Free Republic

With one Kennedy already on the ballot this fall, don’t be surprised to see another member of the political clan soon make a bid to join the family business. Edward M. Kennedy Jr., the eldest son of the late Massachusetts senator, is consulting with a veteran Washington political hand in a clear sign he’s seriously considering a run for office, the Herald has learned. The 50-year-old Kennedy brought in longtime Democratic strategist Steve McMahon to help him coordinate media interviews at the party convention in Charlotte, and several sources say McMahon also is helping Kennedy with political advice. Kennedy lives...

CHARLOTTE, NC - Day one of the Democratic National Convention was a tale of two events.  Throughout the early evening session -- prior to the major primetime hour -- the proceedings featured angry attacks on Mitt Romney and Republicans, an unshakeable fixation on trivial, minor issues (other than jobs and the economy), and a disquieting, heavy emphasis on abortion and divisive social issues.  Especially unpleasant were the patriotism-questioning shout-fest from former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland ("If Mitt Romney were Santa, he'd fire the Reindeer and outsource the elves!") and the pro-abortion screed from the president of NARAL, a hardcore pro-abortion...

p>I won't run through the usual litany of misdeeds. If you don't already know them by heart, you'll commit them to memory eventually when you finally tire of liberals screeching at you for "hating women" while holding this guy up as a secular saint. (Chappaquiddick material is abundant online, but this post will get you up to speed on another legendary incident.) I've got to say, in all sincerity: I appreciate their brazenness in building a convention around the theme of a "war on women" while not only inviting Bill Clinton to be a headline speaker but having a video...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Snerdley is yelling at me: "Are you gonna get rid of Akin now?" Before I give my two cents on all this, folks, let me first say I have two natural tendencies. One is to avoid the pack, to avoid the conventional wisdom. When everybody seems to be uttering, voicing, doing the same thing, that's when I put on the brakes and say, "Do I want to join this mob?" And I also have, as you well know, a tendency to want to support conservatives who come under fire. It doesn't happen enough. You know, the Democrats...

L.A mayor’s party will glam uptownBy Tim Funk Posted: Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012 An army of A-list celebs and politicos are expected to show up at the N.C. Music Factory on Sept. 5 for a Hollywood-themed gala hosted by L.A. Mayor – and Dem convention chairman – Antonio Villaraigosa. The Dish has learned that the Factory’s Fountain Plaza and Osso Restaurant will get a one-night make-over. Picture palm trees, classic L.A. architecture and lots of California wine. **SNIP** Grandson Joseph Kennedy III, a candidate for Congress, will introduce a video salute to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy on the convention’s...

“It really annoyed Caroline when comparisons were made by the media between Michelle and Jackie. Caroline had a word for such comparisons; she called them ‘odious.’ She really got annoyed. And when she began to fall out of love with the Obamas, love was replaced by outright scorn. Now she says things about Obama like, ‘I can’t stand to hear his voice any more. He’s a liar and worse’” Ethel Kennedy, “the matriarch of the family,” similarly felt scorned, according to Klein. He tells a story of her invitation — extended to the First Family — being ignored by the...

As Massachusetts Democrats meet at their nominating convention today, some members of the Cherokee Nation are stepping up a campaign to get answers about candidate Elizabeth Warren’s claims of tribal ancestry – a sideshow controversy that has nevertheless begun to wobble one of the most closely-watched Senate campaigns in the country. This week, Indian reporters say they were snubbed by Warren’s campaign as they sought clarification on why Ms. Warren was listed as a minority Native faculty by Harvard in the 1990s, even though she has no evidence to back that claim and apparently never sought out other Native Americans...

Former Republican Rep. Tom Davis told The Hill newspaper: “The middle is getting squeezed,” but his comment vastly understates the crisis in the capital. Activists in both parties have declared war on moderates. The ideological gap between the two parties is widening rapidly. Paralysis is pervasive. Political scientist Keith Poole of the University of Georgia, who studies voting patterns, told the National Journal: “We are clearly as conflicted as we’ve been since 1905. The parties are, I think, completely dysfunctional and incapable of acting on major policy.” The National Journal reports that as recently as 1999, more than half of...

A Roman Catholic college in Massachusetts has withdrawn an invitation to the widow of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy to speak at graduation after concerns about her views were raised by the Bishop of Worcester. Anna Maria College in Paxton announced Friday that ``concerns were expressed about the college being in conflict with the bishop.'' Victoria Reggie Kennedy was scheduled to speak at May's commencement. The college did not cite Bishop Robert McManus's specific concerns. A diocese spokesman says the bishop has followed directions that Catholic institutions should not honor Catholics who take positions contrary to church principles ``particularly on the...

When Gov. Mitt Romney signed legislation in April 2006 requiring most Massachusetts residents to have health coverage, Senator Edward M. Kennedy stood by his side, beaming like a proud father. They were onstage at historic Faneuil Hall in Boston, a setting that had a special resonance for the two. Twelve years earlier, they shared that stage as opponents in a bitter Senate race. Back then, Mr. Romney accused Mr. Kennedy of waging “untrue, unfair and sleazy” personal attacks. Now, the Republican governor was introducing the liberal Democratic senator as “my collaborator and friend.” Mr. Romney’s complicated relationship with Mr. Kennedy,...

At signing of RomneyCare Romney thanked Ted Kennedy for "collaboration" on health care reform [1:32 video]

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Carrie Fisher, speaking of sexual harassment charges, or rather the lack of them in this case. There's an amusing anecdote out there, Carrie Fisher's latest autobiography. She's the daughter, by the way, of the movie star Debbie Reynolds. I met Debbie Reynolds once at a House Clinic event. She was the entertainer. She's hilarious. I had forgotten. She is a hilarious comedienne, Debbie Reynolds. That's Carrie Fisher's mom, and Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia in the first Star Wars flick. That was before calling someone princess was sexist. Do you believe Cain had to apologize for calling...

Can you imagine the holy hell Ann Coulter would have unleashed if Ronald Reagan had been described in similarly scathing terms? But when the irrepressible Ann called Ted Kennedy "human pestilence," long-term Kennedy clan retainer Mike Barnicle barely blinked. It happened on Morning Joe today. Coulter, who has called on conservatives to rally around Mitt Romney, was defending Romney's adoption in the past of moderate positions. Ann argued he did so in hyper-liberal Massachusetts while running against Ted Kennedy and that Romney "came within five points of taking out that human pestilence." The best Barnicle could muster was a stumbling...

‘Star Wars’ actress: Date with Sen. Dodd brought wild questions from Sen. Kennedy Holy Obi-Wan Kenobi! “Star Wars” actress Carrie Fisher claims the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked her some pretty frank questions while dining out with the star and former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). According to published excerpts from Fisher’s new book, “Shockaholic,” the entertainer, best known for her role as Princess Leia, was fresh out of her first stint in rehab and on a date with a then single Dodd back in 1985. Kennedy joined the pair at dinner in D.C.. Fisher writes, “Suddenly, Senator Kennedy, seated...

Earth to liberal News Media!...It's still a no-brainer. Your attempts at sinking Cain only make everyone madder at your hypocricy! Bill Clinton wanders around the White House with his pants around his ankles for eight years and that's o.k. because he's your boy. Now you scrape the bottom of the barrel to find anything that might destroy each and every republican candidate. You scum bag socialists are going to hit the wall! Your're party days are over!

Despite copious evidence to back up the connection, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney has yet to admit the link between the Massachusetts health care overhaul he signed into law as governor and the federal overhaul President Obama passed last year. You can understand why he's declined: Given that Romney is running as an establishment conservative for the Republican nomination, the friendly connection to the rival party's leader and his most prominent policy achievement would be, well, kind of awkward. But when the Massachusetts law first took effect, Romney did praise a different prominent liberal collaborator as one of the law's "parents"...

Six years after she was deemed cancer-free, Kara Kennedy accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of her father, just days before Sen. Edward Kennedy died while battling a brain tumor. However, her own lung cancer treatment -- surgery and grueling chemotherapy and radiation -- left her physically weakened, her brother Patrick Kennedy said. She died Friday at age 51 after her daily workout at a Washington-area health club. "Her heart gave out," said Patrick Kennedy, a former congressman from Rhode Island. "She's with dad." Kennedy was a member of the Sport & Health fitness center, though spokeswoman Nancy...

The tea party's terrorist tactics By: William Yeomans July 29, 2011 08:22 AM EDT It has become commonplace to call the tea party faction in the House “hostage takers.” But they have now become full-blown terrorists. They have joined the villains of American history who have been sufficiently craven to inflict massive harm on innocent victims to achieve their political goals. A strong America has always stood firm in the face of terrorism. That tradition is in jeopardy, as Congress and President Barack careen toward an uncertain outcome in the tea party- manufactured debt crisis. As we stumble closer to...

The Kennedys fought with the likes of Franklin Roosevelt, Jimmy Hoffa, and Robert Bork over the duration of thirteen presidential administrations. Now that no Kennedy holds political office in Washington, they're fighting each other. The family feud involves two iconic landmarks: the Kennedy Cape Cod compound and the John F. Kennedy Library overlooking Dorchester Bay. In Hyannis Port, Ted Kennedy's heirs prepare to transform the waterfront mansion the family has owned for 85 years into a retreat for thinkers and politicians contemplating public policy. The compound where early movie-mogul Joe Kennedy screened films for starlet Gloria Swanson, where the brood...

History: President Salvador Allende of Chile really did commit suicide in 1973, an inquest concluded on Tuesday. Now will the Left stop saying the U.S. and Chile's army did him in? Except perhaps for Che Guevara, no one has quite been the heroic totem to the global left than the late Marxist president of Chile, whose death in 1973 made him a martyr to socialism. Allende seemingly legitimized socialism as a democratically elected leader, the first Marxist who in 1970 didn't shoot his way to power.That gave the left hope for more. Elected with just 36% of the vote in...