Free Republic

By Kevin “Coach” Collins A recent political cartoon showed a group of “Republican” elephants standing around a body marked, “Boehner” with multiple arrows in its back. One asks, “What now?” A second responds, “Maybe we should have thought this through first.” In just eight words, without realizing it, the propagandist who created the cartoon has epitomized the problem with the Uniparty rule of government. These enemies of freedom just don’t get it. When John Boehner resigned as Speaker he did not do so willingly. As an apparatchik for the Uniparty’s control of our lives, his job was to bludgeon Americans...

The worst job in the world, it turns out, isn’t the U.S. presidency but speaker of the House of Representatives. “It’s where you go to die,” as one veteran Hill watcher put it to me. Volunteers? In the wake of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) sudden withdrawal from his once-certain ascent to the speakership, several others are considering running for the job. McCarthy’s fall wasn’t only owing to his verbal blunder suggesting that the House select committee investigating Benghazi was primarily created to bring down Hillary Clinton. Like Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), he was shafted by the three dozen or...

Crowds gathered at the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. were led in a “down, down USA” chant Saturday morning by a female speaker. The Native American woman proclaimed that Muammar “Gaddafi is still alive” and called for President Barack Obama to pardon Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who was convicted of murdering two Federal Bureau of Investigation officers in 1975. The woman then led the crowd in a chant of “down, down USA.” “They have a whole race of indigenous people on reservations, concentration camps. They’re out there killing the indigenous people spiritually,” she said. The woman followed...

John Boehner is out (eventually). Kevin McCarthy is out. Conservatives in the House of Representatives are on a roll. But where is the roll going? I applaud the ouster of these insiders. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the career ambitions of politicians. But what comes next, what follows bold action, is just as important, if not more. On that front, it seems conservatives were wholly unprepared. Nothing against Daniel Webster or Jason Chaffetz, but are they really people who leap to mind when you think “leader?” Or even “articulate and quick-witted conservative”? Have...

Under mounting pressure, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan emerged as the reluctant would-be savior of the fractious Republican House caucus yesterday, even being urged by 2012 GOP ticket-mate Mitt Romney to run for speaker. “I wouldn’t presume to tell Paul what to do, but I do know that he is a man of ideas who is driven to see them applied for the public good,” Romney said in a statement yesterday. “Every politician tries to convince people that they are that kind of leader; almost none are — Paul is.” Romney’s glowing endorsement of his former running mate came after the...

Cruz For President Steve, I need your continued advice and support. SURVEY CODE: #92570-5332481 Please find your personalized Official 2015 Presidential Platform Survey below. Follow this link to receive your platform survey. Please submit your survey answers to help me solidify my campaign platform and unite America's conservative majority behind my 2016 presidential campaign. Your personalized survey will account for helping to organize my Official Presidential Platform on key issues like: foreign policy, healthcare, economic, and social issues. My campaign team has pre-selected you as a strong conservative with a solid voting record. You are exactly the person I need...

There’s some strange happenings afoot in Florida this week and the fallout from a pending court case could impact the careers of several Sunshine State legislators, including Daniel Webster. (R – FL 10) Webster is a favorite among the House Freedom Caucus and a rapidly rising star in the conservative ranks, but he may have some bigger fish to fry if the lines of his home district are suddenly redrawn in a way that will place him in the midst of a heavy Democrat majority. We won’t know for sure until it hits the state supreme court, but the...

[NOTE: this is Revised and Updated for this posting] Many conservatives across the land have rejoiced over the withdrawal of Kevin McCarthy from the Speaker election. They shouldn’t. House Republicans are largely a collection of phonies. In my view, there are only two who have earned the Speakership: Louie Gohmert and Steve King. I am confident that few conservatives would disagree that these two Representatives have demonstrated honesty, courage and outspoken defense of true conservative principles. Each towers far above the rest of the field. The election of anyone else as Speaker would be a travesty, indicating Republican business as...

The current frontrunner for the nomination, who got where he is by demanding that the border be closed to Mexican rapists and that all illegals who are already here be deported, is okay with Luis Gutierrez’s friend running the House? Huh. What makes this doubly weird is that Trump has attacked Ryan in the past for trying to lead on entitlement reform, especially Medicare reform, instead of insisting that Obama do it. Normally I’d chalk it up to a would-be president not wanting to get on the wrong side of a would-be Speaker whom he might have to work...

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) should put her name in the race to become the next Speaker of the House, says the American Conservative Union’s executive director, Daniel Schneider. “Blackburn is the most conservative woman in all of Congress. She has a lifetime ACU rating of 96 – that puts her in a solid ‘A’ camp. Year-in and year-out she is consistently been a solid performer,” Schneider said. “I would hope she would run,” Schneider told Breitbart News Thursday afternoon. Schneider’s statements came Thursday, shortly after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)

Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) 18% is endorsing Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 58% for Speaker of the House of Representatives. Gutierrez, perhaps the most extreme open-borders advocate in Congress, was interviewed on MSNBC. As CNN is now reporting, “Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez on MSNBC called Ryan one of the smartest men in the GOP. ‘He would be good for the country,’ Gutierrez said. Paul Ryan is the kind of individual that would work with people on the other side of the aisle and that’s what we need.'” , the Gang of Eight bill would have been sent to President Obama’s...

Republicans have urged Paul Ryan to step up for House Speaker in an attempt to bring unity to the GOP caucus. He may already be having that effect. After a mid-morning caucus conference, two potential rivals publicly endorsed the Ways and Means chair for the post, including formally declared candidate Jason Chaffetz: Chaffetz, who launched his Speaker bid last weekend, said he’d end his bid if Ryan heeds the call to enter the race.“I’m a huge fan of Paul Ryan. I would support Paul Ryan,” Chaffetz told reporters.“Part of the reason I got into the race was because people...

His lips keep saying no no no, but everyone else around him keeps pressuring Paul Ryan to say yes. The Washington Post’s James Hohmann and Elise Viebeck report that Ryan has reconsidered his earlier demurral and may reluctantly agree to run for Speaker of the House. At the very least, Hohmann and Viebeck point out, Ryan has gone from “no” to “no comment”: Paul Ryan is seriously considering a bid for House speaker. He’s consulting his wife, Janna, and should make a definitive decision soon, according to top GOP sources.Despite repeatedly and sincerely insisting he doesn’t want the job,...

How Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan went from budget-balancing conservative wunderkind, to GOP vice presidential nominee, to channeling Nancy Pelosi when he snarled, “It’s declassified and made public once it’s agreed to,” as he tried to sell Obama’s Trade Promotion Authority and Trans-Pacific Partnership treaties to skeptical conservatives during Rules Committee testimony on Wednesday is one of Washington’s saddest tales of how DC’s inside elite capture talent and bend it to their will. -- Snip -- Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan were visualized as a new generation of Republican leader who would challenge the older establishment-types. In the foreword...

I think we have no choice now but to make him Speaker. Apparently, he’s the only man in America who’d accept the job.Good point from Twitter pal “Political Math”: Having Newt back in the House would be a lovely complement to the retro 90s Bush/Clinton election that’s in the offing. “I’m not laughing at it. I’m saying to you — I’m trying to be totally honest with you,” Gingrich told the host. “If you were to say to me 218 have called you up and given you their pledge, obviously no citizen could ever turn down that kind of...

As if on cue the Salem Media machine starts singing the praises of Representative Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House. ~ GOOD TIME TO REMEMBER THIS ~ Hugh Hewitt ‎@hughhewitt If two weeks of upheaval brought us @RepPaulRyan as Speaker, well worth it. Forgotten in days, he'd lead for decade or more. On his terms. 9:14 PM - 8 Oct 2015 No-one needed any further evidence of how insufferably corrupt the progressive republican party has become; however, today is a brutal reminder of just how much the GOPe absolutely despise the base of their own party. There were three...

Rep. Louie Gohmert blasted John Boehner for his decision to postpone the Republicans’ vote for the next House speaker, saying he acted “like any good dictator would” because he wants to choose his own successor. It actually pointed to the reason we need a new speaker, and that is because it’s like he feels he has to pick a successor, like any good dictator would,” the Texas Republican said in comments to TheBlaze Thursday night after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy abruptly took himself out of the running as GOP members gathered for the secret-ballot vote. “But this is not...

Having Talked to several senior aides on Capitol Hill (along with Chris Stirewalt and his sources on the Hill tied to the leadership) here is the picture that is beginning to form. Speaker John Boehner has agreed to stay on as Speaker--not just until the Caucus nominates someone --but, until that person can confirm 218 votes on the House floor (needed to take the Speaker’s gavel). Short of that – Boehner will stay on for the rest of this Congress and steer legislation that is pending.

Newt Gingrich said he would consider taking up the Speaker’s gavel again if called upon to by House Republicans. The former Speaker initially denied any interest in a return to Congress, but when pressed in an interview with radio show host Sean Hannity on Thursday, admitted he would consider it if he had the votes.