Free Republic

Nuts. Ron Paul says moose hunter Sarah Palin is a typical country-club Republican. In a recent interview with Politico Ron Paul bashed Sarah Palin for being a "conventional, country-club type of Republican": As for soon-to-be departing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Paul dismisses her supporters as "more establishment, conventional Country-Club type of Republicans." "I wonder whether she's energizing the 15-20 year olds," Paul muses. "That would be a question I would have. Because she doesn't talk about the Federal Reserve and some of these issues. She doesn't talk too much about personal liberties, civil liberties, getting rid of drug laws, attacking...

She pulls at the heartstrings of the Republican base, but in addition to all the peculiar problems of her own design, Sarah Palin has one obstacle she cannot overcome. Republicans like to choose the next in line—and she isn't. Sarah Palin is the bright red thread in the dull, grey fabric of the Republican Party. She is charismatic, quirky, melodramatic, and fervently anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-Obama. But there's one thing she'll never be—the GOP nominee for President in 2012. Palin has the most intense grassroots base of any potential candidate, in the true-believing core of the party. And that's worth...

Sounds far-fetched and, to some, totally implausible. But the Republicans are losing potential candidates at a pace that is downright alarming if you believe in a healthy two-party system. The demise of John Ensign’s political career a few weeks ago and the surreal downfall of Mark Sanford last week is enough to send chills through the even the most optimistic Republican strategist. We know that of the 2008 crop, only Mitt Romney seems likely to stay on as a contender. The old stalwarts like Newt Gingrich may get a lot of press, but it is unlikely they can mount a...

People like John McCain and others who have been part of the self-absorbed, navel-gazing and corrupt Washington environment for a quarter century no doubt resent someone not "of them." But it is indeed odd when Sarah Palin, a bright, shining light for conservatives remains the prime target of the existing machine, while Mark Sanford and other hypocritical liars are serenaded as getting a raw deal by the very public daughter of a defacto leader of the party. For some reason, Meghan McCain, writing in The Daily Beast, seems to think adulterous politicians, like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, should be...

Is Charlie Crist the new Arlen Specter? No, there’s no indication the Florida governor is looking at a party switch. But much like with Specter, conservative Republicans in Florida are speaking out against Crist and hoping his apostasy on the federal stimulus will open the door for a conservative to take him down. The parallels are striking, both because Crist and Specter were among so few major Republicans to support the stimulus and because both are set to wage big-time Senate campaigns in which they face primary challengers. There isn’t yet a chorus of anti-Crist voices in the Florida Republican...

For many Republicans, including Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, the reaction to Sen. Arlen Specter’s party switch was unequivocal: good riddance. Yet even as his jilted former party slams the door behind him, the GOP is quietly pursuing a 2010 strategy that relies heavily on candidates nearly identical to Specter. The party’s road to winning back a Senate majority, it seems, is paved with moderates whose records are sure to make conservatives blanch. For the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s recruitment list for 2010 reads like a roster of some of the party’s best-known RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and...

Republican stalwarts are fond of recalling the 1992 Democrat National Convention, and the manner in which Bob Casey Sr., the Governor of Pennsylvania, was prevented from giving a speech on account of his strident pro-life views. Here was the incontrovertible proof that Democrats censor and oppress those who do not toe the party line. What is rarely recalled is that, four years later in the Republican National Convention, the official party policy was to avoid any mention whatsoever of the entire abortion issue. GOP candidate Bob Dole sought to sidestep controversy that party insiders feared might be overly "divisive," since...

Yesterday’s announcement by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter that he would be permanently ‘reaching across the aisle’ should be considered another wake-up call for the Republican Party. As we all have witnessed, Senator Spectacle has proven to be nothing but a ‘Lib’ in sheep’s clothing throughout most of his Senatorial career. Just recently, Spectacle was one of three ‘moderate’ Republicans that supported President Obama’s ‘Porkulus Package.’ Speaking of pork, we also had another self-proclaimed ‘moderate’ Republican, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, endorse that same spending bill. Governor Crist has also expressed interest in running for the US Senate next year, but Crist...

IT is disheartening and disconcerting, at the very least, that here we are today — almost exactly eight years after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party — witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, for the Democratic Party. And the announcement of his switch was all the more painful because I believe it didn’t have to be this way. When Senator Jeffords became an independent in 2001, I said it was a sad day for the Republicans, but it would be even sadder if we failed to confront and learn...

Newly elected Republican Party Chairman Jennifer Nassour has wasted no time making it clear where she wants the party to go. Last week, in a front-page interview with the hardcore homosexual newspaper Bay Windows, she told the homosexual community that they didn't need to worry about the Republican party opposing them on "social issues" or "the culture wars."

Despite his current standing in the polls, Mike Huckabee remains an under-funded and chronically disorganized long-shot when it comes to actually winning the GOP Presidential nomination. While easily the most gifted TV communicator in the field, the former Arkansas governor displays some serious vulnerabilities as a candidate for the White House and his innumerable critics and rivals have attacked these weaknesses with gleeful ferocity. Even if he fails to win a place on the national ticket, however, Huckabee’s startlingly strong campaign provides potent benefits for both his party and his country. In the two weeks remaining before the Iowa Caucuses...

Like the Olympics, it's a game that's played every four years. The media march out on the field in their ideologically matching blazers and try to convince the GOP to ditch social issues. Their pitch goes something like this: Republican voters are far more moderate than their party's platform. The day of the religious right has come and gone. With pro-life, pro-marriage stands, the party alienates legions of voters who agree with it on taxes, spending and defense. An article in the July 5 Wall Street Journal ("Giuliani Support Hints at Shift") argues, "Mr. Giuliani's lead in the polls -...

Democrats won both houses of Congress in the 2006 elections in part by arguing that Republicans were incompetent to govern. On immigration, they enjoyed a comparatively united party and cooperation from a Republican White House. More than any other factor, heat from the right killed the bill. But voters elect congressional majorities to solve problems, and Democratic incumbents can expect to pay some price every time they fail. But that fallout almost certainly will pale alongside the damage to future Republican presidential candidates. Hispanics represent the fastest-growing chunk of the U.S. electorate. Their choices help drive the rising swing states...

About me: Lurker - since 1998 Member - since 1999 In self-imposed exile - since April 2007 The tone of the debate and the attacks on long-time fellow Freepers for the cardinal sin of daring to support Rudy Giuliani in early 2007 around here have really saddened me. Instead of fighting the enemy FR is now imposing an 'ideological purity' test on FR members. The well-oiled train has gone off the rails and Mr. Robinson risks becoming the next Joe Farah - a fellow who started a great website for conservative news and opinions, but who gradually drifted off to...

Citing the WSJ, Stephen Bainbridge asks "Did the K Street Gang learn nothing from the drubbing it took in 2006?" Apparently not: One big test of a new minority is to draw the right lesson from its drubbing at the polls. House Republicans have a long way to go, judging by House Minority Leader John Boehner's decision this week to punish Arizona's Jeff Flake by tossing him off the Judiciary Committee. The offense? Porkbusting. Mr. Flake should be getting a promotion to the leadership, given how prescient he was in warning his colleagues about the perils of their run-amok "earmarking."...

Some people get mad at me when I tell them not to vote. But I believe there is a right time to abstain from casting a ballot – particularly if the only choice is a Democrat or Republican who are indistinguishable on the major issues of the day. A good example of a race where a protest vote for a third party candidate or a non-vote would be the right thing to do on Election Day is the New Jersey Senate race between incumbent Robert Menendez, the Democrat, and Republican challenger Thomas Kean Jr. (Column continues below) Pollsters say the...

That carefully crafted political blank slate of Judge John Roberts is getting filled in piece of by piece. And what it reveals is an ugly portrait of a backstabbing establishment Republican who subverted the political will of the greatest American president of the 20th century. Memos drafted by the Supreme Court nominee during his tenure in President Reagan's Justice Department show a distinct hostility to the conservative ideals embraced by his boss and to some of the individuals who championed those ideals. Take, for instance, a Dec. 14, 1981, memo, obtained by the Washington Times, and written to his colleague,...

the (relatively silent) majority of Americans feel(s) that the most compassionate treatment for Terri Schiavo - as well as the proper legal course of action - is to let her vegetative existence end, as advocated by her legal guardian, her husband. For Republicans who consider their party a captive of the religious right on matters like medical research and right-to-die legislation and now legislative intrusion into the judicial system, there is a way to at least feel more comfortable with their political consciences. That way is to leave a party whose leadership is currently attempting to leave behind in the...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN JAN 02, 2005 18:00:00 ET XXXXX BUSH BASH BOOK BURSTS IN TIME FOR INAUGURAL Christine Todd Whitman, the former New Jersey governor who was President Bush's first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has written a book that touts the importance of moderates to the future of the Republican Party and flays Bush and his team for ignoring the country's middle. Whitman charges on Page 3 that Bush's three-percentage-point margin in the popular vote is the lowest of any incumbent president ever to win reelection, the WASHINGTON POST reports in coming editions, newsroom sources tell...

Goodbye, Barry Goldwater Posted: January 19, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. "Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage" ran the headline in the New York Times. The story told of how Bush aides were "planning an extensive election-year initiative to promote marriage" and debating whether to float the idea in the State of the Union. "For months," the Times reported, "administration officials have worked with conservative groups on the proposal, which would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain 'healthy marriages.'" Then came this kicker: "'This...