Free Republic

John Gizzi, veteran political editor of the conservative weekly Human Events, normally is an optimist. Over the years I have watched him find the one possible thread to explain the rationale for the election of a conservative Republican. John knows more about politics than any 10 political junkies combined have forgotten. If there is a way to see a possibility for a Republican victory Gizzi makes the case. And that is as it should be inasmuch as he is writing to give conservatives hope. He and his paper's message are always the same: "Shoulder on." You can imagine my shock...

Yesterday, George W. Bush strode to a podium in Tucson, Arizona (I love Tucson!) and against a backdrop of law enforcement officers, announced his latest plan to crack down on illegal aliens. There was nothing in his speech we haven't heard before, and his new immigration policy is just as contradictory as the old one. Among the initiatives announced: We should build more jail cells to hold illegal aliens. Good idea. The speeding up of deportations, a crackdown on fraudulent identity papers, and a hardening of the border with more surveillance. So far, so good. Then the nonsense started to...

Though widely viewed as an arch conservative in the major media, Bruce Bartlett increasingly finds himself alienated from the president of his party. Bush's policies, he warns, have been anything but conservative. Bartlett faults Bush for moving away from free trade, adopting Keynesian economic theories, increasing government regulation and doing an extremely poor job of developing and selling conservative initiatives, such as Social Security reform. As such, George W. Bush, he says, has been a disaster for conservatism. Criticism of Bush from the right has largely been confined to fringe elements outside the mainstream of the conservative movement. Bartlett...

WRITTEN ON THE WIND – WMD USE IN IRAQ (Part One) Dedicated to the “Bush-Lied-People-Died “ Crowd : Greg Palast, Michael Moore ,Gerald Pressler, Mark Yannone,ANSWER,and MoveON. Before the dust of battle settled in Baghdad ; while lovable Baghdad Bob was still telling rapt BBC reporters Saddam was in control of the situation,a chant began to rise-here and abroad. Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction ? Show us the WMDs ! For all your self-proclaimed intelligence, you were asking the wrong question: the right one being “Where is the rest of Saddam Hussein’s ammunition ?” (The answer – “...

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Thanks for the warm welcome. Laura and I are so very grateful for your generous invitation to be here. Mr. Speaker, thank you for your incredibly warm words. I appreciate your leadership, I appreciate your friendship and so do the people of Illinois. I am so honored to be here to dedicate a great institution honoring such a great American. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum was a long time coming. But as many speakers have said, it's really worth the wait. Laura and I were just given a tour by Richard...

It was several months before Election Day. George W. Bush and John Kerry had pulled to a statistical dead heat, and the pundits were poring over the polls in an effort to divine the reasons for the latest shift in public opinion. But MoveOn.org had more pressing concerns. It was moved to ask its network of true believers: "Why aren't we talking about a landslide in November?" Such groundless conviction "was not at all unusual in the world of MoveOn," writes Byron York in "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy." The triumphalism flowed, he notes, from a deceptively simple rationale. Feeling...

One single tune that lingers in my mind from the musical, My Fair Lady, is "Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait." And on occasion I love to make all those horrible, inarticulate sounds that dear Eliza Doolittle made while trying to recite "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." Bless her heart . . . with excruciating effort, she tried her hardest to enunciate words as she was directed. Her H's were silent, her language was mangled, and she could never please the arrogant professor, Henry Higgins, who made a bet he could change this street...

Progressive's growth continues to slowBy Alistair Barr, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 11:38 AM ET Jan. 20, 2005 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Progressive Corp., the third-largest auto insurer in the United States, said Thursday that premium growth slowed in December compared with the previous month, continuing a trend that began last year. Progressive (PGR: news, chart, profile) , which reports results monthly, said net written premiums came in at $1.14 billion in December. Excluding an extra week that the insurer included in its December results, net written premium growth was 5 percent last month compared with December 2003, the company said....

<p>Dems on the Judiciary Committee complained late Tuesday that White House was refusing to turn over documents that illuminated Gonzales' role in crafting memos on prisoner torture. Sen. Leahy, committee's ranking Dem, accused Gonzales of 'stonewalling.'</p> <p>'In fact, I and other Senators have requested a number of documents from you and other administration officials that have not been released,' Leahy charged.</p>

BOSTON - In a windowless room beneath the podium, a team of speechwriters is imposing John Kerry (news - web sites)'s will on the words of the other speakers at the Democratic National Convention. Their orders: Go easy on the Bush bashing. Each speech is read and re-read, heavily edited and rehearsed as part of a tightly controlled process designed to impress independent voters who are tired of negative politics. Mindful of polls showing voters say they need more information about Kerry, the team also is ensuring that speeches are laced with the candidate's biography and policies. Campaign spokeswoman Debra...

Democrat party officials are struggling to contain the amount of anti-Bush and anti-war comments to be delivered this week during the convention in Boston, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. DNC chair Terry McAuliffe has expressed concern that nonstop Bush bashing from the podium could quickly spiral out of control and backfire. DNC staffers have also been told to be on the lookout for "unreasonable" Bush bashing signs held by delegates on the convention floor which could be highlighted on television. "We are not Michael Moore," McAuliffe has told his top staffers, according to a well-placed source. "Let's tell the voters...

John Kerry raised about $5 million for his campaign at a couple of events in Los Angeles on Thursday night, the second of which featured performances by Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Billy Crystal and Willie Nelson. Amongst those who contributed in order to attend: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Jamie Foxx, Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro. Crystal "joked" about President Bush, according to multiple media accounts, "I realize that 9/11 is also his SAT scores." The New York Times touted how "the much-heralded highlight was the Barbra Streisand-Neil Diamond reunion duet, 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers,' which they had not performed...

My uncle and I have it out regularly and he sent me this note last night. I have ideas on what to say to him but wonder if anyone has ideas on what to write back. "Paul- The Shrub you so blindly follow is a mean-spirited greedy idiot, and you can't blame mainstream media sources for finally recognizing his lack of clothing. ..." He was not elected by a majority, he was anointed by a fiercely right wing supreme court majority, most of whom owe their positions to the Shrub man's father and party, undermining the court's legitimacy and that...

Congressional hearings probably never served a genuine, useful purpose. They have always seemed to involve the worst of sanctimony; the most foul of tergiverations the dregs of vicious, partisan bile. The 9-11 panel has done nothing to upset this unfortunate trend. As Condeleezza Rice sat at an isolated, red draped table, like a defendant in Arthur Miller's Crucible, the 9-11 Commission members prepared to play the role of Farren Martinez and Fr. Torquemada. Commissioners Ben-Veniste and Kerrey assumed the mantle of inquisitor in more ways than just one. The hand picked Democrat truth assassins demonstrated their disdain for Dr. Rice...

This letter is in regards to the March 10, article, "Tenet disputes Cheney on Iraq," and the March 16, article, "Letter: Former Iraqi exile group gave deceptive data to the media." The first article states that the CIA informed the Bush administration, prior to the invasion of Iraq, that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction, nor did Iraq fund terrorists groups, nor was it involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks upon our nation. The second article states that Iraqi exile groups gave inaccurate and deceptive data concerning Iraq's funding of terrorists, connection to bin Laden, and a...

<p>In a letter published recently in the Register, Keith Peters joins the chorus of Bush-bashers by accusing President George W. Bush of using scare tactics and of exploiting the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks ("9/11 tragedy exploited for political profit," March 7). That's but two of the Democrats' 9,000-plus Bush bashing points (BBPs). Let's examine a few.</p>

Surely you're not surprised that the Bush White House is beginning to move into high campaign mode. What should surprise you is that it took them so long. Waiting until now has cost the president some popular support and has led to a spate of polls suggesting that Democratic frontrunner John Kerry would win the White House if the election were held today. That's all insanely speculative, of course. But there is evidence to suggest that Democrats have done some significant damage to the president's position. In a Gallup poll released this week, which found Bush's job approval rating to...

Forget the economy -- next fall's presidential election will hinge on what voters think of President Bush's foreign policy, wealthy businessman and author George Soros said Wednesday. Speaking at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, the liberal billionaire investor said he would do whatever he could to oust Bush from office but declined to say which Democratic candidate he supported or reveal how much he might donate to the effort. About 600 students heard Soros speak. He spent little time discussing financial issues but instead discussed why he opposes the administration's international policies, especially the policy...

ast night’s State of the Union address largely pandered, which is not to say it differed from most presidents’ addresses. Although President George W. Bush presented a few interesting policy ideas, his main purpose seemed to solidify his conservative base. We needed more substance. While Bush had to support continued efforts in Iraq, his painting the Middle East as nearly devoid of freedom is counterproductive to peace as well as demeaning. Furthermore, it smacked of hypocrisy given the president’s call to continue the Patriot Act’s provisions, which many consider the worst assault on Americans’ civil liberties in memorable history. Bush...