Free Republic

I think the time is right to start talking about where we, as Conservatives, go from here. I hear many of our brothers and sisters in the Conservative movement sounding pessimistic these days. While I am just as disgusted as you are over the love fest going on between the incoming administration and some of our so-called “conservative commentators”, I refuse to concede defeat simply because so many of our fellow citizens have been duped by a slick liberal marketing campaign that, far short of an ideological triumph, has been merely proof of the adage about fooling all of the...

When someone starts yammering about transcending partisanship, renouncing “hatred and venom” and “bringing us together” – head for the hills. He’s talking capitulation on the right, with long lines of defeated, dejected conservatives in tattered uniforms being marched away to political POW camps. Former Bush flak Scott McClellan, author of a tell-all book on his White House service, is worse than a rat fink. He’s worse even than a fawning sycophant craving the establishment’s favor. He’s a defeatist who bids his party to stand with him in the middle of a four-lane highway at rush-hour. Can we say “road-kill”? Here’s...

A John McCain Presidential victory in November will be an event twenty-eight years in the making. While McCain is preferable to Barack Obama as President Bush’s successor, one cannot deny that his election will represent the success of the “centrist counterrevolution” in the Republican Party. The centrist-moderate wing of the GOP was left for dead in 1980, when its icon—George H. W. Bush—lost to Ronald Reagan in the Republican primary. Republicans who were not comfortable with Reagan-style social conservatism quietly grumbled as Reagan moved the party, and the country, to the right in the 1980s. For years, they’ve tried to...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has kept her centrist policies despite increasing attacks from her Democratic rivals. Clinton, who recently fell behind Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in a poll in Iowa -- site of the nation's first nominating contest -- is standing by relatively centrist and right-leaning views, including her recent Senate vote in favor of designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, despite heavy criticism from Obama and other leading candidates, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Aides said Clinton is reluctant to give up her positions for those popular with...

What would you call a candidate with the following interest group ratings, among others: 100% rating from Planned Parenthood 100% from NARAL0% from the Illinois Association for Right to Life0% from Americans for Tax Reform100% from the NAACP8% from the American Conservative Union100% from the NEA [teachers union]100% from Children's Defense Fund [Hillary's old group]100% from NOW88% from the American Immigration Lawyers Association 0% from the Federation for American Immigration Reform 100% from the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees 100% from Americans for Democratic Action [gold-standard of old lefty groups] Again, what would you call such a...

(AP) London, March 2, 1867: Karl Marx, a rising star among centrist economists, announced today the publication of the first volume of his work, 'Das Kapital'.OK, perhaps I exaggerate a tad. But is there any man of the left that the MSM is unwilling to cast as a "centrist" or moderate, particularly when he is seen as a potential Democratic presidential nominee? The Associated Press offers a perfect illustration of the phenomenon this evening. This article reports Barack Obama's indication on today's Meet The Press that, earlier protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, he is indeed contemplating a run for the...

During the California recall election, when my then-WND colleague Hugh Hewitt was in the forefront of leading a merry band of Republican optimists to reject Tom McClintock – a genuine conservative – in favor of a man much esteemed by the Kennedy family, I wrote a column titled "Satanic Schwarzeneggerians," in which I encouraged eschewing the sacrifice of principle in favor of the "pragmatic" pursuit of power. Now, I quite like Arnold as an action hero, and would consider it an honor to lift weights with the legendary body builder. But there are decent and even delightful individuals in every...

Amidst the fallout from the special election, there is a renewed discussion about governing from the Center. It is a mantra championed by many a consultant and some “moderates” – in both the Democrat and Republican Parties - that claim you have to be a centrist/moderate to win/succeed in California. Simply stated, that simply isn’t true. It is not true because in order to succeed, politicians must be well defined to attract voters because the “very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.” Put another way, voters generally do not elect...

RUSH: I mentioned in the last hour that the left is just unloading today on Judge John Roberts. Virtually every fringe lib group that you've heard of (and some that you haven't heard of) are issuing press releases and faxes and the American media is dutifully bending over forwards and backwards to give them the credibility that none of them have earned and deserve. Making them all sound bigger and more powerful and relevant than they are. Before we get to details of that, there's this today from the Los Angeles Times: "On High Court Vote, Centrist Democrats Caught in...

At the heart of the challenge facing the conservative agenda lies one simple fact: while we focused our efforts on politics, our opponents on the left focused instead on culture. Each of us won. Compared to where the conservative movement was the year I came to Washington, 1967, we are today immensely stronger politically. Republicans, most of whom are at least nominally conservative, control both Houses of Congress and the White House. That is success on a grand scale. Unfortunately, our opponents have won an equally large victory over our culture. Today, what was called the "counter-culture" in the 1960s...

Holy smokes, has the Gonzman gone MAD?!?!?! It’s finally happened, the poor sod. Stark, raving, fruit-loopy…. Relax. Howard Dean is a mouth-breathing cretin , and I'm still your buddy. But he still needs defending. He does. Not what he says, which is as butt-stupid as it comes, but Howard himself. Howie-boy has come under a lot of fire lately with pundits of all stripes referring to him as a loose cannon, irresponsible, a crackpot, and Republicans can barely conceal their glee, begging for more vintage Howard. Please talk some more, Howard. Yell it for me one more time, baby. I...

The judicial filibuster agreement reached by a group of 14 Republican and Democratic senators may be a truce, but it is not a treaty.It remains to be seen if the Senate’s tradition of up-or-down votes for judicial nominations will be re-established. And make no mistake, every tool for returning to that tradition remains on the table. As Majority Leader Bill Frist and even some signatories to this agreement have acknowledged, this includes the constitutional option.Those who founded this republic designed the Senate without the minority’s being able to filibuster anything at all. After a rules change made the filibuster possible,...

May 28, 2005--Just 22% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the filibuster compromise reached last week in the judicial nomination battle. A Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 American adults found that 37% have an unfavorable opinion.Among those who have been following the story somewhat or very closely, 31% have a favorable view of the compromise. Fifty percent (50%) have an unfavorable opinion.As for the "fourteen Senators who structured the filibuster compromise," 27% have a favorable opinion and 31% hold an unfavorable view. Among those following the story closely, 40% say favorable and 40% unfavorable.Fifty-six percent (56%) of Americans say...

Yesterday the Senate reached a Compromise on confirmation hearings on certain judicial nominees. But “compromise” normally means an agreement between opposing parties where both make concessions and commit to keeping the bargain. By that standard, this is no compromise. It is, as Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Allow me to prove the point. The 14 signing Senators committed to vote to close debate on the nominations of Priscilla Owen, Janice Brown, and William Pryor for various Circuit Courts. They made no commitment on nominees William Myers and Henry...

The message is loud and clear. Democrats have learned nothing from their free-fall from power. Hard-line liberals [anti-American closet socialists] line up to crown their new king and it looks like Howard Dean is their man, the likely new head of the Deaniac’s National Committee. Once again, we have proof that the “enlightened ones” may not be so “enlightened” after all… They understand their need to appear more centered, but they don’t understand their need to become more centered. As they whine about their image problems, they continue their march to the left. Is Dean more centered than say, Kennedy,...

I thought I would draw this website to the attention of Freepers. I just became aware of it today. A Republican Leadership Council (RLC), exists, and its purpose is to make the party more "moderate", just as the DLC does for the Dems. Interesting Site. Check it out: http://www.rlcnet.org/

"Democratic strategists have begun to express concern about what they say is the potentially negative effect the former Vermont governor could have on Senate and House races if he becomes the party's nominee," ROLL CALL is reporting in Thursday's edition. "This line of criticism underscores an approach to the campaign Dean has employed to great effect thus far, pitching himself as a straight-talking outsider who will challenge the political orthodoxy of the inside-the-Beltway Democratic establishment." Of most concern: "Dean's outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq and his call for a complete rollback of President Bush's tax cuts, positions that...

The DLC hosted a strategy session in Washington on May 14 aimed at shaping the issues debate this year and in 2004. Participants included former President Bill Clinton, Governors Mark Warner of VA and Bill Richardson of NM, and many members of the DLC's state and local elected officials networks. The discussion revolved around a new political memo by DLC Founder and CEO Al From and DLC President Bruce Reed, entitled "The Real Soul of the Democratic Party." The memo addresses five myths that represent the conventional wisdom about the current status of Democrats going into the 2004 presidential nomination...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Reaching out for support from moderate House Democrats, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco liberal running for election today as House minority leader, tapped Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina as her voice and adviser on the federal budget and national economy.</p>

For some reason, most in today's liberal corporate media like to refer to liberal politicians as "moderate" or "centrists." That's the media's way, evidently, of softening the blow of their discussions of unconstitutional proposals. It is also usually an obvious lie. For instance, during his first presidential campaign, the media informed Americans that Bill Clinton was a moderate Democrat. Even after the Clinton administration tried to socialize the whole of the American medical delivery system, the media still referred to him as a moderate, rather than the socialist he is. My unanswered question to a media honcho was simple: "Moderate...