Free Republic

Dozens of former Republican and Democratic officials announced on Wednesday a new national political third party to appeal to millions of voters they say are dismayed with what they see as America's dysfunctional two-party system. The new party, called Forward and whose creation was first reported by Reuters, will initially be co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. They hope the party will become a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate U.S. politics, founding members told Reuters. Party leaders will hold a series of...

Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” if President Donald Trump is re-elected in November, he will be “unbridled” and head America down the path of being like Russia or North Korea. Mitchell asked, “How do you deal with this when the Attorney General of the United States talks about lockdowns as an infringement on freedom and form of slavery?”

The thousands of people who descended upon the Jersey Shore town for President Donald Trump's 'Keep America Great' rally at the Wildwoods Convention Center left behind a sea of trash in the parking lot — including their abandoned beach chairs and blankets — after the rally wrapped up.Rally-goers were allowed to bring chairs as they waited in line — some for up to 48 hours before the event — but they weren't allowed to bring them inside the venue.Factor in the blankets they used to stay warm, and all their drinks and food they were snacking on during the long wait...

Four former Environmental Protection Agency administrators who served under Republican presidents on Wednesday said climate change should not be a partisan issue. The former EPA chiefs told reporters that Republican lawmakers who believe the climate is changing should speak out because voters will be on their side. "This should not be a partisan issue," said William Ruckelshaus, the nation's first EPA administrator under President Richard Nixon and again under President Ronald Reagan. "And public demand for doing something may be able to break it apart." The problem, the four former EPA administrators said, is looking at climate change through a...

NEW YORK - A federal judge blasted former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman on Thursday for reassuring New Yorkers soon after the Sept. 11 attacks that it was safe to return to their homes and offices while toxic dust was polluting the neighborhood. U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts refused to grant Whitman immunity against a class-action lawsuit brought in 2004 by residents, students and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who said they were exposed to hazardous materials from the destruction of the World Trade Center. "No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people...

It has been said that one sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. There are, of course, alternative explanations for such behavior. One can simply be "in denial." That would probably best describe Republican "moderates." How else to evaluate their call for a change in strategy in spite of the winning conservative formula that has energized the GOP to repeated victories in recent years? On the heels of decisive Republican victories in the 2002 and 2004 elections, "moderates" in the party are trying to sell the idea that appealing to...

A deal that was supposed to offer cleaner air through tougher auto emissions tests has become a "mammoth boondoggle" that will cost New Jersey taxpayers millions of dollars more than earlier estimates, a new state report says. The report, released Wednesday, claims the process that awarded the contract to test car emissions benefited politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats and the corporation that was the sole bidder for the work. "The investigation revealed an ill-conceived state process undermined by mismanagement from within and tainted by manipulation from without," the State Commission of Investigation report said. The computerized vehicle emissions test system will have...

WHITMAN SERIES CONTINUES TO SUPPORT WOMENDedicated to increasing the ranks of women in New Jersey politics, the Christine Todd Whitman Series Excellence in Public Service is currently accepting applications for their 2003 fall class. Founded in 1998, the Whitman Series is a political leadership training program for Republican women in New Jersey who are interested in running for elected office, seeking appointments to key positions at the county or state level, or assuming party leadership roles.  The mission of the Whitman Series is to increase the number of New Jersey women involved in government at the local, county, state and federal...

<p>EDISON, May 30 - Douglas R. Forrester wants to help shape the future of the state. He's just not sure how he wants to accomplish it.</p> <p>During a taping of News 12 New Jersey's Power and Politics Friday, the 2002 Republican candidate for United States Senator said it's too early to say if he'll be a candidate for governor in 2005, but refused to rule out the possibility.</p>

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. George Pataki, expanding on last week's denial of interest in running the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said Tuesday that he doesn't want any other post in President Bush's cabinet. "I have no interest in any cabinet position," Pataki said during an appearance in Albany. "I have no intention of taking any cabinet position." Less than six months into his third term as governor, Pataki's name briefly surfaced last week when Christie Whitman announced her resignation as director of the EPA. Pataki has focused on conservation issues as governor in New York and considers his record on...

Former Gov. Christie Whitman's departure from the Bush administration adds a new element of political intrigue in New Jersey. Could she be the candidate behind whom a splintered and out-of-power state Republican Party coalesces in a future statewide election? Or have the bridges that Whitman burned in her party - and the savaging of her gubernatorial record by the Democrats - made a political comeback unlikely? Whitman, 56, said yesterday that she would leave her job as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to spend more time with her family, and she has given no indication that a return to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats Thursday dismissed the Bush administration's plan for voluntary cuts in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions as "baloney" and said it will not help slow global warming. The White House plan depends on U.S. companies to voluntarily curb industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and links reduction targets to American economic growth. Democrats prefer a mandatory approach that dictates specific cuts. President Bush withdrew the United States last year from the international Kyoto treaty that aims to cut heat-trapping emissions, saying it was too costly to the economy. James Connaughton, chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental...

WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) - Christine Todd Whitman, the top U.S. environmental regulator, said on Wednesday she was not told in advance about a controversial Bush administration report that concluded greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activities were the primary cause of global warming. The report caused a stir last week among environmentalists because it appeared to align the administration with scientists who believe vehicle emissions and pollution from power plants and oil refineries have caused global temperatures to rise. The United States is the world's biggest energy consumer and emissions producer. President George W. Bush dismissed the report as...