Free Republic

February 27, 2007 -- IT is nearly impossible for the chattering classes - on all sides of the political divide - to comprehend the heat being generated by Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid. The fallback explanation is just to say "9/11" and be done with it. After all, how else can you explain a man with Giuliani's supposedly liberal social views possibly rise as high as he has - besting John McCain among Republicans by as many as 22 points in one poll? Many on the right profess amazement at the lead he's opened up among Republican primary voters, considering his...

It is too early to make definitive statements about 2008, but the evidence points to a change in the tone, if not the substance, of the Republican message. Although moderation is in the eye of the beholder and difficult to define, the GOP message and messenger are much more likely than in the recent past to be less beholden to, or a member of, the party's strongly conservative wing. There are two reasons why: * The background and views of the two leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona and former...

No one electable is “suitable” for those sitting in the right side of the tent. If the GOP wants to hold the White House, it needs to be smart. Four or eight years of another Clinton White House will put us back where we were. We’re still trying to dig Clintonistas out of the woodwork in order to fight for conservative causes. McCain’s straight-talk express is something the MSM has championed to give Hillary a GOP target they can destroy. He doesn’t excite anyone but the MSM. The no-name recognition problems of good people like Brownback and Hunter are goint...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- These days, it seems as if it is good politics for conservatives to address the annual convention of gay Republicans. "Keep pushing the Republican Party because you're pushing it in the right direction," New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the Log Cabin Republican convention over the weekend. That is a far cry from the 1992 Republican convention, when the party's far right wing attacked the gay community. "Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent the most pro-lesbian and pro-gay ticket in history," said Pat Buchanan at the 1992 GOP convention. The convention crowds responded with enthusiasm....

Hello RNC, are you listening? I just received a call to renew my RNC membership. The solicitor assured me with my questions and concerns that RNC is moving away from supporting Log Cabin Republicans. I felt relieved, thanked him and authorized him to transfer me to the verifier to make a donation. I tell the verifier, if what was said was true, that the RNC is moving away from supporting the Log Cabin Republicans, he can double my donation amount. The verifier, gets mad/defensive. Asks me why would the RNC not support Log Cabin Republicans? He says they are part...

February 24, 2007Rudy To Attend CPAC I reported a piece last month about how Rudy and McCain were skipping some conservative conferences.  One of the events I mentioned that they had not yet RSVP'd to is the Grandaddy Of Them All -- the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC.   Turns out Rudy will attend CPAC.  He'll speak to the confab Friday.

Surrounded by firemen, medics and police officers in a small fire station in the Deep South, Rudy Giuliani was introduced by local dignitaries as "the face of the 9/11 response" and the man who "was there when the twin towers were hit".He is running for the White House in 2008 but it was that fateful day in 2001 that will define his candidacy. "On September 11, 2001, the terrorists who attacked us wanted to achieve two things," he said as the South Carolina audience hushed. "They wanted to kill a lot of Americans and they wanted to break our spirit."...

Many of the emails I received regarding my recent column on Rudy Giuliani agreed with my premise that his social liberalism outweighs his important stances on national defense and fiscal conservatism. Still, many more are willing to overlook this; they remain convinced that Rudy is their guy, based mainly on his promise to appoint originalist judges and the "fact" that no other candidate can beat Hillary Clinton. As to the first, what, besides his say-so, gives so many conservatives the idea that he'll appoint strict constructionalists? One reader lauded Giuliani's "consistency of sticking to his views" as one reason. But...

Rudolph Giuliani for president?  Please.  There's more chance I'll simultaneously be made head of NOW and the NAACP and be invited to George Soros' next soiree.  I know a little something about Giuliani.  Although my politics, faith, appearance, gun case and, well, most everything about me say otherwise, I was raised in New York City.  And one of my last acts before departing the Den of Iniquity for suburbia was to cast a vote for America's Mayor.  Don't hold it against me; he was running against David Dinkins, a man who made Forrest Gump look smart.  Unlike the piece I...

On right now...

Hagel for President No, that's not an endorsement. Sunday, February 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST No, we don't mean this as an endorsement. The Journal doesn't endorse candidates, and on the big issues of the day we don't much agree with Chuck Hagel in any case. But with the Nebraska Republican loudly agitating for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, we think it's time the Senator tested his ideas somewhere other than the Sunday talk shows.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Log Cabin Republicans at the state capitol are putting pressure on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a gay marriage bill this year, NBC11's Mike Luery reported. "When it comes to marriage, we believe in the fundamental fairness of the American people. There has never been a major civil rights movement that has failed in the United States," said statewide director of the Log Cabin Republicans, James Vaughn. The Log Cabin Republicans said they see marriage equality as a civil rights issue, Luery reported. They equate it to the racial equality movement promoted by Abraham Lincoln, the log...

Before I get into what I hope to be a well-reasoned and economically sound discussion of Arnold Schwarzenegger's new "universal health care" plan, please bear with the following outburst: Arnold's plan is some of the most muddle-headed, idiotic, socialist crap I have ever seen from a serious politician, much less from a Republican. The highlights (lowlights?) of the plan: * California employers of 10 or more workers will be required to offer health insurance or else pay 4% of their payroll into a state insurance coverage program. * All children will be covered by insurance, either private or through the...

In the months leading up to the 2006 midterm elections, as pundits and bloggers looked forward to the '08 presidential election, there was almost a universal sense of conventional wisdom that John McCain was the plainly recognized frontrunner, whereas Rudy Giuliani's stature as a contender would immediately plummet "once those conservatives found out about those liberal social views of Rudy's." Then, during the summer of 2006, the mainstream media and beltway thinkers had their proof. A serious political action organization was formed by a group of hardcore social conservatives, dedicated to tearing down any chance of Rudy's at grabbing the...

The founder of a prominent Trenton lobbying firm with deep roots in Republican politics pled guilty yesterday to using "inflated and fraudulent" invoices to collect more than $2.5 million in fees from the Burlington County Bridge Commission over seven years. Robert Stears, a founder of The Strategy Group in Trenton, said he routinely submitted invoices to the commission for lobbying and other work that was never done. Stears, 51, of Lawrence, also admitted he failed to file federal income tax returns from 1999 to 2004, avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax payments. Stears pled guilty to mail fraud...

WASHINGTON — In recent years, the Republican Party aimed to broaden its appeal with a "big-tent" strategy of reaching out to voters who might typically lean Democratic. But now a debate is growing within the GOP about whether the tent has become too big — by including gays whose political views may conflict with the goals of the party's powerful evangelical conservatives. Some Christians, who are pivotal to the GOP's get-out-the-vote effort, are charging that gay Republican staffers in Congress may have thwarted their legislative agenda. There even are calls for what some have dubbed a "pink purge" of high-ranking...

THE cluttered closet of the Republican Party is being wrenched open by the sex scandal involving the disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley and his explicit computer messages to teenage male interns on Capitol Hill.Washington’s gay Republicans — the “velvet mafia” — are caught in the crossfire of an election-time battle over who should take the blame for allowing Mr Foley to continue his predatory activities for so long. On one side are radical gay activists seeking to expose the “hypocrites” willing to work for a party that has campaigned so hard against proposals such as same-sex marriage. Since the Foley...

Based on what you know now, do you approve, or do you disapprove, of the job New York congressman Tom Reynolds has done in response to contact between congressmen and teenage pages? Approve 20% Disapprove 66% Not Sure 14 500 Adults, +/- 4.2% MOE Partisan breakdown: 41% Republican29% Democrat23% Independent

This iswhat David Corn is claiming..The link is being blitzed... http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/10/the_list_of_gay.php

BRAINERD, Minn. - State Sen. Paul Koering once fit neatly into the profile of socially conservative central Minnesota: abortion opponent, supporter of gun and property rights, outspoken supporter of veterans. But last year, Koering was the only Republican in the Senate to join Democrats in opposing an effort to force a floor vote on a constitutional gay marriage ban. That stirred up long-standing rumors at the Capitol about Koering's own sexuality, and within a few days he revealed that he was gay — a move the area's GOP chairman called "political suicide." In Tuesday's primary, he will find out if...