Free Republic

A roller-coaster election season looks like it could go off the rails with a possible contested GOP presidential convention in July.Gargiulo, one of 11 New Hampshire delegates Trump is sending to Cleveland, is bracing for a close finish — maybe even an attempt at a convention fight, given Cruz and Kasich remain in the race. It would not be without consequences for the party, he contends. -

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has picked up endorsements from six New Hampshire lawmakers who previously supported Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) presidential bid. From The New Hampshire Union Leader: The six state lawmakers endorsing Cruz are: Rep. Max Abramson of Seabrook, Rep. Eric Eastman of Nashua, Rep. Harold French of Franklin, Rep. Larry Gagne of Manchester, Rep. JR Hoell of Dunbarton, and Rep. Mark McLean of Manchester.

For those of us who have been waiting decades for a Republican presidential candidate to figure out that the Establishment Media is already at war with us, Donald Trump is not only an answer to that prayer but an effective answer. After just taking down the once-infallible Fox News a notch, in New Hampshire Friday, The Donald eviscerated New Hampshire’s Union Leader. The New York Times: Mr. Trump has denounced the paper repeatedly since it endorsed Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey for president, but on Friday he let loose with a new and more intense stream of invective against...

ABC is cutting off their partnership with the New Hampshire Union Leader for the Republican primary debate on Feb. 6, an ABC spokesperson has confirmed... ...the relationship with ABC had become strained, at best, a source at ABC with knowledge of the situation said. Adding to the strained relationship, the source said, was the paper's singling out of one particular candidate, Donald Trump, with front page editorials...

Earlier in the day, Trump explained that he was attacking Christie because he felt the governor had colluded with the Union Leader on a scathing front-page editorial that opined, "Trump has shown himself to be a crude blowhard." The New Hampshire newspaper previously endorsed Christie. Trump blasted Christie at his rally in the middle of an 10-minute-plus criticism of the Union Leader's publisher, whom Trump called a "loser," "lowlife," and a "sleazebag." Trump said he couldn't believe that Christie earned the paper's endorsement because of his embrace of Obama in 2012 and his overall stewardship of the New Jersey economy.

Donald Trump, the publisher of the influential New Hampshire Union Leader printed an editorial slamming the Republican presidential front-runner's "public descent into bathroom humor," and revived the comparison to Biff Tannen from the "Back to the Future" movies. "Lo and behold, the screenwriter says that he based Biff on Trump," Joseph McQuaid writes, ahead of the billionaire businessman's Nashua event. "On Feb. 9, we trust New Hampshire Republicans will send 'Biff Trump' back to somewhere — anywhere but on the road to the most important elective office in the United States at a most crucial time for this nation."...

SEE: Gingrich Gets Endorsement of Influential Conservative Newspaper In New Hampshire ``The influential New Hampshire conservative newspaper, the Union Leader, endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for president a month before the nation`s ``first-in-the-nation`` primary on Jan. 10, one week after the nation`s first nominating contest in Iowa on Jan. 3. Yup. Newt Gingrich is the conservative`s leader, especially since he wants to allow 8-12 million aliens who have invaded our borders to remain here if they haven`t violated particular laws. But entering our country illegally is not included on the list! Have we forgotten Gingrich ignored patriotic conservatives in...

CONCORD, N.H. — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has decided after all to sit for a videotaped interview with New Hampshire’s largest newspaper. Joe McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, says Cain’s spokesman called Monday morning and asked if Cain could come in next week for an hourlong, videotaped interview. The about-face comes four days after a planned interview was scrapped about an hour before it was supposed to begin amid disagreements over timing and whether it would be videotaped.

Cain will sit for an hourlong taped interview with the Union Leader, publisher Joe McQuaid announced on Twitter on Monday... Just last week, Cain backed out of a Union Leader interview because the paper insisted on a 60-minute, on-camera sit-down, as opposed to the 20-minute, camera-free conversation Cain hoped for. The newspaper blistered Cain in a Monday missive titled, “Recording Cain: What’s he afraid of?” McQuaid told POLITICO’s Reid Epstein that Cain’s spokesman “called me up this morning and wondered if they could come in one day next week for an hour-long interview and have C-SPAN there.”

From New Hampshire’s Union Leader: Cain’s decision was made after a video showed him fumbling an answer about Libya during a newspaper editorial board interview in Milwaukee — and right before he was to do an interview with this newspaper, which we wanted C-SPAN to record and broadcast. That wasn’t going to happen, a Cain campaign spokesman said, because “videos are typically used for television and it’s a newspaper. We decided we didn’t want to do the video.” Videos these days are used by everyone, even random people on the street who record candidates with their cell phones. The difference...

CONCORD, N.H. — The New Hampshire Union Leader of Manchester is defending its decision to refuse to publish marriage notices for gay couples after one couple getting married yesterday tried to include their announcement.

Sarah Palin got some push-back Wednesday, but not from one of her liberal critics in the "mainstream" media. No, it was a conservative -- and influential -- New Hampshire newspaper that tartly dismissed the former Alaska governor's recent endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte. In a front-page editorial, New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid wrote that Palin's endorsement should "neither surprise nor upset the other campaigns" since voters in the state are "rarely impressed by what outsiders have to say." Better pay attention: in a state that traditionally hosts the first presidential primary -- and will again...

TRENTON, N.J. -- The state Republican Party chairman sued Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine on Thursday to force the release of e-mails between the governor and a state union leader he once dated and lavished with gifts. GOP chief Tom Wilson said he particularly wants messages that Corzine and his staff exchanged with Carla Katz, the leader of a state workers union, during recent state employee contract talks. "The people have a right to know whether or not his personal relationship with Ms. Katz unduly or inappropriately influenced Jon Corzine's actions," Wilson said. Corzine's office has denied public records requests...

THE WONDERFUL thing about writing commentary pieces is that I get ample feedback, often from people unencumbered by the niceties of interpersonal diplomacy. Last week, I did what you might expect a conservative columnist to do. I told young orphans there is no Santa Claus. No, no, just kidding. (Besides, I'd have gotten a better reaction closer to the holidays.) No, I merely cataloged the troubles of the Democratic Party. The infuriated response from hordes of liberal readers was, "How could you criticize the Democrats when the Republicans are in so much more trouble?" Fortunately they provided their own answers,...

Love it or hate it, the Queen City's other name has stuck. We're smack in the middle of New Hampshire's largest city, where half-naked boys are killing a scorching afternoon on the dirty concrete slopes of the local skate park. Here, down the street from the city's old baseball stadium, a Memorial High School freshman smears a cracked paintball on the ground while, nearby, two Central High School teens flirt beside a graffiti-covered wall. The kids here have been living in Manchester all their lives, but not one of them ever calls it that. Because these days, when you're a...

UNQUESTIONABLY, Alexander Hamilton was the most prescient of the Founding Fathers. While Adams mistrusted banks, and Jefferson and Madison conceptualized America as a nation of yeoman farmers, Hamilton embraced finance and industry. But Hamilton got it completely wrong when he predicted in Federalist No. 78 that the judiciary would be the “least dangerous” branch of government. With every new decision it issues, the U.S. Supreme Court looks less and less like a court of law and more and more like a supreme legislature. Its recent decision declaring the death penalty for minors unconstitutional — like its decisions on abortion, race,...

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH deserves re-election on Nov. 2 for many reasons, the most important being the need for his continued leadership in the global fight against Islamist terrorism. In response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President Bush did not lash out or rush to war. He built an international coalition to destroy the Taliban, then built another to remove Saddam Hussein from power if Hussein continued to defy United Nations resolutions demanding that he adhere to the terms of the cease fire that ended the 1991 Gulf War. Hussein refused to comply with the ceasefire and subsequent resolutions....

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. Bush deserves re-election on Nov. 2 for many reasons, the most important being the need for his continued leadership in the global fight against Islamist terrorism. In response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President Bush did not lash out or rush to war. He built an international coalition to destroy the Taliban, then built another to remove Saddam Hussein from power if Hussein continued to defy United Nations resolutions demanding that he adhere to the terms of the cease fire that ended the 1991 Gulf War. Hussein refused to comply with the ceasefire and subsequent resolutions....