Free Republic

There's no official Sen. Ted Cruz presidential team — yet. But the Texas Republican is already surrounding himself with key strategists and advisers that could make his transparent White House ambitions a reality. The tea party firebrand relies on a small circle of advisers to inform his views and amplify his ultraconservative message. The inner circle breaks down into two groups: his chief advisers in the Senate office, and the chiefs of his nationally-focused political operation, which he beefed up in the summer of 2014 by hiring a crop of seasoned Republican campaign operatives. These are the key players that...

Indiana treasurer Richard Mourdock warned that the possibility of U.S. bankruptcy will push the country the way of Nazi Germany during a speech on Saturday. "The people of Germany in a free election selected the Nazi party because they made great promises that appealed to them because they were desperate and destitute. And why is that? Because Germany was bankrupt," Mourdock said to a crowd gathered at the Indiana Republican Convention on Saturday... The term-limited Mourdock made his remarks as part of a farewell speech...

The conservative group Club for Growth has changed gears and is supporting establishment GOP candidates in primaries. Launched a decade before the tea party made life difficult for moderate Republicans, the club quickly rose to the political forefront while supporting challengers to incumbent Republicans who it felt were not conservative enough, according to the National Journal. In 2012, the fiscally conservative organization backed tea party candidate Richard Mourdock’s challenge to Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar and vilified veteran Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch for his voting record. The group also targeted 10 moderate House Republicans. But the political action committee has suddenly...

Does the Republican Party need better candidates? Or do Republican candidates need a better party? Even now the GOP is choosing candidates for the 2014 election, especially for the U.S. Senate. Primary hopefuls are jostling for position. And the dominant questions are: “Will tea-party primary challengers cost the GOP elections?” and “Who can actually win against the Democrat?” Qualify as a MediatorLondon School of Mediation world-class training in 2013 www.schoolofmediation.org Receive a Free ProphecyIf you like Astrology, Get Free Prophecy Reading YourPersonalProphecy.com But as the GOP recruits and trains better candidates, will anyone train Republican insiders how to run better...

It is a matter of public record that the United States Senate is a terrible place where serious policy issues are ignored; routine votes are occasionally delayed over concerns about non-existent terrorist groups; and proverbial cans are proverbially kicked down the proverbial road of sadness, gridlock, and despair. What's less clear is why the Senate is such a congress of louts. Is it the endless pressure to raise money? The never-ending campaign? The fact that Americans hold lots of substantive disagreements on important things and are themselves—it's been said—somewhat dysfunctional? Actually, according to Georgia state Rep. Buzz Brockaway, the biggest...

Karl Rove versus Steve King. Rove was one of President Bush's top advisors, but now Iowa's open Senate seat has one of America's top Republican operatives gearing up to fight one of his own, vetting candidates who have a history of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And, that apparently includes Congressman Steve King. Steven Law, the CEO of American Crossroads, told the New York Times: "We're concerned about Steve King's Todd Akin problem....All of the things he's said are going to be hung around his neck," says Law. Law is apparently referring to comments King made to...

10) Richard Mourdock's Campaign: After defeating Richard Lugar, he should have been able to easily retain the GOP’s Senate seat in a state that Mitt Romney won by 10 points. He PROBABLY would have pulled it off, too -- if, in a display of tone deafness comparable to the Democrats turning Paul Wellstone's memorial into a campaign rally, he hadn't decided to weigh in on abortion and rape after Todd Akin made the issue nuclear."I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. And I think even when life...

This past weekend, I was down in Washington and had a chance to talk to some Republican lawmakers and strategists on Capitol Hill about the trouncing we took in the presidential election. Over and over again, the fear that the conservative pro-life position may have contributed to our loss came up. Their solution? We have to stop talking about it. But this cannot be an option. The respect for life is a moral imperative that defines conservatism as much as fiscal responsibility. Conservatism cannot abandon it and remain uncompromised. Over time, liberalism has normalized abortion, first insisting it should be...

Most Americans will focus on election results in Ohio and Florida to see who rides those states’ Electoral College votes into the White House. But the winner of the presidential race will not automatically control the 2013 legislative agenda. Congress still matters. The battle for control of the U.S. Senate is vitally important and just as hard-fought as the top-of-the-ticket contest. Currently, a caucus of 51 Democrats and two liberal Independents rule the upper chamber. Since the Vice President can cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate, Republicans would have to pick up three seats to gain a working majority...

Richard Mourdock--the Indiana Republican Senate candidate who sparked a controversy during a debate last month when he said he opposes abortion even in the case of rape because "it is something that God intended to happen"--is now trailing Democrat Joe Donnelly by 11 points, a new state poll shows. According to the Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll released on Friday, Donnelly leads Mourdock 47 percent to 36 percent among likely voters.

The Democrat party has staked its position on abortion, firmly planting its feed in blood-soaked soil. Common ground is not, nor has ever really been, a genuine goal of the party. It proudly celebrates its embrace of an industry that kills over a million innocent unborn children every year and wounds countless women and men in the violent process. Liberal activists will parade around as gigantic vaginas, publicly recite explicit lines to pro-statutory rape “The Vagina Monologues”, wear t-shirts proclaiming “I Had An Abortion”, support partial-birth abortion, and stand with the abortion chain that refuses to report rape. But they’re...

The controversy over comments made by U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock reveals the undeniable ugliness of American politics. At the same time, the media firestorm underscores the importance of getting the pro-life position right — and expressing it well. Mourdock, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Indiana, was debating his opponent, Rep. Joe Donnelly, this past Tuesday night, when the issue of abortion emerged. Both candidates claimed to affirm that life begins at conception, but Mourdock called for the end of abortion on demand. He then extended his remarks with these words: “This is that issue that every...

Honestly, I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. In a Tuesday night debate, Richard Mourdock, the Indiana Republican running for the U.S. Senate made what turned out to be a controversial statement about abortion. “I struggled with it myself for a long time,” he said, “but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” Mourdock made the horrible mistake of telling the truth about what he believes. He actually believes that abortion is...

CINCINNATI (AP) -- President Barack Obama, seeking to shore up support among women, intensified his pressure Thursday on Mitt Romney to break any ties with a Republican Senate candidate who said that if a woman becomes pregnant from rape it is "something God intended." Romney ignored the emotional social issue, holding to an optimistic campaign tone as he fought for victory in crucial Ohio.

Another day, another "gaffe" manufactured by the mainstream media with the intention of attacking a conservative Republican candidate. While not surprising, this is nevertheless becoming a tedious ritual played out over and over again by leftist "journalists" trying to score "gotchas" on conservative candidates so as to make up for the fact that leftists' own preferred Democrat candidates generally range from worthless to outright detrimental to the nation. Instead of reporting real news — such as the President and his administration's appalling failures in Benghazi, or the fact that this administration gave weapons to Mexican drug cartels and radical Islamists,...

Let's stipulate that people, and particularly politicians, can get into trouble by attempting to speak for God. But that's not the moral of the story regarding Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. Responding to a question about abortion, Mourdock offered a grieved response -- his voice breaking a bit -- on the matter of which exceptions he favored. His Democratic opponent, Joe Donnelly, also pro-life, said that he would permit abortions in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. Mourdock said he had "struggled with it . . . for a long time," but had come...

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO OCTOBER 24, 2012, 11:01 PM 8102 If Mitt Romney was hoping the Richard Mourdock story he’s deeply entwined in would go away fast, he apparently didn’t get the memo to one of his top surrogates. Just as Democrats and the Obama campaign began amping up their effort to highlight Romney’s ties to Mourdock after the Indiana Senate candidate uttered his claim that pregnancies caused by rape are “something that God intended to happen” — and Romney and the Republicans worked to put the moment behind them — John McCain sat down with CNN to throw a wrench in...

When I think about the sound and fury swirling around Richard Mourdock, the Indiana Republican vying for a U.S. Senate seat, my thoughts turn to Rebecca Kiessling. In a debate this week with Democrat Rep. Joe Donnelly, Mourdock defended his opposition to abortion even in cases in which a pregnancy has resulted from rape. “I think,” said Mourdock, emotionally, “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something God intended to happen.” Rebecca, I suspect, would absolutely agree with Mourdock. Because the Michigan woman was conceived, she attests, “out of a brutal rape at knife point...

The U.S. House of Representatives last year became the spiritual home of the Tea Party, which helped elect dozens in the 2010 Republican landslide. Success in the Senate was limited.In 2013, the Senate may become the Tea Party’s cathedral. In my latest column, I lay out what has become of the Tea Party-backed representatives. This year, Tea Party activists are winning Republican Senate primaries and are favored to win seats in the fall. They include Ted Cruz in Texas, Deb Fischer in Nebraska and Richard Mourdock in Indiana. Primaries over the next 10 days in Missouri and Wisconsin could catapult...

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Mitt Romney stumped for tea party Senate candidate Richard Mourdock here on Saturday, arguing that as president he will need such supporters in Washington to help him enact policies to restore fiscal order. Mourdock introduced Romney, noting he had done so four years ago when Romney came to Indiana stumping for 2008 Republican nominee John McCain. “He is back and he’s here in part because he’s the ultimate team player, and politics is all about being a team. This is not a solo sport,” Mourdock said. “And for that purpose alone, governor, thank you so much for...