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Vivek Ramaswamy left Republican voters scratching their heads after he said in an interview that he wants to evaluate giving pardons to members of the Biden family if he’s elected president.That stood in contrast to recent calls by Ramaswamy for a special counsel to criminally investigate the Biden family for its business dealings and alleged influence peddling.“After the I am leading the great revival. After we have shut down the FBI, after we have refurbished the Department of Justice, after we have systemically pardoned anyone who was a victim of a political motivated persecution — from Donald Trump and peaceful...

Rush slams Daniels on big tent By: Jennifer Epstein February 14, 2011 02:42 PM EST Mitch Daniels called on the GOP to look beyond talk radio listeners to find voters — but Rush Limbaugh isn’t having it. “You don’t diss the people who are already audiences of those shows — you don’t say that they’re irrelevant or unnecessary,” Limbaugh said on his show Monday afternoon when asked about Daniels’ comments. “Who won elections for your party year after year after year?" Speaking Friday at CPAC, Daniels said that Republicans needed to broaden their appeal to win elections. “We will need...

What Haley Barbour didn't tell Fox News: he lobbied for Mexico on 'amnesty' By: Time Magazine's Michael Scherer Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour made the case Sunday on Fox News that his career as a high-powered federal lobbyist for domestic corporations and foreign governments would be an asset if he ran for President in 2012. Barbour may be eager to showcase his record, but one of Barbour's foreign lobbying clients could cause him some troubles in the 2012 Republican primary, if he decides to run. According to a State Department filing by Barbour's former lobbying firm, The Embassy of Mexico decided...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is meeting with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to talk about a pending arms treaty with Russia and other issues . A White House official said Rice and Obama have a "cordial relationship," and the president looks forward to Friday's meeting covering "a range of foreign policy topics." The official isn't authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez is becoming a banker. Martinez, who resigned from the U.S. Senate last September, was named Monday as chairman of JPMorgan Chase Bank's Florida market and its operations in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. As JPMorgan Chase Bank's senior Florida executive, Martinez will also serve on Chase's corporate executive committee and work with senior level clients ranging from businesses to large corporations and non-profits to governments. The 63-year-old Martinez will be based in Orlando. Chase Bank is the sixth-largest bank in Florida based on deposit market share with nearly $11 billion deposited...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- For years, while the rest of the city teemed with immigrants from across the world, Staten Island remained a bastion of native New Yorkers and first- and second-generation Europeans. Not any more. The Island has the fastest growing immigrant population in the city - a population that has grown by 41 percent since the last Census in 2000, and more than doubled since the 1990 Census. At least one-fifth of all current Islanders were born outside the United States. These newest Islanders -- who come from Mexico, Italy, China, Ukraine and Russia -- are profoundly transforming...

Visitors to the Basilica of the National Shrine in northeast Washington often do a double take when they see Newt Gingrich and his familiar shock of white hair slip into a pew for the noon Mass on Sundays. The former Speaker of the House is known for many things, but religious zeal is not one of them. In fact, the social conservatives who fueled his Republican revolution in 1994 often complained about Gingrich's lack of interest in issues like abortion or school prayer. This past spring, however, after several decades as a nominal Southern Baptist, Gingrich converted to Catholicism. With...

Stateline, Nev. - Former Vice President Dan Quayle gives President Obama high marks for surrounding himself with quality advisers on national security and the economy. But he says the verdict is still out on whether his Democratic administration will govern as liberally as he campaigned. "I think his biggest challenge is to tame the left wing of his party," Quayle said in an interview with The Associated Press at Lake Tahoe. "I guess we'll find out how `left' Obama really is because he's going to have to make some very tough decisions where he is either going to have to...

Since becoming the RNC Chairman Mr Steele has: Gone on TV to speak out against "red lining" of minority groups and businesses. This type of race baiting got us into to this economic mess pushed by groups like Acorn and the Democratic party. Went after Rush Limbaugh and attempted to undermine him after his remarkable speech at CPAC. Calling some of his comments "ugly" and "incendiary". Came out on liberal news media saying abortion is a choice. Shooting down the idea of calling the Democratic Party the Democratic Socialist Party. What wrong with telling the American people the truth? Now...

One in four Republicans say Mitt Romney is their top choice for the 2012 presidential nomination -- giving him a slight lead over Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday. Of all the Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents polled, 26 percent favored Romney as the nominee while 21 percent preferred Palin. Nineteen percent favored former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and 14 percent chose former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. While Palin trailed the former Massachusetts governor slightly in presidential preference, the majority of Republicans polled had a more favorable opinion of the Alaska governor than they did of...