Free Republic

It took a tea party insurrection that disabled the federal government and wrecked the Republican brand, but after months of handwringing, establishment Republicans are preparing to attack ultra-conservative ideologues across red America. From Alabama to Alaska, the center-right, business-oriented wing of the Republican Party is gearing up for a series of skirmishes that it hopes can prevent the 2014 mid-term election from turning into another missed opportunity. But this will not be a coordinated operation. It will be messy, ugly, and prone to backfiring. And if the comeback succeeds, it will be in fits and starts, most likely culminating in...

The apparatchiks, you see, are different from you and me… As the Government Shutdown of October 2013 fades away into the history books, there are two lessons that the American Left desperately wants the country to forget. Oh, the Left is fine with American voters retaining a vague memory of the event – “The government was closed; people didn’t get their checks, it was the Republicans’ fault, of course” – but the Left doesn’t want every aspect remembered. They certainly don’t want the really important lessons to be retained. They’re praying that we forget, as soon as possible. So, while...

Regrouping with Democrats after a bitter budget fight, President Barack Obama on Friday cast the recent spending-and-debt standoff with Congress as “a symptom of a larger challenge” but one offering Democrats the chance to show voters the virtues of their vision for government ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. … “The shutdown was about more than just health care,” Obama said. “It was about a contrast of visions, about what our obligations are to each other as fellow citizens. And we’ve got the better side of that argument.” … … Obama is weighed down by the calamitous debut of the...

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: In an ideal world there would have been a lot more testing. We did not have the luxury of that with a law that said it's go time on October 1st and frankly a political atmosphere where the majority party at least in the House was determined to stop this any way they possibly could including shutting down the United States government. So it was not an ideal atmosphere.

The White House and Senate Democrats may need a refresher course on how to leak a juicy story. The White House today was forced to backtrack on a rumor Obama administration officials started about a Republican House leader who purportedly insulted President Obama to his face, telling the president, “I cannot even stand to look at you.” Turns out, it never happened. How do we know? The same White House that was responsible for starting the buzz now says there was a “miscommunication” and a “misunderstanding.” Here’s how it went down: (Read the timeline at linked source)

MADISON — Federal employees in Wisconsin apparently cannot have their cake and eat it, too. What could be more than 2,000 furloughed workers who received back pay related to the 16-day partial government shutdown will have to reimburse any unemployment benefits that were applied for or collected during that time, Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development spokesman John Dipko said. That total could be in excess of $245,000. According to Dipko, nearly 2,070 federal employees in the Badger State filed claims for unemployment between Sept. 30 and Oct. 12. The number of claims made last week were not available at the...

Senator Mark Pryor has tried to tar his likely opponent in next fall’s Senate election, Tom Cotton, as part of an intransigent group of Republican party that shut the federal government down and nearly forced the nation into default. Meanwhile, Arkansas voters disapprove of Senator Pryor more strongly than they ever did Democrat Blanche Lincoln, whom they voted out of the world’s greatest deliberative body in 2010. Cotton has avoided taking a strong stand on the issue, but regardless, the strategy doesn’t look like it will work for Pryor anyway: 39 percent of Arkansas likely voters, according to a new...

In a truly misguided display of chutzpah, some members of the Tea Party are congratulating themselves over a supposed “historic victory” in the government shutdown debacle. Yet the shutdown gang led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas extracted no concessions and instead hurt the GOP’s nationwide reputation and shaved GDP growth. Over at The American Spectator blog, Mark Meckler, a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, trumpets the “glorious battle” fought by “committed warrior[s]” that put Republicans “poised for massive gains in 2014.” This contradicts pretty much all evidence to the contrary, including poll after poll showing Americans were unhappy with...

In case you haven’t heard about this, Senator Dick Durbin claimed in a Facebook post that a House Republican told Barack Obama during the shutdown negotiations that “I cannot even stand to look at you.” Republicans vehemently denied it, and now the White House agrees: White House press secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday flatly denied that a House Republican told President Obama “I cannot even stand to look at you” during negotiations over the government shutdown. “It did not happen,” Carney said, saying he discussed the incident with a “participant in the meeting.” … “Many Republicans searching for something to...

While 47 percent of Virginia likely voters say the government shutdown hurt the Old Dominion "a great deal," it apparently has no impact on the governor's race, where Democrat Terry McAuliffe leads Republican Ken Cuccinelli 46 - 39 percent, with 10 percent for Libertarian Party candidate Robert Sarvis, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This compares to the results of an October 10 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University, showing McAuliffe up 47 - 39 percent, with Sarvis at 8 percent. In today's survey, McAuliffe leads 92 - 3 percent among Democrats, with 2 percent for Sarvis,...

"...........[SNIP]...........But while the factions within the GOP prepare themselves for what is sure to be a “West Side Story” type rumble, it is possible that the “Establishment” may have overplayed its hand and compromised its position without even realizing it. To the Establishment, the Tea Party is political plutonium, explosive and too hot to handle right now. They need to cut ties with it, bring it to heel, or spin it so that it seems like they are all one big happy family, which probably won’t happen. They believe that conservative voters want to see the individuals responsible for partially...

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service plans to delay the start of tax-filing season by a week or two because of the government shutdown, the agency said on Tuesday. But taxpayers will still have to turn in their 2013 returns by April 15 as usual. “Readying our systems to handle the tax season is an intricate, detailed process, and we must take the time to get it right,” Daniel I. Werfel, the acting I.R.S. commissioner, said in a statement. “The adjustment to the start of the filing season provides us the necessary time to program, test and validate our systems...

The whole world looked on as the United States embarrassed itself for three weeks with its government shutdown. China, the only other superpower, profited from the domestic dispute—but as Washington’s largest creditor, it also has cause for concern. … In a commentary published last week by Xinhua, Beijing’s state-owned news agency, commentator Liu Chang wrote: “As US politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled...

The job market weakened in September amid a slowdown in key growth engines such as healthcare and leisure—a worrisome sign given that the employment picture probably worsened this month with the partial federal government shutdown. Employers last month added a modest 148,000 net new jobs, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That was down from an upwardly revised job growth of 193,000 in August, and well below analysts’ forecasts for about 180,000 new jobs in September. The unemployment rate last month dropped a notch, to a five-year low of 7.2%, but that was partly the result of workers leaving the labor...

The government re-opened, and there was no default. No surprise. This was the 18th shutdown since 1976, when the current budget procedure was established. The five shutdowns under Jimmy Carter were mostly over major policy issues such as abortion (he was for it) and the construction of a nuclear-fuelled aircraft carrier (he was against it). They averaged 11 days. The seven shutdowns during Reagan’s presidency were mostly about money, over which it is easier to split the difference, and averaged two days. Compromise is also easier when the Republican president and the Democratic speaker of the House, Ronald Reagan and...

There is the recent internet sensation (not Miley Cyrus) … the Angolan Witch Spider! Allegedly, it feasts on dogs and cats and took several gunshots to kill. And was found in Texas. Sure-You-Want-To-Move-To-Florida The reality is less interesting. The photo was a fake. Here is the actual photo of the spider in question. Wolfie-(1)-c-2012-Paul-Santa-Maria-(Proof) Remember the dreaded “sequester?” Allegedly, 2.14 million jobs were at risk. And the Federal government partial shutdown? Allegedly, 700,000 jobs were at risk in the Greater Washington DC area. Here is the September 2013 unemployment number for Washington DC and Arlington VA: 5.40%. True, the unemployment...

Cruz, Lee, Gettysburg and Wet Cement by Colin Hanna and Ken Hagerty In July 1863 two armies converged around the little town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Neither army foresaw a major battle on that ground, let alone the turning point of the entire Civil War. The Confederates were simply searching for a supply of shoes rumored to be in the town. When they stumbled across some Union cavalry, both sides called-in reinforcements, and then more, and before long a full-scale battle stood up. At no point on that first day in Gettysburg could either side have explained what the “end game”...

Who do you most blame for the unfortunate government shut-down: A. President Obama B. Republicans C. Democrats

America is suffering from an epic case of Armageddon fatigue. Budget showdown, government shutdown, debt ceiling debacle—the stakes are real but the establishment seems to feed off the chaos they create as a means to foment fear and outrage and translate it into campaign donations for themselves. Look closely and you’ll see that something seismic is going on under the surface of the manufactured chaos in D.C. Washington has morphed into an extortion racket, a place where members of the permanent political class threaten to inflict legislative and regulatory pain to extract campaign donations that they can then siphon into...

According to CNBC, some of the 400,000 government workers drew on unemployment benefits during the shutdown, and it’s likely that only some of them will have to give it back — adding a few million to the price of the shutdown, already up in the billions due to lost worker productivity and revenue. The U.S. economy was damaged as well, and that cost may tally up near $24 billion between October and December, if economists are to be believed.