Free Republic

A federal appeals court on Monday vacated a water permit needed by developers to restart construction on the Mountain Valley pipeline in West Virginia, marking the latest setback for the $6.2 billion project. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found several defects in the review the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection conducted before issuing the permit.

Political writer Peter Schweizer’s latest book reportedly accuses 20 current and former GOP members of having essentially sold out to China. Released late last month, “Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win” has attracted attention thus far mainly for its bombshells about President Joe Biden and his extremely wealthy family. But also contained within the book is a treasure trove of bombshells about elected Republicans, ranging from current Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell to former President George H.W. Bush. Regarding McConnell, Schweizer reportedly writes that the Senate leader and his wife both “enjoy some of the deepest and...

An embattled Mississippi judge's nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans faces opposition from civil rights groups that claim he has a poor record on issues involving race and sexual assault—and from conservatives who claim he is not conservative enough. For the fifth time, the U.S. Senate committee in charge of advancing federal court nominees cancelled plans to hold a vote on Judge Halil Suleyman "Sul" Ozerden last month, and has not rescheduled plans to hold a vote. In an October letter, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights President Vanita Gupta wrote to...

The musical stylings of Weird Al Yankovic rarely offer clarity about the state of legislation in Congress. But Weird Al’s 1984 hit “Eat it” (a parody on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”) was inadvertently invoked this past week to crystallize the conundrum facing House Democrats after the Senate approved a crucial border spending bill 84-8. House liberals were either going to hold out against the Senate measure in favor of their own – or accept the Senate bill. Amid these deliberations, former Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, a veteran of such impasses, ambled by the Speaker’s Office late Wednesday afternoon as...

There have been many parodies of Dickens' tale over the last century and a half - and, in fact, I did one myself, fifteen years ago for my column in The Chicago Sun-Times and other papers. The inspiration was, of all things, Trent Lott. Senator Lott had had a good election in November 2002. The Republicans had re-captured the Senate, and Lott was thus about to resume his old job of Senate Majority Leader. Then he went to Strom Thurmond's hundredth birthday party on December 5th. Strom was about to retire as the oldest senator in the history of the...

Am I losing my mind? Donald Trump gives me the creeps at times. He offends my Christianity. His persona turns me off. He can be all other the map in terms of consistent principles. But there is something inside of me that wants him to kick the stuffing out of the powers that be. Even though I am a Cruz man I could see myself voting for the guy. Am I losing my mind?

It's well known that many Republicans in Washington do not like Sen. Ted Cruz, but the full extent of that antipathy is coming to light this week as several current and former lawmakers say they prefer Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, although they have little regard for either man. Some GOP consultants and strategists started the rumblings in recent days. Then Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad told Republicans in his state to oppose Cruz because of the senator's opposition to ethanol subsidies. But the story broke wide open on Wednesday when former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich collected another endorsement from a prominent Southern Republican on Tuesday. Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott pledged his support to the governor, and will serve as a national co-chair on Kasich's campaign. Lott, 73, spent 35 years in Congress from Mississippi's delegation, and rose through the ranks of GOP leadership in the Senate to secure the top spot. His colleagues ousted him from that position after he made comments praising former South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, who ran as a "Dixiecrat" for president in 1948. Thurmond's states' rights platform challenged the civil rights movement of the...

RUSH: Yesterday in Washington, the Christian Science Monitor breakfast -- (interruption) You know what's coming? Senator Trent Lott, former Senator Trent Lott, Republican, Mississippi, was the guest, and he was speaking about immigration reform and told a story about immigration reform and the Republicans' attempt to do it in 2007. LOTT: My phones were jammed for a week or two. Rush Limbaugh gave out my phone number. We lost that vote in 2007 on a procedural vote. I thought we were gonna be able to win that. But over the weekend Rush Limbaugh labeled it amnesty, and labor got a...

In Alabama, Trump’s Wizard of Oz Act Leaves Some Fans Underwhelmed QUIN HILLYER Toto the dog wasn’t needed in Mobile, Ala., Friday night to pull the curtain from behind The Great and Mighty Trump. Trump let his own curtain flutter open, showing to much of the audience the humbug within. In an hour-long verbal meanderthon at half-filled Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Trump allowed an atmosphere of electric excitement to dissipate, and then he split town without his promised post-show press conference. As I left the stadium, a red-hatted lady of my acquaintance spotted me and pulled me aside, saying: “Somebody needs to...

BOSTON — President Barack Obama summoned today's quarrelsome political leaders to emulate the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in the pursuit of compromise on Monday, and said a new institute that bears the longtime Massachusetts senator's name can be as much an antidote to political cynicism as the man once was. "What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if we were to follow his example a little bit harder?" the president asked a crowd of family, former aides and political dignitaries of both parties under a tent in raw weather just outside the doors of the Edward...

Trent Lott wasn’t always this way. He was once a conservative champion, who came to Washington to change the ruling-class narrative. But now he’s a profile in what Washington does to you if you stay too long — unless you have Winston Churchill-like courage of conviction, and few mere mortals do. Mr. Lott was originally part of a group that included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Vin Webber, who were dubbed the “Young Turks.” They were among the chief lieutenants of the Reagan Revolution back in the day. Best known for fighting the Fraternal Order of Establishment Republicans....

First Democrats, now a former Senate GOP leader is attacking Sen. Ted Cruz for standing his ground instead of compromising on key issues. Trent Lott, a former Senate majority leader from Mississippi and now a lobbyist, dubbed Cruz one of the “problems” in the Senate and urged incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to quickly “co-opt” new Republican senators before Cruz and others in the “Far Right” deputize them. “There are problems,” said Lott, pushing bipartisanship at a media roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “Yes, we’ve got the Ted Cruzes in the Republican Party, and we’ve got Elizabeth...

Former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) says Mississippi Republicans may need a regime change after the damaging primary fight between Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel. “This has shown the fissures that are there and I do think the party leaders – it may cause the need for some change in the party leadership,” Lott, now the co-chairman of Squire Patton Boggs' public policy practice, told The Hill during a wide-ranging interview at the firm's Washington office. He warned that the Mississippi establishment is ignoring the Tea Party wing of the GOP at their own peril. “If they...

Audio/Video Ads Only: Sarah Palin has created a new radio ad for Chris McDaniel’s campaign: Likewise, Rick Santorum has a new TV ad for McDaniel via Political Victory Fund: So what big name is supporting Cochran? Trent Lott. I know. ZZZZzzzzzz:

The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty is trying to help the Republicans on the front page of Friday’s paper. It's not labeled "Analysis," but "Politics Debrief." The alliance between the “agreeable” GOP and the media is getting more transparent. “What will it take to save the Republicans from the self-destructive impulses of the tea party movement? That the government shutdown was a political disaster for the party that engineered it is widely acknowledged, except by the most ardent tea partyers.” Soaking a handkerchief full of crocodile tears, Tumulty insists “very bellicose” junior conservatives will have to be quashed: And that near-unanimity...

A cloud of scandalous allegations is rapidly growing over Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), putting Democratic leaders in a difficult position as the integrity of their immigration point man in the Senate falls under question at a critical time. The bad news keeps coming: a Senate Ethics probe, allegations involving underage prostitutes, an FBI investigation of a key campaign donor, undisclosed flights on the donor’s private plane, and now, reports linking Menendez to a multi-million dollar contract he helped obtain for the disgraced donor. Menendez denies nearly all of it. But it couldn’t come at a worse time for the new...

The stunning repudiation of Sen. Richard Lugar's, R-Ind., bid for a seventh term has sent shock waves through Washington's internationalist lobby. A former Rhodes Scholar, Lugar has spent his career promoting a globalist agenda, since he succeeded the late Jesse Helms as the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. One day after Indiana Republicans handed Lugar his walking papers, an outfit called the Atlantic Council held a forum to promote the discredited Law of the Sea Treaty. As former Republican U.S. Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Warner beamed their approval, Obama's Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta declared that...

Trent Lott famously said "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples," Lott said in an interview. "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them." - and I know what I think. I want to know what you think. Has she(Coulter) surrendered to the progressives within the republican establishment?

While the RNC is pushing back against people like me for pointing out they did not mount a good GOTV effort because they sabotaged their 72 hour program, they’ll have a hard time pushing back against Haley Barbour. Barbour has, a bit surprisingly, gone on the record to say that the RNC’s get out the vote (GOTV) efforts were sub-par. Given just how effective the Republican Governors Association was last week, it’ll make any sort of push back against Barbour difficult. Well that’s up to the Committee, and I will say that this time the RNC was not able to...