Free Republic

It's called "Left, Right and Center," which claims to be a "civilized yet provocative antidote to the screaming talking heads that dominate political debate." But there's not a whole lot of truth in advertising for KCRW Santa Monica's radio program, which is also podcasted on the Internet. The show normally features Robert Scheer, editor of the left-wing investigative Web site Truthdig.com and a former Los Angeles Times columnist, representing the left. Matt Miller, a former Clintonista and senior fellow at the left-wing Center for American Progress represents the so-called center. And former Washington Times editorial page editor and visiting senior...

Seated on the same side of an antique table before a large audience, Presidents Barack Obama and Dimitri Medvedev smile at one another as they exchange documents encased in red and black leather folders. The new START treaty has been signed, completing a journey Obama began when he visited the Czech Republic a year ago and announced his intention to begin ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He has reset relations between Russia and the United States and fulfilled a dream of another American President: Ronald Reagan. The cold war is over. Back in America, the former half-term governor of...

March 27, 2010 Republican Elite In Disarray After David Frum Is Sacked By Think-Tank America’s conservatives were in open disarray yesterday after the abrupt sacking of a leading Republican for daring to blame his party for “the most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s”. David Frum, who coined the phrase “Axis of Evil” when he was a speechwriter for President Bush, was fired by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) after posting a column on his website that called healthcare reform a disaster for Republicans and blamed it squarely on their own refusal to compromise with the Obama Administration. The prominent...

Democrats insisted on the most liberal bill they could pass. In Washington, political defeats always produce finger-pointing, so the conventional wisdom has suddenly turned on a dime and decided that Republicans were wrong to have opposed ObamaCare. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was especially taken yesterday with blogger and Bush speechwriter David Frum's argument that if only Republicans had negotiated with Democrats, they could have somehow made the bill less awful than it is. Mr. Frum now makes his living as the media's go-to basher of fellow Republicans, which is a stock Beltway role. But he's peddling bad revisionist...

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says it’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the GOP disaster. And he blames this “most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s” on conservatives and Republicans: At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994. Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with...

An ABC News review of Mitt Romney’s new book ends thus: “If history is any guide, however, Romney stands a decent chance of getting his party’s nod. Although he was hurt last time by questions about his authenticity, Republicans have a long tradition of nominating second-time candidates: think Richard Nixon in 1968, Ronald Reagan in 1980, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Bob Dole in 1996, and John McCain in 2008″ This is the conventional wisdom; we’re all used to hearing it. It’s the idea that Republicans nominate the “next-in-line” candidate, or the runner-up from last season’s primaries. It’s superficially plausible....

I have to say I got a big chuckle out of Romney’s healthcare chapter. Two years ago, I published a book on conservative reform that urged conservatives to pay more attention to the social costs of obesity. Those lines prompted National Review’s book reviewer to ceremonially drum me out of the conservative movement. Two years later, the candidate endorsed by National Review in 2008 has this to say: “One of the biggest behavioral contributors to sickness and death is our big waistlines, and the cascading negative health impact of that excess weight.” (191) Romney then proceeds through a very well-informed...

: Is the tea party movement a positive force in the GOP? A: The Tea Party Movement is an encouraging development, because it signals that the silent majority in America is silent no more. Posted at 1:44pm by Tim Mak; updated 1:59pm * * * Q: Was the country founded on Christian principles? A: I don’t believe that America has ever held that being a Christian is part of being American. However, Judeo-Christian principles, for e.g. family values, are. Posted at 1:56pm by Tim Mak * * * Q: Do we get carried away? Does conservative rhetoric imply that we...

"Go ahead — hit me.” That’s what the Iranian regime is saying to the United States. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims his scientists have enriched a batch of uranium to 20% radioactivity, well past the level needed for electricity production, but closer to the 90% level required for warheads. He boasted that his country should now be considered a “nuclear state.” Nations bent on nuclear breakout do not usually issue progress reports. They move stealthily, until they are ready to detonate a finished weapon. That’s what India did in the 1970s, ... By contrast, the Iran nuclear program issues press releases...

President Obama seems full of double talk these days, all smoke and mirrors, as Angelina Jolie reportedly has described him. (I’m loathe to borrow words from a celebrity but it is a spot on assessment.) Listening to the president’s comments lately, one would think the Republicans were in the governing majority over the past year and it was their fault the president couldn’t push through his costly, government expansion agenda. This is of course despite the reality that last year, the Democrats had solid majorities in both the House and Senate. Now that Obama is not delivering on his promises...

[Chuckles @ LGF] Johnson’s comment seems to me radically unfair. Pawlenty is a model of sensible modern conservatism. His answers to Newsweek’s barbed questions indicate an instinct for practical compromise, even as he eschews any personal support for creationism. That said, the interview – and Johnson’s reaction – bespeak a religious problem for Pawlenty that will require much tact on his part and that of his campaign team. Pawlenty now attends an evangelical church, but he was born and raised a Roman Catholic. He changed denominations at marriage, accepting his wife’s evangelical faith. Without pretending any insight into the souls...

Having urged the president to honor his commitment to the Afghan war, we Republicans must honor our commitment to support him as he fights it. Given the public unenthusiasm for the conflict, there will be political temptations to “go rogue” on the president, if not now, then in the summer of 2010. That will be our test, for us to pass as the president has passed his. I know many Republicans and conservatives will say: “Hey – the Democrats did not give President Bush support when he most needed it.” Correct. They didn’t. And the country suffered for it. The...

Writing on his website, which used to be called “New Majority” until he got tired of people laughing at him, David Frum published an essay called “The Palin Fantasy” over the weekend. Even as the House of Representatives was preparing to pass the most blatantly unconstitutional assault on America’s freedom in Congressional history, Frum found something really outrageous to write about: Matthew Continetti’s admiring essay on Sarah Palin’s populist appeal. It’s a good thing Frum has his priorities in order. We wouldn’t want Palin to get into office and drop a few trillion dollars of unsustainable debt on us. Frum...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. John McCain is co-hosting a fundraiser for his former 2008 Republican primary rival Mitt Romney next Wednesday in Phoenix. . . . . . The fundraiser will benefit Romney's Free and Strong America PAC...

Canadians are not Americans. That’s not to say there aren’t similarities. With a majority of the population deriving from Northern Europe, a British cultural matrix, and Anglo-Saxon systems of law and government (excepting Quebec, Canada’s wild card in all things), it couldn’t be otherwise. Like the U.S., Canada was settled through mass immigration over an extended period, with a national character formed by the impact of the frontier. Canada is second only to the U.S. as a technological culture, rivaling us in scientific research and application. It could be said without much exaggeration that the U.S./Canada form a unique double...

When Glenn Beck made his Fox debut, some shrewd conservatives responded with a wink. Maybe the show was paranoid and hysterical. Maybe Beck was none too scrupulous about facts and truth. But why be squeamish? The other side did as bad, or nearly. And see how usefully he mobilized the base! Those shrewd conservatives assumed Beck was working for them. Big mistake. Beck is working for himself – and he chooses his targets according to his own scheme of priorities. The newest target is Cass Sunstein, confirmed yesterday by the Senate as director of the Office of Information and Regulatory...

Did you hear about the latest episode involving talk radio host and NYT bestselling author Mark Levin ? The guy went out and said the President and his friends were engaged in a "ruthless war" of "unmitigated plunder of the public trust." Winding up in a serious rant he assailed "the purchase of votes, the corruption of elections officials, the bribing of legislatures…and the flagrant disregard of laws" that "threatened the very foundations of democracy." He even got religion, saying it was time to "drive the money changers out of the temples of democracy." Later he went the inevitable Hitler...

As speculation over Sarah Palin's presidential aspirations heat up now that she has stepped down as Alaska's governor, a former member of George W. Bush's staff said Palin had no chance of winning the White House. "Impossible," is how Bush's former speechwriter David Frum described the likelihood Palin would become president. Frum based his opinion on Palin's decline in approval ratings from when she was announced as John McCain's Republican presidential running mate in August termed her "divisive" within the party. Asked what she represents for the future of the GOP: "political defeat."