Three Arizona GOP Representatives Vote Against Kevin McCarthy for Speaker

The United States House of Representatives began voting Tuesday to elect a new Speaker of the House. Yet, Republican Party frontrunner Kevin McCarthy of California has not secured enough votes to achieve the title. In total, 19 Republicans voted against him, including three GOP members from Arizona.

“We barely got through half the ballot before confirming that McCarthy is still well short of 218 votes. My colleagues have made clear that our party deserves a new leader. McCarthy should stand down and allow us to select someone else in the next ballot,” tweeted Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05).

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Commentary: It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (for the Washington, D.C. Establishment)

It is Christmas season.  The decorations are hung or need to be. Gifts are being purchased. The Advent Week of peace is being celebrated. Parties are being thrown. And Americans wind down from a long, stressful year.

Unfortunately, while most Americans refocus, the rest of the world doesn’t stop, but in many cases looks at this time as an opportunity to exploit.

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Commentary: Viral Prerequisites and Nationalist Lessons in a Time of Plague

President Donald Trump has courted endless controversies for promoting nonconventional policies and entertaining contrarian views. From the outset, he oddly seemed to have believed that having navigated the jungles of the Manhattan real estate market – crooked politicians, mercurial unions, neighborhood social activists, the green lobby, leery banks, cutthroat rivals – better prepared him for the job than did a 30-year tenure in the U.S. Senate.

Certainly, candidate and then President Trump’s strident distrust of China was annoying to the American establishment. The Left saw China in rosy terms as the “Other” that just did things like airports, high-speed rail, and solar panels better than did America’s establishment of geriatric white male has-beens. Many on the Right saw China as a cash cow that was going to take over anyway, so why not milk it before the deluge?

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OFF THE RECORD: Bill Lee Names Six Additional Commissioners as He Works Toward Completing His Cabinet

Governor-elect Bill Lee will be inaugurated on Saturday January 19. As that date approaches he and his team are working feverishly to complete the selection of his Cabinet and fill many of the top deputy positions in key departments of state government. Thursday afternoon, Lee announced six new commissioners: David Gerregano has served as Governor Bill Haslam’s Commissioner of Revenue the past two years, and helped shepherd the Haslam tax increase (including adding $300 million per year in higher gas taxes) through the Legislature last year. He will continue to serve in that capacity for Lee. Bob Rolfe was appointed in March 2017 by Haslam to fill the slot of Commissioner of Economic and Community Development that Randy Boyd vacated when he left to run for Governor. Rolfe is being retained by Lee in that same position. Gabe Roberts is presently serving as Deputy Director at TennCare and will be elevated to the top slot by Governor Lee. As Deputy Director at TennCare Roberts was actively involved in Governor Haslam’s efforts to expand Medicaid/Obamacare which was derailed by the Legislature in special session in 2015 and again in the regular Session. And during Roberts tenure at TennCare the department apparently paid…

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Commentary: Democrat Excess Leads to New and Improved Trump in 2019

Donald Trump

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Predictions. It’s what New Year’s is all about. It goes without saying that 2018 was full of surprises. Heading into this year Republican majorities in both houses of Congress had just passed a massive reorganization of the federal tax code, including a sizeable tax cut for most Americans in the bill language. By January 1, Democrats were already griping about reduced rates for corporations and businesses, claiming, as they always do, that the benefits of the new law would rain down disproportionately on the wealthiest and most powerful taxpayers. Never mind that many, many companies had already announced sizeable end-of-the-year bonuses and raises for employees based on the improved future tax outlook. Nonetheless, Democrats were convinced the popularity of the new law would not improve (especially if they demagogued the matter) over the course of time. Democrats believed they could parlay President Donald Trump’s lukewarm favorability numbers into a “wave” in November. After all, they’d just been eminently successful in stealing a senate seat in deep red Alabama (with a huge assist from the Washington GOP establishment), so the sky was the limit, right? Last month’s election came and went, Democrats gained 40 seats in…

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Commentary: Media and Republican Establishment Nay-Sayers Frantic to Spin Ohio Primary Victory into Defeat for Trump’s GOP

Donald Trump

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   It should come as no surprise to conservatives that the media took last week’s mostly positive Republican election results and spun them as though they were lopsided losses for President Donald Trump and his party – and that they represented a giant leap forward for the notion of a “blue wave” forming ahead of November’s midterm elections. The Republican win in the Ohio special election was particularly singled out by political talkers as constituting yet another “warning sign” for the GOP. Republican Troy Balderson’s narrow one-point victory in the Buckeye State’s 12th District meant the GOP held onto what was effectively an open seat – something GOP faithful should be proud of accomplishing rather than taking it as an apprehensive sign that the party ship is listing badly and is about to sink as the opening act on its inevitable journey to the depths. Still, many are concerned. They wanted to win by more, apparently, which is only natural since Balderson’s district is a traditional GOP stronghold that’s gone Republican for decades. President Trump was having none of the negativity, however, boldly claiming his assistance helped carry Balderson (and the others) over-the-top. Seth McLaughlin reported in the Washington Times last…

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Commentary: #NeverTrumpers Make It Plain They Enjoy Being Lonely Outside the Party

George Will, Max Boot, Donald Trump

by Jeffery Rendall   Are #NeverTrumpers loners or are they really just lonely? The question came to mind recently as the nebulous allegedly “conservative” anti-Trump group appears to be losing adherents and friends at an alarming rate. It’s not that President Donald Trump has suddenly become so popular that it’s no longer fashionable to oppose him; maybe it’s because the #NeverTrump group has just run out of things to criticize the president for. Whatever the reason more conservatives have taken to kicking the GOP intra-party opposition where it hurts with many a commentator treating #NeverTrump with the same contempt as they would Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer. Nerdy bespectacled intellectual George Will perhaps triggered the bash-#NeverTrump revelry a couple weeks ago when he encouraged conservatives to vote Democrat this November instead of for Trump-enabling Republicans. The #NeverTrump suicide-fest continued last week with several more establishment Republicans declaring independence and urging the ultra-disgruntled to do the unthinkable: go Democrat. Then one-time highly respected right-leaning (neoconservative) writer Max Boot took his turn at pleading for the minority party. Boot wrote last week at The Washington Post, “No one anticipated Trump’s takeover. It’s possible, these [#NeverTrump] Republicans argue, that we might be equally surprised by his downfall. Imagine…

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Commentary: Senator John McCain Rips Up the Tracks as He Exits the Washington Swamp Station

by Jeffery Rendall   One would suppose it’s only natural for the critically ailing Arizona Senator John McCain to want to settle all his scores while he’s still able to do so, but a lot of people are taking issue with the manner in which he’s doing it. Of course McCain is afflicted with what looks to be terminal brain cancer and he’s wasting no time in making sure the world understands just how he views his time on earth (looking back) before the historians and pundits pick through decades of events in his public career and personal life searching for clues as to why he did what he did. One of McCain’s most notable confessions in his new book is his admission that he regrets having chosen Sarah Palin as his 2008 running mate. Ten years is a long time to drop such an explosive personal bomb, especially on someone who inseparably shares a lasting part of McCain’s political legacy. For her part, Palin is taking the news with class but wonders…why now, John? Amy Lieu of Fox News reported, “Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and John McCain’s 2008 running mate, reportedly said she feels a ‘perpetual gut-punch’ every time…

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Commentary: Even Though the GOPe Edged Conservatives in Last Tuesday’s Primaries, There’s Plenty to Celebrate Going into the Fall Elections

by Jeffery Rendall   Establishment Republicans in the Washington swamp must have waited with bated breath on Tuesday night as they viewed the primary election results ticking slowly across the bottom of their TV news screens. Of particular concern for charter members of the capital bog was the GOP contest in West Virginia, where avowed anti-Mitch McConnell (and seemingly outwardly bigoted) oddball Don Blakenship was running surprisingly strongly in recent polls, suggesting another headache could be in the works for a DC ruling class that had just gotten over the aftermath of having to root against a fellow Republican in last year’s Alabama special election. This time the establishment came out on top – or at least they didn’t lose big – and conservatives should be glad. Blankenship ended up falling to the conservatives’ favorite in West Virginia, perhaps paving the way for a Republican senate seat pick-up (Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is vulnerable) in November. There was good news for conservatives elsewhere as well. W. James Antle III of the Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday, “If Tuesday night’s Republican primary winners were not like [Alabama’s Judge Roy] Moore, they were not exactly rejecting Trump either. Rep. Jim Renacci, who won the GOP primary to…

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Commentary: DC Swamp Creatures Loved Status Quo Until Trump Came to Town

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   If you’re a Republican consultant and charter member of the DC swamp, what do you tell your clients to say about President Donald Trump these days? Just when it appeared as though the GOP was emerging from its self-imposed political exile after the push to pass tax relief last December all heck’s breaking lose now as we move towards the end of March. The Republican Congress can’t do anything right – it won’t move on immigration, the budget’s bloated way out of control (thanks in part to continuing to fund Obamacare insurance bailouts), snowflake teenagers are all over TV spouting off about gun control and the media’s in a tizzy over the rumored firing of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. Are foreign actors controlling the news narrative? There’s so much chaos…it’s possible. And then there’s Trump, the Twitter-happy chief executive who (literally) loves pushing buttons – on his phone and on those around him who are easily annoyed. David M. Drucker of the Washington Examiner wrote, “House Republicans were relying heavily on the $1.4 trillion tax overhaul to counteract concerns about the president and revive their 2018 fortunes, burdened with traditional midterm headwinds made exponentially worse by dissatisfaction with…

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Commentary: Republicans Hold the Key to Their Own Success in the 2018 Midterm Elections

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Now that 2017’s few elections and reflections on the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s triumphant win in the 2016 election are in the rearview mirror it’s time to look ahead to the all-important midterm elections of 2018. Midterms are always a big deal because they portend to reveal how well – or how poorly – a president is received by a wide cross-section of the American public. Ahead of next year’s vote media pundits are doing what media pundits always do, namely find any way feasible to describe the Republican Party as being in trouble. Their routines are predictable: wake up in the morning, put on a pot of coffee, take their anti-depressant medication, check Trump’s twitter feed, organize their angry thoughts and then scribble a story bashing Trump and predicting doom. In Trump’s case it’s been happening for well over two years now so liberal journalists have the shtick down cold. The only problem is their predictions rarely come true. Other commentators actually look at the facts and try to draw some reasoned conclusions. David M. Drucker and W. James Antle III of the Washington Examiner wrote earlier this week, “One year out from the midterm congressional…

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Richard Viguerie Commentary: Be A Third Force, Not A Third Party

by Richard A. Viguerie, ConservativeHQ.com Chairman   As the establishment Republican Party’s Capitol Hill leaders continue to fumble – many would say block – the agenda that elected Donald Trump and built a new and winning conservative – populist political coalition, the mutterings for the formation of a third political party to compete with the Democratic and Republican establishments has grown louder. As I explained in my book TAKEOVER, the ideological incentive for conservatives to bolt the Republican Party seems to grow every time weak and feckless GOP “leaders” hold sway on Capitol Hill – but the political reasons to resist it are overwhelming: Because of the weakness of the Republican National Committee and the GOP leadership on Capitol Hill, plenty of conservatives then [1970s], as now, were inclined to leave the Republican Party, at least for a while. Every time the establishment GOP would “me-too” the Democrats, or strong-arm conservatives in Congress or Republican Party politics, some conservatives would contemplate forming a third party. This conservative disillusionment with the GOP wasn’t new, as I’ve mentioned before; it went back at least to the 1950s and early 1960s, when a vehement group of libertarian-minded thinkers, such as author Ayn Rand,…

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Commentary: With Bannon as Their Guardian Angel, the GOP Senate Will Want to Live Again

by Jeffery A Rendall   We’re still two months away from Christmas yet it’s never too early to anticipate the good times ahead when we’ll observe the sacred traditions that stimulate positive memories from the past. For me, one such ritual is revisiting the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the tale of everyman George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) and his look back at his own life alongside guardian angel Clarence who was sent to Bedford Falls to help the small town good-guy realize that he’d really led a very consequential and worthwhile existence. There’s a part of the legendary movie that reminds me a little of what’s going on with elements of the Republican donor establishment these days. In one famous scene, Mr. Potter, the film’s greedy old scrooge-like miser invites Bailey into his office to try and sweet-talk the man into abandoning his business, thus obtaining through addition what Potter couldn’t earn through beating his rival at his own game. Unsurprisingly, Bailey informs Potter he won’t be bought. How does George Bailey and Mr. Potter relate to today’s noxious DC swamp? Some GOP establishment groups are bringing in Steve Bannon to headline their events, in essence to “hire”…

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Commentary: Republicans, You’ve Been Warned: Stephen Bannon’s Coming For You and He’s Bringing America with Him

Stephen Bannon, of Breitbart-turned-White-House-turned-back-to-Breitbart fame, has sent out a stern warning Republicans’ way, and it’s one that goes like this: I’m coming for you. For you and your pretty dog, Toto, too – minus Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz is safe. But aside from Cruz, “no one is safe,” Bannon said, during a Fox interview with Sean…

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President Trump Deletes Tweets Endorsing Luther Strange after Judge Roy Moore Win

Several of President Trump’s past endorsements of Sen. Luther Strange disappeared from the president’s personal Twitter account after the Republican senator lost Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff to former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Mr. Trump repeatedly touted the Republican incumbent’s campaign on Twitter leading up to Alabama’s special election this week, but at least three of…

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Commentary: John McCain’s Betrayal of the Conservative Grassroots is Treasonous

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Treason; it’s a difficult concept to grasp. The dictionary indicates the word means “betrayal of country – a violation of the allegiance owed by somebody to his or her own country, e.g. by aiding an enemy.” It also means treachery and/or act of betrayal. Similarly, a traitor is defined as “betrayer – somebody who is disloyal or treacherous.” By definition then, Arizona Senator John McCain is a traitor, guilty of treason. No, a mob isn’t now forming to drag him in chains before a court of inquisition and no formal charges will be filed by anyone in a federal or state jurisdiction to indict him for a crime. But make no mistake, what McCain is doing to sabotage the efforts of about half of his fellow senate members (and President Donald Trump) to deal with a serious big government problem istreasonous. McCain is a traitor within the Republican Party and by extension he’s betrayed the American people because he refuses to even consider a proposal to pass the last-ditch Obamacare “fix it” (I can’t get myself to call it a repeal) bill that his good friend South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham conjured up as the GOP’s final attempt to address the failing Obamacare…

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Showdown in Williamson County: Conservative Grassroots Debbie Deaver Vs. Establishment Tom Miller in Fight for GOP County Chair

Tennessee Star - Deaver v Miller

For some, Tuesday, Feb 28 might be just another National Chocolate Soufflé Day, but to the Williamson County Republican Party loyalists, it’s time to pick a new GOP Chair. The election in 2015 of outgoing Chairwoman Julie Hannah was a great victory for the conservative grassroots. Of the two candidates running to replace her, many activists believe Debbie Deaver represents a continuation of Hannah’s high-energy, principled leadership. Party insiders agree the choice between the two candidates emerging from the Willamson County GOP Convention earlier this year is stark:  Establishment-supporting, Moderate Tom Miller, or conservative crackerjack, Deaver. Miller served as a Franklin alderman-at-large from 1997-2003, then was elected the Mayor of Franklin for a single term in 2003. However, although Miller enjoys a nearly ubiquitous reputation as a “nice guy,” some Republican activists fear the longtime Realtor and Franklin resident will “do nothing” but take orders from the Establishment Party Leaders in Tennessee like Governor Bill Haslam, and Senators Bob Corker and Llamar Alexander. “If Tom Miller is elected to the Williamson County Chair, we will go from being a strong conservative party organization, to simply being a big-government, liberal tax-and-spend organization,” said activist and Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips.…

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