Free Republic

It really is stunning how open the republican leadership in both the House and Senate are with their disdain for the base of their own party. Reports now surfacing that the GOPe has entered negotiations with Nancy Pelosi to support Paul Ryan. According to Roll Call the Democrats are willing to elect Ryan if the GOPe promise to give them comprehensive immigration reform and amnesty legislation. Representative Steve King warns of the political bloodbath which would follow such a deal. As Rep. Paul Ryan’s history of working for open borders has come under increasing scrutiny, conservative lawmakers have begun to...

It’s enough to make any Wisconsin taxpayer sick. For 40 years, state legislators have enjoyed a special benefit that not only grants them sick leave but also allows them to bank all unused sick days and use the cash value of those days to pay for health insurance after they retire from the Legislature. “It’s a health-care golden parachute for legislators,” said State Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay. Because lawmakers aren’t required to call in sick when they miss a day in the Capitol, few ever use any of their sick leave. The unused days pile up over the years,...

Presidential candidate Donald Trump set off another political firestorm Friday after implying that President George W. Bush was to blame for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, drawing the ire of his Republican rivals.

As a veteran of the global smart phone wars, Apple is used to courtroom battles with fierce competitors such as Samsung and Nokia. This week, however, a federal jury returned a verdict against Apple in a lawsuit brought by a different kind of adversary: a public university. The University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, convinced a jury that Apple had infringed its patent for improving chip efficiency when the company incorporated the technology into some of its phones and tablets. Research institutions and universities have not traditionally been major players in patent litigation, and even now...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker John Boehner is signaling that he'll move must-do legislation to increase the government's borrowing cap before he leaves Capitol Hill.</p> <p>The statutory cap on the government's so-called debt limit needs to be raised by early November, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday, confirming a recent warning from the administration.</p>

Donald Trump can win the GOP’s 2016 nomination — unless the crowded GOP field consolidates around a rival, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker admitted Wednesday. “Yeh… it’s possible” that Trump can win, Walker told Wisconsin’s 620 WTMJ.

Donald Trump can win the GOP’s 2016 nomination — unless the crowded GOP field consolidates around a rival, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker admitted Wednesday. “Yeh… it’s possible” that Trump can win, Walker told Wisconsin’s 620 WTMJ. Trump can be defeated if the candidates rally around a consensus candidate, Walker said, at 13.50 into the interview. “If more Republican [candidates] sat back and say ‘Boy, I can have an impact in narrowing this field so that…..a true conservative with a positive message is the viable alternative, maybe it is time to suspend the campaign’… I think you’ll get a viable alternative,”...

The honor of it all aside, Rep. Paul Ryan would do well to decline the speakership of the House. For it is a poisoned chalice that is being offered to him. The Republican Party is not, as some commentators wail, in "chaos" today. It is in rebellion, in revolt, as it was in the early 1960s when Barry Goldwater's true believers rejected Eisenhower Republicanism and Nelson Rockefeller to nominate the Arizona Senator for president. A similar and bristling hostility to today's establishment has arisen, in the GOP Congress, the country, and the presidential race. The acrimony attendant to this militants...

If you needed any more reason not to support Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House, check out the Fox News hacks this past Sunday. Karl Rove and George Will are basically in love with Paul Ryan, claiming he would be a perfect selection to replace the weeping drunk Boehner. George Will must have some sort of connection to Republican RINOs from the state of Wisconsin. His wife worked on Scott Walker’s failed campaign, and now he wants Paul Ryan to be the next speaker. When you add Karl Rove to the mix, it basically tells you what type of...

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will not run for the House Speakership unless conservatives surrender “unconditionally” to him, Politico reports citing sources close to Ryan. “The conservatives who drove out Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) would need to get behind him unconditionally for speaker,” Politico’s Jake Sherman writes of the donor-class-backed Ryan. Ryan does not want to run for Speaker, he and his spokesman Brendan Buck have made “abundantly clear,” Sherman writes—before noting what exactly it would take for Ryan to get in the race. “But there’s one remote scenario, people close to him say, in...

"Open borders seeps out of every pore of his being."

Madison— Rebecca Bradley was sworn in as a state Supreme Court justice on Monday and soon afterward participated in oral arguments. Chief Justice Patience Roggensack made a brief mention of Bradley's appointment to the court just before arguments but did not dwell on it. "I think you will notice we have a full complement of justices," she told those gathered for arguments. GOP Gov. Scott Walker appointed Bradley to the bench Friday to replace Justice N. Patrick Crooks, who died Sept. 21. Crooks had said he was not going to run for re-election next year, and Bradley was one of...

In an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy offered his honest — and correct — assessment of his party in Congress. Here's the key bit: I think the House is bordering on ungovernable right now. ... Being Speaker is a very difficult job. We need to have a family conversation and sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before that conversation starts. We're getting close ... Now, Gowdy was explaining to Welker why he wouldn't be interested in the soon-to-be vacant job as speaker of the House. But his reasoning is almost certainly why Paul Ryan...

Newt Gingrich issued a warning to Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) Sunday morning, saying that he “should be very cautious” when considering running for speaker of the House.Asked by Fox’s Chris Wallace if he thinks Ryan should take the job, Gingrich was hesitant to push the Wisconsin congressman towards what many describe as a “thankless” position. (RELATED: Freedom Caucus Would ‘Look Favorably’ On Paul Ryan As Speaker)“I think Paul should be very cautious,” Gingrich told Wallace. “He is the most prestigious member of the House on the Republican side. He has the best future, he’s still very young.”“It’s easy to get 218 on the first...

Another 2016 hopeful, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has stepped in for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as the headline speaker for the Family Foundation of Virginia's annual gala Nov. 14 in Richmond. Walker was slated to headline the organization's 30th annual gala at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, but he announced Sept. 21 that he was dropping out of the presidential contest. Cruz also addressed The Family Foundation's annual gala in October 2013. This time his father, the Rev. Rafael Cruz, will join the senator and will discuss the importance of family and fatherhood. During his March 23 presidential campaign announcement...

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump thinks Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is “a very nice guy,” but “far from [his] first choice” to be the next Speaker of the House. Trump weighed in on the race for House Speaker on Twitter Saturday morning: “Paul Ryan is far from my first choice, but a very nice guy. The Republicans should go for tough and (very) smart this time – no games!” His tweet comes after CBS News reported that Trump said he would be “okay” with Ryan as Speaker in an interview set to air Sunday on Face the Nation. Trump said of...

Friday on MSNBC, Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) doesn’t want to be House Speaker because he would have to work with the “extreme” Republicans who want to take away the rights of gays, woman and minorities.

The reason Rep. Kevin McCarthy abruptly pulled his name from the running for the job as House speaker Thursday may be exactly as he explained – his untoward comments attributing a political purpose to a House committee investigating Benghazi. Or it may have been something else – as speculation swirled on Thursday about an alleged affair with another member of Congress. And if that was the case, one report is suggesting people look to the Obama administration for a level of involvement. Because the trail could link back to the administration’s Department of Homeland Security.

Hopefully that’s just a bluff Boehner is using to twist the arms of House conservatives who’d otherwise object to another center-right Speaker. Line up behind Ryan, Boehner is saying, or else I’ll stick around and make your lives even more miserable. What his leverage is in doing that isn’t immediately clear to me; wasn’t the whole reason he quit in the first place because he wasn’t sure he had the votes to survive the challenge being led by Rep. Mark Meadows to oust him? But maybe this little nudge will be enough to convince the Freedom Caucus to give Ryan...

Powerful Republican Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) stood firm on Thursday in his desire not to become the next Speaker of the House. Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, issued a statement after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy shocked the GOP when he abruptly ended his candidacy to replace Speaker John Boehner. "While I am grateful for the encouragement I've received, I will not be a candidate," Ryan said. "I continue to believe I can best serve the country and this (Republican) conference as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee." CNN reported McCarthy was with his wife...