Free Republic

Some Re­pub­lic­ans are so des­per­ate for Paul Ry­an to step up as the next speak­er of the House that they’ve star­ted talk­ing about re­tir­ing if he doesn’t, ac­cord­ing to a group that works on be­half of the House GOP’s more mod­er­ate mem­bers. After Ry­an, those mem­bers have no second choice or even a second tier of po­ten­tial speak­ers, said Sarah Cham­ber­lain, chief op­er­at­ing and fin­an­cial of­ficer for the Re­pub­lic­an Main Street Part­ner­ship, a group that backs “main­stream” Re­pub­lic­ans and plans to spend mil­lions help­ing them pro­tect their House seats in 2016. “De­pend­ing on how this shakes out, you may see...

AP) — Former Rep. Steve LaTourette, gravely ill with pancreatic cancer, has filed a claim against the government over the treatment he received from his Capitol doctors, claiming they failed to pass along critical information about a lesion on the organ and the need for follow-up monitoring. LaTourette, R-Ohio, filed administrative claims against the government earlier this month in anticipation of filing a lawsuit later. But papers filed with a federal court in Washington last week say LaTourette “is likely to succumb to rapid physical and cognitive deterioration” and urge that he be allowed to testify now since he may...

This is truly unbelievable. The Main Street Advocacy group, which is a group that was formed by Republican leadership and funded by Republican leadership and their allies, and run by leadership lapdog Steve LaTourette has issued a truly unbelievable ad. The ad backs all the worst people in Congress like Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC)51% and it attacks people who objected to the idea that Barack Obama could legally contravene Federal Law via Executive Order: Here is one thing the ad gets right, the DHS funding fight was not a wider referendum on immigration. It was a fight about whether Congress...

Think of every area where the GOP has strayed from its conservative roots. The bailouts. TARP. Out-of-control government spying. Job-killing corporate cronyism. There is one man in Congress consistently saying “no” to making government bigger and less accountable. His name is Justin Amash, and the establishment has taken notice. Big business wants to ensure voters elect Republicans who will keep the perks flowing -- from taxpayers’ bank accounts and right to their pockets. They’ve even created a feel-good way to describe such a Republican: Pro-business. And that’s exactly the kind of guy they’ve found in Amash’s primary challenger. Amash goes...

In a striking display of dissension, a group of Republican lawmakers broke ranks with the White House on Wednesday and embraced a resolution opposing more U.S. troops in Iraq — airing their criticism even as President Bush publicly defended his plan.

President Obama has threatened to veto the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill unless a provision on union organizing is removed. In a statement of administration policy Wednesday, the White House said the president's "senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill" if the legislation "would not safeguard the ability of railroad and airline workers to decide whether or not they would be represented by a union based upon a majority of the ballots cast in an election."  The White House said the veto threat also applies to the funding levels in the FAA bill. The statement said the...

ForAmerica chairman Brent Bozell is excoriating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for attending a tropical summit hosted by an organization working to marginalize the Tea Party movement. “Conservative leaders were stunned to learn that you will be headlining a conference in Florida this weekend that is, purely and simply, a direct attack on Tea Party conservatives,” Bozell wrote to Cantor on Tuesday in a letter obtained exclusively by Breitbart News. At issue is Cantor’s decision to attend and speak at a conference this weekend on Amelia Island in Northeast Florida. The event is being hosted by “Main Street Advocacy,” a...

Next weekend, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, and twenty-five other members of Congress are flying to Amelia Island to collaborate with a group dedicated to defeating conservatives in Congress. The Republican Main Street Partnership’s offshoot “Main Street Advocacy” is hosting the event at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island. Steve LaTourette, a liberal Republican former Congressman from Ohio, is the face in front of the group. LaTourette is good friends with John Boehner. Behind the scenes, LaTourette’s group is funded by the vast left-wing conspiracy. According to an email inviting people to the event, “People that are attending have...

A new super PAC seeks to bolster moderate Republicans in a number of House and Senate races where ultra-conservative groups are threatening to snap up Republican nominations. The Defending Main Street PAC could target up to ten races including in Illinois, Maine, Michigan and West Virginia in the 2014 primary election cycle, setting itself up to fight far-right counterparts like the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund. "We're getting a lot of calls to not only defend but go in and defend a lot of center right candidates against a couple of incumbents in Michigan," former Rep. Steve...

Mainstreet USA Inc Top Contributors, 2004 Cycle RETURN TO TOP 50 LIST Election cycle: 2004 Top Contributors America Coming Together $500,000 Assn of Trial Lawyers of America $100,000 American Fedn Of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $75,000 American Federation Of Teachers $50,000 Rhino Entertainment $50,000 Antidote Films $25,000 Sheridan Group $25,000 UNITE HERE $20,000 Intl Brotherhood of Boilmakers, Iron Shi $10,000 Consultant $10,000 United Steelworkers Of America $10,000 Maintenance of Way Political League $10,000 NOTE: This data is based on records released by the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, October 24, 2005. Mainstreet USA Inc Itemized contributions from America Coming Together, 2004 data...

The Republican Main Street Partnership has emerged as an outspoken, deep-pocketed player in pro-business GOP plans to beat back tea-party challengers next year. But the group's new super PAC has an unexpected source for its seed money: labor unions. The super PAC, called Defending Main Street, has not yet submitted a major donor disclosure to the Federal Election Commission. But documents filed by other groups show that two labor organizations, the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Laborers' International Union of North America, directed a combined $400,000 to the Republican group in September and October. Main Street says it...

The Main Street Individual Fund (MSIF) is a New York-based group founded to help elect moderate Republican candidates. Among those candidates it supports in the 2004 elections is Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa), who is fending off a tough primary challenge from Rep. Pat Toomey. MSIF raises funds from individual donors and is affiliated with another 527, the Main Street Fund, which solicits contributions from corporations and unions. Both are connected to the Republican Main Street Partnership. Affiliated Personnel: Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director Bob Duke, fund-raiser Donors: Dinakar Singh, Goldman Sachs, $100,000 George Soros, Soros Fund Management $50,000 Sidney V...

Erick Erickson reported that Republicans John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and 25 other Congress members will fly to Amelia Island next weekend to meet with a group dedicated to defeating conservatives in Congress. “Main Street Advocacy” is hosting the event at the Ritz Carlton – only the best for these sorts. Steve LaTourette, liberal Republican and former congressman, is the face of the group and a good friend of Boehner’s.

WASHINGTON — In the year since he stepped down from Congress, Steven C. LaTourette, a Republican from Ohio, has emerged as one of the top generals in the establishment Republicans’ war against the Tea Party. It is a role that has benefited the Main Street Partnership, a corporate-backed advocacy group he runs, and its effort to raise millions of dollars to protect centrist Republicans from Tea Party challengers. It has also helped draw clients to a separate lobbying office Mr. LaTourette and his wife have set up across the street from the Capitol. But this blitz of activity has led...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican Main Street Partnership, the largest organization of elected centrists, recently spotlighted Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. "Snowe has long been a leader for centrist Republicans in Washington," said former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), President and CEO of Main Street. "Snowe's commitment to delivering results to her constituents, and her pragmatic approach to government, have made her one of the most effective members of the U.S. Senate, regardless of which party controls the Congress." "It is clear that Senator Snowe takes public service and the duty of governing seriously. Main Street is lucky to count Senator...

A Republican super PAC committed to defeating the tea party in 2014 congressional primaries is mostly funded by labor unions. The super PAC Defending Main Street, formed by moderate Republican and former congressman Steve LaTourette, has committed itself to destroying tea party challenges to establishment GOP candidates in the 2014 midterm elections. “Hopefully we’ll go into eight to 10 races and beat the snot out of them,” LaTourette said. His PAC has already committed itself to defending Republican Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson from tea party opponent Bryan Smith, who is backed by the conservative Club for Growth due to Simpson’s...

Dude, they’re feeling it. The RINOs are ready to charge. Assuming they’re successful and a bunch of tea-party incumbents get bounced from the House, it’s pretty much third-party time for grassroots conservatives, right? From Alabama to Alaska, the center-right, business-oriented wing of the Republican Party is gearing up for a series of skirmishes that it hopes can prevent the 2014 midterm election from turning into another missed opportunity. This will not be a coordinated operation. It will be messy, ugly, and prone to backfiring. And if the comeback succeeds, it will be in fits and starts, most likely culminating in...

Remember when the Republican establishment declared war on the tea party? One year ago, the Crossroads super PAC founded by Karl Rove launched a new group to defend incumbents from volatile, too-conservative challengers who might scuttle the party's takeover of the Senate in 2014. The empire-strikes-back counteroffensive gained allies like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and gridlock-weary Republicans in Congress after tea-party members shut down the government in October. But so far, what was billed as an ugly and expensive all-out civil war within the GOP looks more like a few scattered skirmishes unlikely to declare a clear victor. "There's...

After returning from voting for Toomey this morning at 9:30am, I heard a pro-Specter radio ad on WSBA-910AM, to the effect that "a vote against Specter is a vote against Pennsylvania's Republican Party." When I got back to work, I emailed them a taste of my dissatisfaction: ""a vote against specter is a vote against the republican party"? what's that all about? how utterly stupid. arlie sphincter is a back-stabbing liberal scumbag, who's screwed us here in penna, for 24 years. he's gone, after today. your stupid radio spot helped seal his doom, and changed a lot of peoples' minds...

Conservative and Republican affiliated groups have started the 2014 assault against Democrats who support Obamacare. At the very same time, it is increasingly clear Republicans are laying the groundwork to abandon their opposition to Obamacare. The Business Roundtable, which has a great relationship with Republican Leaders, is now listing Obamacare as an entitlement worth preserving. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former economic advisor to John McCain and who opposed passage of Obamacare, has started a think tank premised on keeping, but fixing, Obamacare. Holtz-Eakin has the ear of Republican leaders. In 2009, Mitch McConnell appointed him to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission....