Free Republic

Ted Cruz has the lead in Wisconsin as its primary nears, up 43 percent to 37 percent over Donald Trump in an electorate that plays to Cruz's strengths, where Republicans are apt to call themselves "very" conservative and Cruz seems poised to take advantage. In Trump's home state of New York, however, Trump has a dominant lead over the field, 52 percent to 21 percent for Cruz and 20 percent for Kasich. The billionaire leads by wide margins as best to handle multiple issues including terrorism, bringing back jobs, and the ability to defeat Hillary Clinton if she is the...

Last week the unhinged #NeverTrump crowd started up a list of conservative supporters of Donald Trump — so that they can blackball these Trump supporters. The list was initiated by Cruz supporter Amanda Carpenter who is usually kind and intelligent but now suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.Today former Governor Sarah Palin responded to the threats from the elitist GOP crowd. This was brutal.  

Hooray For the Blacklist! Revelation "The Man" Was Either Lying Then or They're Lying Now Yippee! We're blacklisted! Patriots who've had enough of Washington DC hypocrisy and t'aint gonna take it anymore are now officially "blacklisted" and "targeted" (*note: you are not allowed to use those politically incorrect words, you racist gun clingers; only the chosen ones are allowed). The so-called "conservative" Professional Political Class has united against me and others for supporting our party's frontrunner and refusing to join their ‪#‎NeverTrump‬ campaign that will ultimately elect Hillary Clinton. The self-appointed kingmakers don't even hide the fact their efforts to...

WASHINGTON — As most Republicans were taking a victory lap the morning after the elections, a group of conservatives huddled anxiously in a conference room not far from Capitol Hill and agreed that now is the time for confrontation, not compromise and conciliation. Despite Republicans’ ascension to Senate control and an expanded House majority, many conservatives from the party’s activist wing fear that congressional leaders are already being too timid with President Obama. They do not want to hear that government shutdowns are off the table or that repealing the Affordable Care Act is impossible — two things Republican leaders...

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...

WASHINGTON – Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, has announced his office has taken the initial steps to call for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Cornyn is the Senate minority whip and second-most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill. He is also facing a challenge from Stockman for his Senate seat in the Texas GOP primary on March 4. A Stockman spokesman told WND a formal Request For Investigation was filed with the Senate Ethics Committee Monday. He said Cornyn could face as many as 24 counts of using his Senate office to promote his reelection campaign. The...

As the battle between the grassroots and the establishment sides of the Republican Party rages on, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is taking a very public stance on the side of the establishment. “I’m going to embrace being a Chamber of Commerce Republican,” Graham said in an interview with The Greenville News in Greenville, SC this week. The Chamber of Commerce represents the biggest group fighting on behalf of the GOP establishment in its ongoing battle with the Tea Party movement, becoming deeply involved in Republican primary elections and pushing comprehensive immigration reform on Capitol Hill. “There’s a fight in our...

So what happened? Why didn’t those Tea Party lawmakers and conservative groups get their way? Here’s what happened: Boehner took control.

Even as their political prospects brighten for 2014, Republicans are at odds with each other.Glen Bolger, one of the Republican party's leading pollsters, told the Washington Post today that the Republican party needs to stop being the "dysfunctional equivalent of the Washington Redskins."Related Stories RSC Fires Executive Director for Leaking Talks to Outside GroupsPaul Ryan Says Conservative Attacks Are a 'Strange New Normal'John Boehner Blasts Conservative Groups: 'This Is Ridiculous' If anything, Bolger was being too generous. The ongoing Republican soap opera between the so-called establishment and the emboldened conservative grassroots is even more chaotic than the latest drama between...

Back in January of 2010, I drove my old Honda from D.C. up to Massachusetts to help out the Scott Brown campaign in the final days of the push to get him elected to the U.S. Senate. It was a very stimulating experience, because the entire country was caught up in the special-election drama of a charismatic Republican’s bid to win what had for decades been Democrat Ted Kennedy’s senate seat, and of course because Brown did end up winning. It was exhilarating, to join in and be part of what seemed to be such an historic accomplishment in American...

It began with Richard Nixon. He showed Republicans how to win elections and lose their soul, how to capitulate to statism and call it a “new kind of freedom.” Consequently the GOP is now a carbon copy of the Democrat Party. Throughout the seventies and eighties, neoconservative intellectuals eagerly fostered this “new kind of freedom” which gave Republicans an excuse to blank out on the reality of what they were doing. Led by the late Irving Kristol and big government luminaries like Harvard sociologist Patrick Moynihan and Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz, these influential former socialists infiltrated the Republican Party like...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There's a fight brewing and it could get ugly. In one corner is the Republican Party. And in the other ... the Republican Party. The stakes could not be higher. The GOP has failed to get a majority of Americans to vote for its presidential candidates in five of the last six elections. And Tuesday night's gubernatorial races -- a win in New Jersey and loss in Virginia -- sent confusing signals, at best, about where the party is headed. The fight spilled out into the open in a race for Alabama's 1st Congressional District, with two Republicans the face...

Democrats all over the country rejoice at the news that Terry McAuliffe defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the race for Virginia governor on Tuesday. To them, this victory is a resounding triumph over the conservative right, and a clear message to all Americans that the radical ideas of the Tea Party have no place at the national or state level. To them, this is a loud and clear message that the Tea Party and their radical agenda are on their way out. What is the real message of the Virginia gubernatorial race? -snip- Do you think it is possible, that...

Up until now, the war between the Tea Party and the “establishment GOP” (however you define that) has been kind of one sided. Responses from the old guard have tended to run along the lines of, “we’re all fighting for the same goals, we just don’t agree on the tactics” or, more simply, “can’t we all just get along?” But this week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sat down with Peggy Noonan for a WSJ interview which is bound to have some tongues wagging. In it, he’s essentially taken off the gloves, and said what most of the media mavens...

In the coming two to four years, the Republicans seem ready to engage in a battle royal for the soul of their party. And it sure will be ugly. It looks like a war between the Backward Caucus and the usual Conservative Caucus. Forget the moderate Republicans; most of them were put out to pasture long ago. Parties have seen battles between factions since the founding of the republic: the Whigs, the Bull Moose Party, conservative Democrats, liberal Republicans — plenty of splinter groups to go around. Conservatives took over the Republican Party in the 1970s and northern liberal Republicans...

Establishment Republicans, looking to push back against Tea Party conservatives they blame for undermining the GOP brand, face an early test of their clout with the grassroots in Tuesday’s primary election for Alabama’s 1st congressional district. Amid a concerted effort by the Chamber of Commerce to secure a win for former state Sen. Bradley Byrne in the deep-red district, polls show his race against conservative underdog Dean Young remains a toss-up. “No one can say that one side will definitely win, and that’s what’s got everybody so nervous,” said David Mowery, an Alabama-based Republican strategist. Byrne and Young are vying...

“I think conventional wisdom is that time is not on our side,” McCain told reporters on Monday after an event in Chicago. “But there are a number of members of Congress who have primaries and when those primaries are done, they may be more inclined to address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform.”

“The Establishment Strikes Back.” But this campaign against the tea party will fail, because false assumptions dominate the thinking and plans of America’s Republican establishment. GOP insiders have now declared war on the tea party. They are promising during the 2014 U.S. elections to restore business interests to dominate the GOP, and weaken the tea party influence. “Hopefully we’ll go into eight to 10 races and beat the snot out of them,” said former Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio. According to the National Journal, “LaTourette’s new political group, Defending Main Street, aims to raise $8 million to fend off tea-party...

Dude, they’re feeling it. The RINOs are ready to charge. Assuming they’re successful and a bunch of tea-party incumbents get bounced from the House, it’s pretty much third-party time for grassroots conservatives, right? From Alabama to Alaska, the center-right, business-oriented wing of the Republican Party is gearing up for a series of skirmishes that it hopes can prevent the 2014 midterm election from turning into another missed opportunity. This will not be a coordinated operation. It will be messy, ugly, and prone to backfiring. And if the comeback succeeds, it will be in fits and starts, most likely culminating in...

Writing in National Journal, Beth Reinhard reports that the Republican Party is gearing up to exorcise itself of conservative and Tea Party elements it believes will lead the GOP to defeat in 2014. "Hopefully we'll go into eight to 10 races and beat the snot out of them," said former Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio, whose new political group, Defending Main Street, aims to raise $8 million to fend off Tea Party challenges against more mainstream Republican incumbents. "We're going to be very aggressive and we're going to get in their faces." Tactics being discussed among Republican consultants, donors, and...