Free Republic

Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday night he’s a little too busy with his re-election bid this year to have a beer with Sen. Rand Paul. The senator from Kentucky made the pitch earlier in the day, hoping to ease tensions that have escalated in the past week between the two potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders. But Christie gave no indication he plans to take up Paul on the effort. “I’m running for re-election in New Jersey, I don’t really have time for that at the moment. If I find myself in Washington, I’ll certainly look him up,” Christie said on...

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) suggested in an interview Friday that he supports the border security deal crafted by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) . . . . //////////////////// Excerpt only.

A long-simmering feud between establishment Republicans and tea partyers is in full view again with Sen. John McCain accusing younger colleagues of using tactics that might tempt Democrats to change Senate rules that now protect the minority party. How to deal with the government’s debt and spending became the latest quarrel between the GOP’s 2008 presidential candidate and tea party champions such as Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. …

If there is one key word that we have heard over the past several years, it is compromise. Everywhere you turn, no matter what issue we are talking about, compromise always comes to the top of the discussion. In almost every instance, it is the liberals declaring that conservatives need to compromise. They threaten us with all kinds of rhetoric, declaring that we are hard-nosed, hard-headed, stubborn, all because they say we refuse to compromise. Let's look a little closer. We compromised on fiscal issues by agreeing to a deal to end the so-called fiscal cliff earlier this year. What...

Barack Obama’s top political aide used an Inauguration Day interview to sketch out a provocative political strategy intended to split the Republican Party in time to impact the 2014 midterm elections. “The barrier to progress here in many respects, whether it is deficits, measures to help economy, immigration, gun safety legislation … is [that] there are factions here in Congress, Republicans in Congress, who are out of the mainstream,” White House advisor David Plouffe said on CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley.” “We need more Republicans in Congress to think like Republicans in the country who are seeking...

For all the pissing and moaning over the fiscal cliff, there was never much of a "cliff" in the first place. Worse yet, every delay made matters increasing irresponsible in terms of addressing the deficit. The final result, as passed by the Senate, watered down budget cuts from $600 billion to a mere $12 billion. Moreover, the extension of the tax cuts will add almost $4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years according to CBO analysis of the American Taxpayer Relief Act. Nonetheless, that was not enough for liberal democrats who thought they did not get enough out of...

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) may have finally gone too far betraying conservatives. This past week, he removed three conservative Republican Congressmen from their committee positions in retaliation for not voting for his compromises on the budget with Democrats – compromises that led us to the current “fiscal cliff.” Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) was removed from the Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) were removed from the Budget Committee. All three were elected with strong Tea Party support. An aide to GOP leadership said they were removed for “not being team...

Fellow right-facing warrior Kevin Eder came up with this line, I found it on my Facebook feed, and it was too good to not make something of it.Follow him on Twitter. It's definitely worth it!

In response to statements by Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas that he would not demand the “right of return” for PA Arabs to the homes that their grandparents and great-grandparents abandoned in the State of Israel – statements Abbas later reneged on – Hamas has issued its own document on the matter. Even if the PA as a matter of policy were to agree not to demand that nearly all the Jews of Israel be thrown out of their homes to accommodate the descendants of “refugees,” Hamas said it wold never agree to such a plan – and any concessions...

The "fiscal cliff" crisis is here. Wouldn't it be great if the White House and Congress could solve this crisis together, without having to compromise the principles of either side? Sound impossible? Not really; engineers achieve such magic all the time. Here's how.

It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    --Alexander Solzhenitsyn A big thanks...

The moral relativism of the “lesser of two evils” philosophy has been draining the heart and soul of America for decades...it has become apparent to me that the talking points and propaganda that drive the hypocritical worldview are being utilized on an even grander scale than ever before. [snip] Good does not compromise with evil...there is nothing to be gained by it...the people most prone to suggesting or demanding compromise with oligarchs and tyrants are usually cowards who have never faced down any legitimate struggle in their lives with any passion...how do they sell this stunted philosophy to others? The...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said Thursday he wants to call a special session for lawmakers to raise taxes and reverse $500 million in planned budget cuts but is waiting on House and Senate leaders to meet beforehand and work out a unified plan. During a day in which he conducted several radio and television interviews, the Democratic governor said he would call legislators back to Annapolis “a half-hour from now” but needs assurances that a special session will not include the bickering and gamesmanship that caused a revenue package to fall through Monday on the General Assembly’s last day, triggering...

In May 1953, the Polish government ordered the implementation of a decree giving the state the authority to appoint and remove Catholic priests and bishops throughout the country: The Catholic Church was to become a subsidiary of the Polish state; its clergy would act as agents of state power; and its educational and charitable activities would be approved (or rejected) by a state intent on bringing the most important institution in Polish civil society to heel. The bishops of Poland, who had tried for years to find a modus vivendi with the Communist regime, now drew the line. Meeting in...

Prior to the “Republican Revolution” of 1994, Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia had earned an A rating with Gun Owners of America. But that all changed in 1995, after Republicans were swept to power and Gingrich became Speaker of the House. The Republicans gained the majority, thanks in large part to gun owners outraged by the Clinton gun ban. And upon taking the reins of the House, Speaker Gingrich said famously that, “As long as I am Speaker of this House, no gun control legislation is going to move in committee or on the floor of this House and there...

Step 1: The first rule of the establishment is: Do not admit you are part of the establishment! Step 2: Disarm them with praise Step 3: Moderate whoever they pick as the 2012 nominee. Step 4: Teach them about compromise. Step 5: Never forget reality

Benedict XVI recently visited again his native Germany, but this time with a different agenda. Five years later, the Vatican adopted a pro-Islam course and has capitulated to fundamentalists. In a recent book written by German journalist Peter Sewald, Pope Ratzinger expressed “regrets” about the Regensburg lecture. The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, buried the Pope's lesson about Islam as “an archaeological relic.” “The default positions vis-à-vis militant Islam are now unhappily reminiscent of Vatican diplomacy’s default positions vis-à-vis communism during the last 25 years of the Cold War,” writes George Weigel, a leading US writer about the Vatican....

NEW YORK -The Obama administration insisted Monday there was still time to avert a divisive showdown over Palestinian statehood, ignoring President Mahmoud Abbas' defiant pledge to take his government's case to the United Nations and reaching out to Western allies in the hopes of a last-ditch compromise. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was engaged in "extremely intensive" diplomacy with Israel, the Palestinians and the other governments gathered in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting. A statement from the U.S. and other key Mideast peace negotiators on a possible path forward appeared to be...

Rick Perry's dangerous Muslim compromise Posted: August 14, 2011 9:00 pm Eastern By Joel Richardson © 2011 There's no doubt that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has made a massive national splash in recent weeks by calling for a large prayer and fasting rally in the Texas' Reliant Stadium. The gathering garnered widespread support, as it should have, from a broad spectrum of evangelical Christians throughout America. Even nominal Christians will admit that the United States now more than ever, deeply needs the church to pray. But while many Christians fully supported the call to pray and fast for our nation,...

Reflections on a debate question Most reporters ask the same questions again and again, variations on a theme… “what did you do,” “what do you want to do,” and maybe even “what do you think of what somebody else did?” But, once in a while, an election cycle produces a defining theme, so one single average-sounding question can teach us a fundamental truth, or two, or three. Such a moment occurred when Bret Baier of Fox News asked the Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential nomination whether they found tax hikes so distasteful that they would walk away from a...