Free Republic

The Grand Old Party looks, and acts, like the Going Out Party. After losing three congressional special elections in as many months, in what were assumed to be “Republican” districts, some Republicans are finally waking up to the fact that they have squandered the Reagan legacy and consequently, are about to be relegated to the minority status wasteland they occupied for five decades after WWII. The Party of Reagan withered under the “kinder, gentler” administration of Bush(41), consequently suffering further indignity under two “era of big government is over” Clinton terms, only to be further disenfranchised by Bush(43)’s “compassionate conservatism.”...

Republicans are and should be panicked over the fact that conservative Democrat Travis Childers just defeated Republican Greg Davis by a margin of 54%-46% in the race for a vacant Mississippi congressional seat. That seat is in a conservative district that had given President Bush a 25-point margin of victory over John Kerry in 2004 - it never should have flipped Democrat. This is the third double-digit loss in a row for Republican candidates in conservative districts across the United States. Childers' victory came one week after Rep. Don Cazayoux won a House seat in the Baton Rouge, La., area...

Republican congressman Tom Tancredo has fired off a wisecracking press release saying he wants to be a professor of conservative politics at the University of Colorado -- a school often criticized by conservatives as being too liberal. The outspoken opponent of illegal immigration is suggesting classes in "English Only 101" and "American Assimilation." He's also proposing a 20-foot-high fence around the border of the university's Boulder campus. Tancredo spokesman T.Q. Houlton said Wednesday Tancredo doesn't really want a job at CU when he retires from Congress in January. He's just poking fun at reports that CU wants to establish a...

It's probably no secret to anyone who reads my column regularly that I will not be voting for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton for president. But I also will not be voting for John McCain. I could tell you all the reasons and have expressed them already in a number of columns in recent months. But this time, I'll let someone with whom I seldom agree express them for me. His name is Jonathan Chait, a senior editor at The New Republic. Here's what he wrote in that magazine: "Even though it is in the public record, McCain's voting...

America's Independent Party has as its goal the return of our nation to a set of foundational principles. We call them "the American Principles." The word "principle" comes from a Latin root which means "first things." The American Principles are the "first things" that our country should consider – in domestic policy, foreign policy, the internal functioning of government, and in using the "bully pulpit" of public office and the political arena to promote certain societal virtues and behaviors. America's Independent Party recognizes that these "first things" are clearly defined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the...

Join us today as We dedicate our show to all Military Mom's out there. We are here to entertain, this will be one of the most fun evenings you've had on BTR! No guests, just our best friends on our favorite websites and plenty to feel strong in our conservatism about. We 've got so many laughs lined up.

"Alert Washingtonians were treated to an odd juxtaposition not long ago. John McCain was booed at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the big annual gathering of the right-wing tribes, while trying to establish that he was a conservative. On the same day, across town at the American Enterprise Institute—another conservative stronghold—Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, was warmly received when he touted a new book called Real Change. Never one to go underboard, Ging­rich called for “explosively replac[ing] the failed bureaucracies of the past.” "The irony of the contrast seemed lost on conservatives. No one in the movement doubts Gingrich...

It goes without saying that the GOP is taking a dreadful thrashing right now. Conservatives are unmotivated, Democrats are obliterating Republicans in the fundraising arena, and the GOP's poll numbers have dropped off a cliff. George Bush, the face of the Republican Party, has an approval rating of 30% and according to Rasmussen Reports, one of the best polling agencies in the business, 41.4% of Americans consider themselves to be Democrats while only 31.4% say they are Republicans. Worse yet, voters trust the Democrats more than Republicans on the economy, government ethics, the war in Iraq, health care, Social Security,...

There is a news report starting to make the rounds amongst the MSM on a study that claims to have discovered why conservatives tend to be happier than liberals and it is just the sort of bilge that the MSM loves to promulgate. We may see more of it over the next several days because, while it is titled “Conservatives Happier Than Liberals,” it is basically saying that the reason conservatives are happier is because they just don’t care about other people. This purported research claims to pinpoint the reason conservatives are happier and it is because they have theirs...

I was shocked and saddened to hear my 80 year old black father say he thought Rev. Jeremiah Wright spoke the truth about America. My dad is a great man. He was one of the first blacks to break the color barrier in the Baltimore Fire Department where he suffered segregation and humiliating treatment. He won Firefighter of the Year two times. Married with four children, he worked full time and attended college. He is a doctor of theology. He authored a book and still pastors numerous churches. He truly believes in love and faith in God. My dad would...

She was once the darling of conservatives like Newt Gingrich, but now you can't watch a television news-talk program without seeing her calling for more government and showing scorn for those who want less. She's Arianna Huffington, website impresario and author of "Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution and Made Us All Less Safe". I interviewed her for "20/20" last week because I was impressed by the success of the website she created. In just three years she made the Huffington Post a hot liberal opinion site. What happened to Huffington's beliefs? In 1994,...

TUNE IN! Eeevil will announce who she will be voting for as President in November. You will be SURPRISED! We never know what the daily news and moods will bring. One thing we CAN count on is that the media and DC will give us PLENTY to sound off on! Join in and let 'er rip! 11 AM est at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/eeevil-conservative

WILL: I was at the Truman library in Independence, Mo., last week, and was looking at a black-and-white photograph of Harry Truman giving a speech in a stadium in Los Angeles during the '48 campaign. Seated next to the lectern, right next to Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, is a man who had introduced Truman, and it was a 37-year-old Ronald Reagan. That was probably the last time he voted for a Democrat. And so Sean's right, he was the first Reagan Democrat, but what really made Reagan Democrats were Democratic policies. One of the worst things that ever happened...

BUCKLE UP FOLKS! Honest Conservative hits the airwaves AGAIN! She has put together some great clips of Mrs. Nobama for us! She is sharp, cute, and funny to boot. (I'm a poet and I know it) Grab the popcorn, cheesy poofs, chocolate guac, and MilkyWay Martinis! THE LEFT IS GOING TO FEEL US ROAR! (PARTY!) heeee heeee heeeeeeee

It’s Time for Conservatives to Dump the GOP! Don Boys, Ph.D. It is time for Christians and Conservatives (not always the same) to run from the Republican Party as if their hair is on fire. How much longer will principled people pretend that the GOP takes a principled stand? Some background: Every member of my family in West Virginia was a Democrat, but when I turned 18, I wanted to vote for Ike, so I registered as a Republican and have generally voted for them most of my life—until recently. When I was administrator of a large Christian school in...

LONDON (AP) — An eccentric Conservative lawmaker appeared likely to become London's next mayor after an election that brought only gloom Friday for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Labour Party. Brown's first test at the polls Thursday brought Labour its worst local election results in four decades; his credibility has been dented by accusations of dithering and economic blunders since he became leader last June. The party lost more than 300 municipal council seats and the Conservatives made strong gains in its longtime weak spot in northern England. In London, bookmakers and legislators alike predicted former magazine editor Boris...

Boris Johnson has won the race to become the next mayor of London - ending Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign at City Hall.

Faced with a crumbling Republican Party image, Sen. John McCain is gambling on a general-election strategy that relies on winning over conservative Democrats and independents, breaking with President Bush's 2000 and 2004 game plan of focusing on the party's core voters. "This time, we are working to get a larger share than normal of independents and conservative Democrats, mainly because our own base is narrower than four years ago," said McCain campaign senior adviser Charles Black, who has been a part of every GOP presidential campaign since Ronald Reagan's nomination run in 1976. The Arizona senator has spent his time...

Love Birds!!!Just a year ago, Fox News Channel was considered a pariah in many Democratic circles. But it appears that the cable news network is no longer in the doghouse. Consider this week: On Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) made a long-awaited appearance on "Fox News Sunday," a booking that host Chris Wallace had been seeking for more than two years. (The show airs on both the Fox broadcasting network and its sister cable channel.) On Wednesday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) granted her first interview to Bill O'Reilly, a commentator viewed with antipathy by much of the left,...

G. Will, Ann Coulter, P. Buchanan, Mark Steyn, et. al. On Jeremiah WrightRandom roundup of recent things Wright (Jeremiah) and Wrong (Wright’s sermons) on the web. If it takes Obama 20 years to notice that his pastor is a traitorous, racist nut-job, it will probably take him his full term of office to realize that the U.S. has been invaded and subdued by al-Qaida. Let’s just hope President Obama pays closer attention during national security briefings than he did during 20 years of the Rev. Wright’s church services. –Ann Coulter: Obama Campaign Gives Up On Finding ‘Mr. Wright’ For 20...

Welcome everyone to Open Keg Friday, 8 pm est tonight. Join Honest and Eeevil as we tap into our weekend. Eeevil is the designated driver, so buckle up! The Levin Lounge is closing, some mosey on over to the after hours party. Relax put your feet up, have a coldy and chill to get ready for a great weekend.

May 02, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Candidate of Change?McCain’s health-care proposal is just the start of what has to be a broader conservative reformation. By Rich Lowry Editor’s note: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact: kfsreprint@hearstsc.com, or phone 800-708-7311, ext 246). If there’s just one candidate of change this fall, John McCain will be the Horatio Seymour or James Cox of 2008 — a presidential also-ran all but forgotten to history. The only way McCain can hold the White House for the Republicans is if he...

Sacramento Republican Activists Launch Effort to Support the Republican Wing of the Republican Party (Sacramento) - Limited government, lower taxes and family values are just a few things that voters usually associate with the Republican Party. But recently, elected Republican officials have been actively taking positions against these bedrock Republican values and have supported efforts to increase minimum wage, driving up unemployment; proposed a tax increase on homeowners to pay for fire protection that they are already paying for; and fighting against an effort to protect the definition of marriage, as between a man and a women. Some say you...

The New Underground Railroad started as the result of numerous conversations that have taken place with Black leaders from across the country. It was started with the goal of dispelling the Myth that Blacks are incapable of being success without government programs. It will expose the Democrat Party’s legacy of bigotry and hatred. Over time we have invited several likeminded black thinkers from across the nation to contribute to the discussion. Well, now the time has come for us to expand our reach and ask you, our loyal readers to join the fight to free our people from the...

For decades, Huffington has been a political gadfly and a perennial pundit on news shows. Now she's editor in chief of the popular news and opinion Web site The Huffington Post. Huffington's politics lean left, but that wasn't the case in the mid-'90s when she was a friend to Newt Gingrich and a card-carrying member of the Republican Party.

In this interview, Arthur C. Brooks, author of Gross National Happiness, offers some telling data about the relative happiness of liberals and conservatives: In 2004, people who said they were conservative or very conservative were nearly twice as likely to say they were very happy as people who called themselves liberal or very liberal (44 percent versus 25 percent). Conservatives were only half as likely to say they were not too happy (9 versus 18 percent). Political conservatives were also far less likely than liberals to express maladjustment to their adult lives. For example, adults on the political right were...

Pop culture asks, “What would Jesus do?” Regarding today's NAACP, I ask, “What would MLK do?” With catastrophic school dropout rates among blacks, the NAACP has chosen to defend black youths wearing their pants low with their underwear showing. The racist and America hating Rev. Jeremiah Wright will be the keynote speaker for the 2008 NAACP Detroit branch's 53rd annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner. The NAACP supports gay marriage. Despite the fact that Black women are three times more likely than white women to have an abortion and 1452 black children are aborted every day, the NAACP supports abortion....

Would this not send a strong message to support Christianity? Would it not also be a counter to the homosexual “Day of Silence?” Any comments?

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: “…most politicians never met a dollar they didn’t like.” SUBJECT: US Congressional Candidate Katherine Jenerette On the Issues Part I DATE: April 17, 2008          FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.jenerette.orgOn Thursday, Jenerette outlined some of her basic positions on the issues with the following release:KATHERINE JENERETTE on the ISSUES: A Brief Overview of my Agenda and Issues Part One     “Washington is a far different place today than it was with a Republican majority in both Houses and our district here in South Carolina has changed tremendously over the years,” Katherine Jenerette said. “Our times call...

A coalition of 16 Iraq War Veterans have united to support each other for a run at Capitol Hill. In a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. last week, timed to coincide with the arrival of Gen. David Petreus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to Capitol Hill, six members of “Iraq Veterans for Congress,” IVC, outlined their frustration over the lack of representation in Congress of the new generation of veterans. (snip) Lt. Col. William Russell, an Airborne Ranger, husband, father and small business owner has a tougher fight on his hands in his congressional race than...

John McCain is a hero for his service in Vietnam. Most conservatives would be thrilled to support him, if only he would give them reason to. Why is it that conservatives have such a hard time lining up behind John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president? Is it, as some liberals suggest, just "pique" -- that we didn't get our way, and now we're throwing a tantrum? Or are the differences between McCain and conservatives very real, very serious matters that go to the heart of the principles of conservatism? The truth is that the differences with McCain are...

Here’s an informative news analysis: “The session of Congress beginning tomorrow may not do much – a little bread and a few circuses – but it may well vote a 5-cent increase in the gasoline tax, the idea being to repair highways, bridges, and so on, and to put some of the unemployed back to work. Practically everybody says it’s a nice idea. But the Democrats want to spend the money where unemployment is highest; the Republicans want to spend the money where the repairs need to be made. And the two are not always in the same places. …...

Looks like a great lineup for this year's Leadership Conference.........

The conservative movement in American politics has never been more fractured by in-fighting than it is today and we must find a way to fix it, fast. In the good ole days, all of my hate mail came from sniveling liberals angry with my ultra-conservative message about the founding principles and values that made America the greatest nation in earth's history. But today, most of my hate mail comes from self-styled conservatives and angry Republicans who can't seem to agree on what it means to be Republican, much less conservative. I believe that we are headed for a disastrous loss...

Social Conservatives Rally to Marshall in VA Senate Race By Evan Moore CNSNews.com Correspondent April 11, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - In the race for the seat of retiring Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a delegate in the Virginia Legislature is mounting a campaign against a former governor and presidential candidate, amassing support from social conservatives, and has an opportunity to win the Republican Party nomination, according to some experts in Old Dominion politics. Bob Marshall, a Republican delegate in the state's General Assembly from Prince William County, is challenging Jim Gilmore, a former Virginia governor and a candidate for the 2008 GOP...

The professor told his class one day: 'Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph,...

Youth Leadership School Radisson Hotel Chatsworth Chatsworth, CA May 3rd – 4th, 2008 Since 1979, no other organization has prepared as many people with the nuts-and-bolts techniques necessary to be effective youth leaders as the Leadership Institute. The Institute was founded in 1979 by Morton C. Blackwell to train the next generation of conservative leaders; to date we have trained over 59,000 conservatives. Attend the Youth Leadership School and join the ranks of Morton Blackwell’s notable graduates: • Karl Rove, Former Deputy Chief of Staff for President Bush • United States Senator Mitch McConnell, Kentucky • United States Congressman Patrick...

The term conservative originated back in the days when folks were trying to "conserve the monarchy" -- that is, to keep kings in their place against the onslaught of democratic tide like the French Revolution. Lots of folks in the USA consider themselves conservatives today, but they have no interest in conserving any monarchy. So the definition of conservative has changed. The single most important factor in US conservativism in recent years, as best I can tell, is a desire for smaller role of federal government than currently exists. But I'm not the guy who gets to define what conservatism...

In recent years, the conservative media clout within the United States has risen markedly, at least in the English language. Fox News Channel (FNC) and radio talk show hosts dominate cable news and AM radio, and capable right-of-center bloggers stand on guard to debunk the latest spin dished out by the much-derided “mainstream media”. However, there is a vacuum when it comes to Spanish language conservative media. The Hispanic market is predominantly ruled by a liberal agenda and sometimes an anti-American one. With a Hispanic population in the United States close to 40 million people, there is an urgent need...

I have been discussing the Jewish/Israel lobbies in the US. Today I received the weekly letter from MJ Rosenberg of the Israel Policy Forum entitled After Bush. He advises that notwithstanding how important the resolution of the Arab/Israel conflict is, that "Other than mouthing the usual pieties about standing with Israel, candidates approach the issue with the proverbial ten foot pole." True enough. He tells why. Although most voters, and certainly most voters who care about Israel, favor active diplomacy to end the conflict, the loudest voices on this issue tend to be fervent supporters of the status quo. They...

Lisa Keister has scanned the Bible and found nearly 2,000 verses in the New Testament that touch on the topic of money. It's those very verses that may be keeping many conservative Protestants from building up long-term wealth, she says. Jesus warned his followers not to "store up for yourselves treasures on Earth," and later cautioned that it will be "hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven." Perhaps the best known is the admonition that "the love of money is the root of all evil." According to data analyzed by Keister, a Duke University sociologist, the...

One did not need to be a Nixon fan to campaign actively against McGovern. One simply had to realize that there was no greater threat to the security and wellbeing of this nation than the election of George McGovern, a prodigy of Henry Wallace. McCain is no Nixon. He’s far more conservative and has far more integrity. I’m simply using the Nixon-McGovern example to illustrate that even those who believe the worst of John McCain should understand the importance of not sitting this election out. But while McCain is no Nixon, Barack Obama is George McGovern or worse, and America...

For more than 200 years, a nation of immigrants from all parts of the world, all races, all cultures, all religions and all languages, have stood together as one people united only by a simple single set of principles and values that made them the most free, prosperous and powerful people on earth. No matter their backgrounds, their past, they chose a brighter future united in the common purpose of individual rights and rejected the chains of division. Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are blind to color, race, religious difference, economic status, family or national origin. Both documents set...

I recently had a conversation with a young friend who expressed his displeasure at the lack of conservative candidates in this presidential election cycle. His feeling, shared my many on the right, is obviously that John McCain is not a “real” conservative. I’ve heard this sentiment from many conservatives in the past few months - from high profile squawkers like Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson to rank and file folks in my everyday life. I’m more than a little sympathetic to their complaints. I myself have spent no small amount of mental energy since the New Hampshire primary trying to...

Statement on Doonesbury Cartoon Ridiculing the Military Service of Majority Leader Dole March 24, 1995 - Washington, D.C. Today Senator John McCain spoke on the floor of the United States Senate regarding the media, and gave the following remarks: Mr. President, there has been considerable media discussion lately about the decline of civility in our public discourse. I agree that political rhetoric often seems quite harsh these days. I have also observed that the people who report on politicians, and who are often among the first to decry the incivility of politics, seem more inclined lately to allow their reporting...

Residents of Austin, Texas, home of the state's government and flagship university, have very refined social consciences, if they do say so themselves, and they do say so, speaking via bumper stickers. Don R. Willett, a justice of the state Supreme Court, has commuted behind bumpers proclaiming "Better a Bleeding Heart Than None at All," "Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty," "The Moral High Ground Is Built on Compassion," "Arms Are For Hugging," "Will Work (When the Jobs Come Back From India)," "Jesus Is a Liberal," "G-d Wants Spiritual Fruits, Not Religious Nuts," "The Road to Hell Is...

In an incident that underlines the tension between the US and Israeli branches of the Conservative Movement over ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis, the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem clashed this week with a group of visiting American rabbinic students. Schechter's administration refused to allow a group of about 35 students to mark on Wednesday the one-year anniversary of the groundbreaking decision by the Jewish Theological Seminary, the movement's flagship rabbinic school in New York, to accept gay and lesbian rabbinical and cantorial students. According to a press release put out by Schechter, Rabbi Dr. Einat Ramon, dean of...

I love history. And I love flags, as well as their ability to instantly convey a message to those who view them. Every movement should have a flag. There are several very identifiable flags for various ideological and other movements and even flags for the Democratic and Republican parties. But there is no flag that solely symbolizes the conservative movement in America. I have often mused about whether it could or should adopt one of the many fine Revolutionary War flags, old historical flags not currently in use (Bonnie Blue flag or the Florida Patriot flag for example) or even...

  March 24, 2008   This cartoon/graphic is free for noncommercial use in emails, blogs, and forums.  iowapresidentialwatch.com

The long-term implications of Buckley's stands were enormous. By remaking the conservative movement in his own image, in which the emphasis was on anti-communism and a libertarian skepticism of government power, he ensured that it, and the Republican Party, which it came to dominate, would be a place where Jew-haters were unwelcome. That enabled liberal Jews, such as Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz, to feel comfortable making common cause with the right on a host of issues as he began his own journey away from the left. Though expectations that the Jews would ditch liberalism en masse were always unrealistic, the...