Free Republic

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick's eyes twinkle at the mention of that August 1984 night at the Republican National Convention in Dallas when she eviscerated liberal Democrats as the "blame America first crowd." "When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies," ... "They blame United States policies of 100 years ago. But then they always blame America first." With those words, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- a long-time Democrat -- described the difference between President Reagan's determination to defeat communism and Democratic Party leaders'...

An American Traitor: Guilty As Charged By Henry Mark Holzer and Erika HolzerFrontPageMagazine.com | June 10, 2005For three decades Jane Fonda obfuscated, distorted and lied about virtually everything connected with her wartime trip to North Vietnam: her motive, her acts, her intent, and her contribution to the Communists’ war effort.  With the aid of clever handlers, she so successfully suppressed and spun her conduct in Hanoi that many Americans didn’t know what she had done there, and, more important, the legal significance. Three years ago, our book, “Aid and Comfort”: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam (McFarland & Co.), laid bare...

here is a notion abroad in American politics, carefully crafted by its proponents, that is both disturbing and false. It is especially disturbing to me personally because it is frequently associated with my campaign for the presidency in 1972. The notion is that my party, and especially its standard-bearer of '72, are not interested in the defense and security of America. Nor, according to this notion, do we care about marriage and the family, the sacredness of human life and the things of the spirit. Perhaps my views are outdated, but I have always assumed that every American cares...

Last August, Edvard Munch’s famous masterpiece, “The Scream,” was stolen again. Armed gunmen took the painting from the Oslo Munch Museum in Norway. Saturday, the Democratic National Committee will elect former Governor Howard Dean as the Chairman of the DNC. Are these events connected? Sometimes, reality is its own parody. As the satirical website ScrappleFace.com reported this week, “Faced with the fact that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is the only person still seeking the chairmanship of the Democrat National Committee (DNC), the nine-member panel of elected officers announced today that it had posted the job on CareerBuilder.com, and would...

Another election, another smashing setback for the Democratic insurgency. How long will it take for the party of George McGovern, Sidney Blumenthal and Edward Kennedy to recover from bloody Sunday? Ol' George and young Sid have long been fla-fla, but for Ted the huge turnout yesterday was particularly devastating. Last week he thought he'd be hailed as the new Chamberlain, the next Benedict Arnold, the white Jesse Jackson, the Irish Jacques Chirac, the trans-gendered Jane Fonda. Alas, he remains the Crown Prince of Chappaquiddick, a perennial bottom feeder and all-purpose lout. "Johnny, we hardly knew ye," a hanger-on once said...

It will take some time for the stinking truth emanating from John Kerry to be fully inhaled by all people who actually vote, come November. However, after digesting my daily sources on the Internet, a single factoid that ended one of them leapt up and bit me. LIAR, LIAR, your pants are on FIRE = LIBERAL! Here's the nub of the GREAT AWAKENING we're just beginning. You know how becoming enlightened, or even simply becoming aware of something mundane that you'd previously not known, necessarily has various barriers to pass through? In the everyday vulgar world, the saying "Talk is...

Backward Bounce By Joel Mowbray FrontPageMagazine.com | August 2, 2004 For very good reason, the rule of thumb is that a presidential candidate gains ground following his party’s convention: It almost always happens. It happened four years ago, despite Al Gore’s nearly incoherent rant. It happened in 1984, after Walter Mondale reaffirmed his pledge to raise taxes. It even happened for Jimmy Carter in 1980 after a brutal civil war with Ted Kennedy. But it didn’t happen for John Kerry. According to the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, conducted Friday and Saturday, Kerry lost a total swing of 5 points from the...

The Quintessential McGovern Joseph Farah Remember George McGovern? I'll bet John Kerry would like to forget. McGovern was the 1972 Democratic Party presidential nominee. He lost in what was then the biggest landslide in U.S. election history to Richard Nixon. McGovern had all kinds of problems in that race, including a vice presidential nominee who had to be dumped because of undisclosed mental health problems. But the biggest obstacle to election facing McGovern was his political platform. He called for an immediate withdrawal of all forces from Vietnam, with the full support of John Kerry and Bill Clinton, as well...

To the Editor: I am a longtime admirer of Thomas L. Friedman. I disagree, however, with his advice to Senator John Kerry relative to our Army in Iraq, which is summarized in his final line: "We will not run" (column, Feb. 15). This determination to stand and fight is tempting to political leaders. The trouble with this appeal is that brave young Americans do the bleeding and dying — not the political leaders who committed them to a mistaken war. Terrorists are killing American soldiers in Iraq because our Army is in Iraq. I hope that President Bush, with the...

had not expected to be involved in this year's presidential campaign. But almost daily my name is mentioned by some commentator, usually as a warning of what candidates should avoid. One gets the impression that the campaign of 1972 is the only one whose shortcomings are worth noting. Is the central lesson of '72 that George McGovern lost everywhere except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia? If so, what is the lesson of 1984, when my friend Walter Mondale lost everywhere except Minnesota and the District? Is the lesson of these campaigns that Midwestern liberals can never reach the White...

To George McGovern, it all looks very familiar. Mr. McGovern, the last insurgent Democrat to run for president on an antiwar platform, sees parallels between the 1972 race and the current campaign. And in the candidacy of Howard Dean, he hears echoes of his own. The pivotal issue in the coming primaries, Mr. McGovern said in an interview, is sure to be the "foolish war in Iraq," just as the Vietnam War was central to his own campaign for the Democratic nomination. Next year, he believes, Democratic voters will insist on a nominee who is outspoken against the war, just...

Thanks to the most crudely partisan decision in the history of the Supreme Court, the nation has been given a President of painfully limited wisdom and compassion and lacking any sense of the nation's true greatness.... ....This President and his advisers know well how to get us involved in imperial crusades abroad while pillaging the ordinary American at home. The same families who are exploited by a rich man's government find their sons and daughters being called to war, as they were in Vietnam--but not the sons of the rich and well connected. .....As I have watched America's moral and...

The Reason Why by George McGovern Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. --Alfred, Lord Tennyson "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (in the Crimean War) Thanks to the most crudely partisan decision in the history of the Supreme Court, the nation has been given a President of painfully limited wisdom and compassion and lacking any sense of the nation's true greatness. Appearing to enjoy his role as Commander in Chief of the armed forces above all other functions of his office, and unchecked by a seemingly timid Congress, a compliant Supreme Court, a largely subservient...

Former South Dakota Sen. George McGovern, who lost his own race for the White House to Richard Nixon in the biggest landslide in American history, predicted Tuesday night that fellow South Dakotan, Senate plurality leader Tom Daschle, will eventually run for president. "My guess is that at some point he'll run," McGovern told WABC Radio's John Batchelor and Paul Alexander. "Whether he'll do it in 2004, though, I think, is another question." If the Democrats retain their plurality in the Senate after this year's midterm election, Daschle will likely stay put, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate said. "He likes the...