Free Republic

According to The Associated Press, the Wildwood Republican died Sunday night after a long bout with cancer, Perry Akin, the former lawmaker’s son, said in a statement. “He was a devoted Christian, a great father and a friend to many,” the statement read, according to the news agency. “We cherish many fond memories from him driving the tractor at our annual hayride, to his riveting delivery of the freedom story at Fourth of July parties dressed in the full uniform of a colonial minuteman. The family is thankful for his legacy: a man with a servant’s heart who stood for...

Believe it or not, the 2018 election is only months away. And while talking heads and media elites focus exclusively on Republican election challenges, the electoral map is chock-full of vulnerable Democratic candidates running in Trump territory. Here are the top Democrats poised for 2018 defeat: 1. Sen. Claire McCaskill (Democrat, Missouri) The definition of a corrupt career politician, Sen. McCaskill is a personification of the Washington swamp and the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable incumbent. Who can forget her failure to pay $287,000 in property taxes on a private plane? Or using $40 million in government subsidies to boost her...

Todd Akin is considering a primary challenge to Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) in 2016. “I have not ruled anything out,” the former congressman and 2012 GOP Senate nominee told The Hill in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I think there is a high level of dissatisfaction among conservatives, that they have to some degree been pushed out of the Republican Party,” he continued. “The sentiment is there. The Tea Party is skeptical and wants some fresh blood, not just the same establishment guys.” Akin’s reemergence is sure to be an unwelcome development for national Republicans. During his 2012 race against...

WASHINGTON—Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO), ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee today, sent a letter cosigned by 47 colleagues to President Obama urging a full and thorough investigation of the ACLU’s John Adams project which may have intentionally revealed the identity of covert CIA operatives to members of Al Qaeda currently held at Guantanamo Bay. The following is the list of cosigners on the letter to President Obama regarding the alleged outing of covert CIA agents by ACLU’s John Adam’s project: Todd Akin (R-MO), Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Marsha Blackburn...

There are a whole bunch of Democrats running for Senate this year, though in this case “running” seems to mean running as far away as possible from failed liberal messiah Barack Obama. You’d practically think they were Tea Partiers by the way they publicly espouse conservative principles like support for the family, protection from crime, and respect for religion. But they can't run away from their duty to repudiate the single most offensive, anti-woman, anti-family, anti-Christian candidate running under their Democrat Party’s banner. Meet Democrat Amanda Curtis. She took over as the Democrat Senate candidate in Montana after Democrat John...

An analysis of public records by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has found more than $20 million in federal stimulus funds benefitting real estate projects financially tied to Joseph Shepard, husband of Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill. Earlier this month, the Associated Press published an analysis , stating, "businesses affiliated with the husband of Senator Claire McCaskill have received almost $40 million in federal subsidies for low-income housing developments during her first five years in office..." The NLPC analysis released today showed more than $20 million in financial benefits from the federal stimulus law to real estate projects associated...

Game Changer? The federal government paid nearly $40 million dollars to Claire McCaskill’s husband’s businesses her first five years in office as Missouri Senator. During that time McCaskill has had influence over federal policy that has directly affected her family’s income. Missouri royalty - The rest of the country has suffered but Claire McCaskill and her husband Joseph Shepard have done very well these past five years. There are renewed calls for Democrat McCaskill to release her tax returns. ABC3040 reported: Businesses affiliated with the husband of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill have received almost $40 million in federal subsidies for...

Former Rep. Todd Akin said he regrets the comments he made about “legitimate rape” which derailed his Missouri bid for U.S. Senate last year. In an interview with KDSK-TV on Thursday, the 65-year-old was asked whether he would take back the controversial comments. “Of course I would,” the former congressman replied. “I’ve relived them too many times. But that is not reality.” …

For going on seven years, I have lived in Rockford, IL—a city with a fairly miserable reputation around the country. Whenever you find a "Top Ten Worst Cities" list, you're almost sure to find Rockford. Just last week, I noticed a local merchant selling T-shirts that read: Misery Loves Company: Visit Rockford, Illinois. Truth be told, Rockford is not nearly as bad as some would have you believe, but last week we again made national headlines for all the wrong reasons. Katie Stockton was sentenced to fifty years in prison on Friday for leaving her newborn, baby daughter to freeze...

>Earlier I shared what happened when I asked an AP reporter and a Washington Post reporter about their personal Gosnell blackouts.It was so illuminating that I decided to check out a few other media outlets. I headed over to Politico. Since Washington Post reporter Sarah Kliff tried to justify her lack of coverage of the Gosnell trial by calling it a local crime story, I thought I’d add other local stories into my search. Thanks for the idea! So here’s what I found out. Politico‘s search engine pops out 165 results on Trayvon Martin (local crime story in Florida), 94...

Gun Control: The silent media ignore a Colorado Democrat who says women don't need firearms to defend themselves from predators and a patronizing vice president who says women can't handle an AR-15 anyway. On Monday, the Colorado House passed four gun control bills. Among them is HB13-1226. It would ban concealed weapons on college campuses, as if creating more gun-free zones, such as the one around the Aurora, Colo., theater, where 12 were killed and another 59 wounded, will prevent more massacres. Colorado is a concealed-carry state, as was Virginia at the time of the Virginia Tech shootings. But like...

Turns out the New York Times is worried about the future of the Republican Party. So concerned, in fact, it has dedicated more than 6,000 words in this week’s magazine to explore, as the title puts it, “Can The Republicans Be Saved From Obsolescence?” Indeed, the folks at The Times seem extremely concerned that which they hate might not survive. And by “concerned” I mean they’re hoping. That The Times would seek to harm Republicans, and more specifically conservatives, is about as shocking as Piers Morgan doing a special episode on the need for gun control. But that so...

The United States, from day one, was a project about principles and ideals. The super power that emerged and grew from the handful of colonists that began settling here was not the product of where those colonists happened to land, but the ideals and principles in their head and heart – applied in how they lived their lives. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 to address one great blot on the nation’s founding legacy – the existence of slavery in a nation founded under the ideal of freedom under God. Runaway slave and self-educated abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass said...

Karl Rove versus Steve King. Rove was one of President Bush's top advisors, but now Iowa's open Senate seat has one of America's top Republican operatives gearing up to fight one of his own, vetting candidates who have a history of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And, that apparently includes Congressman Steve King. Steven Law, the CEO of American Crossroads, told the New York Times: "We're concerned about Steve King's Todd Akin problem....All of the things he's said are going to be hung around his neck," says Law. Law is apparently referring to comments King made to...

Two powerful conservative groups say a new American Crossroads’ initiative, formed to work against Republican candidates it deems unelectable, is just another attempt to muzzle the GOP’s true base. American Crossroads, a super PAC founded by a group led by former Bush White House advisor Karl Rove, was the largest Republican super PAC of the 2012 election cycle. The idea behind the PAC’s latest effort is to intensely vet prospective contenders for Congressional races to weed out candidates who are seen as too flawed to win general elections, The New York Times reported Sunday. The new organization, the Conservative Victory...

This past weekend, I was down in Washington and had a chance to talk to some Republican lawmakers and strategists on Capitol Hill about the trouncing we took in the presidential election. Over and over again, the fear that the conservative pro-life position may have contributed to our loss came up. Their solution? We have to stop talking about it. But this cannot be an option. The respect for life is a moral imperative that defines conservatism as much as fiscal responsibility. Conservatism cannot abandon it and remain uncompromised. Over time, liberalism has normalized abortion, first insisting it should be...

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill beat embattled Republican Congressman Todd Akin by a overwhelming margin in Missouri's Senate race Tuesday night. With 99% of precincts reporting, the Democratic Senator lead Akin by a whopping 54.7% to 39.2%, according to the Missouri Secretary of State. Akin conceded the shortly before 10 p.m. CST., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. "Things don't always turn out the way you wanted," Akin said in his concession speech. He ran on a platform that criticized incumbent McCaskill for supporting Obamacare, the stimulus act, and her family's close ties to federal money, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

National Review reporter Robert Costa talks to an unnamed Mitt Romney adviser who indicates there are a lot of hard feeling between Romney’s inner circle and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over the latter’s embrace of President Obama after Hurricane Sandy: Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, the adviser adds, is persona non grata in Romney’s inner circle. “He went out of his way to embrace the president during the final week of the campaign,” the adviser says. “It wasn’t necessary and it hurt us. Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and Chris Christie undermined the Republican message.” Christie, of course, had...

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill secured a second term in the Senate, defeating Republican challenger Todd Akin in a hard-fought contest that gained national attention over controversial remarks about rape and pregnancy.

Most Americans will focus on election results in Ohio and Florida to see who rides those states’ Electoral College votes into the White House. But the winner of the presidential race will not automatically control the 2013 legislative agenda. Congress still matters. The battle for control of the U.S. Senate is vitally important and just as hard-fought as the top-of-the-ticket contest. Currently, a caucus of 51 Democrats and two liberal Independents rule the upper chamber. Since the Vice President can cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate, Republicans would have to pick up three seats to gain a working majority...