Free Republic

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said early Wednesday morning on MSNBC that it’s time for Republican leaders to stand up to “extreme statements” and “nonsense” coming from within the GOP, including Rush Limbaugh. “Now, people calling for revolution and these extreme statements — when I talk about a civil war in the Republican Party, what I mean is, it’s time for Republican elected leaders to stand up and to repudiate this nonsense, and to repudiate it directly,” Schmidt said. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83454.html#ixzz2BW8uQVhy

I’m getting sick of the rewriting of 2008 presidential campaign history as K Street Republicans continue to assault Sarah Palin in the fear that a similarly conservative Republican will rise to the top of the VP sweepstakes. It has been so fashionable in D.C. Republican circles to bash the Palin nomination as a mistake, ill-conceived or even disastrous, that even Dick Cheney has gotten into the act. These self-serving attempts to change history are nothing more than a smear campaign designed to influence the Romney VP pick by obscuring the truth that the choice of Sarah Palin to be the...

Former vice president Dick Cheney on Monday backed off his comment that it was “a mistake” for the GOP to pick Sarah Palin as its vice presidential nominee, suggesting the comment was more about the VP process than about Palin herself. “It wasn’t aimed so much at governor Palin as it was against the basic process that (John) McCain used, “ Cheney told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in an interview airing Monday night. “My point basically dealt with the process in terms of that basic requirement: Is this person prepared to step in to be President of the United States...

One week prior to the general election, former Romney spokesman Kevin Madden took to the airwaves (on CNN) and defamed Sarah Palin, setting off a media storm over an alleged fight between Team McCain and Team Palin. They were the very early opening salvos in the battle for the party. Fox News expanded on off-the-record anti-Palin comments tonight. Was traitor Kevin Madden for those comments?

Today, Red State ran an article on the origination of nasty lies from within the McCain/Palin camp. They report, Romney staffers now working on the McPalin campaign have been spreading the stories of Palin’s “ineptitude” to the press. Red State and other reporters accuse Romney staffers, including Kevin Madden (former Romney press-man) of pushing reporters into “Troopergate” stories and other possible negative Palin story angles. Palin provides a threat to Romney for a presidential run, but now is not the time for in-party fighting. American Girl has been very critical of long-time Romney supporter Kathleen Parker (see here and here),...

An article by Michael O'Brien on MSNBC's First Read this morning quotes an "informal" advisor to Mitt Romney's campaign as saying that the presidential candidate is not likely to choose a woman as his running mate because Sarah Palin "poisoned the well" for women, with the possible exception of New Hampshire freshman Sen. Kelly Ayotte.

Maggie and Emily write this morning on the new role Sarah Palin has carved out for herself in 2012 politics, picking the races she gets involved in more carefully and seeking out opportunities where she can have (or appear to have) disproportionate impact: "This year, Palin has become almost irrelevant in the context of the presidential race she once had a chance to dominate, and is seen more than ever as a sideshow by the Republican establishment. But after seeing her celebrity peak last year, Palin has settled into a role as something of a strong Triple-A political ballplayer, picking...

Each are Reaganest, in how they speak.

Fox News anchor Shep Smith, with the help of GOP veteran Ed Rollins, gave a brutal review of Newt Gingrich’s exit from the Republican presidential race – sure to exacerbate the feud between Gingrich and the conservative cable news network. Says Rollins: “He epitomhttpized the sore loser. This is a tough game, but he epitomized the sore loser.” Said Smith, harkening back to the beginning of Gingrich’s campaign: “I thought then he was delusional, and now I’m sure.” See for yourself, via the Daily Caller:

What I saw on TV today was an Outstanding Exit Speech from Newt Gingrich. He itemized his past successes, goals and big ideas that he will continue to push. Ideas such as US Energy Independence, Personal Social Security Accounts, Brain Science Research, Debt Reduction, Conservative Judges, etc. So what do Shepherd Smith and Ed Rollins talk about after the speech. Shep said Newt was delusional. Rollins said Newt gave one of the worst exit speeches ever. They did not comment on the specifics of any of the exciting ideas that Newt wants to continue to push. I am convinced the...

Newt Gingrich ends his White House dream today with his political committee facing a mountain of debts -- owing about $4 million to scores of businesses and campaign workers around the country who fear they will never get paid. Campaign watchdogs said the size of Gingrich's debt is extraordinary -- and could have been avoided if the candidate and his team had been more disciplined. "He was reckless in running up these bills, especially in the last month or so of the campaign when it was quite clear that Mitt Romney would be the nominee," said Craig Holman, a government...

Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist slammed for radicalizing Washington Washington is more dysfunctional than it has been in 40 years, and while Democrats have deserved their share of the blame over the years, today "the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party," write Thomas E. Mann and Norman Ornstein in the Washington Post. What makes their column particularly interesting is that Ornstein is not liberal, but a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Together, they call the GOP an "insurgent outlier in American politics" because of the...

You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch You really are a heel. You’re as cuddly as a cactus, And as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch! You’re a bad banana, With a greasy black peel! You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch! Your heart’s an empty hole. Your brain is full of spiders. You’ve got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch! Well, that’s a pretty good beginning at describing how most conservatives feel about Newt Gingrich these days. More of that later. Of course, many of us felt this way before the 2012 GOP presidential primary began, and have been vindicated as Newt...

You have got to be kidding me. This trashing of Newt by Erika Johnsen, who apparently just started blogging at HotAir, is so over the top: "Newt Gingrich’s decision to wait a week to officially drop out of the presidential race was kind of a non sequitur (but then, it fits with Newt’s normally quizzical attitude of 'you need to get on my level' pomposity, so… wash)…." "Here’s what you can do to help the Republican party, Newt: don’t. You overstayed your welcome in the presidential race by a long shot, frequently looked absurd, and constantly undercut the GOP’s credibility....

There is a way to think about the up-and-down GOP nomination fight that at least partially explains its volatility and the seemingly endless array of short-lived challengers to front-runner Mitt Romney as well as Romney's surprisingly resilience against any and all challengers. It's been the battle between the rationals and the notionals. Rational voters have been with Romney from the beginning and remain with him now. For them, he has always looked and acted the most presidential, carried the relevant business experience into the race and appeared to be the best positioned to challenge President Obama in the swing states...

ANALYSIS/OPINION: You know you’re running a lousy presidential campaign when you get bitten by a penguin. The Newt’s presidential campaign has got to be one of the worst ever run in American history. Last May, when Newt was casually campaigning, as is his way, he found himself exhausted. He had, after all, been at it for weeks. So, he did what any pooped-out candidate would do: He split on a luxury cruise to the Greek Islands with Wife No. 3 (22 years his junior — he was already out of college when she was born). Newt rose during the debates...

Newt Gingrich plans to formally suspend or end his presidential campaign next Tuesday, senior Gingrich aides told Fox News.

The Romney campaign, renowned for its oppo-heavy strategy, didn’t even have an oppo book on Rick Santorum a few days before the Iowa caucuses, so surprised were they by his surge. Jon Huntsman nearly decided in November to leave the GOP and run as an independent. And before one of the debates, Rick Perry sang “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” in a restroom. These details are from Mike Allen and Evan Thomas’ new e-book, Inside the Circus, as are these additional factoids below. Mitt Romney raised millions in March by warning would-be donors a brokered convention could mean a...

After tonight, Newt Gingrich has to be considered finished. You don't get to be the nominee if you don't win primaries, and if Gingrich can't win Alabama and Mississippi, it's hard to imagine any other state in the country where he can win. While Gingrich may remain some kind of factor, in almost every remaining state, this race devolves to a Romney-Santorum battle. That's great news for Santorum, who has been hoping and yearning for a two-man race. It's acceptable news for Romney, who knows that party donors and insiders dread a Santorum candidacy as likely to lead to a...

Audio from Marks show this evening perfectly summing up who Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace are. They earn their living, since losing the McCain campaign, trashing Sarah Palin 24/7. Runs about 4 minutes.