Free Republic

The road to the White House was filled with a lot more backrooms in the past. Most of the delegates to political conventions were "superdelegates" in those times. For candidates in 1968 only a handful of primaries existed with New Hampshire leading off the six that had any meaning (linking votes and delegates). Into this situation entered Democrat Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, running an anti-Vietnam War campaign against incumbent Lyndon Johnson. The first big anti-war protests began in 1967, but those protesting were countered by a large demonstration supporting America's Vietnam War effort in New York City. The street...

EAGLE PASS, TEX. — The family link that connects the mother of a man who recently identified himself as John F. Kennedy's son to the former president has its dusty roots in this scrubby town on the southern border of Texas. It was here, in the late 1930s, over country club visits and long lunches across the Rio Grande at the famous El Moderno restaurant, that Lyndon Johnson began his friendship with Robert Bibb, a fierce Democrat and county judge whose 22-year political career cemented his reputation as a local legend. Judge Bibb, who gave up his seat in 1964,...

Presidents Day has taken a deep back seat these days on our holiday calendar to the point that not only do schools go on as scheduled, but so do many state and government offices. This is not surprising in 2008, and many revel in it. Presidents Day now celebrates all presidents, not just our greatest. That being the case, let's "celebrate," or at least recall, the three worst presidents in our country's otherwise proud history. All 43 had their faults, and though mainstream media sources may not agree with my choices, many who understand history will, as a recurring theme...

There's more to Sen. Edward Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama than meets the eye. Apparently, part of the reason why the liberal lion from Massachusetts embraced Obama was because of a perceived slight at the Kennedy family's civil rights legacy by the other Democratic presidential primary frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Sources say Kennedy was privately furious at Clinton for her praise of President Lyndon Baines Johnson for getting the 1964 Civil Rights Act accomplished. Jealously guarding the legacy of the Kennedy family dynasty, Senator Kennedy felt Clinton's LBJ comments were an implicit slight of his brother, President John...

There's more to Sen. Edward Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama than meets the eye. Apparently, part of the reason why the liberal lion from Massachusetts embraced Obama was because of a perceived slight at the Kennedy family's civil rights legacy by the other Democratic presidential primary frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Sources say Kennedy was privately furious at Clinton for her praise of President Lyndon Baines Johnson for getting the 1964 Civil Rights Act accomplished. Jealously guarding the legacy of the Kennedy family dynasty, Senator Kennedy felt Clinton's LBJ comments were an implicit slight of his brother, President John...

I was seven years old in early 1968 watching lots of television on a black and white picture set in my bedroom. One of my favorites was the "Batman" series on ABC with Adam West in the title role and Burt Ward as Robin. One of the guest villains on the program was "Catwoman" Eartha Kitt, whose entertainment career blossomed in the 1950's. Kitt, was black and a woman, which clearly qualified her for an invitation to the White House for a ladies luncheon in January of the election year, 1968. The First Lady, who was known by her nickname...

In war, truth is the first casualty--but in politics, it appears that the first victim is history. The latest maiming of the historical record and elementary historical logic has come over Martin Luther King, Jr., Lyndon B. Johnson--and the presidential primaries of 2008. The media echo chamber is now booming with charges that Senator Hillary Clinton has disparaged Dr. King, praised President Johnson in his stead, and thereby distorted the history of the civil rights movement. It is the latest evidence, say the talking heads, that Clinton is running a subtly racist campaign--or, as the theology and African-American studies professor...

The "deathbed confession" audio tape in which former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt admits he was approached to be part of a CIA assassination team to kill JFK was aired this weekend - an astounding development that has gone completely ignored by the establishment media. E. Howard Hunt names numerous individuals with both direct and indirect CIA connections as having played a role in the assassination of Kennedy, while describing himself as a "bench warmer" in the plot. Hunt alleges on the tape that then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was involved in the planning of the assassination and in...

They always say that the passage of time sometimes dulls the memory of a person's past, that oft times only the good memories remain. More often, though, time plus a large dollop of myth making and lies creates a whole new world out of the past. Dick Simpson is more evidence of the later than the former. In a whitewashing of the foolishness and destruction wrought by his anti-American comrades in the vaunted "summer of love," Chicago Sun-Times columnist Simpson wonders "Can we revive '60s-era ideals?" Surely, anyone who has a clear memory of those tumultuous days would quickly reply,...

Tapes support new book showing who really assassinated JFK. Newly released tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's telephone conversations corroborate the central premise of an explosive new book that promises to completely reshape the debate over who killed President John F. Kennedy. President Johnson believed what Richard Nixon always suspected... The surreptitious recordings, released from the Johnson library in Austin, Texas, Feb. 28, offer this bombshell missed by the press, Rosen writes: The Kennedy White House did not merely tolerate or encourage the murder of its ally, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, but organized and executed it. "Triangle" authors present...

Older Americans tend to think of Social Security as something we ought to be able to afford. Indeed, many seniors tell themselves that when Washington pours extra cash into the New Deal pension program, the action is something like investing in a new Volvo. The purchase may look extravagant but is, in reality, deliciously necessary. This attitude is also held by some of our most respected pension officials. The longtime Social Security Administration commissioner Robert M. Ball wrote on this page recently that "it's the essence of responsibility, in my view, to insist on no benefit cuts" ["A Social...

WELLESLEY, Mass. — Senator Clinton is describing her opposition to the war in Iraq as an extension of Eugene McCarthy's position in the 1960s movement against the war in Vietnam. Mrs. Clinton's comments came at an energy-charged rally yesterday at her alma mater, Wellesley College. Her visit, the ostensible purpose of which was to announce a new Web site aimed at younger voters, hillblazers.com, created palpable excitement on campus. Hundreds of students lined up amid Wellesley's autumnal splendor for a chance to hear the speech of the 1969 graduate and then moved and bopped to the strands of Smash Mouth's...

This morning I received an e-mail from a crusty lady in Sheridan Wyoming who happens to be a Fred Thompson supporter. This lady has e-mailed me before adding a little to each of my articles supporting Fred Thompson. Charlotte isn’t the only one who tells me they are behind Fred Thompson 100%. I would have used the popular Democratic statistic of 110% except like so many things Democratic 110% doesn’t exist. Democrats are always trying to convince the voters they can go several steps beyond what’s physically possible. Every time Hillary opens her mouth she goes 110% beyond reality, she’s...

George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ. “He’s a big government guy,” said Stephen Slivinski, the director of budget studies at Cato Institute, a libertarian research group. The numbers are clear, credible and conclusive, added David Keating, the executive director of the Club for Growth, a budget-watchdog group.

FDR essentially got the Supreme Court to ignore the 10th A. so that the Court would give the green light to his constitutionally unauthorized federal spending programs. Then, as a consequence of having the political license to ignore the 10th A., renegade, anti-religious expression justices then unconsitutionally limited our religious freedoms. More specifically... Justice Owen Roberts rewrote constitutional history in the Cantwell v. Connecticut opinion by writing the following. "The First Amendment declares that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Fourteenth Amendment has rendered the legislatures of the states...

You’ve heard of institutional memory? Well The New York Times has developed institutional Alzheimer’s.Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus outlines the details of a story that is familiar to anyone who’s picked up a newspaper, watched the news on TV or listened to talk radio over the past few days: [A]n important political figure, arrested for engaging in lewd conduct in a public men's room. Married, with children, he told no one. Instead he pleaded guilty without even hiring a lawyer, hoping the problem would quietly disappear. When, as was inevitable, the press got hold of the story, his erstwhile supporters...

Sir: I've been a straight-ticket Democrat for 50 years but if Lyndon Johnson picks them beagles up by the ears one more time, he's a dead duck in my book. J. S. WHITE West Palm Beach, Fla.

AUSTIN, Texas — Lady Bird Johnson made a final trip Friday to her beloved wildflower center, where friends and family followed the former first lady's casket into a gallery for a private memorial service. About 180 people gathered at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, where her coffin, draped in white cloth with blue embroidery, rested in front of a large portrait of Johnson in a field of flowers. Nearby, two vases held lavender-hued bluebells, her favorite flower. "We are here to let Lady Bird go and to celebrate her glad release," said the Rev. Stephen Kinney, former rector at...

Just reported.

Forty years ago this week, I was asked to investigate the heaviest attack on an American ship since World War II. As senior legal counsel to the Navy Court of Inquiry, it was my job to help uncover the truth regarding Israel's June 8, 1967, bombing of the Navy intelligence ship Liberty. On that sunny, clear day 40 years ago, Israel's combined air and naval forces attacked the Liberty for two hours, inflicting 70 percent casualties. Thirty-four American sailors died, and 172 were injured. The Liberty remained afloat only by the crew's heroic efforts. Israel claimed it was an accident....