Free Republic

Sarah Palin, the ubiquitous enchantress of the disenchanted, may not have been ready to lead the free world back when John McCain anointed her as his running mate. But she's left rubber on the road that leads to fame, fortune and a new feminine mystique that drives certain men and women wild -- in very different ways. For what it's worth, I get a kick out of Sarah. May I call her Sarah? She and I apparently share a certain genetic predisposition to annoy all the right people. These would be the folks who take themselves and their ideologies a...

This is truly fascinating, or would be, if Kathleen Parker wasn’t a crazy person, so listening to her is often like finding yourself in a Victorian insane asylum with Renfield, cringing as he devours flies and other bugs. Like “apartment creeper” Maureen Dowd, and a broken clock, Parker’s right about two times each day, and lucid every week or so. In a new piece discussed by the excellent NeoNeocon site, Parker waxes about how feminine “president” Obama is in his approach to the presidency. She discusses his constant use of the passive voice, the way he blames problems on other...

On Sunday's Face the Nation on CBS, host Bob Schieffer asked columnist Kathleen Parker about her views on the tea party: "the rhetoric that's coming out from the right side, especially from the tea party....you think it may be dangerous." Parker replied: "this heated rhetoric and some of these words...that are pretty loaded, 'reload,' 'targeting'...there's a danger there." Parker, syndicated with the Washington Post Writers Group, claimed she was not casting negative aspersions on the whole political movement: "I'm not saying the tea party people are violent or racist or any of that....I'm not saying that the tea partiers are...

The RINO hunt is back on, and the coveted trophy is Scott Brown.Inevitably and predictably, the new senator from Massachusetts -- Mr. 41, Mr. I-Drive-A-Truck, tea party poster dude -- has disappointed his base by, alas, representing his constituents. It's the purity test all over again; only this time, the stakes are high and the weird are turning seriously pro. Not that the tea partiers are weird, not most of them, anyway. But some are at risk of flying off into the blood-red zone of wing-nuttery. One of the sessions at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) questioned whether...

This year Ms. Parker's "Valentine" to Sarah Palin, an article titled "Sarah Palin should beware of exploiting her youngest child" (www.w,shingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR2010021204006.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns), should send a thrill up at least one of Matthew's legs. Ms. Parker concluded her catty article this way: "Perhaps the erstwhile governor still thinks in first-person plural, viewing Trig as part of herself. But he is also a separate individual deserving of privacy, if unable to say the words she needs to hear: 'No more, Mama, please.' "Another political mother, Hillary Clinton, made good on her commitment to protect her child's privacy. Agree with her politics or not,...

Sarah Palin Should Beware Of Exploiting Her Youngest Child By Kathleen Parker February 14, 2010 A hurdle familiar to any mother is learning to view her baby as separate from herself. How many of us have answered questions about our babies in first-person plural? -- How old is your baby? -- Oh, we're 22 months now. Well, no, we're not; he is. Yet we nod in universal understanding of the profound sense of oneness that evolves in part from pregnancy. For nine months, mother and baby are inextricably "we" -- linked in body and spirit, every move and morsel belonging...

There will be much harrumphing and punditry in the next few days about the meaning of Scott Brown's victory and his phenomenal campaign for Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat.... As important as the Massachusetts special election was to the health-care debate, it also represents a come-to-Jesus moment for the GOP. What kind of party will it be? On the surface, Brown's success, especially among independents, suggests that the GOP tent is expanding to make room even for moderate, pro-choice candidates like Brown. Have fiscal conservatives displaced social conservatives as the base?...

By Kathleen Parker Sunday, December 20, 2009 Perhaps it is the spirit of the season, but my empathy receptors are in overdrive for poor Barack Obama. All he wanted for Christmas was a health-care reform bill -- and all he got was a lousy insurance industry bailout that few can love. Lefties hate it because there's no public option and no Medicare buy-in for those 55 and over. Righties hate it because requiring that Americans buy private insurance or face penalties means taxpayers will have to hand over more of their hard-earned dollars (assuming they have a job) to the...

IS RICK SANTORUM running for president of the United States, or isn’t he? I caught him by phone on a people mover at Dulles Airport and posed the question: He’s not running, then again, he’s not NOT running. En route to South Carolina Tuesday to stump for gubernatorial candidate and Republican Rep. Gresham Barrett, Santorum wasn’t being cagey, just practical. Whether the former Pennsylvania senator can raise the millions needed for a presidential bid remains to be seen. In the meantime, he has some things to say. For starters: “I have no great burning desire to be president, but I...

In town to give a talk on civility, I was surrounded by women who wondered what I thought of Sarah Palin's Newsweek cover. "Why aren't women coming to her defense?" they asked. "Why are the media being so rough on Sarah?" Having been enjoying a self-imposed moratorium on all things Palin, declining numerous interviews to discuss her latest self-promotional tour, I was surprised by the questions. My thoughts lately have drifted toward the sense that, though Palin is very much a celebrity, she's no longer running for public office, at least officially. Ergo, radar gets a rest. As for her...