Free Republic

While Democrats duel, the unofficial Republican nominee considers a vice president. John McCain should start by asking what he needs. The admiral’s son fits two legs of his own party’s three-legged stool: foreign policy (zinging terrorism) and economic (scoring spending). Alas, he is out to sea with social and cultural conservatives, the one group without which national Republicans once routinely lost, and will surely lose again. According to a new Pew Research Forum poll, 44 percent of the electorate terms itself “born-again.” Politically, these Christian, mostly Protestant, evangelicals are the Republican Party’s largest block: 35 percent of George W. Bush’s...

This past week, investors experienced a sizable economic tremor as Wall Street's fortress shook. From a Dow that dropped more than 200 points in the first 10 minutes of trading to the Federal Reserve's biggest "emergency" slash of interest rates in a quarter of a century, even the experts are confused as to whether these are signs of an unhealthy economy or birth pains of an American recession. Just as fluctuating and fickle is this presidential election. With political surges, primary bypasses, midstream startups and blended politics, there are still no clear front-runners in either party. Super Tuesday is on...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday he is counting on the traditionally conservative Panhandle to push him to a strong finish in Florida. ''We knew we needed to get to the Panhandle, it is a very, very critical area,'' Huckabee said. ''The Panhandle is historically a very conservative part of Florida and that would be an ideal constituency for us. I wish we could spend more time here.'' The former Arkansas governor met with supporters and held a news conference at a small airport Sunday night. Early Sunday, he told a supporters at a rally...

With Thompson dropping out of the presidential race, his conservative supporters are wondering who to support now. He has not yet endorsed one of the remaining candidates. There are four viable Republican candidates left; Huckabee, Romney, McCain and Giuliani. Giuliani is unacceptable to the kind of conservative who was supporting Thompson, because of his liberal social views and reputation as a moderate. He has yet to win a primary and may drop out of the race if he doesn’t win Florida. McCain and Romney are currently tied for the lead in Florida polls. McCain is leading national polls, but Huckabee...

The more I think about Mike Huckabee’s stunning 18% showing at the Iowa straw poll the more I’m persuaded that he could be the exciting, unifying conservative standard bearer the GOP base has been craving. Forget about Fred Thompson--- his long delay in entering the race makes him look increasingly like the Mario Cuomo of the Republican Party. Remember when the New York Governor dithered endlessly about announcing his candidacy in 1992? At the time, he seemed to be trying out a new slogan: “A Mind is a terrible thing…. To make Up.” As an actor, Fred Thompson might like...

Arkansas was a State that used to have some of the worst highways in the nation. When Mike Huckabee was Governor in Arkansas, under his leadership, a major restoration of the highway system took place. The Club for Growth is complaining that a 4-cent tax on diesel fuel was assessed to fix the roads in Arkansas. However, over 80% of the voters in Arkansas supported that measure. Today, Arkansas has some of the best roads in the nation. In light of what happened with the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, we can appreciate Governor Huckabee for his leadership...

Mike Huckabee is confident Republican primary voters will buy his conservative message. The question is whether he can stick around the presidential race long enough for them to have a chance to hear it. With only $544,157 raised during the first quarter and $373,918 cash on hand, the former Arkansas governor's campaign account pales compared with the three best-heeled GOP candidates -- former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona. But Huckabee suggests the Big Three aren't anywhere close to having a lock on the nomination because his natural constituency...

LITTLE ROCK -- Republican Mike Huckabee delivered a no-tax pledge Wednesday to a national activist group in Washington, his campaign said. The former Arkansas governor signed the Presidential Taxpayer Protection Pledge for Americans for Tax Reform after announcing his intentions last week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. In signing the pledge, Huckabee agreed to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates" for individuals and businesses and to oppose "any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates," according to a Huckabee campaign news...

(AgapePress) -- An Arkansas congressman is throwing his support behind Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, saying the former governor espouses the conservative values that many Americans expect and possesses the skills necessary to effectively communicate his message to the American people. Friday on Capitol Hill, Governor Mike Huckabee, considered by many political analysts to be a long-shot candidate, plans to announce that Representatives John Boozman of Arkansas and Don Young of Alaska will serve as congressional chairmen of his presidential campaign. Boozman, a member of the Republican Study Committee, says he believes Huckabee has the communication skills necessary to set...

Catholic Answers (see http://www.Catholic.com) has just published a booklet about "how to vote" in the coming elections. Click on the web site link to go to the site for more information or to get the booklet. You also can download a video about this topic or get the booklet in Spanish. HOW THIS VOTER'S GUIDE HELPS YOU This voter’s guide helps you cast your vote in an informed manner consistent with Christian moral teaching. It helps you avoid choosing candidates who endorse policies that cannot be reconciled with moral norms that used to be held by all Christians. On most...

Christians in Iraq are threatened with torture, burning, bombing for not joining 'resistance', Assyrian Christians recently liberated from Saddam Hussein's regime are suffering a string of deadly attacks church leaders believe are religiously motivated. Christians and churches have received letters in Arabic threatening that if they don't follow Islamic practice and support "the resistance," they will face the consequences: "torture, and burning or exploding the house with the family in it," says Elizabeth Kendal, researcher for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission, in a report published by the Assist News Service. Mandaean Christians, who follow the teachings of John...

Saddam Hussein has been captured. How will he, and other members of his regime, be brought to justice? The United States could defer to a newly formed Iraqi court system, or lead the way through Coalition trials. These, and all options -- except for the International Criminal Court -- should be considered. Though, in the end, the Iraqi judicial system should be given preference once it is capable of handling the matter in a fair and just manner. History offers a lesson. After World War II, the Allies used three different judicial mechanisms: - Nuremberg trials. Most prominently, the war’s...

WHAT EXACTLY IS NEOCONSERVATISM? Journalists, and now even presidential candidates, speak with an enviable confidence on who or what is "neoconservative," and seem to assume the meaning is fully revealed in the name. Those of us who are designated as "neocons" are amused, flattered, or dismissive, depending on the context. It is reasonable to wonder: Is there any "there" there? Even I, frequently referred to as the "godfather" of all those neocons, have had my moments of wonderment. A few years ago I said (and, alas, wrote) that neoconservatism had had its own distinctive qualities in its early years, but...

A new Internet site has been constructed for those who want to keep up with the Houses of Worship Freedom of Speech Restoration Act (HR-235). The Internet site is located at http://www.hr235.org/. There are currently 165 co-sponsors and we are still working to get 218 before calling for a vote. Publicity on this bill is very important. Pastors and others must understand that their rights to political free speech were stolen from them in 1956 and that this bill will return those rights. Please tell you pastor to look at the new Internet site for this bill.

A conclave of intellectuals schooled at Pravda's knee BRUSSELS More than 100 European intellectuals, political officials and bureaucrats gathered here last month to discuss how to deal with George W. Bush's America. They saw themselves as representatives of the civilized world meeting to determine how to best control, or at least counteract, the influence of the United States "before it is too late." In their view, almost all the evil in today's world today can be traced directly or indirectly to the United States, or to the system of nation states that make the existence of the United States possible....

The wisdom of Rodney King, by itself, won't solve this problem among Conservatives. The splendid little war in Iraq brought the squabbles among hyphenated conservatives out into the open. It seems the concept of pre-emptive war is as unsettling as its location in the Middle East. The fact that the U.S. has Imperial Power is troubling for some cons. Different dash-cons disagree on the roadmap for conservative power. And we all need to get along by January 04. A longer split could spell d-e-f-e-a-t in the 2004 Presidential race. Conservatives divided on ideas, could lose to Liberals united in hatred...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- CNN's Chief News Executive revealed Friday that his network suppressed stories about Saddam Hussein's reign of terror in Iraq in order to maintain a bureau in Baghdad. In an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times titled, "The News We Kept To Ourselves," Eason Jordan wrote, "I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me." Those stories are accounts of atrocities committed by Iraq's regime over three decades. Eason tells of the murder and dismembering of a Kuwaiti woman who dared to speak to CNN on the phone. A plastic bag of her body parts...

WASHINGTON, Thursday, March 6--- House Republican Conference Chairman Deborah Pryce (R-OH) issued the following statement today regarding statements made by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) concerning al Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden. Quoted in the Toledo Blade yesterday, Rep. Kaptur said, “One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non-nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown.” “Marcy Kaptur’s statements yesterday regarding Osama bin Laden are both sad and wrong. There is no justification for the premeditated murder of thousands of Americans, in any instance on...

John Kasich In the Dallas Morning News: John offered his thoughts on President Bush's economic stimulus plan in a recent article that appeared in the Dallas Morning News. Below is an excerpt from that article. Former Rep. John Kasich, as chairman of the House Budget Committee in the mid-1990s, was the chief architect of the plan that balanced the federal budget for the first time since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Asked last week what he thought about President Bush's tax proposal, he didn't even have to take a breath before listing five reasons. - It's going to help...

OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Chad Alexander today asked Democrat Party Chairman, Jay Parmley, and Democrat candidate David Walters to assure the voters of Oklahoma that the Democrat Party will not seek to replace Walters as their party's nominee for United State Senate. "Given the fact that David Walters is 24 points down in the polls, has an ethically and legally challenged past and tries to drag his opponent down to his level with attacks and lies, I want to make sure he continues his candidacy," Alexander said. "I would hate to see something happen in Oklahoma like...