Free Republic

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Friday said he "cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham Cassidy proposal. McCain is one of four Republican senators who are undecided on the GOP healthcare overhaul, and his opposition dealt the bill's chances a significant blow.

That's it. Fed up with the three of them. I give Paul a pass since he is a Doctor and will only vote for the perfect . . . let the voters in Kentucky decide on his fate. McCain, Murkowski and Collins need to pay a penalty for putting themselves and their egos and dislike of this President ahead of what's good for the country. Bombard their offices with calls and curse them out. I'm sure there will things in the new bill I don't like but take what you can get now and revisit it next year.

Fiscal Policy: In this time of political partisanship, the two parties at last have found something they can agree on: raising the gas tax. It's a truly awful idea, and might get Republicans kicked out of office. It's shocking that Republicans, who won the last election by promising limited government and lower taxes, would in their first week back in power make noises about joining tax-and-spend liberal Democrats to raise the 18-cents-a-gallon gas tax. But that's exactly what they're doing. Suddenly, a number of Republicans — who should all know better — are saying they'll "consider" a gasoline tax hike,...

Democratic political strategist James Carville has made his 2012 prediction: Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee. Continue Reading Carville made the pick during a speech in New York on Thursday to ICON Capital, a group for which he consults. A source there told POLITICO that Carville thought Jeb Bush was perhaps a more natural choice, but suffered thanks to his last name. "If Jeb Bush were named Jeb Smith he'd probably be the front-runner," Carville said, referring to the fact that the Bush family has already had two presidents. This comes a week after another Carville speech in which...

It was a moment of unintentional comedy earlier this year when newly appointed U.S. Sen. George LeMieux called himself a " Charlie Crist Republican." No doubt LeMieux spoke in earnest about the man who appointed him to the Senate, and who is now running to succeed him in it. But the joke was that nobody knew what he meant. What is a "Charlie Crist Republican" anyway? Honestly, do you know how Charlie Crist would vote on a federal takeover of health care, on a cap-and-trade energy tax, on massive new spending bills, or on another stimulus boondoggle?