Free Republic

It’s official: in January, Jody Hice will be sworn in as the next Congressman from Georgia’s 10th District. This is a man who has called Islam, the second-largest religion in the world, “a totalitarian way of life with a religious component” that “does not deserve First Amendment protection.” In his book he calls legal abortion “worse than Hitler’s six million Jews or Mussolini’s three hundred thousand,” adding that “the genocide in America is inexcusable!” In 2004, he told the Athens Banner-Herald that he doesn’t “see a problem” with women running for office “if the woman’s within the authority of her...

-- Republican Ed Gillespie conceded the Virginia Senate race Friday to incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Warner. Gillespie said at a Friday afternoon news conference that he had called Warner "congratulating him on his re-election" in a race that turned out to be one of the midterm election's biggest surprises. Polls had shown Warner, a popular former governor who'd been endorsed by his Republican predecessor, ex-Sen. John Warner, with a hefty lead. But Gillespie led Warner for much of the night as returns trickled in Tuesday -- and ultimately ended up trailing by less than one percentage point. Get ready: 2016...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to confirm 50 of President Obama’s nominees and move an omnibus spending bill in a last hurrah before Democrats give up power in the Senate. The nominees are part of a packed lame-duck schedule that Reid is furiously planning, and that will be a topic at Friday’s White House lunch meeting between Obama and congressional leaders. Reid also wants to move a package of expiring tax provisions, the annual Defense Department authorization bill and an extension of a tax moratorium on Internet purchases in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That will be...

After staking out what some have deemed to be a defiant position at his Wednesday press conference, Barry will be meeting with Congressional leaders later today, including presumptive Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, (R-Kentucky) and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner. Also in attendance will be the current inn-keeper of the Senate Roach Motel, Harry Reid.Where Bills from the House of Representatives check in, butt they can never check out (SNIP) (h/t Mike Huckabee)Harry is appearing today under protest, as Big Guy had assured him repeatedly that “if you like your Senate Majority Leadership, you can keep your Senate...

"To everyone who voted," President Obama said in his press conference on Wednesday, "I hear you. To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate yesterday, I hear you, too." Let me begin with a bit of a rant. In a sense, this is the last piece of the puzzle to click into place for the president's Nixonian transformation. Spy on reporters? Check. Bomb a country (or two) without authorization from Congress? Check. Issue dubious claims of executive privilege to conceal embarrassments or prevent scandals? Check. Withdraw from -- and lose -- an unpopular war he didn't start? Check....

Americans have entrusted Republicans with control of both the House and Senate. We are humbled by this opportunity to help struggling middle-class Americans who are clearly frustrated by an increasing lack of opportunity, the stagnation of wages, and a government that seems incapable of performing even basic tasks. Looking ahead to the next Congress, we will honor the voters’ trust by focusing, first, on jobs and the economy. Among other things, that means a renewed effort to debate and vote on the many bills that passed the Republican-led House in recent years with bipartisan support, but were never even brought...

Republican Sen. John McCain discusses Tuesday's elections, his disapproval of President Obama's policies and talk of using executive order to push through immigration reform.

Please, Blue Fairy! Oh PRETTY PLEASE!!! Please return the Senate to the Democrats in 2016.The DUmmies are now praying for the Senate to return to majority Democrat in 2016. However, the very map they have posted shows it is an almost impossible task. I see at most 3 or maybe even 4 chances at the most. Not enough to regain the Senate especially since Landrieu looks like history and Manchin has a good chance of switching sides soon. In fact, the Democrats could even lose a couple of seats in 2016. I am thinking of Nevada tossing out Harry...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats' campaign committee on Thursday began canceling plans for television ads in Louisiana's major markets to help Sen. Mary Landrieu's runoff campaign...

“The people have spoken, and they must be punished,” former New York City Mayor Ed Koch famously vented in defeat. In sweeping away waves of Democrats in Tuesday’s midterm election — even in blue states like Maryland, Illinois and Massachusetts — a punished and disrespected American people have vented, silencing the politicians whose agenda and tactics they soundly rejected. In this collective Think Again election, Harry Reid was demoted for allowing hyper-partisanship to trump the constitutional integrity of the Senate, known as the “world’s most deliberative body” — except under Reid’s leadership. Though Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu’s fate awaits a...

Sen. John McCain is the least popular senator in the country of those surveyed by Public Policy Polling, with low marks from members of his own party, independents and Democrats. Just 30 percent of Arizona voters approve of the job the Republican senator is doing, while 54 percent disapprove, according to a PPP release Thursday. That is the worst of any senator’s polling in the nation that PPP has found. Among members of his own party, McCain is at 35 percent approval to 55 percent disapproval; the comparable figures among Democrats are 29 percent to 53 percent, and among independents,...

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is canceling at least some of its advertising reservations for Sen. Mary Landrieu ahead of the December runoff in Louisiana. The committee canceled buys planned from Monday through December 6 in the Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans markets, three sources tracking the air war told POLITICO.

More than a dozen members of Congress were defeated on Tuesday night. But taxpayers will still have to keep sending most of them checks. Members of Congress are eligible for a pension after just five years in office, so that means senators qualify for one after a single six-year term. But most can't start drawing full payments until age 62. North Carolina's Kay Hagan, for instance, lost her first bid for reelection. For senators and representatives with only six years in office, the annual pension is about 10% of annual pay -- in Hagan's case, that's $17,400 a year based...

In Tuesday’s elections, Republicans won control of the Senate and expanded their majority in the House. In the coming weeks and months, Republicans in Congress must focus on developing and pursuing a winning agenda over the next two years — an agenda that will help elect a Republican president in November 2016 and provide that president with a governing majority in Congress. But a small cadre of current and former Senate staffers is instead pressing Republican senators on what strikes me as a profoundly foolish and destructive diversion: reinstating the filibuster — more precisely, the 60-vote cloture threshold — for...

Only 10 Senate Democrats are up for re-election in 2016, the residual benefit of the shellacking they took in 2010 when tea party Republicans swept into office. The only two challenges Democrats likely will face will be defending Michael Bennet's seat in Colorado and Reid's in Nevada. In a presidential year, Bennet, who managed to survive in 2010, will be the favorite. Reid may be the most vulnerable, but he is a tenacious campaigner and in the past pulled off re-election in the face of stiff odds.

When HOPE is no longer enough to drag you over the finish line there’s only one thing to do: change the rules.If you’re losing, CHANGE the rulesHence, after his party’s second midterm “shellacking” that term will no longer be acceptable, given its inherent racist overtones.Shellac: it comes in many shades, all brownSo here are the new rules of our non-functioning democracy: you get a voice if you cast a ballot, butt you get a LOUDER voice if you don’t bother to vote. “To everyone that voted, I want you to know that I heard you,” Obama began. “To two-thirds of...

Republicans won an impressive number of victories last night, including a larger and more conservative House majority and enough wins to give the GOP at least a 52-seat majority in the Senate. As Jeffrey Anderson and Robert Laszewski have noted, Republicans made ObamaCare a major issue in the election (the New York Times’ denials notwithstanding). Senate Republicans will fall several seats short of the 60-vote super-majority needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster of an ObamaCare-repeal bill, though. ObamaCare opponents are therefore debating whether and how Republicans could repeal some or all of the law via the Senate’s “budget reconciliation” process,...

In the following post, I am going to go through what happened last night for those finding it hard to follow, perhaps because they don't know who is who etc. I will go systematically through the highlights and lowlights of the governor's races, US Senate races, US House races, and state legislature makeup, picking out the ones I was watching out for in particular. I will then state the big winners and losers of the night in general Finally, my opinion on where we should go next, how to improve on successes and not repeat failures. Without further ado, and...

Published on Nov 4, 2014ABC News correspondent says something you never would have expected to hear on national TV during midterm election mayhem coverage.

At long last, the Republican Party has wrested control of the Senate from the Democrats. The GOP's victory was decisive, with wins in the key races that were needed to capture a majority in the upper chamber. The alarmist cable news punditocracy (incidentally, a class of powerful people who never face accountability for its actions) has already begun to fulfill its "this changes everything" attitude toward anything that happens anywhere and has begun reading a dramatic eulogy for Obama. But the advantages reaped by the GOP's victory may be short-lived. While the Republicans' performance Tuesday gives the impression of new...