Gop, Senate | featured news

"For us to have the numbers in the Senate and House and White House isn't going to be as easy as everybody thinks," Rooney said after the high court decision Friday. "It's great to be optimistic, but in an election a lot of things have to go your way. 2012 would have to be like 2010 and then some."

The GOP envisions a road to a Senate majority — it needs a net gain of four seats to win control — but at this stage, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida aren't prime real estate.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says Republican Mitt Romney will win the White House, but not with Rubio on the ticket.

The U.S. Senate's top Republican called on his party to unite behind leading presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Sunday as rival Rick Santorum vowed to stay in the race beyond a likely defeat in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary.

It's safe to say the word "Obamacare" has a negative connotation, given how it's been thrown around on the Senate floor, in campaign videos, and during GOP debates. But a new campaign called "Thanks Obamacare!" seeks to wrest the term back from conservatives. Run by two progressive Colorado organizations, the website features a top-10 list of good things about the Affordable Care Act, along with a lively video and a handy timeline.

Sen. Lamar Alexander says he'll resign from his GOP leadership post to spend more time making the Senate "a more effective institution."

Republicans held onto control of the Wisconsin Senate on Tuesday night, beating four Democratic challengers in a recall election viewed as a referendum on Republican policies in that state and beyond. The Associated Press declared Republican Sens. Alberta Darling of River Hills, Robert Cowles of Allouez, Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls and Luther Olsen of Ripon winners. The AP also declared Democratic challengers Jennifer Shilling of LaCrosse and Jessica King of Oshkosh victors.

One of the Senate nominees singled out by GOP Sen. John McCain during a tongue-lashing that compared the Tea Party movement to hobbits is responding ...

Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, took aim Sunday at the field of contenders for the 2012 GOP nomination, accusing them of "isolationism." "We cannot repeat the lessons of the 1930s, when the United States of America stood by while bad things happened in the world," McCain said in an interview with ABC's "This Week."

A GOP bid to expand and hasten offshore oil drilling in the face of $4-a-gallon gasoline prices suffered an overwhelming defeat in the Senate on Wednesday, four days after President Barack Obama directed his administration to ramp up U.S. oil production....