Free Republic

Tensions between the Republican Party and its own front-runner erupted into a full-blown public battle as top party officials rebuked Donald Trump on Friday for alleging that the GOP primary system was “rigged” against him. The dispute, which has been simmering for days, centers on Trump’s failure to win any delegates last weekend in Colorado, which selected its 34 delegates at a party convention rather than a primary attended by voters. All went to Trump’s chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The outcome prompted a daily stream of complaints and allegations this week from Trump, who wrote in an...

Two separate Republican homosexual groups are arguing over who made the first inroads into the GOP platform-drafting process. From the Washington Blade [a 'gay' news source]: GOProud disputes Log Cabin’s ‘first’ at GOP convention Two gay Republican groups disagree over the claim that the participation of Log Cabin in the 2012 Republican platform drafting process is a “first” for the organization as claimed by its executive director. On Wednesday, the Washington Blade reported that Log Cabin would have four members of its organization credentialed to take part in the platform drafting process, which will happen in Tampa, Fla., the week...

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) says that Congress is not going to cut off funding for Obamacare or Planned Parenthood because House Republican leadership is afraid of the threat of a showdown with Senate Democrats and the president – they’re afraid that Republicans would be blamed for a government shutdown. King said the House GOP leadership, if asked, would say that they did pass a repeal of Obamacare – and would blame the Senate, which didn’t take up the measure. But King also said House Republicans “didn’t use the leverage that we should have used.” “We didn’t bring up the maximum...

The future of the Republican Party is on display this week in Miami, where the Republican Governors Association Annual Conference is taking place. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke there Thursday — as did several other GOP up-and-comers. The conference comes at a critical time for the party, just nine days after its worst loss in decades. This is the first time in 14 years that Republicans do not control the White House, the House or the Senate. This, in part, helps explain why an event that usually attracts a few dozen political reporters drew at least 200 this...

Republicans are in position to play their once and future strong suit of limited government. Well, we Republicans have just made history. Not the type of history we wanted to make, mind you, but history nonetheless. Not only did we lose the White House but, after losing our House and Senate majorities in 2006, we followed it up Tuesday night with even steeper losses in Congress. In January, Democrats will enjoy lopsided congressional ratios not seen since the 1970s. Let's face it: We Republicans are now, by any reasonable measurement, deep in the political wilderness. The temptation for Republican members...

As Republicans the land over pick themselves up from the asphalt wondering what the hell just ran over them (it's called a "juggernaut") they need to confront the cold, hard fact that they no longer have anything remotely resembling a viable party organization. Republicans have two organizational options at this point: They can choose to rebuild themselves according to the Obama-Dean plan, which means they have to figure out how to tap into the energy of grass-roots activists, or they can continue to imitate the Clinton approach, which means they can continue to rely on a collection of wealthy, well-connected...