Free Republic

The paper's conservative editorial board says he's disingenuous and demagogic. The senator says the paper is shilling for Marco Rubio. When tea party upstart Ted Cruz began his ascent in 2012, The Wall Street Journal's editorial board saw enough promise to hint at a new era of GOP reform politics.But it didn't take long for the influential opinion page to sour on the Texas senator. Within months after Cruz was sworn in to office, the Journal was castigating him for his tone and tactics - along with his naked pursuit of the presidency just months after joining the Senate -...

In a clear attempt to woo largely establishment conservative commentators who have loudly opposed the GOP’s current government shutdown strategy, President Obama held an off-the-record meeting with the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer, the Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot, National Review’s Washington editor Robert Costa, syndicated columnist and former CNN co-host Kathleen Parker, and Byron York of the Washington Examiner.

Video at link.

The award for Best Line of the Weekend goes to Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot who on Sunday's "Meet the Press" offered a delicious irony concerning Friday's surprise press conference hosted by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. "I love the symbolism of two Democratic presidents--not one, but two--endorsing Bush tax cuts, saying, 'We need them crucially to help the economy' (video follows with transcript and commentary):

ETObama Abroad A transcript of the weekend's program on FOX News Channel. Paul Gigot: Up next on "The Journal Editorial Report," Barack Obama abroad. The president makes his first big international trip amid rising tensions with North Korea. Plus, a Spanish court takes steps to indict Bush officials for torture. How will the current administration respond? And Obama's auto ultimatum. Is the threat of bankruptcy real? "The Journal Editorial Report" begins right now.* * *Gigot: *snip*Ambassador Bolton, good to have you here with us on the panel.Let's start with the trip--the meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. What is...

Conservatives sworn to dinner secrecy By: Jonathan Martin January 14, 2009 12:40 PM EST Call it a charm offensive or a high-level “Listening Tour,” but Barack Obama is already signaling that he intends to break with the current president in one obvious way: hearing from his critics. Obama Tuesday night trekked to the Chevy Chase, Md., home of conservative columnist George F. Will to talk politics and get to know some of his fiercest intellectual adversaries: Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Larry Kudlow, David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone, and Paul Gigot. The two-and-half-hour dinner, which came at Will’s...

Gigot: You said that--recently, you wrote for The Wall Street Journal--that although you are a Republican, you take no pleasure in seeing a prosecutor break--violate his ethical obligations in prosecuting a Democrat. How did Patrick Fitzgerald violate ethical standards? Toensing: There's a very strict rule for prosecutors, Paul, and that is, you are not supposed to say anything that would heighten public condemnation of the defendant. In other words, you're not supposed to try to taint the jury pool. We, people in criminal law, call it, you're not supposed to talk outside the four corners of the complaint or the...

The Fannie Mae Gang By PAUL A. GIGOT July 23, 2008; Page A17 Angelo Mozilo was in one of his Napoleonic moods. It was October 2003, and the CEO of Countrywide Financial was berating me for The Wall Street Journal's editorials raising doubts about the accounting of Fannie Mae. I had just been introduced to him by Franklin Raines, then the CEO of Fannie, whom I had run into by chance at a reception hosted by the Business Council, the CEO group that had invited me to moderate a couple of panels. Mr. Mozilo loudly declared that I didn't know...

Angelo Mozilo was in one of his Napoleonic moods. It was October 2003, and the CEO of Countrywide Financial was berating me for The Wall Street Journal's editorials raising doubts about the accounting of Fannie Mae. I had just been introduced to him by Franklin Raines, then the CEO of Fannie, whom I had run into by chance at a reception hosted by the Business Council, the CEO group that had invited me to moderate a couple of panels. ....... I've thought about that episode more than once recently amid the meltdown and government rescue of Fannie and its sibling,...

I recount all this now because it illustrates the perverse nature of Fannie and Freddie that has made them such a relentless and untouchable political force. Their unique clout derives from a combination of liberal ideology and private profit. Fannie has been able to purchase political immunity for decades by disguising its vast profit-making machine in the cloak of "affordable housing." To be more precise, Fan and Fred have been protected by an alliance of Capitol Hill and Wall Street, of Barney Frank and Angelo Mozilo. I know this because for more than six years I've been one of their...

...Fan and Fred also couldn't prosper for as long as they have without the support of the political left, both in Congress and the intellectual class. This includes Mr. Frank and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) on Capitol Hill, as well as Mr. Krugman and the Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein in the press. Their claim is that the companies are essential for homeownership. Yet as studies have shown, about half of the implicit taxpayer subsidy for Fan and Fred is pocketed by shareholders and management. According to the Federal Reserve, the half that goes to homeowners adds up to a...

Mr. Rove's political influence has been historic, In 2002, the president's party gained seats in both the House and Senate in a first midterm election for the first time since 1934. And in 2004, for only the second time in history, a president won re-election while helping his party gain seats in both houses of Congress; the other time was 1936. Much has been made of John Kerry's ineptitude, but the senator won some eight million more votes than Al Gore did in 2000, and Mr. Rove claims Democrats outspent Republicans by $148 million thanks to billionaire donations to "527"...

-Snip- Gigot: You heard,... President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech. He has also been giving some interviews. What do you think he's trying to accomplish this week with these appearances? Pahlavi: ...I think the grandstanding of Mr. Ahmadinejad is a carefully planned move to gain more popularity on certain Arab streets, as a champion of the cause of extremists who simply don't look at the world the same way we do. The truth is he is losing more and more popularity at home, based on complete dysfunctionality of our economic situation. People are tired, are miserable. They have a lot of economic...

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi? "That's not going to happen," snaps the president of the United States, leaning across his desk in his airborne office. He had been saying that he hoped to revisit Social Security reform next year, when he "will be able to drain the politics out of the issue," and I rudely interrupted by noting the polls predicting Ms. Pelosi's ascension. "I just don't believe it," the president insists. "I believe the Republicans will end up being--running the House and the Senate. And the reason why I believe it is because when our candidates...

'Most People Want Us to Win' A president in the fray, more Truman than LBJ. BY PAUL A. GIGOT Saturday, September 9, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi? "That's not going to happen," snaps the president of the United States, leaning across his desk in his airborne office. He had been saying that he hoped to revisit Social Security reform next year, when he "will be able to drain the politics out of the issue," and I rudely interrupted by noting the polls predicting Ms. Pelosi's ascension. "I just don't believe it," the president...

PAUL GIGOT, HOST: Nearly three years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, some two million documents and tape recordings seized during Operation Iraqi Freedom remain largely un-translated, unanalyzed, and unavailable to the American public. These items appear to contain information relevant to the ongoing debate over the former dictator's terror ties, including some that describe in detail how Saddam trained thousands of Islamic radicals in the waning years of his regime. Stephen Hayes broke this story for "The Weekly Standard." He joins me now from Washington. Welcome, Steve. STEPHEN HAYES, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Hi, Paul. GIGOT: Why should we care...

Hunting for a StoryRadical Islam and democracy. Plus the press corps takes a hit in covering Dick Cheney's hunting accident and more.Monday, February 20, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST Paul Gigot: This week on "The Journal Editorial Report," uncertainty in the Middle East. Israel contemplates new sanctions as Hamas takes the helm of the Palestinian Authority. Will radical Islam derail Bush's democracy agenda in the region? The fallout from Dick Cheney's hunting accident, whose reputation is taking a bigger beating, the vice president's or the White House Press Corps'. The panel weighs in on those topics and our "Hits and Misses"...

Although skeptical from the start, we've restrained our criticism of the Harriet Miers nomination because we've long believed that Presidents of either party deserve substantial deference on their Supreme Court picks. Yet it now seems clear--even well before her Senate hearings--that this selection has become a political blunder of the first order.

Will the GOP have the courage, at last, to change the face of government? When President George W. Bush looks down across the mall today to deliver his second inaugural address, he will survey a Republican landscape. Not since 1928 has a president continued GOP control of the White House into a new term along with a re-elected Republican House and Senate. So it is fair to say that we are about to find out if the GOP really is a governing party. I don't mean "governing" in the sense of merely making the Beltway trains run on time and...

Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, hosts and moderates this new, weekly news and discussion series consisting of thoughtful roundtable conversations about the week's major developments. He is joined by deputy editorial page editor Daniel Henninger, a two-time Pulitzer finalist who writes the weekly column "Wonder Land," widely published economist Susan Lee, and Dorothy Rabinowitz, a Pulitzer Prize winner who specializes in cultural commentary. In this program, Gigot and his colleagues travel to a bellweather district in the swing state of Pennsylvania to report on how undecided voters are choosing between Bush and Kerry. Plus opinion...