Free Republic

Donald Trump may have mastered the art of the deal once again, with rumors he will replace Pete Hegseth with Ron DeSantis as his pick to head Defense in exchange for Trump's daughter-in-law Lara getting Florida's open Senate seat. The Florida governor and Trump have reportedly had one-on-one discussions about the move. A GOP source told The Bulwark: 'These discussions are real. It's serious. I can't say it's definitely going to happen, but the governor is receptive and Trump is serious, too.'

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., revealed on Sunday that he is being placed on the House Republican Steering Committee in exchange for supporting Kevin McCarthy for House speaker. Donalds revealed the new appointment during a Sunday appearance on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo. His appearance followed an epic 15-ballot election for McCarthy to become House speaker. To become speaker, McCarthy had to make concessions to a small group of hardliners who refused to support him until he yielded to their demands. "I’m frankly just happy that it’s all over with, and that we got something transformational and sound for the...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is confident he can narrowly win the speakership in January, even if it takes multiple rounds of voting for it happen. McCarthy said Tuesday that if he does not reach the number of votes needed on January 3 to win on the first ballot — that is, 218 votes if all voting members are present and vote for a person, rather than vote “present” — then he plans to put up a fight to win on subsequent ballots.

House Republicans’ speaker nominee Kevin McCarthy does not yet have enough votes to win a floor election in January, but he told reporters Tuesday he will not drop out of the running and plans to take the fight to the floor if necessary. “We’ll have 218,” the California Republican said, referring to the number of votes necessary to win a majority of the House in the floor election. “I'll get there.” Before the Thanksgiving recess, the House Republican Conference nominated McCarthy for speaker. He earned 188 votes in the secret-ballot conference nomination. His opponent, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, earned 31...

Sheldon Silver, a former New York Assembly speaker who brokered legislative deals for two decades before criminal charges abruptly ended his career, was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison by a judge who said political corruption in the state must end. The punishment, announced by U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni, amounts to five fewer years in prison than she gave him after he was initially convicted in the case in 2015. She noted that the conviction of the 74-year-old Democrat came in a year in which Joseph Percoco, a once-close aide to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and former...

Last night, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump’s “very special guest,” endorsed him at Iowa State University. Of course, a lot of people are shocked that she would endorse him over Ted Cruz. She’s the Tea Party darling after all, standing for conservative values from supporting gun rights to defunding Obamacare. Cruz communications director Rick Tyler said earlier Tuesday that the campaign would be very disappointed if Palin supported Trump because she:...has been a champion of the conservative cause and if she was going to endorse Donald Trump, sadly she would be endorsing someone who's held progressive views all their life on...

A House plan to make major cuts to food stamps would be scaled back under a bipartisan agreement on a massive farm bill, a near end to a more than two-year fight that has threatened to hurt rural lawmakers in an election year. The measure announced Monday by the House and Senate Agriculture committees preserves food stamp benefits for most Americans who receive them and continues generous subsidies for farmers. The House was expected to vote on the bill Wednesday, with the Senate following shortly after. The compromise was expected to cut food stamps by about $800 million a year,...

The Senate easily confirmed President Barack Obama’s selection for ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday, capping a month in which senators used a bipartisan truce on once-mired nominations to fill a cluster of vacancies in the president’s second-term administration. Senators approved Samantha Power for the post by 87-10. The vote put the former Obama foreign policy adviser and outspoken human rights advocate into the job formerly held by Susan Rice, whom the president has made his national security adviser. … Power joined a stack of nominees that senators have approved since striking a bipartisan deal in mid-July. Republicans agreed...

Eurozone finance ministers will meet in Brussels today amid Greek political chaos and fears over the health of Spain's banking sector. Ministers from the 17 countries that make up the EuroGroup are to convene at 4pm GMT for talks that one senior EU official told the Wall Street Journal would be "very political". Events will be dominated by the ongoing problems in Greece, which once again failed to form a coalition government on Sunday. Talks in the country will continue today, but reportedly without Alexis Tsipras, the leader of far-left party Syriza. He has said he wants to keep Greece...

Chicago (AP) -- Former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich says all he's guilty of is some "political horse trading" and that if that's a crime, prosecutors need to charge every politician in America. . . .

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Virginia, said that he voted in favor of the health-care overhaul because he thinks it will lower health-care costs...Warner and Virginia's senior senator, Jim Webb, also a Democrat, recorded their votes to advance the legislation. In the end, the Senate's 58 Democrats and two independents voted to prevent a filibuster and move the bill toward likely passage before Christmas... Webb said the debate "often overwhelmed the substance" of fixing the problem. Warner and Webb said they thought that late changes in the Senate bill improved it. Warner cited the dropping of the public option. But Warner,...

Britain demands plum UN posts in backroom deal By Richard Beeston and James Bone BRITAIN has demanded a key United Nations policy job as the price of supporting the man likely to become the new UN Secretary-General. Before throwing its weight behind Ban Ki Moon, the South Korean in the leading position to succeed Kofi Annan, the Government set out conditions that included the promise of top jobs for British officials. The “unseemly” horse trading also involved other countries, according to diplomatic sources. It took place behind closed doors before Mr Ban cleared the latest hurdle — an informal straw...