Free Republic

An Open Letter to Rick Santorum: Dear Senator: As a strong, common-sense Conservative, I have a favor to ask of you. Could you please consider not answering, off the cuff, every question thrown at you? Would you please engage your brain before putting your mouth in gear? I’m beginning to see now, how, as an incumbent, you lost your Senate seat by 18 pecentage points to the brain-dead Bob Casey. Women vote Senator; and, they vote in large numbers. Now, please consider this common-sense observation from a Conservative male: Women have been in combat for years now. Women have used...

The Sept. 18 Molly Ivins column lauded former, and now deceased, Texas Gov. Ann Richards. Ivins wrote: "Annie told the Texas Legislature that if it passed a right-to-carry law, she would veto it. They did and she did." Yes, Richards vetoed the law. A few weeks later in Texas, at a Luby's Restaurant, a crazed gunman shot 17 or 19 Texans who were disarmed by Richards' veto, but the same veto did not disarm the crazed gunman. Ivins makes a joke about Richards saying that a Texas woman wouldn't be able to find a handgun in her handbag. Well, there...

Karl Rove's cutthroat tactics eventually defeated her, but not before Ann Richards made a huge impact on American politics."Welcome to the first day of the new Texas!" Ann Richards growled into a microphone as she began her 1991 inaugural address. She had just led a parade of supporters north on Congress Avenue, something of a fifth column moving on the Capitol. She had promised them she would use a pair of bolt cutters to open the gates of the Greek-revival governor's mansion to "the people" of Texas. "The people" were blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians, along with the shrinking Anglo...

Bush: "Texas has lost one of its great daughters" WASHINGTON President Bush has paid tribute today to Ann Richards, whom he ousted and succeeded as governor in 1995. The former Democratic governor of Texas died last night at her Austin home after a battle against esophageal cancer. She was 73. In a statement issued by the White House, the president said he and first lady Laura Bush "are deeply saddened by the passing of Governor Ann Richards of Texas." He said Richards "loved Texas, and Texans loved her," and that "as a public servant she earned respect and admiration." The...

This just crossed my desk... AUSTIN (AP) -- A family spokeswoman says former Texas Gov. Ann Richards has died at her home.

Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, who was retired from the mansion almost a decade ago by now-President George W. Bush, remains not just a state but a national figure. And she's lending her support to the effort to try to keep the clock from being turned back on women's right to choose when and whether to have children. Richards, a divorced mother of four, recently wrote to friends calling for participation in an April 25 march in Washington, D.C., aimed at underlining the necessity to keep fighting for choice. "I was reluctant to go," wrote Richards, who helped Roe v....