Free Republic

As I see it, in the current battle for public opinion Sarah Palin has defeated her harsh and unfair critics. (snip) Why do I defend Palin in this case? I don’t agree with her political philosophy: She is an arch conservative. I am a liberal with sanity. I know that I am setting myself up for attack when I ask, why did Emile Zola defend Dreyfus? Palin is no Dreyfus and I am certainly no Zola. But all of us have an obligation, particularly those in politics and public office, to denounce, when we can, the perpetrators of horrendous libels...

Yesterday, Maurice Hinchey had to get Bill Clinton out to Binghamton to try to rescue his re-election bid and save his House seat. Today, Republican challenger George Phillips trumps Hinchey with a surprise endorsement from former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat who has a track record of backing common-sense Republicans. Hot Air reports exclusively this morning that Koch will deliver a speech tomorrow afternoon in Kingston announcing his endorsement of Phillips. Why is Koch opposing the Democratic incumbent? Koch is apparently unhappy with Hinchey over the nine-term Congressman’s hostility towards Israel. In his speech, Koch will hit...

No, the three NY1 Wiseguys have no problem with the idea of Republican Carl Paladino becoming governor of New York -- other than the fact that in an open letter released today, the trio calls Paladino every name in the book. They write that in the GOP primary between Paladino and vanquished Rick Lazio, "anger overcame reason and enabled a fringe element to choose the Republican nominee.The end result was the selection of Mr. Paladino, a divisive figure simply not fit to lead this great state." Other thoughts from the letter, which you can peruse for yourself below: "Mr. Paladino...

President Obama was right to express his views on constructing a mosque near Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 catastrophe: "As a citizen and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances." Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was first to take up the fight to protect the legitimate rights of American Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero, was...

All during the 2008 Presidential campaign, we told the liberal-Democrat Koch mentality what Obama was all about. They refused to listen. Now, they’re waking up to the nightmare they’ve helped to create…

A Dangerous Silence By Ed Koch I weep as I witness outrageous verbal attacks on Israel. What makes these verbal assaults and distortions all the more painful is that they are being orchestrated by President Obama. For me, the situation today recalls what occurred in 70 AD when the Roman emperor Vespasian launched a military campaign against the Jewish nation and its ancient capital of Jerusalem. Ultimately, Masada, a rock plateau in the Judean desert became the last refuge of the Jewish people against the Roman onslaught. I have been to Jerusalem and Masada. From the top of Masada, you...

Here is video of former New York Mayor Ed Koch - a Democrat who campaigned for Obama - saying that he now believes President Obama is willing to "throw Israel under the bus in order to please Muslim nations." Koch said he believes Obama has accepted that Iran will have Nuclear Weapons, and is ready to live with it. Koch said he feels we are approaching "appeasement and Munich."

Appearing as a guest on Thursday’s Your World with Neil Cavuto on FNC, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch – known for being a relatively centrist Democrat – chided President Obama for being reluctant to use terms like "war on terrorism" or "Islamic extremists," and, when host Cavuto pointed out that Obama had managed to improve attitudes toward America in the Muslim world, Koch sarcastically shot back: "Isn`t that nice? Did they stop trying to kill us?" Even while declaring himself to be a supporter of the Obama administration, the former New York mayor still voiced his frustrations about...

Here is video of former New York Mayor Ed Koch - a Democrat - on with Neil Cavuto today where he blasted the attitude of the Obama Administration toward the "War on Terror," saying Obama is afraid to call our enemy "Muslim Islamist Terrorists." Koch said while the vast majority of the world's Muslims are not in agreement with Al-Qaeda, the fact is that "hundreds of millions are." Koch said the Muslim Islamists want to "kill every Christian, every Jew, every Hindu who won't covert - and we ought to put it on the table." Koch said he is in...

I continue to be a supporter of President Barack Obama. He has had several outstanding successes. The major one has been a positive change in the economy due primarily, I believe, to his hand-picked team of economic advisers who, from all indications, have fashioned an effective economic recovery plan. The recovery still has a long way to go, but using the language of my doctors at the hospital in which I recently spent six critical weeks recovering from open-heart surgery, “All the numbers are going in the right direction.” I also believe his reaching out to our allies and those...

“Outrage” is the talk of the Tribeca film festival. The documentary by filmmaker Kirby Dick claims that several politicians who vote “anti-gay” on political issues are actually gay themselves, and have had verifiable trysts with men. The documentary contains interviews with men who claim to have had sex with these “anti-gay” politicians. Of course, many liberal media outlets are trying to keep the identities of the politicians “outed” by Outrage a secret. Some claim that sexuality (even for politicians) is a personal issue that should not be made public without consent under any circumstances. That is sheer nonsense. In the...

California GOP Rep. David Dreier and a number of other politicians are the unwilling stars of a controversial new documentary with an explosive premise - it's time to blow open the closet door on prominent politicians who have hidden their homosexuality while actively working against gay causes. The film "Outrage," which opens today at the Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco, presents interviews and documentation charging that a number of prominent legislators - including Dreier, the U.S. representative from San Dimas (Los Angeles County), Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former New York Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat - have remained...

Those in power under former president George W. Bush contributed to the economic rape of the country by declining to regulate Wall Street, allowing the economic debacle now unfolding which has devastated the country, bringing middle-class Americans to their knees economically with their jobs and savings vanishing with each passing day. In the last days of the Bush tenure, his economic team tried to stem the economic tidal wave overwhelming the country with a team led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who failed miserably. Bush’s team told us that the major problem was liquidity and that a bailout of the...

There are those who object to the war in Iraq, but who continue to support our military efforts in Afghanistan. There is now an ongoing effort to move troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. We and NATO currently have 62,000 troops in Afghanistan, 32,000 American and 30,000 coalition. The Afghan war, which was approved by the United Nations, is going badly. The Taliban is using Pakistan as its base from which to attack American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. When our troops strike back with airpower, either in Afghanistan or Pakistan, they often kill innocent civilians living with the Taliban and...

Sarah Palin is a phenomenon. She is plucky and, in a winsome way, in your face. Referring to middle class America as Joe-Six-Pack and to herself as a hockey mom, she debated last week with veteran Senator Joe Biden, who has served in the Senate for 36 years and knows his way around Washington. I admire Sarah Pain's spunkiness and feel she has not been treated fairly by the media which has tried to make her look foolish and provincial. When she was interviewed by Charles Gibson and asked the question, "Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?" I thought...

The time has come to declare whom I will be voting for. When I made my decision four years ago and supported the re-election of George W. Bush, I said at the time the overwhelming issue for me was international Islamic terrorism, including al-Qaida. The goal of Islamic terrorists was, and still is, to re-establish the caliphate encompassing most of the Muslims living in a host of nations from Spain to Indonesia and placing them under a single religious leader with full authority over the civil affairs of the countries, in the style of Iran. That goal includes the deaths...

Throughout his political career, whenever anyone called him a liberal, Ed Koch would always respond: “Yes, I’m a liberal, but with sanity.” The eventual mayor of New York City first demonstrated that sanity in the Democratic Party reform movement of the early 1960s, when a group of prestigious New Yorkers led by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Herbert Lehman booted the party regulars—the so-called “machine politicians” who had dominated the Democratic Party for decades—from power. As a young soldier in that movement, Koch ousted the head of Tammany Hall, Carmine DeSapio, from his position as Democratic district leader...

Sen. John McCain was wrong to reject the endorsement of Texas evangelist Rev. John Hagee. Several years ago the Rev. Hagee delivered a sermon that was caught on tape in which he preached, "Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun, and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, 'My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel." Anyone hearing the tape would conclude that Hagee is hostile to...

Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch, one of the country’s most prominent Democrats, says he may cross over and back Republican Sen. John McCain for president. In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Koch says McCain “has no equal” when it comes to opposing Islamic terrorism. Though Koch says he disagrees with most of McCain’s positions on domestic issues, he could support him because of his strong national security credentials. Koch carries significant weight with many Jewish Democrats in New York and across the country. He also has a history of playing the maverick and crossing party lines. He has backed...

Health Update From Mayor Koch I will be hospitalized on May 18 to have an operation on my spine on May 21. Hopefully, I will be discharged from the hospital at the end of that week to begin two weeks of recuperation. My medical condition, which I have had for about a year and a half, is diagnosed as stenosis of the spine, which involves arthritis, a narrowing of the spine and the impingement on nerves, causing discomfort and some pain when I walk. The prognosis, I am told, is excellent with a 92 percent recovery rate and a very...