Republicans enter a new election year Tuesday debating more than just who should be their nominee for president against Barack Obama. They're engaged in a struggle over how radically they can or should change the country's course.On one side is the tea party conservative, the kind of voter Richard Nixon once said belonged to a silent majority, who simmered as the party spent and piled up debt thr...

After weeks of bickering and doubt, Congress delivered a last-minute holiday tax cut extension to 160 million American workers Friday along with further unemployment benefits for millions laid off in the nation's fierce recession and weak economic recovery. It was a convincing victory for President Barack Obama, a humbling retreat for House Republicans.Obama quickly signed the legislation, declari...

Gov. Nikki Haley has endorsed Mitt Romney for president, according to a news release from Romney’s campaign. “He is a conservative businessman who has spent his life working in the economy, and he understands exactly how jobs are created,” Haley said in a news release. “He is not a creature of Washington, and he knows what it means to make decisions – real decisions –...

Defiant Republicans pushed legislation through the House Tuesday night that would keep alive Social Security payroll tax cuts for some 160 million Americans at President Barack Obama's request - but also would require construction of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that has sparked a White House veto threat.Passage, on a largely party-line vote of 234-193, sent the measure toward its certain demise...

The Iowa political director for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign resigned Tuesday for suggesting that evangelicals stood ready to help God "expose the cult of Mormon." Craig Bergman had been with Gingrich's campaign for only a week and now he's out of a job for speaking disparagingly about former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Mormon faith. Bergman, a "tea party...

A day after Herman Cain shuttered his Republican candidacy for president, struggling GOP hopefuls looked to pick up the fallen candidate's tea party following and upset a primary dynamic that has pushed Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to the forefront.Gingrich's campaign, ramping up its operations in early nominating states, was meeting with former Cain aides and advisers now looking for jobs. While...

White House hopeful Michele Bachmann is questioning GOP presidential rival Newt Gingrich's consistency on the issues as she tries to reclaim tea party support in South Carolina.Bachmann said Monday that she hasn't been a longtime Washington insider like the former House speaker and some other candidates. She notes that she founded the congressional Tea Party Caucus.Bachmann listed a group of 37 So...

Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich looked to turn an endorsement from New Hampshire's largest newspaper into momentum elsewhere, heading to South Carolina for a three-day campaign swing with tea party members.His leading rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, did not schedule campaign appearances on Monday, but his advisers were working to downplay The New Hampshire Union Leade...

He is the man with the mustache who takes a rebellious drag on a cigarette in the Herman Cain Internet ad gone viral."We've run a campaign like nobody's ever seen," he says before taking a puff. "But then America's never seen a candidate like Herman Cain."Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presi...

Likely GOP S.C. primary voters give the edge to Georgia businessman Herman Cain, who narrowly leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Palmetto State, according to a new GOP presidential poll.Meanwhile Texas Gov. Rick Perry continues to fade into the background.Thirty percent of likely S.C. GOP primary voters would pick Cain compared to 26 percent who say they favor Romney, according to ...

Mitt Romney's campaign says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is endorsing him for the GOP presidential nomination.Romney and Christie will hold an event Tuesday in New Hampshire ahead of the presidential debate set at Dartmouth, N.H., where Christie will announce his support, the campaign said.Christie had been considering a presidential run in 2012. He decided last week not to mount a campaign.Chri...

Their chief target is Wall Street, but many of the demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. also are thoroughly disgusted with Washington, blaming politicians of both major parties for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the middle class."At this point I don't see any difference between George Bush and Obama. The middle class is a lot worse than when Obama was electe...

Protests against Wall Street entered their 18th day Tuesday as demonstrators across the country show their anger over the wobbly economy and what they see as corporate greed by marching on Federal Reserve banks and camping out in parks from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine.Demonstrations are expected to continue throughout the week as more groups hold organizational meetings and air their concerns o...

With the economy sputtering, the warring factions of Congress have lurched toward gridlock over the usually noncontroversial process of approving disaster aid and keeping the government from shutting down.The GOP-dominated House early Friday muscled through a $3.7 billion disaster aid measure along with a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running past next Friday. The narrow 219-203 tal...

The Tea Party movement roars into the Republican presidential spotlight tonight, as grassroots conservative-coalition members are scheduled to question GOP candidates at a Tampa, Fla., debate.The two-hour debate, co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express and CNN, promises to include some topics that rarely come up in national political forums, such as the candidates’ views of the Constitution a...

U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina is backing Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential bid and will advise the Republican on economic issues.Mulvaney said Monday he would join Perry's White House bid and says Perry has a record that has cut spending and has balanced budgets. Mulvaney announced his support after a tea party-backed forum that Perry skipped to tend to wildfires raging in his home ...

Gov. Nikki Haley’s approval rating has fallen slightly since June –enough that more South Carolinians disapprove of her performance as governor than approve.Still, if they had to vote again, South Carolinians would still elect Haley over her 2010 Democratic challenger, Vincent Sheheen, according to a new poll from the Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling.“Unlike some of her...

A 14-year-old student has been arrested and accused of attacking a teacher at a North Charleston school for students with social, emotional or behavioral disabilities.Officials say the 52-year-old female teacher at the Liberty Hill Academy suffered a dislocated jawbone, broken bones in her face and a broken finger.School district spokesman Jason Sakran confirmed the attack occurred Aug. 24.The tea...

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson Monday endorsed former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for the Republican nomination for president.Wilson, the stepson of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Lexington, is only the latest establishment Republican to endorse the dark-horse candidacy of Huntsman, who was ambassador to China under Democratic President Barack Obama until earlier this year.Huntsman also was endorsed by sta...

The rising profiles of Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are giving the White House a new opening: linking the entire GOP field to the tea party, whose popularity has recently sagged.If the strategy works, it could cause guilt-by-association problems even for non-tea-party Republicans like Mitt Romney.That might be a lot to ask, however. Unflattering comparisons ar...

Emergency legislation to allow the government to borrow more money headed toward passage in the Senate Tuesday with just hours to spare before the national debt bumps against its ceiling. Expected approval sends the bill to President Barack Obama, averting a potentially disastrous, first-ever government default and making a down payment toward taming out-of-control budget deficits."Finally Washing...

By a 75-33 vote, S.C. House lawmakers approved a new congressional map Tuesday, creating a new 7th Congressional District in the Pee Dee region, anchored by Horry County.The plan adopted is similar to one previously adopted by the House but rejected by the state Senate. However, the House is considering other changes to the map.The final plan adopted by the House will go to the S.C. Senate, where ...

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and Columbia will take center stage Labor Day as hosts to a presidential forum of the top Republican candidates. Called The Palmetto Freedom Forum, the event takes place on Sept. 5 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, and will be aired by S.C. ETV with former Midlands news anchor, David Stanton, serving as moderator.DeMint, a Greenville Republican and Tea Party favo...

The government's labor dispute with Boeing Co. is turning into a political headache for President Barack Obama, giving his Republican rivals a fresh opening to bash the administration's economic policies.From congressional hearings to presidential debates, outraged Republicans are keeping up a steady drumbeat of criticism over the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against the aerospace gian...

The U.S. House of Representatives is a notoriously poor launching pad for presidential ambitions, but Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who formally kicked off her campaign Monday in the town where she was born, enters the contest for the 2012 Republican nomination with several strengths. They include deep family roots here in the first state to vote next winter, a strong conservative record tha...

Republicans are starting to pay more attention to the candidates who hope to take on President Barack Obama next year, and so far that's been a good thing for Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty.Not for Newt Gingrich.Overall, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows, Republicans are giving the field of challengers a so-so assessment as interest in the race increases. And, with growing doubts among Amer...

By a narrow 57-54 margin, the S.C. House Wednesday morning narrowly approved a $6 billion budget for the state’s fiscal year that starts July 1.Democrats and Tea Party-minded Republicans voting against the bill.Democrats objected the final general fund budget compromise, worked out by House and state Senate budget negotiators, did not include a Senate proposal for more generous spending on ...

Jaye Bennett waves an American flag as she listens to speakers during a Tea Party rally at the State House, Monday, April 18, 2011. - Gerry Melendez, The StateFlag Day stems from several movements to set aside a day to honor the flag, including a leading effort by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, a fraternal order dating back to the 19th century. In 1911 the group's governing body mad...

Republican White House hopefuls condemned President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy from the opening moments of their first major debate of the campaign season Monday night, and pledged emphatically to repeal his historic year-old health care overhaul. “When 14 million Americans are out of work, we need a new president to end the Obama Depression,” declared former House...

Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, an outspoken Republican with close ties to the tea party, announced Monday that she is running for president, a candidacy that could further shake up a volatile fight for the GOP nomination. The first female contender to enter the 2012 race, Bachmann announced her bid during a Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire. The third-term Minnesota congresswo...