Free Republic

Every year I write a column about where I was wrong in the previous year. This year I have less fodder, because my colossal errors in 2016 — underestimating President Trump, mostly — gave me a small dose of humility. So, this year I will look at how I judged Trump. In an important way, I underestimated him, and this misestimation was a big part of the reason I refused to vote for him.

Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.That was a conclusion of the 1946 U.S. Bombing Survey ordered by President Harry Truman in the wake of World War II.Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said in 1963, “the Japanese were...

Will GOP Chairman Rebuke Conservative's Vile Hate Speech?Washington, DC — Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe today said he would be personally monitoring the Republican National Committee’s website anxiously waiting for Chairman Ed Gillespie to repudiate comments made by a right wing columnist comparing Senate Democrats to Nazis. Gillespie recently took to the airwaves to express outrage over an ad posted at the Moveon.org web site that used images of Adolph Hitler. Despite giving the ad more play on the RNC web site than it had in its entire existence on MoveOn's site, Gillespie called it: "the worst and most...

The Hatch problem. President Bush's recess appointment of Judge Charles Pickering to the Fifth Circuit follows a string of other actions that make it clear: When it comes to the judge battle, the gloves are off. Unfortunately, Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch hasn't gotten the memo. Hatch's politeness and charity towards his Democratic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, often the source of frustration for conservatives in Washington, is now acutely damaging to the struggle to get conservative judges onto the federal bench. Specifically, Hatch's eagerness to comply with the Democratic witch-hunt — cooked up to draw attention away from embarrassing memos...