Free Republic

For many years, a handful of American political leaders -- including the late senator Ted Kennedy and now President Obama -- have been trying to gain passage of comprehensive health care for all Americans. As far back as President Harry S. Truman, they have urged Congress to act on this national need. In a presentation before a joint session of Congress last week, Obama offered his view of the best way forward. But what seems missing in the current battle is a single proposal that everyone can understand and that does not lend itself to demagoguery. If we want comprehensive...

Yesterday, James McGovern, Representing the Massachusetts 3rd District and Richard Neal, (Hampden 2nd) attempted to sell the administration’s health care program to individuals attending a town hall meeting at the University of Massachusetts campus in Worcester – it did not go well. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette’sarticle (here) , describes a “packed town hall meeting” where Neal and McGovern were met by a hostile crowd. Town hall meetings are being held across the nation in a last-ditch attempt to sell the government run health care program, and one would expect, that those held in a blue state such as Massachusetts...

AUGUSTINE BEACH, FLA. — The only president who came into office facing a "worse mess" than Barack Obama was Abraham Lincoln, said George McGovern, who's promoting his book on the Civil War president. Decades after his own unsuccessful bid for president, McGovern, a former history professor, sees similarities between the Honest Abe president and Obama. "I really think he has some of Lincoln's qualities," McGovern said of Obama. "The only president who inherited a worse mess was Lincoln, who inherited a four-year civil war that ruined the country." When asked how his 185-page "Abraham Lincoln" differs from 16,000 other biographies...

Most Americans probably agree that we have elected a highly articulate, talented president in Barack Obama. He has also given us a potentially great Secretary of State in Hillary Clinton. It makes me proud to witness these two recent political rivals working together to strengthen and enrich America at home and abroad. Recognizing the major economic crisis our new leader has inherited, we must hope his proposed economic plan will be helpful. I think it will. But as someone on the sidelines, may I suggest a few other steps? First, why not order all U.S. troops out of Iraq and...

In today's Wall Street Journal, George McGovern offers some advice to Barack Obama. Thank goodness McGovern isn't president today! McGovern lost me with his first line: "Most Americans probably agree that we have elected a highly articulate, talented president in Barack Obama." I'm not willing to concede that one, though McGovern does qualify the statement with his use of "most." I'm having problems with the "articulate" part. Better to say that he can sometimes read a teleprompter articulately. Sometimes. Off the cuff, spontaneous delivery? Not so much.

Last year, I wrote on these pages that I was opposed to this bill because it would eliminate secret ballots in union organizing elections. However, the bill has an additional feature that isn't often mentioned but that is just as troublesome -- compulsory arbitration. This feature would give the government the power to step into labor disputes where employers and labor leaders cannot reach an agreement and compel both sides to accept a contract. Compulsory arbitration is bound to trigger the law of unintended consequences.

Do you remember the 1972 Democratic Convention? This was the convention which put abortion on the party's platform. I watched this on tv. I also remember a Democrat Convention which could have been 1972 or maybe 1976, this time they put gay rights on the party platform. I wish someone in the Republican Party could find these archives and show the whole country how the Democratic Party accepted these extreme views and officially put it on their party platform. It appears that there are too many naive Democratic voters who have never heard of this and are under the illusion...

WASHINGTON (AP) - After campaigning on the promise to end one war, President Barack Obama is preparing to escalate another.

Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor. The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak.

ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH -- One of the newest home owners in St. Augustine Beach, former 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern of South Dakota, said Saturday that he came to this area to enjoy its history and to escape the long winters in his home state. "This is just what I need," he said. "I visited a few years back and was impressed. So, three months ago, I looked it over and decided to settle here. I've had a wonderful welcome from people."

Few people come as quickly to the defense of George McGovern as McGovern himself. The antiwar senator from South Dakota lost to Richard Nixon in a landslide in the 1972 presidential election, only to see Nixon, caught up in the Watergate scandal, resign in disgrace. For McGovern, though—along with many Democrats who followed him—the damage was done, and the now retired politician has spent decades defending the electability of antiwar liberals, insisting his campaign was undone by dirty tricks and bad luck. In recent years, McGovern, 86, hasn't relinquished the spotlight, condemning the war in Iraq and declaring Barack Obama,...

Since February I have been saying that Barack Obama would get crushed in this year’s presidential election. … The signs of trouble for the Democrats have always been there… ….Today it is no longer “wishful thinking” or “proof you have been smoking something” to say John McCain will crush Barack Obama. ..here are the numbers that say it is over.. To win Obama must get these numbers with these groups: ..women, he needs at least plus 7. He is down 12. White males needs at least 36%. If he gets 30% he will be lucky Catholics: needs 50%. He is...

We keep saying this — and no one seems to listen — but over the course of this campaign, we’ve met about 50 people who worked on McGovern-72, and every one of them said to us, without quivocation, that the main reason McGovern lost to Nixon was McGOVERN’S SUPPORTERS. The way McGovern’s “youth army” behaved, and the terrible things they did in McGovern’s name, worked against their candidate and every day drove more people who would have never voted Republican over to Nixon. [more (but not much) at source URL

Although he didn’t have a winning track record in presidential elections, 1972 Democratic presidential nominee and former South Dakota Sen. George McGovern had no problem critiquing the media for lack of substance. McGovern, an anti-war icon of the left in the late 1960s and early 1970s, appeared at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on August 12. He discussed news coverage of the Democratic nominating process with Washington Post columnist David Broder and University of Maryland journalism professor Haynes Johnson. McGovern told reporters that the changing news business – offering more media outlets – led to too much coverage,...

As a congressman, senator and one-time Democratic nominee for the presidency, I've participated in my share of vigorous public debates over issues of great consequence. And the public has been free to accept or reject the decisions I made when they walked into a ballot booth, drew the curtain and cast their vote. I didn't always win, but I always respected the process. Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending...

Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor. The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak....

Is Barack Obama the next George McGovern? The question has been posed apprehensively by Democrats and gleefully by Republicans. McGovern, the antiVietnam war candidate, ran for president against Richard Nixon in 1972 and lost 49 states out of 50, a landslide defeat that still haunts his party. “Obama is the fullest flowering of liberal orthodoxy since George McGovern,” conservative columnist Rich Lowry wrote last week. Harold Ickes, a Hillary Clinton adviser, dropped thinly veiled comparisons between Obama and McGovern while trying to keep his candidate’s campaign alive. So is it true? The former candidate, 85, can speak for himself. It...

US Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass) was offering the Marxist FARC terrorists assistance in undermining the Colombian government. This information was discovered on the computer of FARC rebel leader Raul Reyes after his death in March at an Ecuadorean FARC camp.Last week Interpol confirmed the the computers were not tampered with or manufactured by the Colombian government.Interpol confirmed that documents on the captured computer of FARC leader had not been manufactured by the Colombian government. One of the documents shows that US Congressman James McGovern (D., Mass.) (pictured), a leading opponent of the Colombia free-trade deal has been working with...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate and an early backer of Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined a noisy rally for Barack Obama on Friday night, describing the Illinois senator as a "ripple of hope" who can win the White House. McGovern has shifted his allegiance to Obama and suggested it's time for Clinton to pull the plug. He offered an explanation to a cheering crowd of 6,500. "Last October, I endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton," said McGovern. "She and her remarkable husband, President Clinton, way back 36 years ago worked their hearts out for me...

LOS ANGELES — It is a thought that sends shivers down the backs of Democrats, a name that brings to mind memories of an election lost that might have been won, against a war hero once referred to in headlines as a “wimp” who won not so much by his own strengths but because of the skill of his operatives in painting his lesser-known opponent as an out of touch “liberal” who refused to salute the flag or admit his mistakes, not to mention his supposedly unpatriotic wife. Could Obama be another Dukakis? It isn’t just die-hard Clinton supporters who...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Former Sen. George McGovern, an early supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race and endorsed her rival, Barack Obama. After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern said Wednesday it's virtually impossible for Clinton to win the nomination. The 1972 Democratic presidential nominee said he had a call in to former President Clinton to tell him of the decision, adding that he remains close friends with the Clintons. "I will hold them in affection and admiration all of my days," he...

Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP) -- Former Sen. George McGovern, who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton, is urging her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race. McGovern said Wednesday he has decided to endorse Barack Obama. After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern says it's virtually impossible for Clinton . . .

Hillary won just enough to show that it is ludicrous to oust a 10-point winner at this late junction, but not quite the blow-out that might cause a stampede to her in the next few states. The Democrats are tottering at the edge of the abyss. They are about to nominate someone who cannot win, despite vastly out-spending his opponent, any of the key large states — CA, NJ, NY, OH, PENN, TX, etc. — that will determine the fall election. And yet not to nominate him will cause the sort of implosion they saw in 1968 or the sort...

History, in Marx's famous dictum, tends to repeat itself: the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. So what do you call it the third time around? A bad sitcom? A bad marriage? A bad dream? All three of those seem like viable ways of describing the Democratic Party's current predicament, locked in an endless and self-destructive struggle with itself, like a would-be Buddhist penitent unable to atone for eons' worth of bad karma. Even in the annals of Democratic ritual suicide, the 2008 campaign is something special: It's not just that the protracted and painful nomination...

WASHINGTON - Former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, said Tuesday it would be easier for a black man to be elected to the White House than a woman. The former South Dakota senator has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he has known for decades since she helped campaign for him. She is in a close race with Sen. Barack Obama for the party nod. "I have a feeling that in this country where we're at today in our thinking, it's going to be harder to elect a woman than to elect a black man," he told...

Now that even Rush is speaking truthfully about the election, some inescapable facts need to be considered. Forget Obama’s given middle name. It won’t be important. By Election Day everyone will think of his middle name as McGovern. Barack McGovern Osama will lose by a wide margin for the following reasons: * Twenty percent of White Democrats already ADMIT they will not vote for him (Pew).Moreover they say they WILL vote for McCain, a double hit. *No one can win giving away 20% of his base. * Forty three percent over all ADMIT they will not vote for him (...

Believe it or not, George McGovern is now the right wing of the Democrat party. He is even to the right of the Virginian Pilot and the Virginia legislature. In today's Wall Street Journal he makes an impassioned plea for freedom ... The Right has been accused of wanting to peer into your bedroom to see who you are sleeping with. They have been roundly defeated on this issue. The Left has invaded our bathrooms with toilet laws, our workplaces and schools with speech police, our means of transportation with mileage standards, our right to defend ourselves from mass murderers...

Nearly 16 years ago in these very pages, I wrote that "'one-size-fits all' rules for business ignore the reality of the market place." Today I'm watching some broad rules evolve on individual decisions that are even worse. Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages. Health-care paternalism creates another problem that's rarely mentioned... I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy...

When the Democratic Party moves too far left for George McGovern, you know they’re in trouble. The former Senator and presidential aspirant writes about the dangers of economic paternalism in a free society, specifically about the impulse among both Democrats and Republicans to protect adults from the consequences of their own free choices. Expect a lot less choice in the future, McGovern warns, if the nanny-state succeeds: Since leaving office I’ve written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I’ve come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a...

...The voice at the end of the line was that of an old friend from Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, who had since become the godfather, at least to some, of the Democratic Party. “ ‘We’ve been with you all these years,’ ” former President Bill Clinton said, according to Mr. Herrera. “ ‘Now the time has come for you to be with us.’ ” Mr. Herrera, who had up to that point been undecided in the Democratic race, promptly pledged his support to the Clintons. “The don never asks for a second favor when the first one has...

’72 McGovern Team Rallies for One of Its Own: Clinton By JULIE BOSMAN AUSTIN, Tex. — Frank Herrera, a prominent lawyer in Texas, was sitting at home two Saturdays ago when he received a telephone call. The voice at the end of the line was that of an old friend from Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, who had since become the godfather, at least to some, of the Democratic Party. “ ‘We’ve been with you all these years,’ ” former President Bill Clinton said, according to Mr. Herrera. “ ‘Now the time has come for you to be with...

1972 All Over Again By Jennifer Rubin Published 2/25/2008 12:08:35 AM Forget all the pundit chatter about post-partisanship, maverick candidates, and New Media driven campaigns. The 2008 presidential race is shaping up to be a nice old-fashioned race between a conservative and a liberal, indeed an ultra-liberal who makes the conservative seems more conservative with each passing day. On the Democratic side, Barack Obama is pulling away to victory. In perhaps her final contribution to Republican solidarity Hillary Clinton called Obama's bluff and did the GOP a great service. By ridiculing his empty rhetoric and messianic style of politics, Clinton...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Strategists for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign believe it is imperative to identify her high-flying opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, with the "McGovern wing" of the Democratic Party -- but they want to keep their candidate's fingerprints off the attack. During the two weeks remaining before the important Ohio and Texas primaries on March 4, Clinton insiders want to spread the message that Obama represents the radical left-wing politics of George McGovern's 1972 candidacy, which won only one state. But they don't know how to accomplish this. When Clinton herself has launched past attacks on Obama, it has...

Demagoguery: At 85, George McGovern, whose far-left candidacy for president in 1972 brought in less than 38% of the popular vote, has accused President Bush of murder. Then as today, desperation brings out the ugly in liberal Democrats.In an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post, the former senator whose effort to replace Richard Nixon in the White House was once summed up as "the three A's — acid, amnesty and abortion," charges George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney with genocide. "The dominant commitment of . . . the Bush-Cheney regime," McGovern writes, "has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against...

As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president. After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me. Today I have made a different choice. Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – George McGovern, the Democratic Party's 1972 nominee for president, is calling on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. And in an editorial in Sunday's Washington Post, McGovern writes the case for impeaching the current president is "far stronger" than the case made against former President Richard Nixon — the man who soundly defeated McGovern in the general election match up."Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses," McGovern writes. "They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after...

As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president. After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me. Today I have made a different choice. Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The...

(CBS) The former Democratic nominee for president who ran against a president later driven from office under threat of impeachment, today said that impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is "the rightful course for an American patriot." George McGovern, a former South Dakota Senator who ran on the Democratic ticket in 1972 as an anti-war advocate, wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that, while he steered clear of calling for the impeachment of Richard Nixon in the '70s - fearing it would appear as "an expression of personal vengeance" against his opponent who...

''I knew that Sen. McGovern had a lot of friends around the country and world, but I was a little surprised,'' museum director Donald Simmons was quoted as saying in The Daily Republic newspaper.

...He recalled receiving a phone call in 1972 from his campaign manager, someone named Gary Hart, saying he'd come upon a bright, young man in Arkansas named Bill Clinton who had a hardworking friend named Hillary Rodham and they both were going to work Texas for McGovern. "There's nothing in politics," said McGovern, "that requires more courage than trying to sell George McGovern in Texas." The crowd roared. McGovern praised the entire current field of Democratic candidates and said he hoped to live long enough to see an African American president. But, he added, "We have an old rule of...

For Democrats of a certain age, there is no figure more haunting than George McGovern, who ran for president pleading, "Come home, America," but instead was sent home himself with just 38 percent of the vote. Among those who worry that the lessons of 1972 may still spell trouble for Democrats in 2008 is none other than … George McGovern. He is 84 now, is as opposed to the Iraq war as he was to the one in Vietnam -- and is paying close attention to the race for president. "I'm not sure that an anti-war Democrat can win," McGovern...

Vice President's Remarks to the Heritage Foundation Ritz-Carlton Chicago Chicago, Illinois 10:42 A.M. CDT THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's quite a welcome. Well, thank you very much. Ed, I appreciate the introduction, and the opportunity to come speak with all of you today. You've chosen one of America's truly great cities for your meeting. I'm delighted to be in Chicago once again, to have the opportunity to speak about some important issues facing the country. I used to come to Chicago a lot, because our oldest daughter and her husband lived here while she went to law school at the University...

“Do we sit on the sidelines and watch a population slaughtered, or do we marshal military force and put an end to it?” -- Senator George McGovern, August 21, 1978 The “it” McGovern wanted US troops to put an end to was the killing of millions of Cambodians in the late 1970s by the communist Pol Pot dictatorship. Three and a half years after congressional Democrats made that slaughter possible by cutting off all US aid to anti-communist forces with their so-called December, 1974 “Foreign Assistance Act”, their leader McGovern had made a complete reversal and was suddenly calling for...

It would be pleasing to write about an anti-American war Senator who finally saw the light. But McGovern was not actually flip-flopping. He was consistently representing the interests of what he described in an August 25, 1978 speech on the Senate floor as, “Ho Chi Minh’s popularly-based revolution for independence in Vietnam.”

Relatives of the Sept. 11 victims ripped into Condoleezza Rice yesterday after she insisted the Bush administration had no clue the U.S. would be attacked. "Shame," Terry McGovern, a New Yorker whose mother was killed, yelled at the national security adviser during Rice's testimony before the 9/11 commission. Other relatives ridiculed Rice's assertion that she had no idea that Osama Bin Laden's men would hijack planes and crash them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "How could she not know that?" asked Kristen Breitweiser, who lost her husband in the attacks. She noted that several similar threats were made,...

Before we put Plame "leak" story to bed once and for all, I want to reiterate out what I first posited almost two years ago, which now seems to be more true than ever. It was almost certainly Mr. Joseph C. Wilson IV who "outed" his wife as a CIA officer. And he probably did this in early May 2003 at after meeting with top level Democrats and around the time he began to work for the John Kerry for President campaign.Let's run through the chronology.January 28, 2003: President George W. Bush gave his State of the Union speech.February 6,...

Retired U.S. Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton -- a towering figure in national and state politics for half a century and the person for whom the federal courthouse downtown is named -- died late Sunday morning. He was 77. He had been ill for several months with various health problems. He died at St. Mary's Health Center in Richmond Heights.

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Servicemembers: Many of you may know that since June 2006, I have served as co-civilian counsel, along with Neal Puckett who is lead counsel (and Of Counsel to my law office), for SSgt Frank Wuterich, USMC. Frank is now facing multiple counts of murder for the events arising from the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha, Iraq on November 19, 2005. He was the squad commander for the 3/1 that tragic day. This is a highly unusual case for me. Other than the dozen or so military courts-martials I handled back in 1999-2000 dealing with...

Dec. 5. 2006 - In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a stepped up effort to “dismantle the militias.”

Democrats will lead us "forward" into a better future, says Nancy Pelosi and her band of revelers in the aftermath of their takeover of Congress? Democrats have "new" ideas, they claim? Not if this report is any indication of that "forward" looking... McGovern to meet with Congress on war LINCOLN, Neb. - George McGovern, the former senator and Democratic presidential candidate, said Thursday that he will meet with more than 60 members of Congress next week to recommend a strategy to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by June. McGovern, if you do not know, was one of the Democrat's biggest...