Free Republic

• You say that even if global warming turns out to be no crisis (the World Meteorological Organization says global temperatures have not risen in a decade), even unnecessary measures taken to combat it will be beneficial because "then all we've done is give our kids a cleaner world." But what of the trillions of dollars those measures will cost in direct expenditures and diminished economic growth—hence diminished medical research, cultural investment, etc.? Given that Earth is always warming or cooling, what is its proper temperature, and how do you know? ..excerpted...

The 1st Congressional District, the northernmost in the most culturally Southern state, has given the nation William Faulkner and Elvis Presley, and next Tuesday will have a special congressional election that will test the Republican hope that Barack Obama and his former pastor can be the basis of a Republican strategy to nationalize congressional races to the disadvantage of Democrats. A Senate seat also could be affected by the cascading consequences of Republican Sen. Trent Lott's December resignation. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour replaced him with 1st District Rep. Roger Wicker, who this November will be on the ballot seeking election...

<p>Hillary Clinton, 60, Illinois native and Arkansas lawyer, became, retroactively, a lifelong Yankee fan at age 52 when, shopping for a U.S. Senate seat, she adopted New York state as home sweet home. She may think, or at least would argue, that when she was 12 her Yankees really won the 1960 World Series, by standards of "fairness," because they trounced the Pirates in runs scored, 55-27, over seven games, so there.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Because John McCain and other legislators worry they are easily corrupted, there are legal limits to the monetary contributions that anyone can make to political candidates. There are, however, no limits to the rhetorical contributions that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright can make to McCain's campaign. Because Wright is a gift determined to keep on giving, this question arises: Can people opposed to Barack Obama's candidacy justly make use of Wright's invariably interesting interventions in the campaign? The answer is: Certainly, because Wright's paranoias tell us something -- exactly what remains to be explored -- about his 20-year parishioner....

WASHINGTON -- Because John McCain and other legislators worry that they are easily corrupted, there are legal limits to the monetary contributions that anyone can make to political candidates. There are, however, no limits to the rhetorical contributions that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright can make to McCain's campaign. Because Wright is a gift determined to keep on giving, this question arises: Can persons opposed to Barack Obama's candidacy justly make use of Wright's invariably interesting interventions in the campaign? The answer is: Certainly, because Wright's paranoias tell us something -- exactly what remains to be explored -- about his 20-year...

Senator, concerning the criteria by which you will nominate judges, you said: "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old." Such sensitivities might serve an admirable legislator, but what have they to do with judging? Should a judge side with whichever party in a controversy stirs his or her empathy? Is such personalization of the judicial function inimical to the rule of law? • Voting against the confirmation of Chief...

Senator, concerning the criteria by which you will nominate judges, you said: "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old." Such sensitivities might serve an admirable legislator, but what have they to do with judging? Should a judge side with whichever party in a controversy stirs his or her empathy? Is such personalization of the judicial function inimical to the rule of law? • Voting against the confirmation of Chief...

Ugly locutions often crop up in the promotion of ugly politics. Consider the threat of "scrutinization." It has been made against some residents of Parker North, Colo., who expressed a political opinion without first getting their state government's permission for political activity. Herewith another example of what is being done around the nation in the name of political hygiene, as that is understood by "campaign finance reformers," those irksome improvers whose animating ideology is McCainism. Parker North is a cluster of about 300 houses close to the town of Parker. When two residents proposed a vote on annexation of their...

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. -- Robert FrostAnd some say it will end because of subprime mortgages. But for those who cultivate fears of catastrophes as excuses for expanding government supervision of other people’s lives, the bad news is that the world is not going to end—not from global warming or economic cooling or anything else. Today’s untethered Federal Reserve will, however, make the muddle-through interesting. The late Sen. William Proxmire, a populist Democrat who represented Wisconsin for 32 years, wanted all members of Congress to write on their bathroom mirrors, so it...

The description of the Fed as the "lender of last resort" is accurate without being informative. Lender to whom? For what purposes? Last resort before what? Did the bank "lend" $29 billion to Bear Stearns, or did it, in effect, buy some of the most problematic securities owned by Bear? If so, was this faux "loan" actually to J.P. Morgan Chase? The purpose of the money was to give Morgan an incentive to buy Bear -- at a price so low that an incentive should have been superfluous.In 1979, when the government undertook to rescue Chrysler, conservatives worried not that...

...But it is John McCain's policy minimalism -- these things are relative -- that merits compliments. He says "it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers." For now, he is with Senate Republicans in opposing the Democrats' proposal to empower judges to rewrite the terms of some mortgages, an idea that strikes at the sanctity of contracts and hence at the ethic of promise-keeping that is fundamental to social life. He opposes an additional dose of the toxin that has made the credit system...

Have a look at the screencap from today's This Week, then please answer this serious question: has ABC no shame? How does the network justify a round-table consisting of four liberals against one conservative? Let's review the batting order: * Frank Reich: Clinton's former Labor Secretary comes from the leftward reaches of the Dem party. He's a co-founder of the liberal American Prospect magazine. * Paul Krugman: Like Reich, a very liberal professor of economics, and a NYT columnist. * Donna Brazile: Dem activist, Gore 2000 campaign manager. * George Stephanopoulos: The show host was a senior political adviser to...

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...

On New Year's Day, Chief Justice John Roberts, pursuant to his duty to report annually on the condition of the federal judiciary, issued a short and persuasive plea. It was lost in the cacophony of political news. Besides, why worry about the judiciary? We have Alexander Hamilton's assurances, from Federalist 78, that the judiciary is "the least dangerous" branch of government. Having "neither force nor will, but merely judgment," it "has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever."...

John McCain aspires to take the presidential oath to "preserve, protect and defend, the Constitution," but some of his actions have raised doubts about whether he would do that. Two controversies, one now before the Supreme Court and the other perhaps headed there, raise questions pertinent to his grasp of constitutional values. One case challenges the "millionaires' amendment" to the McCain-Feingold legislation that rations political speech by restricting the financing, content and timing of it. The other case concerns the right of SpeechNow.org to speak freely against people like McCain. If he still supports the former and does not support...

WASHINGTON -- Those who think Jack Nicholson's neon smile is the last word in smiles never saw William F. Buckley's. It could light up an auditorium; it did light up half a century of elegant advocacy that made him an engaging public intellectual and the 20th century's most consequential journalist. Before there could be Ronald Reagan's presidency, there had to be Barry Goldwater's candidacy. It made conservatism confident and placed the Republican Party in the hands of its adherents. Before there could be Goldwater's insurgency, there had to be National Review magazine. From the creative clutter of its Manhattan offices...

It’s disturbing to see such righteousness in a man grasping for presidential power.

WASHINGTON - Certain kinds of conservatives, distrusting Richard Nixon's ideological elasticity, rejected him -- until 1973. Although it had become clear his administration was a crime wave, they embraced him because the media were his tormentors. Today such conservatives, whose political compasses are controlled, albeit negatively, by The New York Times, have embraced John McCain. He, although no stickler about social niceties (see below), should thank the Times, for two reasons. First, the Times muddied, with unsubstantiated sexual innuendo about a female lobbyist, a story about McCain's flights on jets owned by corporations with business before the Senate Commerce Committee,...

... Many Republicans think that, come what may, things will come out the way Providence intends. Daniel Webster said "miracles do not cluster," but Webster did not anticipate Mike Huckabee, whose campaign manager is, evidently, God. Two months ago, Huckabee said he rose in Iowa because of divine intervention (the power that propelled him there was not "human" but the one that fed the multitudes with two fish and five loaves). On Saturday, as he was winning the caucuses in Kansas, where many Republicans think Darwin should go back to Missouri where he came from, Huckabee said that the arithmetic...

Forewarned, Democrats now are forearmed -- not that they will necessarily make sensible use of the gift. Tuesday's voting armed Democratic voters with the name of the candidate that their nominee will face in the fall. Will their purblind party now nominate the most polarizing person in contemporary politics, knowing that Republicans will nominate the person who tries to compensate for his weakness among conservatives with his strength among independent voters who are crucial to winning the White House? Perhaps. The Republican Party's not-so-secret weapon always is the Democratic Party, with its entertaining thirst for living dangerously. John McCain has...

Because McCain is a “maverick" - the media encomium reserved for Republicans who reject important Republican principles - he would be a conciliatory president. He has indeed worked with Ted Kennedy on immigration reform, with Russ Feingold on restricting political speech (McCain-Feingold) and with Kennedy and John Edwards - a trial lawyer drawn to an enlargement of opportunities for litigation - on the “patients' bill of rights."

CONTEMPLATING the Clinton-Obama racial war, some Republicans were so excited you’d have thought Ronald Reagan had risen from the dead to slap around a welfare deadbeat. Never mind that the G.O.P. is running on empty, with no ideas beyond the incessant repetition of Reagan’s name. A battle over race-and-gender identity politics among the Democrats, with its acrid scent from the 1960s, might be just the spark for a Republican comeback. (As long as the G.O.P.’s own identity politics, over religion, don’t flare up.) Alas, these hopes faded on Tuesday night. First, the debating Democrats declared a truce, however fragile, in...

In 2004, one of John McCain's closest associates, John Weaver, spoke to John Kerry about the possibility of McCain running as Kerry's vice presidential running mate. In "No Excuses," Bob Shrum's memoir of his role in numerous presidential campaigns, including Kerry's, Shrum writes that Weaver assured Kerry that "McCain was serious about the possibility of teaming up with him," and Kerry approached McCain. He, however, was more serious about seeking the 2008 Republican nomination. But was it unreasonable for Kerry to think McCain might be comfortable on a Democratic ticket? Not really. In ABC's New Hampshire debate, McCain said: "Why...

In 2004, one of John McCain's closest associates, John Weaver, spoke to John Kerry about the possibility of McCain running as Kerry's vice presidential running mate. In "No Excuses," Bob Shrum's memoir of his role in numerous presidential campaigns, including Kerry's, Shrum writes that Weaver assured Kerry that "McCain was serious about the possibility of teaming up with him," and Kerry approached McCain. He, however, was more serious about seeking the 2008 Republican nomination. But was it unreasonable for Kerry to think McCain might be comfortable on a Democratic ticket? Not really. In ABC's New Hampshire debate, McCain said: "Why...

The adverse indicators include: shifts in voters' identifications with the two parties (Democrats now 50 percent, Republicans 36 percent); the tendency of independents (they favored Democratic candidates by 18 points in 2006); the fact that Democrats hold a majority of congressional seats in states with 303 electoral votes; the Democrats' strength and the Republicans' relative weakness in fundraising; the percentage of Americans who think the country is on the "wrong track"; the Republicans' enthusiasm deficit . . . .

George Will on Huckabee George Will on Mike Huckabee

Influential columnist George Will says his candidacy represents a "repudiation" of conservative Republican principles. "Huckabee's campaign actually is what Rudy Giuliani's candidacy is misdescribed as being - a comprehensive apostasy against core Republican beliefs," Will writes in his latest column. Giuliami departs from GOP positions only on abortion and the recognition of same-sex couples, Will observes. Huckabee, on the other hand, "broadly repudiates core Republican principles such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America's corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity," according to Will. Will points out that the New Hampshire chapter of the...

WASHINGTON -- John Edwards launched his slight public career -- one Senate term, two presidential candidacies -- with the money and reputation he made as a trial lawyer. Today he is the candidate of a small fraction of the electorate but a sizable portion of America's trial lawyers. Edwards says Washington is "corrupt." Well. Within Edwards' lucrative trial bar constituency, there has been a flurry of criminal indictments. Their target has been what Fortune magazine calls the law firm of Hubris Hypocrisy and Greed. (See Peter Elkind's jaw-dropping report in the issue of Nov. 13, 2006.) The real name of...

FORT MILLS, S.C -- Campaigning in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson raised his voice and shook his fists as he described his vision of an America true to conservative values. The display of vigor last week was timely: Two months into his bid for the nomination, the former Tennessee senator is fighting to shake the image of a laid-back -- even lazy -- candidate who lacks the fervor of his rivals. Thompson not only has adopted a forceful speaking style, he has taken a more aggressive approach toward other Republican candidates. The push to put...

Almost 35 years have passed since the Supreme Court decided to end America's argument about abortion. Because of the court's supposedly therapeutic intervention in the nation's supposedly inadequate democratic debate about that subject, the issue still generates an irritable irrationality that was largely absent before 1973. ...Nevertheless, it is said that if the Republican Party wants to be competitive in California in presidential politics, it must nominate a pro-choice candidate, of which there is only one -- Rudy Giuliani. This is almost certainly true. It certainly is irrational because pro-choice Californians have next to nothing to fear -- just as...

Mitt Romney is an intelligent man who sometimes seems eager to find bushel baskets under which to hide his light. Romney faults Rudy Giuliani for opposing the presidential line-item veto. But Giuliani doesn't, unfortunately. The facts -- not that they loom large in this skirmish -- are: When in 1997 Bill Clinton used the line-item veto, with which Congress had just armed him, to cancel $200 million for New York state, Giuliani harried Clinton all the way to the Supreme Court. It agreed with Giuliani that the line-item veto was an unconstitutional violation of the "presentment" clause. Today, Giuliani says,...

He was billed as the charisma-fueled Ronald Reagan-style conservative savior -- but screen star Fred Thompson is drawing mocking reviews for his latest role, as a Republican White House candidate. "Lazy," "subdued" and "rambling," blared recent media critiques of the ex-senator's first month in a fluid 2008 Republican field. Thompson's short-lived honeymoon might have been expected: he teased the media and surfed a wave of favorable coverage by hovering on the edge of the Republican field for months -- and so had huge expectations to meet. If pundits are to be believed, the "Law & Order" star's campaign is yet...

CHICAGO -- In his curriculum vitae, Austan Goolsbee lists as his "other interests" -- other than teaching at the University of Chicago -- two activities: triathlons and improv comedy. Evidently he is a masochist with a sense of humor, so he is suited to participate in presidential politics, which he is doing as an adviser to Barack Obama. Before they met in person, Obama, running for the Senate in 2004, asked Goolsbee a perplexing question. Obama's opponent, Alan Keyes, an African American imported from Maryland by Illinois' shambolic Republican Party, had been asked whether he believed in reparations for slavery....

The reviews are in: Fred Thompson's plunge into the presidential campaign "was right up there with Britney Spears at the MTV awards." Well, that was liberal New York Times columnist Gail Collins. How about a committed conservative? "More belly-flop than swan dive . . . the strangest product launch since that of New Coke in 1985," writes columnist George Will. Okay, they're in the opinion business. But news accounts have described the fledgling Thompson venture as "a comedy of errors" (Politico.com); drawing "mediocre reviews" (Washington Post); and maintaining a "languid" schedule that on one swing "kept him on a jumbo...

Two days before Christmas in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson, visiting the Vatican, presented Pope Paul VI with a foot-high bust of Lyndon Johnson. Small choices can reveal the character of a person. Or of an institution. Consider The New York Times' choices concerning MoveOn.org's issue advocacy ad in the Times calling Gen. David Petraeus "General Betray Us" and accusing him of "cooking the books for the White House." Last June, the Times was in high dudgeon - it knows no other degree of dudgeon - about the Supreme Court's refusal to affirm a sweeping government power to suppress political speech....

Michael Mukasey, the retired judge nominated to be attorney general, is called a "law and order" conservative. That description is, however, not especially informative now that the Bush administration's sweeping claims of presidential powers have unsettled some understandings of what the law is. The following questions, if asked at Mukasey's Senate confirmation hearings, might reveal whether he considers some of these claims extravagant. -- The Bush administration says "the long war" -- the war on terror -- is a perpetual emergency that will last for generations. Waged against us largely by non-state actors, it will not end with a legally...

George Will wrote a scathing piece on Fred Thompson this past week. Among other things, Will took Fred to task for his ramblimg, dis-remembering answer to Laura Ingraham's question regarding Campaign Finance Reform, which Fred valiantly helped push down the throat of angry conservative colleagues and equally angry conservative Americans. From Laura's show: Laura: One of the things that also happened in the Senate was McCain Feingold, which was initially called McCain Feingol Thompson. OF course, that's Campaign Finance Reform (CFR). Would you today tell us that you. As you know, Senator Thompson, the Supreme Court has struck down part...

With respect to George F. Will’s column Is a Fred Thompson Campaign Necessary? (9/13/07), it's important to note that Mr. Will is a huge Rudy Giuliani Fan. Rather than say nice things about the former Mayor of New York City, Will chooses to say nasty things about Mayor Giuliani's rivals. And after a look at the latest polls (Rasmussen has Fred over Rudy by 8 points now) it's easy to see why Mr. Will is taking aim at Fred Thompson. Mr. Will wants us to believe Thompson is unfamiliar with his GOP Rivals’ positions on the issues. Will quotes the...

Thompson, contrary to his current memories, was deeply involved in expanding government restrictions on political speech generally and the ban on issue ads specifically. Yet he told Ingraham "I voted for all of it," meaning McCain-Feingold, but said "I don't support that" provision of it. Oh? Why, then, did he file his own brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold McCain-Feingold, stressing Congress' especially "compelling interest" in squelching issue ads that "influence" elections? Most lamely, Thompson takes credit for McCain-Feingold doubling the amount of "hard money" an individual can give to a candidate, which he says reduces the advantages of...

The Reviews Keep Coming In: Unimpressed by Fred Thompson's Campaign Roll-out, Conservatives Are "Still Looking" It's been only one week since lobbyist turned Senator turned actor Fred Thompson announced his candidacy for president, but it's been plenty of time for conservative commentators to see what they need to and call him unimpressive. Today two prominent conservative columnists criticized Thompson and said Republicans were unenthusiastic about his presidential prospects and would keep on looking for a candidate to rally behind. According to the columnists, conservatives' worst fears have been realized. Fred Thompson is just not the candidate they've been waiting for....

Fred Thompson's plunge into the presidential pool -- more belly-flop than swan dive -- was the strangest product launch since that of New Coke in 1985. Then, the question was: Is this product necessary? A similar question stumped Thompson the day he plunged. Sean Hannity, who is no Torquemada conducting inquisitions of conservatives, asked Thompson: "When you look at the other current crop of candidates -- Republicans -- where is the distinction between your positions and what you view as theirs?" Thompson replied: "Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't spent a whole lot of time going into the...

Pontificating Columnist George Will, who holds himself out to be an expert on most things, has decreed that Fred Thompson's candidacy is unnecessary. Oh well, Fred, nice try but I guess you should just drop out. If George says it, it must be true! Right? Wrong! Fred Thompson is doing something George Will can never hope to do. He is connecting with the average person in America. Fred has that intangible quality of being able to communicate calmly yet forcefully and affect people. George Will does not understand the world most people live in. He has been a wordsmith for...

Fred Thompson's plunge into the presidential pool -- more belly-flop than swan dive -- was the strangest product launch since that of New Coke in 1985. Then the question was: Is this product necessary? A similar question stumped Thompson the day he plunged. Sean Hannity, who is no Torquemada conducting inquisitions of conservatives, asked Thompson: "When you look at the other current crop of candidates -- Republicans -- where is the distinction between your positions and what you view as theirs?" Thompson replied: "Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't spent a whole lot of time going into the...

According to Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics, at midnight tonight, George Will's latest hit piece targeting Fred Thompson will be released. George Will's syndicated column has just come over the wire, and while it's embargoed until midnight eastern time, I can tell you that Will absolutely takes a sledgehammer to Fred Thompson. This is not a surprise folks. George Will has made it quite obvious who he is supporting for President. Will has time and again, sung the praises of Rudy Giuliani. Don't believe me? Take a look at look at what we've compiled. We've got video and links...

<p>Before Gen. David Petraeus' report, and to give it a context of optimism, the president visited Iraq's Anbar province to underscore the success of the surge in making hitherto anarchic areas less so. More significant, however, was the fact that the president did not visit Baghdad. This underscored the fact that surge has failed, as measured by the president's and Petraeus' standards of success.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Before Gen. David Petraeus' report, and to give it a context of optimism, the president visited Iraq's Anbar province to underscore the success of the surge in making some hitherto anarchic areas less so. More significant, however, was the fact that the president did not visit Baghdad. This underscored the fact that the surge has failed, as measured by the president's and Petraeus' standards of success. Those who today stridently insist that the surge has succeeded also say they are especially supportive of the president, Petraeus and the military generally. But at the beginning of the surge, both...

CARLISLE BARRACKS, Pa. -- Officers studying at the Army War College walk the ground at nearby Gettysburg where Pickett's men walked across an open field under fire. They wonder: How did Confederate officers get men to do that? The lesson: Men can be led to places they cannot be sent. Today's officers lead an Army that was sent into Iraq in 2003, and by 2004 the operation became, as an officer here says, "a deployment in search of a mission." Since then, missions have multiplied. Today's is to make possible an exit strategy. Gen. David Petraeus's Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field...

OMAHA BEACH, Normandy -- On a bluff above the sand and a half a mile from the ocean's edge at low tide, which was the condition when the first allied soldiers left their landing craft, a round circle of concrete five feet in diameter provides a collar for a hole in the ground. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the hole was Widerstandsnest (nest of resistance) 62, a German machine gun emplacement. Hein Severloh had been in it since shortly after midnight, by which time U.S. aircraft were droning overhead, having dropped young American paratroopers Severloh's age behind the...

"We," the finance minister says, "have a terrible past." She also says: "In a way, we've had it too easy." Christine Lagarde is correct on both counts. Lagarde, 51, has a more informed affection for America than anyone who has ever risen so high in this country's government. She was an exchange student at a Washington prep school and a Capitol Hill intern during the Nixon impeachment proceedings. As a partner in a large law firm based in Chicago, for several years she lived in, and loved, the most American city. Today, her challenge is defined by this fact: France's...

<p>PARIS -- French libraries are said to file their nation's constitutions -- there have been more than a dozen since 1789; the current one is a relatively ancient 49 years old -- under periodicals. Now Nicolas Sarkozy, France's peripatetic new president, has created a commission on constitutional reform. The commission includes Jack Lang who, as minister of culture in 1983 under President Francois Mitterrand, staged a sublimely unserious conference on the (supposed) world economic crisis, featuring the likes of Sophia Loren, Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer.</p>