Free Republic

Greg Gutfeld has installed his brand of insult conservatism as the institutional voice for the next generation of Fox News viewer. And it’s catching on.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — As Peter Johnson and Emily Neal waited for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to arrive at Barley’s, a brick-lined sports bar in southwestern Iowa, they gamed out possible nominees in the Democratic presidential primary. Mr. Johnson, a 27-year-old law student, said the large field was a great equalizer, and “if at the end of it we get an old white guy, someone who represents the status quo, it’ll be because they’ve proven themselves.” Ms. Neal, a dental hygienist, made an agonized face at Mr. Johnson, her boyfriend. Wouldn’t something be lost, she asked, if the historically diverse slate...

"Stop the Press Before It Profiles Beto O’Rourke Again." That was the October plea of Jack Shafer in Politico Magazine following numerous adulatory stories on Beto O'Rourke in the press. Unfortunately, they did not heed his request, including his own colleagues at Politico, which continued with worship services at the Church of Beto even after his U.S. Senate election loss in Texas. Among those periodicals continuing the plethora of Beto paeans is the New York Times.On February 6, the Times published a profile by Matt Flegenheimer of Beto's years in New York City in which he accomplished...stand by...basically nothing. This story...

How Much Does Hillary Clinton Drink? By Kyle Smith May 1, 2018 3:02 PM Amy Chozick probably knows, but she isn’t telling. When the author of a book on the Hillary Clinton campaigns admits to breaking down in tears as Clinton’s defeat registered, you have to read between the lines to guess just how flawed Clinton is. Unflattering details come up, but because they’re being delivered by a friendly source, they’re not dwelt upon at great length. One intriguing aspect of Amy Chozick’s reporting in Chasing Hillary is that Chozick wrote a story for the New York Times that never...

Richard Cordray speaks softly and carries a big stack: lime-green index cards, pressed into his shirt pocket, near enough for any sudden onset of note-taking. A former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he has been endorsed in his bid for Ohio governor by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has told him he needs to learn how to brag more. “I am pretty good at getting back people’s money,” Mr. Cordray managed before an outdoor crowd of dozens here recently. Polite applause followed. He is trying. Dennis Kucinich speaks until someone interrupts him — and even this is often insufficient...

The New York Times featured another jab at Senator Ted Cruz, a reliable target of liberal media loathing, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Reporters have been tittering at the thought of the fiscal conservative being obliged to change his tune to secure help for his home state of Texas, battered by Hurricane Harvey. NYT reporter Matt Flegenheimer took his turn in Saturday's “Trump and Harvey Push Cruz to Adjust His Style.” The text box: “A fiscal conservative shifts to constituent service when disaster strikes his hometown.” The online headline was slightly smarmy: “Ted Cruz 2.0? Senator Adjusts With Trump in...

Ted Cruz was naming friends. Seated for an interview inside a stately Midtown Manhattan library, just south of Trump Tower, the Texas senator leaned forward in his chair, ticking off the unlikely coalition drifting his way. There was Jeb Bush, who announced his endorsement in a terse predawn news release, and Mitt Romney, who initially said his support applied only to his voting preference in Utah. Mr. Cruz had swung Mike Lee, his greatest ally in the Senate, nearly a year after his campaign began, and Mark Levin, a conservative radio host who recently made his longstanding admiration on the...

In his Thursday front-page New York Times profile of "gruff" Sen. Ted Cruz on the trail in Iowa political reporter Matt Flegenheimer took pains to portray the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate as an unlikeable, socially awkward “bomb-thrower” ideologue (“appraised as grating and pompous as a matter of bipartisan consensus”) in “Cruz the Gruff Taking a Turn At Being Nice.” The online headline was no less hostile: "After Making Enemies, Ted Cruz Tries to Make Friends.” Never mind that his poll numbers show he's gaining a lot of supporters in Iowa.Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders suffer heavy deficits...