Free Republic

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker Believes There is Still Room for Compromise on Health Care. BY SHAILAGH MURRAY Republican Sen. Bob Corker stood before a packed high school auditorium this week for his 24th and final town hall meeting of the summer, sketching out his vision for the bipartisan health-care plan he says he is convinced Congress can pass.

While his party moves Right under Obama, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham remains the quintessential big government Republican. Six months into his presidency, the most significant difference between Obama and Bush seems to be that the new president is determined to spend more money than the last one. That Graham shows signs that he might be more willing than other Republicans to support this continuity, does not make him an exemplary model of what the GOP should be, but a painful reminder of what it has not been—the party of limited government. In trying to define this philosophy, Ronald Reagan...

"We just can't afford it!" Not long ago, every American child heard that, at one time or another, in the home in which he or she was raised. "We just can't afford it!" It may have been a new car, or two weeks at the beach, or the new flat-panel TV screen. Every family knew there were times you had to do without. Every father and mother has had to disappoint their kids with those words. Why is it that what parents do many times a year politicians seem incapable of doing: saying no? How many times in the last...

(CNN) — Despite his campaign-trail promises, President Obama has failed to change the partisan tone in Washington, Arizona Sen. John McCain said Friday. "I'm afraid they have," Obama's former presidential rival told CNN's John King when asked if the administration has 'failed' in delivering on its repeated pledge of bipartisanship.

SAN DIEGO – Immigration, a hot-button issue that has dominated headlines in Arizona and nationally over recent years, is fading from the public consciousness amid economic turmoil, Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen said July 30. “Because of what’s going on with the recession, although (immigration) is still important, it’s not nearly as important as the recession,” Pullen said in an interview at the Republican National Committee’s annual summer meeting. “Cap and trade is now even a higher issue in Arizona than is immigration, as well as health care.” . . . . . Pullen, an anti-illegal immigration activist before...

Three Republicans are bunched within five points of each when potential GOP presidential candidates are matched up for 2012 with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney barely on top, according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted July 21-22. The margin of error for the part of the survey dealing only with Republican voters is 6 points. Romney leads with 22 percent, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 21 percent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with 17 percent. Former New York City mayor (we're dealing with a lot of "formers" here) Rudi Giuliani polls 13 percent, former House...

When you're up to your waders in barracuda, blame the media. And quit your job. And say you did it for the people. And hire an agent. And try to keep a straight face. On your way to the bank. Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, H.L. Mencken once said. Terribly elitist fellow, that Mencken. If only he were alive to witness the phenomenon of Sarah Palin, whose biography validates every cynical thought that ever found expression in his prolific prose..... Meanwhile, getting real, can we stop pretending that Palin is interested in anything other...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Sarah Palin's not a quitter, she wants the public to know. "I am not a quitter. I am a fighter," Palin told CNN on Monday while on a family fishing trip, on the heels of her Friday bombshell announcement that she was resigning as Alaska's governor. Palin did her interview standing on the shores of Dillingham, Alaska, wearing hip waders. She granted 10-minute interviews to CNN and three other news networks Monday. She resigned because of the tremendous pressure, time and financial burden of a litany of ethics complaints in the past several months, she said....

While we are awash in the usual flood of cynical punditry and partisan sharpshooting over Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation, it might pay us to pause and reflect on two critical principles of government in a republic, both of which are affirmed by Gov. Palin's action. • Elected office is a public trust — not a personal possession — and it should be held only so long as a person is able to carry out the people's business effectively. When there arises a hindrance — whether self-made or (as in her case) imposed by others — that makes it impossible...

It's hard to be neutral about Sarah Palin; in fact, I don't know anyone who is. And it's hard to find someone who really understands what led to Friday's shocker in which she announced her resignation as governor of Alaska. It was not unexpected to hear her say she wouldn't seek re-election in 2010. That made sense, as her numbers had drastically fallen back home since she was selected last summer as John McCain's running mate. Plus, she had been feuding with state lawmakers, the budget is in turmoil, and she has gone through the wringer with assorted investigations into...

You might have heard: Alaska governor Sarah Palin has quit her job. In the sort of eye-rollingly silly spin that we've come to expect from the good governor, she attributed her first-term resignation to her unwavering dedication to the people of Alaska and her inability to accept political convention: "I'm not gonna put Alaskans through [a lame-duck second-term]. I promised efficiencies and effectiveness. That's not how I'm wired. I'm not wired to operate under the same old politics as usual." She announced she was transferring the governorship to her lieutenant governor so that her administration "with its positive agenda and...

With the GOP still making noises about pushing for the nomination of yet another RINO, despite the disaster of 2008, conservatives often feel as if we are in political no-man's land--homeless pilgrims in a strange and barren land. What's a conservative to do in these unfortunate times when conservatism seems to be abandoned, even by the Party of Reagan?

Sarah Palin's decision to resign as governor of Alaska was greeted with doubts, criticism and downright derision -- not just from Democrats or the media or bloggers, but from Republicans. Critical responses to her decision came from many Republican insiders -- not just people who have an axe to grind such as Mike Huckabee and Lisa Murkowski, but others such as Karl Rove. That followed criticism of Palin just before her announcement from Charles Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg. When talking off the record, Republican insiders are even harsher toward Palin, as Marc Ambinder notes: With a few exceptions, almost every...

I’m confused by all the confusion among the chattering classes about Palin. I thought her press conference explained it very clearly – though she couldn’t put it precisely this way without sounding vain, but it’s obvious. Even though she’s just a state governor, she’s a HUGE national star who is both sought after and attacked as if she is already a president (a Bush, not an Obama). But she basically can’t participate because she’s tethered to the governor’s office up in Alaska. Consequently, she has to fight with one hand tied behind her back and she also can’t go around...

I pretty well nailed Governor Palin’s strategy when she announced. Today there is little doubt to what she intends to do: “I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint,” the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote in a posting on her Facebook page. Palin’s spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, confirmed Palin wrote the entry. One thing I did forget to mention in the previous post which is clear today - Palin is going to shove as much crow down as...

If you thought that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was going to just fade into the background you are very very wrong. One day after announcing her resignation, Palin became showed everyone what she meant by the little Hockey Mom/pit bull joke. On face book she released a message that smacked the mainstream media for its response to her resignation and hinted that she will be running in 2012..........Later in the day the Governor's attorney Thomas Van Flein on warned legal action may be taken against bloggers and publications that reprint what he calls fraudulent claims...

The jokes of David Letterman and the article in Vanity Fair perhaps were the straw that broke the camels back but it is the total lack of fairness the media showed that is a scathing indictment against them. If the country had a media czar it would seem appropriate that at this point he or she would be offering a public apology to Palin and that very humbly. Perhaps the czar could hang his head in shame as the proxy for the entire band of media thugs who reveled in the indignities. We have a media that thinks the story...

Why did Sarah Palin step down? Theories abound. But some of the people closest to the Alaska governor say she wanted to regain control of a political script that slipped out of her hands the moment she burst onto the national stage. She also wanted to shield herself and her family from the attacks that seem to have been aimed permanently at them in the 311 days since Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced her as his running mate, according to some former campaign aides and other advisers who speak regularly with Palin or her husband, Todd. The Sarah Palin who...

Here is video of Vice-President Joe Biden telling ABC's George Stephanopoulos with a straight face that he does not agree that Gov. Sarah Palin has been the victim of unfair political attacks. . . . . (Watch Video)

Opponents -- and even some former allies -- were quick to criticize Sarah Palin's announcement Friday that she will step down as governor of Alaska. The suddenness of the decision have some thinking that she's tired of political life; that she'll hit the lecture circuit to rebuild her financial fortunes; even that she'll become a "conservative Oprah" Palin, though, posted to her Facebook page yesterday that she has a "higher calling": "I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values . . . how sad that Washington and the media never understand; it's...