Free Republic

House Speaker John Boehner isn’t following his fellow Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s cave-in yesterday on a Department of Homeland Security spending bill, and the distance between them is becoming more clear. The Ohio Republican told colleagues he hadn’t spoken to McConnell in two weeks, and while some lawmakers attempted to downplay the rift, the chasm between the two chambers is growing wider. “In November, people thought Harry Reid was going to be dethroned and the Senate was going to be controlled by Republicans. I’m sad to say that hasn’t happened,” said Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ), a key conservative,...

If some pundits want to make a case that the Tea Party is dead, or dying, they might want to check with the New York Times. The paper of record rightly points out that in the people's house, not only are conservatives and conservatism alive and well, they are actually "ascendant." But while the Senate passed a bill a year ago with some Republican support, there was no urgency to follow suit in the House, where conservatives dominate and the Tea Party is ascendant. In announcing the action, Mr. Obama signaled that he is increasingly willing to act unilaterally to...

Photos of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Bragging about blocking immigration reform. This is what it looks like when Eric Cantor is trying to gin up the right wing. As he readies for his June 10 primary, the House majority leader is blanketing his Richmond-area district with red meat mailings to beat back a challenge from Dave Brat, an economics professor at Randolph Macon College. One mailing has photos of Clinton and Obama, saying the Virginia Republican is “fighting for the truth about Benghazi.” Another mailer touts a story that called him the “No. 1 guy standing between the American...

State. Rep. Russell Pearce -- a Mesa Republican and a conservative firebrand in the immigration debate -- has formed an exploratory committee for a possible Congressional run. Pearce -- who favors tighter immigration controls -- is eyeing a possible challenge of U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Mesa. Flake has been a proponent of the business-backed guest worker program and federal immigration reforms that include a legal path for undocumented migrants already in the U.S. Pearce opposes such reforms and is a key advocate of a new state law that calls for revocation of business licenses if employers are caught knowingly hiring...