Free Republic

Political perennial Charlie Crist is at it again. He announced Tuesday that he will run for the Florida congressional seat now held by Republican David Jolly, who will run for the U.S. Senate seat Marco Rubio is relinquishing to run for president. For those who’ve lost track, which would be easy to do, Crist is seeking the Florida 13 seat as a Democrat. This is Crist’s latest, though perhaps not his final, party affiliation in a career in which he has the distinction of having lost statewide elections as a Republican (U.S. Senate 1998), an independent (U.S. Senate 2010), and...

The establishment wing of the Republican party is finally getting its wish. After meeting with House Republicans this evening, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 58% admitted during a press conference that he was willing to run for Speaker of the House–but only if they met a list of demands of what it would take to get him to run. “We as a conference should unify now and not after a divisive Speaker election,” Ryan said, calling for Republicans to gather as a team and “move from an opposition party to being a proposition party.” Ryan’s list of demands appeared to highlight...

As the donor class continues to push for a Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) Speakership, conservative activists have renewed their scrutiny of Ryan’s support for a radical Republican policy of open borders. Breitbart News has discovered yet another little-noticed video in which Ryan articulates his commitment to immigration policies that would dissolve America’s sovereignty. The video, uploaded by the Journal Times, shows Ryan at a July 2013 bilingual Hispanic Listening Session in Racine, Wisconsin. At the meeting, Paul Ryan told a predominantly Hispanic audience that the job of a U.S. lawmaker is to put oneself in the shoes of foreign nationals...

With so much time spent and ink spilled over who will carry the banner for the GOP both in the presidential campaign and now for new House speaker, perhaps the real question is not who, but what is a winner. Some new survey data suggests an unorthodox issue might help Republicans attract voters who have been elusive to the center-right, and help the party re-establish its law-abiding, anti-crony moorings with its base. Would you agree that women, young people, liberals and minorities have cost the GOP elections? Wouldn’t it be worth noting an issue that has more than 70 percent...

Former President George W. Bush reportedly ripped into Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at a weekend gathering of donors to his brother's presidential campaign, according to a published report Monday. Politico reported that Bush said of Cruz, "I just don't like the guy," at the event, which was held Sunday night in Denver. According to the report, which cited at least six donors who were at the event, Bush said he did not like Cruz's de facto alliance with Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has notably spared Cruz from the criticism he has ladled onto other members of the 15-candidate Republican...

President Barack Obama ordered the US government on Sunday to take steps towards lifting sanctions on Iran, in line with the nuclear deal struck between world powers and Tehran in July. Obama's directive comes 90 days after the UN Security Council endorsed the Iran accord -- formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- a milestone referred to as "Adoption Day." "I hereby direct you to take all appropriate additional measures to ensure the prompt and effective implementation of the US commitments set forth in the JCPOA, in accordance with US law," Obama said in a memorandum.

IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger. But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on...

Just one week after the federal Bureau of Prisons banned pork products from its 122 prisons, pork roast will return to the dinner lines, officials said Friday. The reversal came just hours after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who represents the farm-strong state of Iowa, wrote to complain about the decision. "The pork industry is responsible for 547,800 jobs, which creates $22.3 billion in personal incomes and contributes $39 billion to the gross domestic product," Grassley wrote to Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels, Jr., reports The Washington Post, complaining that the "unprecedented" decision to take away pork could harm...

Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy stunned House colleagues when he announced that he would withdraw from the race to be the next House Speaker. In the immediate aftermath, Rep. Charlie Dent says "anything is possible now." To get anything done "we might have to assemble a bipartisan coalition, that’s the reality of this place," Dent told CNN moments after McCarthy withdrew from the race. REP. CHARLIE DENT: The next Speaker should not appease those who make unreasonable demands. There are a number of members of our conference. You cannot get the yes on anything. For them the end will be...

The House beat back an attempt Wednesday to dismantle the committee probing the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks as Republicans rallied around the controversial probe just two weeks before former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is slated to testify before it. Democrats have accused the Select Committee on Benghazi of being little more than a political attack machine designed to derail Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, and have seized on comments by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy as evidence. ep. Louise Slaughter, New York Democrat, proposed disbanding the panel, but Republicans ruled that out of order and then voted along party...

Illegal immigrants are “a critical part of our society” and should be provided a route to amnesty, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich tells a coalition of Hispanic company executives. “For those that are here that have been law abiding, God bless them,” he told the business group, which is a major advocate for expanded immigration. “Then I think the [illegals] should have a path to legalization… I think that can pass,” Kasich said, using one of the euphemisms for granting legal residency to illegal immigrants. The Ohio governor also claimed the illegal immigrants are skilled. The illegals “are a critical...

House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), an ally of House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in the upcoming Speakership elections, tells reporters that he thinks any GOP House member who doesn’t back McCarthy on the floor should be kicked out of the GOP to go form their own third party. “We’ve been down this road several times and at some point you have to realize how elections work, how the Congress functions and how—what’s laid out clearly in the Constitution as a Democratic Republic,” Nunes says. Several conservative House members are considering bucking McCarthy on the floor...

Assuming that there are good and bad people on both the right and the left and that everyone is horrified by mass shootings, how is one to explain the great divide between the Right and the Left on the gun issue as it relates to mass murders, such as the one recently committed at Umpqua Community College? Why does the Left focus on more gun-control laws, and why doesn’t the Right? One reason the Right doesn’t focus on gun-control laws is quintessentially American. Many Americans believe that it is their right — and even their duty — to own guns...

The White House confirmed that President Obama was preparing a series of executive actions on gun control to match his recent passion on the issue after the latest mass shooting in Oregon. “It’s a high priority and will continue to be until we start to see more progress on this issue in this town,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters today at the press briefing. Earnest said he would “quibble” with anyone who criticized the president for not voicing any specific gun control proposals during his press conference, asserting that the White House was working behind the scenes...

Sen. John McCain on Sunday blamed the airstrike that killed 22 people in an Afghan hospital run by the medical charity Doctors without Borders on the “fog of war” and the Obama administration’s withdraw of U.S. troops from the war zone. “We call it fog of war, unfortunately. And it’s a tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers go out to them,” Mr. McCain, a former Navy fighter pilot in the Vietnam War who now chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He said that the tragedy likely would have been avoided if U.S. troops...

The lede to this column is a deep, guttural groan that originates in the throat and expands into the lungs before collapsing in the pit of the stomach. How do you spell hmmmgrrrungh? What else is there to say about House Republicans' inability to get something right? And I say this with compassion, I really do. Because seriously? It's over. Done. Kaput. With Kevin McCarthy's recent response to the simplest question about GOP accomplishments in Congress, from the friendliest interviewer, Sean Hannity, a GOPer could hope for, the future may as well be called Democrat. Here's what McCarthy offered if...

I saw House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's attempt to "clarify" his comments about how the Benghazi Select Committee affected Hillary Clinton's poll numbers to Brett Baier earlier this evening and I must say he does not inspire confidence. McCarthy makes John Boehner look like Ronald Reagan. Now I have no sympathy for Harry Reid who characterized McCarthy's comments as a "political witch hunt". Given Reid's attacks on the Senate floor against Mitt Romney and the Koch Brothers, it is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. But if Republicans are to offer a credible legislative program and...

During an October 1 appearance on CNN’s Newroom, former US Marshal Art Roderick said the gunman at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College probably chose his target by knowing it was as gun free-zone and therefore “an easy target.” Roderick’s exact words: “[The gunman] probably knew that the facility was a gun free facility, [which is] an easy target for these kinds of coward individuals. They know they’re not going to get any response unless they happen to run into security or a campus police officer.” Roderick went on to explain that the key for investigators right now is ascertaining the gunman’s...

GOP presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he respects the Supreme Court's controversial okay of same-sex marriage, although he doesn't personally agree with it. In an interview with J.D. Hayworth, aired Wednesday on "Newsmax Prime," Kasich, who recently attended a same-sex wedding, said: "I'm a believer that faith is about the do's and not the don'ts and I also believe that faith is about grace. I made it clear I don't agree with the Supreme Court's decision but I'm going to respect the Supreme Court's decision." Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples who want...

The Saudi Arabian prince arrested last week for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman at the Beverly Hills mansion he was renting is just the latest rich and well-connected Kingdom VIP accused of running amok in America – and around the world. Majed Abdulaziz al-Saud was arrested Sept. 23 and charged with sodomy, battery and false imprisonment before being freed on $300,000 bail. The alleged attack, revealed after a passerby saw the bleeding victim scaling a wall to escape the $37 million mansion, is one of several similar cases involving suspects with ties to the Saudi royal family. Detectives also are...