Free Republic

Here is Gore Vidal, often hailed as the most important literary essayist in America, a liberal maverick, whose languid but always spirited voice of opposition to most US administrations since Kennedy's Camelot never fails to find the keen ears of the European liberal-left. He was asked on Australian radio about what Vidal calls the "Bush-Cheney junta", and how the Iraqis could have been freed from Saddam Hussein's murderous regime without US armed force. His answer: "Don't you think that's their problem? That's not your problem and that's not my problem. There are many bad regimes on earth, we can list...

Chirac shoots from hip for Yes voteBy John Thornhill Published: April 15 2005 21:17 | Last updated: April 15 2005 21:17Jacques Chirac outgunned Clint Eastwood on Thursday night, but only just. The French president's much-hyped intervention in the European constitutional debate attracted 7.4m television viewers, while the Hollywood star drew 6.4m for his film, Pale Rider, on a rival channel.But if the two lead actors' styles varied, their promised plotlines seemed similar: “A small town is terrorised by a gangster and salvation comes in the form of a gun-toting preacher.”Seeking to reassure his live audience of anxious young voters,...