Free Republic

Conservative columnist George Will is making the argument to vote against Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections. In a piece published Friday in the Washington Post, Will says that President Trump's "zero tolerance" policy at the border was "the most telegenic example of misrule" and it provided “fresh if redundant evidence for the principle by which” independents and moderate Republicans should vote. That principle he says is that the number of Republicans in office must be “substantially reduced.”

Washington, D.C. does not create great men and women. It can sometimes reveal greatness. But for those who stay too long, Washington makes great people small and petty; and small, petty people unsightly shells. In Lord of the Rings terminology, it is the one ring to rule them all. And John McCain has worn the ring too long. It has distorted the courageous and selfless airman and POW he once was into a mere shadow of that man, driven to maintain the power, influence and affirmation of the entrenched power structure in D.C. — and in doing so undermining the...

Casting aside any semblance of personal honor or integrity, U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) announced last week that he will break his personal term-limit pledge by seeking another term in Washington, come 2018. “I’ve grown a lot,” explained the double first-named, third-term congressman from Oklahoma in addressing his double-cross of voters. Yes, Mullin has grown bigger and more full of himself during his time in the nation's capital, just as the federal government under his watch has grown bigger and more full of itself, too. Still, even in an 11-minute fake news interview concocted and promoted by Congressman Mullin to...

After defeating House Freedom Caucus member Tim Huelskamp last week, establishment Republicans are looking ahead to their next conservative targets. The goal is to have a House conference that cooperates with leadership. And primaries are the best way for establishment Republicans to eliminate troublemakers. Now that Huelskamp has been knocked off, the establishment's sights are shifting to Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, another member of the House Freedom Caucus. A group called Right Way Superpac has spent nearly $130,000 through Aug. 10 on mail and media opposing Gosar and supporting his primary opponent, pastor and city councilman Ray Strauss. "Has Paul...

A devastating inside look at the dark side of Congress as revealed by one of its own! No wonder Congressman X wants to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. His admissions are deeply disturbing. . . "Most of my colleagues are dishonest career politicians who revel in the power and special-interest money that's lavished upon them." "My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence over everything." "Voters are incredibly ignorant and know little about our form of government and how it works." "It's far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive,...

A member of Congress estimated to me that out of 84-86 new GOP members who swept the House in the GOP takeover of 2010, there are only about only four to five left who remain conservative. It is a well-known fact that candidates running for Congress as conservatives frequently become moderates; compromising on many issues they vowed to stand principled on. There are several discernible explanations why: ItÂ’s easy to get support when youÂ’re promising Santa Claus goodies, you get more favorable coverage from the left-leaning media (and hence better reelection chances), you get invited to all the cool cocktail...

"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress." - John Adams In pundit parlance, Michigan's 6th Congressional District is most assuredly "safe Republican." Republican Fred Upton has represented that district since 1987. Yet for quite some time, the seat has not been "safe conservative." Michigan's 6th district is a microcosm of the general arrogance and complacency of the Republican establishment against the constitutional conservatism of the Tea Party movement. If Republicans and conservatives lazily continue to return so-called moderates...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let me expand a little bit on this theory that I posited right before the conclusion of the previous hour, and that theory basically is we've seen this. I've always talked about the Washington culture, and I've joked here, but it's not really a joke. Over the course of almost 20 years, when I have to go to Washington, I say, "I'm not spending the night there." I'm not going to do my radio show from Washington. I mean, I love our affiliate there, WMAL, but I don't want to get caught in that culture. I have...

I don't understand why people who purport to be conservatives are getting so worked up about that New York Times article on John McCain.As a conservative, I took that article as proof that everything we conservatives were saying about McCain was correct. My main objection to his candidacy concerns the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill. That bill would offer amnesty to 10 million or so people who entered the country illegally. McCain not only sponsored the bill, but he continually argues that the approach that he termed "amnesty" in 2003 is not amnesty in 2008.So McCain is a liar. No big...

"Those gentlemen, who will be elected senators, will fix themselves in the federal town, and become citizens of that town more than of your state." George Mason (speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 14 June 1788) The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constituion of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the...

Congress is being criticized for funding pork projects and for a general lack of fiscal restraint. Many people agree that there is a spending problem in Washington, but not many understand the fundamental causes. Why have Republicans abandoned their pledge in the 1994 Contract with America to cut "government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money"? Did the GOP simply decide that it was good politics to buy votes with lavish special-interest spending? That is one cause of the budget crisis, but not the core problem. With the extraordinarily high reelection rates in Congress,...

PRESIDENT BUSH DIDN'T TAKE THE HINT. Clean house, find fresh blood, replace senior White House staff--and this will assure success in the final three years of your presidency, Bush was told. When he didn't respond, those offering the president advice in public got specific. Get rid of Karl Rove, the key presidential adviser, and things will get better. Bush ignored that recommendation, too. Then Rove himself was addressed. Your peers in the White House are turning against you and debating whether you should be fired, the Washington Post informed him on the front page. Besides, you're not only hurting the...

This is my first post to FreeRepublic, but I've been reading it for years and met a few at CPAC 2005! ---- I watched Bush's press conference today and he said over and over again that he picked Harriet Miers because she's not going to change. I think he may be telling us about the corrupting influence of the Washington establishment. The question is why so many Supreme Court nominees change when they get nominated? Since Nixon, the GOP has nominated Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter and they all became libs. Why did this...

Here they are, for Roberts' watchers to consider: 1. The Greenhouse Effect "The Greenhouse Effect" is the name of a phenomenon popularized by D.C. Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman referring to federal judges whose rulings are guided solely by their need for adulation from legal reporters such as Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times. 2. Mean ol' Nino This theory holds generally that justices tweak their philosophies and ideologies in response to each other; and specifically, that Antonin Scalia and (to a lesser degree) Clarence Thomas have managed to drive once stalwart conservatives into the arms of the court's...

Hi gang! Since its Friday maybe this won't get pulled before I get a couple of tips. We're 50 and taking our two gals (17 & 14) and our guy (10). We'll be arriving Sunday 3-20 (Amtrak willing)and leaving Friday 3-25. If there are any great places to eat or relatively unknown cool places to visit you know of we'd appreciate a quick post. BTW, since I read Michener's "Chesapeake" years ago I've regularly tried crab cakes but they never have lived up to his description. Softshell crabs however, have! Yumm. Any DC FReepers - please ping the rest of...

<p>A Republican Congress has just passed a prescription-drug benefit for seniors -- the largest expansion of an entitlement since the Great Society. The federal budget grew by more than $150 billion this year -- more than twice as much as any year under Bill Clinton -- and the deficit eclipsed $300 billion, a 10-year high. Two books by former GOP House members help explain how their party's 1994 small-government revolutionaries have helped turn the Contract With America into something that at times resembles a Contract for Re-Election.</p>