Free Republic

The familiar Washington narrative on the scrum for the U.S. Senate has been rinsed, recycled and delivered once again: Republicans are primed to pick up the six seats necessary to capture control of the upper chamber. The midterm atmosphere sure looks ripe, the polling appears favorable but, as it did in 2010 and 2012, the most competitive batch of races will likely come down to candidate quality. It’s the key component that stifled GOP chances before, and could very well again. .... .... A closer look at the most competitive contests demonstrates why a Senate majority in 2014 is again...

Republican congressional hopeful Bob Barr picked up the endorsement of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Thursday and criticized a key part of the House GOP blueprint for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws. “He was a great U.S. attorney, a great congressman,” Arpaio said. “That is why I am here to help him.” A former Libertarian presidential candidate, Barr is competing in a crowded Republican primary to replace U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey in Georgia’s 11th congressional district. Barr called Arpaio an “international spokesman for good, solid, tough law enforcement.”

Impeachment talk is all the rage-again. Rep. Paul Broun, a GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia, indicated during a tea party-sponsored candidate forum this weekend that he would support the impeachment of President Obama. Candidates at the Gilmer County GOP forum, including Broun, were asked by a questioner: "Clinton was impeached for perjury. Obama has perjured himself on multiple occasions. Would you support impeachment if presented for a vote?" Broun, along with two other candidates, Derrick Grayson and Eugene Yu raised their hands, according to video of the event obtained by ABC News (watch video above). Neither Rep. Phil...

Democrats and Republicans are amassing enormous war chests for a midterm battle that will decide who controls the Senate for the remainder of President Obama’s term. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to reclaim the Senate majority, and are gunning for Democratic incumbents in conservative-leaning states like Arkansas, Alaska, North Carolina, West Virginia and Louisiana. Democrats are mostly playing defense, but see a few opportunities to peel away seats from the GOP column. Here are the five Senate races to watch in 2014. KENTUCKY The reelection bid of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is the marquee race...

All of the congressional Republicans with viable 2016 presidential ambitions voted against the bill enacted overnight to reopen the government and increase federal borrowing. So did two members of the Senate GOP leadership and three members of the party’s House leadership. The opponents also included a majority of the Republicans who are chairmen of House committees and most of the members of the House GOP caucus who aspire to election to the Senate next year. While the Democrats were unified in their support for the legislation, a review of Wednesday night’s back-to-back roll calls in Congress reveals just how divided...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Open Line Friday to Seattle we go. Peter, thank you for calling, sir. Great to have you with us. CALLER: Great to be with you, Rush. Happy birthday to the Surgeon General of Democracy. RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. CALLER: They don't hate you 'cause you're on the right; they hate you because you're correct. RUSH: Effective, yeah. That's sadly the case. Every time you see me ripped to shreds in the media, folks, understand I've just been effective, and that's why I'm being ripped. Or anybody else on the right. Same theory applies....

Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.) walked out of President Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, his spokesman confirmed to The Hill. Jen Talaber said the five-term lawmaker "left quietly" in the middle of the president's remarks. “He was disturbed and offended by the president’s use of prayer and reflection time for partisan politics and class warfare,” Talaber said. “Rep. Gingrey enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker and found the breakfast to be inspiring until President Obama began politicking.” At the breakfast, Obama tried to tie some of the proposals from his State of the Union address, such...

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) has introduced H.R. 692 that would would eliminate the extended family visa categories (e.g., married sons and daughters of citizens, etc.), thus ending “chain migration” as recommended by the bi-partisan Barbara Jordan Commission in 1997. Current immigration law allows U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor non-nuclear, adult family members, creating an endless chain of mass legal immigration. Rep. Gingrey's bill would end this practice by disallowing all adult family members from receiving legal permanent residency. H.R. 692, which is one of NumbersUSA's top legislative priorities, would reduce the number of annual issuance of family-sponsored...

Am I the only one who noticed this? Do the chattering classes get their transcript of the Rush Limbaugh program from Media Matters? If you don’t listen, you have no idea of what animates the Right, and the rump group of legislators that calls itself the Republican Party in Congress. Obama’s stimulus bill passed the House without a single Republican vote. Since polls show that Obama has an approval rating that far surpassed Mohammad in Riyadh, what’s going on? This afternoon, the lone Republican, Phil Gingrey, who criticized Rush Limbaugh in an interview with the Politico appeared on his show...

Or might it have been someplace slightly lower on the anatomy? . . . Yesterday, Georgia Republican congressman Phil Gingrey took a shot at Rush Limbaugh. Today, Gingrey called Rush on the air to apologize, which in turn led MSNBC’s Tamron Hall to wonder whether Gingrey was engaging in some Rush ring-kissing. Hall posed her question [during MSNBC's 4 PM hour] to A. B. Stoddard. “Hill” editor Stoddard left no doubt that’s exactly what Gingrey was up to, and the pair shared some yucks at the representative's expense. Or might it have been someplace slightly lower on the anatomy? ....

Congressman Phil Gingrey, MD (R-GA) made the following statement in response to an article that ran in Politico Newspaper about comments he made regarding conservative commentator, Rush Limbaugh and the Republican Leadership: Because of the high volume of phone calls and correspondence received by my office since the Politico article ran, I wanted to take a moment to speak directly to grassroots conservatives. Let me assure you, I am one of you. I believe I was sent to Washington to fight for and defend our traditional values of smaller government, lower taxes, a strong national defense, and the lives of...

A storm is brewing. It has the potential to utterly destroy the Republican Party. For years, under both Democrat and Republican administrations, American citizens -- cornerstones of their communities -- have been falsely charged and railroaded into prisons. Their lives have been ruined. Their families have been shattered. It has all been because of accusations and sham trials that belong in Communist China, not the United States of America. We're talking about the decades of abuses committed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). We're talking about the _continuing_ abuses that are ruining innocent gun owners and...

Does anyone have a trascript of the Congressman Phil Gingrey speach from Sunday 3/20/05 talking about the Terri Schiavo issue?