida to Ron DeSantis. As a veteran and...

John McCain was in a reflective, wisecracking mood Wednesday morning in Washington, but even in his most upbeat moments, he couldn’t find much kind to say about Senate colleague Ted Cruz. The GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee told reporters at a press breakfast that he wanted to “accentuate the positive” in the 2016 race. He tiptoed around real estate tycoon Donald Trump’s steely grip on the Republican presidential primary. When asked about the possibility of Trump becoming the party’s nominee, he emphasized that he’s a loyal Republican. McCain did point out that he had disagreements with Trump. But then, unbidden, he...

Faye Stewart, a county commissioner in Oregon, announced Thursday that he will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. The Lane County commissioner will try to win the May primary and oust Democratic incumbent Ron Wyden, who is heavily favored to win the general election. Republicans have not won a statewide race in Oregon since 2002. Stewart said he is running because "our citizens are broken, and they need help." He said the federal government has neglected the needs of Oregon counties while running up debt and mishandling natural resources. "We need all of Oregon strong and prosperous, not just...

“They are generally white males, who have shot up people in movie theaters and schools. Those are terrorist attacks, they’re just different kinds of terrorists.” (AUDIO-AT-LINK)Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown says most terrorist attacks in the country since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks have been committed by “generally white males.” “I think most of us recognize, we’re concerned but we also know that we trust the FBI and our security forces to do this right,” the senator from Ohio said on WAKR radio on Thursday morning. “Since the beginning of the Bush administration when we were attacked, September 11th, we’ve not...

Ted Cruz has been branded a “wacko bird” by a Senate colleague and a “jackass” by the former speaker of the House. A GOP consultant labeled him a show horse, and a strategist for a rival presidential campaign called him the Mitt Romney of 2016 — the Republican no other Republican can stand. “I just don’t like the guy,” former president George W. Bush, Cruz’s old boss, told supporters at a fundraiser for his brother Jeb Bush last month. The list of GOP politicians and operatives willing to take open shots at Cruz has grown long: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.),...

With Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s comments about immigration Sunday, the top two Republicans in Congress have now declared dead the prospects of an overhaul before the 2016 elections. In the aftermath of 2012, when Latinos made up 10 percent of the electorate and President Barack Obama was re-elected resoundingly, Republican lawmakers and strategists predicted the GOP’s White House ambitions were directly tied to the passage of comprehensive immigration legislation. Many of those voices haven’t changed their tune. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the four “gang of eight” Republicans who successfully navigated an immigration overhaul through the Senate in 2013,...

TheJIM!gram© is a publication of Jim Jatras, the only announced prospect for the 2016 GOP Vice Presidential nod, addressing the daunting challenges facing our great country. Reposting and redistribution with attribution is permitted and encouraged. October 12, 2015 No. 1 In this inaugural issue of TheJIM!gram© I suggest: “IT’S THE CLOTURE, STUPID! BRING BACK THE FILIBUSTER TO RESTORE ‘POWER OF THE PURSE’” The chaos surrounding selection of a replacement for House Speaker John Boehner is a symptom of the ongoing civil war tearing the GOP apart. On the one side, we have Tea Partiers and other conservatives who want Republicans...

You can't put lipstick on a pig but you sure can clean it up.

Yesterday morning in our article “Establishment Republicans Walking Away From Full Obamacare Repeal” we told you about the Capitol Hill Republican leadership’s plan to maintain key parts of Obamacare while it indulges in another show vote to claim it has repealed the hated health care takeover. Ted CruzYesterday afternoon principled limited government constitutional conservative Senator Ted Cruz joined us in demanding that Republican congressional leaders keep their promise to repeal Obamacare “root and branch” by passing a simple one sentence repeal through a process known as reconciliation. Senator Cruz tweeted, “It's not complicated: We promised the voters full repeal of...

<p>KALONA, Iowa – Not impressed. That was Sen. Ted Cruz’s review of the Democratic debate.</p> <p>“It was more socialism, more pacifism, more weakness & less Constitution,” he told about 100 people crammed into a motel lobby in Kalona, a small town in southeastern Iowa. “It was a recipe to destroy a country.”</p>

The problem with labels is they shut down thought. According to Webster’s, a conservative is someone who embraces “the value of established or traditional practices”. It is hard to find a worse description...

If House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wasn’t convinced before, he now knows to a 100 percent degree of certainty that the extreme right wing of the Republican caucus would burn down the U.S. Capitol before they would let him keep the gavel in his hands. They are joined by a nationwide crowd of prominent conservatives, including GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who cheered Boehner’s announcement of his resignation from Congress. All conclusive proof that there’s nothing that Boehner can do, even if he was inclined to try, to get back in the far right’s good...

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said Friday the reason why the mainstream media is not visibly celebrating Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)’s decision to drop his bid for House Speaker and the ensuing Republican Party implosion is because the perception is that conservatives have won a victory over Washington insider establishment individuals like McCarthy. Limbaugh told listeners: What it should tell you is that McCarthy obviously is a Washington insider, and his fall from grace as future Speaker obviously is bad news to the insiders or the establishment in Washington, both parties. And the reason for that is it is perceived...

With the news that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, has dropped his bid for House speaker, the Republican conference is scrambling to find a new leader. Although speakers have always been members of the House of Representatives, it is in fact not a requirement written in the Constitution. Article I, Section 2 Clause 5 reads: "The House of Representatives shall chuse [sic] their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment." On a few occasions, lawmakers have voted for someone who isn't a member. Last January, when John Boehner was elected to serve as speaker...

Sharon Day rose through the ranks of GOP politics, starting as a precinct captain in her native Florida and eventually co-chairing the Republican National Committee. But Day said she’d never be in the position she’s in today if people hadn’t empowered her to run for those roles. And she’s made it her mission to pay it forward to encourage more Republican women to become activists in the party and to run for office — all in the hopes of making women a more integral part of the GOP. “I think for women, we’re built different than men in that we...

In 1952, the combatants were Dwight Eisenhower and Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio. In 1964, it was Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller. Today, they are outgoing House Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. All have been at the center of an endless struggle that has roiled Republicans for decades as conservatives attempt to yank the party to the political right while more moderate or establishment Republicans try their best to nudge their way toward the center. In the vivid glare of an intense presidential race, party conservatives such as Cruz and Rep. Jim Jordan of Urbana are...