Free Republic

Carly Fiorina was not even a candidate for president when Jerrold Perenchio, a Los Angeles billionaire, started putting his money behind her this year and urging his wealthy Republican friends to do the same. -snip- “It’s a big plus for her to have Jerry in her corner,” said Karl Rove, a political adviser to former President George W. Bush, who helped found American Crossroads, a conservative group that has also received millions from Mr. Perenchio. “He is very generous guy who’s in a position to help her capitalize on what she started with her strong performance in the debates,” Mr....

The fiscal conservative advocacy group Club for Growth said on Tuesday it was funding $1 million in advertisements attacking Republican Donald Trump in the early-nominating state of Iowa, the first concentrated campaign to dislodge the front runner in the race for the GOP nomination.The ads will launch on Thursday, a day after the second official GOP debate in which Mr. Trump will again take the center podium. They publicize statements Mr. Trump has made in recent years in which he takes positions on health care, taxes, and other issues that the group says align him with Democratic front runner Hillary...

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that his immigration plan would include giving illegal immigrants six months to register as guest workers. “Those who are here, you know, we have to recognize that we can't just round them up, but we can give them an opportunity to register. I would give them a six-month period, and if they register and they have a pristine record, they haven't been causing problems, I would give them an opportunity to become guest workers, not citizens, not voting people, not people who get goodies,” said Carson. “And I...

The Club for Growth, a conservative group that has routinely criticized Donald Trump, plans to unveil a "major television ad campaign in an early presidential primary state" on Tuesday on the heels of asking top Republican donors to give the organization money to fund a multimillion-dollar campaign against the Republican front-runner. A public relations representative for the anti-tax group sent out a news release Monday morning announcing its super PAC arm, Club for Growth Action, would debut the ad on Tuesday morning at the National Press Club in Washington. Asked what the ad is about, Club for Growth spokesman Doug...

Them be war words. Club for Growth President David McIntosh released an email letter this weekend saying the group was not going to "back down" in their fight against Donald Trump. McIntosh claimed Trump is "posing" as an anti-establishment conservative, but in reality he’s a liberal. The letter accuses the billionaire of supporting single-payer socialized medicine "to the left" of Obamacare; advocating the largest tax increase in history; opposing a flat tax; use of eminent domain laws to seize private property; and protective tariffs that will lead to "massive trade wars." Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/club-for-growth-trump/2015/09/13/id/691339/#ixzz3lfzp3yzJ Urgent: Rate...

Ben Carson supports citizenship for illegal aliens. He didn't call for this in 2004, or 2008 or 2012 or late last year. He called for it just this past June. On Wednesday, Dr. Ben Carson said America’s borders must be sealed to protect against terrorism and told a prominent group of Latino elected officials that he also supports giving illegal immigrants a path to legalization and eventual citizenship. Regarding the country’s illegal immigrants, Carson said, “many of them have never known any other country … so where are you going to send them?” That's rather odd. I thought immigration was...

Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson isn’t persuaded by rival Donald Trump’s immigration plans. On Tuesday, the neurosurgeon-turned-politico told the Commonwealth Club of California that Trump’s proposal to deport all undocumented immigrants is "impractical." "People who say that have no idea what that would entail," he said during the 75-minute event. "Where you going to send them?" Another question: How would the U.S.' economy survive such a mass deportation. According to a study from the American Action Forum, deporting 11 million people would take nearly 20 years and cost the government anywhere between $400 billion and $600 billion. Overall, the Real...

Trump: Tax-cutting advocacy group has started running an attack ad campaign against him because he refused Club for Growth president David McIntosh's request for a million-dollar donation It looks like one of the preeminent tea-party-aligned groups has been outed for an attempted shakedown of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. According to Trump, the tax-cutting advocacy group has started running an attack ad campaign against him because he refused Club for Growth president David McIntosh’s request for a million-dollar donation. HTML5 video is not supported! Trump asked the group to release the letter McIntosh had sent him on June 2 requesting...

Early on today El Trumpo discovered that the “Club for Growth” was planning to hit him with some Donald-denying commercials: Donald J. Trump ‎@realDonaldTrump The phony Club For Growth, which asked me in writing for $1,000,000 (I said no), is now wanting to do negative ads on me. Total hypocrites! And so, he did what the Donald always does: Donald J. Trump ‎@realDonaldTrump .@club4growth should release the letter they sent me asking for $1,000,000. When I said no, they came out against me. A scam operation? Yikes!! Luckily for them, they wouldn’t provide the letter, because that would be terribly...

Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch are opening the tea party’s door for Republican Jeb Bush, whose time as Florida governor preceded the movement. It’s a valuable opportunity for a presidential contender whose competition is some of the tea party’s biggest success stories. On Friday in Columbus, Ohio, Bush is making his first appearance at the annual summit of Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs’ flagship conservative organization. He’ll address an expected 3,000 activists as the conference’s keynote speaker. That debut comes after the Kochs introduced Bush earlier this month to some of the most generous donors in their political network....

Wealthy hedge fund managers, bankers and private equity investors have signed on to host one of the first official fundraisers for Jeb Bush's soon-to-be-announced presidential campaign, a June 24 breakfast reception in New York that is on track to bring in at least $1 million. Already, three dozen heavyweight players have committed to raise a minimum of $27,000 each for the event, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by the Washington Post. Among them are New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, former Barclays chief executive Robert E. Diamond Jr., private equity executive Emil Henry, investment banker Jeff Bunzel,...

Illegal immigrants granted executive amnesty can claim back tax credits for work they performed illegally, even if they never filed a tax return during those years, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has confirmed to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). In a written response to questions Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Koskinen following a February hearing on the IRS budget, the IRS commissioner clarified his earlier assertions that illegal immigrants granted executive amnesty — and Social Security numbers — can access Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) for years they were working in the country illegally. Back in February, Koskinen said...

He was born in Midland, Texas, and he spent a good bit of his boyhood in Houston, and he went to high school in Andover, Massachusetts, and to college in Austin, Texas, and he has lived for the last three and a half decades in Miami. But at the top of the list of the most important places in the world in the life of Jeb Bush is the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, and its conservative, old-world Catholic capital of León. León is why he proposed marriage in Spanish, why his three children are Mexican-American, why his favorite foods...

Jeb Bush will have learned from this week's firestorm over his Iraq War comments, says Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who helped steer his brother to the White House. "He's a very smart guy. He's not a guy who needs the lesson taught to him twice," Rove told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie on Friday. -snip- Rove said he hasn't endorsed Bush — or any of the other Republican candidates who have formally declared their presidential bid. The the strategist said he was months away from making his decision. "I want everybody to get in as a candidate and then start showing...

The man at the microphone spoke in a language most Republican presidential primary voters do not understand. "You are part of the new wave of hope for this country," Jeb Bush said in fluent Spanish to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference this week. Switching to English, he said the U.S. needs immigrants for the country "to become young and dynamic again." It doesn't seem to matter that Hispanic voters typically do not have much say in Republican primaries. The former Florida governor's play to Hispanic values and policy goals has begun to shape his young political operation. Well before...

Jeb Bush is going to spend the next year defending his positions on issues that don’t always sit well with the conservative wing of his party. And on Thursday, he test-drove his defense of immigration and Common Core at an event organized by the conservative National Review. -snip- Bush gave a full-throated defense of his views on immigration Thursday, saying that the nation suffers when high-skilled and low-skilled workers aren’t allowed to legally immigrate into the country. “You need younger more dynamic people inside of our economy that are productive to get to 4 percent growth,” Bush argued. He knew...

If National Review editor Rich Lowry was looking for compromise on immigration from Republican Jeb Bush, he’s still looking. According to NR, Bush “and Lowry tussled over immigration policy and tax pledges.” Jeb wasn’t even willing to take the seemingly easy out of opting to secure the border first. One is left to wonder what the unemployed, “younger, more dynamic people” of Baltimore and other areas might think of Jeb’s reasoning.

Prospective Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush clashed with National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry over immigration policy on Thursday, telling Lowry “I love you. I just think you’re wrong on immigration.” -snip- “This isn’t a zero-sum game,” Bush said, taking issue with Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s contention that an immigration policy should, first and foremost, be based on protecting American workers and American wages. “[If] you want to grow at 4 percent instead of 2 percent per year, you need younger, more dynamic people inside of our economy to get to 4 percent growth,” he said. “You can’t do it with...

Much of the reporting on House Speaker John Boehner’s hiring of Rebecca Tallent to “lead immigration efforts in the House” has focused on her experience as a senior aide to Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) and her work with the late senator Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.) on the failed immigration-reform efforts of 2006–7. Less has been made of her most recent position as director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a think tank founded by a group of former Senate majority leaders from both parties. This association, critics say, is far more relevant to the current immigration...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching a heavy TV ad buy in defense of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, the latest turn in the establishment’s move to shore up GOP candidates against hard-right opponents, POLITICO has learned. The Chamber placed a $182,240 statewide buy on broadcast TV from Dec. 3 through Dec. 12, three media-buying sources said.