Free Republic

To any Virginians out there, I ask why does Mark Warner enjoy such high approval ratings? http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2005/Virginia%20Governor_August%204.htm Hasn't this guy raised taxes, supported gay civil unions, and championed the cause of illegal aliens via drivers licenses and in-state tuition? Is it a case that things are going so good in Virginia right now that he gets credit in the way executives always do, even if it is unwarranted? Is it just a case where state and federal dynamics differ so much that the same electorate that is loath to vote for one party for President will have no problem doing...

Moral Capital and the Courts The Left is destroying traditional morality. By Rick Santorum EDITOR'S NOTE:: This is the first in a series of five excerpts from It Takes a Family, by Sen. Rick Santorum. Together they comprise chapter 23, “The Rule of Judges.” The village elders (a.k.a. left-wing members of Congress) introduce very few bills — almost none that attract more than one or two cosponsors. There are no hearings where Congress and the public can hear arguments about the merits to society of changing its moral fabric. Did Congress pass a law that said it was illegal to...

SAME SEX WEDDING ON TODAY? Tuesday, June 28 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Responding to pressure from gay and lesbian organizations, NBC's Today has agreed to open its annual wedding contest to same-sex couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is now legal. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the show has dropped its requirements that couples have to consist of a male and a female. Today "is not taking a stand for or against same-sex marriage," an NBC spokesperson told the newspaper "We're just clarifying the rules based on new developments in the law. Anyone who can legally get married should be able to...

California's same-sex 'marriage' bill -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 2, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Lynn Wardle & Randy Thomasson -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com No lawmaker is above the law or the people. Yet state legislators who are pushing AB 19 show no respect for the constitution, laws or people of California. AB 19, which would issue same-sex "marriage" licenses in every county in California, passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 26. Coauthored by 30 Democrats, AB 19 would repeal the people's vote on marriage. Displaying these legislators' sense of superiority over the voters, AB 19 is as good or bad...

TOPEKA, Kan. - It seems a can’t-lose proposition: Ask voters to ban same-sex marriages and they consistently endorse the idea, from the South to the West. advertisement Kansas on Tuesday became the 18th and latest state to pass a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage. With conservatives pushing to define marriage as between a man and woman throughout the country, similar proposals are on the ballot in three other states next year and more than a dozen are considering them. New England has been the major holdout; there, legislators and judges have strengthened rights for gays and lesbians. The Connecticut Senate...

I caught just a bit of Rush Limbaugh's show yesterday and I heard him citing a poll showing overwhelming public support for judicial nominees getting an up or down vote from the full Senate. I think Limbaugh cited the poll as saying 67% supported Bush's nominees getting an up or down vote, while 81% supported the more general idea that qualified nominees get an up or down vote. Does anyone have details, or a link? I searched briefly for this poll but could not find it.

Friday, March 4, 2005 9:43 a.m. EST Poll: New Yorkers Want Gay Marriage A majority of New York City voters would support a law allowing gay marriage, according to a poll released Thursday. But by a slim margin, they also back Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to appeal a recent court ruling supporting same-sex unions, the Quinnipiac University Poll found. In the poll, 51 percent of respondents said they favored legalizing gay marriage, while 40 percent were opposed. White voters were much more likely to back the law than black voters _ 61 percent of whites wanted the law, compared with...

A Giuliani win over Senator Hillary will go far toward a 2008 victory. A boulder now blocks Rudolph W. Giuliani's path to the White House: a nagging suspicion among conservatives that he is too liberal for the Republican presidential nomination. Referring to Giuliani and Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.), MSNBC commentator Tucker Carlson, for instance, said on the February 11 Hardball: "I will say that, politically, how are they so different?...They are not." If Giuliani wants the 2008 GOP nod, he needs to help conservatives across America understand what New Yorkers already know: Giuliani is an anvil-tough, free-market reformer who...

By Stephen Dinan THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published February 24, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The annual Economic Report of the President, released last week, said that taken together, research shows immigrants have a slight net positive benefit. "Summing up the economic benefits and costs of immigration shows that over time, the benefits of immigration exceed the costs," the report said, though it also acknowledged that adjusting to the effects of immigration is not easy for native workers "and the adjustment period can present challenges." The report also found that immigration has been shown to have a small effect on wages, but particularly for...

QUEERLY BELOVED Idaho Senate weighs marriage amendment Measure is vote short of passage, say proponents -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 1, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com The Idaho Senate has scheduled a vote tomorrow on a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would recognize marriage as an institution between one man and one woman – but the measure right now is one vote short of passage, say proponents. If the measure does not pass, Idaho would become the first state where such an amendment failed. Thirteen states – Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota,...

..........There's another reality Mr. Bush is facing up to and it's called the Hispanic vote. Paleocons and nativists may think the key GOP demographic is uneducated whites. But it's hard to imagine a majority Republican future without at least being competitive among Hispanics. In this sense, the guest-worker proposal isn't just an exercise in economic sanity but also in long-term party building on a par with FDR's capture of the black vote..........

.............And, contrary to dire predictions that gay-friendly African-American state lawmakers would suffer at the ballot box, 97 percent were returned, according to the analysis by the Human Rights Campaign and the Equality Federation. Meanwhile, 100 percent of Latino, Asian-American and Native American state lawmakers who voted against discrimination were re-elected. "Voting against discrimination is good policy and good politics," concludes HRC national field director Seth Kilbourn. The report's findings couldn't be more timely. Here's what to expect during the legislative sessions now getting under way: States whose lawmakers are definitely going to consider amending their state constitutions to ban gay...

.........To the extent that the vote was a mandate for any social issue, it was a repudiation of gay marriage, not a vindication of restrictions on the right to choose. Indeed, voters oppose courts' imposing gay marriage for the same reason that they oppose a reversal of Roe vs. Wade – they do not support it when judges try to impose their own views on the social consensus. Just as most voters want marriage to remain strictly heterosexual, so most want abortion to continue to be legal, albeit with restrictions. While parental notification and consent, restrictions on late abortions and...

Bill Frist said today on Fox that he was fairly certain he would not seek reelectin in 2006. Hopefully the power of his position as Majority Leader will make him reconsider, but if not, then it begs the question; Who does the GOP have on deck to run in 2006, most likely against alleged 'moderate' (which usually means liberal when the media uses it so praisingly on someone) Rep Ford?

I know that a few days before the election Bush inexplicably felt the need to come out and speak well of civil unions, and I know that it made some news. But did Bush actually say that he personally supported civil unions and that he thought states should implement them, or did he simply say that he thinks states should do so if they choose to? In other words, did he come out in favor of civil unions, or merely the right of states to adopt them if the people want them? I read the original press reports and I...

When Bush was asked about what type of Supreme Court picks he would make I thought he missed an opportunity to vividly paint a picture of the difference between himself and Kerry, plus that whole bit about the Dred Scott decision was just damn bizarre. If he gets another chance, I hope he points out that he would do his best to pick judges who; 1. Would not impose gay marriage/civil unions on the entire nation agains the will of the people and their elected representatives. Bush should also point out that this is the crux of the matter, because...

Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004 12:56 a.m. EDT Senate GOP Re-election Fund Double the Dems' The Senate Republicans' fund-raising committee, trying to keep its Senate majority, started the campaign's final month with twice as much money in the bank as its Democratic rival and no debt. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, whose members control the Senate 51-48 with one independent, started October with $17.2 million left in the bank and no debt. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had $8.8 million on hand as the month began. Its debt was not released. The DSCC led in fund raising last month, collecting $11.2...

Hot Issues Go Directly to State Voters Gay Marriage Among Initiative Questions By David S. Broder Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 18, 2004; Page A01 Eleven states have responded to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision allowing same-sex marriage by proposing to alter their constitutions or statutes to require that the partners be one man and one woman. Missouri voters approved such a measure on the August primary ballot by a 71 percent majority. Sponsors are hoping for similar results in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Oregon -- with a petition drive pending...

August 29, 2004 A Platform for Immigrants olitical parties generally like to get through the business of adopting their campaign platforms without too much fuss. But on the eve of their convention, President Bush and his loyal followers had to deal with undercurrents of unhappiness from conservatives about the issue of immigration reform. Anybody who has watched the Republicans wrestling with this explosive issue this year knew it would be difficult to please both the Republican moderates who realize that the system is "broken" - as Mr. Bush put it in January - and ideologues like Representative Tom Tancredo of...

Thursday, August 5, 2004 ELECTION 2004 Bush holds 23% lead among veterans But those with no military service favor Kerry by 10 points -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 5, 2004 1:37 p.m. Eastern -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Military veterans favor President Bush over John Kerry by a 58 to 35 percent margin, according to a new poll. The Rasmussen Reports survey also showed those with no military service favor Kerry by ten percentage points, 51 to 41. Of those Americans who say they know someone serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, 54 percent favor Bush, compared to 44 percent siding with Kerry. On...