Free Republic

In her upcoming book “Off the Sidelines,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., reveals she was the subject of insensitive comments about her weight from male colleagues in the House and Senate. According to an excerpt posted by PEOPLE magazine, Gillibrand details an incident in her book where a male colleague  saw her in the gym said, “Good thing you’re working out, because you wouldn’t want to get porky!” According to the Huffington Post, Gillibrand responded, “”Thanks, a–hole.”

Read his lips: No shutdown. Pushing back against a report to the contrary, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he won’t let the government shut down if he becomes the chamber’s majority leader next year. “Of course not,” the Kentucky Republican told CNN in an interview. “Remember me? I am the guy that gets us out of shutdowns,” he said. Government shutdowns like last October’s are a “failed policy,” McConnell added.

A shadowy network of wealthy liberal donors bankrolled an operation to pack one of America’s most powerful courts with progressive judges, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.Now the effort could prevent an Obamacare challenge from reaching the Supreme Court, legal experts say.The strategy to fill the D.C. Court of Appeals with left-leaning judges was aided by the American Constitution Society, a non-profit group that “promotes a progressive vision of the law.” The ACS is funded in part by the Democracy Alliance, a liberal donor network that funnels millions to a web of dark-money member groups.During a fundraising presentation...

Sen. Tim Kaine’s outspoken push for a vote to approve military strikes in Iraq and Syria has cranked up tensions with fellow Democrats who worry it could hurt them on Election Day. Vulnerable Democrats fighting for their political lives are frustrated that Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, is pressing for a debate on giving President Obama new war powers at a time when the commander-in-chief has become a political liability for them. “Asking anybody to take that vote within two months of an election is just stupid. Why would you put people in that position?” said a Senate Democratic aide....

This is not an article, but rather a summary of what is now showing on the main page of Electoral-Vote.com, an election poll tracking site. I've been visiting electoral-vote.com for years, and have found that the closer we get to an election, the more accurate their map gets. Recently, and for a long time, they have had Democrats poised to keep control of the Senate, 55 to 45. However, in recent days it has shifted clearly toward the Republicans. Electoral-Vote.com is now showing the Republicans likely taking control of the Senate. Dems 48, GOP 51, Ties 1 Electoral-Vote.com makes its...

Following two cycles where it was GOP missteps and subpar candidates who cost them winnable races, the tables have turned and it’s now Democrats who are scrambling to right Rep. Bruce Braley’s flagging campaign before it’s too late. Recent polls find a coin-flip race between Braley and Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst(R), and but the national party increasingly worries it could be the tipping point for Senate control. “If the Democrats lose Iowa, of course it becomes much harder to keep the majority,” said one national Democratic strategist. “The race could very much go either way. We feel like the...

Col. Rob Maness Qualifies for Ballot, Calls on LA Secretary of State to Investigate Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Residency Qualifications.... Baton Rouge, LA - This morning, while officially qualifying for the November ballot, Col. Rob Maness (R-Louisiana) today delivered in-person, a letter to Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler, calling on him to open an investigation examining the validity of Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) residency status. "It appears that there are significant inconsistencies that warrant an investigation regarding the residency status of one of the candidates who has filed for United States Senate," Maness' letter says. "On Wednesday, August 20, 2014,...

Arkansas has had its share of political dynasties, first and foremost the Clintons. The Pryor family may run a close second.David Pryor was a Democratic fixture in the state, serving in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, and as governor. His son, Mark Pryor, now holds the Senate seat he vacated in 1997 and is seeking a third term.Are Arkansans finally getting Pryor fatigue and ready for a fresh face? If so, few Senate candidates nationwide may be more attractive than Republican challenger Tom Cotton.“Roll Call just came out with an article that rated Pryor as the second-most-vulnerable senator...

Alison Lundergan Grimes has barnstormed Kentucky in her 45-foot-long campaign bus, rolling up to raucous rallies and posing for photos next to the vehicle bearing an oversized image of the Democratic Senate hopeful. Left unmentioned amid the hubbub is this: Her father’s company acquired the bus just as the campaign got underway last year — and is renting it to his daughter for a fraction of what other companies would typically charge, according to a POLITICO analysis. Federal campaign finance law bars a campaign from receiving goods and services below the fair market value from a corporation, regardless of whether...

Jeff Bell was a reform conservative before it was cool. He’s spent his career arguing with a risk-averse Republican establishment. He pushed Ronald Reagan to embrace the supply-side doctrine of tax cuts before deficit reduction. He spent the 1990s warning the GOP that its tax policy favored investment capital over human capital, corporate interests over working families. He designed a family-friendly flat tax that reduced payroll taxes, increased the child tax credit, taxed capital gains and regular income at the same rate, and ended business expensing. Payroll tax relief and a generous child tax credit are elements of today’s reform...

The South remains a bit of a mystery to most political pundits and pollsters. Many of its metropolitan areas are far more sophisticated (and much larger) than the rest of the nation realizes. And some areas of the rural South seem frozen in the 1960s. But to stereotype any one area of the region is a dangerous thing. What is more dangerous is trying to predict the makeup of an electorate in any given southern election year. Many southern states have large African-American populations, and in most of those states black men and women hold considerable political and economic...

For some reason, Al Franken has not appeared on many lists of vulnerable Senate Democrats. But he is no shoo-in for re-election in November, as John Feehery reminds us in the Wall Street Journal: In several polls the incumbent, a former Saturday Night Live star, can’t break the 50% mark. Given his narrow victory in 2008 (which some say wasn’t a real victory), it’s probably not that surprising that Mr. Franken is still a polarizing figure. But after six years in the Senate, one might expect that the incumbent would have built a more comfortable cushion for himself. When I...

Three candidates with real-world experience lead the GOP attempt to oust Senate insiders... In 2008, when Barack Obama captured the White House, Bill Cassidy taught medical students in Louisiana, Steve Daines worked for a technology company in Montana, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas fought in Afghanistan. Six years later, the three Republicans are running to seize Democratic-held Senate seats in Republican-leaning states.

Recess is in full force in Washington, D.C., as national lawmakers vacation around the country, but both political parties are fighting intense political battles on the ground in states nationwide as several statehouses are up for grabs in what’s shaping up to be a landslide pro-GOP election year. “Republicans, who had appeared to hit a high-water mark in control of statehouses in recent years, are seeking to pick off another half-dozen chambers this year, taking advantage of President Obama’s persistent unpopularity, anxiety about the economy, and a history of anemic turnout among Democrats in nonpresidential election years,” the New York...

President Barack Obama hinted strongly at coming Supreme Court vacancies in the last two years of his presidency, speaking of the urgent need for Democrats to hold their Senate majority after the November midterms. I need to know which Senate candidates most need my financial support since I refuse to blindly donate to the Republican Party.

"................................The conventional wisdom is that Haugh would hurt Thom Tillis, the Republican Senate candidate in North Carolina. But the situation might not be that clear cut. Recently some conservative strategists made a careful study of the Virginia governor's race, in which Democrat Terry McAuliffe won narrowly after a Libertarian candidate received six and a half percent of the vote. The strategists went into the study thinking the Libertarian took votes mostly from Republican Ken Cuccinnelli — taking maybe 90 votes from Cuccinnelli for every 10 votes from McAuliffe. The study showed that yes, the Libertarian did hurt Cuccinnelli, but that...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Thom Tillis thought his last day as speaker of the North Carolina House would be weeks ago, after which he would devote all his energies to running for the U.S. Senate. Instead, on Saturday morning, Tillis stood gavel in hand in the state House chamber, presiding over the passage of a budget that kept lawmakers at work well into the summer. Now, finally, he is finished — unless something else comes up to demand his time at the State Legislative Building. Republicans have bemoaned the fact that their candidate was tied down in the state house, but...

The decision by Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.) not to seek election in November in the wake of a plagiarism scandal is the latest piece of good news for Republicans as they strive to take control of the Senate in less than three months. Walsh’s departure from the race came in the same week that two Republican senators — Pat Roberts in Kansas and Lamar Alexander in Tennessee — defeated tea party challengers in primary fights, ensuring that every GOP senator seeking reelection would be the party’s nominee. These past seven days typified the fates of the two parties this election...

The Tea Party didn’t knock off any incumbent GOP senators this year in primaries, but last night it proved just how riled up voters are against the Washington establishment. Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander won re-nomination last night with just 49.7 percent of the vote. His main opponent, state representative Joe Carr won 41 percent despite an erratic campaign and being ignored by the major national tea-party groups. Alexander was able to convince just enough conservatives to back him with his rallying cry: “I’m not in the shut-down-the-government crowd, I’m in the taking-over-the-government crowd.” Alexander becomes the third GOP senator in...

Patriots, it is frustrating and painful when a good" man of the people" candidate like Joe Carr loses to a lying Washington machine "betrayer of the people" like Lamar Alexander. The fact that Lamar Alexander voted for Obama's agenda 62% of the time is all you need to know about him. My Conservative Campaign Committee team and I were boots on the ground in Tennessee, driving all over the state participating in rallies and other events for Joe Carr. We felt the pulse of the people and there was excitement and enthusiasm for Joe. At one of the Joe Carr...