Free Republic

Hakeem Jeffries seems poised to replace Nancy Pelosi as leader of the House Democrats. A Black political moderate, the Brooklyn congressman is often likened to Barack Obama. Even-tempered, he is known to “play” with most of the children in Washington. And at 52, he represents generational change from the 82-year-old Pelosi. Who among Democrats would have a problem with him? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would have a problem. She also has problems with President Joe Biden and, frankly, the mainstream Democratic Party off which she feeds. A preening socialist princess, she has done much to entertain Fox News and cost the...

Moderate Republicans are, were, good things. I use the past tense "were" because as they became rarities, the centrists' chief function was preserving majorities in Congress for their radicalized party. New England used to send lots of moderate Republicans to Washington. No more, and it's not because there aren't attractive Republican candidates. It's because the ones representing liberal-to-moderate regions became scapegoats at which party extremists directed their primal screams. There arose the stupid "RINO (Republican in name only) Hunters Club," courtesy of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies. In 2005, Rush Limbaugh pounded away at Republican "traitors" in the Senate,...

This was hours before Democrats got their heads handed to them in a New York district for the first time since 1923 and by 20 points in Nevada. Via Projo.com: Froma Harrop: Disapproval: It’s all relative I do not think this alone. Their debt-ceiling hijinks were no doubt immensely amusing to the Tea Party fringe, but to those of us not getting the joke, they were an appalling attack on a fragile economy. The Tea Party is turning from the voice of anger to its target, and the GOP has it hanging around its neck. The first trumpet blast of...

The new numbers on consumer confidence are out. They show American consumers very confident that the economy is going down the tubes. Over in Asia and Europe, stocks plunged on fears that Americans may no longer be able to find the second jobs and recklessly borrow the money needed to buy imported stuff. Economists now freely use the "recession" word following the report that American payrolls fell in August, the first monthly decline in four years. American consumers, in other words, are all dried up. And the discussion has begun on what kind of baloney economy kept them lubricated for...

About that bolt of lightning that missed Rudy Giuliani last week: Frankly, Rudy would not have been my first choice for divine retribution on that Republican stage. Was the crackle -- which stopped the former New York mayor from fully responding to a Rhode Island bishop's highly personal criticism of his pro-choice views -- really meant for him? One doubts it. Messages from above tend to get delivered. Giuliani laughed it off, and that is the political message. Like Giuliani, many Catholics say they personally oppose abortion, but don't want to outlaw it. Poll after poll, test case after test...