Free Republic

A spokesman for former President Trump told The New York Times that former Vice President Mike Pence is “desperate to chase his lost relevance” amid rising tensions between the two former allies, who could clash for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. In a Times article about Pence laying the groundwork for a potential 2024 bid, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich said the former Indiana governor was “set to lose a governor’s race in 2016 before he was plucked up and his political career was salvaged.”

Being cruel to Anglicans is about as low as kicking a puppy. The Anglican Church does a lot of good for a lot of people and its presence in British public life forces debates about politics and social policy to be a bit more reflective than they would otherwise be. It is also capable of profound beauty. Village churches are arks of Englishness: neatly stacked Books of Common Prayer, hard wooden pews, a perfume of human breath and burning wax, a Union Jack hung above a shrine to the fallen. I pray that the Church of England is never disestablished,...

WITH the academic year about to begin, colleges and universities, as well as students and their parents, are facing an unprecedented financial crisis. What we’ve seen with California’s distinguished state university system — huge cutbacks in spending and a 32 percent rise in tuition — is likely to become the norm at public and private colleges. Government support is being slashed, endowments and charitable giving are down, debts are piling up, expenses are rising and some schools are selling their product for two-thirds of what it costs to produce it. You don’t need an M.B.A. to know this situation is...

Sheldon Sorosky, one of Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers, has been trying to drag President Barack Obama into the fray this afternoon, asking union official Tom Balanoff whether the FBI asked him about campaign money going to Obama. Prosecutors objected, as they have so often during cross-examinations, and U.S. District Judge James Zagel said Sorosky should only ask in general what the FBI had said to Balanoff. Rest @ link Sorosky tried the question again, using Zagel’s recommended wording. “I know that won’t be objected to,” Sorosky said, causing the nearby Blagojevich to laugh. But Balanoff didn’t get to give an answer,...

As far as I'm concerned, a silent or waffling pastor in today's paranormal climate is about as necessary as Rosie O'Donnell is to CPAC. I don't care how much the minister likes kitty cats, candy canes and if he cries at Celine Dion concerts. Look, voiceless vicar, if you're not currently in the big middle of this crucial cultural squabble, pointing out what's putrid and cheering on what's proper, then you're Dr. Evil in my book. Given that this is an upcoming election year and that the culture-dividing issues are more obvious than Joan River's last lip implants, it is...

The Washington Post recently ran a piece highlighting the fact that the Democrats' Congressional Committee is at parity with the Republicans in cash on hand and that their Senatorial Committee has doubled up the NRSC in cash on hand (although the two have raised about the same amount). This is all true, and it is not good for Republicans. However, there has been some exaggeration as to just how bad it is. The committees' success is partly, but not entirely, the result of Democratic fundraising prowess. It has just as much to do with the fact that the Democratic National...

Moore's Relevance 4 sale

<p>Something in excess of 21 million Californians could cast ballots in this year's gubernatorial election, having met the basic qualifications of being 18 years or older and U.S. citizens, but far fewer -- fewer than half, in fact -- will actually have voted by the time the polls close next Tuesday night.</p>

America warned Nato yesterday that it had to produce a force that could move quickly to counter threats to the member states from terrorists and rogue states or face irrelevance.First the UN, now NATO, not bad - Ivan Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, told defence ministers from the 19 Nato countries meeting in Warsaw that they had no choice but to improve their military capabilities if they were to meet the new threats. "If Nato does not have a force that is quick and agile, which can deploy in days or weeks, instead of months or years, then it...

<p>WASHINGTON — Watching the network's ratings plunge to its lowest levels ever, Public Broadcasting Service executives are privately raising concerns that their future may be in jeopardy, a situation that the government-funded television network's critics don't mind.</p> <p>Alarm bells first rang in February when PBS President Pat Mitchell told local affiliates: "We are dangerously close in our overall primetime number to falling below the relevance quotient. And if that happens, we will surely fall below any arguable need for government support, not to mention corporate or individual support."</p>