Free Republic

It is my belief that, in one month, Ron Paul will shock the world and win the Iowa Caucuses. Granted, that belief goes against all the polling data and all the money data and all the common sense in the world. Mitt Romney has all the money in the world, and has the national party secretly/silently pulling for him to win. Newt Gingrich has the lead in the polls and seems to have caught fire at just the right time. Michele Bachmann is from a neighboring state, and, well, you never know. Even Rick Santorum has an outside shot at...

Elderly, iconoclastic Rep. Ron Paul, the longtime champion of meaningless straw polls, is now doing it where it counts in the ongoing struggle for the Republican presidential nomination. A brand-new Iowa Poll, just published by the Des Moines Register, reports the often-dismissed 76-year-old Paul has surged past one-time front-runner Mitt Romney and moved into second place, with his sights set on the current front-runner Newt Gingrich. According to the new poll results, Gingrich leads the pack at 25% of likely caucus-goers with less than a month until they're held. Paul is second with 18% and Romney now trails with 16%.

EARMARK BAN VOTE TUESDAY: MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN Tuesday is the first day of the rest of our lives because on that day we will see if the Republican Party is serious about reform or just mouths the words to get back power. The Senate Republican caucus is set to vote on a ban on earmarks. Eighteen Senators have committed to support the proposal. Twenty Senators have committed to back the ban and seven are opposed. But nineteen are still undecided. We need twenty-four to pass the proposal. Please call your Senator to weigh...

WASHINGTON D.C. (KMOX) - Earmark reform has been a lonely fight for a long time, says U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri). So, she reacted with pleasure when hearing President Obama say this, in his weekly media address, “As we work to reform our budget, Congress should also put some skin in the game. I agree with those Republican and Democratic members of Congress who’ve recently said that in these challenging days, we cannot afford what are called earmarks.” McCaskill says it’s encouraging to have others taking the issue of earmark reform seriously. She anticipates being the only Democrat in the...

In my Weekend Interview with Rand Paul last Saturday, the new Senator-elect from Kentucky appeared to soften his fervent opposition during the campaign to earmarks and pork-barrel spending. I reported the shift, while noting his continued distaste for earmarks as a symbol of runaway spending and his eagerness to change the way such spending gets appropriated. His comments have since attracted attention and criticism, and his aides now say that I misunderstood his comments. I stand by the story as written, but in the interest of full disclosure we are posting the full transcript of the relevant section of the...