Free Republic

CONGRESS: Left turn If Nancy Pelosi is elected House minority leader tomorrow, as expected, it will prove that the Democratic Party -- or at least its members in the lower chamber -- learned little from the Nov. 5 elections. Republicans, after all, added to their majority in the House and took control of the Senate, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that a first-term president's party has increased its numbers during an off-year election. Democrats cannot truthfully attribute their losses to local issues. A post-election Winston Poll found national issues were more important to most voters than bringing...

<p>Four years ago, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., complained that 50 vacancies on the federal bench constituted a crisis. There are more vacancies today -- but it's a Republican administration now. Leahy no longer seems concerned.</p> <p>He is delighted, in fact, that the Judiciary Committee refused even to let the Senate vote on Judge Charles Pickering for appointment to an appellate court. That was the only way to derail his nomination since a clear majority of the Senate, including three Democrats, were committed to vote for confirmation.</p>

Poll turns up surprising views on Bush and more There's good political news for George W. Bush, some relatively surprising good news for Al Gore, but a real shock in store for many Beltway big shots -- from Hillary Rodham Clinton to Tom Daschle. The ''Super Poll'' results are in. Yes, it's still two years away from the early Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, when the Democrats will try to select someone to take on Bush. But you can bet that these next few months will be critical in determining who makes the commitment to run and the issues ...

<p>Capital punishment critics cite a Columbia University study that claims Florida is among the nation's leaders in sending innocent people to Death Row. Actually, it seems to show that the more a state imposes the death penalty, the more likely some of those sentences will be overturned.</p>

ELECTION: Legislative Relief By meeting in special session to validate the state's electors, the Florida Legislature apparently would be acting in full accordance with the Constitution of the United States and it could be the best hope of ending the ongoing attempts to alter the outcome of the presidential election in Florida. Article II, Sec. 1 of the Constitution says "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or ...

ELECTION: The fight goes on Al Gore's supporters apparently plan to continue counting and recounting votes, and filing legal challenges, until either their candidate wins or George W. Bush is inaugurated president. Not only did the Gore camp demand a revote in Palm Beach County, where it says voters were confused by a ballot devised by its own party, it also managed to get 1,400 overseas absentee ballots thrown out on technicalities; most are thought to have been Republican votes from members of the military. After having lost both the count and a recount, Gore backers forced a third count ...

Thursday, November 16, 2000 ELECTION: Target: Harris It is unfortunate, but not at all surprising, that the Clinton-Gore team is resorting to character assassination in its effort to cling to power. Arkansas-style politics, which have been in vogue in Washington for the past eight years, have no Marquis of Queensbury rules. For that reason, we sympathize with the current target, Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Gennifer Flowers was a liar. Paul Jones was "trailer trash." The impeccably honest Judge Kenneth Starr was portrayed as a man obsessed with sex and bagging a president. On and on it goes. Issues are ...

Wednesday, November 15, 2000 Story last updated at 7:52 p.m. on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 MEDIA: The losers We may not know who won the presidential election, but we know who lost: the media. TV networks, which put ratings over news judgment, for years have insisted on projecting winners before everyone has finished voting. This year, it finally bit them. The projections turned out to be baloney and were retracted. As usual, it may have affected the outcome anyway. Voters in North Florida had not finished voting when TV announcers were saying it was all over. Some are threatening to ...

The Undecided Voter Presidential candidates' style may win their votes -- and the election For complete political coverage, including stories, video, audio and more, visit our Election 2000 section By Matthew I. Pinzur Times-Union staff writer Wafflers, procrastinators and folks just too busy with their everyday lives -- they are the legions who may ultimately choose the next president of the United States. Even as the last numbers tick away on the election countdown clocks, enough voters remain undecided to change the outcome of the race between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore. Nearly all polls ...

'Doonesbury' Cartoonist: Bush Better for Satire Tuesday, October 24, 2000; 1:00 PM On Thursday, Garry Trudeau celebrates the 30th anniversary of his comic strip "Doonesbury," which appears in 700-odd newspapers, including The Washington Post. This morning, in a rare interview, the 52-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning political satirist discussed his decision to endorse, sort of, a presidential candidate. "As you can imagine, from a professional standpoint, everyone in my business hopes that [George W.] Bush will win," Trudeau told us, referring to his fellow Yale graduate. "When you look at the perceived flaws of the two candidates, one suffers from a collection ...

Sunday, October 15, 2000 HEALTH CARE: The destination In health care, it is fair to ask: where would Al Gore, who has made it a focal point of his campaign, take the nation? Gore supported socialized medicine in 1993 and after its defeat said it would be imposed incrementally, achieving the same result. The Clinton-Gore administration has moved toward that goal as rapidly as it could, over the resistance of Congress, consumers and the medical profession. Government-run health care is the perfect vehicle for Utopians, because politicians have total control and the resulting costs largely are hidden. The crowning ...

GOVERNMENT WASTE: Review needed AmeriCorps workers are busy at work in the Okefenokee swamp, a Times-Union story detailed recently, and those involved in the program give it high marks. The question for policymakers to resolve, however, is whether the taxpayers are getting sufficient value for the program's cost, which approaches half a billion dollars. There are some 50,000 employees. AmeriCorps chooses to call them volunteers, but that is a disservice to the American language. The employees work and they are paid. They can get money for college expenses as well. More than 3,000 Florida residents have been given a total ...

Scouting: Precedent is clear New Jersey's Supreme Court was on dubious legal ground when it declared the Boy Scout ''gay ban'' unlawful under a state statute. The Scout organization teaches traditional family values and requires its young members to take an oath to be ''morally straight.'' It therefore would be hypocritical, Scout officials maintain, to allow homosexual leaders or members. When an adult assistant Scoutmaster was expelled, after revealing his homosexuality in a newspaper article, his lawyers argued the Scouts had violated a state anti-discrimination law. The Scouts replied that, as a private and voluntary group, they could tailor membership ...

ELECTIONS: Truth doesn't hurt The Christian Coalition is controversial, and not just because of religion. Some politicians dislike it because it reveals their positions to voters who may not agree with them. That is why there was cheering in some circles three years ago, when the federal government filed a lawsuit against the 1.7-million-member organization, which was founded in 1989 by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. But, in a land where free speech is an inalienable right, it is one thing to oppose a group philosophically and another to find legal grounds to silence it - as critics learned when a ...

PBS To Halt Donor List Exchanges By LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — PBS stations will halt all exchanges of donor lists with partisan groups within a week, but when the political fallout for public broadcasting might end is difficult to predict, PBS president Ervin S. Duggan said Sunday. ``By the end of this week, no station in America will be engaged in these practices,'' Duggan told a meeting of the Television Critics Association. ``It has delayed the (federal budget) authorization process and I don't know what the outcome will be,'' he said. ``I hope we can ...

Health care: Now its the kids A couple of years ago, the AFL-CIO president told the American Public Health Association that, on the issue of health care, if conservatives ''don't come around, we'll use children's health the way we used Medicare, and that's a promise and a commitment.'' Anyone who thought he was kidding need only read the headlines. The far left, including the Clinton White House and labor unions, fully intends to socialize medicine one step at a time. Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to do it all at once with a plan rigged up in illegal secret meetings, but ...

WEALTH: A notable example Michigan autoworker Matel Dawson proves that the typical person doesn't have to start rich to become richer in America. Dawson, 78, has worked for nearly 60 years as a forklift driver. Yet, by being frugal and investing his money wisely, he's not only become financially secure but has managed to give away more than $1 million for college scholarships. ''Anyone could do what I'm doing if they put their mind to it,'' Dawson told Time magazine. His advice is anything but revolutionary: work hard, spend sparingly and invest in solid stocks. Dawson, who makes about $24 ...

MEDIA: Selective reporting Predictably, and shamelessly, the major television networks trumpeted the congressional testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on taxes. Unfortunately, they used only part of his comments - the part that supported the idea that a tax refund should be avoided. Fortunately, the Associated Press reported the news accurately. This is directly from the AP wire: ''Greenspan said, however, he would prefer a tax cut over using the expected surpluses to pay for new government programs, such as the expansion of Medicare benefits President Clinton has proposed. ''Greenspan said his 'first preference' was to use any surpluses ...

CRIME: Legal overkill In the asset-forfeiture debate, the Clinton administration supports law enforcement - which, unfortunately, means it opposes justice. Current law allows police to seize cars, cash, homes and other property that they believe may be linked to a crime. The idea is to hit criminals where it hurts most - in the wallet - and eventually to drive them out of business. That might be OK if every suspect were guilty. But some are innocent. If the suspect is acquitted, or never charged, he is entitled to get his property back only if he can prove it was ...

CRIME: Why they die During the debate over executing Allen Lee Davis, opponents frequently said it was inconsistent that some people were pro-life on abortion but not on capital punishment. No unborn child has ever beaten a pregnant woman to death, clubbing her face so savagely that she was virtually unrecognizable. Davis did. No unborn child has grabbed the dead woman's little girl, tied her up on her mother's bed, and killed her with bullets to her chest and face. Davis did. Nor has any unborn child ever shot a second daughter as she tried to escape the bedroom where ...