Free Republic

ABC's Z. Byron Wolf Reports from South Carolina: It's sort of an odd allusion for a fundraising campaign in these days of hypersensitivity to terrorism, even if the Congressman it will benefit is running for president as a Libertarian Republican spoiler who wants to drastically change the way government runs in Washington. But there was Ron Paul on the stump at Clemson in South Carolina telling a group of several hundred students and supporters, "Remember, remember the 5th of November." In this case, he was referring to a fundraising drive and not a plot specifically to blow anything up. Maybe...

WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate who has often clashed with the Bush administration and his fellow GOP lawmakers, plans to seek a sixth term in 2010. Specter, 77, will formally begin his re-election campaign April 4 at a Philadelphia fundraiser, Scott Hoeflich, a Specter spokesman, confirmed on Monday. A former Philadelphia prosecutor dubbed "Snarlin' Arlen," Specter has never shied from controversial issues. In 2004, Specter's sharp political analysis nearly cost him the chairmanship that he coveted after years on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Shortly after his election to a fifth term, Specter angered conservatives long suspicious of...

It should be the best of times for American conservatism. Republican majorities in the House and Senate, a re-elected Republican president, an increasing number of Republican governors and a rightwards tilt in the judiciary. While the British Tories and German Christian Democrats flounder, America’s right seems to flourish. Well, that’s the cover story. Beneath the surface, however, American conservatism is in increasing trouble. The Republican coalition, always fragile, now depends as much on the haplessness of the Democrats as on its own internal logic. On foreign and domestic policy alike the American right is splintering. With no obvious successor to...

SAN ANTONIO - Saying that Texas' child-protection safety net has become dangerously frayed, Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday called for spending nearly $330 million to hire about 800 new investigators and to drastically cut the workloads and boost the pay of caseworkers. "This reform plan calls for significantly lower caseloads, better use of technology to assist workers in the field and a complete restructuring of the agency," Perry said in a San Antonio courtroom where he unveiled his much-anticipated proposal for overhauling the state's Child Protective Services division. "And most importantly, it provides a new framework to better protect vulnerable...