Free Republic

In the battle over voting rights, an idea is starting to move around in Republican circles: designated police forces designed to hunt down voter fraud. On the basis of available evidence, this is a solution in search of a problem. It is another example of what comes from former president Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has put a proposal for such a force in his new budget. In Georgia, former U.S. senator David Perdue, who is running as a Trumpian candidate in the GOP primary for governor against incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp...

By a wide margin, more Americans blame President Trump and Republicans in Congress than congressional Democrats for the now record-breaking government shutdown, and most reject the president’s assertion that there is an illegal-immigration crisis on the southern border, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Support for building a wall on the border, which is the principal sticking point in the stalemate between the president and Democrats, has increased over the past year. Today, 42 percent say they support a wall, up from 34 percent last January. A slight majority of Americans (54 percent) oppose the idea, down from 63...

Bill Clinton has made a mess. It was either out of foolish indifference or plain foolishness, but it has created a terrible moment for his wife and the Democrats, and for President Obama and perceptions of the integrity of his administration. [Snip] The meeting has provided fodder for Donald Trump and Republican leaders to cast doubt on whatever conclusions the career prosecutors and Comey come to. Trump called it "so horrible" and said he was "flabbergasted" by the reports of it. On Friday, he questioned the description of the conversation that took place. "I love my grandchildren so much," he...

Hillary Clinton's declining personal image, ongoing battle to break free of the challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders and struggle to adapt to an anti-establishment mood among voters this year have become caution signs for her campaign and the focus of new efforts to fortify her position as she prepares for a bruising general election. More than a dozen Clinton ­allies identified weaknesses in her candidacy that may erode her prospects of defeating Donald Trump, including poor showings with young women, untrustworthiness, unlikability and a lackluster style on the stump. Supporters also worry that she is a conventional candidate in an...

Donald Trump will come to Washington on Thursday for a series of meetings with Republican congressional leaders. The goal, all involved say, is to hasten the process of unifying a fractured party. The reality is that, nice words to the contrary, Trump and those party leaders are likely never to fully achieve that result.

“Our target date is June 7, but our goal is in the middle of May to be the presumptive nominee,” Paul Manafort, Trump’s newly installed convention manager, who has been given broad authority to shape the campaign, said in a wide-ranging interview here.

With a growing possibility that Trump will not arrive at July's GOP convention having the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination on the first ballot, his campaign will have to put more emphasis on the nuts-and-bolts, ground-level organizing at which his closest rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, has excelled. That includes assuring that the delegates, many of whom will be picked in coming weeks at district and state conventions around the country, are people who will be loyal to Trump if the convention goes beyond a first ballot in selecting a nominee. Under GOP party rules, most delegates...

As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump travels the country issuing strong condemnations of illegal immigrants and the government of Mexico, Hispanic voters are listening — and they don’t like what they are hearing, according to a new survey. The Univision News Poll, conducted by the independent research firm Bendixen & Amandi International with the Tarrance Group, shows that 7 in 10 Hispanic registered voters say they have an unfavorable impression of the New York businessman. Nine in 10 Hispanics say they have heard about Trump’s comments and, when read specific remarks, nearly 8 in 10 say they find them offensive.

The more serious problem for Democrats is the drubbing they’ve taken in the states, the breeding ground for future national talent and for policy experimentation. Republicans have unified control — the governorship and the legislature — in 23 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Democrats control just seven. Democrats hold 18 governorships, but only a handful are in the most populous states. In California, Gov. Jerry Brown won again at age 76, his fourth, non-consecutive term in the governor’s office. His victory means that younger Democrats will have to wait until 2018 to compete for one of...

Between now and the end of June, more than two dozen states will hold primary elections. A major subplot of this year’s midterm elections is the competition between the Republican establishment and the tea party wing of the party. The establishment is fighting back, but has the tea party already won? The general election is still six months off. But Tuesday opens the summer preseason of intraparty contests, which starts with an important primary in North Carolina. Between now and the end of June, more than two dozen states will hold primary elections. After a July break, the preseason will...

"Republican lawmakers Thursday blamed the Obama administration for the stunning resurgence of Iraq’s al-Qaeda franchise and called on the White House to take assertive steps to help Baghdad beat back militant uprisings in the country’s west." That's how Ernesto Londono opened his January 10 story "Republicans blame Obama administration for al-Qaeda resurgence in Iraq," a front-page-worthy story which Washington Post editors buried on page A10. By contrast, the Post ran not one but two Chris Christie bridge-scandal stories on the Friday edition's front page. The other stories rounding out the front page centered on efforts to hash out a long-term...

The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: The battle is joined!  Place your bets!  How badly will the GOP lose? Topics: Power Politics: Two Sunday exclusives as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and DNC Chairman Howard Dean join me to discuss gas prices, the 2006 elections and the war in Iraq. Will record low approval ratings for President Bush and rising gas prices fuel a Democratic takeover of Congress in...

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5 -- California long has been on the cutting edge of America's politics, and Tuesday's historic gubernatorial recall election is no exception. Once again, the nation's most populous state is helping to define the politics of discontent. In the final hours of an extraordinary campaign, the spotlight is on two men: Gov. Gray Davis (D), the career politician who is in grave danger of losing his job just 11 months after winning reelection; and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican film star who was pulling away from his rivals just before being hit by charges of sexual misconduct and...

Increasingly, the conventional wisdom among the press is the President Bush's re-election prospects are in trouble. After what can only be described as a terrible summer (thus far) for the Bush administration, CNN crowed that "in the latest TIME/CNN poll, Bush's job approval rating has dropped to 55%, where it stood before 9/11." Dan Balz of the Washington Post remarked that Bush's optimism "belied the challenges that have confronted his administration in the past month and the political toll they have begun to take on his presidency." Bill O'Reilly jumped on the bandwagon, warning that "just 48 percent would vote...

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), expanding a fight among Democrats, attacked former Vermont governor Howard Dean and several other rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday, arguing that they have embraced extreme left ideas that threaten to return the party to political exile. Saying he is in a fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, Lieberman said policies rooted in the "vital center" of the political spectrum, not what he termed the antiwar and big government policies of his rivals, provide the only hope of defeating President Bush. He warned Democrats that abandoning the policies that helped...

It’s election season, a time when pundits analyze and moralize without pause. But do the commentators who make a big deal of politics actually vote? Some have a hard time finding their way to the ballot box. Maureen Dowd, who savages politicians in her New York Times columns, was AWOL from 9 of DC’s 12 elections from 1994 through 2000. A registered DC Democrat, she voted in two general elections and missed every primary and local contest. Another Dem, The Capital Gang’s Margaret Carlson, also missed the eight DC primary and local elections during those years—despite writing an ode to...