Free Republic

Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled their bipartisan blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform Thursday, a move hailed by President Barack Obama as progress on an issue for which he has been criticized for ignoring. “The American people deserve more than empty rhetoric and impractical calls for mass deportation. We urge the public and our colleagues to join our bipartisan efforts in enacting these reforms,” the Senators said in a Washington Post editorial posted online Thursday. The Schumer-Graham outline entails four key components: a biometric Social Security identification card for employment verification; strengthened border security and interior law...

Former Republican House leader Dick Armey said staunch anti-immigration opponents such as Rep. Tom Tancredo are destructive to Republicans — and are alienating a “natural” constituency that could help the party win elections. “Who in the Republican Party was the genius that said that now that we have identified the fastest-growing voting demographic in America, let’s go out and alienate them?” Armey said, referencing Hispanics, during a luncheon in Washington at the National Press Club. “When I was the majority leader, I saw to it that Tom Tancredo did not get on the stage because I saw how destructive he...

PHOENIX (AP) — John McCain and Sarah Palin are scheduled to campaign together in Arizona next week for the first time since they conceded the presidential election in Phoenix in 2008. Palin and McCain will be at a rally and picnic in Tucson on March 26, followed the next day by a rally in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.

Senator Lindsey Graham, ever the faithful follower of uber-RINO John McCain, scored three RINO initiatives in just one week. Reminiscent of the "the band's getting back together" scenes from the movie "Blues Brothers", Graham and McCain reached back to the good old days of bipartisan shafting of conservative judicial nominees and offered the Democrats another "Gang of Fourteen"--this time to shaft the public with a bipartisan Obamacare bill. The offer must have been tempting to the Democrats who remember how "bipartisan leadership" from Graham and McCain spiked conservative guns when the Republicans were in the majority in the Senate. But...

WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - It's rare when a conservative Republican in Congress heaps praise on President Barack Obama, especially in regards to fighting global warming, but Senator Lindsey Graham did just that on Wednesday. The South Carolina lawmaker has, despite opposition from many in his party, worked with Obama and Democrats on a comprehensive energy and environmental bill, winning their support of more government aid for nuclear power and expanded oil and gas drilling. Nuclear power and domestic oil production are at the core of Republican platforms. "The president has been great to work with on energy and climate,"...

A new battle over illegal immigration is rapidly shaping up in the nation's capital. Supporters of comprehensive immigration reform are demanding immediate legislative action from the Obama administration with a planned mass demonstration in Washington scheduled for March 21, billed as "March for America: Change Takes Courage." Meanwhile, Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have been meeting with the White House to reintroduce immigration legislation. The bipartisan effort is reminiscent of twice-failed attempts by Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., during the administration of President George W. Bush.

I cannot tell how much of this outrage about Sarah Palin's endorsement of McCain is feigned by those who do not wish her well. It is not principally to those folks that this post is directed. To those conservatives who are genuinely disappointed by Sarah Palin's decision to support McCain, let me say that I think Rush and Mark Levin understand it and have said that it is a question of loyalty and that loyalty is a virtue. That makes sense to me and, personally, I would be a little put off if she did otherwise, since it would look...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is warning the tea party activists to not run third party candidates that would “divide” Republican voters and waste opportunities for the GOP. Romney said in an interview with Newsmax posted on the conservative outlet’s website Monday night that he was pleased the conservative grassroots movement is “silent no longer.” The likely 2012 GOP presidential candidate cautioned though that while he supports the idea of conservative challenges in GOP primaries, third party tea party-backed candidates in the general election could be disastrous. “Divide and fail is the result,” Romney said of third party challenges. “That...

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham denounced a recent ad questioning the loyalty of Obama administration lawyers who had previously represented suspected terrorists. The ad — run by Liz Cheney's group Keep American Safe — derided the unidentified appointees as the "Al Qaeda 7” asking "Whose values do they share?" “A defense attorney who is making the government do their job regardless of the nature of the case is making this whole country a better place,” said Graham, a military lawyer who’s currently a senior instructor at the Air Force JAG School. “I represented people as a defense attorney in...

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain. Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker. The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past....

When March 26, 2010 Time 5:30pm – 8:30pm Where Arizona Biltmore 2400 East Missouri Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85016 You are cordially invited to a reception and dinner with Governor Sarah Palin in support of the re-election of U.S. Senator John McCain on Friday, March 26th. For more information and to RSVP please click here. (snip) [Ed. Note: the following text is from the donation/RSVP Web page for the event.] Honorary Co-Chairs Senator Jon Kyl Congressman Jeff Flake Congressman Trent Franks Congressman John Shadegg Event Co-Chairs Vicki & Jim Click Anita & Ross Farnsworth Sharon & Dr. Oliver Harper Cathy &...

Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday outlined his plan to help President Obama close Guantánamo if the administration agrees to abandon a civilian New York terror trial for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in favor of a military tribunal. BY MARK SAPPENFIELD On Sunday, two moderate senators defended President Obama’s apparent willingness to reconsider his administration’s decision to use a civilian New York terror trial for the admitted mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The first, Senator Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina, is seen as the architect behind the Obama administration’s potential change in plans. He has promised...

Until last night, when I watched the Republican debate, I had no idea how much John McCain dislikes me and just about everybody else but Rudy Giuliani, who if you believe The New York Times is a pretty good hater himself. As I watched McCain and Governor Romney go at it during the debate at the Reagan Library I was struck by the huge gap that separates McCain -- whose contempt for his fellow humans is patently obvious -- and my dad, Ronald Reagan, who had nothing but the deepest affection and respect for the American people. The feeling is...

Despite steep odds, the White House has discussed prospects for reviving a major overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, a commitment that President Obama has postponed once already. Obama took up the issue privately with his staff Monday in a bid to advance a bill through Congress before lawmakers become too distracted by approaching midterm elections. In the session, Obama and members of his Domestic Policy Council outlined ways to resuscitate the effort in a White House meeting with two senators -- Democrat Charles E. Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- who have...

It is early evening on Capitol Hill, and I am sitting with Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican, who, along with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, is trying to craft a new energy bill — one that could actually win 60 votes. What is interesting about Graham is that he has been willing — courageously in my view — to depart from the prevailing G.O.P. consensus that the only energy policy we need is “drill, baby, drill.” What brought you around, I ask? Graham’s short answer: politics, jobs and legacy. We start with politics. The Republican Party today has...

Report: 3 key senators propose jettisoning 'cap-and-trade'; favor reducing carbon pollution. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three key senators are writing a new climate bill without a broad "cap-and-trade" approach to reducing carbon pollution, leaving behind what has been the central feature in the debate over climate legislation for years, The Washington Post reported Friday night. Cap and trade, in which overall pollution reduction targets are met by allowing facilities to buy and sell pollution credits, has become so politically unpopular that its Senate passage is viewed as unlikely. So Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn,., are...

Washington (CNN) – President Obama tersely reminded Sen. John McCain Thursday during the White House health care summit that, "We're not campaigning anymore. The election is over." The president was referring to the 2008 presidential race, but McCain still has a Senate campaign to deal with back in Arizona. And on Friday, his re-election campaign released yet another radio spot, this time enlisting his fellow Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl to promote McCain's "conservative principles." Kyl narrates the 30-second ad and tell listeners: "Arizona could have no stronger advocate than John. He's with me every step of the way in fighting...

In critiquing Glenn Beck’s CPAC speech taking the Republican Party to task for failing to own up to its Big Government lapses, Bill Bennett cites various Republicans who have admitted the party’s culpability. But see if you can spot the glaring problem with his defense of the GOP: From Jim DeMint to Tom Coburn to Mike Pence to Paul Ryan, any number of Republicans have admitted the excesses of the party and done constructive and serious work to correct them and find and promote solutions. Even John McCain has said again and again that “the Republican party lost its way.”...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced the members of the Senate Republican delegation to Thursday's White House health-care summit, and the list includes Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The Arizona Republican is not known as a health-care expert. But as the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, McCain offered a sweeping reform plan with some elements that overlap with the Obama proposal, and others that would have represented a radical departure from the current system.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed Monday he is working with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to break the logjam on closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and bringing the prisoners to trial. The South Carolina senator said that in a series of meetings and phone calls over the last “several weeks,” he has pressed to establish a new national security court that would keep most Guantanamo detainees out of the federal courthouse. He expressed confidence that he could strike a deal to extend some measure of habeas corpus rights to prisoners detained on terrorism charges and...