Free Republic

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has surely benefited from his portrayal as the country’s “football dad.” But he wouldn’t have passed the truth test in my father’s household, where lying was ranked as the highest punishable offense. I’m not saying that Walz lies, precisely. But he tends to gild his résumé for political gain. He’s hardly the first to do this. And it’s not always detrimental to one’s career, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), has proved. Blumenthal claimed to be a Vietnam veteran even though he sought and received at least five deferments to avoid serving in the war. Walz, too,...

In March 31 of this year, the center-right Pulitzer-winning journalist Kathleen Parker opened a piece in The Washington Post with the following: Christine Blasey Ford is promoting her new memoir to acclaim from certain quarters, including a glowing review by the New York Times. Meanwhile, the man she accused of being a witness to her alleged sexual assault by now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh more than 40 years ago can’t get his own book reviewed or even mentioned by mainstream newspapers.The man Parker describes who couldn’t get his book mentioned is me. I am the person Christine Blasey Ford...

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker is calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to step aside. The media is terrified of the ticket that they’ve supported for the last three years. Who exactly do they think is going to come riding in to save them? Michelle Obama has made it clear that she has absolutely no interest in running for office. Parker’s column is raising quite a few eyebrows. FOX News reports: Vice President Harris should ‘step aside’ for good of the country, Washington Post columnist says Vice President Harris should “step aside,” Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote on Friday,...

Religious persecution is nothing new to Massachusetts. But the commonwealth’s recent denial of a Catholic couple’s application to become foster parents because of their faith is a notable variation on the mass hysteria that once sent “witches” to the executioner.... In this instance, Michael and Catherine “Kitty” Burke were told they weren’t qualified to be foster parents unless they vowed to support a child should he or she someday identify as “LGBTQIA.” Talk about a litmus test. In fact, during a rigorous interview process with a social worker to determine their fitness as foster parents, the Burkes said they would...

If you want to maintain job security at the Washington Post, you must adhere to the Orange Man Bad narrative- whether you are a conservative, or a "conservative" such as columnist Kathleen Parker. On Tuesday, Parker stuck to that policy by writing yet another column based on the Orange Man Bad narrative concerning the response to coronavirus "Let Andrew Cuomo speak for America, not Trump." Unfortunately for Parker, her attempt to boost Cuomo backfired on her in a most embarrassing way just a short time later. But before we get to her self-inflicted pie on the face, let's take a...

Two distinct realities coexist in the nation’s capital with the approximate compatibility of oil and water. There’s the reality of 4.1 percent economic growth, full employment, a declining trade deficit and some wage growth. And then there’s Michael Cohen. While President Donald Trump was focused on his sunny economic report Friday — and on tariff deals the days before — the media were obsessed with news that the president’s former attorney was prepared to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 campaign meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russians who allegedly had dirt...

Many American journalists and others correctly objected to President Trump's lambasting of the U.S. media in his speech Thursday in Poland, noting that his words were damaging to our international status and democracies around the world. Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, tweeted that Trump "dilutes respect for American democracy & gives license to autocrats to crack down on their own media." Haass also was critical of Trump's denigrating of the U.S. intelligence community. How dare the president diminish his country's revered institutions (please, hold your laughter until the end) while abroad? Clearly, the man is a...

COLUMBIA, S.C.—If you thought Donald Trump was the face of America's anti-establishment movement, hold on to your chapeaus: A wild wind is rising. Want to know what's more anti-establishment than a president-elect who refuses to play by the rules? How about similarly spirited electors going AWOL and sending someone else to the Oval Office? [snip] Electors are scheduled to meet Dec. 19 in their respective states to cast their final ballots. If there are 37 Republicans among them with the courage to perform their moral duty and protect the nation from a talented but dangerous president-elect, a new history of...

When Democrats were looking for evidence of a Republican war on women, they overlooked Exhibit A — Sarah Palin. This isn’t to say that Palin was part of the war on women, though many Democrats would say so. Rather, she was one of the war’s most conspicuous victims — fragged, you might say, by her own troops. And yet, she’s back again. And — yet again — she’s assuming her default position of presidential tease. Yes, she’s “seriously interested” in running for president. As evidence, she gave an utterly befuddling speech last weekend in Iowa, where other likely candidates were...

If you want to maintain job security at the Washington Post, you must adhere to the Orange Man Bad narrative- whether you are a conservative, or a "conservative" such as columnist Kathleen Parker. On Tuesday, Parker stuck to that policy by writing yet another column based on the Orange Man Bad narrative concerning the response to coronavirus "Let Andrew Cuomo speak for America, not Trump." Unfortunately for Parker, her attempt to boost Cuomo backfired on her in a most embarrassing way just a short time later. But before we get to her self-inflicted pie on the face, let's take a...

Kathleen Parker is going against the grain of her Washington Post colleagues on Sunday. While the Outlook section carries headlines like "Kavanaugh is lying, his upbringing explains why," and "Why senators 'believe' Ford, but side with Kavanaugh, Parker hailed Senator Lindsey Graham as "Sen. Jiminy Cricket," the conscience of the Senate.

It’s a given that political candidates will target each other with as much oppositional propaganda as they can get away with. But with the Kremlin now playing a third-party shadow role in U.S. elections, the usual game seems to be shifting from blood sport to cold war. Given Russia’s well-established preference for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016, it’s possible, if not likely, that the next round of election meddling will be geared toward keeping the Republican majorities in the House and Senate. For Democrats, this added pressure from Russia could begin to feel like a threat. Imagine believing...

Just stop, Hillary. Please. By Kathleen Parker Opinion writer March 13 at 7:52 PM She can’t let go. She can’t stop talking about what happened. She wrote an entire book about it. Now she’s telling people in other countries about why she should have won. In India last weekend, she told an audience that she won in all the smart, cool places — and then hit a pandering low that puts a catalogue of others to shame. Hillary Clinton just can’t quit herself. Not then. Not now. In case you missed it, she won the popular vote by nearly 3...

It is hard to imagine that anything has gone unsaid about the so-called Ground Zero mosque, but an important point seems to be missing. The mosque should be built precisely because we don't like the idea very much. We don't need constitutional protections to be agreeable, after all. This point surpasses even all the obvious reasons for allowing the mosque, principally that there's no law against it. Precluding any such law, we let people worship when and where they please. That it hurts some people's feelings is, well, irrelevant in a nation of laws. And, really, don't we want to...

In case you still harbor reservations about how much you love the job Sarah Sanders is doing as White House Press Secretary, read this column from Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post. Ms. Parker complains that Ms. Sanders “humiliates the media on a daily basis.” Ummmmm…yeah, so? Is there a point here? Ms. Parker’s big complaint – her last straw with Ms. Sanders, apparently – was that Sanders began her press briefing on Wednesday by – gasp! – asking various members of the press corps to talk about one thing for which they are actually thankful. “For a press secretary...

The national media’s relationship with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has taken on a new tension over the last month, as journalists and news commentators have grown more and more personal in their hostility toward the Trump administration’s top spokeswoman.Several high-profile columnists and writers have torn into Sanders over the last few weeks to mock her appearance, the way she talks, and most recently, an alleged disdain she showed the press by asking them at a briefing this week to say why they are thankful this holiday season. “Sanders’s sudden shift from press secretary to minister’s daughter a few...

A Washington Post columnist said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders humiliates the media on a daily basis. In a column published Tuesday, opinion writer Kathleen Parker referenced Sanders asking reporters earlier this week to say what they were thankful for before asking a question. "Yet again, she controlled the crowd, though this time by candy-coating her usual condescension with faux fellowship," Parker wrote. "I'm thankful I wasn't in the room." She wrote that her first impulse when someone asks her to share is to "not-share." ADVERTISEMENT "For a press secretary to require professional journalists to essentially beg for...

It appears that "conservative" Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post has joined with "conservative" David Brooks of the New York Times in fully embracing the loony political fantasies of the unhinged left. Both are now predicting the imminent removal of President Trump from office. Brooks predicted Trump would resign from office or be impeached within a year. Parker is very slightly more reasonable by extending that time frame to two years when a new Congress chock full of Democrats elected in 2018 would immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Republicans can argue until their last breath that Trump objectors are sore losers, but isn’t more at stake than “mere politics”? This phrase has been rendered quaint by such serious issues as Russian hackers apparently trying to tilt the election toward Donald Trump; the FBI’s possibly politically motivated practices; Trump’s initial resistance to the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community; Trump’s refusal to release tax records, which might mollify concerns about his relationship with Russia. These aren’t partisan issues, or shouldn’t be, as evidenced by the Justice Department inspector general’s decision to investigate how FBI Director James B. Comey handled...

Dear Mr. Trump, You won. Welcome to hell. And to think, I thought you’d become president when hell froze over. Now that the election is finally behind us, may I ask a tiny question: Why did you want this job? Was it on your bucket list? After so many square miles of golf courses, trophy wives, gilt mirrors and crystal chandeliers, was there nothing left to mess with? I wasn’t surprised, by the way, when you said you’d spend half your time in New York. I mean, it’s New York! And the White House is a tad bourgeois in an...