Free Republic

I am often asked when I chose to become Catholic. However, it is more truthful to say that over the course of several years I gradually became Catholic and then decided one day to accept the faith I had already come to embrace. My wife, Callista, is a lifelong Catholic and has been a member of the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., for 15 years. Although I was Southern Baptist, I had attended Mass with Callista every Sunday at the basilica to watch her sing with the choir. I accompanied...

Students of “The Walking Dead” will understand the Bible-thumping Hershel’s dictum that plagues (he means zombies, which always suggest something else) come when nature (he means God) needs to correct itself. Seven years of too bountiful a crop will always be followed by locusts or dust storms, and for every Michael Bloomberg there will be a Bill de Blasio. It goes the other way as well: When Clintons overreach and the Hillary experience becomes simply an extension of Bill’s cult of personality, there will be a Newt, because Newt Gingrich is now and always has been the equal and opposite...

Within a matter of days, it has become cliche to make note of President Obama's new commitment to ending "income inequality" in America after returning from a vacation in Hawaii that costs taxpayers millions of dollars. And as my longtime friend Newt Gingrich has most articulately argued this week, the "war on poverty" has been an abject failure from the day Lyndon Johnson first uttered the declaration. I recommend reading Gingrich's comments to receive an education on its long and costly failed effort. In an effort to propose constructive policy, may I suggest that, rather than play at the margins...

CNN pundit and former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich joined the growing chorus of supporters for suspended Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson on Thursday, comparing the duck-call mogul to Pope Francis on his show, Crossfire. Robertson was suspended from the show by A&E after making anti-gay remarks to GQ magazine – but according to Gingrich, the comments were nothing short of “remarkable.” “Ironically, if you read the whole interview, not just take one section, he talks very specifically about loving everybody,” Gingrich, a former Republican presidential candidate, said on Crossfire. “He talks very specifically about not being judgmental toward...

ABC This Week viewers were treated to a classic conservative versus liberal debate Sunday. When former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich tried to blame the increase in poverty in the past five years on Republicans, former Speaker of the House and current CNN host Newt Gingrich called it "baloney" firing back, "Every major city which is a center of poverty is run by Democrats" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary): Gingrich Schools Reich: 'Every Major City Which Is a Poverty Center Is Run By Democrats' JONATHAN KARL, SUBSTITUTE HOST: And let me ask you, Mr....

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said he is surprised at the "hostility and vehemence" that some conservatives have in reaction to a statement he made honoring the late Nelson Mandela. "Yesterday I issued a heartfelt and personal statement about the passing of President Nelson Mandela. I said that his family and his country would be in my prayers and Callista's prayers," Gingrich wrote on Friday. "I was surprised by the hostility and vehemence of some of the people who reacted to me saying a kind word about a unique historic figure. So let me say to those conservatives...

Yesterday I issued a heartfelt and personal statement about the passing of President Nelson Mandela. I said that his family and his country would be in my prayers and Callista’s prayers. I was surprised by the hostility and vehemence of some of the people who reacted to me saying a kind word about a unique historic figure. So let me say to those conservatives who don’t want to honor Nelson Mandela, what would you have done? Mandela was faced with a vicious apartheid regime that eliminated all rights for blacks and gave them no hope for the future. This was...

The latest wound is largely self-inflicted. Medicaid and the new Obamacare exchanges are competing for the same young and healthy customers that Obamacare needs to survive -- and Medicaid's winning. President Obama and the entire Democratic Party have nobody else but themselves to blame. In its hubris, the Democratic Party members assured the country again and again in 2009 and 2010 that it knew enough to be able to forcibly reorganize one-sixth of the American economy without causing millions to lose their current health insurance coverage, without triggering skyrocketing costs and without causing a host of terrible unintended consequences. The...

This Friday, November 15, may be a major turning point for the Obama Presidency. On Friday there will be a key vote on Chairman Fred Upton's bill, the Keep You Health Plan Act. It’s beginning to look as though a large number of House Democrats are going to break with the President and vote for the Upton bill. Ominously for the President, the House Democrat rebellion is matched by an even more visible desertion among Senate Democrats. When Senator Kay Hagan, a North Carolina Democrat, lost her ten-point advantage for reelection since the Obamacare website failed, she had a clear...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLQebqVQKcc The Senate, by not passing a budget, and by saying fund all or nothing, has taken away the House's power of the purse to defund courts or an other agency that goes beyond its power. If the House impeaches a judge, the current senate would neither try nor convict and remove from office. If the House abolished a court, or limited its jurisdiction, that law would never get through the senate. Every means by which the people can rein in a courts power would be halted by the US Senate and then by former Senator Barack Obama. Therefore, we...

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich fired back at conservative author and columnist Ann Coulter for remarks she made about him on “Hannity” Monday. -snip- “That’s kind of weird. I helped lead us to the first Republican majority in the House in 40 years. I helped develop with Bill Clinton the first four – the only four – balanced budgets in her lifetime. We helped pass welfare reform. I would’ve thought all those would have counted against the number of books she’s sold. But, you know, people have got to go out and say something to sell books and she’s...

The dance we are watching this weekend is a very important moment in modern American history with big implications for how the executive and the legislative branches interact in the future. The House Republicans have staked out a position that they can use their constitutional power of the purse to force the President to negotiate over key issues. President Obama and Senate Democratic Leader Reid believe they can break the House Republicans and force them to reopen the government and pass a debt ceiling hike with no negotiations and no conditions. Senate Republicans are split between a majority who want...

A new political action committee is hoping to convince former Speaker of the House and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich to run for the U.S. Senate in Virginia next year. Draft Newt PAC insists Gingrich, now a host of CNN’s Crossfire, is Republicans’ best hope for retaking the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), who is vying for his second term. “We want a credible challenger to Mark Warner, and no one could do what Newt could do to fight—and win,” said Andrew Hemingway, a former staffer on Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign who is leading the Draft...

Former Speaker and former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich took to Twitter to blast the Obama administration for its absurd shutdown actions. "DC Tourists frustrated by shutdown Smithsonian should visit Mount Vernon. Ladies of Mount Vernon have NEVER taken govt money. Still open" Gingrich and wife had paid a visit to Mount Vernon. And he noticed a little something on the bus turnaround. "The tour bus turnaround at Mount Vernon closed by Park Police. Zero maintenance required." A response from a lib: "Zero maintenance. However, if someone gets lost in there, a staff would be required. Are you really that damn...

(CNN) -- The worst possible outcome for the country from the impasse over the continuing resolution that would prevent a government shutdown would be for House Republicans to cave. This is a pivotal conflict that will define the relationship between Congress and the executive branch for the next three years. The country will be much better off if Congress does not abdicate its constitutional role and if the president cannot ignore that role. When President Barack Obama is willing to negotiate with Russian, Syrian and Iranian leaders but unwilling to negotiate with the U.S. House of Representatives, it is time...

When and if the Republicans fight on conservative principles, they win. Ah, but there is the rub. Newt Gingrich beat former House Speaker, Jim Wright, like a rented mule. He didn't let up. House Post Office scandal, using his position to sell blank books etc. Made a contract with America. Gingrich received a lot of grief from the naysayers but the end result was the Republicans took the House for the 1st time in 40 years. Kept the House until the Republicans sounded like Democrat lite, forgot about the pledge with America, and then lost the House. Bush the Elder...

The recent vote of House Republicans to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program reflects a deep-seated and insidious racial resentment toward Americans of color. This racial resentment rears its ugly head within the provisions for the bill that demand that non-employed participants in the program get a job, job training or do community service activities. Though the bill in its current form will most likely die in the Senate, the fact that Republicans would even pass it should concern us. Conservatives continue to lead under the aegis of a deliberate and willful ignorance about the long-term existence of...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The other day also we had economic news not good about the widening gap between the rich and the poor. We had the news that the smarter are getting wealthier and the stupider are getting poorer -- I mean, it wasn't good -- and that the wealth gap was wider, much wider today between the top 1% and everybody else than five years ago when Obama took office. We have more details on this, and one of the fundamental aspects of the story we had was the median income. We pointed out the median income in the...

Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Sunday blasted President Barack Obama's diplomatic strategy with Russia President Vladimir Putin regarding Syria's use of chemical weapons, saying Obama is now "following from behind." "You have Putin playing chess and Obama playing, frankly, a very lucky game of tic-tac-toe," Gingrich said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Putin stepped in to maximize Russian influence in the Middle East. That is a strategically defeat for the United States." "We are now relying on the Russians," said Gingrich, now a host of CNN's 'Crossfire." We're now following from behind -- not leading from behind....

Americans shouldn't let Vladimir Putin's opinions get under their skin because the Russian president is a one-time KGB officer whose primary interest is nationalism, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday. "While we have to deal with him as the president of Russia, we don't have to respect his views. We don't have to respect his opinions," said Gingrich, co-host of CNN's "Crossfire." "And frankly, we should laugh at him when he tries to lecture America about exceptionalism, because he ain't exceptional. He's just one more in a long tradition of dictators and thugs." Putin rattled some Americans, including high-profile...