Free Republic

Texas senator Ted Cruz on Friday indicated that the battle among GOP Senators over gun control was so fierce that, at several points throughout the debate, some of his Republican colleagues yelled at him “at the top of their lungs.” “I don’t know that there is an issue that has generated more heat internally in the Republican conference,” Cruz said at a Texas tea party rally. “We’ve had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of Republican senators standing up and looking at Rand [Paul] and Mike [Lee] and me and yelling at us at the top of their...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour made the case Sunday on Fox News that his career as a high-powered federal lobbyist for domestic corporations and foreign governments would be an asset if he ran for President in 2012. (excerpt) Barbour may be eager to showcase his record, but one of Barbour's foreign lobbying clients could cause him some troubles in the 2012 Republican primary, if he decides to run. According to a State Department filing by Barbour's former lobbying firm, The Embassy of Mexico decided to retain Barbour's services on August 15, 2001, to work on, among other things, legislation that would...

I don't know which is more amusing: Democrats assuming that any candidate with Tea Party backing is certifiable, or Republicans upset with the idea that RINOs are slowly becoming an endangered species within their own party. One thing is certain: the movement both sides are trying to discredit is revealing what's really in play come November. Ordinary Americans, the very same folks who engender the bipartisan contempt of Beltway insiders, have decided that one of the oldest pieces of conventional wisdom with respect to voting — as in "choosing the lesser of two evils" — doesn't cut it anymore....The motivation...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez is becoming a banker. Martinez, who resigned from the U.S. Senate last September, was named Monday as chairman of JPMorgan Chase Bank's Florida market and its operations in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. As JPMorgan Chase Bank's senior Florida executive, Martinez will also serve on Chase's corporate executive committee and work with senior level clients ranging from businesses to large corporations and non-profits to governments. The 63-year-old Martinez will be based in Orlando. Chase Bank is the sixth-largest bank in Florida based on deposit market share with nearly $11 billion deposited...

COLUMBUS, N.M. - On Sept. 5, a man calling himself Miguel Alfonso Salinas was apprehended off a deserted highway near the U.S.-Mexico border. The tinted windows on Alfonso Salinas' vehicle aroused the suspicion of Border Patrol agents patrolling a dark and desolate stretch of Highway 9, which runs parallel to the border and is the site of large numbers of illegal crossings. The agents discovered three Mexican migrants in the vehicle with Alfonso Salinas. But what they discovered several days later made a far greater impression. Alfonso Salinas was not who he seemed, according to U.S. Department of Justice and...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has canceled more than $1 million worth of Seattle-area television advertising scheduled on behalf of U.S. Senate candidate George Nethercutt in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 2 election. Advertising representatives at Seattle network affiliates KING, KIRO and KOMO confirmed that the committee this week canceled all the time it had reserved for ads between next week and Election Day. Dan Allen, NRSC spokesman, said, "it doesn't mean we can't do it in the future. We're assessing on a daily basis the entire playing field. We know he [Nethercutt] is a running a...