Free Republic

Leadership: Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims she has no use for polls. For her, that's a good thing, because polls now show that voters despise her. But a politician who disdains public approval should be a little disturbing.Not every House leader has been popular, but none have reached the nadir of Pelosi. Last week, a Public Strategies/Politico poll showed she is now trusted by fewer than one out of four voters. Asked for a reaction by Politico's Glenn Thrush on Monday, Pelosi laughed it off, declaring "I don't care." A response like that can only come from someone so securely unaccountable...

Former US president Jimmy Carter lashed out at British Prime Minister Tony Blair for being "so compliant and subservient" to the Bush administration in Washington. "I have been surprised and extremely disappointed with Tony Blair's behaviour," Carter told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper as he promoted his new book "Faith and Freedom." "I think that, more than any other person in the world, the prime minister could have had a moderating influence on Washington, and he has not," said the 81-year-old former head of state. He faulted Blair for not having been a constraint on US President George W. Bush's decision...

Cindy Sheehan went to Caracas, Venezuela to put her thumb in the eye of the Bush administration. She was leading the World Social Forum, a far-left “alternative” to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, to cavort with fellow leftists. Less well known was that her trip was sponsored by the Venezuelan foreign ministry. The price of that was obligatory praise of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who’s rapidly plunging in the opinion polls for his incompetence and corruption. “I admire President Chavez for his strength to resist the United States,” she said. Sheehan, who knows nothing of Venezuela, was easy to...