Free Republic

The headline on Democratic strategist Paul Begala’s recent Newsweek essay dodged subtlety: “The Stupid Party.” “Republicans used to admire intelligence. But now they’re dumbing themselves down,” was the subhead. Democrats couldn’t agree more. And quietly, many Republicans share the sentiment. They just can’t seem to stop themselves. [Snip] Scientific skepticism, the engine that propels intellectual inquiry, has morphed into skepticism of science fueled by religious certitude. In this strange world, it is heresy to express concern about, for example, climate change — or even to suggest that human behavior may be a contributing factor. Jon Huntsman committed blasphemy when he...

Such rabble, all those grassroots conservatives that have infested the Republican Party. It's all that Sarah Palin's fault. She's so... common... so dumb. Well, we can't say "dumb," so let's say not very smart, not like Bill Buckley. All those flyover country conservatives aren't very smart, either. Paul Begala says so, and Paul shows up at the right parties, so... Read Kathleen Parker's latest in the Washington Post: "The Palinization of the GOP." Parker used to write for National Review. Then she graduated to the Washington Post. Going there, Parker's worldview gloriously expanded. Parker's opinions are just so sophisticated now,...

<p>Squirming like a flounder and blushing a terrible shade of crimson, Eliot Spitzer made his debut as a CNN talk-show host last night, looking as rushed and uncomfortable as a john on an austerity budget.</p> <p>I haven't seen a man look so embarrassingly awkward in the presence of a woman since the day I saw Eliot and his wife, Silda, together at a press conference.</p>

On Thursday's Larry King Live, future anchor Kathleen Parker verified her tenuous conservative credentials, as she identified herself as a "conservative," but added, "a pox on everybody's house, as far as I'm concerned." She later confessed that she "would put myself...slightly to the right of center," and that she was "a big fan of Barack Obama as he came into office...I didn't want him to fail." Anchor Larry King brought on Parker and future co-host Eliot Spitzer of "Client Number Nine" fame during the first half of the 9 pm Eastern hour. Three minutes in, King asked about the format...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama Republican governor candidate Robert Bentley has turned down an offered endorsement from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, expected to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Romney on Thursday endorsed a list of 24 Alabama Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, state treasurer Kay Ivey in her race for lieutenant governor and Birmingham lawyer Luther Strange, who is running for attorney general. The Birmingham News reported that Bentley turned down the endorsement. A spokeswoman for Bentley, Rebekah Mason, said Friday that Bentley wanted to concentrate on the race for governor and did...

It is hard to imagine that anything has gone unsaid about the so-called Ground Zero mosque, but we seem to be missing an important point. The mosque should be built precisely because we don't like the idea very much. We don't need constitutional protections to be agreeable, after all. This point surpasses even all the obvious reasons for allowing the mosque, principally that there's no law against it. Precluding any such law, we let people worship when and where they please. That it hurts some people's feelings is, well, irrelevant in a nation of laws. And don't we, really, want...