Free Republic

ROMNEY NARROWS VP CHOICES; SURPRISE NAME EMERGES AS FRONTRUNNER

DENVER — The Republican presidential race could be headed for another reshuffle Tuesday as Rick Santorum, who has lagged behind since his surprise Iowa victory, is once again challenging the dominance of front-runner Mitt Romney. Polling over the past week shows Mr. Santorum statistically tied with Mr. Romney in Minnesota, besting him in Missouri, and running second to him but ahead of rival Newt Gingrich in Colorado, all of which hold contests Tuesday. Mr. Romney’s camp took notice, firing the kinds of broadsides it generally has aimed at Mr. Gingrich. Romney surrogates on Monday accused Mr. Santorum of pork-barrel spending....

Karl Rove said Monday that Herman Cain has failed to properly respond to the POLITICO report that at least two women accused him of inappropriate behavior, saying he needs to say “yes or no.” “He’s not denying, but he ain’t responding and that’s not the best place to be,” Rove said on Fox News. “If these allegations are not true, say they aren’t true and put it behind you. If not, better get everything out sooner rather than later because in a situation like this, if there is something there, that something’s going to come out.” Continue Reading Text Size...

Politico won’t say if a rival campaign fed them the story about sexual harassment allegations made against current Republican presidential front-runner Herman Cain in the 1990s. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday pressed reporter Ken Vogel of Politico on whether the publication relied on opposition research from one of Cain’s rivals. “Politics are politics as you said, and certainly there are people that are digging up opposition research,” Vogel said. “I’m just not going to do anything that would identify — that would point to the identity of our original source.” “We don’t think that the original source is as important...

The campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, which said Wednesday it had underpaid wealthy donors for use of their private jets, has another ticklish plane problem. For a campaign swing that started late last month, Mr. Perry’s campaign chartered a Gulfstream III owned by a California Mexican-food company, Marquez Brothers International, according to flight records and a Marquez Brothers executive. The same plane was used in a major cocaine-smuggling ring involving a well-known hip-hop music executive that was busted by federal officials last November, according to federal court filings. A pilot who flew the Marquez Brothers plane was among those...

In a new web site, in a controversial ad that was launched and then quickly pulled from sight, and in Tuesday’s now infamous debate touching episode, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is handling rival Rick Perry as if the Texas governor’s poll numbers were not at a paltry single-digit. With mounting evidence, he is, in short, treating Perry like Perry has Herman Cain’s numbers. [snip] If Romney can fatally weaken Perry now, it would allow him to dominate in the early primaries. Strategically, a strong showing in the Iowa caucuses would be followed by an anticipated victory in the New...

When Florida defied Republican National Committee rules to move the state’s 2012 presidential primary from an RNC-approved March date to Jan. 31, conservatives immediately suspected that state party insiders had orchestrated the move to help former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney thwart the momentum of Tea Party-backed candidate Herman Cain. Some Florida activists focused their suspicion on moderates in state party leadership – former Gov. Charlie Crist — as orchestrating the change in the date. The move was seen as helping the centrist Romney, whose superior fund-raising resources would enable him to score an early knockout in the Sunshine State before Cain could fully...