Free Republic

Given that his grandfather, Joseph P. Kennedy, was one of the most notorious appeasers of the last century, you'd think Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might refrain from maligning anyone else as a Nazi sympathizer. Turns out it wasn't just Grampa Joe with a soft spot for Der Fuhrer -- so did his second eldest son and future president John F. Kennedy during trips to Germany as a young man, according to a new book, "John F. Kennedy -- Among the Germans: Travel Diaries and Letters, 1937-1945." (Audio after the jump) Excerpts from the book were published last month in the...

For more than half a century, the Kennedys were a force in U.S. politics. Their dominance began with John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential run and lasted until the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 2009. The family’s return as a major political presence is not imminent, but it may not be that far off. A candidate for a Massachusetts seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is Joseph P. Kennedy III, a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy and a grandnephew of the president and the senator. He is running in a congressional district now largely represented by Representative Barney...

The most controversial "marriage that never was" in recent U.S. political history is back. Sources tell TIME that the Vatican has reversed the annulment of Joseph P. Kennedy II's marriage to Sheila Rauch. The annulment had been granted in secrecy by the Catholic Church after the couple's 1991 no-fault civil divorce. Rauch found out about the de-sanctification of their marriage only in 1996, after Kennedy had been wedded to his former Congressional aide, Beth Kelly, for three years. The annulment was the subject of Rauch's 1997 book Shattered Faith, which lambasted her ex-husband and was severely critical of the Catholic...

With apologies to Harry Turtledove, consider if you will this alternate history scenario: Franklin D. Roosevelt, out of great consideration for his wife's uncle Teddy and never being one to avoid political expediency when the opportunity presents itself, joins the Republican Party and is elected President of the United States in 1936, soundly whupping one term wonder Alfred E. Smith who is widely perceived to have brought on the Great Depression by his misguided policies of international neutrality, hard liquor and First Saturday novenas. With the return of Prohibition, the nation's productivity soars and the Depression is soon over. FDR...

I ran across an interesting article by Jared Ede at CNSnews.com about yet another gala affair the left held this last week in D.C. for liberal students so they will have the tools they need to fight the conservative movement. There were several quotes in the article from Paul Begala which exemplify the absence of thought on the left. Mr. Ede added a few facts that show what I said to be true in the Article Disharmonic Convergence is really just the same ole thing all over again. First, here are the Paul Begala quotes: “I was driving past the...

The votes have been cast – if not yet fully counted – and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy owes the brave people of Iraq a profound apology. Some 8 million Iraqis on Jan. 30 defied terrorists' threats of violence and death to cast their ballots for a more hopeful future than Mr. Kennedy was willing to grant them. In so doing, Iraqis, who hadn't voted in free elections in a half-century, gave the lie to the Massachusetts Democrat's nakedly partisan rant three days before the balloting that the war that made the voting possible was "a colossal failure, a continuing quagmire."...