Free Republic

With John McCain to name his vice president on Friday, the smoke signals from the Republican Party are spelling out the name of Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Could Kay Bailey Hutchison pick up women's votes for McCain? Once a long shot, she is apparently getting a boost from conservatives who see an opening to hoover up the women's vote after Barack Obama left Hillary Clinton and Kathleen Sebelius on the shelf. Hutchison, 66, who is due to address the Republican convention in the Twin Cities next Wednesday, is seen as both a safe and a bold move for Mr...

With John McCain to name his vice president on Friday, the smoke signals from the Republican Party are spelling out the name of Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Could Kay Bailey Hutchison pick up women's votes for McCain? Once a long shot, she is apparently getting a boost from conservatives who see an opening to hoover up the women's vote after Barack Obama left Hillary Clinton and Kathleen Sebelius on the shelf. Hutchison, 66, who is due to address the Republican convention in the Twin Cities next Wednesday, is seen as both a safe and a bold move for Mr...

It is very troubling that a man is seeking the office of Commander-in-Chief of the United States at a time when he will confront lethal threats against the nation from the most brutal tyrants around the globe, yet he is openly afraid to face the unfriendly news reporters at FOX News Network… He thinks he can handle Al Qaeda, Hamas, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Kim Jon Il and Russian aggression, but admittedly can’t handle Bill O’Reilly? Even Hillary Clinton was brave enough to sit and field open questions from FOX News, which she did very well by the way. I’m a conservative,...

Cannot be posted due to copyright issues: http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.2432186.0.0.php

Before Americans will vote for more socialism in a nation almost bankrupt from social conscience already, they must believe that capitalism has failed the vast majority of Americans who now need the government to be their keeper. Nobody understands this better than community organizer Barack Obama and his entire campaign is based on Chicken Little rhetoric as a result. Obama and his socialist companions define the “general welfare” mentioned in the Constitution not as the common interests of all Americans, such as roads, bridges, a strong standard currency and a national defense system, as intended by the Founders who wrote...

Barack Obama’s campaign made its distaste for free-style debates more or less official yesterday in their letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates. Team Obama only will agree to three debates, which has been the tradition through the last several presidential cycles, and all of them in the standard moderated format. He will not accept McCain’s challenge to meet him in a format where voters can ask the questions: Obama’s campaign released a letter this afternoon from campaign manager David Plouffe to the Commission on Presidential Debates only agreeing to the traditional three sanctioned fall debates and single vice presidential...

He's says he already did those when he debated Hillary. McCain's guy did a nice job in responding. McCain's campaign, keeping with their new line of attack against Obama, expressed disappointment and offered a dose of sarcasm in response to the news. "We understand it might be beneath a worldwide celebrity of Barack Obama’s magnitude to appear at town hall meetings alongside John McCain and directly answer questions from the American people, but we hope he’ll reconsider," said Brian Roges, a McCain spokesman. Love that Celebrity stuff. It's called going after your opponent's (substanceless) strength.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan asked voters whether they felt better off than four years earlier. He went on to defeat Jimmy Carter a few weeks later. On Friday Barack Obama raised the same question: “Do you think that you are better off now than you were four years ago or eight years ago?” he asked voters in Florida. “And if you don’t . . . do you think you can afford another four years of the same failed economic policies that we’ve had under George W. Bush?” With unemployment on Friday jumping by 51,000 to take this year’s job losses...

This should be an easy year for Democrats. A record percentage of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction -- and after years of mostly Republican rule, that should help Democrats. Meanwhile, the media hype surrounding Democratic nominee-to-be Barack Obama is unprecedented and often unquestioning. National media have set him up as some sort of messiah. And after a pitched primary battle in which he emerged victorious, you would think Obama would appear unbeatable by now. By contrast, after an anti-climactic fizzle of a Republican primary, John McCain has sort of stumbled out of the gate for...

That’s how it appears: A coalition of military groups is planning a nationally televised town-hall-style meeting with the presidential candidates near Fort Hood, Tex., the largest active-duty military installation in the country. But so far, only Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, has agreed to attend.CBS has agreed to broadcast the meeting live from 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Aug. 11. The candidates would face questions directly from an audience of 6,000 people, made up of veterans, service members and military families from the base.Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has...

John McCain has accepted an invitation to appear at a nationally-televised town hall meeting next month organized by a coalition of support organizations. Despite pleas from the group, Barack Obama has refused to appear at the same event, underscoring his desire to avoid extemporaneous exchanges with John McCain, especially on military matters in which he has no experience at all. The Fort Hood group has offered to change dates, but Obama remains obstinate: “Senator Obama strongly supports America’s veterans and military families and has worked hard on their behalf in the Senate,” said Phillip Carter, director of Mr. Obama’s veterans...

ADMITTED TO AFFAIRS BEFORE PROBE Associated Press May 2, 2008 -- Gov. David Paterson said Friday that he admitted past marital affairs in part because he feared an "out-of-control" element in the state police that he says was investigating politicians. The Democrat, who took office in March after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer amid a prostitution scandal, had already called for an investigation into lawmakers' claims that a state police unit was keeping tabs on elected officials. At that time, though, he wouldn't say if he believed there was such a unit and the state police union said it doubted...

Congressional Democrats and minority groups assailed Monday’s Supreme Court decision upholding Indiana’s photo-ID law as an affront to voting rights, but political realities in the states suggest that the ruling could have relatively limited impact nationwide. Only three states — Indiana, Florida and Georgia — currently require voters to show government-issued photo IDs before stepping into the voting booth. Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas are considering similar requirements, but it’s not clear whether they can adopt them before the November elections. Democratic insiders fear that a number of states, particularly in the Midwest and South, will copy the Indiana law now...

Rosie O'Donnell can't seem to get over her spat with Elisabeth Hasselbeck. As a featured guest on "The Martha Stewart Show" Tuesday, O'Donnell referred to her former co-host on "The View" as "a little Republican who scared me." Here's how the conversation went: Rosie: "I haven’t worked since 2002. Aside from 'The View' ... Let’s not mention it. Anyway ..." Martha: "You did really well on 'The View.'" Rosie: "I tried my best but it’s hard for me when I’m not the boss. There was people there telling me what to do. There was a little Republican who scared me."...

The West stands by idly as its foundations are rent asunder.Last Friday the UN's Human Rights Council took a direct swipe at freedom of expression. In a 32-0 vote, the council instructed its "expert on freedom of expression" to report to the council on all instances in which individuals "abuse" their freedom of speech by giving expression to racial or religious bias. The measure was proposed by paragons of freedom Egypt and Pakistan. It was supported by all Arab, Muslim and African countries - founts of liberty one and all. European states abstained. The US, which is not a member...

Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain. Be afraid. Be very afraid, for if you don’t obey the Great and Powerful Oz will turn her wrath on you. Yawn. Hillary Clinton’s favorite girlhood movie was the “Wizard of Oz.” But now, as the primaries clank along, her subjects are refusing to wear the green-tinted glasses and buy her act. She’s less and less terrifying every day, and fewer of those closest to her -- her Senate colleagues -- are intimidated. Despite their best efforts, the Clintons' powers seem to have gone on the fritz, and those Democrats who...

A prolonged race may inspire voter hoopla but could floor the party's chances once a nominee is finally selected.What if the coronation that is the 2008 Democratic National Convention turns cutthroat? Could a presidential primary race so energizing that it has brought record numbers of voters to the polls and will result in the nomination of a historic candidate end in disillusionment, anger and feelings of betrayal? Top Democrats are beginning to resign themselves to the chance the party won't know who will win the presidential nomination until after delegates take the floor of the Pepsi Center in August. That...

WASHINGTON -- Leading Democrats scrambled Wednesday to prevent the closest, most riveting presidential contest in decades from tearing the party apart, as the odds rose that neither Hillary Rodham Clinton nor Barack Obama could clinch the nomination without angering large blocs of voters. Anxiety within the party swelled after Clinton's victories Tuesday staved off elimination and gave her fresh momentum, yet did little to eat into Obama's lead among delegates -- the people who will formally pick the nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August. Clinton trails Obama by 105 delegates after netting about a dozen more than he...

Click here for video.

Sen. John McCain's victory in the South Carolina primary was huge. The importance of it should not be underestimated. After all, it was South Carolina that finished him off in 2000, when the religious right spread rumors and told lies to help their boy, George W. Bush, win the primary. It was a victory that put the swaggering little Texan on the road to the White House. (In other words, yes, we have the religious rightists in South Carolina to blame for much of the shame and disaster that has been Bush's presidency....). It's amazing, isn't it, how awful "Christians"...

The left-leaning advocacy group People For the American Way today released a statement this afternoon on the Arkansas Republican's win in the caucus. Long story short: Don't be fooled by a few folksy one-liners, PFAW says: If there were any doubts that Religious Right voters are still a powerful force in the Republican Party, Mike Huckabee’s huge win in Iowa put them to rest. Huckabee’s rise was built on fervent grassroots organizing by Religious Right activists who embraced him as their dream candidate, even as the movement’s national leaders kept their distance while making calculations on electability. Huckabee has pledged...

ABC News' Raelyn Johnson reports: Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic hopeful John Edwards, lamented with Iowa caucus goers about her fear of the Republican Party. "Republicans should scare us in a lot of ways," Edwards said as she was introducing her husband at a town hall in Dubuque, Iowa. Speaking about Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, who recently surged ahead in Iowa polls, Elizabeth noted, "He seems like a nice charming guy," before saying that Huckabee, "doesn’t believe in evolution and has some nutty views about what it is we should do about ending violence in our inner city — we...

At the summit of national power, politicians and bureaucrats are terrified at the idea of endorsing the religious views of the majority of Americans. Our First Amendment forbids the establishment of a state religion, but many of our governing elites are taking it a step further, outlawing its very existence from the public conversation. Congress can turn this into an unintentional comedy of manners. On Dec. 11, the House considered a rather meaningless resolution "recognizing the importance of Christmas" -- and nine members of the House voted nay. The roll call of Grinches are, surprise, largely from blue states: Gary...

Mike Huckabee's rapid rise in the Republican presidential race is prompting concern among some Democratic strategists who believe that the former Arkansas governor could become a daunting general election foe should he secure the GOP nomination. Is it Huckabee, not Giuliani, who'd be the toughest candidate for Democrats to beat next year? (AP Photo)These operatives believe that Huckabee's profile -- former Baptist minister, southern governor, fitness preacher -- and self-effacing style on the stump could prove an appealing combination for moderate and independent voters. "Mike Huckabee is the Republican that probably worries me the most," said Wooten Johnson, a Democratic...

Getting a hepatitis shot is standard procedure for travelers to parts of Africa and Asia, but some congressional aides were instructed to get immunized before going to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord and the racetrack in Talladega, Ala. That is the inescapable conclusion from this article. The House Homeland Security Committee planned a fact-finding trip about public health preparedness at mass gatherings and decided to conduct the research at two of the nation's most heavily attended sporting events, NASCAR's Bank of America 500 event this weekend and the UAW-Ford 500 last weekend.Staff who organized the trips advised the NASCAR-bound aides...

House Republicans in NASCAR-friendly districts are having fun with this one, which plays to the stereotypes. In the course of a public-health and emergency preparedness trip, Democratic homeland-security committee staffers told their aides to get immunized before a trip down South which included visits to two crowded NASCAR events in Concord, N.C., and Talladega, Ala. The immunizations included Hepatitis A and B, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza. North Carolinians grew offended. Some cried "redneck rash," especially over the Hepatitis B inclusion because the virus is rarely transmitted in the United States except through sexual contact or intravenous drug use. A shot...

So where do we stand with Democrats denouncing the MoveOn.org attack on Gen. Petraeus? Joe Biden has said he didn't agree with the attack and the general is an honorable man. Wesley Clark denounced the attack, but he's not running for president at the moment. Today Hillary Clinton passed on the opportunity to make a full-throated denunciation of the ad, saying: "I've never had that opinion, and I've said publicly on numerous occasions, including at the last hearing, how much I respect Gen. Petraeus and his service to our country." Well, OK, but several bricks short of a load. Richard...

Democrats are warily anticipating a September report on the Iraq war, realizing that opponents will use any upbeat assessment to portray them as defeatists just as glimmers of hope appear. While many of their party colleagues find the notion fanciful, they acknowledge that top Republicans hope the report will show just enough progress in Iraq to persuade millions of Americans to be patient about troop withdrawals and less critical of how the war is being run. Democratic candidates for president and Congress, the GOP argument goes, would then be stuck with their Iraq-is-lost stance, appearing irresolute and beholden to liberal...

Joe Biden Says Democrats Have Been Too Fearful to Discuss Religion Monday , August 13, 2007 ADVERTISEMENT NASHUA, N.H. — White House hopeful Joe Biden said Monday that Democrats lost the last two presidential elections in part because they let themselves be portrayed as anti-God. Democrats have been too afraid to talk about faith, Biden said at a Rotary Club luncheon. But what voters really want to know is whether a president believes in something bigger than themselves and whether he or she respects the faith of others, he said.

WASHINGTON - Looking past the presidential nomination fight, Democratic leaders quietly fret that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the top of their 2008 ticket could hurt candidates at the bottom. They say the former first lady may be too polarizing for much of the country. She could jeopardize the party's standing with independent voters and give Republicans who otherwise might stay home on Election Day a reason to vote, they worry. In more than 40 interviews, Democratic candidates, consultants and party chairs from every region pointed to internal polls that give Clinton strikingly high unfavorable ratings in places with key...

Clinton a drag? Dems fear her negatives By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago Looking past the presidential nomination fight, Democratic leaders quietly fret that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the top of their 2008 ticket could hurt candidates at the bottom. They say the former first lady may be too polarizing for much of the country. She could jeopardize the party's standing with independent voters and give Republicans who otherwise might stay home on Election Day a reason to vote, they worry. In more than 40 interviews, Democratic candidates, consultants and party chairs from every region pointed...

Among the very few Huffington Post bloggers willing to break the predictable liberal mold is John Ridley (pictured) who has frequently appeared as a guest panelist on Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe show on MSNBC. Although many of Ridley's previous opinions might have made the Huffington Post readers somewhat uncomfortable, I doubt that any of his other postings sparked the firestorm of outrage of his July 31 blog, The Left Fringe Needs to Quit Being Scared of the Fox. The only problem I have with that title is that it isn't just the "Left Fringe" that is afraid of appearing on Fox. It is also...

Having failed to thwart a Murdoch purchase of the WALL STREET JOURNAL, the NEW YORK TIMES intensifies battle with the NEWS CORP. empire on Thursday, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. The paper is preparing a provocative examination of Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani's relationship with FOX NEWS chief Roger Ailes. MORE TIMES reporter Russ Buettner has been pestering and pumping Murdoch executives for details on Rudy and Roger, company sources claim. The duo "have been pulling for each other for nearly two decades," reports Buettner. "Ailes served as a consultant to Giuliani's first mayoral campaign. Giuliani officiated at Ailes'...

When one political party tries to influence the other's presidential primary race the reasonable assumption is that someone is trying to stop the nomination of a candidate that party does not want to face in November.BR> That's why a Democrat-aligned group injecting itself into the Republican campaign by alleging that Fred Thompson lobbied for abortion rights is a pretty good indication the other side thinks he has serious potential. Thompson has become a force in the GOP polls even though almost half of Republicans and more than half the rest of the electorate say they don't know enough about him...

In the comments on a previous post, reader Carl Vehse points out one of several attack articles on Fred Thompson that have appeared in the liberal media recently. It seems that an item has appeared identifying Thompson's wife, Jeri, as a "trophy wife" (she's an experienced political media consultant formerly employed by Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, and McPherson, a prominent Washington law firm, as well as by the Republican National Committee and the Senate Republican Conference), Besides the obvious sexism of this cheap shot (the implication clearly being that young, attractive, amply-endowed women can't possibly have anything going for them but...

DNC ATTACKS SUMMARY 2007 DNC Releases on GOP ’08 Candidates (Unique Attacks) Romney 55 McCain 47 Giuliani 40 F. Thompson 5 Huckabee 4 Hunter 2 Brownback 1 Gilmore 1 Gingrich 1 2007 DNC Releases on GOP ’08 Candidates (Joint Attacks Included) Romney 72 McCain 63 Giuliani 57 Huckabee 11 F. Thompson 8 Gingrich 7 Brownback 6 Hunter 5 Gilmore 2 Pataki 1 T. Thompson 1 In the month of June, the DNC attacked Romney 14 times, McCain & Giuliani 11 times each and F. Thompson 7 times.

Feminists cower in fear at the picture, the symbol, and the meaning of a strong father today. Actually atheists, Marxists, leftists, and liberals all do as well but with feminists it’s a particularly pronounced phenomenon. What a strong father represents to this time, life, and world has never been more underestimated and modern feminists have taken it upon themselves to attempt to eliminate the need for them all together. It was one year ago this month, I sat in a hotel room in Denver before a major book seller's convention. I was preparing for a series of interviews slated that...

The unusual Democratic outrage over ABC-TV's film, ''The Path to 9/11,'' to be shown Sunday and Monday, reflects private concern in the party that the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack can reverse the political tide running against Republicans. The highly partisan Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York composed a tough letter to Robert A. Iger, CEO of Walt Disney, ABC's parent company. The letter cites two scenes from the program casting doubt on the Clinton administration's legacy in fighting terrorism. Slaughter added as co-signers of the letter three senior Democrats who would join her as committee chairmen if Democrats...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amid an election-year debate over who can best defend America, U.S. congressional Democrats urged ABC-TV on Thursday to cancel a miniseries about the September 11 attacks that is critical of former Democratic President Bill Clinton and his top aides. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada denounced the television movie, set to air in two parts on Sunday and Monday nights, as "a work of fiction." "Yes, they should pull it," Reid said as he unveiled Democrats' latest proposals to improve domestic security and reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. The furor comes as Democrats...

(DNC Executive Director, Tom McMahon, sent the following email to Democrats across the country today.) Dear Fellow Democrat, Does a major national broadcast network want to stain itself by presenting an irresponsible, slanderous, fraudulent, "docu-drama" to the American public? Not if you and I have the last word -- but either way, we're about to find out. The ABC television network -- a cog in the Walt Disney empire -- unleashed a promotional blitz in the last week for a new "docudrama" called "The Path to 9/11". ABC has thrown its corporate might behind the two-night production, and bills it...

Democrats aspire to take control of the White House and both houses of Congress, especially the United States Senate, so they can control the executive and legislative branches of the federal government and pursue their political agenda through judicial activists who refuse to follow the law and twist or fabricate it instead. That's why they must not be allowed to realize their aspiration. Ironically, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, America haters, have helped President Bush and Republicans, their fiercest adversaries, instead of leftist Democrats, who either just don't appreciate the threat of terrorism in this age of weapons of...

Why the left fears global warming more than the right DENNIS PRAGER Observers of contemporary society will surely have noted that a liberal is far more likely to fear global warming than a conservative. Why is this? After all, if the science is as conclusive as Al Gore, Time, Newsweek, the New York Times and virtually every other spokesman of the left says it is, conservatives are just as likely to be scorched and drowned and otherwise done in by global warming as liberals will. So why aren't non-leftists nearly as exercised as leftists are? Do conservatives handle heat better?...

Allen, indeed, is a favorite among Republican Party players. He's also the one Democrats worry about most, according to an insider who told me: "The one Hillary's worried about is George Allen."

South Park Executive Producer Reveals That Comedy Central Censored the Showing of Mohammed out of Fear, not "Religious Tolerance."On Wednesday night, the cable network Comedy Central showed a censored episode of the animated cartoon, South Park, refusing to allow a brief depiction of the prophet Mohammed. The battles between the network and the producers and creators of South Park over the inclusion of Mohammed raged until late Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before the show aired Wednesday at 10pm ET. Interview With Producer Reveals Reason for Censorship was "Fear"In an interview Thursday evening, South Park Executive Producer Anne Garefino...

RUSH: A couple more delights from the White House press briefing today. David Gregory. Did you happen to see earlier this week the Washington Post ran a big puff piece on Gregory. He's the new Sam Donaldson. He is the Sam Donaldson to George Bush. You know, Donaldson, among many things that led to his fame, was a provocateur with Ronald Reagan throughout much of Reagan's administration. So they're having this White House press briefing today, and they're talking about this offensive that's going on in Iraq. GREGORY: Does the president think that an offensive like this high-profile is...

March 6, 2006 Why Do Democrats Fear the Al-Qaida/Saddam Relationship? By Michael Barone The issue is historical now, but still worth exploring. Why, for two distinct groups of Americans, has it become a matter of conviction held with religious intensity that there cannot have been any relationship between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq? One group consists of Democratic politicians who oppose the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. The Minnesota Democratic Party recently protested as "un-American" an ad showing military veterans and their families supporting the president's policies for saying, "Our enemy in Iraq is al-Qaida -- the same...

HILLARY Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign is running Leon Panetta, Mr Clinton's former chief of staff, said there was "nervousness" among Democrats about backing such a controversial figure at a time when many Americans believe President George W.Bush has polarised the country. Like Mr McCurry, he wondered whether Ms Clinton was "the kind of lightning rod that would stimulate all of the opposition" and resurrect the "hate side of the political agenda". "Ultimately the issue is: do we turn to something new? We've been through the Clintons, we've been through the Gores, we've been through the Kerrys, all of whom are...

WASHINGTON -- An ominous cloud hangs over Judge Samuel Alito as the Senate Republican steamroller ushers him into a fitting for a Supreme Court robe. Advertisement The problem is that we cannot believe this certifiably right-wing jurist who is about to win a lifetime appointment to our highest court. To judge by his judicial record, he is a political opportunist with a hidden agenda, even though he claims not to have one. At least not one he is brave enough to own up to. Under oath, he testified he would keep "an open mind" on the question of whether to...

If viewers happened to be tuned into CSPAN several weeks ago, they were in for quite a spectacle. CSPAN was re-airing a conference that took place in May of 2005 with the ominous title, “Examining the Real Agenda of the Far Religious Right.” Sponsored by the New York Open Center, the conference was anything but open-minded. Instead, participants launched into a litany of complaints against the so-called Christian Right that bordered on bigotry. I half expected it to end with a pitchfork armed mob breaking down the doors of a local church. Perusing the Open Center’s website, one will find...

Sources close to New York civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton tell me that Hillary used his annual Martin Luther King Day forum to liken the House Republican majority's conduct of the House of Representatives to a "plantation" because she fears a Sharpton challenge in the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary. Hillary also fears that if Sharpton were to challenge her, it could weaken her in a possible contest against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the fall, if Rice were to be the GOP nominee. "She is afraid of Condi," one of Sharpton's key people said. "She did not attend...