Free Republic

The repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy owes much to Sens. Susan Collins and Joseph I. Lieberman, who kept the issue alive when it appeared dead in the kind of partnership that is likely to become a model for getting things done in next year's divided Congress. Mr. Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut, and Miss Collins, a Republican from Maine, plan to join President Obama at the White House on Wednesday when he signs the bill into law. The signing ceremony caps off a late-season effort that saw the military's ban on openly gay men and women...

(AP) Republican Mark Kirk broke with his majority of his party Saturday to support repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military, casting one of the first high-profile votes he’s faced as Illinois’ junior senator. The Senate voted 65-31 to let gays serve openly in the military. President Barack Obama was expected to sign the legislation next week, although the change wouldn’t take immediate effect. The House had passed an identical version of the bill, 250-175, on Wednesday. Kirk was one of six Republicans to break ranks. The move was a reversal for him after...

Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party’s failure to capture the Senate. With tea party-backed candidates going down in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada, depriving Republicans of what would have been a 50-50 Senate, a bloc of prominent senators and operatives said party purists like Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) had foolishly pushed nominees too conservative to win in politically competitive states. (snip) Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott put it plainly: “We did not nominate our...

Republican political strategist Mark McKinnon – veteran of McCain and Bush presidential campaigns – acknowledged in an interview with David Frum that a third-party presidential effort for 2012 was not far off, and hinted at his involvement in one. In the podcast interview, McKinnon, who was discussing his recent Daily Beast column “A Centrist Manifesto”, lamented that “there’s nobody that gets rewarded for bipartisan behavior, [and] in fact they get punished.” To that end, he said, “there is a very real possibility for a legitimate third party effort for 2012 … American voters are so hungry for more voice, and...

Sen. Lindsey Graham says Obamacare will be a disaster for South Carolina if it’s allowed to be completely implemented in 2014, so he’s going to introduce legislation to repeal and replace the health care law. (snip) Instead of the Obama health care plan, Graham says under his plan, "The government would buy policies for every Medicaid recipient and their family in the private sector to give them better access to health care." (snip) Graham says his replacement plan would include parts of the Obama health care law. He likes that it allows parents to keep a child on their health...

(CNN) – Sen. John McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, wants to make one thing clear, "I am not the one running for Senate." McCain’s comments about Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell as a "nut job" while appearing on ABC's "This Week" program Sunday, immediately received harsh criticism and backlash. A response that day from the O'Donnell campaign mocked McCain for having "vast experience in politics and running for office." McCain is now firing back. The 25 year-old, whose departure from conservative orthodoxy on some issues is no secret and has put her at odds with some in the GOP base,...

Sen. John McCain’s victory in the Aug. 24 Arizona Republican primary was fueled partly by transfers of $7.5 million from his 2008 presidential campaign compliance fund — an account GOP Congressional strategists are now eyeing as they look to finance a growing list of competitive midterm races. McCain’s compliance fund reported $17.1 million in cash on hand as of June 30, with $4.65 million in transfers to the Senator’s re-election committee having been made during the second quarter of this year. Additional transfers were made before the August pre-primary fundraising reporting deadline. McCain also used the compliance account to make...

PHOENIX—An ebullient John McCain celebrated his resounding GOP Senate primary win with Gov. Jan Brewer, Sen. Jon Kyl and the state’s Republican congressional delegation at a unity fundraiser Friday night. Conspicuously absent: former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, whom McCain soundly defeated Tuesday following a bitter and acrimonious campaign. Organizers said he received an invitation to the event, just as others losing candidates did, but Hayworth claims the opposite. “I never received an invitation – nothing ever crossed my desk,” the former six-term congressman told POLITICO Saturday.

Remember four months ago when she was demanding that they remove her name from an RNC fundraising invitation to donors? Some pol-watchers at the time took that as a sign that she was trying to distance herself from the Republican brand. (“Who wouldn’t want to be sort of seen as more of an outsider and that’s how she’s positioned herself.”) Fast-forward to today and suddenly she’s signing letters on their behalf. What gives? Two theories. One: She’s turned out to be such a good soldier and is so favorably disposed to Michael Steele that she’s willing to do a fundraising...

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Republican Senate candidate Jane Norton has been criticized throughout her campaign for being too cozy with Arizona Sen. John McCain. Two days before the contest ends, though, the former Colorado lieutenant governor launched a cross-state sweep promoting her association with McCain, whom she called an "American hero."McCain told reporters in suburban Denver he came to the state two weeks before his own Republican primary because he wanted to urge Republicans here to choose Norton over Weld County prosecutor Ken Buck. "We need a lot of help right now," McCain said, talking about Republicans in the Senate.

In a surprising move given her reputation as a political outsider, Sarah Palin is helping the Republican National Committee raise money ahead of November's elections. Palin has attached her name to a letter and survey being mailed to RNC donors soliciting contributions for the committee's Victory 2010 program, a nationwide get-out-the-vote effort. "Millions of Americans are expressing their frustration with the state of our government. I join them and seek to return our country to greatness," reads the letter, obtained by CNN Friday.

As Sen. John McCain assumes the GOP front-runner mantle, his long-standing, but little-noticed association with donors such as George Soros and Teresa Heinz Kerry is receiving new attention among his Republican critics. In 2001, McCain founded the Alexandria, Va.-based Reform Institute as a vehicle to receive funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute and Teresa Heinz Kerry's Tides Foundation and several other prominent non-profit organizations.

Sarah Palin started off her keynote speech at at this morning's Susan B. Anthony List "Celebration of Life" breakfast in downtown Washington D.C. with a defense of her endorsement of Republican California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina. Palin justified picking Fiorina over the other Republicans in the primary race by remarking that "anyone bold enough to proclaim their pro-life stance -- or pro-NRA stance in a deep blue state" like California is "the real deal" when it comes to pro-life credentials.

Gov. Crist to make announcement on political future ThursdayGov. Charlie Crist's fall from Republican Party grace will finally hit rock bottom on Thursday when he is expected to announce that he will run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, according to several news sources citing anonymous sources. Crist had ducked the question for the past few weeks, but previously was on the record as saying he would never leave his beloved GOP. And by never, he meant as long as he thought he could beat Miami Republican candidate Marco Rubio, which seems like a long shot now. Cruist has...

President Barack Obama called Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) on Tuesday to gauge his support for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, a sign the White House is serious about pushing the issue in Congress this year. Obama’s outreach to Brown is part of a quickly hatched, coordinated effort with congressional leaders to thrust the volatile immigration debate back to the front burner. At a joint House and Senate leadership meeting late Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to House leaders that he would put an immigration bill on the floor this year—and he secured a commitment from House Speaker Nancy...

Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) will roll out their compromise climate proposal April 26, according to several sources. While the date is a bit later than originally expected -- many environmentalists had anticipated it would become public next week, in time for Earth Day on Thursday -- the definitive date shows the senators are coming close to finalizing their package.

A great sadness will descend over this border town today as mourners fill the local high school gym to pay their respects to Rob Krentz. Two weeks ago, the 58-year-old rancher was shot and killed by what appears to be a drug smuggler. His death has created a tidal wave of emotion—Krentz was a pillar of this community where his family has ranched land here for a century. "The sobbing and crying from people I never thought I'd see cry, it's unbelievable," local veterinarian Gary Thrasher told me. Americans who do not live along the Mexican border often assume the...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says he is not abandoning negotiations on a comprehensive energy and climate bill even as he warns of partisan gridlock following the Democrats' push this week to pass health care reform. "It's going to make it very difficult to do anything complicated and controversial," Graham told reporters yesterday. "I'm still committed to trying to roll out a vision of how you can price carbon and make it business-friendly. We're still going to do that. ... But the truth of the matter is, I think you're going to find most of our colleagues around here risk adverse."...

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...