Free Republic

Chris and Ellie Eichman’s electric car gleams — even on this overcast day — in the backyard of the modest home they share with their nine-month old daughter. They did tons of research before deciding to purchase a Nissan Leaf in 2012. It was the first sold in Wisconsin. And it’s just one of the Eichman’s “sustainable” investments: 12 solar panels span the garage roof; their second car is a Prius. If Wisconsin’s governor and legislature give the transportation budget a thumbs up, the Eichmans would pay an annual transportation fee — $50 for the Prius, another $50 for the...

From the first day of 2011, Mitt Romney was the favorite to win the 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign. No one else was even close. The 2016 outlook could not be more different. Offered the choice to bet on one single candidate to win the nomination versus the rest of the field, the choice would have to be "the field." For the first time in years, there is no one next in line. And without a former vice president or powerhouse former candidate looking likely to run, Republicans are shaping up to spend the next year and a half fighting...

Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was just reelected, despite the fact that his state has distinct liberal trends and is far more blue than it is red. How did that happen? Easy; Walker is no casual conservative when it comes to doing what is right for his state and its residents, no matter what their chosen political affiliation. And the thing national Republicans could learn from Walker is that when you stick to conservative principles, good things happen and the people will follow you (remember the “Reagan Democrats?”)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican Gov. Scott Walker has rolled over his Democratic opponents in Wisconsin, shutting down their allies in labor unions, stuffing the attempts to recall him and handily winning re-election last month. But as he prepares for the possibility of taking his winning record into a campaign for president, Walker is running into trouble from an unexpected source: his own overwhelmingly Republican Legislature. Walker, who's trying to polish an image of a governor who gets things done efficiently, is confronting lawmakers who want to flex their increased political power by wading into difficult issues, such as right-to-work...

CNN) -- Police on Friday arrested Dustin Diamond, better known as "Screech" in the early 1990s sitcom "Saved by the Bell," in a stabbing incident at a bar in Port Washington, Wisconsin. Diamond, 37, of Port Washington, was charged with three misdemeanors: second-degree recklessly endangering safety; carrying a concealed weapon; and disorderly conduct, use of a dangerous weapon, according to a press release from the police. He was being held Friday in lieu of $10,000 bond.

A certain Texas Republican still has plenty of fans. Sen. Ted Cruz has won the Federalist Today Presidential Straw Poll with 26 percent of the nearly one thousand votes cast. The field included 16 potential candidates. “Placing a respectable second and third, Senator Rand Paul (22 percent) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (16 percent) showed that they also have considerable support among the ‘lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray’ Federalist faithful,” report David Corbin and Matt Parks, two analysts for The Federalist - a learned and vibrant online journal. “The political insider would, undoubtedly, not be impressed. Good...

I told you last night, there was only one way for this year to end on Hot Air. May one word ring in your ears as the ball drops, my friends: Romneymentum.Hopefully you’re all already liquored up sufficiently to dull the pain. “I know exactly what Mitt’s going to do,” [Ken] Gardner, a real estate developer who helped bring Romney to Utah to lead the 2002 Winter Olympics, told the Deseret News. “I think over the next few months, a lot of things will happen.”…“If it’s Ted Cruz that’s the candidate, he’s in. If it’s Jeb Bush, he’s probably not,”...

The NFL on Monday overturned its one-game suspension imposed on Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh for stepping on Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers during Sunday’s game. Suh who has a history of cheap shots and dirty plays was seen on camera stomping on Aaron Rogers previously injured leg. The former Nebraska All-American had appealed the suspension saying that his feet were numb from cold and that he couldn’t tell the difference between Aaron Rodgers’ feet and the ground. Breitbart News reported on Tuesday that Suh’s appeal would be heard by former NFL defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell.

"....Media sensationalism this year about two black deaths at the hands of white policemen inflamed the argument,.........Here, however, is one standup law-enforcement professional, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr., who begs to disagree.Sheriff Clarke publicly condemns anti-police populism as the Left's deflection of an urban reality with which he's professionally all too familiar and for which the Left's all too politically responsible. "This deflects," says Sheriff Clarke:against the real thing that we need to have a conversation about in this country and it's the American ghetto. And that's where most of the policing unfortunately has to be applied. The...

CNN’s Poppy Harlow interviewed Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke about the recent protests that some in the Black Community have sparked after the police related deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Harlow asked the Sheriff, who has been on several news shows on Fox and others, about a tweet he sent out implying that if Black lives mattered the protesters would be outside abortion clinics because of the high numbers of black babies killed by abortion. The tweet sent by Sheriff Clarke, a black man himself, was sent to Mitch Smith, Journalist in the Chicago bureau of The New York...

In the notoriously anti-second amendment town of Madison, Wisconsin, a concealed carry permit holder from Tennessee refrained from shooting a man who menaced him with a fake, but gun shaped and realistic looking laser/lighter.  The man drew his real gun but did not shoot.  The case contrasts with similar, recent cases where the police have shot people who pointed toy guns at them, and/or refused to obey commands while being armed with what turned out to be fake, but real looking guns.  From cityofmadison.com: Shortly after 10:55pm, on 12/24/2014, a 22-year-old female walked out of Walgreens and was planning...

Brown Deer police are investigating after a woman was carjacked and personal items were taken from her on Sunday afternoon, December 28th. It happened in the parking lot of a shopping mall in the 9000 block of North Green Bay Road. Police say the woman was parking her vehicle just before 3:00 p.m. when she was approached by two black males. One of those suspects entered the woman’s vehicle via its passenger side after the woman unlocked her doors to exit her car.

Since forming a presidential exploratory committee earlier this month, Jeb Bush is being considered a serious Republican candidate for president. But as George Will astutely pointed out last week, Bush has two significant hurdles; his support for Common Core and immigration reform. Will correctly points out that his support for the latter is far more nuanced than people understand. Bush does not advocate for more immigration through family reunification, which is the agenda of radical immigration activists, but instead for meeting employment needs, and he supports a path to legal status instead of citizenship. However, his support for Common Core...

On Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Daily Beast contributor Kristen Soltis Anderson made an amazing statement. She said Republicans “understand that they need to start cultivating new and fresh talent.” Fascinating. Because the GOP has been cultivating new and fresh talent for years now and is — finally — poised to look to a whole new generation of Republican leaders, quite possibly starting with the 2017 occupant of the White House. The past few election cycles have been grim. The Republican Party went with Sen. John McCain because, well, it was his turn (just like in 1996 with Sen. Bob...

At first glance, Gov. Scott Walker’s re-election last month looks like a carbon copy of his victory four years earlier. He won the same kinds of voters. He won the same parts of the state. And he won with virtually the same share of the vote: 52.25% in 2010 and 52.26% in 2014. But on closer inspection, there is an important difference: Wisconsin is even more polarized today than it was four years ago. Based on almost everything we know about the Nov. 4 election, the state’s fault lines are deeper and more sharply defined, its voters are more divided...

Jesse Jackson rallies for justice for Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee Sunday, December 28, 2014 7:06 a.m. CST MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WSAU-Wheeler News) -- The Reverend Jesse Jackson says he will continue drawing attention to the case of a Milwaukee man who was killed by a police officer last April. Jackson was speaking before a crowd of about 200 people during a rally at his Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago Saturday. Relatives and supporters of Dontre Hamilton were in attendance.

Republican state lawmakers should listen to their governor and drop plans for “right-to-work” legislation. Don’t repeat Wisconsin’s tumultuous past. Gov. Scott Walker just urged the Legislature not to take up a bill placing restrictions on private-sector unions similar to those that Act 10 applied to public-sector unions in 2011. “The right-to-work legislation right now, as well as reopening Act 10 to make any other adjustments, would be a distraction from the work that we are trying to do,” Walker said. He’s right. Wisconsin should focus instead on improving our schools and economy, fixing a state budget deficit and building more...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will roll out “responsible” tax plans that protect against revenue gaps. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Arizona’s new Republican governor are delaying big dreams of nixing the income tax as they face budget shortfalls. And Missouri Republicans, once jealous of their neighbor Kansas’ massive cuts, are thankful they trimmed less. Call it the Brownback effect. Story Continued Below . . Republicans once idolized Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as a tax cutting superstar — now he’s a lesson in what not to do. “It’s a cautionary tale on a national scale … Many of us felt that...

In a new poll of likely Republican primary voters nationwide by Zogby Analytics, 2012 GOP nominee Romney leads the pack with 14%, followed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (12%), Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (10%), New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (8%), former Arkansas Governor and now Fox News Host Mike Huckabee (7%), Florida Senator Marco Rubio (7%), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (5%), Rep. and former Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan (4%), Texas Governor Rick Perry (4%), Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (3%), Texas Senator Ted Cruz (3%), South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (2%), former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (1%), and both...

Sen. Ted Cruz, the firebrand conservative freshman from Texas, has blown up the Senate leadership’s plans to have a peaceful weekend by forcing round-the-clock votes on President Obama’s nominees and the $1.1 trillion omnibus.Cruz took to the floor late Friday to castigate congressional leaders for trying to pass the 1,600-page spending bill after only a few hours of debate and questioned the resolve of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to fight Obama’s executive order protecting five million illegal immigrants from deportation.“Even though millions of voters rose up just one month ago to protest how...