Free Republic

Supposedly Team Paul is engaged in "initial discussions" with Santorum and Gingrich too, but c'mon. Newt's chances at the nomination are only slightly higher than Paul's are and Santorum's hawkish social conservatism makes him a total nonstarter for libertarians. Just today, Reason editor Matt Welch published a column shivering at the thought that Team Sweater Vest might be back for another try in 2016. Romney’s the only game in town for the rEVOLution, just as he’s been since the debates started. (According to Time, one of Romney’s allies joked that Paul is their “deputy campaign manager.”)This is the right time...

Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign has an interesting response to a call from the super PAC supporting Rick Santorum for the former House speaker to exit the race. It’s front-runner Mitt Romney who should say sayonara, says Gingrich policy adviser Vince Haley, Politico reports. The pro-Santorum Red, White and Blue Fund put out a statement Wednesday urging Gingrich to stand aside, so that the former Pennsylvania senator can stand as the former Massachusetts governor’s sole conservative challenger. Haley, appearing on Geraldo Rivera’s radio program, would have none of it. But his first response was to take on Romney rather than Santorum....

FOX News says Romney & GOP kept Gingrich off of Virginia ballot

Gingrich 29% Romney 30% Santorum 29% Paul 12%

The UN is ramping up their gun control efforts. They concluded a meeting in preparation of their plans for an Arms Trade Agreement, and at that meeting, the idea was put forth that transfers of arms and ammunition to "non-state actors" should be specifically banned by the Treaty. The UN says that, "An eclectic set of national and regional control measures on arms transfers exists, but the absence of such an international framework has unnecessarily obscured transparency and trust." Their aim is to complete the Treaty by the end of this year. The UN claims that this treaty will not...

LIVE DEBATE THREAD (Is it too early to start?)

Visionary...historian and constitutionalist Newt Gingrich speaks to the NRA, and provides a comprehensive exegesis on the 2nd Amendment. 26 minute video- in Newtonian style- Video at link. (my text)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DENVER — Colorado Republicans are reloading their holsters on attempts to expand gun rights. Some of their proposals this year are ideas that Democrats have rejected in the past. Republicans are trying to give business owners and employees the power to use deadly force against intruders. Another proposal would allow people to have a concealed weapon at schools or colleges if a person has a legal permit.

At a campaign stop this weekend, in-the-spotlight GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he supports increased Internet regulation. According to Santorum, our rights aren’t “absolute” and stop at whatever point their exercise begins to infringe on the rights of others. Piracy represents an abuse of intellectual property rights — and that abuse should have consequences, Santorum says.So far, so good. Everybody agrees that piracy is a problem.But Santorum seems too ready to look to regulation for the solution to the piracy problem, suggesting that government interference might be an effective way to thwart piraters. That, to me, seems short-sighted, given...

Newt Gingrich has ramped up his attacks on Mitt Romney as a heartless leveraged buyout executive for his years at Bain Capital, asking reporters in Manchester on Monday, “Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? Or is that, somehow, a little bit of a flawed system?” But Mr. Gingrich was himself on an advisory board for a major investment firm that had a similar business model, Forstmann Little, a pioneering private equity firm co-founded in 1978 by Theodore J. Forstmann...

In a press release this afternoon, Club for Growth criticized Newt Gingrich for his attacks on Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital, calling them unbecoming a “Reagan Conservative.” Club for Growth’s statement: Yesterday, Gingrich said “Those of us who believe in free markets and those of us who believe that in fact the whole goal of investment is entrepreneurship and job creation…we find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.” Gingrich’s attack was echoed that same day that by the Democratic National Committee, which...

Sarah Palin’s husband is endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, Todd Palin told ABC News today. But Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and John McCain’s 2008 Republican running mate, has yet to decide “who is best able to go up against Barack Obama,” Todd Palin said. Palin said he has not spoken to Gingrich or anyone from the former House speaker’s campaign. But he said he respects Gingrich for what he went through in the 1990s and compared that scrutiny in public life to what Sarah Palin went through during her run for the vice presidency.

Santorum's so-called surge is all but gone. Huntsman is catching up.

GOP New Hampshire primary debate tonight on ABC at 9pm ET By Nate, on January 7th, 2012 Tonight will mark the first of two debates this weekend focused on the New Hampshire Republican primary. This evening's debate will take place at Saint Anselm College and is sponsored by ABC News, Yahoo! and WMUR. Sunday morning will feature a GOP debate broadcast on NBC at 9am ET (yes, am) but look for more details on that later today. Air Time: Saturday, January 7th at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on ABC Live Stream: WMUR and Yahoo! News Participants: Santorum, Romney, Paul,...

"It has recently come to our attention that your station has either been asked to run, or may soon be asked to run, various advertising spots produced by the Mitt Romney aligned SuperPAC “Restore Our Future” or Romney for President, the principal campaign committee of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Included among the Romney advertisements submitted to your station for broadcast are likely to be various advertisements which specifically mention Speaker Gingrich and purport to quote or reference the findings of a 1997 report issued by the House Select Committee on Ethics (the “Report”). The content of these advertisements state...

This is an appeal to all long-time conservatives. Let's start lining up behind Newt Gingrich, as Thomas Sowell, Art Laffer, JC Watts, Jim Robinson (Free Republic honcho) and others have. The hazzard of holding back an endorsement is that the media, pudits and PAC TV commercials will continue to shape negative opinion against Newt and we may lose our best conservative warrior. The result of the media, pundit and PAC TV onslaught may cause the nominee to be Romney or Santorum. Romney is a moderate and Santorum does not have the experience to Push the conservative agenda in the general...

Just days after praising his rival GOP presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich took aim at Rick Santorum’s congressional record and said he would be considered the “junior partner” in a match-up between the two Republican hopefuls. “If you think of us as partners, he would clearly in historical experience have been the junior partner,” Gingrich said Thursday on the campaign trail. “He’s not a bad person, I want to be clear about this, but I don’t know that he has any track record of being able to organize a large-scale campaign.”

"Restore Our Future, a super-PAC supporting Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, will run full-page ads attacking Newt Gingrich in the New Hampshire Union Leader and The State in Columbia, S.C., the most prominent newspapers in the next two primary states. The decision to attack Gingrich is a curious one, as Rick Santorum has emerged as Romney’s top rival for the GOP nomination after he virtually tied Romney on Tuesday in Iowa’s caucuses. Post-voting analysis shows much of Gingrich’s support in that state ended up going to Santorum."

I'm thinking the only way we will be able to beat Obama will be to have a brokered GOP Convention and a "dark horse" candidate rise out of the ashes. Do I think it will happen? Heck no. So, we are, as my granny used to say: "In a mell of a hess". The GOP Candidates currently running, and the drop-out, Michele Bachmann, have beaten, bruised and bloodied each other so badly that we’re going to make doggone sure we send a nominee into the General Election damaged beyond repair; making victory easy for Obama. The Dems are loving our...

Live thread to cover today's GOP caucus. News, predictions, opinions, totals, and the like. Will be heading out about 4 pm or so to get our site ready and do a final review with the precinct chairs. I expect it to be bigger than 2008 with very heavy turnout and we are preparing for that. We are also ready for disruptions. They simply won't be tolerated. The state party sent us a memo saying if there's any trouble call the cops immediately. Anyone trying to cause problems is going to get a rude awakening. My predictions of the outcome are...