Free Republic

AS a Republican presidential primary candidate, Mike Huckabee is a puzzle. A Southern Baptist pastor and thoroughgoing social conservative, Mr. Huckabee has struck a distinctly populist chord when it comes to economics. He has criticized executive pay, sympathized with labor unions, denounced “plutocracy,” and mocked the antitax group the Club for Growth as “the Club for Greed.” And when it comes to foreign affairs he sometimes sounds almost liberal; for example, comparing the United States’ place in the world to “a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping...

Rush responds to Huck peace offering Rush Limbaugh — responding to Mike Huckabee's peace offering — said today that he doesn't need to talk with the former Arkansas governor. "I saw his comments and accept them as honest, sincere and genuine," Limbaugh wrote in an e-mail. Still, the conservative talk show host indicated his continued displeasure at the anonymous remarks Thursday from a Huckabee backer suggesting he takes his cues from the "D.C./Manhattan chattering class" that sparked this conflagration. "What was somewhat stunning about all this is that NO ONE in the GOP field, including advisers and staff, could possibly...

Romney slander on Reagan abortion record "totally untrue," former Reagan campaign manager said (snip) CBSNews.com: But the Romney people would argue that Ronald Reagan, whom you served as political director and campaign manager, changed his position (on abortion). Ed Rollins: Let me tell you the Ronald Reagan story. The Ronald Reagan story which (the Romney people) have used over and over again is totally untrue. First of all, Roe vs. Wade had not occurred yet [during his early years as governor]. RONALD REAGAN WAS NEVER PRO-CHOICE. Ronald Reagan signed a law that allowed women who had had psychiatric damage and...

CBSNews.com: Let’s start with the attacks on Governor Huckabee from a lot of Republican establishment figures lately. Rush Limbaugh has called him “the Huckster.” Rich Lowry, the editor of the National Review, has said it would be suicide to nominate him. Why do you think he's provoking all of this criticism? Ed Rollins: Well, I think first of all he is not an establishment candidate. I don't think anybody anticipated early on when he started to run that he would do as well as he's doing. Some of these guys have picked other candidates. And I think, to a certain...

Ed Rollins is Mike Huckabee's National Campaign Chairman. Appearing on this evening's Hardball, the renowned political consultant declined to say that Romney's religion wasn't relevant to the campaign. For good measure, Rollins suggested that a senior Romney aide is . . . an atheist. CHRIS MATTHEWS: Does faith bring you guys together or separate you? ED ROLLINS: Well, first of all, you and I are Catholics and Ron [Kaufman, senior Romney aide] are you still an atheist or have you basically converted, now that you're rich? View video here.

Like a sinner to the altar, Ed Rollins returned to New Jersey today, seeking forgiveness from the same black ministers he once boasted that he had bought. The Republican campaign consultant stood before the Black Ministers Council in a church basement here and apologized for claiming last November that he had helped Gov. Christine Todd Whitman win election by suppressing black voter turnout. At the time, Mr. Rollins told reporters that the Whitman campaign had paid black ministers not to encourage their congregations to vote for then Gov. Jim Florio. He quickly recanted, and a Federal inquiry found no evidence...

Rollins: Huckabee Can Fill Reagan's Shoes CONCORD, N.H. -- Mike Huckabee's low-budget, fast-moving campaign brought on some needed organizational muscle today in the form of Ed Rollins, the veteran political strategist for candidates including Ronald Reagan -- to whom he today compared his new client for his ability to communicate and connect with voters. "Governor Huckabee has probably inspired me as much as Ronald Reagan did," Rollins said after being introduced by Huckabee at a press conference here. "I've looked a long time to find a candidate like that...A lot of people walk around talking about the Reagan days and...

Excerpt - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee scored a major victory Thursday when he secured the support of prominent GOP insider Ed Rollins, who will serve as national chairman of Huckabee’s campaign. Rollins, who has struggled with recent campaigns, was known as the campaign manager behind Ronald Reagan’s landslide reelection in 1984. ~ snip ~

With over 400 days till the 2008 election, I am always amazed by the confidence and passion that everyday citizens express as they state their opinions on politics and the multiple candidates running for President. The two favorite opinions I hear expressed at New York and Washington dinner parties (certainly not representative of the country at large) is that Rudy Gulliani can't be the Republican nominee and there is no way the country is going to elect Hillary Clinton President. The facts that Rudy leads all national polls among Republican primary voters and that Hillary nearly laps her closest Democratic...

On the Republican side the news this week was all about Fred Thompson... As the only candidate who is acceptable to conservatives, acceptable to moderates, admired by the media and potentially saleable to independents - he knows how to act - he is also the only candidate on the Republican side who can win... I was of two minds about the whole Rudy thing until last Sunday when I was on a Creative Coalition panel with Ed Rollins, who ran Ronald Reagan's campaigns among about a zillion others, and he reminded me that while it's actually possible that the Republicans...

If I hear one more MSM outlet ascribe the implosion of John McCain's candidacy to his support for the war in Iraq, I'm going to scream . . Let's see. Why don't we check out this morning's "Today"? NBC REPORTER CHIP REID: He's been falling steadily in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from 29% in December to 24 in March and last month just 14%. His unwavering support of the Iraq war is unpopular with moderate Republicans and he insists he won't change his position for political purposes. Yeeeeeeeearrrrrrhhhhh! Reid did go on to mention McCain's support for "immigration reform"...

TALLAHASSEE - Even among Republicans, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris's U.S. Senate bid is in trouble: A poll today shows her getting only 35 percent of the vote in the GOP primary in September -- enough to beat her no-name opponents, but not even close to dominating the field. And matched up against incumbent Bill Nelson, Harris remains far behind if the election were held today. Nelson gets 59 percent to Harris' 26 percent in the latest Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters. ''She's stuck where she's stuck,'' said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Connecticut-based polling institute. ``There are a...

Longtime GOP political strategist Ed Rollins is denying that his client, New York Senate hopeful K.T. McFarland, is using Hillary Clinton's one-time private detective to dig up dirt on her Republican primary opponent. McFarland is facing former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer in the GOP primary in a race to see who will oppose Mrs. Clinton this fall. In an exclusive interview with NewsMax, Rollins acknowledged that McFarland hired the detective agency, Investigative Group International, but he insisted that it was to probe McFarland's own background. Rollins noted that Mr. McFarland and notorious IGI chief Terry Lenzner are "longtime friends." "Mr....

by Mark Finkelstein June 1, 2006 For the second day running, Chris Matthews has run a Hardball segment entitled "Does Hill Fit the Bill?" It's his way of asking whether Hillary Clinton would make a good presidential candidate, and, presumably, by play-on-words, whether she's up to the political standard set by Bill. While Matthews hasn't squarely answered his own question, he clearly seems skeptical about Hillary's personal and political qualities. His first guest on the topic this evening was the urbane Roger Altman, Hillary adviser and a Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration. Matthews grilled Altman on Hillary's hawkishness....

ALBANY, May 10 — There are the children he fathered with a subordinate while he was still married to someone else. Add to that some charges of nepotism. And for good measure, throw in a top aide who pleaded guilty to sodomizing a 15-year-old boy. It is not a soap opera. It is opposition research, the dark political art known to practitioners simply as "oppo." Its subject is John Spencer, the former mayor of Yonkers, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The research is being rolled out by the campaign of a fellow Republican,...

(AP) ORLANDO, Fla. A political strategist who left U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' Senate campaign last month said Harris ignored her staff's recommendation to reject a defense contractor's $10 million appropriation request, now being challenged by a congressional watchdog group. Harris insisted the request be submitted even though it was late and hard to understand, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel's Thursday editions. The newspaper cites Harris' former chief political strategist Ed Rollins. "She told them she wanted it done," Rollins told the paper. "And she wanted it done now." Harris spokesman Chris Ingram declined to comment Thursday...

Boxer's opponent still unable to run campaign ads on TV By Erica Werner ASSOCIATED PRESS October 16, 2004 WASHINGTON – Sen. Barbara Boxer has raised $16 million for her campaign for a third Senate term, compared with $6.2 million for Republican opponent Bill Jones, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday. AdvertisementThe Federal Election Commission reports show Boxer, D-Calif., who has begun to spend heavily on television ads, with $1.4 million cash on hand as of Sept. 30. Jones had $838,000. Though he has been trailing in polls, Jones managed to raise more money than Boxer during the most recent...

Firestone Weekend's message:'Win one for the Gipper' "Let there be no mistake -- California is in play for President Bush," thundered Mario Rodriguez, the party's vice chairman, to loud applause. In an overview of competitive legislative seats, Republican analyst Allan Hoffenblum described how many more districts were in play than previously expected -- largely because of excitement about Schwarzenegger. Ed Rollins, the Jones campaign's senior strategist who managed President Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign, said that with its vast financial resources, the Bush campaign would be "fools" not to make an effort in California, even if the prospects for victory were...