Free Republic

The Senate Finance Committee's bipartisan negotiating team is expected to continue talks Friday on a health care reform plan that the vice president predicted would eventually pass the Congress. "As bleak as it looks, you know, always darkest before the dawn," Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Thursday, after a speech at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank. "The prospects of success are high. I think they are very high." The Finance Committee's "gang of six" -- three Republicans and three Democrats -- plans to hold its second teleconference call since the August break. The group was given...

Most Republicans have just finished what might be called the spring of their discontent. Not much went right in the first half of the year; not much to cheer about. But not Mitt Romney. For this unsuccessful 2008 Republican presidential contender, it is hard to imagine how events could be moving more decisively in his favor in 2009. One can almost hear him wondering: Why didn't things break this way last year? Let us count the ways that the world has conspired to help Mr. Romney. At a time when the Republican Party is straining to find new leaders, other...

HOST: Health care. MCCAIN: Needs reform. HOST: That’s two words. [weird laugh] Iraq. MCCAIN: Success. HOST: Arizona. MCCAIN: The best. HOST: US-Mexico Border. McCain: Cartels. HOST: GOP. MCCAIN: Transition. HOST: Sheriff Joe Arpaio:MCCAIN: Umm…

People like John McCain and others who have been part of the self-absorbed, navel-gazing and corrupt Washington environment for a quarter century no doubt resent someone not "of them." But it is indeed odd when Sarah Palin, a bright, shining light for conservatives remains the prime target of the existing machine, while Mark Sanford and other hypocritical liars are serenaded as getting a raw deal by the very public daughter of a defacto leader of the party.

The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign. At issue is a question that was never resolved following McCain’s loss in November: Who in the McCain campaign was secretly trashing Sarah Palin to the press?

It looks like Joe Scarborough is trying to sell more books. I guess the endorsement his book received from Christpher Buckler, RINO who voted for Obama, didn't do the trick. Now he is back to taking cheap shots at Governor Palin. It seems he wants her to hide in Alaska and stay out of sight. Watch the video from his Morning Joe liberal talkfest. http://www.considerthisnews.com/index.php/site/thefeed/morning_joe_palin_a_circus_act_joke/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 25, 2009 Contact: Francisco Lopez, Executive Director: (503) 269-5694 Erik Sorensen, Communications Director: (503) 488-0263 Historic White House Meeting on Immigration a Complete Success Roadmap to Immigration Reform makes a strong and positive beginning Salem, Ore--Today members of Congress from both houses and from both sides of the aisle met at the White House for an historic working session on Immigration Reform. The White House meeting, which was postponed from last week, was rescheduled for today after immigration reform proponents generated over 200,000 faxes, 30,000 phone calls, and 3,300 personal notes calling on the President to...

Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist is getting a big boost for his U.S. Senate bid from a bevy of GOP A-listers. Helping to raise money for Crist in Washington are Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chairman Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and 2008 GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The power trio will be on hand – along with yet other Republican luminaries – to help attract major donors at an event for Crist slated for June 22 at the NRSC, according to a report in The Hill, which obtained an invitation. The week...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers rarely shine a positive spotlight on lobbyists, much less publicly toast them and rave about their style on Capitol Hill. But they did just that on Tuesday night for consumer advocate Joan Claybrook, who retired earlier this year as the head of the watchdog group Public Citizen. The organization held a dinner event in honor of her 27-year leadership. Claybrook has become known as one of Washington's most relentless consumer-interest lobbyists. Her work has influenced rules on auto safety standards, congressional ethics, campaign finance and more. Among the lawmakers who praised Claybrook's efforts were House Speaker...

WASHINGTON — She greeted him in Spanish. He handed her a copy of his book. They chuckled over some recent mishaps. Conservatives hoping Republicans in the Senate will block Sonia Sotomayor's ascension to the U.S. Supreme Court best not look to the senator from Florida: After a 30-minute meeting with Sotomayor Tuesday, a "delighted" Sen. Mel Martinez pronounced her smart, likeable and prudent. "I think she's a very, very bright person, very, very much someone who the Supreme Court will find will fit in very well," said Martinez, a Republican from Orlando. He said he will withhold judgment about whether...

WASHINGTON — Remember back to September, when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a newly minted vice-presidential candidate and she was asked by ABC's Charlie Gibson about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and her split with her running mate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. At the time, she told Gibson: "We'll agree to disagree, but I'm gonna keep pushing that, and I think, eventually, we're all gonna come together on that one." Apparently Palin wasn't persuasive enough. Tuesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee shot down Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's effort to open up ANWR to directional drilling. The...

No often means yes in Washington, but we hear from Sen. John McCain's posse that he is not considering a 2012 rerun of his failed 2008 presidential campaign. (W beat him in the 2000 primary, remember.) Word came this week that he is mulling over another try, but a key insider says, "Ridiculous."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) rejected charges Sunday that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is a racist. Asked if he agreed with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh that Sotomayor is a racist, the South Carolina Republican said he disagreed. “No, they interject themselves in the debate. They have got an audience to entertain and Newt is a political commentator. I’m a United States senator,” Graham said on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace. “I don’t think she’s a racist. She should be proud of what she has accomplished in...

(snip) We asked Sen. McCain if he saw Whitman as the future face of the Republican Party and he said "yes." He also mentioned three current governors as the next generation of leaders. Noticeably absent from that list was his former running mate, Sarah Palin.(snip)

Gubernatorial candidate, joining the senator, explains need for outreach at Tustin town hall event. BY MARTIN WISCKOL TUSTIN - Sen. John McCain endorsed Meg Whitman at a joint town hall meeting Friday, saying the gubernatorial candidate was needed both in Sacramento and in the struggling Republican Party."The woman standing beside me represents all of the qualities that will attract people to our party," McCain told a crowd of about 500 supporters at Tustin's Marconi Auto Museum. "We will not only tolerate, but accept people whose views are different than our own."Whitman, former CEO of eBay, has an early lead in...

New York Times blogger Judith Warner dug into Meghan McCain with gusto, posting a concern-trolling piece about Meg's appearance on the Colbert Report. She writes that she "feels sorry" for Meg: I really have no business feeling sympathy for a wealthy, pretty, well-connected recent Columbia grad who's already been given a political blog by Tina Brown, who's already been paid a reported high six figures to write on the future of the Republican party, and who, despite it all, was foolish enough to go on "The Colbert Report" on Monday night and call herself "a 24-year-old pro-sex woman." I suppose...

WASHINGTON (May 24) -- The conservative vs. moderate split threatening to rupture the Republican Party played out across the airwaves Sunday, with Colin Powell and Tom Ridge denouncing shrill and judgmental voices they say are steering the GOP too far right. Karl Rove challenged Powell to lay out his vision and "back it up" by helping elect Republicans. At stake is the GOP's status as a major party, Powell and Ridge suggested "I believe we should build on the base because the nation needs two parties, two parties debating each other. But what we have to do is debate and...

As he demonstrated in his 2008 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney is as variable as the New England weather. Still, Romney positively outdid himself last week. Speaking at a National Rifle Association forum, he blasted President Obama's healthcare plans - proposals that look a good deal like the Massachusetts coverage law Romney helped bring about. But it gets stranger still. "The best path to healthcare reform is to let the American people make their own decisions, not have those decisions forced on them by government," proclaimed the perpetual candidate. This even though Romney's most important contribution to the state's landmark law...

In another sign that he’s eying a second run for the presidency, Mitt Romney is planning a series of stops in Virginia next week to help Republican candidates running in the commonwealth’s off-year election. Virginia is one of a handful of states with competitive races this year, and one where Republican officials feel best about their prospects for victory. The former Massachusetts governor is the featured guest at the high-dollar gala next Friday prior to the Virginia GOP’s state convention in Richmond — one of the party’s chief fundraising events.